The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they unfold.
German envoy: Reports of Gazan babies dying of hypothermia should spark ‘demand for end of war’ After a Gazan doctor reports that three babies under his care died of hypothermia during the past 48 hours, Germany’s ambassador to Israel says that if the reports “don’t move us, then we don’t understand the birth in a manger in Bethlehem or the light of Hanukkah.” “They should move us to demand an end of the war and Hamas terror, winter supplies for the Gazans and a full hostage release,” writes Steffen Seibert. The reports on the Gaza deaths were made by the director of the children’s ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Unconfirmed media reports in Yemen claim that the Israeli Air Force launched strikes against Sanaa International Airport in the Houthi-controlled capital. Media outlets in Yemen also report airstrikes targeting the port city of Hodeida. No further details are immediately available, and there is no confirmation yet from Israeli or Houthi officials. Israeli sources confirm to several media outlets that the IDF is carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis in response to the Iran-backed terror group’s recent ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel. The reported strikes come during a speech by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. Israeli officials have vowed to target the Houthis after the Iran-backed terror group recently ramped up its attacks on Israel.
PM rails against ‘fake news, brainwashing’ media in defense of his wife Claiming that the long-standing corruption accusations against him are “collapsing” in court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in a four-minute video that the “left and the media” were now focusing on a new target — his wife Sara. Netanyahu says Sara “does so much for Israel’s citizens.” He points out her work as a child psychologist, and her visits to cancer patients, lone soldiers, hostage families, bereaved families and wounded soldiers. “They say to me, we don’t believe it. We are seeing the real woman, the soul, and it’s a difference of night and day from the character assassination we see in the press,” the prime minister adds. He claims the press would never report on her charitable activities, because they are trying to harm her in order to get at the prime minister: “There is no limit to the lies. There is no limit to the despicable fictions, taking things out of context, fake news, brainwashing.” Sara Netanyahu filed a lawsuit for defamation on Monday against Channel 12 News over a report in which it was claimed that she leaked highly sensitive security information, including that Israel was about to assassinate former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah three days before the strike. Channel 12’s investigative program, “Uvda,” also reported that she sought to intimidate a witness in her husband’s criminal trial and have protesters harass the attorney general, the deputy state attorney and those seen as hostile to the premier or his family. Netanyahu calls the allegations “a blood libel” that are being broadcast over and over in prime time. He calls on Channel 12 and other outlets to do an investigation into the political left. “It simply won’t happen,” he says, claiming that there were no investigations in the previous Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid government. Instead, he says the press engages in “daily incitement” against the right, against Haredim and against settlers. “This is the real machine of poison,” he says, using a term that has been employed to describe his aides’ messaging efforts against rivals. “It’s much more than a machine,” he continues. “It’s an industry.”
IDF: 5 Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives killed in Gaza strike were ‘posing as journalists’ The IDF details the positions of five Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives killed in an airstrike overnight in central Gaza’s Nuseirat. The military says the five terror operatives were “posing as journalists.” The Palestinian TV channel Al-Quds Today, which is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, identified those killed in the airstrike as its staffers. The military says the strike killed Ibrahim Jamal Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, an operations officer and involved in Islamic Jihad’s combat propaganda; Faisal Abdallah Muhammad Abu Qamsan, head of Islamic Jihad’s security in Nuseirat; Mohammed Ayad Khamis al-Lada’a, involved in Islamic Jihad’s combat propaganda; Ayman Nihad Abd Alrahman Jadi, involved in Islamic Jihad’s combat propaganda, and a former member of the terror group’s naval force; and Fadi Ihab Muhammad Ramadan Hassouna, also involved in Islamic Jihad’s combat propaganda. According to the IDF, “intelligence from multiple sources confirmed that these individuals were Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists.” The military says one of the sources was a list of Islamic Jihad operatives that was captured by troops in Gaza. “This list explicitly identified four of the eliminated individuals as members of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization,” the army says. The IDF says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike.
Universities threaten legal action over campaign claiming Arabs prioritized over IDF reservists in admissions The Association of University Heads, known by its Hebrew acronym VERA, threatens legal action against an IDF reservists’ organization over advertisements taken out accusing Israeli universities of favoring admissions for Arab citizens over Jewish reserve soldiers. The “false media campaign” run by Hamiluimnikim (The Reservists) against Israeli universities is “a narrative created out of thin air” by those who believe that inciting against academia will serve their political interests, VERA says in a letter to the organization. The Kan public broadcaster reports that the Hamiluimnikim organization is behind the multi-platform “Demand Justice in Academia” campaign, which has promoted the idea that “affirmative preference is given to Arabs in admissions to universities, at the expense of reserve soldiers.” VERA says the accusations promoted by the campaign are false and were presented using incorrect data and without contacting the universities themselves, and notes that giving preference in admissions for one group over another is illegal. “The universities not only know and respect the IDF soldiers and reserve personnel, but also act to the best of their ability to assist them,” the letter stresses. The letter threatens legal action if the reservists’ group does not withdraw the advertisements and issue a formal apology. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, some 30% of university students have served in IDF reserve duty, along with many thousands of university faculty and staff. All the universities have announced compensation packages and other kinds of assistance for student-soldiers.
Court orders release to house arrest of 4 anti-government activists accused of firing flares at Netanyahu home The Haifa District Court orders that the four anti-government activists accused of firing flares at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Herzliya be released to house arrest after over a month in detention since they were arrested in mid-November. The four men were charged with “an act of terrorism of recklessness and negligence” and with “attempted arson” over the incident. The terrorism charges lent weight to the state’s demand that they be held in custody until the end of the legal proceedings. Judge Zaid Falah of the Haifa District Court writes, however, that he does not believe there is enough evidence to convict the men on terror charges, although he says there is apparent evidence that they may be guilty of recklessness and negligence. Falah also notes that there is “logical contradiction” in alleging a crime of recklessness and negligence in an allegedly deliberate arson attempt. The judge determines that the four men’s clean criminal records, “along with the weakness of the evidence,” combined with their full cooperation under investigation and the regret they have expressed, mean that the danger they pose is diminished and they can be relied upon to comply with house arrest with electronic tagging. According to prosecutors, the four were involved in firing two flares at Netanyahu’s house on the night of November 16 during weekly protest activities against the premier and the government. Nobody was harmed in the incident and no damage was caused, and the Netanyahus were not home at the time. Channel 12 News reports that the State Attorney’s Office is considering appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, and that the Haifa Court has therefore delayed the release of the men until tomorrow and given prosecutors until 7 p.m. to decide whether or not to appeal.
Smotrich pushes to withdraw funding from Tel Aviv Cinemateque over ‘extremist’ films Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich takes steps to kick off the process of withdrawing government funding from the Tel Aviv Cinematheque over allegations that it had screened “extremist” films during a recent Solidarity Festival. Writing to Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Smotrich requests that he appoint a representative to a special committee to examine the cinema’s budget under the so-called Nakba law, a measure aimed at punishing organizations deemed disloyal to Israel. The law allows the government to withhold funding from organizations or events that present Israel’s establishment as a Nakba, or “catastrophe,” according to the Palestinian narrative. Smotrich’s missive to Levin follows Culture Minister Miki Zohar’s request that he examine the possibility of denying funding based on the films screened at the arthouse theater as part of the festival. Zohar wrote in a letter to Smotrich that the annual festival screened films that could be described as “extremist,” claiming it included movies that opposed the State of Israel, slandered IDF soldiers and the army, and aimed to strengthen the Palestinian identity of Arab residents of mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel. Zohar asked Smotrich to examine whether the Tel Aviv Cinematheque violated any provisions of the budget law, which could then allow the denial of its state funding. After being convened, the committee examining whether or not to cut the cinema’s funding would have 60 days to submit its recommendation to the government. Then-culture minister Miri Regev weighed withdrawing funds from the Tel Aviv Cinematheque in 2018 over a festival about the Nakba.
Police drop probe into 3 women arrested for placing hostage flyers at Edelstein’s synagogue The police investigation against three women who distributed flyers highlighting the plight of the hostages in Gaza in a synagogue in Herzliya attended by senior Likud MK Yuli Edelstein has been dropped. Ran Tager, an attorney representing the three women, says the investigation was closed on the grounds of “a lack of culpability” meaning that the investigation will be totally erased from the women’s criminal record. The three women were arrested in September on suspicion of trespassing after they distributed leaflets urging the release of Hamas hostages at a synagogue in the coastal city where Edelstein prays. “Their spurious arrest is a mark of shame for the police, and my clients are considering their next steps on the matter,” says Tager, who represented the women on a pro bono basis. The arrest generated outrage and accusations that the investigation was politically motivated. Police Commissioner Daniel Levy ordered a probe into the arresting officers’ conduct, but that was superseded by an investigation ordered by the Department for Internal Police Investigations of the State Attorney’s Office.