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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Thursday, December 19, 2024

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Emergency services personnel inspect a destroyed school building in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, on December 19, 2024, after the campus was struck in a missile attack from Yemen. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

‘Lucky there were no children’: School near Tel Aviv ravaged by Houthi missile warhead

Ramat Gan mayor estimates damage at $11 million, says collapsed building will be rebuilt; visiting site, education minister says students will be back in same school soon

A destroyed school building is pictured in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, on December 19, 2024, after the campus was hit in a missile attack from Yemen. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

Israel threatens Houthi leaders, highlights Iran's backing

As missile hits Israeli school, IDF pounds Yemen, believes it paralyzed all 3 Houthi ports

By Emanuel Fabian and Agencies

Houthi missile partially intercepted, but warhead hits empty Ramat Gan school, building collapses; 9 said killed as Israeli strikes hit power stations in Sana’a, Red Sea oil terminal

Palestinian workers unload a bag of flour at an aid distribution centre in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on December 3, 2024. (BASHAR TALEB / AFP)

Live updates (closed)

Dec. 19: US said to demand Israel declare it’s not deliberately starving Gazans

By Elana Kirsh and ToI Staff

Blinken says he hopes Trump will continue efforts on Saudi-Israel normalization * IDF chief to receive initial findings of probe into hours before Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre

1:07 am

UNGA okays measure asking ICJ to weigh in on Israel's aid obligations to Palestinians
9:34 pm

US said to demand Israel declare it is not deliberately starving Gazans
9:09 pm

Blinken says he hopes Trump will continue efforts on Saudi-Israel normalization

Promoted Content

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks as he answers question from the audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City on December 18, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/AFP)

Blinken says Iran will think more about going nuclear after losing ‘lines of defense’

By AFP

But US top diplomat stresses he does not believe it’s inevitable Tehran will develop nuke, says Trump has a window to negotiate; rejects calls for US to back regime change

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi (C-R) gestures to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (5th-R) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C-L) after a group picture during the D-8 summit in Cairo on December 19, 2024. (IRANIAN PRESIDENCY / AFP)

Egypt hosts Turkish, Iranian leaders as part of Muslim summit; Abbas also to attend

By AFP and ToI Staff

Iranian banknotes are displayed by a street money exchanger at Ferdowsi square, Tehran's go-to venue for foreign currency exchange, in downtown Tehran, Iran, December 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian rial falls to record low amid war, energy crisis, and anticipation of Trump

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands in the witness box in the Tel Aviv District Court to give testimony in the trial against him, December 18, 2024. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Judges express skepticism over dozens of incidents cited in Netanyahu indictment

By Jeremy Sharon

Indictment says PM was aware of numerous incidents of interference in Walla news coverage, but judges question logic. ‘You have no chance of conviction,’ defense lawyer tells prosecutor

President Isaac Herzog at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, December 16, 2024. (Arie Leib Abrams FLASH90)

Reservist charged in Prime Minister’s Office leak scandal asks Herzog for a pardon

Family members and activists marking the 25th birthday in captivity of hostage Matan Zangauker during a protest calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip in Tel Aviv, December 18, 2024.(Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

Netanyahu said set to huddle with top brass Thursday to discuss Gaza deal latest

By Lazar Berman, Jacob Magid and ToI Staff

Hamas showing flexibility, official tells ToI; Smotrich says truce would be a ‘serious error,’ CIA chief arrives in Qatar; US official says ball is in Hamas’s court

US President Joe Biden, right, meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, November 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

ToI podcastDaily Briefing Dec. 19: Day 440 – Biden and Trump teams join forces in hostage talks

By Jessica Steinberg and Jacob Magid

Released hostage Ilana Gritzewsky poses for a portrait in her apartment in Kiryat Gat, December 15, 2024, near photos of her boyfriend, Matan Zangauker, who is being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Interview

AP and ToI Staff

Ilana Gritzewsky, fighting for hostage boyfriend, knows Hamas captivity firsthand

As an ex-hostage freed after 55 days in Gaza, Ilana fears boyfriend Matan Zangauker, 25, might never get out alive, even in a phased release, and demands a deal for everyone

Dr Alice Jill Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (right), speaks with Simona Steinbrecher (left), the mother of hostage Doron Steinbrecher, as she visits Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the Israeli communities ravaged during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas terrorists, December 18, 2024. (REUTERS / Stoyan Nenov)

UN torture expert visits Oct. 7 sites for first time, speaks to hostage families

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meets with military and security officials on September 19, 2024. (Shira Keinan/Defense Ministry)

Gallant’s daughter was first to notify him of unfolding Oct. 7 assault, wife says

Exclusive

US won’t sanction Smotrich and Ben Gvir before end of Biden’s term — officials

Deeming far-right ministers responsible for destabilizing West Bank, US weighed unprecedented move for months, but ultimately held off, as Trump would likely reverse it

Religious Zionism party party chief Bezalel Smotrich (right) and Otzma Yehudit party chief Itamar Ben Gvir are seen during a vote at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 28, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Jews attend a special prayer at the newly recognized Evyatar outpost, in the West Bank, July 7, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

MKs push bill to block West Bank territorial concessions, prevent Palestinian state

The best education needs dialogue

After too many incidents have left Jews feeling marginalized, I say it’s time to talk it out with our non-Jewish colleagues

Adam S. Ferziger

The Maccabi miracle and the Manhattan murder: On Hanukkah and healthcare

Instead of the apparent contempt for human lives that emerges from the US healthcare system, the US should look at Israel’s healthcare; Israel gets it right

Analysis

Gianluca Pacchiani

Once the power holders under Assad, Syria’s Alawites now fear for their fates

Deposed leader’s minority sect now gripped by uncertainty and worry over reprisals from country’s other 90%, amid looming risk of Muslim extremism

A damaged poster of the late Syrian president Hafez Assad is seen above the stands of a stadium that was used by the army of ousted president Bashar al-Assad as a military post, in Damascus, Syria, December 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

The oldest complete tablet of the Ten Commandments, weighing 115-pounds and approximately 1,500 years old, is displayed at Sotheby's, in New York, December 9, 2024. (Richard Drew/AP)

Oldest known stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments sells for over $5m

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Winning bid is far higher than predicted; anonymous buyer will donate Samaritan-linked slab to Israeli institution, while some question its authenticity

IDF probing repeated misconduct allegations against Paratroopers Brigade chief

By Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff

Several senior reserve officers reportedly allege that Col. Ami Biton fell asleep on duty, humiliated subordinates, risked troops’ lives unnecessarily

File: In this May 30, 2023, photo, Col. Ami Biton, the incoming commander of the Paratroopers Brigade, is seen in a handover ceremony (Israel Defense Forces)

Reservists of the 252nd Division operate in the Netzarim Corridor area of the central Gaza Strip, in a handout photo published November 6, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Report: Soldiers say open-fire policies in Gaza too loose, leading to civilian deaths

Palestinians line up to obtain drinking water during its distribution in the tents of the displaced, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on June 10, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Rights group claims Gaza water scarcity is ‘act of genocide’; Israel: ‘Blood libel’

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Only Costa Rica in worse shape among OECD nations

Nearly 2 million Israelis below poverty line in 2023; 1 in 4 children are poor

National Insurance Institute figures show that 20.7% of the population was living in poverty in 2023, including 872,400 children; Arab and ultra-Orthodox communities are worst off

A homeless person in the streets of Jerusalem. December 18, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ FLASH90)

A moving truck is one of the few vehicles in this neighborhood in Kiryat Shmona. (Uriel Heilman/ JTA)

Reporter's notebook

Despite Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal, northern residents fear returning home

By Uriel Heilman

While the conflict is officially over for now, many Israelis near the border are wary of October 7-like attacks and future wars with the Lebanese terrorist organization

Agency says NIS 100 million needed to rehabilitate nature in northern Israel after war

Interview

US-Israeli investor sounds alarm over lack of foreign capital for local startups

Denver-based VC raises $50m for emergency fund to invest in cash-strapped Israeli businesses as foreign investments stall amid uncertainty during war and shortage of US flights

Ezra Gardner, co-founder of Israel-focused venture capital fund Varana Capital. (Courtesy)

Six13's Wicked Chanukah video (YouTube screenshot used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Bewitching

Viral ‘Wicked’ Hanukkah video shines light with message of resilience

The song by veteran Jewish a cappella group Six13 has already racked up hundreds of thousands of views across social media

The repurposed 1916 diary used by Charlotte Buchsbaum to document her life and the end of World War II. (Left image courtesy of Helaina Ferraoili. Center, right images screenshots via TikTok vi JTA)

'It's written quite literally as the world is changing'

How a Jewish teen’s description of New York life in 1945 is going viral on TikTok

By Jackie Hajdenberg

Charlotte Buchsbaum, who grew up in Brooklyn, wrote about going to bar mitzvahs, celebrating Passover and cheering the US victory over Japan. Now she has an audience of millions

More Headlines

Damage caused by a firebomb at Beth Tikvah synagogue, Montreal, December 18, 2024. (B'nai Brith Canada via JTA)

Montreal synagogue firebombed for second time since Hamas onslaught against Israel

Marc (L) and Debra Tice, parents of US journalist Austin Tice who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012, hold respective dated portraits of him during a press conference in the Lebanese capital Beirut on July 20, 2017. (Joseph Eid/AFP)

PM tells mom of missing US journalist Israel won’t strike part of Syria he may be in

By Jacob Magid, ToI Staff and Agencies

Members of the Arab community protest against the violence in their community, outside the Knesset on November 27, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Survey finds Arab Israelis show growing sense of ‘shared destiny’ since outbreak of war

By Gavriel Fiske

Attorney Roi Kahlon (Shelly Padan)

Netanyahu selects attorney Roi Kahlon as acting civil service commissioner

The name of the Israeli Navy's INS Drakon is revealed at Kiel shipyard in Germany, November 12, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

German weapons exports to Israel down by half this year compared to 2023

This colorized electron microscope image released by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on March 26, 2024, shows avian influenza A H5N1 virus particles (yellow), grown in Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) epithelial cells (blue). (CDC/NIAID via AP)

Health officials report first severe human bird flu case in US

By Agencies and ToI Staff

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