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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Tuesday, December 17, 2024

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Former hostages speak at Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on December 17, 2024. (Courtesy, Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Live updates (closed)

Dec. 17: Former hostages urge leaders to only sign a deal that frees all remaining captives

By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff

Israeli officials say agreement with Hamas is weeks away * Report: Haredi senior MK opposes phased deal, says ‘I don’t know what we’re doing in this coalition’

8:49 pm

CIA chief to meet Qatari PM in Doha tomorrow to bridge remaining Israel-Hamas gaps
8:33 pm

Arab umbrella group urges premier to fire Ben Gvir over failure to curb violent crime
8:09 pm

Film with Netanyahu interrogation clips shortlisted for Oscar; Nesher's 'Closer to Me' isn't

Left to right: Sgt. First Class. (res.) Alexander Anosov (IDF), Maj. (res.) Moshiko (Maxim) Rozenwald, 35 (Courtesy); Both were killed in a building collapse in the southern Gaza Strip on December 16, 2024.

Two IDF soldiers killed in southern Gaza building collapse, two injured

By Emanuel Fabian and Agencies

Defense minister says Israel to retain security control of Strip post-war and maintain freedom for the military to act like it has in the West Bank

Inside story

Hamas fears Trump will allow Israel to resume Gaza war after 1st phase of hostage deal

Sources familiar with talks say Hamas compromising on terms of IDF withdrawal but still insisting on permanent ceasefire, fearing deal made under Biden could collapse under Trump

US president Donald Trump poses for photos with family members of Hamas hostage Edan Alexander, after visiting the gravesite of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in New York, October 7, 2024. (AP Photo/ Yuki Iwamura)

Hostage family members and supporters protest outside the Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv, December 17, 2024. (Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

ToI podcastDaily Briefing Dec. 17: Day 438 – Is Hamas softening stance on hostage-ceasefire deal?

By Jessica Steinberg and David Horovitz

US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, December 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Arab mediators to ToI: Deal still faces key obstacles

Trump says he’s ‘trying to help very strongly’ to bring hostages home

Reiterates ‘hell breaking out’ threat if captives not released by Jan. 20, as incoming staff talk to leaders in Mideast; Biden, too, vows he ‘will not stop’ until all hostages home

Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, speaks during a Knesset committee hearing on December 16, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Hostage’s mother to minister: ‘I will take law into my hands’ if son doesn’t return alive

Airplane contrails in the shape of a ribbon seen over central Israel on December 16, 2024. (Yossi Aloni/FLASH90)

IAF says ‘hostage ribbons’ painted in the skies by planes on routine flight path

By Emanuel Fabian

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir attends a Knesset session on the state budget, December 16, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)

Otzma Yehudit votes against state budget, as coalition argues over bid to fire AG

Bills pass first readings despite coalition infighting; Ben Gvir feuds with fellow far-right leader Smotrich, who says, ‘It’s a shame to undermine the coalition over nonsense’

Ultra-orthodox Jews clash with police during a protest against IDF enlistment in Bnei Brak, November 17, 2024. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)

Katz envisions half of Haredi men eventually enlisting while rest stay in ‘Torah world’

Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair warns against coalition efforts to bypass his panel on ultra-Orthodox conscription issue; Lapid slams bill as ‘a complete sham’

This handout photo provided by Syria's Interim Government shows Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Abu Mohammed al-Julani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, meeting with UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen (not pictured) in Damascus on December 15, 2024. (Syrian Interim Government/AFP)

'We do not want any conflict... with Israel or anyone else'

Syrian rebel leader: Territory will not be used to launch attacks against Israel

By AFP and ToI Staff

Chief of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which ousted Assad regime, pledges commitment to 1974 buffer-zone agreement, says IDF activity in Syria ‘must end’ and Israel ‘has to pull back’

Screen capture from undated video of Syrian army weapons and ammunition collected by villagers to be handed over to the IDF. Soldiers and villagers pixelated for security reasons. (Channel 12; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Report: Syrian border villagers and rebels collecting weapons and handing them to IDF

Syria's interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) meeting with UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher in Damascus, December 17, 2024. (Photo by SANA / AFP)

Syria’s new rulers step up engagement with world as nations urge humanitarian future

By AFP

Netanyahu: 'My wife is an independent person'

Netanyahu tells court he got ‘special hostility’ from Walla, ‘not special treatment’

By Jeremy Sharon

Judges agree to cancel Tuesday’s hearing due to ‘special circumstances’; defense attorney attacks prosecution’s claim PM received favorable coverage from news site

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the Tel Aviv District Court to give testimony in his trial on corruption charges, December 16, 2024. (Yossi Zeliger/POOL)

Composite image showing some of the ancient clay cylinders, thought to be engraved with what researchers say is the earliest known form of alphabetic writing. (courtesy John Hopkins University)

Archaeology

A claim that the earliest alphabet was found in Syria sparks a media maelstrom – finally

By Gavriel Fiske

A Johns Hopkins archaeologist recycles a 20-year-old hypothesis that small clay cylinders found in an ancient tomb reset the genesis of letters by 500 years. Why are people listening now?

For the day after, injustice in Israel’s budgetary policies must end

It is unacceptable to finance wartime efforts by reallocating resources in ways that devastate the most vulnerable populations

The truth about life with a deceitful leader

Netanyahu’s loose relationship with the truth leaves the public wondering whether to believe anything he says

A Red Line light rail train passes the Old City walls in Jerusalem. (Courtesy, Jerusalem Transportation Masterplan team)

Jerusalem man accused of spying for Iran, planning terror attack

By Emanuel Fabian

Erdler Israel Amoyal, 23, allegedly carried out surveillance, vandalism tasks; searched internet for bomb-making instructions, proposed targeting Jerusalem light rail’s system

Israelis take cover inside a bomb shelter as sirens sound in Tel Aviv, December 16, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Houthi ballistic missile triggers sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel

By Emanuel Fabian

IDF says missile shot down outside country, with sirens sounding to warn of possible falling shrapnel; 5 injured while running for shelter

A banner depicting the flags of the US and Israel is burnt during a rally by supporters of Yemen's Houthi rebel group in solidarity "with the people of Gaza," in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on December 13, 2024. (Mohammed Huwais/AFP)

US says airstrike hit Houthi command and control facility in Yemen

By Agencies and ToI Staff

US President Joe Biden, right, stands as an Army carry team moves the transfer case containing the remains of U.S. Army Sgt. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia, at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, February 2, 2024, after Sanders was killed in a drone attack in Jordan. (Matt Rourke/AP)

Two charged over Iran-backed drone strike that killed 3 US troops in Jordan

By Steve LeBlanc, Eric Tucker and TARA COPP

Tracy-Ann Oberman in 'The Merchant of Venice 1936.' (Marc Brenner)

Interview'Antisemitism and misogyny go hand in hand'

A female Shylock battles 1930s UK fascists in new adaptation of ‘The Merchant of Venice’

By Robert Philpot

Skyrocketing UK antisemitism after Oct. 7 adds meaning and poignancy as acclaimed actress and playwright Tracy-Ann Oberman puts a new spin on a play she’s ‘always hated’

Then-president Bashar al-Assad, center, waves to his supporters at a polling station during presidential elections in the town of Douma, near the Syrian capital of Damascus, May 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

Breaking silence, Assad denies abandoning Syria despite his flight from rebels

By Agencies and ToI Staff

In first statement since overthrow by jihadists, former dictator claims ‘terrorist onslaught’ forced his departure, says he ‘never abandoned resistance in Palestine’

Russian army armored vehicles drive near the Hmeimim Air Base, a Syrian airbase currently operated by Russia, located southeast of the city of Latakia in the town of Hmeimim, Syria, December 16, 2024. (AP/Leo Correa)

Russia still has a military presence in post-Assad Syria — for now

Lebanese Druze politician Wiam Wahhab speaks to Al-Jadeed TV, October 28, 2022. (Screenshot/File)

Lebanese Druze politician says country should ‘permanently abandon’ war on Israel

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar addresses the press ahead of his New Hope party's weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, December 16, 2024. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)

FM Sa’ar defends Dublin embassy closure, brands Irish premier an antisemite

By Lazar Berman and Sam Sokol

Top Israeli diplomat accuses Ireland of having ‘encouraged’ Jew hatred, slams it for backing ‘politicized proceedings’ against Israel at ICC

Inside Story

‘Toxic and polarizing’: Oxford Union debate on Israel genocide still roils

As counterterror police investigate an anti-Israel speaker’s statements at the November 28 event, Jewish students and panelists decry its contribution to climate of Jew-hatred

Illustrative: Then-US secretary of state John Kerry, speaking at the Oxford Union at Oxford University, England, May 11, 2016. (Peter Nicholls/Pool Photo via AP)

Israeli spy Eli Cohen in Syria in the 1960s. (PMO)

Israel working via Russia to find Eli Cohen’s remains in Syria, Palestinian sources say

By AFP

Following Assad’s fall, Palestinian officials tell AFP that mediators also contacted them about locating body of a soldier who has been missing since 1982 battle

People pray by the grave of a relative in a damaged cemetery at the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in the south of Damascus on December 14, 2024. (Aris MESSINIS / AFP)

Palestinians in Syria flock to cemetery ravaged and made off-limits under Assad

By Maher Al-Mounes

An Iranian flag lies on the ground in front of the Islamic Republic's embassy in Damascus on December 9, 2024, a day after anti-government fighters ousted president Bashar al-Assad by taking the Syrian capital in a lightning offensive. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

Iran awaiting ‘necessary conditions’ to reopen vandalized Syria embassy

By AFP and ToI Staff

Culinary expert Gil Hovav explains how couscous became a popular North African dish, part of the new culinary tours at Anu Museum of the Jewish People introduced on December 15, 2024 (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)

On the menu

Anu museum offers virtual culinary tours with foodie Gil Hovav

By Jessica Steinberg

This Hanukkah, Museum of the Jewish People expands its offerings with self-guided food journeys for adults and kids

A gathering in Morocco in the 1950s for Hanukkah (Courtesy Alliance Israelite)

The way we wereVirtual museum recreates Jewish enclaves in Iran and Morocco

By Jessica Steinberg

More Headlines

Russian Maj. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the Russian military's radiation, chemical and biological protection unit, attends a briefing in Kubinka Patriot park, outside Moscow, Russia, on June 22, 2018. (AP Photo, File)

Russia’s top WMD general killed by bomb in Moscow in apparent Ukrainian operation

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during a plenary session at the German parliament Bundestag where he faces a vote of confidence, Berlin, Germany, December 16, 2024. (AP Photo/ Markus Schreiber)

German Chancellor Scholz loses no-confidence vote, setting up early elections

By Geir Moulson

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan speaks to media during a press conference, in Melbourne, Australia, December 17, 2024. (Joel Carrett/AAP Image via AP)

Australian state proposes ban on protests at places of worship amid antisemitism spike

By AP and ToI Staff

Pope Francis shakes hands with officials after their meeting for the Pope's departure ceremony at the Ajaccio airport, on the French island of Corsica, December 15, 2024. (Ludovic Marin; Pool via AP)

Pope Francis was target of attempted suicide attack on 2021 trip to Iraq, he says

By Reuters and ToI Staff

Pro-Palestinian protesters at a high school walkout near Bryant Park in New York City, November 9, 2023. (Luke Tress via JTA)

Leading US private school association apologizes for antisemitism at conference

Mehmet Suat Eygi (L), father of US-Turkish activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi who was shot dead in the West Bank, mourns at the house of her grandfather before the funeral ceremony at the Didim district in Aydin on September 14, 2024. (Ozan Kose/AFP)

Family of American activist killed in West Bank meets with Blinken, urges US inquiry

By Jacob Magid and Reuters

Illustrative: A person types on a laptop keyboard, June 19, 2017. (AP/Elise Amendola/File)

US private equity firm said to bid for Israeli spyware maker Paragon

By Sharon Wrobel

Students board a bus as they leave the shelter following a deadly shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, on December 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Teacher, teenage student killed in shooting at Christian school in Wisconsin

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