Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s accusation that Canberra‘s recognition of Palestinian statehood fuelled antisemitism following the deadly shooting in Sydney.
In an interview with ABC News, Albanese said he doesn‘t accept a link between Palestine‘s recognition and the shooting attack at the Hanukkah celebration in Bondi Beach.
Hamas issued a statement condemning the attack, saying it represented „a blatant violation“ of the fragile Gaza ceasefire agreement which came into effect in October.
“This crime reaffirms that the [Israeli] occupation is deliberately seeking to undermine and sabotage the ceasefire agreement through its escalating and continuous violations,” the group said in a post on Telegram.
It did not confirm whether a member of the group had been targeted in the attack.
US news site Axios reported that Israel had not warned the US in advance of the strike.
(December 9, 2025)
A year after Israeli forces entered southern Syria, crossing into a UN buffer zone and in some cases beyond, its occupation remains and the frequency of the Israeli military raids on towns is increasing. An Israeli incursion in the town of Beit Jinn at the end of November left at least 13 Syrians dead, including two children.
Residents say they have traded the tyranny of Assad for a military occupation. Checkpoints are now operated by Israelis, not Assad officers. Night-time raids and phone searches continue.
(today)
The scale of intelligence gathering at the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) prompted the US commander of the base, Lt Gen Patrick Frank, to summon an Israeli counterpart for a meeting to tell him that “recording has to stop here”.
Staff and visitors from other countries have also raised concerns about Israel recording inside the CMCC. Some have been told to avoid sharing sensitive information because of the risk it could be collected and exploited.
The US military declined to comment when asked about Israeli surveillance activities. The Israeli military declined to comment on Frank’s demand to halt recording and noted that conversations inside the CMCC are unclassified.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are holding an expanded meeting with senior officials at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, following their one-on-one meeting this morning, the PMO says in a statement.
According to Hadash MK Ayman Odeh: “It is expected of every person to understand that this move by Netanyahu is intended for one purpose: that you talk about it… and not talk about the execution in Jenin by Ben Gvir’s platoons, not about the targeted elimination of the two children on Sunday in Gaza, not about the regime coup, not about the budget that will harm each and every one of you, not about the political violence, not about the ethnic cleansing, not about the unbearable crime and murder in Arab society, and not about the economic and social situation that’s at an unprecedented low…that you talk about the ‘pardon’ that is imagined, but that you do not talk about the abandonment, the destruction, or about the simple fact that Netanyahu is a war criminal, and should stand trial in The Hague”.
Protesters have rallied outside the home of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, demanding he reject Prime Minister Netanyahu‘s request for a pardon on corruption charges.
The move has divided his political opponents as well as the Israeli people.
(20. April 1997)
Netanyahu told CNN‘s Walter Rodgers he was „glad that the truth came out,“ and said the entire incident was „blown out of proportion and twisted out of shape.“
„It‘s politics,“ he said in an interview shortly after the attorney general released his report. „Of course there were people out to get us. But this is going nowhere. It‘s done. It‘s finished.“
„Faced with the security challenges and political opportunities currently facing the State of Israel, I am committed to doing everything in my power to heal the rifts, achieve unity among the people, and restore trust in the state‘s systems, and I expect all heads of state agencies to do the same.“
Netanyahu faces charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust, to which he has entered a plea of „not guilty“
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will travel to Israel on December 6 and 7 for his first official visit since taking office, a German government spokesperson said on Friday.
Additionally, Katz says that his position, whereby officers who served in the Southern Command on October 7 will not be promoted, “remains unchanged.” This comes after Zamir ruled that there was no issue with the promotion of three senior officers, whose promotions were previously held up or canceled by Katz.
(November 23, 2025)
Israeli chief of staff Eyal Zamir on Sunday dismissed senior officers in the military over „failure to prevent“ the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas, local media reported.
Zamir ended the service of several retired generals, including the former Military Intelligence chief Aharon Haliva, former Southern Command chief Yaron Finkelman, and former Operations Directorate chief Oded Basyuk, according to the public broadcaster KAN.
The report said that Zamir also dismissed Gaza Division reserve commander Avi Rosenfeld, while the division’s intelligence officer was expelled from the army altogether.
(November 22, 2025)
The protest was organized for the second straight week by the October Council, which is made up of families who lost loved ones in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and are demanding a state probe.
In attendance was former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who is considered the most credible challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Also at the protest were Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, and MKs Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot and Yair Golan, all of whom lead centrist or left-wing parties opposed to Netanyahu.
(November 5, 2025)
„This issue is not political.“ I am a Zionist. We are a people who study and grapple with the truth. To this day, Jews sit in pairs every day and seek answers. Even to the most difficult questions. There is no disagreement here; we all want to learn from our experience of October 7th. I join the 85% of Israeli citizens who are calling for the establishment of an immediate and proper state commission of inquiry to investigate everything and everyone.
The court demanded to know why the government is not exercising its authority to establish such a commission, which could “examine in an independent, professional, and impartial manner” the events surrounding the October 7 attacks.
Preliminary orders switch the burden of proof from the petitioner, in this case several liberal watchdog groups, to the respondent — the government — and indicate that the court is taking the petitions very seriously.
The government has until January 4 to respond.
If adopted, the resolution would provide international legal authority for a multinational security mission, seen by potential troop-contributing countries and donors as necessary for deployment. No UN peacekeeping presence is envisaged.
It could represent a decisive transition from active conflict to stabilisation and reconstruction, combining security guarantees with reforms to governance and services.
7. Authorizes Member States working with the BoP and the BoP to establish a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza to deploy under unified command acceptable to the BoP, with forces contributed by participating States, in close consultation and cooperation with the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Israel, and to use all necessary measures to carry out its mandate consistent with international law, including international humanitarian law. The ISF shall work with Israel and Egypt, without prejudice to their existing agreements, along with the newly trained and vetted Palestinian police force, to help secure border areas; stabilize the security environment in Gaza by ensuring the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of the military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups; protect civilians, including humanitarian operations; train and provide support to the vetted Palestinian police forces; coordinate with relevant States to secure humanitarian corridors; and undertake such additional tasks as may be necessary in support of the Comprehensive Plan. The ISF shall, (A) assist the BoP in monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire in Gaza, and enter into such arrangements as may be necessary to achieve the objectives of the Comprehensive Plan; and (B) operate under the strategic guidance of the BoP and will be funded through voluntary contributions from donors and BoP funding vehicles and governments;
8. Decides the BoP and international civil and security presences authorized by this resolution shall remain authorized until Dec. 31, 2027, subject to further action by the Council, and any further reauthorization of the ISF be in full cooperation and coordination with Egypt and Israel and other Member States continuing to work with the ISF;
(September 30, 2025)
The colonial reality is that Israel and the US have come up with a cunning plan to outsource Israel’s continued dominance or occupation of the Gaza Strip under a governor, Tony Blair (a man much reviled in the Middle East), and a king, Donald Trump, who would run Gaza.
They would rule indefinitely or until the Palestinian Authority, which governs the bits of the West Bank where Israel doesn’t want to be bothered with directly occupying, can show that it can be trusted to also run Gaza the way that the US and Israel want.
(October 30, 2025)
Barak felt enormous urgency to secure a face-to-face meeting with Putin as soon as possible, before the conflict escalated further. Besides Epstein, he also requested comments from Ron Dermer, close confidante to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was preparing to become Israel’s next ambassador to the U.S. Barak wrote to Dermer, “i don’t care how you’ve corrected it. yours will be always better in clarity and conciseness than mine. try earlier. i don’t want events to overwhelm us.” Dermer swiftly returned a refined copy with more fluent English.
As was typical of Epstein’s style, he sent back a rough cut riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. Unlike Dermer’s narrower cut, Epstein significantly revised Barak’s piece, and added a new title: “Wait Until It’s Too Late.”
(November 12, 2025)
As the House of Representatives moves closer to forcing the release of the Epstein files by the Department feel Justice, we turn now to look at a new series by Drop Site News looking at Epstein’s ties to Israeli intelligence and how he secretly brokered numerous deals for Israeli intelligence.
On Tuesday, Drop Site revealed an Israeli spy stayed for weeks at a time with Epstein in Manhattan. Drop Site has also looked at Epstein’s role brokering a security agreement between Israel and Mongolia and Epstein’s role in setting up a backchannel between Israel and Russia on Syria.
Trump also called for a pardon for Netanyahu during a speech to Israel’s parliament last month, when he made a brief visit to promote his ceasefire plan for the war in Gaza.
In Wednesday’s letter to President Isaac Herzog, Trump called the corruption case “political, unjustified prosecution”.
Israel is playing a secondary role to the US at the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat, where the Gaza ceasefire is being monitored by at least a dozen nations, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Friday.
The compound in southern Israel is intended as a hub for the International Stabilization Force (ISF) set to take the reins of Gaza as part of US President Donald Trump’s comprehensive ceasefire plan, which the US is seeking to enshrine into international law via a UN Security Council vote.
The U.S. military-led “coordination center” charged with implementing President Donald Trump’s peace plan in the Gaza Strip is replacing Israel as the overseer of humanitarian aid to the enclave, even as multiple people familiar with the center’s first weeks of operations have described it as chaotic and indecisive.
In a transition that was completed Friday, the Israelis are still “part of the conversation,” but decisions will be taken by the wider body, a U.S. official said, referencing the shift from COGAT, the unit within the Israel Defense Forces responsible for regulating and facilitating aid in Gaza, to the Civil-Military Coordination Center set up in southern Israel near the Gaza border.
Bereits im November 2024 hatte ein Gremium von Richtern des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofs in Den Haag Haftbefehle gegen den israelischen Premierminister Benjamin Netanjahu und seinen früheren Verteidigungsminister Yoav Gallant wegen Kriegsverbrechen im Gazastreifen erlassen. Die USA und Israel erkennen den IStGH nicht an.
The Istanbul prosecutor‘s office said in a statement that a total of 37 suspects were targeted by the arrest warrants, without providing a full list.
They include Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir.
Turkey has accused the officials of „genocide and crimes against humanity“ that Israel has „perpetrated systematically“ in Gaza.
It is not clear whether the draft would have enough support at the Security Council to be approved. Nine of the 15 members would need to vote in favor of it, and all five permanent members, including Russia and China, would have to abstain from a veto.
The draft is largely in line with Mr. Trump’s plan, which was first presented in September. It says the force would operate under the guidance of an international body known as the “Board of Peace,” and that its mandate would expire on Dec. 31, 2027. The draft suggests that date could be extended.
The U.S. sent several UN Security Council members a draft resolution on Monday for the establishment of an international force in Gaza for a duration of at least two years, according to a copy obtained by Axios.
(October 27, 2025)
„We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate,“ Netanyahu said.
„This is, of course, acceptable to the United States as well, as its most senior representatives have expressed in recent days,“ he told a session of his cabinet.
Israeli and Emirati online networks have worked in tandem to shape narratives around Sudan and Gaza, targeting Sudan’s army even as RSF massacres mounted in El Fasher.
On the defence-industrial side, firms are expanding inside the UAE, tightening a two-way flow of money, tech, and intelligence. Israeli defence firm Controp is opening a UAE subsidiary making it the latest emblem of this deepening security embrace.
All the while, Emirati rulers boast of their „development model“ as a „shining example for the region“: authoritarian, anti-political, drenched in consumerism and spectacle.
It is a façade of progress built on repression. A mirage of modernity concealing a machinery of tyranny.
(today, 01.13)
An Israeli enemy warplane on Thursday carried out an airstrike on the Al-Labouneh area in Naqoura, targeting an open zone that ignited a large stretch of woodland.
The strike coincided with an Israeli detonation in the same area, causing significant environmental damage. No casualties have been reported so far.