News Digest — 5/20/26
Major (Res.) Itamar Sapir Killed In Battle In Southern Lebanon
The Binyamin regional Council announced the death in combat in southern Lebanon, Tuesday (19th), of major (res.) Itamar Sapir, who was 27 years old when he fell. His funeral will take place Wednesday (20th) in Ra’anana.
Itamar was the son of Yehuda and Ruki Sapir, residents of the community of Eli. He grew up and was educated in the Binyamin regional school system.
Several years ago, Itamar married Roi, and the couple lived for a short time in Ra’anana. Later they moved to Ariel, where they were raising their toddler son, Mayan.
Itamar enlisted in 2019 in the Maglan Unit and was discharged after serving as a company commander in the unit. During his reserve service he served as a company commander in Maglan’s Reserve Battalion.
Itamar is the 63rd fallen soldier from the Binyamin regional Council since the beginning of the war. He is survived by his wife Roi, son Mayan, his parents and brothers Tal, Erez and Yosef.
Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz paid tribute and expressed condolences to the family: “All our hearts are broken with the fall of Captain Itamar Sapir, of blessed memory. Itamar grew up in Eli, a community that has already sacrificed many of its finest sons since the start of the war.”
He added remarks about the current generation of fighters risking their lives in battle: “Itamar was part of a remarkable generation of warriors, a generation that builds homes, raises children, loves life, and at the same time stands up without hesitation to defend the State of Israel. A generation of devotion, mission, and love for the people and the land. On behalf of all the residents of Bunyamin, I embrace the dear Sapir family. We will always stand by your side”.
Sa’ar Heads To Czech Republic For State Visit Focusing On Trade, Security Ties
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar departed Tuesday evening (19th) for a state visit to the Czech Republic, where he is expected to hold a series of high-level diplomatic and economic meetings aimed at strengthening bilateral ties between Jerusalem and Prague.
“The Czech Republic has consistently stood by Israel in international forums, and this visit is an opportunity to deepen cooperation in innovation, security, and economic growth,” Sa’ar said.
During his visit, Sa’ar is scheduled to meet Czech Republic President Petr Pavel and Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Petr Macinka.
Officials said the talks will focus on expanding cooperation in diplomacy, trade, and regional issues, reflecting what both sides describe as strong and longstanding relations.
The minister is accompanied by a large business and economic delegation of more than 50 representatives from Israeli companies and economic organizations.
The group includes the Export Institute, the Manufacturers’ Association, Chambers of Commerce, and major firms from the defense, cyber, and health sectors, including IAI, Elbit, Rafael, Clalit, and Sheba Medical Center.
According to Israeli officials, bilateral trade between the countries reached more than $1.4 billion in 2023, reflecting steadily growing economic ties.
They added that cooperation has expanded in recent years across technology, defense, and healthcare sectors.
Tourism from Israel to the Czech Republic has also seen significant growth.
In 2025, more than 250,000 Israeli visits were recorded, marking a 33.4 percent increase from the previous year and the highest growth rate among all source markets.
During the visit, members of the delegation will participate in a joint business forum attended by Sa’ar and Czech officials, as well as hundreds of scheduled business-to-business meetings with local companies and economic leaders.
“We see Israel as a key partner in technology, defense, and healthcare, and we welcome the large business delegation as a sign of our shared commitment to expanding cooperation,” Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Petr Macinka said.
The visit is expected to conclude with agreements to further institutionalize cooperation across government and private-sector channels.
Israel Warns Of Escalating Terror Threat In Judea, Samaria As Iran, Turkey, Hamas Seek To Stoke Extremism
Israeli security officials have warned of a rapidly deteriorating security situation in Judea and Samaria, citing deepening Iranian and Turkish involvement alongside Hamas efforts to expand terrorist infrastructure and orchestrate attacks across the territory.
According to the Israeli news outlet Walla, defense officials point to a growing role by Iran, Turkey, and Hamas in financing, directing, and sustaining terrorism, while also leveraging Gaza-linked networks to expand coordination, incitement, and operational activity across Judea and Samaria.
With Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria steadily expanding, the local military command is under significant strain, operating with 22 battalions while confronting a wide range of security challenges, including dismantling terrorist infrastructure, disrupting terrorist financing channels, locating weapons caches, protecting settlements and stopping arms smuggling from Jordan.
Israeli officials have previously warned that large-scale terrorist attacks targeting local communities could serve as a destabilizing flashpoint amid the wars in Gaza and Iran.
Last year, Israeli forces uncovered documents suggesting Hamas is actively preparing plans for raids on settlements in the area.
Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, arrested six Arab Israeli citizens last month suspected of transferring millions of shekels from Hamas’ Turkish branch into Judea and Samaria as part of an underground terrorist financing network believed to have smuggled more than three million shekels to fund attacks against Israel.
Experts also point to a growing threat from the Jenin Brigades in northern Samaria – an alliance of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists that has transformed refugee camps into bases for shootings, bombings and ambushes.
The group’s operations are reportedly sustained by a complex financing system that moves Iranian funds through Palestinian banking channels, siphons off Israeli-collected tax revenues, and makes use of international facilitators.
“By sustaining this West Bank front through Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad networks, Tehran forces Israel to fight simultaneously across multiple fronts, drains resources that could otherwise consolidate gains in Gaza, and keeps the Palestinian issue politically radioactive enough to sabotage broader Arab-Israeli alignment,” Jose Lev Alvarez, a writing fellow at the Middle East Forum think tank, explained in a recent article.
“Tehran [then] advances its axis-of-resistance doctrine at minimal cost – no Iranian boots, no direct missile exchanges, just calibrated chaos designed to obstruct any credible day-after plan for Gaza and derail normalization agreements with Saudi Arabia or Gulf States demanding Palestinian stability,” he continued.
Last year , the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned that Iran was driving a growing terrorist threat in Judea and Samaria, with concerns that Iranian-backed arms-smuggling could enable an Oct. 7-style attack.
Israeli intelligence and security forces have since intensified operations across the territory amid fears that Iranian-supplied weapons are increasingly reaching Palestinian terrorists and escalating the risk of a large-scale assault.
Israeli intelligence assessments have also warned that terrorists operating in Judea and Samaria are believed to possess weapons capable of breaching Israeli defenses, including what officials described as “standard Iranian weapons.”
According to Joe Truzman, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (IDD), a Washington, DC-based think tank, “Israeli officials should be closely monitoring Judea and Samaria as Hamas regroups and rearms in the Gaza Strip after more than two years of war.”
“Hamas and its allied factions understand that igniting violence in the territory would divert Israel’s attention during a critical time of rebuilding the group’’s infrastructure in Gaza,” Truzman told The Algemeiner last year.
“The release of convicted terrorists to the West Bank under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement may be a factor in the resurgence of organized violence in the territory,” he continued.
As of last February, Israeli security forces foiled nearly 1,000 terrorist plots over the past year, with senior military officials increasingly worried that the volatile situation in Judea and Samaria could lead to a large-scale attack similar to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, onslaught against Israeli communities and settlements near the security barrier.
According to a survey released last year by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, 70 percent of all respondents – and 81 percent of Jewish respondents – expressed fear of an Oct.7-style attack coming from Judea and Samaria.
In contrast, 53 percent of Arab respondents said they were not worried about such an attack.
In response to these concerns, the IDF has established a special command to address potential threats in Judea and Samaria and launched a nearly unprecedented counterterror operation in the northern part of the territory.
The New Equation Against Hamas – Oded Ailam
The elimination of Hamas military leader Iz al-Din al-Haddad is a move with profound strategic significance. Al-Haddad, one of the most hardline and extremist voices within Hamas, strongly opposed any framework that included the organization’s disarmament or the establishment of an alternative governing authority. Removing him from the equation weakens the uncompromising camp within Hamas and could create new, more favorable conditions for negotiations. Israel’s message is clear: those who reject all compromise and glorify a perpetual war of attrition are not immune.
In the Middle East, weakness is perceived as an invitation to aggression. When Israel makes clear that everyone involved in planning, murdering, and kidnapping will pay a personal price, it strengthens its ability to survive in a hostile region.
Targeted killings alone cannot defeat Hamas unless they are integrated into a broader strategic framework. Eliminating the organization’s veteran command structure forces Hamas to hand the reins to a younger, less experienced, and less authoritative generation, leading to operational erosion. However, this is only half of the equation. To bring about the complete collapse of Hamas and prevent its rehabilitation, Israel must immediately implement a comprehensive operational strategy.
First, Israel must make clear that every day Hamas refuses to disarm is another day in which it loses territory for an indefinite period.
Second, a new and far stricter political-security framework must be established with Cairo concerning the management of the Rafah crossing, in order to completely block Hamas’ lifeline, prevent large-scale weapons smuggling, and deny the organization control over the movement of people and goods along the southern border.
Third, a dedicated mechanism, entirely separate from Hamas, must be created immediately to manage, distribute, and process humanitarian aid entering Gaza. Hamas’ control over food and supplies is the oxygen sustaining its rule.
Fourth, a strict and clearly defined timetable must be set for the full disarmament of Hamas by the end of the year. No Hamas operative may be integrated into future security mechanisms, civilian administration, or governing institutions in Gaza.
The writer, former head of theCounterterrorism Division in the Mossad, is a researcher at the Jerusalem Center
(jcfa.org)
UN Envoy Tells Germany To ‘Forget The Holocaust’
The UN’s special envoy to the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, known for her extreme positions against the State of Israel,has escalated her rhetoric and published an unbelievable post that combines antisemitic rhetoric with a rewriting of Holocaust history.
In her post she published on her Facebook account, Albanese called on the German people to absolve themselves of the burden of guilt and historical responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi regime.
According to her, modern Germany’s attempt to atone for the past through steadfast support for the State of Israel does not stem from sincere remorse, but from a historical superiority syndrome that has never been addressed, and serves as a “convenient mask” to be reaccepted by the international community.
Albanese did not limit herself to attacking Germany. “The Western club accepted them because they proved themselves capable of tolerating certain members of the group that were previously ‘undesirable,’ and so they accepted the Jews, but not all of them. They learned that to survive in this world they must be superior. No longer a fragile minority. No longer a people in exile. ‘Chosen to rule?’ one might wonder when looking at what Israel has become.”
Later in her remarks Albanese claimed that Germany does not respect Jews who are not Zionist and that it behaves as a socially disturbed state that enacts discriminatory laws, while calling on its citizens to free themselves from the obligation to Israel.
This is not the first time Albanese has provoked an international storm and presented extreme views. Last February, during an official conference of the Al Jazeera network in Doha, Qatar, Albanese brutally declared that the State of Israel is “the common enemy of humanity” – a harsh statement that led to a wave of condemnations from senior officials and leaders in several European countries, some of whom even demanded her removal from her post.
