The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they happen.
Soldier killed during attempted abduction by Hamas named as Abraham Azulay
The Israeli soldier killed during an abduction attempt by Hamas in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Wednesday is named as Master Sgt. (res.) Abraham Azulay, 25, a heavy engineering machinery operator in the Southern Command’s combat engineering unit, from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar.
Azulay had served in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion during his mandatory army service. In reserves, he was placed in a light infantry battalion in the 769th “Hiram” Regional Brigade.
From the start of the war until March 3, 2024, Azulay served for 66 days in reserves, for which he was promoted to sergeant first class.
Azulay was punished for deserting reserve service afterward, being jailed and demoted to the rank of private.
After the punishment, he returned to reserve duty and served another 201 days.
In June, he was drafted to operate an excavator for engineering operations in the Gaza Strip.
Due to the circumstances of his death, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, with the approval of Defense Minister Israel Katz, returned Azulay his rank before demotion and posthumously promoted him as is tradition with fallen soldiers.
The military says he was awarded the rank of master sergeant “in light of the fact that he was killed in the face of an enemy while sacrificing his life.”
Netanyahu to take part in memorial ceremony for murdered Israeli embassy staffers
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will participate in a memorial ceremony Thursday morning for Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, the two Israeli embassy employees who were murdered in May.
The event will take place at the embassy in Washington, DC, at 10:30 a.m. local time.
Netanyahu set to return from US on Thursday evening though schedule could change
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently set to take off on his return to Israel from Washington between 7-9 p.m. on Thursday evening, though his schedule is subject to change.
IDF soldier found dead at army base in south, military announces
An IDF combat soldier was found dead earlier today at a base in southern Israel, the military says, in what appears to be an incident of suspected suicide.
An investigation has been opened into the circumstances, the findings of which will be sent to the Military Advocate General for review, the IDF says, without giving further details.
The IDF says the investigation will be presented to the family of the soldier upon completion.
The army comments on claims that the soldier was interrogated by Military Police shortly before his death, saying that the investigation was unrelated to an “operational incident.”
Pro-Israel professor reportedly quits Columbia University
Shai Davidai, a pro-Israel assistant professor at Columbia Business School, has left the university, according to an email sent by the school’s Dean Costis Maglaras seen by several media outlets.
The reports came as Davidai published a letter he received on X that he had been cleared of wrongdoing by Columbia, after he was temporarily suspended from campus for confronting a university official over an anti-Israel rally marking a year since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre.
Columbia has been the epicenter of a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protest movement that has roiled US campuses over the last two years as Israel’s war in Gaza raged.