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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Thursday, July 17, 2025

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Druze wait near the border fence in the Golan Heights village of Majdal Shams, as Syrian Druze who had crossed over the day before cross back to return to Syria, on July 17, 2025. (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

Bodies left in Sweida's streets as Syrian army pulls out

IDF says dozens of Druze from Israel still remain in Syria after rushing border

By Emanuel Fabian, Nurit Yohanan and AFP

Army says there were no further crossings overnight, is working to patch up holes in fence; Kurdish official urges Sharaa to rethink approach to minorities

Druze residents protest near the Israel-Syria border fence in solidarity with their community in Syria, July 16, 2025. (Photo by Michael Giladi/Flash90)

ToI podcastDaily Briefing July 17: Day 650 – As Syria restores calm, will talks with Israel follow?

By Jessica Steinberg and Jacob Magid

Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa speaks in a recorded statement released early on July 17, 2025, following clashes and Israeli strikes in the Druze-majority province of Sweida. (Telegram screenshot)

After IDF strikes, Syria’s Sharaa accuses Israel of seeking ‘chaos and destruction’

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Syrian president vows state will protect its Druze minority, hold those behind the violence accountable; dismisses efforts to drag Syrians into hands of any ‘external party’

Members of Israel's Druze community attempt to enter Syria through the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli Golan Heights near Majdal Shams on July 16, 2025, amid deadly sectarian violence in southern Syria. (Jalaa Marey/AFP)

Syrian gov’t forces begin withdrawing from Sweida as Israel vows to protect Druze

By Jacob Magid, Emanuel Fabian, Lazar Berman, Nava Freiberg and Agencies

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a ceremony at the US State Department in Washington, July 16, 2025. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP)

Rubio: ‘We think we’re on our way toward a real deescalation’ between Israel, Syria

By Agencies, ToI Staff and Jacob Magid

A view of the damage to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, after an Israeli tank shell hit the church, in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on July 17, 2025. (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

Live updates (closed)

July 17: White House says Trump’s reaction to Israeli strike on Gaza church was ‘not positive’

By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff

US president tells Netanyahu during phone call to issue apology statement * In scathing attack, Haredi leader says partnership is over with religious Zionist parties, and maybe with PM

8:32 pm

Family of hostage Nimrod Cohen marks his 21st birthday, urges leaders to return him
8:16 pm

Shas spiritual leader recorded calling Netanyahu a 'liar' and a 'blind fox'
7:47 pm

IDF: Gaza church was mistakenly hit by shrapnel from tank fire; we regret unintentional harm to civilians

Promoted LivestreamJPPI

Rebuilding Northern Israel

When Israel’s north emptied after October 8, Nissan Zeevi of Kfar Giladi stayed. Now he wants to bring families back. A story of fear, resilience, and the fight to rebuild the Galilee.

A Syrian Druze man who just crossed into Israel, in Majdal Shams on July 17, 2025. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)

Reporter's notebook'It's too dangerous in Syria for Druze'

Hailing Israel as protector, Israel’s Druze reunite with relatives along the Syrian border

By Diana Bletter

After violence broke out in Druze-majority Sweida, 1,000 Israeli Druze burst through the fence into Syria. Most have returned, bringing a sense of relief that the IDF joined the fray

Prominent Israeli rabbis back intervention in Syria on behalf of Druze

By Rossella Tercatin and Agencies

Retired Druze IDF general accuses Syria’s Sharaa of seeking to ‘eliminate the Druze’

Analysis

Hopes for a quick deal with Syria are gone, but Israel needs a strategy beyond strikes

When PM visited DC last week, there was talk of normalization with the Sharaa regime; now, given the Sweida fighting and the IDF’s attacks, the optimism is over but the door isn’t closed

Syria's security forces enter the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on July 15, 2025, following clashes between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters. (Sam HARIRI / AFP)

Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli announces the Shas party's decision to quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, July 16, 2025. (Yaakov Cohen)

Shas bolts gov’t for failing to enshrine Haredi non-enlistment in law, remains part of PM’s coalition

Council of Torah Sages decries ‘persecution against yeshiva students,’ instructs party representatives ‘to immediately resign from all positions in the government’

IDF says it's probing incident, regrets harm

Three killed in strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church; Israel conveys ‘deep sorrow’

By Lazar Berman, Emanuel Fabian, Nava Freiberg and Agencies

Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem says several hurt at Holy Family Church including parish priest; Pope Leo expresses sadness; Italy condemns ‘unacceptable’ attacks on civilians

A view of the damage to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, after an Israeli tank shell hit the church, in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on July 17, 2025. (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip, in an image published on July 14, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Trump: ‘We have good news on Gaza’

Official says Gaza deal ‘more likely than not,’ as Israel said to retract pullback demands

By Jacob Magid, Nava Freiberg, Emanuel Fabian, ToI Staff and Agencies

Sources involved in mediation tell ToI Jerusalem ended insistence on remaining in several areas, opening window for deal within days; Zamir: IDF will intensify operations if no deal

This handout satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies and dated July 1, 2025, shows an overview of the Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant complex in central Iran after US airstrikes. (Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies / AFP)

US, Israel said to discuss new strikes if no diplomacy soon

Report: Of 3 nuke sites hit by US, only Fordo was badly set back; Trump rejected wider op

US intel assessment cited by NBC News indicates less extensive damage at Natanz and Isfahan; Trump said to have eschewed weeks-long campaign targeting 6 sites

Lennart Monterlos, then 18, speaks in a video he uploaded to Instagram from Iran, later shared by users on X. (Screen capture via X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Family of French teen detained in Iran says he’s innocent, demands proof of life

By AFP

Talyah Ginsberg

No sirens, no peace: The quiet that’s breaking us

How can anyone expect us to function while children are being buried and politicians are tweeting nonsense?

Why was the US ambassador at Netanyahu’s court hearing?

Mike Huckabee’s appearance at the PM’s criminal trial echoes Trump’s call to ’end the witch hunt’ and sends a dangerous message

Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid, unloaded from a World Food Program convoy heading to Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Explainer

‘Manifestly illegal’: In Katz’s plan for Gaza ‘humanitarian city,’ experts see war crime

Senior Israeli academics have warned forcing Palestinians into a closed-off area would be legally unjustified and constitute crimes against humanity

Mourners gather around the graves of Palestinian-American Saif Musallet, 20, and Mohammed al-Shalabi during their funeral in the West Bank village of Al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya on Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP/Leo Correa)

His son allegedly slain by settlers, a Palestinian-American looks to DC to end violence

By Nurit Yohanan

Saif Musallet was born in Florida and died on a West Bank hilltop after allegedly being beaten by extremist Israelis. Now his father Kamel wants global pressure to prevent the next tragedy

The reconstruction of a Homo neanderthalensis, who lived within Eurasia from circa 400,000 until 40,000 years ago, mirrors at the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann, Germany, on July 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Cooking up caveman culture, study shows Neanderthal neighbors were split on how to butcher

By Rossella Tercatin

By comparing cut marks on bones found at northern Israel caves, researchers find early humans clung to passed-down methods just like you might stick to grandma’s recipes

Analysis

Andrew Silow-Carroll

Is the new ‘Superman’ movie about the war in Gaza? Viewers clash over political subtext

Director James Gunn says he wrote the screenplay before Oct. 7, but that doesn’t stop anti-Israel audiences from embracing it as a metaphor – and Israel advocates from denying the comparison

A child from the fictional country of Jahranpur waves a makeshift Superman flag during an attack by troops from the fictional country of Boravia, in 'Superman,' the 2025 film by James Gunn. (DC Studios/Warner Bros. via JTA)

Concern over homegrown Iranian spies prompts Israeli PR campaign to dissuade them

By JTA and ToI Staff

Warning of ‘Easy Money, Heavy Price,’ National Public Diplomacy Directorate launches advertising effort to dissuade public from taking cash to collude with the enemy

Police detain an Israeli suspected of spying for Iran in Tiberias, before announcing the arrest on June 30, 2025. (Screenshot used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law/Channel 12)

This picture shows a residential building that was hit in an Israeli strike covered with a big Iranian flag, in Tehran on June 25, 2025. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

Bedouin teacher, IDF soldier latest to be charged with spying for Iran

By Charlie Summers and Emanuel Fabian

Ahmad Abu Ganima poses for a portrait in the window of the minibus buried in the earth, a makeshift bomb shelter his family uses in Khashem Zaneh, an unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev Desert, southern Israel, July 2, 2025. (Maya Alleruzzo/AP)

Burrowing into ground, Israel’s Bedouin build makeshift bomb shelters to skirt red tape

By AP and ToI Staff

This handout picture provided by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs reportedly shows members of the Greek-owned, Liberian-flagged Magic Seas commercial vessel climbing on board the Safeen Prism, after being rescued following a Houthi attack that forced them to abandon ship, in the Red Sea on July 6, 2025. (UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation / AFP)

‘I thought I was going to die’: Sailor recalls Houthi assault that sank cargo ship

By AFP and ToI Staff

Filipino mariner notes it was his first passage through Red Sea, describes panic among crew during July 6 attack, says images of family flashed before his eyes during gunfight

Illustrative: This handout picture released by Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah Media Center on July 8, 2025 reportedly shows a view of a missile fired by the Houthis during the attack on the Liberia-flagged bulk carrier Eternity C at sea. (Ansarullah Media Center/AFP)

IDF intercepts ballistic missile launched by Yemen’s Houthis

By Emanuel Fabian and AFP

More Headlines

US President Donald Trump waits to greet Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa at the White House, in Washington, July 16, 2025. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Senate passes $9b in spending cuts, including Trump requests for foreign aid slashes

By KEVIN FREKING and MARY CLARE JALONICK

A section of the polluted Saadia Stream that flows through the northern city of Haifa. (Haifa Municipality Spokesperson's Department)

Environment Ministry moves to regulate ‘forever chemicals’ after High Court order

Naoise O Caireallain, left, and Liam Og of the hip hop trio Kneecap perform during the Glastonbury Festival, June 28, 2025. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

French town yanks music fest funding over booking of anti-Israel band Kneecap

By Reuters and ToI Staff

Commuters walk past a bus stop near Nine Elms Station as activists put up a poster showing US President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein near the US Embassy in London, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

Trump blasts his supporters for buying into what he now calls the ‘Epstein Hoax’

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters are escorted out of Columbia University's Butler Library after being arrested for occupying the library space on May 7, 2025, in New York City.(Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP)

Under pressure from US feds, Columbia announces new measures to combat antisemitism

French policemen escort Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (C), a Lebanese terrorist sentenced to life in prison for the murder of two diplomats, one American and the other Israeli, as Abdallah leaves Pau's Courthouse, southwestern France, on February 18, 2010. (Jean-Louis Duzert / AFP)

Lebanese man convicted in slaying of Israeli diplomat to be freed from French prison

By Agencies and ToI Staff

An illustrative image of a quantum computing concept (metamorworks; iStock by Getty Images)

Israel and US to forge $200m tech hub for AI and quantum science development

By Sharon Wrobel

Illustrative: Ambassadors vote on a resolution during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, February 24, 2025. (Charly Triballeau/AFP)

International summit on Palestinian state set for September, French source says

By Agencies and ToI Staff

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