News Digest — 8/12/26
Hamas Sniper Targets IDF As Post War Plan Gains Momentum
IDF troops on Tuesday (11th) eliminated a Hamas sniper who violated the ceasefire and posed an immediate threat to troops.
“A short while ago IDF troops identified a sniper from the Hamas terrorist organization who posed an immediate threat near the Yellow Line area, where IDF troops are operating in the northern Gaza Strip.” the IDF confirmed.
“Shortly after the identification, IDF troops fired toward the terrorist in order to remove the threat. A hit was identified.”
“IDF troops under the Southern Command remain deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat.”
Earlier on Tuesday (11th), Channel 12 News reported that the proposed multinational force is not expected to begin deploying in Gaza before October, with a real possibility that its arrival will be delayed until after Israel’s elections.
On Monday (10th),senior officials in Gaza’s “Board of Peace” told Ynet that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration rejecting the 15-point Gaza plan is in contradiction to the facts on the ground.
“We look at actions in practice, and less at words and declarations,” the sources told Ynet. “In practice, Israel has halted targeted killings and is observing the ceasefire.”
According to the officials, “in essence, Israel is keeping the `15-point agreement. The IDF is positioned along the original Yellow Line, controlling 53% of the Gaza Strip, and there are no outposts or forces beyond the Yellow Line. Israel is implementing the 15-point document even while verbally rejecting it. Of course, it would have been better for Israel if its declarations matched its actions, because it would have benefited diplomatically from complying with the agreement.
On Saturday night (8th), Channel 12 News reported that Israel’s defense establishment recently held discussions examining the possibility of withdrawing IDF forces from several locations in the Gaza Strip.
According to the report, the exiting of IDF forces would be replaced with a multinational force, despite Hamas remaining far from disarming.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly stated that the IDF will not withdraw from the “Yellow Line” until Hamas disarms. However, according to the report, security officials are already preparing contingency plans should a withdrawal be approved.
Channel 12 noted that the exact definition of “disarmament” has yet to be clarified, but the US is increasing pressure on Israel to withdraw from Gaza.
A senior security source told Channel 12, “The number of troops [in the multi-national force] is simply not enough. It’s only a handful of soldiers, and they are trying to build towers on the basis of that force. It’s very worrying. The Americans aren’t leaving us with many alternatives – but they are creating a problem for us in Gaza.”
The report also noted that defense officials greatly doubt that such a limited force could play a meaningful role in Gaza, particularly if it is expected to replace IDF troops in areas from which Israel withdraws.
‘We Are Not Going Anywhere:’ Danon Defends Jewish Communities In West Bank At UN Meeting.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon reaffirmed that Jewish communities in the West Bank would remain and continue to grow, rejecting claims that they are obstacles to peace, during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in the West Bank on Tuesday (11th).
“The Security Council must understand a simple truth: We are not going anywhere. Jewish communities will stay in Judea and Samaria,” Danon said in a video posted to X. “
“Jewish communities are not temporary outposts, nor obstacles to peace,” he continued. “They are permanent homes, thriving neighborhoods where families live. Judea and Samaria is where our people’s eternal connection to the Land of Israel began.”
Danon also accused the Security Council of applying a double standard by focusing on Israeli “settler violence” while, he argued, failing to give similar attention to hundreds of Palestinian terrorist attacks.
“When Israelis are involved, this body uses a collective label, ‘settler violence.’ But when Palestinian radicals carry out attacks, you refer only to the individuals responsible,” Danon told the council.
Danon also invoked the Jewish people’s historical and biblical connection to the West Bank in defending their right to live in the territory.
“Our right to live in our land is based on our historical connection to it. It is described in the Torah,” Danon said. Judea and Samaria is where our story in the Land of Israel began. It is where it will continue.”
“We are not going anywhere,” he concluded.
IAEA To Remove Nuclear Material From Syria – Barak Ravid
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will soon remove nuclear material stored at a clandestine site in Syria after the U.S. reached understandings with Syria and Israel. After Israel bombed Syria’s clandestine Al-Kiber reactor in 2007, several research and development and storage sites remained and were mostly inactive.
One facility Israel has been closely monitoring over the last two years is “Site 99” where the Assad regime had stored yellowcake, a powder from uranium ore that can later be further processed and eventually enriched. Residue and “leftovers” from the Al Kibar site were also stored there.
While the material at the site can’t be used for a nuclear weapon, it can be used for a “dirty bomb” – a conventional explosive device that disperses radioactive material to contaminate an area. Israeli officials said the IDF bombed the entrances to the sites shortly after the fall of the Assad regime to prevent access to it.
For more than a year, Israel and the U.S. have been discussing the best way to deal with “Site 99,” a U.S. official said. Israel made clear that it wouldn’t tolerate nuclear material remaining at the site. (Axios)
Israel And Venezuela Renew Consular Relations First Time Since 2009
Israel and Venezuela announced on Tuesday (11th) that they had renewed consular relations, 17 years after diplomatic ties were severed between the two countries.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and his Venezuelan counterpart Felix Plasencia agreed to new consular ties after talks in recent weeks “resulted in an agreement to establish a coordination mechanism that will enable the provision of consular services to citizens of both countries,” Sa’ar’s office said.
The two countries have not had any sort of diplomatic relations since 2009.
“Both governments recognize the importance of the relationship between the State of Israel and the Jewish community in Venezuela, which constitutes an important historic bridge of friendship between the two countries,” Venezuela’s government said in a statement, which was also issued by Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
It added that the two countries agreed to “continue their bilateral technical cooperation stemming from the emergency response and reconstruction efforts following the double earthquake” in June.
Venezuela severed diplomatic relations with Israel under then-president Hugo Chavez in 2009, amid deteriorating relations between Chavez’s government and Israel and a few days after the start of an IDF operation in the Gaza Strip.
But since Delcy Rodriguez was installed as the country’s president after the United States captured the previous leader, Nicolas Maduro, in January, officials have sharply changed their tone regarding the Jewish state.
Ties have also warmed since Israel sent humanitarian assistance following the earthquake. An Israeli aid delegation was dispatched to Venezuela, which provided professional assistance to the country’s emergency response and recovery efforts.
In comments a month ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Israel’s humanitarian delegation to Venezuela, saying at the time that it was also contributing to “rebuilding relations” with Caracas.
“You are rebuilding ruins, and you are also rebuilding relations. You are showing the people of Venezuela, as well as the Venezuelan government, the true face of the State of Israel” Netanyahu said last month in a video message.
And in January, following the US removal of Maduro from power, Sa’ar expressed hope that it would ultimately lead to the renewal of ties between Jerusalem and Caracas.
“Israel welcomes the removal of the dictator who led a network of drugs and terror, and hopes for the return of democracy to the country and for friendly relations between the states,” Sa’ar said at the time.
On Democracies And Death Cults – Dan Perry
A terrible mutation afflicts American politics. A pathological hostility toward Israel has become a driver of political identity and debate. The genocide accusation is increasingly treated as settled truth; opposition to Zionism as evidence of virtue; and even Hamas and “armed resistance” can be romanticized or excused. Israel is being cast as such a singular evil that opposing it can seem almost a prerequisite for occupying the moral high ground.
Douglas Murray’s recent book, On Democracies and Death Cults, confronts precisely this mutation. He argues that Hamas is a death cult, that Israel is confronting an enemy unlike any conventional military adversary, and that much of the West has become morally incapable of distinguishing between a liberal democracy and an organization that celebrates the murder of civilians.
His central proposition ought to be among the least controversial statements in modern politics: Hamas is evil. The fact that an accomplished writer felt compelled to devote an entire book to persuading educated Western readers of that proposition – and that this is controversial – says volumes about what our society has mutated into.
Hamas’ objective is not a negotiated peace or a two-state solution. It has repeatedly opposed such outcomes because it does not seek coexistence with Israel but Israel’s destruction. Hamas’ own stated aims are impossible to misunderstand.
Murray also describes in excruciatingly graphic detail the evidence he collected of the murders on Oct. 7, in the rural communities invaded by Hamas and at the Nova music festival – girls shot in the head as they begged for mercy, boys’ heads bashed in with hammers, grenades lobbed at people cowering. It is unbearable and leaves no doubt about the evil at work.
The writer is the former London-based Europe-Africa editor and Cairo-based Middle East editor for the Associated Press. (Forward)
Antisemitism Is Not A Jewish Problem To Solve Alone – Katie Posey
I’m a Christian researching antisemitism. I presented survey research on theology, digital media, and antisemitism among young Christian men at a recent Contemporary Antisemitism Conference in Haifa. What led me to this? Maybe it was when I was 15 and was cast as Anne Frank’s mother, Edith Frank, in our high school play. Something didn’t reverse when the stage lights went dark and we turned in our costumes. These people, except for Otto Frank, were murdered. I kept thinking about all the people across Europe who knew what was happening and said nothing.
My Christian parents instilled in me a love and honor for Israel and the Jewish people from an early age. During my first month-long visit in 2013, Israel captured my heart in a way other lands have not. When I tell people I research antisemitism and develop Holocaust programming, the first question is: Are you Jewish? No, I say and then I watch them try to work out why a Christian would spend her life on this. It shouldn’t take being Jewish to care.
Antisemitism is not a Jewish problem to solve alone. People across the seven largest Jewish communities report hiding their identity in public and questioning whether they have a future in their home countries. Foundational figures of the Christian faith spread anti-Jewish rhetoric for centuries. Both the Protestant and Catholic churches throughout Europe were largely silent during the Holocaust. The weight of that is part of what motivates me to study and research in this field.
To my fellow Christians: the Jewish people are our spiritual family. Jesus is Jewish. His disciples were Jewish. The early church was Jewish. When we turn away from the suffering of Jewish people, we are turning away from something that lives at the very root of our own faith. We can choose differently now. We can wrap our hearts around our Jewish neighbors.
The writer is a postgraduate fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. (Times of Israel)
