The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they unfold.
Cops disperse protesters calling for hostage deal outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem home
Police disperse demonstrators from a street near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Jerusalem, after they were encamped for some 24 hours protesting for a hostage-ceasefire deal.
The demonstrators, among them families of hostages, had been planning to spend a second night outside Netanyahu’s home in protest of the IDF’s recently launched ground offensive to take over Gaza City.
Footage from Jerusalem shows Border Police officers removing protesters one-by-one from the pavement.
“You guys will sleep well tonight — you won’t hear Ariel, you won’t hear David,” says one of the protesters as he is dragged away by cops, referring to Ariel and David Cunio, brothers held captive for nearly two years since being abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.
Earlier Tuesday, protesters arrived at Netanyahu’s heavily-guarded home and held a press conference from the street. Police covered fences surrounding the residence with tarps, a move which hostage families claimed was aimed at stifling protest.
Speaking through a megaphone, Maccabit Meir, the aunt of twin hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, railed against the operation in Gaza City.
“Who are you bringing all these buildings down on?” she said, addressing Netanyahu. “It could be that you’re bringing them down on Gali and Zivie, and on all the souls that remain there — alive and dead.”
Hannah Cohen, the aunt of slain Hamas hostage Inbar Haiman, demanded that the government reach a comprehensive deal to return all the captives, including her niece.
She called her niece the “embodiment of the partial deal — when all the women got out and Inbar was left behind.”
“We will no longer allow this and no longer agree to leaving even one hostage behind,” Cohen asserted.
Dermer to meet Syrian FM in Paris to discuss Israeli maps for south Syria border agreement
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will meet Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani tomorrow in Paris to discuss a new Israeli proposal for a security agreement regarding southwest Syria, according to Axios.
The two will be joined by US Syria envoy Tom Barrack to discuss the draft that Israel submitted several weeks ago, according to the report.
Israel wants a no-fly zone and demilitarized zone over its border in Syria, with no limits on Israeli deployment on its own territory.
Two officials tell Axios that the Israeli proposal is based on its 1979 agreement with Egypt, which divided the Sinai into three zones, each with its own limits on forces. The limits are strictest closest to Israel’s border.
The area closest to the border would have no Syrian military forces, but would allow police and domestic security forces. Syrian aircraft would be banned from flying over the territory between Damascus and the Israeli border.
A source tells Axios that Israel wants to maintain an air corridor there so that it can more easily strike Iran if needed.
In return, Israel would withdraw in stages from the buffer zone it established since Bashar al-Assad fell, but would remain on the peak of the Hermon, which it captured from Syria.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is angling for a meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the UN General Assembly next week, according to an Israeli official, who adds that such a meeting is not likely to occur.
Syrian forces said to have withdrawn heavy weapons from south, near Israel border, Druze areas
Syria has begun withdrawing heavy weapons from the country’s south as it works to reach an understanding with Israel, officials tell AFP.
The comments came after Syria said that it was working with the United States to reach mutual “security understandings” with Israel, which has demanded the demilitarization of the country’s south.
The announcement was part of a US- and Jordan-backed roadmap for restoring stability in the south following sectarian violence that drew Israeli intervention, and a Syrian military official told AFP that heavy weapons had been withdrawn from the area.
“Syrian forces have withdrawn their heavy weapons from southern Syria,” the military official tells AFP on condition of anonymity, adding the process began around two months ago, after the violence.
A diplomatic source in Damascus tells AFP, also on condition of anonymity, that the withdrawal covered the country’s south up to about 10 kilometers (six miles) outside the capital.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said in August that his country was engaged in talks to establish a demilitarized zone in southern Syria.