Israel News for 7-8-2025
News Update
Prime minister Netanyahu and President Trump met in the White House yesterday. Netanyahu presented Trump with a nomination letter recommending him for the Nobel Peace Prize. When asked about his plan to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, Trump referred the question to Netanyahu, who said, “President Trump had a brilliant vision; he called it ‘free choice.’ If people want to stay, they can. But if they want to leave, they should be allowed to. It shouldn’t be a prison; it should be an open place and allow people free choice.” Regarding a two-state solution Netanyahu said, “I think the Palestinians should have the authority to govern themselves—but not the power to threaten us. That means certain powers, like overall security, will always remain in our hands. They also discussed Iran, Syria, the Abraham Accords and the Gaza negotiations. The White House said that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff would travel to Doha this week to push for a cease-fire agreement.
Five IDF soldiers were killed and 14 wounded roadside bombing and ambush in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. The soldiers killed were: Sgt. First Class (res.) Benyamin Asulin, 28, from Haifa; Staff Sgt. Noam Aharon Musgadian, 20, from Jerusalem; Staff Sgt. Meir Shimon Amar, 20, from Jerusalem; Sgt. Moshe Nissim Frech, 20, from Jerusalem; and Staff Sgt. Moshe Shmuel Noll, 21, from Beit Shemesh. Asulin, a reservist from the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, had joined the active force for the operation, while the other four were all serving in the Netzah Yehuda Battalion.
According to a preliminary IDF investigation, troops from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion were advancing on foot through a combat zone near Israeli tanks and engineering vehicles when a series of four to five explosive devices detonated in close succession. As rescue teams moved in to evacuate the wounded, they came under heavy fire in what the IDF described as a well-prepared ambush by Hamas.
The IDF carried out two drone strikes in southern Lebanon yesterday, killing a senior commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan force and another terrorist.
