The IDF announced on Friday that four Israeli soldiers were killed and another was wounded in battle in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip.
Israel at War day 609: What's happening in Israel and Gaza?
GHF says aid distribution carried out peacefully • IDF hits Hezbollah drone assembly • Iran orders missile fuel from China
IDF announces four soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip, one wounded
GHF denies reports of violence at aid sites after announcing temporary site closure
The GHF opened two sites in southern Gaza on Thursday after closing all of its centers the previous day in the wake of shootings in the vicinity of its operations.
All aid distribution sites in the Gaza Strip were temporarily closed Friday morning due to excessive crowding, which made it unsafe to proceed, The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced Friday afternoon in an emailed statement following an earlier notice on Facebook.
US issues new Iran-related sanctions targeting 10 individuals, 27 entities
The United States has issued a new round of Iran-related sanctions targeting 10 individuals and 27 entities, according to a post on the US Treasury Department website on Friday.
The sanctions, which also target some entities in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, come as US President Donald Trump's administration is working to get a new nuclear deal with Tehran.
BBC reporters say IDF detained them in Syrian buffer zone for seven hours - report
Feras Kilani, a BBC Arabic journalist, claimed that he and his team were detained, strip-searched and interrogated by the IDF.
A team of seven BBC staff members claimed they were detained, strip-searched and interrogated by the IDF in the Syrian buffer zone in a report published Thursday.
Feras Kilani, a BBC Arabic journalist, said that on May 9, he and his team, comprised of himself, two Iraqi BBC staff, one Syrian BBC cameraman, and three Syrian freelancers, left Damascus with the intention of moving toward the Syrian buffer zone.
The team was filming near a United Nations observation post by al-Rafeed when they were informed a nearby IDF unit had inquired about them, being told they were a BBC crew.
Hostages are not a political issue, freed hostage Omer Wenkert tells Herzog
Wenkert and his parents stated that Omer wouldn't stop speaking about his experience in Hamas captivity until the last hostage was brought home.
President Isaac Herzog met with released Gaza hostage Omer Wenkert and his parents to discuss Omer’s experience in captivity and the challenges of recovery on Tuesday
“Your presence here is a message of hope—to encourage those still held captive, to cry out on their behalf, to pray, and to do everything possible to bring every one of them home, as soon as possible,” Herzog said.
Wenkert, who was held by Hamas for over a year after being kidnapped from a bomb shelter in Kibbutz Re’im following the Nova Music Festival Massacre and was released this past February, told the president that the hostages should not be treated as a political issue.
Palestinian arrested for kidnapping Israeli to West Bank over financial dispute
The police stated that the reason for the alleged kidnapping was a financial dispute.
A Palestinian man was arrested for being suspected of kidnapping an Israeli resident due to a financial dispute, Israel Police stated on Friday.
The Palestinian, a Hebron resident, allegedly kidnapped the Israeli resident from Baqa al-Gharbiyyeh and took him across the Green Line to the West Bank due to financial debts.
The Coastal District police commander enacted an emergency order on Thursday night after the unit received intel of the kidnapping, and a joint situational assessment was conducted with the West Bank Police, Border Police, and the Shin Bet, and additional units to prepare for the rescue.
Most Israelis doubt Gaza ops. will return hostages or defeat Hamas - Survey
According to the survey, only 37% of Israelis believe the operation will bring the hostages home, while only 38.5% think Hamas will be defeated in Gaza.
As the IDF progresses in the Gaza Strip as part of Operation Gideon's Chariots, a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), published on Friday, shows that most Israelis are skeptical the campaign will achieve its two main objectives: Bringing home the hostages and defeating Hamas.
According to the May 2025 Israeli Voice Index, conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, only 37% of Israelis believe the operation will succeed in bringing the hostages back, and just 38.5% think it will defeat Hamas and end its rule in Gaza.
Arab Israelis are even more skeptical: only 27.5% believe the hostages will return, compared with 39% of Jewish Israelis; and 31% believe the operation will defeat Hamas, compared with 40% of Jewish Israelis.
IDF reservists demand: Win the war or let us return home
Despite remaining highly motivated, many IDF reservists have demanded that the military take more decisive action to end the war with Hamas.
The IDF is attempting to address criticism from reservists regarding the stagnation in the Gaza Strip, as reservists have begun demanding to "decisively win the war," and if not, "to be released home to return to routine life," Walla reported on Friday.
"The maneuver we are conducting is part of what created the foundation for us to be more accurate. This is evident in locating tunnels. We reached the main arteries relatively quickly,” A senior officer in Division 98 told Walla.
“When you understand the entire system, you don't need to find every tunnel. There are several focal points. There are three systems that the division has taken care of."
Private Chicago equity firm linked to GHF funding, aid distribution - report
The foundation briefly paused work on Wednesday due to maintenance of the distribution sites and reopened them on Thursday.
A Chicago-based private equity firm, controlled by a member of the family that founded American publishing company Rand McNally, has an "economic interest" in the logistics company involved in the new aid distribution operation in Gaza.
McNally Capital, founded in 2008 by Ward McNally, helped "support the establishment" of Safe Reach Solutions, a McNally Capital spokesperson told Reuters. SRS is a for-profit company established in Wyoming in November, state incorporation records show.
It is in the spotlight for its involvement with the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which last week started distributing aid in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli faith in lasting peace with Palestinians at lowest in over a decade - poll
Israeli faith in lasting peace with Palestinians and the possibility of a two-state solution is at the lowest since 2013, a Pew poll shows.
The share of Israeli adults who believe that Israel and Palestine can coexist peacefully is the lowest it has been since 2013, data from Pew Research Center published Tuesday revealed.
Despite the fact that a majority of Israeli adults reported believing Israeli people are committed to working toward lasting peace, only 21% of Israeli adults believed coexistence was possible.
In its second annual survey since the Israel-Hamas war began, the survey revealed that Arab Israelis were significantly more confident in the existence of a two-state solution, with 40% responding positively, compared to 16% of Jewish Israelis.
- Hamas launched a massive attack on October 7, with thousands of terrorists infiltrating from the Gaza border and taking some 240 hostages into Gaza.
- Over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were murdered, including over 350 at the Supernova music festival and hundreds of Israeli civilians across the Gaza border communities.
- 56 hostages remain in Gaza.
- 49 hostages in total have been killed in captivity, IDF says.
- The IDF launched a ground invasion of Lebanon on September 30.
- The Israel-Lebanon ceasefire came into effect on November 27 at 4 a.m.
- Netanyahu confirmed the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire on January 17, 2025.
