US launches operation against ISIS in Syria after deadly attack on Americans |
The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday’s events as they unfold.
Aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked US President Donald Trump to retain some American sanctions on Syria to be used as a bargaining chip in future negotiations, but the request was refused, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
The US Congress imposed the so-called Caesar Act sanctions on Syria’s government and financial system in 2019 to punish then-Syrian president Bashar Assad for human rights abuses during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war that began in 2011.
After Assad was ousted a year ago, advocates for repeal argued that the sanctions were preventing international investors from launching reconstruction projects and blocking Syria from rebuilding its battered economy and infrastructure.
Trump, who had previously lifted the penalties temporarily by executive order, signed off on the final repeal late Thursday after Congress passed it as part of the country’s annual defense spending bill.
Syria’s foreign ministry, in a statement yesterday, thanked the US for the repeal of sanctions and said it will “contribute to alleviating the burdens on the Syrian people and open the way for a new phase of recovery and stability.”
Kan reports that close contacts of Netanyahu placed heavy pressure on those in the Trump administration who were responsible for the Syria file to maintain some of the sanctions. Officials they appealed to reportedly included US Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law.
The outlet reported that the Trump administration promised Israel unspecified “compensation” for lifting the sanctions. Trump has expressed hope for a diplomatic accord between Israel and Syria.
The Department for Internal Police Investigations, the Justice Ministry body responsible for responsible for conducting criminal probes into police officers, has begun looking into an incident in which a member of the Yasam riot police unit was filmed hitting young Haredi men with a baton, a spokesperson tells The Times of Israel.
“There were a number of videos submitted for review by DIPI,” the spokesperson says, confirming an earlier report by i24 News.
שאלתי דובר של גולדנופף להגיב על האלימות בירושלים. הוא שלח לי סרטון שבו שוטר מכה תלמידי ישיבה באלות ואמר: "אנחנו ראינו את זה" pic.twitter.com/97rfyGsbv6
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) December 18, 2025
Footage of the incident, which began circulating last week, appeared to show an armored police officer repeatedly striking multiple young Haredi men, driving them up a set of stairs and into a building during a riot in Jerusalem.
Hundreds of young Haredi men clashed with police on Thursday, injuring 13 officers and overturning a cruiser in a riot apparently sparked by an attempt to issue a parking ticket.
The commotion broke out after a municipal inspector who had been issuing parking tickets in the capital came under attack from two young Haredi men, police said. The pair kicked him and made threats on his life, promising to “slaughter” him if he returned to the area. Police officers called to aid the inspector in distress arrested one of the assailants, angering locals. Hundreds then gathered around the officers in an attempt to free the detainee, and events quickly mushroomed into rioting.
According to Hebrew outlets, officers had realized that the assailants were draft dodgers and sought to hand them over to the Military Police. The police only said in their statements that the riots were sparked over the parking ticket, and did not mention whether the pair were draft dodgers.
Police used stun grenades and tear gas on demonstrators.
Asked about the riot on Thursday, a spokesperson for United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf shared a copy of the video of the policeman striking the rioters, stating merely, “We saw this.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich appears to say that Israel will destroy Hamas before the next election and criticizes the government for failing to provide Israelis with any decisive victories against its enemies, telling Channel 12’s Meet the Press that Israel is “at a crossroads.”
Hr added that he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that “after two years of war with tremendous achievements, we haven’t closed a single front.”
“We need to hear the crack [a decisive blow] against Hamas and against Hezbollah,” the far-right minister declares. “Now the question is whether at this crossroads we complete the mission in the months that remain for our government and [US] President [Donald] Trump together, and hear the cracks against Hamas and destroy it.”
Israel and Hamas are currently observing a ceasefire that took effect in October and that Trump has depicted as an end to the war.
Asked if Israel........