The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they happen.
Trump: I didn’t want to call for Netanyahu to receive pardon but was moved by ‘good’ round of applause
US President Donald Trump tells reporters that he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he did not plan in advance to call for him to be pardoned while addressing the Knesset, amid the premier’s yearslong trial on corruption charges.
“I told him I didn’t want to break up the pardon, but it was just a perfect spot. It was good timing, wouldn’t you say?” Trump says, according to an audio recording from a press gaggle aboard Air Force One.
“He was getting a very good hand [round of applause], and when they stopped I said, ‘why don’t you give this guy a pardon?’ If he didn’t get a good hand, I wouldn’t have done that.”
Ramat Gan man dies of wounds from Iran missile attack in June that killed his partner
The Ramat Gan Municipality announces that Aharon Mizrahi, a 76-year-old resident of the central city who was injured during an Iranian ballistic missile attack amid the Israel-Iran war in June, has died of his wounds.
Mizrahi was together with his partner, Etti Cohen Engel, when the missile struck, and she was killed in the attack.
עצוב כל כך! אהרון מזרחי, בן 76 מרמת גן, שנפצע קשה מפגיעת טיל איראני ברחוב תרצה בזמן מלחמת "עם כלביא", נפטר הלילה מפצעיו. יהי זכרו ברוך. pic.twitter.com/gPUzzL3l4k
— לאה אלישע ???? (@Leahelisha75) October 13, 2025
Hamas said to kill over 30 Gazans as terror group moves to reassert its grip on Strip
A greatly weakened Hamas has sought to reassert itself in the Gaza Strip since a ceasefire took hold, killing at least 33 people in a crackdown on groups that have tested its grip and appearing to get a US nod to temporarily police the shattered enclave.
Pummeled by Israel during the war ignited by the October 7, 2023, attack that it led, Hamas has gradually sent its operatives back into the streets of Gaza since the ceasefire began on Friday, moving cautiously in case it suddenly collapses, according to two security sources in the territory.
On Monday, Hamas deployed members of its Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades military wing as it freed the last living hostages seized from Israel two years ago. It was a reminder of one of the major challenges facing US President Donald Trump’s effort to secure a lasting deal for Gaza, as the US, Israel and many other nations demand Hamas disarm.
Reuters footage shows dozens of Hamas fighters lined up at a hospital in southern Gaza, one wearing a shoulder patch identifying him as a member of the elite “Shadow Unit” that Hamas sources say was tasked with holding hostages.
One of the Gaza sources, a security official, says that since the ceasefire, Hamas forces have killed 32 members of “a gang affiliated with a family in Gaza City,” while six of its personnel had also been killed.
Later on Monday, a video circulating on social media appears to show several masked gunmen, some of them wearing green headbands resembling ones worn by Hamas, shooting with machine guns at least seven men after forcing them to kneel in the street. Posts identify the video as filmed in Gaza on Monday. Civilian spectators cheer “Allah Akbar,” or God is Great, and call those killed “collaborators.”
Mother of slain hostage says government betrayed families like hers because deal left insufficient leverage over Hamas to get bodies back
Yael Adar, the mother of slain hostage Tamir Adar, delivers a searing criticism of the Israeli leadership’s handling of the issue of the return of hostages’ bodies, telling Channel 12 that the government “betrayed” families like hers whose loved ones were killed in captivity and have not been returned.
Adar says she had asked officials ahead of the hostage deal announced last week what leverage Israel would have to recover the bodies of the 28 dead hostages held by Hamas, only four of whom were returned today. Hamas was supposed to return all 48 hostages, living and dead, by today, but had warned that it would have trouble locating some of the dead bodies.
“They told me that a live hostage is worth 100 Palestinian prisoners, including life-termers,” she says. “But a dead hostage is worth 15 Palestinian bodies. Why not 100 dead Palestinians?”
She says Hamas did not breach the agreement, arguing that, because of the way it was drafted, “Israel agreed there was no [absolute] deadline.” The terms of the deal were not definitive as regards what might happen if Hamas failed to return all the bodies, with some leeway for ongoing searches for the bodies which, she says, might go on for months or years.
Third row, from left: Joshua Mollel, Eitan Levy, Sgt. Itay Chen, Col. Asaf Hamami, Tal Chaimi, Aryeh Zalmanovich. Bottom row: Sudthisak Rinthalak, Maj. Lior Rudaeff, Amiram Cooper, Tamir Nimrodi, Omer Neutra, Eliyahu Margalit. (Times of Israel combo; courtesy)
Adar also criticizes Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana for removing his hostage pin, saying it symbolized an attitude that the hostage issue “is over.”
Her remarks come as questions mount over Hamas’s compliance with the “Comprehensive End of Gaza War” document signed last Thursday in Egypt. The deal stipulated that Hamas had to release within 72 hours of the ceasefire — by noon today — all 20 living hostages, as it did, and the bodies of all dead hostages it holds or can locate.
But the document also leaves open the possibility that if Hamas has information about the whereabouts of deceased hostages whose bodies it cannot retrieve within that timeframe, those details will be transferred to mediators for follow-up at a later stage.
According to a CNN report published last week, three Israeli officials confirmed that Hamas may not be able to find all of the 28 dead hostages. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has known for months that this is the case, according to the officials. One official said that seven to nine bodies might not be retrieved, while another put that figure at between 10 and 15. There had been no suggestion ahead of today’s deadline that Hamas might release as few as four of the 28 bodies.
After Adar’s interview, Channel 12 reports that Qatari officials had informed Israeli representatives in Sharm el-Sheikh last week that Hamas held 15 to 16 hostages’ bodies ready to return, and was looking for more.