The Times of Israel

A day after a Knesset committee advanced a bill that will effectively freeze ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the military for seven months, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Monday issued a harsh letter calling the proposal “clearly and unequivocally inconsistent with the IDF’s needs.” Read more on The Times of Israel

The president of PEN America, novelist Dinaw Mengestu, resigned to protest his own organization’s article about Jewish and Israeli victimhood because the article opposed cultural boycotts. Mengestu argued that opposition to the boycott movement, and not the anti-Israel boycott movement itself, was discriminatory. Read more: timesofisrael.com/pen-america-pr…

A series of grenade attacks and shootings overnight at a number of locations across Israel, some of them targeting branches of the Japanika sushi chain, are part of an escalating conflict between the Jarushi and Musli crime families, according to reports on Tuesday. There have been around 15 grenade attacks over the past week, with one person lightly injured on Monday in south Tel Aviv in one of the explosions. Read more: timesofisrael.com/grenade-attack…

Ahmadinejad shown on Iran state TV day after reports he once met with Mossad chief and was to be installed as Iran’s leader timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…

BREAKING: Knesset passes law banning arrests of Haredi draft dodgers, effectively freezing Haredi enlistment timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…

🧵US lawmaker detained by settlers says lack of punishment shows Israeli complicity Israel’s ‘genocidal’ response to Oct 7 and ‘apartheid’ conditions in West Bank lead Ro Khanna to drop ‘pro-Israel progressive’ label he was using 4 years ago (1/29) timesofisrael.com/us-lawmaker-de…

PUBLISHED FOOTAGE: First-ever operational use of suicide drone boats during strikes on Iran’s Bandar Abbas naval base by the US military.

המשטרה עצרה הלילה 5 ישראלים, תושבי ירושלים בגילאי 16-20, שנכנסו הלילה לכפר כופל חארס באזור סלפית ו"התפתח חיכוך בינם לבין התושבים" (כך בהודעה), שכלל יידוי אבנים על רכבים. לפי הודעת המשטרה עצמה מדובר ב-5 שנעצרו מתוך 100 (!) שנכנסו לכפר הלילה. בכפר יש קבר שנחשב לקבר יהושע בן נון

A group of settler activists, including one adult and four minors, crossed the border into Lebanon earlier today, before being escorted back to Israel by the IDF. According to the military, the group of girls was identified crossing the border by "several meters" near the community of Ghajar, which straddles the border. "Immediately after the identification, security forces launched searches in the area, and a short while later located the civilians and returned them to Israeli territory," the IDF says. They were then handed over to the police for further questioning. The group belongs to the Uri Tzafon Movement, a Religious Zionist organization that calls for settlement in southern Lebanon, in areas it claims belong to the Jewish people.

בראשון פרסם האו"ם גינוי חריג על אירוע חלוקת מזון בשבת בג'באליא שהופסק בשל חמושים שנכנסו למקום, נכנסו לתוך מחסן של WFP ותקפו שני נהגי משאיות. בתיעוד שהופץ נשמעו קולות ירי. המילה חמאס לא הוזכרה בהודעה אבל נכתב שמדובר בחלק מדפוס של איומים, אלימות, ותקיפות נגד פעילי סיוע בתוך הרצועה. למיטב זכרוני לאורך המלחמה באו"ם לא התייחסו לעדויות לפיהם חמאס השתלט באופן שיטתי על סיוע שנכנס לרצועת עזה, אלא רק לתקריות ספציפיות

Israel engaged in a multi-year effort to recruit and re-install as leader Iran’s former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, The New York Times reported Monday, citing US officials and sources with knowledge of the failed Israeli plot. The campaign, which culminated in a strike on Ahmadinejad’s bodyguards to free him from house arrest on the first day of the US-Israel attack on Iran in February, included a meeting with then-Mossad chief David Barnea on the sidelines of an academic conference in Hungary, the report said. A car driven by Mossad officials secreted the former president away to a safe house after February 28’s initial Israeli airstrikes, when supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed, but Ahmadinejad later left the safe house after growing disillusioned with Israel’s plan to install him, the report said. Read more: timesofisrael.com/report-ahmadin…

The Knesset voted 63-52 on Monday to pass a deeply divisive Basic Law declaring Torah study a “foundational value” of the Jewish people and the State of Israel, following 10 hours of speeches and opposition filibustering, and despite resistance from the opposition, legal officials, reservists and some coalition lawmakers. The legislation makes Torah study the only value explicitly enshrined in one of Israel’s Basic Laws, giving it quasi-constitutional recognition. Read more: timesofisrael.com/knesset-passes…

STUDY: A groundbreaking study by Israeli scientists has revealed that exposure to secondhand smoke directly harms children’s sleep by acting on the central nervous system, independent of respiratory problems caused by environmental smoke. Read more on The Times of Israel

UPDATE: A senior UN official on Monday accused Hamas of interfering with humanitarian deliveries in Gaza and intimidating aid workers, warning that the terror group’s actions were making relief operations increasingly dangerous. Read more on The Times of Israel

Jessica Steinberg takes us inside Jerusalem Design Week, where this year’s exhibition explores the intersection of sports and design during the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 22nd Maccabiah Games. Stay up to date with The Times of Israel

BREAKING: Trump vows to hit Iran hard today and tomorrow, praises relationship with Netanyahu Read more: timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…

Yahya Sinwar, the late Hamas leader who masterminded the terror group’s October 7, 2023, massacre, assessed ahead of the onslaught that Israel might respond with a nuclear strike on the Gaza Strip, but chose to carry out the invasion anyway, according to a newly revealed document written in the terror chief’s own hand. Read more on The Times of Israel

LAZAR FOCUS: What’s next in the fight against Iran Is the Trump MOU dead? If it's not, how should Israel ensure that its goals are met, even if returning to war in the short term is not possible? And what does this mean for Israel's fight against Iranian proxies on its borders? Dr. Eyal Hulata, a veteran of Israel's security services, served as National Security Adviser in the previous government under Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. As the figure who led Israel's inter-agency effort to confront the Iranian threat, Hulata is uniquely positioned to discuss Israel's long fight against the Islamic Republic. "We shouldn't buy into this narrative that they have won in this military conflict," said Hulata. "They've suffered unprecedented amounts of of of damage, direct losses and indirect losses. The only way that they can recover from this is through the waivers that an American president will give them in exchange for a negotiated agreement." Stream the new episode on all podcast platforms.

The Israel Police on Monday arrested dozens of individuals suspected of trafficking arms and dangerous drugs after an extended undercover investigation. Authorities said the raid was made possible after a Bedouin agent working undercover for an elite police investigative body infiltrated the network, marking the first time a member of the community was employed for such a task. Read more: timesofisrael.com/police-arrest-…

Along the beach in Tel Aviv, Braden Peters — better known as prominent “looksmaxxing” influencer Clavicular —  has gotten a warm reception. Even though he is closely associated with an online ecosystem steeped in antisemitism, a number of pro-Israel and Jewish influencers have enthusiastically filmed content with him in Israel, and crowds of young Israelis have gathered around him as he livestreams from beaches and nightclubs. Read more: timesofisrael.com/controversial-…