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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Monday, February 17, 2025

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Protesters for a hostage deal and against the government at Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, February 15, 2025. (Eitan Slonim/ Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Netanyahu: Trump's Gaza plan is the only one that can work

Witkoff vows: There will ‘absolutely’ be phase two, we won’t leave any hostage behind

By ToI Staff, Jacob Magid and Lazar Berman

Trump says next steps in hostage deal will be ‘up to Israel… in consultation with me’; Israeli delegation to depart for Cairo talks, but without mandate to negotiate 2nd phase

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, on February 16, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Senior security official accuses Netanyahu of working to avoid hostage deal 2nd phase

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greet each other before making a joint statement to the media at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem on February 16, 2025 (Evelyn Hockstein / AFP)

Hosting Rubio, Netanyahu says ‘gates of hell will surely open’ if all hostages not freed

By Lazar Berman

Members of Kibbutz Be'eri gather at the kibbutz to mark the 500th day since the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught and mass kidnapping there and across southern Israel, on February 17, 2025. (Courtesy Kibbutz Be'eri)

Hostages’ families mark 500th day of captivity with fast, rallies across Israel

By Jessica Steinberg and ToI Staff

Activists block roads, march to Knesset, call for 500-minute fast to mark days since hostages’ abduction; ‘They’ve already been fasting for 500 days,’ says relative

Released hostage Eli Sharabi arrives at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, wrapped in an Israeli flag, as he walks to be reunited with members of his family after 491 days in Hamas captivity, February 8, 2025. (Haim Tsach/GPO)

Released hostages’ families use crowdfunding to fill gaps in state rehab grants

A newly renovated library at the Sdot Negev Regional Council in southern Israel. (Tekuma Directorate)

Rebuilding, renewing: Directorate details billions in funds for Gaza border communities

Hopes Israel 'will very soon become the family of the free'

Girlfriend of freed hostage Sasha Troufanov: He prayed I would find someone else to love

By Jessica Steinberg and ToI Staff

‘He didn’t want me waiting for a man he thought would never return home. He didn’t believe he would survive,’ Sapir Cohen tells media; mother Yelena: ‘It’s a miracle he’s standing’

Avital Dekel-Chen, whose husband Sagui Dekel-Chen was released from captivity in Gaza after 498 days on February 15, 2025, speaks to the press on February 16, 2025. (Hostages Families Forum)

Freed hostage learned fate of family day before release, survived on love, wife says

Released hostage Sasha Troufanov, right, reunites with his grandmother Irena Tati at the Sheba-Tel Hashomer Medical Center, February 15, 2025. (Avi Ohayon/GPO)

After his release from Gaza, Amazon finally says hostage Troufanov was an employee

Promoted ContentUniversity of Haifa International

UHaifa’s School of Archaeology launches new international Masters

The new master’s in Heritage Management includes collaborations with global heritage institutions, completing UHaifa’s 360° approach to archaeology on land, at sea, and in the lab.

Israeli army forces patrol in the village of Kfarshuba in southern Lebanon on February 17, 2025. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)

Displaced Israeli residents to return to north on March 2

IDF to remain in five strategic posts in south Lebanon after Tuesday withdrawal

By Emanuel Fabian

Positions are located on hills outside Lebanese frontier villages; army also beefs up defenses on Israeli side of border as pullout deadline arrives

Lebanese security forces and first responders inspect the remains of a destroyed vehicle that was hit by an Israeli strike targeting a Hamas commander, in the coastal city of Sidon, Lebanon, February 17, 2025. (AFP)

IDF: Strike in Lebanon’s Sidon kills top Hamas commander planning terror attacks

By Emanuel Fabian

Illustrative: A photo taken from the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Hamam shows smoke rising after an explosion during an Israeli army operation in the village of Kfarshouba near the border on February 16, 2024. (Rabih Daher/AFP)

IDF strikes Hezbollah sites deep in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley as fragile truce holds

By Emanuel Fabian, AFP and ToI Staff

Protesters urging the release of hostages block Namir Road in Tel Aviv on the 500th day of the war sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 invasion and massacre, with signs that read, 'President Trump, leave no hostage behind - 500 days in hell,' February 17, 2025. (Dana Reany/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

ToI podcast

Daily Briefing Feb. 17: Day 500 – Trump team pushes for talks, unclear what PM wants

By Jessica Steinberg and Lazar Berman

Diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman discusses Netanyahu’s successful meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as Trump officials look toward second phase negotiations

Hebrew media watch43 million seconds in hell

By Amir Ben-David

Mugshot of Mordechai Brafman, who is accused of opening fire on two people he thought were Palestinians in February 2025 (Miami-Dade County Corrections)

Jewish Florida man arrested after shooting 2 Israelis he thought were Palestinians

By Zev Stub and ToI Staff

Mordechai Brafman tells police he killed both men, though victims, a father and son, escaped with just a grazing and shoulder injury

Protesters urging the release of hostages block Namir Road in Tel Aviv on the 500th day of the war sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 invasion and massacre, with signs that read, 'President Trump, leave no hostage behind - 500 days in hell,' February 17, 2025. (Dana Reany/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Live updates (closed)

Feb. 17: Shin Bet chief said to reveal that he’s no longer part of hostage negotiating team

By Jacob Magid and Michael Bachner

Court accepts Netanyahu’s request to cancel Tuesday hearing due to diplomatic matters * Smotrich says he’ll demand cabinet vote to implement Trump Gaza takeover plan

9:31 pm

Israeli companies display weapons at UAE defense fair
9:26 pm

Democratic senator says Jordan king convinced him Arab counter to Trump plan is realistic
9:24 pm

Rubio and Saudi crown prince discuss Gaza after Trump proposal

Bipin Joshi (Courtesy)

Family, friends fear for fate of Nepali hostage Bipin Joshi: ‘He saved our lives’

By AFP and ToI Staff

24-year-old agriculture student came to Israel 2 months before Oct. 7; he deflected grenade thrown at sheltering farmhands; is not slated for release in hostage deal’s 1st phase

Jerusalem police confiscate Palestinian flags, anti-Zionist posters in Haredi area

By Charlie Summers and ToI Staff

Residents of Mea Shearim neighborhood hurl eggs at officers as they work; posters in Hebrew, English, and Arabic bore messages including ‘Jews are not Zionists’

Palestinian flags and anti-Israel posters that were seized by Jerusalem police during operation in the ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood on February 17, 2025. (Israel Police)

Ultra-Orthodox men protest against the conscription of Haredim to the IDF in Jerusalem on October 31, 2024. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

Increasing Haredi IDF enlistment requires strong sanctions, Finance Ministry tells MKs

Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Heritage Meir Porush arrives for a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, on September 10, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Watchdog group demands criminal probe of Haredi party behind anti-enlistment hotline

Deborah Danino Harkham

Israel needs Zionism

The ideology counters anti-Jewish, anti-Israel hatred: It is unapologetic, transformative, and uses Israel’s own resilience, innovation, and unity to meet its destiny

Samuel M. Edelman

Unintended consequences and October 7

I have a simple question for my Arab brothers and sisters: What is the cost of your hate for Israel and Jews? Are you better off now?

Israeli soldiers survey the destruction caused by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Israel-Gaza border, in southern Israel, October 15, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

IDF completes all October 7 probes, will start presenting them next week

By Emanuel Fabian

Learning from aftermath of Be’eri report, military plans to offer context to individual battles by first publishing its broader investigations of intel assessments, top brass’s decisions

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, February 12, 2025. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Hamas gunmen caught on tape accusing leaders of hoarding humanitarian aid

Outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi (left) and incoming chief Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir, in an undated photo. (Israel Defense Forces)

Cabinet confirms Eyal Zamir as Israeli army’s 24th chief of staff

By Emanuel Fabian

Interview

Israel is supporting Ukraine in war, Estonia’s president says during Israel visit

Alar Karis initiates trip, including visit to ravaged Kibbutz Nir Oz, to ‘tell our people’ what is happening here; calls for two-state solution

Estonia's President Alar Karis at Ben Gurion Airport, February 13, 2025. (Lazar Berman/The Times of Israel)

Illustrative: The Oklahoma Supreme Court is pictured in the state Capitol building in Oklahoma City, May 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

'It can be a paradigm shift for Jewish education here'

A US Supreme Court case could pave the way for publicly funded Jewish day schools

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

A ruling on religious charter schools in Oklahoma could make education a lot cheaper for many American Orthodox Jews while opening up new options across the religious spectrum

View of Efrat and its surroundings on a winter day, in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank on January 18, 2021. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)

Watchdog says plans advancing for nearly 1,000 more settler homes in West Bank

By AP and ToI Staff

Peace Now accuses government of operating ‘on steroids’ to establish facts on the ground even as hostages languish in captivity in Gaza

Members of the left-wing NGO Breaking the Silence hold images showing alleged abuses by the Israeli military, during a tour in the West Bank city of Hebron, November 2, 2022. (Flash90)

Ministers advance bill levying 80% tax on foreign state funding of Israeli NGOs

Military garb found in the bedroom of two brothers arrested by police and Shin Bet forces on suspicion of planning to carry out terror attacks, in a photo released on February 17, 2025. (Israel Police)

Brothers from Galilee indicted for terror bomb plot, supporting Hamas

By Charlie Summers

Police find military garb, binoculars in brothers’ bedroom during raid on their home in Arraba, allege they were preparing for ‘armed confrontation’

Israeli security forces at the scene of a terror attack where an Israeli Border Police officer was critically hurt after being stabbed at a checkpoint in Shuafat, East Jerusalem, February 13, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Palestinian teen jailed for 18 years for 2023 killing of Border Police officer

By Charlie Summers

Aliyah and Integration Ministry Ofir Sofer and Jewish Agency chair Doron Almog pose with olim who arrived from France at the end of October, 2023, immediately following the start of the war. (Guy Yechiely/The Jewish Agency)

Israel to ease immigration red tape with faster professional licensing

The reform will allow new immigrants in certain fields to start working on accreditation before arriving in Israel and speed up procedures that now take 6-12 months or longer

More Headlines

Opposition MK Karin Elharrar arrives to the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on January 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Opposition MK Elharrar says judicial system needs professionals, not politicians

This handout picture released by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 17, 2025, shows him greeting attendants during a meeting in Tehran. (Photo by KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)

Iran claims Israel, US can’t ‘do a damn thing’ against Tehran after threats on nuclear sites

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Israel's Economy Minister Nir Barkat speaks at India-Israel business forum in New Delhi, February 2025. (Courtesy of Israel Economy Ministry)

Israel and India seek trade pact in 2025 as Trump touts US-India corridor via Israel

By Sharon Wrobel

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after landing at the Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida on February 16, 2025 (ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)

Echoing Napoleon, Trump says: ‘He who saves his country does not violate any law’

By Doina Chiacu

Hundreds of demonstrators hold flags and pictures of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a protest rally in Sydney on September 29, 2024. (Saeed KHAN / AFP)

Lebanese-Australian artist dropped from 2026 Venice Biennale over Nasrallah imagery

Rap album producers Roy Doron, Matan Sharon and Tomer Gershenman, right, after completing 'Mitz LaMax,' their rap compilation album that dropped in December 2024 (Credit Samuel Cotal)

Juice to the maxIt’s a rap: 71 performers celebrate the genre on one Israeli album

By Jessica Steinberg

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