The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday’s events as they unfold.
US dispatches vessel to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea
The US Army Vessel (USAV) General Frank S. Besson (LSV-1) has departed Joint Base Langley-Eustis en route to the Eastern Mediterranean to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea, the US Central Command said in a statement early on Sunday.
Besson, a logistics support vessel, departed “less than 36 hours after President Biden announced the U.S. would provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza by sea,” the statement adds.
It is “carrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies,” CENTCOM says, referencing the project announced by US President Joe Biden in his State of the Union speech on Thursday.
Lebanon says family of five killed in Israeli strike on southern Lebanon; IDF yet to comment
An Israeli strike killed a family of five and injured nine other people in a village in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, Lebanese security sources say.
There is no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group and Israel have traded deadly cross-border fire on a near-daily basis since war broke out in October between Israel and the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
‘A disgrace and insult to IDF soldiers’: Lawmakers respond angrily to chief rabbi’s threat
Impassioned reactions are pouring in after the Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said ultra-Orthodox citizens would leave the country if they are forced to be drafted into the army.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, chair of the centrist Yesh Atid party, says the comment “is a disgrace and insult to IDF soldiers who sacrifice their lives for the defense of the country.”
“Rabbi Yosef is a state employee, with a salary from the state — he cannot threaten the state,” he writes on X.
Avigdor Liberman, chair of Yisrael Beytenu, writes: “Without duties, there are no rights.”
“A shame that Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and the ultra-Orthodox hustlers continue to harm the security of Israel and act against halacha,” he says.
The coalition’s far-right Religious Zionism party says in a statement: “Drafting to the military: A good deed! We are grateful for the privilege of serving the people of Israel, learning Torah, and helping Israel in a time of need.”
“After two thousand years of exile, we will never leave our country. A community that is willing to pay with its life for the Land of Israel will not give it up under any conditions,” it says.
The ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party says that “army service is a huge privilege for a Jew who defends himself in his country and a great deed.”
Chief Sephardic rabbi says ultra-Orthodox will bolt country if forced into army
Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef threatens that ultra-Orthodox Jews will leave Israel en masse if the government ends exemptions of mandatory military enlistment enjoyed by the community.
“If you force them to go to the army, we’ll all move abroad,” Yosef says during a weekly lecture.
Yosef is the son of late Shas party spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef and wields major influence with the faction, which is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
“All these secular people don’t understand that without kollels and yeshivas, the army would not be successful,” he says, referring to institutions where religious men study Jewish texts rather than working or enlisting. “The soldiers only succeed thanks to those learning Torah.”
Pressure is mounting for the coalition to end the exemption from military and national service for the ultra-Orthodox community, especially amid the war against Hamas.
The IDF’s Personnel Directorate told a Knesset committee last month that some 66,000 young men from the ultra-Orthodox community, the fastest-growing sector of the population, received an exemption from military service over the past year, reportedly an all-time record. Some 540 of them decided to enlist since the war started, the IDF said.
In 2022, the Haredi population was some 1,280,000, about 13.3% of Israel’s total population, according to the Israel Democracy Institute.