The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s events as they unfolded.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with new Shin Bet chief David Zini, who was appointed by the cabinet earlier tonight.
The premier tells Zini he is sure that he is the right man to lead the agency, and wishes him great success in the position, the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement.
Netanyahu also wishes to thank the interim Shin Bet head, who is referred to only by his first initial, Shin.
A US judge rules that President Donald Trump’s administration acted unconstitutionally by adopting a policy of revoking visas, arresting, detaining, and deporting foreign students and faculty engaged in pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel advocacy.
US District Judge William Young in Boston sided with groups representing university faculty, finding that the administration was chilling free speech on college campuses in violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment.
Young said officials of the US Departments of State and Homeland Security “acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target noncitizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment protected political speech.”
“They did so in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizen pro-Palestinian individuals, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech and intentionally denying such individuals (including the plaintiffs here) the freedom of speech that is their right,” Young wrote.
His decision only assessed whether the administration had adopted an unlawful policy. Young has said he would determine what remedy to impose at a later phase of the case. Lawyers for the faculty groups have urged him to bar the administration from threatening such arrests and deportations going forward.
The Union of European Football Associations indefinitely delays a planned vote on whether to expel Israel’s national soccer team, according to several reports.
The vote was called off after US President Donald Trump unveiled his plan, backed by Israel, for the return of the hostages and an end to the war in Gaza.
Leaders in European soccer feel it is not the right time to make such a move with peace talks ongoing, according to reports.
Though UEFA never acknowledged that such a vote was expected, it was widely reported to be considering the move.
Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activist groups in the US reject the deal proposed by US President Donald Trump to end the war in Gaza.
National Students for Justice in Palestine and the US Palestinian Community Network share a message on social media that says, “Normalization is never the answer.”
“The Palestinian people alone determine their path to liberation, not Trump, not Israel,” the statement says.
Nerdeen Kiswani, the head of the leading activist group in New York, Within Our Lifetime, says the plan is “not about peace, it’s a blueprint for surrender and foreign control.”
“The deal would dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities, end its political rule, and ensure Gaza never poses a challenge to Israel,” she says.
The far-left activist group Code Pink, which often protests Israel, says, “This is not a peace plan. It’s a plan for permanent occupation.”
The plan unveiled by the White House on Monday explicitly states: “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.”
Another far-left anti-Israel group, the People’s Forum, says the meeting between Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “reinforced US complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” while calling to “end the genocide.”
The anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace does not respond to a request for comment.
Other groups have not issued any comment, and no pro-Palestinian activist groups appear to have voiced support for the agreement.
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib says, “Trump and War Criminal Netanyahu, perpetrators of the genocide, do not get to decide the future of Gaza.”
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel files a petition to the High Court of Justice asking for the appointment of David Zini as head of the Shin Bet to be annulled on the basis of “critical” ethical concerns relating to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who selected Zini as a candidate and Zini himself.
The petition asserts that the advisory committee, headed by former Supreme Court president Asher Grunis, which approved Zini’s candidacy did not properly consider what the organization asserts is Netanyahu’s conflict of interest in selecting a Shin Bet candidate against the backdrop of the ongoing “Bild” and “Qatargate” investigations into Netanyahu’s aides, in which the Shin Bet has been one of the investigating bodies.
The petition also notes that the advisory committee itself determined that Netanyahu had made requests from several former Shin Bet chiefs which were “not appropriate in a democratic regime.”
And the Movement for Quality Government says that Zini acted inappropriately during the appointments process, and alleges that he hid Netanyahu’s selection of him to be the next head of the agency from the IDF chief of staff when Zini was still serving as a general in the military.
The petition also requests that the court issue an interim order freezing the appointment until a final ruling is issued.
“A situation in which the head of the Shin Bet, a gatekeeper [of the rule of law] who is entrusted with maintaining democratic governance, is appointed in a process full of flaws that has given rise to serious concerns about the violation of ethical standards cannot be allowed,” says head of the Movement for Quality Government Eliad Shraga.
“The head of the Shin Bet owes a duty of loyalty to the entire public, and his loyalty cannot be given to one political entity or another.”
It would appear, however, that the chances of the petition are slim, since the High Court of Justice itself in July approved an agreement between the government and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara that enabled Zini’s nomination to proceed despite concerns regarding Netanyahu’s involvement in selecting Zini as a candidate.
That deal saw Netanyahu delay his formal nomination of Zini to the advisory committee for two months to enable the Shin Bet to finish its role in the investigations against the prime minister’s aides, and enabled the attorney general to draw up a conflict of interest agreement for the new Shin Bet chief regarding his participation in any matters relating to those investigations.
And the Attorney General’s Office issued a legal position paper to the cabinet earlier today stating that Zini be required to consult the Shin Bet’s legal adviser before dealing with any issues connected to Netanyahu’s “personal or political concerns.”
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer “will soon finish his role” as a minister in the government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced during the ongoing cabinet meeting, Hebrew media report.
According to reports, Netanyahu said Dermer will remain involved in several matters.
The US-born Dermer is one of Netanyahu’s closest confidantes and has been closely involved in decision-making throughout the ongoing war.
Itamar Ben Gvir, speaking at a full government cabinet meeting, says US President Donald Trump’s peace plan harms Israel’s security, in comments reported by Hebrew media.
The far-right national security minister, who has opposed previous hostage-ceasefire deals, reportedly calls the deal “dangerous to Israel’s security.”
Turning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben Gvir reportedly says: “I understand there was pressure on you, but you should never have gone along with an agreement that’s full of holes like this.”
The cabinet unanimously approves the appointment of David Zini as Shin Bet chief, the Prime Minister’s Office announces.
Zini will begin his five-year tenure on October 5.
“The critical thinking that characterized Major General Zini in his various roles, his ability to think outside the box and adapt the system to a changing reality, alongside his extensive operational and command experience in force building and deployment, led to the conclusion that he is the most suitable person to lead the Shin Bet at this time,” says the PMO.
The candidacy of Zini, a former general, was approved last week by the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee, which rejected the argument that Netanyahu was barred from proposing a candidate while the Shin Bet was actively investigating his advisers for ties to Qatar.
The appointment comes some three and a half months after the departure of former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu controversially fired, sparking a legal battle.
President Isaac Herzog congratulates Zini, saying that he “brings with him decades of rich and varied experience as a fighter and commander in the defense of Israel and its citizens.”
“In these tense and threatened days, when even today innocent Israelis were brutally attacked in a terrorist act, it is important for all of us to remember how vital the Shin Bet’s optimal and statesmanlike functioning is to protecting Israeli society, its security, and its values,” says Herzog in a statement.
Police detain a young man in the northern Arab town of Umm al-Fahm for waving a Palestinian flag during a dozens-strong protest “against the war of annihilation and policy of forced starvation” in Gaza, Arabic-language news site Arab48 reports.
Meanwhile, police also detain six people at a left-wing protest outside major television news studios in Neve Ilan, near Jerusalem, according to a group of lawyers that represents detained anti-government protesters pro bono.
The six were taken to the Harel police station in Mevaseret Zion, the Protest Detainee Legal Support Front says.
The Maariv newspaper reports that far-right settler activist Daniella Weiss, who had just left the Channel 13 studio, got caught up in the protest and that police needed to intervene to get her out.
In a WhatsApp message quoted by Maariv, Weiss put the number of protesters at about 100.
Neve Ilan is the site of several studios, including those of Channel 12 and Channel 13, which are accused by some on the Israeli left of pedaling pro-Israel propaganda and hiding the humanitarian toll of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Protesters in Neve Ilan could be seen on social media hoisting a large banner that read, in Hebrew and Arabic, “What is the media hiding?”
In advance of the protest, organizers said it would feature speeches by independent journalist Hila Tov and Rula Daoud, co-chair of the Israeli-Palestinian socialist group Standing Together.
An announcement from several left-wing groups said protesters would come “to remind the media of its true job.”
“Stop being a mouthpiece of the government, platforming fraud, and hiding the price of the war and the abandonment,” the announcement said.
A similar protest in July led to a conversation, later leaked, among Channel 12 reporters and executives about how or if to broach Gazans’ suffering on air.
The leaked conversation provoked further ire on the left, as it appeared to show leading executives and reporters at Channel 12 saying they “don’t connect with” Gazans’ suffering and therefore consider it less deserving of coverage.
The military says that during civilian construction work in the northern village of Ghajar, which straddles the Israel-Lebanon border, a pit with explosive material in it was found.
IDF sappers were dispatched to the scene — on the Lebanese side of the UN-recognized Blue Line — and removed the explosives from the hole.
According to the military, the pit was constructed before the 2006 Second Lebanon War. The IDF is investigating whether the explosives belong to Hezbollah.
פרסום ראשון: מאות ק"ג של חומר נפץ תקני רוסי של חיזבאללה נחשפו היום בתוואי תת קרקעי (לא מנהרה) בשטח הכפר עג'ר בגבול לבנון. הם הוסלקו ככה"נ עוד לפני כיבוש החלק הצפוני של הכפר עג'ר במלחמת לבנון השנייה ונועדו לשימוש במהלך ניסיון חטיפת חיילים צה"ל באירועי 'הר וגיא' בנובמבר 05. pic.twitter.com/8gIl7kVrJY
— יאיר קראוס (@yair_kraus) September 30, 2025
Ghajar is the only Alawite-majority settlement in the country. It was originally part of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981. In 2000, when Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon following a 15-year military occupation and the United Nations demarcated the so-called Blue Line, Ghajar was split in two, with the northern half coming under Lebanese control.
Israel regained control over the entire village during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, after Hezbollah used the Ghajar area to stage attacks.
Global sportswear brand Reebok backtracks from a demand to have its logo removed from the jerseys and kits of Israel’s national soccer team, the Israel Football Association (IFA) says.
The decision follows a conversation between IFA President Moshe Zuares, Reebok, and the MGS Group, the sportswear giant’s local franchisee.
“Reebok reversed its decision and the Israel national team’s uniforms in international matches will continue to feature the company’s logo as it has been up to now,” the IFA says.
The move comes after the IFA threatened legal action and accused Reebok of succumbing to boycott threats.
Earlier on Tuesday, it was reported that Reebok had instructed its local operating partner, MGS Group, to pull its logo from the kits and uniforms of Israel’s national soccer team.
Anat Angrest, mother of captive soldier Matan Angrest, says in the Tel Aviv pro-hostage deal protest that IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir told her in a meeting on Rosh Hashanah eve, Monday last week, that the military was bombing areas of Gaza City where Matan was being held.
“He is sending soldiers to kill their brothers and he is complicit in the crime as far as I’m concerned,” she says of Zamir. “A brave commander would at this stage stop and withdraw the forces until there was a plan to bring everyone home and win the war.”
Angrest speaks atop a jeep on King George Street, a block north of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party headquarters. The building itself, known as Metzudat Ze’ev, is blocked off due to construction.
She says the ceasefire-hostage deal announced yesterday in Netanyahu’s press conference with US President Donald Trump filled her with hope but with a familiar dread.
“When I’ve felt that I’m almost getting Matan back, the prime minister has found how to scuttle [the deal], and he’ll search again for a way to make Hamas look like the rejectionist,” she says. “He’ll look again to bomb in Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis — he’ll find all the reasons in the world not to do the one thing he should have done long ago.”
Viki Cohen, mother of captive soldier Nimrod Cohen, says the parents of soldiers and hostages are here today to hold Netanyahu to his endorsement of Trump’s plan.
“We’ve already heard from a few ‘good Jews’ in the government today who don’t agree,” she says, possibly referring to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s statement that he thinks the deal “will end in tears.”
Other parents of combat soldiers currently in service also get up to denounce the war.
“Enough of the abandonment of the hostages, enough of the abandonment of the soldiers and yes, enough of the destruction and killing and flattening and erasure and looking at Gaza as a ‘real estate bonanza’,” says one father, referring to a recent comment by Smotrich.
Another father notes Trump’s allusion to Israeli protesters’ frequent appeals to him.
“We saw yesterday that you see us,” says the father. He warns Trump to be wary of Netanyahu.
“Be careful,” he says. “Don’t let him fool you.”
Maj. Gen. (res) Yoav Mordechai will temporarily return to his post assisting the IDF’s envoy for hostage negotiations, after he was suspended over suspicions surrounding his role in the Qatargate scandal, Haaretz reports.
He will be able to serve in the role for 12 days, after police earlier this month barred him from working as deputy to the army’s hostage envoy, Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon following several rounds of interrogation under caution.
Citing a security source, Haaretz claims that the IDF sought Mordechai’s return due to his wide-reaching connections in Qatar — a key mediator in hostage negotiations — which the army believes could aid Israel in talks.
Mordechai is suspected of taking bribes and maintaining contact with a foreign agent as part of his activity in the cybersecurity firm Novard, which he joined two months after its inception.
Police believe the facilitated business dealings between Qatari officials and Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, who are suspected of spearheading a PR campaign on Doha’s behalf while in the prime minister’s employ.
According to the report, IDF head Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reached out to police chief Danny Levy, requesting Mordechai be allowed to resume his post amid intensifying efforts towards a deal to return the hostages and end the Gaza war.
Police went to the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court and said they would allow Mordechai back on the team, so long as he refrains from dealing with Qatar-related issues, directly or indirectly.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni again urges the activist flotilla attempting to deliver symbolic humanitarian aid directly to Gaza to “stop now.”
She warns in a statement that a confrontation with Israel could upset the current “fragile balance” that could lead to peace based on the plan proposed by US President Donald Trump.
“Many would be happy to disrupt” that plan, Meloni says.
“I fear that the flotilla’s attempt to breach the Israeli naval blockade could provide a pretext for this. Also for this reason, I believe the Flotilla should stop now,” she says.
The flotilla says Italy has informed it that the naval frigate shadowing it will soon issue a radio call, offering participants the opportunity to abandon ship and return to shore before reaching a “critical zone.”
Earlier, the Italian defense ministry said its navy would stop following the international flotilla once it reached within 150 nautical miles (278 km) of the shore of Gaza.
The Global Sumud Flotilla has repeatedly said it will continue to sail onwards.
It includes over 40 civilian boats carrying parliamentarians, lawyers and activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, aiming to break Israel’s blockade, which was imposed in 2007 to prevent arms imports to Hamas.
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting after returning from his White House visit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he “reached an understanding with President Trump on a framework for the release of all our hostages, and for achieving all the war objectives we set.”
He says he will provide a detailed report to the cabinet after agreeing to support the US president’s proposal for ending the war in Gaza.
Turning to the impending cabinet appointment of former IDF general David Zini as Shin Bet director, Netanyahu says he has been “very impressed with him over the years and have known him for a long time.”
“I have seen his determination, his leadership, and his ability to think outside conventional frameworks, to see things before they develop,” Netanyahu continues.
“I believe he is the right person to lead the Shin Bet—someone who knows the system, but is not part of it. I have no doubt that he will succeed greatly, and I am sure everyone supports this. His success is vital for the security of all Israeli citizens,” the premier says.
Yemen’s Houthis will target American oil companies, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron, despite an earlier truce agreed with President Donald Trump’s administration to not attack US-linked ships sailing in the Red Sea and the wider Gulf of Aden, the Iran-backed terror group says.
The Sanaa-based Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC), which liaises between Houthi forces and commercial shipping operators and is associated with the Houthi military, sanctions 13 US companies, nine executives, and two vessels.
Entities designated by the Houthis “shall be dealt with in accordance with the principle of confrontation,” HOCC says on its website of what it will do regarding those deemed as being under their sanctions.
The announcement is a notice that the companies, which also include ConocoPhillips and Diamond S Shipping, are deemed hostile entities that are open to attack.
The companies do not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Israel’s hostage negotiating team is awaiting instructions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on whether to continue hostage talks, amid indications that a delegation could be sent to Qatar in the coming days, Hebrew media reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Reports add that Israel expects Hamas to give only a vague acceptance of the US proposal under discussion in Doha, likely responding along the lines of “yes, but” — particularly over contentious clauses such as the timetable for the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza.
A senior Israeli official tells Channel 12 that the key decision-making power appears to be with Hamas’s leadership in Gaza, rather than abroad, since they are the ones who would ultimately need to relinquish weapons and governance of the Strip.
A legal position paper filed with the government by the Attorney General’s Office on the appointment of David Zini as the next Shin Bet chief asserts that Zini must consult the Shin Bet’s legal adviser before dealing with any issues connected to the personal or political concerns of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Deputy Attorney General Orli Fishman, who authored the legal opinion includes this stipulation in the position paper due to the finding of the advisory committee which approved Zini’s appointment that Netanyahu had made requests of former Shin Bet chiefs “which are not appropriate in a democratic regime.”
Fishman writes that although there were legal difficulties with Zini’s appointment connected to the Qatargate investigations against Netanyahu’s aides, there are no legal obstacles to his taking office as head of the Shin Bet.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas underwent medical tests at al-Istishari Hospital in Ramallah, and the results were described as “reassuring,” says WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency.
The report adds that after completing the tests, Abbas left the hospital.
About 1,000 people in Tel Aviv start marching from the IDF headquarters’ Kaplan Road entrance to the Likud party headquarters on King George Street.
The protest march is organized by parents of soldiers fighting in Gaza who demand an end to the war and a hostage deal.
Ahead of the march, somber music reminiscent of Israel’s Memorial Day plays from a van outside the IDF’s Kirya headquarters.
Protesters hoist Israeli flags, pictures of hostages and the yellow flags that have come to signify them. Some drivers on Kaplan’s opposite, east-bound lane honk in approval.
Still standing outside the Kirya, the protesters chant “We have no children for a political war” and “When will be the last casualty?” One group unfurls a large poster depicting an explosion, with the caption “Gaza is a death-trap.”
The march will take the protesters close to some 200 left-wing activists holding a silent vigil at Habima Square for Gaza’s children.
A few passersby, all young men, yell at the Habima Square activists, telling them to “go to Gaza” and branding them traitors, but the activists persist in their silence.
In addition to pictures of children killed since October 7, 2023, the left-wing activists hold large placards reading, “we’ve erred, we’ve betrayed, we, we’ve stolen” — the start of the litany of sins recited before and during Yom Kippur, which begins tomorrow night.
Israeli and American officials are unwilling to accept major changes to Washington’s proposal for ending the war in Gaza as Hamas considers its reply to the current framework in Doha, Channel 12 reports.
Senior US officials tell the Hebrew network that while they are open to negotiating limited changes – such as the timetable for and specifics of IDF withdrawal or the precise process of Hamas disarmament – radical changes will not be accepted.
An Israeli source similarly tells Channel 12 that “Israel stands behind the framework. It isn’t open to negotiation except for certain technical matters.”
The full government cabinet is currently convening to approve the appointment of David Zini as Shin Bet chief, the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirms, after announcing that the premier would hold the session at 8:00 p.m.
The candidacy of Zini, a former general, was approved last week by the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee, which rejected the argument that Netanyahu was barred from proposing a candidate while the Shin Bet was actively investigating his advisers for ties to Qatar.
A Hamas terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7 onslaught and was responsible for a deadly attack on troops in northern Gaza in April was killed in a recent airstrike in the Strip, the military and Shin Bet announce.
Muhammad Rashid Muhammad Masri, the commander of a Nukhba Force platoon in Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion, was killed in a strike on September 9, the IDF says.
The military says Masri participated in the Hamas-led onslaught on October 7, 2023, and carried out an attack, alongside other Hamas gunmen, in Beit Hanoun on April 19.
In the April attack, the Hamas cell had initially ambushed an army vehicle driving along a logistics road near Beit Hanoun with RPGs and gunfire, seriously wounding three servicewomen, including an officer and a combat medic.
After the attack on the vehicle, the terror operatives laid a bomb on the side of the road and detonated it when rescue forces arrived around 25 minutes later, killing a soldier, Warrant Officer G’haleb Sliman Alnasasra, a tracker in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, and seriously wounding another tracker.
After US President Donald Trump unveiled his plan to end the war in Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says the military is giving Israel’s leadership flexibility “in any decision regarding the conduct of the campaign.”
The remarks are made during a tour of Gaza City, alongside Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor, Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, 162nd Division commander, Brig. Gen. Sagiv Dahan and other officers.
Zamir, during a meeting, says that the ongoing offensive in Gaza City “leads to new opportunities and brings us closer to achieving the goals of the war.”
“We must continue to excel in military action and lead with professionalism. The IDF will enable the political echelon flexibility in any decision regarding the conduct of the campaign,” Zamir adds, according to remarks provided by the army.
KYIV, Ukraine – Russia launches a rare daytime drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing one man, injuring 20 other people, and damaging medical facilities and residential and office buildings, officials say.
Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor, says the attack targeted the center of the industrial city at a time when people were at work and children were in schools.
On the Telegram app, he shares a video showing heavy smoke billowing above buildings and firefighters battling the blaze in the centre of Dnipro, which serves as an industrial and business hub for southeastern Ukraine.
Lysak says an office building was on fire, adding that several other buildings and dozens of cars were damaged.
Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani tells Al Jazeera that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, as described in the White House plan to end the war, requires “clarification and discussion.”
He adds, however, that ending the war is “a clear clause in the plan.”
He also says that a postwar government of Gaza is mentioned in the plan, and this will be a matter for discussion with the Americans, but “has nothing to do with Israel.”
“The plan is in its early stages and needs development. We are trying to create a path that safeguards Palestinian rights,” he adds.
As Hamas weighs Washington’s proposal to end the war, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon warns the terror group that Israel will return its hostages from Gaza “the easy way or the hard way,” speaking at a memorial ceremony at the UN headquarters in New York marking two years since the Hamas-led October 7 massacre.
“While Hamas is considering this proposal, they should know that we will bring all of [the hostages] home,” Danon says, adding that “If they reject the plan, Israel will finish the job, either the easy way or the hard way.”
“Their return cannot wait,” he says.
Mike Waltz, US envoy to the United Nations, also speaks at the event, saying that “Until every hostage is home, our work is not done, and we will not stop fighting to free them.”
The event is also attended by survivors of the massacre, IDF soldiers, families of hostages, ambassadors from various UN member states, diplomats, and others, according to Danon’s office.
Italy’s navy will stop following the international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza once it gets within 150 nautical miles (278 km) of the shore, the Italian defense ministry said on Tuesday.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, consisting of more than 40 civilian boats carrying parliamentarians, lawyers and activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, aims to break Israel’s blockade of the enclave, which was imposed in 2007 to stop arms imports to the Hamas terror group, which had taken over the Strip.
Once the convoy reaches the 150 nautical miles limit, the Italian frigate accompanying it will stop, “as communicated several times in recent days,” the ministry says in a statement.
The ship will issue two warnings to activists, with the second and final one foreseen at around 00:00 GMT, when the flotilla is expected to get within the stated distance, the statement added.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Italian spokeswoman for the flotilla, Maria Elena Delia, said that activists had been informed about the government’s plans to have the navy ship stop and turn back to avoid “a diplomatic incident” with Israel.
She said the flotilla had no intention of heeding Italy’s warnings not to get closer to the shore.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has said he expects flotilla boats to be intercepted in the open sea and activists to face arrest.
On Tuesday, Crosetto made a “last appeal” to flotilla members to accept a compromise proposal to drop aid in Cyprus and avoid a confrontation with Israeli forces. Flotilla representatives have repeatedly refused the offer.
The military publishes footage showing the detonation of a Hamas booby trap on the outskirts of Gaza City, which had been identified by troops before they were targeted.
The explosive devices had been located by reservists of the Yiftah Brigade during operations in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City under the 99th Division.
According to the IDF, troops in an armored vehicle spotted several explosives planted along the road they were driving on.
A combat engineer vehicle in the area — equipped with mine-clearing rockets — then struck the site, setting off the bombs which were intended to target the troops.
No soldiers were wounded in the incident, the army says.
A survey conducted following last night’s press conference by US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows Israelis overwhelmingly support the American plan for an end to the war in Gaza, but doubt it will ever be implemented.
A large majority (71%) of Israelis back the US framework, the survey finds. Support is particularly high among Arab citizens, with 93% backing the plan.
Despite the broad support, however, only 12% of Israelis believe the plan has a high probability or certainty of being carried out.
The survey also shows Israelis are split about Netanyahu’s apology yesterday to the prime minister of Qatar for an Israeli airstrike targeting Hamas political leaders in Doha.
Roughly half of Israelis view it as the right move, given Qatar’s importance in ending the war and bringing about better ties with Israel’s neighbors; right-wing voters, however, largely opposed the apology, according to the survey.
The study, carried out by Nimrod Nir & Gayil Talshir from the Agam Institute and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, surveyed 847 adult respondents representing the Israeli population. Its margin of error is 4.2%.
Jewish groups in the US have come together in support of the plan announced by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza, with virtually wall-to-wall approval from major organizations.
Jewish Federations welcomes the deal, saying its community has “lived with the pain” of watching Israel under attack and knowing hostages are suffering in captivity, while the rise of anti-Jewish hatred has led to horrific incidents of violence around the world.
“We hope and pray that this deal will come to fruition and bring the remaining hostages home to their families,” the organization says.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations says the proposal “offers a credible path forward and the prospect of a new reality in Gaza and the broader Middle East.”
“Israel’s soldiers made this moment of hope possible,” say chairwoman Betsy Berns Korn and CEO William Daroff in a statement. “Now the international community must hold Hamas to account, sustain pressure, and enforce compliance.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) thanks Trump and United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff for negotiating the plan, noting it has the wide support of the United States, Israel and several Arab countries.
“This plan is a direct byproduct of the tremendous progress of Israel’s military operation in Gaza to degrade Hamas’ capabilities,” AIPAC posts on X.
“Congressional support for our democratic ally has been instrumental throughout this war, including by passing the largest military aid package in Israel’s history, and we applaud the Democrats and Republicans who have been consistent and unequivocal in their demands for Hamas to free the hostages and give up power in Gaza.”
Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, calls the deal a “turning point” and “a moment of historic consequence.”
“After months of unimaginable suffering, the world must unite behind this plan,” Launder writes on X. “The future of the region—and the chance for Israelis and Palestinians alike to live in peace and dignity—depends on it.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir instructed troops fighting in Gaza to increase their level of “vigilance and readiness,” as Hamas has attempted several attacks on army positions in recent days.
Zamir, this morning, met with troops of the Nahal Brigade’s reconnaissance unit in Gaza, and later held an assessment with Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor and the commanders of the five divisions currently operating in the Strip, the military says.
The assessment focused on the army’s future plans in Gaza, according to the IDF.
Shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange hit fresh all-time highs amid investor optimism over US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza, return all hostages, and bring peace to the region.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-125 index jumped 3.1% at the close of trading in Tel Aviv. The index has soared about 30% from the start of the year, hitting numerous record highs over the past weeks.
The TA-35 index of blue-chip companies rose 2.8%. The TA-90 index, which tracks the shares with the highest capitalization not included in the TA-35 index, increased 4%. The TA-Construction index leaped 7.6% and the TA-Insurance index was up 6.5%.
At a White House press conference on Monday, Trump, alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unveiled a US-led proposal to end the war with the Hamas terror group in Gaza. Hamas is reportedly examining the proposal and is expected to deliver its response in a matter of days.
“The market is still pricing in, and rightly so, a great deal of caution given the fact that it takes two to tango…we are all eagerly awaiting Hamas’s response,” says Yaniv Pagot, VP of Trading at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
“If the response is positive, there is room for the trend of recent days to continue, as it is radically changing the economic and security horizon of Israel for the foreseeable future, and is expected to affect both fiscal policy, as well as monetary policy,” Pagot says.
From the beginning of 2025, the Tel Aviv-125 Index has broken its all-time high 36 times, according to Tel Aviv bourse data.
“The record-breaking performance of the local stock exchange in these challenging times is an indicator of the resilience of the Israeli economy and local public companies and an optimistic view of the future,” the Tel Aviv bourse says in a statement.
Afghanistan’s internet and telecommunications have been cut, and it is having “extremely serious” rights implications, with women and girls especially affected, the UN human rights office says.
Mobile phone signal and internet service in Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban government, weakened on Monday night until connectivity was less than one percent of normal levels.
“Nationwide internet shutdown by (the) Taliban has extremely serious human rights ramifications across the country,” the UN rights office says on X.
The shutdown has curtailed the free flow of information crucial to everyday activities, including access to essential services from health and education to banking, the office says.
“Women & girls already excluded from public life are especially affected. We call for immediate reconnection,” it adds.
Afghans have been unable to contact each other, online businesses and the banking systems are frozen, while members of the diaspora cannot send crucial remittances to their families.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls on “all parties” to commit to the peace plan for Gaza presented by US President Donald Trump, a spokesman says.
“It is now crucial that all parties commit to an agreement and its implementation… He once again reiterates his call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire,” Farhan Haq, a spokesman for Guterres, says in a statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lands in Israel after his trip to New York and Washington, his office says in a statement.
At 8 p.m., the premier will attend a convening of the cabinet to approve the appointment of Maj. Gen. David Zini as head of the Shin Bet security agency, the statement adds.
Just as it did during his departure, Netanyahu’s plane again took an extended detour to avoid the airspace of all countries along the route except Italy and Greece, lengthening the journey by hundreds of kilometers.
The trajectory, visible on Flight Tracker, may have been an effort to avoid problems related to the International Criminal Court’s warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest over alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza — though Israel has denied such charges.
ROME, Italy — Around 15% of Italians consider physical attacks on Jewish people “entirely or fairly justifiable,” according to a survey published on Tuesday, as protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza continue across the country.
Some 18% of those interviewed also believe antisemitic graffiti on walls and other public spaces is legitimate, according to the survey, conducted on September 24-26 by the pollster SWG among a national sample of 800 adults.
Roughly a fifth of respondents said it was reasonable to attack professors who expressed pro-Israeli positions or for businesses to reject Israeli customers, after some episodes were reported by Italian media.
Jewish political groups, mostly representing Orthodox communities, endorse former New York governor Andrew Cuomo for New York City mayor, two days after incumbent Eric Adams dropped out of the race.
Community groups and local leaders issue a joint announcement backing Cuomo, saying, “We believe it is essential to speak with one voice at this critical time.”
“We are deeply concerned about the direction that mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani would take our city,” the statement says, citing his statements about police, his past support for the phrase “globalize the intifada,” and his “socialist policies that we believe would create chaos” and put their communities at risk.
Signees include the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance, the Association of Crown Heights Shuls, the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance, the Staten Island Jewish Coalition, the Queens Jewish Alliance, and Crown Heights United, and several local community leaders. Yesterday, another Jewish group in Crown Heights also endorsed Cuomo.
Adams, a longtime supporter of Israel and Jewish communities, dropped out of the race on Sunday amid poor polling numbers.
Cuomo is also an Israel supporter, but infuriated Orthodox Jewish communities when he instituted COVID restrictions on gatherings while serving as governor during the pandemic. Orthodox groups felt that the restrictions targeted their communities. Cuomo sought to make amends during the primary campaign.
The statement released today nods to those past tensions, saying, “While we may have had our differences with [Cuomo] during his tenure as governor, we need a leader who understands how to manage” the city government.
Many Jews were alarmed by the anti-Israel rhetoric of front-runner Mamdani, prompting their endorsements of Cuomo, despite their reservations.
Cuomo is polling far behind Mamdani ahead of the general election, but is ahead of the other contender, Republican Curtis Sliwa. Cuomo lost the primary to Mamdani, but is running in the general election as an independent. Adams sat out the primary to run as an independent.
Two industrial design students at central Israel’s Holon Institute of Technology receive a Helen Hamlyn Design Award in London from Britain’s prestigious Royal College of Art.
Tamir Keidar and Nimrod Shani worked with a wheelchair-bound mother called Orla to create equipment that connects a wheelchair to a baby carriage, allowing for safe walks out of doors.
The Helen Hamlyn Design Awards recognize “creativity in people-centred, inclusive design across all disciplines,” according to the RCA.
The two students worked within the framework of the Fixperts course run by Prof. Gad Charni at the Holon Institute’s Industrial Design Faculty.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett defends incoming Shin Bet chief David Zini, after Democrats party chairman Yair Golan pledges that if voted into power he will remove him from the post.
“In the corrective government that will be formed, every official will be measured by his actions for the good of the state, not by the prejudices of politicians or the media,” Bennett says, who has formed a new party known only as Bennett 2026, in a post on X.
He adds that Zini’s appointment process “was flawed, through no fault of Zini’s,” but stresses that “from the moment Maj. Gen. David Zini is lawfully appointed, he is the head of the Shin Bet of the State of Israel. I wish him success in this national and vital role.”
Golan’s remarks also sparked criticism from fellow opposition leader Benny Gantz, head of the Blue and White–National Unity party, who tweeted that threatening to dismiss security chiefs is exactly the behavior of the government they hope to replace.
Zini, a former general, was nominated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and may be confirmed by the government tonight.
His candidacy was approved last week by the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee, which rejected the argument that Netanyahu was barred from proposing a candidate while the Shin Bet was actively investigating his advisers for ties to Qatar.
Palestinian media report that the attacker who carried out the car-ramming near al-Khader in the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank is Mahdi Muhammad Awad Dirieh, 32, from the village of Beit Fajjar near Bethlehem.
The attacker was shot and killed at the scene.
Surveillance camera footage shows the car-ramming attack at the al-Khader Junction in the West Bank earlier today.
Two Israeli teens were wounded, one seriously, and the Palestinian terrorist was shot dead by a passing off-duty senior reservist officer.
The initial car-ramming is visible in the upper-left corner of the frame; then, footage from a different camera shows the off-duty reserve officer shooting the terrorist.
Police and Shin Bet announce the arrests of two Israelis suspected of spying for Iran in recent months, after a prosecutor’s declaration was filed against the pair earlier today.
Holon resident Maor Kringel, 26, was arrested in August after seven months of alleged espionage in the service of an Iranian agent, who he had been in contact with since the start of the year.
Police say that he took photos of military bases and public locations in Israel, and even initiated contact with his handlers during war with Iran this past June, with the intent of carrying out additional missions.
Investigators learned that Kringel had been in contact with individuals linked to VIPemployment, a front organization that seeks to recruit Israelis online into spying for the Islamic republic.
Kringel allegedly managed to recruit another 26-year-old Holon resident, Tal Amram, into spying on Iran’s behalf.
The two were arrested as part of the same investigation conducted by the Shin Bet and police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit.
An indictment against both men will be filed by state prosecutors in the coming days, police say.
The National Council for Planning and Building approves an Energy Ministry plan for special electricity rooms at gas stations that will provide enough power to simultaneously operate more than five fast charging points for electrical vehicles.
With the green light, gas stations will also be permitted to build small waiting areas for those whose cars are being charged.
Additional chargers are needed countrywide if the Energy Ministry is to fully move to electric transportation by 2050. Out of 3.7 million private vehicles on the roads, just 170,000 are fully electric, the ministry says.
Global footwear brand Reebok is understood to have requested that Israel’s national soccer team remove the Reebok logo from the team’s uniforms.
Reebok is said to have asked its local equipment supplier, MSG Group, to pull its logo from the kits and uniforms of Israel’s national soccer team, according to reports in the Hebrew press.
Reebok was not immediately available for comment when contacted by The Times of Israel.
“We regret that the Reebok company has chosen to succumb to boycott threats that were completely irrelevant,” the Israel Football Association says in a statement. “There are clear laws against boycotts, and we will examine all legal options available to us.”
The association says its emblem and the Israeli flag will continue to be proudly displayed on all national team uniforms.
“We are convinced that a braver and more honest sponsor will be found in the near future,” the association says.
Turkey’s intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin was sent to Doha by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to participate in talks today with Hamas over Washington’s proposal for ending the war in Gaza, according to Turkish state media.
The presence of Kalin, a close confidant of Erdoğan, marks a more public step in Turkey’s mediation role over the past two years, and follows multiple successful meetings between Erdoğan and US President Donald Trump.
Kalin has previously held talks at home with Hamas leaders on Gaza-related issues.
Qatar announced it would hold discussions with Hamas negotiators and Turkey today to discuss Trump’s proposal, and Hamas is reportedly leaning toward accepting the deal and will give its response to mediators tomorrow.
Denmark has raised the security level for energy facilities because of the risk of sabotage and hybrid attacks, the government said Tuesday, after mysterious drone flights were spotted across the Nordic country.
Energy Minister Lars Aagaard told Danish media that the sector’s “preparedness level” had been raised to orange, the second-highest level.
“Ultimately, we fear that someone will challenge our energy supply, and a country without an energy supply is a country that does not function,” Aagaard told broadcaster TV2.
Recent drone sightings across Denmark have prompted the closure of several airports, including Copenhagen’s — the largest airport in northern Europe.
Copenhagen is to host an EU summit on Wednesday and Thursday.
The last time Denmark raised the security level for its energy facilities was in September 2022 after the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.
US President Donald Trump says he will give the Hamas terror group “three or four days” to agree to his Gaza peace plan.
He tells reporters as he departs the White House that Israeli and Arab leaders have accepted the plan and “we’re just waiting for Hamas.”
He says the terror group has about “three or four days” to respond.
“Hamas is either going to be doing it or not, and if it’s not, it’s going to be a very sad end,” he says.
Asked if there is room for negotiations on the peace plan, Trump says: “Not much.”
The plan, unveiled yesterday, would see all the hostages released within 72 hours, and the Strip demilitarized and handed over to a transitional, “technocratic” government. Hamas members who give up their arms would be granted amnesty.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Ryanair says it will not resume operations to and from Israel in the winter due to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport’s “refusal” to grant the Irish low-cost airline its flight slots for next year’s summer season.
“We are not willing to restart loss-making flights to/from Tel Aviv for the winter season, without the certainty that our summer 2026 historic slots have been confirmed,” a Ryanair spokesperson says in an e-mailed statement.
“We are fed up having our low-fare flights repeatedly messed around by Ben Gurion Airport – it is absurd that they refused to confirm our summer 2026 slots, when summer 2026 schedules are already on sale,” the statement continues.
“We regret this means that Tel Aviv will no longer have access to Ryanair’s much lower fares, or to the 22 routes we operated last winter, but until such time as Tel Aviv are willing to honor their low-cost agreements with Ryanair, we are unwilling to restart flights there,” the spokesperson adds.
In September, Rynair Group chief executive Michael O’Leary said the low-cost carrier may not return to Israel even when violence related to the Gaza war recedes. The airline earlier this summer extended suspension of flight services to Israel through October 25.
At a Knesset Health Committee meeting today, Dr. Sharon Elroei-Price, head of public health services at the Health Ministry, states that approximately 1,700 patients have been confirmed with measles in the past six months, 437 have been hospitalized since the outbreak began in May, and 39 are in intensive care.
Six children have died in the past two weeks, all of them younger than two, with no underlying conditions.
She warns that the number of unvaccinated children in the Haredi sector, in Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Harish, Nof HaGalil, Modiin Illit, Kiryat Gat, Ashdod, and Safed has doubled since the previous measles outbreak in 2018.
Yael Piles, health coordinator in the ministry’s budget division, says that NIS 5.5 million ($1.7 million) has been allocated to treat the current outbreak.
However, Gil Ribush, Deputy Director of the Jerusalem Municipality, says there are “long lines to get vaccinated and there is an acute shortage of nurses who are working nonstop.”
“Apart from the hard core that do not want to be vaccinated,” says Yona Kaufman, the health supervisor in the Beit Shemesh municipality, “the data is now improving thanks to the vaccination mobile unit.”
She says that 2.5 times more vaccines were administered this year than in the same period last year, with 3.3 times more in Jerusalem, five times more in Beit Shemesh, and three times more in Bnei Brak.
Kaufman praises the activities of the Haredi public who are recruiting thousands of new vaccine recipients in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh.
Blue and White-National Unity MK Pnina Tamano-Shata announces that she will today submit a symbolic motion to the Knesset, to be voted on following the end of the current parliamentary recess next month, expressing approval of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip.
“There is an overwhelming majority among the people and also in the Knesset that support the Trump plan,” Tamano-Shata says in a statement released by her party.
“If the extremist government is unable to hold a serious debate on the issue and approve it, it must be brought to the Knesset. I am sure that more than 80 MKs will express support for the plan and send an important message to the people, the world and in particular the US administration.”
If approved, such a motion would be declarative and carry no legal weight but would constitute a strong political signal.
In a statement on Monday, Blue and White-National Unity chairman Benny Gantz expressed support for the Trump plan, declaring that it “must be implemented, our hostages brought home, Israel’s operational freedom maintained, Hamas’ terror regime in Gaza replaced and moderate Arab States instated instead as I proposed a year and a half ago.”
“We must not miss out on the opportunity to bring back the hostages, safeguard our security and catalyze a ‘Strategic Flip’ expanding the circles of regional normalization,” read an English-language statement from the former IDF chief.
In Hebrew, he added: “We won’t let petty politics thwart the deal.”
“This framework could have been reached long ago [but] better late than never,” he said in a separate message on social platform X.
The armed man who shot the Palestinian who carried out the car-ramming terror attack at the al-Khader Junction is a senior reservist officer.
Col. (res.) Hezi Nehama, who was not on duty, passed by the junction as the attack was carried out.
He tells Hebrew media that he heard a car crash into the side of the road, and stopped his own vehicle, thinking it was an accident. But people at the junction shouted that the assailant had a knife, Nehama says.
The colonel says the terrorist ran toward him and he initially opened fire at his legs, shouting at him to stop.
“I kept shouting ‘stop!’ and he didn’t stop. So I fired at the center of his body, and he fell,” Nehama is cited as saying by Ynet news.
The United Nations says it’s prepared to increase aid deliveries into Gaza whenever possible, as called for in a US plan to end the war in Gaza. Deliveries by UN agencies and its partners have been somewhat limited in recent months.
Trump’s plan says that aid entries will proceed “without interference” by Israel or Hamas “through the United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent” in addition to other international institutions “not associated in any manner with either party.”
Alessandra Vellucci, a UN Geneva spokesperson, says the world body is in contact “with the various parties about the peace efforts… we welcome all the mediation.”
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says the UN stands “ready and prepared and capable to increase aid deliveries inside Gaza, whenever the opportunity is such that we are allowed to do so and the… safety and security of doing so is there indeed.”
Spain’s government says it will investigate companies that advertise products or services in the country that originate in the Palestinian territories.
The measure follows the approval of a decree last week that bans the promotion of such goods and services in Spain to prevent firms from benefiting from Israel’s control of areas Palestinians want for a state, the consumer ministry says in a statement.
Consumer Affairs Minister Pablo Bustinduy said earlier this year his office would use “all necessary resources” to ensure no company operating in Spain profits from the occupation.
“No firm should have its balance sheet stained with the blood of the Palestinian people,” the statement quotes him as saying at an event in July.
The Palestinian who carried out the terror car-ramming attack at the al-Khader Junction, wounding two teens, also attempted a stabbing at the scene, the IDF says.
The terror suspect, identified by security officials as a resident of the nearby town of Bayt Fajar, was shot by an armed civilian. His condition is unknown.
The IDF says it is blocking roads, encircling Palestinian towns in the area, and carrying out scans following the attack.
The local settlement council in the area says the highway where the incident took place been reopened to traffic.
Hundreds of Palestinians, mainly those requiring medical treatment and their caregivers, along with dual-national Gazans, exited the Gaza Strip yesterday, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities (COGAT) says.
COGAT says it coordinated their exit from Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, and they headed to various countries abroad via Ramon Airport and the Allenby Bridge Crossing with Jordan.
Additionally, COGAT says nearly 430 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip yesterday through the Kerem Shalom and Kissufim crossings.
Around 330 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, according to COGAT.
“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 months. 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.
The Magen David Adom rescue service lowers the number of injured in a suspected West Bank terror car ramming to two, but says one of the victims is a 15-year-old hospitalized in serious condition.
The second victim, 16, is listed in moderate condition, MDA says.
Both have been taken to hospitals in Jerusalem.
According to the police, the assailant was shot by an armed civilian at the scene. His condition is unclear.
Three people are injured in a suspected car-ramming terror attack at the al-Khader Junction in the West Bank, south of Jerusalem, the Magen David Adom emergency service says.
According to MDA, two of the victims are listed in good-to-moderate condition, and one is listed in good condition.
Police say that the assailant was neutralized by security forces at the scene. A video of the aftermath shows men in plainclothes aiming weapons at a figure on the ground next to a car.
ראשוני: שלושה נפגעים בפיגוע משולב בכביש המנהרות, ליד גוש עציון@HGoldich @ItayBlumental pic.twitter.com/PrVzRyFV43
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 30, 2025
The incident was initially reported as a shooting due to the gunfire at the attacker.
Medics and security forces are responding to reports of a shooting on the Route 60 highway in the West Bank, near the Palestinian town of al-Khader just south of Jerusalem.
The military says it received reports of a suspected terror attack at the al-Khader Junction, adding that the details are under review.
CBS News reports that Hamas is leaning toward accepting the terms of a US proposal to end the war in Gaza, citing an unnamed source “close to the process.”
According to the report, the terror group’s representatives will present their response to Qatari and Egyptian officials on Wednesday.
The National Planning and Building Council gives the green light to fast-tracking the construction of 205 new housing units and other public buildings and infrastructure in Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the Gaza border, recommending that the interior minister exempt the kibbutz from the usual planning process and need for permits.
A temporary order under the Planning and Building Law allows the interior minister to exempt residential and public buildings from rigorous planning and permitting procedures usually required.
The council has approved dozens of such orders for different communities affected by the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, but Nir Oz was the last community to agree on a funding package with the state, finally doing so in April.
Nir Oz was largely destroyed on October 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen entered all but six of over 200 homes in the small community and either murdered or kidnapped one of every four residents — 117 people out of some 400. Of those abducted, nine are still being held in Gaza, of whom only five are believed to still be alive.
The kibbutz will carry out the construction work.
Qatar says it will hold talks with Hamas negotiators and Turkey on Tuesday to discuss US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan.
“There will also be another meeting today, also attended by the Turkish side, with the [Hamas] negotiating delegation,” Foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari tells a press conference.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says Israel remains committed to its war goals in accepting the US plan to end the Gaza conflict, while warning that Hamas may try to “escape from implementing” the proposal, speaking at a joint press conference in Belgrade alongside his Serbian counterpart Marko Đurić.
Sa’ar says Israel’s acceptance “shouldn’t surprise anyone,” as Israel remains “committed to the goals that we set” for the war — which have been repeatedly stated as destroying Hamas’s armed capabilities, freeing the hostages, and ensuring Gaza doesn’t pose a future threat to Israel — “But we prefer to achieve them through diplomatic means.”
“Today, too, we are committed to these goals – as set by our security cabinet,” he says, adding that Hamas is “solely responsible” for the war’s continuation by refusing to end the conflict.
The foreign minister notes that Hamas has yet to accept the plan and expresses skepticism on the matter: “We know, according to the past, that they [Hamas] usually want to open and close, try changing the terms, and to escape from implementing. But we will see.”
A Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman says Hamas was only handed the proposal last night, but promised to consider it responsibly.
Sa’ar adds that Israel wants “to see our hostages come home after two years,” mentioning by name hostage Alon Ohel, who holds Serbian citizenship, and says Israel hopes for a “deradicalized, demilitarized” Gaza that will no longer pose a threat to the Jewish state.
During a bilateral meeting this morning, Sa’ar and Đurić signed “a joint program of cooperation in the fields of education, science and culture, as well as memoranda of understanding on bilateral consultations and the training of diplomats,” and also decided to launch a strategic dialogue and a ministerial joint economic committee, Sa’ar office says.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari says at the weekly press briefing that Hamas promised to discuss the American plan to end the war in Gaza “responsibly” after the plan was handed to a delegation in Doha yesterday.
He says not to expect a reply yet.
“We delivered it after 11:30 p.m., so it’s too early to talk about a response,” he says. “We are optimistic. This is a comprehensive plan and we will continue to stay in touch with them.”
US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza “is not perfect, but it is the best option on the table,” declares Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, in his first in-depth reaction.
Lapid claims the plan is “very similar” to one he shopped around in meetings with key players a year ago, lamenting the delay in endorsing the idea.
Israel has lost a year in which its soldiers and hostages have been dying “while our international status disintegrated before our eyes” and “time is running out,” Lapid asserts, presenting Trump’s plan as the only viable option.
And while there are problems with the American outline, “the experience of the Abraham Accords shows that President Trump’s method works: they mark a big goal, build a timetable, and work out the details on the fly.”
Under Trump’s plan, Israel would get back the hostages, withdraw from Gaza while maintaining its security and expand the Abraham Accords, all of which “are clear Israeli interests,” he says.
According to Lapid, the biggest threat to the proposal are not those who might outright reject it but those who say “yes, but,” pinning such an approach on Netanyahu, who endorsed the plan from the White House on Monday.
“He usually says ‘yes’ in Washington, when he stands in front of cameras in the White House and feels like a groundbreaking statesman, and the ‘but’ when he returns to Israel and the ‘base’ reminds him who’s boss,” Lapid writes.
“The idea of annexing Gaza was a crazy idea from the very beginning, and this plan saves us not only from a destructive political and security situation, but also from the attempt to drag us into becoming a backward and angry Sparta, poor and isolated in the world. We need to say ‘yes’ to the plan without ‘buts’ and work towards its immediate implementation despite all the obstacles.”
The head of the police’s investigations division blocked a probe into Rabbi Yosef Zini, the father of likely incoming Shin Bet chief David Zini, on suspicion of making threats against an Arab lawmaker, authorities say.
In recordings aired earlier this month by Channel 13 news, the rabbi was taped joking he would have killed Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi if elected to the Knesset and expressing his hope for the High Court to “explode.”
“What luck that I wasn’t elected to the Knesset, if I were elected to the Knesset I’d die in jail. If I heard MK Ahmad Tibi say ‘I am the sovereign’ and if I had a gun, I would kill the [supposed] sovereign,” he is heard saying, then laughing in the recording.
Police say that after a complaint was filed against Zini, 80, Deputy Commissioner Boaz Blatt instructed investigators to review the evidence against him and reached the decision not to launch a probe.
David Zini is set to be confirmed as the next head of the security agency despite concerns about the nomination process and claims that he is unfit for the role due to past statements made by him and his family members.
The younger Zini has described his own views as “messianic” and characterized Israel’s judicial system as “a dictatorship that rules the State of Israel.”
The announcement regarding Zini’s father comes after several media outlets reported that police had opened an investigation and summoned him for interrogation.
“The attempt by media outlets to falsely quote decisions that were never made in the name of the head of the investigations and intelligence division harms public trust, and most likely is based on untrustworthy sources,” police say.
Tibi tells The Times of Israel that his office informed the Knesset security officer of Zini’s statements, as is protocol in instances of incitement to murder or violence, and the officer then passed it to the police.
A Palestinian source close to Hamas says the group is reviewing US President Donald Trump’s proposal for ending the Gaza war.
“Hamas has begun a series of consultations within its political and military leaderships, both inside Palestine and abroad,” the source tells AFP on condition of anonymity.
“The discussions could take several days due to the complexities of communication among leadership members and movements, especially after the Israeli aggression in Doha,” the source adds.
Another Palestinian source also confirms that Hamas was examining Trump’s plan.
A Hamas gunman who tried to sneak up on an Israeli army position in Gaza City under a blanket earlier today was killed by troops, the military says.
According to the IDF, the operative, armed with an assault rifle, a handgun, and grenades, was identified by troops of the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit approaching their position as he attempted to conceal himself under the blanket.
The troops opened fire on the gunman, killing him. No soldiers were hurt in the incident, the army says.
In recent weeks, there have been repeated attempts by Hamas to raid IDF positions in Gaza. Yesterday, five soldiers were seriously injured in a Hamas attack on a temporary post in Gaza City.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett says US President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the war in Gaza and releasing the hostages is “a difficult, but necessary step” in light of the current government’s failure to defeat Hamas.
In a Hebrew-language statement that includes an English-language “thank you” to Trump, Bennett laments the fact that Israel is ending the war with an apology to “the sponsors of the massacre who are in Qatar” and the release of “many hundreds of Sinwar-like murderous terrorists,” referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s phone call to Doha to apologize for a strike on Hamas leaders there and the expected release of Palestinian terror convicts in exchange for hostages.
“This is a difficult, but necessary step after the government failed to achieve Hamas’s defeat in Gaza and or the return of the hostages who are languishing in captivity and the price we are paying and will continue to pay in human lives is too heavy to bear,” he writes on X.
“The difficult chapter our country is going through must be closed with the return of our sons and daughters home, and with the transition to a new chapter of unity and rebuilding of the State of Israel,” he adds, calling for a state commission of inquiry into October 7.
In English, Bennett call Trump “a true friend to Israel and the Jewish nation.”
A right-wing leader who led a broad government coalition for nearly a year in 2021 and 2022, Bennett is now planning to re-enter politics and challenge Netanyahu for the premiership, with polls showing him as a potentially potent candidate.
Germany hails United States President Donald Trump’s proposal for ending the war in Gaza and expresses Berlin’s willingness to help implement the plan.
In a German-language post on X, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz calls the plan “the best chance for an end to the war” and states that “Germany is ready to contribute to the implementation of the plan,” praising Israel for accepting it and calling on Hamas to do the same.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says he will travel to the region next weekend to work on bringing peace to the region.
Germany is prepared to support the plan “with concrete measures,” he says, adding that it “can pave the way to a broader conciliation process in the Middle East.”
The world is still awaiting an official Hamas response to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to end the war in Gaza, but other Palestinians are weighing in.
Abu Ali Hassan, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, tells the Sand news agency that “Trump’s plan is a recipe for managing the war and prolonging it, not for its end.”
The PFLP is one of the smaller terror organizations in the Gaza Strip and during the war it has been cooperating with Hamas.
Hassan adds that it is “a desperate attempt to separate Gaza from the Palestinian territorial entity.”
Embattled Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara is angrily assailed by coalition lawmakers at a tempestuous Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting, who berate her and accuse her of insolence.
During a ferocious interrogation, committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman blasts Baharav-Miara for what he alleges is her failure to provide the lawmakers with information they requested regarding the functioning of a working group tasked with tackling organized crime, and then accuses her of ignoring the instructions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene the group on a regular basis.
Baharav-Miara tells Rothman that he should not interfere in her working relationship with the prime minister, causing Rothman to explode with anger.
“This is an utter disgrace,” Rothman exclaims, and then shouts at her to “stop interrupting me,” as she seeks to explain.
“I never experienced a public servant who interrupted a committee chair so much. When the prime minister requests that the working group you head meet once a week, I am not interfering with your working relationship with the prime minister. Your job here is to answer,” he bellows.
Likud MK Moshe Saada joins in the flogging, blasting her for investigating allegations of abuse against the IDF Force 100 prison riot control unit, which was implicated in severe abuse of Palestinian detainees in the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility.
Calling the attorney general by her first name, Saada denounces Baharav-Miara for carrying out such investigations into IDF soldiers, as well as decrying other aspects of her conduct. The broadside sparks bedlam in the committee, with opposition and coalition MKs screaming at each other over Saada’s allegations.
The Democrats chairman Yair Golan pledges that if voted into power he will oust David Zini as Shin Bet chief, drawing criticism from fellow opposition party leader Benny Gantz.
Zini, a former general, was nominated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and may be confirmed by the government tonight. The Senior Appointments Advisory Committee approved his candidacy last week, rejecting the claim that Netanyahu was barred from proposing a candidate because the Shin Bet was actively investigating his advisers for their ties to Qatar.
After tweeting that the country’s next government will replace every appointee who “deviates from the democratic path,” Golan confirms to Army Radio that this includes Zini.
Golan says Zini’s candidacy was “tainted by extraneous considerations” and that “the only quality that makes him the one chosen for the position by the prime minister is the belief that he will grant him exemption from investigations in the Qatar affair.”
Responding to Golan, Blue and White-National Unity party head Benny Gantz tweets that threatening to remove heads of security agencies mimics the behavior of the government they hope to replace.
“How can we say that we’ll establish a different, better government here, and in the same breath threaten the heads of the security organizations and the gatekeepers and behave exactly like what we want to replace, even before we take office,” he writes.
“Yair, like you, I also have very harsh criticism of Zini’s appointment process. But from the moment he is chosen, he will be the head of the Shin Bet” and “under no circumstances should we tarnish him before he takes office.”
“Keep national security out of politics,” Gantz adds.
Hitting back on X, Golan rejects the comparison, saying he is trying to protect democracy “from those who seek to destroy it.”
“When [democracy] is harmed we must not stand idly by,” he writes. “In the State of Israel we believe in, only individuals loyal to the state, the law, security, and democracy will serve in the security services and the civil service. We must scrutinize every appointment and action of this bad government with utmost suspicion, because they do not serve Israel, but only themselves.”
Tourism and Housing Minister Haim Katz comes out in favor of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in the Strip, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed the vision in the two leaders’ joint press conference at the White House.
“The return of all the hostages, the removal of every existential threat, and a generation of peace for Israel’s children in any way and as soon as possible,” tweets Katz, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party.
“We have a unique opportunity, and I am confident that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will know how to best seize it,” he continues, thanking Trump for his “longstanding support of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”
Iran says around 400 Iranians who left the country and entered the United States are being deported by American authorities and sent back to Iran, including some who were there legally.
Foreign ministry consular affairs official Hossein Noushabadi tells the Tasnim news agency that an initial planeload of 120 deportees is expected to arrive in the next day or two, confirming a New York Times report.
He says most of the deportees entered the US illegally, largely through the Mexican border, though some had residency permits.
He adds that there have been talks over the issue for several months.
Two Hamas gunmen who attempted to infiltrate an army encampment in Gaza City yesterday were killed in a drone strike, the military says, attaching footage of the incident.
The incident took place about an hour before a cell of five Hamas operatives managed to breach the encampment, in an attack that left five soldiers seriously injured. Two of those Hamas gunmen were killed by tank shelling and in a gun battle, according to the IDF.
The military says troops of the Kfir Brigade, operating under the 36th Division, spotted the two armed Hamas operatives approaching the encampment, and directed a drone strike that killed them.
Two other divisions are also operating in Gaza City.
In the past day, the IDF says troops of the 98th Division killed a Hamas cell commander and three other operatives in a strike; and forces of the 162nd Division killed additional operatives in “direct encounters” and by calling in strikes.
Across the Strip, the Israeli Air Force hit over 160 targets over the past day, including Hamas fighters, weapon depots, observation posts, and other infrastructure used by the terror group.
Hamas documents recovered by Israeli troops in Gaza supposedly reveal the terror group’s “direct involvement” in an activist mission currently sailing dozens of boats to challenge Israel’s blockade of the Strip, Israel’s Foreign Ministry says.
In a statement, the ministry claims that the documents “show a direct link between the flotilla leaders and the Hamas terrorist organization,” especially the group’s foreign arm, the Palestinian Conference for Palestinians, or PCPA.
The PCPA was established in 2018, and according to Israel, “functions as Hamas’ representative body abroad, operating de facto as Hamas’ embassies.” PCPA was designated by Israel as a terror group in 2021, due to it being a Hamas arm.
“The organization operates under civilian cover and is responsible, on behalf of Hamas, for mobilizing actions against Israel, including violent demonstrations, marches against Israel, and flotillas of protest and provocation,” the ministry says.
One document published by the ministry, which was recently found in Gaza, is a letter from 2021 signed by then-Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, “directly and explicitly calling on the PCPA chairman for unity.”
“In the letter, Haniyeh publicly endorses the PCPA organization,” the ministry says.
The ministry says a second document, found in a Hamas outpost in Gaza, shows a list of PCPA operatives, “some of whom are high-ranking, well-known Hamas operatives.”
Among them is Zaher Birawi, who serves as the head of PCPA in the United Kingdom and is known for organizing activist flotilla missions to Gaza over the past 15 years. In 2010, he was one of the spokesmen of the Turkish Mavi Marmara flotilla.
Birawi is described on the pro-Palestinian outlet Middle East Monitor as a journalist and the chairman of the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza and a founding member of the International Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
Also on the list is Saif Abu Kashk, a PCPA member in Spain, who the ministry says is also the CEO of Cyber Neptune, “a front company in Spain that owns dozens of the ships participating in the ‘Sumud’ flotilla.”
It claims that Kashk’s involvement proves that the ships “are secretly owned by Hamas.”
The ministry publishes photos of Birawi with flotilla activists and other pictures showing him alongside senior Hamas officials.
The 47-boat flotilla is currently some 150 nautical miles from Gaza, according to the organizers, and is set to reach the Strip within the coming days.
The Israeli Navy is set to intercept the boats, and in the past has done so well before the activists were able to get close to Gaza’s coast.
IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Thursday that the Navy is ready to intercept the boats, although he noted a greater challenge than past flotilla attempts due to the number of vessels.
Shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange jump and the shekel appreciates on investor optimism after US President Donald Trump laid out a plan for ending the war in Gaza and bringing peace to the region.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-125 index gains 2 percent off the bat in early morning trading. The index has soared about 30% from the start of the year, hitting record highs over the past weeks over hopes the war may be coming to an end.
The TA-35 index of blue-chip companies rises 1.1%. The TA-90 index, which tracks the shares with the highest capitalization not included in the TA-35 index, leaps 3.1%. The TA-Construction index increases 4.7% and the TA-Insurance index is up 4.2%.
“We are seeing positive sentiment continuing following Sunday’s share increases in anticipation of a plan to end the war in Gaza and bring back all the hostages,” Mizrahi Tefahot Bank chief markets economist Ronen Menahem tells The Times of Israel. “Investors will now be looking for more indicators and results that the plan that was presented will be accepted and put into practice.”
The shekel appreciates 0.5% against the greenback, trading at around NIS 3.30 to $1. The local currency has gained about 1% this month.
Weighing in for the first time since it was officially unveiled yesterday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a senior coalition partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, criticizes a US plan to end the war in Gaza but does not outright say he will oppose or attempt to torpedo it.
Along with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Smotrich is one of two far-right leaders whose reaction to the proposal is being closely watched, due to their potential sway over Netanyahu, who backed the plan in Washington DC Monday.
In a lengthy post on X, Smotrich, who heads the hardline Religious Zionism party, calls celebrations over the plan premature, criticizing the scheme as giving up “real achievements on the ground for political illusions… a diplomatic bear hug and glittering ceremonies.”
He calls it, “A tragic case of leadership abstaining from any vision,” in apparent reference to Netanyahu’s failure to secure Smotrich’s declared goals of resettling Gaza and annexing the West Bank.
Allowing a Palestinian security force into Gaza and allowing Qatar to become a “central player” marks a “historic missed opportunity to finally break free from the shackles of Oslo, a resounding diplomatic failure, closing our eyes and turning our backs on all the lessons of October 7.”
“In my estimation, this too will end in tears,” he writes.
He expresses hopes that perhaps Hamas’s “obstinacy will once again save us from ourselves.”
“[Given] Prime Minister Netanyahu’s initial unwillingness to conquer Gaza… is this the maximum that can be achieved right now?” he asks.
“These are good questions. We will consult, consider, and decide, with God’s help. But the celebrations since yesterday are simply absurd,” he adds.
Smotrich said yesterday that he had informed Netanyahu of his party’s “red lines” ahead of the premier’s meeting with Trump to discuss the plan.
Smotrich and Ben Gvir have opposed previous proposals to end the war, threatening to bring down the government over the issue. Opposition parties have offered in the past to provide Netanyahu a safety net of support to avoid being forced to rely on the far-right leaders should they try to block a deal. Critics have accused Netanyahu of putting the continued support of his political allies ahead of freeing hostages remaining in Gaza.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomes US President Donald Trump’s peace proposal to end the nearly two-year-old war in Gaza.
“Welcome President @realDonaldTrump’s commitment to end the war in Gaza. Encourage all parties to now seize this opportunity. The EU stands ready to contribute,” she writes on X.
Welcome President @realDonaldTrump’s commitment to end the war in Gaza. Encourage all parties to now seize this opportunity.
The EU stands ready to contribute.
Hostilities should end with provision of immediate humanitarian relief to the population in Gaza and with all…
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 30, 2025
“Hostilities should end with provision of immediate humanitarian relief to the population in Gaza and with all hostages released immediately,” she adds.
The head of the hawkish opposition Yisrael Beytenu party expresses support for US President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the war in Gaza.
“Every initiative that brings all the hostages home must be welcomed,” tweets Avigdor Liberman on X, citing a verse from the biblical book of Jeremiah stating that “your children shall return to their borders.”
Multiple opposition politicians, including Yair Lapid and Yair Golan, have expressed support for the plan, although former prime minister Naftali Bennett has yet to weigh in. Bennett, a right-wing party leader who had helmed a broad coalition including left-wing and Arab parties, has become more vocal in recent weeks as he plots his political comeback.
While some members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet have come out in support of the plan, many others have remained silent, including the premier’s allies on the far right who have opposed past proposals.
The Shin Bet and police say they thwarted a bomb plot targeting IDF soldiers at a bus stop in Acre, arresting a suspect who sought to carry out the attack in the name of the Islamic State terror group.
State prosecutors intend to file charges today against Issa Madi, 18, who allegedly made contact with Islamic State operatives online and sought to carry out an attack under the terror group’s banner.
Police say that Madi, who lives in Acre, tried to assemble explosives for a planned IED attack at a bus stop adjacent to Acre’s train station.
He was arrested sometime in the last several weeks, authorities say in a statement announcing the case.
He faces charges of identifying with a terror group, attempting to manufacture explosives and obstruction during his arrest.
The Hamas-linked Shehab news outlet in Gaza says 12 people were killed in Israeli strikes overnight and this morning, citing information from hospitals in the Strip.
Seven of the deaths are reported by al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.
Three others are said to have been killed in a strike on a tent near the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone outside of Khan Younis, where Israel has directed evacuees from other parts of the Strip to shelter.
The reports cannot be verified and Gazan health authorities do not differentiate between combatants and civilians in their tallies.
There is no comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
Around 100 Iranians are set to be deported from the US back to Iran, as part of an arrangement between US President Donald Trump’s administration and the Islamic Republic, The New York Times reports, citing Iranian officials.
A charter plane carrying the deportees took off from Louisiana yesterday and is scheduled to land in Qatar before making its way to Iran in the coming hours.
Those on board include both men and women, including some who asked to be sent back and some who had not, after being detained in the US for months amid a wide crackdown on illegal immigration. According to the officials cited by the Times, those on board had either been denied asylum or had not yet appeared before a judge.
The US has historically given shelter to Iranians fleeing persecution at home, though some have been sent back in the past.
An official tells the paper that the return flight is being coordinated by Tehran’s Foreign Ministry, which has provided assurances that the deportees will not be harmed upon their return.
Two sailors have been injured in a Houthi missile strike on a Dutch-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden, with the crew evacuated by helicopter from the burning vessel, the ship’s owner says.
Spliethoff describes yesterday’s strike as “inflicting substantial damage” to the Minervagracht.
A European naval force operating in the region, known as Operation Aspides, says the Minervagracht “is on fire and adrift” after the crew’s rescue
It identifies the ship’s crew as coming from the Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, with one wounded and stable and another severely wounded and airlifted to Djibouti for medical care.
The French military’s Maritime Information, Cooperation and Awareness Center identified the Houthis as carrying out the attack.
The Iran-backed rebel group has yet to comment on the attack, which took place some distance from the Red Sea, where most of its strikes have occurred.
The US Navy-overseen Joint Maritime Information Center says the Minervagracht had “no Israeli affiliations.”
The last recorded attack on a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden before the Minervagracht came in August 2024.
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff tells Fox News that he is “very optimistic” for the chances of a US plan to end the Gaza war succeeding, citing broad international backing for the agreement.
“We have so much widespread support from all of the Gulf Coast Arab countries [sic], we have widespread support from the Europeans,” he says. “We have a lot of support for the plan, a lot of buy in.”
He adds that there are still details to be hashed out, but stakeholders who don’t agree can expect to be pressured by US President Donald Trump.
“Everyone is going to be pushed by him and think I we are going to get to the finish line,” he tells Bret Baier outside the White House.
🚨 WATCH: Steve Witkoff, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, tells Fox’s @BretBaier he’s “very optimistic” of Israel-Gaza peace pic.twitter.com/f8xZeNyAYh
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) September 29, 2025
He also appears to conflate Israeli hostages with Palestinian security prisoners, including terror convicts, that Hamas demands be freed in exchange for captives, saying “lets see if we can get everybody home. On both sides, by the way, on the Palestinian side as well as the Israeli side.”
“I’m very optimistic, and I’m hopeful at the same time,” he says. “I really am hopeful, because I’ve met ppl on both sides and this needs to end.”
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan praises Donald Trump’s “efforts and leadership” to end the war in Gaza in a post on X.
“I commend US President Donald Trump’s efforts and leadership aimed at halting the bloodshed in Gaza and achieving a ceasefire,” writes Erdogan, who met Trump at the White House for the first time in six years last week.
Turkey will continue to contribute to the process “with a view to establishing a just and lasting peace acceptable to all parties,” he adds.
Turkey, which has supported Hamas in the past, has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s two-year assault on Gaza, which it calls a “genocide.” It has halted all trade with Israel and urged international action against Netanyahu and his government.
A Turkish Foreign Ministry source said late on Monday that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had discussed Trump’s proposal with counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan in a phone call.
Two Hezbollah operatives responsible for artillery fire, who were advancing attacks against Israel, were killed in airstrikes in Lebanon yesterday, the military says.
According to the IDF, both Muhammad Abbas Sha’shua, who was based in Sohmor in the eastern Beqaa Valley, and Muhammad Hussein Yassin, based in the Beaufort Castle area of southern Lebanon, were involved in rehabilitating the group’s fighting capabilities.
Sha’shua was responsible for Hezbollah’s artillery capabilities in the Sohmor area, and during the fighting last year, had advanced numerous attacks against the Kiryat Shmona area and Golan Heights, the military says.
Yassin, a senior member of Hezbollah’s artillery unit in the Beaufort Castle area — and responsible for attacks last year on Kiryat Shmona and the Galilee Panhandle — was also involved in bringing arms south of the Litani River in contravention of a ceasefire, the IDF says.
The IDF issues footage of the strikes.
צה"ל חיסל שני מחבלים מארגון הטרור חיזבאללה שקידמו מתווי טרור לעבר אזרחי מדינת ישראל
אתמול, צה"ל תקף וחיסל בהובלת פיקוד הצפון באמצעות כלי טיס של חיל האוויר, את המחבל מוחמד עבאס שעשוע, ששימש כאחראי ארטילריה במרחב סוחמור שבדרום לבנון, בארגון הטרור חיזבאללה.
במהלך המלחמה המחבל קידם… pic.twitter.com/5Xag4MQD24
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 30, 2025
Lebanese authorities reported two people killed in Israeli strikes yesterday, one in a strike on an excavator in Sohmor, and a second person killed in an attack on a water tanker in Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa in south Lebanon.
A third strike injured a person in Aitaroun in southern Lebanon, according to Beirut.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has departed the US for Israel following his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington, the Prime Minister’s Office says.
While at the White House, Netanyahu had confirmed in a joint press conference with Trump that Israel accepted his proposal for ending the war in Gaza.
Delegates of the UK’s ruling Labour Party have voted to back a non-binding motion urging the government to recognize Israel’s war in Gaza as a “genocide,” at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool.
The motion made no mention of Hamas or the 48 hostages still held captive in Gaza, and called for the British government to “fully suspend the arms trade with Israel and the UK-Israel trade and partnership agreement,” the BBC reports.
Delegates favored the motion over a different resolution, which had called for the UK to impose sanctions on the Israeli government as a way to pressure it to “respect international law,” while at the same time “continue to demand the immediate release of all hostages,” the BBC report adds.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, who served as the UK’s foreign secretary until a recent reshuffle, said in response to the demand for the government to declare the war in Gaza a “genocide,” that it was “for the [International Court of Justice] with their judges and judiciary, and for the [International Criminal Court], to determine the issue of genocide in relation to the convention.”
“It is not for politicians like me to do that,” he added.
The move was criticized by Labour Councillor for Stratford on Newham, Joshua Garfield, a member of the Jewish Labour Movement.
The motion “ignores Hamas entirely,” Garfield said ahead of the vote. “If we pass the motion, what would we be saying?”
“Don’t do a disservice for Palestinians fighting for peace or Israelis fighting for coexistence,” he said, in remarks cited by the Jewish Chronicle.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praises US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza in a video statement from Washington, where, earlier in the day, he stood side by side with the US President and gave the stamp of approval to the proposal.
“It was a historic visit,” he says. “Instead of Hamas isolating us, we turned things around and isolated Hamas.
“Now the whole world, including the Arab and Muslim world, is pressuring Hamas to accept the terms that we created together with Trump, to bring back all the hostages — the living and the dead — while the IDF stays in the Strip.”
His remarks appeared to misrepresent a portion of Trump’s plan, which was published online by the White House, as it does not envision the IDF remaining in the Strip indefinitely, but rather withdrawing gradually and handing over the an international security force.
“Who would have believed it,” he says of Trump’s vision, claiming that until now, Israel had been told to accept Hamas’s demands and to allow it to stay and rebuild inside the war-torn enclave.
The person behind the camera inquires as to whether Netanyahu had agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state, which the premier quickly denies.
מסכמים ביקור חשוב בארה״ב.
עדכון קצר ממני אליכם >>
🇮🇱🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/SmVo642hfx
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 29, 2025
“Absolutely not,” he says. “It’s not written in the agreement.”
“We said we would strongly oppose a Palestinian state,” he adds, claiming Trump is in agreement with him that it would be a “massive prize for terror.”
Again, this appeared to be somewhat of a misrepresentation of the plan, as point 19 states that after Gaza is redeveloped and the Palestinian Authority is deemed to have carried out the necessary reforms, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.
Israel has expressed willingness to pay compensation to the family of the Qatari security officer who was killed in Israel’s strike against Hamas leaders in Doha, the Kan public broadcaster reports, citing an Israeli official.
The report follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology to Qatar this evening over the strike, though it is unclear at what point Israel conveyed such willingness.
The network notes that such a case would not be unprecedented. In 2016, Israel paid Turkey $20 million in compensation for the deadly storming of an aid ship in 2010 as a key component of a deal signed to restore ties after a six-year rift.
Senior security officials were surprised by Netanyahu’s apology and had not been briefed in advance, the report adds.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
An Israeli man, apparently involved in attempting to smuggle contraband over the Egyptian border into Israel, was killed during an army chase.
The military says that during the incident several hours ago, soldiers operating surveillance cameras spotted several suspects on the Israeli-Egyptian border and dispatched troops to the scene.
As the troops arrived, the suspects tried to flee in a car. The IDF says the suspects’ car crashed into an army vehicle and overturned, with one of the suspects inside being killed.
No soldiers were hurt in the incident, the military says.
The IDF believes that the suspects were attempting to smuggle contraband over the border using drones.
In the past year, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egyptian border using drones.
