Israel News for 9-12-2025
News Update
A terrorist stabbed and wounded 2 men in the dining hall of a hotel in Kibbutz Tzuba, in the Jerusalem Hills. The terrorist, a 42-year-old resident of the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem with a record of security offenses, worked at the hotel. He was arrested by an officer from the Negev Central Unit who was staying there. The victims were 58 and 25, and suffered chest wounds.
A funeral was held yesterday in Doha for the 6 people killed in the Israeli airstrike against the Hamas leadership meeting there. Included in the dead were the son of Hamas leader in Gaza Khalil al-Hayya, his chief of staff and one of his bodyguards. No senior Hamas figures were at the funeral. While nothing has yet been officially confirmed, it appears that the strike did not succeed in eliminated the Hamas leadership, who apparently left the targeted room for prayers moments before the strike. A Qatari security officer killed in the strike, and several other were injured. Qatar’s Prime Minister said that Qatar would respond to the Israeli strike, but didn’t say how or when.
All 15 members of the U.N. Security Council issued a joint statement yesterday condemning the strike in Doha against Hamas’s top leadership, though the statement did not mention Israel by name. The statement also highlighted “the vital role Qatar plays in mediation efforts in the region, alongside Egypt and the United States.” It also said that freeing hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza “must remain our top priorities.” Diplomats said the United States worked to soften the language, which could have been more severe.
Prime Minister Netanyahu signed off on the controversial E1 settlement project near Jerusalem, at a ceremony in Maale Adumim. The construction project would create a contiguous ring of Jewish neighborhoods and settlements around Jerusalem and sever territorial continuity between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem in the West Bank, making it nearly impossible to establish a viable Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Netanyahu predicted that Maale Adumim’s population would double to 70,000 within five years.
