The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
US says Blinken discussed ending Mideast conflict in calls with Saudi and Qatari FMs
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held separate phone calls with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on ending the conflict in the Middle East, the State Department says.
Iran’s mission to UN: ‘Spirit of resistance will be strengthened’ by Sinwar’s death
Iran’s mission to the United Nations says “the spirit of resistance will be strengthened” following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
UNRWA teacher’s passport was found on Sinwar; its holder is reported to be in Egypt
A passport found on Yahya Sinwar belongs to an UNRWA teacher who has been in Egypt for the past few months, the Kan broadcaster’s Palestinian affairs reporter tweets.
The passport is in the name of Rafah native Hani Zourob.
עוד משהו שקרה היום: עובד אונר"א שדרכונו נמצא על סינוואר עדכן שהוא במצרים בכלל. גם מנכ"ל אונר"א אמר שהעובד יצא מעזה דרך רפיח למצרים כבר באפריל pic.twitter.com/LgXA31fbb0
— Nurit Yohanan (@nurityohanan) October 17, 2024
Kan’s reporter says Zourob has clarified that he is in Egypt and that UNRWA says he crossed out of Gaza via Rafah in April.
Hezbollah announces new ‘escalatory phase’ in war against Israel by targeting troops with precision-guided missiles
Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group says it is launching a new phase in its war against Israel, saying it has used precision-guided missiles to target troops.
In a statement, the Iran-backed group announces “the transition to a new and escalatory phase in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy,” adding that precision-guided missiles “are being used for the first time.”
Netanyahu in English statement: ‘War can end tomorrow’ if Hamas lays down arms, returns hostages
In an English-language statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “the beginning of the end” of the war in Gaza.
“To the people of Gaza, I have a simple message,” he continues. “This war can end tomorrow. It can end if Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages.”
“Israel will guarantee the safety of all those who return our hostages,” he pledges, adding that if anyone harms them, “Israel will hunt you down and bring you to justice.”
Turning to the people of the Middle East, Netanyahu says that “the axis of terror that was built by Iran is collapsing before our eyes.”
“The reign of terror that the Iranian regime has imposed on its own people and on the peoples of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen – this too will come to an end,” he promises.
Yahya Sinwar is dead.
He was killed in Rafah by the brave soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces.
While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it's the beginning of the end. pic.twitter.com/C6wAaLH1YW
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 17, 2024
Britain ‘will not mourn’ Sinwar’s death, says Starmer
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer calls for the release of all hostages in Gaza and says his country “will not mourn” the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Starmer says that Sinwar was the “mastermind behind the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust” when Hamas launched the October 7 onslaught. “Today my thoughts are with the families of those victims. The UK will not mourn his death,” he said in a statement.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says the killing of Sinwar clears the way for a “new phase” in the deadly conflict in Gaza.
“With the death of Yahya Sinwar, the person principally responsible for the October 7 attacks no longer exists,” Meloni says in a statement.
“I am convinced that a new phase should be launched: it is time for all the hostages to be released, for a ceasefire to be immediately proclaimed and for the reconstruction of Gaza to begin.”
EU’s Von der Leyen says death of Hamas leader Sinwar ‘significantly weakens group’
The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “is certainly significantly weakening Hamas,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tells reporters when asked about reports of the death of the Hamas leader.
Palestinian woman killed by IDF gunfire while picking olives in West Bank; involved unit’s deputy commander suspended
The IDF says it has suspended a deputy commander in the 334th Battalion and has opened an investigation after troops shot dead a 59-year-old Palestinian woman who was picking olives near the security barrier in the Jenin area of the northern West Bank.
A Palestinian Authority health ministry statement says Hanan Abdel Rahman Abu Salama “was killed by [Israeli] occupation bullets” in Faqoua village, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
According to witness testimonies collected by the village council, Abu Salama was killed while picking olives with her family.
“An Israeli in military clothing arrived at the place in a white car and fired about 10 bullets at the Abu Salama family, who were picking olives on their land,” Faqoua village councilor Munir Barakat tells AFP.
“A few days ago, the council published an invitation to the village residents to go to their agricultural lands to pick olives,” says Barakat.
He adds that the shooting occurred near a wall erected by Israeli authorities in the area.
Hanan Abd Alrahman Abu Salama, a 59-year-old Palestinian woman, was shot and killed by the Israeli army when she was picking olives on her own land in Jenin, West Bank.
The olive season has turned into a season of killing for the Palestinian people, whether at the hands of the… pic.twitter.com/RI0For2u3p
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) October 17, 2024
Ben Gvir, Chikli falsely claim Abbas held moment of silence for Sinwar
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli falsely claim that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas began a Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee meeting with a moment of silence for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Abbas’s office issues a statement on the PLO meeting that says that it began with a prayer for those killed in Gaza, as has regularly been the custom throughout the war. Sinwar is not mentioned at all in the readout on the meeting.
“This is the ‘partner’ of the Israeli left, at a mourning meeting for the death of the murderer Sinwar. To this holocaust denier (Abbas) who distributes salaries to the murderers of Jews, (the Israeli left) offered to hand over control of Gaza. The Palestinian Authority is an absolute terror authority,” Ben Gvir tweets.
“The leadership of the ‘moderate’ Palestinian Authority observed a moment of silence in memory of the leader of the gang of rapists and murderers of Hamas — further proof that there is no great difference between these terrorists. The PLO terrorists should be returned to Tunisia,” Chikli tweets.
IDF spokesperson: We’re actively searching for Sinwar’s brother Muhammad and all Hamas military commanders
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had 40,000 shekels on him when he was killed in Rafah yesterday, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says as he presents the drone video of Sinwar’s final moments.
He confirms that the IDF “identified him as a terrorist in a building” and did not know it was Sinwar. “We fired on the building and went in to search. We found him with a flak jacket and a gun and NIS 40,000.”
Sinwar had apparently been moving around in the tunnels in the area for some time, Hagari says. He was probably attempting “to escape to the north, to safer areas” as the IDF closed in. “He was fleeing from house to house, we identified him as a terrorist, we closed in professionally and eliminated him.”
Hagari says the IDF was tracking Sinwar for months, and that his DNA had been found in a tunnel a few hundred meters from where Hamas murdered six hostages in August.
He says that Israel is actively searching for Muhammad Sinwar, brother of the slain Hamas leader, and all Hamas military commanders.
Hagari says that the IDF will continue to operate in Gaza against Hamas terrorists and their infrastructure.
He also denies that Israel is enacting a reported “General’s plan” to besiege northern Gaza. He says that the IDF has its own plans, which follow international law.
He also says that Golani soldiers captured Hezbollah operatives in the incident in which five members of the Golani Reconnaissance unit were killed yesterday.