Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian from Gaza at the Qalandiya checkpoint in the West Bank on suspicion of attempting a stabbing attack.
The suspect pulled out a knife when stopped by the security forces upon approaching the checkpoint on foot, after which they tackled him and he threw the blade aside, according to police.
The suspect was then arrested. There are no reports of injuries.
It’s not immediately clear how the suspect exited the Gaza Strip.
A man reacts as medics transport casualties of reported Israeli strikes in the Saftawi neighborhood west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on August 13, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
Hamas expressed its keenness for a speedy return to Gaza ceasefire negotiations during a meeting with the Egyptian intelligence chief in Cairo as mediators push for talks, Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News TV says.
A senior Israeli official dampens speculation that Israel and Hamas could return to the partial ceasefire-hostage release deal outlined by US envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Israel does not intend to renew talks on a partial deal. The only issue on the table is the release of all 50 hostages with Israel’s conditions for ending the war, including disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza,” a senior official tells Channel 12.
However, a senior security official is quoted as telling concerned hostage family members that the political conditions are not realistic.
“We were making serious progress toward the Witkoff proposal, but the briefings from the senior officials about a comprehensive deal harmed the talks on the Witkoff proposal,” the official says.
“Now the conditions that the cabinet decided on for ending the war can not realistically be implemented. Hamas agreed to disarm, but it’s impossible to completely demilitarize Gaza,” he says. LinkRemember that unnamed Israeli officials always means it comes directly from Netanyahu. The failure of the previous negotiations for an interim and partial deal were due to both Hamas and Netanyahu as opposed to most other failed negotiations which were almost entirely in Netanyahu which he scuttled purposely. Interim phased deals were the creation of Netanyahu solely for the purpose of being able to end/breach any deal at any time which he did in both hostage deals. The negotiators may have been close to that interim Witkoff deal, which was a bad deal because it still left many hostages in captivity for an indeterminate time and kept the war going. Hamas wanted a comprehensive deal to release all hostages and end the war. Netanyahu, for his political survival reasons would not agree to any deal that comprised any mention of ending the war, one of the reasons that the deal fell apart. Now, when the talk behind the scenes came up about a comprehensive deal, any ‘unnamed Israeli official’ response was immediately that such a deal would take months to work out, and this was before Netanyahu made the surprising announcement that he will only consider a comprehensive deal at this time and laid out his demands. His people prepared the groundwork that it would take a lot of time because Netanyahu needs it to take a lot of time to fit his timeline for his political survival. No matter what Hamas’ response will be, he will make sure the whole thing is drawn out and it doesn’t matter if hostages die or more soldiers get killed. For Netanyahu , they are all necessary sacrifices for his political survival
Mossad chief David Barnea speaks at the INSS International Conference, February 26, 2025 (INSS)
David Barnea, the director of the Mossad, is in Doha for meetings with the prime minister of Qatar over a ceasefire and hostage deal, Channel 12 reports.
The report comes as Israel, Hamas and mediators between the two sides are making efforts to restart negotiations after the last round of talks ended in an impasse in July. Afterward, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government approved plans to invade Gaza City.
This week, Israel, Hamas, the US and a few Middle Eastern countries are meeting to discuss a deal that could end the 22-month war and free the 50 hostages terror groups are holding in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are thought to be alive.
Channel 12 reported yesterday that Israel was considering sending a negotiating team to Doha.
Today, a Saudi newspaper, citing unnamed sources, reported that Hamas told Egypt it is offering to withdraw its fighters to agreed-upon locations and “affirm its commitment to keep hostages alive,” in exchange for Israel pulling its own troops back, ending the war and dropping any plans to occupy Gaza.
Channel 12 reports that in his meeting with Prime Minister Abdulrahman al-Thani, Barnea was to emphasize that Israel is not bluffing with its plan to conquer Gaza and intends to do so unless there’s progress in the talks to free hostages.
Last week, US special envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly met the Qatari prime minister in Spain to discuss a deal to end the war.
A Saudi report says the Hamas terror group presented Egypt with demands for a possible ceasefire Wednesday, including written guarantees from Israel that it halt any possible designs on taking over Gaza, but apparently not the release of hostages.
According to al-Arabiya, Hamas demands that Israel agree in writing to permanently end the war and drop any plans to occupy Gaza, backed by international guarantees.
The group is offering to withdraw its fighters to agreed-upon locations and “affirm its commitment to keep hostages alive,” in exchange for Israel pulling its own troops back, the report says, citing unnamed sources.
Hamas negotiators arrived in Egypt this week for talks aimed at getting moribund ceasefire and hostage release negotiations back on track. linkAlthough this may sound to be a reasonable compromise along with the plan by Egypt and Qatar to disarm Hamas and put in Palestinian security officers (who are already being trained in Egypt), Netanyahu will almost certainly reject it as it will throw off his political survival time table. He does not want a quick resolution of the differences between him and Hamas. He wants it to drag on for months. A quick resolution and agreement that also ends the war will mean that his extremist coalition partners will leave the government immediately. He needs to keep his coalition together for another 2-3 months at the least to bring him to early elections in the first quarter of 2026. Anything earlier hurts his game plan for his political survival and therefore will bring with it an automatic rejection of any plan that means the end of the war.
'If you took me back to the night I bought my Nova ticket, I’d buy it again' Freed after 505 days in Hamas captivity, Omer Wenkert recounts months of isolation, the fragile solidarity that kept him alive underground and says that when taken as a whole, he would go through it all again; 'I weigh the positives heavier than the negatives' Under the weak glow of a flickering bulb, deep in a Gaza tunnel, Omer Wenkert sat in the dark, the air turning thick with smoke. The claustrophobic space — concrete, heat, the taste of dust in his mouth — pulled him back to the roadside shelter in southern Israel where he had fled the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. Then, as now, panic rose in his chest.
Beside him, Tal Shoham, the eldest of the four captives, reached for his hand. “Let’s lie down under the smoke,” he told him, “it’ll be easier to breathe.” For hours, they lay close, Shoham’s grip steady, while Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal spoke softly to keep him calm. “Suddenly, everyone was focused on me,” Wenkert remembers. “They set aside their own pain to be there for me. That’s when I understood our strength together — the importance of support.”
The smoke had been lit by a guard — scraps of paper set aflame at the tunnel entrance. Perhaps it was to cast light. Perhaps it was to torment them. By then, Wenkert had already endured 197 days alone in what he calls “conditions that calling ‘subhuman’ would be generous.” A corridor less than a meter wide, eight meters long, with a single bulb overhead and a waste pit beside a thin mattress. Each day, a guard would appear for barely a minute, never meeting his eyes, dropping a little food on the floor before leaving.``
“I told myself to be grateful for anything,” he says. “If I could stand — thank you. If the lamp worked — thank you. If I wasn’t being beaten all day — thank you. I was alive after Oct. 7 in a place where life meant constant danger. Thank you.
Still, he broke. On June 10, 2024, after weeks of starvation, humiliation and neglect — punishment that began when Israeli forces entered Rafah and ceasefire talks collapsed — “they had slaughtered my soul and nothing was left,” he says. Out loud, he said goodbye to himself, to his parents, to his siblings Ran and Maya, apologizing for failing them. Three days later, his isolation ended.
A shared ecosystem of support
The arrival of Shoham, David and Gilboa-Dalal was a rush of oxygen. “I didn’t have to be alone anymore. I had someone to lean on and someone to support. It was pure ecstasy. I didn’t stop talking for three weeks.” For the newcomers, the shock of being underground for the first time was eased by seeing him. “They looked at me and it gave them hope,” he says, even though inside, “I felt shattered.”
Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Tal Shoham, Omer Wenkert and Evyatar David in Hamas tunnel
The four built what he calls “a shared ecosystem” — a fragile balance in a place designed to strip them of humanity. Mornings began with a question: How are you feeling? They checked in again later in the day, speaking for hours without filters. “That muscle got stronger,” he says. “Being open. Being aware.” Conflicts arose — over food, water, the less uncomfortable mattress, the spot furthest from the waste pit. They rotated everything. “When we fought, we’d say, ‘This isn’t ours, it’s something external that got into us,’ and it would lose its power.”
Before that, survival had been solitary. He spoke to himself and to God. When he was starved for a week, he prayed for a single bite. “Not a meal, not to be full, just one bite,” he says. The guard brought him a single date. “It was everything. Maybe even a message.” He exercised in the narrow space, forcing his mind to live in the future — imagining even the small choices of retirement — because forward meant home.
But some wounds still grip him. “For me, Oct. 7 lasted 505 days,” he says, ending only when he walked free on Feb. 22, 2025. “I came back still living it.” In the first 50 days, he believed only he, fellow former hostage Liam Or and the foreign workers captured with them were captive. Meeting the others revealed more; returning to Israel showed him the scale was far greater.He avoided thinking about his family’s suffering because it hurt too much. “I accept my fate, maybe I even deserve it — but what did they do?” Alone in the tunnel, that thought cracked him open. Singing the line, “And Dad is always here to hug you and keep you safe” from the song A Father’s Child would leave him in tears.
The morning of Oct. 7 had begun with music and dancing at Nova. When the rockets came, he ran to a shelter with about 40 others; only 12 survived. Terrorists threw in grenades, then fuel. Hiding beneath bodies, he escaped through flames, was stripped, bound and loaded into a truck bound for Gaza.
Now, back in Gedera, he carries the weight of it — and, unexpectedly, a kind of pride. “If you took me back to the night I bought my Nova ticket, I’d buy it again and go,” he says. “It’s crazy, I know. But I’m happy with who I am now — the resilience, the strength, the changes. The pain is always there, sometimes too heavy, but I weigh the positives heavier than the negatives.”
Wenkert with his parents Shai and Niva (Photo: Ziv Koren)
After his release, his partner told him he wasn’t giving his friends space to share their own pain. He took it to heart. “I didn’t come back just for me — I came back for you too, to support you. So talk to me,” he told them. “I’m one side of the coin, they’re the other.” It’s part of why he leads R U OK? Day for mental health nonprofit Enosh. “It’s not just about asking if someone’s okay — it’s about responsibility, solidarity, awareness.”
Are you okay now?
“I’m more than okay,” he says. “Can I say everything is fine? Of course not. As long as there are hostages there, everything is complicated. My mission is to do whatever I can to bring them home.” To those still captive, he sends a message: “I trust you. Remember everything we did together. My spirit is still there with you. Just keep going.”
'Omer reminds us there are many others struggling too'
R U OK? is a program, originally founded in Australia as a grassroots social initiative, that encourages open dialogue and genuine care to help create a world where people feel connected and safe. It promotes making the question “Are you okay?” part of everyday life, using simple tools to check in, listen, encourage action, and stay in touch.
Wenkert released from Hamas captivity (Photo: AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Han)
By fostering supportive networks among friends, family, and colleagues, R U OK? helps identify signs of distress or difficulty early and offer the right kind of support — long before a crisis escalates. Its mission is to connect individuals and communities, combat loneliness, prevent mental decline and reduce the risk of self-harm.
Dr. Hilla Hadas is the CEO of Enosh, which helps implement the R U OK? initiative in Israel.
This is the fourth year you’ve led the R U OK? project in Israel. Why is it important now?
"Especially in the current period, when so many of us are experiencing anxiety and stress, it’s crucial to notice the people around us, genuinely check in on them, and help them get through difficult times and crises."
What should people keep in mind when reaching out?
"We need to remember there are people who have experienced extreme events — such as captivity or complex bereavement — and, alongside them, countless others facing emotional challenges of varying intensity. Some of these struggles are invisible, and it’s very important to be attentive."
Why did you choose Omer Wenkert to lead this year’s campaign?
"We chose Omer because of his extraordinary personal story and because he embodies the deep insight behind the campaign. Having endured an extreme ordeal himself, he reminds us there are many others struggling too, and calls on all of us to notice them and engage."
What’s the broader message?
"We are all in circles of influence and closeness. That’s why genuine care and listening can be so meaningful — and even life-saving." link
A member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force who invaded Israel during the October 7 onslaught and participated in the kidnapping of three soldiers was killed in a strike in the Gaza Strip last week, the military announces.
Abdullah Saeed Abd al-Baqin served as the deputy commander of the Nukhba company in Hamas’s Central Jabalia Battalion, according to the military.
On October 7, 2023, Baqin invaded Israel and attacked an army base next to the Erez Crossing that serves the Coordination and Liaison Administration to the Gaza Strip, a unit that is part of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.
Baqin was involved in the abduction of soldiers Ron Sherman, Nik Beizer and Tamir Nimrodi from the base, the IDF says. The bodies of Sherman and Beizer were recovered by the military from north Gaza after they were killed in captivity as a result of an Israeli strike. Nimrodi remains held in the Strip.
The IDF adds that during the war, Baqin was involved in advancing numerous attacks against troops operating in Gaza. A strike directed by the 215th Artillery Regiment on August 7 killed him, according to the IDF.
Palestinians run as a military aircraft drops parcels humanitarian aid in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, on August 9, 2025. (Bashar TALEB / AFP)
Aircraft from Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Belgium, France, and Italy airdropped 119 pallets of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip today, the IDF says.
Each pallet contains around one ton of food.
Israel re-adopted a policy of allowing aid airdrops on July 26, amid mounting international criticism over the hunger crisis in Gaza. But airdrops are only able to deliver a small fraction of what can come into Gaza by land. They also pose safety risks for the civilians who can be hit by the packages from above.
Medics carry casualties of reported Israeli strikes in the Saftawi neighborhood west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on August 13, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
The IDF carries out a series of strikes in Gaza, killing 123 people over the last day, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
The 24-hour death toll was the worst in a week.
Israeli planes and tanks bombed eastern areas of Gaza City heavily, residents say, with many homes destroyed in the Zeitoun and Shejaiya neighborhoods overnight. Al-Ahli hospital says 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a home in Zeitoun.
Tanks also destroyed several houses in the east of Khan Younis in south Gaza too, while in the center Israeli gunfire killed nine aid-seekers in two separate incidents, Palestinian medics say. The IDF did not comment.
Eight more people, including three children, have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the Gazan health ministry says.
Israel disputes the malnutrition and hunger figures reported by the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
The death toll figures also are not verified.
Israel says it avoids trying to harm civilians, but notes that Hamas is using tunnels under civilian areas and is deeply embedded in homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Palestinians gather to receive cooked meals from a food distribution center in Gaza City on August 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Eight people, including three children, have died over the past 24 hours due to complications from malnutrition, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
The figures bring the total number of hunger deaths to 225, including 106 children, since the start of the war, according to the Hamas office, whose figures have not been verified.
Israel has taken steps since late last month to surge aid into Gaza after imposing a 78-day blockade and subsequently only allowing limited amounts into the Strip.
While there are indications that the steps are gradually easing the crisis, aid groups long warned that impacts of a hunger crisis are difficult and take time to reverse once in place.
Dujarric says the entry of goods has improved the market situation in terms of both prices and availability, with sugar prices dropping from $175 to $12 per bag over the past two weeks.
However, severe cash shortages are preventing families from being able to buy food, water and medicine.
Israeli strikes have destroyed the banking system in Gaza, and cash is only available on the black market where those seeking it have to pay fifty percent commission fees. While digital banking services were increasingly used during the previous ceasefire, Israeli restrictions aimed at preventing Hamas from accessing funds through this mechanism have led to a significant reduction in its use.
While Israel said 320 trucks of aid were offloaded from the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, Dujarric says half of the 15 requested UN missions to collect food and fuel were either cancelled, denied or impeded by the IDF.
In this handout picture released by the Lebanese presidency, Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Iran's head of the National Security Council Ali Larijani and a delegation at the Presidential Palace in Baabda on August 13, 2025. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
No group in Lebanon is permitted to bear arms or rely on foreign backing, its president tells a visiting senior Iranian official after the cabinet approved the goals of a US-backed roadmap to disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
During a meeting in Beirut with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s top security body, Joseph Aoun warns against foreign interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs, saying the country was open to cooperation with Iran but only within the bounds of national sovereignty and mutual respect.
Larijani says the Islamic Republic supports Lebanon’s sovereignty and does not interfere in its decision-making.
“Any decision taken by the Lebanese government in consultation with the resistance is respected by us,” he says after separate talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal movement is an ally of Hezbollah.
By “resistance,” Larijani was alluding to the Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah, which was founded in 1982, grew into a “state-within-a-state” force better armed than the Lebanese army and has repeatedly fought Israel over the decades.
“Iran didn’t bring any plan to Lebanon, the US did. Those intervening in Lebanese affairs are those dictating plans and deadlines,” says Larijani.
He says Lebanon should not “mix its enemies with its friends – your enemy is Israel, your friend is the resistance…I recommend that Lebanon always appreciate the value of resistance.” linkThis is a very important step towards Lebanese independence from the influence of Iran and Iranian back Hizbollah. There hasn't been a strong President backed by a strong government in Lebanon for decades and we can hope that this will continue and lead to a more peaceful northern neighbor.
Labor MK Gilad Kariv pens a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging the premier to direct Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to release over 1 billion shekels ($300 million) that he has been withholding from the Palestinian Authority since May.
Israel collects clearance revenues on the PA’s behalf and is supposed to transfer them to Ramallah on a monthly basis.
Following the May decision by the UK to sanction him and fellow far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Smotrich stopped making the transfers, which make up a majority of the PA’s budget, and accordingly, have Ramallah once again teetering on the brink of collapse.
In his letter to Netanyahu, Kariv notes that the decision by Smotrich has been taken without any cabinet discussion or input from the security establishment and is in violation of Israel’s agreements with the PA.
The withholding of the funds severely harms the PA’s ability to provide services to millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and to continue security cooperation with the IDF, Kariv says. “The main beneficiaries of this harm are radical and jihadist elements, including the murderous Hamas organization, who seek to consolidate and deepen their hold and activities” [in the West Bank].
The risks posed by Smotrich’s decision “is written on the wall, and turning a blind eye to it is a dramatic omission that requires sobering up and immediate action,” Kariv adds. linkOne of Smotrich's major goals is the destruction of the Palestinian Authority and any mention of a Palestinian State. In his dual government ministerial roles, he has done a lot towards that goal which endangers Israel. As finance minister, he has continually held up tax money collected by Israel that is supposed to be transferred to the PA and when he has had to transfer those monies, he always looks for ways to hold some of it back. He wants to bankrupt the PA and by holding back the money, to cause internal issues due to inability of the PA to pay salaries. As a minister in the defense ministry in charge of civilian issues in the West Bank, he has moved hundreds of millions of shekels to the west bank settlements including all of the illegal settlements that, by law, are not entitled to any government money. He has encouraged and supported the settler terrorism against the Palestinians all with the goal of forcing them from their homes and getting them to leave because their lives are so miserable and constantly under threat. His actions make him a war criminal who should definitely be charged with his war crimes and brought to justice.
File: An Israeli settler looks at the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim from the E1 area on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem. (AP/Sebastian Scheiner)
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announces that he plans to approve tenders to build more than 3,000 housing units in the highly controversial E1 settlement project between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank, saying the move “buries the idea of a Palestinian state.”
The project has been frozen for decades amid fierce opposition from the international community, who fear the new settlement neighborhood would block a contiguous, viable Palestinian state.
“Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan that we began implementing with the establishment of the government,” Smotrich says in a statement.
“After decades of international pressure and freezes, we are breaking conventions and connecting Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem. This is Zionism at its best – building, settling and strengthening our sovereignty in the Land of Israel,” says Smotrich who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry responsible for the West Bank civilian issues.
The potential construction of a new neighborhood for the Ma’ale Adumim settlement in the so-called E1 zone has long been cause for alarm in the international community. It would divide the West Bank into northern and southern regions and prevent the development of a Palestinian metropolis that connects East Jerusalem to Bethlehem and Ramallah, which the Palestinians have long hoped would serve as the foundation of their future state.
However, according to the Peace Now settlement watchdog, the approved plans are not for the original E1 plan, but rather a separate neighborhood of Ma’ale Adumim.
“The 3,300 housing units in Ma’ale Adumim represent an increase of about 33% in the settlement’s housing stock — an enormous expansion for a settlement whose population has been stagnant at around 38,000 for the past decade and has experienced net out-migration. The tenders are for a large neighborhood that will connect Ma’ale Adumim’s built-up area with the industrial zone to its east,” Peace Now says. LinkThis is another action by this criminal minister to destroy the possibility of a Palestinian State. Whatever he can do in his dual ministerial roles to expand Jewish Settlement, displace Palestinians and kill the chances for a 2 State Solution to the Israel/Palestine Conflict, he will do, whether it is legal, moral or not.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at a press conference announcing his plans to approve more than 3,000 housing units in the E1 settlement project between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim on August 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports his controversial plan to build thousands of homes for Israeli settlers on a piece of land that would connect East Jerusalem to the large West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim.
“He backs me up in everything concerning Judea and Samaria, and is letting me create the revolution,” Smotrich says in an address to an event in Maale Adumim organized by the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization representing local authorities in settlements.
Smotrich, who holds a junior ministerial position within the Defense Ministry that gives him wide say over settlement construction, says the approvals in the long-frozen E1 settlement project are a response to a wave of Western countries that announced or floated plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations next month.
“Today, anyone in the world who tries to recognize a Palestinian state will receive an answer from us on the ground,” he declares. “Today we are writing a historic chapter in the story of the redemption of the people of Israel in their land.”
The E1 project has been particularly contentious for decades because it would create a physical link between East Jerusalem, which Palestinians have viewed as a future capital of their state, and Maale Adumim. Critics argue that it would bisect the territory of a future Palestinian state.
The project has been discussed for decades but never moved forward, in part due to international pressure.
Smotrich boasts that “after twenty years of delays… the traffic jam has been broken [and] the E1 plan is underway,” adding that the government is “fulfilling the promise and connecting Maale Adumim with a strategic, security and demographic connection, which ensures our united capital for generations.”
Thanking US President Trump and Ambassador Mike Huckabee for their backing, Smotrich says that they are “men of truth with a clear and distinct moral voice that is not confused by the hypocrisy of the West.”
Trump and Huckabee understand “that a Palestinian state would endanger the existence of Israel” and that the West Bank is “an inseparable part of our land, the one that God promised to our father Abraham and gave to us thousands of years ago,” Smotrich says.
Trump and Huckabee do not appear to have commented specifically on Smotrich’s E1 announcement. Netanyahu likewise has remained mum on the step.
Smotrich appeals to the prime minister to “apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, to forever remove from the agenda the idea of dividing the land and to ensure that by September the hypocritical leaders in Europe will have nothing to recognize.”linkNo one should be surprised by Smotrich's statement or by Netanyahu's backing of this illegal plan. Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir, the 2 most extreme ministers in Netanyahu's extremist government have been the tails wagging the weak Netanyahu dog throughout the war. Although Netanyahu is an autocrat, he is a weak one allowing these messianics to drive the direction of the country because he is afraid to lose his premiership if they leave the government, so he allows them to drag the entire country down with a never ending war, total disregard for the hostages and seeing their deaths and suffering, as well as the deaths and maiming of soldiers as the necessary prices to achieve their messianic colonialist goals. This all makes Netanyahu a very willing accomplice and perpetrator of crimes. Netanyahu is emboldened by the fact that there is a US president who allows him to do whatever he wants without negative actions and a fundamentalist, messianic as the US ambassador to Israel who has long supported Jewish settlement in the West Bank at the expense of the Palestinians. This entire group of enablers and criminals are hypocrites to the fundamentals of their respective religious ideals, yet they call themselves religious or strong supporters of the religious. HYPOCRITES, one and all.
Politics and the War and General News
Netanyahu is losing Israel to madness
Mass emigration of 140 thousand people, occupation costs of 100 billion shekels, and a severe shortage of manpower in the IDF – five facts indicating a deterioration into an existential danger that now justifies a general strike in the economy • Opinion
Netanyahu is leading Israel in a way that will turn it into a weak, if not failing, state. Given the strategic threats against it, this weakness will turn into an existential danger. Therefore, the picture I will describe here justifies a general strike in the economy. Since there is a danger of disruption of the elections to the Knesset or even their postponement, a general strike is the main legal and legitimate means of resisting such deterioration.
Here are five main facts, out of many, characterizing what is happening to the Israeli economy as a result of the judicial coup moves and as a result of the policy in Gaza. These facts establish the above argument.
One fact: Since the beginning of the judicial revolution until now, the net migration balance (meaning leaving minus entering) is about 110 thousand people. According to the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics, the departure rate this year is similar to that of last year. By the end of 2025, it is reasonable that the cumulative departure will reach at least about 140 thousand people. The high-tech sector, the growth engine of the economy and the source of support for the weaker sectors (more than one-third of income tax receipts from employees), numbers about 400 thousand workers. If about 300 thousand of them leave – its contribution to the economy and to the state will be severely harmed. If the rate of departure continues or increases, we will reach this within a few short years.
The second: The cost of occupying Gaza, managing it, and providing humanitarian aid will be enormous. The estimates of annual costs range around 60–70 billion shekels, and one-time rehabilitation costs of tens of billions of shekels as well. What is astounding is that no serious staff work was done on this matter and the cabinet decisions were made without reference to the economic cost. In the media, estimates appear that differ from each other by tens of billions, so it is difficult to seriously assess the cost. However, it seems that the magnitudes are such that it is not exaggerated to say that in the first year the total costs may reach 75 billion shekels and even 100 billion shekels, which are about 5 percent of GDP. For comparison, the GDP in Israel grew by less than 2 percent in 2023 and by 1 percent in 2024. In other words, the cost will be much greater than the growth of the economy. In addition to this enormous cost, the European sanctions that will likely be imposed on Israel will harm its trade. It should be remembered that Europe is Israel’s largest trade partner, much more than the United States.
The third: After a war lasting close to two years with many hundreds of dead, thousands of wounded, a sharp drop in attendance, and non-recruitment of ultra-Orthodox, the IDF will struggle to continue fighting in Gaza and on additional fronts. The shortage in manpower is on the scale of tens of thousands of people and will even worsen. We note that now it is a matter of recruiting hundreds of thousands of reserve soldiers under Order 8.
The fourth: Credit rating companies have lowered Israel’s credit rating several times in this period, and there is a high risk of further downgrades. It is no wonder, therefore, that investments in the economy have already fallen, while in a normal economy they rise every year; the rate of growth of investment in the economy was negative in the years 2023 and 2024. In high-tech, a sector almost entirely dependent on foreign investors, there was also a steep drop in investments.
The fifth: In the past two years, the United States has spent over 23 billion dollars on military aid to Israel. There is no chance it will continue to support at such magnitudes. The expected support is about one-tenth of this sum. This is both due to Trump’s declared policy and due to the growing pressures of his base.
The meaning of these five facts is that Israel is rapidly becoming a country where the human and financial resources are insufficient not only for maintaining the standard of living known today, but for bearing the security burden. Hence the existential danger.
We have reached this situation because Netanyahu’s government continues and races along two complementary tracks: advancing a judicial coup that deters investors, causes emigration, and brings about the destruction of the foundations of society and the economy; and an aggressive military policy that perpetuates the state of war while thwarting any proposed political settlement, and while wasting enormous resources.
One can find many examples of countries in which a sharp increase in military expenditure was accompanied by the decline of the democratic regime and other negative results. In these cases, national resources were diverted from investments in education, health, welfare, and infrastructure towards armament, fortifying the regime’s power, and suppressing internal opposition. This trend usually came along with harm to individual freedoms, weakening of oversight and judicial institutions, and the increasing grasp by a single ruler or a small group over the centers of power.
Prominent examples include Greece in the late 1960s and early 1970s under the rule of the military junta, where the defense budget swelled alongside restrictions on freedom of expression and persecution of regime opponents; Argentina during the rule of the juntas in the 1970s, where high defense expenditure was accompanied by severe and violent human rights violations and the collapse of public trust in institutions; in Chile under Pinochet, where the army budget was significantly increased after the 1973 coup, alongside brutal suppression of opponents; Turkey in the 1980s after the military coup, where there was an increase in the defense budget alongside a reduction of civil liberties; and Pakistan, a country where periods of military rule brought the diversion of resources from civil society in favor of a strong army, while continuously harming the judicial system and the free press.
Why is Netanyahu leading Israel in this way? Since 2019 Netanyahu has been unable to obtain a stable majority in the Knesset and since 2020 he has been indicted in criminal cases. He turned, therefore, to joining with two religious groups, to whom democracy and modernity are foreign. The government he formed at the end of 2022 is a connection between a weak autocrat (who does not have a solid majority) and these groups, creating in Israel a regime that is a hybrid of theocracy and kleptocracy. Netanyahu, pushed by his pathological family and who surrounded himself with weak and spineless or extreme people, is unable to free himself from the grip of his political partners. His legacy is disastrous, and he may even know it. But all that remains for him is to deceive more and more with false declarations and plans. He acts like a gambler increasing the bet again and again. From the moment he recovered from the shock of October 7, he understood that he must cast all the blame on the army and the Shin Bet, and drag the war on. This dragging may even allow him in 2026 to postpone the elections to the Knesset. One should expect that even if he zigzags regarding the occupation of Gaza, the perpetuation of the state of war will be a guiding principle for him.
Eran Yashiv is a professor of economics at Tel Aviv University, a member of the Economists for Democracy Forum, former head of the Program on Economics and National Security at INSS
Netanyahu assails ex-security chiefs, says IDF had abandoned its commitment to ‘victory’ Speaking in Hebrew during opening remarks at an event hosted by the Newsmax news outlet in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that over the years, the Israel Defense Forces had “systematically” abandoned its commitment to “victory,” saying some former senior military officials had caved to global pressure and embraced unsuitable political solutions over military success.
“We have achieved great victories… against Hamas, against Hezbollah, against the murderous Assad regime in Syria, against Iran, and also in other arenas,” Netanyahu says. “We did this because we fought together… the IDF, the Mossad, and the Shin Bet — each in its own field, each in its own sector and in close cooperation — did outstanding work under the guidance of the political leadership.”
Netanyahu then turns to address unnamed “former officials who once led Israel’s security branches,” recalling that he had served alongside or worked with many during his 18 years as prime minister and held “great appreciation” for their bravery and sacrifice.
“But something happened after they left service… systemically, gradually, over the years,” he says. “One word disappeared from the lexicon of the Israel Defense Forces — and that word is ‘victory.'”
He vows to restore that ethos: “We are bringing that word back, because without it there is no meaning to our existence here. Either we win, or those who seek to destroy us will win.”
According to Netanyahu, this loss of focus “eroded [the] confidence” of some security veterans, pushing them to seek “an alternative” in the face of global opinion, namely the mounting international calls for Israel to end the war and for a Palestinian state to be established. “The global tide is essentially calling on us to lose ourselves — to embrace some illusion… the mirage of a Palestinian state whose entire purpose is to destroy us,” he says.
“In the search for an alternative to victory, this idea emerged — what they call a ‘political solution,’ which is nothing more than another term for defeat and surrender. That will not happen. That will not be.”
He accuses those “who stopped believing in victory” of being drawn into “extreme political movements that undermine the very spirit of combat… the willingness to fight to the bitter end and to victory, based on the belief that it is wrong and will yield nothing.”
“I deeply regret what has happened to these people, whom I greatly respected during their service,” Netanyahu concludes. “I will not give up on victory. The people of Israel will not give up on victory.”
Last week, 19 former senior Israeli security officials issued a joint video message with a call to end the war in Gaza, arguing that Israel has racked up more losses than victories and that the fighting has dragged on for political reasons rather than strategic military need LinkNetanyahu's use of the word 'victory' is loaded with all of is BS and lies. None of these former security officials have 'given up on victory'. What they have done since leaving service is speaking up about the lies and dangers of Netanyahu as Prime Minister. These are the people who worked closer than anyone else for the security of the State and did it under Netanyahu. They saw close up who he is and that everything he does is first for himself and secondly for the good and security of the State. It should be eye opening to everyone that almost all of these security officials, after leaving government service, start speaking up about the real behind the scenes Netanyahu. On the defense, Netanyahu attacks them as being leftists and that they have become poisoned against him. It's never him but they who have become the enemies. I remember very well the first time I met the retired deputy chief of the Mossad who worked very closely with my brother for the release of the soldier Gilad Schalit from 5 years and 4 months of captivity by Hamas. He was personally appointed by Netanyahu to head the office of Kidnapped and Missing soldiers and knew Netanyahu from working closely with him while in the Mossad and in this appointment. That first time that I met him was at a demonstration in Tel Aviv calling for Netanyahu and his previous corrupt government to resign. He had never attended any demonstration while in government service and never thought he would need to demonstrate. Both he and his wife, who was also a lifetime Mossad person felt that they couldn't in good conscience not be a part of the movement to get Netanyahu out of office due to the damage he was causing Israel. And all of that was a few years before October 7. I have no doubt that Netanyahu also calls him a leftist and a traitor or a person who has lost his way. These people that Netanyahu claims have forgotten what victory is are former Defense Ministers, former IDF Chiefs of Staffs, former Chiefs of the Air Force, former Chiefs of the Shin Bet and Mossad, and former Prime Ministers. All of them are wrong and only Netanyahu knows the way! Unbelievable.
A woman displays the Somaliland flag as people queue to cast their votes during the 2024 Somaliland presidential election at a polling station in Hargeisa, Somaliland, November 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdirahman Aleeli)
Israel is in talks with five countries — Indonesia, Somaliland, Uganda, South Sudan and Libya — about the potential resettlement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, Channel 12 reports.
“Some of the countries are showing greater openness than before to accepting voluntary immigration from the Gaza Strip,” a diplomatic source tells the outlet, naming Indonesia and Somaliland in particular. However, no concrete decisions have reportedly been made.
Somaliland is a breakaway region of Somalia that is reportedly hoping to secure international recognition through the deal.
The report comes alongside claims from The Associated Press that Israel had discussed resettling Gazans in South Sudan — an assertion the African nation’s government has rejected as “baseless” and not reflective of its official policy.
In an interview with the i24 news channel last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support for the mass emigration of Gazans — a policy endorsed by US President Donald Trump earlier this year — saying Israel is in contact with “several countries” about absorbing displaced civilians from the war-torn territory.
“I think this is the most natural thing,” Netanyahu said. “All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their doors to them. What are you preaching to us for? We’re not pushing them out — we’re enabling them to leave… first of all, [leaving] combat zones, and also the Strip itself, if they want to.”
Pressed on why the process has not progressed, Netanyahu replied: “You need receiving countries. We are talking to several countries — I won’t detail them here.” Link
The Region and the World
Arab nations fume after Netanyahu says he feels connection to vision of ‘Greater Israel’
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Arab League and Palestinian Authority issue statements condemning PM’s comment, slamming ‘mentality steeped in colonial delusions’
Several Arab countries expressed dismay on Wednesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a day earlier that he felt a connection to the vision of “Greater Israel.”
In an interview with i24News aired on Tuesday evening, Netanyahu was asked by network anchor Sharon Gal if he “feels a connection” to a “vision” of Greater Israel, to which he responded: “Very much.”
The term Greater Israel refers to Israel in expanded borders in accordance with biblical or historical descriptions, and has many versions, some of which include parts of today’s Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It was popularized after the Six Day War of June 1967 to also refer to Israel and the areas it had just conquered — East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.
It is still adopted by some far-right figures in Israel who express a desire to annex or eventually control many of those territories.
Gal, who was briefly a right-wing member of Knesset, asked the question after handing Netanyahu what he said was an amulet of “a map of the Promised Land,” which is not seen on screen.
The news anchor has recently begun selling pendants that appear to feature a map of a relatively maximalist “Greater Israel.”
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and the Arab League all issued statements censuring Netanyahu’s comments and warning that they threaten regional and global stability.
A spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The border fence at the tripoint border between Israel, Syria, and Jordan, northern Israel, on February 15, 2024. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it condemns Netanyahu’s remarks, referring to them as a “dangerous and provocative escalation.”
The statement quoted Sufyan Qudah, a ministry spokesman, issuing an “absolute rejection of these inflammatory statements.” He added that such “claims and illusions, adopted and promoted by extremists in the Israeli government, encourage the continuation of cycles of violence and conflict.”
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the remark, saying Cairo had asked Israel for clarification given the “implications of provoking instability and reflecting a rejection of the pursuit of peace in the region, as well as an insistence on escalation.”
“This contradicts the aspirations of regional and international parties that are peace-loving and seek to achieve security and stability for all the peoples of the region,” it added.
In its own statement, Qatar’s foreign ministry expressed “its condemnation and denunciation” of Netanyahu’s comments, “considering them an extension of the occupation’s approach based on arrogance, fueling crises and conflicts.”
Doha added that the “false Israeli allegations and absurd inflammatory statements will not undermine the legitimate rights of Arab nations and peoples,” and reiterated Qatar’s “full support for all efforts aimed at achieving a just, comprehensive and sustainable peace in the region.”
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a strong condemnation of the comments, as well as a “complete rejection of the settlement and expansionist ideas and projects adopted by the Israeli occupation authorities.” It also issued a warning “to the international community against the Israeli occupation’s continued blatant violations, which… threaten security and peace at both the regional and global levels.”
The Arab League’s statement on Netanyahu’s comments called them a “blatant violation of the sovereignty of Arab states and an attempt to undermine security and stability in the region.”
The remarks, it added, “reflect expansionist and aggressive intentions that cannot be accepted or tolerated” and also “expose a mentality steeped in colonial delusions.”
From left to right, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, and Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, holds a press conference following the ministerial committee of the Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Joint Summit on Gaza, in Amman, Jordan, June 1, 2025. (AP/Raad Adayleh)
The Palestinian Authority joined in the condemnations, describing them as “a provocation and a dangerous escalation that threatens the security and stability of the region, stemming from the occupation state’s expansionist colonial policies.”
Ramallah stressed that it is “committed to what has been approved by international legitimacy and international law on the establishment of the independent State of Palestine on the borders of 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
The idea of Israel annexing portions of neighboring Arab countries as part of the “Greater Israel” vision is not widely accepted among mainstream Israelis, but the inclusion of some extremist ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition has provided the concept with more prominence.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich drew ire in March 2023 when he gave a speechin Paris from a podium that featured a map of “Greater Israel” — leading Jordan to summonits Israeli envoy in protest.
In response to the anger, the Foreign Ministry at the time reiterated that Israel is “committed to the 1994 peace agreement with Jordan. There has been no change in the position of the State of Israel, which recognizes the territorial integrity of the Hashemite Kingdom.”Link
Personal Stories
Acronyms and Glossary
COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories
ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague
IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague
IPS - Israel Prison System
MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp
PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen
PMO- Prime Minister's Office
UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission
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π️Day 331 that 101 of our hostages in Hamas captivity **There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!** “I’ve never met them, But I miss them. I’ve never met them, but I think of them every second. I’ve never met them, but they are my family. BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!” Last month, Yhali (18), Noam (17), and Alma (13) were told that the light of their father, Dror Or, had been brutally turned off. In a similarly painful fate to their mom’s, Yonat Or, who had been murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7th, Dror was pronounced dead. His body is still held captive in Gaza. “Dror was a free spirit spreading his big light into the world” said his friend Yaki Sagi. “Dror was a culinary expert with an alchemist’s hands and the soul of a goatherd.” Dror grew up in Kibbutz Re’im and worked for various known restaurants in Tel Aviv. He married Yonat, a gifted artist, whom he met in Kibbutz Be’eri. They left the big city when the kids were born and...
We’re waiting for you, all of you.
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