The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they unfold.
Syria’s newly appointed foreign minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, warns Iran of spreading chaos in Syria, adding that Iran should respect the Syrian people’s will and the country’s sovereignty, according to a post on X.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party again votes against legislation backed by the coalition.
A budget-related bill put forth by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich passes 55-52 after the coalition called in MKs to ensure it passed.
Ben Gvir has vowed to buck coalition discipline over a dispute in which he claims Smotrich has not acceded to his demands to increase the budget of the Israel Police, which his ministry oversees.
His party also voted last week against an initial reading of the state budget, which went on to pass regardless.
Israeli settlers raided the Bedouin Palestinian village of Arab Al-Melihat northwest of Jericho earlier this evening, hurling stones at locals and torching a barn that housed sheep, Palestinian media report.
Footage from the scene shows locals working to extinguish the blaze.
As is almost entirely the case in such incidents, there are no reports of arrests in what has led the US and other Western countries to begin sanctioning Israeli settler extremists over the past year.
Following Israel’s confirmation yesterday that it was behind the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, Iran sends a letter to the UN secretary-general calling on it to condemn the act and claiming that it justifies Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel in October.
Defense Minister Israel Katz “publicly and shamelessly acknowledged that the Israeli regime was responsible for the assassination of Mr. Ismail Haniyeh while he was visiting Tehran,” writes the Iranian envoy to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, to Antonio Guterres.
The letter says that Israel’s “audacious and shameless confession… reaffirms the legitimacy and legality of Iran’s defensive response on 1 October 2024.” During that attack, Iran fired around 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, sending millions of citizens into shelters across the country. The IDF says the majority of the missiles were shot down outside of the country, but........