Oct. 24: Western countries that recognized Palestinian state join US-led ceasefire monitoring hub

Report: Senior UAE official held call with Smotrich during layover in Dubai, warning against steps that could tank Abraham Accords

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gestures toward a map of the West Bank during a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem, September 3, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Channel 12 reports, without citing any sources, that a senior Emirati official phoned Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich last month when the far-right cabinet member was briefly in Dubai for a layover en route to a work trip in India.

During the call, the unnamed senior Emirati official tried to explain to Smotrich the importance of the Abraham Accords and what kinds of steps could put the agreements at risk, the network says, indicating that the finance minister did not internalize the lesson when he made his comments mocking Saudi Arabia earlier this week.

Channel 12 cites an unnamed senior Israeli official who claimed that Smotrich’s comments undid over six months of quiet work in Jerusalem to advance a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Western countries that recognized Palestinian state join US-led ceasefire monitoring hub

US Vice President JD Vance speak to the media as U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner stand next to him, in Kiryat Gat, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

In addition to Jordan, the UK, Germany, Denmark and Canada, whose flags were set up at the unveiling of the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center earlier this week, Australia, France, Spain and the United Arab Emirates have also sent representatives to the hub in southern Israel being used to monitor and sustain the ceasefire in Gaza, a US official confirms to The Times of Israel.

Denmark is the only country joining the US that hasn’t recognized a Palestinian state, with many of the partners having done so in recent months.

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government threatened sanctions against those governments that took the step, those same countries are now empowered to play a role in the postwar management of Gaza, which is being headed by the US, not Israel.

House Dems leader Jeffries endorses Mamdani, after past criticism over anti-Israel rhetoric

House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries speaks at his weekly press conference on Capitol Hill, July 11, 2024 in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader in the US House, endorses New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

“Assemblyman Mamdani has promised to focus on keeping every New Yorker safe, including the Jewish community that has confronted a startling rise in antisemitic incidents as well as Black and Latino neighborhoods that have battled deadly gun violence for years,” Jeffries says in a statement to The New York Times.

Jeffries had held off on endorsing Mamdani and his backing comes at the last minute. Early voting starts tomorrow and the general election is on November 4.

Despite the late endorsement, the move is likely to boost Mamdani and hurt his leading rival, the pro-Israel, centrist former governor Andrew Cuomo.

Jeffries had previously urged Mamdani to “reassure Jewish New Yorkers that he plans to prioritize their safety” and criticized Mamdani’s defense of the phrase, “Globalize the intifada.”

“With respect to the Jewish communities that I represent, I think our nominee is going to have to convince folks that he is prepared to aggressively address the rise in antisemitism,” Jeffries said of Mamdani earlier this year.

“Globalizing the intifada, by way of example, is not an acceptable phrase and he’s going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward,” Jeffries said. Mamdani has since said he would “discourage” use of the slogan.

Jewish leaders have issued a series of warnings about Mamdani this week, saying that his vilification of Israel could spur violence and hatred against Jews.

Jews in New York City are targeted in hate crimes far more than other groups.

Most of New York’s Democratic establishment has lined up behind Mamdani and including Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James.

The state’s Democratic Party chairman, Jay Jacobs, said last month that he would not endorse Mamdani due to his far-left politics and positions on Israel, in a rare break from Hochul.

New York’s senators, Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand, and the pro-Israel New York City Reps. Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres, have not made endorsements.

Cuomo picked up a significant late endorsement from his former rival, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, this week.

Hamas unlikely to return deceased hostages tonight after initial speculation, ToI has learned

Israel has so far not received any further indications that Hamas intends to return the bodies of hostages to Israel tonight, The Times of Israel has learned.

Speculation of a potential return of hostage bodies came after Israel Police was reportedly ordered by security officials to prepare for such a possibility tonight.

Hamas has yet to announce that it intends to return the bodies of hostages to Israel today.

Currently, the bodies of 13 dead hostages remain held in Gaza.

Katz said to tell visiting Vance 60% of Hamas tunnels haven’t been destroyed

A Hamas tunnel underneath the European Hospital in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, where Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar was killed, in a handout photo published by the IDF on June 7, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Channel 12 reports, without citing any sources, that Defense Minister Israel Katz told US Vice President JD Vance during the latter’s visit earlier this week that 60 percent of Hamas’s tunnels across Gaza have not yet been destroyed.

The network speculates that half of those tunnels are located on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line, to which the IDF withdrew at the start of the ceasefire on October 10; that half of the tunnels will therefore be easier for Israel to neutralize in the coming weeks and months.

The IDF earlier this year estimated that it had destroyed just 25% of Hamas’s tunnels across the entire Strip since the beginning of the war. However, the military argues that the main focus has been on Hamas’s attack tunnels and those used as command centers or for weapons manufacturing — the vast majority of which have been destroyed — rather than on the numerous tunnels that Hamas uses to move around the Strip, especially in areas where ground troops never operated.

NY attorney general Letitia James pleads not guilty in case pushed by Trump

New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference, September 21, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File)

Letitia James, the New York attorney general who successfully prosecuted President Donald Trump, has pleaded not guilty to bank fraud charges.

James, one of three prominent Trump critics to be hit with criminal charges in recent weeks, entered the plea at an arraignment in a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, Fox News and CNN say.

Hamas claims Palestinian factions have agreed to hand Gaza to technocrat committee

Hamas issues what it says is a joint statement from a group of “Palestinian factions,” announcing that they have agreed to have an independent committee of technocrats administer postwar Gaza.

The statement doesn’t appear to be a major development, given that Hamas has long stated that it was prepared to give up governing control of the Strip, while leaving the question of its weapons to separate discussions.

The statement also doesn’t mention whether Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party was included amid reports that Abbas ordered his aides to stay away from the sit-down over its inclusion of Hamas.

The Hamas statement also makes no mention of who will be sitting on the Palestinian technocratic committee, which will likely need approval from the US anyway. US officials indicated last week that filling the panel wasn’t at the top of their priorities.

UN says it has only been able to offer schooling for sixth of Gazan children since ceasefire

Palestinian children gather to receive food portions from a charity kitchen in the Nuseirat refugee camp, located in the central Gaza Strip, on October 21, 2025 (Eyad BABA / AFP)

With Gaza’s education system shattered by two years of gruelling war, UNICEF’s regional director says he fears for a “lost generation” of children wandering ruined streets with nothing to do.

“This is the third year that there has been no school,” Edouard Beigbeder, the UN agency’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, tells AFP in Jerusalem after returning from the Palestinian territory.

“If we don’t start a real transition for all children in February, we will enter a fourth year. And then we can talk about a lost generation.”

The destruction “is almost omnipresent wherever you go,” Beigbeder says.

“It is impossible to imagine 80 percent of a territory that is completely flattened out or destroyed,” he adds.

A US-brokered ceasefire, which came into effect earlier in October, has allowed UNICEF and other education partners to get about one-sixth of children who should be in school into temporary “learning centers,” Beigbeder tells AFP.

“They have three days of learning in reading, mathematics and writing, but this is far from a formal education as we know it,” he adds.

Beigbeder says that such learning centers, often located in schools or near displacement camps, consisted of metal structures covered with plastic sheeting or of tents.

He says there were sometimes chairs, cardboard boxes, or wooden planks serving as tables, and that children would write on salvaged slates or plastic boards.

“I’ve never seen everyone sitting properly,” he adds, describing children on mats or carpets.

Despite the ceasefire, Beigbeder says the situation for Gaza’s education system is catastrophic, with 85 percent of schools destroyed or unusable.

Of the buildings still standing, many are being used as shelters for displaced people, he says, with the situation compounded by the fact that many children and teachers are also on the move and looking to provide for their own families.

Gaza’s school system was already overcrowded before the conflict, with half the pre-war population under the age of 18.

Of the schools managed by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority alone, Beigbeder says that some 80 out of 300 were in need of renovation.

He says 142 had been completely destroyed, while 38 were “completely inaccessible” because they were located in the area to which Israeli troops have withdrawn under the ceasefire.

American Airlines to resume direct flights from JFK to Tel Aviv in March 2026

Illustrative -- An American Airlines aircraft approaches Philadelphia International Airport, Oct. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

American Airlines will resume direct flight services to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport from New York, starting on March 28, following a two-year hiatus due to the Gaza war.

Flights will operate daily on the route from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, deployed by Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. Tickets will go on sale by October 27, the US airline says in an emailed statement.

American Airlines suspended all flight services to and from Tel Aviv as the war broke out with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, following the terror group’s October 7, 2023, assault in southern Israel. During the war period, other foreign airlines have repeatedly canceled and resumed their flights to and from Israel.

US rival United Airlines resumed direct flights between Tel Aviv and Newark, NJ, near New York City, in July. US carrier Delta restarted its route between Tel Aviv and New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on September 1, with seven weekly flights.

US taps seasoned diplomat to serve as civilian lead at Gaza ceasefire monitoring hub

US diplomat Steven Fagin. (State Department)

The US State Department announces that longtime diplomat Steven Fagin will serve as the civilian lead of the Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel, which is monitoring and sustaining the ceasefire in Gaza.

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Fagin has been US ambassador to the Republic of Yemen since May 2022. He was previously deputy ambassador at the US Embassy in Baghdad, principal officer at the US Consulate General in Erbil (2018-2020), director of the State Department’s Office of Iranian Affairs and director of the Regional Affairs Office in the State Department’s South and Central Asia Bureau.

Since joining the Foreign Service in 1997, he has also served abroad in Brussels, Islamabad, Astana, Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Minsk, Tbilisi and Cairo, along with stints in Washington as a Pakistan desk officer and special assistant to then-under secretary of state for political affairs Nick Burns.

IDF says it killed chief of Hezbollah logistics unit in southern Lebanon strike

The chief of Hezbollah’s logistics unit in southern Lebanon was killed in an Israeli drone strike earlier today, the IDF announces.

According to the military, Abbas Hassan Karaki was the head of logistics in the terror group’s so-called Southern Front. He held other senior roles in Hezbollah in recent years, the IDF says.

The IDF says Karaki “led and advanced efforts to rebuild” Hezbollah’s capabilities in southern Lebanon, along with restoring infrastructure that had been destroyed during the fighting last year.

Karaki was also responsible for “rebuilding the organization’s force structure and managing the transfer and storage of weapons in southern Lebanon,” the army says.

His actions “constituted a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the IDF adds.

Karaki was targeted while driving in the southern Lebanon town of Toul, near Nabatieh, earlier today.

צה"ל חיסל את מפקד הלוגיסטיקה של מפקדת 'חזית הדרום' בארגון הטרור חיזבאללה

צה"ל תקף מוקדם יותר היום, בהובלת פיקוד הצפון, באמצעות כלי טיס של חיל האוויר במרחב נבטיה שבדרום לבנון, וחיסל את המחבל עבאס חסן כרכי, מפקד הלוגיסטיקה של מפקדת 'חזית הדרום' בארגון הטרור חיזבאללה.

בתקופה… pic.twitter.com/5eJjpn4RIJ

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 24, 2025

At least 14 dead after migrant boat sinks off western Turkey

Illustrative: A migrant boat in Mediterranean waters east of Cape Greco in southeastern Cyprus in August 2023 (Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JCC) / AFP)

At least 14 people drowned when a rubber boat carrying migrants sank off Turkey’s western province of Mugla on Friday, the local governor’s office says, adding that a search and rescue operation was underway for possible survivors.

In a statement, the Mugla Governor’s Office says an Afghan man who survived the disaster and swam back to the mainland had raised the alarm shortly after 1 a.m.

The Afghan national told the emergency services that 18 people had set out on the rubber boat, but that shortly afterwards it had taken on water and sunk, the governor’s office says.

Search and rescue teams found a second survivor who had managed to reach Celebi Island off Bodrum. They also retrieved 14 bodies from the sea.

“Search and rescue efforts for other irregular migrants considered missing continue with four coast guard boats, one coast guard special diving team and one helicopter,” the governor’s office adds.

The Aegean Sea is a frequent transit route for thousands of migrants attempting to cross from North Africa and the Middle East into Europe, particularly from Turkey, which hosts millions of refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The number of irregular migrants caught in Turkey peaked in 2019 with nearly 455,000 people, mainly from Afghanistan and Syria, according to the Presidency of Migration Management.

More than 122,000 migrants have been apprehended in Turkey as of October 16 this year.

Palestinian lifeterm security prisoners freed in hostage swap go from jail to exile

Palestinian prisoners, released by Israel, gesture as they arrive on a bus at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip early on February 27, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

They were freed in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but instead of going home, 154 Palestinian ex-prisoners were exiled to Egypt, where they are confined to a hotel and kept under tight surveillance.

All of them had been sentenced by an Israeli military court to life in prison on charges of murder, belonging to Palestinian terror groups banned by Israel, and other acts of violence.

But when a ceasefire took effect in Gaza earlier this month, the group was put on buses and sent to Egypt, where authorities have put them in a five-star hotel that they cannot leave without clearance.

“We were separated from our families for 20 years,” Murad Abu al-Rub, a 45-year-old who spent two decades behind bars for murder, tells AFP.

Now, he is living in uncertainty and under close surveillance, far from the Palestinian city of Jenin, where he was born.

“No Arab country wanted to take us in,” says Abu al-Rub, who was imprisoned for the killing of four Israeli soldiers in 2006.

“Nothing has changed. I still can’t see my mother or my siblings,” Abu al-Rub tells a team of AFP journalists who were able to access the hotel.

Since the US-brokered ceasefire took hold on October 10, Hamas has freed all 20 surviving Israeli hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom returned to Gaza and the West Bank.

During previous truces in the war sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack, thousands of other Palestinian prisoners were freed in similar exchanges.

The vast majority of those with life sentences were exiled to Egypt, which has formal ties with Israel and played a key mediation role.

In Egypt, the 154 men are not free to move, and they have no work permits and no idea what comes next. The government has not issued any formal statement about their status.

Before Hamas’s October 7 attack, prisoners could study, play sports and attend daily discussion groups, he said, with inmates recounting a tradition of protest and rebellion in order to obtain these rights.

Palestinian, Israeli and international rights groups have documented similar claims of mistreatment, but Israel denies any such violations and says its prison service operates in accordance with the law.

According to the Palestinian Authority, nearly 11,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli custody, on charges related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Egypt first received 150 exiled prisoners in January, and more than eight months later, most of them are still in the same hotel, their fate undecided.

Hasan Abd Rabbo, of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, tells AFP that the men remain in Egypt with accommodation costs covered by Qatar, while talks are underway over resettlement.

He says possible destinations include Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Debris from Gaza war is 170 times weight of NY’s Empire State Building — UN analysis

Civil Defense members carry body bags containing the remains of members of the Shahebar family who were buried in temporary graves, as they are brought for burial to the Sheikh Shaaban Cemetery, in Gaza City on October 24, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

After two years of war, Gaza is buried under more than 61 million tonnes of debris and three-quarters of buildings have been destroyed, according to UN data analyzed by AFP.

As of July 8, 2025, the Israeli army had damaged or destroyed nearly 193,000 buildings in the densely populated territory, representing about 78 percent of existing structures before the conflict began on October 7, 2023, according to satellite analysis by the United Nations’ UNOSAT program.

In an assessment of images from September 22-23 of Gaza City, the UN agency estimates that an even higher proportion — 83 percent — of buildings there had been damaged or destroyed.

The total 61.5 million tonnes of debris is nearly 170 times the weight of New York’s Empire State Building and is equivalent to over 169 kilograms of debris for each square meter of Gaza’s small territory.

Nearly two-thirds of the debris was made in the first five months of the war, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The destruction of buildings also accelerated in the months leading up to the current ceasefire.

Eight million tonnes of debris were generated from April to July 2025, mostly in the southern part of the territory between Rafah and Khan Yunis.

A preliminary analysis published by UNEP in August warned that the debris poses a serious health risk to the exposed population.

The UN agency suggests that at least 4.9 million tons of debris could be contaminated with asbestos from old buildings, particularly near refugee camps such as those in Jabaliya in the north, Nuseirat and al-Maghazi in the centre, and Rafah and Khan Yunis in the south.

UNEP also reports that at least 2.9 million tonnes of debris could be contaminated with “hazardous waste from known industrial sites”.

Wife of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti asks Trump to seek his release

Fadwa Barghouti, wife of hunger strike leader Marwan (c) celebrates with other Palestinian women in the West Bank city of Ramallah, after Palestinian prisoners ended a hunger strike May 27, 2017. (Flash90)

The wife of high-profile Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, Fadwa Barghouti, appealed to US President Donald Trump to help release the popular leader from his Israeli jail, her son Arab told AFP.

Barghouti, 66, has been serving multiple life sentences since 2002 for deadly attacks on Israelis but is seen by many Palestinians as a potential leader who could unite their national movement.

“Mr. President, a genuine partner awaits you — one who can help fulfil the dream we share of just and lasting peace in the region. For the sake of freedom for the Palestinian people and peace for all future generations, help release Marwan Barghouti,” lawyer Fadwa Barghouti says in a statement.

Asked whether he would support freeing Barghouti during an interview with US magazine Time on October 15, Trump said he’d be “making a decision” on the matter, without specifying a timeline.

Asked about the matter today during a briefing in Israel, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “I have nothing new to give you on this topic.”

The Times of Israel revealed earlier this month that prominent American Jewish community leader Ronald Lauder has also been privately lobbying for Barghouti’s release.

WHO pleads for sick Gazans to be allowed to leave

A Palestinian boy, who was injured by gunfire while waiting for aid trucks entering the northern Gaza Strip through Zikim crossing, is unloaded off an ambulance after arriving for medical care at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, July 27, 2025. (Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP)

The UN’s health agency pleads for thousands of people in desperate need of medical care to be allowed to leave Gaza, in what it said would be a “game-changer.”

The World Health Organization has supported the medical evacuation of nearly 7,800 patients out of the Gaza Strip since the war with Israel began two years ago — and estimates there are 15,000 people currently needing treatment outside the Palestinian territory.

But a US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect on October 10 has not sped up the process — the WHO has been able to evacuate only 41 critical patients since then.

Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, calls for all crossings out of Gaza into Israel and Egypt to be opened up during the ceasefire — not only for the entry of aid but for medical evacuations too.

“All medical corridors need to be opened,” he says, particularly to hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as happened routinely before the war.

“It is vital and is the most cost-effective route. If that route opened, it would really be a… game-changer.”

Speaking via video link from Jerusalem, he tells journalists in Geneva that two evacuations were planned for next week, but he wanted them every day and said the WHO was ready to take “a minimum of 50 patients per day.”

At the current rate, he said evacuating the 15,000 people needing treatment — including 4,000 children — would drag on for a decade or so.

The WHO says more than 700 people have died waiting for medical evacuation since the war began.

The UN health agency has called for more countries to step up and accept Gazan patients. While over 20 countries have taken patients, only a handful have done so in large numbers.

Peeperkorn said only a fraction of Gaza’s health system remained in service — just 14 of 36 hospitals are even partially functional for a population topping two million.

Spain probes steelmaker for breaching Israel sales ban

Spain’s High Court is investigating privately owned steelmaker Sidenor for allegedly selling steel to an Israeli firm for the purpose of making weapons, it says, in one of the first potential legal consequences of Spain’s ban on such deals.

Judge Francisco de Jorge is leading the investigation targeting Sidenor’s CEO Jose Antonio Jainaga Gomez and two other executives for alleged smuggling and complicity in crimes against humanity or genocide, according to the statement.

They were summoned to testify on November 12.

The court says Sidenor sold steel to Israel Military Industries, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems ESLT.TA, in a deal allegedly conducted without government authorization or proper registry.

The executives “went ahead with the deal with full knowledge that (the firm) was a manufacturer of both heavy and light weapons, and that the material sold was to be used for the manufacture of weapons,” the High Court says.

Sidenor does not immediately respond to a request for comment. Elbit Systems declined to comment.

The investigation stems from a complaint filed in July by the association of the Palestinian community of the region of Catalonia.

Spain, which recognized a Palestinian state last year, has been a vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, qualifying them as genocide on multiple occasions, an accusation the Israeli government rejects.

Seeking to pressure Israel to end its Gaza offensive, in September Spain banned ships and aircraft carrying weapons or jet fuel to Israel from calling at Spanish ports or entering its airspace. And it reinforced a prohibition barring Spanish firms from selling arms and materials used to make them to Israel.

It has maintained the restrictions even after a fragile ceasefire came into force in Gaza on October 10 under a deal brokered by Washington.

Rubio: West Bank annexation not going to happen, Gaza truce could expand Abraham Accords

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the media at the Civil-Military Coordination Center in Israel, October 24, 2025. (Fadel Senna/Pool Photo via AP)

US Secretary of State Rubio reiterates the White House’s opposition to Israeli annexation of the West Bank, saying a recent Knesset vote to advance annexation legislation could threaten Washington’s plan to end the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, and adding that he doesn’t expect the bills to pass.

“Suffice it to say, we don’t think it’s going to happen,” he says. He echoes comments from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called the vote a “provocation” from the opposition.

Rubio said he understood that the vote was due to “elements that tried to use it to embarrass Netanyahu” during US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel this week.

“More importantly, it’s not, from a legislative standpoint, structured in a way that could happen,” Rubio says. “But it would also threaten this whole process.”

“Everyone has to understand if something like that [annexation] were to happen right now, a lot of the countries that are involved in working on this probably aren’t going to want to be involved in this anymore,” Rubio says, referring to the ceasefire. It’s a threat to the peace process, and everybody knows it.”

He continues, “But I’m not getting to the middle of Israeli politics. We’re focused on peace and security.”

Addressing the prospects of additional normalization deals between Israel and Arab countries in the wake of the ceasefire, Rubio says broader regional normalization “could be a byproduct of achieving some of this.”

Referring to the normalization deals in 2020 between Israel and several Arab countries, he adds, “We’d like to have as many members of the Abraham Accords as possible.”

“I think what we’re doing here could help create the momentum for that to occur,” he says.

He does not say which countries in particular are poised to normalize relations with Israel.

“I’m not going to mention the countries’ names because it’s up to them to announce it,” he adds. “There are some countries you could probably add right now if we wanted to, but we want to do a big thing about it, and so we’re working on it.”

Addressing Turkey, PA role in Gaza, Rubio says Israel must be ‘comfortable’ with countries that send troops

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with Maj. Gen. Yaki Dolf as he visits the US-Israel Civil-Military Coordination Center in Israel, October 24, 2025. (Fadel Senna/Pool Photo via AP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that the involvement of Turkey and the Palestinian Authority in Gaza under the US-backed ceasefire plan remains undecided, and that Israel must be “comfortable” with the countries stationing troops in the territory.

Israel’s government has consistently rejected the idea of the PA playing a role in governing a postwar Gaza, while Israel’s relations with Turkey have collapsed during the war.

Asked in a press conference at the US Civil-Military Coordination Center whether Turkish troops would be deployed in the International Stabilization Force to be set up in the Strip, Rubio says, “We haven’t formed that force yet, so there’s still work going on.”

“Obviously, as you put together this force, it’ll have to be countries that Israel is comfortable with as well,” he continues, saying that “there are a lot of countries that are expressing interest right now,” adding he couldn’t specify them.

“I don’t want to get into anything on who’s being vetoed, who’s not being allowed. Obviously, every member of this force has to be someone who has capability and willingness, but also someone that everyone’s comfortable with, including Israel,” he says, addressing reports that Israel told the US that the presence of Turkish troops in Gaza would be a red line for Jerusalem.

Asked about the PA’s role in the postwar governance of the Strip, Rubio says, “We’ve expressed our concerns about the Palestinian Authority as it stands today, and certainly the need for reform as far as what role it’s going to play in the future of Gaza. That’s yet to be determined, if any role at all. We don’t know.”

Gaza’s future governance “is going to be something that has to be worked on collectively with Israel, with partner nation states. For it to work, everyone has to agree to it,” he says.

Rubio emphasizes that Gaza “cannot be a place that is governed by anyone who wants to use it as a launchpad for attacks against Israel. If it is, then there will be another war… There will never be peace as long as there’s an area or a territory that’s being used as a launchpad to threaten Israel’s security. Everyone understands that, and everyone who signed on to this deal understands that.”

Rubio also emphasizes that the remaining deceased hostages in Gaza “are going to be released.”

“That’s going to happen. If it doesn’t, then the deal got broken, but it’s going to happen,” he says.

Israeli developer gets five years in jail for north Cyprus land development

The abandoned village of Varisia is seen inside the UN-controlled buffer zone that divides the Greek south, and the Turkish north Cypriot areas since the 1974 Turkish invasion, pictured on March 26, 2021. (AP/Petros Karadjias)

A Cyprus court sentences an Israeli businessman to five years in jail for illegally developing Greek Cypriot property in the Turkish-held north of the island, in one of the most politically charged cases in years.

Shimon Aykut, 74, who also holds Turkish and Portuguese citizenship, had earlier pleaded guilty to 40 charges of illegal appropriation of property in a plea bargain.

Decades-old property disputes stemming from the unresolved division of Cyprus in 1974 remain a source of tension on the eastern Mediterranean island.

Simon Aykut gets five years for embezzlement in a landmark case – https://t.co/E2nOzcHzWF #Cyprus #Turkey

— Kathimerini Cyprus English Edition (@knews_cy) October 24, 2025

Aykut, who has health issues, has been in a Greek Cypriot jail for over a year in what his family, and the Turkish Cypriot authorities, called a politically motivated move by Greek Cypriots. The charges he faced carried a maximum of seven years in jail.

Tens of thousands of islanders remain internally displaced after infighting between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities in the 1960s, followed by a Turkish invasion after a Greek-inspired coup in 1974.

Turkish Cypriot properties in the Greek Cypriot south are administered by a so-called guardian appointed by the Interior Ministry. In the north, most Greek Cypriot properties were redistributed to Turkish people or Turkish Cypriots after the war.

North Cyprus has attracted considerable development in recent years. Prosecutors said a company connected to Aykut cashed in on about 40 properties, building lavish complexes along Cyprus’s northern coast. The area was almost exclusively Greek Cypriot before 1974.

Aykut’s defense lawyer, Maria Neophytou, urged leniency, citing his poor health, age and lack of prior convictions. She argued his role was “subsidiary” and motivated by helping his son, who managed the companies involved.

Rubio: UNRWA is ‘subsidiary of Hamas,’ won’t ‘play any role’ in delivering Gaza aid

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with US military personnel as he visits the Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel, October 24, 2025. (Fadel Senna/Pool Photo via AP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinians, “is not going to play any role” in delivering aid in Gaza under the US-backed ceasefire plan, calling the agency “a subsidiary of Hamas.”

Asked if the group, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, will assist in providing humanitarian aid to the Strip under the plan, Rubio responds: “UNWRA is not going to play any role in it.”

“The UN is here,” he says, speaking at a press conference from the headquarters of the US Civil-Military Coordination Center overseeing the ceasefire. “We’re seeing the work they’re doing, the World Food Programme. There’s also nonprofit NGOs, humanitarian assistance organizations that are involved in this, Samaritan’s Purse. It’s a conglomeration of about 8-12 groups that are here,” he says.

“We’re willing to work with them if they can make it work. But not UNRWA. UNRWA became a subsidiary of Hamas,” he says.

Israel claims UNRWA has been infiltrated by Hamas and says staffers for the agency participated in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, that began the war.

Suspected ISIS supporter arrested in Germany, allegedly shot at cars

A suspected supporter of the Islamic State terror group has been arrested in Germany for allegedly trying to cause fatal crashes on a motorway by shooting at cars with an air rifle, prosecutors say.

The 21-year-old suspect, a Turkish national who has not been named, “intended to kill ‘unbelievers’ through the series of attacks,” the public prosecutor’s office in the southern city of Munich says in a press statement.

Authorities believe the man fired a commercially available air rifle at a total of 22 “randomly selected vehicles” on the motorway near the Bavarian town of Dillingen an der Donau from September 9 to 11.

He allegedly hoped to trigger fatal accidents, and is now facing 22 counts of attempted murder, prosecutors say.

No one was injured in the incidents and none of the cars crashed, although prosecutors said some vehicles were damaged.

The man was arrested near the scene of the shootings while carrying an air rifle fitted with a scope on September 13.

Prosecutors said the suspect has remained in custody since his arrest.

Rubio: There is no Plan B for Gaza, just Trump’s; ‘Hamas cannot be involved in governing the future of Gaza’; Israel has met its commitments to date; Hamas must disarm

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the media at the Civil-Military Coordination Center for Gaza in southern Israel, October 24, 2025. (Fadel Senna/Pool Photo via AP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declines to say that Israel would need US “permission” to renew fighting against Hamas in Gaza if the group continues to pose a threat, while emphasizing that the US ceasefire plan has broad regional support and is “the best” and “only plan.”

Asked at a press conference at the US-Israel ceasefire coordination center if Israel could resume fighting Hamas independently the group rearms or regroups, Rubio says that, “I don’t think this has to do anything with permission or anything of that nature. This has to do with, basically, we’re all committed to making this plan work. There is no Plan B. This is the best plan. It’s the only plan. It’s one that we think can succeed. It’s one that we believe is on the way to success, as impossible or unimaginable” as it may have seemed, he says.

In response to another question on Hamas disarmament, Rubio stresses that “If Hamas refuses to demilitarize, it’ll be a violation of the agreement, and that’ll have to be enforced. I’m not going to get into the mechanisms by which it is going to be enforced, but it’ll have to be enforced.”

He adds, “This is a deal, and a deal requires conditions to be met. Israel has met their commitments. They’re standing at the yellow line, and that is contingent upon the demilitarization.”

Rubio notes that Hamas disarmament and the demilitarization of Gaza under the second phase of the deal “is a long-term project,” but adds, “We want to help create the conditions here so that people in Gaza don’t have to be terrorized by Hamas and in fact, have lives, jobs, businesses, and a better future.”

Asked about reported claims by Hamas that it is part of the committee forming Gaza’s next government, Rubio appears to dismiss the notion and stresses that Hamas can have no role in the future governance of Gaza. He says that all the countries now working with the US on Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan have agreed to that.

“Everyone that signed onto this plan, all of these other countries, agreed, everyone agreed, that Hamas cannot govern, and cannot be involved in governing the future of Gaza. Everyone’s agreed to that.”

IDF says it concluded ‘widest’ drill since beginning of the war

IDF troops conduct a drill along the border with Lebanon, in a handout photo issued on October 24, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Last night, the IDF wrapped up what it says was its “widest” military drill since the beginning of the war, simulating fighting along the Lebanon border.

The five-day exercise was led by the 91st “Galilee” Division, in cooperation with the Israeli Air Force, Navy, civil defense squads, regional councils, the Fire and Rescue Service, Magen David Adom and Israel Police.

The drill was aimed at “enhancing preparedness for extreme defense scenarios, providing a rapid response to sudden events — including reserve mobilization and force buildup — and transition to offense, all while drawing lessons and conclusions from two years of fighting across all fronts,” the IDF says.

The IDF says the drill also included logistics, medical and maintenance units training for various scenarios, including evacuating casualties under fire and providing support in emergencies.

IDF chief upbraids general over unauthorized officers’ meeting with former PA minister

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir speaks at a ceremony at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, October 19, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir gave the head of the Military Colleges, Maj. Gen. Dan Noyman, a dressing down this morning over an unauthorized meeting officers held with a former Palestinian Authority minister as part of a field trip.

The meeting between the officers at the Command and Staff College and the former PA prisoner affairs minister Ashraf al-Ajrami took place in early September, according to the IDF.

The meeting was first reported by the far-right Channel 14 news earlier this week.

Zamir ordered Noyman to carry out an “in-depth investigation into the unauthorized conversation, and emphasized that he views the issue with severity,” the military adds.

Rubio says US focused on first phase of ceasefire, adds there’s much ‘reason for healthy optimism’

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks at a press conference at the US-Israel Civil-Military Coordination Center in Israel on October 24, 2025. (Screenshot)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls coordinating the ceasefire in Gaza “a historic mission,” saying Washington and its partners are working to sustain the truce, deliver aid and prepare for the International Stabilization Force, a multinational peacekeeping force, to enter the territory.

“This is a historic mission,” he says at a press conference in the building housing the US-Israel Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel, which oversees the ceasefire in Gaza, adding that implementing the plan is “not going to be a linear journey. There’s going to be ups and downs and twists and turns.”

“But I think we have a lot of reason for healthy optimism about the progress that’s being made,” he says.

Rubio says there is an increasing presence of staff from the US State Department “and related entities” at the center, which “will continue to grow” to “provide personnel on things like emergency response and the coordination of humanitarian assistance.”

He says that, in order to get to the next phases of Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, the center is focused on ensuring the success of the initial phase of the ceasefire.

“We’ve got to get through the process that we’re involved in right now, which is making sure the ceasefire holds without anything disrupting it, making sure people are getting the life-sustaining aid that they need in a way that’s not being looted or stolen or diverted in any way, and at the same time, creating the conditions for the [International] Stabilization Force to come in as soon as it possibly can be put together to provide the stabilization we need to move to the further phases of this plan.”

He adds that “on the other side of that yellow line,” in areas of Gaza that the IDF withdrew from under the terms of the ceasefire, “there is still a terrorist group that remains armed, and we’ve seen them take actions against their own population,” referring to Hamas.

He speaks about the work being done to create the planned International Stabilization Force for Gaza — structuring it, lining up the countries providing money and/or personnel, and “getting the right international mandate” for that “security force.” And beyond that, he says, is creating the conditions for rebuilding Gaza and ensuring no threat to Israel or to Gazans.

He urges “that there be more media coverage given to the fact that Hamas has brutalized Palestinians, has brutalized Gazans over the last few days. That’s something to point to.”

WATCH: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio gives press conference at ceasefire HQ in Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a news conference following his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, October 23, 2025. (Fadel Senna/Pool Photo via AP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is giving a press conference during his visit to Israel.

He is speaking from the building housing the US-Israel ceasefire coordination center in Kiryat Gat.

Measles patient flew Tel Aviv-Krakow round-trip on Wizz Air, Health Ministry says

The Health Ministry states that a patient with measles flew on a Wizz Air flight from Tel Aviv to Krakow at 11 a.m. on Sunday, October 19. The patient returned on a Wizz Air flight from Krakow on Tuesday, October 21, landing at Ben Gurion Airport at 10:00 a.m.

Passengers who were on these flights are asked to ensure that they are vaccinated in accordance with the ministry’s recommendations. Individuals can update their vaccination status via the government’s personal website through the digital vaccination register.

Since the measles outbreak in May, five children, all of whom were unvaccinated and had no previous medical conditions, have died of measles.

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that manifests in fever, general malaise, runny nose, and rash, and may involve serious and even life-threatening complications.

Released hostage Alon Ohel en route home, greeted by crowds of well-wishers

Released hostage Alon Ohel heads home to Lavon on October 24, 2025. (Reuven G Sz/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Released hostage Alon Ohel heads home to Lavon, a community in northern Israel, after being released from Rabin Medical Center this morning.

Crowds of well-wishers greet Ohel at the Mitzpeh Aviv junction in northern Israel to welcome him home.

A banner reads: “Alon, how amazing! Now you’re home.”

“I’m returning to my home in the north to begin a process of rehabilitation and to rebuild myself so that I can accomplish all of my goals,“ says Ohel upon his release.

Police detain two right-wing activists for attempting to block aid bound for Gaza

Police have detained two right-wing activists who tried to block humanitarian aid trucks that were en route to the Gaza Strip this morning, legal aid group Honenu claims.

The two were detained near the Kissufim crossing, according to a statement from Honenu, which is representing the detainees.

Footage from earlier today shows dozens of activists, holding Israeli flags, standing in front of aid trucks while singing “Am Yisrael Chai,” with police present at the scene.

It is unclear whether the two are still in custody. Police have not yet responded to a request for comment.

*במחאה על הפרת ההסכם: מאות משאיות הסיוע לחמאס חסומות למעלה משעתיים ע"י פעילי תנועת צו 9 במעבר כיסופים* pic.twitter.com/FQRwikT6g7

— מה חדש. What's new❓ (@Gloz111) October 24, 2025

Lebanese media report Israeli drone strike targeting car

Lebanese media report an Israeli drone strike targeting a car in the southern town of Toul.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

Saudi channel Al-Hadath reports that a Hezbollah operative was killed in the strike.

المسيّرة الإسرائيلية استهدفت سيارة في #تول – جنوب لبنان pic.twitter.com/Cu39a4tA3U

— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) October 24, 2025

Erdogan says Turkey can give Gaza ‘any form of support’ amid talks over multinational force

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds a signed document during a summit to support ending the two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza after a ceasefire deal, October 13, 2025, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. (Suzanne Plunkett/Pool via AP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country can give “any form of support” to Gaza, as discussions continue over the makeup of an international force meant, under the terms of the recent ceasefire, to oversee security in the territory after an IDF withdrawal.

Ankara has said that it would join a “task force” to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire, that its armed forces could serve in a military or civilian capacity as needed, and that it will play an active role in the reconstruction of the enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted on Wednesday at his opposition to any role for Turkish security forces in the Gaza Strip. Relations between the two countries have collapsed amid the war in Gaza, as Erdogan has praised Hamas and accused Israel of “genocide,” a charge it adamantly denies.

Asked about Netanyahu’s comments, Erdogan refrains from his usual criticism of the Israeli leader and appears to soften his earlier commitment to taking a role on the field in Gaza, saying talks on the issue were still underway.

“Talks are continuing on the task force that will work in Gaza. The modalities of this are not yet clear. As this is a multi-faceted issue, there are comprehensive negotiations. We are ready to provide Gaza any form of support on this issue,” he says.

He also reiterates a previous call for Gulf countries to now take action on financing efforts to rebuild Gaza, saying nobody could single-handedly complete this task.

Israel preparing for possible return of two deceased hostages tonight

The 13 deceased hostages whose bodies were still held in Gaza as of October 22, 2025: (Top row from left) Meny Godard, Ran Gvili, Sahar Baruch, Dror Or; (Second row) Joshua Mollel, Itay Chen, Asaf Hamami, Oz Daniel, Hadar Goldin; (Bottom row) Sudthisak Rinthalak, Lior Rudaeff, Amiram Cooper, Omer Neutra. (Collage by Times of Israel; Photos: Courtesy)

Israel is preparing for the possibility that Hamas may return the bodies of two deceased hostages tonight, The Times of Israel has learned.

It is not yet fully certain whether the handover will take place tonight, and Hamas has yet to announce that it intends to return the bodies of hostages to Israel.

Currently, the bodies of 13 deceased hostages remain held in Gaza.

Erdogan accuses Israel of violating Gaza ceasefire, floats sanctions or arms embargo

This handout photograph taken and released by Turkish Presidency Press Office on October 7, 2025, shows Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attending a session of the 12th Summit of the Organization of Turkic State (OTS) in Gabala, Azerbaijan. (Mustafa Kamaci / Turkish Presidency Press Office / AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the United States and others must do more to push Israel to stop violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement, including the possible use of sanctions or halting arms sales.

According to an official readout of his remarks to reporters aboard a return flight from Oman, Erdogan says the Palestinian terror group Hamas was abiding by the agreement.

“As Turkey, we are doing our utmost for the ceasefire to be secured. The Hamas side is abiding by the ceasefire. In fact, it is openly stating its commitment to this. Israel, meanwhile, is continuing to violate the ceasefire,” Erdogan tells reporters on his return flight from a regional Gulf tour.

“The international community, namely the United States, must do more to ensure Israel’s full compliance to the ceasefire and agreement,” he says, according to a transcript of his comments shared by his office. “Israel must be forced to keep its promises via sanctions, halting of arms sales.”

Relations between Turkey and Israel collapsed during the two-year war in Gaza following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Erdogan has praised Hamas and been harshly critical of Israel.

Now, as efforts are underway to assemble a multinational force to oversee security in postwar Gaza, the prospect of a role for Turkey in the territory has raised concerns in Israel.

Released hostage Alon Ohel discharged from hospital, will begin rehabilitation process

From left to right: Prof. Noa Elyakim Raz, director of the returnees' department at Rabin Medical Center, Alon Ohel, Avivit Zetelman, head nurse in charge of the returnees' department, and Prof. Gil Salsman, head of the mental health care team at Rabin Medical Center's returnees department. (Courtesy of Guy Yehieli)

Released hostage Alon Ohel has been discharged from Rabin Medical Center today after completing the required tests, the hospital says.

“Thank you to all the people of Israel, who supported my family and did everything to bring me home,” Ohel said upon leaving the hospital, according to Ynet. He said he would “begin a process of rehabilitation and self-improvement so I can move on with my life and achieve all my goals, all of the things I want to do in life.”

Ohel, a musician, was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and was held captive in Gaza for two years. He was released along with 19 other surviving hostages on October 13, as part of a ceasefire agreement that ended the war.

Israeli official: Hamas doesn’t know location of 5 deceased hostages – report

People watch as Palestinians use an excavator to dig deep into the ground, reportedly searching for bodies in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 17, 2025 (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

An Israeli official reportedly says that Hamas doesn’t know the locations of five out of the 13 deceased hostages still held in Gaza.

The terror group is “playing games, and playing for time, in order to extend the ceasefire without reaching the second stage [of the agreement], which requires it to disarm,” the Hebrew outlet Ynet quotes the official, whom it does not identify, as saying.

The ceasefire requires Hamas to return all hostages, but went into effect earlier this month on the understanding that some of the bodies of the then-28 deceased captives would be difficult to find in the war-torn territory. Since then, facing Israeli pressure, Hamas has returned 15 deceased hostages.

There have been various estimates of the number of dead hostages Hamas may be able to access.

Yesterday, Israeli defense officials reportedly told US Vice President JD Vance that Hamas can return the bodies of at least 10 of the 13 remaining deceased hostages. Other estimates have said the terror group may be able to locate fewer bodies.

Efforts are underway in the Strip to find the bodies of the hostages.

Protests mount as crime wave in Arab cities claims 209th victim this year

Muhammad Wafiq Hejazi, a 53-year-old man shot and killed by unknown assailants who broke into his home in Tamra on October 23, 2025. (Courtesy)

The victim of a fatal shooting last night in Tamra, an Arab city in northern Israel, is named as Muhammad Wafiq Hejazi, 53.

“People are in shock, we still don’t know what the murder was about,” a resident of Tamra tells The Times of Israel, saying the slain victim had no known criminal history.

Hejazi is the 209th Arab citizen to fall victim to homicide since the start of the year, as a violent crime wave continues unabated in Arab cities and towns throughout Israel.

Yesterday, hundreds in Kafr Yasif, also in the north, took part in a protest demanding firmer police action against the crime wave. Residents of the town are mourning the recent death of Nidal Masadeh, a 35-year-old school security guard shot last week while at work.

Among those demonstrating yesterday evening were Ra’am party head Mansour Abbas, Hadash-Ta’al MK Aida Touma Suleiman and other prominent figures among Israel’s Arab minority. Protesters marched holding a banner in Arabic that read: “The police are neglecting to do their duty.”

Assailants broke into Hejazi’s home and opened fire on him and his wife, who was moderately injured in the shooting. Both were taken to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. Two hours later, Hejazi succumbed to his wounds.

Police said last night that they had launched an investigation and are searching for suspects in the incident.

Many Arab mayors and other public figures have insisted that police are neglecting the worsening rate of crime in their communities, citing the skyrocketing murder rate and law enforcement’s failure to solve most homicide cases.

Others, like Rahat mayor Talal al-Kernawi, say police are attempting to deal with the issue but are ill-equipped, in terms of both technology and manpower, to tackle rampant arms trafficking and increasingly powerful gangs.

Reports: Settlers set fire to vehicles in West Bank village, no casualties

Palestinian media reports that Israeli settlers set fire to several vehicles in the village of Deir Dibwan in the West Bank. No injuries were reported.

????عاجل | مستوطنون يحرقون مركبات خلال مهاجمتهم منطقة التل في بلدة دير دبوان شرقي مدينة رام الله. pic.twitter.com/e6R9BNl8mW

— فلسطين أون لايـن (@F24online) October 24, 2025

Israel arrests 3 suspected of throwing explosive that injured IDF troops in West Bank

Police and Shin Bet agents arrested three people on suspicion of throwing an explosive device at IDF troops in the West Bank town of Tubas, the agencies announce.

The three were detained Sunday at the start of the week after allegedly hurling the IED at Israeli forces, moderately injuring two soldiers and fleeing the scene the evening prior.

Responding to the ambush, Shin Bet agents set up checkpoints in the area, questioned suspects, held “warning conversations” with residents and took down signs inciting to terror, a spokesperson says.

According to law enforcement, the suspects confessed to throwing the explosive device at soldiers during an interrogation by West Bank district police investigators.

Ireland votes for next president; frontrunner said Hamas ‘part of the fabric of the Palestinian people’

Irish presidential candidate Catherine Connolly speaking to the media during a visit to the offices of Alone in Dublin, October 8, 2025. (PA Images via Reuters Connect)

Voters in Ireland head to the polls today to elect one of two women as their new president for the next seven years, a largely ceremonial role in the European Union member country.

Catherine Connolly, a left-wing independent lawmaker who has the backing of Sinn Féin and is known for her strong stance against Israel, is widely seen as the leading candidate to become the head of state. The latest polls show she holds a significant lead with about 40 percent of support from voters, ahead of the 20% to 25% for her rival Heather Humphreys, representing the center-right party Fine Gael.

The winner will succeed Michael D. Higgins, who has been president since 2011, having served the maximum two seven-year terms. While the role does not have the power to shape laws or policies, past presidents have been known to air their views on important issues.

Connolly, 68, has been an independent lawmaker since 2016. She has drawn criticism for her views on Palestinians and the Hamas terror group, among other issues.

In September, Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin criticized Connolly’s comments that called Hamas “part of the fabric of the Palestinian people,” saying she appeared reluctant to condemn the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that ignited the two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

She later maintained that she “utterly condemned” Hamas’ actions, while also criticizing Israel for carrying out what she said was a “genocide” in Gaza. Israel adamantly rejects the genocide accusation.

Humphreys, 64, has been in government for more than a decade, formerly serving in several Cabinet positions where she oversaw arts and heritage, business and rural development.

Despite receiving endorsements from Martin and three former deputy premiers, Humphreys is widely expected to lose to Connolly.

Polls close at 10 p.m. Friday. Counting begins Saturday, and the result is likely to be known by late Saturday.

UN official says rebuilding Syria vital for regional stability; could cost $216 billion

Saeed Kamel, who recently returned after the fall of Bashar Assad, prays in a destroyed area of Daraya, Syria, March 17, 2025. (AP/Omar Sanadiki)

After 14 years of destruction, Syria must be swiftly rebuilt to bring stability to the country and the wider region, a top UN official in the war-ravaged nation tells AFP.

Reconstruction is one of the most significant challenges facing Syria’s new authorities after the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December.

“The international community should definitely rush into rebuilding Syria,” Rawhi Afaghani, the UN Development Program’s deputy representative in Syria, tells AFP this week during a visit to Geneva.

“Being able to help the country to rebound and come out of this war and come out of this destruction is for the Syrians themselves, but also for the stability and the good of the whole region,” he says in the interview.

The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011 with Assad’s brutal repression of anti-government protests, killed over half a million people and devastated the country’s infrastructure.

The World Bank this week estimated that Syria’s post-war reconstruction could cost up to $216 billion.

Afaghani says he could not put a price tag on rebuilding Syria, but describes the needs as “massive.”

Across the country, he says that governors had told him about the massive need for housing, schools, and health centers, as well as electricity and water.

Complicating the clean-up efforts are the vast quantities of unexploded ordnance littering the entire country, including within mountains of rubble that need to be cleared, he says.

At the same time, he says the lack of infrastructure, services and jobs is dissuading many Syrians who want to return home from doing so.

“We thought there would be a much higher rate of return,” he acknowledges, pointing out that most of those who have returned from abroad had often left difficult conditions in neighboring Jordan and Lebanon.

From Europe, “we don’t see that massive return,” he said.

IDF says rocket sirens activated by ‘false identification’

The military announces that rocket sirens were activated around Kibbutz Mefalsim due to a “false identification.”

Rocket sirens activated in Gaza border area

Incoming rocket sirens are activated in Kibbutz Mefalsim and the surrounding area, as the Israel Defense Forces says it is looking into the matter.

Announcing Cuomo endorsement, NYC Mayor Eric Adams says Mamdani doesn’t care about Jews

New York Mayor Eric Adams poses with Independent candidate and former governor Andrew Cuomo after the latter participated in the second debate for the upcoming mayoral election, during the game between the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden on October 22, 2025, in New York City. (Al Bello/Getty Images/AFP)

Announcing Cuomo endorsement, NYC mayor Adams says Mamdani doesn’t care about Jews

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announces his endorsement of his former rival, former governor Andrew Cuomo, at a press conference.

Adams first announced his plan to back Cuomo in an interview with The New York Times released earlier today.

Adams and Cuomo appear together at a press conference in Harlem to officially announce the endorsement, with Adams saying that an array of groups, such as immigrants and Black people, are “under attack” in the city.

“When you tell Jewish residents that you need ‘globalize intifada,’ you’re saying you don’t care,” Adams says.

Mamdani defended the phrase “Globalize the intifada” in an interview earlier this year, then later said he would “discourage” the slogan after coming under massive pressure.

Adams also decries “Islamic extremism.” Mamdani, if elected, would be the city’s first Muslim mayor.

“You see what’s playing out in other countries because of Islamic extremism. Not Muslims let’s not mix this up, but those Islamic extremists that are burning churches in Nigeria, that are destroying communities in Germany, that have taken over the logical thinkings, and that’s what I’m fighting for,” Adams says.

He brands Mamdani as a “snake oil salesman that has sold us a bill of goods” and “the king of the gentrifiers.”

Cuomo says that Mamdani, who identifies as a democratic socialist, is not really a Democrat.

“Democrats do not propose antisemitic policies. Democrats have always stood with Israel as an ally. That’s what Democrats do,” he says.

“Democrats are also uniters, not dividers, and there’s been too much division from Zohran’s campaign. You’ve seen it with the Jewish community,” he says.

Lebanese health ministry says 4 killed in Israeli strikes

Four people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in eastern and southern Lebanon, the country’s health ministry says.

The ministry reported that strikes in mountainous areas in the east resulted in an initial death toll of two people.

It later stated that two others were killed in a separate strike in the south around Nabatieh, with the official National News Agency (NNA) reporting an elderly woman was one of the dead.

The NNA had earlier said that “Israeli warplanes launched a series of violent strikes on the eastern mountain range” in the Beqaa region near the border with Syria.

It also reported that two Israeli strikes targeted the Hermel range in the country’s northeast.

The IDF had confirmed carrying out an airstrike in Nabatieh, saying it was targeting a Hezbollah weapons depot. It also said it carried out airstrikes in Lebanon’s eastern Beqaa Valley, saying it targeted a Hezbollah training camp where operatives were gathered and a precision missile manufacturing site, among other targets.

According to the military, the training camp was used by Hezbollah to plan attacks against Israel. The missile manufacturing site in the Beqaa Valley has been struck by the IDF numerous times before. The IDF says it also struck a Hezbollah military site in northern Lebanon.