Oct. 28: IDF officer dies of wounds sustained in northern Gaza fighting

Yemen’s Houthis target 3 ships in Red Sea and Arabian Sea

A supporter of Yemen's Houthis holds a sign showing the faces of Palestinian Hamas's slain leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar and Lebanese Hezbollah's slain leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, during an anti-Israel rally in solidarity with Gaza and Lebanon in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on October 25, 2024. (Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP)

Yemen’s Houthis say that they targeted three ships in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, attacks they called part of their efforts to enforce a naval blockade on Israel.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea says in a televised address that the vessels were targeted for attempting to approach ports bound for Israel.

According to the latest data from LSEG, all three targeted vessels were Liberia-registered.

One of the vessels, identified by the Houthis as Motaro, was last seen off Yemen’s western coast in the Red Sea, en route from Egypt’s Suez Canal to Shanghai, according to LSEG data.

Another vessel, the SC Montreal, was reportedly targeted in the Arabian Sea while travelling from Seychelles’ Port Victoria to Salalah, Oman.

The third vessel, the Maersk Kowloon, was tracked by LSEG in the western Indian Ocean, also en route from Salalah.

Earlier today, British maritime security firm Ambrey reported two explosions near a merchant vessel travelling 14 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s Al Dhubab.

Ambrey’s report followed initial statements from the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency, which received information about three explosions related to an incident 25 nautical miles south of Yemen’s port of Mokha, but confirmed that the ship and crew were safe and had continued to their next port of call.

Yemen’s Houthis said they will continue these actions until Israel halts its offensive on Gaza and Lebanon. This poses significant risks to commercial shipping in the region, a critical route for global trade linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

Sally Rooney among 1,000 authors calling to boycott Israeli cultural institutions

Sally Rooney takes part in a panel during the Winter 2020 Television Critics Association Press Tour on January 17, 2020, in Pasadena, California. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Irish author Sally Rooney is among some 1,000 authors and literary professionals who sign a pledge to boycott Israeli cultural institutions, the UK’s Guardian reports.

Joining Rooney are authors Arundhati Roy and Rachel Kushner signing the letter vowing to boycott Israeli cultural institutions that “are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians.”

According to the report, the signatories pledge not to work with Israeli publishers, festivals, literary agencies and publications that are “complicit in violating Palestinian rights,” including “whitewashing and justifying Israel’s occupation, apartheid, or genocide.”

The campaign is organized by the Palestine Festival of Literature.

Rooney is a long-time Israel critic who has refused to allow her Israeli publisher to translate her books into Hebrew.

According to The Jewish Chronicle, UK Lawyers for Israel, a legal advocacy group, says the letter is “plainly discriminatory against Israelis,” citing the UK Equality Act 2010 and other discriminatory legislation from around the world.

“This boycott is plainly discriminatory against Israelis. The authors do not impose similar conditions on publishers, festivals, literary agencies, or publications of any other nationality,” the UKLFI writes in a letter to the Publishers Association.

Campaign to release Palestinian prisoner Barghouti says he was assaulted in jail

A banner with a picture of jailed Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti and some fellow inmates, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 1, 2017. (Nasser Nasser/ AP/ File)

Marwan Barghouti was assaulted by prison guards last month, according to the campaign lobbying for the release of the senior Fatah member jailed by Israel for terror offensives.

A lawyer for Barghouti discovered the attack during a recent visit to the prison, after such visits were barred for three months, the campaign says in a statement.

The assault was carried out in Barghouti’s solitary confinement cell on September 9, and guards used a variety of assault weapons that resulted in “multiple injuries to his body, ribs, and limbs, along with bleeding in his right ear, a wound on his right arm and severe back pain,” the statement says, adding that he has been gradually recovering, even though he hasn’t received any medical treatment.

The campaign says Barghouti was assaulted two other times since being placed in solitary confinement two months after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

Barghouti’s name has come up several times in reports on potential hostage deals. He enjoys support across the Palestinian public and is seen by many as a potential successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Barghouti, 64, is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his part in planning three attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada. He refused to participate in the legal proceeding against him, rejecting the legitimacy of the Israeli court.

The campaign “calls on international organizations and institutions to fulfill their duty in protecting Barghouti and other detainees as mandated by international law,” the statement adds.

Responding to a request for comment on the allegations, the Israel Prisons Service says, “Since October 7, Barghouti has petitioned twice, regarding claims of mistreatment in prison. The court has examined every one of his claims and concluded that there has been no violation of the law by IPS.”

“Nonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities,” IPS adds.

IDF says Lebanon fired 150 rockets at Israel today; sirens sounding in Kiryat Shmona

The Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets launched from Lebanon, near Kiryat Shmona, as seen from the Golan Heights, October 26, 2024. (AP Photo/ Leo Correa)

Some 150 rockets were launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon at northern Israel today, according to an IDF tally.

Fresh sirens are currently sounding in Kiryat Shmona and nearby towns.

Netanyahu denies receiving offer for two-day ceasefire in exchange for 4 hostages

Demonstrators protest for the release of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip and for early elections near the Knesset in Jerusalem, October 28, 2024. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies that Israel received an offer in which Hamas agreed to free four hostages in exchange for a two-day ceasefire.

Multiple reports said Egypt proposed the deal as a way to re-establish trust between Israel and the terror group, given the breakdown in talks.

Netanyahu’s office says that Israel did not receive such a proposal, but if it had, “the prime minister would have accepted it immediately.”

US says aid not reaching Palestinians in northern Gaza’s Jabalia

Displaced families told to evacuate by the Israeli army during an operation in Jabalia in northern Gaza take the main Salah al-Din road towards Gaza City, on October 23, 2024. (AFP)

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says humanitarian assistance is not reaching Palestinian civilians in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Jabalia.

The IDF has been operating in Jabalia and several other surrounding towns in order to thwart what it says has been a resurgence of Hamas activity. The operations have featured mass evacuations of Palestinians and an initial two weeks during which aid was blocked from reaching northern Gaza.

This led to international alarm that Israel was implementing the so-called General’s Plan to lay siege to northern Gaza. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly clarify that this is not Israel’s policy. While the premier assured him that it was not, he declined to make such a public statement, a US official told The Times of Israel.

Miller notes the assurance received by Netanyahu, adding that the US is following the matter closely and has seen some improvements in the amount of aid reaching northern Gaza over the past two weeks.

But Jabalia, in particular, continues to not receive aid, Miller says. “We don’t accept that… and we want to see that change.”

The State Department spokesperson notes that Israel will have to address such issue if it wants to remain in compliance with US law regarding receipt of US offensive weapons.

The issue was raised in a letter that the US sent Israel on October 13, warning that it had 30 days to take a series of steps to improve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

“At this point, they’re not meeting all the conditions of the letter,” Miller says.

One of the issues raised in the letter was then-pending Knesset legislation to bar UNRWA from operating in Israel. While the US cautioned against the move, the bill was passed hours after Miller’s press briefing.

9 arrested as anti-government protesters clash with police outside PM’s residence

Police clash with demonstrators during a protest outside the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem, October 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Hundreds of protesters gather outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem demanding a hostage deal and the toppling of the government, with a number of activists arrested during clashes with police.

Following a larger protest near the Knesset earlier today, a number of activists — including former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon — continued toward the Prime Minister’s Residence on Azza Street in the capital, which has been blocked off by police all day to traffic. There the protesters shouted slogans and held up signs calling for new elections and blaming Netanyahu for the failure to release the hostages.

In a statement, police say that nine protesters have been arrested during clashes with officers by activists who “began to disturb the peace on Azza Street and did not listen to police instructions,” attempting to break through the barriers in the designated protest zone and get closer to Netanyahu’s home. Police say one of the arrestees was carrying containers of paint.

השוטרים ממשיכים להרחיק את המפגינים בדילוגים קטנים במורד רחוב עזה. המפגינים מתיישבים על הריצפה, השוטרים מושכים, גוררים ומניחים 20 מטר משם. המפגינים מתיישבים וחוזר חלילה. pic.twitter.com/ij0wjfkYU8

— نير حسون Nir Hasson ניר חסון (@nirhasson) October 28, 2024

Police bust duo who stole captured Hezbollah rocket launcher truck from IDF base

A captured truck-mounted Hezbollah multiple rocket launcher that was stolen from an IDF base in northern Israel on October 28, 2024. (Israel Police)

Police say they have arrested two men for stealing a captured truck-mounted Hezbollah multiple rocket launcher from an IDF base in northern Israel.

The thieves were stopped near Golani Junction, with the rocket launcher on the back of a tow truck.

Police say they will appear in a Tiberias court tomorrow.

The multiple rocket launcher was captured by IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon and brought back to Israel.

US urges Israel not to implement legislation targeting UNRWA’s operation in Gaza

A Palestinian man transports sacks of humanitarian aid at the distribution center of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 3, 2024. (AFP)

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller urges Israel not to implement legislation that would curtail UNRWA’s operations in Gaza.

Speaking at a press briefing shortly before the Knesset passed the aforementioned legislation, Miller says the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees plays “an irreplaceable role right now in Gaza where they’re on the front lines of getting humanitarian assistance to the people they need it. There’s nobody that can replace them right now in the middle of the crisis.”

“If UNRWA goes away, you will see civilians — including children, including babies — not be able to get access to food and water and medicine that they need to live. We find that unacceptable,” he says.

“We continue to urge the government of Israel to pause the implementation of this legislation. We urge them not to pass it at all, and we will consider next steps based on what happens in the days ahead,” Miller says.

The Biden spokesperson also points to a letter that the administration sent Israel earlier this month warning that passage of the legislation “could have implications under US law” in terms of US security assistance to Israel.

US law bars the transfer of offensive weapons to countries that are blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid, and Miller suggests that barring the main agency responsible for aid delivery from doing its job could lead to curbs on US aid to Israel.

A reporter points out that the Biden administration suspended its funding to UNRWA following revelations that several of its members participated in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and that Congress passed legislation barring the resumption of such funding until at least March of next year.

Miller says the administration thinks the ban should be lifted, adding that UNRWA is engaged in important reforms.

He adds that UNRWA has launched investigations of its own accord into the Israeli allegations, but that Israel has yet to provide the agency with the evidence necessary to properly probe the matter, and the State Department spokesperson urges Israel to do so.

“In a number of important ways, the relationship between Israel and the United Nations is not one that is productive,” Miller says, adding that the US has urged Israel to work more cooperatively with the UN.

For its part, Jerusalem has long accused the UN of institutional bias against Israel and points to the overwhelmingly disproportionate attention and criticism that the Jewish state receives at the international body.

Knesset passes 2nd bill aimed at curtailing UNRWA activities in West Bank and Gaza

A Palestinian woman walks past a damaged wall bearing the UNRWA logo at a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 28, 2024. (Eyad Baba/AFP)

Defying US, EU and UN criticism, lawmakers vote 87-9 to approve a bill aimed at severely curtailing the activities of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, in Gaza and the West Bank.

UNRWA — short for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — provides education, health care, and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

The bill, sponsored by Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky and Likud lawmaker Dan Illouz, among others, would ban state authorities from having any contact with UNRWA.

Without coordination with Israel, it would be almost impossible, in turn, for UNRWA to work in Gaza or the West Bank, since Jerusalem would no longer be issuing entrance permits to those territories or allowing coordination with the IDF. Israel also currently controls access to Gaza from Egypt, with the IDF deployed along the Gaza-Egypt Philadelphi Corridor.

Israel alleges that more than 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terror, and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that passing the bills would be a “catastrophe,” while European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell recently warned that it “would have disastrous consequences.”

The bill’s passage into law in its second and third readings comes shortly on the heels of the Knesset’s approval of a related piece of legislation preventing the UN agency from operating in Israeli territory by revoking a 1967 exchange of notes providing the basis for its activities.

Knesset votes to bar UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory

Activists protest against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), outside its offices in Jerusalem, March 27, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Despite widespread international opposition, lawmakers vote 92 to 10 to approve a bill that effectively prevents UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, from operating in Israeli territory by revoking a 1967 exchange of notes providing the basis for its activities.

Israel alleges that more than 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terror, and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror.

In February, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools.

The measure is one of a pair of bills advanced by lawmakers to curtail UNRWA’s activities. The other, sponsored by Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky and Likud lawmaker Dan Illouz, would ban state authorities from having any contact with UNRWA, a move that would effectively severely curtail its activities in Gaza and the West Bank.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that passing the bills would be a “catastrophe,” while European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell recently warned that it “would have disastrous consequences.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have also expressed concern over the bills, stating that the “enactment of such restrictions would devastate the Gaza humanitarian response,” as well as the provision of “vital” services in East Jerusalem.

Speaking with The Times of Israel last week, Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, the bill’s sponsor, said that “there’s no reason whatsoever that UNRWA is functioning in Israel. With all due respect, we’re a sovereign country, and we can deal with our citizens.”

Responding to Blinken’s concerns, Bismuth insisted that Israel “would never embarrass America” and that “there will not be a vacuum.”

Jerusalem, he argued, has been providing unprecedented quantities of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and “if we do that in Gaza, after October 7, do you expect us not to give services” to the residents of East Jerusalem?

“On the contrary, not only will [Israel provide] services, it will give better services” than UNRWA, he claimed. “And I think that if the secretary of state would have been an MK in the Likud on the seventh of October, he would have done this thing” as well.

Arguing against the restrictions on UNRWA during a debate prior to this evening’s vote, Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi claimed that the bill was “fascist” legislation.

Poll shows Netanyahu preferred to Bennett as Likud rises in light of war successes

Left to right: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, July 26, 2024. (GPO); Opposition Leader Yair Lapid at the Knesset, Jerusalem, July 22, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); head of the National Unity party Benny Gantz at a press conference at the Knesset on July 24, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90); former prime minister Naftali Bennett speaks at the annual Cyber Week, at Tel Aviv University, June 25, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

A poll published by Channel 12 news indicates that the popularity of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party has risen in light of recent war successes, with the survey now showing that he is preferred to former prime minister Naftali Bennett.

Despite the rise, the poll says Netanyahu would not be able to form a government with his current coalition.

According to the poll, were an election to be held today, Likud would win 26 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Benny Gantz’s National Unity would get 22 seats, while Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid would get 13.

Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu would get 13, the ultra-Orthodox Shas would win 10, as would The Democrats — the unified left-wing Labor and Meretz under Yair Golan.

The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism wins eight, as does far-right Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit.

The two Arab majority parties Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am both win five.

That gives the current coalition 53 seats, with parties opposed to Netanyahu garnering 63. Hadash-Ta’al has the other five.

Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism, Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope, and the Arab Balad parties all fail to cross the election threshold.

The survey also asks who is most suited to be prime minister, although Israelis do not directly elect their leaders.

Netanyahu is favored 41-24% over Lapid, 39-27 over Gantz, and beats Bennett by 38% to 35%.

The poll finds that if Bennett were to return to politics, his party would win 21 seats — largely at the expense of Gantz and Lapid, whose parties would drop to 13 and 10 seats each. Likud would get 24 in such a scenario.

The poll also finds that Israelis are largely supportive of Israel’s recent military strikes against Iran and the offensive in Lebanon.

The poll questioned 508 Israelis and has a margin of error of 4.4%.

IDF officer succumbs to wounds sustained in Gaza fighting

Maj. Guy Yaacov Nezri, 25, who was killed fighting in the Gaza Strip. (Courtesy)

An IDF officer wounded during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip earlier this month succumbed to his wounds, the military announces.

Maj. Guy Yaacov Nezri, 25, a company commander in the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion, from Atlit, was seriously wounded on October 19, during fighting in Jabalia.

His death brings Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 363.

Nezri was wounded in the same incident in which Staff Sgt. Ofir Berkovich and Sgt. Elishai Young were killed.

The soldiers were hit by anti-tank fire, according to an IDF probe.

US still waiting to see if Hamas serious about negotiations after Sinwar killing

Houthi supporters raise a poster of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who killed by Israeli troops in Gaza, during an anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen, October 18, 2024. (AP Photo/ Osamah Abdulrahman)

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says the Biden administration is still waiting to see whether Hamas is prepared to credibly engage in hostage negotiations, following Israel’s killing of its leader Yahya Sinwar earlier this month.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with regional stakeholders while in the region last week, in order to determine whether there are new formulations of the deal that has been on the table for months that might lead to a breakthrough. That effort is ongoing, Miller says during a press briefing hours after top US and Israeli mediators met in Doha.

Hamas has yet to appoint a new leader to replace Sinwar and is currently being run by a council. “At some point, they will go through a process to select a new leader, and I think the results over the next few weeks will determine whether there has been a change in their posture,” Miller says.

The State Department spokesperson says Sinwar was the main obstacle in talks before his death, refusing to budge on the proposal that Hamas submitted in July. That offer contained a number of new conditions and was rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who decided to add his own new requirements for a deal, including that Israel be able to maintain its force presence in the Philadelphi and Netzarim Corridors. Talks have been at an impasse ever since.

Miller notes that Israel has achieved a number of its war aims, namely the significant degradation of Hamas’s military capabilities and the killing of its top leaders, appearing to express his hope that Jerusalem will be more willing to agree to a deal to end the war.

Asked about the recently reported Egyptian proposal for Hamas to free four Israeli hostages in exchange for a two-day ceasefire and the release of some Palestinian security prisoners, Miller declines to comment, but says that the US is generally supportive of humanitarian pauses.

Pressed on whether Qatar should be using its role as a host to Hamas leaders in order to pressure the terror group in the talks, Miller strongly hails Doha’s efforts in the negotiations.

“What we have seen from the government of Qatar since the immediate aftermath of October 7 is an intense focus on doing everything it can to reach an agreement that would get the hostages home and ultimately end the war, and they continue to stay incredibly focused on that,” Miller says.

He notes Blinken’s warning to countries in the Mideast that “there can be no more business as usual with Hamas” following October 7. However, Miller stresses that the office that Qatar hosts for Hamas leaders is an important one that should continue to exist because it is needed in order to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, who include American citizens.

Poll shows Israelis massively favor Trump over Harris in US election

This combination of images shows US Republican presidential nominee former president Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at separate campaign events on October 23, 2024, in Duluth, Georgia, and Aston, Pennsylvania, respectively. (AP Photo/ Alex Brandon, left, Matt Rourke, File)

A poll published by Channel 12 TV shows that Israelis massively favor Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris, in the upcoming US presidential elections.

Asked who they prefer to be the next US president, 66 percent chose the former president, while only 17% say they want to see the US vice president win the election. A further 17% said they did not know.

The channel noted that US President Joe Biden was briefly favored by the Israeli public last year, as he threw his full support behind Israel after the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre.

However, that good feeling appears to have evaporated, as the US has sought to restrain Israel over the past year.

Trump pushed through a series of pro-Israel moves during his time in power: moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, and taking a tougher stance against Iran.

Top member of Israeli hostage negotiating team quits

Brig. Gen. Oren Setter speaks during a Knesset committee meeting on October 20, 2022. (Screenshot: Knesset Channel)

A top member of Israel’s negotiating team for the release of the hostages held by Hamas announced his sudden resignation today.

The news of Brig. Gen. Oren Setter’s resignation was first reported by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster and later confirmed by the IDF.

Setter served as a deputy to Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, the IDF’s point man in the negotiations for a hostage-ceasefire deal.

Kan suggests that Setter quit the negotiation team due to the impasse in the talks.

In response to the report, the IDF says that Setter “worked tirelessly to advance the efforts to return the hostages,” since returning to the army from vacation ahead of his slated retirement last year.

“The officer will return to assist the hostage headquarters in the future as well, as needed,” the IDF adds.

US says Israeli strike was proportionate, Iran should not escalate further

Armed Israeli Air Force planes depart from an unknown location to attack Iran, October 26, 2024. (Israeli Army via AP)

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says Israel’s retaliatory strike against Iran over the weekend was “proportionate” and should not lead to further escalation by Iran.

“Israel had a right to respond to that (October 1 Iran) attack. We supported their right to do so. They responded on Friday night. We believe this should be the end of the matter,” Miller says during a press briefing.

“If Iran does respond in any way, we will continue to defend Israel,” Miller warns.

The State Department spokesperson says Israel heeded US President Joe Biden’s advice against targeting Iranian nuclear and oil sites. “The response from Israel was limited to military sites, which was entirely appropriate given the nature of the attack by Iran.”

In recording, Netanyahu pessimistic on hostage deal, Israel looking for partial agreement

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a memorial ceremony for people who were murdered during the October 7th massacre, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, October 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells members of his Likud party that he is pessimistic about reaching a hostage release and ceasefire deal with Hamas, saying that the successors to slain terror group leader Yahya Sinwar will want to show that they are even more hardline than he was.

A recording of Netanyahu’s comments to a closed-door meeting of the Likud faction at the Knesset are broadcast by Channel 12.

“We are ‘working all the time to bring [the hostages] back, we are trying at the moment to find partial solutions, but it’s not clear if there will be any new opportunities due to the killing of Sinwar. At the moment, all those who want to succeed Sinwar will be more Sinwar than Sinwar,” Netanyahu says.

“We will return those we can, when we can,” he says.

“Hamas is making demands that we can’t agree to, ending the war. Maybe those conditions will be removed, if they remove them, it won’t be because they want to, but because they need a pause, they need breathing space,” he says.

“You ask, what do you give them if you don’t give them the end of the war, the answer is we could give them days of relief…. You give them the simple option of coming out of the tunnels. That’s one of the possibilities we are talking about and maybe we will be able to bring people back,” he says.

Netanyahu downplays a report of an Egyptian offer for a small deal to restore trust on both sides.

“There was an offer that was published by the media that Egypt offered two days of ceasefire in exchange for four hostages, I would take that immediately. It doesn’t exist,” he says.

“We are definitely looking here for partial deals. As long as they are in accord with our national interest, we want to push forward on them as soon as possible,” Netanyahu says.

Likud MK Gotliv physically restrained after Knesset outburst at Arab MK

MK Tally Gotliv speaks in the Knesset in Jerusalem, February 19, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90/File)

Likud MK Tally Gotliv is physically restrained by Knesset ushers after approaching the podium during a speech by Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi during a debate in the Knesset plenum.

The firebrand MK approaches Tibi, as he rails against “fascist” legislation which would essentially bar UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, from operating in Israel, and severely curtail its activities in Gaza and the West Bank.

“The Palestinian people will be freed from the occupation,” Tibi screams, as rightwing MKs call for him to leave the Knesset.

During the confrontation, ushers work to keep National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Hadash-Ta’al leader MK Ayman Odeh separate, as they yell at each other.

Gotliv was removed from the plenum earlier this evening, after yelling at Opposition Leader Yair Lapid when he was addressing lawmakers.

Maj. Gen. Aviad Dagan takes over IDF Computer Service Directorate

Maj. Gen. Aviad Dagan enters the role of head of the Computer Service Directorate, during a ceremony at the IDF HQ in Tel Aviv, October 28, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Maj. Gen. Aviad Dagan has taken over the IDF’s Computer Service Directorate, replacing Maj. Gen. Eran Niv, who is retiring from the IDF after a 35-year military career.

Dagan, who began his military service in the Israeli Air Force, previously headed the directorate’s digital transformation division, and before that, he was the commander of the Hatzerim Airbase.

During the ongoing war, Dagan has served as a navigator in the IAF’s 201st Squadron. He reportedly participated in the strikes on Iran early Saturday.

Lebanon says number killed in Israel-Hezbollah conflict surpasses 2,700 in a year

This picture shows the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Hezbollah sites in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on October 28, 2024. (Kawnat HAJU / AFP)

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported Monday that 38 people were killed and 124 wounded over the past 24 hours, bringing the toll from a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel to 2,710 killed.

The figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but say that of the dead, 532 are women and and 157 are children.

The IDF estimates that more than 2,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups have also been reported killed in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel during the fighting, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September.

Israel aims to stop the rocket fire from Lebanon that began on October 8, 2023, and allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel.

Halevi visits massive Hezbollah tunnel, says world must take note of terror group’s intent

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi (center) is seen in a Hezbollah tunnel system in a village in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo published on October 28, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi visited Hezbollah’s massive underground base in southern Lebanon earlier this week, before it was blown up, where he issued comments directed at the United Nations and other countries.

“We have been saying for years that Hezbollah is preparing the border area for war. For the countries of the world who were skeptical, for the UN, for UNIFIL who were above here, this evidence is very important to understand why we are destroying what is underground and above ground, and why we need to make sure that these things don’t return,” Halevi says in a video statement published today by the IDF.

“We caught it in time, before it was too late, and these infrastructures must not” be rebuilt here, he adds.

PM denies report Israel, US discussing limiting Lebanon operation in exchange for IDF future freedom of action

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a ceremony for a memorial to those killed in the October 2023 Hamas attacks, at the Knesset, October 28, 2024. (Debbie Hill/Pool/AFP); Hezbollah's deputy chief Naim Qassem delivering a speech from an undisclosed location on October 15, 2024. (AFP photo/HO/Al-Manar)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denies a Channel 12 report that Israel and the US are in discussions over a plan that would see the IDF refrain from expanding its ground operation in southern Lebanon, while the White House would support Israel’s freedom of action in Lebanon in the future to prevent Hezbollah from rearming

Talks on the matter have taken place between Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, according to the report.

However, the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel that the report is “a total fiction.”

An Israeli source told The Times of Israel yesterday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is eager to wrap up fighting in Lebanon with a diplomatic arrangement that locks in Israel’s demands that Hezbollah remove itself from southern Lebanon.

According to Channel 12, the US is looking for a 60-day ceasefire, during which time the details of the new arrangements in southern Lebanon will be hammered out, including Israel’s freedom to strike Hezbollah when it tries to restore its military infrastructure in the south and smuggle in weapons.

South Africa files its ‘evidence’ that Israel committing genocide in Gaza with ICJ

South Africa Ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela addresses the International Court of Justice in oral arguments asking the court to order Israel to halt its military campaign against Hamas, May 16, 2024. (International Court of Justice)

South Africa files with the International Court of Justice its full submission, or Memorial, alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza during its current military operation against Hamas, and claims that Israel has failed to abide by numerous clauses of the genocide convention and its international obligations.

Although Pretoria has already filed several motions requesting interim measures against Israel with the ICJ — the UN’s top court, which adjudicates disputes between nations — it was obligated to file its comprehensive arguments for a final ruling today.

The South African Department of International Relations & Cooperation says that the 750-page document it filed, together with 4,000 pages of “exhibits and annexes,” provides “evidence” that Israel has violated the genocide convention by “promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza,” killing them, depriving them of access to humanitarian assistance, and “causing conditions of life which are aimed at their physical destruction.”

It also alleges that Israel has had genocidal intent in its actions in Gaza, a key component of a genocide charge, and has also failed to prevent incitement to genocide, and failed to punish those who have allegedly incited to genocide and committed acts of genocide.

“The international community cannot stand idly by while innocent civilians – including women, children, hospital workers, humanitarian aid workers, and journalists are killed for simply being. That is a world we cannot accept,” the Department of International Relations & Cooperation says, in a statement to the press.

As per court procedures, South Africa’s submission will not be made public.

Israel has strongly denied that it has committed any genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, asserting in oral hearings and written submissions to the ICJ that statements by Israeli elected officials cited by South Africa as evidence of genocidal intent were either taken out of context, mendaciously interpreted, or not reflective of government policy.

Jerusalem argued in court that civilian deaths were not deliberate and that they were largely caused by Hamas’s tactic of embedding its military personnel and infrastructure throughout the civilian infrastructure of Gaza, including in hospitals, mosques, schools, civilian homes, UN facilities, and in its vast tunnel network running under Gazan cities.

Israel’s legal team has also pointed to the large amounts of aid whose entry into Gaza that Israel has facilitated into the territory, as evidence that it has sought to ensure Gazan civilians’ access to necessary food and humanitarian supplies.

Israel launched the war in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

Israel has until July 2025 to file its response. The Foreign Affairs Ministry does not immediately respond to a request for comment on South Africa’s submission.

Iran executes Iranian-German national after terrorism conviction

Iran executes Iranian-German national Jamshid Sharmahd after he was convicted of carrying out terrorist attacks, Iranian state media says.

Sharmahd, who also holds US residency, was sentenced to death in 2023 on charges of “corruption on earth.”

He was accused by Iran of heading a pro-monarchist group accused of a deadly 2008 bombing, and planning other attacks in the country.

Sharmahd’s arrest was announced in 2020 in an intelligence ministry statement that described him as “the ringleader of the terrorist Tondar group, who directed armed and terrorist acts in Iran from America.”

Based in Los Angeles, the little-known Kingdom Assembly of Iran, or Tondar, says it seeks to restore the Iranian monarchy that was overthrown by the 1979 Islamic revolution. It runs pro-Iranian opposition radio and television stations abroad.

Some deeply upsetting news: #Iran regime media is reporting that Jamshid Sharmahd, a German citizen who has lived in the U.S. for years, has been executed by the Islamic Republic. This sets a chilling precedent that the Islamic Republic can kidnap a Western national and then… pic.twitter.com/Xo48pOALIF

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) October 28, 2024

Gallant: We need more soldiers; it’s a security issue, not a political one

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) speaks to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (L) at the opening of the Knesset winter session in Jerusalem on October 28, 2024. (Photo by DEBBIE HILL / POOL / AFP)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says the question of draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox soldiers is not a political issue, but a security one.

Asked about the law that is being pushed through by the government he is a part of, Gallant says he is opposed to it.

“It is not a political issue. It is a security and moral issue,” he says.

“Since I opposed the first reading [of the bill,] the situation has worsened. We have more open fronts, more injured soldiers and to my sorrow more fallen soldiers,” Gallant says. “We need more soldiers, we need more fighters.”

Gallant: Iran strikes were most significant Air Force operation since Six Day War, changed ‘balance of power’

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (center) speaks with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi (left) and IAF chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar (right), following the Israeli strike on Iran, early October 26, 2024. (Shachar Yurman/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Iran’s air defenses and missile production capabilities have been weakened by Israel’s strikes, calling it “a change in the balance of power.”

The remarks are made shortly after the IDF’s strikes on Iran late Friday, but only released by Gallant’s office now.

“The response seems very precise, high-quality, and deadly for what we wanted to hit and I think the IDF has not done an operation like this, the Air Force has not done an operation like this since Operation Focus,” Gallant says to top IAF officials and IDF chief of staff, referring to the opening strikes of the 1967 Six Day War.

“This is a proof of ability… A very accurate hit on the radars and the air defense systems, which actually creates a big disadvantage for the enemy when we want to attack later,” he says.

Gallant says that the strikes also damaged Iran’s missile production capabilities and now its stockpiles are limited until manufacturing can resume.

He says the damage to the air defenses and missile production caused “a change in the balance of power.”

“[Israel] remains with its power, [Iran] is weakened. Both in [our] attacking ability and in its defensive ability and in its production ability,” Gallant adds.

IDF shoots down drone from Lebanon

A drone heading toward Israel from Lebanon was shot down by air defenses a short while ago, the IDF says.

The drone was intercepted before crossing into Israeli airspace, according to the military.

Lapid tells Netanyahu to ‘take responsibility’ for his failures, says no PM has weakened Israel more

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid speaks at a meeting of his Yesh Atid party in the Knesset, October 28, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Addressing lawmakers at the opening of the Knesset winter legislative session, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid launches into a full-throated attack on the government, arguing that “there has been no prime minister who weakened the State of Israel more than” Benjamin Netanyahu.

Railing against the coalition from the plenum rostrum, Lapid argues that while Israel has had successes in taking out Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, Netanyahu and his government need to pull back on their “hubris” and arrogant talk.

“If you want credit for the successes, take responsibility for the failures as well,” he says. “If you want credit for the death of Nasrallah, take responsibility for the death of [hostage] Carmel Gat. If you want credit for the death of Sinwar, take responsibility for those murdered in [Kibbutz] Nir Oz. If you want credit for the assassination of Haniyeh, take responsibility for Nova,” the music festival where hundreds were brutally killed on October 7.

“The one who led us to the greatest disaster in our history cannot claim to be the right man to get us out of it. You are not,” he tells Netanyahu.

“There is a prime minister who is only focused on himself, in front of a wounded and bleeding nation, inciting and then whining that others are inciting against him, portraying himself as a victim who is being attacked and then bragging that he is a ‘strong prime minister from the right,'” Lapid continues. “Mr. Netanyahu, there was no prime minister who weakened the State of Israel more than you.”

If Netanyahu were really a strong prime minister he would stand up to the ultra-Orthodox parties in his coalition and tell them while Israel is at war and soldiers are dying every day, there will be no “evasion law,” says Lapid — referring to a bill widely exempting Haredi yeshiva students from military service that is currently being debated in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

“If you cared about the country, you would say to [Haredi party leaders] Goldknopf and Deri, ‘Your threats do not work on me; there is no contradiction between studying Torah and defending the homeland. It is over, now,'” Lapid goes on. “A truly Zionist government would not even think of passing the disgrace called ‘the evasion law.'”

“This government has been in office for two years, since the end of December 2022. Is there one positive change that this government is able to name? One good thing you did for the citizens of Israel?” he asks.

“Have more missiles ever hit Israel? Have more civilians and soldiers ever died in Israel? Have more residents ever been evacuated from their homes for a longer period of time? Did you ever think, in your worst nightmares, that hundreds of Israeli citizens would be abandoned to a terrorist organization, and die in the tunnels?”

Turning to members of Netanyahu’s cabinet, Lapid argues that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ruined the economy. And he slams National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for “gloating at the scenes of terrorist attacks instead of preventing them,” adding that the far-right politician is the “only person in the Israeli Knesset who was convicted of supporting terrorism.”

“The statistics don’t lie. Since he became the minister, there have been more attacks, more murders, more crime, more terrorism. A hundred in words, zero in deeds,” he declares.

Ben Gvir yells at Lapid and a heated exchange ensues between the two. Likud MK Tally Gotliv also begins screaming at Lapid and is ejected from the plenum chamber.

Ben Gvir heckles Lapid as he addresses the opening of the Knesset winter legislative session.

Lapid hits back: “Minister Ben Gvir, the statistics don’t lie. Since you became the minister, there are more terror attacks, more murders, more terror.” pic.twitter.com/GZCw8DA0fg

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) October 28, 2024

The exchange comes only minutes after President Herzog directed an impassioned plea for decorum and respect toward lawmakers, arguing that Israel’s enemies “have worked hard to inflame internal conflict” and that Iran and its proxies “place at the heart of their campaign against Israel the destruction of Israeli trust.”

Netanyahu says Israel’s Iran strike destroyed ‘industrial factories of death,’ vows to prevent Iran nukes, plans further Arab peace deals

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks on the opening day of the winter session at the Knesset in Jerusalem, October 28, 2024. (Maayan Toaf / GPO)

Israel hit key Iranian sites hard during its airstrikes on Saturday, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a fiery address at the opening of the Knesset winter legislative session.

“We severely damaged Iran’s defense systems and its ability to export missiles,” says Netanyahu. “These were not lathes we were attacking. These are industrial factories of death and we struck them hard.”

Netanyahu obliquely pushes back on reports that the White House convinced him to scale back Israel’s response to Iran’s October 1 ballistic missile attack, emphasizing that “we make decisions ourselves according to our interests and considerations.”

The prime minister says Israel’s strategy against Iran and its proxies is clear: “Our long-term strategy is to dismantle the axis of evil, to cut off its arms in the south and in the north, to exact a heavy price from Iran and its proxies and to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons.”

Turning to the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon, Netanyahu says that the “day after” the war, “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza and Hezbollah will not sit on our northern border.”

He also pledges that he will continue making peace with Arab countries, without mentioning Saudi Arabia by name.

Netanyahu promises to bring all the hostages home, and to achieve the war aims he laid out at the beginning of the war. “Total victory is an orderly and consistent work plan that we fulfill step by step,” he insists.

Israel, he says, is the one obstacle keeping Iran from controlling the Middle East and threatening the rest of the world. “The fanatical axis of evil led by Iran threatens to destroy our country and trap other countries in its net, and to threaten the West first of all. Iran is working for a stockpile of nuclear bombs and will be able to threaten the entire world whenever it wants.”

According to Iran’s thinking, he argues, “if Israel falls, the entire Middle East will fall into its hands, but we will not fall. We will win and the whole world will be a better place.”

Netanyahu does not mention the contentious issue of the ongoing exemption from military service of most ultra-Orthodox men.

Knesset security removes a protester yelling from the gallery during Netanyahu’s speech.

Mossad chief returns to Israel after talks in Qatar on ‘unified proposal’ for hostage deal, says PM’s office

Mossad chief David Barnea attends a state ceremony marking the anniversary of the Hamas October 7 attack, at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on October 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg FLASH90)

Mossad chief David Barnea returns from his 24-hour trip to Qatar to discuss proposals for a hostage deal, says the Prime Minister’s Office.

Barnea, CIA chief Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani discussed “a new unified proposal that combines previous proposals and also takes into account the main issues and recent developments in the region” during meetings in Doha, according to the PMO.

“Recent developments” usually refers to the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza earlier this month.

“In the coming days, the discussions between the mediators and with Hamas will continue to examine the feasibility of talks and continuing to try to promote a deal,” adds the PMO.

There is an Egyptian proposal to release four hostages during a two-day ceasefire on the table, as well as the Qatari-American multi-stage proposal that would ultimately see all hostages released and the war ended.

At memorial cornerstone laying, PM says ‘central component’ of victory is returning hostages

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes part in a cornerstone laying ceremony for a Knesset memorial for the victims of October 7, on October 28, 2024. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)

Speaking at the laying of the cornerstone for the Knesset memorial for the victims of October 7 and those who fell in the subsequent war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that bringing the hostages home is at the core of victory in the fight against Hamas.

“We do not give up on the mission of victory, and a central component of the mission of victory is the recovery of all our hostages,” he says, “all of them, the living and the dead, to return them home to Israel.”

Netanyahu also lauds Israeli democracy: “The vibrant Israeli democracy is a beacon of freedom, of progress, of human rights, a beacon in a stormy region, large parts of which are characterized by tyranny, ignorance, and oppression.”

AG says proposed law for government to take over TV ratings violates privacy, freedom of press

Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara attends a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7. Behind her stands Minister Orit Strock, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on October 27, 2024. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara issues a position paper asserting that legislation being advanced by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi that would have a government agency collect TV viewing data and force broadcasters to publish such figures would violate key constitutional principles, including the right to privacy and freedom of the press.

The legislation, approved in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation for passage to the Knesset today, would see the communications minister establish “a framework” for measuring TV broadcast viewing figures and force Israel’s various broadcasters to report this data to the agency, including viewers’ age, gender, societal background, and place of residence.

It would also force the broadcasters to display its viewing figures at peak hours.

Baharav-Miara writes that the legislation would create “political interference” in the broadcast market, and that the idea of the government systematically collecting viewing data without viewers’ authorization, including key details of their identity as provided for in the bill, would severely harm the right to privacy.

“The mere coercive collection of information from the general public, without express consent being given by each person about whom information is collected, and the systematic transfer of it to government authorities — the broadcasting regulators and the Communications Ministry — amounts to a serious violation of the constitutional right to privacy,” writes the attorney general.

She adds that forcibly collecting this data would harm the right to freedom of expression and freedom of the press, asserting that “exposing the content a viewer watches to an external, political governmental body” would likely have a “chilling effect” on the content that viewers consume.

Karhi says in response that Baharav-Miara’s position paper was “extraneous” since it would undergo “the necessary adjustments” so that it does “not harm the privacy of users,” although he did not detail what adjustments would be made.

He adds that since the legislation is being advanced as a private members bill “her opinion is as important as garlic peel,” adding that the law would be advanced “in accordance with principles that we determine.”

Private members bills, unlike government bills, do not need approval from the Attorney General’s Office to advance through the legislative process.

At opening of Knesset session, Herzog says Israel must remain united to defy its enemies

President Isaac Herzog at a memorial ceremony for people who were murdered during the October 7 massacre, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, October 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Addressing the opening of the Knesset winter legislative session, President Isaac Herzog argues that Israel’s enemies “have worked hard to inflame internal conflict” and that Iran and its proxies “place at the heart of their campaign against Israel the destruction of Israeli trust.”

Addressing lawmakers in the Knesset plenum, Herzog argues that “understand our enemy’s ultimate strategy [is] to challenge the enduring spirit of Israel and the Jewish people and to destroy the State of Israel and Israeli society through external and internal attacks” and “erode Israelis’ trust in themselves and in their state.”

“When that trust erodes, when the foundations are shaken, the nation is at risk,” he says, arguing that it is up to members of the Knesset “to restore and rebuild that trust” and that such plans should serve as “a wake-up call to Israeli leadership and all of society.”

“Restoring trust cannot happen if the tone and hostility here are not moderated. Reckless, inflammatory, hateful statements — whether in public spaces or within these walls — must cease,” Herzog insists.

As part of this effort to rebuild trust, the president calls on lawmakers to work to bring the hostages home, stating that Israel has a “unique window of opportunity” to do so and “must make every effort and use every tool to bring everyone back as swiftly as possible.”

“Failure to bring them home will leave us with an open wound that will scar our society and nation for generations,” he says.

Herzog also calls “to expand the circle of shared responsibility, an immense privilege — to defend our shared home” and “initiate a deep, wide-ranging investigation into the October 7 failure and disaster, reliably, rigorously, and independently, to derive lessons, take responsibility, and build trust between citizens and the state.”

“I repeat my call for an inquiry through a national investigative commission with a professional and diverse composition that commands broad public trust,” he says.

“Fourthly, a crucial step is the return of Israelis who were displaced from their homes — in security and peace, he says, urging Israeli leaders “to sit down, talk, and make every effort to avoid unilateral moves.”

Official: Israel, mediators have received no Hamas response to hostage deal proposals

Mossad chief David Barnea (R) and Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, attend a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on October 27, 2024. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)

Israel has received no official response from Hamas on the various proposals for a hostage deal under discussion, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel, nor have the mediators.

Israel is “checking all possibilities” for a deal, the official continues, and is willing to negotiate over any proposal.

In Doha, says the official, the Israeli team led by Mossad chief David Barnea discussed the Egyptian proposal for a small deal to restore trust between the sides, and the multi-stage deal being pushed by Qatar and the US.

Still, in any deal, says the official, Hamas will demand an end to the war in Gaza as a condition. “We are not willing to do that,” the official declares.

Israel still doesn’t have a clear picture of who is making decisions on hostage talks in Hamas after leader Yahya Sinwar was killed. “They still haven’t had their primaries,” says the official, “and Hamas abroad is in chaos.”

Today’s meeting in Doha between Barnea, CIA chief Bill Burns, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani ended in the early afternoon, Ynet reports. The meetings, which began last night, are trying to combine the modest Egyptian proposal and the comprehensive Qatari-American one.

The next stage, says Ynet, is to bring Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad into talks, then move toward negotiations between working groups, where Hamas will join indirectly.

Hamas will demand the body of Sinwar in any deal, reports Ynet.

The ultimate goal is to hammer out one comprehensive proposal, and to fold a diplomatic solution to the fighting in Lebanon into it, according to the report.

Yesterday, an Israeli source told The Times of Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to end the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon once a diplomatic arrangement is reached that guarantees Israel’s war aims are achieved.

NYT: Israel has supplanted the US as the major driving force in the Middle East

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

A New York Times analysis claims that Israel has in recent weeks supplanted the United States as the major driving force of policy in the Middle East.

In an article entitled “Israel Calls the Shots in the Mideast as U.S. Plays a Lesser Role,” analyst Mark Lander argues that as Israel has forged ahead with strikes on Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza, US President Joe Biden finds his role “severely limited.”

“As the dust settles from Israel’s latest military strikes against Iran, analysts and former diplomats say one thing is clear: Israel, for better or worse, is dictating events in the Middle East. The United States has been relegated to the role of wing man, as its ally wages war on multiple fronts,” the article says.

The article agues that rather than engage in grand peacemaking efforts like his predecessors, Biden in largely involved in minor cleanup operations, although it notes that Israel still heeds some US warnings, like not striking Iran’s nuclear program.

The article quotes analysts as saying that the developments could embolden US foes like Russia and China.

It also notes that the US is not just hampered by Israeli actions, but by the political uncertainty in the US ahead of the next month’s presidential elections.

Gantz slams government for playing politics at a time of war, urges IDF to draft eligible ultra-Orthodox youth

National Unity chairman Benny Gantz leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, October 28, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

National Unity chairman Benny Gantz slams the government for taking a “business as usual” attitude, arguing that “this is not the time for a sectoral budget” nor “political deals at the expense of the country’s future.”

Addressing reporters ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Gantz proposes three new laws he would like to see passed in the new legislative session: a Basic Law addressing the value of equality, “if only to express solidarity with our Druze brothers”; a bill establishing a state commission of inquiry into October 7; and a military service outline that will “impose personal sanctions on anyone who is not included in the exemption quotas and does not serve.”

The government has called up reservists again and again and this “must not be taken for granted, as a routine that will last forever,” he says, calling on the ultra-Orthodox not to make political deals “on the backs of those who serve.”

Gantz also calls on IDF chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to send out enlistment orders to every member of this year’s ultra-Orthodox draft cohort “immediately,” calling it his “legal and moral duty as long as the government does not enact another law” regulating exemptions.

And while fighting in Gaza will continue for years, it is important to come to an agreement on a hostage deal instead of making excuses, he insists.

Gantz also slams New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar, who recently joined the coalition as a minister without portfolio, saying that “political considerations are his leading considerations” and questioning how he will vote on the enlistment issue.

In response, Sa’ar tweets that the current conscription law, which both oppose, was initially Gantz’s initiative during the previous Knesset.

Emhoff to deliver ‘closing argument’ on ‘Trump’s antisemitism’ — Harris campaign

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff waves as he arrives on stage to speak in support of his wife, Democratic presidential nominee US Vice President Kamala Harris, at a Get Out the Early Vote rally in Hallandale Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

The Harris campaign says second gentleman Doug Emhoff will give a speech in Pittsburgh later today “on the threat posed to Jewish people by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s antisemitism and desire for unchecked power.”

The speech will come one day after the sixth anniversary of the deadliest massacre of Jewish Americans, at the Tree of Life Synagogue.

“He will call out Donald Trump’s history of praising Hitler and scapegoating Jewish Americans to their faces,” the campaign says, describing the speech as a “closing argument to Jewish voters” ahead of next week’s election.

Sa’ar says he supports legislation to deport relatives of terrorists

Minister Gideon Sa'ar speaks at a meeting of his New Hope Faction in the Knesset in Jerusalem on October 28, 2024 (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)

Gideon Sa’ar, who recently joined the coalition as a minister without portfolio, announces his support for controversial legislation that would deport terrorists’ relatives who are Israeli citizens, stating that “when a family has knowledge of the intention to carry out an attack and they do nothing, there is full moral justification to treat them in the most severe manner.”

“Israel is a democracy — but a democracy that faces security challenges that no other democratic country faces, and this obligates all of us,” he states at his New Hope party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

“New and effective measures must be taken to deal with domestic terrorism,” he says, arguing that “the very concept of citizenship is not consistent with either an act of treason against the country, or with terrorism directed against its citizens.”

Turning to the issue of the ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill, Sa’ar states that he will “only support a bill that makes significant changes to the current situation and provides for the needs of the IDF.”

Lapid slams coalition for promoting ultra-Orthodox draft exemption law while soldiers being held hostage

Opposition leader Yair Lapid speaks to reporters in the Knesset in Jerusalem on October 28, 2024 (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams the government for “promoting an evasion law” while IDF servicewomen tasked with monitoring the Gaza border are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip.

“With one hand [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu sends soldiers who have to fight and survive on the battlefield for the defense of the homeland, with the other hand he bribes his coalition partners, in order to survive politically,” he tells reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

“There has never been [and] never will be such a disgrace in the history of Israel. Such blatant discrimination between blood and blood. This disgrace must be stopped. We will fight this disgraceful law in the name of the fighters, in the name of the reservists, in the name of the wounded and dead, in the name of those who love this country,” he states.

Ultra-Orthodox party submits new bill on day care subsidies in effort to bypass clash on draft law, budget

MK Yisrael Eichler attends a United Torah Judaism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on October 28, 2024.(Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

In a statement, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party announces that MK Yisrael Eichler has submitted a bill on the matter of daycare subsidies for ultra-Orthodox children, which are currently linked to military draft exemptions.

The bill stipulates that only a mother’s employment status will be taken into consideration for the purpose of examining the state’s participation in covering the cost of daycare.

The party demands that the coalition advance the bill through all three readings necessary to become law as quickly as possible.

The announcement comes after Channel 12 reports that the leading rabbis who set policy for UTJ have instructed the party leadership to drop an ultimatum demanding that the government postpone work on the budget until it passes a bill exempting Haredi yeshiva students from military service. Instead, they are to focus on the issue of daycare subsidies.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has ordered the payments halted, arguing that the state is legally barred from funding daycare subsidies for the children of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who are obligated to perform military service but are not doing so.

Responding to the announcement, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid states that the point of Eichler’s bill is to allow Haredim to evade service in the IDF.

Smotrich rails against ultra-Orthodox draft exemption threat, cries over toll of war on his community

Minister of Finance and Head of the Religious Zionist Party Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, October 28, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich slams the ultra-Orthodox for attempting to hold up the 2025 state budget over the issue of draft exemptions for Haredi youth and breaks down crying over the members of his own national-religious community who have fallen in the war, during his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

Stating that he is “proud to be part of this community,” Smotrich declares that national-religious Jews are “paying a price disproportionate to its size in the population” and lauds those who fell in defense of the state as “righteous” and “scholars.”

“I strongly reject irresponsible statements by coalition officials who threaten to oppose the state budget until the conscription law is approved,” Smotrich continues, responding to reports that the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party had demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postpone a cabinet meeting dealing with the budget in order to first address the passage of a bill exempting Haredi yeshiva students from military service.

“These statements harm the State of Israel and the IDF’s ability to win the war, and harm the Israeli economy,” Smotrich says, pledging that he “will not agree to any political rejection or any ultimatum in this matter.”

Anybody opposing the budget “will pay a price and bear full responsibility and this will have implications.”

Later, UTJ indicated it would withdraw the threat.

Arguing that “Israel is at war and is desperate for soldiers and manpower,” Smotrich calls on his fellow ministers to “take responsibility” and “listen to the cry” of a national-religious community “kneeling under the burden” of military service.

The Haredi leadership, he says, must “act in a real way to help the war effort and recruit many thousands of members of the ultra-Orthodox sector to the IDF and the security forces.”

“The IDF needs you, we need you, the people of Israel need you,” he says.

Asked about his view on the enlistment law currently being debated in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Smotrich replies that “there will not be a law if there is not a significant change” in it because “there is an existential and security need here.”

Following his remarks, Smotrich is challenged by a bereaved father who demands that the minister work to pass a law providing stipends to the siblings of fallen soldiers. The man yells that the current government has done nothing to help, stating that “a bereaved child cannot get a psychologist and the parents can’t leave their home.”

“I won’t paint my hands red” but will keep pushing on the issue, he states, referring to protesters calling for a hostage deal down the hall from the Religious Zionism faction room.

After the meeting, Smotrich sits down with the man, while MK Moshe Solomon hugs him.

Smotrich breaks down crying in his faction meeting, says national religious Jews disproportionately falling in the war pic.twitter.com/dE5SrUMKAE

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) October 28, 2024

IDF says it hit Hezbollah weapons depots, observation posts in Tyre

Smoke billows from the site of Israeli airstrikes on a neighborhood in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on October 28, 2024. (KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)

After issuing evacuation warnings, the IDF says it carried out a series of airstrikes against Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon’s coastal city of Tyre.

In a statement, the IDF says the Hezbollah targets included weapons depots, buildings used by the terror group, and observation posts belonging to various Hezbollah units.

“The Hezbollah terror organization advanced terror activities against Israeli citizens and IDF troops from these compounds,” the military says.

The IDF says Tyre is a major Hezbollah stronghold, especially for the terror group’s Aziz regional unit, from which it plans attacks on Israel.

At Knesset memorial for Oct. 7 victims, Herzog says state obligated to bring hostages home

President Isaac Herzog at a memorial for those killed on October 7 and in the subsequent war in Jerusalem, October 28, 2024 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Speaking at the laying of the cornerstone for the Knesset memorial to those killed on October 7 and in the subsequent war, President Isaac Herzog calls for the “urgent and immediate” return” of the hostages in Gaza, calling it a “binding order of the state toward its citizens.”

“We listen to the families and we do not forget Maimonides’ command that there is no greater mitzvah than the mitzvah of redeeming captives,” he continues.

He also says that Israel’s legislative branch must always work toward one mission — “the Jewish and democratic state of Israel.”

IDF says 5 rockets fired at Haifa from Lebanon; no injuries reported

Five rockets were launched from Lebanon at the Haifa area a short while ago, according to the IDF.

The military says some of the rockets were intercepted and the rest struck open areas.

There are no reports of injuries.

Report: Rabbis tell Haredi party to withdraw demand to prioritize draft exemption over budget

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf attends a United Torah Judaism faction meeting at the Knesset on July 10, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Only hours after demanding that the government postpone a cabinet meeting dealing with the budget in order to first address the passage of a bill exempting Haredi yeshiva students from military service, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party appears to have reversed course, withdrawing its ultimatum in the face of opposition by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to Channel 12, the leading rabbis who set policy for UTJ have instructed the party leadership to instead focus, in the meantime, on the issue of daycare subsidies for ultra-Orthodox children.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has ordered the payments halted, arguing that the state is legally barred from funding daycare subsidies for the children of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who are obligated to perform military service but are not doing so.

This morning, UTJ chairman Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf proposed that only selected parts of the 2025 state budget be advanced before the Haredi draft exemption issue is settled, prompting Netanyahu and Finance Minister Smotrich to declare that the budget must be passed on time.

Earlier this month, Goldknopf threatened to bolt the coalition if the exemption bill, which is currently stuck in committee, isn’t passed before the 2025 state budget comes up for approval.

Failure to pass the budget by March 31 will result in the dissolution of the government and early elections.

Rocket sirens sound in Haifa, surrounding communities

Sirens sound in Haifa and the surrounding towns, warning of incoming rocket fire.

Lebanese media reports Israeli strikes in Tyre after IDF called on civilians to evacuate

Smoke rises from buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

Lebanese official media says Israel struck Tyre after the military issued an evacuation call for swaths of the ancient coastal city, already hit earlier in the day.

“Enemy aircraft launched their first strike after the Israeli warning for the city of Tyre and targeted a residential apartment,” the National News Agency says, subsequently reporting “a series of strikes” on the city.

Earlier, the IDF called on civilians to leave large parts of the city ahead of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah.

IDF says barrage of 30 rockets fired from Lebanon at Western Galilee; no injuries

A barrage of some 30 rockets was fired from Lebanon at the Western Galilee a short while ago.

The IDF says some of the rockets were intercepted, and several impacts were also identified.

There are no reports of injuries.

Founder of far-right English Defence League jailed for 18 months for contempt of court

Supporters of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson carry a banner in Parliament Square after a Uniting the Kingdom march through central London on October 26, 2024. (HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)

A judge sentences the founder of the far-right English Defence League to a year and a half in prison for contempt of court for violating an order barring him from repeating libelous allegations against a Syrian refugee.

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, admits in Woolwich Crown Court that he violated a 2021 court injunction on several occasions while giving interviews broadcast on YouTube, and in a documentary he presented during a rally in London’s Trafalgar Square in July that was also posted on his X account.

Robinson had been ordered not to repeat false allegations that a former schoolboy, Jamal Hijazi, had bullied and threatened other students. Hijazi had successfully sued him for libel and was awarded 100,000 British pounds ($130,000) in damages.

The Solicitor General finds Robinson violated the injunction on 10 occasions since 2023, including by airing a documentary, titled “Silenced,” he made on the case that has been viewed more than 44 million times.

In recent months, Jewish community leaders have asked Robinson to stay away from demonstrations against antisemitism in London.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Rocket sirens sound in Nahariya, surrounding communities

Sirens warn of a rocket attack on coastal Nahariya and a number of nearby towns.

Report: Regev complains about demonstrations outside her home: ‘F**k the protesters’

Transportation Minister Miri Regev attends a ceremony marking the one-year anniversary of the October 7 massacre, at the Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, October 7, 2024 (Flash90)

Transportation Minister Miri Regev complained about anti-government protesters who rally outside her house early in the morning, the Kan public broadcaster reports, using a vulgarity that can be roughly translated as “fuck the protesters.”

“They protest outside my house from 6 a.m.” she tells Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi at a faction meeting of the Likud party. “Fuck the protesters.”

“Enough Miri, everything is being recorded,” unnamed ministers reportedly say to Regev.

“I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. The most important thing is that we made it through the ceremonies,” Regev reportedly responds.

Yesterday, Israel held a second national day of mourning for October 7 and the subsequent war, with ceremonies organized by Regev. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to honor the civilians killed was interrupted by hecklers.

Several Gaza border communities have accused the government of using the official ceremonies on October 7 and yesterday to avoid responsibility for the role it played in failing to prevent Hamas terror assault, and for failing the communities in the aftermath of the massacre.

Many of them announced that they would not participate in Regev’s ceremonies. She dismissed the criticism as “noise.”

IDF releases headcam footage from soldier during killing of Hamas leader Sinwar

The house where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by troops, in southern Gaza's Rafah, October 20, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

The IDF releases new footage from the headcam of a soldier of the Bislamach Brigade, during the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar earlier this month in southern Gaza’s Rafah.

The troops had engaged and killed four gunmen in Rafaj’s Tel Sultan neighborhood, one of whom was later revealed to be Sinwar.

The IDF also publishes an audio recording of the radio communications between commanders during the incident.

“Another dirty (terrorist) we eliminated him, we identified him with a blanket on him, he’s currently eliminated, over,” one officer is heard saying.

“There might be more walking around between you, between the debris, but amazing work of the company, the battalion, and the sharpshooter,” another officer says.

The building that Sinwar was in was also shelled by tanks. It remains unclear if the marksman or the tank shelling dealt the killing blow.

EU foreign policy chief calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Lebanon

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell speaks during a press conference in Dubai on September 17, 2024. (Giuseppe Cacape/AFP)

The EU foreign policy chief renews calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in Lebanon and condemns what he calls Israel’s “unacceptable attacks” on UN peacekeepers in its war against the Hezbollah terror group.

UNIFIL has reported several injuries and damage to its facilities since Israel launched its ground offensive in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah at the end of September after a year of rocket fire by the terror group.

The IDF has said it does not target the peacekeeping troops, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Hezbollah is using the force as “human shields” and called on it to withdraw.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tells a forum in Barcelona that the bloc calls “for an immediate ceasefire across the blue lines” UNIFIL monitors, and for relevant UN Security Council resolutions to be respected.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 requires that the Lebanese Armed Forces be the only force with arms in southern Lebanon.

The resolution has gone largely unenforced since it was passed in 2006, allowing Hezbollah to build up a formidable arms cache and defensive capabilities, with neither UNIFIL peacekeepers nor the LAF willing to challenge the Iran-backed terror group.

Protesters dressed as Naama Levy block Knesset hallway in call for hostage deal

Women dressed as hostage Naama Levy call for a hostage deal at the Knesset Jerusalem, October 28, 2024 (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)

Protesters calling for a hostage deal block a hallway in the Knesset outside the various parties’ faction rooms, preventing the passage of lawmakers and staffers.

The women are dressed as hostage Naama Levy, whose abduction from Nahal Oz with bloodstained sweatpants was seen in a harrowing video on October 7.

They had previously attended a meeting of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality where they had been invited to stand behind chairwoman National Unity MK Pnina Tamano-Shatta.

The protest follows another demonstration at the parliament earlier this morning, in which a group zip-tied themselves to chairs in the Knesset cafe.

Ben Gvir on Haredi draft: ‘I don’t think coercion will help’

Head of the Otzma Yehudit party and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on October 28, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Amid growing public outcry over draft exemptions for Haredi men, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir says that while he believes in the importance of military service — and notes that he is taking steps to encourage the enlistment of Haredim into the police — “I don’t think that compulsion will help in this.”

Ben Gvir tells reporters that the new Knesset session is a “great opportunity” to pass laws to enable Israel to fight against terror and bring security to Israel.

Speaking ahead of his far-right Otzma Yehudit party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Ben Gvir endorses bills being advanced by members of his party, including legislation that seeks to execute terrorists, deport their family members, and fire teachers who praise terrorism.

Turning to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who yesterday reportedly sent a harshly worded missive to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that Israel’s war efforts had become aimless, Ben Gvir says that he does not “see eye to eye” with the Likud minister.

“He isn’t [advancing] an agenda that a right-wing member of this government needs to,” Ben Gvir says, calling for “complete victory.”

Rocket sirens sound in Kiryat Shmona

Sirens sound in Kiryat Shmona, warning of incoming rocket fire.

The military later says it was a false alarm.

Netanyahu, Smotrich tell ministers state budget ‘must be passed on time’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attend a Knesset vote on the state budget, February 7, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

As passage of the 2025 state budget is in danger of being delayed over an intra-coalition fight around Haredi military enlistment, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich both insist in today’s cabinet meeting that “the state budget must be passed on time, in accordance with the principles of the budget that have already been agreed upon,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Netanyahu asks ministers to sit for negotiations with the Finance Ministry ahead of Thursday’s budget debate.

According to the PMO, Smotrich tells ministers that “fiscal responsibility” is needed “to allow the economy to break back onto a path of growth at the end of the war.”

Netanyahu and Smotrich tell the cabinet they are expected to understand what is at stake and what is demanded of them at this time, says Netanyahu’s office.

The premier and finance minister have said they intend to pass the budget by the end of the year. Failure to pass the budget by March 31 will result in the dissolution of the government and early elections.

Goldknopf demands PM deal with Haredi draft exemption before budget; Smotrich: Not going to happen

(L) United Torah Judaism leader Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf in Tel Aviv on February 4, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90) and (R) Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in Jerusalem, on June 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, reportedly demands that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postpone a cabinet meeting dealing with the budget in order to first deal with an enlistment bill currently being debated in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Goldknopf is said to propose that only selected parts of the 2025 state budget be advanced before the Haredi draft exemption issue is settled. But according to Hebrew media reports, Netanyahu tells the cabinet that there will be no movement on that bill before the budget.

Posting an article about Goldknopf’s demand on X, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich writes simply “it won’t happen.”

Earlier this month, Goldknopf threatened to bolt the coalition if a bill exempting Haredi yeshiva students from military service isn’t passed before the 2025 state budget comes up for approval.

United Torah Judaism’s exit from the coalition would not topple the government, but would leave it extremely vulnerable with a bare majority of 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Meanwhile, failure to pass a budget by March would trigger new elections.

Speaking in the Knesset this morning, MK Moshe Saada said that he and fellow Likud MK Dan Illouz would vote against the draft exemption measure while Foreign Affairs and Defense Chairman Yuli Edelstein told the Yedioth Ahronoth daily that he was “not changing my position.”

Edelstein stated that the Haredim would have to compromise and that “the main mass of the ultra-Orthodox population that does not study 24/7 must contribute.”

“The law must be a real law that fully meets the needs of the IDF,” he insisted, adding that he was “determined to pass only a real law.”

Meanwhile, Smotrich is losing support from his base for his silence on the issue of draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men.

Liberman: Government putting burden on reservists while working to pass Haredi ‘evasion law’

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on October 28, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Citing the “high price” that Israeli soldiers have been paying in the war against Hamas and Hezbollah, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman tells lawmakers at his party’s faction meeting that the government is placing an increasing burden on those already serving while working to pass an “evasion law” to exempt ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from military service.

“We demand to have one clear law: one nation, one draft,” he states, noting the IDF’s ongoing shortage of troops.

“This is the worst government in the history of Israel,” he adds.

Turning to a bill sponsored by Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky that would ban state authorities from having any contact with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, Liberman calls on lawmakers to resist international pressure and support the bill.

Earlier today, Malinovsky wrote to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana demanding that he resist such pressure and “sever all ties with the agency that conspired with the terrorist organization Hamas, [which] murdered, raped and kidnapped our citizens.”

“It is the moral duty of the Knesset of Israel to disavow and end UNRA’s activities in the region in memory of the victims of the massacre and their families,” she stated.

IDF issues evacuation warning to parts of Lebanon’s Tyre ahead of strikes on Hezbollah targets

The IDF issues an urgent evacuation warning to residents of large areas of the city of Tyre in Lebanon, ahead of airstrikes against Hezbollah sites.

“Hezbollah’s activity forces the IDF to act in the area you are in. The IDF does not want to harm you,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman says on X, alongside a map of the areas that will be targeted.

“You must immediately move away from the area marked in red and head north to the Awali River. Anyone who is near Hezbollah personnel, facilities and weapons of Hezbollah is putting their life in danger!” Adraee adds.

#عاجل 🔴 بيان عاجل لسكان منطقة صور في لبنان وتحديدًا إلى المتواجدين في المباني بين الشوارع: دكتور علي الخليل، حيرام، محمد الزيات، نبيه بري

⭕️أنشطة حزب الله تجبر جيش الدفاع على العمل ضده وبقوة حيث لا ننوي المساس بكم

⭕️عليكم الابتعاد فوراً الى خارج المنطقة المحددة بالأحمر والتوجه… pic.twitter.com/6rc2GpVtQQ

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 28, 2024

IDF ends raid against Hamas at Gaza hospital; suspect says terror group used ambulances to move operatives

Israeli troops operate at Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout image published by the IDF on October 28, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Israeli troops have wrapped up a raid in Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya, where the IDF says dozens of terror operatives had been holed up.

The military alleges that Hamas was using the medical center for command and control.

The IDF releases interrogation footage of a suspect who says that Hamas was using ambulances at the hospital to move operatives around.

Before raiding the site, the IDF says it enabled the evacuation of patients and staff, while also ensuring that the medical center’s emergency systems continued to function, including by activating an additional generator there for patients on life support.

Hundreds of civilians using the hospital as a shelter were also evacuated from the area.

The IDF says some 40 terror operatives were detained during the evacuation stages, and later the Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 commando unit raided the hospital and detained dozens more, including some who participated in the October 7 onslaught.

The detained operatives were taken to Israel for further questioning.

Inside the hospital and surrounding area, the IDF says troops located weapons, cash, and documents belonging to Hamas.

Some 20 gunmen were also killed during fighting in the area surrounding the hospital, according to the IDF.

The IDF assesses that hundreds more Hamas operatives still remain in the Jabaliya area, and therefore the operation launched there three weeks ago will continue.

The military says that some 50,000 Palestinians have been evacuated from Jabaliya amid the ongoing offensive there, as it detained and killed hundreds of terror operatives in the area.

The raid on Jabaliya began with the 162nd Division’s 401st and 460th armored brigades encircling the area’s historically named refugee camp, following intelligence that Hamas’s remaining forces in the northern Gaza Strip were largely concentrated there and working to regroup.

The IDF’s Givati Brigade later joined in the operation, and yesterday, the 460th Brigade withdrew from the area. The operation, however, is still ongoing.

The IDF says the Jabaliya Refugee Camp turned into Hamas’s main command and control area in northern Gaza, with terror operatives hiding among civilians at shelters for displaced Palestinians.

After encircling the camp, the army worked to clear civilians out and detain among them members of Hamas and other terror groups. The goal was to not allow Hamas operatives to flee the area, but rather surrender or fight, IDF sources say.

Within 24 hours of the operation’s launch, the civilian population began to slowly evacuate.

IDF sources say that Hamas was surprised by the military’s quick push into the area, and hundreds of its members, including top commanders, were trapped.

Still, the evacuation of the civilian population took longer than the army initially expected, the sources said, as Hamas was allegedly holding them back. According to the sources, Hamas was physically preventing civilians from leaving shelters, including by shooting at the legs of some trying to flee.

Eventually, troops reached the shelters and called upon those inside to come out, which the sources say “broke the fear barrier” that the Palestinian civilians had.

Over 50,000 Palestinians passed through the army’s checkpoints, with those suspected of being terror operatives — mainly fighting-age males — being detained for questioning. In all, the IDF says that some 600 it identified as terror operatives were arrested at its checkpoints during the evacuation of the civilian population from Jabaliya.

The evacuated civilians have headed south, mostly to Gaza City — not south of the Netzarim Corridor where the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone is located.

Ten Israeli soldiers, including the commander of the 401st Brigade, have been killed during the operation.

Weapons found by troops at Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout image published by the IDF on October 28, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Anti-government protesters stage brief sit-in at Knesset, zip-tying themselves to chairs

An anti-government protester is removed from the Knesset by security guards on October 28, 2024 (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)

Several anti-government demonstrators stage a brief sit-in in the Knesset cafe, donning masks of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government ministers and zip-tying themselves to chairs.

The demonstrators, whose masks feature the faces of ministers Aryeh Deri and Itamar Ben Gvir, among others, are protesting the government and calling for a hostage deal.

The protesters scuffle with Knesset guards as they are removed while a large crowd gathers around them. The guards yell at bystanders to stop filming as a resisting protester falls to the floor, dragging two security officers down with him.

One woman raises her hands above her head as she is led off, showing off a pair of the gloves stained red to represent blood.

An anti-government protester at the Knesset on October 28, 2024 (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)

Fighter jets in near-crash on air base runway after control tower issues wrong takeoff approval

An Israeli Air Force fighter jet almost crashed into another plane on a runway at an airbase on Saturday night, in a safety incident that is under investigation.

During the incident, an F-16 was taking off from the Ramat David Airbase in northern Israel for a strike in Lebanon, when it identified another fighter jet crossing the runway. The F-16 maneuvered out of the way moments before hitting the other plane, leaked footage shows.

The IDF in response to a query says that the crash almost happened “due to the issuance of wrong takeoff approval by the control tower, while another plane was on the runway.”

“The crews responded quickly and professionally and a serious safety incident was avoided,” the IDF says, adding that the incident will be investigated further.

There were no damage or injuries.

An Israeli Air Force fighter jet almost crashed into another plane on the runway on Saturday night, in a safety incident that is under investigation.

During the incident, an F-16 was taking off from the Ramat David Airbase in northern Israel for a strike in Lebanon, when it… pic.twitter.com/I4UKYt3wpg

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

Hostage’s sister warns lawmakers a captive could come home from Gaza with a baby

Yarden Gonen, sister of hostage Romi, attends a meeting of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, with Mandy Damari, mother of hostage Emily, to her left, in Jerusalem on October 28, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality meets on the plight and sexual abuse of female hostages held in Gaza, with the sister of one warning that there’s a chance a captive will come home with a baby.

What the committee is doing is “simply not enough,” says Yarden Gonen, the sister of hostage Romi Gonen, adding that she feels “like I’m being laughed at.”

Giving a graphic description of the sexual torture suffered by women on October 7 and by hostages during their captivity, Gonen states that “if someone comes back with a baby, then I will come back here and run after each one of you here, because this could have been avoided.”

Simona Steinbrecher, mother of Doron Steinbrecher, 30, calls on lawmakers to “bring me back my Doron alive, and not in a body bag.”

A hostage deal is “complete victory,” she states, riffing on a phrase used often by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refer to the attainment of military objectives.

Speaking in English, Mandy Damari, the mother of British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari, tells the committee that she cannot go to any more memorials and calls the struggle for the hostages a “fight for decency, morality and justice against a fight for control and money power and ego.”

However, “I just don’t know how we can fight against it much longer. My strength is waning very quickly, and it defies all belief that they’re still there,” she adds.

A number of women  attended the panel dressed as hostage Naama Levy, whose abduction from Nahal Oz with bloodstained sweatpants was seen in a harrowing video on October 7.

Only opposition lawmakers are in attendance.

Emily Damari, the mother of Mandy Damari, tells lawmakers that she cannot go to any more memorials and calls the struggle for the hostages a “fight for decency, morality and justice against a fight for control and money power and ego. pic.twitter.com/xZkZbhfnVy

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) October 28, 2024

Iran will use ‘all available tools’ to respond to Israeli strikes on military targets, Tehran says

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei holds a weekly press conference in Tehran on October 28, 2024 (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Tehran will “use all available tools” to respond to Israel’s weekend strikes on military targets in Iran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei says.

Speaking at a weekly televised news conference, Baghaei says: “[Iran] will use all available tools to deliver a definite and effective response to the Zionist regime.”

Baghaei doesn’t give any further details on the possible nature of the response.

Israeli jets conducted strikes on military targets throughout Iran in the early hours of Saturday morning in retaliation for Tehran’s ballistic missile barrage on the country earlier this month.

The widespread strikes reportedly crippled Iran’s ability to produce long-range ballistic missiles, and rendered crucial energy facilities vulnerable to future attacks by destroying air defense batteries protecting them.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that the air attack was “precise and powerful” and achieved all its goals, while Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that Tehran officials would determine how best to respond to the strikes.

Women dressed as hostage Naama Levy highlight plight of female captives at Knesset panel: ‘We won’t give up’

Women dressed as hostage Naama Levy highlight the abuse suffered by those held captive in Gaza, at a meeting of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, Jerusalem, October 28, 2024 (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)

A group of barefoot women, their hands zip-tied behind their backs, enter the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality and stand behind chairwoman MK Pnina Tamano-Shata as Shiri Elbag, the mother of hostage Liri Albag, describes the conditions under which the hostages are being held.

The women are dressed to resemble Naama Levy, who served alongside Shiri Albag and whose abduction with bloodstained sweatpants was seen in a harrowing video on October 7.

A guard rushes to stop the women until Tamano-Shata, a lawmaker from the opposition National Unity party, explains that they are invited.

Shiri Albag notes the paucity of MKs and ministers during the hearing. Tamano-Shata replies that it is easy for people to close their eyes but “we won’t give up.”

Hostages like Liri, a 19-year-old female soldier who was abducted from her base at Nahal Oz on the morning of October 7, “deserve to live normal lives,” Albag states.

As Albag speaks, the women parade through the committee room, their faces and bodies painted with marks resembling bloody wounds, before returning to stand behind Tamano-Shata.

Women dressed as hostage Naama Levy highlight the abuse suffered by those held captive in Gaza as they stand behind MK Pnina Tamano-Shata at a meeting of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, Jerusalem, October 28, 2024 (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)

Laser interception system Iron Beam expected to be operational in a year, Defense Ministry says

The 'Iron Beam' laser-based air defense system is seen intercepting a target over southern Israel, March 2022. (Defense Ministry)

Israel’s in-development high-powered laser interception system, dubbed Iron Beam, is expected to be operational in a year, the director general of the Defense Ministry says.

“The first capability of the ground laser system… is expected to enter operational service in a year from today,” Eyal Zamir says during the signing of a NIS 2 billion ($535 million) contract with manufacturers Rafael and Elbit.

The Iron Beam is designed to work in tandem with systems like Iron Dome and shoot down smaller projectiles.

The agreement between the ministry and Rafael and Elbit will “significantly increase” the rate of production “in order to supply the laser systems on time and at a high rate,” a statement says.

Ministers told they cannot bring advisers to cabinet meeting at secure location – report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on June 23, 2024 (Screen grab/GPO)

The Ynet news site says ministerial advisers will not be permitted to attend the cabinet meeting today, which is being held at a new location amid security concerns.

According to the outlet, ministers were surprised to receive a message this morning informing them that the location for the cabinet meeting has moved and that the new site does not have parking available or a waiting area for aides.

Ministers were told that if they arrive armed, they will not be permitted to enter the building with a weapon, the outlet also reports.

Ynet says that despite the security threats, the meeting is not being held at the newly built underground bunker outside Jerusalem.

The decision to not hold the cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem or IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv was reportedly made in response to the Hezbollah drone attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea earlier this month.

Cabinet won’t meet at Prime Minister’s Office or IDF HQ amid ‘security concerns’

Prime Minister Benjmain Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Oct. 7, 2024 (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Due to “security concerns,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s cabinet will not meet in the Prime Minister’s Office or IDF headquarters, Hebrew-language media reports.

The Kan public broadcaster says the new protocol is already in effect for today.

The Ynet news site reports that the meetings are being moved due to attempted attacks on politicians and symbolic government sites, and will no longer be held in a fixed location, while the Walla news site says the decision was made in response to the drone attack on Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea earlier this month.

Iraq complains to UN over Israel’s use of its airspace to strike Iran

Screen grab of a video on social media that appears to show missile part that fell in Iraq amid Israeli strikes on Iran, October 26, 2024 (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Iraq has submitted a complaint to the United Nations over Israel’s use of its airspace to strike Iran on Saturday, an Iraqi government spokesperson says.

A statement from government spokesman Bassim Alawadi says the letter condemns “the Zionist entity’s blatant violation of Iraq’s airspace and sovereignty by using Iraqi airspace to carry out an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on October 26.”

Images and videos on social media from Iraq appeared to show booster sections of missiles used by Israel. The fragments of the missiles appeared to have fallen in an area north of Baghdad.

Israeli jets conducted strikes on military targets throughout Iran in retaliation for Tehran’s ballistic missile barrage on the country earlier this month.

חימושים של חיל האוויר הישראלי שהתגלו בעירק. אף אות בעברית. pic.twitter.com/eVtdPQpG3C

— Or Heller אור הלר (@OrHeller) October 26, 2024

דיווח בעיראק: שרידי טיל אותרו מצפון לבגדד | תיעוד pic.twitter.com/MgCh7MmbWD

— ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) October 26, 2024

Iran’s IRGC chief warns Israel of ‘bitter consequences’ for strikes on military sites

Head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Hossein Salami arrives for the inauguration of the new Iranian president at the parliament in Tehran, on July 30, 2024 (AFP)

The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warns Israel will face “bitter consequences” after its attack on Iranian military sites, Iranian media says.

Guards chief Hossein Salami, quoted by Tasnim news agency, says Israel “failed to achieve its ominous goals” with its air raids on Saturday, calling it a sign of “miscalculation and helplessness” and warning that “its bitter consequences will be unimaginable” for Israel as it battles Tehran-backed terror groups in Gaza and Lebanon.

IDF: Troops carrying out targeted raids in central Gaza, battling terror operatives in Rafah and Jabaliya

Troops operating in the Gaza Strip in an undated photo released by the military for publication on October 28, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israel Defense Forces says troops are carrying out targeted raids in central Gaza and have killed a number of fighters with terror groups.

The army says troops have additionally battled terror operatives in the Rafah and Jabaliya areas.

“The forces continue their efforts to evacuate civilians to safe areas, despite Hamas’ efforts to prevent civilians from doing so,” the IDF says in a statement.

IDF says troops killed dozens of Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon in past day

Troops operating in south Lebanon in an undated photo released by the military for publication on October 28, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

In a morning update on recent fighting, the IDF says troops have continued to strike infrastructures and confiscate weapons belonging to the Hezbollah terror group in south Lebanon.

The military says dozens of airstrikes have hit terror cells and infrastructure, including a launcher used to fire rockets at Israel.

The IDF says dozens of Hezbollah operatives have been killed in fighting in the past 24 hours.

כוחות אוגדה 91 ממשיכים לתקוף תשתיות טרור ולהחרים אמצעי לחימה של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון. במהלך היממה האחרונה, חטיבת האש של האוגדה זיהתה חוליית מחבלים בסמוך למבנה צבאי של חיזבאללה שהיוותה איום על כוחותינו, בסגירת מעגל מהירה ובשיתוף עם חיל האוויר החוליה חוסלה>> pic.twitter.com/aQ0DT2XldL

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 28, 2024

Sirens in Rosh Hanikra, surrounding communities warn of suspected drone attack

Rosh Hanikra and surrounding communities appear to be coming under drone attack, with sirens sounding in multiple towns.

Rocket sirens in Kiryat Shmona, nearby communities

Sirens sound in Kiryat Shmona and surrounding towns, warning of incoming rocket fire.

Rocket sirens sound in Metula for third time in less than an hour

Rocket sirens are sounding in Metula for the third time in under 40 minutes as the northern town apparently comes under sustained attack.

There are no immediate reports of damage or injuries in either of the earlier incidents.

Sirens in Metula sound for second time in minutes

Rocket sirens are sounding in the northern town of Metula for the second time in under 15 minutes.

There are no immediate reports of impacts in either incident.

The Israel Defense Forces has not commented.

Rocket sirens sound in Metula

Rocket sirens are sounding in the far northern town of Metula, near the border with Lebanon.

There are no immediate reports of impacts.

A rocket attack on Kiryat Shmona earlier Monday morning is claimed by Hezbollah.

Pro-Iran group in Iraq claims to fire drone at northern Israel

A pro-Iran militia in Iraq claims it has fired a drone at northern Israel.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq says in a missive sent overnight that it is targeting a military site near Kiray Shmona.

The group also releases a video showing a drone being launched.

There have been no drone alerts in northern Israel or elsewhere in the country since the claimed launch.

Hamas official reported to indicate group open to Gaza deal

Member of the political bureau of Hamas Husam Badran, center, speaks at the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza city on August 3, 2018. (AFP/ MAHMUD HAMS)

A top Hamas official appears to indicate that the Gazan terror group is open to a deal with Israel as talks aimed at ending the war and freeing hostages restart in Doha.

Husam Badran, a senior member of Hamas’s Qatar-based political bureau, says in a statement carried by the Pro-Hamas Shehab news agency that an agreement is possible.

“Our demands are clear and known, and a deal can be reached, provided that Netanyahu remains committed to what was already agreed upon,” Badran says.

It is unclear if Badran’s comments are in reaction to an Egyptian proposal for a two-day ceasefire in Gaza to exchange four Israeli hostages for some Palestinian prisoners, followed by 10 days of talks.

Saudi news station Al Arabiya reported earlier that Hamas was willing to accept the Egyptian proposal as long as it is incorporated into its July 2 demands for a hostage deal. It also seeks guarantees that Israel will commit to the Egyptian proposal being part of a comprehensive deal.

Hamas sources also told Saudi channel Asharq News that the group preferred a comprehensive deal rather than a piecemeal one.

Oil prices drop as Israeli strikes in Iran calm markets

Oil prices are tumbling with the opening of trading in Asia as dealers breathe a sigh of relief that Israel’s Saturday strikes on military targets in Iran spared the country’s oil installations.

The price of North Sea Brent for delivery in December fell by 4.02 percent, to $72.99, while West Texas Intermediate plunges by 4.17% to $68.79.

Oil prices rose sharply following Iran’s October 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel, but they had already begun to fall after peaking on October 7 as it became clear Israel would likely restrict its reprisal to avoid sparking a wider conflagration.

Trump tells New York rally Muslims just want peace, touts support

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP/Evan Vucci)

Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump, wrapping up a long address to a Manhattan rally, speaks glowingly of his time campaigning with Muslim imams in Michigan a day earlier.

Trump claims polls in the state show him performing much better among the Muslim community than Democrat Kamala Harris, referring to support he has seen from Arab-Americans thanks to his backing for ceasefires in the Middle East.

“They just want peace, they want to have peace, and it’s great,” he says at Madison Square Garden.

Earlier in the rally, though, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed that “the Palestinians are taught to kill us at 2-years-old.”

Noting support from Jews and other minority communities, Trump claims the GOP “has really become the party of inclusion.”

On foreign policy, he indicates that he will be more stingy with defense aid for allies, pitching his “America First” ideology.

“I’ll tell our friends… that it’s about time we take care of ourselves,” he says to loud cheers.

Recent polls have shown Trump with a slight advantage among Arab-Americans, with many of them seeing the Republican as more likely than Harris to quickly end Israel’s wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“I will stop the chaos in the Middle East and prevent World War III from happening,” Trump tells the crowd.

Earlier, other speakers at the rally pushed back against claims from Democrats that the campaign event was reminiscent of a pro-Nazi rally at the Garden in February 1939.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP/Alex Brandon)

“Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly “MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. “And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”

Former wrestling entertainer Hulk Hogan also weighed in, offering in his characteristic raspy growl: “I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”

AP contributed to this report.

Social media platform X suspends Hebrew account of Iran supreme leader

Illustrative image: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei listens to a speaker in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, October 2, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

Social media platform X has suspended the Hebrew-language account of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, a day after it was opened.

A note on his @Khamenei_Heb account says it has been suspended for violating X’s rules.

A screen capture showing Iranian leader Ali Khamenei’s suspended X account, on October 28, 2024. (screen capture: X)

The suspension comes hours after the account posted a message saying “The Zionist regime made a mistake. It erred in its calculations on Iran. We will cause it to understand what kind of strength, ability, initiative, and will the Iranian nation has.”

Rules on X, formerly known as Twitter, ban content from “Violent and hateful entities,” but the guidelines make an exception for posts from “state or governmental entities.”

There is no immediate comment from X.

Sirens activated in Kiryat Shmona for second time since midnight

Rocket sirens are sounding in Kiryat Shmona near the Lebanon border for the second time in about 30 minutes.

Sirens are also activated in the neighboring town of Margaliot.

At least one loud blast is heard in the area, but there are no immediate reports of impacts in this apparent attack nor in one that triggered sirens at 12:20 a.m.

The earlier attack is claimed by Hezbollah, which says it fired a volley of rockets at the area.

Rocket sirens blare in Kiryat Shmona

Rocket sirens are sounding in Kiryat Shmona and other towns surrounding the Galilee panhandle city near the border with Lebanon.

There are no immediate reports of rocket impacts.