Live updates (closed)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they unfolded.
‘It must serve as a wakeup call’: Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s family approves publication of Hamas propaganda clip
A Hamas propaganda video of Hersh Goldberg-Polin released on September 5, 2024. (Screen capture/X)
Hamas has released its latest propaganda video of hostages it executed last week, this time featuring American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Goldberg-Polin’s family has authorized the publication of the video, saying in a statement that it “must serve as an immediate wakeup call to the world to act today to secure the release of the remaining 101 hostages before it is too late.
“No other family should endure what we went through,” the statement adds, stressing that they are still marking the seven-day Jewish mourning period after burying Hersh on Monday. His body, along with those of five other murdered hostages, was recovered by the IDF on Saturday.
Israeli authorities and human rights groups, and several freed hostages, have said that hostages are coerced into making their remarks in such videos. Israeli media outlets generally publish them only if their families request that they do so.
It is not immediately known when the video of Goldberg-Polin was filmed.
Unlike a previous clip of him issued by Hamas in April that was in Hebrew, Goldberg-Polin speaks English in the latest one.
He introduces himself, says he was born in Berkeley, California, that he currently lives in Jerusalem, Israel, and that he is a dual US-Israeli citizen.
“I turned 23 four days before I was kidnapped at the party in the Re’im Forest on the seventh of October,” he says, referring to the Nova music festival.
“Since I arrived in Gaza, I’ve survived with almost no medical care, little food and little water. I can’t remember the last time I saw the sun or took a breath of fresh air,” he says, highlighting “non-stop” IDF airstrikes and criticizing the Israeli government.
Goldberg-Polin then makes a plea to US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and all American citizens “to do everything you can to stop the war, stop this madness and to bring me home.”
The short clip ends with the 23-year-old offering a message to his family. “Mama, Dada, Leebie and Orly, I love you. I miss you, and I’m thinking about you every single day. I know you’re doing everything you can and that you’re out in the streets trying to bring me home.”
“Now, I need you to stay strong for me,” he says, in an echo of part of the message his mother Rachel has given when addressing her son at the end of speeches to raise awareness of the hostages’ plight across the globe: “Hersh, if you can hear me, I love you. Stay strong. Survive,” she has said.
The clip of Goldberg-Polin ends with him saying, “Keep on fighting, and hopefully, I believe I’ll be home soon. Don’t stop. I love you.”
UN says Gaza remains ‘beyond catastrophic,’ food still in short supply
The United Nations says the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains “beyond catastrophic,” with more than one million Palestinians not receiving any food rations in August and a 35 percent drop in people getting daily cooked meals.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric says the UN humanitarian office attributed the sharp reduction in cooked meals partly to multiple evacuation orders from Israeli security forces that forced at least 70 of 130 kitchens to either suspend or relocate their operations.
The UN’s humanitarian partners also lacked sufficient food supplies to meet requirements for the second straight month in central and southern Gaza, “and will only be able to provide one food parcel to families in central and southern Gaza during the September distribution cycle,” he adds.
Dujarric points to ongoing hostilities, insecurity, damaged roads, the breakdown of law and order, and access limitations as reasons for the critical shortages of commodities.
In the West Bank, he accuses Israel of using “lethal war-like tactics, including airstrikes,” as it wages a major anti-terror campaign in the cities of Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarm.
“Medical facilities have been virtually besieged for over a week now, with heavy restrictions imposed on the movement of ambulances and medical staff,” Dujarric says.
Trump says Harris victory will spell end of Israel
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an election campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana, on August 9, 2024. (Natalie BEHRING / AFP)
If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the White House, Israel will cease to exist, former US president Donald Trump tells a gathering of Republican Jews via video.
“I will work with you to make sure Israel is with us for thousands of years,” the Republican nominee says to applause. “If they win, Israel is gone… you can forget about Israel, that’s what’s going to happen.
Voting for him is the only way to save the Jewish state from surefire destruction, he claims.
“They have to vote for Trump, if they don’t I think it’s gonna be a very terrible situation,” he says, vowing to “help Israel become great again.”
Reprising his oft-criticized habit of conflating US Jews with Israelis, he tells the crowd of Americans “right now what you are going through is horrible that you have to go through that, with all the death, destruction and waste and ruining a civilization,” he says, without clarifying. The crowd does not appear to mind.
During the speech, Trump also claims that had he remained president, “every country virtually” would have joined the Abraham Accords.
He claims Jews felt safe in public during his time in office, ignoring a reported spike in antisemitic incidents during his presidency.
Trump tells Jewish GOPers he will deport Hamas supporters if re-elected
Former US President Donald Trump says those who support Hamas will be kicked out of the United States should he win back the White House, drawing boisterous applause as he speaks to the Republican Jewish Coalition via video.
“When I am president we will deport the foreign jihad sympathizers and Hamas supporters from within our midst,” he says as the crowd responds with an extended chant of “Trump.”
President Trump will DEPORT foreign jihadi sympathizers and Hamas supporters from our midst! pic.twitter.com/4eDPDLocfB
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 5, 2024
“If you hate America, if you want to eliminate Israel, then we don’t want you in our country,” he says.
While Hamas is blacklisted as a terror organization, US free speech laws largely defend the ability to express support for hate groups.
The Republican nominee also tells the confab the Palestinian Authority “is not our friend,” defending his decision to cut funding to Ramallah during his term in office, despite historic US backing for the PA.
“I defunded the Palestinian Authority and choked off the money to Hamas, and we actually defunded, we were paying them a fortune every year, the United State was paying a fortune, and I said ‘we’re not gonna pay it, they’re not our friends and not the friends of Israel.'”
Paying tribute to slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Trump briefly garbles his name before recovering.
President Trump addresses the murder of American Hersh Goldberg-Polin by Hamas: "To Hersh's family, we pray that God will grant you comfort, healing and peace. As for the evil savages responsible for these murders, may they never know peace and comfort again." pic.twitter.com/K1FojGqBVN
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 5, 2024
“We’re all devastated by the horrific death of our fellow American Hersh Golbin, it’s so sad, so sad to even say, Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” he says.
“As for the evil savages responsible for these murders, may they never know peace and comfort ever again,” he adds. “Cannot know it.”
Trump, speaking remotely from New York, is welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd at @RJC summit pic.twitter.com/W6acUgVlc6
— Matthew Kassel (@matthewkassel) September 5, 2024
Court rejects attempt by former AG to gag leaked tapes of calls with top lawyer
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit attends a conference in Tel Aviv, June 29, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit has failed to convince a court to order the squelching of leaked phone conversations aired by Channel 12 in which he can be heard lobbying the head of the Israel Bar Association to help him land the attorney general job.
Tel Aviv District Court rejects a suit filed by Mandelblit seeking a ruling that Channel 12 broke a gag order by airing recordings of his calls with ex-bar chief Efi Nave, and suppressing any other material from Nave’s phone the channel might have.
Nave resigned in disgrace as head of the bar in 2019 after it emerged that he had used his position to illegally smuggle a woman out of the country. Several months later, he was arrested on suspicion that he had sought sexual favors in exchange for judicial appointments, although charges were never filed in the case.
Channel 12 reported yesterday that Nave approved the news outlet’s airing the recordings of the conversations, which were found on a flash drive during a search of Nave’s office earlier this year as part of an investigation into a separate case.
In his suit, Mandelblit notes he attempted to file for an injunction before the recordings were aired yesterday, but was given little time to do so and was rejected by the Magistrate’s Court.
Meanwhile, the Judicial Authority denies a key part of the exposé which claimed Nave passed messages to the justices on the High Court of Justice to the effect that they should not rule against Mandelblit’s appointment, since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s preferred candidate was antagonistic to the legal establishment.
“We wish to clarify that there is no truth to the report according to which messages were passed to the justices on the panel deliberating on the appointment of Avichai Mandelblit to [the position of] attorney general, and the claim that these messages influenced their ruling. This never happened,” the Judicial Authority says in a statement to the press.
Netanyahu to hold ‘security meeting,’ reportedly on plans to avenge executed hostages
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives for a press conference at the Government Press office in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (Abir Sultan/Pool via AP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to hold a discussion on Israel’s response to Hamas following the execution of six hostages, but will not include most of his cabinet in the talks, Channel 13 news reports.
An official in the Prime Minister’s Office confirms to The Times of Israel that Netanyahu will hold a “national security meeting” tonight, without providing details.
According to the Channel 13 report, military officials are expected to tell Netanyahu that taking punitive action in revenge will be difficult given that it is already fighting the group everywhere it needs. Any move seen as aimed at revenge could also hurt talks for a hostage release, they will likely warn, according to the report, which does not cite a source.
Hamas and Israel both said toughening positions on a deal, as US works on new proposal
Released Palestinian security prisoners (wearing gray) who were released from Israel's Ofer military facility in exchange for Israeli hostages freed by Hamas in Gaza, wave flags and chant slogans as they are paraded in Beitunia in the West Bank on November 24, 2023. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP)
Apart from the dispute over the Philadelphi Corridor, Hamas and Israel have both toughened their positions on other core elements of a potential hostage-ceasefire deal, Channel 12 reports.
The TV report says the US is trying to find formulas to bridge those differences as it works on its so-called “final proposal” for a deal, which Channel 12 says will be conveyed to the two sides in the near future, and possibly as soon as this weekend.
Hamas, the report says, has raised the number of Palestinian security prisoners serving life terms for murder that it is demanding would be released in the earliest days of the first 42-day phase of a deal. Previously, Hamas and Israel had agreed that 150 life-term murderers would be released from Israel’s jails in return for the five female surveillance soldiers held hostage. Now, Hamas is demanding a higher number, which the TV report did not specify.
Israel, for its part, is pushing for a higher number of living hostages than previously agreed to be released in the deal’s first phase, in the so-called “humanitarian” category.
As regards Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand for the IDF to remain deployed along the Philadelphi Corridor at the Gaza-Egypt border during phase 1, the TV report says the US is planning to present a map showing IDF forces still deployed there, but in smaller numbers than previously set out.
The US proposal would also provide for Israel to withdraw its troops from the Rafah border crossing between phases 1 and 2 of the deal, it says.
The report says the Americans are increasingly less optimistic about the prospects of a deal, and that Israel is not optimistic at all.
Earlier today, Netanyahu told Fox News that “there is not a deal in the making, unfortunately.”
Last night, in an English-language press conference, he said “Hamas has rejected everything.” Apart from the dispute over the Philadelphi Corridor, he cited disagreements on the ratio of hostages to terrorists to be released, and Israel’s demand to veto the release of some terrorists and to exile others.
The TV report says the families of hostages with dual American-Israeli citizenship are expected to be invited to the White House for another meeting tomorrow.
This evening, meanwhile, Channel 12 reports Netanyahu is participating in a meeting with security chiefs about preparations for tackling the security situation in the north, where Hezbollah has maintained relentless rocket fire since last October and tens of thousands of Israelis are displaced from their homes.
Israel says 36 terror operatives killed since start of major West Bank raid
Troops have killed 36 combatants and detained 46 wanted Palestinians during a major military operation in the northern West Bank, the military says.
According to the army, some two dozen weapons have been confiscated, three bomb-making labs have been destroyed, and dozens of explosive devices have been neutralized.
The major anti-terror operation — internally dubbed “Summer Camps” — began August 28 with simultaneous raids on Jenin, Tulkarem and the Far’a camp near Tubas.
Israel says it is attempting to dismantle the Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror networks in the three areas of the northern West Bank.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, 40 Palestinians have been killed across the West Bank since August 28. The number includes three Palestinian terrorists from the Hebron area in the southern West Bank, two of whom carried out twin car bombings for Hamas, and a third who killed three Israeli police officers in a shooting.
Israeli women fall to powerhouse Turkey in Paralympic goalball final after historic run
Israel's women's goalball team competes in the final match at the 2024 Paris Paralympics on September 5, 2024. (Lilach Weiss Rosenberg)
Israel’s women’s goalball team falls to Turkey 8-3 in the 2024 Paris Paralympics final, clinching a silver medal, its first-ever podium finish in the sport.
Israel beat China in the semifinal to advance to the gold medal match, after besting Canada in the quarterfinal.
Israel has never won a goalball medal before, after sending a team to both Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021. Turkey’s women’s team won gold at both of those Paralympics.
In the sport, which is played exclusively by those with visual impairments, the athletes play three at a time, throwing and attempting to block a ball which is embedded with bells.
The six-woman team is made up of Lihi Ben David, 28; Elham Mahamid, 34; Noa Malka, 21; Gal Hamrani, 31; Or Mizrahi, 31; and Roni Ohayon, 25.
Ben David was playing with a broken finger sustained during yesterday’s semifinal match.
Austrian police confirm they looked into Munich shooter last year, dropped probe
Police officers remove a car with an Austrian plate with a crane as they secure the area after a shooting near the Israeli consulate in Munich on September 5, 2024. (LUKAS BARTH-TUTTAS / AFP)
Austria’s Interior Ministry confirms a report that the gunman who opened fire near the Israeli consulate in Munich was already known to Austrian authorities as a suspected Islamist and had been reported to police last year for alleged membership in an extremist group.
“We assume that he is a lone perpetrator who is radicalised,” says Franz Ruf, Austria’s general director for public security.
Police in the Austrian city of Salzburg, where the shooter reportedly lived, say he came to their attention following a “dangerous threat” against fellow students coupled with bodily harm, and had been accused of involvement in a terrorist organization.
There was a suspicion that he had become religiously radicalized, was active online in that context and was interested in explosives and weapons, a police statement says, noting that prosecutors closed an investigation in April 2023.
Authorities still issued a ban on him owning weapons until at least the beginning of 2028. Police said he had not come to their attention since.
Prosecutors and police in Germany say they currently believe the man’s plan was for “a terrorist attack, also with respect to the consulate of the state of Israel.” They say they are still investigating the man’s motive.
A Munich police spokesperson says the teenager was an Austrian citizen thought to be resident in Austria. He had recently travelled to Germany and lived in Austria’s Salzburg area, Austria’s Standard newspaper and Germany’s Spiegel news outlet report.
Hamas digs in on demand for full IDF withdrawal from Gaza, including key corridor
Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya is accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday of deliberately stalling ceasefire negotiations, urging the US and the international community to put more pressure on Israel.
In a recorded speech released on Hamas’s official accounts, al-Hayya — who has been heading the group’s delegation to the ceasefire talks — reiterated their stance that it will not consider any proposed deal that does not entail a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, and particularly from the Philadelphi Corridor, a key area along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Netanyahu has in recent months insisted that Israel will maintain forces in the corridor, saying it is necessary to halt weapons smuggling into the Strip that would allow Hamas to re-arm. The condition was not included in previous versions of the ceasefire proposal before the current round of talks.
Egypt, which along with the US and Qatar is mediating the talks, has also been strongly opposed to Israel maintaining a military presence on the border.
Al-Hayya says Hamas “will not allow any agreement that legitimizes an Israeli presence on any part of Gaza or fails to secure our people’s rights.”
“We reject going back to square one or getting caught in a vicious cycle that serves Netanyahu’s goals,” he says.
IDF video shows drone strike on Palestinians throwing explosives at troops in Jenin
The IDF releases footage of a drone strike on a group of Palestinians hurling explosive devices at troops during an ongoing raid in the West Bank city of Jenin.
According to the military, more than 20 Palestinian gunmen have been killed in drone strikes amid the operation in the northern West Bank, which began late last month.
במהלך המבצע בשבועיים האחרונים ביהודה ושומרון והבקעה והעמקים, כוחות חיל האוויר פועלים במרחב ומעניקים סיוע צמוד לכוחות הקרקעיים.
הכוחות האוויריים מהווים מכפיל כוח משמעותי ועומדים עד כה על למעלה מ-300 שעות טיסה במרחב>> pic.twitter.com/c1v1ej6XRb— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 5, 2024
IDF says several rockets fired from Lebanon fall short of border
Several rockets launched from Lebanon at northern Israel around half an hour ago failed to cross the border, the IDF says.
Sirens had sounded in the border community of Hanita amid the attack, though all of the projectiles fell short in Lebanon.
Shas minister accuses Likud’s Amsalem of abusing power, blocking pick for head of body overseeing development of holy sites
Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli attends a session ain the Knesset plenum, April 15, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli writes to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara complaining that Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem, who controls the Government Companies Authority, has been misusing his authority to block the appointment of a new director-general of the National Center for the Development of Holy Sites.
“I’m at the end of my rope because of the minister’s handling of the issue, which stems from improper political motives and abuse of authority,” Malkieli writes, according to a copy of the letter published by national broadcaster Kan.
Malkieli accuses Amsalem of blocking appointments requested by his ultra-Orthodox Shas party “due to a dispute related to the Council for Appointing [Rabbinical] Judges ” and says that the Likud minister’s refusal could have dangerous consequences because it perpetuates dysfunction within the government agency — which is tasked with overseeing some 130 holy sites across Israel.
These include the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mount Meron in northern Israel, where 45 Israelis were trampled to death in 2021. The state commission of inquiry into the tragedy “paid special attention in its conclusions regarding the functioning and conduct of the National Center” but it has been without a head since March and its board is missing several members, Malkieli writes.
In response, Amsalem says that he “vehemently rejects the false and contemptible accusations made by Minister Malkieli in his letter,” which are intended “to divert the public debate from the real failures of the Ministry of Religious Services.”
“There is no connection between the appointment in question and endangering human life,” he continues, arguing that he “works exclusively to advance the public interest and to appoint worthy candidates to senior positions.”
“Minister Amsalem will not allow [Shas leader] Aryeh Deri to take over the Council for Appointing [Rabbinical] Judges as if it were a private business of Shas,” he adds.
Last December, then-Government Companies Authority director Michal Rosenbaum resigned ahead of Amsalem’s takeover of her department, arguing that Amsalem believes “the government companies are not a public resource but a ‘pool of jobs’ that he should use to accumulate power and political status.”
Rosenbaum alleged that “Amsalem put enormous pressure on me and the Authority to support the appointment of political activists and [his] associates to key positions in government companies.”
The Government Companies Authority has traditionally been part of the Finance Ministry, but when joining the cabinet, Amsalem insisted that it operate under his control as part of his agreement with Netanyahu.
Though it has little to do with his other responsibilities, oversight of the authority offers Amsalem direct influence on appointments to hundreds of top governmental jobs.
Tennis player Guy Sasson claims bronze, Israel’s ninth medal at Paralympics
Israeli tennis player Guy Sasson celebrates winning bronze at the 2024 Paris Paralympics on September 5, 2024. (Keren Isaacson)
Israeli tennis player Guy Sasson wins a bronze medal after beating Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan in men’s quad singles at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Despite the tension between Israel and Turkey over the ongoing war in Gaza, the rivals share a friendly greeting both before and after the match. Sasson wraps himself in the Israeli flag following his victory.
Sasson was sent to the bronze medal match earlier this week after losing to the Netherlands’ Sam Schroder in the semifinal, following a win over the UK’s Gregory Slade in the quarterfinal and after besting Chile’s Francisco Cayulef in his first-round match.
Sasson, 44, was injured in a 2015 snowboarding accident that left him in a wheelchair. He won the 2024 French Open earlier this year, his first major single’s title.
His win marks the ninth medal for Israel at the Paralympics so far, with the Israeli goalball team set to compete tonight in the gold medal match.
Carrying fake coffins, protesters march in Tel Aviv to demand hostage deal
Protesters demanding a deal freeing hostages in Gaza gather around 27 mock coffins at Tel Aviv's Habima Square on September 5, 2024. (Noam Lehmann/Times of Israel)
About 300 people are marching from Tel Aviv’s Habima Square to the IDF headquarters on Begin Street to demand a ceasefire deal in Gaza to free hostages, kicking off a fifth straight night of protests after the IDF said Sunday it had recovered the bodies of six Israelis in Hamas hands slain days earlier.
The group carries 27 mock coffins, representing 27 hostages killed in captivity in Gaza.
Speaking ahead of the march, Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat was one of the six slain hostages whose remains were recovered over the weekend, accuses Netanyahu of “sentencing my cousin to death.”
Some members of the crowd shout: “Murderer!”
“She was abandoned to her death by a government that could have saved her,” Dickmann says, noting the number of days she was held captive. “There were 327 opportunities to save her, and each and every one of them was missed.”
Report says extremism probe into Munich shooter was dropped last year
Police officers patrol after police fired shots at a suspicious person near the Israeli Consulate and a museum on the city's Nazi-era history in Munich, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
The Austria Press Agency says the man who attacked the Israeli consulate in Munich had come to the attention of authorities there last year but wasn’t considered high-risk.
Without naming sources, the paper claims that data and a game had been found on the cellphone of the man, an Austrian citizen with Bosnian roots, suggesting links to Islamic extremist ideology, but an investigation of him for possible membership in the Islamic State group was dropped.
Prosecutors in Salzburg decline to comment.
Bavaria state police and prosecutors say in a joint statement that the man, who was shot dead by police after opening fire, was likely planning a “terrorist attack” on the consulate.
No one else was hurt in the attack.
“It’s obvious that, if someone parks here within sight of the Israeli Consulate… then starts shooting, it most probably isn’t a coincidence,” Bavaria’s top security official, state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, tells reporters.
US says Hamas ‘biggest obstacle to deal,’ hints at frustration with Netanyahu
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during a press briefing at the White House, July 31, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says the sides have yet to agree on freeing hostages for prisoners as mediators attempt to push Israel and Hamas toward a Gaza ceasefire deal.
Pressed on whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become an obstacle to hostage negotiations due to his repeated pledges to remain indefinitely in the Philadelphi Corridor, a major sticking point, Kirby responds that “the biggest obstacle to getting a ceasefire deal is Hamas.”
“They took the damn hostages in the first place,” Kirby says during a press briefing, noting that the recent execution of 6 hostages has made the talks more difficult.
“As frustrating as it has been at times, and as unhelpful as not just public comments, but even private machinations in the negotiation purposes have been to the closure of the deal, it has not dimmed one bit President Biden’s commitment to trying to see this through,” Kirby says, echoing comments from a day earlier.
Rocket attack reported in north; no injuries
Reports in Hebrew media indicate at least one rocket was fired into northern Israel from Lebanon after sirens are heard in Elkosh and Fassuta.
No injuries are reported in the attack. The towns, about 3.5 kilometers (2 miles) from the Lebanon border, remain largely populated, according to Army Radio.
There is no official comment from either the Israel Defense Forces or Hezbollah.
However, the Iran-backed terror group does claim several other attacks over the past hours, including what it says was an assault by a suicide drone squadron on an army barracks.
Senior Egyptian source says PM trying to shift blame to other countries for war’s failures
Egypt continues to push back on Israel’s accusations this week that Cairo failed to prevent smuggling into Gaza, with a “high-ranking Egyptian source” telling Al Qahera al-Ikhbariya that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements are unrealistic, and that “he is trying to blame other countries for his failure to achieve his goals in the Gaza Strip.”
The Egyptian official also says that recent months have proven that Netanyahu does not care about the return of Israeli hostages if it gets in the way of his personal interests.
On Wednesday a source said that Netanyahu was blaming Cairo for arms smuggling taking place from Egypt into Gaza to shift focus from his own failure to stop arms smuggling from Israel into Gaza. Netanyahu also allows smuggling into the West Bank “to justify his aggression against the Palestinian people.”
Iranian terror plots against Jewish sites thwarted in France and Germany — report
File: Computers litter the pavement outside the Iranian Embassy in the French capital Paris on September 14, 2018. (AFP / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)
European intelligence agencies have recently thwarted Iranian terror plots relying on the use of organized crime groups to attack Jewish institutions in France and Germany, the German daily Der Spiegel reports.
According to the report, the terror cell did manage to carry out four arson attacks against Israeli-owned companies in southern France at the end of last year and the beginning of 2024.
The cell’s leader is reportedly a drug dealer from Lyon.
According to the report, one of the suspects, who has been detained in France, spied on a lawyer with Israeli clients in Berlin in February, and visited Munich twice to spy on an unnamed Israeli family.
Last month, Der Spiegel reported that the head of the now-banned Hamburg Islamic Center (IZH) in Germany received direct instructions from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, including on how to portray Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
State comptroller says Lapid’s criticism of probe ‘dangerous’
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman (center) visits northern Israel, September 5, 2024. (Courtesy)
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman says Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid’s attack on his investigation into the failures surrounding the October 7 Hamas invasion is “dangerous” and damages Israel’s “democratic fabric,” and rejects Lapid’s allegation that he is politically biased.
Speaking during a tour of areas of northern Israel that are under repeated rocket attacks from Hezbollah, he insists he is examining all aspects of the multilevel failures in which Hamas was able to take control of numerous communities in southern Israel during its invasion and carry out the atrocities in which some 1,200 people were massacred.
“An attack on the institution of the state comptroller is dangerous and harms [law enforcement] gatekeepers and the democratic fabric of the State of Israel,” says Englman following Lapid’s comments.
“As I have stated more than once, the review is dealing with all echelons, political, civilian, and military. Every officeholder of an agency under the review [of the State Comptroller’s Office] is obligated to fully cooperate with the review, in accordance with the Basic Law [for the State Comptroller],” he continues, adding, “We will continue with the review without fear.”
Turning to the bombardment of the north by Hezbollah, Englman says “it is forbidden to abandon the north” and urged that funding be allocated to help the region.
He noted that the school he was visiting in the kibbutz of Kfar Blum was educating its children “under fire.”
“I call on the prime minister and ministers: Come to the north, the north cannot be abandoned, we must allocate resources in the shadow of the ongoing tensions.”
Lapid hits back at housing minister for accusing him of ‘unbridled arrogance’
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid leads a Yesh Atid faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on September 4, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid hits back at Housing Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf after the latter accuses him of “unbridled arrogance” for questioning State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman’s probe of the events of October 7.
After Lapid accused Englman of ordering an investigation “only to help [Netanyahu] evade his duty to establish a state commission of inquiry,” Goldknopf, the chairman of the United Torah Judaism party, tweeted that “as public representatives, we are obligated to maintain and fortify the status of the gatekeepers in the State of Israel, who are entrusted with the maintenance of law and order.”
“Minister Goldknopf, I was happy to find out that you are ‘obliged to maintain and fortify the status of the gatekeepers in the State of Israel,'” Lapid tweets in response. “I am convinced that this means that you will not let anyone touch the attorney general, the state attorney, the High Court of Justice, and the legal advisers of all the ministries.”
Goldknopf’s ultra-Orthodox UTJ party was a strong supporter of the government’s proposed judicial overhaul, which would have curbed the top court’s power of judicial review, limited the power of ministry legal counsels, and split the role of the attorney general into two positions.
Members of the cabinet have called for firing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, and Justice Minister Yariv Levin has advocated the revival of his now-suspended judicial overhaul effort.
‘There is not a deal in the making, unfortunately,’ Netanyahu tells Fox; blames Hamas rejectionism
A demonstrator lights a pink flare as others deploy a banner and raise pictures of hostages during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of Israeli hostages held captive since the October 7 attack by Hamas, in front of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on September 4, 2024 (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
Speaking to the “Fox and Friends” morning show, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that a hostage deal is not about to be sealed. “There is not a deal in the making, unfortunately.”
“It’s not close,” he says, blaming Hamas rejectionism and stressing that there are unresolved issues beyond the future of the Philadelphi Corridor.
Netanyahu says his red lines “have become redder,” and that most of the public backs the cabinet decision to remain on the Gaza-Egypt border for the foreseeable future.
Most of the prime minister’s arguments to Fox around the Philadelphi Corridor mirror what he said during two press conferences this week.
Asked about an NBC report that American hostage families pushed the Biden administration to close a unilateral deal with Hamas if necessary, Netanyahu says he doesn’t know what was said at the meeting, but “I don’t judge the families. They’ve gone through this horrible anguish.”
German authorities say Munich shooting treated as ‘possible attack on an Israeli institution’
German authorities are treating a shooting near Munich’s Israeli consulate on today as a “possible attack on an Israeli institution,” State Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann says
The gunman, who was shot dead by police after he opened fire with a vintage rifle, was an 18-year-old Austrian man, Munich police chief Thomas Hampel, adds, speaking at a joint press conference.
The suspect’s motive is under investigation, a spokesperson adds.
In a brief statement, Dr. Josef Schuster, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, says the background of the attack was still not completely known.
“What we do know takes our breath away. There could have been a catastrophe in Munich today. I thank the police for their quick intervention,” he says.
Lapid: State comptroller’s Oct. 7 probe designed to help PM avoid state commission of inquiry
Opposition Leader MK Yair Lapid leads a Yesh Atid faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on September 4, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid tells representatives of the State Comptroller’s Office that he does not trust their investigation into October 7.
“I do not believe this probe has clean hands,” Lapid says, according to a statement put out by his spokesman.
He alleges that State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman ordered his investigation “only to help Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu evade his duty to establish a state commission of inquiry.
“Instead of talking about responsibility and objective investigations, it would be proper for the comptroller to make sure that the Prime Minister’s Office does not shred and change protocols, and establish a state investigative committee immediately,” he says.
Responding to Lapid, Housing Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf criticizes his “unbridled arrogance” in attacking Englman, stating that “as public representatives, we are obligated to maintain and fortify the status of the gatekeepers in the State of Israel, who are entrusted with the maintenance of law and order.”
Englman announced in December that he would conduct a wide-ranging investigation into the military’s multi-level failures. In June, the High Court ordered Englman to suspend his probe but later allowed it to go forward in a limited manner.
Addressing the Israel Bar Association conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Englman excoriated the country’s political and military leaders, accusing them of impeding inquiries into Hamas’s October 7 massacre and refusing to take any responsibility for it.
US envoy indicates Philadelphi route not the most intractable topic in hostage-ceasefire deal talks
US Ambassador Jack Lew (R) speaks with Tamir Hayman (L) the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv on September 5, 2024 (Screen grab)
Speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv, US Ambassador Jack Lew says that “progress continues to be made” on attempts to reach a hostage deal, “including on the key issues.”
Lew seems to indicate that the most intractable topic is not the Philadelphi Corridor: “Negotiations have gotten into the most difficult issues, some of which are not the subject of most of the public discussion.”
“The public debate masks where the real difficult issues are,” says Lew at the Institute for National Security Studies.
Lew says that the US is trying to put together a proposal with Israel, Egypt, and Qatar “that when it’s presented to Hamas, it’s clear the pressure will be on Hamas to accept it.”
He implies that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent press conferences about the need to remain on the Gaza-Egypt border for the foreseeable future are not torpedoing talks: “Very strong public comments sometimes coexist with residual flexibility, almost always.”
Lew says that US President Joe Biden’s “No” response to a question on whether Netanyahu was doing enough to reach a deal is not an indication that Washington is blaming Israel. “I wouldn’t overread a one-word answer,” he says. “If you ask me, everyone needs to do more.”
Lew emphasizes that the current negotiations are not trying to nail down the final details of the 2nd phase of a deal.
“That happens when you’re well into phase 1,” he says. According to the proposal under discussion, a 2nd phase would see a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the withdrawal of IDF troops from Gaza, and the release of all hostages.
Suspect in attack near Israel’s consulate in Munich was known to authorities as an Islamist – report
Officers patrol after police shot and killed an armed suspect in an exchange of fire near the Israeli Consulate in Munich, Germany, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
The suspect in a shooting near the Israeli consulate in Munich was a teenage Austrian national who was known to security authorities as an Islamist, the Standard newspaper and Spiegel news outlet report.
The suspect lived in Austria’s Salzburg area near the border with Bavaria and had recently traveled to Germany, the reports say.
A police spokesperson in the Bavarian state capital says the man had a “long-barreled gun” that proved to be an old rifle.
Video circulating on social media that could not be immediately verified appeared to show that the weapon had a bayonet attached.
#BREAKING Israel President says the shooting at the consulate in Munich was a terror attack after a phone call with his German counterpart pic.twitter.com/MFiwIEyxVs
— Guy Elster (@guyelster) September 5, 2024
Egyptian army chief inspects security situation on Gaza border, state TV says
Egypt’s army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Ahmed Fathy Khalifa made a surprise visit to the country’s border with the Gaza Strip to inspect the security situation, state television reports, citing the army’s spokesperson.
This week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the case for a permanent Israeli presence on the Gaza-Egypt border, arguing that it was a necessary step to ensure Hamas cannot rearm and rebuild its control after its war with Israel ends.
Cairo has remained vehemently opposed to Israel establishing any form of control over its border route, and on Tuesday protested that by defining the Philadelphi Corridor as a military zone, it would be violating the countries’ 1978 peace accord.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has reportedly called the demand that Israel maintain control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor separating Egypt and Gaza “an unnecessary constraint that we’ve placed on ourselves.”
IDF: 5 rockets fired at Ramot Naftali area from Lebanon; 2 drones launched at Western Galilee
A barrage of some five rockets was launched from Lebanon at the Ramot Naftali area an hour ago, the IDF says.
Some of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses.
Meanwhile, two suspected drones were launched from Lebanon at the Western Galilee. The IDF says at least one impacted near Ya’ara.
Another suspected drone from Lebanon was shot down by air defenses over Dovev, the military adds.
There are no injuries in the attacks.
Barak slams Netanyahu at Oct. 7 probe: ‘Worthy leader doesn’t allow his country to weaken like this’
Then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Ehud Barak attend a press conference at the PM's office in Jerusalem, November 21, 2012. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
Former prime minister Ehud Barak slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while testifying before an independent civilian commission of inquiry into October 7.
“A worthy leader does not allow the country he heads to weaken like this, when he is repeatedly warned of the meaning of what he is doing,” Barak argues.
Barak recalls that Netanyahu has previously stated that he was aware of Hamas plans similar to those carried out last October.
Addressing the Knesset State Control Committee in 2017, Netanyahu said Hamas had an operational plan for a multi-pronged attack, including thousands of missiles on Israeli cities, naval commando raids, hang gliders and incursions from dozens of tunnels, some of which come up in [Israeli] territory.”
However, “one of the reasons that [Hamas] is deterred is because I have a policy, that I’m not willing to tolerate droplets [of violence], and there’s always a strong reaction, usually very fast, on every such droplet,” Netanyahu said at the time.
Barak also appears to reference the four communiques from the Military Intelligence Directorate received by Netanyahu in the spring and summer of 2023 warning him about how the country’s enemies viewed the upheaval in Israeli society at the time.
Recalling his experience as both defense minister and IDF chief of staff, Barak notes that “before sending such letters, there are many oral conversations” in which the prime minister is warned about the topic of the missives.
A week ago, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid testified before the committee that Netanyahu had appeared “bored and indifferent to the issue” during an August 21, 2023, briefing with his military secretary Brig. Gen. Avi Gil.
According to Lapid, during that briefing, Gil stated that Iran and terror groups in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza “all identified weakness, an internal divide, tensions, and a loss of preparedness in the army, alongside an emerging crisis with the Americans.”
Family of 80-year-old hostage Gadi Moses says no info on him has come since December
Efrat Machikawa, whose uncle Gadi Moses is in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip since his capture from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, as families of hostages call out to their loved ones on loudspeakers in hopes that the hostages will hear, at the Gaza border in Kibbutz Nirim, southern Israel, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
The family of hostage Gadi Moses, 80, says they haven’t heard any information about their father and grandfather of 12 since December 19, when he appeared in a Hamas propaganda video.
“I feel that he’s alive,” says Yair Moses, Gadi Moses’ son. “I know he’s strong, physically and mentally.”
Last week’s murders of six hostages, their bodies recovered by the IDF and brought home for burial, are motivating Israelis to protest for a deal, says Moses.
“There’s no grace time anymore,” says Efrat Machikawa, Gadi Moses’ niece.
On October 7, Gadi Moses was at home in Kibbutz Nir Oz with his partner, Efrat Katz, and Efrat’s daughter, Doron Katz-Asher and her two young daughters. When Hamas terrorists entered the house, Moses left the sealed room to speak with them, but was taken captive. Later in the day, another group of terrorists took Katz, Katz-Asher and her children. Efrat Katz was killed in the crossfire between the IDF and Hamas.
Moses’ ex-wife, Margalit Moses, was also taken hostage on October 7, and released in a November deal, along with Katz-Asher and her children.
Margalit Moses was kept hostage with Avraham Munder, another Nir Oz hostage, for most of her time in captivity.
His death in captivity was “very, very hard for her,” said Yair Moses.
“We’re using our anger to motivate ourselves,” he says. “The deal could have been signed and the six who were murdered would have been home, and my father too. They could be with us if the government would work to find solutions to make the deal.”
Barak: Netanyahu was ‘repeatedly warned’ judicial overhaul was weakening Israel ahead of Oct. 7
Former prime minister Ehud Barak testifies at independent civilian commission of inquiry into the October 7 disaster, September 5, 2024 (Courtesy)
Former prime minister Ehud Barak says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allowed Israel to weaken significantly ahead of October 7 despite being “repeatedly warned” of the implications of his judicial overhaul policies.
Testifying before an independent civilian commission of inquiry into the October 7 disaster, the former prime minister and IDF chief of staff defends opponents of the overhaul who announced last year that they would no longer show up for volunteer reserve duty in protest of the government’s plans regarding the judiciary.
The protest was “justified, important and necessary” in the face of a choice between liberal democracy and “a de facto, racist, ultranationalist, reckless and corrupt messianic religious dictatorship,” he says.
Arguing that “there was no refusal” to perform military service on the part of opponents of the overhaul and that such claims constitute “a ruse intended to discredit the protest,” Barak says instead that the protesters had threatened to stop volunteering because they were “not ready to be killed in the service of a dictator.”
“It is clear that the obvious weakening of Israeli society as a result of a year of controversy and struggle against dictatorship has an effect on the way our opponents perceive the State of Israel and its capabilities. But the question is who is responsible for this, and I unequivocally state that the one who is responsible for this is the one who sets the chain of circumstances in motion,” he continues.
Barak blames Netanyahu, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and MK Simcha Rothman, the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.
IDF confirms son of terror commander Zakaria Zubeidi among gunmen killed in West Bank drone strike
The IDF confirms killing the son of notorious terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi and other gunmen in a drone strike early this morning in the West Bank city of Tubas, amid renewed operations there.
The IDF has been carrying out a major operation in the northern West Bank since August 28. The operation — internally dubbed “Summer Camps” by the army — began with simultaneous raids on Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas.
The military says it began a new raid overnight in Tubas and the nearby Far’a camp, as well as a separate operation in Jericho.
In Tubas, a drone targeted a cell of gunmen, the IDF says.
Among the dead was Mohammed Zubeidi, 21, the son of Zakaria Zubeidi, who in September 2021 escaped from Gilboa Prison along with five other high-security prisoners, leading Israeli security forces on a two-week manhunt before being caught.
The IDF says that the younger Zubeidi was a “prominent terrorist from the Jenin area” who participated in shooting attacks against Israeli towns close to the West Bank security barrier, as well as other attacks on troops.
The other four gunmen — identified by the Palestinian Authority health ministry as Ahmed Abu Dawas, 24, Mohammed Abu Juma, 30, Qusay Abd al-Razeq, 26, and Mohammed Abu Zagha, 23 — were also involved in shooting attacks, the IDF adds.
Meanwhile, in the Far’a camp, the IDF says a drone targeted a group of armed Palestinians that were hurling explosive devices at troops, and separately, members of the Israel Prison Service’s elite Metzada Unit killed a gunman who was holding a bomb.
Father of US-Israeli hostage: Not true that American families pushing Biden to make separate deal
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, center, father of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, along with other families of hostages in Gaza, speaks with reporters following their meeting with US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, July 25, 2024. (AP/Susan Walsh)
The father of a US-Israeli held hostage in Gaza says there is no truth to the report that the families of captives with American citizenship were petitioning the Biden administration to cut a unilateral deal with Hamas to free their loved ones.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui Dekel-Chen was kidnapped from Nir Oz on October 7, tells Channel 12 that the report is false.
Sagui Dekel-Chen, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was taken captive on October 7, 2023 by Hamas terrorists (Courtesy screenshot)
“I am in continuous contact with the other American families and all levels of the US government,” he says. “There is nothing behind this report.”
“The report that the American families are demanding a separate US-Hamas is not correct,” he says. “I do not know where this report has come from.”
“I am inside the room [for these meetings] and anything else is speculation,” he says.
Dekel-Chen says that US officials are telling him that they are doing everything they can to advance the deal that is “on the table” and that they are waiting for the agreement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners, as well as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
NBC News had reported that the relatives met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and urged the consideration of a separate deal on Sunday, hours after the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages executed by Hamas in Gaza last week, including American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
There are seven hostages with US citizenship; three of them have been declared dead.
Sirens sound in multiple northern border towns warning of rockets, suspected drones
Sirens are sounding in multiple communities close to the northern border, warning of incoming rocket fire and suspected drone attacks.
IDF says it shot down 2 suspected drones launched at Israel from Lebanon
Two suspected drones launched from Lebanon were shot down by air defenses a short while ago, the IDF says.
The two targets were intercepted over Lebanese airspace, and did not cross into Israeli territory, the military adds.
The IDF publishes footage of the interceptions.
לוחמי ההגנה האווירית יירטו לפני זמן קצר שתי מטרות אוויריות חשודות שעשו את דרכן לשטח הארץ משטח לבנון, המטרות לא חצו לעבר שטח הארץ, לא הופעלו התרעות על פי מדיניות, אין נפגעים.
בנוסף, צה"ל תקף תשתית צבאית של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב קאנא שבדרום לבנון pic.twitter.com/qObo8qZm31
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 5, 2024
Separately, the IDF says it struck a Hezbollah site in southern Lebanon’s Qana.
2nd phase of polio vaccination campaign kicks off in southern Gaza
A child receives a vaccination for polio in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on September 5, 2024 (Bashar TALEB / AFP)
Crowds of Palestinians are gathered at medical centers in the south of the Gaza Strip to have their children vaccinated against polio, the start of the second stage of a campaign that has so far seen 187,000 youngsters inoculated.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA says the campaign, facilitated by Israel and the Hamas terror group agreeing on limited pauses in their fighting, is so far successful but complex.
Vaccinations begin in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, both areas that have been battered by the war and have hosted tens of thousands of people who have fled other parts of the Strip.
“The #polio vaccination campaign has moved to #Gaza southern areas today. @UNRWA teams are in Khan Younis this morning, working with partners to provide the vaccine to children,” UNRWA says in a statement.
“At this critical time, area pauses must be respected to protect families and humanitarian workers,” it says.
Herzog speaks to German president after shooting near consulate: ‘Together we stand strong in face of terror’
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (R) receives his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog at the Presidential Bellevue Palace, on February 16, 2024 in Berlin. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)
President Isaac Herzog speaks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier after the shooting attack near the Israeli consulate in Munich and thanks security forces for quickly neutralizing the gunman.
“On the day our brothers and sisters in Munich were set to stand in remembrance of our brave athletes murdered by terrorists 52 years ago, a hate-fuelled terrorist came and once again sought to murder innocent people,” says Herzog on X.
He also thanks the German security services “for their swift action.”
“Together we stand strong in the face of terror. Together we will overcome.”
Man killed in car explosion near Ramle school; motive believed to be criminal dispute
A man was killed when a vehicle exploded in the central city Ramle, police say in a statement.
The motive behind the apparent bombing was believed to be a criminal dispute, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
The car exploded close to a school, the outlet reports. Reports say the victim was a member of an Arab family known to the police.
The Abraham Initiatives, which has worked extensively on relations between the Israel Police and Arab Israelis, has blamed the sharp uptick in homicides in 2023 and 2024 on far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has been convicted of incitement to racism and supporting a terror organization over anti-Arab placards, and whose ministry is responsible for policing.
Many Arab Israeli community leaders say police have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence, which includes family feuds, mafia turf wars and violence against women.
The communities have also suffered from years of neglect by state authorities.
Hezbollah announces death of operative in Israeli strike
The Hezbollah terror group announces the death of a member killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes.
He is named as Abbas Anis Ayoub.
حز.ب الله يعلن استش.هاد المق.اوم عباس أنيس أيوب (علي الرضا) مواليد عام 1988 من بلدة #سلعا في #جنوب_لبنان pic.twitter.com/ezZuGBaTFP
— جريدة الأخبار – Al-Akhbar (@AlakhbarNews) September 5, 2024
His death brings the terror group’s toll since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip to at least 433.
The announcement follows reports of an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon’s Kafra this morning.
لحظة تنفيذ الاحتلال غارة عنيفة استهدفت منزلاً في بلدة #كفرا جنوبي #لبنان فجر اليوم pic.twitter.com/3nd7wGXHYz
— مصدر مسؤول (@fouadkhreiss) September 5, 2024
Suspect in shooting near Israel consulate in Munich was killed in police gunfight – official
Police vehicles parked in Munich near the Nazi Documentation Center and the Israeli Consulate General in Munich, Germany, Sept. 5, 2024. (Simon Sachseder/dpa via AP)
The suspect in a shooting near the Israeli consulate and the Nazi history museum in Munich died at the scene after being shot while exchanging fire with police, the interior minister for the German state of Bavaria says.
Earlier, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said a gunman opened fire near the consulate in Munich. There were no other reports of injuries.
Health Ministry: 68 people diagnosed with West Nile virus have died since June
Illustrative: Mosquitoes cling to the inside of a jar loaded with repellent during a test as part of a tour of the Centers for Disease Control laboratory, April 4, 2024, in Fort Collins, Colorado. (David Zalubowski/AP)
The Health Ministry says that the number of patients diagnosed with the West Nile virus has risen to 899 as of today.
A total of 68 people who were diagnosed with the virus have died since the outbreak began in June.
Infected mosquitoes transmit the West Nile virus to humans. The virus does not spread from person to person.
About 80 percent of people infected with West Nile virus show no symptoms at all. About 20% may experience varying degrees of symptoms, including fever, headaches, and body aches.
Less than 1% of those infected will have possible rare complications such as acute inflammation of the brain or meningitis.
The risk of significant illness is higher among the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.
The ministry recommends using mosquito repellent products and devices to repel mosquitoes in living areas.
German minister after Munich shooting: Protecting Israeli institutions is highest priority
Police officers patrol near a scene after a shooting near the Israeli Consulate in Munich, Germany, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says the protection of Israeli institutions is of the highest priority after a shooting in Munich today near the Israeli consulate and the Nazi documentation center.
She describes the shooting as “a serious incident” and says she is in contact with emergency services but did not want to speculate on further details.
Yulia Chernoy clinches spot in mixed 50m rifle prone final at Paris Paralympics
Israeli shooter Yulia Chernoy competes in the mixed 50m rifle prone qualification at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, September 5, 2024. (Israel Paralympic Committee)
Competitive shooter Yulia Chernoy finishes in 8th place out of 36 competitors in the mixed 50m rifle prone qualification at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, clinching the last spot in the final.
This afternoon, Chernoy will compete in the final, hoping for a medal finish. This is the third Paralympics for Chernoy, 44, after she competed in rowing in Rio and shooting in Tokyo.
Separately, handcyclist Amit Hasdai drops out of the men’s para-cycling road race on the rainy streets of Paris, not finishing the race, after his bike got a flat tire.
Munich police: Officers shot, wounded apparently armed suspect near Israeli consulate
Police officers patrol near a scene after a gunman opened fire near the Israeli Consulate in Munich, Germany, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Munich police say officers opened fire after seeing someone who appeared to be carrying a gun near the Israeli consulate and a Nazi history museum.
The suspect was wounded, and there were no indications of other suspects or incidents in the Bavarian state capital, Munich police say on social media platform X.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said earlier that a suspect opened fire near the consulate.
Foreign Ministry confirms shots fired near Munich consulate, gunman neutralized by German forces
Screen grab from a video on social media apparently shows an individual running amid sounds of gunfire near the Israeli consulate in Munich on September 5, 2024 (X/Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
The Foreign Ministry confirms that shots were fired near Israel’s consulate in Munich and says the gunman has been neutralized by German security forces.
No Israeli diplomats or staff were hurt.
The ministry says the consulate is closed today for the annual ceremony commemorating the 11 Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Gunman opens fire near Israeli consulate in Munich – reports
Police vehicles parked in Munich near the Nazi Documentation Center and the Israeli Consulate General in Munich, Germany, Sept. 5, 2024. (Simon Sachseder/dpa via AP)
A gunman reportedly opened fire near the Israeli consulate in Munich.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, there are no injuries in the attack and the gunman has been “neutralized.”
Video circulating on social media appears to show a heavy exchange of fire near the consulate, which is located close to a museum on the city’s Nazi-era history.
The apparent attack comes on the anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack.
ניסיון פיגוע בגרמניה: יריות נורו לעבר הקונסוליה הישראלית במינכן – אין נפגעים, היורה נוטרל@DovGilHar pic.twitter.com/FQGgBTeSfE
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 5, 2024
Court says police can seize car of suspect in disappearance of 9-year-old Haymanut Kasau – report
Haymanut Kasau, 9, who went missing on February 25, 2024, from a Jewish Agency absorption center in Safed, northern Israel. (Courtesy)
A court in Nazareth has said police can seize a vehicle that may have been involved in the disappearance of a 9-year-old girl in the northern city of Safed in February, Channel 13 news reports.
Haymanut Kasau, who has since turned 10, was last seen in security footage at 7:45 p.m. on February 25 handing out municipal election leaflets outside a Jewish Agency absorption center where she lived for three years since immigrating with her family from Ethiopia.
According to Channel 13, the vehicle belonging to a suspect in the girl’s disappearance was thought to have been repainted, and two of its wheels were replaced along with its headlights.
The rear door to the car was blocked with external bolts, the outlet says.
The order for the seizure of the car came after Channel 13 broadcast a new and wide-ranging investigation into the child’s disappearance.
A friend of the child told the outlet that a man had pulled up in a vehicle that day and told the girls to get into his vehicle.
“We were sitting outside the absorption center, and a light blue car pulled up,” the girl’s friend told the outlet.
“The driver told us to get in. We refused. He told us, ‘Get in or I’ll take you.’ He got out of the car, wearing a big hat. He was religious with a beard and couldn’t run, so we ran,” she said.
Kasau is 1.20 meters (3’11”) tall and is slim with dark hair and dark eyes. She was wearing pink pants, a black skirt and a white shirt at the time of her disappearance.
Kiryat Shmona mayor: ‘Every day we tell more families they don’t have a home to return to’
Israeli security forces at the scene where a missile fired from Lebanon hit a home in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, September 4, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
The mayor of Kiryat Shmona laments that his largely evacuated northern border town has been battered by rockets fired by terrorists from Lebanon, with many homes being destroyed.
“Unfortunately, every day we have to tell more families that they will not have a home to return to, there are houses that need to be demolished and rebuilt,” Avichai Stern tells the Ynet news site.
He asks why the lives of northern residents were apparently of lower value than those who lived in the center of the country, apparently referring to the IDF’s preemptive strike last month as Hezbollah was preparing to launch an attack on the Tel Aviv area.
“We need to get to a point where [terrorists] are afraid to fire at Kiryat Shmona,” he urges.
Hezbollah hasbeen attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis since October 8, a day after its ally, Palestinian terror group Hamas, launched its October 7 massacre, killing 1,200 people across southern Israel and abducting 251 people. Hezbollah says its attacks are to support Gaza amid the war Hamas triggered.
Tens of thousands of residents of northern border communities have been evacuated since the start of the war, displaced from their homes for close to a year. Many accuse the government of not taking enough action against Hezbollah so that they can return home.
US indicts two employees of RT, accuses Russian outlet of election interference
US Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the beginning of a meeting of the Justice Department's Election Threats Task Force at the Justice Department in Washington, DC on September 4, 2024 (ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)
The United States indicts two employees of Russia’s RT and imposes sanctions on top editors of the state-funded news outlet, accusing them of seeking to influence the 2024 US presidential election.
Attorney General Merrick Garland also announces the seizure of 32 internet domains that were part of an alleged campaign “to secure Russia’s preferred outcome,” which US officials have said would be Donald Trump winning the November vote.
“We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government,” Garland says at a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force.
“We will be relentlessly aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by Russia and Iran — as well as China or any other foreign malign actor — to interfere in our elections,” he says.
The 10 individuals and two entities sanctioned by the Treasury Department include RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan and her deputy Elizaveta Brodskaia.
August saw highest level of rocket fire from Lebanon toward northern Israel – Shin Bet
A man works next to a home destroyed by rockets fired by Hezbollah in Katzrin on the Golan Heights, August 21, 2024.(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
August was the month with the most rockets fired from Lebanon amid the ongoing war, according to new data published by the Shin Bet security agency.
The latest Shin Bet report says that 1,307 rockets were fired at Israel from the northern front, meaning Lebanon and Syria, amounting to just over 40 a day on average.
July saw 1,091 rockets, June saw 855, May saw 1,000, April saw 744, March saw 746, February saw 534, and January saw 334, according to the Shin Bet.
The vast majority of the rockets were fired from Lebanon rather than Syria.
In the past month, only 116 rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza, the latest report says.
Rocket sirens sound in Nahal Oz near Gaza border
Sirens sound in Nahal Oz near the Gaza border, warning of incoming rocket fire.
The Israel Defense Forces later announces that it was a false alarm.
Son of terror commander Zakaria Zubeidi said among 5 killed in IDF West Bank drone strike
Men inspect a vehicle that was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Tubas in the north of the West Bank on September 5, 2024 (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)
The son of notorious terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi is among five Palestinians reported killed in an Israeli drone strike last night in the West Bank, according to Palestinian media.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry names the five Palestinians killed in the strike in the Tubas area as Ahmed Abu Dawas, 24, Mohammed Abu Juma, 30, Qusay Abd al-Razeq, 26, Mohammed Abu Zagha, 23, and Mohammed Zubeidi, 21.
عائلة الزبيدي المناضلة تزف شهيد جديد بعد ارتقاء المطارد محمد زكريا الزبيدي أبن الأسير القائد زكريا الزبيدي في قصف استهدف المركبة التي تقله رفقه عدد من المقاومين في طوباس ، على درب والدك قائد المخيم و أعمامك الشهداء ، على درب جدتك الشهيدة أم العبد ، الله يتقبلك يا أبو زكريا . pic.twitter.com/mNRKunAJoN
— نجلاء فقط ! (@Gredtoo) September 5, 2024
Mohammed Zubeidi, according to Palestinian media, is the son of Zakaria, who in September 2021 escaped from Gilboa Prison along with six other high-security prisoners, leading Israeli security forces on a two-week manhunt before being caught.
The IDF said the drone strikes targeted Palestinian gunmen who were shooting at troops during a raid in the Tubas area.
IDF says it carried out ‘precise’ strike on terrorists in Gaza humanitarian zone amid ‘immediate threat’
Overnight, Israeli attack helicopters carried out an airstrike on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror operatives at a command center embedded within the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in central Gaza, the IDF says.
The strike took place in the Deir al-Balah area, reportedly near the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Palestinian media outlets report at least five dead in the strike.
⬅️ شاهد ..
4 شــهداء ومصابون إثر استهداف طائرات الاحتلال خيام النازحين في محيط مستشفى شهــداء الأقصى بمدينة دير البلح وسط قطاع غزة pic.twitter.com/N5KP5xrrai— شبكة فلسطين للحوار (@paldf) September 5, 2024
The military says that the “precise” strike was carried out to remove “an immediate threat.” The site was being used by the terror operatives to plan and carry out attacks against troops and Israel, the IDF says.
To mitigate harm to civilians in the strike, the military says it carried out “many steps,” including using precision munitions, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.
مروحية الاحتلال تشن غارات جوية استهدفت محيط مستشفى شهداء الأقصى بمدينة دير البلح وسط قطاع غزة#ديوان #اسرائيل #فلسطين #غزه_الآن pic.twitter.com/9tE2vQCGXZ
— ديوان (@DiwanDaily) September 5, 2024
“The Hamas terror organization systematically violates international law, brutally exploiting civilian institutions and the population as a human shield for terror activity,” the military adds.
Colombia’s Petro seeks probe into purchase of NSO’s Pegasus spyware
Illustrative. A man holds his phone with NSO GROUP logo on a computer screen in the background, in Jerusalem, on February 7, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro asks the attorney general’s office to investigate the $11 million purchase of Pegasus spy software, which he says could have been used to spy on opposition politicians during the previous administration.
Spyware technology, including Pegasus, has been repeatedly found to have been used to hack into the phones of civil society, political opposition and journalists in the last decade.
Pegasus spyware in particular – built by Israeli firm NSO – was found on the phones of various people globally, including human rights defenders.
“How does $11 million in cash leave the country on a plane, or two, from state offices … to go to Israel to buy software that spies on cell phones, private communications, politics, perhaps for months?” Petro says during a televised broadcast, citing documentation detailing the purchase from the Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF).
The president questions if he or other politicians had been targeted and under what legal justification.
Petro requests the director of the UIAF and the head of the police turn over relevant documents and the software to the attorney general’s office so that citizens can be content that their rights are respected by the state.
“We have to get to the bottom of the matter,” Petro says.
Report: Families of hostages with American citizenship pushing Biden to make unilateral deal with Hamas
Shira Ben-Sasson, a founder of the Hakhel synagogue in Jerusalem, lights a candle in memory of congregant and slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, September 1, 2024. (Deborah Danan)
The families of Americans kidnapped by Hamas and held in Gaza since October 7 are petitioning the Biden administration to cut a unilateral deal with the Palestinian terror group to free their loved ones, NBC News reports.
The report says that the relatives met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday, hours after the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages executed by Hamas in Gaza last week, including American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including seven American citizens. This count includes the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF, three of whom are American.
Rocket siren sounding in northern town near Lebanon border
Sirens are sounding in the northern town of Goren near the border with Lebanon, warning of incoming rocket fire.
צבע אדום (05/09/2024 06:32): גורן pic.twitter.com/ypb9Aqm1lJ
— צופר – צבע אדום (@tzevaadom_) September 5, 2024
US, Egyptian sources say negotiators racing to present new hostage-ceasefire proposal
Protestors hold signs reading "Only a deal" and "Help" at a demonstration urging a hostage deal at Milan Square, Tel Aviv, September 2, 2024. (Lior Segev/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
The White House is scrambling to put forward a new proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages by Hamas in the coming days, two US officials, two Egyptian security sources and an official with knowledge of the matter tell Reuters.
The new proposal aims to work out the major sticking points behind a months-long impasse in talks mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt seeking a truce in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to the US officials.
US President Joe Biden told reporters on Monday that he was “very close” to presenting a final hostage deal proposal by the end of the week.
Much of the deal has been agreed upon, a senior Biden administration official separately tells reporters, but negotiators are still trying to hammer out solutions to two main obstacles — Israel’s demand to keep forces on the Egypt-Gaza border, and the specific individuals who would be included in an exchange of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7 and Palestinian security prisoners in Israel.
The first US official says a new draft accord could be produced next week or even sooner. “The feeling is the time is up. Don’t be surprised if you see (the revised draft) this weekend,” that official says.
The administration official says Hamas’ killing of six hostages, whose bodies were returned to Israel over the weekend, complicates the effort. “We all feel the urgency,” the administration official says. CIA Director William Burns, the lead US negotiator, heads the small group of senior US officials working on the draft, which includes White House coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the first US official says.
“There is a very strong perception on the part of the negotiators that the ceasefire is slipping away,” the first US official says, underscoring the urgency underpinning the effort.
The official adds that mediators have kept up working-level discussions since Blinken’s latest tour of the region last month failed to produce a breakthrough and that those talks are continuing.
The Egyptian sources say the US is shifting from a more consultative approach to trying to impose a ceasefire plan on the parties.
Both US officials say the revised plan will not be a final take-it-or-leave-it offer and that Washington will continue working towards a ceasefire if it falls through.
IDF: Sirens in northern border town were falsm alarms
Sirens that were activated a short while ago in the northern border town of Yiftach were false alarms, the IDF says.
Hamas says Israel should accept last US offer for Gaza ceasefire, claims no need for new proposal
Hamas claims there is no need for new ceasefire proposals for Gaza and says pressure should be put on Israel to agree to a US plan that the terror group already accepted.
US President Joe Biden told reporters on Monday that he was “very close” to presenting a final hostage deal proposal by the end of the week, aimed at breaking an impasse between Hamas and Israel.
In a statement, Hamas accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to thwart an agreement by insisting that Israel will not withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza.
“We warn against falling into Netanyahu’s trap and tricks, as he uses negotiations to prolong the aggression against our people,” the statement says, adding that Hamas had accepted a July 2 proposal put forward by the US.
IDF confirms targeting terrorists in northern West Bank strikes; Palestinians report 5 dead
The IDF confirms carrying out three separate airstrikes against armed Palestinian terrorists near the northern West Bank city of Tubas a short while ago.
The operatives posed a threat to troops, the military says in a statement.
No further details are given.
Five men were killed in the strike on a vehicle in Tubas, according to the official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa, while another was seriously injured and receiving medical treatment.
14-year-old gunman kills at least four, including two students, in US school shooting
Caution tape surrounds Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4, 2024 after four people were killed and nine wounded in a school shooting. (Christian Monterrosa/AFP)
WINDER, United States — A 14-year-old gunman has killed at least four people, including two students, and wounded nine more when he opened fire at a high school in the US state of Georgia yesterday, according to law enforcement.
The shooter — also a student at the school — has been taken into custody. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says he will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.
Two teachers are also among the dead.
After the latest chapter in America’s gun violence crisis — nearly 400 mass shootings this year alone, by one tally — people gather at a sports field outside Apalachee High School, some forming a circle with their arms linked.
The shooting occurred near the town of Winder, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of Atlanta, the state capital.
This year, there have been at least 384 mass shootings — defined as a shooting involving at least four victims, dead or wounded — across the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
At least 11,557 people have been killed in firearms violence this year in the United States, according to the GVA.
Amnesty urges war crimes probe over Israeli levelling of Gaza infrastructure for buffer zone
Israeli tanks stand near the Israel-Gaza border as seen from southern Israel, July 14, 2024. (AP/Tsafrir Abayov)
Amnesty International urges a war crimes probe into Israel razing homes and farms in eastern Gaza to expand a so-called buffer zone between it and the Palestinian territory.
“Using bulldozers and manually laid explosives, the Israeli military has unlawfully destroyed agricultural land and civilian buildings, razing entire neighbourhoods, including homes, schools and mosques,” it says.
The London-based rights group says the levelling since the start of the war on October 7 “should be investigated as war crimes of wanton destruction and of collective punishment.”
Israel says it is creating the buffer zone to better protect Israeli communities on the other side of the fence after they were ravaged by thousands of terrorists who broke through the border during the October 7 attacks.
US says alternative security force won’t be necessary in Philadelphi, apparently coming at odds with PM
View of the Philadelphi Corridor between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, on July 15, 2024. (Oren Cohen/Flash90)
The Biden administration says an “alternative security force” won’t be necessary for securing the Philadelphi Corridor.
Asked about long-term arrangements to secure the Egypt-Gaza border during a briefing with reporters, a senior administration official says the US has been working with Egypt on solutions for months.
“We think we can fully account for Israel’s security needs on that corridor in ways that will be almost unprecedented, and that does not require some alternative security force,” the official says.
The official doesn’t specify whether he is talking about phase one or phase two, but he appears to be talking about the latter.
However, this would come at odds with comments made earlier today by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said that Israel will only agree to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor if an alternative security force replaces the IDF in ensuring that the border stretch is secure.
The official adds that arrangements have also been made to allow for the reopening of the Rafah Crossing in phase one of the deal. The gate has been closed since Israel took over the Palestinian side in May, and Cairo has refused to reopen its side until Israel withdraws.
Appearing to explain why a security force won’t be necessary along the corridor, the senior US official argues that the area northwest of the Rafah Crossing is “very secure” and that arrangements will be put in place to detect tunnels throughout the entirety of the area. Southeast of the Rafah Crossing to Israel’s Kerem Shalom Crossing is less of a concern because the area is less populated, the official maintains.
US says Netanyahu’s Philadelphi statements complicating talks, slams ministers speaking out against deal
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands before a map of the Gaza Strip, telling viewers how Hamas has imported arms into the territory since Israel's withdrawal in 2005, during a news conference in Jerusalem, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, Pool)
The Biden administration says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated declarations that Israel plans to indefinitely remain in the Philadelphi Corridor have complicated the ongoing hostage negotiations.
“I’ve never been involved in a negotiation where every day there’s a public statement about the details of negotiation. It makes it difficult. The less that is said about particular issues, the better,” says a senior administration official in a briefing with reporters.
“Staking out concrete positions in the middle of negotiations isn’t always particularly helpful,” the top US official says in what appears to be one of the first criticisms of Netanyahu’s comments regarding the Philadelphi Corridor. To date, US officials had avoided commenting more directly on the prime minister’s comments.
The senior US official goes on to criticize certain Israeli ministers who have claimed that the “deal being negotiated somehow sacrifices Israel’s security.”
“That is just fundamentally, totally untrue. We have taken account of Israel’s security concerns in this negotiation, and if anything, not getting into this deal is more of a threat to Israel’s long-term security than actually concluding the deal and that includes the issue of the Philadelphi corridor,” the senior administration official asserts.
The official doesn’t identify the Israeli ministers, but he appears to be referring to far-right cabinet members Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who have vowed to oppose and bring down the government if the framework laid out by the US in May is advanced.
US: Release of Palestinian prisoners, IDF deployment in Philadelphi are remaining obstacles to ceasefire
Protesters light bonfires on the street during a rally calling for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, outside the Defense Ministry Headquarters in Tel Aviv, September 3, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
A senior Biden administration official says the remaining two obstacles to a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas pertain to the list of Palestinian security prisoners Hamas is seeking to free and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border.
“What Hamas has been demanding here, the Israelis have come forward to meet the terms as best they can,” the senior Biden official says in a briefing with reporters, adding that the terror group has made this part of negotiations “a pretty frustrating process.”
“Until that is worked out, you’re not going to have a deal,” he says.
Further harming the process was Hamas’s execution of six Israeli hostages last week, the official says, explaining that they had been negotiating based on a list of hostages that subsequently shrunk.
The killings are “coloring the discussions and has brought a sense of urgency to the process, but it has also called into question Hamas’s is readiness to do a deal of any kind,” he adds.
Also part of this section of the deal is the exit of both wounded Gazan civilians along with Hamas fighters for treatment abroad, per the terror group’s demands, the official says.
The other part that remains under dispute is regarding the IDF’s withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, the senior US official explains, adding that the nine-mile border stretch is not mentioned in the text of the proposal.
“A dispute emerged whether the Philadelphia Corridor, which is effectively a road on the border of Gaza and Egypt, is a densely populated area,” the senior administration official says.
In recent weeks, Israel produced a proposal under which it would significantly reduce its military presence along the Philadelphi, which the US official says “is technically consistent with the deal.”
But Hamas has rejected the new demand regarding the Philadelphi Corridor, which indeed had not been part of Israel’s original May proposal, even in map form.
“It’s become a bit of a political debate in Israel,” the official laments in a reference to how Netanyahu has aggressively campaigned on the need for Israel to remain in the corridor in recent days and weeks.
US indicates number of living hostages released in deal’s 1st phase down following Hamas executions
Protesters hold a vigil for the six hostages executed in Gaza days earlier outside Justice Minister Yariv Levin's home in Modi'in on the third consecutive day of protests, September 3, 2024. (Hostages and Missing Families Forum)
A senior Biden administration official indicates that fewer living hostages will be released in the first phase of the deal as a result of Hamas’s execution of six captives last week.
“For each hostage, there’s a certain number of Palestinian prisoners that will come out, so you just have fewer hostages as part of the deal in phase one,” the official says in a briefing with reporters. “It’s tragic and awful, and it’s affecting all of us.”
Roughly 30 hostages are slated to be released in the first phase from the following three categories: women, elderly and sick. Hamas has offered to release the bodies of hostages, while Israel has sought to secure the release of hostages from other categories to maximize the number of living captives freed in the first phase.
Asked whether the US can maintain its heavy deterrence force posture in the Middle East for an extended period, the US official asserts that this is not an issue.
“That deterrent posture will adjust and go up and down over time, depending on events, but we are ready and able to sustain what we’re doing,” he says.
read more: