The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday’s events as they happen.
All IDF standing infantry and armored brigades in Gaza as it prepares to ramp up combat
As a new week dawns, the IDF has said that all of its standing army infantry and armored brigades are now deployed to the Gaza Strip, as Israel prepares to further intensify its offensive against Hamas.
In addition to the Golani, Paratroopers, Givati, Commando, Kfir, Nahal, 7th, 188th, and 401st brigades, a small number of reserve units are also in the Strip.
The IDF had previously announced that five divisions were operating in Gaza, amounting to tens of thousands of troops.
Israeli officials have warned that as long as Hamas refuses to agree to a hostage deal, the IDF will ramp up its offensive against the terror group.
Mia Schem wears hostages pin on Cannes red carpet as she comes to raise awareness
Freed hostage Mia Schem walked the red carpet at the closing ceremony of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on Saturday night, where she wore a yellow hostages pin.
Schem was invited to the event by the Jewish community of Cannes to raise awareness of the plight of the hostages still held in Gaza. While there, she also spoke before the Nice city council.
At the ceremony, Schem says she was prevented by security from wearing a ribbon with the message “Bring Them Home Now.”
“I came to support the struggle to bring back the hostages. Unfortunately, at the entrance to the red carpet, the festival organizers confiscated the ribbon I was supposed to wear. I refused to concede. I took a yellow hostage pin from one of the delegation members and wore it on my dress,” she says.
https://twitter.com/tous7octobre/status/1926331122499101176
Malaysia slams world’s ‘double standards’ on Gaza
Malaysia’s foreign minister condemns “atrocities” in Gaza, saying they reflect “indifference and double standards” on the plight of the Palestinian people.
“They are a direct result of the erosion of the sanctity of international law,” Mohamad Hasan tells his counterparts from the regional ASEAN bloc.
After controversy, Yair Golan says ‘of course Israel doesn’t’ kill Gaza babies as a hobby
Democrats party chairman Yair Golan has further walked back comments in which he appeared to accuse Israel of killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby,” saying he did not, in fact, believe Israel had done so, but rather was expressing his fear that extremist politicians in the government sought to.
During a Channel 12 interview, Golan was asked whether he believed Israel has killed any babies in Gaza for sport, and replied, “Of course not.”
“I wasn’t speaking about the military at all. I didn’t say that,” Golan said.
He held up a paper with quotes by far-right ministers and politicians who had called at various points to “destroy” and “erase” Gaza.
“I said something simple: that it’s unacceptable that we’re resuming fighting in Gaza, and that the political goals set for the IDF, which unfortunately are not goals connected to Israel’s national security at all… are shaped by people with such a worldview.”
In the Tuesday interview that caused a political firestorm, the retired general told Kan that “Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we don’t return to acting like a sane country. A sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not give itself the aim of expelling populations.”
During his Channel 12 interview, Golan was asked about comments he himself made in October 2023, days after the October 7 attack, when he suggested that all aid to Gaza must be cut off. “We need to tell them, listen, until these [hostages] are released, as far as we care you can starve to death — it’s completely legitimate,” Golan said then.
Confronted with that quote, Golan asserted on Saturday he had not called to starve Gazans but rather to pressure Hamas.
“What may have been the right move on October 13th… as an opening act for war, is not the right move after 20 months of fighting,” he said.