[IMPORTANT] Hamas launches foot assault against settlements.

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Police have definitively identified some 20 people — including Knesset members — who broke into IDF bases in July, but have not interrogated any of them in connection to the incidents, as senior officers oppose the investigation, Haaretz reported on Sunday.

The suspects are nevertheless expected to be called in for questioning soon, the report stated, but due to the opposition of several senior law enforcement officials, it is unlikely that any indictments will be filed against them.

Dozens of activists broke into the Sde Teiman military base on July 29, after military police arrived at the site to detain 10 reservist soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian security prisoner held at the base’s detention center.

According to Haaretz, Yigal Ben-Shalom, then-head of the police’s investigation and intelligence division, said in a meeting several months ago of senior police officials that it was the police’s duty to investigate the break-ins.

In response, Moshe Pinchi, then-security affairs secretary to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, reportedly bristled, asking if they’d also investigate left-wing protesters in Tel Aviv who, he asserted, broke into the Israel Defense Forces headquarters, referring to weekly demonstrations there against the government and in favor of a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.

The police ultimately decided to open an investigation, together with the IDF Military Police, into the ultranationalist riots.

Senior police officials, however, reportedly still oppose the investigation, and one such official told the newspaper that there is little chance any of those identified in the footage will be indicted.

Through reviewing footage of the break-ins, officers from the police’s anti-fraud and intelligence units have managed to definitively identify more than 20 participants, among them lawmakers, Haaretz reported.

Among those who entered the Sde Teiman base without authorization were MK Nissim Vaturi of the Likud party, MK Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionism party, and National Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu of Otzma Yehudit. The three have yet to be questioned, Haaretz reported, although police have been granted permission to do so.

The IDF, meanwhile, is dissatisfied with the police’s management of the investigation, and has privately criticized it, the report said.

Sukkot argued to the Knesset’s Ethics Committee last week that the law granting MKs partial immunity should be amended to explicitly permit their entrance to any place at any time, according to a report in the Israel Hayom daily. Separately, the Knesset advanced a bill earlier this month that would make it harder to open a criminal investigation into an MK.


Also among those identified as having broken into the Beit Lid base in July is a right-wing activist named Eyal Lahiani, who was arrested last month after he tried to disrupt a hostage-deal demonstration in front of the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv and started brawling with protesters, according to Haaretz.

A bearded man in a red-and-white striped top stands up, eyes wide and arms flung out, and howls.

Scattered around him lie the devastated bodies of people buried in piles of rubble. Ash falls as rescuers search for survivors trapped in the wreckage, carrying small children, some limp, some struggling, some dead.

The man in the red-and-white top puts his left arm around an adolescent girl, her hair and blue pajamas coated in dust. Behind them fire burns bright. Seconds later he embraces a young woman in a printed headscarf, as she wails and thrashes about in distress.

An NBC News’ crew in the Gaza Strip caught these and other images in the immediate aftermath of an overnight airstrike on the United Nations-run Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz school-turned-shelter, which killed 13 people, according to The Associated Press, citing Nasser Hospital where the bodies were taken.

The crew also captured the moment Shadi Tafesh arrived to find 10 members of his family lying together,

On Monday morning, just hours after the attack, dozens gathered to mourn, standing by friends and relatives now wrapped in body bags.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had “conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating inside a command and control center embedded within a compound” that it said had served as the UNRWA Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz school.

It did not provide evidence of the claim that militants were operating in the building.

In a statement released Monday morning, Hamas called the attack a "heinous massacre," and accused Israel of the "systematic targeting of schools and centers for the displaced."

The strike was the fourth in a series of Israeli attacks over the weekend on Gaza schools serving as shelters for displaced Palestinians, which helped push the death toll in Gaza beyond 45,000, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials. Over 106,000 people have been injured, and many remain buried under the rubble, officials said.

On Saturday morning, two people were killed during a raid on a Yaffa school, northeast of Gaza City, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Hours later, Israeli airstrikes killed seven during an attack on the Al-Majida Wasila school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, local health officials said.

Women and children were among the dead, including a baby girl named Janan Al-Ghura, who was born on Friday and killed on Saturday alongside her mother, Suzan.



Nargis Al-Ghura said she had lost her daughter, son and granddaughter in the attack.

“To whom do I complain, oh Lord, of my pain and sorrow?” she cried. Nargis said she had already lost her husband to the war.

The IDF said Hamas was operating "command and control" centers inside the Yaffa and Al-Majida Wasila schools, and that "numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians."

On Sunday, Israeli strikes on Khalil Awida, another school-turned-shelter in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza that houses more than 1,500 displaced people, killed more than 40 according to health officials, with fires leading to the charring of a number of bodies.

Hamas accused Israel of a massacre "against the displaced people" at the shelter, and for carrying out "ethnic cleansing and forced displacement operations" in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel's defense minister has vowed that it would maintain “full freedom of action” in the Gaza Strip after fighting ends in the Palestinian enclave, a day after raising hopes that a ceasefire and hostage deal was imminent.

Israel was “closer to a ceasefire deal than we have ever been,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a closed-door parliamentary committee hearing Monday. The comment was confirmed to NBC News by an Israeli lawmaker who was present.

While ceasefire talks have broken down multiple times in the past, two U.S. officials and an Israeli official last week told NBC News that Hamas relented on key points to securing an agreement.

According to the officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Hamas agreed that Israeli forces would remain in Gaza temporarily after the end of hostilities, and Hamas would provide a comprehensive list of hostages, including American citizens, to be released. Hamas would also see a large number of Palestinian prisoners released by Israel as part of the deal, the sources said.

The Wall Street Journal first reported these concessions. Hamas has not confirmed to NBC News or others’ reporting that it has agreed to Israeli troops in Gaza.

Hamas said Tuesday that “serious and positive discussions” had taken place in Doha, Qatar, with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, and that reaching a ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange was possible if Israel “stops setting new conditions.”

On Tuesday morning, Katz said Israel would maintain control over Gaza after the fighting ends.

After the military and governmental power of Hamas in Gaza is defeated, Israel will securely control Gaza with full freedom of action" he posted on X, likening this outcome to Israel’s current control over the occupied West Bank.

Katz did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for details on what “full freedom of action” would mean. But the comparison to the West Bank underscores a key concern for Palestinians and their supporters: the fear of prolonged Israeli military presence in Gaza, akin to the West Bank, where Israel maintains ultimate control over territory and settlements, and carries out regular raids in the area.

Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow with Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa program, said Katz' comparisons with the West Bank suggest that Israel is “going to have full control entering by any means at any given time.”

"That’s a completely fair enough interpretation, considering that we know what happens in the West Bank," he said. "Is that what a ceasefire agreement is going to say? I have my doubts."

Gershon Baskin, an Israeli hostage negotiator and frequent critic of Netanyahu's government, said he did not believe Katz' remark that Israel had never been closer to a ceasefire.

"I have difficult accepting that Hamas has dropped its fundamental demand of an obligation to end the war including full Israeli withdrawal," he told NBC News via WhatsApp.

President-elect Donald Trump has injected urgency into negotiations, repeating Monday his threat that there would be “hell to pay” if no deal was in place by the time he was inaugurated Jan. 20.

A senior administration official told NBC News on Friday that Trump’s pressure was a major factor in Hamas relenting on two key issues during ceasefire and hostage-release talks with Israel.

Recent developments in the region, including the weakening of Iran, the longtime backer of the terrorist group, the degradation of Hezbollah and the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, also contributed to the compromise by Hamas, the senior Biden administration official said.

CIA Director Bill Burns is set to meet Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha on Wednesday, in an effort to bridge the remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, sources with knowledge of the talks told Reuters on Tuesday.

The two will discuss progress toward a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and hostage release deal, one the sources said.

The CIA declined to comment on the reported meeting, which followed talks in Qatar on Tuesday that Hamas said were “serious and positive.” On Monday, an Israeli delegation flew to Doha to meet with mediators.

“Hamas affirms that, in light of the serious and positive discussions taking place today in Doha under the auspices of our Qatari and Egyptian brothers, reaching an agreement for a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange is possible if the occupation ceases to impose new conditions,” the Palestinian terror group said in a statement.

Along with the talks in Doha, negotiations are being held in Cairo, where sourced briefed on the meeting told Reuters that an agreement could be signed in the coming days.

Mohamed al-Hind, the deputy head of Hamas ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said his Iran-backed organization, which is believed to hold some of the hostages taken during the October 2023 terror onslaught in southern Israel that started the war, had met with Egyptian officials to discuss the proposed deal.

US President-elect Trump’s recently-appointed hostage envoy, Adam Boehler, was also in Cairo Tuesday to meet with Egyptian officials on the efforts to secure an agreement, a source familiar with the matter said, confirming reporting in the Kan public broadcaster.

Boehler met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday and is slated to also travel to Doha for similar talks, the source said.

‘Been in this position before’
The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks, with The Times of Israel reporting Monday that President Joe Biden has been working with Trump’s team to try to seal the deal before the inauguration on January 20.

The initiative has made progress, though major obstacles remain, three US, Israeli, and Arab officials have told The Times of Israel, despite various reports — mainly in Arabic media outlets and citing Palestinian sources — touting breakthroughs in the negotiations.

“We believe – and the Israelis have said this – that we’re getting closer, and no doubt about it, we believe that, but we also are cautious in our optimism,” White House spokesperson John Kirby said in an interview with Fox News.

“We’ve been in this position before where we weren’t able to get it over the finish line.”

Israeli sources cited by Hebrew media on Tuesday also sounded more skeptical, saying a deal is weeks away and still faces major hurdles.

The Walla news site, citing three unnamed senior Israeli sources familiar with the talks, said that while progress has been made in recent weeks, there were still big gaps between the sides, chiefly regarding Hamas’s insistence that any hostage deal lead to the end of the war.

“A deal isn’t around the corner,” one source was quoted as saying.

Another source criticized optimistic remarks made by senior officials such as Defense Minister Israel Katz, who reportedly told Knesset members on Monday that a deal was “closer than ever.”

“It doesn’t help the negotiations and also misleads the public and gives false hope,” the source said.

Similarly, Channel 12 news quoted unnamed senior Israeli sources as saying that, while Hamas has shown willingness to reach a deal, there are still considerable disagreements on core issues that will take time to overcome.

Additionally, a Palestinian source cited by the Kan public broadcaster said the reports of an imminent deal were “exaggerated and overly optimistic.

The Israeli military carried out a series of intense airstrikes that shook Yemen’s rebel-held capital and a port city early Thursday, in a preplanned operation that coincided with the Houthis firing a missile at central Israel.

No one was injured by the ballistic missile, which the Israel Defense Forces said was downed outside Israeli airspace by the long-range Arrow air defense system, though falling shrapnel caused heavy damage in the city of Ramat Gan. It was the second missile from Yemen fired this week, along with a drone attack.

According to a statement by the Israel Defense Force, dozens of Israeli Air Force (IAF) aircraft participated in the strikes in Yemen, including fighter jets, refuelers and spy planes, some 2,000 kilometers from Israel. The Houthi targets were struck at the Hodeida port — which Israel has struck twice before — and for the first time, in the rebel-held capital Sana’a, the IDF said.

The IAF had been preparing for the strike for several weeks, military sources said, and the planes were already on their way to Yemen when the Houthis launched a missile at Israel.

The projectile set off sirens in central Israel communities due to concerns about falling debris from the interception and millions of people were forced into bomb shelters due to the attack, the IDF said. Debris did in fact cause extensive damage to a school in the Tel Aviv suburb Ramat Gan, where a building collapsed.

The shrapnel also struck a number of parked cars in the city.

Modiin Mayor Haim Bibas said that shrapnel, apparently from IDF interceptor missiles, had also fallen in two places in the central city, causing minor damage but no reported injuries.

Sirens didn’t sound in the city during the attack, and Bibas said he was in contact with the IDF’s Home Front Command to understand why.

Israeli military sources said the strikes in Yemen were aimed at paralyzing all three ports used by the Iran-backed Houthis on the coast of the country.

All of the tugboats used to bring ships into ports were struck in the Israeli attack, as were power stations.

Israel now believes that all activity at the ports controlled by the Houthis is paralyzed, sources said.

Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by denying them clean water, which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and extermination.

"This policy, inflicted as part of a mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which is ongoing. This policy also amounts to an 'act of genocide' under the Genocide Convention of 1948," Human Rights Watch said in its report.

Israel has repeatedly rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas-led attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that precipitated the war.

n a statement on X/Twitter, Israel's foreign ministry wrote: "The truth is the complete opposite of HRW's lies."

"Since the beginning of the war, Israel has facilitated the continuous flow of water and humanitarian aid into Gaza, despite operating under constant attacks of Hamas terror organization," the statement said.

Although the report described the deprivation of water as an act of genocide, it noted that proving the crime of genocide against Israeli officials would also require establishing their intent. It cited statements by some senior Israeli officials which it said suggested they "wish to destroy Palestinians" which means the deprivation of water "may amount to the crime of genocide."

'Israel is intentionally killing Palestinians by denying them water'
"What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive," Lama Fakih, Human Rights Watch Middle East director told a press conference.

Human Rights Watch is the second major rights group in a month to use the word genocide to describe the actions of Israel in Gaza, after Amnesty International issued a report that concluded Israel was committing genocide.

US President Joe Biden’s administration will not sanction far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich before the end of his term, two US officials told The Times of Israel this week.

Washington had considered what would have been an unprecedented move on and off over the past year after an executive order signed by Biden in February empowered the administration to issue sanctions against individuals and entities destabilizing the West Bank

Seventeen individuals and 16 entities have since been designated in eight batches of sanctions, and the administration is planning one final batch before January 20, the US officials said.

Ben Gvir and Smotrich were vetted for potential designations, amid mounting revelations that Ben Gvir had directed the police force he oversees as national security minister not to probe intensifying settler violence, and that Smotrich had used his positions as finance minister and minister in the Defense Ministry in charge of settler affairs to severely weaken the Palestinian Authority while allowing illegal Israeli outposts to mushroom across the West Bank.

Proponents of sanctioning Ben Gvir and Smotrich argued that a strong case could be made that their actions fell within the scope of the executive order. They pushed to designate the pair as the security situation in the West Bank deteriorated, harming prospects for a two-state solution along with US interests in the region more broadly, the US officials recalled.

n August, the US designated an extremist organization founded by one of Ben Gvir’s closest allies, Benzi Gopstein, which suggested that the Biden administration was closing in on the minister himself. Washington also considered sanctioning the pro-settlement Regavim group, which was co-founded by Smotrich and has ties to dozens of illegal outposts throughout the West Bank, one of the US officials said.

Biden criticized Ben Gvir personally, his White House repeatedly called out Smotrich, and the administration maintained an effective boycott of the pair — a policy that US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew and several other key figures opposed, arguing that it robbed Washington of its ability to influence Smotrich in particular, said the US official.

Ultimately, Lew and others were outvoted by other Biden aides — namely Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer, who argued that meeting with Smotrich, and even more so with Ben Gvir, would legitimize their views and policies, said the US official.

Designating the two ministers, however, was another matter.

From the get-go, Biden chafed at the idea, deeming the sanctioning of ministers from a democratic ally as a step too far, the US official explained.

The idea was shelved as last month’s presidential election neared, given the potential for political fallout, and once Vice President Kamala Harris lost, prospects for the move decreased further, given the understanding that it would surely be quickly reversed by the next administration of Donald Trump, the US official said.

Nearly 90 Congressional Democrats penned a letter to Biden after the election urging the president to sanction Ben Gvir and Smotrich for “promoting settler violence.” But the signatories were many of the same progressive Democrats who have taken a harder line on Israel than the White House only to have their recommendations repeatedly dismissed.

Instead, the administration last month designated Amana, the main development arm of the settlement movement responsible for bankrolling the establishment of numerous West Bank settlements and illegal settlement outposts.

That designation is just as reversible as the other 32, but the administration viewed it as important in setting a precedent that can have a more tangible — “and less politically tainted” — impact in advancing prospects for a two-state solution, the US official argued.

Over half (57.8%) of Arab citizens in Israel, including Muslims, Druze, and Christians, believe the multi-front war has created a shared sense of destiny between Jews and Arabs, a survey by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at TAU's Moshe Dayan Center revealed Wednesday.

In June 2024, 51.6% of Arab Israelis believed that the war was creating a shared sense of destiny between Jewish and Arab Israelis, indicating an upward trend.

In contrast, in November 2023, nearly three-quarters (69.8%) of Arab Israelis said that the war had harmed solidarity between Arab and Jewish citizens.

In terms of the relationship between Arab Israelis and the state in the December 2024 survey, over a third (39.4%) of respondents said that their sense of belonging to the state has weakened since October 7. Only 17.4% said their sense of belonging to Israel has strengthened due to the war.

The survey additionally revealed that a third (33.9%) of Arab Israelis define their Israeli citizenship as the most important element in their personal identity, compared to the 9% who regard their Palestinian identity as the dominant component of their identity. Of those surveyed, 29.2% view their religious affiliation as the most important aspect of their identity, and 26.9% view their Arab identity as the most important.

In comparison to earlier surveys, it is notable that the importance of Israeli citizenship to Arab Israelis has increased during the war.

The day after
In terms of the “day after” the war ends, when asked who should govern Gaza, less than half (43.2%) believe that Gaza should be placed in Palestinian hands, marking a decline since June 2024, when 58.5% of respondents supported Palestinian control of Gaza. One-fifth of those who support Palestinian control of Gaza support control of the Palestinian Authority, 15.8% support local Gazan entities in control, and 6.7% support Hamas maintaining power.

In contrast, nearly half (45.1%) of Arab Israelis think an external non-Palestinian entity should govern Gaza. One-fifth support an international coalition, 17.9% support Israeli control, and 7.1% support Arab states taking leadership.

Normalization with Saudi Arabia
Regarding a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia, half of the respondents (53.4%) believe it could signal a positive regional development. Concurrently, 49.2% believe that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should not be a precondition to the agreement.

Within Israeli politics, over 70% support the inclusion of an Arab party in the Israeli government after the next elections, and half of the Arab public supports joining any government, not solely a center-left coalition.

The survey, with a +/-4.38% margin of error, was conducted by telephone from December 1 through 8 in Arabic. Five hundred Arab Israelis over 18 were surveyed.