ISRAEL TO CONQUER GAZA FINALLY.

 ISRAEL TO CONQUER GAZA FINALLY.

WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)

EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18

WORLD TERRORISM

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)

ISAIAH 14:12-14
12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14  I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)

GODS PROMISED LAND FOR ISRAEL.

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE.

Joel 3:2-King James Version (YOU DIVIDE JERUSALEM IN HALF - YOUR POKING GOD IN THE EYE - GOD SAYS AN EYE FOR AN EYE AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH- YOU WANNA DIVIDE JERUSALEM IN HALF -  HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION 4 BILLION DIE ON EARTH.
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)

REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.

MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

2 Peter 3:6-7 Amplified Bible (AMP) (HOT SUN, NUKES ETC)
6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 
7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

ISAIAH 66:7-8
A Nation Born in a Day
7 Before she was in labor, she gave birth.Before her pain came, she delivered a male child.
8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.

Isaiah 2:19
19 Men will go into caves of the rocks And into holes of the ground (BUNKERS,UNDER GROUND TUNNELS) Before the terror of the Lord , And the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble.(EARTHQUES,NUKES)
JOB 30:6
6 They are living on the slopes of the wadis,among the rocks and in holes in the ground.(TUNNELS, BUNKERS)

DR DOCTORION-ANGEL OF THE MIDEAST
"The angel showed me that the United Nations shall be broken in pieces because of the crisis in the Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME) and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)

EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(ATOMIC BOMBS)(RUSSIA CHINA DESTROYED BY ISRAELS ATOMIC BOMBS)

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(NEW YORK) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK ATTACK ON NEW YORK)

ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire,(NUKES) and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity:(GOD/ISRAEL HATE AND BRAKING OF HIS COMMANDMENTS) the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die - 3 BILLION).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

Not to save Netanyahu, but to save hostages'Gantz urges Netanyahu, Lapid, Liberman to form temporary ‘hostage-redemption government’Blue and White chairman calls on PM to put together six-month coalition committed to freeing captives, resolving Haredi enlistment; Yisrael Beytenu says it ‘won’t take part in any spin’By Stav Levaton-and ToI Staff 23 August 2025, 11:06 pm

MK Benny Gantz on Saturday evening called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as fellow opposition leaders to establish a temporary emergency government tasked with tackling two of Israel’s most urgent challenges: securing the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and advancing legislation on the ultra-Orthodox military draft.The Blue and White-National Unity chairman made the offer at a primetime press conference, addressing Netanyahu, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, and Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman.Evoking Holocaust imagery to describe the state of the captives, Gantz warned that “the hostages are in mortal danger” and that military reservists “are collapsing under the burden” after nearly two years of war since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.He proposed forming what he termed a “government of hostage redemption and equality in the [military] burden,” with a clear six-month mandate, after which the country would head to new elections — moving up the current timetable from October 2026.Making it clear he believed Netanyahu was currently avoiding a Gaza deal due to political pressure from his far-right allies rather than valid security considerations, Gantz called on him to ditch them and think first of the nation.“In Hamas’s tunnels, there are 50 hostages… Every hostage whose life is at risk could be our son, your son,” Gantz said, underscoring the urgency of reaching a political framework that could enable a deal with Hamas.The former defense minister emphasized that his initiative was not about bolstering Netanyahu’s political standing, but about addressing two national crises.To his critics on the center-left, he said, “I don’t want to save Netanyahu, but to save the hostages.”Last week, as reports emerged that he was considering joining Netanyahu to pass a Gaza deal, his party responded to a Walla news article calling Gantz a “useful idiot,” saying: “An idiot, and not too useful, is someone who hates Bibi more than they want to bring back the hostages.”Less than an hour after Gantz’s press conference, Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party issued an ambivalent response.“Yisrael Beytenu calls for all the hostages to be returned now, without conditions,” the party said in a statement. “The only government that we will be part of is a wall-to-wall Zionist government, and we won’t take part in any spin.”Liberman has publicly clashed with Netanyahu over security policy, the ultra-Orthodox draft, and accusations of corruption in recent years.Gantz’s proposal marks the third time in recent years that he has proposed entering a unity arrangement under Netanyahu. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he joined an emergency unity government that collapsed after less than a year, after Netanyahu was widely seen to have wriggled out of his power-sharing agreement with Gantz.Gantz’s decision to join Netanyahu’s government in 2020, despite his campaign promise not to, cost him significant public support. Many of his voters felt betrayed, and the then-Blue and White alliance quickly fell apart as Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem broke away. Left with a smaller faction, Gantz saw his party’s standing in the polls collapse.He again joined Netanyahu in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, when his party, now titled National Unity, entered a wartime emergency government. That arrangement ended in June 2024, when Gantz withdrew, citing frustrations with Netanyahu’s management of the conflict and lack of a clear strategy for the war.Gantz’s current Blue and White-National Unity party is struggling in the polls, especially since his key party colleague Gadi Eisenkot resigned almost two months ago, and has lately been predicted to fail to win any seats if elections were held today.Beyond saving the hostages, key to Gantz’s new proposal is the contentious issue of mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students. Israel’s coalition, heavily reliant on the support of Haredi parties, has resisted sweeping reforms to the decades-old exemption system. Critics argue that the arrangement unfairly burdens non-Haredi Israelis, particularly at a time when tens of thousands of reservists have been mobilized for extended periods since October 7.Gantz framed his initiative as an opportunity to legislate a more equitable system while addressing the mounting social and military strain on IDF reservists. By setting a six-month timeline, he emphasized that the emergency government would have a narrow focus before returning power to the voters.It remained unclear how Netanyahu or Lapid would respond to Gantz’s proposal. Lapid has in the past called for broad national unity but has been reluctant to join a government under Netanyahu.Gantz’s gambit comes as pressure intensifies on the government to reach a deal for the remaining hostages in Gaza, and as the IDF grapples with the long-term sustainability of its reserve system.

Explainer-Israel is planning to conquer Gaza City – what legal obligations will that incur? Displacing the estimated one million residents of Gaza City will heighten Israel’s responsibility to ensure a humanitarian catastrophe is avoided, say legal experts-By Jeremy Sharon-22 August 2025, 12:05 pm

The government and the Israel Defense Forces are currently moving resolutely ahead with plans to conquer Gaza City, with the military having begun the process of calling up 60,000 reservists to participate in or support the new offensive.As part of the operation, dubbed Gideon’s Chariots B, the IDF intends to evacuate Gaza City of its estimated one million residents and relocate them south of the Netzarim Corridor, between the southern Gazan cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.Such a complex operation, both to conquer Gaza City and to move such a massive population, will inevitably raise questions about Israel’s legal obligations toward Gaza’s civilian population and the legality of the operation itself.Belligerent Occupation-Under the laws of armed conflict, states may occupy foreign territory in the context of armed conflict, and indeed, it is a common phenomenon of war.Dr. Eran Shamir Borer, director of the Israel Democracy Institute’s Center for Security and Democracy and former head of the IDF international law division, notes that an occupation is considered in effect if a territory comes under the “effective control” of a hostile force.“Effective control,” he explains, means having “boots on the ground” in terms of troops being present in the territory in question, while at the same time, the hostile power must be able to exercise governance over the territory, and the previous government must no longer have that capability.In March this year, the High Court of Justice ruled that Israel was not an occupying power in Gaza at the time, since it did not have the ability to govern the Strip and because Hamas was still able to exercise its own rule over the Gazan population.Today, Israel is in control of some 75 percent of Gaza’s territory, but at present, most of the territory it holds includes almost no Palestinian civilians. Most civilians are instead concentrated in the Muwasi humanitarian zone in the south, in Gaza City in the north and the Deir al-Balah governorate in the center.Shamir Borer says that even today, Israel could argue it is not in occupation of those areas where Gazans are currently present, since Hamas still exercises effective governmental control over the population centers, and controls aspects of civilian life there.He noted, however, that other legal arguments hold that since Israel controls so much of Gaza’s territory, as well as all entry and exit points to and from the Strip, Israel is in effect already an occupying power in Gaza. This has been the position of states such as the UK.The cabinet resolution of August 7 seems to instruct the IDF to establish “operational control” over Gaza City, rather than to occupy it, perhaps in an attempt to avoid acknowledging Israel’s legal responsibilities that come with the status of an occupying power.Writing for the legal blog Just Security, Prof. Eliav Lieblich of Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Law said of the cabinet resolution to occupy all of Gaza that “claiming that one can ‘take over’ territory – or achieve ‘operational control’ over it – without occupying it, is nonsense.”He also noted that Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that part of the planned operation is to remove Hamas from power, but pointed out that in so doing, Israel would in effect be fulfilling the conditions of a belligerent occupation.Legal obligations of occupation-The issue of whether an occupation has been established in a legal sense is critical, because if a state is considered to be occupying a territory, its legal responsibilities to the civilian population under its control are much greater than its obligations to that population simply as a warring party.In an occupation, the occupying power has a legal duty to provide for the civilian population under its control and ensure security and public order.For Israel in its current war, this would include in the immediate term being legally responsible for providing food, water, shelter, medical services, and other critical needs of the Gazan civilian population, including from its own resources if necessary.In the longer term this would include fulfilling all responsibilities of national and municipal authorities, from education and sanitation to economy and trade regulation.That compares to the legal obligations under the laws of armed conflict when there is no belligerent occupation, when a warring party is only obligated to “allow and facilitate“ the provision of food and medical supplies by third parties to a civilian population, subject to certain conditions aimed at preventing enemy forces from taking advantage of such aid, and does not hold ultimate responsibility for its supply.Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is signatory, free passage of all medical supplies must be allowed into territory under its control, although the treaty states that the facilitation of food is only obligatory for children under 15, expectant mothers and “maternity cases.”But Article 70 of the Additional Protocol I of the convention, to which Israel is not a party, is broadly seen as requiring the provision of food to all civilians.Shamir Borer points out that although Israel is not a signatory to Additional Protocol I, it has, in court proceedings, indicated that it regards the core aspect of Article 70 as reflecting International Customary Law, a body of law arising from “general practice accepted as law” and norms of international law.Israeli military officials and cabinet ministers have been careful not to describe the pending operation against Gaza City as a plan to “occupy” it, using instead the phrase “take control,” likely due to the legal consequences of a formal occupation.Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara pointed out this issue when the cabinet took the decision on August 8 to conquer the entire Gaza Strip, telling Netanyahu that this would make Israel responsible for the needs of the entire territory. The prime minister, in response, told the attorney general the intention was to merely “take control” of the territory, not “occupy” it.Lieblich, in his article, alleged that Netanyahu’s use of the term “take control” is designed specifically to establish “an occupation of the maximum possible territory with the minimum possible civilians.”But the absence of civilians from the territory Israel takes control of would be a result of Israel’s actions in order to claim that there is no occupation to begin with,” he asserted.“While this is a non-starter legally, it is part of a wider political discourse of denying any responsibility for the welfare of Gaza’s civilians,” wrote Lieblich.Legal consequences of evacuating civilians-Israel intends to evacuate Gaza City’s civilian population to areas where it does not seek to establish effective control, which would help reduce civilian casualties during the subsequent offensive there, and would also bolster claims it is not occupying the civilian population and therefore does not bear the broader legal responsibilities arising from the law of occupation.But there would nevertheless exist a legal obligation for Israel not to create a situation of dire humanitarian conditions in which some one million people evacuated from Gaza city are left without adequate provisions for food, shelter and medicine, Shamir-Borer said.“There is an obligation to facilitate the provision of aid. if you’re moving [Gazans] somewhere where they can’t get aid, then you may be violating those laws,” he asserted.“Israel would be exposing itself to accusations already out there that it is deliberately creating dire humanitarian conditions.”These accusations have taken on additional weight in light of comments by senior Israeli cabinet ministers in recent months of an intention to create difficult humanitarian conditions to compel Gazans to emigrate.Doing so would likely constitute forced displacement.In May this year, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that it was the government’s intention to “concentrate” the Gazan population in the south of the Strip where they would be confined to a “humanitarian” zone.“They will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places,” Smotrich said at the time.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly made similar comments regarding the destruction of Gaza’s housing stock by the IDF during operations, saying in a closed door session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee — according to media reports — “We are destroying more and more houses, they [Gazans] don’t have anywhere to return to,” and adding, “The only expected result will be a desire for Gazans to emigrate outside the Strip.”Publicly, at least, Netanyahu has said that moving the population to the south will be carried out for the safety and protection of Gazan civilians, which the Fourth Geneva Convention permits.Avoidance measures-It appears that Israel is making some effort to avoid a situation in which it deepens the humanitarian crisis in Gaza if and when it evacuates Gaza City’s civilian population.The provision of tents and shelter equipment to Gaza was renewed at the beginning of this week, “as part of the IDF’s preparations to move the population from combat zones to the southern Gaza Strip for their protection.”Such items have not been allowed into the Strip for the last 26 weeks,And Israeli liaisons to Gaza began telling medical officials and aid groups in the northern part of the Strip this week “to prepare for the population’s movement to the southern Gaza Strip,” including transferring medical equipment to that region.The provision of aid to Gaza has also been ramped up in the last two months, although it remains well below the levels of aid allowed in during 2024, with the UN and aid agencies insisting that the humanitarian situation in the territory remains dire.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday that to cope with the current shelter needs of the Gazan population would require the entry of some 3,500 truckloads of tents, tarpaulins and basic household items, without factoring in further displacement from Gaza City.OCHA also said that the plan to conquer Gaza City “will have a horrific humanitarian impact on people already exhausted, malnourished, bereaved, displaced, and deprived of basics needed for survival.”It warned the operation was “a recipe for further disaster,” and said it could also amount to “forcible transfer.”Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has pushed back against these claims, publishing on Thursday images and videos of food being prepared and distributed in Gaza.COGAT head Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian accused the UN on Thursday of making “unfounded claims about hunger in Gaza,” and said Israel was working to “facilitate the entry of massive quantities of food, medicine, and humanitarian aid.”“Instead of issuing statements and publishing political and distorted reports, the UN and international organizations should direct their efforts toward real assistance for the residents, and not be dragged into false narratives that serve terrorism,” said Alian.

Katz vows to destroy Gaza City unless Hamas frees hostages, lays down arms-IDF chief says army ‘expanding activity in Gaza’; Hamas calls for open borders for aid after UN famine report; PMO calls famine declaration ‘outright lie’ and ‘modern blood libel’By Emanuel Fabian,Agencies and ToI Staff 22 August 2025, 7:16 pm

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday vowed that Israel would destroy Gaza City unless the Hamas terror group releases the hostages and lays down its weapons.Katz noted that the government on Thursday approved the IDF’s plans to open the “gates of hell” and “defeat Hamas in Gaza,” as the military prepares to push into Gaza City in a new offensive aimed at conquering the Palestinian territory’s largest population center.The comments came hours after a global hunger monitor declared for the first time that famine had struck northern Gaza, a charge Israel swiftly denied, and as mediating countries made a final push to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal before Israel launches its planned assault.“The gates of hell will soon open over Hamas murderers and rapists in Gaza — until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and their disarmament,” Katz said.If Hamas doesn’t capitulate, Gaza City “will become Rafah and Beit Hanoun” — two cities that have been largely turned to rubble by Israeli military activity, he declared.While the planned expansion of military operations in Gaza City has yet to fully get underway, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Friday during a visit to the West Bank that the army is “expanding activity in Gaza.”Israel, which has called up tens of thousands of army reservists, is pressing ahead with its plan to seize Gaza’s biggest urban center despite international criticism of an operation likely to force the displacement of many more Palestinians, and despite concerns by top security officials that it could endanger the hostages.On the ground, Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said Israeli fire killed at least 46 people on Friday, more than half of them in Gaza City. Hamas figures cannot be verified and do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.Umm Mohammed Nasr, a 42-year-old mother of four from Gaza City, said that “the bombing hasn’t stopped since this morning… but we have no idea where to go.”“We are dying,” she said.Ahead of the IDF’s upcoming offensive in Gaza City, Israel on Thursday warned medical facilities and international organizations in the northern Strip to gear up for mass evacuations of civilians.Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City have already left their homes as Israeli forces have escalated strikes on the Sabra and Tuffah neighborhoods. Some families have left for shelters along the coast, while others have moved to central and southern parts of the enclave, according to residents there.Hamas demands Gaza border crossings open-Also on Friday, Hamas called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and lifting of Israeli-imposed restrictions on the flow of aid into the Strip after the United Nations Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system officially declared a famine in parts of the territory earlier in the day.In a statement published online, the terror group called for “immediate action by the UN and the Security Council to stop the war and lift the siege” and demands that border crossings into Gaza be opened “without restrictions to allow the urgent and continuous entry of food, medicine, water and fuel.”According to the IPC report, an estimated 514,000 people — or nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population — are experiencing famine, and that number is expected to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.According to the hunger monitor, Israel’s total blockade on aid from early March to mid-May — which came after the collapse of a ceasefire with Hamas — was followed by “critically low volumes through July” and “coupled with the collapse of local food production,” leading to “extreme food shortages.”Israel resumed the supply of aid in May, but the flow remained well below what it had been prior to the blockade; it was only in July, after reports of imminent famine, that Israel announced a series of actions to boost the flow of aid into Gaza, while denying there was starvation in the enclave.Israel swiftly denied the report, saying that the IPC relies on Hamas sources and accused the system of having “twisted its own rules” in declaring a famine.PMO: IPC report is ‘modern blood libel’In a Friday statement, the Prime Minister’s Office called the IPC famine declaration an “outright lie” and “modern blood libel.”“Israel does not have a policy of starvation. Israel has a policy of preventing starvation,” the PMO said.The statement said the report by the IPC report ignores Israel’s humanitarian efforts and fails to mention a drop in the prices of oil, sugar, salt, flour, yeast and chickpeas in Gaza that the PMO attributes to the entry of humanitarian supplies into the Strip. The source of the information on the prices is unclear.Citing data from the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Israel has facilitated the entry of millions of tons of aid into Gaza since war there was triggered by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, the PMO said.The statement also said the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as well as NGOs facilitated by Israel, have served millions of warm meals to Gazans.On the other hand, the PMO cited UN data as saying that in July, “of 1,012 aid trucks collected, only 10 reached warehouses; the rest were looted before distribution.” The PMO also accused the UN of having refused to deliver “hundreds of pallets of food” from the Kerem Shalom Crossing.The PMO did concede that there had been “temporary shortages” of aid in Gaza “which Israel overcame with airdrops, maritime deliveries, safe transport routes and GHF distribution points manned by American companies,” but blamed the shortages on “Hamas’s systematic theft.”The statement did not mention the 11-week aid blockade Israel imposed on the Strip following the collapse of the last ceasefire-hostage deal on March 2.The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, in which some 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 251 were taken hostage to the Strip.The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 62,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

At least 34 said killed by IDF in Gaza; hospital preps for Gaza City evacuation orders-Local media says six killed near aid site in northern Gaza, 14 in Khan Younis; European Hospital prepares to reopen ahead of expected influx of Palestinians displaced from north By Emanuel Fabian,Agencies and ToI Staff 23 August 2025, 6:03 pm

Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip killed at least 34 people on Saturday, according to Palestinian media, as a major hospital in southern Gaza prepared for imminent Israel Defense Forces evacuation orders of Gaza City, ahead of its planned offensive to conquer the metropolis.The death toll in Gaza was not independently verified and does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.Israel has yet to launch its planned major offensive to capture the enclave’s largest city, but according to local aid workers, there has been a marked increase in Israeli bombardments since the beginning of August.According to the reports, six of the people killed died while waiting for aid in the Zikim area of the northern Gaza Strip; two were killed in a drone strike on a tent in Khan Younis, and one was killed in a drone strike on a house in al-Sabra, south of Gaza City.According to health officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people in southern Gaza, more than half of them women and children. The officials said the strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis.Mohamed Saada was among thousands of people who sought food from a delivery in the Zikim area on Saturday, and one of many who left empty-handed.“I came here to bring food for my children, but couldn’t get anything, due to the huge numbers of people and the difficulty of the situation between the shootings and the trucks running over people,” he said.The IDF has acknowledged firing warning shots at crowds that get too close to its soldiers at aid distribution sites in Gaza, but has called the death tallies exaggerated, though it hasn’t provided alternate numbers.“The entire Gaza Strip is being bombed … In the south. In the north. Everywhere,” Abu Agala, uncle of two children killed, told The Associated Press.Another grieving relative, Hekmat Foujo, pleaded for a truce.“We want to rest,” Foujo said through her tears. ‘’Have some mercy on us.”The IDF has yet to comment on reported strikes on Saturday.Aid group Doctors without Borders, or MSF, said its clinics around Gaza City are seeing high numbers of patients as people flee. Caroline Willemen, MSF project coordinator in the city, noted a marked increase in airstrikes since early August.“Those who have not moved are wondering what they should do,” she told the AP. “People want to stay; they have been displaced endlessly before, but they also know that at some point, it will become very dangerous to remain.”Southern hospital preps for evacuees-Palestinians on Saturday began to clean up and renovate the European Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, as part of preparations for the evacuation of Gaza City ahead of the IDF’s planned offensive in the area.The planned campaign has sparked a major international outcry, with governments and humanitarian groups warning of potentially disastrous consequences for Gaza’s civilians, noting widespread malnutrition that has recently worsened significantly amid the 22-month war.Earlier this week, the IDF said that the European Hospital, which was closed after the military raided and sealed a Hamas tunnel running underneath it, was slated to resume operations to accommodate the expected influx of people fleeing northern Gaza.On Thursday, Israeli authorities warned medical facilities and international organizations in the northern Gaza Strip to gear up for mass evacuation.According to the IDF, Gazan medical officials were told that “the hospital infrastructures in the southern Gaza Strip are being adapted for the absorption of the sick and wounded, alongside an increased entry of necessary medical equipment in accordance with the requests of the international aid organizations.”A security official said the UN and international aid groups were formulating a plan to restart the hospital “as an additional medical response” for the estimated one million Palestinians who are set to be displaced from Gaza City when the IDF launches its offensive there. The military also warned medical officials in northern Gaza to prepare to move their equipment to hospitals in the Strip’s south.Footage published by Palestinian media on Friday showed medical staff cleaning up the hospital, as well as an excavator at work in the compound, after the IDF allowed them to enter the area.On May 13, Hamas’s then-leader in Gaza, Mohammed Sinwar, and other top commanders in the terror group were killed in an airstrike on a tunnel running underneath the hospital. The military raided the medical facility in June, capturing their bodies and sealing the tunnel underneath it with concrete.Sinwar, a senior Hamas military commander, was the younger brother of the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who was also killed by the IDF during the ongoing war.The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 62,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 459.

Yemen’s Houthis fire missile, drone at Israel; missile breaks up mid-air; no injuries-IDF downs Houthi drone over southern Israel after several failed attempts; missile fired at center apparently disintegrates en route, fragment causes minor damage-By Emanuel Fabian-22 August 2025, 5:36 pm

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired a drone and a ballistic missile at Israel on Friday, the military said. The drone was downed after several failed interceptions on Friday afternoon, while the missile apparently broke up in mid-air during its descent some four and a half hours later.There were no injuries reported in either incident, and a missile fragment caused minor damage after it struck a yard of a home in a central town.The drone set off sirens in several communities near the borders with the Gaza Strip and Egypt. The military said it made several attempts to shoot it down before successfully intercepting it with the Iron Dome air defense system.Footage showed the drone exploding in the air over southern Israel, while a fighter jet swooped past.Shortly before 9 p.m., the Houthis fired a missile that set off warning sirens across much of central Israel as many were sitting down for the Friday evening Shabbat meal.The IDF confirmed that the missile likely broke up in the air during its descent.The Israeli Air Force launched several interceptor missiles to shoot down the fragments, the military said, adding that the results of the interceptions were under investigation.At least one missile fragment struck the yard of a home in the central town of Ginaton, causing minor damage.The Magen David Adom rescue service said there were no reports of injuries.The Houthis took responsibility for carrying out both the ballistic missile and drone attacks.In a statement, the Iran-backed terror group claimed to have successfully hit Ben Gurion Airport with the ballistic missile.The Houthis also claimed to have launched two drones at Israel, targeting “Israeli enemy targets” in the Tel Aviv area and in Ashkelon.While the IDF shot down the first drone in the south, a second, if fired, likely fell short before reaching the country, as many Houthi drones have in recent months.The incidents were the latest in ongoing Houthi attacks on Israel.On Sunday, they fired a ballistic missile, claiming to have targeted Ben Gurion Airport.The missile set off sirens in central Israel and the Jerusalem area, forcing millions of Israelis to seek cover before it was shot down without causing injury or damage.The missile fire came hours after the Israeli Navy launched strikes against a power plant south of Sanaa, the Houthi-controlled capital of Yemen.The Houthis — whose slogan calls for “Death to America, Death to Israel, [and] a Curse on the Jews” — began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after the October 7 Hamas massacre.The Houthis held their fire during a ceasefire that was reached between Israel and Hamas in January 2025. By that point, they had fired over 40 ballistic missiles and dozens of attack drones and cruise missiles at Israel, including one that killed a civilian and wounded several others in Tel Aviv in July, prompting Israel’s first strike in Yemen.Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen have launched 71 ballistic missiles and at least 23 drones at Israel. Several of the missiles have fallen short.

Iran, European powers agree to resume nuclear, sanctions talks next week-Germany warns Iran that sanctions would snap back into effect unless it reached a verifiable and durable deal to defuse concerns about its nuclear ambitions-By Reuters and ToI Staff 22 August 2025, 8:18 pm

DUBAI — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his French, British and German counterparts agreed on Friday to resume talks next week on nuclear and sanctions issues, Iranian state media reported.The three major European powers have threatened to re-activate United Nations sanctions on Iran under a “snapback” mechanism if Tehran does not return to negotiations on a deal to curb its disputed uranium enrichment program.German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul confirmed talks next week and warned Iran that sanctions would snap back into effect unless it reached a verifiable and durable deal to defuse concerns about its nuclear ambitions. He reiterated that time was very short and Iran needed to engage substantivelyIranian state media said Araghchi and the British, French and German foreign ministers agreed during a phone call for deputy foreign ministers to continue the talks on Tuesday.During the call, Araghchi “emphasized the legal and moral incompetence of these countries to resort to the (snapback) mechanism, and warned of the consequences of such an action”, Iranian media reported.The European trio, along with the US, contends that Iran is using the nuclear energy program to potentially develop weapons capability in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.Iran, which openly seeks Israel’s destruction, has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel, which targeted Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs during a 12-day war in June, said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.The Islamic Republic suspended nuclear negotiations with the United States, which were aimed at curbing its accelerating enrichment program, after the US and Israel bombed its nuclear sites during the war in June.Since then, IAEA inspectors have been unable to access Iran’s nuclear installations, despite IAEA chief Rafael Grossi stating that inspections remain essential.Iran and the three European powers last convened in Geneva on June 20, while the war was still raging, and there were few signs of progress.Iran’s state broadcaster said an Iranian delegation was due to travel to Vienna on Friday to meet with IAEA officials. It gave no further details.

Atlanta man fired for joining wife’s antisemitic tirade at father of fallen officer-Video shows Mark and Anna Bouzyk shouting slurs at David Lubin, father of Border Police cop Rose; pair had posted pro-Palestinian lawn signs, including one featuring ‘kikes’ 24 times By Grace Gilson 23 August 2025, 9:39 am

JTA – A couple in a suburb of Atlanta are facing consequences after being accused of yelling antisemitic slurs at the father of an Israeli Border Police officer who was killed in 2023.Mark Bouzyk has been fired after he and his wife were taped lobbing insults at David Lubin, the father of Sgt. Rose Ida Lubin, 20. A so-called “lone soldier” who served in Israel’s Border Police, Lubin was stabbed to death by a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in Jerusalem on November 6, 2023.Lubin told Atlanta News First that the incident began earlier this month as he was distributing stickers honoring his daughter’s memory.“When I heard her say, your daughter deserved to die and called me a kike, that’s when I walked across the street,” he said.In a video of the confrontation posted on X by the watchdog group Stop Antisemitism, Anna Bouzyk, can be heard telling Lubin that his daughter went to Israel “to kill.”“You are calling yourself a kike, you know what you are. You know what you are better than me,” Bouzyk can be heard saying alongside her husband, Mark, who periodically joined in the altercation.“You are a corrupt politician with a daughter in the IDF that went there to kill, and she was killed maybe by friendly fire because the Israeli soldiers they kill each other all the time, and you know very well,” continued Bouzyk.Bouzyk later confirmed to Atlanta News First that she had called Lubin the derogatory term prior to the filmed confrontation, telling the outlet, “I don’t regret what I said, and I’ll it say a million times again.”She blamed Lubin — who ran unsuccessfully for Georgia State Senate in 2024, aiming to unseat a politician who did not sign onto an antisemitism bill — for the interaction.“He started calling me a Jew hater. He started calling me names, so I called him a kike,” Bouzyk told the outlet. “He was provoking me. He was putting his phone in my face. He didn’t have the right to do that, because I went to talk to him about vandalizing.”Lubin told the outlet that he heard in Bouzyk “that same hate that happened during the Holocaust towards Jews.” He is also considering involving the police, according to the outlet.Tensions between the neighbors in Dunwoody, Georgia, had been building since last year, when Anna and Mark Bouzyk allegedly posted pro-Palestinian signs in their front yard. On one sign posted this month that read “Stop Funding War Criminals,” the word “kikes” was written 24 times.Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch condemned the signs in a post on Facebook last week, writing that they were “deeply disturbing and offensive.” She later updated the post thanking a local resident for convincing the homeowners to remove the signs.Mark Bouzyk has since been fired from his job as the co-founder and chief scientific officer at AllaiHealth, an AI-driven patient medical history platform, the company announced on Thursday.“We are deeply disturbed and disheartened by the video circulating involving Dr Mark Bouzyk,” CEO Robert Boisjoli said in the statement. “The behavior displayed in that footage is reprehensible, completely inconsistent with our values, and has no place in our organization or society.”The incident joins another recent attack on the family of an American who moved to Israel to join its army. In St. Louis, a hate crime inquiry was opened by local police after three cars were set ablaze and “Death to the IDF” was written outside of the home of a family whose son recently completed two years serving in the IDF.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

North Korea test-fires two new air defence missiles: KCNA.

Seoul, Aug 24 (AFP) Aug 24, 2025-North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen the test-firing of two new air defence missiles, state media said Sunday, after Pyongyang accused Seoul of fomenting tensions on the border.The test-firing, which took place Saturday, showed that the two "improved" missile weapon systems had "superior combat capability", the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.The KCNA report did not explain the new missiles in any detail, only that their "operation and reaction mode is based on unique and special technology". It also did not specify where the test had been conducted."The firing particularly proved that the technological features of two types of projectiles are very suitable for destroying various aerial targets," KCNA said.Photos released by KCNA showed air defence missiles soaring into the sky and the flash of the purported interception of an incoming projectile.Kim is pictured listening to a briefing by a military official, a pair of binoculars sitting next to him on his desk.The North Korean leader separately communicated an "important task" for the defence science sector to carry out before a key party meeting, the report added.South Korea's military said Saturday it had fired warning shots at several North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the heavily militarised border separating the two countries earlier in the week.UN Command put the number of North Korean troops that crossed the border on Tuesday at 30, Yonhap news agency reported Sunday.Pyongyang state media quoted Army Lieutenant General Ko Jong Chol as saying the incident was a "premeditated and deliberate provocation"."This is a very serious prelude that would inevitably drive the situation in the southern border area where a huge number of forces are stationing in confrontation with each other to the uncontrollable phase," Ko said.- Ukraine lesson -Analysts say Pyongyang appears to be accelerating the development of air defence missiles aimed at countering drones, citing the KCNA report that specifically mentioned "drones and cruise missiles"."The North is bolstering air defence missiles against low-altitude flying drones and cruise missiles," said Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.The development of such air defence missiles attests to "Pyongyang's recognition of the necessity to enhance its capabilities... based on lessons it learned" fighting in Russia's war against Ukraine, he added.South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said the North sent over 10,000 soldiers to Russia in 2024 -- primarily to the Kursk region -- along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems.Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, Seoul has said.New South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has sought warmer ties with the nuclear-armed North and vowed to build "military trust", but Pyongyang has said it has no interest in improving relations with Seoul.

Maduro rails at 'illegal' US deployment off Venezuela.

Caracas, Aug 23 (AFP) Aug 23, 2025-President Nicolas Maduro on Friday hit out at the US deployment of three warships off the coast of Venezuela as part of efforts to curb drug trafficking, calling the operation an "illegal" attempt at regime change.President Donald Trump's administration has stepped up the pressure on Maduro, doubling its bounty to $50 million earlier this month on drug charges against the leftist strongman.Earlier this week, a US source confirmed to AFP that three Aegis-class guided missile destroyers were heading to international waters off the South American country. US media reported that 4,000 Marines could also be deployed."What they're threatening to do against Venezuela -- regime change, a military terrorist attack -- is immoral, criminal and illegal," Maduro told lawmakers."This is a matter of peace, of international law, for Latin America and the Caribbean. Anyone who commits an act of aggression against a country in Latin America is attacking all countries," he said.In 2020, during Trump's first term in office, Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials were indicted in US federal court on several charges including participating in a "narco-terrorism" conspiracy.The US Justice Department accused Maduro of leading a cocaine trafficking gang called "The Cartel of the Suns" that shipped hundreds of tons of narcotics into the United States over two decades, earning hundreds of millions of dollars.Washington does not recognize Maduro's last two election victories.Maduro said this week that he would be deploying 4.5 million militia members across Venezuela in response to US "threats," and called for weekend rallies decrying Washington. 

Silver was key currency in Israel long before invention of coins, study finds-Researchers reexamine hoards of silver discovered throughout the land, investigating its commercial use in Bronze, Iron Ages-By ToI Staff 22 August 2025, 11:41 am

Silver was used as currency in ancient Israel more than 1,000 years before the invention of the coin, and earlier than in Egypt and Greece, a new University of Haifa interdisciplinary study published this week found.The study published in the Journal of World Prehistory was conducted on hoards of silver dating from the Bronze and Silver Ages, spanning from circa 2000–600 BCE that were discovered at archaeological sites across Israel.Researchers already knew that silver was used as currency in Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Syria by the third millennium BCE, but the same was not evident for Israel, as the country has no natural silver deposits.The study, led by Dr. Tzilla Eshel of the University of Haifa’s School of Archaeology, was the first to examine and compare hoards from multiple locations around Israel, rather than focus on one at a time.The team noted each hoard’s date, location, social and economic context, and what items were found. They also conducted chemical analyses of the silver items to see whether they had been mixed with additional metals and to track purity over time.Based on the test results and the presence of weights alongside many of the hoards, the researchers concluded that silver was used in Israel as currency and was valued by weight as early as the mid-Bronze Age. They also noted that the evidence suggested silver was used as a form of payment in Israel earlier than in nearby areas such as Egypt and Greece.While some hoards were dated earlier than that, the researchers believe those particular hoards were used for ritualistic purposes rather than commercial.Silver was not consistently the main form of currency in the area throughout these periods. The study notes that gold dominated for a time during the Late Bronze Age (circa 1550–1200 BCE) before once again being overshadowed by silver.In another shift, evidence suggests that silver was not widely available during the early Iron Age. However, the researchers postulate that it was not replaced by gold or copper this time and instead, continued to be used as an index value.Silver was then used as the main currency regularly until the end of the Iron Age.Such changes, the study notes, were indicative of the state of the population and the economy in the region at any given time.The researchers also found evidence in later hoards of tampering with the silver’s purity. Mixtures of silver with copper or arsenic seem to point to an attempt to create forgeries or lower the value of the silver.“The first coins were only invented in the 7th century BCE, but the principles of a monetary system were already operating here hundreds of years earlier, with features such as uniformity, value control, and even forgery,” said Eshel.“The continuous use of silver demonstrates a progressive economy that evolved gradually from within society itself.”

Analysis-‘Politically unpalatable’: Shifting sentiments in Australia fueled row with Israel-Canberra’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, drawing Israel’s ire at Australian PM, came after 22 months of eroding support for Israel, as showcased by huge Sydney protest-By Agencies and ToI Staff 22 August 2025, 1:50 pm

SYDNEY, Australia — Australia’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state came after the government sensed a major shift in the domestic mood over the war in Gaza, and showed that Canberra was unafraid of upsetting Israel, historically one of its staunchest allies.The August 11 announcement came days after some 90,000 people marched across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge, in a protest whose organizers called for sanctions on Israel, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to restrictions on aid deliveries to the enclave.“It just became politically unpalatable to be continuing to defend Israel and lay all the blame at the feet of Hamas,” said Martin Kear, an academic at Sydney University specializing in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, invasion and mass slaughter in southern Israel triggered the ongoing war. The group continues to hold 50 hostages, 20-22 of whom are believed by Israeli authorities to be alive.The Palestinian statehood decision has strained relations between Israel and Australia to a degree not seen in decades.Senior politicians in both countries have traded barbs, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launching personal attacks on Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The visas of Australian diplomats working in the West Bank have been revoked and an Israeli lawmaker was barred from entering Australia.A leading Jewish group in Australia has called for calm, while offering a rare rebuke of Netanyahu. Some Jews in Australia say the tension makes them feel unsafe, after a spate of antisemitic attacks in the country over the last year.Opinion polling in Australia about the Gaza war now indicates increasing sympathy towards the Palestinian cause.August polling by DemosAU showed 45% supported Australia recognizing a Palestinian state before a negotiated peace deal, with 23% opposed. Support was up from 35% a year previously.The Sydney Morning Herald, one of Australia’s leading newspapers, said in an editorial this month that public sympathy for Israel in the country began to “rapidly erode once the apocalyptic specter of famine rode into Gaza.”Images of malnourished children in Gaza — which were widely disseminated last month, in some cases omitting crucial details about the subjects’ medical conditions — have also hardened the resolve of lawmakers, said Charles Miller, a lecturer in international relations at the Australian National University.“I think they have changed an awful lot of minds among policymakers in Australia, as they have in other countries,” he said.Jewish umbrella group urges ‘measured’ language from leaders-The political fallout has alarmed the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for more than 200 Jewish organizations, which sent letters to Albanese and Netanyahu on Wednesday, urging them to de-escalate tensions.“If things need to be said publicly, they should be said using measured and seemly language befitting national leaders,” the letters read.“When the temperature of the political discourse in the media is so focused on criticizing Israel, there will be ramifications for the local Jewish community, and that’s something that we need to reflect on,” said Eli Feldman, the rabbi at Newtown Synagogue in Sydney, which was defaced with antisemitic graffiti in January.Australia’s Jewish community, which numbers around 120,000 and makes up about 0.4% of the country’s population, has been among the hardest hit by the global surge in antisemitism since October 7, 2023.The country experienced more than 2,000 anti-Jewish incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, more than quadruple the number from the year before Hamas’s October 7 assault that sparked the Gaza war, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ). In recent months, Jews there have seen synagogues, schools and homes firebombed, as well as two nurses threatening to kill Jewish patients in their hospital.Australian leaders ‘don’t want to be left behind’Australia was an early supporter of the creation of a Jewish state, and has long advocated for Israel in international disputes, though both main political parties back a two-state solution in principle.While Albanese had personally long supported a Palestinian state until now, his political pragmatism had made him wary of backing official recognition.That changed with the shift in the public mood while his landslide victory in May’s general election reduced the risk of domestic pushback, said Jessica Genauer, an academic at Flinders University specializing in international conflict.Key allies, the United Kingdom, France and Canada, all said they would recognize a Palestinian state in the weeks before Australia, which also made Albanese’s job easier, analysts said.“They don’t want to lead on carving new pathways in terms of their policies on this, but on the other hand, they don’t want to be left behind by key allies around the world,” Genauer said. “Albanese is still a pragmatic and cautious person by nature.”Netanyahu has repeatedly attacked Albanese in a series of interviews and social media posts since August 11, calling the Australian leader “weak” and accusing him of “betraying” Israel.While Albanese has played down the feud, Netanyahu shows no sign of backing down. He kept up the rhetoric with an interview with Sky News Australia that aired late on Thursday.“I’m sure he has a reputable record as a public servant, but I think his record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of these Hamas terrorist monsters,” he said.

THIS BETTER BE THE FIRST OF MANY RAIDS ON LIBERAL TRUMP DERANGEMENT NUTJOBS.AND IN CALIFORNIA THAT GAVIN REROBATE NEWSCUM IS A COMPLETE LUNATIC MUSLIM, IMMIGRANTS AND BUM JUNKIES ALL OVER SUCKUP. A TYPICAL LIBERAL, DEMOCRAP. HE IS THE WORST FAKE, FRAUD, PHONY, REPROBATE IN AMERICA.AS THE LIKES OF HITLER 2ND CLINTON.OBAMA MAMMA BARRY SOTORO.BILL CLINTON.CHICKEN NECK ADAM SCHIFTY SCIFF. BRAIN-DEAD-BIDEN, HARRIS.AOL, AND ALL THE REST OF THE DEMOLIB REPROBATE ANY SIN GOES CREW.

FBI searches home and office of ex-Trump national security adviser John Bolton-Bolton was not detained and has not been charged with any crimes; searches raise fears Trump administration is using its law enforcement powers to go after the president’s foes-By AP 22 August 2025, 5:36 pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is searching the Maryland home and Washington office of John Bolton, who served in US President Donald Trump’s first administration as national security adviser but later became critical of the president, as part of an investigation into the handling of classified information, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.Bolton was not detained and has not been charged with any crimes, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.After the search at Bolton’s home started, he was spotted Friday morning standing in the lobby of the Washington building where he keeps an office and talking to two people with “FBI” visible on their vests. He left a few minutes later and appeared to have gone upstairs in the building. Agents were seen taking bags into the office building through a back entrance.The searches appear to be the most significant public step the Justice Department has taken against a perceived enemy of the president, and they’re likely to elicit fresh criticism that the Trump administration is using its law enforcement powers to go after the Republican’s foes. The searches of Bolton’s home and office come as the Trump administration has taken steps to examine the activities of other critics, including by authorizing a grand jury investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.Messages left with a spokesperson for Bolton were not immediately returned, and a lawyer who has represented Bolton had no immediate comment.The White House did not comment and referred questions about the probe to the FBI. The Justice Department also had no comment, but leaders appeared to cryptically refer to the search of Bolton’s home in a series of social media posts Friday morning.FBI Director Kash Patel, who in a 2023 book he wrote included Bolton in a list of “members of the Executive Branch Deep State,” posted on X: “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.” Attorney General Pam Bondi shared his post, adding: “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.”The Justice Department is also conducting mortgage fraud investigations into Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his company, and ex-Trump prosecutor Jack Smith faces an investigation from an independent watchdog office. Schiff and James have vigorously denied any wrongdoing through their lawyers.In an ABC interview earlier this month, Bolton was asked about whether he was worried about the Trump administration taking action against him. Bolton said Trump had “already come after” him by taking away his security detail, and he added: “I think it is a retribution presidency.”Bolton served as Trump’s third national security adviser for 17 months and clashed with him over Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea. He faced scrutiny during the first Trump administration over a book he wrote about his time in government that officials argued disclosed classified information, but the Justice Department in 2021 abandoned its lawsuit and dropped a separate grand jury investigation.Bolton’s lawyers have said he moved forward with the book after a White House National Security Council official, with whom Bolton had worked for months, said the manuscript no longer contained classified information.On his first day back in office this year, Trump revoked the security clearances of more than four dozen former intelligence officials, including Bolton. Bolton was also among a group of former Trump officials whose security details were canceled by Trump earlier this year.Bolton’s scathing book, “The Room Where It Happened,” portrayed Trump as grossly ill-informed about foreign policy and said he “saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government.”Trump responded by slamming Bolton as a “crazy” war-monger who would have led the country into “World War Six.”Bolton served as US ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush and also held positions in President Ronald Reagan’s administration. He had considered running for president in 2012 and 2016.In 2022, an Iranian operative was charged in a plot to kill Bolton in presumed retaliation for a January 2020 U.S. airstrike that killed the country’s most powerful general. Bolton had by then left the Trump administration but tweeted, “Hope this is the first step to regime change in Tehran.”

THE EVIDENCE OF THE 10 PLAGUES AGAINST EGYPTS ARMY AND RAMSES 2 THE LEADER.

LUKE 19.40
40 Jesus replied, “I tell you, if these [people] keep silent, the stones will cry out [in praise]!”

Egypt unveils 2,000-year old ruins carefully extracted from waters off Alexandria-Cranes and divers rescue merchant ship, statue of Roman nobleman and ancient sphinx bearing name of Ramses II, among other precious artifacts in Ptolemaic city drowned by time-By AFP 22 August 2025, 8:31 am

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — Egypt on Thursday unveiled parts of a sunken city submerged beneath waters off the coast of Alexandria, revealing buildings, artifacts and an ancient dock, all dating back over 2,000 years.Egyptian authorities said the site, located in the waters of Abu Qir Bay, may be an extension of the ancient city of Canopus, a prominent center during the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years, and the Roman Empire, which governed for around 600 years.Over time, a series of earthquakes and rising sea levels submerged the city and nearby port of Heracleion, leaving behind a treasure trove of historical remains.On Thursday, cranes slowly hoisted statues from the depths, while divers in wetsuits, who had helped retrieve them, cheered from the shore.“There’s a lot underwater, but what we’re able to bring up is limited, it’s only specific material according to strict criteria,” Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathi said.“The rest will remain part of our sunken heritage,” he added.The underwater ruins revealed by the ministry on Thursday include limestone buildings that may have served as places of worship, residential spaces and commercial or industrial structures.Reservoirs and rock-carved ponds for domestic water storage and fish cultivation were also uncovered.Other notable finds were statues of royal figures and sphinxes from the pre-Roman era, including a partially preserved sphinx with the cartouche of Ramses II, one of the country’s most famous and longest-ruling ancient pharaohs.Many of the statues are missing body parts, including a beheaded Ptolemaic figure made of granite, and the lower half of a Roman nobleman’s likeness carved from marble.A merchant ship, stone anchors and a harbor crane dating back to the Ptolemaic and Roman eras were found at the site of a 125-meter (410 feet) dock, which the ministry said was used as a harbor for small boats until the Byzantine period.Alexandria is home to countless ancient ruins and historic treasures, but Egypt’s second city is at risk of succumbing to the same waters that claimed Canopus and Heracleion.The coastal city is especially vulnerable to climate change and rising sea levels, sinking by more than three millimeters (0.1 inches) every year.Even in the United Nations’ best-case scenario, a third of Alexandria will be underwater or uninhabitable by 2050.

Archaeologists dig in against antiquities bill aiming to deepen Israel’s hold on West Bank-A push to shift oversight of excavations in the territory to a civilian authority sparks worries of creeping annexation, with researchers fearing they’ll bear brunt of any backlash By Rossella Tercatin-23 August 2025, 7:07 am

For centuries, the ruins of a fortress on a low hill in the Judean Desert known as Tal‘at ed Damm were mostly untouched. Recently, however, archaeologists have begun excavating the site to see what secrets may lie in its neglected ruins.One day earlier this year, as storm clouds billowed overhead, a group of archaeology enthusiasts made their way to the fortress to see the preliminary findings firsthand.Standing on the ancient route between Jerusalem and Jericho in today’s West Bank, the fortress is immersed in a serene landscape that looks as if it has barely changed since the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels were redacted millennia ago. Before the dig, the site had been known to contain remains from the Crusader period, which lasted from 1099 to 1260, and then was used as an inn for travelers in the following centuries.But as the group looked on, archaeologist Yodan Fleitman removed two sandbags from the floor and revealed a surprise the excavators had unexpectedly discovered: a mosaic.“Mosaics were not common in the Crusader period,” he said. “This likely means that the Crusader fortress stood on a Byzantine structure [dated between the 4th and 7th centuries CE].”Fleitman and his team were not from the Israel Antiquities Authority, which oversees most of Israel’s digs, but rather the Archaeology Unit of the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, the Israeli body that governs civilian matters in the disputed, antiquities-rich West Bank.The cradle of monotheism and crucible of kings, armies, rebels and prophets, the West Bank is a veritable treasure trove of history, home to a tapestry of thousands of archaeological sites spanning from prehistoric times to the centuries of Ottoman rule that ended with World War I.But it is also home to some three million Palestinians and a deeply entrenched Israeli military occupation that is increasingly taking on civilian characteristics. Politics, religion and history swirl together, creating an environment where unearthing, documenting, preserving and studying antiquities — much of it intensely significant to hundreds of millions of people worldwide — can be both fraught and byzantine.In recent years, Israel has launched several new excavations in the area — including a massive mission to search for more documents from the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls — bringing the neglected state of many of these sites to the public’s attention.Yet understanding the scope of Israel’s responsibility — and rights — when it comes to antiquities in the region is a complex, highly politicized issue that reaches into the very core of Israel’s entire relationship with the West Bank.The Oslo Accords of the mid-1990s sliced the West Bank into three zones: In Area A, the Palestinian Authority is supposed to exercise full control, in Area B the PA manages civilian affairs but Israel has security control, and in Area C (which includes over 60 percent of the West Bank and all of its Israeli settlements), Israel’s military wields full control, including over Palestinian civilians.Under the demarcation, the Defense Ministry’s archaeologists have the license to deal with antiquities in Area C alone, leaving areas B and A to the PA to excavate or grant licenses for digs. Because Israel’s control of the West Bank is a military affair, civilian bodies like the Israel Antiquities Authority, or IAA, are meant to remain out of the territory altogether.But that may be changing.A bill introduced last year proposes transferring the responsibility for antiquities in the West Bank from COGAT to the IAA in response to claims of widespread neglect of important historical sites.But while experts admit that there are serious problems with how archaeology in the West Bank is handled, archaeologists and others are nearly unanimously opposed to the measure, accusing the government of seeking to use antiquities as a pretext to deepen the de facto annexation of the West Bank.Digging in-In February 2023, the government put forward a bill aimed at reassigning responsibility for antiquities in the West Bank to the IAA, ostensibly to protect archaeology in the West Bank.Under the 1989 Law of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the IAA is responsible for overseeing archaeology and archaeological sites in Israel’s sovereign territory, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which were effectively annexed in the 1980s.The IAA is a statutory authority, a body established by law that operates independently but with some governmental supervision. The IAA budget comes mostly from the government.The IAA’s governing council, which also appoints its director, is composed of 16 members, including officials from various government ministries and experts selected in consultation with the ministries.The law describes the IAA’s primary function as “to attend to all antiquities’ affairs in Israel.”In its original version, the bill was set to add the term “and the area” after “in Israel,” with “area” described explicitly as “Judea and Samaria” — the biblical name for the West Bank and the standard term used in most Hebrew-language discourse.The small textual change would have represented a serious shakeup, scooping responsibility for antiquities in the West Bank away from the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration and placing it directly under the aegis of the IAA.Organizationally, the Civil Administration manages civilian affairs in the West Bank through several staff officers in various fields, who are tasked with implementing policies analogous to their civilian counterparts across the Green Line. The staff officers are hired and funded by civilian bodies inside sovereign Israel, though they work under the Defense Ministry.Days before the law was introduced, the government voted to move the archaeology staff officer away from the Culture Ministry and into the Heritage Ministry, headed by far-right firebrand Amichay Eliyahu of the extremist Otzma Yehudit party.In a press release announcing the change, the government said the move would “bolster activities to counteract and prevent the destruction of antiquities.”“I plan to place special emphasis on rescuing and preventing destruction at heritage sites in Judea and Samaria, for the coming generations,” Eliyahu said in the statement.All the experts who spoke with The Times of Israel recognized that there is widespread damage plaguing ancient sites in the West Bank. Most blamed the local Palestinian population, though the left-leaning Emek Shaveh group also accused Israeli settlers.Nonetheless, the bill has been met with widespread criticism, with the IAA itself rejecting outright the idea of taking over archaeology in the West Bank.“Antiquities in Judea and Samaria have been in a horrible situation for decades,” Likud MK Amit Halevi, who introduced the bill, told The Times of Israel over the phone.“This is, in my opinion, the most important place in the world — where the Jewish nation was born,” Halevi said. “Abraham stood here some 3,700 years ago, our people returned from Egypt 3,200 years ago, and our history unfolded here for centuries to come.”This is the most important place in the world. Abraham stood here some 3,700 years ago, our people returned from Egypt 3,200 years ago, and our history unfolded here for centuries to come’According to the Civil Administration’s Archaeology Unit website, there are over 2,600 archaeological sites in the West Bank.Notable biblical sites listed on the unit’s website include the capital of the Kingdom of Israel, Sebastia; the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron; and Tel Shiloh, where, according to the Bible, the Jewish Tabernacle was housed for some 400 years. Several Hasmonean fortresses, the palace of the 1st century CE Jewish-Roman King Herod, and the Qumran Caves, where most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, are also located in the West Bank.Though the West Bank is rich in Christian and Muslim sites as well, none are mentioned by the unit on its website.For both Israel and the Palestinians, archaeology in the West Bank isn’t only about the past but about the future. Many Israelis who support holding onto the West Bank do so not only on security grounds, but based on the argument that the territory represents the heart of the Jews’ ancient promised land.For them, archaeology represents a way to bolster the argument that their hold on the land is rooted in history, said international law expert Tal Mimran, an associate professor at Zefat Academic College.“It serves very well in the battle of the narratives, but also as a legal claim about the rights to the territory,” he said.But under international law, Israel can only do archaeological work in the West Bank if a site is threatened and in need of preservation, and currently that work can only be carried out by the Civil Administration’s relatively small Archaeology Unit.Halevi claimed that the bill is needed because “Palestinians have been robbing and destroying every archaeological site.”However, neither an army spokesperson, the officer in charge of the Archaeology Unit, nor a Heritage Ministry spokesperson provided The Times of Israel with data about damaged sites or perpetrators.And while both have boasted of efforts to crack down on Palestinian looting of antiquities sites, they have been largely silent regarding damage wrought by settlers, including a July incident in which extremists allegedly set fire to an area next to the ruins of the 1,500-year-old Church of St. George.The attack next to the important Christian site in the Palestinian town of Taybeh drew international condemnation, but no charges have been brought.There was no response from COGAT or the Heritage Ministry when asked about harmful settler activity.In 2020, Preserving the Eternal, a right-wing organization with ties to the settlement movement, released a survey alleging widespread damage among 365 archaeological sites it surveyed in the West Bank.

The report found that 80 percent of the survey sites had suffered some form of damage: 41% moderately and 39% severely. It described the selected sites as bearing “the greatest significance for national and world cultural heritage.”While the group maintained that the report was conducted by “senior archaeologists and skilled field explorers,” the names of the archaeologists were not mentioned, and the study was not published in an academic journal.A separate survey by a group of Palestinian archaeologists in 2024 found evidence of looting at 309 of 440 West Bank sites, according to Salah Al-Houdalieh, an archaeology professor at al-Quds University.Israeli military actions and policies restricting movement were to blame for the increase in looting, Al-Houdalieh charged in a January article in anthropology magazine Sapiens.“Curfews and checkpoints have severely hindered the efforts of the West Bank’s Palestinian archaeologists, heritage organizations, and security personnel to access, monitor, and safeguard these vulnerable sites,” he wrote. “Looting has always been an issue, but the recent escalation of hostilities by Israel against Palestinians has led to an increase in antiquities looting, as tens of thousands of unemployed people struggle to meet their most basic needs.”Preserving the Eternal founder Moshe Gutman called for the protection of all antiquities sites of interest regardless of cultural affiliation and identity of the perpetrators, acknowledging that Israelis were also among them.Gutman, who has no formal background in archaeology, says he got interested in the topic after noticing looters digging around the West Bank during bike rides around the region. He started the group in 2016.“We started to receive testimonies [of damage] from many sites of archaeological or touristic interest,” he told The Times of Israel over the phone. “This is how Preserving the Eternal was first established.”The group has partnered with Regavim, a pro-settlement organization founded by far-right Religious Zionism party head Bezalel Smotrich to campaign against illegal Palestinian construction in the West Bank and by Bedouin inside Israel.Gutman claimed that dozens of archaeologists cooperate with Preserving the Eternal, but do not wish for their names to be made public for fear of backlash.“We need to make order in the law, determine the rules on how and what we are taking care of,” Gutman said of the new bill. “A law does not solve anything [by itself], but it is part of the answer.”Civil dispute-An IAA spokesperson declined to speak to the Times of Israel about the legislative initiative, but pointed to a written objection to the bill it sent to the Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee ahead of a February discussion on the legislation.In it, the IAA warned that “the proposed law in the current form could cause great damage to the academic ties of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the State of Israel with international entities and damage their professional reputation.”“The Council of the Israel Antiquities Authority agrees that supervision and enforcement should be increased with respect to damage to antiquities in Judea and Samaria, but only through other alternatives,” the statement read.‘The proposed law in the current form could cause great damage to the academic ties of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the State of Israel with international entities and damage their professional reputation’Even without the law, the IAA already collaborates with the Civil Administration’s Archaeology Unit, including on an ambitious survey of some 500 caves in the Judean Desert it has spearheaded since 2017.To get to the caves, which researchers think may contain treasures related to the ancient Jewish sect that created the Dead Sea Scrolls, archaeologists must rappel down rockfaces and set up work camps on sheer cliffs.The unprecedentedly wide-ranging operation is being undertaken by the IAA in cooperation with the COGAT Archaeology Unit, which is headed by Benny Har Even, who holds the title of staff officer of the department. The project is funded in equal parts by the two bodies and the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage.The inter-office cooperation is key to the success of the operation: About half of the Judean Desert, including the original source of most of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, is located in the West Bank beyond the Green Line, where the IAA does not have jurisdiction. But the COGAT archaeologists have been seamlessly enfolded into the teams, said Amir Ganor, the head of the IAA’s anti-theft unit during a 2021 press conference, enabling work in the entire Judean Desert. Taking note of the IAA’s position, Halevi has proposed creating a new body vested with the same powers as the IAA and a dedicated budget. A new version of the bill has been discussed but not yet formally introduced.“Up until today, the IDF has been responsible for the antiquities in Judea and Samaria, without having the knowledge or ability to do it, and this is the reason we find ourselves in the current situation,” Halevi said, noting that the army cannot prioritize protecting antiquities over other security concerns.According to Halevi, the IAA, with its expertise and resources, would be the best for the job, but as long as the responsibility is assigned to a dedicated civilian entity as opposed to the military, the bill’s goals will be fulfilled anyway.‘What we suggest is to work under the current legal arrangement and invest more money’Opponents of the law say that the real cause of neglect at archaeological sites in the West Bank is a lack of resources, arguing that the Civil Administration’s Archaeology Unit should be expanded rather than handing responsibility to a civil body.COGAT did not provide information about staffing levels for the Archaeology Unit when requested, but The Times of Israel learned from a source familiar with the issue that 39 people were working for the unit at the beginning of 2025. Halevi claimed most of them are only temporary staff, with only Har Even and his deputy full-time employees of the unit.The IAA, in contrast, employs around 800 people, according to its website.“[The West Bank] is at the heart of the history of the Holy Land, but what we suggest is to work under the current legal arrangement and invest more money, allowing the Archaeology Unit to hire more staff and professional archaeologists to enforce the law,” said Prof. Guy Stiebel from Tel Aviv University, who chairs Israel’s Archaeology Council, which advises the government and public entities, including the IAA, on matters related to antiquities.The council is made up of 23 members from all academic institutions and organizations that work in the field.Many archaeologists say there has been a marked improvement in the status of antiquities in the West Bank since the Archaeology Unit was moved to the Heritage Ministry — and apparently given a larger budget — with Har Even put in charge.“He has the correct priorities and he cares about this — so he has been putting in a tremendous amount of effort to protect the antiquities and there’s been a huge change,” said Yonatan Adler, an associate professor in Archaeology at Ariel University, Israel’s first university in the West Bank.The army, the Heritage Ministry, and Har Even’s office did not provide The Times of Israel with information about the budget for the Archaeology Unit.However, the comprehensive budget for the Heritage Ministry has increased significantly since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing, religious government took power in late 2022. According to data collected by Aviad Houminer-Rosenblum from the Berl Katznelson Foundation based on public records, the ministry budget rose from NIS 48 million ($14 million) in 2021 to NIS 104 million ($30 million) in 2023, though it fell back to NIS 77 million ($23 million) last year.‘I ask Halevi to be honest and just admit this is about sovereignty’

According to Stiebel, the bill may end up hurting efforts to protect antiquities in the West Bank by putting more limits on enforcement efforts against looters in line with civil statutes.“The laws [applied in the West Bank] are more severe than Israeli law,” he said. Israeli law affords protections for the accused that military law in the West Bank does not, and has a more onerous burden of evidence.Har Even himself expressed similar concerns during the February committee meeting, noting that he was currently empowered to act under his own authority.“I’m afraid we’ll shoot ourselves in the foot,” he said. “If I go by Israeli law, I will have to ask a judge for a warrant for every search of antiquities [I conduct].”Adler said many experts were worried that the bill was counterproductive.“We all think it will damage our ability to protect antiquities,” he said.He accused lawmakers of being misleading about the real purpose of the bill, which he suggested is linked to a push toward the annexation of the West Bank.“I ask Halevi to be honest and just admit this is about sovereignty — in the small corner of archaeology,” he said.Stiebel noted that before proposing the bill, Halevi had not consulted with the council or with any other professional body.“We [the council] have right-wing and left-wing members, and we all unanimously agree that this solution is bad,” Stiebel told The Times of Israel by phone. “It will not improve the condition of antiquities in the West Bank, and will put us all in a corner.”Israeli archaeologists are respected professionals at the forefront of the field, Stiebel argued. If the new law were passed, it would offer ammunition to those who push for academic boycotts.“This move could play into the hands of BDS,” he said, referring to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. “I believe this law is politically and ideologically driven, rather than pursued out of concern for the status of antiquities.”Archaeology without borders? Adler spoke with The Times of Israel in February on the sidelines of the first international archaeology conference devoted to the archaeology of the West Bank.Titled “Archaeology and Site Conservation of Judea and Samaria,” the four-day event took place at the posh Dan Hotel in Jerusalem, with funding from the Heritage Ministry.The conference was sponsored by Ariel and Bar-Ilan universities, and the academic committee steering the summit featured figures from other major Israeli universities.Despite the serious subject matter, the conference had a festive atmosphere, with dozens of scholars presenting their work before large audiences.Participants included foreign scholars from major academic institutions such as the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Cornell, an Ivy League university in New York.“There seems to be a consensus that science is science, and there are no borders to science,” said Adler, who was a member of the conference committee. “We don’t distinguish between race, gender, sex, or nationality. We are interested in what’s coming out of the ground, and that’s what this conference is about.”Unsurprisingly, the event ignited criticism.Ahead of the conference, Emek Shaveh, which describes its mission as “protecting ancient sites as public assets that belong to members of all communities, faiths, and peoples,” accused organizers of “whitewashing” Israeli archaeological activity in the West Bank.‘Israel and the settlers whom you have joined have weaponized archaeology in Jerusalem and the West Bank, using it as a lever to dispossess Palestinians’“Israel and the settlers whom you have joined have weaponized archaeology in Jerusalem and the West Bank, using it as a lever to dispossess Palestinians,” charged Emek Shaveh chairman, Prof. Rafi Greenberg of Tel Aviv University, in an open letter to participants.“If the true interest of the organizers was the salvage and safeguarding of sites, they would have been better served by a low-key professional meeting,” he added.The conference also drew international criticism.Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologists finished their second season of excavations at the Hyrcania fortress in the Judean Desert in the West Bank in January 2025 in cooperation with the Staff Officer of Archaeology of Judea and Samaria. In the Byzantine compound, they uncovered a medallion mosaic which had been intentionally defaced with a column drum from the Herodian period. (Oren Gutfeld/The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)“This conference normalizes academic activities which are in breach of international law,” the Palestine Exploration Fund, a body established in London in 1856 for the study of the Southern Levant, wrote in a statement, accusing the event of “erasing the geographical identity of that region, the West Bank of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”Illustrating how much gravitas the PEF organization still holds, after the circulation of its letter, at least one international scholar mentioned to journalists covering the conference that he was worried he might lose his job if word reached his university that he took part.Adler expressed outrage at the PEF statement, noting that contrary to the group’s claims that the conference excluded Palestinian archaeologists, they in fact had been invited but did not wish to participate.‘These are people that represent a colonialist power, sitting in their office in London and complaining against Jews excavating in certain areas’“These are people that represent a colonialist power, sitting in their office in London and complaining against Jews excavating in certain areas,” Adler said.Several Palestinian archaeologists contacted by The Times of Israel declined to comment.The PEF says it boycotts all archaeological work in “occupied territories.” The Fund’s ethical policy states that the group “does not collaborate with institutions founded by an occupying power based in any occupied territory, and will not support, encourage, fund, or publish research by any academic associated with such institutions.” It added that it “does not associate itself with excavations conducted illegally in the occupied Palestinian territories, the occupied Golan, or in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.”Recently, Charlotte Whiting, editor-in-chief of the PEF’s peer-reviewed publication Palestine Exploration Quarterly (PEQ), told the Israeli news agency TPS that research conducted in the West Bank can only be considered for publication if the archaeologists “have cooperated with the relevant Palestinian authorities” — a near impossible feat for Israeli archaeologists in the West Bank.Other academic journals also have guidelines discouraging publication of work conducted under Israeli auspices in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.In 2016, the World Archaeological Congress passed a resolution urging “international academic publishers to refuse to publish articles by Israeli and international scholars that relate to archaeological excavations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories” as a way to place pressure on Israel.While those wishing to excavate in Israel get permission from the IAA, those wanting to excavate in the West Bank must seek a license from the Civil Administration staff officer.Data on licenses from 1968 to 2007 shows that nearly all West Bank excavations not carried out by the Civil Administration itself have been conducted by Israeli institutions, aside from a handful of digs by evangelical researchers and one in 1971 by a University of Toronto archaeologist.Many at the conference were surprised by a closing discussion that bluntly addressed the question of whether Israeli universities should be excavating in the West Bank at all.Panelist Prof. Aren Maeir from Bar-Ilan University said the answer is no.“The archaeological activity conducted in the West Bank is under the auspices of the Civil Administration, and the reason for that is so that Israel stays within the international law of how we are supposed to act in an area that’s under Israeli occupation,” Maeir told The Times of Israel in a phone interview.“My opinion is that both the staff officer and anybody else who works in the West Bank should only be doing salvage excavations, which means only excavating when a site is about to be destroyed, and there is no choice,” he added. “Israel, as an occupying party, should not be initiating archaeological projects outside of this context.”‘The Staff Officer and anybody else who works in the West Bank should only be doing salvage excavations, which means only excavating when a site is about to be destroyed’Nonetheless, as the head of Bar-Ilan’s Institute of Archaeology, Maeir said he still signs off when colleagues wish to conduct academic excavations in the West Bank.“I think that the interpretation of the law in Israel is not sufficiently clear-cut for me to be able to tell a colleague of mine that he or she can’t do it,” he noted.‘Confusing by design’According to Mimran, who is also a researcher at the Hebrew University, the way Israeli law and authorities treat the status of the West Bank is “confusing by design.”“The West Bank or Judea and Samaria is what we call in international law ‘a disputed territory,’ namely a territory without a clear sovereign but with several entities which have competing claims, specifically Israel and the Palestinian national movement, both of which present a connection to the territory,” Mimran told The Times of Israel.According to Mimran, Israel upholds a narrow interpretation of international law that maintains that international statutes and treaties are only relevant for regulating the relationship between states, meaning they do not apply to the West Bank.“This piece of land was never a part of a modern state,” he noted. “It was either run by colonial powers or by occupying powers, namely Israel and, before it, Jordan.”Despite rejecting the notion that its presence in the West Bank constitutes an occupation, Israel still applies the laws of belligerent occupation (a body of laws based on the 1907 Hague Regulations, Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and customary international humanitarian law) almost in their entirety, Mimran said.“Israel contests the full application of the law of occupation, but it states that it is willing to follow norms of a humanitarian character out of goodwill,” the expert explained.When it comes to archaeological sites and cultural heritage in the West Bank, no treaty is more important than the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and its two additional protocols, according to lawyer Shlomy Zachary.Zachary, whose expertise includes protecting cultural property in situations of armed conflict, represents several Israeli human rights organizations operating in the West Bank. In the past, he has often represented the left-leaning Yesh Din.“These laws shape what can and cannot happen during conflict — for example, the current situation in Gaza — or during an occupation, which is the case for the West Bank,” he told The Times of Israel.According to the convention, historical and archaeological sites should be excluded from battlefields and cannot be designated as military zones. Salvage excavations are the sole types of digs that are permitted.‘These laws shape what can and cannot happen during conflict’“A strict approach entails that only excavations that are required to save a site or artifacts to prevent their destruction are allowed,” Zachary said.Israel’s long-term presence in the West Bank also includes building roads and other infrastructure, activities that often also require salvage excavations, Zachary said. He charged that Israel had used this argument to expand the scope of its archaeological activity.Some in Israel also employ a different legal approach, which maintains that regular excavations can also be conducted.“According to international law, the military commander [of an occupied territory] must maintain all legal arrangements that were in force before the occupation,” Zachary said. “In this case, the Jordanian antiquities law allowed excavations, and therefore, some believe the military ruler can also do the same.”According to Zachary, however, most international lawyers reject this interpretation because it goes against the 1954 Hague Convention.Even the Oslo Accords, which included an appendix noting the importance of certain antiquities sites to Jewish tradition and carving out Israeli access, did not supersede international laws regarding archaeology, he said.“With the Oslo Accords, the PA acknowledged that the Jewish people have roots in the area,” said Zachary. “For example, the IDF can maintain Israeli entrance to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus in Area A. However, it is important to highlight that even these agreements cannot nullify or cancel international humanitarian law provisions.”The lawyer also noted that the State of Israel itself has so far acknowledged the difference between its sovereign territory and the West Bank, although the distinction was no longer as sharp as it once had been.“The main storage for archaeological findings [in the West Bank], for example, is located in Ma’aleh Adumim, which is in the West Bank itself, not in Israel — even though today an increasing number of findings are being transported by Israeli authorities to outside the West Bank,” he said, noting that removal of antiquities from an occupied territory is illegal.“In the last two decades, the involvement of Israeli universities and researchers is blurring the lines more and more,” Zachary added.What’s really being protected? According to Zachary, there is no dispute that the Civil Administration is responsible for protecting archaeological and historical sites, including from looting and damage. However, he suggested that effective means could include fencing and cameras, rather than active excavations.“Since it is an occupied territory, most experts would argue that everything should be interpreted with a narrow approach and for the benefit of the occupied population, not for the occupier researchers or political activists,” he said.Both Zachary and Alon Arad, executive director of Emek Shaveh, suggested that Israel’s claims of protecting antiquities seemed insincere, given its selective enforcement when Israeli settlers are involved in destroying or looting antiquities.“In Battir, Israeli settlers from an illegal outpost in the area have been destroying with heavy machinery a site that is recognized as a UNESCO heritage site,” Arad said, referring to a village southwest of Jerusalem recognized for its terraced hillsides. “The staff officer for archaeology is not there to prevent it.”Arad noted that Israel is one of the few modern countries in the world where it is legal to trade antiquities, under a law that allows artifacts discovered before 1978 to be bought and sold. This represents a considerable incentive for looters, he said.He also accused the staff officer of a lack of transparency.“Since 2017, they have refused to provide any information regarding their work, including their budget, the archaeologists working for them, the licenses they granted, and more,” Arad said.The Defense Ministry body did not respond to a request for a response.Similar to what was heard from the archaeologists who spoke with The Times of Israel, Arad suggested that the right approach to protect antiquities in the West Bank would consist of checking what is not working in the current system to find solutions within the present legal framework.However, Arad emphasized that contrary to other voices, Emek Shaveh is clearly stating that Israel should not pass the bill nor annex the West Bank because it is morally wrong, rather than out of fear of boycotts.‘Israel cannot and should not use archeology to justify acting against the Palestinians’Even if looting and destruction are happening in the West Bank, it does not give Israel the legitimacy to eschew international law and expand its hold on the territory, Arad said.“Israel cannot and should not use archaeology to justify acting against the Palestinians,” he said.Under the Oslo Accords, Israel’s involvement in West Bank antiquities is only supposed to extend to Area C, the 60% of the West Bank where it maintains civil and military control. Areas A and B are ostensibly under Palestinian control, though tending to heritage sites appears to be largely beyond the means of the cash-strapped and relatively power-starved PA.“Even if there are Palestinian archeologists who care about these things, they don’t have the power or the resources to prevent it,” said Maeir. “The Palestinians also have to be responsible adults and take charge of protecting antiquities in the areas under their responsibility.”But according to Arad, even if the PA had the resources, it is largely prevented from acting by Israel.“The body that would be in charge of enforcing against looting in Area B is the Palestinian Tourism Police,” he said. “However, as a security organization, the police are not allowed to work in Area B. The solution would be to allow them to operate, but Israel is not doing it.”Annexation exultation-Though his bill waits to be resubmitted, Halevi told The Times of Israel that he was convinced it will eventually pass, dismissing the nearly wall-to-wall opposition.“I think archaeologists are motivated by fear because they have European friends who are against our sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, or even on the entire Land of Israel,” he said.As for the claim that the legislation is really aimed at the annexation of the West Bank, his only qualm was with the word “annex.”“Israel cannot annex land that is its own,” he argued. Regardless of the West Bank’s legal status, Israel should treat it like its part of its sovereign country.“I want to start [with antiquities] because I believe that it is the most important [area] and no one can argue that our history should be under military rule,” he said. “However, I believe that all civil issues in Judea and Samaria should be under Israeli civil authorities.”Archaeologists raising a hue and cry hadn’t done anything to help the state of antiquities in the West Bank until now, he claimed, and they had yet to put forward a reasonable argument against transferring the responsibility of West Bank antiquities to a civil body.“The archaeologists are worried about losing funds,” he said. “I told them that a nation should stand by its values.”

Trump suggests fewer than 20 hostages remain alive; families demand new information-‘The 20 is actually probably not 20 because a couple of them are not around any longer,’ US president says; Israeli hostage envoy insists ‘no change’ in figures-By ToI Staff and Jacob Magid-23 August 2025, 12:21 am

US President Donald Trump indicated during a press conference in the Oval Office on Friday that fewer than 20 hostages held by terror groups in Gaza are still alive, sparking despair from the families of the captives and a denial from Israel’s hostage point man.Speaking to reporters in the White House, Trump took credit for the release of hostages during the last ceasefire deal between January and March, decried Hamas’s “extortion,” and spoke about efforts to bring the final group of captives back home.“So now they have 20,” he said, “but the 20 is actually probably not 20 because a couple of them are not around any longer.”In his statement, the president did not elaborate on his assertion that fewer than 20 hostages are alive, and insisted that “We’re doing everything we can to get the hostages out, it’s not easy.”“The situation has to end, it’s extortion and it has to end,” he said, referencing Hamas’s hostage taking and negotiations, and added that he thinks it would be “safer, in many ways,” to free the hostages militarily, instead of through a deal with Hamas.In the Oval Office, Trump was also asked why the US appears to be backing the Israeli decision to take over Gaza City when the hostage families are opposed and worry that it will condemn their loved ones to death.“Not all of them,” Trump replied, apparently referring to a minority of relatives of hostages who back the expanded Gaza operation.“And you have to understand, I’m the one who got all of the hostages out,” he said, taking credit for the release of “hundreds” of hostages, though fewer than 150 captives remained in Gaza when he took office on January 20.After the president’s comments to the press, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum released a statement reading: “Mr. President, there are 50 hostages. For us, each and every one of them is a world in itself.”“If [Strategic Affairs Minister Ron] Dermer, who only talks to the Americans and doesn’t bother to talk to or meet with the families of the hostages, knows something different, he should have informed the families first,” the families said.Gal Hirsch, the government’s point man on the hostages, issued a statement following the remarks: “According to the information we have, there is no change in the number of living hostages.”“Twenty of the hostages are alive, two [others] are in grave danger for their lives, 28 are no longer alive and have been declared deceased,” Hirsch wrote to the families.Israel has long stated that terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.Trump’s comments came as Israel prepares to launch a large-scale operation to conquer Gaza City and amid a flurry of international efforts to bring the sides back to the negotiation table to forestall the operation.Israel is expected to launch its new offensive on Gaza City in mid-September, some two weeks after newly called-up reservists are set to report for duty on September 2, Channel 12 reported on Friday.Some one million Palestinians currently in Gaza City will be called upon to evacuate as soon as Sunday, the network said.According to the report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the political echelon are pushing to speed up the launch of the operation, while the military wants to first take steps to safeguard the hostages and the troops, and also evacuate the Palestinians from Gaza City and ensure there is international legitimacy for the operation.The network cited Israeli officials as saying it is urgent to get out the hostages as soon as possible due to their dire condition. Sources cited by the outlet added that there are currently no substantive disagreements between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire-hostage deal, but “it all depends on Netanyahu.”“There are no magic solutions,” the sources were quoted as saying. “If [we] want to bring back the hostages [we] can do that now.”The terror group recently said it accepted a phased hostage-ceasefire deal that Israel had agreed to in the past, while Netanyahu has vowed to push on in Gaza City and to negotiate only for a deal that would release all the hostages. A source cited by Channel 12 said a partial deal was never on the table, and that Israel has only sought a comprehensive deal in two phases.Despite the apparent impasse in the ceasefire talks, Israel is expected to send negotiators to renewed talks in the coming days, Channel 12 reported, adding that talks have already begun on setting the time and place for the negotiations, which have stalled since Israel and the US recalled their negotiators from Doha last month.The network added that it is unclear where the renewed talks will take place, and that they will commence in a location other than Doha or Cairo, where they have taken place until now.Israel reportedly assesses that the impending operation in Gaza City is placing great pressure on Hamas, possibly leading to greater flexibility in the talks.According to the network, Netanyahu seeks to drive that point home by renaming the operation “Iron Fist,” rather than the name “Gideon’s Chariots 2” that has been used until now, following the original Operation Gideon’s Chariots that was launched in May.Sources present in Netanyahu’s consultations say he has been using the name Operation Iron Fist over the past couple of days, Channel 12 reported.Israel, which has called up tens of thousands of army reservists, is pressing ahead with its plan to seize Gaza’s biggest urban center despite international criticism of an operation likely to force the displacement of many more Palestinians, and despite concerns by top security officials that it could endanger the hostages.The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 62,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 459. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.

Israel said to assess that ‘one or two’ hostages are in life-threatening condition-Officials unsure why Trump suggested some hostages ‘not around any longer’; Smotrich said to tell IDF chief anyone in Gaza City who doesn’t evacuate ‘can die of hunger or surrender’By ToI Staff Today, 1:39 am-AUG 24,25

Israel has assessed that “at least one or two” hostages held in Gaza are in life-threatening condition, according to a Hebrew media report on Saturday, a day after US President Donald Trump suggested that fewer than 20 hostages remain alive, bucking Israel’s official figures and sparking despair from the captives’ families.According to Israel’s Channel 12 television network, Israeli officials fear that several of the living hostages are in serious danger of death and in dire need of medical attention.“Releasing the hostages is an urgent need,” an unnamed senior official told Channel 12.”However, the report said the officials were unsure what led Trump to conclude that “a couple of them are not around any longer” during a press conference on Friday.In the wake of Trump’s remarks, Israel’s hostage point man Gal Hirsch told the families that “According to the information we have, there is no change in the number of living hostages.”“Twenty of the hostages are alive, two [others] are in grave danger for their lives, 28 are no longer alive and have been declared deceased,” Hirsch wrote to the families.Not satisfied, the families then demanded that Israel present them with all information regarding their loved ones’ conditions.Israel has long stated that terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.The heightened concern for the hostages came as Israel prepares to launch a large-scale operation to conquer Gaza City and amid a flurry of international efforts to bring the sides back to the negotiation table to forestall the operation.According to a Channel 13 report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided Saturday to send a negotiating delegation to participate in talks with mediators to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, almost a week after Hamas said they agreed to a proposal for a partial deal that Israel had agreed to prior.The outlet reported that Netanyahu’s decision came after he was told in a meeting that the hostages could be executed by their captors or killed by IDF munitions if the army presses on with its planned takeover of Gaza City.Despite Netanyahu reportedly acquiescing to send a delegation to the upcoming talks, Channel 13 said that there was currently no agreed-upon date or location for the talks.Meanwhile, Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt have grown increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu over the “zig-zag” that he has plotted over recent months regarding his position on a potential hostage release and ceasfire deal, Channel 12 reported on Saturday.The two mediating countries were able to successfully convince Hamas to walk back from almost all of its demands and agree to a framework that it had rejected in the past, and which Israel had previously agreed to, only to discover that they would now be forced to try and convince Israel to restart talks on the phased agreement.The deal that Hamas agreed to earlier this week would allow for a 60-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of 10 living hostages. During the truce, additional talks would be held on freeing the remaining hostages and permanently ending the war.Although Israel agreed to this framework months ago, Netanyahu has shifted away in recent weeks from supporting this option and instead now insists on a comprehensive deal rather than a partial, phased agreement.Netanyahu’s vision for a comprehensive deal to end the war includes the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, as well as the transfer of governance to a body that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.His apparent U-turn regarding a partial deal has caused significant displeasure with the mediators, and with Egypt in particular.  A senior official in Cairo was quoted by Channel 12 as saying that “Israel’s conditions are unworkable and harm the chances of reaching a ceasefire.”Trump growing impatient with Gaza war plans-Another Channel 12 report aired Saturday said that Netanyahu and his top adviser, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, assessed during a recent meeting that Israel has Trump’s full support for its military offensive in Gaza City, but only for a limited period.The network quoted the two as saying that Trump wants a quick and decisive operation, and doesn’t want the war against Hamas to drag on more than necessary.During the same meeting, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir was said to have clashed with far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, who assailed him for saying the military wasn’t sure how long it would take to evacuate Gaza City’s civilian population.“We ordered you [to carry out] a quick operation. In my opinion, you can besiege them. Whoever doesn’t evacuate, don’t let them. No water, no electricity, they can die of hunger or surrender. This is what we want and you’re capable [of doing it],” the network quoted Smotrich as telling Zamir.Ben Gvir then asked the IDF chief whether he was “scared of the military advocate general’ — the IDF’s top attorney — to which Zamir pointed out that the military is “operating in other areas, in Khan Younis and Rafah.”“This isn’t what the political leadership ordered. You don’t want to defeat [Hamas],” Smotrich declared of Zamir, who was said to have retorted: “You don’t understand anything. You don’t know what a brigade or battalion is. This takes time.”The planned campaign to capture Gaza City has sparked a major international outcry, with governments and humanitarian groups warning of potentially disastrous consequences for Gaza’s civilians, noting widespread malnutrition that has recently worsened significantly in the Palestinian enclave throughout the 22-month war.It has also sparked fear from the families of the hostages, who fear that it will serve as the final nail in the coffin for their loved ones, as Hamas has vowed to execute captives if IDF troops approach their positions.

Palestinians fear it’s ‘too late’ after UN declares famine in northern Gaza-American doctor working in Gaza City says he’ll leave famine declaration to experts, but says ‘degree of weight loss, post-operative complications and starvation’ is clear-By AFP, Reuters and ToI Staff 23 August 2025, 11:26 pm

Desperate Palestinians clutching pots and plastic buckets scrambled for rice at a charity kitchen in Gaza City on Saturday, a day after the United Nations declared a famine in parts of the war-battered territory, a charge that Israel vehemently denied.On Friday, the United Nations Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system officially declared a famine in parts of the Gaza Strip, saying that nearly a quarter of the enclave’s two million residents are experiencing famine, and that number is expected to rise by the end of September.Israel swiftly denied the report, saying that the IPC relies on Hamas sources, and accused the system of having “twisted its own rules” in declaring a famine, calling the report an “outright lie” and “a modern blood libel.”In the 24 hours following the UN announcement, eight people in Gaza died of malnutrition-related causes, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures cannot be verified and do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. According to the ministry, the overall toll of such deaths during the war is 281.Israel has largely dismissed these figures and has pointed out that many of those included were suffering from preexisting conditions prior to their deaths, describing the reports as “an orchestrated campaign” by Hamas to discredit Israel.In Gaza, one Palestinian woman said the UN famine declaration came “far too late.”The children are “staggering from dizziness, unable to wake up because of the lack of food and water,” said the 34-year-old Umm Mohammad, at a charity kitchen in Deir al-Balah.In Gaza City, which Israel plans to seize as part of an expanded military offensive, footage showed women and young children among the chaotic jostle of dozens clamoring and shouting for food.“We have no home left, no food, no income… so we are forced to turn to charity kitchens, but they do not satisfy our hunger,” said Yousef Hamad, 58, who was displaced from the northern city of Beit Hanoun.“We’re starving. We eat once a day. Will we be more hungry than we are now? There’s nothing left,” said Dalia Shamali, whose family has been repeatedly displaced from their home in nearby Shejaiya.She said they spent most of their money over the last two years moving from one part of Gaza to another as the Israeli military issued evacuation orders. With Israel allowing more food in recently, the price of flour and other food items has been dropping, but the family still can’t afford them, Shamali said.American surgeon describes ‘heartbreaking’ scenesIn the city, an American surgeon working at a local hospital described the levels of desperation he has witnessed since arriving in the Strip earlier this month.“The level of hunger is really what’s heartbreaking. You know, we saw malnutrition before, back in November, already starting to happen. But now the level is just, it’s beyond imagination,” said Mohammed Adeel Khaleel, a spinal surgeon from Texas on his third volunteer stint in Gaza.He said that shortly after he arrived at the hospital, a 17-year-old was brought in with gunshot wounds to both legs and one hand, sustained when he went to collect food at an aid site.In the emergency room, Khaleel said he noted the ribs protruding from the teen’s emaciated torso, an indication of severe malnutrition. When doctors at Al-Ahli Hospital stabilized the patient, he raised his heavily bandaged hand and pointed to his empty mouth, Khaleel said.Khaleel, who spoke to The Associated Press ahead of the UN famine announcement, said the evidence of deprivation was already clear, but said he would leave it to others with more expertise to measure exactly what constitutes famine.“Just the degree of weight loss, post-operative complications and starvation that we’re seeing. That wouldn’t surprise me at all if it was called famine,” said Khaleel, who traveled to Gaza as an independent volunteer via the World Health Organization.But he knows what he saw in three weeks of treating patients in Gaza, most of the time at the hospital in Gaza City. Again and again, medical workers cut open patients’ clothing to treat injuries, revealing a loss of muscle and fat caused by hunger that left skin stretched tight over protruding bones.“These patients, a number of them that we’re seeing are just exposed ribs, severely skinny extremities,” he said. “And you know that they’re just not getting calories in.”At Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital earlier in the week, nutrition director Dr. Mohammad Kuheil led an AP journalist to the bedside of a thin-limbed girl. Aya Sbeteh, 15, was wounded in an airstrike. But her recovery has been set back by weakness from lack of food, which her family says has reduced her weight by more than a third.“All we have are grains like lentils, sometimes,” said her father, Yousef Sbeteh, 44. “Even flour is unaffordable.”Another patient, Karam Akoumeh, lay with sunken cheeks, his thin skin stretched like plastic wrap across his rib cage. His intestines were seriously damaged when he was shot while going out to collect flour, his family said, compromising his digestive system and requiring hard-to-find intravenous nutritional supplements.According to the UN, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in recent months. Israel has disputed the figures and has said it only fires warning shots if crowds get too close to its forces.Akoumeh’s father, Atef, said the lack of supplements compounded the hunger that reduced Karam’s weight from 62 kilograms (136 pounds) to just 35 kilos (77 pounds).“I checked throughout all Gaza’s hospitals for [the supplements], but I have not found any,” he said.“There are no protein sources, only plant-based protein from legumes. Meat and chicken are not available. Dairy products are not available, and fruits are also unavailable,” said Kuheil, the doctor in charge of nutrition at Shifa.Earlier this week, Israel warned medical facilities in northern Gaza to prepare for mass evacuation ahead of the IDF’s planned offensive to capture Gaza City. On Saturday, a major hospital in southern Gaza began working to reopen, after it was shut for months due to IDF operations.According to the IDF, Gazan medical officials were told that “the hospital infrastructures in the southern Gaza Strip are being adapted for the absorption of the sick and wounded, alongside an increased entry of necessary medical equipment in accordance with the requests of the international aid organizations.”The planned campaign has sparked a major international outcry, with governments and humanitarian groups warning of potentially disastrous consequences for Gaza’s civilians, noting widespread malnutrition that has recently worsened significantly amid the 22-month war, which was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 62,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 459.

Portugal suffers new wildfire death as Spain beats back blazes.

Madrid, Aug 23 (AFP) Aug 23, 2025-A fourth Portuguese firefighter died of injuries sustained battling a wildfire Saturday as Spain slowly got the upper hand over fires that have scorched vast swathes of territory.Eight people have now died in the two countries that have been gripped by a summer of fires fuelled by heatwaves, tinderbox conditions and strong winds.Portugal's presidency said that a firefighter had died of injuries suffered this week in Sabugal in the northeast. Media said the 45-year-old had been working for a private company battling the fires.Spain has also counted four deaths.But with weather conditions improving, Spanish authorities said that the tide appeared to have turned in the fight against the fires, mainly raging in the country's west and northwest.The head of Spain's civil protection and emergencies service, Virginia Barcones, said there were still 18 "treacherous" fires burning.But she added that Spanish emergency services, backed by European reinforcements, had almost contained the blazes."We will need a final push to be done with this horrible situation," she told TVE television. "There are fewer of them and the end is a lot nearer."- Hard-hit regions -The Spanish regions of Castile and Leon, Extremadura and Galicia have been hardest hit by the fires that flared during the latest heatwave that saw temperatures soaring to 40C and above.In Portugal, the office of President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa sent condolences to the family of the fireman "who tragically lost his life after directly combating the forest fires in Sabugal municipality".The amount of land burnt across the Iberian peninsula has hit a total area about the size of the US state of Delaware, based on EU statistics.The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) said Spain had lost a record 403,000 hectares (996,000 acres), while Portugal lost 278,000 hectares this year. The total is about 6,810 square kilometres (2,630 square miles).- Accusations crisis was mishandled -The fire emergency has thrown a spotlight on climate change and trends that have left Spain's countryside vulnerable.Castile and Leon has suffered from decades of rural exodus, an ageing population and a decline of farming and livestock grazing that once helped keep forests clear of tinder.The fires have fuelled accusations in Spain that politicians mishandled the crisis.The main opposition Popular Party has accused Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a Socialist, of having withheld aid to damaged regions where its officials govern.According to EFFIS data analysed by AFP, Spain is one of four European Union countries experiencing their worst year for wildfires since statistics began in 2006, along with Cyprus, Germany and Slovakia.Scientists say climate change is driving longer, more intense and more frequent heatwaves worldwide.Lower humidity in the air, vegetation and soil make it easier for wildfires to ignite and harder to control.

7.5 magnitude earthquake in the Chilean Antarctic.

Santiago, Aug 22 (AFP) Aug 22, 2025-A 7.5 magnitude earthquake rattled the Chilean Antarctic region and the southern Drake Passage on Thursday, the US Geological Survey said.There was no threat of a tsunami from the quake, which took place at 10:16 pm (0216 GMT Friday), at a depth of 6.7 miles (10.8 kilometers), the survey said in a statement.Drake Passage is a turbulent, 500-mile-wide strait between South America and Antarctica, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.The National Tsunami Warning Center confirmed that a tsunami was not expected.Chile's national disaster response service (Senapred) described the earthquake as "medium intensity" and said a "precautionary alert" had been issued for the Antarctic territory.A source from the Chilean interior ministry said "there is no danger for the Magallanes region," the southernmost inhabited area of the South American continent.The state of precaution "requires abandoning beach areas" and "rocky shores" of the national Antarctic territory, according to Senapred.

Comet water analysis strengthens link to Earth origins-by Clarence Oxford.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 18, 2025-New research using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has revealed that water in comet 12P/Pons-Brooks closely matches the composition of Earth's oceans, bolstering theories that comets contributed significantly to our planet's water and possibly life-building molecules.An international team led by Martin Cordiner of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center mapped ordinary water (H2O) and heavy water (HDO) in the comet's coma during its approach to the Sun. This marks the first detailed spatial mapping of both water types in a comet.The ALMA data were paired with NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) measurements to determine the comet's deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) ratio, a key chemical marker of water's origin. The result, (1.71+/-0.44)+ 10-4, is the lowest D/H ratio ever recorded in a Halley-type comet and aligns closely with Earth's oceans."Comets like this are frozen relics left over from the birth of our Solar System 4.5 billion years ago," Cordiner said. "Our new results provide the strongest evidence yet that at least some Halley-type comets carried water with the same isotopic signature as that found on Earth, supporting the idea that comets could have helped make our planet habitable."Halley-type comets, with orbital periods between 20 and 200 years, rarely enter the inner Solar System. Past comet studies often showed mismatched D/H ratios, leaving the role of comets in delivering Earth's water uncertain. These new findings point to 12P/Pons-Brooks as a potential contributor of water and life-essential compounds to early Earth.Mapping also confirmed the gases originated from the comet's nucleus rather than forming in its surrounding gas cloud. "By mapping both H2O and HDO in the comet's coma, we can tell if these gases are coming from the frozen ices within the solid body of the nucleus," said NASA's Stefanie Milam, a study co-author.ALMA's sensitivity enabled detection of faint heavy water emissions from deep within the coma-an observational first for any comet.