Israel is preparing to fully reopen the Rafah Crossing to both outgoing and incoming Gaza residents, with the move expected shortly after Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu returns from Washington later this week, according to an Israeli television report. The step would mark a shift from Israel’s previous position and comes amid intensified pressure from the Trump administration.
Channel 12 reported that Israel intends to proceed with reopening the crossing in both directions, citing an Israeli official who said the government does not want to be portrayed as obstructing Trump’s Gaza peace initiative. “Yerushalayim doesn’t want to be seen as the party that is blocking the implementation of Trump’s Gaza peace plan.”
The issue was a focal point during Netanyahu’s meetings on Monday with President Donald Trump and senior U.S. aides, after which a U.S. official told The Times of Israel that Washington expects the crossing to begin operating for both entry and exit of Gazans in the coming days.
Although the reopening of Rafah was included in the October ceasefire arrangement for Gaza, Israel has until now conditioned its cooperation on the crossing being used solely for departures from the Strip. Egypt has rejected that approach and has kept the crossing shut, contending that Israel’s stance amounts to an effort to thin Gaza’s population by preventing residents from returning.
Facing American pressure, Netanyahu presented the idea of reopening the crossing in both directions to his cabinet last week. The proposal encountered resistance from far-right ministers, some of whom have advocated throughout the war for policies aimed at encouraging Gazans to leave the territory.
{Matzav.com}
Israel ended 2025 with a second consecutive year in which more people left the country than arrived, as tens of thousands departed amid ongoing war and domestic tensions, according to figures released Wednesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
The CBS reported that more than 69,000 Israelis moved abroad during the year, while the overall migration balance showed a net loss of roughly 20,000 people. This marked the second year in a row of negative migration, following a similar pattern in 2024, when 82,700 Israelis left the country — about 50,000 more than those who arrived.
At the same time, Israel’s population continued to grow, though at one of the slowest rates in the country’s history. The CBS said the population rose by 1.1 percent in 2025, reaching a record 10.178 million residents, matching the growth rate recorded the previous year.
A separate report published Wednesday by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies painted an even bleaker picture, estimating that population growth stood at just 0.9 percent — the first time Israel’s annual growth rate has fallen below the 1 percent mark.
Immigration figures also declined. According to the CBS, about 24,600 new immigrants arrived in Israel in 2025, a drop of roughly 8,000 compared to 2024. The bureau noted that this number is still higher than the 21,900 immigrants announced earlier this week by the Immigration and Absorption Ministry. Much of the decrease was linked to a sharp fall in arrivals from Russia, after immigration from that country surged following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.
During the year, approximately 19,000 Israelis returned after spending extended periods abroad, and another 5,500 people entered the country under family reunification frameworks. Even with those returns, departures significantly outpaced arrivals.
Demographers have pointed out that for most of Israel’s history, immigration exceeded emigration, with notable exceptions during parts of the 1950s and 1980s. The recent reversal, they say, reflects growing unease tied to Israel’s political and security situation.
Analysts have linked the trend to the ongoing war in Gaza, which erupted after the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, as well as frustration over the government’s judicial overhaul initiatives, which opponents argue weaken democratic safeguards.
The CBS cautioned that emigration figures are calculated retroactively, as individuals are only classified as emigrants after spending the majority of a year outside the country. As a result, many of those counted in the 2025 data actually left Israel in 2024.
The demographic breakdown released Wednesday showed that Israel’s population of 10.178 million includes 7.771 million Jews and others — a category that encompasses non-Arab Christians and people not classified by religion — accounting for 76.3 percent of residents. Arabs number about 2.147 million, or 21.1 percent, while approximately 260,000 people, around 2.6 percent, are classified as foreigners.
Birth and death figures also contributed to overall growth. Some 182,000 births were recorded during the year, with 76 percent to Jewish mothers and 24 percent to Arab mothers. Meanwhile, about 50,000 residents died in 2025, a slight decline from the 52,000 deaths reported in 2024.
Taken together, these factors resulted in a net population increase of 112,000 people over the past year, according to the CBS, even as migration trends continued to raise concern among policymakers and demographers.
{Matzav.com}
A storm erupted across the chareidi political spectrum following an interim ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court ordering a halt to coalition funds earmarked for chareidi educational frameworks that lack state supervision. The order was issued in response to a petition filed by the Yesh Atid faction.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid welcomed the court’s move, arguing that the freeze was unavoidable. “The Supreme Court issued an interim order against the fund transfers for one reason: they are illegal. Even the chareidim are not exempt from the laws of the state. Anyone who wants to receive funds will need to teach the core curriculum and accept proper supervision. You won’t take the money of reservists and taxpayers and use it to preach against conscription and deny young Chareidim the opportunity to gain tools for the job market. The chareidi parties have convinced themselves that they are above the law – they are not, and Yesh Atid will ensure that they are not.”
From within the coalition, the response was swift and blistering. United Torah Judaism chairman MK Moshe Gafni accused the judiciary of launching a direct assault on the Torah world. He said that “the court has declared war on the chareidi public and on Torah institutions.”
Gafni sharply criticized both the process and the substance of the decision. “The Supreme Court demanded a response within a few hours, which is not acceptable even in court, and the funds, which were approved legally, according to the standard procedure and the necessary approvals, were revoked with a sword swipe in half a day,” he said.
He went further, charging the court with ideological bias and disregard for democratic norms. “The judges’ malice to harm the livelihood of teaching staff and the harm to the system as a whole will not be forgiven, and the evil petitioners will not be exempt. It turns out there is no democracy in the State of Israel, and the judges make decisions according to their own views and worldview, with no connection to the subjects themselves or to the professional decisions made by the government and the Knesset. We will do everything to restore the situation to what it was,” Gafni declared.
UTJ leader MK Yitzhak Goldknopf also condemned the ruling, framing it as part of a broader political campaign. He warned that “the Supreme Court’s decision is adding fuel to the fire of the hatred campaign led by Yair Lapid. This is a direct attack on Chareidi children who are innocent of any wrongdoing, and an extension of the budgetary discrimination meant to prevent basic rights for the chareidi sector. We will not be silent in the face of this disgrace, nor will we accept turning hundreds of thousands of students into hostages of absurd petitions for propaganda purposes.”
Goldknopf added that responsibility also rests with the court’s leadership. “It is expected that the President of the Supreme Court, against whom a justified severe complaint was made today, will adopt the remarks of the ombudsman and act to temper the discourse and increase trust in the judiciary. The Supreme Court’s decision is an extension of the divide and increases distrust in the legal system. We will continue to fight with all the tools available to ensure equality for every child in Israel.”
Shas chairman Aryeh Deri raised the issue directly with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is currently in the United States, and conveyed his party’s fierce objection to the ruling. In an unusually harsh statement, Shas said: “The Supreme Court is out of control, like a reckless driver on a busy road, ruthlessly and unprecedentedly crushing the chareidi public. From stealing the bread of young children to harming Torah learning and the education of tens of thousands of students. There are no judges in Jerusalem, but a dangerous gang of arsonists, who, in their desperate attempt to save their collapsing control, chose to take the chareidi public hostage.”
The Shas statement concluded with a call beyond Israel’s borders: “We call on Jews around the world to raise their voices against this antisemitic torment. The chareidi public will stand firm like a wall against these wicked decisions.”
Criticism also came from within the Knesset’s financial leadership. Finance Committee chairman MK Chanoch Milvitzky accused the court of steadily expanding its reach at the expense of elected institutions. “It is no surprise that the protégée of Judge Amit freezes funds that were legally transferred to chareidi institutions. The Supreme Court is taking more and more powers for itself. Unfortunately, in the meantime, it is playing on an empty field. This will not stop until we decide to rebel against this judicial tyranny. We are already very late.”
The interim order has now placed the funding of numerous chareidi institutions in limbo, setting the stage for an intensified political and legal battle over the future of Torah education and the balance of power between Israel’s courts and its elected branches.
{Matzav.com}
As federal and state investigators continue digging into a sweeping fraud investigation tied to Minnesota’s human services programs, a Minneapolis day care center says it has been hit by a burglary that targeted sensitive records.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, all child care payments to Minnesota were frozen Tuesday night unless the state can demonstrate that the funds are valid. The halted payments totaled $185 million in 2025 alone, federal officials said.
The announcement comes against the backdrop of an expanding investigation in Minneapolis, where authorities say at least $1 billion in fraudulent claims involving food assistance, housing support, and child care subsidies have already been uncovered. Prosecutors have warned that the real total could climb as high as $9 billion. So far, 92 people have been arrested in connection with the alleged schemes, including 80 Somali immigrants.
Amid the heightened scrutiny, Nakomis Day Care Center, which is operated by members of the Somali community, reported a break-in earlier this week. Nasrulah Mohamed, the center’s manager, said a suspect entered the building through a rear kitchen area, damaging a wall before forcing entry into the office on Tuesday.
Mohamed told reporters that the intruder took materials he described as “important documentation,” including records related to children enrolled at the center, employee paperwork, and checkbooks.
He pointed to a widely circulated YouTube video posted last week by Nick Shirley, who visited numerous Minneapolis-area day care centers while examining potential fraud, as a catalyst for the incident. “This is devastating news, and we don’t know why this is targeting our Somali community as one video made by a specific individual made this all happen,” Mohamed said, adding that staff have received “hateful” and “threatening” messages in recent days.
Describing the situation as emotionally draining, Mohamed said, “This is frightening and exhausting,” and dismissed Shirley’s work as “false.”
Nakomis Day Care Center itself did not appear in Shirley’s video, which has surpassed 110 million views online, but the attention generated by the footage has placed Minnesota’s child care system — and the communities connected to it — under intense national scrutiny.
{Matzav.com}
At a discussion held this week in the Knesset, Yitzchok Goldknopf, head of United Torah Judaism, addressed questions from twelfth-grade students of Ulpanat Ra’aya in Beit El about the ongoing debate over chareidi enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces.
Goldknopf concluded the meeting by rejecting claims attributed to him in the past regarding Religious Zionism, which were published by Makor Rishon. He said the report was fabricated and caused unnecessary pain. “This was lies and falsehoods, and was not said by me. It’s a shame that bereaved families shed tears over this. Since then, I do not give interviews there, because they falsify things.”
During the exchange, students challenged Goldknopf on why the chareidi community cannot follow the model common in their own families, combining Torah learning with military service. He pushed back, arguing that the issue is broader than the chareidi public alone. “Does no chareidi enlist? Do you know how many secular Israelis do not enlist? The head of the Personnel Directorate said that there are more draft-dodgers in the Tel Aviv area than there are in the entire chareidi community. I have a nephew in Gaza who has still not returned from there.”
Expanding on that point, Goldknopf said the focus on yeshiva students ignores the larger picture of non-enlistment nationwide. “Over 50% of the general public does not enlist. Where are they? [Former Supreme Court President] Aharon Barak once said, ‘Those whose Torah study is their occupation – are forbidden to cease studying.’ Those who do not learn Torah – we do not represent them. Whoever does not study Torah – whatever the law says.”
Goldknopf also emphasized what he described as the central role of Torah study in Jewish continuity, framing it as a national asset rather than a sectorial interest. “We, the nation of Israel, what has held preserved us for thousands of years is Torah study. There is a minority who want to study Torah, and I am speaking about them. When someone turns to [Likud MK Boaz] Bismuth and tells him to enact sanctions against Torah learners, is that Torah? Why punish him?”
Addressing enforcement directly, Goldknopf said that those who neither learn nor serve should be dealt with under the law, but insisted that responsibility lies with the state, not with yeshiva students or their representatives. “Whoever does not learn Torah and does not enlist, activate the enforcement system against him. What do you want from me? Why am I to blame for the fact that the army is not organized? On October 7, as well, it was not organized. If someone does not pay taxes, am I to blame? If you have an issue, enforce it.”
{Matzav.com}
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During a visit on Wednesday to the Judea and Samaria Division, Israeli Defense Minister Yisroel Katz told senior officers to ensure operational readiness for extreme scenarios, directing them to “prepare to respond to a possible October 7th-style attack on communities in Judea and Samaria and along the seamline.”
Katz also reaffirmed that the Israel Defense Forces will maintain a sustained presence throughout Judea and Samaria, stressing that the military will function as a physical barrier separating civilians from terrorist networks. He said the same approach used in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza applies there as well, with forces remaining on the ground to block the regeneration of terror infrastructure and prevent attacks.
Pointing to recent security gains, the defense minister said counterterror operations conducted over the past year in the camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur a-Shams led to a dramatic reduction in violence, citing a drop of more than 80% in terrorist activity across Judea and Samaria.
He urged commanders to draw practical conclusions from those results, recommending that the operational model be evaluated for expansion to additional camps and implemented forcefully and consistently over time.
Katz further instructed the military to continue moving ahead with plans to relocate IDF bases to northern Samaria, describing the effort as “it is a historical rectification of both defensive and settlement importance, and that the return to northern Samaria strengthens security and stability in the area.”
{Matzav.com}
