News Digest — 1/5/26
Israel, Syria To Renew Talks On Security Deal After nearly Two Months Hiatus
Senior Syrian and Israeli officials are expected to meet on Monday (5th) in Paris to resume negotiations on a new security agreement, according to a report on Axios, citing an Israeli official and another source with knowledge of the talks.
The discussions will mark the first round in nearly two months and the 11th overall. The talks had been paused due to significant gaps between the sides and the resignation of Israel’s previous lead negotiator, former Minister Ron Dermer.
The negotiations are being encouraged by the Trump administration, which is seeking to stabilize the security situation along the Israel-Syria border. The effort is being led by President Trump’s Syria envoy, Tom Barrack, who is expected to mediate the talks.
Axios reported that the discussions are planned to last two days and will include Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaibani, facing a newly appointed negotiating team. The stated objective is a security arrangement addressing demilitarization in southern Syria and an Israeli withdrawal from areas entered following the collapse of the Assad regime.
The report also said the renewed talks followed a request from President Trump to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their recent meeting in Mar-a-Lago. Netanyahu agreed to continue negotiations while emphasizing the need to protect Israel’s security interests.
Ahead of the Paris talks, Netanyahu appointed a new Israeli delegation headed by Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter. Additional participants named in the report includeNetanyahu’s military adviser, Gen.Roman Gofman, and acting National Security Adviser Gill Reich. The Israeli Embassy in Washington declined to comment, according to Axios.
Prime Minister Netanyahu Briefs Security Cabinet On Trump Meeting, Iran, Sources Told Post
The Security Cabinet meeting called by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday (4th) ended after several hours, officials confirmed to the Jerusalem Post.
Netanyahu briefed the security cabinet on his meeting last week with US President Donald Trump and discussed the situation with Iran, sources said.
Netanyahu traveled last week to the US to meet the US President, where he discussed the situation in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
He also attended the Presidential New Year’s Eve Celebration at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Thursday (1st), alongside his wife Sarah,
Netanyahu was the only foreign leader invited to the event and is also the only foreign leader to have ever attended a presidential ball, according to the PMO.
According to an exclusive report by the Post, President Trump gave Netanyahu approval to take action against Hezbollah and reiterated his position that “Hezbollah must be completely disarmed.”
“If the Lebanese army doesn’t succeed in disarming them, and Israel believes an action is the necessary thing to do, then the US backs Israel,” said Trump, according to a source familiar with the details.
During the last week, the IDF performed several attacks on the Iranian proxy terror group, with the attacks focused mainly on the southern region of Lebanon.
On Saturday (3rd), the military noted that it had struck a Hezbollah terrorist in the Al-Khiyam area of southern Lebanon.
The IDF stated the strike was a response to “Hezbollah’s continued violations of the ceasefire understandings,” but did not provide any details on the identity of the terrorist or the activities the individual was engaged in at the time of the strike.
On December 26,, the military launched an attack on several Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, which included a combat training ground used to plan terror attacks, and several warehouses containing weaponry and terrorist infrastructure.
Two Hamas Terrorists Killed In Clashes With Militias In Gaza City
Heavy fighting broke out Sunday (4th) in Gaza City’s Daraj Tuffah neighborhood between Hamas terrorists and members of an armed militia led by Gaza-based Fatah activist Rami Helles, according to local reports.
The militia, which cooperates with the so-called Popular Forces once headed by Yaser Abu Shabab, has recently intensified attacks. Abu Shahab was shot dead in December following an internal dispute with his organization. During the clashes Sunday (4th), two Hamas terrorists were reported killed and several others were wounded.
According to the Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Helles’ forces advanced toward the al-Sanafor junction in the Tuffah neighborhood, west of the Yellow Line identified as the initial withdrawal line under the Gaza ceasefire framework. When the fighters entered residential areas, they came under fire from Hamas terrorists and other armed factions triggering exchanges of gunfire that lasted about 20 minutes. The militia later withdrew toward areas under Israeli control.
Local reports said IDF drones operated during the fighting, striking buildings in and around the neighborhood. Booby-trapped vehicles carrying large quantities of explosives were also detonated in stages, destroying additional buildings in the area.
Separately, sources said a Palestinian man believed to be affiliated with Hamas, was killed Saturday (3rd) at the main junction in the Shejaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City. While initial reports attributed the shooting to an Israeli sniper, sources told the newspaper the man was killed by members of the Helles militia. He was the second person killed by the group in the past week and a half.
The militia has also stepped up pressure on residents of eastern Gaza. Over the past two weeks it has forced residents of the Daraj Tuffah neighborhood to flee their homes, the sources said.
The Helles clan has been openly hostile to Hamas since the terrorist group seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, following violent confrontations with its members. One of the largest families in Gaza, the clan is concentrated mainly in the Shejaiya area of eastern Gaza City, near the Israeli community of Nahal Oz.
The Helles militia is one of four armed groups reported to be cooperating with Israel and receiving military and logistical assistance, with the backing of the Palestinian Authority and support from various Western and Arab countries.
Medical Ties Linked Israel And Somaliland Years before Formal Recognition
As Somaliland welcomed Israel’s recognition of the self-declared republic last week, a long-standing medical relationship between the two sides came into sharper focus.
For more than two decades, the Israeli NGO Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) has provided cardiac care to children from Somaliland, bringing patients to Israel for surgery at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. Since 2004, the organization has treated 49 children from Somaliland, including 19 in 2025, and 10 in 2024, according to figures from SACH.
The connection predates formal diplomatic ties. In 2004, when a Somaliland diplomat stationed in Ethiopia sought urgent medical treatment for his child, who was suffering from a life-threatening heart condition, he contacted the Israeli embassy, where the family was referred to Save A Child’s Heart, which managed for surgery in Israel. The child survived, though the diplomat was later dismissed from his post for visiting Israel.
Simon Fisher, executive director of Save A Child’s Heart, said the case marked the organization’s first involvement in Somaliland.
“At the time, it was the first I had heard of Somaliland,” Fisher said. “The diplomat spoke about his hope for future relations between the two sides.”
Since then, referrals have continued through medical professionals and partner institutions in the region. One recent patient, Isa, a five-year-old girl from Somaliland, arrived in Israel with two congenital heart defects and underwent open-heart surgery at Israel’s Wolfson Medical Center. She later received additional treatment for vision problems, according to the organization.
Doctors involved in the program said children from Somaliland are treated alongside patients from dozens of other countries.
“We provide the same level of care to all patients, regardless of where they come from,” said Doctor Alona Raucher Sternfeld, director of pediatric cardiology at Save a Child’s Heart.
Dr. Sagi Assa, senior pediatric cardiologist and head of the international pediatric cardiology unit, said cultural and language differences rarely pose obstacles. “Once treatment begins, the focus is entirely on the child’s medical needs,” he said.
The collaboration expanded in 2012, when two children from Somaliland were brought to Israel with the assistance of Dr. Matthew Jones, an American physician working in the region, and Dr. Omar Dihoud, a senior adviser to the Somaliland president. Dihoud died in 2015, but contacts he helped establish remained active.
A further expansion followed in 2021, when Dr. Adam Lee Goldstein, head of trauma surgery at Wolfson Medical Center, visited the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa. The Hospital was founded by Edna Adan Ismail, a former Somaliland foreign minister and first lady. During the visit, Edelstein met adults who had undergone heart surgery through Save a Child’s Heart years earlier, leading to renewed cooperation.
Israel announced its recognition of Somaliland on December 27. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would pursue cooperation with Somaliland in areas including health, agriculture, technology, and the economy. In a phone call shared publicly, Netanyahu congratulated President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi and invited him to visit Israel.
The Somaliland president said his government intended to join the Abraham Accords, the US-brokered framework for normalization between Israel and Arab and Muslim majority states.
Save A Child’s Heart founded in 1995 has treated more than 8,000 children from 15 countries, according to the organization. While the group describes its work as non-political, its long-running involvement in Somaliland reflects ties that predate formal diplomatic recognition.
Tehran’s Dreams Of Hegemony Over The Middle East Are Gone – Jonathan S. Tobin
All over the globe, antisemitism is surging. Yet the meetings held in Florida this past week between President Trump and other members of his administration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are a reason for optimism after the president expressed support for Netanyahu and armed threats at Hamas and Iran.
The relationship between the two nations remains close and forward thinking. During the last 12 months, the forces seeking Israel’s destruction in the Middle East and elsewhere can definitively be described as the losers. Israel and the Jewish people remain stronger than at any other point in memory.
That’s not the tone of most of the coverage of Israel and its ties with its ally. A constant drumbeat of stories has attempted to make the case that Trump and Netanyahu are on a certain collision course about the next steps with respect to conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. But for now, claims that the alliance is about to crack up are wrong.
There is no doubt that Hamas is far weaker now than when it started the war, with no immediate prospect of becoming as dangerous as it was back in October 2023. Iran has suffered defeat after defeat since its leaders set in motion a multifront war against the Jewish state. Israel’’s 12-day campaign against Iran in June – which the US eventually joined – did enormous damage to its military, in addition to significantly setting back its nuclear program. The assumption that it is a threshold nuclear power no longer holds true.
Iran’s Hezbollah auxiliaries in Lebanon suffered a humiliating and catastrophic defeat as a result of Israel’s 2024 campaign, which also led to the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria. The hopes of hegemony over the Middle East that the Tehran government dreamed of, are gone. So too, is the land bridge to the Mediterranean composed of its allies in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. – with which they sought to encircle Israel.
Countless generations of Jews who endured persecution, hardships and even attempts at their genocide have only dreamed of a situation as positive for Jewish life as the one that exists today despite all the sorrow that contemporary Jewry has endured since Oct. 7. This should encourage us to have faith that Israel and the Jewish people will continue to live and thrive. That will require the continued heroism of the Israeli people, bolstered by diaspora Jewry, to have the courage to stand up for their rights and bear witness against hatred and bigotry, wherever it is to be found.
(jns.org)
The Protests Are About Far More Than Cost Of Living – Jonathan Harounoff
Many headlines are reducing what is unfolding in Iran to unrest, triggered merely by a plunging currency. But such framing is not only incomplete, but dangerously misleading. The demonstrations now rippling through cities far beyond Tehran are the latest chapter in a decades-long struggle for dignity and freedom.
Yes the economy is in crisis. But what we are witnessing is the culmination of 46 years of accumulated grievance. Iranians are protesting against a rotten system that has continued to fail them in every way.
They are protesting against the routine use of violence, arbitrary detention, and lethal force against citizens who dare to dissent. They are protesting against the persecution of minorities, from Kurds and Baluchis, to Baha’is and Lurs, who have borne the brunt of systematic discrimination. They are protesting against the daily war waged against women, whose bodies, hair, and choices are policed as instruments of ideology.
They are protesting against corruption so entrenched that even formal resignations at the top, like that of the central bank governor, last week appears less like accountability and more like theater. They are protesting against environmental ruin and water bankruptcy, the result of mismanagement that has left once-fertile regions parched and unlivable.
The people of Iran deserve better than a region that pours vast sums into foreign terrorist militias while its own citizens struggle to afford bread and medicine. This year alone, a billion dollars was sent to Hezbollah. The people of Iran are not asking to be rescued. They are demanding to be seen.
The writer is Israel’s international spokesperson at the UN. (Jewish Chronicle-UK)
