Mossad chief meets Qatari PM in Doha
(JNS) — David Barnea, the director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Doha on Thursday.
According to the Israel Hayom daily, they discussed the possibility of restarting negotiations for a hostage deal with the Hamas terrorist group.
However, an Israeli political source told Kan News that Barnea traveled to Doha “on Mossad-related matters, not regarding the negotiations for a hostage deal.” He also made clear in the meeting with Sheikh Mohammed that “a partial deal, one where only some of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip are recovered, is off the table,” according to the source cited by Kan News.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday night that Israel would only agree to end the war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a deal freeing all remaining hostages.
As Iran faces drought, Netanyahu offers a deal: Overthrow the mullahs, and Israel will help
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is offering a lifeline to Iranians as their country faces an acute water crisis and energy shortage — as long as they overthrow their government first.
“The thirst for water in Iran is only matched by the thirst for freedom,” said Netanyahu in a video address Tuesday to the people of Iran. “So here is the great news: The moment your country is free, Israel’s top water experts will flood into every Iranian city bringing cutting-edge technology and know-how.”
Israel is widely seen as a leader is water management, pioneering advances in desalinization to ensure a reliable supply of clean drinking water for a growing population in a drought-prone region. It also leads other nations in the proportion of water it recycles, a statistic that Netanyahu mentioned.
Netanyahu’s address comes weeks after Israel and Iran reached a ceasefire following a 12-day war that began with Israel’s initial strikes on Iranian nuclear sites on June 12.
Since then, record-breaking heat has exacerbated five consecutive years of drought in Iran, leaving the country at risk of running out of water by this fall.
Two die amid record-breaking heat wave in Israel
(JNS) — Two people have died amid a record-breaking heat wave that roasted Israel this week, reaching highs of some 120 degrees Farenheit (49 C), according to Hebrew media reports.
A 70-year-old man died in Eilat after collapsing from heatstroke. The second fatality was recorded in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, where a man in his 60s also succumbed to the heat.
The hottest parts of the country were inland in the Dead Sea area, the city of Eilat and the Jordan Valley. While temperatures repeatedly topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 C) in Jerusalem this week, with little nighttime relief and record-high lows, Tel Aviv and other coastal cities hovered around 90 degrees (32 C) but saw humidity levels over 70%.
Palestinian aid-truck drivers found to be terrorist operatives
(JNS) — Several Palestinian aid-truck drivers—with permission to enter Israel — have been arrested in recent weeks on suspicion of belonging to terrorist groups such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Israel’s Army Radio reported on Thursday.
All aid drivers undergo a security review before being approved to enter Israel. However, according to Galei Tzahal correspondent Doron Kadosh, Israel’s defense establishment has recently discovered that a few of the cleared drivers have terrorist backgrounds.
One truck driver apprehended in the Kerem Shalom Crossing area is suspected to be the father of a terrorist who abducted Israelis during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, according to the report.
Another truck driver, arrested in the same area, turned out to be a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine released in one of the ceasefires in the current war, the report added. The suspect, who was not cleared to enter the Kerem Shalom area, told Israeli troops he had “gotten lost.”
A third aid truck driver was later identified as a Hamas operative, according to the report.
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) did not respond to a request for comment.
The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit was quoted as saying that aid drivers will be arrested if found to be affiliated with a terrorist organization.
Netanyahu calls to fight against the ‘mutilation of truth’
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said that there was a “battle for truth” raging amid Israel’s eight-front war with Iran and its proxies.
At Newsmax’s U.S. Independence Day reception in Jerusalem, he stressed the importance of combating the “mutilation of truth,” and thanked the outlet for “standing up with Israel, standing up for the truth.”
Netanyahu took aim at the narrative that Israel is deliberately starving people in the Gaza Strip.
“The only deliberate starvation policy that we see in Gaza is the starving of our hostages, and you can see that when you look at their captors and you see our emaciated hostages and these corpulent tormentors,” he said.
If Israel did actually have a deliberate starvation policy, then “everybody in Gaza would be dead,” he said.
Smotrich approves thousands of housing units near Ma’ale Adumim
(JNS) — Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday announced the approval of 3,401 new housing units in the so-called E1 area near Ma’ale Adumim in Judea and Samaria.
The E1 project has been delayed for decades due to international opposition, led by previous United States administrations. (E1 is actually an unbuilt area within the municipal boundary of Ma’ale Adumim.)
“Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan that we began implementing with the establishment of the government,” said Smotrich, who also serves as a second minister in the Israeli Defense Ministry, with responsibility for civilian matters in Judea and Samaria.
Citing ‘the Jewish imperative’ to act, UJA-Federation pledges $1M for Gaza aid
(JTA) — The UJA-Federation of New York will send $1 million to an Israeli humanitarian group providing aid to civilians in Gaza, the federation’s CEO announced on Friday.
The funds will go to IsraAID, Israel’s largest nongovernmental aid organization, to supply food, medicine and water filtration systems for displaced Gazans. IsraAID has traditionally operated in disaster zones abroad, from earthquake relief in Turkey to aid for Ukrainian refugees, but since Oct. 7 has expanded its work to Israel and now into Gaza.
In a letter to the community, UJA CEO Eric Goldstein condemned Hamas for holding hostages, obstructing aid and provoking the conflict, but said that the Jewish community is nevertheless compelled to help alleviate the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
“What many of us feel is a confluence of unbearable grief, anger, and the moral imperative — the Jewish imperative — to act,” Goldstein wrote. “Not everyone agrees on what should be done, or how. There is anguish and outrage around every perspective. We must hold tight to what has always anchored the Jewish people: the belief that all human life is sacred.”
Left-wing activists lock justice minister out of home parking garage
(JNS) — Unidentified anti-government activists locked the entrance gate to the parking garage of Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s apartment building in Modi’in as a protest on Thursday.
The incident came two days after Levin changed the locks on a Justice Ministry office in Tel Aviv used by outgoing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, leaving staff unable to enter.
Levin’s neighbors broke the lock on the garage minutes after it was installed, Channel 12 News reported. Security around Levin has been upped and the minister is considering filing a police report, the outlet said.
A sign left on the lock by the protesters read in Hebrew, “The key is with Yariv’s driver,” according to a photo included in the broadcaster’s report.
Levin locked Baharav-Miara out of the Justice Ministry office after Israel’s Cabinet unanimously passed a motion to dismiss her, a decision that the High Court of Justice subsequently ordered frozen pending proceedings.
