The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s events as they unfolded.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns to his argument that European countries are turning against Israel because of their large Muslim populations.
“I don’t want to say that Europe was conquered by unchecked immigration,” he says. “But to a large extent, politically, it’s happening.”
“It’s a process of decades, that we at least, I made sure to build a barrier,” he says, referring to the fence on the Egyptian border that was built starting in 2010. “The fence between Africa and Israel.”
If he hadn’t done that, Netanyahu claims, at least 1 million Muslims would have entered, and it would have been the end of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blames persecution from legal authorities for the fact that many of the ministers in his government are facing corruption and criminal investigations.
Netanyahu is asked about the case of allegations surrounding Social Equality Minister May Golan and her associates, who are suspected of fraud, illegally pocketing the ministry’s funds, and other financial crimes. He says he is unfamiliar with the probe and cautions against rushing to judgment.
“I don’t know the case, and I can’t speak about it. Just because someone is accused of something doesn’t mean anything,” he says during his press conference this evening, after being asked if he is concerned about the case or the fact that Golan has refused to report for questioning after police raided her office this week and detained an associate.
“They can accuse you of all sorts of nonsense that has no truth to it,” he says.
“What I can say is this: There is almost not a single minister left who the Attorney General and the State Attorney haven’t decided to indict,” he goes on.
He says he found no such trend of such accusations in previous governments: “I checked — more or less checked — during the time of the previous government, and in this government. There, nothing. Gornisht. Zero. Everyone’s angels.”
“But for us – there’s tens [of investigations.] If a week goes by and it hasn’t happened, wait for the next week — it will be someone else,” he says.
“And it is very possible that this is what’s happening here. But I can’t say that for sure, because I don’t know the case,” he concludes.
Netanyahu himself is on trial for corruption, charges he denies.
Addressing reports of fierce disagreement between him and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir over how to conduct the war in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that “false” leaks and “biased” briefings are hurting the war effort.
“I think it is absolutely unacceptable that leaks that are often false, and briefings that are almost always biased and agenda-driven, are being released,” he says during an economic press conference.
“These things make it harder to manage the war, they clearly delay the release of our hostages, and they endanger our soldiers — and they also lower their morale,” he continues, adding that “These are things that must not be done. That is why I do not comment on specific matters of this kind.”
He adds that from the start of the war, “which included the decision first of all to declare war and call up hundreds of thousands [of reservists,] through the most recent decisions, including Iran, including Qatar — at every one of these stages there were always people in the room…who opposed, hesitated, or raised reservations of one kind or another.”
“And that is perfectly fine. That is their role. They must state their opinion. But in the end, the one who decides is the cabinet,” he says.
Addressing reports that Zamir urged Netanyahu to take a hostage deal over pushing the ground offensive in Gaza City, Netanyahu says that, “Overall, our path of action led to the release of over 200 hostages so far, when the most senior military officials said at the start of the war that it was doubtful if we would see even one alive.”
“And I thought otherwise, and I acted otherwise — and even now we are acting to bring them back. We are doing it and we are not stopping,” He says.
Thousands of Israelis protested outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem tonight as fears grow for the fate of the hostages after the IDF launched an operation to capture Gaza City.
Several of the hostages are believed to be in the city, being used as human shields by Hamas and family members have expressed concern they could be executed by their captors or harmed by IDF strikes.
While the main protest was outside Netanyahu’s residence, several hundred more protest outside his office, where he was giving a press conference about the economy.
“What exactly do you want to boast about now? This morning I woke up, an hour away from the border, and my house shook,” says Macabit Mayer, aunt of hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, referring to the explosions from the IDF strikes on Gaza that could be felt miles away.
“So what’s going on with Gali and Ziv that my house, an hour away, shook? What the hell are you doing? Where are you leading us? To what hell are you leading this wonderful nation? You are not worthy of this nation,” she says.
Mayer urges Netanyahu to come out and address the families.
“I am asking you now—you have nothing to fear. We are not guerrillas; we are tormented families. Just come out already, for heaven’s sake, and talk to us,” she says.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls for accelerated efforts to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza City as Israel begins a major ground offensive there, saying this will help ensure the war’s swift end.
“Right now, [Gazans] are leaving Gaza City, and so far almost 400,000 have already left,” Netanyahu says, adding that in a discussion at the IDF command bunker in Tel Aviv today, “I instructed them to find ways to make it easier for them to leave.”
“They want to leave, they want to get out of the city, because they want to — they are responding to us, not to Hamas, which, by the way, occasionally even shoots at them to stop them from doing so,” he says.
He says the effort to evacuate Gazans from the city ahead of the major offensive “is succeeding, but we need to intensify it — to help, to accelerate it — because we have an interest in ending the war quickly, and not ending it in defeat.”
“To those who say, ‘Come on, finish, just end it’ – ending it in defeat would be an enormous victory for the forces of evil, for Iran’s axis of evil, which would quickly recover from this, because everyone is watching who wins. If [Hamas] survives there, if they remain there, they will call that a victory – and of course, we want to achieve the opposite effect,” he continues.
Regarding voluntary departure from Gaza, Netanyahu says, “This possibility certainly exists; it has not been taken off the table. But it is not an active campaign we are running. It’s not something we are pushing.”
He claims that “If the gates were open, if there were a way to open the gates, they would leave — roughly 60 percent, according to surveys – surveys by Arab sources, by Western sources, and also by our own methods – would like to leave.”
He condemns claims by other nations, saying, “‘You must not let them leave, you must lock them in Gaza at any cost.'”
“Unlike in other war zones in the world, they say it is immoral to allow them to leave. I think what is immoral is not to allow them to leave,” he says.
The IDF says that as it launched its planned major offensive in Gaza City today, around 370,000 residents had already fled — less than half of the roughly one million Palestinians the military had ordered to evacuate. Even so, the departure has apparently already overwhelmed the available shelter space and transportation out of northern Gaza.
A coalition of Jewish legal advocacy groups announces the International Jewish Advocacy Center, a collaborative effort “dedicated to defending Jewish communities and advocating for Israel on the global stage.”
Jewish groups have waged courtroom battles to combat antisemitism and defend Jewish interests in the US and other countries, and the coalition marks another step in the evolving legal campaign.
The legal groups involved are from Israel, the US, England, South Africa, Canada, the UK, Spain and France.
The group’s stated goals include confronting antisemitism; providing accurate information and education about Israel, supporting communities that are dealing with legal challenges related to Jewish and Israeli identity.
The coalition will have affiliates operate independently, but pool resources, expertise and strategies.
“The challenges we face are increasingly global in nature, and our response must be global as well,” says Mark Goldfeder, the head of the US-based National Jewish Advocacy Center. “We are uniting diverse organizations into a coordinated network that speaks with clarity and strength in defense of Israel and the Jewish people.”
Some of the groups involved include the International Legal Forum in Israel, the UK Lawyers for Israel, Action and Communication on the Middle East in Spain, the Justice Action Network in South Africa, the Organisation Juive Européenne in France, and Tafsik in Canada.
Asked by The Times of Israel about whether he still sees Qatar as a mediator in indirect talks with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that “if Qatar wanted, it could easily apply much harder pressure, which would help us free all of our hostages in the first months of the war.”
“It is tied to Hamas,” he charges. “It strengthens Hamas. It hosts Hamas. It funds Hamas. It has much stronger levers, and it chose not to do that.”
As such, he says, the strike against Hamas leaders in Qatar “was entirely justified.”
He says the Qatari channel Al Jazeera in Arabic is “a hell of antisemitism, antizionism, a hell for many years, and in recent years, one of anti-Americanism.”
The ruling family has invested in this effort for years, Netanyahu says.
“I never thought they were pro-Israel or neutral.”
“There was an attempt to use them in a partial manner” during the war, Netanyahu continues, without mentioning his working with Qatar to send millions of dollars into Gaza every month.
“The hypocrisy of those who condemn Israel is so obvious,” says Netanyahu of the ongoing criticism over the strike against Hamas leaders in Doha last week.
He declines to give an update on whether any Hamas leaders were killed: “We’re still checking it out. It’s not yet fully conclusive. We’re waiting to see it.”
The Mossad deployed some 100 foreign agents in Iran at the start of the June war, tasked with destroying many of Iran’s missile launchers and air defense systems at the start of the war, Channel 13 reports.
The report says the agents were highly trained and placed and operated missile systems that weighed hundreds of kilograms, and which had been smuggled into Iran, that were used to target Iran’s ballistic missile launchers and anti-aircraft missile systems.
The report says this was the largest-ever operation run by the Mossad and was incredibly complex, given the need to train the agents, who were not Israeli, in the use of the sophisticated missile systems.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns Hamas that Israel will “reach [them] much faster than [they] think” if they harm any of the remaining Israeli hostages, as the IDF begins a major ground operation in Gaza City.
At his press conference this evening, Netanyahu says he discussed the issue of the hostages with US President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu says the two “discussed a possibility that came up, which is very, very important in my eyes—dealing with the issue of the hostages’ security.”
“As Hamas’s spokesperson said, they used our hostages as human shields — that is, placed them in locations that would endanger them. This is horrifying. It also horrified the president. He addressed it,” Netanyahu says, referring to remarks by Trump yesterday, warning Hamas against using the hostages as human shields.
Netanyahu adds his own warning to Hamas, saying: “If they harm a hair on the head of even one hostage, we will hunt them down with greater force until the end of their lives—and that end will come much faster than they think.”
“And this is what I say to Hamas’s leaders,” Netanyahu continues, “You will have no shelter anyway. But our effort to reach you will be redoubled sevenfold, and we will reach you much faster than you think.”
Hostage families have expressed severe concern for their loved ones over reports that Hamas is keeping hostages in Gaza City to deter Israeli forces from attacking.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says during an economic press conference that Israel must develop its defense industry to be self-sufficient to ensure its security, warning that efforts to halt military imports to Israel are caused by political – not economic – considerations.
Several EU countries have announced in recent days that they would move towards arms embargoes on Israel and stop buying Israeli weapons amid the Gaza war.
Netanyahu called the conference to try and clarify his remarks yesterday when he said that Israel will need to become a “super Sparta,” economically self-reliant in light of diplomatic isolation amid the Gaza war. The remarks sparked outrage and spooked the markets.
But Netanyahu says he was only referring to the defense industry, not the overall economy.
“My remarks were on the attempt to restrict the import of parts, components, weapons, or raw materials – and that indeed is something that does not operate according to market economics, but according to political economics —-governments, leaders, politics,” he says, insisting the economy was sound.
Netanyahu, who frequently switched between English and Hebrew during the press conference, depending on who his message was targeted at, noted that while “Western European governments are generally friendly toward Israel,” they are “pressured by Islamic minorities that have formed within them—some of whom are very extreme.”
Decades of organized anti-Israel propaganda, he adds, have compounded the pressure, which “expresses itself as restrictions on parts of weapon systems or the systems themselves.”
The prime minister says Israel must “develop these ourselves, arm ourselves, and ensure we have the ability to defend ourselves,” even if that requires moving temporarily to “a centralized, closed economy, something I generally dislike—I prefer open markets.”
“But here, I want to take all the necessary steps to build a strong, independent defense industry. If there is one lesson from this war, this is it,” he says.
Tyler Robinson, the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah university, is charged with aggravated murder.
The charge means Robinson could face the death penalty if convicted of killing Kirk last week at Utah Valley University in Orem, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.
“The murder of Charlie Kirk is an American tragedy,” Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray says in announcing the charges.
Kirk was gunned down on Sept. 10 as he spoke with students and died soon after. Prosecutors allege Tyler Robinson shot Kirk in the neck with a bolt-action rifle from the roof of a nearby campus building.
Robinson, 22, is also charged with felony discharge of a firearm, punishable by up to life in prison, and obstructing justice, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. He was scheduled to appear on camera for a virtual court hearing this afternoon.
It was unclear whether Robinson had an attorney who could speak on his behalf, and his family has declined to comment to The Associated Press.
Robinson was arrested late Thursday near St. George, the southern Utah community where he grew up.
Spain’s King Felipe VI denounces the “unspeakable suffering” of hundreds of thousands of Gazans as Israel launches an offensive to capture Gaza City, in a rare political intervention.
“The latest episode in this conflict… has degenerated into an unbearable humanitarian crisis, the unspeakable suffering of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and the total devastation of Gaza,” the monarch says during a visit to Egypt.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says US President Donald Trump invited him to meet at the White House on September 29, three days after the premier’s scheduled address at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Netanyahu announces the meeting during his economic press conference, following reports that his office had requested the meeting.
Netanyahu says the invitation came during a phone call on Monday. Netanyahu says he has held several conversations with Trump since Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar, and all of them were “good.”
This will be the fourth meeting between the leaders since Trump’s second term began.
Asked if he notified Trump ahead of the strike, Netanyahu repeated his statement that the White House version of events was “correct,” and that Israel was solely responsible for the strike.
He declined to specifically answer the question over the timing of Israel’s warning to the US amid reports that Trump was informed nearly an hour before the strikes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a press conference, a day after he sparked outrage by saying that Israel was facing increasing isolation on the world stage due to the war in Gaza, and will have to become a more self-reliant “super-Sparta” in the years to come, saying that the negative reaction from the markets was a “misunderstanding.”
Netanyahu insists he has “full confidence in Israel’s economy,” adding that “even more so, [Israel’s economy] has amazed the entire world in the past two years while we’ve been at war.”
He says that the shekel is stronger than before the war, the stock market is performing at record levels, unemployment is at a historic low, there’s been a large influx of foreign investment into Israel recently, and housing prices are dropping.
He concedes that there are efforts to isolate Israel, but says that these are politically motivated and not economic.
“I don’t dismiss the attempts to restrict us economically—we are aware of them. It’s possible there will be such attempts. But the world wants the products that Israel produces,” he says.
He clarifies that his comments yesterday were focused on the defense industries rather than the broader economy.
“There is one area I referred to where indeed there could be restrictions – not economic ones, but political at their core – and that’s what’s happening in the defense industries,” he explains.
“Our defense industries are soaring. They have reached tremendous achievements in exports, both in quantity and quality, but there we have indeed encountered—and could again encounter—political restrictions during the war,” he goes on.
“And if there is one lesson we have drawn from this war, it’s that we want to be in a situation where we are not restricted—that Israel defends itself with its own forces and with its own weapons. And that is why we want to achieve security independence.
“Yesterday, when I spoke with people from the Finance Ministry, with farmers, and with others, I said: don’t restrict us. We are leaping forward, both in new technology and in production on a much more industrial scale. And to do this, I need to cut the bureaucracy that restricts us from doing these things…And that’s what I was referring to. In other words, we are striving for security independence. And I asked them to cut the bureaucracy.”
He appears to address the plunge of shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange following his remarks, saying: “There was a misunderstanding that supposedly shook the stock market.”
“It didn’t shake us. And the reason it didn’t shake us is one thing: because essentially, the stock market—the markets—understand what I said, the strength of Israel’s economy, and the profitability of investing in Israel. And this is very important for ensuring our future,” he says.
Even though Netanyahu announced he would hold an economic press conference, Channel 12 reported that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich refused to take part in the event, despite being invited.
During a meeting with Netanyahu yesterday, Smotrich reportedly told Netanyahu: ‘You caused the damage, you fix it.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested to meet with United States President Donald Trump in Washington following the premier’s scheduled United Nations General Assembly address in New York later this month, Channel 12 reports, citing senior American officials.
According to the report, the Prime Minister’s Office approached the White House with a request to coordinate a meeting between the two leaders “immediately” after his speech.
The PMO did not immediately respond to the report, the Hebrew network adds.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stops short of agreeing with the United Nations commission that determined Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
But Guterres says the situation on the ground is intolerable,
“Israel is determined to go up to the end and (is) not open to a serious negotiation for a ceasefire, with dramatic consequences from Israel’s point of view,” he says.
Guterres also said he would be willing to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump at the UN next week.
The IDF releases footage showing troops of the 98th Division rolling into Gaza City last night, as the military began a new offensive against Hamas in the area.
The military says the troops entered Gaza City with support from the Israeli Air Force and Navy, with dozens of “terror infrastructures” being struck, including observation posts and booby-trapped buildings.
The division, an elite formation of paratroopers and commando units, joined the 162nd Division, which was already operating on the outskirts of Gaza City.
In the coming days, a third division, the 36th, will join the Gaza City offensive, according to the IDF.
As the military carries out a new offensive against Hamas in Gaza City, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, in a video statement, reiterates that the return of the hostages “is a war aim and a national and moral commitment,” amid concerns by the families of those held captive by the terror group.
“In the past day, after extensive discussions with the political echelon, the IDF has significantly deepened the operation in the city of Gaza. We are operating in the depths of the territory, combining ground forces, precise fire, and quality intelligence. Our aim is to deepen the blows to Hamas until its defeat,” he says.
“All our operations are carried out according to an orderly plan, with the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas before our eyes,” Zamir says.
He says that Hamas has taken heavy blows from Israel: “We have defeated the main part of its military power, and now we are deepening the achievements that will allow us to bring the end of the war closer.”
“I want to emphasize: the return of our hostages is a war aim and a national and moral commitment,” Zamir says.
Ahead of the operation, Zamir was reported to have objected to the capture of Gaza City, which was ultimately ordered by Israel’s political leadership.
In his statement, Zamir says, “The IDF is the people’s army, that is its source of strength. The IDF serves the people and acts for its sake.”
“As commander of the army, it is my duty to present before every operation all the possible security implications. All the risks and opportunities were presented to the political echelon clearly and professionally. This is my duty, and under this I lead the operation, together with an excellent and experienced echelon of commanders in order to meet all the objectives responsibly and securely,” he says.
Regarding accusations of war crimes in Gaza, Zamir says, “The IDF operates according to international law, we are doing our utmost to prevent harm to civilians.”
“In this campaign, we are acting in order to defeat a terror organization that declares from every platform that its goal is to eliminate the existence of the State of Israel,” he adds.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says that Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza will worsen the situation in the enclave.
“Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza will make an already desperate situation even worse,” Kallas writes on social media platform X.
“It will mean more death, more destruction & more displacement,” she says, noting that the European Commission will present measures on Wednesday to pressure the Israeli government to change course.
The first people charged with supporting Palestine Action after the UK government banned it as a “terror” group appeared in court in London.
Hundreds of people have been arrested at protests accused of showing support for the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel organization since it was proscribed by the UK government in July.
The trio who appeared today, two of whom are in their 70s, were greeted outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court by several dozen supporters, some chanting slogans and waving Palestinian flags.
Inside, more supporters packed the public gallery.
Jeremy Shippam, 72, Judit Murray, 71, and Fiona Maclean, 53, all entered not guilty pleas and were released on bail until a trial set for March 16 next year.
They were arrested after a protest in Westminster on July 5, when London’s Metropolitan Police detained 41 people for allegedly supporting the group.
They are accused of displaying an article in a public place and arousing reasonable suspicion that they are a supporter of a proscribed organization, according to the charge sheet.
The charges come under section 13 of the Terrorism Act of 2000.
They allegedly held placards reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” prior to their arrest.
The government proscribed Palestine Action following several acts of vandalism, including against two planes at a Royal Air Force base which caused an estimated £7 million ($10 million) in damage.
As Israel ramps up its operation in Gaza City, Egypt warns that the region “stands on the brink of a new phase of total chaos due to Israel’s recklessness and persistence in arrogance.”
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry blasts the international community for “its failure to act against crimes of genocide.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar sends a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, sharply criticizing her for “empowering” Hamas through her proposal to pressure Israel by suspending trade-related provisions of the European Union–Israel Association Agreement, a day before commissioners are set to adopt the measures.
“It is profoundly disturbing that you, by advancing such a proposal, are in practice empowering a terrorist organization responsible for and continuing to perpetrate heinous crimes, while Israel, a longstanding partner of the EU, fights an existential war,” Sa’ar writes.
Von der Leyen said last week that the European Commission will propose sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers and a partial suspension of the EU’s association agreement with Israel, targeting trade-related matters, over Israel’s wartime conduct in Gaza.
Sa’ar calls the proposal “replete with false accusations and legal flaws,” including bypassing due process and other EU rules, relying on a biased review singling out Israel and dismissing Israel’s input and humanitarian efforts, relying on unverified Hamas-controlled sources, and disregarding Israel’s right to defend its security during wartime.
The foreign minister also references remarks from United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio that “initiatives of this nature embolden Hamas, harden its stance, and undermine progress toward potential agreements.”
“Eighty years have passed since the Holocaust on European soil occurred,” Sa’ar adds, warning that “Europe harming Israel while there is an attempt to annihilate the surviving remnant of the Jewish people and its only state marks the trampling of every moral standard.”
A ballistic missile launched by the Houthis in Yemen at Israel a short while ago was intercepted by air defenses, the military says.
There are no immediate reports of impacts or injuries. Sirens had sounded in central Israel, the Jerusalem area, and in several West Bank settlements.
The missile attack comes shortly after the Israeli Air Force struck the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in western Yemen in response to the Iran-backed group’s previous attacks on Israel.
Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen have launched 84 ballistic missiles and at least 37 drones at Israel.
Sirens sound in central Israel and the Jerusalem area following the launch of a ballistic missile from Yemen.
The IDF says it is working to shoot down the projectile.
The missile attack comes shortly after the Israeli Air Force struck the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in western Yemen in response to the Iran-backed group’s previous attacks on Israel.
A ballistic missile has been launched from Yemen at Israel, the military says.
Sirens are expected to sound in central Israel in the coming minutes.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin says the military will “do its best” to safeguard the hostages during its offensive against Hamas in Gaza City.
Responding to a question at a press conference on how the IDF will fight in Gaza City after Hamas published footage showing hostages being held in the area, Defrin says: “We are aware of the concerns of the hostages’ families, we will do our best to avoid harming the hostages.”
Hamas has previously threatened to execute hostages if IDF troops approach the areas where they are being held and family members have expressed extreme concern for the fate of the captives amid the offensive.
Defrin, in a press conference from the Gaza border, slams Hamas for not allowing Palestinian civilians to leave Gaza, saying that “Hamas set up in Gaza City the largest human shield in history.”
“It exploits the civilian population as a human shield. It prevents them from evacuating from combat zones, while using violence,” he says, adding that the IDF is enabling civilians to leave “for their protection.”
Defrin says the IDF estimates that over 350,000 Palestinians have left Gaza City in recent weeks to other areas of the Strip. He says that “in accordance with international law,” the IDF has “adapted the humanitarian efforts” for Gazans leaving Gaza City.
“There will be no starvation in Gaza; humanitarian aid will also be delivered to northern Gaza,” he says.
Defrin says the military is currently in control of “widespread” areas in Gaza City, following “intensive IDF activity in recent weeks in the Zeitoun and Sheikh Radwan neighborhoods and Jabalia.”
“These actions brought about the operational conditions to deepen the fighting inside Gaza City,” he says, referring to the army’s new ground offensive, which began last night.
More than 10,000 children need treatment for acute malnutrition in Gaza City, where the Israeli army launched a major ground offensive today, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports.
“The forced and massive displacement of families from Gaza City is a deadly threat to the most vulnerable,” says Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokeswoman in southern Gaza’s Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.
Speaking to journalists at a televised UN press briefing in Geneva, Ingram warns of worsening rates of child malnutrition.
“We estimate that 26,000 children in the Gaza Strip currently require treatment for acute malnutrition, including more than 10,000 in Gaza City alone,” she says.
She explained that in August, more than one in eight children examined in the Gaza Strip suffered from acute malnutrition, “the highest level ever recorded.”
In Gaza City, that figure was one in five.
Nutrition centers in Gaza City have been “forced to shut this week due to evacuation orders and the military escalation”, Ingram adds.
Israel disputes claims of hunger in the Strip and the IDF says that those evacuating southward to the Al-Masawi area will find food, tents, and medicine.
Israel continues to call on the civilian population of Gaza City to leave for the safe zone and estimates some 40% of the 1 million population has moved so far. However, UN officials put that number at about 150,000.
Speaking from the IDF command bunker at the Kirya in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlights Israel’s efforts to protect civilians as Israeli forces move into Gaza City.
“Our forces are operating in Gaza City with the aim, of course, of achieving the defeat of the enemy, while also working to evacuate the civilian population,” he says in a video released by his office.
“We are currently making efforts to open additional routes to enable a faster evacuation of the Gazan population, to separate them from the terrorists whom we aim to strike.”
Alongside Defense Minister Israel Katz, Netanyahu also notes that “just a few minutes ago, our pilots struck the port of Hodeidah in Yemen — the main supply port of the Houthi terror regime.”
A group of civil rights organizations tell the defense minister, IDF chief of staff, attorney general, and other senior officials that implementation of the evacuation warnings issued to residents of Gaza City constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity since, they argue, they do not meet the requirements under international law permitting such evacuations.
Ahead of the IDF’s push into Gaza City today, the IDF dropped evacuation notices in the city stating that “For your safety you must immediately evacuate” to the Muwasi humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, and that staying in the city was extremely dangerous.
Gisha, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Hamoked, Adalah, and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel argue in their letter to the Israeli officials that although the Fourth Geneva Convention permits temporary evacuations if required for the security of the civilian population or for “imperative military reasons,” it also requires that “proper accommodation” and “satisfactory” living conditions be provided for evacuees.
The civil rights groups contend that since Israel is not guaranteeing the security of the evacuees or satisfactory living conditions where they are being told to move to, areas which they noted are already severely overcrowded, the evacuation warnings cannot be considered legal.
The organizations also assert that since evacuations can only be done to protect the civilian population, or for “imperative military reasons,” it is prohibited to carry out such evacuations “as a form of pressure or for advancing political goals.”
Rhetoric from senior Israeli cabinet ministers, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, about destroying Gaza, demonstrated that the evacuation orders are not temporary since the evacuees will not have homes to return to, the groups argued.
Katz said earlier today that Israel needed Hamas to “release all the hostages and to disarm,”; that defeating Hamas would create “a larger lever for the release of the hostages,”; and that Gaza “will be destroyed” if Hamas does not agree to Israel’s terms.
The civil rights groups also argue that the government has not demonstrated there is an “imperative military reason” for the operation.
There have been repeated reports in the Hebrew media that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir as well as other senior officials in the security services, have opposed the current operation and urged the government to accept a ceasefire and hostage release agreement instead.
“The residents are forced to choose between death by bombings and being displaced where conditions are inhumane,” the civil rights groups said.
A pair of Iranian financiers and more than a dozen people and firms across Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates were sanctioned Tuesday for allegedly coordinating $100 million worth of cryptocurrency transfers from the sale of Iranian oil for the benefit of Iran’s government and military.
Treasury alleges that Iranian nationals Alireza Derakhshan and Arash Estaki Alivand facilitated the purchase of over $100 million worth of cryptocurrency for oil sales for the Iranian government. The pair then used a network of front companies across countries to transfer the cryptocurrency funds, Treasury says.
So-called shadow banking networks like these evade sanctions by laundering money through overseas front companies and cryptocurrency.
Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley said in a statement that the US “will continue to disrupt these key financial streams that fund Iran’s weapons programs and malign activities in the Middle East and beyond.”
To authorize the sanctions, the U.S. used an executive order that President Donald Trump issued in February called the National Security Presidential Memorandum 2, which calls for the U.S. to “drive Iran’s export of oil to zero.” It also states that Iran “can never be allowed to acquire or develop nuclear weapons.”
The father of one of the slain captives in Gaza wraps up several days of meetings with top Trump officials and others in Washington, pessimistic about the chances that the US will advance a hostage deal.
Reflecting on his trip, American-Israeli hostage Itay Chen’s father Ruby posts on X that he left “pessimistic about [the possibility for] a deal that the US will lead in the near future.”
He says Qatar is going all-in on “playing the victim” after Israel’s apparently botched strike in Doha and that the Gulf state has passed the mantle to the US to present a proposal to restart negotiations. Chen adds that Qatar is looking for others to take on the mediating role but will hold onto it if the US asks.
“In the US, [people] don’t understand why Trump isn’t tougher on Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu] in public. The obvious conclusion is that even the great hope of the hostage families (Trump) isn’t really making an effort to force the sides to end the war and release our loved ones.” he writes.
Chen says that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who is also Israel’s lead hostage negotiator, is mostly reacting to developments on the ground rather than initiating steps to secure the release of the hostages.
The hostage father appears to lament the lack of ground work in the US government to advance the issue, with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff leading the issue exclusively. Witkoff has come under fire for operating with a very small staff, even while being tasked with a host of major foreign policy issues.
“Currently, the administration is more preoccupied with domestic issues (leveraging Charlie Kirk’s murder to advance a domestic American agenda) and less with foreign affairs,” Chen adds.
After being lambasted for saying that Israel’s might become an isolated “super-Sparta,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his efforts at damage control, calling a press conference tonight at 8:15 p.m.
The press conference will officially deal with economic issues, but with the Gaza City operation kicking off in earnest, questions on the war and hostages are sure to arise.
Israel is working to unite splintered Druze factions in Syria’s Sweida area, providing them with arms and paying salaries of militia members in the wake of recent attacks and massacres of the Druze community there, Reuters reports.
Two senior Syrian Druze figures, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, say that since the Sweida fighting, Israel was helping unify splintered Druze factions and had delivered military supplies, including guns and ammunition to them.
The two Druze commanders and a Western intelligence source says that Israel was also paying salaries for many of the roughly 3,000 Druze militia fighters.
Reuters was not able to independently confirm the munitions supplies nor the payments. The offices of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who is spearheading Israeli talks with Syria, did not respond to Reuters questions on support for the Druze militia.
Qatar says its ruling emir spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about defense cooperation and the “consequences of the Israeli attack on Doha.”
Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, gives the readout of the talks between Rubio and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
The two men also spoke about mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, he adds. However, al-Ansari harshly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the attack last week on Doha that killed six people.
“If Prime Minister Netanyahu wants peace, he knew the road to peace a long time ago. He just decided not to go through it, and he decided to mediate in bad faith,” al-Ansari says. “And therefore, the questions about the fate of their mediation should be asked of he who is bombing the mediators and those who he is talking with on the negotiating table.”
US President Donald Trump says he “doesn’t know too much” about the ground offensive Israel has launched in Gaza City.
“We’ll have to see,” Trump tells reporters when asked about it outside the White House.
He then reiterates his warning to Hamas not to use hostages as human shields, adding that the terror group “will have hell to pay” if it does so.
'I have to see, I don't know too much about it.'
US President Donald Trump has claimed he 'doesn't know too much' about Israel's ground offensive into Gaza City, saying if Hamas use hostages as 'human shields' they will 'have hell to pay'. pic.twitter.com/zjVXi1IXEc
— GB News (@GBNEWS) September 16, 2025
Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani announce a plan backed by Jordan and the United States to restore calm to Druze-majority Sweida province, which witnessed deadly sectarian violence in July. Israel intervened with strikes to protect the Druze.
The situation in the province has been tense since the clashes, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said killed more than 2,000 people, including 789 Druze civilians “summarily executed by defense and interior ministry personnel,”
“The Syrian government has laid out a clear roadmap for action… that supports justice and builds trust,” Shaibani says in a press conference, adding that the plan involves holding accountable those who attacked civilians, compensating those affected and “launching a process of internal reconciliation.”
The implementation will be accompanied by a United Nations investigation into the violence, according to Shaibani.
Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi, present at the event with US envoy Tom Barrack, says a “joint Syrian-Jordanian-American mechanism” would ensure the plan’s implementation.
The bloodshed erupted on July 13 with clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin but rapidly escalated, drawing in government forces and tribal fighters from other parts of Syria.
Israel carried out a series of airstrikes, including on Syrian government forces, in a bid to protect the Druze.
Defense Minister Israel Katz says the strike on Hodeida Port in Yemen is aimed at continuing “the naval and aerial blockade on the Houthi terror organization.”
“The Houthi terror organization will continue to take blows and will pay painful prices for any attempt to attack the State of Israel,” he adds.
US President Donald Trump says that the US and China have a deal that will keep the short-video app TikTok operating in the United States, transferring its US assets to US owners from China’s ByteDance, potentially resolving a saga that has lingered for nearly a year.
“We have a deal on TikTok, I’ve reached a deal with China, I’m going to speak to President Xi on Friday to confirm everything up,” Trump tells reporters as he left the White House for a state visit to Britain.
A deal on the popular social media app, which counts 170 million US users, stands as a breakthrough in months-long talks between the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 economies that have sought to defuse a wide-ranging trade war that has unnerved global markets. Trump did not announce specifics of the deal.
Any agreement could require approval by the Republican-controlled Congress, which passed a law in 2024 during the Biden administration that required divestiture due to fears that TikTok’s US user data could be accessed by the Chinese government, allowing Beijing to spy on Americans or conduct influence operations through the app.
The IDF confirms carrying out airstrikes against military infrastructure at the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in western Yemen.
The port is used by the Houthis to smuggle weapons to Yemen from Iran, which are then used in attacks on Israel and its allies, the military says.
The strikes come following repeated Houthi ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel, the latest on Sunday.
Israel has struck the Hodeida Port multiple times in response to the Houthi attacks
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz appeared to fight back tears as he spoke at a ceremony rededicating a synagogue destroyed in the Holocaust.
Speaking at the opening yesterday of the Reichenbachstrasse Synagogue in Munich, which was devastated during the Kristallnacht pogroms against the Jews of November 1938, Merz got emotional as he recalled the atrocities the Nazis committed against Jews.
“Jewish life in Germany will one day get by without police protection again,” Merz declared. “We must not get used to the fact that this has been necessary for decades. I declare war on all forms of old and new antisemitism in Germany on behalf of the entire federal government of the Federal Republic of Germany.”
Was es heißt, dass sich Überlebende und ihre Kinder der Schoa dazu entschieden haben, in Deutschland zu bleiben. pic.twitter.com/C3OJmvwIta
— Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz (@bundeskanzler) September 16, 2025
The Reichenbachstrasse Synagogue was built by architect Gustav Meyerstein in 1931, designed in the Bauhaus and New Objectivity style. It originally featured amber-colored marble around the Torah shrine, turquoise blue on the walls, and a Pompeian red design in the foyer.
After the Kristallnacht riots of November 9 and 10, 1938, the Nazis turned the Reichenbachstrasse Synagogue into a workshop and warehouse. After the war ended, Jewish survivors made minor repairs and consecrated it in 1947 as the main synagogue of Munich, a role it served until the Ohel Jakob Synagogue was opened in 2007.
Led by German entrepreneur and journalist Rachel Salamander, the synagogue has now been faithfully restored in a minimalist style, with simple wooden benches, colored walls and stained glass windows. It will serve as a cultural space as well as a functioning synagogue.
Former Blue and White-National Unity party number two and former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot announces the establishment of a new political party called “Yashar! With Eisenkot.”
After much speculation about whether he would form his own party after quitting Benny Gantz’s National Unity party in July, Eisenkot has formed a party that “will work for repair, healing, and hope for Israeli society,” according to a statement.
“Yashar,” translates as “straight” in English.
The move comes amid some jostling and maneuvering amid opposition parties, who want to present a united front ahead of the next election, scheduled for a year from now.
The party is co-founded alongside 120 members from Israel’s tech, political, and military leadership.
Other members include former minister of religious affairs Matan Kahana, former director general of the Prime Minister’s Office Yoav Horowitz, retired major general Tal Rousso, Wix president Nir Zohar, and Shir Siegel, daughter of former hostages Aviva and Keith Siegel and an activist and advocate for the hostages.
“The establishment of Yashar! With Eisenkot is both a personal and national imperative,” says Eisenkot in a statement. “The party will place Israel’s security and national interests above all other considerations, establish a broad governing alternative, and serve as a foundation for further unity, all to ensure the State of Israel’s existence as Jewish, democratic, and strong, in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.”
He adds: “The citizens of Israel deserve leadership that serves the public with integrity and with a deep commitment to our shared future, to Israel’s prosperity as a model society in the eyes of its citizens and of the world.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid was quick to offer his congratulations to Eiskenkot in a post on X, writing: “Together we will succeed and change the direction of the State of Israel.”
Democrats chairman Yair Golan urges the opposition parties to unite.
“Israel is at its most dangerous point, Netanyahu is leading Israeli democracy into the most serious crisis in our history. We don’t have the privilege of divisions in the democratic camp,” Golan posts on X, congratulating Eisenkot.
“Gadi, let’s unite. Win. And save Israel,” he continues.
After the IDF issued an evacuation warning for the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in western Yemen, the Israeli Air Force has begun to strike in the area, according to local media.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree says the group’s air defenses are engaging Israeli aircraft carrying out the strikes.
An hour and a half earlier, the IDF warned it would strike Hodeida Port in response to the Houthis’ repeated missile and drone attacks on Israel.
Last week, IDF troops located a crude and inoperable rocket in a West Bank village near Ramallah, the military says.
According to the IDF, the makeshift rocket found in Kafr Ni’ma did not have a warhead and was not packed with explosives that could have enabled it to fly.
Police sappers are investigating the device, while the IDF is working to track down the terror cell involved in building it, the military adds.
In recent years, there have been several attempts by Palestinian terror groups to launch crude rockets from the West Bank at Israeli settlements and at Israel, though with little to no success.
Cinema legend Robert Redford, a screen great both in front of and behind the camera whose career spanned six decades, died early on Tuesday morning at his home in Utah at the age of 89.
Redford died in his sleep, and a specific cause was not given, according to a statement by Cindi Berger, the chief executive of publicity firm Rogers & Cowan PMK.
The tousled-haired and freckled heartthrob made his breakthrough alongside Paul Newman as the affable outlaw in the hippy Western “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” in 1969.
After 20 years as an actor, he moved behind the camera, becoming an Oscar-winning director and co-founding the flagship Sundance festival for aspiring independent filmmakers.
A committed environmental activist, Redford also fought to preserve the natural landscape and resources of Utah, where he lived.
Born Charles Robert Redford Jr. on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, he was the son of an accountant.
Spain will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest if Israel takes part, public broadcaster RTVE, which is charged with selecting the country’s entry for the event, says.
While other European nations have threatened to pull out of the contest, Spain is the first of the so-called “big five” nations, which provide the most funding for the event, to do so.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organizer of Eurovision, is set to decide whether Israel will take part in the 2026 edition at its general assembly in December.
If EBU members decide to keep Israeli public broadcaster KAN as a participant, “RTVE would have to carry out the threat of withdrawing from the contest for the first time in history,” the Spanish broadcaster says in a statement.
The decision comes a day after Spanish Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun said Spain should boycott the event if Israel takes part, due to its military offensive against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in May after the last edition of Eurovision that Israel should be excluded because of its military campaign in Gaza, just as Russia has been left out since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
EU commissioners will agree tomorrow to impose new sanctions against Israel over the war in Gaza, a spokesperson for the commission says.
“Tomorrow, commissioners will be adopting a package of measures on Israel,” spokesperson Paula Pinho tells reporters. “Specifically, a proposal to suspend certain trade provisions in the agreements between the EU and Israel.”
The UN Human Rights chief calls on Israel to immediately stop its ground offensive on Gaza City that commenced today, saying that evidence was mounting of war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly more.
“I can only think of what it means for women, for malnourished children, for people with disabilities, if they are again attacked in this way. And I have to say the only response to this is: stop the carnage,” High Commissioner Volker Turk tells reporters in Geneva.
“Palestinians, Israelis scream for peace. Everyone wants an end to this, and what we see is a further escalation which is totally and utterly unacceptable,” he adds. “I call on Israel to stop its wanton destruction of Gaza.”
His remarks come as a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, a determination Israel forcefully condemned as “distorted and false,” and based on “Hamas falsehoods.”
Turk has not used the term but is under pressure to do so.
Asked if he would consider using the word genocide to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza, Turk says: “We see the piling up of war crime after war crime or crime against humanity, and potentially even more. I mean, it’s for the court to decide whether it’s genocide or not and we see the evidence mounting.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir held an assessment in Gaza City this morning amid the military’s major offensive in the city, and visited one of the divisions carrying out the fight there against Hamas, the military says.
“On your shoulders rests the mission to deepen the strike against Hamas and to defeat the Gaza City Brigade, in order to carry out the moral and most important mission, the return of all the hostages home and the collapse of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities,” Zamir says during the assessment, according to remarks provided by the IDF.
Zamir held the assessment with Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor, 98th Division commander Brig. Gen. Guy Levi, and other officers.
The IDF issues an “urgent” evacuation warning for the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah in western Yemen, ahead of strikes in the coming hours.
“The [Israel] Defense Forces will strike in the coming hours in the area marked on the map in light of the military activities carried out by the terrorist Houthi regime there,” warns Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman.
“For your safety, we call on all those present at Hodeidah Port and the ships moored there to evacuate the area immediately,” he says, adding that “anyone who remains in the area exposes their life to danger.”
The IDF has struck Hodeidah Port multiple times in response to the Iran-backed Houthis’ repeated ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel.
#عاجل ‼️ انذار عاجل إلى كل المتواجدين في ميناء الحديدة في اليمن
⭕️سيهاجم جيش الدفاع في الساعات القريبة في المنطقة المحددة بالخريطة في ضوء الأنشطة العسكرية التي يمارسها نظام الحوثي الارهابي هناك
⭕️من أجل سلامتكم، ندعو كافة المتواجدين في ميناء الحديدة والسفن الراسية فيه إلى… pic.twitter.com/6SM7uKPRxy
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) September 16, 2025
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari suggests that, following Israel’s strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha last week, the Gulf state’s role as a mediator of Gaza ceasefire talks has receded as a priority.
Ansari says at a weekly press briefing, regarding the mediation efforts, “We are now focused on protecting our sovereignty and responding to the [Israeli] attack, and on taking all necessary measures to ensure this does not happen again. All other political considerations are currently of secondary importance.”
Qatar previously vowed to continue in the mediator role despite the strike, which Israeli and Hamas officials both indicated did not kill the terror group’s leadership.
Police nabbed a 16-year-old Palestinian after he escaped a Jerusalem police station earlier today, police say.
Officers launched a manhunt to find the teenager, who was detained on suspicion of car theft and entering Israel illegally.
He was handcuffed in the station while awaiting interrogation, but nevertheless managed to escape and flee toward Ramallah in the West Bank.
Police from Jerusalem’s Lev Habira station caught and arrested him soon after they realized he was gone, police announce.
Police add that Jerusalem District commander Amir Arzani has instructed that the case be reviewed by a senior officer in order to learn lessons from the incident.
Gidi Gov, the prominent Israeli singer and TV host, does not appear for his hearing in traffic court after driving drunk and injuring several people on the road last night, Channel 12 reports.
Gov has reportedly acknowledged that he was under the influence last night when he crashed into a number of cars on Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway, lightly injuring several people who were then taken to the hospital. But Channel 12 reports that he declined to attend the hearing today, citing ill health. The network says that earlier, he had said he was feeling well and recovering at home.
The Kaveret co-founder and longtime TV personality’s license is suspended, the channel reports.
As Israel kicks off its major ground offensive in Gaza City, the Catholic Holy Family Church in the city says it has no plans to leave, a source tells The Times of Israel.
The IDF has issued a general evacuation order for Gaza City, urging civilians to head south to a humanitarian zone.
Evacuating the grounds would be extremely difficult, as the nuns in the compound care for 60 to 70 Gazans with special needs.
In the meantime, some semblance of routine continues in the Strip’s only Catholic church. Prayers are held every day, and the community celebrated a birth and a wedding over the past week.
As the IDF begins its major ground offensive in Gaza City, Defense Minister Israel Katz says that if Hamas does not release the hostages and disarm, the Strip will be destroyed.
“From Hamas, we need only two things, and it will not give them voluntarily: to release all the hostages and to disarm. The great force of the attack here… is directly defeating Hamas, and it also creates a larger lever for the release of the hostages,” Katz says during a visit to the headquarters of the 162nd Division, whose forces are currently operating in Gaza City.
“We want to take control of Gaza City because today it is Hamas’s main governing symbol. Today, if Gaza falls… they will fall,” he says.
Katz says the “murderous Sinwar brothers,” Yahya and Muhammad, who led the terror group in the Strip before they were killed by Israel, “ruined Gaza, and if Izz al-Din Haddad continues like this, he will destroy Gaza,” referring to Hamas’s new military leader in Gaza.
“They will pay the price and Gaza will be destroyed,” he adds.
In an unusual move, Sephardi Chief Rabbi David Yosef has sent a letter of condolence to the family of Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, a 31-year-old prominent US right-wing activist assassinated last week, was a staunchly pro-Israel voice within the Donald Trump voter base. Public figures in Israel have mourned him in the days since he was killed.
“With deep sorrow and great pain, I received the devastating news of the murder of Charlie — solely because he was a clear and unwavering voice of truth,” Yosef writes.
The letter marks a rare departure for the rabbinic leader. Traditionally, chief rabbis rarely comment on events that are not directly related to Israel or the Jewish world.
“I can say wholeheartedly: Charlie Kirk is a ‘Righteous man amongst the Nations’ of the world,” he adds, using a phrase historically reserved for non-Jews who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust.
“His great deeds and noble character made him a truly remarkable figure,” Yosef writes. “In his modest yet firm way, he always chose to stand by truth, by justice, and by the people of Israel.”
Addressing Kirk’s wife, Erika, the chief rabbi expresses regret over not having been able to meet Kirk personally.
“From here, in Jerusalem, we send you our condolences and seek to strengthen you in these painful times,” Yosef writes. “You are not alone in your mourning — many among the Jewish people grieve with you, and remember Charlie as a man who devoted his full heart and soul to making the world a better and more just place.”
Mark Levin, a Fox News commentator, accompanies Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his corruption trial in a show of support.
Levin, a staunchly right-wing and pro-Netanyahu voice on the US conservative network, arrived with his wife Julie earlier today at the district court in Tel Aviv, where Netanyahu’s long-running trial for corruption continues.
The couple were also present at a closed-door ceremony at the contentious City of David archaeological park in Jerusalem last night.
Footage posted to X by Yair Altman, a reporter for the right-wing Channel 14, shows the Levins standing with Netanyahu and his legal team at the courthouse. Channel 12 reports that the prime minister and Levin exchanged glances during the trial.
Levin, in interviews of Netanyahu, has come out in support of his policies, including the controversial judicial overhaul Netanyahu’s coalition began advancing in early 2023.
*משפט נתניהו תיק 1,000*
איש התקשורת האמריקאי מארק לוין ואישתו ג'ולי הגיעו לתמוך בראש הממשלה. צילום שלי pic.twitter.com/do902pUjH7
— יאיר אלטמן | Yair Altman (@YairAltman) September 16, 2025
Swastikas are spraypainted in blue paint outside the Jerusalem offices of the religious Zionist Bnei Akiva movement this morning, in what the organization is decrying as an antisemitic incident.
One swastika is graffitied on the entrance to the building, under the movement’s sign. Another piece of graffiti appears to equate the movement to Nazism. The graffiti shows an equal sign between a swastika on one side, and two Hebrew letters representing the movement’s motto, “Torah va’avodah,” meaning “Torah and work,” on the other.
It is the fourth time the symbol has been found in front of the movement’s headquarters in the capital, says Bnei Akiva secretary general Yigal Klein.
Klein notes that one of the movement’s executive staffers, Sarah Mendelson, was murdered in the terror attack at Ramot Junction last week, while on her way to work.
“Just yesterday the shiva ended for Sarita Mendelson, may God avenge her blood, who was murdered on her way to the very building on which swastikas were drawn,” says Klein. “It is hard to believe that over 80 years after the Holocaust, we are witnessing antisemitism in Israel in 2025.”
Despite receiving several complaints reporting the string of incidents, police have not arrested any suspects in the repeated vandalism, Klein says.
Police have yet to respond to a request for comment regarding the incident. But in a statement reported by Channel 12, police said they were investigating and searching for the suspects.
צלבי קרס וכתובות נאצה רוססו על בניין הנהלת בני עקיבא בירושלים pic.twitter.com/IFwE6NRH1v
— חזקי ברוך (@HezkeiB) September 16, 2025
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum declares a “state of emergency” over the IDF’s offensive in Gaza City, announcing that it has set up a tent encampment outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence.
The announcement of the encampment, which the group says has police approval, comes after some relatives of hostages camped out last night outside the residence in Jerusalem upon hearing news that the Gaza City operation had begun.
“Following reports of tank incursions and massive bombardments in Gaza City, hostage families, terrified for their loved ones’ fate, spontaneously gathered in the late night hours outside the Prime Minister’s Residence on Azza Street in Jerusalem, crying out for the rescue of their loved ones and all hostages,” the group, which represents relatives of most of the hostages, says in a statement.
Relatives of hostages have expressed increasingly urgent fears that the operation to conquer Gaza City will endanger their loved ones. There are 48 hostages held by terror groups in Gaza, including some 20 who are thought to still be alive.
The group says the encampment “will remain until Netanyahu listens and implements the people’s will — the immediate return of all hostages and an end to the war.”
The group says it will hold demonstrations at the encampment every evening at 7:30 p.m.
Hospitals in Gaza City report that between midnight and 10:30 a.m. today, 39 people died, apparently as a result of IDF strikes in the city. The highest number of deaths, 23, was reported by officials at Shifa Hospital.
Palestinian media reports that the Israeli military detonated several explosive-laden remote-controlled armored personnel carriers in the Gaza City neighborhoods of Tel al-Hawa and Rimal this morning.
During the war, the IDF has repurposed decommissioned M113 APCs by packing them with explosives and attaching remote-control capabilities, in order to drive them into areas with Hamas infrastructure without risking the lives of troops.
The massive blasts from the APCs are used to destroy Hamas infrastructure, including booby trapped areas.
تصاعد الدخان جراء استهدافات وتفـ"جير روبوتات مفخخة لتدمير المنازل في حيي تل الهوى والرمال بمدينة غـ"زة.. pic.twitter.com/oi4WLtAQMD
— فلسطين بوست (@PalpostN) September 16, 2025
A Hezbollah operative was killed in a drone strike on a car in southern Lebanon’s Yater yesterday, the military says.
According to the military, the operative was involved in restoring Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, which “constitutes a blatant violation of the understanding between Israel and Lebanon.”
The IDF publishes footage of the strike.
צה"ל תקף וחיסל אתמול באמצעות כלי טיס של חיל האוויר בהובלת פיקוד הצפון, מחבל בארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב יאטר שבדרום לבנון.
המחבל עסק בניסיון שיקום תשתיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון.
פעולותיו של המחבל היוו הפרה של ההבנות בין ישראל ללבנון.
צה״ל ימשיך לפעול על מנת להסיר… pic.twitter.com/MSjEAz4RFd
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 16, 2025
The Israeli Air Force struck over 850 targets and hundreds of operatives in Gaza City in the past week, the military says, ahead of a ground offensive in the area that began last night.
In a statement, the IDF says it has begun a “broad ground operation throughout Gaza City” aimed at “achieving the objectives of the war in the Gaza Strip,” including the defeat of Hamas and the release of the hostages.
“The troops’ activity began in accordance with the operational plan and is expected to expand according to the situation assessment,” the military says.
The Knesset National Security Committee approves the government’s request to extend emergency provisions allowing for prisoners to be held overnight without a bed.
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, Israel has seen a major uptick in its prison population, causing overcrowding that the government has insisted can be solved only by loosening regulations governing prison conditions.
The number of inmates held in Israeli prisons shot up by around 8,360 since the start of the Gaza war, putting the total figure at 24,715. Among them are 11,115 Palestinian security prisoners, held for committing what Israel classifies as security offenses — crimes ranging from terror attacks to publishing what Israel says is incendiary content online.
The main reason for the spike is the influx of Palestinians jailed for illegally residing in Israel, says Israel Prison Service official Tamar Dori. Before October 7, illegal residents caught for the first time were deported, but police have changed their policy to pursue arrest regardless of suspects’ criminal past.
Currently there are 2,500 Palestinians detained as criminals for residing illegally in Israel, according to the prison official.
Hundreds attend funeral services in Yemen for 31 local journalists reported killed in Israeli airstrikes last week that targeted the Houthi terror group in the capital of Sanaa.
The strikes last Wednesday came after a drone launched by the Iran-backed Houthis breached Israel’s multilayered air defenses and slammed into the Ramon Airport in the south, blowing out glass windows and injuring one person.
In Yemen, dozens were reported killed, including the journalists, in the strikes that hit Sanaa, including residential areas, a military headquarters and a fuel station, according to the health ministry in the northern part of Yemen, which is controlled by the terror group.
The Israeli army said last week that it struck sites used by the Houthis to gather intelligence and attack Israel, a fuel storage facility, and a “public relations department responsible for distributing propaganda messages in the media.”
The National Museum of Yemen was also damaged in Sanaa, according to the Houthis’ culture ministry, with footage from the site showings damage to the building’s façade. A government facility in the city of Hazm, the capital of northern Jawf province, was also hit.
Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV broadcast the funerals Tuesday, showing dozens inside a mosque and the caskets being carried ahead of the burial.
The turnout was lower than expected for such a “huge loss,” according to Khaled Rageh and Ahmed Malhy, who attended the funerals, likely because heavy morning rain kept some away. The two men spoke to The Associated Press by phone.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry said it would summon the Israeli charge d’affaires today to protest against comments about Spain’s prime minister made by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
Sa’ar called Pedro Sanchez “an antisemite and a liar” in a message on X on Monday after the Spanish premier expressed support of massive pro-Palestinian protests in Madrid and elsewhere that disrupted several stages of the La Vuelta major cycling race, including the final stage.
“This morning, the Foreign Ministry will summon the charge d’affaires of the Israeli Embassy in Spain to protest the unacceptable words and positions of the Israeli foreign minister regarding Spain and the prime minister,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It will be the second time in less than a week that Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares has summoned the envoy to protest comments by the Israeli government.
Shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange plunge after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirms that Israel has started a major Gaza City offensive and says Israel must become a modern-day “Sparta.”
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-125 index drops 1.8%. The TA-35 index of blue-chip companies falls 1.6%, while the TA-90 index, which tracks the shares with the highest capitalization not included in the TA-35 index, declines 2.3%. The TA-Insurance index dives 2.9%.
“The start of the Gaza City offensive is a disappointment to investors after expectations for a potential ceasefire fueled Tel Aviv stock indexes to record highs in August,” Leader Capital Markets chief economist Jonathan Katz tells The Times of Israel. “The offensive means that war costs will continue, spending will need to be increased, and the budget deficit will be higher, which is negative for Israel’s credit rating.”
Netanyahu’s statements on Monday that Israel was facing the threat of diplomatic isolation over the war in Gaza, and needs to become a “Super Sparta” and be self-reliant, were also blasted by manufacturers, the High-Tech for Israel Forum, and business representatives of major Israeli companies..
“The negative sentiment is also impacted by Netanyahu’s comments about Israel facing the threat of isolation and the need to be self-reliant, which in turn, has potential implications for higher fiscal spending into the defense industry,” Katz adds.
Arabic leaflets dropped by the IDF in Gaza City, warning Palestinians to evacuate the area, landed in the southern coastal city of Ashkelon this morning, residents report.
The military says the flyers likely landed inside Israel due to wind conditions. Similar occurrences have happened before.
לאחר שתושבי אשקלון דיווחו על כרוזים בערבית המפוזרים מהאוויר – צה"ל מעדכן כי מדובר על כרוזים שצה"ל מפזר בעזה שהגיעו לאשקלון בגלל תנאי הרוח@ShaniRami pic.twitter.com/XMHBpPxjvF
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) September 16, 2025
Two IDF divisions, made up of tens of thousands of troops, began expanded ground operations in Gaza City overnight as the army launches a “new stage” of its offensive against Hamas, the military says.
The early stages of the offensive, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots B” began several weeks ago with increased strikes on Hamas targets, including high-rise towers, and ground operations on the outskirts of Gaza City and in several neighborhoods in the east of the city.
The military says that the 162nd and 98th divisions are now expanding their operations in Gaza City, and in the coming days, a third division, the 36th, will also join, adding tens of thousands more soldiers to the offensive.
Overnight, a large wave of airstrikes was carried out in Gaza City, as the two divisions began to advance into new areas of Gaza City, beyond those currently under Israeli control.
In the coming days and weeks, the ground troops are set to push deeper into the city, and encircle it, as part of efforts to defeat Hamas’s forces there, according to the IDF.
The military estimates that there are thousands of Hamas operatives in Gaza City, as well as some 600,000 civilians who have not yet evacuated.
The military says IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir is commanding the offensive personally from the Southern Command.
Some 60,000 reservists have been called up for the operation, in addition to another 70,000 already in the reserves. Despite reports of burnout, the IDF claims that the turnout rate of reservists is high, 75%-85% in most units.
In addition to the Gaza City offensive, the IDF says the 99th Division is conducting defensive operations in Israel’s buffer zone in northern Gaza, while the Gaza Division is operating in the Strip’s south.
A new United Nations report says that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, has concluded that Israel has carried out four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Those include “killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.”
Israel adamantly rejects the charge that it is committing genocide, saying it strives to avoid civilian casualties, and blames Hamas for putting noncombatants in harm’s way. Israel’s Foreign Ministry accuses the report’s authors of being “Hamas proxies.”
“The report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others,” the ministry’s statement says. “Israel categorically rejects this distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry.”
The report was published after a nearly two-year investigation by the commission following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught that began the war. The October 7 attack receives only fleeting mention in the report, and the details of the massacre are not included at all.
According to the commission, explicit statements by “civilian and military authorities” as well as a “pattern of conduct” by the military “indicate that the genocidal acts were committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group.”
“The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,” says Navi Pillay, chair of the commission. “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”
All three members of the commission, including Pillay, announced their impending resignations in July. Pillay’s term will end in November.
The report accuses Israel’s leadership, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, of having “incited the commission of genocide.”
The authors of the report accuse Israel of numerous crimes in Gaza, including starvation, mass killing, systemic sexual and gender based violence, and directly targeting children.
The Commission urges Israel to “end the genocide in Gaza” and calls on UN member states to halt arms transfers to Israel, and to prosecute individuals or corporations under their jurisdiction that are complicit in genocide.
At the opening of today’s session in his corruption trial, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirms that Israel “has begun an intensive operation in Gaza City,” according to reports.
He makes the statement as part of a request to be excused from his regularly scheduled testimony due to the “important things happening.”
The IDF says it has “begun destroying Hamas infrastructure in Gaza City,” confirming the start of a major offensive in the area.
“Gaza City is considered a dangerous combat zone, staying in the area puts you at risk,” the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, says in a post on X.
Civilians are instructed to evacuate the area immediately and head for an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south.
Adraee says that so far, more than 40% of the city’s estimated one million residents have “left the city for their safety and the safety of their loved ones.” IDF estimates from last night indicated that more than 350,000 Palestinians had so far evacuated Gaza City.
US President Donald Trump will likely meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky next week, and still hopes to broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says.
Trump has repeatedly threatened sanctions against Russia if President Vladimir Putin does not compromise. But he has not followed through even as Russia ramps up attacks, frustrating Ukraine.
Trump has had “multiple calls with Putin, multiple meetings with Zelensky, including probably next week again in New York,” where leaders are gathering for the UN General Assembly, Rubio tells reporters in Israel.
“He’s going to keep trying. If peace is possible, he wants to achieve it,” Rubio says. “At some point, the president may conclude it’s not possible. He’s not there yet, but he could get to that point.”
Rubio points to a figure previously cited by Trump, saying that Russia lost 20,000 soldiers in fighting in July alone. Rubio says that Trump was unique in being able to speak to Putin as well as Zelensky and the Europeans.
“If somehow he were to disengage from this, or sanction Russia and say, ‘I’m done,’ then there’s no one left in the world that could possibly mediate the end,” Rubio says.
The Israel Business Forum, which represents most private sector workers from 200 of the country’s largest companies, warns Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his policies are leading the country into a “dangerous and unprecedented economic and political downturn.”
The forum’s statement is a response to Netanyahu’s comments yesterday that Israel was facing the threat of diplomatic isolation over the war in Gaza, and needed to become a “Super Sparta” and be self-reliant.
“We are not Sparta — this vision as presented will make it difficult for us to survive in an evolving global world,” the forum cautions. “We are marching towards a political, economic, and social abyss that will endanger our existence in Israel.”
“The Israeli economy shows exceptional resilience, despite the security and political challenges — but not forever,” the forum adds.
The forum urges Netanyahu to “stop this” policy and calls on the government to immediately change course.
“The government must urgently put an end to the longest war in Israel’s history, promote the release of all hostages, announce a state investigation committee [regarding the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack], and set a date for elections in the immediate future,” the forum demands.
US President Donald Trump sued The New York Times, four of its reporters, and the Penguin Random House publisher for at least $15 billion on Monday, claiming defamation and libel, and citing reputational damage, a Florida court filing shows.
Trump’s suit cites a series of New York Times articles, one an editorial prior to the 2024 presidential election, which said he was unfit for office, and a 2024 book published by Penguin titled “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.”
“Defendants maliciously published the Book and the Articles knowing that these publications were filled with repugnant distortions and fabrications about President Trump,” according to the filing lodged on Monday.
The New York Times and Penguin do not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
Trump’s lawyers say in the filing that the publications have harmed Trump’s business and personal reputation, thereby causing massive economic damage to his brand value and significant damage to his future financial prospects.
The filing comes after Trump threatened last week to sue The New York Times for its reporting on an allegedly sexually suggestive note and drawing given to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times,” Trump posted yesterday on his social media platform Truth Social.
In his post, Trump accused the paper of lying about him, his family and businesses, as well as movements and ideologies affiliated with him such as the America First Movement, and Make America Great Again, or MAGA.
In his second term, Trump has intensified his crackdown against media companies. Earlier this year he sued the Wall Street Journal and its owners, including Rupert Murdoch, for at least $10 billion over the newspaper’s report that his name was on a 2003 birthday greeting for Epstein.
In July, CBS parent company Paramount agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump alleging that the CBS news program “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with former US vice president Kamala Harris that the network broadcast in October.
The Israeli singer and TV host Gidi Gov is suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol and causing a car accident on Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway that injured six people.
Police questioned Gov, he has admitted to being drunk, and his blood showed elevated levels of alcohol, Channel 12 reports. The network reports that he said he was on the way back from a performance when he lost control of his car and hit six other vehicles.
The six people lightly injured in the accident were taken to the hospital. Gov’s driver’s license will be suspended for two months, the network reports.
Gov, long a prominent Israeli musician and TV personality, is known as a founding member of the band Kaveret, a co-host of the comedy show “Zehu Zeh,” and for his extensive solo career.
Videos circulating on social media show families spending the night in the streets of Gaza City following heavy Israeli bombardments overnight. Reports from Gaza say dozens were killed and injured in the city as a result of the strikes.
هربا من القصف الإسرائيلي.. عائلات فلسطينية تفترش الأرصفة في غزة بحثا عن مكان آمن#فلسطين#غزة#قناة_الحدث pic.twitter.com/vqHy0qeVJ8
— ا لـحـدث (@AlHadath) September 16, 2025
Qatar and the United States are on the verge of finalizing an enhanced defense cooperation agreement, says US Secretary of State Marco Rubio while en route to Doha from Tel Aviv today, after Israel’s attack targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar last week drew widespread condemnation.
Rubio calls for Qatar to continue its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“If any country in the world can help mediate it, Qatar is the one. They’re the ones that can do it,” Rubio says while departing Tel Aviv for Doha.
Prime Minister Benjamin has said he does not rule out further strikes on Hamas leaders “wherever they are.” The heads of Arab and Islamic states held a summit yesterday to back Qatar after Israel’s attack.
Qatar called the Israeli attack “cowardly and treacherous,” but said it wouldn’t deter it from its role as a mediator, alongside Egypt and the United States.
“We have a close partnership with the Qataris. In fact, we have an enhanced defense cooperation agreement, which we’ve been working on, we’re on the verge of finalizing,” Rubio says.
More than 350,000 Palestinians have so far evacuated Gaza City to other areas of the Strip, according to IDF estimates from last night.
Thousands more are estimated to have left the city overnight amid a heavy wave of airstrikes, a defense source says.
The source says that the rate of Palestinian civilians leaving Gaza City will likely increase as the IDF’s ground offensive against Hamas, which aims to conquer the city, progresses.
Around one million Palestinians were estimated to be residing in Gaza City before the IDF began to prepare for the offensive. Last week, the IDF ordered Palestinians in all areas of Gaza City to evacuate immediately ahead the offensive.
Civilians have been instructed to head for an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south.
Overnight, the military carried out intensive airstrikes in Gaza City, according to Palestinian media.
The suspect accused of assassinating right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah wrote a text message before the shooting that he planned to kill Kirk, says FBI Director Kash Patel.
In an appearance on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” yesterday, Patel says investigators believe Tyler Robinson also wrote a physical note saying he had the “opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk” and would do so. The note was destroyed, Patel says, but investigators have collected forensic evidence that it had existed and confirmed its contents through interviews.
Patel does not say who had received the text message or whether anyone had seen the written note before the attack.
Robinson, 22, is expected to be formally charged today, around the same time that he makes an initial court appearance by video from his jail cell.
Prosecutors in Utah County are considering several charges against Robinson, the most serious being aggravated murder, because it could bring the death penalty if there is a conviction.
Investigators have not publicly identified a motive in the assassination. Law enforcement authorities have said they believe Robinson acted alone when he shot Kirk but are investigating whether anyone else had a role in plotting the killing. Robinson has not cooperated with authorities, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said on Sunday.
Separately, the Washington Post reports that Robinson had sent a message via the online gaming platform Discord to friends, apparently confessing to the crime on Thursday night, shortly before he was arrested.
“It was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this,” read a message from the account belonging to Robinson, the newspaper reports, citing two people familiar with the chat as well as screenshots it had obtained.
Kirk, an influential ally of US President Donald Trump who co-founded the leading conservative student group Turning Point USA, was killed by a single rifle shot last week during an event at Utah Valley University.
Patel also tells Fox News that DNA matching the suspect’s was found on a towel that was wrapped around the rifle believed to be the murder weapon, and on a screwdriver found on the rooftop that served as the shooter’s sniper perch.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warns that Hamas has only days to accept a ceasefire deal, as Israel bombards Gaza City.
“The Israelis have begun to take operations there,” Rubio says as he departs Israel for Qatar, which serves as a mediator in talks for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal. “So we think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen. We don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks to go.”
Following Palestinian media reports of intensive IDF bombardment in Gaza City overnight, Defense Minister Israel Katz says troops are “fighting valiantly to create the conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”
“Gaza [City] is burning. The IDF is striking the terror infrastructure with an iron fist,” he says in a statement.
“We will not relent and we will not back down, until the mission is completed,” Katz adds.
Hamas issues a statement hitting back at US President Donald Trump after the latter warned that “all bets were off” if reports that the terror group is moving hostages above ground to thwart the IDF takeover of Gaza City turn out to be true.
Hamas claims Trump’s comments demonstrate “blatant bias in favor of Zionist propaganda.”
The terror group says Trump knows well that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the one destroying all chances of reaching an agreement that would end the war in Gaza.
Hamas adds that it holds the US — along with Israel — responsible for the escalating war in Gaza.
“War criminal Netanyahu bears full responsibility for the lives of his prisoners in the Gaza Strip,” the group says, adding that the Gaza City takeover risks the lives of the hostages.
“Washington knows that Netanyahu is sabotaging the chances of any agreement, most recently by attempting to assassinate the negotiating delegation in Qatar while they were discussing Trump’s final deal,” Hamas says.
Luxembourg is reportedly joining the growing list of Western countries planning to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly next week.
Politico reports that Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel updated a parliamentary commission on the decision on Monday.
Israel heavily bombarded Gaza City after midnight on Monday-Tuesday, witnesses tell AFP, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed Israel’s offensive in the devastated territory.
“There is heavy, relentless bombing on Gaza City, and the danger keeps increasing,” witness Ahmed Ghazal says, adding that homes have been destroyed and residents are trapped under the rubble.
“We can hear their screams,” says the 25-year-old Gaza resident.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency, tells AFP that “bombing is still ongoing heavily across Gaza City, and the number of deaths and injuries continues to rise.”
The parents of hostages Matan Zangauker, Matan Angrest and Rom Braslavski are currently camping out in sleeping bags outside the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Jerusalem’s Azza Street, protesting the reported IDF commencement of its Gaza City takeover.
They are joined by the father of slain hostage Guy Iluz and other relatives of the 48 captives still being held in Gaza.
Zangauker’s mother Einav tells reporters that the families don’t intend to leave, as they fear that the military’s operations ordered by the government are endangering their loved ones.
They are resorting to sleeping bags after police barred them from bringing tents onto the street.
השעה 3:00
עינב צנגאוקר, מישל אילוז, ענת אנגרסט, אופיר ברסלבסקי ועוד משפחות הביאו שמיכות ושקי שינה – כי המשטרה לא מאפשרת לבנות אוהלים בשטח – ומתכוונות לעשות פה את הלילה ואולי גם את הימים הקרובים. עינב אומרת שהם לא מתכוונים לעזוב את הכביש pic.twitter.com/PILWqyqBYw
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) September 16, 2025
The United States can export “Reaper”-style and other advanced military drones more easily following a reinterpretation of its export control policies approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department announced on Monday.
Drones will now be treated like fighter jets, such as the F-16, rather than missile systems, allowing the US to sidestep the 35-nation Missile Technology Control Regime agreement it signed in 1987 and enabling drone sales to countries like the UAE and Eastern European nations that have struggled to acquire America’s best unmanned aerial vehicles.
More immediately, the change unlocks the sale of more than 100 MQ-9 drones to Saudi Arabia, which the kingdom requested in the spring of this year and could be part of a $142 billion arms deal announced in May. US allies in the Pacific and Europe have also expressed interest.
The new policy lets large drone manufacturers General Atomics, Kratos KTOS.O, and Anduril have their products treated as “foreign military sales” by the State Department, allowing them to be easily sold internationally.
The MTCR agreement was signed to curb long-range missile sales, and military drones that proliferated years later were considered to be covered by the agreement because they can fly far and carry weapons.
US drone manufacturers are facing stiff competition overseas, especially from Israeli, Chinese and Turkish rivals who often sell under lighter or no restrictions.
The IDF has launched its ground offensive to take over Gaza City, the Axios news site reports, citing unnamed Israeli officials.
The IDF has been gradually expanding airstrikes in and around the city in recent days, but had not dispatched ground troops into the densely populated northern city where roughly hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are believed to be sheltering.
The IDF says some 300,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City in recent weeks after its population had ballooned to roughly one million displaced people earlier this year. The army has been urging everyone in Gaza City to evacuate with limited success, as many fear that other areas in the Strip are no safer.
Airstrikes in Gaza City intensified on Monday evening local time before Palestinian media began reporting that IDF tanks had entered the city.
Former hostage Arbel Yehoud, whose boyfriend Ariel Cunio is still being held in Gaza, writes an appeal to the public on Instagram as she makes her way to Jerusalem for a protest outside of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence against the reported advancement of the IDF’s Gaza City takeover operation.
“My Ariel is in real danger. The sounds of the explosions from Gaza shake the walls of my home and the chambers of my heart. I am going up to Jerusalem to the prime minister’s residence, and I need you with me to save everyone,” she writes.
Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, a longtime supporter of Israel who is running for New York City mayor, calls for an end to the “horrific” war in Gaza.
“There is no doubt that the people of New York and the nation see the continued carnage that is happening and are deeply, deeply disturbed and want it over, and believe it has gone on way too long,” Cuomo tells The New York Times.
“It should end today. Return the hostages, end the violence. Today. I think it should have been over months ago. It is horrific,” Cuomo says.
He also condemns the leader in the mayoral race, the far-left Israel critic Zohran Mamdani, for his call to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mamdani doubled down on his vow to arrest Netanyahu this week, despite legal experts saying that, as mayor, he would not have the ability to do so.
“I don’t think the mayor of New York should be exercising his or her political judgment in arresting world leaders based on their politics,” Cuomo says.
Cuomo distances himself from Netanyahu. Last year, Cuomo signed up to join Netanyahu’s defense team after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu.
Cuomo says that he meant to contest the court’s jurisdiction, not claims about Netanyahu’s complicity in war crimes.
“I never stood with Bibi,” Cuomo says, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
Cuomo declines to say if the Israeli military has committed war crimes in Gaza.
Cuomo’s denunciation of the war marks a shift in tone from the former governor. During the primary campaign, he maintained a steadfast support for Israel as he aimed to win Jewish voters who were put off by Mamdani’s anti-Israel rhetoric.
Cuomo’s statements are another indication of how the Gaza war has scrambled support for Israel in New York politics and the Democratic Party.
Mamdani caused repeated controversies with his anti-Israel rhetoric during the primary campaign, particularly his defense of the slogan “globalize the intifada.” After coming under heavy pressure, Mamdani said he would “discourage” the use of the phrase.
A poll last week found that, despite the controversies, New York City voters favored Mamdani’s rhetoric on the conflict.
On Sunday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, another pro-Israel moderate, endorsed Mamdani’s candidacy.
Also running for mayor is New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a moderate who has held onto his pro-Israel line during the campaign.
While police appear to have blocked off Azza Street in Jerusalem to prevent a large protest against the government’s Gaza City takeover plans, officers have allowed hostage Matan Zengauker’s mother Einav along with a handful of other supporters to pass through to demonstrate outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence.
“Sara (Netanyahu), come out here and tell me what you promised me in Nir Oz. There are other fathers and mothers here too. Come out and tell me how you lied to my face, how you told me that you were going to bring a deal that returns everyone home. Come out and tell me how you lied to me. You know how to meet with families behind closed doors, away from the media, away from everything, where you sell them complete nonsense. Enough!” Zangauker can be heard shouting.
“I have one interest: for this country to wake up and bring back my child along with 47 other hostages — both living and deceased — and to bring our soldiers home,” she continues.
Netanyahu “doesn’t like hearing us here, so he ran away like a coward. We will follow him everywhere, day and night. It’s over. The gloves are off. If he stops at nothing and sends our precious, brave, heroic soldiers to fight while our hostages are being used as human shields, he is not worthy of being prime minister!” she adds.
עינב צנגאוקר מחוץ למעון רה"מ: "שרה, תצאי ותגידי איך שיקרת לי בפנים ואמרת לי שאתם הולכים להביא הסכם ולהחזיר את כולם"@elyashivharel pic.twitter.com/UToXWxKdAO
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) September 15, 2025
Police have closed Jerusalem’s Azza Street, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence is located, after the Hostage Family Forum announced that it was going to hold an overnight protest against the reported commencement of the first phase of the IDF’s takeover of Gaza City.
Hostage families fear that the operation will put their loved ones in danger.
The forum issues a statement saying that Netanyahu heard about the “families’ intention to come demonstrate near his home in Jerusalem and fled within minutes.”
The forum reiterates its call for the public to join them in Jerusalem for the protest.
The mother of hostage Matan Angrest says her son is being held in the area currently being struck by the IDF in Gaza City.
“I won’t let this be his last night (alive). I’m on my way to the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem. Come with me!” Anat Angrest tweets.
The IDF has said that it is taking steps to avoid targeting areas where the hostages are held, though, it has in the past unknowingly done so, leading Hamas captors to execute several hostages.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is also being held in Gaza, tweets, “We hear the bombings on our children and we can’t sit at home.”
She accused Netanyahu of deciding to kill the hostages and of “sacrificing an entire country for his political survival.
“We are going out to demand the return of our children in a comprehensive deal to end the war,” Zangauker adds.
Hostage Nimrod Cohen’s mother Vicky Cohen addresses her son directly in an X post.
“My child, I know that the bombings around you are shaking the tunnel you are in,” she writes.
“I wish I could just tell you to take care of yourself, but we both know that this is not in your control. I am sending you strength and asking you: Be strong, and don’t break.”
US President Donald Trump says Israel won’t be striking Qatar again after last week’s strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha infuriated the Gulf state and other US allies in the region.
Asked in the Oval Office whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given him any guarantees that Israel won’t strike Qatar again, Trump tells reporters, “He won’t be hitting Qatar.”
He reiterates that Doha has “been a very good ally, and a lot of people don’t know that.
Netanyahu “won’t be hitting Qatar, but he will be maybe going after…” Trump adds, indicating that he expects Israel to continue trying to target Hamas elsewhere before pivoting to discuss a related issue.
He recalls having read an article earlier today “where Hamas said they’re going to use hostages as human shields, going to bring them up from the dark tunnels and put them in the line of fire, so that if Israel goes forward, they’re going to die.”
“I thought that was very terrible and I put out a statement,” he says, referring to his Truth Social post in which he warned that “all bets are off” if Hamas adopted that strategy.
Trump is also asked about an Axios report citing unnamed Israeli officials who said that Netanyahu tipped off Trump on the Doha strike in advance and with enough time for the US to order it be called off.
The US president denies the report, sticking to his account that he was only alerted of the attack at a point last week when it was too late to reverse.
“Thank you President Trump for your unflinching support for Israel’s battle against Hamas and the release of all our hostages,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweets.
The post comes minutes after Trump warned Hamas that “all bets are off” if reports that it is moving hostages above ground to try and stave off an Israeli invasion of Gaza City prove accurate.
