IDF says it launched new ground offensive in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun

Israeli drone strike reported on car in southern Lebanon

Lebanese state media reports an Israeli drone strike on a car in a southern Lebanon town.

“An Israeli drone carried out an airstrike this morning, launching a guided missile targeting a car in the town of Aita al-Shaab” near the border with Israel, Lebanon’s official National News Agency says, reporting an unspecified number of casualties.

The report comes after a rocket attack on the northern Israel town of Metula yesterday that triggered the most intense escalation since the November ceasefire, with Israel launching two waves of airstrikes on dozens of Hezbollah sites in Lebanon.

Turkish courts jail Istanbul mayor, a key Erdogan rival, pending trial

A Turkish court has jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu pending trial, state media and other broadcasters say, in a move likely to stoke the country’s biggest protests in more than a decade.

The decision to send Imamoglu — who is President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival — to prison, comes after the main opposition party, European leaders and tens of thousands of protesters criticized the actions against him as politicized.

The court says Imamoglu and at least 20 others were jailed as part of a corruption investigation. A separate ruling on a terror-related investigation has yet to be issued.

Defense Min. rehab department has received some 16,000 soldiers for treatment since October 7, 2023

The Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department says it has received some 16,000 soldiers since the beginning of the war which began on October 7, 2023, including those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

According to the Defense Ministry around half of those received by the rehab centers amid the war have PTSD. Of them, 2,900 are suffering both physical injuries and psychological distress.

Some 6 percent are defined as having moderate injuries and another 4% as having severe injuries. 72 are listed as amputees.

Among the 16,000 soldiers, around 66% are reservists.

The rehab department is working with some 78,000 wounded veterans in total, including those from previous wars. It forecasts that by 2030, the centers will be treating some 100,000, with at least half of them suffering from PTSD.

Retired Supreme Court justices warn against government’s planned dismissal of AG

Ahead of a planned motion of “no confidence” in Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara at a weekly cabinet meeting later this morning, a number of retired Supreme Court justices have published a letter to the government warning it against the move.

A copy of the letter is obtained and published by several Hebrew media outlets.

“For decades, we have played a central role in maintaining the rule of law in Israel,” it begins. “As part of this role, we have exercised judicial review over decisions made by successive attorneys general on various issues on the legal and public agenda.”

An attorney general’s legal opinions are “intended to prevent the government from making illegal decisions,” the retired justices stress.

“The attorney general fulfills this role in a practical and professional manner, and it is inconceivable that fulfilling her duty as a loyal public servant would be to her detriment and lead to her dismissal,” the letter continues.

It further warns that dismissing Baharav-Miara “would seriously endanger the State of Israel’s status as a country of law founded on sound governance and administration.”

Among the letter’s signatories are retired Supreme Court presidents Esther Hayut, Dorit Beinisch and Aharon Barak, as well as former vice president Elyakim Rubinstein and ex-justice Hanan Melcer.

The motion of no confidence planned for today’s cabinet meeting is the first of several steps the government must take to remove the attorney general from office, and the process is expected to last several months.

IDF says it launched new ground offensive in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun

The IDF announces that it began ground operations yesterday in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun.

The offensive there is aimed at destroying Hamas infrastructure and expanding a buffer zone along the border, the military says. During the operation, Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck several Hamas targets in the area.

The IDF adds that it is enabling Palestinian civilians to evacuate the “combat zone for their safety.”

Young woman shot dead in her home overnight southern Israel Bedouin village

A young woman in her 20s was shot dead in her home early this morning in the Negev Bedouin village Qasr al-Sir, near Dimona.

Paramedics say they found Shuruq al-Hawashleh unconscious and without a pulse, suffering from several bullet wounds. They pronounced her dead at the scene after attempting and failing to resuscitate her.

According to Ynet, the victim was shot several times in her room and her father called the police upon hearing the gunfire. Police say they have opened an investigation into the incident but have not yet arrested any suspects.

Since the start of the year, 56 Arab Israelis, among them three women, have been killed in violent criminal incidents.

IDF issues ‘urgent’ evacuation warning for Tel Sultan neighborhood in Rafah, southern Gaza

The IDF has issued an “urgent” and immediate evacuation warning for Palestinians residing in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of southern Gaza’s Rafah.

In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, publishes a map of the area that is to be evacuated, saying that “the area you are in is considered a dangerous combat zone” as the military carries out operations there.

Gazans are instructed to move on foot immediately via the so-called Gush Katif road toward the al-Mawasi area on the southern Strip’s coast. “Movement in vehicles is prohibited,” Adraee says.

He warns that staying in Tel Sultan or traveling via other routes “puts your life and the lives of your families at risk.

“Evacuate the area immediately,” the post adds.

Two motorcyclists injured in collisions during Houthi missile sirens, emergency service says

Two motorcyclists were injured in separate instances in central this morning when they collided with cars during the sirens triggered by a Houthi ballistic missile launch, the Magen David Adom emergency service says.

A 52-year-old man was moderately injured in a crash on Highway 1 and was taken to Shamir Medical Center for further treatment. A second man, 48, was mildly injured in a collision outside of Herzliya and was taken to Meir Hospital.

Hamas confirms senior political official killed in southern Gaza airstrike overnight

Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil speaks during a press conference at a hotel in Cairo on January 14, 2009 after ending a round of talks with Egyptian officials. (Cris Bouroncle/AFP)

The Hamas terror group confirms earlier reports that an Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed one of its senior political leaders overnight.

Pro-Hamas media had reported that Salah al-Bardawil and his wife were killed in an airstrike on Khan Younis, in the south of the Palestinian enclave.

Bardawil was a well-known member of the terror group’s political wing who gave media interviews over the years.

He is the latest in a string of Hamas political officials to have been killed in renewed Israeli airstrikes after the terror group’s de facto government head Essam Addalees and internal security chief Mahmoud Abu Watfa were killed on Tuesday, along with several other officials.

Hamas-run medical authorities in Gaza say that at least 19 people were killed in strikes overnight, including Bardawil.

The European and Kuwaiti hospitals confirm the toll, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians, and say that the numbers include several women and children.

US lifts bounties on three senior Taliban figures behind deadly attacks, death of US citizen

The US has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister who also heads a powerful network blamed for bloody attacks against Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government, officials in Kabul say.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, who acknowledged planning a January 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, which killed six people, including US citizen Thor David Hesla, no longer appears on the State Department’s Rewards for Justice website. The FBI website, as of Sunday morning, still features a wanted poster for him.

Taliban interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani says the US government has revoked the bounties placed on Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Haqqani, and Yahya Haqqani.

The Haqqani network grew into one of the deadliest arms of the Taliban after the US-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

The group employed roadside bombs, suicide bombings and other attacks, including on the Indian and US embassies, the Afghan presidency, and other major targets. They also have been linked to extortion, kidnapping and other criminal activity.

A Taliban foreign ministry official, Zakir Jalaly, says the Taliban’s release of US prisoner George Glezmann on Friday and the removal of bounties shows both sides are “moving beyond the effects of the wartime phase and taking constructive steps to pave the way for progress” in bilateral relations.

“The recent developments in Afghanistan-US relations are a good example of the pragmatic and realistic engagement between the two governments,” says Jalaly.

Security cabinet approves new directorate to enable ‘voluntary’ departure of Palestinians from Gaza

Last night, Israel’s security cabinet approved a suggestion by Defense Minister Israel Katz to establish a new administration in the Defense Ministry tasked with enabling Palestinians to “voluntarily” leave the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, Katz’s office says the new directorate will work to “prepare for and enable safe and controlled passage of Gaza residents for their voluntary departure to third countries, including securing their movement, establishing movement routes, checking pedestrians at designated crossings in the Gaza Strip, as well as coordinating the provision of infrastructure that will enable passage by land, sea and air to the destination countries.”

The head of the directorate will be selected by Katz soon, his office says.

The statement adds that the efforts to enable Gazans who seek to migrate from the Strip to do so, are being carried out “subject to Israeli and international law, and in accordance with the vision of US President Donald Trump.”

“We are working with all means to implement the US president’s vision, and we will allow any Gaza resident who wants to move to a third state to do so,” Katz says.