The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
Video shows Hamas executing several alleged ‘collaborators’ in Gaza
Hamas operatives executed several alleged “collaborators” in the Gaza Strip today, according to a video shared by popular online media channel Gaza Now.
Gaza Now, which boasts 1.7 million followers on Telegram, publishes a video showing more than a dozen Hamas operatives, many of them in uniform, opening fire on three men lying on the ground.
The video is captioned “The moment of punishing the agents of the Zionist occupation who caused the killing of thousands of our Palestinian people in Gaza.”
The video could not immediately be verified.
Hamas has regularly issued death sentences for people found guilty of “collaboration” with Israel, executing dozens of Palestinians in recent years.
Trump says Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal ‘should hold’
US President Donald Trump says the Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal he helped finalize “should hold.”
The comments appear to soften ones he made earlier this week when he said he was not confident that the agreement would hold.
Asked to elaborate on those comments, Trump tells reporters, “It’s a very tricky place.”
Trump credits his Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff for securing the agreement that had been elusive for months. Noting that “both sides” liked Witkoff, Trump says, “That deal would have never been made without Steve.”
“The deal should hold, but if it doesn’t there will be a lot of problems,” Trump warns.
Amid reports that Trump is planning to tap Witkoff to handle US diplomacy with Iran, Trump is asked whether he’ll want him to be negotiating directly with Iran.
“No, but he’s certainly somebody I would use,” Trump says.
Man jailed for knife attack aimed at French magazine Charlie Hebdo
A Paris court sentences a Pakistani man to 30 years in jail for attempting to murder two people outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo in 2020 with a meat cleaver.
When he carried out the attack, 29-year-old Zaheer Mahmood wrongly believed the satirical newspaper was still based in the building, which was targeted by Islamists a decade ago for publishing cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.
In fact, Charlie Hebdo had moved in the wake of the storming of its offices by two al-Qaeda-linked masked gunmen, who killed 12 people including eight of the paper’s editorial staff. The killings in January 2015 shocked France and triggered a fierce debate about freedom of expression and religion.
Originally from rural Pakistan, Mahmood arrived in France illegally in the summer of 2019. The court heard how Mahmood was influenced by radical Pakistani preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who had called for the beheading of blasphemers.
Mahmood was convicted of attempted murder and terrorist conspiracy and he will be banned from France when his sentence is served.