The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they unfold.
After harrowing video, US-based family of hostage Rom Braslavski lobbying Trump to grant him US citizenship
When the US-based family of hostage Rom Braslavski watched the recent Palestinian Islamic Jihad video of their grandson, nephew and cousin, lying on the floor in a Gaza tunnel, saying he is suffering and “at death’s door,” this was deeply painful, says Roye Ben-Menahem, Braslavski’s first cousin.
Ben-Menahem’s mother, Anat Braslavski Ben-Menahem, is the only sibling of Braslavski’s father, Offir Braslavski. The Ben-Menahem family lives in California.
“It was difficult to watch,” says Roye Ben-Menahem in a phone interview with The Times of Israel. “Seeing his distress and seeing him crying — Rom doesn’t do that. He’s very rowdy and in your face; seeing him reduced to this is so soul-crushing.”
The family has turned their distress into their strength, says Ben-Menahem, describing their ongoing push to grant Rom Braslavski American citizenship.
“We are hoping for that Trump card, for the American citizenship route,” he says. “To see that bear fruit could be the greatest gift so that Rom could get the same treatment as Edan Alexander” — a reference to an American-Israeli hostage who was released in May as a gesture to the United States.
Ben-Menahem and his mother are sending letters to various officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, requesting that Braslavski be granted US citizenship based on the American status of his grandmother, aunt and cousin.
Ben-Menahem says he is now seeing headlines that Trump is considering granting US citizenship to all remaining living 20 hostages.
“We’re worried about Rom surviving,” says Ben-Menahem.
Reports: Australia readying to recognize Palestinian state within days, possibly today
Australia is gearing up to recognize a Palestinian state today or in the coming days, The Sydney Morning Herald reports, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, followed by other Australian news outlets who cite sources as confirming the development.
Sydney Morning Herald stresses, however, that the move is “subject to change.”
It would mark a quick about-face for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who said two weeks ago that he didn’t plan to imminently recognize a Palestinian state in the wake of such announcements by France and the United Kingdom.
Albanese has faced domestic pressure on the matter, with tens of thousands staging an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian march over the Sydney Harbour Bridge earlier this month.
Netanyahu: ‘If we had wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon’
At his press conference with Israeli media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes use of an argument used by many pro-Israel activists to counter accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
“If we had wanted starvation, if that had been our policy… of two million Gazans, there would be no one left alive today, after 20 months,” he says. “If we had wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon.”
He adds: “There is no starvation, there is no policy of starvation — there was a shortage, and it needed to be stopped, and that’s exactly what is being done.”
Netanyahu falsely says Israel never halted all entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza
In his press conference with Israeli media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Israel never halted all humanitarian aid to Gaza, despite his office having announced such a measure earlier this year and despite his government having prevented the entry of all aid into the Strip for almost three months.
Netanyahu was asked whether his March 2 decision to halt humanitarian aid — a move he reversed 11 weeks later only after heavy pressure from international allies — was a failed strategy to defeat Hamas.
“First of all, we need to understand what actually happened,” he answered. “We never said we were stopping all entry of humanitarian aid. What we said was that, alongside halting the trucks that Hamas was seizing — taking the vast majority of their contents for itself, then selling the scraps at extortionate prices to the Palestinian population — we would act to prevent this theft… Therefore, we wanted to stop this and said that, in parallel, we would establish distribution points using the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) humanitarian mechanism set up by the Americans, so the food could be handed out separately. Our goal was not to block aid — on the contrary, it was to bypass Hamas’s looting and theft.”
“It just didn’t work as intended, because there weren’t enough distribution points, and so on,” he added. “We learned the lesson, stopped that approach, and are now operating differently. Aid is coming in, and we’re doing everything we can to ensure most of it does not reach Hamas, while at the same time significantly increasing the number of distribution points and secure routes.”
However, Netanyahu’s office indeed said on March 2 that all aid was being halted. The Prime Minister’s Office said at the time: “Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that, as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will cease.”
Moreover, the GHF operations didn’t begin in parallel with the March 2 aid halt, but rather on May 26 — almost three months later. A week before GHF started handing out supplies, on May 19, Israel started allowing a trickle of aid, which represented the first aid entering Gaza in 78 days.
Netanyahu made similar claims hours earlier in his press conference with international media, though he didn’t assert on that occasion that aid was never halted.
IDF confirms it killed Al Jazeera reporter accused of being a Hamas cell leader
The IDF confirms carrying out a strike in Gaza City that killed Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera reporter who the military says is a “terrorist operating under the guise of a journalist.”
“The terrorist Anas al-Sharif served as a cell leader in the Hamas terror organization and advanced plans for rocket fire against Israeli civilians and IDF forces,” the military says in a statement.
The IDF notes that in October, it published documents seized in Gaza that it says “unequivocally” confirm Sharif’s “military affiliation with Hamas.”
At the time, the military said Sharif headed a rocket-launching squad and was a member of an elite Nukhba Force company in Hamas’s East Jabalia Battalion.
“These documents serve as proof of the terrorist’s integration into the Qatari Al Jazeera media network,” the IDF says.
Al Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel’s allegations and accused it of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip.
In the strike this evening, the military says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm, including “the use of precision munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence information.”
Al Jazeera confirms Sharif’s death along with fellow journalist Mohammed Qreiqeh and videographers Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa in the strike, which it says targeted a tent near Shifa Hospital.
Minutes before being killed, Sharif documented Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City and posted footage to social media.
“Relentless bombing… For two hours, the Israeli aggression on Gaza City has intensified,” he wrote on X.
قصف لا يتوقف…
منذ ساعتين والعدوان الإسرائيلي يشتد على مدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/yW8PesTkFT— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) August 10, 2025