16+ min ago (1495+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 781 As the sun set on the northern village of Kafr Yasif on a recent evening, neighbors somberly gathered in the backyard of the Masadeh family to grieve the loss of their son, Nidal. Nidal Masadeh, 35, was working as a security guard for the Al-Bustan High School when he was shot and killed by unknown assailants the morning of October 15 on the school grounds. The killing was shocking for its proximity to a school and the fact that it took place during the day. But perhaps just as disturbing was the mundanity of the bloodletting, one of over two hundred homicides that have rocked the Arab community since the beginning of this year. Though largely linked to the criminal underworld, the unprecedently high number of homicides among Arabs have by now seeped into all aspects of life,…...

32+ min ago (346+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 781 A one-year-old infant who was not vaccinated against measles and had no underlying conditions died on Tuesday due to complications of the disease, the Health Ministry said. The death marks the 11th fatality in Israel due to the measles outbreak since it began in May. Most of them were healthy children with no underlying illnesses, who were not vaccinated against measles. The infant in question succumbed to the disease at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, the Health Ministry said. The hospital said that the baby had been brought there 10 days earlier in serious condition with a blocked airway. On Sunday, an unvaccinated 18-month old baby in Tiberias who was otherwise healthy also died of measles. In a message to the public, the Health Ministry stressed that measles is preventable through an effective, safe and free vaccine available…...

1+ hour, 11+ min ago (1384+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 781 On Monday evening, the Knesset voted to ratify the cabinet's nominations of Tourism Minister Haim Katz and Justice Minister Yariv Levin to head five ministries left leaderless when the ultra-Orthodox lawmakers who had helmed them withdrew from the government this summer. The appointments of the two Likud loyalists were an attempt to fill a management vacuum that experts argue has significantly harmed the government's ability to function for the country's citizens for months on end. With the vote, the Labor, Religious Services and Jerusalem Affairs ministries are now officially led by Levin, while Katz now holds the Health portfolio as well as Welfare and Social Affairs. Both lawmakers had initially been appointed as acting heads of the ministries, though the temporary arrangements ended weeks ago. In addition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under indictment and…...

1+ hour, 27+ min ago (200+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 781 Deputy Editor Amanda Borschel-Dan is the host of The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, What Matters Now, Friday Focus and The Reel Schmooze podcasts, and heads up The Times of Israel's features. David Horovitz is the founding editor of The Times of Israel. He is the author of "Still Life with Bombers" (2004) and "A Little Too Close to God" (2000), and co-author of "Shalom Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin" (1996). He previously edited The Jerusalem Post (2004-2011) and The Jerusalem Report (1998-2004). The public squabbling between IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Defense Minister Israel Katz continued yesterday, drawing some in the defense establishment to worry that it is affecting Israel's deterrence. Horovitz weighs in. Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates. US backs Israel's right to defend itself after…...

1+ hour, 34+ min ago (534+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 781 A Palestinian terrorist who killed an Israeli security guard at a West Bank industrial park last year was killed by troops in a firefight on Tuesday morning, according to the Israel Defense Forces. On August 18, 2024, the assailant, Sultan al-Ghani, fatally wounded security guard Gidon Peri, 38, at the Bar-On industrial park near Kedumim by attacking him with a hammer, before snatching his handgun and fleeing the scene. The military said Tuesday that IDF troops and Shin Bet officers operated in an area south of Jenin overnight, during which the forces nabbed five suspected accomplices of al-Ghani. Then Tuesday morning, soldiers of the Duvdevan commando unit encircled a building where al-Ghani was holed up and he was killed in an exchange of fire, the IDF said. The military said that during scans in the building afterward, the soldiers…...

2+ hour, 40+ min ago (370+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 781 Heavy rain and hail swept through portions of the country on Tuesday morning, leading to reports of damage, road closures and flooding. According to the Kan public broadcaster, a portion of the West Bank security fence in the Hebron Hills collapsed due to the heavy rains and high winds. Sections of Route 40, Route 227 and Route 206 in southern Israel were closed Tuesday morning due to flooding. In the north, roads flooded in Kiryat Motzkin and Shfaram. In the center, Route 90 outside Jericho was shut after flooding. In Jerusalem, heavy hail fell for a number of minutes across the city, although no damage was reported. " 02ws " (@YERU02WS) November 25, 2025 The Magen David Adom ambulance service said that it had been called to rescue citizens who were trapped in their cars due to flooding or reported flooding in their homes in Kiryat…...

3+ hour, 49+ min ago (807+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 781 Police bodycam footage that was played Monday at the trial of six Palestine Action members who broke into a UK subsidiary of Israeli arms firm Elbit last year showed one of the intruders striking an officer on the back with a sledgehammer as she knelt on the floor during the break-in, fracturing her lumbar spine. "I had no idea what it was until I turned around and saw a male with a sledgehammer behind me," said the officer, Sgt. Kate Evans, at the trial of the proscribed anti-Israel group's members, according to Sky News. "I said something like "you have just hit me with a sledgehammer,' and he didn't recognize that at all. He just started telling me I'm complicit in genocide again." When other officers arrested the six intruders, Evans' alleged attacker, 23-year-old Samuel Corner,…...

4+ hour, 24+ min ago (793+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 781 Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard on Tuesday compared his treatment by US interrogators to that experienced by Hamas hostages held in Gaza, lobbing the explosive allegation that he was raped while in custody. "I know what it's like to be buried alive, I know what it's like to be brutally treated, including being raped, I understand that, under interrogation," Pollard said during an English-language interview with Kan's Reshet Bet radio station. Pressed by the interviewer if he was saying he was raped by his American interrogators after being arrested on espionage charges, Pollard said, "Absolutely. And I'm glad some of the hostages are talking about it now." In recent weeks, two released hostages, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Rom Braslavski, spoke out during interviews about sexual abuse they experienced during captivity, the first male captives to publicly confirm violence…...

4+ hour, 40+ min ago (579+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 781 The White House on Monday expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself following an IDF strike a day earlier in Lebanon that killed Hezbollah's military chief of staff. Asked during a briefing outside the White House whether US President Donald Trump supports the targeted assassination of Haytham Ali Tabatabai, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had not spoken to him specifically about the strike. "But of course, the president supports Israel's right to defend itself and to take out any terrorist threats in the region," Leavitt added. Channel 12 news reported on Sunday that the US had known for several days that Israel was planning to escalate its strikes in Lebanon, but was not alerted in advance about the specific strike on Tabatabai. The US State Department designated him as a terrorist and sanctioned…...

5+ hour, 18+ min ago (607+ words) ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 781 Thirty-nine percent of the food produced in Israel last year was dumped, sending 1.3% of the national GDP down the drain, according to the latest report by Leket Israel'the National Food Bank. The good news is that, per capita, Israelis last year wasted 13.3% less food than 10 years before, dropping from 300 to 260 kilograms (660 to 575 pounds) annually. BDO explained this by citing higher public awareness, replacing vats of food with individual plates in dining halls, a growth in online food orders (reducing surplus food grabbed along supermarket aisles), and technical improvements in food storage. However, these gains were offset by population growth and the rising costs of food, as reflected in the value of the waste. Over the past decade, the Israeli economy has lost food valued at a cumulative NIS 211 billion ($57 billion), the report said. The report noted…...