Tag Archive for: Israel News

News Update

President Trump has endorsed Prime Minister Netanyahu ahead of next week’s election:

“To the Great People of Israel:

Bibi Netanyahu has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran, with its 51 year old chant, “Death to Israel, Death to America! We will destroy the Little Satan and the Big Satan.” What Country can survive when things such as this are allowed to be said, because eventually, they always end up being true? It would have been only a question of time until Iran would have put that ominous phrase into effect, but they have been systematically destroyed, both Militarily and Financially, and unless they change their ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job. If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so. Bibi Netanyahu has been Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself. Despite all of that, he has endured and, in fact, he has thrived! I have watched Bibi under the most trying of times. Normal men or women in such situations would have wilted under the pressure — But Bibi did not wilt, he actually got stronger, and maintains that same Strength today. This is the kind of Partner that the United States of America is demanding of Israel, a Country for which it has done so much. Please let this Letter serve to represent my Complete and Total Endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu in his upcoming Race for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Israel. BIBI NETANYAHU WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Netanyahu responded with profuse praise and thanks.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has placed the IDF on its highest alert level and suspended all leaves beginning Thursday, in preparation for the election. The IDF also has decided to increase the presence of senior commanders in operations centers, headquarters and units to ensure operational readiness and effectiveness. Reinforcements have also been deployed to Judea and Samaria.

The IDF announced that it killed three Hamas terrorists, including a cell commander and a member of the group’s engineering battalion, in a series of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Saturday. The 3 were involved in preparing attacks against Israeli troops and civilians and efforts to rebuild Hamas’ military capabilities in violation of the ceasefire.

The Israel police arrested eight Jewish suspects in Judea and Samaria early today as part of a new operation launched following violent attacks on American photojournalist Heidi Levine and European diplomats over the weekend. On Friday, dozens of masked Jewish attackers descended on Palestinian olive harvesters near the village of Abu Falah, in the Ramallah area, injuring two people, including veteran photojournalist Heidi Levine, who was covering the harvest for The Washington Post. On Saturday, Jewish extremists attacked diplomats from France, Belgium and Poland, along with Israeli activists, who were visiting an olive harvest near the Palestinian village of Taybeh, widely considered the West Bank’s last entirely Christian village. The incidents drew condemnations, including from senior officials in the U.S. administration.

Elbit Systems (TASE: ESLT; Nasdaq: ESLT) announced today that it had secured a $235 million contract to supply EXTRA-MR (Medium Range) rockets and PULS rocket artillery systems to a European client, under a government-to-government agreement between the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the client nation’s Ministry of Defense. The country is reportedly Azerbaijan. For more, click here.

News Update

IDF forces killed Muhammad Muhsen Nimr Yazj, a Hamas commander in the Shati Battalion, in an airstrike in Gaza City earlier this week. He who was involved in holding Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Matan Angrest captive. Another Hamas terrorist was eliminated in a different airstrike this week too. According to the IDF, both terrorists had recently been advancing terrorist plots against Israeli forces and civilians and were involved in efforts to rebuild Hamas’ capabilities.

Capt. Eliav Haim Tzapalamus, a combat engineering officer in the IDF’s 603rd Battalion, was killed Thursday when a Humvee overturned during operational activity in southern Lebanon. Three other IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in the incident.

Three years after the outbreak of the war, the IDF is launching a formal process to review and award military commendations and decorations to officers and soldiers for acts of heroism during the defensive battles in Gaza border communities on October 7, 2023, and in the days that followed. The IDF also will address acts of heroism by civilians during the October 7 battles. The IDF repeatedly said it could not move forward until its in-depth operational investigations into the October 7 battles had been completed. The process also was delayed by the ground campaign in Lebanon and the fighting against Iran.

President Isaac Herzog presented civilian bravery awards to six Israelis who subdued the terrorist and prevented disaster on the FlyDubai flight last week. The awards were presented at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem to Tali Manes, Zvika Manes, Yaniv Hayun, Asaf Rajuan, Or Pardilov and Dr. Shota Musaiev.

The Palestinian Authority has informed France that elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council will be postponed by several months, due to “fundamental obstacles affecting their inclusiveness, freedom of participation and the integrity of the electoral process.” The elections had been scheduled for November 28 following a pledge Abbas made to French President Emmanuel Macron, which played a significant role in Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state.

News Update

With the holiday season over, Israel is deep into the campaigning season for the upcoming election set to take place on October 27.  The nation, and hopefully the entire world, is celebrating the miraculous thwarting of the terrorist attack on a FlyDubai aircraft carrying over 170 Israeli passengers from the UAE to Tel Aviv, where an Omani copilot (banned from flying in Oman because of his radical Islamist views) attacked the Indian pilot and attempted to crash the plane, before a bunch of ordinary Israeli passengers stopped him and regained control of the plane, allowing 2 off duty FlyDubai pilots to safely land the plan in Saudi Arabia. What could have been a 9-11 style disaster turned into a miraculous salvation. I’d say that’s a promising way to start the Jewish new year.

Ahead of October 7, the Friends of the IDF organization has released a series of several dozen video testimonies from survivors of the massacre and from soldiers, security personnel and civilians who fought the terrorists and saved lives on that day.  To watch the videos, click here. 

News Update

Neriya Leiter, an IDF reservist from Havat Yair and the son of Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Yehiel Leiter, was rammed by a terrorist as he was standing guard at a checkpoint on Highway 443 near Modiin. He is at Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem, where he underwent a complex brain operation that lasted several hours. His doctor said, “After a series of tests and a series of surgeries, we can say that his condition is stable. His condition is still serious and his life is still in danger, but we are full of hope.” His father, Ambassador Leiter, rushed back from the U.S. to be at his side. His oldest son, Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidya Leiter, was killed in Gaza in November 2023. Meanwhile, Leiter’s eldest daughter gave birth in the same hospital just 40 meters away, 2 weeks early. She is in intensive care.

Prime Minister Netanyahu will address the U.N. (whoever doesn’t walk out) at around 2pm today. The Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu is scheduled to meet the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama and Ethiopia, the vice president of Colombia, and the prime ministers of Greece, Slovenia and Papua New Guinea.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II delivered one of the week’s sharpest attacks on Israel at the UN General Assembly, accusing the Israeli government of war crimes, an “expansionist appetite” and pursuing policies designed to make a viable Palestinian state impossible. He devoted a substantial portion of his to the war in Gaza, developments in the West Bank and Israeli activity in southern Syria. He also accused the international community of spending years trying to “manage” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict instead of resolving it. For more, click here.

The IDF announced that it eliminated Hamas finance department chief Muhammad Abu Alwan in an airstrike in Gaza yesterday. Alwan transferred more than 1 billion shekels to finance the terror group’s activities during the war.

News Update

Palestinian politician Sufian Abu Zaida, a senior figure in Fatah and the PLO and a former Palestinian Authority minister for prisoner affairs, said Thursday that he was the previously unidentified intermediary who relayed a warning in September 2023 that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major attack on Israel. Abu Zaida was reportedly involved in indirect contacts between Israel and Hamas over the return of the bodies of Israeli soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul and the release of two Israeli civilians, Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu, who were being held in Gaza at the time. For more, click here.

The IDF has formally dismissed the officer who served as the Gaza Division’s intelligence chief during the October 7 attack. The officer, who’s identity remains classified, challenged the dismissal in court, but ultimately was unsuccessful.

Herbert Kickl, the leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party delivered remarks on Wednesday that condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, apologized directly to Jews over Austria’s role in the Holocaust and sought a new relationship with Jewish communities. He spoke at a conference in the European Parliament in Strasbourg attended by representatives of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and other right-wing European parties. The gathering focused on antisemitism and Islamism and reflected the FPÖ’s growing efforts to build ties with Israel despite the party’s controversial history. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar welcomed the remarks, calling them “an important and positive development.”

Another casualty of the Houthi attempts to close the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is the southern gateway to the Red Sea, is the Port of Eilat. In 2023, 150,000 vehicles arrived at the port, while in 2024 and 2025, not a single vehicle arrived. For more, click here.