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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Wednesday, January 29, 2025

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Hamas operatives escort four Israeli hostages on a stage before handing them over to a team from the Red Cross in Gaza City on January 25, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Live updates (closed)

Jan. 29: Red Cross says it has no control over Hamas conduct during hostage handovers

By Elana Kirsh and ToI Staff

Israeli hostages Arbel Yehoud, Agam Berger, Gadi Mozes to go free Thursday, as will 5 Thai hostages * US Mideast envoy in Israel for talks on 2nd stage, visits Gaza

8:48 pm

Zakaria Zubeidi, Mahmoud Atallah among high-profile terrorists set for release Thursday
8:28 pm

Palestinian Authority reports at least 10 dead in IDF's West Bank drone strike
8:05 pm

Two soldiers seriously wounded in car crash in Jordan Valley

Then-US president Donald Trump, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walk to a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, January 27, 2020. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

US envoy Witkoff lands in Israel for talks after Saudi trip

Trump invites Netanyahu to visit White House; PM’s office says meeting set for Feb. 4

By Jacob Magid and Amy Spiro

US official says date not finalized but stresses the sit-down, president’s first with foreign leader since returning to office, will be early next week; Rubio: Hamas must never rule Gaza again

AnalysisCould Donald Trump become liberal Zionists’ next hero?

Illustrative. Masked Palestinian men prepare inflated latex condoms loaded with flammable material to be flown toward Israel, at the Israel-Gaza border in al-Bureij, central Gaza Strip on June 14, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / MAHMUD HAMS)

White House: Biden allotted $50m for Gaza condoms; ex-official denies ‘feverish dream’

By Jacob Magid and AFP

Inside story

The Bibas family remains captive in Gaza. A nation hopes against hope for their return

The government seems to be priming the public for tragedy: There’s no indication officials have insisted on their release during the first days of the current ceasefire

The Bibas family, father Yarden (left), Ariel (second from left), Shiri and baby Kfir (Courtesy)

Released hostage Amit Soussana speaks during a rally calling for the release of Hamas captives held in Gaza, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, January 18, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Ex-hostage says Liri Albag saved her life as Hamas captors tortured, threatened her

Amit Soussana, released in 2023, credits intervention of hostage freed Saturday; Naama Levy, Romi Gonen share beginnings of recovery, urge release of remaining captives

Romi Gonen reunites with her family at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, January 19, 2025. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)

Romi Gonen’s father: Long road ahead for recovery, family not pushing her to share

By AP and ToI Staff

Displaced Palestinians make their way back to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip via Salah a-Din Road on January 28, 2025. (Ali Hassan/Flash90)

Mossad chief warns Gaza cleanup risks destroying hostages’ bodies – report

Op-ed: Day 481 of the war

Wherever Gazans live, only life-affirming education will give them, and us, a better future

The return of an energized President Trump happens to coincide with Israel’s ban on the UN’s miseducating agency UNRWA. If Trump aims to be a peacemaker, changing what Gazans are taught is the way forward

Palestinian children attend a class at the UNRWA elementary school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, in April 2013 (Illustrative photo: AP/Hatem Moussa)

US Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dorothy Camille Shea speaks during a UN Security Council meeting concerning the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) at UN headquarters in New York City on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP)

Breaking with Biden, Trump envoy expresses support for Israeli laws targeting UNRWA

At the entrance to a Tel Aviv conference entitled 'Opportunities for Israel under Trump,' in Tel Aviv. January 28, 2025. (Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

ToI podcastDaily Briefing Jan. 29: Day 481 – Is Trump’s new deal moving Gazans out of Gaza?

By Jessica Steinberg and Jacob Magid

Vehicles line up along the Salah a-Din road in Nuseirat near the Netzarim Corridor while waiting to cross to the northern part of the Gaza Strip on January 27, 2025. (Eyad Baba / AFP)

Hamas claims Israel delaying Gaza aid, affecting hostage release; Israel: Fake news

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Unnamed terror group officials quoted as saying Israel not allowing fuel, tents or heavy machinery into Gaza; Israel denies allegation; 600-plus trucks have entered Gaza daily

New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson briefs reporters about a caravan of explosives found in a suburb of Sydney, Australia, with 'indications' that they were meant to target a synagogue, January 29, 2025. (Screen capture via Australian Broadcasting Corporation, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Sydney police uncover cache of explosives, with indication target was synagogue

By Zev Stub, ToI Staff and Agencies

Australian city’s Jewish community on edge after police — who kept the incident secret until it was leaked — say they’re probing possible connections to recent antisemitic attacks

Hamas said aiming to take over West Bank-based PA post-Abbas

Qatar, Turkey to host Palestinian murder convicts freed in hostage deal — officials

By Jacob Magid and ToI Staff

Decision on where to send the prisoners is coordinated with Israel, officials tell ToI; Hamas said to vow terror chiefs Barghouti and Saadat will be freed in deal’s 2nd phase

Israeli security forces stand guard as buses transporting Palestinian prisoners being released as part of a hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group leave the Ketziot prison in the Negev desert on January 25, 2025. (Gil Magen-Cohen/AFP)

A displaced Palestinian child playes with a kitten in a car on Salah al-Din road in Nuseirat as people make their way to the northern part of the Gaza strip on January 28, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians return to war-devastated northern Gaza

By Reuters and ToI Staff

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi attends a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, January 28, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

IDF chief said to hail approval of ‘painful’ Gaza deal, stress war can resume if needed

Illustrative — An Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah targets in the area of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on September 25, 2024. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)

Israeli strike in southern Lebanon’s Majdal Selm said to injure five people

By Agencies and ToI Staff

No immediate comment from military; Beirut says 24 killed in Israeli strike Tuesday targeting what IDF said were Hezbollah vehicles moving weapons in violation of truce

Palestinian children who fled with their parents from their houses in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, gather in the backyard of an UNRWA school, in Sidon, Lebanon, September 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

UNRWA Lebanon says its operations not affected by US funding freeze, Israeli ban

By Reuters and Sam Sokol

Rescuers rush to the site of an airstrike in the southern Lebanese village of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, January 28, 2025. (Abbas Fakih / AFP)

IDF says it struck Hezbollah arms convoy in Lebanon; Beirut reports 14 wounded

By Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff

Defense Minister Israel Katz meets with troops of the Alpinist Unit atop the summit of Mount Hermon, Syria, on January 28, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense minister, in Syria buffer zone, says IDF to stay indefinitely

By Emanuel Fabian

Visiting position on Syrian side of Mount Hermon, Katz vows Israel will not allow ‘hostile forces’ to gain a foothold in area, or be dependent on others for security in area

Jacob Avitan, a Defense Ministry contractor killed in Gaza on January 28, 2025. (Courtesy)

Israeli contractor mistakenly killed by IDF troops in Gaza, army says

By Emanuel Fabian

Excavator operator Jacob Avitan, 39, misidentified as threat as he arrived at IDF post in civilian clothing; Military Police launches investigation

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shows him (L) addressing attendees while accompanied on stage by President Masoud Pezeshkian during a meeting with officials in Tehran on January 28, 2025. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)

Iran’s Khamenei says small Gaza brought US-backed Israel ‘to its knees’

By AFP and ToI Staff

Is this what a constitutional crisis looks like?

In normal times, Yariv Levin would confirm that the chief justice selection process was legal. These are not normal times

How a road trip tracking the Jewish American dream led to North Dakota

Imagine absolutely nowhere, multiply it by 100, add cows, and endless wheat fields. It was the motherlode and my kids asked all the right questions

Ultra-Orthodox extremists protest and clash with police outside a conference honoring Haredi soldiers in Jerusalem, January 28, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Shas’s Deri gives government two months to pass law exempting ultra-Orthodox from IDF

If the status of yeshiva students is not settled by March ‘we’ll go to elections,’ he warns; Shas MK Taieb says his son will go to jail rather than enlist in IDF

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich addresses the Knesset plenum, January 29, 2025. (Dani Shem-Tov/Knesset)

After Shas ultimatum, Smotrich rejects ‘concessions’ on Haredi conscription bill

Police drag away ultra-Orthodox protesters who sat on the road during a demonstration against Haredi enlistment, outside a conference honoring ultra-Orthodox soldiers in Jerusalem, January 28, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Haredi extremists block Jerusalem road outside event honoring ultra-Orthodox troops

Op-ed

Shalom Yerushalmi

The Haredim are now advocating for the hostages – too little, too late, too selfish

After 15 months of indifference, ultra-Orthodox politicians are now demanding that the hostage-ceasefire deal be implemented in full. They have a wider agenda

An ultra-Orthodox man walks by photographs of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, posted in Tel Aviv. December 21, 2023. (Photo by Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Poliin, parents of killed US-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin sit with his sisters Orly and Leebie during his funeral in Jerusalem on September 2, 2024. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / POOL / AFP)

'We were like, okay, who's it going to be this week?'

Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s high school reflects after losing 10 graduates in the Gaza war

By Deborah Danan

Himmelfarb in Jerusalem is among the most prominent academies in Israel for religious Zionists, a demographic that has suffered great losses since Oct. 7 – yet spirits remain high

Thirdeye's Chimera, an electro-optical system that includes a compact lightweight thermal camera that can be attached to drones, vehicles, and robots and uses advanced object recognition analytics. (Courtesy)

UAE conglomerate buys $10m stake in Israeli tech security firm that detects drones

By Sharon Wrobel

Abu Dhabi defense contractor EDGE to invest a further $12 million to develop and market Thirdeye Systems’ electro-optical recognition products

During the 2018 season excavation at the Huqoq synagogue in North Israel, archaeologists uncovered a hoard of medieval coins and jewelry, including an architectural silver ring likely made between the 6th and 8th centuries in Western Europe. (Jim Haberman)

‘This ring went through a great journey in time and space’

Was an ancient European ring found in Israel used as a wedding band depicting the Temple?

By Rossella Tercatin

Unearthed at Huqoq, the artifact may represent the missing link between 1,300-year-old Merovingian rings and popular medieval Jewish nuptial bands, new research shows

Hikers walk during an excursion along the Dead Sea shore near Kibbutz Ein Gedi in eastern Israel on December 30, 2024. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)

Dead Sea facing ecological disaster but regional tensions makes solutions difficult

Salty lake rapidly evaporating due to industrial use and climate change, and officials say situation cannot be remedied without Jordanian cooperation

A barn owl at the Attica Zoological Park, near Athens, on January 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stravrakis)

An unlikely symbol of cooperation, the barn owl unites Jordanian and Israeli scientists

By Derek Gatopoulos

More Headlines

Police use stun grenades during a demonstration against the government's controversial justice reform bill, in Tel Aviv on March 1, 2023. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Cops threw stun grenades straight into crowd in 2023 protest, bodycam footage shows

By Charlie Summers

Chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee MK Simcha Rothman argues with former justice minister Dan Meridor in a committee hearing, January 28, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

New judicial overhaul legislation raises ‘fundamental difficulties’ says Knesset lawyer

By Jeremy Sharon

Israeli right-wing activists gather with Israeli national flags outside the Damascus Gate of the old city of Jerusalem on June 5, 2024, during the Jerusalem Day flag march. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)

Poll finds Israel leads high-income countries in religious nationalism

By Ariella Oldfield

A Patriot missile mobile launcher is displayed outside the Fort Sill Army Post near Lawton, Oklahoma, on March 21, 2023. (AP/Sean Murphy, File)

US transfers 90 Patriot interceptors from Israel to Ukraine — report

An exterior view of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, on April 30, 2024. (AP/ Peter Dejong)

Senate Democrats block legislation to sanction ICC over Israel arrest warrants

Ashraf Zughayer (L), a 46-year-old convicted Palestinian terrorist who spent 23 years in prison serving six life sentences and was released by Israel, is greeted by a well-wisher at his family home in Kafr Aqab in East Jerusalem on January 26, 2025. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

New York Times says reporter assaulted by troops in raid on party for freed Hamas prisoner

Robert Walker, assistant director of pro-Israel watchdog Honest Reporting Canada, poses at an event on June 15, 2023; at lower right is profane graffiti Walker is alleged to have left in Toronto on November 14, 2024. (Screenshots from Instagram and X via JTA)

Employee at Canadian pro-Israel media watchdog charged for anti-Palestinian graffiti

By Andrew Lapin

Yair Netanyahu arrives for a court hearing in Tel Aviv, on November 29, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90/ File)

Yair Netanyahu to pay further damages to ex-MK after pulling libel loss appeal

leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement Raed Salah and Mohammad Barakeh, chairman of the monitoring committee arrive for a visit at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City on April 19, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel outlaws and shuts offices of Arab reconciliation body led by radical cleric

By Charlie Summers

German-Jewish philosopher Prof. Martin Buber teaching a class at Hebrew University in 1949. (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Newly found letter shows Martin Buber’s concern over the fate of Polish Jews in 1945

By Rossella Tercatin

A massive oil leak caused by the rupture of a Europe Asia Pipeline Company line in the Evrona nature reserve in 2014. (Environmental Protection Ministry)

Report blasts state oil company for not addressing problems in Eilat-Ashkelon line

The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, set at 89 seconds to midnight, is displayed during a news conference at the United States Institute of Peace, January 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Atomic scientists move ‘Doomsday Clock’ closer to midnight than ever

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