Oct. 27: US said open to Israel widening Gaza territory it controls to pressure Hamas

IDF crosses back into Israel with apparent body of hostage

The casket apparently containing the remains of a dead hostage has been brought out of the Gaza Strip by IDF troops.

The body is now escorted by the police to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification, a process that officials have said may take up to two days.

Hamas did not provide the identity of the hostage it handed over.

If the body is confirmed to belong to a hostage, it would mean that the remains of 12 deceased hostages are still held in Gaza.

IDF receives apparent body of hostage from Red Cross in Gaza

IDF troops in the Gaza Strip have received a casket, with the apparent body of a dead hostage, from the Red Cross a short while ago.

The casket had been collected by the Red Cross from Hamas in Gaza City.

The IDF is set to inspect the casket before draping it in an Israeli flag 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.

Mother of slain hostage soldier Itay Chen says hard to think of her son as a corpse without proof of his death

Hagit and Ruby Chen, the parents of slain hostage soldier Itay Chen, whose body has yet to be returned from Gaza, speak at an online gathering of Shift 101, the silent protest group that usually meets in front of public institutions in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The Chens ask those at the gathering to continue attending protests and rallies, as they have dwindled in numbers since the release of the last 20 living hostages.

As participants tell the Chens they hope that Itay’s body is returned soon, so as to offer them a sense of closure, Hagit says she is not sure how she’ll feel.

“He fell in battle,” says Chen. “We don’t have any physical evidence of his death, and until they prove otherwise to me, he’s alive. It’s difficult for me to speak of him as a corpse. Prove it. I have no proof.”

There are several hundred people online for the gathering, including Yael Adar, the mother of Tamir Adar, whose body was returned and buried in Kibbutz Nir Oz, and Bar Godard, the daughter of Meny Godard, whose body is still held in Gaza after being killed at his home on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.

Adar, who was an active part of the struggle to bring the hostages home, tells the gathering that she is walking around with a smile now that she has been able to bury her son.

“The sadness is always there, but the proof of his body allows you to separate,” she says. “Tamir is home.”

Report: Karhi secures Haredi backing for media reform bill, promises increased powers for rabbinical courts in return

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi in the Knesset in Jerusalem on March 31, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has enlisted the support of the Knesset’s Haredi parties for a piece of controversial legislation that will dramatically alter the state of Israel’s broadcast media, Channel 12 reports.

According to the report, Karhi informed lawmakers from Shas and United Torah Judaism that if they back his desired media reforms, he will support increasing the power of rabbinical courts, a long-standing demand of the two Haredi parties.

Karhi’s legislation, should it pass, would give the government significant control over broadcast media regulations by establishing a new regulatory council, with a majority of members chosen by the communications minister, which would have an array of authorities over broadcast media, including the ability to issue hefty fines.

Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara has criticized the bill, saying it would enable “political interference in the work of broadcast bodies and endanger the free press in Israel.”

The outlet reports that the same effort to secure the Haredi votes for his media reform bill was behind Karhi’s public endorsement earlier today of a planned ultra-Orthodox anti-conscription rally.

IDF: Red Cross has collected casket from Hamas, is en route to troops in Strip now

The IDF says the Red Cross has notified the military that it has collected a casket, apparently with the body of a slain hostage, from Hamas in Gaza City a short while ago.

The Red Cross is now bringing the casket to IDF troops inside the Strip, where a small ceremony, led by a military rabbi, will be held.

Defense Ministry guards foil attempt to smuggle handguns at West Bank checkpoint

Defense Ministry security guards foiled an attempt to smuggle two handguns into Israel from the West Bank earlier this evening.

The ministry says in a statement that a vehicle arrived at the Metzadot Yehuda checkpoint in the southern West Bank, and aroused the suspicion of the guards stationed there.

Hidden inside the vehicle’s frame, the security guards found two pistols, the ministry says.

The driver and the guns were handed over to the police.

Coalition to advance bill to gut attorney general position of authority

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara at a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset, on September 30, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

A bill that would effectively remove all authority from the position of attorney general will be brought for a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday, and is expected to be approved for passage to committee.

The legislation will likely face severe criticism from the opposition, since the position of attorney general today is one of the few checks on executive power in Israel’s system of government.

The bill, if passed, will split the position of attorney general into three, preserving the role of an attorney general as the legal adviser to the government, as well as creating a position of prosecutor general and a legal representative for the government in the courts.

But whereas, today, the attorney general’s position papers and interpretation of the law are binding on the government and its agencies, the attorney general’s position papers under the new legislation would not be binding, meaning the government would not in any way be required to act in accordance with their determinations.

The running of the Attorney General’s Office would also no longer be under the control of the attorney general; rather, it would be subject to the government and the justice minister.

The attorney general would also not be entitled to automatically attend cabinet meetings, a crucial government decision-making forum, although the prime minister could invite them if he so wished.

The position of attorney general would become overtly political, with the prime minister and justice minister nominating a candidate, and the cabinet approving the nomination. Currently, a public, professional committee headed by a retired Supreme Court justice recommends a candidate for the cabinet to approve.

The role will also be open to candidates who have worked as lawyers for just 10 years.

The position of prosecutor general, who would head Israel’s criminal prosecution service, would be appointed in an entirely political process as well, with the justice minister nominating them and the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee — which is always controlled by the ruling coalition — confirming the appointment.

The only qualification for a prosecutor general would be having served as a criminal lawyer for at least 10 years.

And the justice minister alone would appoint the representative for the government in the courts, who would represent the government in legal proceedings regarding legislation and executive actions.

The government’s legal representative would need to have 10 years of experience as an attorney representing parties in court. They alone would be able to represent the government in court, in a departure from the current situation, which allows the attorney general to refuse to represent the government if opposed to its position.

IDF: Red Cross heading to handover site in Gaza City to receive body of hostage

Red Cross vehicles are now heading to a handover site in Gaza City to collect the body of a hostage from Hamas, the IDF says.

Hamas did not identify the hostage whose body it is set to hand over.

The terror group said that it had “retrieved” the body today.

Hamas denies Israeli claims that it is withholding the bodies of hostages despite knowing where they are

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem denies reports that Hamas is withholding the bodies of certain hostages despite knowing their location.

“The occupation’s claims that Hamas knows the whereabouts of hostages are false, particularly after the aggression in the Strip [a reference to the war], which has changed the face of the territory,” he says.

The statement, carried by Arab media outlets, comes in response to reports in Israel alleging that Hamas can locate the remains of 10 of the 13 hostages still held in Gaza, but is choosing not to return them, in violation of the US-brokered agreement.

Report: US officials say no deadline for return of hostage bodies; open to widening IDF-controlled areas to pressure Hamas

Protesters gather at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv for a rally demanding the return of the last 13 deceased hostages, on October 25, 2025. (Paulina Patimer/ Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

US President Donald Trump’s statement Saturday that he would be watching Hamas’s actions under the Gaza ceasefire “very closely” for 48 hours was not meant as a hard deadline for the terror group to return the remaining bodies of slain hostages, Channel 12 reports as the two-day window nears its end.

The officials say Trump’s message was intended to signal that he expects Hamas to urgently begin returning the bodies of hostages, according to the TV report. However, Israeli officials and Hamas understood it as a deadline, the report says, noting that Hamas announced plans to return the body of a fallen hostage this evening, just hours before the 48-hour period ended.

Israel continues to push for a credible threat of action to pressure Hamas to comply with the deal, the report continues, saying that while the US opposes restricting humanitarian aid to Gaza, officials are open to discussing an Israeli proposal to move the IDF’s “yellow line” westward — allowing Israeli forces to enter areas previously held by Hamas — if Hamas continues to withhold the deceased hostages’ bodies.

Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, have told families of both living and slain hostages in recent days that the US is exerting maximum pressure on Hamas to resume the releases, the report continues, adding that during Trump’s meeting Saturday with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, he reportedly said he wanted to prioritize the return of the bodies of US citizens Itay Chen and Omer Neutra.

According to Channel 13, Israeli intelligence believes Hamas can locate the remains of 10 of the 13 slain hostages still held in Gaza. Israeli officials further assess that Hamas knows the whereabouts of Col. Asaf Hamami and Lt. Hadar Goldin — the former commander of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade and a soldier killed in 2014, respectively — but is refusing to return them, in part because they have become symbolic figures in Israel, according to the Hebrew network.

IDF chief Zamir: Gaza war not over until last of the deceased hostages is returned

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir speaks at a military conference, October 27, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says the war against Hamas is not over until the last of the deceased hostages held in Gaza are brought home.

The remarks are delivered during a conference with all of the military’s operational unit commanders ranked lieutenant colonel and above, which the IDF says is the start of a “learning process” that the military will undertake as it enters 2026. A similar conference will be held next week for reservist commanders.

“The IDF looks to the future with the past on its shoulders. Drawing lessons and learning constitute our moral and professional duty, and we will do so with courage and determination,” Zamir says.

“We must now strengthen the foundations and routines, care for our people and their families, and prepare for the upcoming challenges that exist across all fronts,” he says.

“The war is not yet over; we must complete our sacred mission of bringing the fallen hostages home and continue the campaign against Hamas,” Zamir adds.

During the conference, senior officers presented “operational and intelligence data” from the war; Defense Minister Israel Katz spoke with the commanders; and a panel was held with released hostages Emily Damari and Liri Albag, along with Ela Haimi, the widow of Tal Haimi, and Rabbi Doron Perez, the father of Cpt. Daniel Perez — who was killed on October 7, 2023, as was Tal Haimi. Their bodies were abducted to Gaza and returned this month.

3 activists charged with setting fire to dumpsters near PM’s home are freed to house arrest

This composite image shows Amos Doron (L) and Shmulik Reuveni (R) leaving Hadarim Prison on October 27, 2025, to begin house arrest after spending weeks in prison for setting fire to trash bins near the prime minister's Jerusalem residence. (Benny Meshy/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Three anti-government activists are released to house arrest after spending weeks in jail on arson charges, having been accused of torching dumpsters in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood during a day of mass protests for the return of the hostages last month.

The three released activists are Lt. Col. (res.) Amos Doron, 60, Shmuel Reuveni, 57, and Eyal Giller, 54.

The fourth defendant, Mark Foigel, 57, is charged with having organized the arson attacks and, as such, remains in custody for the time being.

As the three activists leave Hadarim Prison, a crowd gathers outside to call for Foigel’s release, charging that he is being held for politically-motivated reasons.

IDF says two Hezbollah operatives killed in earlier airstrike in southern Lebanon

The IDF confirms carrying out an airstrike in the al-Biyad area of southern Lebanon earlier today, saying it killed two Hezbollah operatives involved in restoring the terror group’s infrastructure in the area.

The operatives are named by the IDF as Hussein Ibrahim Suleiman, a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, and Hassan Ibrahim Suleiman.

The IDF says, “The terrorists were involved in advancing terror attacks toward the territory of the State of Israel and were eliminated while working to rebuild a terror infrastructure.”

“The actions of the terrorists constituted a threat to the State of Israel and its citizens, and a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the military adds.

תיעוד: צה"ל חיסל שני מחבלים מארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בזמן שפעלו לשיקום תשתית טרור בדרום לבנון

צה"ל תקף וחיסל מוקדם יותר היום, בהובלת פיקוד הצפון ובאמצעות חיל האוויר, את המחבל חסין אבראהים סאלימן, מגדוד של 'כוח רדואן' בארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, במרחב אל-ביד שבדרום לבנון.

בתקיפה חוסל… pic.twitter.com/f2gaBwqFGB

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

Hamas says will hand over body of one hostage at 9 p.m. tonight

A Red Cross vehicle arrives at the site where Hamas operatives work on searching for bodies of the hostages in an area in Hamad City, Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Hamas’s military wing announces that it will hand over the body of a hostage to the Red Cross at 9 p.m. tonight.

The terror group has not shared the identity of the deceased hostage.

Report: Body of hostage recovered from Gaza City’s Tuffah neighborhood earlier today

Citing an unnamed source in Hamas’s military wing, Al Jazeera reports that the body of a hostage was recovered during a search earlier today in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City.

According to the report, Hamas will coordinate with the Red Cross on transferring the body to Israel.

It does not provide details regarding the identity of the deceased hostage it purports was found, or on the timing of the handover, should one take place.

Otzma Yehudit requests probe into alleged Shin Bet interference in appointment of new agency chief

David Zini at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on August 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Far-right party Otzma Yehudit is submitting a proposal to the Knesset to probe alleged Shin Bet interference in the appointment of the agency’s new chief Maj. Gen. (res.) David Zini.

The party insists the security agency crossed a red line when it reported that Zini met with a Shin Bet officer whom it was surveilling on suspicion of leaking classified information to the Grunis Committee, which vets senior government appointments, according to a Haaretz expose.

The committee nevertheless approved Zini’s appointment, largely ignoring the material, according to Hebrew media reports.

Otzma Yehudit claims that this was an attempt by the Shin Bet and Attorney General’s office to “thwart” his appointment. Zini’s selection was controversial due to his lack of experience and for following the ouster of former chief Ronen Bar amid a Shin Bet probe of the Prime Minister’s Office.

“When a security body monitors its own members and leaks findings to external parties to influence the appointment of the next head of the service, it is essentially trying to establish an alternative authority,” the party says in a statement.

Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech, who submitted the proposal, says that “this is one of the most serious events in the history of the Shin Bet and amounts to an actual attempted coup.”

National Security Minister and Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir says the surveillance affair is “an unprecedented attempt by the Shin Bet, supported by the Attorney General, to stage a rebellion against the government using methods meant for [investigating] terrorist organizations.”

According to an i24 news report, the Shin Bet surveilled the officer, known as A., for six months, in an operation legally approved by the Prime Minister and overseen by the Attorney General, according to Hebrew media reports.

The officer was suspected of leaking details regarding a Shin Bet investigation into the police, focused on concerns that extremist ideology had permeated the force under Ben Gvir, an acolyte of the late rabbi and Jewish extremist Meir Kahane, whose government role puts him in charge of the police.

A. is set to be charged for leaking details of the investigation to Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and two journalists regarding the covert investigation, according to a Justice Ministry announcement Thursday.

Son of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti urges Trump to secure his release, revive two-state solution

A man walks past a mural depicting the Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, with a message that reads in Arabic, 'See you soon,' on Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, August 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

The son of high-profile Palestinian politician and prisoner Marwan Barghouti urges US President Donald Trump to “seize the opportunity” created by the Gaza truce to secure his father’s release and revive the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.

Sometimes dubbed the “Mandela of Palestine” by his supporters, Marwan Barghouti, 66, has been serving multiple life sentences since 2004 for helping plan terror attacks during the Second Intifada that killed five people in Israel.

He denies the charges against him and has also rejected the Israeli court’s jurisdiction to try him as a member of the Palestinian Authority’s parliament.

The heavy sentences have not diminished his popularity among Palestinians, many of whom see him as a possible successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

“He’s capable and has the track record to unify the Palestinian people,” Arab Barghouti tells AFP in an interview in English from the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“Someone like him represents a great opportunity for the international community to prove that they are serious about supporting the two-state solution.”

Arab Barghouti is the second member of the family to appeal to Trump to secure his father’s release. Earlier this month, Barghouti’s wife Fadwa also urged him to intervene.

Trump said in an interview with US magazine Time on October 15 that he would be “making a decision” on the matter, without specifying a timeline.

“I really hope he can do that, pressure the Israelis into releasing my father, because he is a partner for peace,” Arab Barghouti says, adding that his family “really welcome” Trump’s comment.

Western countries, including the US, “need to seize the opportunity of having a Palestinian leader who is well-respected and trusted and has the same vision that they have,” he says.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Israel preparing for possibility that Hamas will return body of hostage tonight

Israel is preparing for the possibility that Hamas may return the body of a hostage tonight, The Times of Israel has learned.

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

Over the weekend, Israel had been ready for Hamas to return the bodies of hostages, but ultimately, the terror group did not release any.

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

Starmer agrees to sell 20 Eurofighter jets to Ankara in $11 billion deal

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says London has signed an agreement with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan to sell Eurofighter jets to Ankara in a 10-year deal worth nearly $11 billion.

“This is a really significant deal, because it’s £8 billion ($10.7 billion) worth of orders… these are jobs that will last for 10 years, making the (Eurofighter) Typhoons, so really big for our country,” he says in Ankara.

Britain’s defense ministry says the order would involve 20 Eurofighter jets.

Israel to offer tax breaks to new immigrants in bid to boost economy

The Immigration and Absorption Ministry applauds a decision by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to grant sweeping tax exemptions to new immigrants, calling it both a “net profit” for the state and a powerful engine of economic growth.

Under the new initiative, immigrants will receive significant tax relief during their first years in Israel, a move designed to attract investment, skilled labor, and entrepreneurs from around the world. The ministry said the measure to those used by other OECD nations that use favorable tax regimes to lure global talent.

Immigration inquiries have surged by hundreds of percent in the past two years, particularly from North America, Europe and the United Kingdom, amid rising antisemitism and global instability, the ministry says. Officials say the incentives could generate as much as NIS 900 million ($276 million) annually through new businesses, increased employment and indirect tax revenue.

The announcement comes days after the Immigration and Absorption Ministry launched a new plan to work with Israeli companies to provide employment for immigrants as soon as they arrive in the country.

For every shekel invested in immigrants, Israel earns at least four in return, Immigration and Absorption Ministry Director General Avichai Kahana notes.

Haredi yeshiva students co-opt hostage families’ slogans and symbols to protest arrest of draft dodgers

Young Haredi yeshiva students rally against arrests of draft evaders outside the Beit Lid military prison on October 27, 2025, as part of the ultra-Orthodox campaign against IDF conscription. They wear yellow hats, and some hold yellow balloons, echoing symbols of the hostage families' struggle. (X screenshot, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

Thousands of young Haredi yeshiva students rallied against arrests of draft evaders outside the Beit Lid military prison earlier today.

They came dressed in yellow hats, and some held yellow balloons, in a bid to use the symbols and rhetoric of the hostage families’ struggle in the ultra-Orthodox campaign against IDF conscription.

The protesters, students from the Ateret Shlomo yeshiva network, are seen gathered outside the detention facility where draft dodger Ariel Shamai is being held, after Military Police detained him last week.

The yellow hats are emblazoned with the slogan: “Bring him back to yeshiva now,” playing off the popular “Bring them home” slogan that came to symbolize the plight of the Gaza captives.

The head of the school network, Rabbi Sholom Ber Sorotzkin, justifies comparing detained draft dodgers to those taken captive by Hamas on October 7. “They accuse us of using the symbols of the hostages, but they yanked Ariel from his home,” he says, quoted by Hebrew outlets.

“The hostages are ours as well. We studied for them. We performed large miracles for them so that they could escape captivity,” he continues, insisting that to “pry us away from Torah is to cut off oxygen from a sick patient.”

Earlier today, the hardline Jerusalem Faction said that Beersheba police arrested another yeshiva student who refused to report for duty after receiving a draft notice. He was handed over to the Military Police, according to the group’s statement.

אלפי ילדי תלמודי תורה של רשת "עטרת שלמה" בעצרת מול כלא 10 שם יושב העריק אריאל שמאי שנעצר. בהמשך להשווה התמוהה – תלמידים לובשים כובעים צהובים עם סמל החטופים ועליהם כתוב "מחזירים אותו לישיבה עכשיו", על משקל "מחזירים אותם הביתה עכשיו" – אחת מססמאות מטה החטופים.
צילום: יהודה… pic.twitter.com/r8hN6ltpCV

— שילה פריד🇮🇱 (@shilofreid) October 27, 2025

US State Department to provide humanitarian aid for minorities in southern Syria

The US State Department announces that it is donating humanitarian aid for Druze, Christian and Bedouin communities in southern Syria.

The announcement doesn’t specify how much aid has been donated, but it says that it will “support life-saving needs of approximately 60,000 people through targeted provision of food, water and hygiene items as well as the rehabilitation of houses and water systems for when people can safely return home.”

“While hostilities have largely subsided, the security situation remains unpredictable. This has resulted in limited movement of supplies that has affected civilian safety and the ability of the approximately 187,000 displaced individuals to return to their homes,” the State Department statement continues, calling on other countries to join the US in providing aid to the Syrian people.

Smotrich doubles down on rejection of Saudi normalization; vows Gaza will not be rebuilt until Hamas disarmed

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, October 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister and Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich says that “no one…is doing us a favor by normalizing relations with us and joining the Abraham Accords,” days after he was forced to walk back widely criticized remarks he made about normalization with Saudi Arabia.

Speaking to reporters before his party’s faction meeting today, Smotrich insists that Israel “has always extended a hand in peace” but “will not accept any conditions that involve dividing the land, giving up parts of our homeland, or denying our heritage and our roots.”

Smotrich said Thursday that he wouldn’t agree to a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia if it meant the establishment of a Palestinian state, disparagingly saying the Saudis could “keep riding camels.”

Riyadh has long insisted that it will only normalize ties with Israel if Jerusalem agrees to establish a time-bound, irreversible pathway to a future Palestinian state, which Smotrich and other members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government vehemently oppose.

Turning to Gaza, the lawmaker says that “the war is not over yet,” despite the recent US-brokered ceasefire agreement.

He vows that “Israel will not allow the rehabilitation of Gaza as long as Hamas has not been completely dismantled,” which is “a fundamental condition for rebuilding.”

Two said killed in Israeli strike in southern Lebanon

Lebanese media report an Israeli airstrike in the al-Biyad area of southern Lebanon.

Two people are said to have been killed in the strike.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

غارة من مسيرة تستهدف محيط منشرة خشب في بلدة البياض قضاء صور ومعلومات عن اصابات . pic.twitter.com/zVS1RHwt5C

— مصدر مسؤول (@fouadkhreiss) October 27, 2025

Israel believes Hamas knows location of all 13 deceased hostages, official says

Israel thinks that Hamas knows the location of all 13 slain hostages still in Gaza, an official in the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.

“We think that they know about all of them,” says the official. “We think that, with the right way they work, they can bring them all back.”

For now, Israel is going to let search efforts continue: “The indication we have now is that everybody is making a big effort to try to find them.”

Israel’s patience won’t last forever, says the official. “If it’s not going to happen today, and maybe in the real near future, we will have to make decisions.”

Netanyahu’s defense attorneys threaten to quit if number of weekly hearings not reduced

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to defense attorney Amit Haddad as he testifies behind reinforced protective screens at the Tel Aviv District Court for the second day of testimony in his trial, on December 11, 2024 (Amit Shabi/Pool)

In a submission to the Jerusalem District Court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense attorneys in his criminal trial threaten to resign if the number of hearings every week is not reduced.

Yesterday, the court rejected requests from Netanyahu’s defense team to reduce the pace of hearings, after lead defense attorney Amit Hadad said he could not attend hearings on Sundays due to his court schedule for other clients.

Netanyahu’s attorneys tell the court today that they will not be able to handle four hearings a week as the court has insisted, and will ask that the court allow them to stop representing the prime minister if their request for a reduction in the number of hearings is refused.

The prime minister’s lawyers also say that Netanyahu is not practically able to attend three hearings a week as per the court’s demands, due to the current circumstances of the country.

Netanyahu has repeatedly sought to reduce the number of hearings per week, and the court has cancelled numerous hearings due to the prime minister’s duties and health problems.

The court recently decided to increase the number of hearings per week because of the repeated delays and the amount of time that the trial has already taken — having started in 2020 — and due to the possibility that Netanyahu’s testimony alone could last until April 2026 and that the trial itself will drag on into 2027.

Israeli official says reconstruction of Gaza can begin immediately in areas still held by IDF

This aerial picture shows destroyed buildings in Gaza City's Al-Rimal neighborhood on October 23, 2025. (AFP)

Reconstruction on Israel’s side of the “Yellow Line” dividing the Gaza Strip doesn’t have to wait for the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan brokered by US President Donald Trump, a Prime Minister’s Office official tells The Times of Israel.

“The land is clear now, and actually we can start building,” says the official. “We don’t need to wait for phase two on our side.”

People of different nationalities want to come in and invest.

“If there [are] people that are pro-Israel, and won’t be in any way a harm to Israel, why not bring them in? Why not let them build?”

US Vice President JD Vance raised that approach last week. “This is all still pretty early, but that’s the basic idea,” he said before leaving Israel. “Take the areas where Hamas is not operating, start to rebuild very quickly, start to bring in the Gazans so they can live there, so they can have good jobs and hopefully some security and comfort, too.”

Far-right MK Sukkot laments ‘selective enforcement’ after receiving police summons over military base break-in

MK Zvi Sukkot attends a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, October 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Far-right lawmaker Zvi Sukkot pushes back against law enforcement’s bid to question him about his participation in a riot and break-in at the IDF’s Sde Teiman base last year.

He was among a small group of politicians who attempted to storm the detention facility in July 2024 alongside a group of right-wing activists, after the Military Police arrested several reservists on suspicion of severely abusing and sodomizing a Palestinian terror detainee.

The Religious Zionism MK was summoned this morning by the Southern District police’s fraud division and reportedly agreed to be questioned as a suspect. He is expected to be interrogated next month on November 11.

He nevertheless condemns the Sde Teiman probe in a filmed statement, calling it a politically motivated investigation and a case of “selective enforcement.”

“Under pressure from the Attorney General and State Attorney, the police decided to summon me for questioning in the Sde Teiman affair,” he says. “It’s clear to everyone that to summon a Knesset member for questioning under caution, more than a year after an event which was documented from every possible angle — is done only for political reasons.”

“I will continue to work and defend IDF soldiers, everywhere and at any time,” he says, doubling down on his assertion that alleged abuse by the reservists in Sde Teiman was made up. He dismisses aired footage of the assault as a “fabricated recording.”

Netanyahu says Israel ‘strongest power in Middle East,’ Shin Bet receiving record number of terror alerts

L-R: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and Shin Bet chief David Zini attend a ceremony for outstanding employees of the Shin Bet security agency, on October 27, 2025. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)

Israel has become “the strongest power in the Middle East,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, speaking at a ceremony for outstanding employees of the Shin Bet security agency.

“Today Israel is considered – and not as an exaggeration – the strongest power in the Middle East. We have changed the entire balance of deterrence and power,” he says at the event, held at President Isaac Herzog’s residence alongside Herzog and recently appointed Shin Bet chief David Zini.

“We achieved this thanks to the steadfastness of our people, our soldiers, our commanders, across all security branches, and through the sound decisions we’ve made,” he continues.

He hails the Shin Bet’s recent success in thwarting terrorist activity, saying the agency managed to prevent “over 1,200 attacks,” despite an unprecedented threat level.

“The service’s contribution in thwarting over 1,200 attacks is unimaginable…We’ve reached a situation where we have the highest number of alerts [of terrorist attacks] we’ve ever seen, and the lowest number of attacks actually carried out,” the premier says.

PM may visit Gaza coordination center in Kiryat Gat later this week

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to find time this week to go to the Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat, his office tells The Times of Israel.

The CMCC was set up to oversee the Gaza ceasefire and the continued implementation of US President Donald Trump’s plan.

A PMO official argues that the string of US officials visiting Israel and the CMCC in recent weeks is evidence of the strength of the US-Israel relationship, especially around Gaza.

“This is a success story,” says the official. “And all these officials, they want to be part of it. They want to make decisions, they want to be part of the pictures.”

Poll: 95% of Israelis believe Trump contributed to reaching Gaza ceasefire deal; 51% credit Netanyahu

A man wearing a mask of US President Donald Trump holds a heart-shaped balloon during a rally organized by families of hostages held by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, in the plaza outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art known as the "Hostages' Square," on October 4, 2025. (Jack Guez/AFP)

There is a near-unanimous belief among the Israeli public that US President Donald Trump should be credited with bringing about a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, according to a new survey by the Israel Democracy Institute.

The survey, conducted between October 19-21, about a week and a half after the ceasefire came into effect, asked respondents which factors they believe contributed to reaching the agreement to end the war and free the hostages.

In response, 95 percent of Israelis, or 97% of Jewish Israelis and 86.5% of Arab Israelis, credit Trump with being the contributing factor.

The survey finds that this belief is held across the political spectrum, with 94% of left-wingers, 98% of centrists, and 97% of right-wingers all attributing the ceasefire to Trump.

Military pressure on Hamas was seen as being the next-most significant factor, with 78% of respondents saying it contributed to ending the war, while 61.5% of people said the pressure put on the government by the hostages’ families was also a contributing factor.

In stark contrast with the public’s opinion of Trump’s role in ending the war, just 51% of respondents credited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with being a contributing factor to the ceasefire agreement.

Finally, 49.5% of respondents said they believed public protests played a role in bringing about the deal to end the war.

The survey, conducted online between October 19-21, polled 600 male and female representatives over the age of 18 in Hebrew and 148 in Arabic, constituting a representative sample of the Israeli population. It has a margin of error of 3.58%.

PM’s office says no new updates from Gaza mediators after report claims Hamas in process of recovering up to 9 bodies of hostages

The Prime Minister’s Office denies that there have been any updates from mediators regarding plans for Hamas to transfer additional bodies of hostages back to Israel, after the Saudi Al-Sharq channel reported that the terror group was in the process of recovering between seven and nine bodies of hostages from unspecified locations within the Gaza Strip.

The report claims that Hamas intends to transfer the bodies to the Red Cross after they have been recovered, although it does not give an exact timeframe for the purported handover.

The Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel that no information has been received from the mediators regarding the transfer of seven to nine bodies of hostages.

Haredi lawmaker fumes after Lapid suggests stripping voting rights of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers

United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler slams Opposition Leader Yair Lapid after he calls to revoke the voting rights of Haredim who do not serve in the IDF.

In a statement, the ultra-Orthodox lawmaker says that he “welcomes MK Yair Lapid’s ‘democratic ‘ demand to strip citizens of their right to vote, provided that the law applies to every privileged individual who did not serve in a combat role at the front. Additionally, anyone who has not completed their high school matriculation will not be allowed to serve as Prime Minister.”

Lapid did not graduate from high school and served as a reporter for IDF magazine Bamahane during his mandatory military service.

Speaking with reporters this afternoon, Lapid said that if the government’s controversial legislation to regulate Haredi enlistment passes, “then in the next government there will be a simple law: whoever does not come to [military induction] will not come to the polls. Whoever does not enlist, will not vote in the elections.”

Only one Hamas official operating in IDF-held area of Gaza to search for bodies, Israeli official clarifies

There is only one Hamas official operating with Egyptian crews on Israel’s side of the “Yellow Line” dividing Gaza, an official in the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.

“He’s coming there, he’s saying dig here,” says the official. “It’s only for the location, it’s not for anything else.”

Yesterday, another unnamed Israeli official told Hebrew-language media that Hamas representatives had been permitted to enter Israel Defense Forces-controlled areas in Gaza to search for the bodies, alongside the Egyptian and Red Cross teams.

An Israeli government spokeswoman confirmed that Red Cross and Egyptian teams were permitted by Israel to search for the bodies of deceased hostages beyond the yellow line demarcating the military’s pullback in the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian squads are not military personnel, stresses the PMO: “It’s someone that has a tractor.”

Normalization with Saudi Arabia is a top security interest for Israel, Golan says

Democrats leader Yair Golan leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on October 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Democrats’ chair Yair Golan says that normalization with Saudi Arabia is a “first-order Israeli security interest,” criticizing controversial comments made last week by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that sparked widespread outrage.

Smotrich said Thursday that he wouldn’t agree to a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia if it meant the establishment of a Palestinian state, disparagingly saying the Saudis could “keep riding camels.”

Riyadh has long insisted that it will only normalize ties with Israel if Jerusalem agrees to establish a time-bound, irreversible pathway to a future Palestinian state, which Smotrich and other members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government vehemently oppose.

Speaking to the press before a faction meeting, Golan says that Israel’s diplomatic, military, and economic standing would benefit from an agreement with Saudi Arabia, but that “Smotrich prefers to nurture a terrorist organization in Gaza that threatens Israel rather than a demilitarized and supervised Palestinian state.”

Netanyahu, for his part, allows this because Hamas rule in Gaza is his “political insurance policy. Hamas in Gaza keeps [Netanyahu’s] extreme partners in the government, and him at its head,” the left-wing leader says.

Lapid pans ‘anti-Zionist, anti-patriotic’ Likud after its lawmakers voice support for Haredi anti-draft protest

Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on October 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party after two members indicated that they are supportive of a massive Haredi anti-conscription demonstration planned for Thursday, and that they are considering taking part.

Asked by The Times of Israel about Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and MK Avichai Boaron’s statements about the protest, Lapid questions the ruling party’s Zionist credentials.

“How can they continue to call themselves a national party? This is anti-Zionist. This is anti-patriotic. This is anti-Jewish in my eyes. And the fact that Likud has become enslaved to the needs of the ultra-Orthodox for religious coercion at this level is unforgivable,” Lapid says.

“These people are not really Likud. What do Shlomo Karhi and the values of Likud have in common? What do Avichai Boaron and the values of Likud have in common? How can they even say they are part of a national and liberal party? When they want to demonstrate in favor of draft evasion and corruption, are they?”

Asked by another reporter about Netanyahu’s recent assertion that Washington is not dictating actions in Gaza, Lapid slams the prime minister’s handling of post-ceasefire Gaza.

“In the past weeks, some of the most critical decisions of this country were made in Washington instead of Jerusalem. Under regular circumstances, I would be protesting against it, but the White House is making much better decisions about our future than the current government, and therefore, we don’t want this to continue, but we don’t think it’s a bad idea at the current situation,” he says in English.

Netanyahu insisted on Sunday that Israel is a sovereign state that makes its own decisions on national security matters, in the wake of growing rumblings that key decisions about the future of the Gaza Strip are being made in Washington.

Liberman confident that Zionist anti-Netanyahu bloc will win comfortable majority in 2026 elections

Yisrael Beiteinu party chairman MK Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on October 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman rules out merging with another party ahead of the 2026 Knesset elections, telling reporters that he “will lead Yisrael Beytenu, and anyone who wants is welcome to join. Period.”

Speaking ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Liberman says that the important thing for the anti-Netanyahu bloc to do is create a coordinated strategy, as he argues that the lack of such a “bloc strategy” is what led to the opposition’s failure in the last election.

“I am sure that the Zionist (opposition) bloc will receive more than 63 seats,” he continues, ruling out sitting with any “anti-Zionist parties” such as the Arab parties and the ultra-Orthodox factions.

Turning to the controversy over ultra-Orthodox conscription, Liberman says that those who do not serve should not be allowed to vote, citing the precedent of convicted felons in the United States.

“We do not have enough space in prisons. So it is enough for them to have a criminal record, and they will not be able to vote,” he says.

Liberman also accuses the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism of being “racist parties” who do not allow women to run on their electoral lists, comparing them to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Asked by The Times of Israel about Likud MK Avichai Boaron’s bill aimed at hampering former prime minister Naftali Bennett from running in the next election due to outstanding debts from his previous parties, Liberman says that he supports the idea in principle but that the way it is being implemented now is blatantly political.

The proposed legislation would require any new party established by a chairman whose previous party dissolved within the past seven years to assume responsibility for paying off that party’s outstanding debts before being able to use campaign funds raised for his new party to finance its electoral campaign.

“First of all, pay back debts. This is a rule in life, regardless of the parties. But you don’t change the rules of the game in the middle of play. If they had brought this law two or three years ago, then maybe we would have supported this law too. But now, in an election year, they are turning it into a personal law. We are against personal laws, no matter for whose benefit,” Liberman says.

Bennett has said that Likud has a far greater current campaign finance debt, and that he was not the most recent party leader of either Jewish Home or Yamina, which were headed by Rafi Peretz and Ayelet Shaked, respectively, after his departure. Therefore, he claims, he is not liable for any such debts.

Ex-hostage Eli Sharabi eulogizes brother: ‘Our hearts are broken but our heads are held high’

Former hostage Eli Sharabi eulogizes his brother Yossi at his funeral, saying: “Today, after more than two years of waiting, of anxiety, of uncertainty — we finally have the privilege of burying you here, at home, in the soil of Be’eri. This is not the ending we had hoped for, but it is the beginning of a belated justice.”

Sharabi calls his brother “an anchor, a man with a huge heart, with quiet devotion, a family man. A father of three daughters who was always there — with a kind word, with a smile, with a generous heart. You never sought the spotlight, only to be good. And you were good — the very best.

“Yossi, my dear brother, our hearts are broken, but our heads are held high. Because you were granted the honor of being buried here, in the land you loved, at the heart of your community, among people who have not forgotten. We will carry on in your name, in your memory, in your path, and we promise to remember, to tell, and to love — just as you loved.”

״הלב שלנו שבור, אבל הראש מורם, כי זכית להיקבר פה בארץ שאהבת, בלב הקהילה שלך, בין אנשים שלא שכחו.״

שורד השבי אלי שרעבי ספד היום לאחיו יוסי שנחטף לעזה, שרד מספר חודשים בשבי והושב לקבורה:

״אנחנו נמשיך בשמך, בזכרך, בדרכך. ונבטיח שנזכור, שנספר, ושנאהב, בדיוק כמו שאתה אהבת.

יהי… pic.twitter.com/IHAowWGp6d

— מטה המשפחות להחזרת החטופים והנעדרים (@BringThemHome23) October 27, 2025

Jordan’s king: International forces in Gaza can be peacekeepers, not peace-enforcers

Jordan's King Abdullah II looks on during a reception by the deputy speaker of the Hungarian Parliament at the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest on October 16, 2025 (Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP)

International forces that may be deployed in Gaza under US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan will not be willing to enforce peace in the strip, Jordan’s King Abdullah tells the BBC.

“What is the mandate of security forces inside of Gaza? And we hope that it is peacekeeping, because if it’s peace-enforcing, nobody will want to touch that,” says Abdullah.

According to the United Nations, peacekeeping operations are guided by the “non-use of force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate,” while peace enforcement needs a UN Security Council resolution and “involves the application of a range of coercive measures, including the use of military force.”

“Peacekeeping is that you’re sitting there supporting the local police force, the Palestinians, which Jordan and Egypt are willing to train in large numbers, but that takes time,” says the king. “If we’re running around Gaza on patrol with weapons, that’s not a situation that any country would like to get involved in.”

Israel has demanded that Hamas disarm as part of the end of the two-year war, and the US has also insisted that the group will have to give up its weapons to move forward with its 20-point plan. A senior Hamas leader said yesterday that the terror group will only disarm “if the occupation ends.”

The Jordanian monarch tells the BBC that Jordanian forces will not be sent into Gaza because Amman is “too close politically” to the conflict.

Abdullah is asked whether he trusts Hamas to disarm, and declines to answer directly, saying instead: “I don’t know them, but those that are working extremely close to them — Qatar and Egypt — feel very, very optimistic that they will abide by that.

“If we don’t solve this problem, if we don’t find a future for Israelis and Palestinians and a relationship between the Arab and Muslim world and Israel, we’re doomed,” he says.

Gantz condemns Haredi plans for massive anti-draft protest: ‘Stop this madness’

Leader of the Blue and White Party MK Benny Gantz leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on October 27, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Blue and White Party chairman Benny Gantz condemns the massive ultra-Orthodox anti-draft protest planned for Thursday in Jerusalem, calling it “dangerous for Israeli society — and dangerous for the Haredi community.”

The protest is organized by representatives of ultra-Orthodox parties Degel HaTorah, Agudat Yisrael, Shas, and other factions, as ultra-Orthodox activists and lawmakers rage against what they describe as a “wave of arrests” of yeshiva students who ignored enlistment orders and are evading military service.

“At a time when our hostages are returning, soldiers are still in Gaza, and families and businesses are trying to rebuild, you, who didn’t carry the burden, are now poking a finger in the eye of those who did?” Gantz says, addressing the ultra-Orthodox public directly while speaking to the press before a faction meeting.

He urges Haredi rabbis and political leaders to intervene, saying, “I call first and foremost on the ultra-Orthodox public not to cooperate with extremists, and I call on the rabbis to stop this madness.”

Gantz stresses that Blue and White, which current polls project will not pass the Knesset threshold in the next election, will only join a government that passes a universal draft law.

“We will not join a government that sends soldiers to war while also funding draft evasion,” he says.

Sa’ar says PA continuing to pay terrorists under ‘pay-for-slay’ policy, despite promises

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar at Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary, on October 27, 2025. (Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accuses the Palestinian Authority of continuing its controversial “pay-for-slay” policy despite pledges to end it, saying that Palestinian terror convicts, including those released under the current ceasefire deal in Gaza, are continuing to benefit from the policy. He accuses European governments of turning a blind eye to the practice.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Budapest alongside his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjártó, Sa’ar says that “Contrary to the PA’s promises in English, they are continuing their pay-for-slay policy.” He claims the PA has merely “changed the method” of the policy, rather than actually halting it.

“The terrorists are collecting their payments from the Palestinian post office. And the PA is now making additional payments to evil terrorists released as part of the [ceasefire] deal,” he says.

Sa’ar does not offer further details on how payments are being carried out. The Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for more details.

Following US pressure, the PA signed a decree in February canceling a law that established a longstanding welfare system that included payments to the families of slain terrorists and the families of security prisoners held in Israeli jails, dubbed “pay-for-slay” by critics. However, the US has so far not confirmed that the payments have stopped.

Sa’ar also denounces the European Union for granting the PA “legitimacy without accountability” by failing to acknowledge the ongoing practice, arguing that the policy, along with continued incitement in Palestinian schools, media, and mosques, “pushes peace further away.”

Sa’ar adds that US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza references Trump’s 2020 so-called “Deal of the Century” plan for a permanent resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which demanded that the PA end the policy, claiming that, “Until today, the PA has failed to meet the required criteria, as determined by President Trump.”

The foreign minister also reiterates Israel’s refusal to cooperate with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel accuses of being infiltrated by Hamas.

Lapid suggests revoking voting rights for Haredim who do not enlist

Opposition Leader MK Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on July 7, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid threatens to revoke ultra-Orthodox Israelis’ voting rights in a future government if they do not enlist in the IDF.

If the government’s controversial legislation to regulate Haredi enlistment passes, “then in the next government there will be a simple law: whoever does not come to [military induction] will not come to the polls. Whoever does not enlist, will not vote in the elections.”

“In the current Knesset, a bill was voted down that said those who don’t enlist, don’t vote. Yesh Atid voted in favor. We will bring back the proposal without batting an eye, and we’ll tell the Haredim: This isn’t against you, it’s not a punishment — on the contrary. It’s an invitation to be part of the Israeli story, of our shared destiny, of a country where everyone has the same obligations — otherwise, they won’t have the same rights,” Lapid says.

Pope Leo to visit Turkey, Lebanon on first trip abroad as pontiff, appeal for peace

Pope Leo XIV gestures as he attends the Jubilee Mass for the Missionary World and Migrants at St Peter's Square in The Vatican on October 4, 2025. (Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

Pope Leo will visit eight towns and cities in Turkey and Lebanon later this year, the Vatican says, his first trip outside Italy as pontiff, and he is expected to make appeals for peace across the region.

Leo, the first American pope, will visit Turkey from November 27 to 30 and then will be in Lebanon from November 30 to December 2.

Leo’s predecessor Pope Francis had planned to visit both countries but was unable to go because of his worsening health. Francis died on April 21 and Leo was elected as the new pope on May 8 by the world’s cardinals.

17-year-old stabbed by classmate dies of his wounds

A 17-year-old boy stabbed by his classmate at school in Kafr Qara has succumbed to his wounds, Hebrew outlets report.

Paramedics took him earlier to the hospital while in critical condition. They attempted to resuscitate him on the way, to no avail.

Police arrested the suspected stabber shortly after the incident, law enforcement announced this afternoon.

Widow of Yossi Sharabi: ‘In what world should daughters have to bury their father so early?’

Nira Sharabi, the widow of slain hostage Yossi Sharabi, says at his funeral: “In what world should daughters have to bury their father so early? In what world should a mother have to bury her son? In what world should a woman have to bury the love of her life when there was still so much left to do?”

Sharabi says that when she met Yossi, “I remember not being able to understand how someone could have such a good heart. Over the years, as I got to know you more and more, I realized there were no hidden sides to you — only more and more of that same goodness. It wasn’t a cliché; it was the real thing.

“The plans we made together will never happen,” she says. “I go to sleep alone. I wake up alone. I reach for your warm hands that used to hold me, that used to shield all of us from the world… I ask myself — how does one fill this void? How do I gather myself again?”

She adds, “I look at our daughters, and I see you in them. In each one of them, you appear in a different way, and together they complete you — the one I miss so deeply.”

״שנתיים שאני לא נושמת. שנתיים שאני זועקת בתוך הלב פנימה ושואלת "למה?".
כואבת אותך. כאב של מלאכים.״

כשהיא מוקפת בשלוש בנותיה ובכל בני משפחתה המורחבת, עמדה נירה שרעבי ונפרדה מבעלה יוסי שרעבי ז״ל:

״כשהגעת מייד ידעתי – זה זה. זה אתה. נועדנו זה לזו.

התכניות שרקמנו לשנינו לא יקרו.… pic.twitter.com/82ZiiLnnDN

— מטה המשפחות להחזרת החטופים והנעדרים (@BringThemHome23) October 27, 2025

FM delivers letter of thanks from freed hostage Omri Miran to Hungary’s leaders

During his diplomatic visit to Budapest, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar delivers a letter from Omri Miran — a dual Israeli-Hungarian citizen released from Hamas captivity under the current ceasefire deal in Gaza — to his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto, in which the former hostage thanks Hungary’s leaders for their efforts to secure his release.

“Hungary played an important role in the fight for Omri’s freedom,” Sa’ar says at a joint press conference alongside Szijjarto.

“As a token of his appreciation, Omri asked me to personally deliver a letter thanking you [Szijjarto], along with [Hungarian] Prime Minister [Viktor] Orban, and [Hungarian] President [Tamás] Sulyok,” he says, before handing his counterpart the letter, which he says was signed by both Omri and his wife, Lishay.

“The people of Israel will never forget your part in the struggle for Omri’s freedom,” Sa’ar says, adding that “the struggle is not over yet” as Hamas continues to hold 13 slain hostages in the Strip.

Liberman: Likud sends our children to front lines while backing draft evasion

A Haredi protester holds up a sign that reads: 'Bandits, stop kidnapping Israel's young men!' during a demonstration against mandatory IDF conscription for ultra-Orthodox Israelis on Jerusalem on July 23, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud after a number of members of the ruling party announced they might participate in an ultra-Orthodox anti-conscription rally in Jerusalem scheduled for Thursday.

“Likud, under Netanyahu’s leadership, sends our children to the front lines with one hand, and with the other hand demonstrates in favor of draft evasion,” Liberman says in a statement. “Likud has turned into a branch of the Haredim and Ben Gvir. Very soon I will put an end to this disgrace and pass a law for mandatory enlistment for everyone.”

At least two members of Likud have indicated that they support the demonstration and are considering taking part.

“It could definitely be a good idea to come, and even if I don’t, my heart is with all those in Israel who want to stop the persecution,” Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi told Radio Kol Hai this morning.

Likud MK Avichai Boaron sounded a similar note, telling Radio Kol Barama that he was “thinking of joining this rally.”

“There is an alliance between Likud and the ultra-Orthodox public. The Torah is the elixir of our lives, and Torah study is a supreme value,” he said.

In response, fellow Likud MK Dan Illouz tweeted against such acts, saying that the party’s voters were “the backbone of the serving public — those who send their children into battle and carry the security of the state on their shoulders.

“These are the people we were sent to represent in the Knesset. We must not grovel before anyone — not in the face of international pressure, not before a hostile media, not before legal advisers, and not even before coalition partners. We must insist on our national and liberal Zionist path, and not look for ways to support the path of others,” Illouz argued.

Ben Gvir calls opposition MKs ‘Hamas spokespeople’ after they pan prisoner policy

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls opposition lawmakers “Hamas spokespeople” during a stormy Knesset meeting, after they lambast him for bragging about harsh conditions imposed on Palestinian security prisoners, which reportedly led to increased abuse of hostages held in Gaza.

The far-right leader is expected to brief lawmakers in the Knesset National Security Committee on his ministry’s activities, but first touts the changes he has brought to the prison system, sparking outrage in the crowded meeting hall.

Freed hostages, most recently Bar Kuperstein, have attested to having been beaten and starved by their Hamas captors as revenge for Ben Gvir’s repeated public remarks about harsher prison conditions on his watch.

“Bar Kuperstein, [one hostage] after another are saying what they’ve endured because of you,” The Democrats MK Naama Lazimi shouts at Ben Gvir. “Our people were kidnapped on your watch, shame on you!”

“Hamas is proud of you,” he retorts, calling Lazimi a “Hamas spokeswoman” as she is escorted out of the meeting by Knesset security. Ben Gvir gestures to other opposition MKs: “You’re all Hamas spokespeople here.”

Earlier in the meeting, the minister doubled down on his demand to enact the death penalty for Palestinian terrorists.

“Jails have turned into a nightmare for terrorists, and I’m proud of this,” he boasts to the committee, but “it is still not enough.”

He says he continues to demand a death penalty law from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I asked him, this is still my demand and he also knows that he has a deadline,” he says.

Ben Gvir calls MK Naama Lazimi (The Democrats) a "Hamas spokeswoman" after she lambasts him for bragging about harsh prison conditions for Palestinian inmates, which several freed hostages have said prompted brutal revenge beatings by their Hamas captors pic.twitter.com/vAXV7ZE8Up

— charlie summers (@cbsu03) October 27, 2025

IDF confirms strike on terror operatives in Gaza who crossed ceasefire line

Following reports in the morning of an airstrike in Gaza, the IDF says it carried out a strike in the southern Gaza Strip earlier today against a group of Palestinian terror operatives who crossed the Yellow Line demarcating the military’s pullback in the Gaza Strip.

According to the military, the operatives were digging in the ground and approaching Israeli forces in the Khan Younis area, which is under IDF control as part of the ceasefire.

The operatives “posed an immediate threat” to the troops, and upon being identified, they were targeted in a strike, the IDF says.

Palestinian media reports that two people were killed in the strike.

17-year-old suspected of stabbing classmate, critically injuring him in Kafr Qara

Police have arrested a teenager on suspicion of stabbing his 17-year-old classmate during a brawl at their school in Kafr Qara earlier today.

The classmate sustained life-threatening injuries and is in critical condition. Paramedics attempted to resuscitate him while taking him to the hospital, Magen David Adom says.

The suspected stabber was arrested by police forces dispatched to the area shortly after the incident.

He was brought to the police station for interrogation, and officers are expected to request an extension of his remand.

Sa’ar: Israel won’t accept Turkish armed forces in Gaza

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar (L) is welcomed by his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto prior to their official talks at Puskas Arena in Budapest, on October 27, 2025. (Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP)

Israel won’t accept the presence of Turkish armed forces in Gaza under a US plan to end the war in the Palestinian territory for good, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says.

“Countries that want or are ready to send armed forces should be at least fair to Israel,” Saar says at a news conference in Budapest.

Once warm Turkish-Israeli relations have soured drastically, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lambasting Israel’s devastating air and ground campaign, comparing its actions to those of the Nazis and accusing the country of genocide. Erdogan is an outspoken backer of the Hamas terror group.

“Turkey, led by Erdogan, led a hostile approach against Israel,” including “not only hostile statements, but also diplomatic and economic measures,” Saar says, speaking alongside his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto. “So it is not reasonable for us to let their armed forces enter the Gaza Strip and we will not agree to that and we said it to our American friends.”

US envoy Ortagus expected in Lebanon as tensions with Israel spike

People inspect the wreckage of a vehicle targeted by an alleged Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Harouf on October 25, 2025. (MAHMOUD ZAYYAT / AFP)

US envoy Morgan Ortagus is expected in Beirut today for talks with Lebanese officials on disarming Hezbollah, sources familiar with her visit say, amid fears in Lebanon that Israel could launch a renewed air war on the group.

Those worries have been driven by days of intensifying Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s south and east that have killed more than a dozen people, most of them Hezbollah members, according to Lebanese security sources. Lebanon fears the bombing shows Israel intends to ramp up its air campaign, despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was intended to end a year-long war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel said those targeted were acting in violation of the ceasefire.

Ortagus, the White House’s deputy Middle East envoy, is expected to attend a meeting on Wednesday reviewing the Lebanese army’s efforts to clear Hezbollah arms caches in the country’s south, in line with the 2024 truce.

Another US envoy, Tom Barrack, warned last week that Hezbollah may face a new confrontation with Israel if Lebanese authorities fail to act quickly to disarm the group in full, which Hezbollah has rejected doing so far.

External panel that reviewed IDF’s Oct. 7 probes to present findings to army chief

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir lays a wreath during a ceremony at the Nahal Oz base, marking the Hebrew anniversary of the October 7 onslaught, October 16, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

After months of work, an external panel of former senior officers that was tasked with evaluating the military’s probes into Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught is set to present its findings to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir tomorrow.

The IDF’s October 7 investigations were led by former chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi. Upon entering the role earlier this year, Zamir said he would appoint an external panel to further examine those probes.

The panel is headed by Maj. Gen. (res.) Sami Turgeman, a former head of the Southern Command. It was tasked with evaluating the IDF’s investigations, overseeing implementation of findings, and recommending repeat investigations if necessary.

After Zamir is presented with the findings tomorrow, they will also be presented to the rest of the IDF General Staff on Friday, according to military sources. Zamir will then need to decide on “personal decisions” regarding some senior officers based on the findings, including the current chief of the Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, who on October 7 headed the Operations Division. Binder’s appointment to the role was considered controversial and was met with protests from some lawmakers and the families of some fallen soldiers.

The Haaretz daily reports that Turgeman’s panel is expected to determine that Binder can continue in his current role. However, during the next round of senior appointments, it will be noted that he has responsibility for the failures on October 7, which will affect any decision about whether to promote him, the report says.

Israelis honor slain hostage Yossi Sharabi as funeral procession heads to Be’eri

Former hostage Eli Sharabi takes part in the funeral procession of brother Yossi Sharabi, who was killed in captivity after being taken hostage during the October 7, 2023 attacks, in the central city of Rishon Letzion on October 27, 2025 (FADEL SENNA / AFP)

Throngs of Israelis are honoring slain hostage Yossi Sharabi as his funeral procession moves from central Israel to Kibbutz Be’eri. The funeral began at a Rishon Lezion synagogue, where family members gathered, among them Eli Sharabi, who was freed from Hamas captivity in January. Eli’s wife and daughter were also murdered by terrorists during the October 7 attack.

Yossi was kidnapped from his home in Be’eri on October 7 along with his daughter’s boyfriend, Ofir Engel, and a neighbor, Amit Shani, who were both freed in November 2023.

Sharabi’s body was handed over by Hamas under the ceasefire agreement earlier this month.

People await the convoy along roads to Be’eri waving Israeli flags as well as yellow flags symbolizing the hostages.

לוויתו של יוסי שרעבי בבארי, רבים רבים ממשיכים להגיע לקיבוץ בארי, ללוויה שמתעכבת עד כה בארבעים דקות בגלל הקהל הגדול שמבקש להביע תנחומים. pic.twitter.com/b6FbYgrMHM

— אסף פוזיילוב (@pozailov1) October 27, 2025

President Isaac Herzog is slated to attend the ceremony and eulogize Sharabi.

Two years after Oct. 7, defense minister declares end to emergency status in south

Defense Minister Israel Katz visits the Mahaneh Yehudah market in Jerusalem, on September 2, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

For the first time since the October 7, 2023, onslaught, Defense Minister Israel Katz has decided that the emergency situation declared in southern Israel will be lifted.

The “special situation” allowed the military’s Home Front Command to restrict gatherings and close off areas. It was declared on the morning of October 7 in the entire country, but has since remained in place only in the south.

The order will expire tomorrow, and for the first time in over two years, there will be no active “special situation” in Israel.

“I have decided to adopt the IDF’s recommendation and to remove, for the first time since October 7, the special situation in the home front,” Katz says in a statement.

He says that “the decision reflects the new security reality in the south of the country that was achieved thanks to the determined and powerful actions over the past two years of our heroic troops against the Hamas terror organization.”

State Attorney’s Office may forbid PM’s office from admitting Qatargate suspects

Qatargate suspect Jonatan Urich attends a hearing at the Lod District Court on May 22, 2025. (Jonathan Shaul/Flash90)

Representatives of the State Attorney’s Office say they are considering instructing the Prime Minister’s Office to forbid key suspects in the Qatargate case, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, from entering the office.

State Attorney’s Office officials make the comments at a hearing in the High Court of Justice on a petition by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel demanding that anyone suspected of involvement in the Qatargate scandal be barred from entering and working at the PMO, and for procedures to be drawn up for the employment of officials there who do not have security clearance.

Urich in particular, who remains on the Likud payroll, has sought to return to work at the PMO after being released from house arrest earlier this year.

The Lod District Court in September extended a ban on Urich returning to his place of work for at least another 60 days, in accordance with a police request to prevent him from returning to the place where he allegedly committed several offenses, including taking money from Qatar to boost its image in Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

Neither Urich nor Feldstein had the necessary security clearance to work as PMO employees while they were working for Netanyahu. Urich is still employed as an adviser to Likud, while Feldstein was hired as an independent media adviser.

“It is very grave that the Prime Minister’s Office has become a ‘revolving door’ for officials operating without appropriate security clearance, while deliberately bypassing procedures,” Tomer Naor, one of the Movement for Quality Government’s attorneys, said before the hearing.

“A situation in which officials suspected of problematic ties with foreign countries hang out [in proximity] to the prime minister and are exposed to the state’s deepest secrets must not be allowed.”

No coalition lawmakers at Knesset meeting on rising food prices

No coalition lawmakers are present at the Knesset’s Economic Affairs Committee meeting today to discuss the fifth rise in food prices in two years, apart from Likud MK and committee chair David Biton.

Present at the meeting is Yesh Atid MK Jasmine Sachs Friedman, who tweets, “Only Knesset members from the opposition are present. The price madness at supermarkets apparently hasn’t reached the disconnected coalition members.”

Food prices in Israel have surged dramatically in the last two years since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught and Israel’s subsequent multi-front war, putting severe pressure on households. According to Leket Israel-The National Food Bank, food prices have risen by 5% in the past year alone.

Yesh Atid MK Meir Cohen says, “We have become one of the most expensive countries in the world. That’s a fact.”

He calls for cooperation between coalition and opposition lawmakers to address the needs of the 22% of Israelis living below the poverty line, who can’t independently afford “basic” food items.

After long delay, Knesset okays NIS 1.2 billion for north’s rehabilitation

File: A building hit by a missile fired from Lebanon in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, November 20, 2024 (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

The Knesset Finance Committee approves a long-awaited transfer of NIS 1.2 billion ($308 million) for rehabilitation and economic recovery programs in northern Israel, following months of delays caused by the Finance Ministry’s refusal to provide supplementary information requested by the committee’s legal advisers.

The delay has postponed much-needed funds for communities still reeling from Israel’s war against Hezbollah in the north.

The funding will be used to implement two government resolutions from July to support towns within a two-kilometer radius of the Lebanese border, whose residents were evacuated, and to revive businesses and municipal activity up to nine kilometers from the border.

Approximately 60,000 northern residents were displaced by Hezbollah’s attacks on the north between October 2023 and November 2024.

The government approved a plan in October 2024 to rehabilitate and develop the North in the aftermath of the war, earmarking NIS 15 billion over five years. Some of these funds have yet to be disbursed.

Adv. Shlomit Erlich, the committee’s legal adviser, explains that the Treasury initially submitted incomplete documents and refused to provide the supplementary information requested by the committee, only finally submitting it five days ago.

A representative from the Treasury’s Budget Department confirms that the department received the original request from the committee nearly three months ago, in August.

Tzachi Chen, deputy head of the Ma’ale Yosef Regional Council, voices frustration at the delay: “The claim is that this takes time, but we don’t have time. We’ve already committed millions to contractors; we’re collapsing under the weight. The funds need to arrive immediately.”

Finance Committee Chair MK Hanoch Milwidsky says that claims that the committee was responsible for holding up the transfer are false. “Nothing was delayed here — this was brought to discussion at the very first meeting after the legal department’s requirements were met,” he says.

While he says that he doesn’t believe that the Finance Ministry was “deliberately” holding up the process, he calls on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich “to do what’s necessary” for the funds to reach Northern communities as soon as possible.

IDF thwarts attempt to smuggle weapons from Egypt using drone

Weapons and a drone that were seized by IDF troops following a smuggling attempt on the Egyptian border, October 27, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says it foiled an attempt to smuggle weapons into Israel from Egypt using a drone this morning.

Troops located the drone after it crossed the border and was downed. It was found to be ferrying two assault rifles and ammunition, the military says.

In the past year, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egyptian border using drones.

Families of missing hostages demand pause in Gaza plan: ‘Hamas knows exactly where the fallen are’

The families of Israeli hostages demand that the next steps in the US-brokered Gaza peace plan be put on hold until Hamas returns the remaining bodies of dead captives.

“Hamas knows exactly where every one of the deceased hostages is held. Two weeks have passed since the deadline set in the agreement for the return of all 48 hostages, yet 13 remain in Hamas captivity,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

“The families urge the Government of Israel, the United States administration and the mediators not to advance to the next phase of the agreement until Hamas fulfils all of its obligations and returns every hostage to Israel.”

UK’s Starmer to discuss Eurofighter jets sale with Erdogan in Turkey

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a bilateral meeting at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo Kin Cheung)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to discuss the pending sale of 40 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Turkey today when he meets President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.

The visit, Starmer’s first to Turkey since taking office last year, comes as the NATO allies deepen defense cooperation, and as Ankara seeks to leverage the advanced jets to bolster its air power and make up ground on regional rivals including Israel.

Last week Reuters reported, citing a source, that Ankara had proposed to its European allies and the US ways it could swiftly procure advanced fighter jets, amid talks to buy 40 Eurofighter Typhoons as well as US F-16s and F-35s.

A person familiar with the matter said that under a deal it is nearing with Britain on the Typhoons, Turkey would promptly receive 12 of them, albeit used, from previous buyers Qatar and Oman to meet its immediate needs, with 28 new jets coming in future years.

Rubio says Israeli strike on Gaza Saturday didn’t violate ceasefire

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Washington does not view a strike that Israel said targeted a member of a Palestinian terror group in Gaza as a violation of a US-backed ceasefire.

Israel said it struck a member of the Islamic Jihad group on Saturday, accusing the individual of planning to attack Israeli troops. Islamic Jihad denied it was planning an attack.

Speaking aboard President Donald Trump’s plane during a trip to Asia, Rubio says, “We don’t view that as a violation of the ceasefire.”

The top US diplomat adds that Israel has not surrendered its right to self-defense as part of the agreement brokered by Washington, Egypt and Qatar.

“They have the right if there’s an imminent threat to Israel, and all the mediators agree with that,” Rubio says.

Far-right MK Zvi Sukkot summoned for police questioning over IDF base break-in

MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism) pictured after breaking into the IDF's Sde Teiman detention center, July 29, 2024. (X screenshot, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

Far-right lawmaker Zvi Sukkot has been summoned for questioning by the Southern District police’s fraud division regarding last year’s break-in to the IDF’s Sde Teiman base, Hebrew outlets report.

The Religious Zionism MK was part of a mob that rioted outside the military base in July 2024, after Military Police sparked outrage on the right by detaining several reservists on suspicion of severely abusing a Palestinian terror detainee held there. Five were indicted earlier this year.

During the break-in, Sukkot was filmed pushing through the gates of the base despite IDF efforts to block his entrance.

Days after the incident, Sukkot doubled down on his actions in the Knesset, insisting that he had been doing his job and is permitted to enter “any place in the State of Israel” for the purpose of oversight.

Likud MK Nissim Vaturi and Otzma Yehudit MKs Amichai Eliyahu stormed the base alongside Sukkot.

In March this year, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Prosecutor Amit Aisman authorized a police probe of politicians who joined the riot.

Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen took part in the demonstration but is not known to have broken into the compound with his fellow lawmakers.

IDF chief convenes conference of operational unit commanders

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir is convening a conference this morning with all of the military’s operational unit commanders ranked lieutenant colonel and above, as well as the top brass.

The IDF says the forum is convening for the first time since Zamir entered the role earlier this year, and comes “against the backdrop of the changing operational situation in the Gaza Strip, two years of fighting, and the process of strengthening the foundations and routines currently being carried out in the IDF.”

During the conference, Defense Minister Israel Katz will speak with the officers, and the commanders will also be presented with “operational and intelligence data and reviews regarding all combat arenas,” by the chiefs of the Operations Directorate, Research Division, Southern Command, and other top officers, the IDF says.

Additionally, a panel will be held with released hostages and bereaved families, the army adds.

Reports: One killed, several wounded in drone strike in eastern Khan Younis

Media outlets in Gaza report that one person has been killed and several others wounded in a drone strike in the area of the village of Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The area is under IDF control according to the ceasefire agreement.

UNIFIL shoots down IDF drone engaged in surveillance over south Lebanon

One of the armoured vehicles of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers patrols in the Buwayda region of Marjayoun in southern Lebanon by the border with Israel on July 4, 2025. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)

An Israeli military drone was shot down by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon during a routine surveillance mission in the Kafr Kila area yesterday.

According to the IDF, the drone had posed no threat to the UNIFIL observers, who opened fire on the device and downed it.

UNIFIL said yesterday that the drone flew over its patrol “in an aggressive manner.” It added that “the peacekeepers applied necessary defensive countermeasures to neutralize the drone.”

After the drone was shot down by UNIFIL, the IDF says it flew another drone over the area, which dropped a grenade, apparently to prevent suspects from approaching the site of the downed drone.

UNIFIL claimed yesterday that the grenade was dropped near its patrol, and that an Israeli tank also opened fire toward its observers. The IDF denies this, saying that no gunfire was directed toward the UNIFIL observers.

The military says that the incident is under further investigation “through the military liaison channel.”

Earlier this month, UNIFIL twice accused the IDF of dropping grenades near its observers, including one incident in which an observer was lightly hurt.

In both of those incidents, the IDF said it had attempted to disperse Hezbollah activity, with no intention to harm the UNIFIL observers.

Israel has long argued that the observer force has failed in its mission, doing little to block Hezbollah from building up its forces near the Israeli border over decades.

Egypt said to send 12 heavy vehicles into Gaza as part of search for hostages’ bodies

Egypt is boosting its recovery and clearing operations in the Gaza Strip, Saudi channel Al Hadath reports, bringing 12 heavy vehicles into the enclave this morning to clear roads and assist in efforts to locate the bodies of hostages.

The outlet says the entry of further Egyptian equipment, including the vehicles, was done with Israeli approval.

Turkish court orders arrest of Istanbul’s jailed mayor for ‘political espionage’

Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu addresses his supporters in front of the Istanbul courthouse, in Istanbul, Turkey, January 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

A Turkish court has issued another formal arrest order for Istanbul’s jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on suspicion of “political espionage,” state-owned Anadolu news agency says, stepping up a long-running opposition crackdown.

Imamoglu, a key rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in jail since March pending trial on separate corruption charges, received a fresh jail sentence in July for insulting and threatening the chief Istanbul prosecutor.

Imamoglu denies all charges against him. He denied the latest charge in court on Sunday and in a statement from prison on Friday.

“Such a slander, lie and conspiracy wouldn’t even cross the devil’s mind!” he said on X. “We are facing a shameful indecency that can’t be described with words.”

Hamas official: We agreed with Fatah that technocratic committee will manage Gaza

Hamas's Khalil al-Hayya during an interview in Istanbul, April 24, 2024. (AP/ Khalil Hamra, File)

Top Hamas official and head of the terror group’s negotiation team, Khalil al-Hayya, said in an interview published by Al Jazeera last night that Hamas agreed with Fatah and the other Palestinian factions in principle to establish a technocratic committee to manage Gaza.

Al-Hayya stressed that an agreement was reached with Fatah on the matter, despite a statement from Fatah last week opposing the declaration by Hamas and other factions, arguing that the PLO was the proper framework for addressing the issue of temporary administration in Gaza.

Al-Hayya added that the committee would be temporary and should lead to Palestinian elections and the formation of a Palestinian national unity government. He did not answer when such a committee might be established, saying he could not estimate the timeline.

He emphasized once again that Hamas would not give up its weapons except with the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Al-Hayya addressed the October 7 massacre, saying: “October 7 is the natural result of 77 years of occupation behavior. Therefore, I say the [attack] — despite all the pain of our people, the martyrs, and the prisoners — has moved the Palestinian issue to a new stage and exposed the true face of the occupation.”

US officer who probed Shireen Abu Akleh’s shooting says he’s certain she was targeted

Shireen Abu Akleh reporting from the West Bank for Al Jazeera in an undated clip (Al Jazeera screenshot)

A retired officer in the US military who investigated the 2022 killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank tells The New York Times he is certain an Israeli soldier intentionally shot her.

The 51-year-old Palestinian-American reporter was killed while covering clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp on May 11, 2022. She was wearing a vest marked “Press” and a helmet at the time.

The IDF initially blamed Palestinian gunmen but following a probe it later acknowledged that she was very likely shot by a soldier who “misidentified” her.

Col. Steve Gabavics says he believes the soldier targeted Abu Akleh and claims the US government softened its own findings despite clear evidence she was deliberately shot. He says that when the American conclusions came out that did not find the shooting intentional, he and other colleagues “were just flabbergasted that this is what they put out.”

Col. Gabavics says radio recordings showed Israeli soldiers knew journalists were present and had faced no gunfire from their direction. He says his investigation showed that from the location of the military vehicle, a sniper would have clearly seen the reporters with their “Press” identification. He also says the precise, sequential shots that killed Abu Akleh and hit those around her did not allow for an accidental shooting.

The report notes that investigators were deeply divided about the findings, and that others supported the overall conclusion that there was no proof the shooting ws deliberate. Gabavics’ superior at the time,  Lieutenant General Michael Fenzel, insists that there was insufficient evidence to prove an intentional attack.

“Ultimately, I had to make judgments based on the full set of facts and information available to me,” Fenzel tells The Times. “I stand by the integrity of our work and remain confident that we reached the right conclusions.”

A documentary aired earlier this year by Zeteo News, a left-wing news outlet founded by Israel critic Mehdi Hassan, identified Cpt. Alon Scagio, then a 20-year-old sharpshooter in the Duvdevan commando unit, as being behind the deadly shooting. Scagio was killed by a roadside bomb in Jenin last year at the age of 22.

Argentina’s Milei hails midterm win as ‘turning point’ for country

Argentina's President Javier Milei celebrates after winning in legislative midterm elections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Argentine President Javier Milei celebrates his stunning victory in midterm elections as a “turning point” for the country and vows to charge ahead with his reform agenda.

“Today we reached a turning point, today begins the construction of a great Argentina,” he tells supporters at a victory party in Buenos Aires after his party won over 40 percent of votes cast for members of Congress.

Trump departs Malaysia for Japan on second leg of Asia tour

US President Donald Trump has left Malaysia for Japan, on the second leg of an Asia tour expected to culminate in a meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping.

Air Force One took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at around 10:10 a.m. local time (4:10 a.m. Israel time) bound for Tokyo.

Trump will meet Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, on Tuesday, before high-stakes talks with Xi later in the week and a possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Milei’s party wins victory in Argentina midterm vote, media reports

The party of Argentina’s President Javier Milei has achieved a victory in Sunday’s midterm election, local media reports, virtually tying with the Peronist opposition in the key Buenos Aires province.

Analysts said ahead of the election that winning more than 35% of the total vote would be positive for Milei’s administration, as that would likely give his party and its allies enough seats in the legislature to prevent opponents from overriding presidential vetoes.

In interview with Israeli outlet, Eric Trump doesn’t rule out future presidential run

Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and son of United States President Donald Trump, speaks during the Bitcoin Asia 2025, at the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre in Hong Kong, on August 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Daniel Ceng)

Eric Trump, the son of US President Donald Trump, tells Israel’s Channel 13 television network that he would not rule out a future presidential run once his father leaves office in 2029.

The younger Trump speaks to the news outlet to promote his new memoir, Under Siege.

Asked whether he would ever consider running for president, Eric Trump says, “You never know.”

“Never, ever, ever say no to anything,” he says. “If you had asked me whether or not I would have been a best-selling author five years ago, I would have laughed at you. So you never know what life is going to bring.

“I think I could do it if I choose to, but we’ll just see what happens,” he adds.