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For the second day in a row, Jordanian warplanes struck the Suwayda countryside, hitting several drug and weapons smuggling sites, according to Syrian media.

After heavy rainfall in the area, a man was filmed riding a kneeboard that was tied to the back of a pickup truck, sliding through muddy water along Bear Valley Road in Hesperia, California.

The Israeli man suspected of photographing former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s home on behalf of Iran was employed as a maintenance contractor at the Kirya military complex in Tel Aviv, Kan News reported on Thursday. The suspect, Vadim Kupriyanov, worked for the past three years as a maintenance contractor at the Kirya. On the day […]

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held talks in Ankara on Wednesday with members of Hamas’s political bureau, focusing on the Gaza ceasefire and efforts to move the agreement into its second phase, according to a source in Turkey’s foreign ministry.

During the meeting, Hamas representatives told Fidan that they had met their obligations under the ceasefire framework, but argued that Israel’s continued “targeting” of Gaza was intended to block progress to the next stage of the deal. Since the ceasefire began, Israel has carried out strikes against individuals it identified as terror operatives who had entered areas under Israeli control.

Hamas officials also complained that the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza was inadequate, saying there was an urgent need for supplies including medicine, housing equipment, and fuel, the source said.

The meeting highlighted Ankara’s ongoing engagement with Hamas. Since the war erupted on October 7, 2023, Turkey has emerged as one of the group’s most outspoken supporters on the global stage.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly described Hamas as a “resistance movement,” accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, and taken steps to downgrade relations with Jerusalem, including halting trade and limiting Israeli access to Turkish airspace.

The disclosure of Fidan’s meeting came as pro-government Turkish media intensified their attacks on Israel, casting it as a major strategic danger to Turkey.

On Wednesday, Yeni Şafak, a daily closely aligned with Erdogan, ran a front-page headline declaring that “Israel is now the number one threat,” asserting that Turkish state bodies now view Israel as their foremost security concern. The paper claimed that the defense ministry, foreign ministry, and MIT intelligence service had all placed Israel at the top of their priority lists.

The report also accused Israel of involvement in recent unrest in northern Syria, alleging — without providing evidence — that Jerusalem encouraged Kurdish groups linked to the Syrian Democratic Forces to escalate clashes in Aleppo in an effort to undermine Turkey. Ankara designates the SDF as a terrorist organization due to its connections to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

Yeni Şafak said the timing of the developments was notable, pointing to their overlap with a trilateral summit involving Israel, Greece, and Cyprus, which Turkey has characterized as a hostile initiative against its interests in the eastern Mediterranean.

The paper further highlighted that the summit coincided with a working visit to Damascus by Fidan, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler, and MIT chief Ibrahim Kalin, a convergence it described as suspicious.

Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides in Jerusalem, where the leaders agreed to expand security cooperation. During that meeting, Netanyahu issued what was widely seen as a pointed warning to Ankara, saying that “those who fantasize they can reestablish their empires and their dominion over our lands” should “forget it.”

Netanyahu followed up with another message aimed at Turkey on Wednesday, telling graduates at an Israeli Air Force pilots’ ceremony that Israel would continue equipping its pilots with “the best instruments” and would “prevent whoever must be prevented from receiving these instruments,” an apparent reference to Turkey’s efforts to obtain F-35 fighter jets from the United States.

{Matzav.com}

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the California DMV on behalf of nearly 20,000 immigrant commercial drivers, after the state notified them that their CDLs would be canceled starting Jan. 5, 2026, due to expiration-date issues tied to work-authorization documents. The lawsuit claims the DMV violated state procedures, failed to provide a way to […]

Support for a full investigation into the expanding Qatargate affair continued to grow Thursday, as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issued some of the strongest remarks yet from within the coalition.

Speaking at a conference hosted by the Makor Rishon newspaper, Smotrich said the matter must be thoroughly examined by the Shin Bet, echoing comments made a day earlier by Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, who became the first minister in Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s government to publicly endorse the ongoing probe.

Smotrich said that if staff members in the Prime Minister’s Office were found to have acted on behalf of Qatar during wartime, the response should be uncompromising. “If there are corrupt people within the Prime Minister’s Office who, amid a war, worked for Qatar, they need to be pilloried and sit behind bars for many years,” he said.

At the same time, Smotrich stressed that Netanyahu himself has conducted himself properly throughout the conflict. He said the prime minister made decisions based solely on “relevant considerations,” adding that any penetration of the Prime Minister’s Office by outside actors would represent an extremely grave failure. If “questionable figures” succeeded in “infiltrate” the office, “it’s very serious,” he said.

Underscoring the severity of the allegations, Smotrich added, “Someone who was working for an enemy state in a time of war — I don’t have words to describe how despicable and serious it is.”

The finance minister also said that over the course of the two years of war, he never met Eli Feldstein, a central suspect in the Qatargate scandal.

Feldstein, together with senior Netanyahu adviser Jonathan Urich, is alleged to have carried out work for Qatar while employed by Netanyahu, through the Perception PR firm run by Yisrael Einhorn, the prime minister’s former campaign manager. According to the allegations, Einhorn and Perception promoted Qatar’s image in Israel and internationally, including in connection with Doha’s role as a mediator in hostage negotiations.

In a lengthy interview this week with Kan public broadcaster, Feldstein claimed that Netanyahu was responsible for leaking classified intelligence to the German newspaper Bild last year in an effort to influence Israeli public opinion regarding the hostage talks. Feldstein was indicted last year in the separate Bild leak affair.

During that interview, Feldstein also alleged that Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, learned of the secret investigation into the leak months before it became public and reassured him that the probe could be shut down, along with a possible investigation into IDF information security, if necessary.

Asked whether it would be problematic if Netanyahu was unaware of the alleged activities, Smotrich responded Thursday that “it’s a problem,” while adding that he could not assess the extent of the issue.

He reiterated his view of Netanyahu’s conduct, saying the prime minister acted only “with a higher purpose, 100% only with relevant considerations, 100% for the good of the State of Israel and its security and future and existence.”

The Prime Minister’s Office and Braverman have both rejected Feldstein’s claims and accused him of lying. Netanyahu has likewise dismissed the allegations involving Urich.

Although opposition figures have long called for a full investigation into the various scandals, the past two days have seen additional coalition figures publicly back the probe, including Chikli and Likud MK Eli Dallal.

{Matzav.com}

Like many retirement communities, The Terraces serves as a tranquil refuge for a nucleus of older people who no longer can travel to faraway places or engaging in bold adventures. But they can still be thrust back to their days of wanderlust and thrill-seeking whenever caretakers at the community in Los Gatos, California, schedule a […]

The IDF will now refer to the ongoing conflict exclusively as the “War of Revival,” following a new directive issued Thursday by Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir.

Under the instruction, all official IDF usage—including speeches, ceremonies, formal documents, and internal correspondence—must use the newly approved name and abandon any previous terminology.

The move comes after the government formally authorized the change, a step advanced by Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and subsequently implemented within the military framework.

As a result, the designation “Swords of Iron,” which has been used since fighting began in October 2023, is being fully phased out. The IDF will replace it with “War of Revival” across all operational, media, and internal platforms.

Explaining the decision, Zamir said, “This policy is intended to ensure linguistic consistency and the implementation of the decision regarding the name of the war.”

{Matzav.com}

An IDF soldier died on Thursday after being shot inside a military base in northern Israel, marking another fatal incident within IDF facilities in recent days.

Following the shooting, the soldier was evacuated in critical condition to a hospital, where medical teams later pronounced him dead despite efforts to save his life.

The IDF announced that the Military Police Investigation Unit has launched a formal probe into the circumstances surrounding the incident, and that its conclusions will be forwarded to the military prosecution for further examination.

The death comes amid a troubling pattern. Just nine days earlier, on December 16, another IDF soldier was fatally wounded by gunfire inside a northern base. That soldier was also rushed to the hospital in critical condition and later died from his injuries.

Earlier this month, the IDF publicized the conclusions of an expert committee that examined the March 2025 death of Sergeant Yosef Haim Tzvi Serlin, a trainee in Unit 504 who was killed during a military exercise.

According to the committee’s findings, Serlin sustained his injuries during a “corridor” hand-to-hand combat drill, an exercise not included in the unit’s standard training regimen. The drill involved soldiers moving one by one through a confined passage while being physically assaulted by fellow trainees, with the intention of testing their defensive reactions.

The investigation concluded that the exercise was carried out in violation of standing orders and safety guidelines and lacked appropriate oversight. In response, the Head of the Infantry and Paratroopers Corps ordered the immediate and total cancellation of the corridor drill throughout all IDF units.

The recommendations of the committee were accepted by the Head of Military Intelligence, Major General Shlomi Binder, who directed a series of disciplinary measures. These included a formal reprimand for the commander of Unit 504, Brigadier General D., a six-year demotion for the unit’s combat commander, Lieutenant Colonel Y., and the dismissal of three additional officers from the unit.

{Matzav.com}

Former captive Eitan Mor said on Thursday that Hamas possesses extensive information about the IDF. Speaking at the Bnei Akiva National Education and Makor Rishon conference, Mor said, “They know a lot about the army—sometimes even more than most of the soldiers serving in the army today.” “They have booklets in Arabic with details on […]

For more than half a century, two of America’s most infamous unsolved murders—the Zodiac killings and the Black Dahlia—have occupied a peculiar place in the national imagination: endlessly theorized, officially unresolved, and periodically revived by a new suspect or cipher crack that promises, and usually fails, to bring closure. Now, an unlikely figure is insisting […]

Trump-backed candidate Nasry Asfura won Honduras’ presidential election, electoral authorities said Wednesday afternoon, ending a weeks-long count that has whittled away at the credibility of the Central American nation’s fragile electoral system. The election is continuing Latin America’s swing to the right, coming just a week after Chile chose the far-right politician José Antonio Kast as its next president. Asfura, […]

Almost a thousand single parents and their children from across the Tri State area gathered at Nickelodeon Park in the American Dream Mall on the fifth night of Chanukah for My Extended Family’s Chanukah Extravaganza. Families came from all over, reflecting the organization’s reach across six branches and its openness to children from every community. […]

Hafganos underway in Yerushalyim after a Yeshiva Bochur was arrested overnight for failing to reply to an IDF draft notice. Protesters are currently blocking the light rail. As YWN reported earlier, the Bochur was pulled put of bed despite suffering from the flu with high fever.

The Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisrael, representing the chassidic leadership, is scheduled to convene on Sunday at 1:00 PM in Moshav Ora, at the temporary home of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, amid mounting controversy surrounding Israel’s proposed military draft legislation. During the meeting, the members of the Moetzes are expected to formally declare their opposition […]

IDF troops operating along the Yellow Line in northern Gaza dismantled over 4 km of Hamas tunnels in the areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya. Soldiers also eliminated dozens of terrorists and found 10 mortar shells hidden in a child’s blanket inside a home in Beit Hanoun.

A rare and stirring scene unfolded at a Chanukah mesibah held in the home of the venerable gaon, Rav Meir Greineman, where yeshiva bochurim stood patiently in line as the rov himself personally washed their hands prior to the meal.

The special gathering took place in Rav Greineman’s home on Rechov HaAdmor MiGur in Bnei Brak and was attended by bochurim who regularly participate in the weekly chaburah held there every Friday night.

Before the seudah began, Rav Greineman rose and proceeded to wash the hands of each bochur himself. One by one, the bochurim stood before him as he demonstrated, with great care and precision, the proper fulfillment of netilas yadayim in accordance with halachah.

Sources familiar with Rav Greineman’s conduct explained that this is a long-standing personal practice he observes whenever hosting bnei yeshivah in his home. The practice, they noted, traces back to an episode from his youth involving his uncle, the Chazon Ish, zt”l.

On one occasion, when a group of bochurim came to eat at the home of the Chazon Ish, the gadol hador observed how they washed their hands. He remarked that according to the opinions requiring that the entire palm be washed for a seudah, many people — often without realizing it — do not properly fulfill the obligation of netilas yadayim.

Deeply influenced by that moment, Rav Greineman undertook to personally instruct younger generations in the correct method of washing hands, ensuring meticulous adherence to halachah. Ever since, he has made a point of demonstrating this practice himself, transforming a simple act into a living lesson in dikduk halachah.

{Matzav.com}

A bomb exploded during prayers at a mosque in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday night, killing five people in what police described as a likely suicide attack. Police said that 35 people were also injured in the attack. Nahum Daso, spokesperson for police command in the surrounding state of Borno, said in a […]