Sept. 17: Tel Aviv shares plunge again as EU mulls cutting trade over Gaza offensive

Syria’s Sharaa says security pact talks with Israel could yield results ‘in coming days’

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's President Ahmad Al-Sharaa meeting with a US delegation lead by the new head of the US military's Central Command in the Syrian capital Damascus on September 12, 2025.(SANA/AFP)

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa tells reporters in Damascus that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”

He described the security pact as a “necessity” and said it would need to respect Syria’s air space and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia sign mutual defense agreement

In this Monday, March 30, 2015 file photo provided by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Royal Saudi Land Forces and units of Special Forces of the Pakistani army take part in a joint military exercise called "Al-Samsam 5" in Shamrakh field, north of Baha region, southwest Saudi Arabia. (AP Photo/SPA, File)

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia sign a defense pact pledging that any attack on either nation would be considered an attack on both.

The pact comes after rising tensions in the region following the September 9 Israeli airstrike targeting Hamas’s leadership in Qatar’s capital that killed six people. It also comes following clashes between Pakistan and India earlier this year.

The agreement, called the “Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement,” was signed during Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to the kingdom, according to a joint statement issued after his talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The agreement states that “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both,” according to a statement that was issued by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.

Sharif traveled to Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the crown prince, the statement said.

The countries expressed their commitment to both nations’ security and “peace in the region and world.”

The agreement “aims to develop aspects of defense cooperation between the two countries and strengthen joint deterrence against any aggression,” the statement said.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan maintains close ties with Saudi Arabia, a key supplier of oil to Islamabad.

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.

Starmer said planning to recognize Palestinian state after Trump’s UK visit

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and wife, Lady Victoria Starmer, arrive for the Beating Retreat military ceremony at Windsor Castle, England, on Wednesday Sept. 17, 2025, on day one of US President Donald Trump's second state visit to the UK. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP, Pool)

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer plans to formally recognize a Palestinian state after US President Donald Trump completes his state visit to the United Kingdom, The Times reports.

The unsourced report says that Starmer plans to recognize Palestine even before several countries, led by France, will do so at the United Nations summit in New York next week amid concern over the ongoing war in Gaza.

The Times says that Starmer is under massive pressure from within his Labour party to make the move, but will hold off on doing so until Trump leaves so that the issue doesn’t dominate a joint press conference planned for Thursday.

The US is deeply opposed to the move, saying it would be a reward for the Hamas terror group in the wake of the October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw another 251 taken hostage.

Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party agrees to do away with primaries

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a meeting of his Religious Zionism faction at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 7, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party agrees to his suggestion to do away with primaries ahead of the next election.

The party members instead decide that their Knesset slate will be decided by a 150-member committee.

The effort might be in vain as repeated polls show the far-right party failing to cross the election threshold for the Knesset.

The next elections are set for October 2026 but may be held earlier.

Ultra-Orthodox protesters try and free detained draft dodgers being transported to military prison

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox protesters try and storm a van carrying detained Haredi draft dodgers at the entrance to the military prison in Beit Lid, sparking clashes with guards.

Video from the scene shows the demonstrators surrounding the van and shouting “Nazis” at the military guards and police who try to keep them away.

A statement from the protesters accuses police of using unnecessary violence to disperse the demonstrators.

Hebrew media reports say two people are lightly wounded and treated at the scene.

הפלג: ״טנדר עם 20 עריקים חרדים הגיע לשערי הכלא. המוחים מקהילות החסידים מנסים לשחרר אותם. עימותים במקום״ pic.twitter.com/q8r6Ni5C7B

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) September 17, 2025

Justice Minister Levin said refusing to meet AG, stymying efforts to strip terrorists of their citizenship

Justice Minister Yariv Levin, right, and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara attend a farewell ceremony for then-acting Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, October 1, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Pool)

Justice Minister Yariv Levin is refusing to meet with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara amid his ongoing efforts to oust her, and as such, he is torpedoing efforts to strip convicted terrorists of their citizenship, Channel 12 reports.

The move is the responsibility of the Interior Minister, but Levin has been filling the position since the ultra-Orthodox parties pulled out of the government over the issue of the ultra-Orthodox draft.

Levin has been leading efforts to oust Baharav-Miara. Last month, the cabinet voted to fire her after forming a special committee for that purpose. The High Court froze that decision immediately, instructing the government not to block Baharav-Miara from performing her responsibilities in any way.

Levin, who has frequently clashed with Baharav-Miara, has nonetheless objected to her doing her job, even going so far as to lock her out of a Tel Aviv office they share.

Under pressure from Trump, US Fed makes first rate cut of 2025 on employment risks

The seal of the US Federal Reserve Board of Governors is seen ahead of Chair Jerome Powell's news conference at the Federal Reserve headquarters, following the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, DC, on September 17, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)

The US Federal Reserve lowers interest rates for the first time this year, flagging slower job gains and risks to employment as policymakers face heightened pressure under US President Donald Trump.

The Fed cuts the benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points, to a range between 4.0 percent and 4.25 percent, while penciling in two more cuts this year.

Only new Fed Governor Stephen Miran — who has been serving as an economic adviser to Trump — votes against the decision. He favored a larger rate reduction of 50 basis points.

The other 11 voting members of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted for the quarter-point cut.

This was the first rate meeting involving Miran, who had been chairing the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He was sworn in just before the two-day gathering started on Tuesday, after a swift Senate confirmation on Monday night.

The central bank faces competing pressures in adjusting rates, with Trump’s sweeping tariffs fueling inflation risks while the job market weakens.

Dermer said meeting US envoy Witkoff in London in last-ditch effort to revive talks

L: Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer at the Jewish News Syndicate conference in Jerusalem, on April 28, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90); R: US envoy Steve Witkoff speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on May 28, 2025. (AP/Evan Vucci)

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will meet with US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff in London tonight, Channel 12 reports, calling the meeting a last-ditch effort to revive hostage-ceasefire talks.

Witkoff is in London with US President Donald Trump, who is making a state visit to the UK.

The report says the main stumbling block at the moment is that the Qatari mediators are unwilling to go forward at the moment following the failed Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Doha.

The report says the US is pushing Israel to make some sort of gesture to mollify the Qataris.

Hostage families again demonstrate outside Netanyahu’s home demanding deal

Protesters demanding a hostage-ceasefire deal lay on the ground while dressed in bloody togas outside the prime minister's residence on September 17, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Around a hundred protesters, many of them family members of the captives, demonstrate outside the prime minister’s private residence for the second night in a row, demanding a hostage-ceasefire deal.

“Where is this government? Why, amid the extreme fear and sadness, do we need to wage a battle for the return of our loved ones against those who abandoned them?” says Maccabit Meir, the aunt of twin Hamas hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, to the crowd.

She accuses the government of “choosing to sacrifice them [the hostages] over and over” ever since Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.

Police have erected crowd control barriers distancing the protesters from Benjamin Netanyahu’s home, keeping them at a distance of some 150 meters (500 feet). Last night, police hung tarps up on fences around the building, which hostage families claimed was meant to stifle their protest.

As protesters chant for a hostage deal, four activists dressed in Greco-Roman garb coat themselves in fake blood and lie on the street.

One protester holds a sign that reads: “This is Sparta,” referencing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks yesterday that Israel may be forced to become a self-reliant “super-Sparta” amid increasing global isolation.

A counterprotester approaches the demonstration and shouts at the protesters, accusing them of supporting the notion that the Gaza war is a genocide. Police distance him from the rest of the crowd and he eventually leaves the area.

IDF said to strike vehicle in northeast Lebanon

Lebanese media reports an Israeli strike against a vehicle in the Baalbek area in northeastern Lebanon.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

3 ضحايا نتيجة غارة إسرائيلية استهدفت محيط مسجد الرضا في بعلبك#عاجلhttps://t.co/ftQQYOtmaI pic.twitter.com/vRSY5yWejg

— Annahar النهار (@Annahar) September 17, 2025

Senior Hamas official seen in public for first time since surviving Israeli strike in Qatar

Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas's political bureau, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut, Lebanon, October 26, 2023. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad appears publicly for the first time since the failed Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar.

He confirms in an interview with Al-Jazeera channel that he was at the site when it was attacked.

“We (the Hamas leadership) were discussing a ceasefire proposal, less than an hour after the meeting began, we heard an explosion,” he says.

“We are experienced in the sounds of missiles and understood it was an Israeli strike. We left the place quickly, and thank God we survived,” he says.

Six people, including a Qatari officer, were killed in the strike, but all of the terror group’s senior leaders apparently survived.

בכיר חמאס ראזי חמד הופיע באופן פומבי לראשונה מאז תקיפת מטה חמאס בקטר ואף אישר כי היה במקום בשעה שהותקף. חמד אמר לאל-ג'זירה כי "אנחנו (הנהגת חמאס) דנו בהצעה להפסקת אש, פחות משעה אחרי תחילת הפגישה שמענו פיצוץ… הבנו שזוהי תקיפה ישראלית. יצאנו במהירות מהמקום ותודה לאל ניצלנו" pic.twitter.com/bsZlvnMyRl

— Nurit Yohanan (@nurityohanan) September 17, 2025

Police urge court not to let Qatargate suspect Urich return to work for PM: He’s willing to do a lot for money

Jonatan Urich, a suspect in the so-called Qatargate investigation, arrives for a court hearing the Lod-Central District Court, August 19, 2025. (Jonathan Shaul/ Flash90)

A police representative in court cautions against allowing Qatargate suspect Jonatan Urich to return to work with the Prime Minister’s Office, claiming he is “willing to do a lot for the sake of money,” Hebrew outlets report.

He says this during a hearing in the Lod-Central District Court, in which police appeal a lower court’s rejection of their request to extend a ban for another 60 days on Urich contacting others involved in the Qatargate affair.

Police also request to keep him from working in the Prime Minister’s Office, arguing his work with Qatar constitutes a security risk.

Urich, along with Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein, allegedly spearheaded a pro-Qatari PR campaign to cast the country in a positive light. He is suspected of taking a bribe from Qatar, contact with a foreign agent and breach of trust.

“The Prime Minister’s Office is the most sensitive place in the country; the suspect has already proven that for the sake of money, he is willing to do a great deal, such as providing services to a country like Qatar,” says the police representative.

He notes that Israel conducted an airstrike against Qatar just a week ago, targeting Hamas leadership in Doha.

Urich’s lawyer, Amit Haddad, accuses the police representative of lying and urges the judge not to accept the police’s request.

The court indicates it would decide regarding the restrictions on Urich at a later date.

IDF says some 550 Palestinians left Gaza today, most for treatment overseas

Around 550 Palestinians from Gaza left the Strip today for various countries, in a move coordinated by Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.

Most of those who exited Gaza today are sick Palestinians and their caregivers, COGAT says.

COGAT says they headed to the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Romania and other countries in the European Union.

“So far, over 5,000 residents have left the Gaza Strip through the Allenby Crossing or Ramon Airport,” it adds.

Egypt says 3,000-year-old gold bracelet missing from museum

A 3,000-year-old gold bracelet has gone missing from a restoration laboratory of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, the country’s antiquities ministry said.

The bracelet, described as a golden band adorned with “spherical lapis lazuli beads,” dates to the reign of Amenemope, a pharaoh of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty (1070–945 BC).

The ministry, in its statement issued late Tuesday, did not specify when the piece was last seen.

Egyptian media outlets said the loss was detected in recent days during an inventory check ahead of the “Treasures of the Pharaohs” exhibition scheduled in Rome at the end of October.

Cairo, Egypt: A 3,000-year-old gold bracelet of Pharaoh Amenemope has vanished from a restoration lab at the Egyptian Museum. An internal probe is underway and antiquities units at airports, seaports, and border crossings have been alerted to prevent smuggling. (CBS) pic.twitter.com/zaBQEs72fb

— NTC Report (@NTC_Report) September 17, 2025

Human Rights Watch accuses Israel forces of displacing south Syria residents

Illustrative: Israeli soldiers seen in the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, August 12, 2025. (Ayal Margolin/ Flash90)

Human Rights Watch accuses Israeli forces of forcibly displacing residents of southern Syria, which Israel has demanded be demilitarized in a new security deal Syria is seeking with its neighbor.

“Israeli forces occupying parts of southern Syria since December 2024 have carried out a range of abuses against residents, including forced displacement, which is a war crime,” HRW says in a statement.

The statement quotes the Israeli military as saying it is operating in southern Syria “to protect the citizens of the State of Israel” and that its activities are “in accordance with international law.”

The report came as Syrian state media said Israeli forces seized several people in the south, and a day after Damascus said it was working with Washington to reach mutual “security understandings” with Israel.

As Islamist-led forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad on December 8, 2024, Israel deployed troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights that has separated the countries’ forces since an armistice that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Tel Aviv shares plunge again as EU mulls cutting trade over Gaza offensive

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange seen on April 28, 2025. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange fell for a sixth consecutive day as the European Commission proposed to curb free-trade arrangements on Israeli goods, fueling uncertainty over the toll the offensive in Gaza City will have on the country’s economy.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-125 index dropped 2% at the close of trading. The benchmark index has declined 2.4% so far this month, trimming its year-to-date gain to 25.3%.

The TA-35 index of blue-chip companies was down 1.9% at the close. The TA-90 index, which tracks the shares with the highest capitalization not included in the TA-35 index, fell 2.4%. The TA-Insurance index plunged 4.3%.

“There is concern that the European Union is exerting concrete pressure on the trade relations with Israel,” Mizrahi Tefahot Bank chief markets economist Ronen Menachem tells The Times of Israel.

“Every time we hear more direct criticism about Israel’s conduct in Gaza, it is fueling nervousness in the financial markets, creating uncertainty for investors about the implications of the offensive in Gaza City and the ongoing war with Hamas,” he says.

The markets have also been roiled in recent days by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that Israel was facing increasing isolation and may be required to become a self-reliant economy with “autarkic characteristics” and a kind of “super-Sparta.”

In response, the prime minister yesterday sought to reassure investors that he had “full confidence” in the Israeli economy and tried to clarify that his comments were focused on the defense industries rather than the broader economy.

Confidant said to back out of signing state witness deal against Likud minister

Social Equality Minister May Golan at the (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A close associate of embattled Social Equality Minister May Golan has backed away from his decision to turn state witness in a major fraud investigation that has engulfed her office, the Kan public broadcaster reports

Earlier reports said Golan’s former parliamentary adviser, attorney Ehud Gabay, who was among six people arrested in a raid of Golan’s office on Monday, was close to signing a deal with prosecutors that would see him testify against the minister as part of a plea deal.

However, Kan says he has had second thoughts. No reason was given for the change of heart.

Hebrew media say that another suspect has also been offered a state witness deal, but has not identified them.

Golan is suspected of fraud, misusing public funds for private purposes, creating fictitious positions in the Social Equality Ministry and concealing sources of funding.

Chief rabbi appeals to international religious leaders to help release Israeli hostages in Gaza

From left to right, Sephardi Chief Rabbi David Yosef, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and US Jewish leader Malcolm Hoenlein attending the VIII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Kazakhstan on September 17, 2025. (Courtesy of Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber)

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber appeals to international religious leaders to help release Israeli hostages in Gaza as he attends the VIII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Kazakhstan.

“I would like to make a call together for peace in the world, but we must remember, for two years, we have had forty-eight hostages – brothers and sisters who are suffering in the tunnels of Gaza in terrible conditions. (…) I am begging you all – dear religious leaders – to make a call to the whole world: to bring the hostages home,” he says in his address shared with The Times of Israel by a spokesperson, who says the attendees include clergy from Iran, Qatar and Kuwait.

Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages during the October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel. Forty-eight of them remain, with 20 believed to still be alive.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and a delegation from the Vatican are also set to attend the event. Pope Leo sent a message (his predecessor Francis attended the event in 2024).

“I want to make it clear to this important forum, this war is not a religious war at all,” Ber also says. “Judaism is not against any religion. In Judaism, we respect all religions.”

“What happened on October 7 is a completely different story,” he adds. “Terrorists from Gaza entered the Land of Israel to murder and torture us, men, women and children. We are fighting against them.”

Sephardi Chief Rabbi David Yosef also attended the conference.

25 ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers said detained at airport trying to go on Ukraine pilgrimage

Ultra-Orthodox protesters clash with police during a protest against the drafting of Haredi men to the military, on Route 4 near Bnei Brak, August 19, 2025. They hold a sign reading: "Prisoners from the Torah world: We are with you," referring to jailed draft-dodgers. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Around 25 additional ultra-Orthodox men have been arrested at Ben Gurion International Airport over the past two days while trying to fly to Uman in Ukraine for a Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage, the Jerusalem Faction announces.

It previously stated that almost 30 people had been arrested at the airport on Monday alone and currently claims that there are more than 70 Haredi draft evaders in military custody.

Every year, tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims, mainly Hasidim, head to Uman from all around the world to visit the tomb of Rabbi Nachman (1772-1810) for Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year — celebrated this year on September 23-24.

The ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties have lobbied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and military officials to allow draft-dodging yeshiva students to take part in the annual pilgrimage without fear of arrest.

However, the Attorney General’s Office said that the government has no right to create a mechanism to let ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers leave Israel, writing a letter to the government late last month asserting that it would be illegal to allow draft evaders to leave Israel for Uman.

Addressing the Knesset State Control Committee on Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa, the head of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, said that ultra-Orthodox draft evaders arrested by the military police are still managing to get out of enlisting thanks to large loopholes, making efforts to detain them a waste of resources.

He added that arrests are expected to ramp up as more Haredi men attempt to fly to Uman.

Knesset votes to appoint Likud’s Haim Katz as housing minister

Tourism Minister Haim Katz attends a Knesset Finance Committee meeting, December 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Lawmakers in the Knesset vote 41-28 to approve the government’s appointment of Likud’s Haim Katz as permanent housing minister.

Katz’s appointment, which first was announced on Sunday, is a potential sign that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not believe the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party will return to his governing coalition.

UTJ chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf held the portfolio until June, when he resigned the post amid an ongoing fight over the conscription of yeshiva students. The following month, Goldknopf’s party, which represents Ashkenazi Haredim, left the coalition entirely in protest.

Shas, the Sephardi Haredi party, subsequently quit the government as well, resigning its ministerial portfolios while remaining part of the coalition.

Since then, Katz has been in charge of four cabinet positions, either on an interim or permanent basis: tourism, housing, health and welfare.

Smotrich says Israel sitting on a ‘real estate bonanza’ in Gaza, talking to the US about dividing it up

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

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says that the Gaza Strip is a “real estate bonanza,” and that he is in talks with the Americans on how to divide it up the coastal enclave after the war.

There is “a real estate bonanza” in Gaza that “pays for itself” and he has “already started negotiations with the Americans,” Hebrew media quotes the far-right minister saying at a real estate conference in Tel Aviv.

“We have poured a lot of money into this war. We have to see how we are dividing up the land in percentages,” Smotrich says, adding that “the demolition, the first stage in the city’s renewal, we have already done. Now we just need to build.”

US President Donald Trump has at times spoken of his desire to turn the Gaza Strip into an American-controlled “Riviera” in a move that would see much of the Palestinian population encouraged to leave after the war.

Last month, the Washington Post reported that Trump administration was weighing a proposal for the postwar reconstruction of Gaza that would put the Strip under US control for a decade and pay roughly a quarter of its population to relocate, many of them permanently.

Trump’s plans have been rejected by the Palestinians, the Arab world, and much of the international community.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel has no plans to resettle the Strip, but far-right members of his government, including Smotrich, are actively advancing plans to do so.

Smotrich also repudiates Netanyahu’s statement on Monday that Israel was facing increasing isolation and may be required to become a self-reliant economy with “autarkic characteristics” and a kind of “super-Sparta.”

“I do not agree with the prime minister’s words and I really did not like the comparison to Sparta,” he says.

Netanyahu’s comments sparked fierce criticism from opposition heads and business leaders and were followed by a dip in the value of shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

In response, the prime minister said on Tuesday that he had “full confidence” in the Israeli economy and sought to clarify that his comments were focused on the defense industries rather than the broader economy.

Flower-bedecked Netanyahu and Fijian counterpart open new embassy in Jerusalem

From left: Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the opening of the Fijian embassy in Jerusalem on September 17, 2025 (Rafi Ben Hakoon/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar celebrate at the inauguration ceremony of Fiji’s embassy in Jerusalem alongside Fijian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, Sa’ar’s office says in a statement.

“A new embassy in Jerusalem, our eternal capital!,” Sa’ar cheers in the statement.

The three pose for a photo, with Netanyahu and Rabuka sporting salusalu — traditional Fijian garlands.

“I will continue to strengthen Jerusalem’s standing as the capital of Israel. I will also continue working to open and relocate additional embassies to Jerusalem,” Sa’ar says.

Fiji becomes the seventh country to open an embassy in Jerusalem, joining the US, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay.

Argentina has also announced plans to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem next year.

Palestinians say 40 killed in Gaza strikes; children’s hospital targeted by drone, no injuries

This picture taken from a position at Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows a burst of smoke as an Israeli army self-propelled artillery Howitzer fires a round from southern Israel toward the Gaza Strip, on September 17, 2025. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

At least 40 people were killed across the Gaza Strip today in Israel’s latest strikes, including 30 in Gaza City, Hamas-run local health authorities says. They also report a drone attack on a specialist children’s hospital, which did not cause casualties but forced young patients and their families outside.

A day after Israel announced the launch of its ground offensive to seize control of Gaza’s main urban center, tanks had moved short distances towards the city’s central and western areas from three directions, but no major advance was reported.

An Israeli official said military operations were focused on getting civilians to head south and that fighting would intensify over the next month or two.

The Hamas-run government’s Ministry of Health says an Israeli drone dropped grenades on one floor of the Rantissi children’s hospital. No casualties were reported but the ministry said some 40 families took their children away.

“This hospital is the only specialist facility for children with cancer, kidney failure, and other life-threatening conditions – but even these gravely ill children are not spared from relentless bombardment,” says Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza director at the UK-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Hamas figures could not be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

US designates four Iran-aligned militias as terrorist organizations

Members of an Iraqi Shiite militant group attend the funeral of a fighter with the Kataeb Hezbollah terror militia who was killed in a US airstrike, in Baghdad, Iraq, January 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

The United States designates four Iran-aligned militia groups as foreign terrorist organizations, the State Department says.

The groups are Harakat al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, and Kata’ib al-Imam Ali, the department says in a statement. All four have been previously cited as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, it says.

“Iran-aligned militia groups have conducted attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad and bases hosting U.S. and Coalition forces, typically using front names or proxy groups to obfuscate their involvement,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says in the statement.

The United States considers Iran the world’s leading sponsor of state terrorism.

Saudi Arabia condemns Israeli ground operation in Gaza City ‘in strongest terms’

This picture taken from a position at Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows Israeli troops deployed near the border fence on September 17, 2025. I(Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

Saudi Arabia condemns “in the strongest terms” the Israeli ground operation in Gaza City, a day after Israel unleashed a long-threatened ground assault on the city.

The kingdom also urges members of the UN Security Council to act to halt what it described as Israel’s killing, starvation and forced displacement of Palestinians, the Foreign Ministry says in a statement

Manufacturers head slams EU proposal to curb trade as ‘disproportionate, political’

The head of Israel’s manufacturers association warns that the European Commission’s proposal to curb free-trade arrangements on Israeli goods over the war against Hamas in Gaza is a “serious and disproportionate step” for Israeli industry, which is attempting to keep operating at strength even while suffering the effects of war.

“This is a political decision disguised as a moral one, which undermines the foundations of economic cooperation between Israel and Europe,” says Israel Manufacturers Association president Ron Tomer. “Cooperation that has been built over decades based on values ​​of innovation, freedom of trade, and dialogue.”

Tomer calls on the Israeli government to act against countries that support terrorism and strengthen economic alliances with other countries in the world, noting that Israeli exports are suffering due to the war.

“Israeli exports are being hit day after day, sometimes at home and sometimes from abroad, especially in the fields of pharmaceuticals and defense technologies, a hit that will affect not only Israel but also our European partners who benefit from our products and services,” he says.

“If the European Union chooses to implement ‘economic sanctions’ it will also hurt itself,” Tomer cautions, echoing the Foreign Ministry.

Population up 1% to 10.148 million as growth skid persists, figures show

Israel’s population grew by around 101,000 to 10.148 million since last Rosh Hashanah, the Central Bureau of Statistics announces, continuing a several-year trend of slowing population growth.

The 1 percent growth is down from 1.2% recorded last year and 1.6% the previous year.

The data also shows that only 25,000 new immigrants arrived in the country, down from 33,000 last year and 46,000 the year before.

Taken together with 21,000 Israelis who returned from abroad, and 5,000 more who immigrated via family unification procedures, the figure still falls short of approximately 79,000 Israelis who moved abroad over the past 12 months, CBS says.

The bureau says 179,000 babies were born, down from 183,000 last year. But on the plus side, the approximately 50,000 deaths were down from 55,000 who passed from Rosh Hashanah 2023 to 2024.

Germany says more needed from Iran to stave off return of sanctions

Germany says the “ball is still in Iran’s court” after the UK, France and Germany held talks with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.

The phone call between the countries’ respective foreign ministers came after European powers last month triggered a 30-day deadline for so-called “snapback” sanctions to come back into force in the absence of a negotiated deal on the Iranian nuclear program.

A German foreign ministry spokesman says the offer from the so-called E3 powers “to discuss a temporary [delay] of the snapback if Iran fulfils certain conditions remains on the table,” but adds that “at this point the steps taken by Iran have not been sufficient.”

Separately, Iran dismisses US criticism of its missile program as “nonsense,” after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it an “unacceptable risk.”

“He was speaking nonsense,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei tells journalists.

The US is “not supposed to comment on the defensive capabilities of a nation that has decided to preserve its independence at any cost,” he adds.

Sa’ar threatens to hit back at Europe if proposed sanctions implemented

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar calls the European Commission’s proposed measures against Israel “morally and politically distorted.”

“Actions against Israel will harm the interests of Europe itself,” he says on X.

Sa’ar promises that “Israel will continue to fight, with the help of its friends in Europe, against attempts to harm it while it is engaged in an existential war.
Steps against Israel will be answered in kind, and we hope they will not be necessary.”

Netanyahu meets Fiji PM ahead of Jerusalem embassy opening

Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, left, meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on September 17, 2025. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosts visiting Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in his office ahead of the leaders’ participation in a ceremony opening Fiji’s new embassy in Jerusalem later today, the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement.

Netanyahu thanks his Fijian counterpart “for his support and steadfast standing alongside Israel, and spoke with him about regional political and security issues,” the PMO says.

Rabuka, who is also foreign minister, in turn invites Netanyahu to visit the South Pacific archipelago, the statement adds.

Rabuka came to power in late 2022 as the head of a three-party government that includes the right-wing Christian Sodelpa party, one of whose leaders’ demands was that Fiji open an embassy in Jerusalem.

Fiji’s embassy move follows a decades-long campaign by the Jerusalem-based International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem, which preaches support for Israel at churches across the Southern Pacific.

Currently, six countries have embassies in Jerusalem — the US, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay.

Court acquits woman accused of slapping, threatening minister

A woman arrested in 2024 for allegedly assaulting Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman at a Rehovot shopping center is cleared in the city’s Magistrate’s Court of all charges, with the judge criticizing the lawmaker and police over the case.

Silman claimed that Yarden Mann, a 52-year-old anti-government activist, slapped and threatened her during a confrontation in January 2024, leading to her being thrown in jail for several days.

The judge in the case notes that prosecution witnesses appeared to change their stories, with Silman herself “struggling to give reasonable testimony.”

The judge accuses police of shoddy work in collecting testimony about threats supposedly made against Silman during a confrontation between the two, and as for the slap that knocked Silman’s phone to the ground, determines it was the result of an involuntary reflex as Mann attempted to shield her face.

Mann denied at the time that she had attacked Silman, with her lawyer presenting CCTV footage showing them filming each other with no attack seen.

השרה עידית סילמן הגישה תלונה על תקיפה שעברה לכאורה על ידי אישה בת 52, מורה לחינוך מיוחד. המשטרה עיכבה את האישה, בחשד לתקיפה, בתיעוד נראה שהאישה מצלמת את סילמן, אבל לא תוקפת אותה בשום שלב. אז מה נסגר? pic.twitter.com/SmBnlK3SxV

— Yossi Eli (@Yossi_eli) January 24, 2024

In 2021, Silman said she was physically harassed at a gas station in Modiin, but investigators closed their probe after they failed to find witnesses to confirm the incident.

Aunt of slain hostage angrily confronts MK who dismissed recovery of bodies from Gaza

Hannah Cohen, aunt of murdered hostage Inbar Haiman, confronts Knesset Finance Committee chair MK Hanoch Milwidsky during a committee session, saying, “A man like you does not deserve to sit in the Knesset.”

Her broadside comes in response to comments made yesterday by the Likud MK about returning murdered hostages, in which he said that Israel shouldn’t be turned “upside down over corpses. I don’t think we should endanger soldiers for corpses or overturn the country.”

The comments drew outrage from hostage families, particularly those of the 26 hostages confirmed to be dead by the IDF, whose bodies are still being held by terror groups in Gaza. During the hearing, Milwidsky offers an apology for his use of the word “corpses,” which he says was insensitive.

“You abandoned [Inbar], and you need to pay the price for that abandonment,” Cohen tells him.

Cohen claims that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich previously told her that the dead hostages would not be returned through a deal but through military action.

“Now you say that murdered hostages also won’t be returned via military action,” she says to Milwidsky. “So maybe all of you should get together and decide how we return murdered hostages.”

“Tomorrow you’ll come and tell me that my girl is worth half a camel,” Cohen continues, excoriating the chair for even discussing the prices of hostages. “If you make Inbar nothing, you will have to face me. Remember that.”

Listing other hostages whose bodies remain in Gaza, she accuses Milwidsky, and other lawmakers of “killing them a second time.”

“You are a man without morals,” she says to Milwidsky, who is currently under police investigation for rape.

“I’m ashamed of you. Maybe look for another job,” she adds before leaving the room.

After Cohen exits, Milwidsky resumes the session, saying: “OK, where were we?”

EU Commission proposes curb on trade with Israel over Gaza war

The European Commission has formally proposed a suspension of free-trade arrangements on Israeli goods due to the war in Gaza, even though the measure does not currently have sufficient support among the European Union’s member countries to pass.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also proposes a package of sanctions on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, as well as on violent settlers and Hamas members.

“I want to be very clear, the aim is not to punish Israel. The aim is to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza,” Kallas says. “The war needs to end. The suffering must stop, and all hostages must be released.”

The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner.

Police said to recruit state witness in blockbuster fraud case surrounding Likud minister

Police have convinced a figure close to Social Equality Minister May Golan to turn state witness in a fraud investigation that has engulfed her office, Hebrew media reports. Efforts to enlist a second state witness are also reportedly in advanced stages.

Police conducted a series of raids earlier this week, arresting Golan’s former parliamentary aide Ehud Gabay and detaining five of her associates for interrogation.

Golan, a Likud lawmaker, and her circle are suspected of fraud, misusing public funds for private purposes, creating fictitious positions in the Social Equality Ministry. and concealing sources of funding.

This was done through the use of nonprofit organizations and government systems as a “tool for illegally extracting funds,” police added in their announcement of the raids.

Gabay had reportedly been targeted as a potential prosecution witness due to the central role he is alleged to have played in activities Golan’s office was involved in.

Germany still undecided on backing EU sanctions against Israel

Germany’s government has not yet decided on its stance toward EU proposals to impose sanctions on Israel over its war on Gaza, a government spokesperson says.

“We are aware of the plans for sanctions. The [European] Commission has been discussing them for several days. They will be presented today and the German government has not yet formed a final opinion on them,” government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius says when asked about the plans at a press conference.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week that the EU would propose sanctions on “extremist ministers and on violent settlers,” as well as a partial freeze on trade ties. However, she admitted that there was a lack of unity on the issue from member states, hindering the possibility of passing the measures.

Northern border towns nearly 90% repopulated since war, government says

President Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal visit on the first day of the school year in Kiryat Shmona, September 1, 2025. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

The government administration managing the return and rehabilitation of northern border communities says 87 percent of evacuated residents have returned home since the end of fighting nearly a year ago.

According to the Tnufa administration, 55,000 of 64,200 northern residents are back, counting some communities where the population has actually grown since September 2023, such as the communities of Betzet and Hagoshrim.

Metula, meanwhile, is only 48% repopulated, while the small communities of Shtula and Manara now have 52% of their previous population.

Kiryat Shmona, the largest evacuated city, has 18,600 residents now, some 76% of its 24,500 prewar population, the figures show.

Spain says it will help fund PA to make up for tax transfers withheld by Israel

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares says his country will work with Norway “to put a fund on the table” to help compensate the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank for tax revenue being withheld by Israel.

“Israel is trying to annihilate the idea and possibility of a Palestinian state with bombs in Gaza in a veritable massacre,” Albares says on a visit to Egypt.

In February 2024, Norway said it would transfer tax funds to the PA that had been frozen for months because of a dispute with Israel regarding payments to officials in Gaza.

Israel collects taxes and customs on behalf of the PA, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and also helps pay for public services in Gaza.

Israel has periodically refused to make the transfers since Hamas’s October 7 attack, with far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying the funds support terror.

Israel says 230 trucks of aid entered Gaza Tuesday

Nearly 230 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip yesterday through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, says Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities, known as COGAT.

According to COGAT, some 250 trucks’ worth of aid were also collected by the United Nations and other international organizations from the Gaza side of the crossings yesterday to be distributed.

“The contents of hundreds of trucks are still awaiting collection on the Gazan side of the crossings,” COGAT says.

Similar amounts of aid deliveries have been reported daily in the past few weeks.

The UN has said 600 trucks of aid need to be distributed each day in order to properly feed the Strip’s roughly two million people amid the war.

COGAT also says that “tankers of UN fuel entered for the operation of essential humanitarian systems” yesterday, and that it coordinated the entry and exit of humanitarian aid workers rotating in and out of Gaza.

Hirsch: We have ‘failed’ hostages and their families, but are fighting slowly to avoid harming them

Gal Hirsch speaks at a conference in Herzliya on September 17, 2025. (courtesy Reichman/Gilad Kavalerchick)

Israel’s point man on hostages says Israel has fought more slowly than necessary in Gaza in order to avoid harm to hostages, as the military pushes ahead with an offensive on Gaza City that is feared will put the captives in harm’s way.

“It’s clear that it was possible to maneuver [in Gaza] much more quickly, but with great effort, the IDF and the Shin Bet are conducting careful combat, which goes against the standard ways of employing military force,” Gal Hirsch says at Reichman University’s World Summit on Counter-Terrorism.

He adds that Israel is constantly refining its processes “to avoid harming them in every possible way.”

Hirsch says that Israel believes 20 hostages remain alive, pushing back against a claim by US President Donald Trump last week that “there could be a couple of dead in recent days.”

He acknowledges, however, that the hostages “are in danger – they’re in a combat zone, in a dangerous place, in the hands of dangerous kidnappers.”

“We are in a situation of failure,” he says of efforts to secure their release. “The responsibility to do everything to bring the hostages home is on us.”

He accuses Hamas of stringing Israel and mediators along over the summer as talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal appeared to advance, maintaining that Israel continued to engage with negotiators even after it announced the planned Gaza City offensive in early August.

“Hamas and its leadership, they are the ones torpedoing the negotiations,” Hirsch says.

Hamas propaganda on the talks is being spread through Israeli society, Hirsch charges, which causes pain to the families of hostages and damages efforts to bring the hostages home.

If Hamas is allowed to survive and gain strategic advantages in exchange for releasing hostages, he argues, other terror groups will learn that a country “can be brought to its knees by kidnapping its citizens.”

He calls for an international declaration of war on kidnapping and using humans as bargaining chips — a “global war on kidnapping.”

If other countries fail to support Israel and take a stand against kidnapping, October 7 will serve as inspiration for similar acts across the world, Hirsch warns.

Pope speaks out in support of Gazans ‘being forcibly displaced from their lands’ again

Pope Leo XIV arrives in St. Peter's Square on the occasion of the weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Leo XIV is expressing solidarity with the population of Gaza, saying civilians are “once again” being forced out and are living in “unacceptable conditions.”

“I express my deep solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza who continue to live in fear and survive in unacceptable conditions, being forcibly displaced once again from their lands,” the 70-year-old pope says after his general audience.

“I renew my appeal for a ceasefire, for the release of hostages, for a negotiated diplomatic solution, and for the full respect of international humanitarian law,” Leo adds. “I invite everyone to join my heartfelt prayer that soon a dawn of peace and justice will rise.”

Israeli strikes in Gaza City said to bring down Strip’s internet, phone service

The Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, based in the West Bank, says Israeli strikes on the main network lines in northern Gaza have collapsed internet and telephone services, cutting Gazans off from the outside world.

Multiple attempts by the Associated Press to reach people in Gaza City fail to go through.

Earlier, Hamas-controlled authorities in the Strip said at least 16 people were killed in overnight strikes, at least half of which were in Gaza City.

The tally does not differentiate between civilians and fighters, but included several women and children, health officials said.

Aid groups call for stronger pressure on Israel to stop Gaza City push

Displaced Palestinians flee Gaza City on foot and in vehicles, carrying their belongings along the coastal road toward southern Gaza, September 17, 2025. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A coalition of leading aid groups is urging the international community to take stronger measures to stop Israel’s offensive on Gaza City, after a commission of UN experts found Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, but what the U.N. Commission of Inquiry has now concluded is a genocide,” reads the statement from the aid groups. “States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action.”

The message is signed by leaders of over 20 aid organizations operating in Gaza, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Anera and Save the Children.

European foreign ministers to discuss sanctions snapback with Iranian counterpart

French, British, German foreign ministers will hold a call with their Iranian counterpart on Wednesday morning, a French diplomatic source says.

The call aims to discuss the impending reimposition of UN sanctions by the European powers and to reaffirm conditions they had set to Tehran that would enable that decision to be delayed, the source says.

Minister says he will pull funding for Israel’s Oscars after movie about Palestinian wins

Culture Minister Miki Zohar says he is pulling government funding for the Ophir Awards — Israel’s version of the Oscars — after a movie about Palestinian struggles won the top prize.

“The Sea,” written and directed by Shai Carmeli-Pollak, tells the story of a Palestinian adolescent from the West Bank attempting to reach the beach for the first time but who is stopped by Israeli troops.

In a statement released by his ministry, Zohar calls the win “disgraceful,” noting that it portrays Israeli soldiers in a negative light.

“There is no greater slap in the face of Israeli citizens than the embarrassing and detached annual Ophir Awards ceremony,” Zohar fumes in a statement sent out by his ministry. “Starting with the 2026 budget, this pathetic ceremony will no longer be funded by taxpayers’ money. Under my watch, Israeli citizens will not pay from their pockets for a ceremony that spits in the faces of our heroic soldiers.”

Carmeli-Pollak was one of the several participants in the Tuesday night ceremony to wear shirts reading “a child is a child is a child,” part of a campaign calling for a halt to the fighting in Gaza.

The Ophir Prize winner almost always becomes Israel’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards.

In a statement, the Israeli Academy of Film and Television says the film “reflect[s] a deep commitment to cinematic excellence, artistic freedom, and freedom of speech.”

Academy head Asaf Amir also praises the selection of “The Sea,” without mentioning Zohar directly.

“In the face of the Israeli government’s attacks on Israeli cinema and culture, and the calls from parts of the international film community to boycott us, the selection of ‘The Sea’ is a powerful and resounding response. I am proud that an Arabic-language film, born of collaboration between Jewish and Palestinian Israelis, will represent Israel in the Oscar competition,” he says in comments included in the statement.

Haredi draft dodgers arrests ineffective, waste of resources, IDF manpower head says

Arrested military draft evaders are still managing to get out of enlisting thanks to large loopholes, making efforts to detain them a waste of resources, the head of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate tells lawmakers.

“These arrests bring people to detention centers, [but] they do not enlist because we have loopholes the size of gates in a fence: There are psychiatrists and an army of lawyers who arrange what is called ‘the exemption,'” Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa tells the Knesset’s State Control Committee.

He says arrests are expected to ramp up as more Haredi men attempt to fly to Uman, Ukraine, for an annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. Over two dozen suspected draft dodgers were reportedly arrested on Monday at Ben Gurion Airport while trying to make the journey.

Bar Kalifa says Military Police units are being sent to handle arrests of draft dodgers instead of carrying out security-related tasks like blocking roads leading to the Gaza Strip. “You’ve invested all your resources but brought nothing,” he complains.

He notes that the arrests of Haredi draft dodgers also creates issues for the police, who must deal with protests and attempts to block roads in their wake.

“The police asked us to recruit seven Border Police reserve companies, and at the same time, we will continue to enforce and coordinate with the authorities,” Bar Kalifa says.

“We have no desire to have arrests. We want soldiers,” he adds.

The army has repeatedly stated that it is facing a manpower shortage and currently needs some 12,000 new soldiers — 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.

Relatives arrested over mom’s murder in Ramle

The husband of a woman murdered in Ramle in front of her young son this morning has been arrested along with two other relatives, according to Hebrew media reports. The Ynet news site reports that the victim’s mother-in-law is among those arrested.

Police confirm the arrests of three relatives without identifying them, saying they will be arraigned in court later today.

The victim is named as Wafa Abu Ghanem, 26. Authorities say she was shot in her car as her 4-year-old son and 14-year-old sister looked on.

According to the Abraham Initiatives, which monitors murder rates in the Arab community, Abu Ghanem is the 182nd victim of deadly violence in the community this year, marking a 7 percent increase over last year’s record-setting murder rate.

She is the second person to be killed within hours, after 19-year-old Muhammed Morad was stabbed to death in Haifa overnight, according to the group.

Army publishes footage of strike in Gaza amid new offensive

A soldier operates in Gaza in a photo released on September 17, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF issues new footage of its airstrikes in Gaza City from the past two days, amid a new ground offensive against Hamas in the area.

The military says on Monday, ahead of the launch of the offensive, it struck a Hamas weapons manufacturing workshop, where several operatives involved in building explosive devices were gathered. Secondary explosions were observed following the strike, the IDF says.

In the past two days, the Israeli Air Force and Artillery Corps have struck over 150 targets in Gaza City, according to the IDF.

Footage released by the IDF on September 17, 2025, shows airstrikes in Gaza City during the previous two days. (Israel Defense Forces)

Jerry of Ben & Jerry’s quits iconic ice cream brand amid clashes over Israel criticism

Jerry Greenfield (right) and Ben Cohen (left), co-founders of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, attend a protest in Washington on November 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield, whose name helped shape the popular ice cream brand, has quit the company, as its rift with parent Unilever deepened over its stance on the Gaza conflict.

In an open letter addressing the Ben & Jerry’s community shared by business partner Ben Cohen on social media platform X on Wednesday, Greenfield says that the Vermont-based company has lost its independence since Unilever curtailed its social activism.

After 47 years, Jerry has made the difficult decision to step down from the company we built together. I’m sharing his words as he resigns from Ben & Jerry’s. His legacy deserves to be true to our values, not silenced by @MagnumGlobal #FreeBenAndJerrys pic.twitter.com/EZXGRjs76a

— Ben Cohen (@YoBenCohen) September 17, 2025

Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s have clashed since 2021, when the Chubby Hubby maker said it would stop sales in the West Bank.

The brand has since sued its parent over alleged efforts to silence it and described the Gaza conflict as “genocide,” a rare stance for a major US company.

Greenfield said he could no longer “in good conscience” continue working for a company that had been “silenced” by Unilever, despite a merger agreement meant to safeguard the brand’s social mission.

A spokesperson for Magnum Ice Cream Company, Unilever’s ice cream unit, says that it “disagrees with Greenfield’s perspective and has sought to engage both co-founders in a constructive conversation on how to strengthen Ben & Jerry’s powerful values-based position in the world.”

Magnum says Greenfield stepped down as a brand ambassador and that he is not a party to the lawsuit.

Attempted Houthi missile attack falls short of Israel

A ballistic missile launched at Israel by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen fell short outside the country’s borders, according to military officials.

The IDF identified the launch but no sirens sounded in Israel because the missile did not pose a threat.

Gaza hit with some 50 airstrikes overnight, IDF says

Israel’s military says the air force struck some 50 targets in the Gaza Strip overnight, most of them in Gaza City.

In the past day, a total of 140 targets were hit, the army says.

The IDF says the targets included tunnels, buildings used by terror groups, cells of operatives, and other infrastructure, but provides few other details about its intensified push for Gaza’s largest urban area, launched yesterday.

Qatar condemns Gaza City offensive

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry says it “condemns in the strongest terms” Israel’s just-launched ground offensive in Gaza City.

The ministry alleges that the campaign is aimed at seizing control of Gaza, calling it “an extension of the war of genocide against the brotherly Palestinian people and a flagrant violation of international law.”

The statement, coming a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Doha in a bid to keep Qatar engaged in Gaza ceasefire efforts, urges “decisive international solidarity to compel [Israel] to comply with international legitimacy resolutions,” but stops short of calling for sanctions or other far-reaching punishments.

Fiery protests break out in Bedouin village as cops raze illegal homes

Border Police officers assist Land Authority officials in demolishing unlawfully-built structures in As-Sir, an unrecognized Bedouin village south of Beersheba, on September 17, 2025. (Israel Police)

Large plumes of smoke are seen over the northern Negev as Bedouin protesters demonstrate against police and Land Authority officials demolishing residential structures built without permits in the unrecognized village of As-Sir, south of Beersheba.

Large police forces are operating in the area “to assist the Land Authority in carrying out the court-issued demolition order, following multiple attempts to carry out the demolition through dialogue,” police say in a statement.

مصادر محلية| قوات الاحتلال تعتدي على المواطنين المحتجين على عمليات الهدم في قرية السر في النقب المحتل، وتلقي قنابل صوت لتفريقهم. pic.twitter.com/a8zRuTbh8M

— القسطل الإخباري (@AlQastalps) September 17, 2025

Police say dozens of local residents began to protest when cops arrived, setting fire to structures and tires. Police used stun grenades and tear gas on protesters in an attempt to disperse them, according to demonstrators. Videos show small scuffles breaking out between cops in riot gear and local men.

Joining the protesters, Arab Israeli MK Waleed Alhwashla claims police used excessive force from the moment they entered the village, inflaming tensions.

“They are not letting people express their pain; this is the policy of the government, this is the policy of Ben Gvir,” he says. “There was a directive from the [Southern] District to enter and use force against protesters. It is unacceptable.”

#متابعة | استمرار المواجهات في قرية السر في النقب بعد اقتحام الشرطة الإسرائيلية القرية لهدم نحو 50 منزلاً. pic.twitter.com/LDC7JDPHRg

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) September 17, 2025

He calls on authorities to “conduct dialogue with people in a respectful way” by “giving options” to residents of the buildings facing demolition today.

Woman shot and killed in front of two kids, who are injured

Paramedics and police at the scene of a shooting in Ramle on September 17, 2025. (Magen David Adom)

A woman was shot and killed in front of her two children in Ramle, paramedics say.

First responders found the woman in her car and pronounced her dead at the scene.

The two children, a 14-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy, were moderately injured by the gunfire and transported to the hospital, the Magen David Adom emergency service says.

Police are present at the scene and have opened an investigation into the shooting. They have not yet located any suspects.

Hebrew media reports indicate that authorities believe the killing is related to a dispute within the Arab community, which has suffered over 180 murders so far this year, a record.

Suspected drone infiltration ruled false alarm

The IDF says suspected drone infiltration sirens that sounded in Be’er Ora, close to Ramon Airport, were false alarms due a “false identification.”

The Home Front Command also give the all clear.

Drone alert sounds near Negev airport struck last week

Sirens warning of a suspected drone infiltration are sounding in Be’er Ora, close to Ramon Airport in southern Israel.

Last week, a Houthi drone launched from Yemen evaded Israeli air defenses and struck the Ramon Airport terminal, injuring one.

Number of Palestinian to flee Gaza City up to 400,000, IDF estimates

Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza along the coastal road toward the south, as Israel announced an expanded operation in Gaza City, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Some 400,000 Palestinians have so far evacuated Gaza City to other areas of the Strip, according to a fresh IDF estimate.

Around 1 million Palestinians were estimated to be residing in Gaza City before the IDF began to prepare for a major offensive against Hamas in the area.

Ahead of the offensive, the IDF ordered Palestinians in all areas of Gaza City to evacuate immediately to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south. In recent days, the pace of evacuations has picked risen to tens of thousands of people a day, according to the army’ whose estimates generally run higher than those provided by the United Nations.

Due to the increasing numbers of evacuees jamming the Rashid coastal road, the military announced this morning that it would be opening a second evacuation route, on Salah a-Din — the main north-south highway in Gaza — from noon until noon on Friday.

Iran executes man accused of spying for Israel — state media

Iran has executed a man accused of spying for Israel, state media reports, identifying him as Babak Shahbazi.

Shahbazi was accused of using his position as a contractor installing cooling devices to collect information from sensitive locations such as server rooms as well as centers linked to the military and security apparatus.

State media accuses him of working alongside Esmaeil Fekri, another convict executed in June for spying for Israel since early 2022.

Executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel have significantly increased this year, with at least nine death sentences carried out in recent months.

IDF announces second evacuation route out of Gaza City

Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip along Salah al-Din Street in Bureij, Gaza Strip, November 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

The Israel Defense Forces tells Gazans it is opening a second evacuation route for those wishing to flee Gaza City as the military presses into the city.

The route, along Sala-al-Din Street in the southern Strip, will be open from noon today until noon on Friday, IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee announces in Arabic on his X account.

#عاجل ‼️ إعلان هام إلى سكان مدينة غزة وأحيائها،
⭕️يعلن جيش الدفاع أنه ومن أجل تسهيل الانتقال جنوباً يتم فتح مسار انتقال مؤقت عبر شارع صلاح الدين
⭕️سيُتاح لكم الانتقال عبر شارع صلاح الدين وثم مواصلة التحرك جنوباً من وادي غزة.
⭕️في هذه المرحلة، سيتاح الانتقال عبر هذا المسار لمدة 48… pic.twitter.com/PZMhtu4B51

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) September 17, 2025

Gazans until now have only been able to leave via a coastal road, which has been inundated with foot and vehicle traffic as thousands make their way out the city south to avoid the looming onslaught.

Salah al-Din, a main inland artery running to central Gaza, was used as a main evacuation route during an offensive in the city in the first months of the war.

Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza along the coastal road toward the south, after Israel’s military says its expanded operation in Gaza City has begun and warns residents to leave, Sept. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Gazan media sources, some linked to Hamas, report that Israeli forces continued to bombard the city and other parts of the Strip overnight, injuring or killing several people. The accounts cannot be immediately verified.

According to reports, booby-trapped unmanned vehicles were blown up in the northwest Tel al-Hawa neighborhood and in the south of the city.

Airstrikes and artillery fire are also reported in several areas around the city’s edges.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF on the reported attacks.

Israel accused of war crimes in southern Syria

FILE: Israeli soldiers on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, August 12, 2025. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

A report from NGO Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of forcible displacing Syrians in areas of southern Syria where the army has taken control, demolishing homes and blocking people from accessing agricultural lands in areas where military installations  are being built.

Israel Defense Forces troops took control of territory along the border in December 2024 following the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and typically operate within 15 kilometers of the frontier to thwart threats to Israel, including the entrenchment of Iran-backed armed groups.

“Rather than responding to an immediate threat, Israeli forces appear to have cleared and destroyed homes as part of a broader strategy to entrench their military presence,” a statement from the group says regarding Israeli actions it documented in the buffer zone village of al-Hamadiya, accusing the IDF of war crimes.

The report says the IDF defended its actions as complying with international law, claiming that the demolitions are an “operational necessity.”

The report also accuses Israel of arresting Syrians and transferring them across the border, actions that the report says the IDF admitted to, while defending the moves as intelligence based and subject to judicial oversight.

Pair of UK Labour MKs planning to visit West Bank denied entry to Israel

A pair of UK Labour lawmakers planning to visit the West Bank say they have been denied entry to Israel.

As part of a group organized by the Council for Arab-British Understanding, MPs Simon Opher and Peter Prinsley were also due to hold meetings in Jerusalem with British diplomats and human rights groups, according to a statement from the former’s office quoted by the Guardian.

“It is deeply regrettable that Israeli authorities prevented them from seeing first-hand the grave challenges facing medical facilities in the region and from hearing the British government’s assessment of the situation on the ground,” the statement says, adding that the purpose of the trip was to “enable members of parliament to witness the vital medical and humanitarian work of a range of organizations including Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in the occupied West Bank.”

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli Embassy in London or the Foreign Ministry.

Billboard in NYC’s Times Square calls on European soccer federations to boycott Israel

A coalition of advocacy organizations and fan groups calls on European soccer federations to boycott Israel in a Times Square billboard, kicking off the #GameOverIsrael campaign months ahead of the World Cup.

The billboard went up on Tuesday in New York, which is set to host eight matches in the World Cup next year, including the final. Canada and Mexico are co-hosting the quadrennial international competition with the United States.

The campaign calls on soccer federations in Belgium, England, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Scotland, and Spain to boycott the Israel national team and ban Israeli players from domestic competitions, citing the ongoing attacks in Gaza.

Reuters isn’t immediately able to reach FIFA, UEFA and the Israel Football Association for comment.

“As the United States prepares to host the FIFA World Cup in 2026, Americans must not allow our stadiums to become platforms for whitewashing war crimes,” says American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee National Executive Director Abed Ayoub in a statement.

The ADC launched the #GameOverIsrael initiative with several European partners.

“We stand with our European counterparts and demand that every football governing body take immediate and decisive action to bar Israel from international competition,” says Ayoub. “The world must tell Israel that the game is over, and there is no room in sports for war criminals.”

Canada decries ‘horrific’ Israeli ground offensive in Gaza City

Canada’s foreign ministry calls Israel’s new ground offensive in Gaza City “horrific.”

“It worsens the humanitarian crisis and jeopardizes the release of the hostages,” the foreign ministry says in a post on X. “The Government of Israel must adhere to international law.”

Japan won’t recognize Palestinian state at upcoming UN General Assembly — report

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, Japan, September 7, 2025. (Toru Hanai/Pool Photo via AP)

TOKYO — Japan will not recognize a Palestinian state for the time being, and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will skip a relevant meeting during the United Nations General Assembly this month, the Asahi newspaper reports, citing unnamed government sources.

Japan’s stance would run counter to moves to recognize a Palestinian state by France, Britain and Canada — its Group of Seven peers — as well as Australia. The stance aligns Japan with the United States, Israel’s closest ally, which has rejected the idea of recognizing a Palestinian state.

Within the G7, German and Italian officials have called an immediate recognition of Palestine “counterproductive.”

Cops disperse protesters calling for hostage deal outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem home

Police remove relatives of hostages and their supporters demonstrating outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem, September 16, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Police disperse demonstrators from a street near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Jerusalem, after they were encamped for some 24 hours protesting for a hostage-ceasefire deal.

The demonstrators, among them families of hostages, had been planning to spend a second night outside Netanyahu’s home in protest of the IDF’s recently launched ground offensive to take over Gaza City.

Footage from Jerusalem shows Border Police officers removing protesters one-by-one from the pavement.

“You guys will sleep well tonight — you won’t hear Ariel, you won’t hear David,” says one of the protesters as he is dragged away by cops, referring to Ariel and David Cunio, brothers held captive for nearly two years since being abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.

Earlier Tuesday, protesters arrived at Netanyahu’s heavily-guarded home and held a press conference from the street. Police covered fences surrounding the residence with tarps, a move which hostage families claimed was aimed at stifling protest.

Speaking through a megaphone, Maccabit Meir, the aunt of twin hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, railed against the operation in Gaza City.

“Who are you bringing all these buildings down on?” she said, addressing Netanyahu. “It could be that you’re bringing them down on Gali and Zivie, and on all the souls that remain there — alive and dead.”

Hannah Cohen, the aunt of slain Hamas hostage Inbar Haiman, demanded that the government reach a comprehensive deal to return all the captives, including her niece.

She called her niece the “embodiment of the partial deal — when all the women got out and Inbar was left behind.”

“We will no longer allow this and no longer agree to leaving even one hostage behind,” Cohen asserted.

Dermer to meet Syrian FM in Paris to discuss Israeli maps for south Syria border agreement

Israeli forces on the border fence with Syria, in the northern Israeli town of Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, May 9, 2025. (Michael Giladi/FLash90)

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will meet Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani tomorrow in Paris to discuss a new Israeli proposal for a security agreement regarding southwest Syria, according to Axios.

The two will be joined by US Syria envoy Tom Barrack to discuss the draft that Israel submitted several weeks ago, according to the report.

Israel wants a no-fly zone and demilitarized zone over its border in Syria, with no limits on Israeli deployment on its own territory.

Two officials tell Axios that the Israeli proposal is based on its 1979 agreement with Egypt, which divided the Sinai into three zones, each with its own limits on forces. The limits are strictest closest to Israel’s border.

The area closest to the border would have no Syrian military forces, but would allow police and domestic security forces. Syrian aircraft would be banned from flying over the territory between Damascus and the Israeli border.

A source tells Axios that Israel wants to maintain an air corridor there so that it can more easily strike Iran if needed.

In return, Israel would withdraw in stages from the buffer zone it established since Bashar al-Assad fell, but would remain on the peak of the Hermon, which it captured from Syria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is angling for a meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the UN General Assembly next week, according to an Israeli official, who adds that such a meeting is not likely to occur.

Syrian forces said to have withdrawn heavy weapons from south, near Israel border, Druze areas

A Syrian government tank is carried on a truck, withdrawing from Sweida city, pass on Daraa highway, southern Syria, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Syria has begun withdrawing heavy weapons from the country’s south as it works to reach an understanding with Israel, officials tell AFP.

The comments came after Syria said that it was working with the United States to reach mutual “security understandings” with Israel, which has demanded the demilitarization of the country’s south.

The announcement was part of a US- and Jordan-backed roadmap for restoring stability in the south following sectarian violence that drew Israeli intervention, and a Syrian military official told AFP that heavy weapons had been withdrawn from the area.

“Syrian forces have withdrawn their heavy weapons from southern Syria,” the military official tells AFP on condition of anonymity, adding the process began around two months ago, after the violence.

A diplomatic source in Damascus tells  AFP, also on condition of anonymity, that the withdrawal covered the country’s south up to about 10 kilometers (six miles) outside the capital.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said in August that his country was engaged in talks to establish a demilitarized zone in southern Syria.