Sept. 9: Poll shows mainstream parties opposed to PM with path to majority amid anger over hostages

Man killed in Rishon Lezion stabbing

A man has been killed in an apparent stabbing in Rishon Lezion, authorities say.

The Magen David Adom emergency service says paramedics were unable to revive the man, thought to be around 40 years old, following a “violent incident” on Torah V’avodah Street in the city.

Police are investigating the incident as a criminal matter and not terror-related, according to Hebrew media reports.

Netanyahu hostage czar Hirsch discusses talks with US counterpart Carstens

Roger Carstens, left, and Gal Hirsch meet at the US State Department in Washington DC on September 9, 2024. (PMO)

Gal Hirsch, the Israeli government’s official point person on efforts to free hostage in Gaza, has met in Washington with his US counterpart Roger Carstens, the Prime Minister’s Office says.

Hirsch and Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, discussed “the status of negotiations with Hamas and joint areas of work on the agenda” during the working meeting, the PMO says.

Hirsch, seen as a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has largely been sidelined in hostage negotiations, which have been led by Mossad head David Barnea and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

Carstens as well has largely remained without a major public role in the talks mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt which have been led on the American side by CIA director Bill Burns.

There is no comment from the State Department or White House on the meeting.

Israeli men’s soccer team loses Nations League match to Italy

Italy continues its post-Euro 2024 recovery with a tight 2-1 Nations League win over Israel in Budapest.

Goals in each half from Davide Frattesi and Moise Kean are enough for Italy to win in a subdued atmosphere at the Bozsik Arena, which hosted the Israel home fixture due to the security situation in the Middle East.

US federal grand jury charges man for attack on DC synagogue in December

A federal grand jury has indicted an Ohio man for a December attack outside of a Washington, DC, synagogue in which he reportedly yelled, “Gas the Jews.”

He was indicted on three counts of “obstructing by force or threat of force a person’s enjoyment of their free exercise of religious beliefs, while using a dangerous weapon,” a statement from the Justice Department says.

The December attack came around the same time as a spate of bomb threats aimed at synagogues, and days after shots were fired at a synagogue and preschool in Albany, New York. The indictment comes days after a man was arrested in Quebec for a plot to kill Jews in New York City on October 7, the one-year anniversary of the Hamas-led atrocities in southern Israel that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.

Ben Gvir’s party rages at Herzog for urging unity to help return the hostages

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party lashes out at President Isaac Herzog for urging political factions from across the spectrum to unite in order to help secure the release of the hostages held by Hamas.

Otzma Yehudit claims Herzog’s appeal — in which the president called on politicians “to take every step to push decision-makers to bring the hostages home” — “is an irresponsible call that collaborates with Hamas propaganda and the blood libel of the extreme left.”

While insisting it is committed to returning the hostages, Otzma Yehudit reiterates its opposition to a ceasefire agreement to secure their release.

US arrests heads of white supremacist ‘Terrorgram’ for planning to attack Jews, other minorities

Two leaders of a white supremacist group have been arrested on charges of seeking to spark a “race war,” including attacks on Jews, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community, using an online forum known as “Terrorgram,” US officials say.

Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, and Matthew Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho, were taken into custody on Friday and were to make their first appearances in a federal court today, they say.

“Today’s indictment charges the defendants with leading a transnational terrorist group dedicated to attacking America’s critical infrastructure, targeting a hit list of our country’s public officials, and carrying out deadly hate crimes — all in the name of violent white supremacist ideology,” Attorney General Merrick Garland says in a statement.

Humber and Allison face multiple charges including soliciting hate crimes and the murder of federal officials, distributing bomb-making instructions, and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

According to the indictment, Humber and Allison used the encrypted Telegram platform to promote their white supremacist ideology and communicated with followers on a forum dubbed the “Terrorgram Collective.”

They promoted the belief that “violence and terrorism are necessary to ignite a race war and ‘accelerate’ the collapse of the government and the rise of a white ethnostate,” it says.

Humber and Allison allegedly joined Terrorgram in 2019 and became leaders of the group in 2022 after another leader was arrested.

Followers were led to believe they could become “saints” by “committing an attack in furtherance of white supremacist accelerationism,” the indictment says.

Poll: Parties opposing PM would win Knesset majority without Ra’am if elections held

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks out of his office at the Knesset on September 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Parties opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-religious government would win enough seats to form a new majority coalition if elections were held today, even without the support of the predominantly Arab Ra’am and Hadash-Ta’al factions, according to a television survey aired this evening.

Netanyahu’s Likud party was forecast to be the largest in the Channel 12 news poll with 22 seats, followed by four opposition factions: National Unity with 21 seats, Yesh Atid with 15, Yisrael Beytenu with 14 and the Democrats (a union of Labor and Meretz) with 11.

Taken together, the opposition parties had 61 Knesset seats in the survey, enough for a bare majority in the 120-member parliament.

The next largest parties in the poll were Shas at 10 seats, Otzma Yehudit at nine, and United Torah Judaism at eight. The three factions are all part of the current coalition, together with the far-right Religious Zionism party, which failed to clear the minimum vote threshold in the poll.

Rounding out the survey are Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am, with five seats apiece.

The survey also asked how respondents would vote when a theoretical party led by former premier Naftali Bennett is included among the options, with the results showing coalition parties would receive 46 seats instead of the 49 they pick up without him in the poll.

The survey, by pollster Manu Geva, included 503 respondents and had a 4.4% margin of error.

US official says Biden’s top security adviser spoke with Saudi crown prince

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, spoke today with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a US official says.

The two spoke about several regional issues in the Middle East and held a constructive call, according to the official, who declines to be named.

IDF says troops stopped UN convoy to check for unauthorized Gazan passengers

The military says that earlier today, troops stopped a United Nations convoy in the northern Gaza Strip for questioning, after receiving intelligence that several unauthorized Palestinian suspects had snuck into one of the vehicles.

“IDF troops delayed the convoy in order to question the suspects,” the military says, adding that the incident has not yet concluded.

The IDF says that the convoy was not transporting Polio vaccines, as some reports claimed, but rather, it was for UN workers switching personnel in the area.

Israel said to assure Jordanian monarchy that Temple Mount status quo hasn’t changed

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and Jordan's King Abdullah II, left, at the Royal Palace in Amman, Jordan, on January 16, 2014. (AP/ Yousef Allan, Jordanian Royal Palace/ File)

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s consent, senior Israeli security officials gave an explicit assurance to the Royal Hashemite Court in Jordan that the status quo at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount hasn’t changed and will not change, according to Channel 12 news.

The report says the message was relayed to the Jordanian monarchy following Sunday’s cabinet meeting at which senior security officials warned ministers about the growing turmoil in the West Bank, and after which Netanyahu issued a public statement saying ministers must first clear any visits to the flashpoint holy site.

Jordan said to have thwarted plot to detonate boobytrapped truck at Allenby Bridge 6 weeks ago

Israeli security forces gather at the scene of a deadly terror attack near the Allenby Crossing between the West Bank and Jordan on September 8, 2024. (AP Photo/ Mahmoud Illean)

Jordanian intelligence some six weeks ago thwarted a plan to place explosives on a truck and detonate it at the Allenby Bridge border crossing, Channel 12 reports.

The report, which cites non-Israeli sources, comes a day after a Jordanian truck driver shot dead three Israelis in a terrorist attack at the Allenby crossing.

Jordanian intelligence officials arrested four members of a cell in Salt, west of Amman a month and a half ago, the report says, and they led the officials to a weapons lab in which several explosive devices were found. Jordanian intelligence suspects the members of the cell intended to plant the devices on a truck and detonate it at the Allenby Bridge crossing.

The alleged terrorists were all Jordanian nationals, and the cell was formed locally, rather than being recruited by Iran, Hezbollah or other external forces.

Jordan did not publicize the incident in order to avoid triggering public protests, given anti-Israeli sentiment in the kingdom and anger that Jordan cooperates with Israel on security matters.

Channel 12 notes that Israeli sappers were seen checking the truck driven by the gunmen yesterday for more than an hour after the deadly attack to make sure it was not rigged with explosives.

The TV report notes that Jordan has also busted at least three cells in the past two months, recruited by Hezbollah via the internet, that were intended to carry out actions designed to destabilize the kingdom.

It notes that in June, Jordanian security forces announced they had uncovered and detonated explosives hidden in a commercial warehouse in an industrial area southeast of the capital Amman that they said was part of an Iran-linked plot to destabilize Jordan. That incident, Channel 12 says, involved “immense” quantities of explosives smuggled into Jordan by Iran.

It says Hezbollah has also been recruiting, via the internet, Palestinian cells in the northern West Bank — including Nablus, Jenin, and Tulkarm — also intended to act against Jordan.

Shin Bet says 3 Palestinians detained on suspicion of planning imminent terror attack

This Shin Bet handout photo shows military equipment seized from Palestinians who the security agency says were planning an imminent terror attack, September 9, 2024. (Shin Bet)

Three Palestinians suspected of planning to carry out an imminent terror attack were detained earlier today, the Shin Bet security agency says.

One of the suspects was arrested on the Route 6 highway in central Israel this afternoon after a vehicle with 12 other Palestinians was stopped by police officers.

The other two suspects were detained by IDF troops later in the day at their homes in the West Bank, following the interrogation of the Palestinian detained on Route 6.

The trio are from the West Bank town of Bani Naim, near Hebron, according to the Shin Bet.

The Shin Bet says weapons that would have been used in the attack were seized at the homes of the other two cell members.

All three are currently being questioned by the security agency.

US calls on Israel to perform ‘thorough, transparent’ probe into death of Turkish-American

The United States understands Israel is looking into the circumstances of how a Turkish-American citizen was killed last week in the West Bank, the US State Department deputy spokesperson says, while encouraging Israel to quickly and robustly conclude its process.

“We expect that process to be thorough, transparent,” deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel tells a news briefing.

Biden expected to meet top advisers to discuss Gaza ceasefire efforts

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden is expected to meet with top advisers at the White House today to discuss efforts to get Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement on a ceasefire deal, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

White House officials had talks earlier this morning about the state of the negotiations with Egyptian and Qatari officials, who have been serving as intermediaries with Hamas.

The person, who is not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, says that the US side is frustrated with Hamas’s demands for the release of more Hamas prisoners in the first stage of the deal after last week’s killing of six hostages. That demand is a non-starter for the Israeli-side, but the White House still has hope that Qatar can persuade Hamas to a more reasonable position on the hostage for prisoner swap.

File on gov’t’s plan to rehabilitate north said to declare ‘not all displaced will return home’

A government plan for returning displaced Israelis to parts of the north that have been under Hezbollah attack for over 11 months states that “not all of the displaced will return to their homes,” the Kan public broadcaster reports.

The report cites a document drawn up by Vice Admiral (res.) Eliezer Marom, a former Israeli Navy commander, whom the government made point man for rehabilitating the north. It also says, “There will always be those who are discontent,” and declares that “we are not reinventing the wheel for the purpose of dealing with the displaced.”

Guterres claims ‘level of death and destruction’ in Gaza is worst of his term as UN chief

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, March 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

The UN chief says that the United Nations has offered to monitor any ceasefire in Gaza and demands an end to the worst death and destruction he claims to have seen in his more than seven-year tenure.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says in an interview with The Associated Press that it is “unrealistic” to think the UN could play a role in Gaza’s future, either by administering the territory or providing a peacekeeping force, because Israel is unlikely to accept a UN role.

But he says “the UN will be available to support any ceasefire.” The United Nations has had a military monitoring mission in the Middle East, known as UNTSO, since 1948, and he says, “From our side, this was one of the hypotheses that we’ve put on the table.”

“Of course, we’ll be ready to do whatever the international community asked for us,” Guterres says. “The question is whether the parties would accept it, and in particular whether Israel would accept it.”

Stressing the urgency of a ceasefire now to end the over 11 months of fighting started  by Hamas’s October 7 attack, Guterres says: “The level of suffering we are witnessing in Gaza is unprecedented in my mandate as secretary-general of the United Nations. I’ve never seen such a level of death and destruction as we are seeing in Gaza in the last few months.”

IDF says 2 soldiers were hurt in Hezbollah drone attack near Lebanon border town

Three explosive-laden drones launched from Lebanon struck near the border community of Shlomi earlier today, lightly injuring two soldiers, the IDF says.

Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted a military base in the area.

The IDF says the soldiers were taken to a hospital in good condition.

Meanwhile, the IDF says Israeli fighter jets struck several buildings and observation posts belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila.

בשעות האחרונות, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו מספר מבנים צבאיים ועמדת תצפית ששימשו את ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב כפר כילא שבדרום לבנון>> pic.twitter.com/Qjbpce7MpX

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 9, 2024

Another drone strike targeted a Hezbollah operative in Tallouseh, the military says.

Separately, Israeli tanks shelled a Hezbollah observation post in Kafr Shouba, the IDF adds.

Netanyahu insists he ‘listens and doesn’t judge’ when meeting hostage families

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in a video statement released on September 9, 2024. (Screen capture, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu puts out a video statement saying he hears “the cries of the hostage families who lost what is most dear to them,” after the release of a recording in which the father of a captive murdered by Hamas can be heard berating the premier.

“My wife and I go to heartrending meetings which just tear the heart to pieces. I hear, I listen, I also don’t judge. And I will do everything I can to return the hostages and to win the war,” Netanyahu insists.

Bereaved father says he hopes he ‘cracked something’ in PM when imploring him to bring hostages home

Rabbi Elhanan Danino (left) speaks to Channel 12 news in a September 9, 2024 interview. The screen also shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paying a condolence call to the Danino family, whose son Ori was murdered by his Hamas captors in Gaza. (Channel 12; Avi Rabina, Kikar Hashabat screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the copyright law)

Rabbi Elhanan Danino, speaking to Channel 12 news about the condolence visit that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently made to the family, after their son Ori was murdered by his Hamas captors on August 31, says he did not prepare in advance to level the bitter criticism he directed at Netanyahu.

“I didn’t prepare anything, I didn’t write it down…. We had kept our silence for 11 months… We placed our faith in the Holy One Blessed Be He. Why are we in this land and what are we fighting for — those were the things I spoke about in all my discussions, here and abroad. I always try to speak from the heart and not foster division, because what comes from the heart goes into the heart. I greatly hope that some of what I said went into the man’s heart.”

His interviewer notes that, at some points in the conversation, Netanyahu interjected to tell him he was saying things that were inaccurate.

“I’m not sitting where he is. I don’t see the full picture, that’s for sure,” Danino says. “But I wanted to bring the Jewish value, through the love of Israel” and to stress the “value of unity and connection.”

He says he wanted to highlight the imperative to maintain “the smile of my son… this heroic, holy boy who was murdered somewhere in Gaza, because he dashed and ran and tried to save the lives of others [on October 7]… That was Ori, all his life.”

“That’s what I was trying to say to the heart [of Netanyahu]: That he should understand that, outside, there is a nation that is waiting for those 101 hostages, to end this terrible thing. That’s what will put this nation back together — to bring them home, to finish this terrible nightmare. I owe it to the rest of the families. As the emissary of my son, I now try to bring together and unify the people of Israel, to try as much as I can to unify as many elements…”

You gave Netanyahu a very hard time, the interviewer suggests.

“I don’t think I said anything new,” Danino responds. “I told him what a lot of people think. To my sorrow, I said this as a bereaved father who has lost his first-born son… I feel that the Jewish value of responsibility for each other, of ‘all of Israel are brothers,’ has been lost… Why is the division continuing even during war, even when 105 people are [held hostage] there? Do we only unify at funerals… We have to smile at each other on the buses, trains and in the malls as well… Unity can’t only be for the army.”

It is put to him that Sara Netanyahu, who joined the prime minister on the visit, interjected that Danino was saying things to her husband that he had been told to say. “That’s nothing new,” Danino says. “I’m familiar with their responses… I thought they’d behave differently in a house of mourning… I wasn’t hurt… And I especially didn’t want to cause hurt. I said to him at the beginning of my remarks that I’m sorry if I’m going to say difficult things.”

Asked whether he thinks he managed to “crack some kind of wall” in Netanyahu, Danino says that he certainly did not surprise Netanyahu because they spoke by phone on Sunday, before the prime minister visited. “I greatly hope I managed to crack something in the wall… for the sake of the 101 families and for the people of Israel, who must, must unify and reconnect.”

In a later interview, also on Channel 12, Danino says he has been told that Israel has offered concessions in hostage talks and that, if they had been made earlier, “we would be in a different place. But we accept God’s verdict with love.

“I won’t deal with the past. I will gather my strength, and my family’s, for the sake of the future,” he says, including to work with lost Israeli youths who might need help, and thus try to perpetuate Ori’s smile, heroism, courage and capacity to unify.

Asked about those Israelis who oppose a deal to free the hostages, he says he is not a politician and that he “offered no advice” to Netanyahu. Rather, he wanted to highlight the need for Jewish values, and “especially the responsibility of Jews to one another.”

National security adviser’s office reveals his deputy has been filling in due to medical issue

National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi arrives for a court hearing in the trial against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the District Court in Jerusalem on March 5, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi underwent a successful medical procedure that required hospitalization, the National Security Council announces.

The NSC did not announce the procedure ahead of time.

The diagnosis was made “a few weeks ago,” the statement says.

Hanegbi was intermittently hospitalized for treatment during that time.

His deputy, Gil Reich, filled in for him, according to the announcement.

The NSC says Hanegbi is expected to be released from the hospital soon, and eventually to return to full functioning.

Hanegbi returned early from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s July trip to the US, on a commercial flight, but it is unclear whether that was related to his medical treatment.

Police say officers seized 74 handguns being smuggled into Israel from Jordan

Weapons seized by Israeli forces in an attempted smuggling via the Rabin Crossing, September 9, 2024. (Israel Police and Israel Tax Authority)

Police say they foiled an attempt to smuggle some 74 handguns into Israel from Jordan yesterday via the Rabin Crossing.

The incident occurred on the same day as a deadly attack at the Allenby Bridge Crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.

Customs inspectors at the Rabin terminal, near Eilat, found 74 Glock pistols and 61 magazines inside a Mitsubishi vehicle that was trying to cross into Israel from Jordan, police say.

The driver of the car and a passenger, residents of the Bedouin town of Bir Hadaj and another Bedouin community near Yeruham, were detained.

Weapons smuggling is a constant challenge for Israel, along its long, porous eastern border with Jordan.

Israeli officials say Iran has recently made efforts to smuggle weapons to terror groups in the West Bank. Additionally, many guns smuggled into Israel are being used for underworld crime.

Ukraine summons Iran envoy to warn of ‘irreparable consequences’ for sending missiles to Russia

Ukraine’s foreign ministry says it has summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires Shahriar Amouzegar to express deep concerns over reports of Iran possibly supplying Russia with ballistic missiles.

The ministry says on Telegram that Amouzegar received a harsh warning that confirmation of deliveries would have “devastating and irreparable consequences” for bilateral relations.

Bill extending term of Chief Rabbinate Council’s current members passes 1st reading

Lawmakers vote 55-47 to approve the first reading of a bill extending the terms of of the Chief Rabbinate Council’s members until the end of 2024.

In its explanatory notes, the bill states that elections for both the chief rabbis and council members have been repeatedly delayed and without an extension, the terms of the current members of the council will expire, leaving their positions unfilled and as a result “the provision of important services to the entire population of Israel may be compromised.”

It also contends that it is important that the chief rabbis take part in selecting representatives to the panel that selects the Chief Rabbinate Council. The election of the next chief rabbis will occur after the expiration of the council’s current term.

Critics have alleged that the move is intended to provide the rabbinate with more time to pass a law regulating the status of women following a High Court of Justice ruling from January that said women may also be considered “rabbis” for the purposes of the Chief Rabbi Election Assembly, the body that selects the country’s two chief rabbis.

“If they extend the terms when it comes to election of the Chief Rabbinate Council then already the [next] chief rabbi can have his choice of choosing 10 men [ahead of the next Chief Rabbinate Council election] — they can pass a law saying no women are needed,” says Rabbi Seth Farber, the founder of ITIM, a nongovernmental Jerusalem-based advocacy group for reforming Israel’s religious bureaucracies.

He says this would allow conservative religious elements greater control over the composition of the Chief Rabbi Election Assembly.

The bill’s explanatory notes also state that while the council’s tenure is extended, Religious Services Minister Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli “plans to promote bills in which female representation will be added to the Chief Rabbi Election Assembly “and at the same time will clarify who can serve as representatives of the chief rabbis in the electing assembly.”

It notes that there are currently two bills on this topic on the Knesset table, including a proposal by New Hope MK Ze’ev Elkin that would limit the term rabbi to mean only men while mandating expanded representation for women.

Stop stirring division: In recording of Netanyahu’s shiva visit, father of murdered hostage slams PM for ‘petty politics’

Rabbi Elhanan Danino (left) speaks to Channel 12 news in a September 9, 2024, interview, as the screen also shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paying a condolence call to the Danino family, whose son Ori was murdered by his Hamas captors in Gaza. (Channel 12 screenshot; Avi Rabina, Kikar Hashabat; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the copyright law)

Recordings just released reveal a tense and angry conversation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Rabbi Elhanan Danino, the father of hostage Ori Danino, who was murdered in captivity by Hamas and his body returned to Israel last week.

Elhanan Danino accused the prime minister of engaging in “petty and cheap politics,” and blamed the October 7 massacre on divisiveness that he said Netanyahu and others on high have stirred in the country.

The exchange occurred when Netanyahu visited the family during shiva — their seven-day mourning period — to express his condolences over the loss of Ori Danino, an off-duty soldier with the Paratrooper’s Brigade who was captured from the Supernova music festival and held hostage for 11 months before he was murdered by Hamas. Danino’s body was recovered by troops from a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah on August 31 along with those of Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alex Lobanov and Almog Sarusi.

“You people on high have to stop dealing with nonsense and stirring up fights and disagreement. Without unity, we don’t deserve this country; there will be no rebuilding without this land,” Elhanan Danino says to the prime minister.

“Shut your office for 10 minutes a day and think about where your Jewish values are. Shut it down, send everyone out, no phones, spend time alone with your creator and think, where is God in your picture, where are your Jewish values…?”

“This disaster happened because of the division and schisms we had here. It’s as clear as the sun that’s what happened.”

“Don’t spend time on petty and cheap politics and spin. There is no price on human life. I’m appealing to you here on behalf of those [hostages] who are still there [in Gaza]. I don’t dare to think about what the Goldin and Shaul families [whose sons were killed fighting in Gaza in 2014 and whose bodies have been held by Hamas ever since], who I sat with over the past 11 months, are going through,” Danino says.

Ori Danino (Courtesy)

“Wailing bitterly that by “a miracle” he has been able to bury his son in the holy land and the holy city of Jerusalem, he asks: “What kind of a situation have you brought us to” where the return of his son’s body is a relative miracle? “Wake up, please! Strengthen unity, strengthen love of Israel. Stop the spin, pins and nonsense, for goodness sake!”

“You are a leader. You were elected, sent to lead. Clear away all the nonsense. Too many other things have gotten in…”

Netanyahu asks: What things?

Elhanan Danino: “Stop dealing with gathering Knesset seats — with surveys, what will bring [support], what won’t. Stop it. I truly don’t know if there was a deal [to be done to save Ori and other hostages] or not. I’m not getting into that. But forgive me, sir, this all happened on your watch. My son was murdered in a tunnel that you built on your watch [by allowing funds and dual-use materials into Gaza]. Forgive me, forgive me. You’ve been in power for many years. Very many. The concrete and the dollars went in [to Gaza] on your watch.”

“I don’t know what happened with my son. We accept the [divine] verdict with love. But you are responsible for the lives of everybody,” Danino says. “I’m not part of the debate going on outside. We were silent for 11 months because we believe in the Almighty. Now, too, we believe in the Almighty. But I feel that nothing has changed.

“Shut yourself in a room and think about the Jewish value that you bring — not the Jewish identity of the State of Israel — we’ll control here, control there. In the end, the Holy One Blessed Be He does everything. Strong as we were before this, on Simchat Torah we got a slap unlike any other. A slap. Neither the air force, nor the infantry [were any use]. My son was in the armed forces. Let nobody say I’m some dos [derogatory slang for ultra-Orthodox] who doesn’t believe in the army. I educated him to serve in the army. I was in the army.”

Netanyahu: “I won’t tell you what goes on behind closed doors. It won’t interest you that much either…”

Sara Netanyahu interjects: “You were pretty much alone.”

Netanyahu: “Alone… Against the whole world. Facing the president of the United States and people here, and facing military elements here.”

Sara Netanyahu: “And facing army elements here.”

Netanyahu: “To fight and to explain. It’s not only Hamas. It’s not only Hezbollah. It’s an atomic weapon they’ll drop here on all of us… I enter [my office] every day and ask myself, Why are you here? What am I here for? Why?…”

Elhanan: “You didn’t do it [tackle Hamas] for 15 years…. 15 years you sat in silence. You did nothing.”

Netanyahu: “I didn’t sit in silence…”

Elhanan: “You equipped them with swords. You equipped them with tunnels and dollars… Did you come here to listen or to be listened to? Because what you have to say we’ve heard for 15 years.”

Rabbi Elhanan Danino speaks to Channel 12 news in a September 9, 2024 interview (Screenshot used in accordance with Clause 27a of the copyright law)

Later in the conversation, Channel 12 news reports without broadcasting the audio, Netanyahu says he burst into a plane to save hostages and that he knows what it’s like to lose a loved one because he lost his older brother Yoni.

Ori Danino’s brother is said to interject: No, no, you don’t understand. You built your career on your brother’s back. Enough already. I buried my brother! Your brother was a true national hero. Where did that get lost? I don’t know.”

A member of the family is said to add that while Ori will be remembered as a good person, Netanyahu will not.

Netanyahu is said to respond: I’m not the issue, and how I’m remembered is not important. You have the right to think what you wish, and I respect that.

Elhanan Danino is then said to tell Netanyahu he won’t get divine assistance (“siyata dishmaya”) until he shows Jewish values, berate him for having lost the Zionist values he had at age 22, and assert that the Netanyahu of 50 years ago would have destroyed Hamas before it became a monster.

Sara Netanyahu is then said to accuse Elhanan of saying things others have told him to say.

Nobody tells me what to say, Elhanan is said to respond.

Following Hezbollah drone attack, Halevi says IDF ‘ready for any mission’ in north

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi holds an assessment at the IDF HQ in Tel Aviv, September 9, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi wrapped up an assessment on the northern front a short while ago with the military’s top brass.

In remarks provided by the IDF, Halevi says that Hezbollah’s drone attack on a residential building in Nahariya “is a serious incident.”

“The IDF operates strongly in the north, and is at a high level of readiness with prepared operational plans, ready for any mission that will be required,” he adds.

Funeral held in West Bank for US-Turkish activist reportedly shot by IDF

Hundreds of mourners gather in Nablus to pay respects to a US-Turkish activist killed while protesting against Israeli settlements in a nearby town.

The body of the slain 26-year-old, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, was wrapped in a Palestinian flag, with her head covered by a keffiyeh, a traditional scarf symbolizing the Palestinian struggle against Israel.

Palestinian security forces carry her body through the streets of Nablus, accompanied by the sound of Palestinian bagpipes, before a wreath is placed over her remains.

The memorial, which began at Nablus’s Rafidia hospital, draws large crowds.

The UN rights office said Israeli forces killed Eygi with a “shot in the head.” The mayor of Beita and the Palestinian news agency Wafa also reported that she was killed by Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli army acknowledged it had opened fire in the Beita area and said it was “looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired.”

The United Nations said Eygi had been taking part in a “peaceful anti-settlement protest” in Beita, scene of weekly demonstrations.

Turkey condemned her death, while the United States called it “tragic” and pressed its ally Israel to investigate.

The commemoration was postponed from yesterday, due to a dispute between the United States and Turkey over “details such as the burial location and the route her body would take,” says Mahmud al-Aloul, a senior Fatah official.

Aloul says that “Palestine would be honored for the martyr to be buried here.”

Lapid decries online threats against hostage’s mom as ‘a disgrace to Israeli society’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid decries the online threats made against the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, calling them “a disgrace to Israeli society.”

“The incitement against [Einav Zangauker] is the result of violent discourse toward the hostage families that begins with members of the coalition,” Lapid writes on social media. “The entire nation of Israel must stand behind her.”

At least 7 rockets fired at Israeli border communities in north

A barrage of five rockets was fired from Lebanon at the border community of Shlomi, and another two were launched at Kiryat Shmona a short while ago, according to the IDF.

There are no reports of injuries in the attacks.

UN atomic chief hopes to hold talks with Iran’s new president before US election

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General, Rafael Grossi, addresses the media after arriving at the Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Austria, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. The head of the United Nations' atomic watchdog traveled Monday to Iran, where his agency faces increasing difficulty in monitoring the Islamic Republic's rapidly advancing nuclear program as tensions remain high in the wider Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Heinz-Peter Bader)

VIENNA — UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi hopes to hold talks with new Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian by November on improving Iran’s cooperation with his agency, he says.

Several long-standing issues are dogging relations between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, including Tehran’s barring of uranium-enrichment experts on the inspection team and its failure for years to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.

“He (Pezeshkian) agreed to meet with me at an appropriate juncture,” Grossi says in a statement to a quarterly meeting of his agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors, referring to an exchange after Pezeshkian’s election in July.

“I encourage Iran to facilitate such a meeting in the not-too-distant future so that we can establish a constructive dialogue that leads swiftly to real results,” he says.

With nuclear diplomacy largely stalled between the Iranian presidential election and the US one on November 5, Grossi says he wants to make real progress soon.

Asked at a news conference if his reference to the “not-too-distant future” meant before or after the US election, Grossi says: “No, hopefully before that.”

IAEA board resolutions ordering Iran to cooperate urgently with the investigation into the uranium traces and calling on it to reverse its barring of inspectors have brought little change, and quarterly IAEA reports seen by Reuters on August 29 showed no progress.

Iran responded to the latest resolution in June by announcing an expansion of its enrichment capacity, installing more centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, at its Natanz and Fordow sites.

“What we see is that there is some work, but nothing that indicates a rush to a fast implementation of a big increase in terms of enrichment production,” Grossi says.

Ukrainian official says Iranian missiles in Russia are legitimate targets

Ukrainian air defense intercepts an Iranian-designed Shahed drone mid-air during a Russia aerial attack on the capital in Kyiv, Ukraine, September 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

KYIV, Ukraine — A senior Ukrainian official says Western partner countries must allow Ukraine to use weapons they have supplied to strike military warehouses inside Russia because of strong suspicions Iran has provided ballistic missiles for the Kremlin’s war effort.

Western countries supporting Ukraine in the war have hesitated to let its military strike targets on Russian soil, fearing they could be sucked into Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, but the head of the Ukrainian presidential office says “protection is not escalation.”

“In response to the supply of ballistic missiles to Russia, Ukraine must be allowed to destroy warehouses storing these missiles with Western weapons in order to avoid terror,” Andrii Yermak says on his Telegram channel. He doesn’t specify which country is supplying the missiles.

Hostage families call on PM to condemn ‘the dangerous incitement’ against them

Families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza demonstrate outside the Kirya IDF Military Headquarters in Tel Aviv, August 3, 2024. Einav Zangauker is second from right in a white shirt. (Oded Engel/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to publicly and firmly denounce the dangerous incitement against hostage families,” after a man was arrested for making online threats against the mother of Hamas captive Matan Zangauker.

“The hostage families have faced indescribable suffering for what is already 11 months of incessant worry for the fate of their loved ones,” the group says in a statement, adding that Einav Zangauker filed a police statement against the suspect this morning.

Yair Golan calls on opposition leaders to coordinate efforts against government

The Democrats leader Yair Golan attends a faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on July 22, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Addressing reporters during his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Yair Golan, the chairman of the The Democrats, a merger of Labor and Meretz, calls on leaders of the opposition to come together for “immediate” coordinated activity on a variety of fronts.

“This morning I sent a personal letter to each of the leaders of the opposition. I detailed in my letter the increasing necessity of coordinated and joint actions,” Golan says.

Golan lists five “burning issues”: the return of the hostages and the establishment of a Knesset committee to oversee ceasefire negotiations; obtaining an updated report on the IDF’s ability to face the “all-encompassing regional conflict to which Netanyahu is leading” the country; presenting an alternative budget to that being advanced by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich; the establishment of a “shadow government” in the British manner; and working to push for a state commission of inquiry into October 7.

This is the second such letter Golan has sent in recent weeks calling for coordinated opposition action. In his previous missive, The Democrats chief called for a meeting of opposition party chairmen to discuss ways to topple the current government.

Asked about the letter during his Yesh Atid party’s faction meeting, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that “I welcome the initiative and call for collaboration with all opposition factions. We are working on this, in ways that are known and in ways that are less known. This is the the right approach and I welcome it.”

Jewish voters favor Kamala Harris over Donald Trump 68% to 25%, poll shows

US Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her husband US Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff wave from the stage on the fourth and last day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 22, 2024. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

American Jews plan to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris by a wide margin, according to a new survey by a Jewish Democratic group.

The survey also finds that 87% of American Jewish voters support the Biden administration’s efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that would release the Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

The survey, released by the Jewish Democratic Council of America, shows 68% of Jewish voters planning to vote for Harris, the Democratic nominee, and 25% planning to vote for Donald Trump, the former president and Republican nominee.

The survey indicates that a volatile season of campaigning, including heated exchanges over which party is worse for American Jews, has hardly budged the Jewish electorate. It also suggests that extensive Republican efforts to draw greater numbers of Jewish voters after Oct. 7 have not significantly moved the needle.

Hezbollah claims drone attack on Nahariya, rockets on north

A drone impacts a building in Nahariya on September 9, 2024 (Screencapture X/ used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Hezbollah takes responsibility for this morning’s drone attack on a residential building in Nahariya, though it claims to have targeted an Israeli military base.

In a statement, the terror group says it targeted the IDF’s Shraga Camp, located some 3 kilometers south of Nahariya, with several explosive-laden drones. It says the attack was a response to recent IDF strikes in southern Lebanon.

According to the IDF, two drones were launched from Lebanon in the attack, one of which struck an apartment building in Nahariya, causing damage but no injuries.

Hezbollah also takes responsibility for a barrage of rockets at the Western Galilee, again claiming to have targeted a military base. The rockets struck open areas.

The terror group also claims to have launched a surface-to-air missile at an Israeli fighter jet over southern Lebanon, forcing it to retreat.

Court rejects Netanyahu request to block Toronto screening of film with leaked footage from corruption probe

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen at the Jerusalem District Court during the testimony of businessman Arnon Milchan in Netanyahu's corruption trial, July 2, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/POOL)

The Jerusalem District Court rejects a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to block the screening of a film that uses leaked footage of him being questioned by police between 2016 and 2018.

The American documentary, called “The Bibi Files,” will debut at a film festival in Toronto tonight, with never-before-seen footage from the investigation.

The judge rules that Netanyahu had waited too long after the film was announced before filing his motion and declined to intervene. It was also not immediately clear how a court could stop an overseas screening.

According to Variety magazine, the recordings of the corruption investigation were leaked to renowned director Alex Gibney last year and feature interviews with Netanyahu, his wife Sara and his son Yair, along with friends, associates and household staff.

Netanyahu’s lawyers told the court that the footage was meant to harm him politically.

His lawyers claim that Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker, a long-time Netanyahu critic, was one of the directors, saying that Drucker “has declared himself in public to be a political opponent of the prime minister.”

“These recordings shed light on Netanyahu’s character in a way that is unprecedented and extraordinary,” Gibney was quoted as saying by Variety. “They are powerful evidence of his venal and corrupt character and how that led us to where we are at right now.”

The report added that the recordings, consisting of thousands of hours of interviews, have not been screened locally or abroad, due to Israel’s privacy laws.

Alex Gibney Doc Featuring Never-Before-Seen Police Interrogation Footage of Benjamin Netanyahu to Screen at TIFF (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/GVqbb1j0vY

— Variety (@Variety) September 2, 2024

Netanyahu was ultimately charged with fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases filed in 2019, and with bribery in one of them. The proceedings are ongoing and likely to take years to wrap up, especially given delays after the trial was suspended along with all other non-urgent cases due to Hamas’s shock October 7 incursion and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing in the cases against him and claims that the charges were fabricated in a witch hunt led by the police and state prosecution, and facilitated by a weak attorney general.

Lawmakers approve 1st reading of bill to allocate billions to fund northern residents, reservists

Residents of evacuated communities in northern Israel and supporters set up a tent city to demand the government return them to their homes, at Amiad Junction, in northern Israel, May 23, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

Lawmakers vote 58-52 to approve the first reading of a bill allocating billions of shekels to help fund evacuated civilians and reserve soldiers until the end of the year, given the ongoing months-long war.

The amendment to the Deficit Reduction and Limiting Budgetary Expenditure Bill will allow the government to increase the 2024 budget — which was already amended once in March — by almost NIS 3.4 billion ($924 million).

The expansion was met with significant backlash from officials within the Finance Ministry as well as members of the opposition, who have claimed that the budget increase will blow past the deficit target despite Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s protestations.

“This law is the first part of two laws that make up a budgetary supplement designed to extend funding for the evacuees mainly in the north,” says Smotrich, blaming the need for additional funding on the length of the war.

“We estimated that the residents would be able to return to the north and the south by July, and unfortunately this did not happen,” he says, adding that he believes Israel will still be able to hit its target deficit of 6.6 percent by the end of the year.

Members of the far-right Otzma Yehudit and ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism parties vote yes on the bill despite initially expressing opposition over claims that their own budgetary interests had not been taken into account.

Nearly 70,000 residents of the north remain displaced following the outbreak of hostilities with Hezbollah in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.

Smotrich says IDF refusing to handle aid for Gaza, thereby empowering Hamas

Fainance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks during a press conference at the Ministry of Finance in Jerusalem, September 3, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accuses the army of having “insisted for months on not taking responsibility for humanitarian aid” in Gaza, asserting that giving up control over such assistance allows Hamas to retain power in the coastal territory.

Accusing IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi of failing to implement plans dating back to December, the far-right minister tells Kan radio that “Hamas uses its civilian control in the Strip and maintains its power; we must make sure that the humanitarian aid reaches civilians.”

Turning to the negotiations for a ceasefire/hostage-return deal, Smotrich says that “there is no deal on the table” and the anti-government protests calling for a deal are “exactly what [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar wants.”

“We are making every effort to bring them back alive…I hope we will succeed as much as possible but I cannot make a commitment. I will not commit collective suicide for this.”

15 rockets fired at northern Israel, no injuries

A barrage of some 15 rockets was launched from Lebanon at the Western Galilee and the Kfar Giladi area in the Galilee Panhandle a short while ago, according to the IDF.

The rockets struck open areas, and there are no reports of injuries.

Residents describe drone impact in Nahariya apartment building

Aviel Avshalom, left, with his mother Alina and sister, Miel, near a buildingnhis by a drone launched from Lebanon on September 9, 2024 (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)

Residents described the moment a drone fired from Lebanon hit their high-rise building, damaging two apartments. There were no injuries.

“It was very scary,” says Aviel Avshalom, 9, who was in school when the drone hit.

Despite the mayor’s announcement to parents not to pick up their children, his mother, Alina Avshalom, who lives in the neighborhood, says she hurried to pick up Aviel and her daughter, Miel, from school.

“I don’t have a car and I had to think twice but I didn’t want to leave the kids there,” she says.

Next to the driveway of the damaged building stands Dr. Maron Haj, a thoracic surgeon at Galilee Medical Center, who says that he was at work in the hospital when he heard the building was hit.

“Everything in our apartment was ruined,” he says. “We can’t live there. We have to figure out what to do next.”

IDF says troops find weapons manufacturing site in raid on Gaza’s Zeitoun neighborhood

IDF troops with the Jerusalem Brigade are seen operating in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City in this handout photo published on September 9, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says reservists of the Jerusalem Brigade have killed dozens of gunmen and destroyed sites belonging to terror groups in an ongoing operation in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood.

Amid the operation, the IDF says the troops found a machine used to manufacture weapons and a tunnel shaft used by terror operatives.

Israel’s fiscal deficit balloons to 8.3% in August amid war spending

The new 100 Israeli Shekel bill, December 31, 2017. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Israel’s fiscal deficit grows to 8.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or NIS 12.1 billion ($3.2 billion) in August over the prior 12 months, as the government continues to pour billions of shekels into financing the months-long war with Hamas and the heated conflict with Hezbollah, according to preliminary figures released by the Finance Ministry.

It marks the fifth month that the deficit is above the annual government target of 6.6% of national output set for the end of 2024. Israel posted a budget deficit of 4.2% in 2023.

The deficit widened from 8.1% of GDP in July, 7.6% in June, and 7.2% in May, amid growing military and civilian spending on the ongoing war with Hamas since October 7.

In August, government expenditure amounted to NIS 49.5 billion, taking spending since the start of the year to about NIS 399 billion, an accumulative increase of 32% compared with the same period in 2023. War costs since the outbreak of the fighting in October ballooned to NIS 96.9 billion.

The Finance Ministry reiterates that it expects the deficit to continue to increase until the third quarter, which ends in September, before moving to a downward trend.

The August figures show that state revenues amounted to NIS 37.4 billion. Total revenue from the beginning of the year amounted to about NIS 315.2 billion compared to NIS 303.2 billion in the corresponding period last year, marking an increase of about 4%.

Tax revenue rose by 8.1% in August and is up 1.9% since the start of the year, according to figures by the Israel Tax Authority.

Police detain 13 suspects from suspicious vehicle on Route 6, road reopened

Police say that 13 suspects were detained in the vehicle that was stopped by officers on the Route 6 highway a short while ago.

Sappers continue to examine the vehicle, police add, although so far no weapons or explosives have been found.

The highway has been reopened for traffic.

Iran says report of it sending missiles to Russia is ‘psychological warfare’; no denial from Kremlin

Motorists drive past a billboard depicting Iranian ballistic missiles, with text in Arabic reading 'the honest [person's] promise' and in Persian 'Israel is weaker than a spider's web', in Valiasr Square in central Tehran on April 15, 2024. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Reports of Iran transferring missiles to Russia are “psychological warfare,” senior Revolutionary Guards’ commander Fazlollah Nozari says, according to state media.

However, the Kremlin does not deny the report when asked about a Wall Street Journal report Iran had sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia.

“We have seen this report, it is not every time that this kind of information is true. Iran is our important partner, we are developing our trade and economic relations, we are developing our cooperation and dialogue in all possible areas, including the most sensitive areas,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

IDF orders evacuation of north Gaza neighborhood after rocket fire

Following rocket fire from the northern Gaza Strip at the southern coastal city of Ashkelon last night, the military is calling on Palestinians in the Atatra area to evacuate.

Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, publishes a map of the zones that need to be evacuated.

#عاجل ‼️ الى كل المتواجدين في المنطقة المحددة
⭕️المنظمات الإرهابية تطلق مرة أخرى قذائف صاروخية نحو دولة اسرائيل وتنفذ أعمالًا إرهابية من هذه المنطقة
⭕️تم تحذير المنطقة المحددة مرات عديدة في الماضي
⭕️المنطقة المحددة تعتبر منطقة قتال خطيرة. pic.twitter.com/0q355414el

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) September 9, 2024

He says that “the specified area has been warned many times in the past” and it is “considered a dangerous combat zone,” following repeated rocket attacks on Israel.

Two rockets were launched at Ashkelon in the attack, with one being intercepted and the other landing in the sea.

The IDF in recent months has repeatedly issued evacuation orders for areas from which terrorists launched rockets at Israel.

Opposition leaders disagree on providing Netanyahu safety net for hostage deal

Asked about media reports that the ultra-Orthodox Shas party is pushing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring opposition parties into the coalition to dilute the influence of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid tells reporters in the Knesset that he had not received any call from Shas chief Aryeh Deri.

Asked if he would consider entering the government, he recalls offering to enter the government in place of Netanyahu’s far-right allies following October 7, and reiterates his previous offer to provide a “safety net” to the government by replacing Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich if they leave the government in order to prevent a hostage deal.

Yair Golan insists that such a move would be counterproductive.

“We must not give Netanyahu a safety net,” Golan, leader of The Democrats, a Labor party rebrand, tells reporters in the Knesset.

Police stop suspicious vehicle on Route 6, searching for explosives

Police say officers stopped a suspicious vehicle on the Route 6 highway near the Horeshim interchange a short while ago.

“All the occupants of the vehicle were detained for questioning,” police say, adding that sappers are examining the vehicle for possible explosives.

The incident is described by police as a “suspected security incident.”

שוהה בלתי חוקי פלסטיני נעצר בכביש 6 בחשד שתכנן לבצע פיגוע, השב"כ מעורב בחקירה. כביש 6 נחסם ממחלף חורשים צפונה@Doron_Kadosh pic.twitter.com/RHKjCv1frD

— גלצ (@GLZRadio) September 9, 2024

Woman charged with throwing sand at Ben Gvir at Tel Aviv beach

Noa Goldenberg, 27 (C), during a hearing at the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court after being charged with throwing sand at National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on a beach in Tel Aviv, September 9, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Police file charges against a 27-year-old Tel Aviv woman accused of tossing sand at National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir during a visit to the beach last week.

According to the charges filed in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court, Noa Goldenberg “threw a ball of sand” that hit Ben Gvir and his security entourage.

She then ran into the water, wearing a bathing suit, and refused to come out despite repeated demands by police officers, a police statement says.

She is accused of assaulting a public servant and interfering with a police officer performing his duty.

Police say that after initially denying any involvement in the incident, she acknowledged her actions after being shown evidence and said she was “frustrated” at seeing the far-right minister at the beach “when he had more important things to do during a time of war.”

Turkish FM to attend Arab League meeting for first time in 13 years

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, right, speaks during his meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, not pictured, at the State Department in Washington, March 8, 2024. (Susan Walsh/AP)

Turkey’s foreign minister will participate in the Arab League meeting of foreign ministers tomorrow in Cairo, the Middle East Eye reports.

Hakan Fidan will be the first Turkish foreign minister to participate in 13 years, as many leading Arab states saw Ankara as backing hostile Islamist forces during the Arab Spring uprisings that broke out in 2011.

All Arab countries had to consent to allow Turkey’s participation, including Syria. Turkish forces occupy parts of northern Syria, and back opposition forces.

The Gaza war will top the agenda at the semi-annual meeting, a spokesman for Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit told the Egyptian Al-Qahera al-Ikhbariya agency.

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi made the first Egyptian presidential visit to Turkey in 12 years last week, as ties thaw after years of bitter rivalry between the two Sunni powers across the Middle East and Mediterranean region.

US CENTCOM chief meets IDF generals, presented with plans for Lebanon operation

US CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael Kurilla (right) meets with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi (left) and other generals at the IDF HQ in Tel Aviv, September 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

US CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael Kurilla, who is again visiting Israel, met yesterday with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and other generals, the Israeli military says.

The IDF says the latest visit “focuses on current threats, with an emphasis on threats from Lebanon and Iran in the northern arena.”

After an assessment with Halevi, Kurilla met with Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin at the command’s underground war room, where the military says he was “presented with the IDF’s operational plans for Lebanon.”

“The IDF will continue to deepen its relationship with the US Armed Forces, due to our commitment to strengthening regional stability and the coordination between the militaries,” the IDF adds.

Yesterday, Kurilla met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

EU says allies have ‘credible information’ Iran sent missiles to Russia

An Iranian military truck carries parts of a Sayad 4-B missile past a portrait of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a military parade as part of a ceremony marking the country's annual army day in Tehran on April 17, 2024. (Atta Kenare / AFP)

The European Union says that its allies had shared intelligence that Iran had supplied Russia with ballistic missiles, and warned of new sanctions on Tehran if the deliveries were confirmed.

“We are aware of the credible information provided by allies on the delivery of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia,” EU spokesman Peter Stano says.

Official: Israel still expects US to present new hostage deal proposal

Pro-Israel activists hold a banner with the photos of six hostages executed by Hamas in Gaza, while calling for the release of the remaining Israelis abducted by the Palestinian terror group on October 7, in Central Park, in New York City, on September 8, 2024. (Hostages Families Forum/ Amnon Shemi, Liri Agami)

An Israeli official tells The Times of Israel that Jerusalem still expects a new US proposal for a hostage deal to be presented at some point.

“We are waiting,” says the official. “The Americans are being cautious, they don’t want to put forward a deal that they know will be rejected by Hamas. They know that Hamas is the one putting obstacles in the way.”

“Just because it’s not happening soon doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” says the official, after sources told Channel 12 yesterday that the chances for a deal based on the May proposal were “close to zero.”

Lapid accuses justice minister of seeking to ‘abolish Israeli democracy’ in dispute over judges

Opposition Leader MK Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on September 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Addressing reporters in the Knesset in the wake of yesterday’s High Court ruling ordering Justice Minister Yariv Levin to convene the Judicial Selection Committee to select a president for the High Court, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accuses the conservative politician of seeking “to abolish Israeli democracy.”

“We won’t let that happen,” Lapid warns, saying that if Levin fails to comply with the court, “we will try to convene the committee without him.”

“Levin acts as if nothing happened. As if there was no massacre on October 7, 1,200 Israelis were not murdered, as if more than 700 soldiers were weren’t killed, as if we have no hostages in Gaza. He is one of those primarily responsible for the disaster that happened to us. He and his coup d’état. Now he wants to bring us back to this terrible place,” Lapid says.

Levin denounced the court’s decision as undemocratic and “invalid,” and said he would boycott the incoming president since the appointment would be “illegal” and “illegitimate.”

Lapid calls Levin’s statement “dangerous,” insisting that he “didn’t learn anything nor does he hide his destructive plans” to “bring to the Knesset an anti-democratic law” changing how the president of the court is chosen.

“This is a constitutional crisis… he wants to run over the court, he wants to abolish Israeli democracy. We won’t let that happen,” Lapid declares.

UN rights chief calls on states to challenge Israel over ‘occupation’

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, presents a global update on human rights in the world, during the opening of the 57th session of the Human Rights Council at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

The UN human rights chief says that ending the nearly yearlong war in Gaza is a priority and asked countries to act on what he called Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the Strip and the West Bank.

“States must not – cannot – accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the (UN) Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice, neither in this nor any other situation,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a speech at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

He cited an opinion released by the UN top court in July that called Israel’s “occupation” illegal and said this situation must be “comprehensively addressed.” Israel has rejected the opinion.

IDF confirms drone from Lebanon hit Nahariya apartment building

The IDF says two drones were launched from Lebanon at Nahariya a short while ago, one of which impacted a residential building in the northern coastal city.

There are no injuries in the attack.

New surveillance camera footage shows the moment of the impact.

Surveillance camera footage shows the moment a Hezbollah drone launched from Lebanon impacted a residential building in Nahariya. pic.twitter.com/kedek5KCDl

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 9, 2024

Medics say no injuries as drone hits Nahariya apartment building

There are no reports of injuries after a drone launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon directly struck a residential building in the northern coastal city of Nahariya.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service, police, and the Fire and Rescue Service say they are continuing to search the building to rule out the possibility of any casualties.

Footage circulating on social media purports to show the Hezbollah drone over Nahariya moments before the impact.

Footage purports to show the Hezbollah drone over Nahariya. pic.twitter.com/Gm5HrgtUdj

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 9, 2024

Very few high school students return to class as union calls off strike in midnight message

View of an empty classroom at a school in Jerusalem, during a strike, on September 1, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

“Only a few students” showed up to class today, an Education Ministry source tells The Times of Israel, after the teachers union called off a high school strike with a midnight announcement.

The last-minute timing of the announcement caught teachers, parents and students by surprise. Last week, highly publicized remarks by Secondary Schools Teachers Association head Ran Erez indicated that the strike could continue past the October Jewish holiday season.

The morning is “a big mess,” a ministry official tells the Walla news site, as the few students who do arrive find out that their friends aren’t there, and then leave themselves. Because the announcement “went out around midnight, some didn’t see it until the morning,” the official says.

Drone from Lebanon reported to have hit building in Nahariya

Medics and rescue services are responding to initial reports of a direct impact on a building in Nahariya.

Sirens warning of a suspected drone infiltration are sounding in the northern coastal city and other communities near Lebanon.

There are no immediate reports of injuries in the apparent strike.

Medics and rescue services are responding to initial reports of a direct impact on a building in Nahariya.

Sirens warning of a suspected drone infiltration are sounding in the northern coastal city and other communities near Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/HnZKbh0FdJ

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 9, 2024

The IDF has not yet commented.

Iran accuses Israel of ‘criminal’ strike in Syria

Iran accuses Israel of carrying out what it called a “criminal” attack in central Syria, where state media said strikes killed at least 14 people.

“We strongly condemn this criminal attack by the Zionist regime on Syrian soil,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani tells a news conference in Tehran, calling on Israel’s backers to “stop supporting and arming it.”

Mother of hostage Yagev Buchshtav tells Knesset that autopsy report shows he was executed

Esther (C), mother of deceased hostage Yagev Buchshtav, speaks during his funeral in Kibbutz Nirim in southern Israel on August 21, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP)

The mother of hostage Yagev Buchshtav tells a Knesset committee that an autopsy report on her son’s death shows that he had been executed.

The body of Buchshtav, 35, and those of five other hostages were recovered by the IDF from Khan Younis, in southern Gaza last month.

The revelation that he was executed by his captors comes after it was discovered last week that six other hostages had been executed by Hamas.

“My son was kidnapped alive, he should have returned alive, he came back dead, murdered,” she says.

“Yesterday we received the autopsy report. Imagine the torment of a family who gets a report and a notice that he was executed.

Yagev Buchshtav was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 from Kibbutz Nirim (Courtesy)

“The army was close to the tunnel and they were executed. That’s what comes from military pressure. Military pressure does not bring hostages back alive, it kills them,” she says.

“I do not think the army is guilty here, it is the policy of the government,” she says.

She says he was apparently killed in February. “It took a long time to reach them.”

Buchshtav was taken captive with his wife Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav. She was released on November 28 as part of a weeklong truce. The couple were together throughout her captivity, and when informed of her release she said she wouldn’t leave Yagev behind, but was told to go willingly or be dragged on the floor.

אסתר בוכשטב, אימו של יגב בוכשטב שנרצח בשבי: "הוא הוצא להורג. לחץ צבאי לא מביא חטופים"@NOFARMOS @diklaaharon pic.twitter.com/RDQInTWZ5J

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 9, 2024

Protesters calling for hostage deal evicted by police from Jerusalem park

Police evict a group of demonstrators who were calling for a deal to release the hostages from a Jerusalem park.

Video shows officers pushing and shoving some of the demonstrators.

Police say they illegally camped in Independence Park overnight.

“The police evicted us by force,” Shay Dickmann, the cousin of executed hostage Carmel Gat, tells Ynet. “There is no reason to use force against 10 people standing with signs. This is the reaction we got.”

“The hostages were executed in captivity. Only a deal can save the others. We are all shaking with fear over who will be next,” she says.

שי דיקמן, בת דודתה של כרמל גת שנרצחה בשבי, פונתה בדחיפות על ידי שוטרים במחאה למען החטופים בגן העצמאות בירושלים@VeredPelman pic.twitter.com/H8GtWqNhvS

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 9, 2024

Jets hit Hezbollah sites in overnight strikes in southern Lebanon

Overnight, Israeli fighter jets struck several sites and a rocket launcher belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila, Taybeh, Hanine, and Yarine, the IDF says.

A separate strike yesterday in Khirbet Selm targeted a building used by Hezbollah, the military adds.

מטוסי ומסוקי קרב תקפו במהלך הלילה מבנים צבאיים ומשגר של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחבים כפר כילא, א-טייבה, חנין ויארין שבדרום לבנון.

בנוסף, מטוסי קרב תקפו אתמול, מבנה צבאי של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב ח'רבת סלם שבדרום לבנון pic.twitter.com/Ya6vvzL5lf

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 9, 2024

Death toll in alleged Israeli strikes in Syria rises to 14 – state media

Syrian state media says that overnight strikes it blamed on Israel killed at least 14 people in central Hama province, raising an earlier toll of five dead and 19 wounded.

“The number of martyrs resulting from the Israeli aggression on a number of sites in the vicinity of Masyaf has risen to 14 martyrs and 43 wounded including six critically,” official news agency SANA reports citing a medical source.

The Israeli Forces attacked military targets in Syria, the Syrian Ministry of Defense announced.

In the attacks on the town of Masiyafa, 14 people were killed, while at least 43 of them were injured, local authorities announced. pic.twitter.com/LDVVDi2ise

— Newspaper articles collection (@NewsArticleColl) September 9, 2024

Otzma Yehudit to support budget vote after securing additional funds

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir attends a conference at the Knesset, on July 24, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Otzma Yehudit party, despite initially objecting to the amended 2024 state budget slated to be voted on in the Knesset today, states that it will support the changes.

The about-face comes after the far-right party arrives at an agreement with the Finance Ministry and the coalition chairman regarding funding for the National Security Ministry, which is headed by party chair Itamar Ben Gvir.

There were no immediate details on how much money the party was promised.

Man arrested for posting online threats against family of hostage

Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan, speaks at a press conference outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv on August 31, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Police say that they have arrested a man for posting online threats against the family of  Matan Zangauker, who is being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

Police say the 36-year-old man from Naharia was detained yesterday and will be brought before the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court today.

Zangauker’s mother Einav has been one of the most outspoken critics of the government and its failure to bring home the hostages.

Gantz tells Blinken world must back increased pressure on Hamas as hostage deal stalls

National Unity party leader Benny Gantz tells US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the world needs to support increased military pressure on Hamas in Gaza as a hostage deal appears to stall.

Gantz, who met the US diplomat on the sidelines of a Washington conference, says his opposition party is willing to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a political safety net to reach a deal, with his far-right coalition partners threatening to bolt the government.

“After months in which Hamas has not accepted the framework, we expect the world to back Israel to increase the civilian and military pressure in Gaza,” Gantz says according to a readout he issued from the meeting.

“That is what brought about the first hostage deal and that is what will speed up the defeat of Hamas,” he says.

IDF says warning sirens in Northern Galilee a false alarm

The Israel Defense Forces say that rocket warning sirens in the northern town of Manara were triggered by a false alarm.

Rocket alerts sound in Northern Galilee

Incoming rocket alarms blare in the northern town of Manara in the northern Galilee.

There are no immediate reports of impacts or injuries.

Gantz: Military focus should shift to Lebanon, Iran; ‘We are late on this’

National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz speaks at the Middle East America Dialogue (MEAD) summit in Washington, DC, September 8, 2024. (Itzik Balnitzki / Courtesy)

Former war cabinet member Benny Gantz says Israel should shift its focus toward Hezbollah and the Lebanese border, warning that “we are late on this.”

Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading near-daily cross-border fire, with the Lebanese terror group saying it is acting in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas in the ongoing war in Gaza.

“We have enough forces to deal with Gaza and we should concentrate on what is going on in the north,” Gantz says, speaking in Washington, DC at a Middle East forum where he also says Iran and its proxies are “the real issue.”

“The time of the north has come and actually I think we are late on this,” the former army chief and centrist politician adds.

Gantz says Israel made a mistake in evacuating much of the north of the country as hostilities with Hezbollah flared following the October 7 Hamas onslaught that triggered the Gaza war.

“In Gaza, we have crossed a decisive point of the campaign,” he says. “We can conduct anything we want in Gaza. We should seek to have a deal to get out our hostages but if we cannot in the coming time, a few days or few weeks, or whatever it is, we should go up north.”

National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz (left) speaks at the Middle East America Dialogue (MEAD) summit in Washington, DC, September 8, 2024. (Courtesy)

“We are capable of… hitting the state of Lebanon if needed,” he says.

“The story of Hamas is old news,” he adds, saying instead that “the story of Iran and its proxies all around the area and what they are trying to do is the real issue.”

Likud MK: War with Lebanon a ‘matter of days,’ Beirut’s Dahiyeh will ‘look like Gaza’

Likud MK Nissim Vaturi attends a meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Likud MK Nissim Vaturi, a member of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, claims it is “a matter of days” before full-on war erupts between Israel and Lebanon.

Vaturi, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling party, tells the Kan public broadcaster that when this happens, Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb — a major Hezbollah stronghold — “will look like Gaza.”

“There is no other way,” Vaturi threatens, adding that Netanyahu is of the same opinion and that “this is something that will develop in the coming days.”

He says Netanyahu briefed military officials Sunday and told them “we must end this saga.”

Vaturi lays out his war plan, beginning with a major preemptive strike similar to the one that largely foiled a planned major Hezbollah rocket attack on central Israel recently, only this one would last at least 4-5 days, followed by a ground invasion.

IDF says Netiv Ha’asara rocket alert was false alarm

The Israel Defense Forces says a rocket siren in the Gaza border town of Netiv Ha’asara was a false alarm.

Nighttime rocket alerts sound in Gaza border town

Incoming rocket sirens have sounded in the Gaza border town of Netiv Ha’asara, which has largely been evacuated since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

There are no immediate reports of impacts of injuries.

In precedent, Saudi envoy attends Washington summit with Israelis, gives ‘inspiring’ speech

Illustrative: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, is greeted by Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the US, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, is taking part in the Middle East – America Dialogue (MEAD) summit in Washington, DC.

Notably, she is appearing at the same event as many senior Israeli officials, as efforts for a US-brokered normalization agreement have been put on the backburner amid the US elections but could renew afterward.

Al Saud takes part in a panel alongside the Moroccan and Bahraini ambassadors to the US. The content of the panel and photos of it are currently barred from publication, though Israeli media outlets hail her speech as “inspiring.”

Hebrew media outlets cite an unnamed senior Israeli official as speculating that a normalization deal could be clinched in the lame-duck period between the November 5 election and the January 20 swearing-in of the new American president, while stressing that this would require a ceasefire in Gaza and some sort of vision to resolve the Palestinian issue.

Ignore strike’s suspension, don’t go to school, say unions representing students, parents

Despite the Secondary Schools Teachers Association head announcing that the high school strike has been suspended, national unions representing students and parents call for studies to remain on hold Monday.

Denouncing Ran Erez’s late-night announcement as a “mockery of Israel’s students,” the unions call on students not to attend school and on parents not to send their kids, since “the students are not pawns in the hands of either side.”

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry issues belated, tepid condemnation of deadly terror shooting

Israeli security forces gather at the scene of a deadly terror attack near the Allenby Crossing between the West Bank and Jordan on September 8, 2024. (AP Photo/ Mahmoud Illean)

After some 14 hours, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry issues a statement containing a brief condemnation of today’s terror shooting attack by a Jordanian man that killed three Israelis on the West Bank side of the Allenby Bridge Crossing.

The ministry stresses “Jordan’s firm position rejecting and condemning violence and targeting civilians for any reason.”

However, the rest of the statement reiterates common talking points in support of the two-state solution and against Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank, with the condemnation of the attack immediately following by a call for “addressing all causes and escalatory steps that generate” violence against civilians.

The ministry says its probes have so far concluded that the attack was committed by a lone assailant.