The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday’s events as they unfold.
29 confirmed dead in South Korea crash — officials
At least 29 people died from a plane crash in South Korea’s southwestern Muan airport, authorities tell AFP.
“We have so far confirmed 29 deaths from the crash… but the tally could rise due to the critically injured,” says Lee Hyeon-ji, a local fire department official, revising a previous casualty figure provided by authorities.
BREAKING: South Korean Jeju Air 737-800 crashed at Muan airport killing at least 28 people. pic.twitter.com/b7mbmFQVx6
— Josh Cahill (@gotravelyourway) December 29, 2024
Plane with 181 on board crashes in South Korea; 23 reportedly injured or dead
A plane carrying 181 people crashed at South Korea’s Muan airport in the country’s southwest, Yonhap news agency reports.
“175 passengers, 6 crew members aboard plane crashed at Muan airport,” Yonhap reports, adding that 23 people were confirmed injured or dead.
Breaking with PM and coalition, Likud minister backs state probe into Oct. 7
Breaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and just about the entire ruling coalition, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter expresses his support for the launch of a state commission of inquiry into the government’s failures that allowed Hamas’s October 7 onslaught to unfold.
“In Israel, fortunately, there are few dramatic events that warrant the appointment of a state commission of inquiry. Without a doubt, the Yom Kippur War was a war that required one. The October 7th attack is another event that requires one,” Dichter says in an interview with Channel 12’s ‘Meet the Press.’
Dichter argued that the probe should be anchored by legislation passed in the Knesset or through an agreement reached between the coalition and the opposition.
Netanyahu and others in the coalition have chafed at the idea, arguing that such a probe should only take place after the war is over. The premier has also rejected efforts to establish a state commission of inquiry, with his supporters arguing that they don’t trust the former Supreme Court justices who are tasked with heading such panels.
Coalition lawmakers slam judicial system at solidarity rally for reservist charged in PM’s office leak case
Several hundred people attended a protest earlier this evening in support of Ari Rosenfeld, the IDF reservist charged in the Prime Minister’s Office intelligence documents theft and leak scandal.
The rally was held outside the Ayalon Prison where Rosenfeld has been held since last month, and participants included several coalition lawmakers who addressed the crowd and used the opportunity to tear into the Israeli judicial system for charging Rosenfeld along with an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Eli Feldstein.
“I hope State Prosecutor [Amit Aisman] will come to his senses. [Rosenfeld’s wife] Avital has been waiting for you. [Their son] Evyatar has been waiting for you for too long… We want Ari home, he needs to be home. He was a loyal soldier of the State of Israel. We don’t need ‘Pollards’ in this country said Likud MK Amit Halevi, likening Rosenfeld to Jonathan Pollard, a former US Navy intelligence analyst who passed thousands of top secret American documents to Israel, straining relations between the two close allies.
Halevi appeared to justify the actions of Pollard, who was convicted of espionage in 1985 and sentenced to life before being granted early release in 2015.
In her speech at the rally, Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman claimed the Israeli justice system has granted Hamas terror suspects the right to receive appropriate conditions while in prison while keeping Rosenfeld behind bars.
אלפים באירוע הדלקת נרות חנוכה ותפילה מחוץ לכלא איילון, בקריאה לשחרורו של נגד המודיעין ארי רוזנפלד, שמואל, אביו של הנגד ארי, אמר בהדלקת הנרות מול כלא איילון "אנו מדליקים חנוכיה כדי לגרש את החושך" pic.twitter.com/GR9oh2gBLT
— ערוץ 7 (@arutz7heb) December 28, 2024
Report: Hostage rescued near site where 6 captives were murdered warned IDF, Shin Bet he heard woman speaking Hebrew but was ignored
The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet failed to investigate a testimony from a rescued hostage who said he had reason to believe a female hostage was being held nearby, just days before the murder of six hostages in a tunnel under Rafah back in August, Channel 12 reports.
The report comes days after the IDF presented the findings of its investigation into the murder of the hostages, where it said that it did not have any concrete or real-time intelligence on the hostages being held there in the weeks before they were killed, but had general indications that Israeli abductees could be in the area.
According to Channel 12, Farhan al-Qadi, who was rescued from Gaza on August 27, told both the IDF and the Shin Bet that he had heard a woman speaking Hebrew in the vicinity of the site where he was rescued several weeks before he was found.
However, despite delivering the warning twice, the defense establishment did not deem it credible, Channel 12 reports, and no steps were taken to investigate it further.
Two days later, on August 29, hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi were killed by their captors in a tunnel nearby. Their bodies were discovered by troops on August 31.
In its probe into the murder of the hostages and the events surrounding it, the IDF said it found that al-Qadi did not have any information on other hostages in the area.