The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they happened.
An IDF soldier was killed in today’s car-ramming attack in the West Bank, the military announces.
The slain troop is named as Staff Sgt. Inbar Avraham Kav, 20, of the Paratroopers Brigade’s 890th Battalion, from Lotem.
During the attack, a Palestinian assailant driving a truck accelerated toward Israeli troops at the Jit Junction, hitting Kav. The soldiers then opened fire on the driver, killing him.
According to an investigation by the army, after being hit by the truck, the slain soldier was also hit by gunfire as the other troops opened fire on the attacker.
Media outlets in the Gaza Strip report that the emergency department at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital has been evacuated due to the advance of IDF forces in the area, amid the operation to seize control of Gaza City.
In addition, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry’s secretary-general, Yusuf Abu Rish, announces that the IDF struck the al-Hilu Hospital in Gaza City with two shells, and the internet connection there is shut down.
The hospital is private and relatively small, covering an area of about 600 square meters (656 square yards).
The IDF has not yet issued a response to the reports.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he believes that there are still 20 living hostages held in Gaza, insisting that Israel is committed to releasing both the living and the dead, speaking in an interview with Fox News.
Asked if he believes 20 of the 48 hostages held by Hamas and other terror groups are still alive, the premier replies: “Yes, I do.”
“We’re committed to get them out, every last one of them, including the deceased hostages,” he adds, a day before his meeting with US President Donald Trump to discuss Washington’s Gaza ceasefire proposal, which would see all hostages released in the first 48 hours.
“Every nation now in the world, has to say one thing to Hamas. You know, release the hostages, all of them, and lay down your arms. And if you do that, the war can come to an end immediately,” Netanyahu says.
Earlier this month, Trump raised concern by remarking that “there could be a couple of dead in recent days” among the 20 hostages Israel has said it believes are alive.
Trump has repeatedly suggested publicly that fewer hostages are still living than Israel’s official figure, sparking alarm among hostage families who say they have not been updated on such developments.
The premier’s comments also come after Hamas said earlier today it had lost contact with two hostages — whose families requested they not be named — and called on Israel to stop aerial operations in particular areas of Gaza City where the terror group said the captives were being held.
In addition to the 20 hostages believed to be alive and the 26 confirmed dead by the military, there are two about whom Israel has expressed “graved concern.”
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa meets in New York with World Jewish Congress President and businessman Ronald Lauder.
The meeting is reported by the official Syrian news agency, which says the two discussed negotiations between Israel and Syria.
The two countries have been in talks over a security agreement, though Sharaa has said a full peace deal, or normalization along the lines of the Abraham Accords, is not currently on the table.
السيد الرئيس أحمد الشرع استقبل رئيس الكونغرس اليهودي العالمي رونالد لاودر في مقر البعثة السورية في نيويورك
📌الاجتماع تناول الحديث عن المفاوضات السورية الإسرائيلية وذلك على هامش اجتماعات الدورة الثمانين للجمعية العامة للأمم المتحدة
📌لادور ينحدر من أصول سورية وقد شارك في مسار… pic.twitter.com/Ah53RfisjN
— الإخبارية السورية (@AlekhbariahSY) September 28, 2025
Decades ago, Lauder was reported to have served as a mediator between Israel and Syria, shuttling messages between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, whose son Bashar was deposed by Sharaa’s Islamist forces and other rebels last December.
US President Donald Trump, in a phone interview with Reuters, tells the news agency he’s received a “very good response” from both Israel and Arab leaders about the US plan for an end to the war in Gaza.
“Everybody wants to make the deal,” Trump says, a day before he is slated to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House about the deal.
Trump says he hopes to finalize the deal during the meeting tomorrow, echoing comments he made earlier tonight to journalist Barak Ravid, that he hopes to announce a deal within the next two days.
Trump says the proposal is aimed not only at ending the war in Gaza, but at achieving a broader peace in the Middle East.
During a visit to the military’s main visual intelligence unit, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says the Intelligence Directorate is undergoing major changes following lessons learned from the October 7 onslaught.
“The Intelligence Directorate is undergoing a significant transformation, mainly based on the lessons of October 7,” Zamir says at the directorate’s Unit 9900, according to an IDF statement.
“Intelligence warning stands at the forefront of the directorate’s mission, and we must ensure that all our tasks support it,” he adds.
Unit 9900 is the military’s main visual intelligence, or VISINT, unit, operating Israel’s spy satellites, as well as reconnaissance planes and drones for the IDF’s needs.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir hand-delivered a secret memo to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz weeks ahead of the military offensive in Gaza City, warning that the operation lacked a “political endgame” and risked the lives of both hostages and soldiers, Channel 13 reports.
“IDF fighters are returning to the same places without a political purpose,” the letter read, according to the report, which comes a day before Netanyahu is set to discuss a US proposal for ending the Gaza war with US President Donald Trump in Washington.
“The operational actions endanger the hostages — whose condition is deteriorating,” Zamir reportedly wrote, stressing that “every operation needs a political endgame. There is no political endgame,” and writing that Israel “refuses to find an alternative to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”
An IDF spokesperson confirms the document’s existence to Channel 13, calling it “an extremely sensitive and secret” memo that was delivered directly to the prime minister and the defense minister.
The spokesperson warns that “leaking its contents to unauthorized parties constitutes a breach of state security.”
Parents of soldiers serving in Gaza react angrily to the Channel 13 report, telling the network: “We are appalled… According to the Chief of Staff himself — he is sending our children to die and be wounded without purpose. Our children’s lives are not expendable… This is the time for the parents of the fighters to stand up and stop this pointless war.”
One person is killed and several others injured in a shooting at a Mormon church in Michigan; the building was also set on fire, according to authorities.
The suspect, a 40-year-old man from a nearby town, was shot dead by law enforcement after the attack, police say, without specifying any possible motive.
US President Donald Trump calls the shooting “horrendous” and says on his Truth Social platform it “appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”
Local police chief William Renye tells reporters the suspect drove his vehicle through the front doors of the church and then began firing at people inside with an assault rifle.
He says the service was active with “hundreds of people within the church.”
Authorities believe the gunman also deliberately set fire to the church before he was killed by responding police officers, Renye says.
Ten gunshot victims were transported to hospital, including one who has died, the official says.
He adds that the fire has been extinguished but that “we do believe that we will find additional victims once we have that scene secure.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams drops his reelection run, in a boost to former governor Andrew Cuomo, an Israel supporter, against the anti-Israel frontrunner, Zohran Mamdani.
Adams was polling in a distant third, weighed down by his dealings with the Trump administration and alleged corruption in the city government and his circle.
Adams announces that he’s quitting the race in a lengthy video posted to social media.
“Some remain unsure of me after the unfortunate events surrounding my federal case. I was wrongfully charged because I fought for this city and if I had to do it again I would fight for New York again,” he says.
“Despite all we’ve achieved I cannot continue my reelection campaign. The constant media speculation about my future and the campaign finance board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign,” Adams says.
“I hope you will see, despite the headlines and innuendo, I always put you before me,” he adds.
Only in America. Only in New York.
Thank you for making my story a reality. pic.twitter.com/efHuyBnITJ— Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) September 28, 2025
Israel’s security establishment has been excluded from discussions on US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war, with details withheld even from IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and the security cabinet, Channel 12 reports, without citing sources.
A day ahead of his White House meeting with Trump to discuss and possibly finalize the framework, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has kept the process tightly held through a small circle including his top advisor, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and his military secretary, Roman Gofman, according to the Hebrew network.
The report notes that Netanyahu held a similar policy of secrecy regarding the Abraham Accords normalization agreements during Trump’s last term, and around potential Saudi normalization leading up to the war in Gaza.
The reported exclusion comes despite the high-level security considerations surrounding the framework, under which the war would end immediately, hostages would be released within 48 hours, and the IDF would gradually withdraw under US guarantees.
The Prime Minister’s Office does not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Israel Prisons Chief Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi and Chanamel Dorfman, a close aide to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, are summoned by the Department of Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) for questioning under caution, in connection with a probe into negligent policing of settler violence in the West Bank.
The DIPI obtained a conditional arrest order against Dorfman from the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court today, which it requested because Dorfman declined to say whether he would present himself for questioning, although he did eventually do so of his own accord.
Yaakobi and Dorfman were summoned for questioning today following new developments in the investigation, after police gleaned information pertinent to the case from Dorfman’s phone, which had been confiscated earlier this year.
Commander Avishai Muallem, head of the Judea and Samaria Police District’s investigations and intelligence department, is suspected of deliberately failing to properly carry out investigations into Jewish, far-right extremists in the West Bank in order to curry favor with Ben Gvir.
Dorfman, who formerly served as Ben Gvir’s chief of staff in the ministry, is suspected of trying to influence police investigations regarding Jewish extremists in the Judea and Samaria police district, and was in contact with Muallem over such investigations.
Yaakobi is under suspicion for allegedly having informed Muallem that he was a central suspect in the investigation, which would constitute obstruction and breach of trust. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara announced in July that she is considering filing an indictment, subject to a hearing, against Yaakobi, although such an indictment is yet to be served.
Ben Gvir, in response, accuses Baharav-Miara of “operating DIPI as a private militia for settling scores and stitching up cases to eliminate right-wing rule,” and dubs her “the criminal who has been fired” in reference to the government’s efforts to remove her from office.
The far-right minister says he gives Yaakobi and Dorfman his full backing and says they are both examples of “exemplary civil servants who are dedicated to the State of Israel.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting now with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, says journalist Barak Ravid on Channel 12.
The meeting aims to narrow remaining gaps on a deal to end the Gaza war, he reports, with Israel’s main concerns focused on securing stronger guarantees for Hamas disarmament and rejecting a Palestinian Authority role in postwar Gaza.
US President Donald Trump tells the Axios news site and Channel 12 news that talks over Washington’s plan to end the war in Gaza are “at their final stages,” expressing hope that an agreement could be announced within the next two days, following his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House tomorrow.
“Everybody has come together to get a deal, but we still have to get it done,” Trump tells Axios reporter Barak Ravid in a phone interview, adding: “The Arab countries were fantastic to work with on this, and Hamas is coming with them. [Hamas has] great respect for the Arab world.”
“The Arab world wants peace, Israel wants peace and Bibi wants peace,” Trump says, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
Trump adds that his plan aims not only to end the Gaza war but also to open the door to wider regional peace.
“If we get this done, it will be a great day for Israel and for the Middle East,” he says. “It will be the first chance for real peace in the Middle East. But we have to get it done first.”
Speaking on Israel’s Channel 12, Ravid adds that Trump said he hopes to finalize an agreement during Monday’s meeting and announce it the same day or the next.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban released a US citizen from custody on Sunday after a visit by Washington’s hostage envoy Adam Boehler, an official tells Reuters.
Amir Amiri, who had been detained in Afghanistan since December 2024, was released through Qatari mediation and on his way to Doha on Sunday evening, says the source, who asked not to be identified by name or nationality.
Hamas publishes footage from its large-scale assault on an IDF encampment in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis last month.
The military said that troops managed to successfully repel the attack on August 20, during which 15 of the Hamas gunmen were killed — in gun battles, tank shelling, airstrikes, and in one case, being run over by a tank.
Three IDF soldiers were injured while exchanging fire with some of the gunmen in a building they managed to enter, one seriously and two lightly.
Fighting inside the encampment lasted no longer than 10 minutes before the gunmen began attempting to flee back to a tunnel from which they emerged, according to the IDF’s probe.
Despite successfully repelling the attack, the military said it was a failure that the gunmen had managed to infiltrate the encampment.
In all, some eight Hamas gunmen were killed inside the post and in the area surrounding it, and around another seven operatives — who had been launching mortars — were eliminated on the outskirts, mainly by airstrikes. Approximately eight gunmen managed to flee back to the tunnel, the IDF probe found.
🔻 ضمن سلسلة عمليات "حجارة داود"| كتائب القسام تنشر جانبًا من الإغارة على موقع العدو المستحدث جنوب شرق مدينة #خان_يونس بتاريخ 20-08-2025 #طوفان_الأقصى pic.twitter.com/w5wo94BsDu
— شاهد المسيرة (@ShahidAlmasirah) September 28, 2025
A Hamas Nukhba Force commander who led the killing and kidnapping of Israelis from a roadside bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re’im during the October 7, 2023, onslaught was killed in a recent airstrike in the Gaza Strip, the IDF and Shin Bet announce.
According to the military, Hassan Mahmoud Hassan Hussein served as a Nukha company commander in Hamas’s Bureij Battalion.
Hussein, alongside another Nukhba force commander, Muhammad Abu Attawi, led the attack on a bomb shelter near Re’im where partygoers from the Nova festival had fled to.
Four people were taken hostage alive from the shelter and 16 were murdered. Seven managed to survive and were later rescued.
Hussein was also involved in attacks on troops during the war in Gaza, the IDF says.
Attawi, the other Nukba commander involved in the attack on the Re’im shelter, was killed in an Israeli strike in October 2024.
The IDF confirms carrying out airstrikes in southern Lebanon a short while ago, saying it hit Hezbollah weapon depots.
The storage facilities hit by the Israeli Air Force were being used by Hezbollah to advance attacks against Israel, the military says, adding that their presence “constitutes a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
צה״ל תקף מחסני אמצעי לחימה של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון
לפני זמן קצר, צה״ל בהובלת פיקוד הצפון, תקף באמצעות כלי טיס של חיל האוויר, מחסני אמצעי לחימה של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון ששימשו את הארגון לקידום וביצוע מתווי טרור נגד מדינת ישראל.
הימצאות תשתיות טרור אלו… pic.twitter.com/kEInX8zRtg
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 28, 2025
Speaking to Fox News ahead of his meeting tomorrow with US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the Abraham Accords are not threatened by Israel’s recent strike against Hamas leaders in Doha or by the ongoing war in Gaza.
He argues that, on the contrary, the normalization agreements “will be expanded” as a result of peace efforts in cooperation with Trump.
“I think there are many possibilities for peace, which I’m discussing with President Trump and his team, and we plan to seize them. I think you’ll see that not only are the Abraham Accords not endangered, they’ll be expanded to other countries,” Netanyahu tells the network, when pressed about his defense of the strike despite the harsh blowback from Gulf leaders, including the United Arab Emirates, which normalized ties under the accords.
“The Abraham Accords, brokered by President Trump with me and the leader of the UAE, I think they’ve been remarkably resilient and strong. We’ve been after two years of war and they’ve held up very well. We’ve got commerce going both ways,” the premier says.
Netanyahu reiterates his support of the strike in Qatar, saying, “I think that the United States and any self-respecting country doesn’t give a pass to terrorists. Of course, we weren’t attacking Qatar any more than [the US was] attacking Pakistan when [it] took out [former Al-Qaeda leader Osama] Bin Laden.”
Addressing a clause within Washington’s 21-point plan for ending the war in Gaza that would bar Israel from carrying out future strikes in Qatar, the premier says, “These things, again, will be worked out because our goal was that. Our goal was Hamas, not anything beyond it. I think we can work out an understanding on this.”
Footage shows the Israeli Air Force strike that leveled a high-rise building in Gaza City a short while ago.
The military said the building was used by Hamas.
It had issued an evacuation order for those in the vicinity of the building prior to conducting the airstrike.
Watch | The moment Israeli occupation airstrikes completely flattened the Makka residential tower that consisted of 16 floors and 65 apartments in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, west of Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/YiwuzFFEI5
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) September 28, 2025
The Kan public broadcaster, citing a source close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reports that “significant gaps” remain between the premier and the White House on the conditions for ending the war in the Gaza Strip.
According to the report, Netanyahu, who is set to meet with Trump tomorrow, changed his schedule today in order to meet with his own inner circle of advisors.
He is also expected to meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff before meeting with the US president, the report says.
Speaking to Fox News about Washington’s 21-point plan for ending the war in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel would allow Hamas leaders safe passage if they end the war and release all the hostages, while reiterating his rejection of the Palestinian Authority as a viable ruler of postwar Gaza.
Ahead of his planned meeting with US President Donald Trump tomorrow, Netanyahu stresses that “the details of this have to be worked out,” while telling the network that “if Hamas leaders finish the war, release all the hostages, we let them out.”
“That is something that I’ve said in the past, but it has to be worked out. All of that, I think, is part of the plan. I’m not going to preempt it, because we’re having these discussions exactly right now,” he adds.
Netanyahu also reaffirms his long-standing opposition to the PA governing Gaza after the war — a stance he strongly restated last week at the United Nations General Assembly.
Doubting the PA’s ability to abandon incitement and terror financing, he says: “I haven’t changed my positions, and I think that the credibility or the likelihood of the things — a reformed Palestinian Authority that changes completely its stripes, that accepts the Jewish state, that teaches its children to embrace coexistence… If all that is turned on its head… well, good luck. Some people will believe it happens. I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Under the US plan, revealed by The Times of Israel, once the hostages are freed, Hamas members who commit to peaceful coexistence would be granted amnesty, while those who wish to leave Gaza would receive safe passage to third countries.
The proposal also outlines a potential pathway to a future Palestinian state, contingent on Gaza’s redevelopment and a comprehensive reform of the Palestinian Authority.
Lebanese media reports Israeli airstrikes near the southern Lebanon town of Jarmaq, close to Nabatieh.
The IDF has not yet commented.
غارات إسرائيلية تستهدف الجرمق في النبطية pic.twitter.com/0RmrMGtUrQ
— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) September 28, 2025
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is currently working with US President Donald Trump’s administration to advance the American 21-point plan for ending the war in Gaza, in an interview with Fox News.
“We’re working on it,“ Netanyahu tells the network when asked about the plan, speaking from New York a day before his meeting with Trump at the White House tomorrow.
“It’s not been finalized yet, but we’re working with President Trump’s team, actually, as we speak,” he continues.
“I hope we can make it a go, because we want to free our hostages, we want to get rid of Hamas rule, and have them disarmed, Gaza demilitarized, and a new future set up for Gazans and Israelis alike, and for the whole region,” the premier says.
Following an evacuation warning, the IDF says it struck a high-rise tower in Gaza City that was being used by Hamas.
According to the military, Hamas set up “military infrastructure” in the building, which was used to advance attacks on Israeli troops in the area.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled his scheduled participation in a Jewish News Syndicate conference in New York City this afternoon, his office confirms.
Netanyahu is reportedly using the time to prepare for his meeting tomorrow with US President Donald Trump in Washington.
The cancellation comes shortly before Netanyahu appears on Fox News.
US President Donald Trump will attend a meeting with US generals and admirals in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday, a rare gathering of the country’s military leadership in one location, the Washington Post reports, citing a planning document.
There is no immediate comment from the White House on Trump attending the meeting.
At the meeting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to discuss the need to adhere to a “warrior ethos” throughout the military and could touch on other areas during the roughly one-hour-long event, US officials told Reuters on Friday.
The US has troops around the world, including in distant locations like South Korea, Japan and across the Middle East — which are commanded by two-, three- and four-star generals and admirals.
In almost every public speech he gives, Hegseth talks about the “warrior ethos” and the need for the US military to have a warrior mentality.
Israeli troops operating in Gaza City earlier today killed a Hamas operative who attempted to plant a bomb next to an armored personnel carrier, the military says.
According to the IDF, the troops spotted the operative and opened fire on him as he tried to detonate the bomb against a Namer APC.
A short while later, an additional cell of Hamas gunmen was identified in the area, and the forces called in a drone strike that killed them, the army adds.
The incident took place during operations of the 188th Armored Brigade and Bislamach Brigade — the IDF’s School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders — under the 98th Division.
The army issues footage showing the operative who was killed trying to approach the troops, and airstrikes directed by the forces.
US Vice President JD Vance says the Trump administration is “at the one-yard line” with its Gaza peace plan and is very optimistic about the chances for “punch[ing] it through the end zone,” while acknowledging that “things can get derailed at the very last minute.”
Vance’s comments to Fox News were slightly more cautious than those coming from US President Donald Trump, who told reporters Friday, “I think we have a deal on Gaza” and earlier today wrote on Truth Social that “ALL ARE ON BOARD.”
Israel has yet to sign off on the proposal, and Hamas hasn’t even been presented with it yet, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The source said that Arab countries have submitted recommended edits to the 21-point plan they were presented last week, and the US is expected to finalize the proposal today.
Trump acknowledged last week that he’ll have to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the plan can be finalized. That meeting is scheduled for tomorrow.
“There’s a very complicated negotiation happening right now between Arab leaders, between the Israelis and between the Trump administration led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” Vance tells Fox News.
“Those conversations are happening as we speak. They’re ongoing over the course of the past couple of days,” he adds.
“The President’s optimism is warranted here. I feel more optimistic about where we are right now than where we have been at any point in the last few months,” Vance continues. “But let’s be realistic, these things can get derailed at the very last minute. So while I remain very hopeful, I am cautiously hopeful.”
He says the US proposal accomplishes Washington’s three goals: releasing the hostages, making sure Hamas is no longer a “terror threat” to Israel and ensuring that aid can enter Gaza “for the many innocent people who are caught up in the conflict.”
The Fox News reporter then incorrectly claims that Trump said earlier this week that he would not allow Gaza to be controlled by Israel, apparently referring to the president’s assertion that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.
Vance responds to the question by saying that Trump “wants Gaza to be controlled by the people who live there. He wants the West Bank to be controlled by the people who live there, and he wants the terrorist networks that are around the Israelis to be dismantled so they can no longer pose a threat to Israel.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah says that many details of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza are “in line with what has been agreed upon,” the Jordanian state news agency reports.
He does not give further details on the plan itself or what it entails.
Trump has said he is close to forging a deal to end the war in Gaza and return the hostages held by terror groups there.
Last week, the US president indicated that he’d need to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is set to visit the White House Monday, in order for the plan to be finalized.
It’s unclear whether Israel is actually on board with the plan, which was revealed yesterday by The Times of Israel, and Hamas said today that it has yet to even receive it.
An international flotilla that paused for several days in Greek waters for repairs sets sail again for Gaza, where activists aim to break Israel’s naval blockade and deliver symbolic aid to the war-torn enclave.
Organizers say that Greek vessels have now joined their enterprise, meaning that the flotilla, which counts some 47 civilian boats, is “complete.”
“Brothers and sisters in Gaza, we sail with hope in our hearts. Your resilience is our compass, your struggle is our struggle. Together, we will break the silence of the siege,” the Global Sumud Flotilla writes on social media.
Some 40 Italians are aboard the flotilla alongside activists from dozens of other countries, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg. They hope to bring a small quantity of symbolic humanitarian aid to Gaza in the coming week.
— Ounka (@OunkaOnX) September 28, 2025
Israel has intercepted previous flotillas, which it has described as publicity stunts, and vowed to stop this one from breaching its blockade.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani repeats a proposal made last week for the flotilla to take the aid to Cyprus for eventual distribution in Gaza by the Roman Catholic Church. The flotilla has rejected the suggestion.
“We have always said…that it is dangerous to approach Israeli waters. We don’t know what might happen. Forcing the blockade is dangerous,” Tajani tells reporters.
A planned visit to Egypt by United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has been postponed for the time being, a US official tells The Times of Israel, shortly after an American embassy spokesperson confirmed to AFP that the envoy was set to make a rare visit to Cairo.
“This familiarization trip reflects the United States’ ongoing commitment to maintaining open and constructive dialogue with regional partners to advance shared goals in the region,” the spokesman told AFP, without providing further details or a date for the visit.
The planned talks are expected to center on the Gaza war, which has strained Israel–Egypt ties, and comes days after a new plan for ending the war emerged under US President Donald Trump in talks with Arab and Muslim leaders.
The New York Times, which first reported the expected visit, said it would be the first visit to Egypt of an American ambassador to Israel in decades.
The IDF issues an evacuation warning for Palestinians residing in the vicinity of a building in Gaza City ahead of an airstrike.
“The IDF will strike the building soon due to the presence of Hamas terror infrastructure inside or nearby,” the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, says.
Civilians have been instructed to leave Gaza City for the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in the Strip’s south. More than 780,000 of the estimated one million Palestinians in Gaza City have so far evacuated, according to IDF estimates.
#عاجل ‼️ انذار عاجل إلى كل من لم يخل بعد مدينة غزة وخاصة أحياء الرمال والصبرة ومنطقة المرفأ وبالقرب من البرج المحدد بالأحمر والخيم المجاورة له في شارع بيروت
⭕️سيهاجم جيش الدفاع المبنى في الوقت القريب نظرًا لوجود بنى تحتية إرهابية لحماس داخله أو بجواره
⭕️من أجل سلامتكم أنتم… pic.twitter.com/kKXZRksVWj
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) September 28, 2025
The Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee votes to advance a bill to double state support for veterans’ and terror victims’ organizations, setting annual allocations at NIS 150 million for IDF disabled veterans’ groups and NIS 10 million for associations of civilians harmed in attacks and their families.
The bill will now move to a second and third reading in the Knesset plenum.
The legislation was introduced by Likud MK Ofir Katz and opposition members Yisrael Beytenu MK Sharon Nir and Yesh Atid MK Yorai Lahav-Hertzano, reflecting unusually broad agreement for the need to strengthen rehabilitation and support frameworks.
“It is the duty of the State of Israel to stand as a solid wall behind those who did everything to protect us all,” says Nir. “On these issues, there is no coalition or opposition — only uncompromising commitment to IDF soldiers and victims of hostilities.”
The law establishes a permanent funding framework. Funds will be directed toward rehabilitation, sports, cultural, and social programs, as well as construction and renovation of facilities such as Beit Halocem centers, which serve as rehabilitation hubs for disabled veterans. For the first time, the law allows direct state funding for building and upgrading these centers.
Support for victims of terror and bereaved families will also expand, with allocations for welfare, rehabilitation, and community programs, as well as new and upgraded facilities.
A Palestinian suspect who attempted to carry out a car-ramming at the Jit Junction in the West Bank was shot dead by troops, the military says.
One Israeli man in his 20s was seriously wounded in the incident, medics say. According to a preliminary investigation by the army, he was hit in the crossfire as the soldiers opened fire on the suspected attacker.
Magen David Adom took the man to a hospital for treatment.
Denmark orders a ban on civil drone flights, after drones were observed at several military facilities overnight, following a week in which drone sorties caused the temporary closures of several Danish airports.
The Danish military says in a statement it has deployed “several capacities” in response to the overnight sightings at bases, declining further comment on the nature of its response.
Drone sorties earlier this week forced Denmark to shut airports, including a nearly four-hour closure of Copenhagen Airport on Monday.
Denmark has called the drones part of a “hybrid attack.” It has stopped short of saying definitively who it believes is responsible, but Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has suggested it could be Moscow, calling Russia the primary “country that poses a threat to European security.” The Kremlin denies blame.
Under the ban, civilian drones will be barred from Danish airspace from Monday through Friday of the coming week, when Denmark, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU for the second half of this year, will be hosting European leaders.
The driver who carried out a suspected car-ramming attack at Jit Junction in the West Bank was shot by security forces at the scene, according to first responders.
One Israeli man in his 20s was seriously wounded in the incident, medics say. The cause of the man’s injury is under investigation, including the possibility that he was potentially caught in the crossfire as troops shot at the suspect.
An Israeli man in his 20s is seriously wounded in a suspected car-ramming attack at the West Bank’s Jit Junction, Magen David Adom says.
The ambulance service says it is treating the man, who has sustained a severe head injury.
The IDF says it received reports of an attack at the junction, close to the Palestinian town of Jit and the Israeli settlement of Kedumim, but did not provide further details.
Medics are responding to reports of a suspected car-ramming attack at Jit junction, close to the West Bank Palestinian town of the same name and the Israeli settlement of Kedumim.
At least one person is reported injured.
The IDF says it has received reports of an attack at Jit junction, and further details are being looked into.
The IDF says it foiled another attempt to smuggle weapons into Israel from Egypt via drone today.
Troops located the drone after it crossed the border and it was found to be ferrying three assault rifles, the military says.
In the past year, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egyptian border using drones. There have also been attempts to smuggle similar contraband from Israel into Gaza using drones.
US President Donald Trump declares, “We have a real chance for GREATNESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST. ALL ARE ON BOARD FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL.”
“FIRST TIME EVER. WE WILL GET IT DONE!!!” Trump writes in another all-cap post on Truth Social.
He appears to be referring to the US plan for ending the war in Gaza.
Last week, he indicated that he’d need to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first in order for the plan to be finalized.
Netanyahu is set to visit the White House tomorrow.
It’s unclear whether Israel is actually on board with the plan, which was revealed yesterday by The Times of Israel, and Hamas said today that it has yet to even receive it.
Hamas’s military wing announces that contact with two hostages has been lost due to “military operations and violent strikes in the Sabra and Tel al-Hawa neighborhoods of Gaza City over the past 48 hours.”
In its statement, the military wing demands that the IDF “withdraw to the south of Street Eight (one of the streets in Gaza City) and halt aerial sorties for 24 hours starting at 6 p.m. today so that attempts can be made to extract the prisoners (hostages).”
The statement’s apparent indication of the hostages’ exact location is unprecedented.
The families of the two hostages request that Israeli media do not publish their names.
Four people have been charged with torching garbage receptacles near the Prime Minister’s Residence earlier this month as part of an anti-government protest, the State Attorney’s Office says.
The four are named as Lt. Col. (res.) Amos Doron, a 60-year-old reservist and anti-government protester, Mark Foigel, 57, Shmuel Rueveni, 61, and Eyal Giller, 54.
They are each charged with five counts of committing arson, malicious damage, and obstruction of justice as well as one count each of aggravated destruction of a car, all of which were done as part of a conspiracy to commit the crimes, the indictments allege.
The fires were set during a day of mass protests throughout Jerusalem on September 3 as demonstrators rallied for a hostage deal and end to the war. The blazes spread to destroy a local resident’s car and forced residents in nearby buildings to evacuate their homes. No injuries were reported.
According to the charge sheet filed in Jerusalem District Court, the four intended to create a “ring of fire” around Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Rehavia residence, plotting and coordinating their actions in advance, including casing the dumpsters they planned on setting alight ahead of time.
The prosecution has asked the court to deny bail for the four until the end of legal proceedings. Judge Mordechai Burstyn refused requests by the defendants attorneys to have the men released to house arrest.
The Shin Bet security agency is investigating the apparent failure of this month’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar, Ynet news reports.
The attack carried out by Israeli Air Force fighter jets on a building in Doha on September 9 is not believed to have killed any of Hamas’s top leadership, who were the intended targets. The attack killed several lower-ranking members of the group, including bodyguards and a Qatari security officer
Unusually, the intelligence on the targets was provided by the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, and not the Mossad, which is normally responsible for overseas operations. Ynet reports that the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate played a minor role in the strike.
According to the outlet, the Shin Bet is investigating the reliability of the information regarding the location of the Hamas officials, and its recommendation to use precision munitions that only hit part of the building. There have been unverified reports that the Hamas leaders were in another part of the building that was not badly hit in the strike.
There is no comment from the Shin Bet on the report.
After the Knesset National Security Committee votes to advance a bill imposing the death penalty on terrorists for its first reading in the full plenum, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hostage point man says he requested from the premier that the bill not be brought for a vote before the cabinet discusses the matter, warning that the measure endangers the lives of hostages in Gaza.
“The mission is the return of the hostages — both the living and the fallen. I asked the prime minister that the issue being discussed today in the committee not be brought to the plenum before a thorough discussion is held in the cabinet, where I will be able to present the full picture and my own assessment. That’s how it shall be,” Gal Hirsch writes in a Hebrew-language post on X.
While Netanyahu does not have the authority to halt the vote – a decision that rests with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana – Hirsch is likely hoping the premier will press Ohana to delay the bill being put on the Knesset agenda.
“This discussion does not help us. I came here today to express my position, to disagree with the assessment of the minister and the committee chair, and to request nonetheless that this discussion not take place,” Hirsch told the committee ahead of the vote.
Hirsch notably has not joined Netanyahu or the delegations of hostage families who traveled to the United States ahead of the UN General Assembly and Netanyahu’s meeting tomorrow with US President Donald Trump.
Several Arab states have suggested changes to a US proposal for ending the war in Gaza, including giving the Palestinian Authority an ancillary role immediately following the cessation in fighting, Qatari channel al-Arabi reports, citing unnamed sources.
According to the report, which does not name the states, other changes include a demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip — something the plan as currently reported only lays out in vague terms — as well as Hamas ceasing armed activity, but not getting rid of its weapons, as the plan currently calls for. They also reportedly proposed Palestinian management of the enclave by technocrats under the sponsorship of an international council, though that appears to already be included in the plan.
Arab and Muslim countries briefed last week on the 21-point US plan for ending the Gaza war have over the past several days been submitting recommended edits for Washington to consider before the proposal is finalized today, an Arab diplomat tells The Times of Israel.
The plan, obtained by The Times of Israel, includes a role for the PA in the postwar management of Gaza only at some time in the future when needed reforms are implemented, rather than immediately after the war.
According to the report, the suggested changes will be presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his meeting with US President Donald Trump tomorrow.
Half of the spouses of reserve soldiers say their marital relationship was damaged as a result of their military service and 30 percent say they considered separation or divorce, the Central Bureau of Statistics says in its first report on the impact of reserve duty service on families since the outbreak of the war in Gaza nearly two years ago.
Of those married to reservists who served 50 days or fewer, only 36% reported harm to their relationship, the bureau says. That figure spiked to 57% for spouses of those who served 250 to 350 days.
The survey finds that 52% of the spouses reported a negative change in their children’s mental state following reserve service. For those whose spouses served 200-250 days, 63% reported a negative change in their children’s mental state.
Following reserve duty, 61% of the spouses of reserve soldiers say that they needed some kind of assistance. Of these, 55% needed psychological or emotional assistance, and 38% needed financial assistance. Spouses were more likely to seek psychological help the longer their partner served for.
According to the survey, 35% of the couples sought counseling once the reserve service was complete.
Israel hails today’s reimposition of United Nations so-called snapback sanctions against Iran as a “major development,” the Foreign Ministry says in a statement.
“This is a major development in response to Iran’s ongoing violations, especially on its military nuclear program,” writes the ministry on X.
“The goal is clear: prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. The world must use every tool to achieve this goal,” it adds.
The Knesset National Security Committee has voted to approve a bill imposing the death penalty on terrorists for its first reading.
The bill is approved despite the warning of the committee’s legal adviser Iddo Ben Yitzhak, who asserts that any vote held on the bill during Knesset’s recess is invalid.
He claims that the committee’s discussion preceding the vote did not include input from representatives of security agencies and lacked a substantive debate on the bill’s provisions.
During the debate, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s point man on hostages Gal Hirsch warned that the move could negatively impact those held in Gaza and efforts to free them.
The bill, introduced by Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech, passes in a 4-1 vote. Its sole opponent is The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv, who was removed from the discussion following an outburst.
Shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange are on the rise amid cautious optimism about a new US-led proposal to end the war in Gaza.
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-125 index gains 2.3 percent in late morning trading, recouping the 1.5% it has fallen this month. The index is still up over 26% from the start of the year.
The TA-35 index of blue-chip companies rises 2.1%. The TA-90 index, which tracks the shares with the highest capitalization not included in the TA-35 index, leaps 2.9%, and the TA-Insurance index soars 5.3%.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US over the weekend is fueling investor expectations for a pathway to a ceasefire deal to end the prolonged war in Gaza,” IBI investment house chief economist Rafi Gozlan tells The Times of Israel.
But investors could be in for a bumpy ride depending on how the proposals shake out, he warns.
“We are likely to see a more volatile market in the coming days as the real test for the materialization of the proposals is still ahead of us when Netanyahu returns from the visit,” Gozlan says.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry says the death toll from the war in Gaza has surpassed 66,000, after 79 people were killed in past 24 hours.
The ministry’s tally of 66,005 since October 7, 2023, cannot be confirmed and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Israel said it hit some 140 targets from the air over the past day and deepened operational control in parts of Gaza City, where it has waged an intensified offensive for nearly two weeks.
Witnesses and medics say Israeli tanks deepened their incursions in the Sabra, Tel Al-Hawa, Sheikh Radwan and Al-Naser neighborhoods, closing in on the heart and the western areas of Gaza City. Hundreds of thousands of people remain in the city despite Israeli calls for all of the city’s million residents to leave.
Reuters contributed to this report.
A Jerusalem man arrested after his caregiver was found dead earlier this month is named as Shimon Gutman, an 83-year-old who served time over four decades ago for a deadly mail bombing, Hebrew media reports.
Gutman is suspected in the death of Haviva Vashdi, 67, who was found dead at Gutman’s home last week after she went missing days earlier. According to reports, she was found stabbed to death.
Gutman was convicted of mailing an explosive to his mother-in-law in 1980 in revenge for what he claimed was his ruined marriage. The mother-in-law and two others were killed when she opened the package at a Givatayim post office. Gutman served 18 years in prison for the killings.
The return of widespread sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program “must not be the end of diplomacy” with the Islamic Republic, the European Union’s top diplomat says.
While the bloc will follow the United Nations in reimposing sanctions, “a sustainable solution to the Iranian nuclear issue can only be achieved through negotiations,” Kaja Kallas says in a statement.
The Lod District Court sentences seven men to between 12 and 14 years in prison for their role in the death of Yigal Yehoshua in 2021 during a riot that took place during a short war in Gaza that year.
The seven men, all Arab Israeli citizens, were convicted in May this year on charges of causing injury with terrorist motivations and other crimes, over their role in pelting Yehoshua’s car with rocks, bricks and other objects as he made his way to his home in Lod in May 2021.
The seven men were originally charged with causing Yehoshua’s death, but due to “significant evidentiary problems” were convicted on the lesser charges in a plea bargain.
In handing down the sentences, the Lod court noted that the assailants had been “triggered” by a rock-throwing incident committed by Jewish rioters in the city prior to the fatal attack on Yehoshua, and that the seven Arab men had not acted in a premeditated manner.
The court finds, however, that the attack on Yehoshua was carried out with “nationalistic motivations and as an act of terrorism.”
Alongside the prison sentences, the court awards Yehoshua’s family NIS 900,000 ($268,000) in compensation from the attackers.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir insists that a bill to impose the death penalty on terrorists will “allow us to bring the hostages home,” and says he rejected a request to push off discussion of the controversial measure over concerns that it could complicate efforts to free them.
Ben Gvir tells the Knesset National Security Committee, which is holding a meeting to advance the legislation, that the bill will “bring deterrence” and “advance the return of the hostages” while showing Hamas that “there is a price tag for what they did” on October 7.
He tells the committee that “people in the Prime Minister’s Office reached out to me and asked to delay the discussion, and the answer is no.”
“They told us that we cannot change the conditions of the terrorists in jails,” he says, claiming he faced opposition from the premier’s allies “who told us… it’s not right, not appropriate, that it will infuriate the terrorists and could result in an intifada.”
Israeli official fear the passage of such a law will set back talks for the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian terror convicts.
Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for hostages and missing persons, warns the panel of potential risk to the lives of the hostages still held by Hamas should the Knesset legislate the death penalty.
“It’s not for nothing that we’re requesting not to hold this discussion,” he says. “Especially when we are in a joint military and diplomatic process to return the hostages.”
The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv is removed from the meeting by security guards after lambasting Ben Gvir over a taunting visit he staged to the cell of Palestinian terror convict Marwan Barghouti.
“Shame on you, there are hostages,” he shouts before being led out.
The Hamas terror group releases a statement confirming that that it has not received any new proposals for a ceasefire in Gaza, after elements of US President Donald Trump’s 21-point plan to end the war and free hostages were presented to mediators and emerged in media reports.
The Hamas statement says negotiations have been suspended since September 9, when Israel carried out a strike in Qatar.
The group adds that it is ready to examine any proposal conveyed to it through mediators “positively and responsibly, in a way that safeguards the rights of the Palestinian people.”
The plan was shared by the US with a handful of Arab and Muslim countries last week on the United Nations General Assembly sidelines. On Friday Trump said of talks surrounding the plan that “all of the countries within the region are involved, Hamas is very much aware of these discussions, and Israel has been informed at all levels, including Bibi Netanyahu,” referring to the premier by his nickname.
The plan was obtained by The Times of Israel and authenticated by two sources familiar with the matter on Saturday.
The Iranian rial has plummeted to a record low against the US dollar after the reinstatement of United Nations sanctions, according to currency-tracking websites.
On the black market, the currency is trading at around 1.12 million rials against the dollar, the Bonbast and AlanChand websites report.
The exchange rate had been slightly above one million rials to the greenback about a month ago.
The Israeli Air Force struck some 140 targets in the Gaza Strip in the past day, including buildings used by terror groups, operatives, and other infrastructure, the military says.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said yesterday that 77 Palestinians had been confirmed dead by Israeli fire during the previous 24 hours.
The strikes come as ground troops from three IDF divisions continue to push into Gaza City.
In one incident in Gaza City, the military says troops of the Golani Brigade spotted a cell of five Hamas fighters that launched RPGs at a building where the forces were stationed. No injuries were caused in the attack, and the troops then directed a drone strike to kill the gunmen, the IDF says.
The IDF says that, meanwhile, the 98th Division has “deepened their operational control” in Gaza City, and in the past day directed strikes on Hamas sites and operatives.
In southern Gaza, the military says the Gaza Division’s forces killed additional terror operatives and destroyed Hamas infrastructure, including surveillance equipment.
Iranian lawmaker Ismail Kowsari says the country’s parliament will discuss withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty after sanctions were reimposed following the collapse of the 2015 nuclear treaty.
“Parliament will discuss this issue… and decide on it,” he tells the Young Journalists Club, which is affiliated with Iranian state television.
Asked if Iran’s withdrawal from the treaty would mean moving toward building a nuclear bomb, Kowsari says: “No, it does not mean that. This issue will be reviewed separately later, and we can have it on the agenda if necessary.”
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf says countries who honor the UN sanctions will face “serious reciprocal action” as parliament begins meeting.
“We announce that if any country wants to take action against Iran based on these illegal resolutions, it will face serious reciprocal action from Iran, and the three European countries that are the initiators of this illegal action will also face our reaction,” Qalibaf says without elaborating, according to a report by the state-run IRNA news agency.
Prosecutors have submitted a pre-indictment filing against an East Jerusalem man accused of stabbing people earlier this month at a hotel outside the city where he worked, according to a police statement.
A 50-year-old man was seriously injured and a 23-year-old man suffered moderate injuries in the September 12 attack at a hotel on Kibbutz Tzuba during a family event.
The suspect, identified in the pre-charge filing as a maintenance worker from Shuafat, was subdued and arrested by an off-duty police investigator staying at the hotel.
According to police, the suspected assailant told investigators that he “stabbed them because they were Jews, and because I wanted to be shot afterward.”
A state prosecution official confirms the police statement, which says an indictment is expected in the coming days.
The statement, which refers to the suspect as a terrorist, does not specify what charges he will face.
At least four people were killed and about 10 injured in Ukraine’s capital amid a major drone and missile attack that has been ongoing for several hours, Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, says on the Telegram messaging app.
One of the dead has been identified as a 12-year-old girl, although that has not been officially confirmed, Tkachenko says.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha says the “massive” air attack on the country has involved hundreds of missiles and drones.
Hagai Angrest, the father of hostage Matan Angrest, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to engage with hostages’ family members who are in New York pushing for a deal to free those held in Gaza.
“He ignores us when we are outside his home in Jerusalem [and] he ignores us here,” Angrest tells Army Radio from the US. “He went to the [grave of] the Lubavitcher Rebbe, but all the places we are as well he has ignored us. That’s his choice. We are concerned with saving lives… not with ratings.”
In contrast, Angrest says, Trump administration officials have met with them to talk about efforts to reach a deal ending the war and bringing the hostages home.
“They are trying to do everything so this happens,” he says of a peace plan rolled out by US President Donald Trump in recent days. “They are working, they are doing everything; we believe in them, we are with them.”
As for the chances that a deal will be reached, Angrest is cautious, noting that they were promised an agreement the last time Netanyahu was in the US and got nothing.
“We are really hoping, but until we see progress, we don’t believe [it will happen],” he says.
He says hostages’ families will do everything in their power to force Netanyahu to agree to a deal, promising to be “the prime minister’s shadow” when he returns to Jerusalem.
“We’ll ramp up pressure. We will come back to Jerusalem in a big way, to more places in Jerusalem,” he says. “The prime minister knows that what we say, we do.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is urging UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to prevent a revival of mechanisms to implement UN sanctions after they were reimposed on Tehran, claiming that there is no legal basis for them.
“We urge you to prevent any attempt to revive the sanctions mechanisms, including the Sanctions Committee and the Panel of Experts,” Araghchi writes in a letter posted on X.
In the letter, Araghchi claims that the snapback moves triggered by the UK, Germany and France to revoke a resolution that had lifted sanctions on Iran were procedurally flawed and therefore cannot have any effect.
“The reactivation of annulled resolutions is legally baseless and unjustifiable… all countries must refrain from recognizing this illegal situation,” the letter reads.
He also argues that Israel and US attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June “have fundamentally altered the situation, rendering the terminated resolutions obsolete and irrelevant.”
Araghchi’s letter adds that Tehran will not recognize any attempt to extend, revive or enforce UN sanctions, while declaring that any curbs on nuclear activity — which Tehran has long blown past, according to the UN’s nuclear watchdog — will expire as planned on October 18.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will firmly defend its national rights and interests, and any action aimed at undermining the rights and interests of its people will face a firm and appropriate response,” it adds.
Kyiv is coming under heavy bombardment in what independent monitors say is one of the largest Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital since Moscow launched its full-scale war more than three and a half years ago.
Drones have been flying over the city and surrounding region as anti-aircraft fire rings out through the night and into the morning. Many regions across the country are under air raid alert.
Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of the city of Kyiv, says five people have been injured in the Ukrainian capital due to a “massive” assault, urging people to stay in shelters.
The governor of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region says Russian strikes there wounded at least four people.
“Once again, residential buildings and infrastructure are being hit. Once again, it is a war against civilians,” Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, says.
Poland also closed airspace near its southeastern cities of Lublin and Rzeszow overnight due to “unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security,” flight tracking service Flightradar24 says.
The Polish armed forces says it scrambled aircraft to ensure the security of its airspace after Russia launched strikes on Ukraine.
“In connection with the activity of the Russian Federation’s long-range aviation carrying out strikes on the territory of Ukraine, Polish and allied aircraft have begun operating in our airspace,” the military says in a post on X. It describes the actions as preventive.
Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat reports that the Shin Bet approached representatives of two large Gaza City clans that remained in the city about implementing a plan to divide the city into zones controlled by armed groups supported by Israel.
According to the report, citing security sources and contacts on the ground in Gaza, the Durmush and Bakr families rejected the offer, which would have required them to fight Hamas and pass intelligence to Israel.
The proposed scheme appears to be similar to a model implemented with armed groups carving out anti-Hamas enclaves in Gaza’s south that claim support from Israel.
A member of the Bakr family, who asked not to be named, confirmed the details to the paper.
According to the sources, the families rejected the offer on Friday; yesterday Israel struck several houses belonging to members of the families in Gaza City, killing about 36 people, it claims.
France, Britain and Germany warn Iran against “escalatory action” as deep UN sanctions on Tehran come back into force following failed last-minute nuclear talks.
“The reimposition of UN sanctions is not the end of diplomacy,” the foreign ministers of the three European nations, known as the E3, say in a joint statement.
“We urge Iran to refrain from any escalatory action and to return to compliance with its legally binding safeguards obligations,” they say.
Widespread UN sanctions against Iran return into force for the first time in a decade, after last-ditch nuclear talks with Western powers failed to produce a breakthrough.
The sanctions, two months after Israel and the United States bombed Iran, bar dealings related to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles program but are expected to have wider effects on a troubled economy.
Iran allowed UN inspectors to return to its nuclear sites, but Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said the United States offered only a short reprieve in return for handing over its whole stockpile of enriched uranium, a proposal he described as unacceptable.
An 11th-hour effort by Iran allies Russia and China to postpone the sanctions until April failed to win enough votes in the Security Council on Friday, leading to the measures taking effect at midnight GMT, or 3 a.m. Israel time.
Police have arrested United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush’s son, Yisrael Porush, at a demonstration held outside Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in Tel Aviv.
The younger Porush — a member of the Elad city council on behalf of his father’s Shlomei Emunim movement, as well as a former mayor of the Haredi city, and the leader of the Magen u-Moshi’a anti-enlistment group — was protesting against the detention of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers.
In a video posted on an official Shlomei Emunim WhatsApp group, Porush’s fellow demonstrators can be heard singing a song about God thwarting the designs of Israel’s enemies as the Haredi politician, wearing a prayer shawl, enters a police cruiser.
“I am being arrested for blowing the shofar in the Land of Israel while there are a hundred young men in detention,” he declares.
According to the extremist Jerusalem Faction group, around 100 Haredi draft dodgers were being held in military prison as of last week.
In a statement, Shlomei Emunim calls Yisrael Porush’s arrest “an outrageous violation of the right to protest,” while MK Porush declares that his son’s detention exposed the “hypocrisy” in which those protesting against the government “cannot be arrested because that is democracy.”
“But when people demonstrate against the attorney general, who demands mass arrests with governmental violence [and] the denial of the right to study Torah…that is forbidden, and the demonstrator must be arrested,” MK Porush says, accusing the authorities of practicing “open discrimination” against Haredi Jews and allowing freedom of demonstration “only to those it wants” while denying it when it is “not convenient.”
“Rabbi Porush exposed this hypocrisy tonight. Thanks to him, everyone now knows that the State of Israel is not a nation of law, but a dictatorship hostile to democracy. There are unelected rulers in the legal system against whom it is forbidden to protest,” he adds.
MK Porush quit as Jerusalem affairs minister over the summer when his party left the coalition over its failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service. During his time as a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, he was responsible for the operation of a telephone hotline that advised yeshiva students to ignore draft orders and lie to the Israel Defense Forces.
MK Porush's son Yisroel was arrested after blowing a shofar during a protest against the detention of draft dodgers held outside the attorney general's home. He leads an anti-conscription group pic.twitter.com/iZa9rLvcE6
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) September 27, 2025
The Mossad put out a position paper shortly before October 7, 2023, downplaying the threat of an attack from Hamas, Channel 12 reports.
“We perceive that the leadership of Hamas in the Gaza Strip is not interested in military conflict with Israel at the present time, but will not be deterred if it is forced upon them,” the report quotes the spy agency’s assessment as saying.
The network says the paper was published just two weeks before Hamas’s devastating massacre in southern Israel, which killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
The terror group, the Mossad reportedly said, was “maintaining a high degree of readiness out of concern for Israeli countermeasures.”
“The broad interest of Hamas’s leadership in Gaza is to avoid escalation at present,” the paper said, according to Channel 12.
In a response to the network, the Mossad says it was not responsible for intelligence in Gaza. It does not go on to explain, in light of that, why it had composed the position paper.
“According to the distribution of responsibilities between the intelligence services… the Mossad has no responsibility for strategic alerts about the use of force in the Palestinian arena,” the Mossad statement says, adding that it thus attributed “low significance” to the paper.
“In accordance with that delination, the Mossad did not deal operationally in the Gaza Strip — neither in intelligence gathering, nor in running agents, nor in conducting special operations,” the statement says.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, a senior Emirati official says Israeli calls to annex the West Bank are “unacceptable,” condemns Israel’s recent strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar and calls for a Palestinian state without terrorists and with restrictions on weapons.
The speech by Lana Nusseibeh is significant because the UAE normalized relations with Israel five years ago, and recently issued a warning that Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank would be a “red line.”
Her speech follows other speeches by Arab leaders at the UN who castigated Israel and, in multiple cases, accused it of “genocide” in Gaza.
Nusseibeh’s speech does not make that accusation, though she says that “nothing can justify targeting tens of thousands of civilians or besieging them or starving them and forcibly displacing them.”
“Nor can anything excuse the pursuit of unacceptable expansionist ambitions, including the threat of annexing the West Bank,” continues Nusseibeh, who serves as minister of state in the UAE foreign affairs ministry.
Unlike other Middle Eastern dignitaries, however, she also devotes time in her speech to condemning the taking of hostages, a likely reference to those held by Hamas in Gaza.
“There is no justification for the taking of hostages or the targeting of civilians in conflict,” she says. “We emphasize the need to protect the hostages as per international humanitarian law.”
She calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state “living side by side with Israel in security, peace and prosperity,” notably saying that conditions for its establishment should include “restricting the use of weapons.”
She adds that a future two-state outcome should have “no place for terrorists and extremist groups.”
She fiercely condemns Israel’s attack earlier this month in Doha, which targeted Hamas’s leaders. The strike is widely believed to have failed.
“Israel’s treacherous and reprehensible attack against the State of Qatar constituted a flagrant violation of its territorial integrity and of the security of the Arabian Gulf region, as well as a breach of the most fundamental principles of international law,” she says. “Aggression will not bring stability to the region.”
Oman’s foreign minister calls for the United Nations to place sanctions on Israel, and also advocates for the establishment of a Palestinian state, in an address to the UN General Assembly.
The statements from Badr al-Busaidi, who also accuses Israel of genocide, come following denunciations of Israel from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries at the plenum.
“For too long, this conflict has persisted, the suffering has grown unbearable, and the time has come to end the occupation, to undo the injustice, and to restore the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people through the implementation of the two-state solution,” he says.
He praises the string of Western countries to recognize a Palestinian state in recent days, saying that “the recognition of the State of Palestine is the most crucial step of this critical phase of history of the Palestinian cause.”
He condemns Israel’s strike earlier this month targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar, as well as Israeli strikes in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran, the latter of which fought a 12-day air war with Israel in June.
Oman “calls upon the international community to adopt measures that limit the Israeli government’s ability to continue its policy of genocide, destruction, and illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, and its ongoing policy of starvation and blockade against the Palestinian people and the obstruction of humanitarian assistance,” he says.
He adds, “We call for imposing sanctions on Israel in response to its blatant violations of international law and its unlawful encroachments on the sovereignty of states.”
Israel rejects the charge that it is committing genocide in Gaza, saying it strives to avoid civilian casualties.
A flotilla of 10 vessels set off for Gaza from Sicily today with 60 people on board, including elected officials from nine nations, organizers say.
A statement from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and the Thousand Madleens to Gaza says they intend to “break the illegal Israeli blockade” to deliver aid to the embattled territory.
They intend to join the Global Sumud Flotilla, which has dozens of ships bound for Gaza carrying aid supplies.
“For the most part, our boats carry medical supplies, dry food and school equipment, as this was highlighted as some of the biggest priorities by Palestinians on the ground,” organizers add.
On board are elected officials from the European Parliament and from countries including Belgium, France, Ireland, Spain, and the United States.
On Wednesday, the United Nations called for an investigation into alleged drone attacks off Greece against the Global Sumud Flotilla, which activists have blamed on Israel.
Israel has intercepted previous flotillas, which it has described as publicity stunts, and vowed to stop this one from breaching its blockade.
Organizers of the flotilla have rejected an offer to drop off their onboard aid with Catholic officials and have it delivered to Gaza.
A 39-year-old man was shot and killed in Hadera tonight, police and paramedics announce.
Medics found the victim, a resident of the city, unconscious and in critical condition with several gunshot wounds, authorities say. They transported him to the hospital, where he was declared dead by medical staff.
Officers at the scene have launched an investigation into the incident and are searching for the perpetrator. They suspect the man was shot as part of a criminal dispute.
Hadera has seen a string of violent incidents in recent days. Yesterday, police announced they arrested a man on suspicion of shooting at a car belonging to a well-known resident of the city. No injuries were reported.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister condemns Israel’s conduct and calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.
Near the beginning of his address, Prince Faisal bin Farhan laments “the suffering of the Palestinian people and the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” and condemns “the brutal and unchecked practices of the occupying forces, including starvation, forced displacement and systematic killing.”
He adds, “This is done in complete disregard of the historic and legal rights of the Palestinian people, with an aim to erase their legitimate rights.”
He calls at length for a two-state solution — the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel — and highlights his country’s efforts to advance that outcome. Saudi Arabia and France recently co-chaired a conference on the two-state solution, at which a string of Western nations announced they were recognizing a Palestinian state.
“It is time to find a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue,” the minister says. “Military escalation will not achieve peace and security.”
He continues, “Saudi Arabia stresses the need for the international community to shoulder its responsibility to put an end to this tragedy and achieve sustainable peace through the two-state solution as the only path that will guarantee the security of all countries in the region.”
He also alluded to the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, which Jerusalem adamantly rejects.
“The failure of the international community to take firm action to end the Israeli aggression and violations will only cause further instability and insecurity regionally and globally. Such inaction will have great consequences and will escalate war crimes and acts of genocide.”
Prince Faisal calls on more countries to recognize a Palestinian state, as well as for international support for reforms in the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. Israel has decried recognition of a Palestinian state in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack as a “prize for terror.”
The Saudi minister, however, also praises Lebanon’s government implicitly for its efforts to disarm the terror group Hezbollah, a goal also sought by Israel. He also calls for Israel to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon as well as Syria.
He says Saudi Arabia “appreciates the efforts of the Lebanese state… extend the sovereignty of the state, and limit weapons to the Lebanese state and its legitimate institutions.”
He also calls for a “diplomatic track” to address Iran’s nuclear program, which saw renewed sanctions today.
The Global Sumud Flotilla says Italy’s offer to let participants board a naval vessel amounts to “sabotage.”
“[The Italian government] is choosing to escort us only to the point of danger and then try to peel us away, delivering us back to shore empty-handed, as Israel continues to slaughter and starve the Palestinian people with complete impunity,” the flotilla says in a statement. “We say again: the flotilla sails onward.”
Around 45 boats with participants from across the globe are attempting to breach Israel’s naval blockade, claiming to be bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
The flotilla is approaching the 150-nautical-mile (172-mile) limit off Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. Flotilla participants tell The Associated Press they expect Israeli authorities to intervene as they approach a “critical zone” tonight.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has urged the flotilla to stop now, saying their intent to breach the Israeli naval blockade in the coming hours risks becoming a pretext to destroy the Trump peace plan.
