IDF Confirms Killing Of Top Islamic Jihad Gaza Commander
The IDF announced on Wednesday night (4th) that an Islamic Jihad official it had killed earlier in the day was one of the most senior it has assassinated since the October 2025 ceasefire.
According to the military, the Islamic Jihad official who commanded its entire influential Northern Gaza Brigade was a member of its military high command and was a key coordinator with Hamas for carrying out terror attacks against IDF troops.
Many of the Gazan officials the IDF has killed since the ceasefire have been mid-level commanders of a company (between 50 to a couple hundred fighters in Hamas) or a battalion (around 1,000 with Hamas), but few have been near the level of a brigade commander. (potentially thousands of fighters with Hamas.
The IDF said, in response to the blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement overnight Wednesday (4th),the IDF and ISA (Shin Bet) struck and eliminated the terrorist Ali Raziana, who served as the commander in the Northern Gaza Brigade in the Islamic Jihad terror organization.”
“In his role, Raziana was responsible for the deployment of the organization’s terrorists and the defense plan of the Islamic Jihad’s Northern Gaza Brigade, and participated in the terrorist organization’s military council. Additionally, he was responsible for coordinating with Hamas to advance and execute terror attacks against IDF troops,” said the military.
Moreover, the IDF stated, “Throughout the war,Raziana oversaw the holding of hostages in captivity by the Islamic Jihad terror organization in the northern Gaza Strip, and since the ceasefire agreement came into effect, he operated to re-establish the Northern Gaza Brigade,
The only more senior Gaza official killed since the ceasefire was Raad Saad, Hamas’ number two, who was killed in mid-December 2025.
Next, the IDF said that the elimination of the Hamas Nukhba Platoon commander, who was targeted in the morning hours in the southern Gaza Strip, has been confirmed.
“These strikes targeted terrorists involved in severe attacks against the State of Israel and its civilians. The IDF and ISA will continue to operate against any attempts to carry out terror attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians” said the military.
Also on Wednesday (4th), the IDF and Shin Bet announced the killing of Muhammad Issam Hassan al-Habil, who murdered IDF Cpl. Noa Marciano.
Shin Bet interrogations revealed that al-Habil murdered Marciano, an IDF observer, while she was in captivity, after she was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz IDF base on October 7, 2023.
The elimination brings closure for the Marciano family, and to the IDF and ISA,” Israeli security forces said in their official statement.
Australian Charged Over Death Threats Against President Herzog
A 19-year-old Australian has been charged with allegedly making online death threats against President Isaac Herzog ahead of the President’s visit to Australia, Reuters reports.
The Australian Federal Police said the 19-year-old posted threats last month on a social media platform towards a foreign head of state and internationally protected person.” The offense carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.
Police did not identify the target, but Australian media widely reported that the threats were directed at Herzog. The Sydney Morning Herald also reported that the suspect allegedly made threats against US President Donald Trump.
The suspect was refused police bail and is scheduled to appear in a Sydney court on Thursday (5th), according to Reuters. Police said they seized a mobile phone and equipment for making or using drugs during a search at a home in Sydney on Wednesday (4th.).
President Herzog is scheduled to arrive in Australia on Sunday (8th) for a five-day visit, following an invitation from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after the terrorist shooting at Bondi Beach in December.
Herzog is set to meet survivors and families of the victims of the December 14 attack at a Hanukkah celebration, which killed 15 people.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said Herzog would receive the standard security arrangements provided to all visiting foreign leaders. “He will be a welcomed and honored guest,” Males told ABC.
Even before the Hanukkah massacre in Sydney, Australia had seen a sharp wave of anti-Semitism, including the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne,
Days after the arson at Adass Israel, a car was set on fire, and two properties were vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, which has a substantial Jewish population.
In another incident derogatory remarks “to Jews” were spray-painted on a car in Sydney.
In early 2025, the Southern Sydney Synagogue in Allawah, a suburb of the city, was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti.
A day later, the Newtown Synagogue, located in Sydney’s inner west, was vandalized with red swastikas that were spray-painted across the building’s front wall.
Israeli Military Tech Start-Ups Cash In On Two Years Of War- Shira Rubin
A cohort of Israeli military tech firms were born out of, or scaled up during, the war against Hamas in Gaza and as Israel’s military campaign spread to Lebanon and Iran. Israel’s success against Hezbollah in Lebanon, its intelligence operations in Iran, and commando raids to rescue hostages in Gaza have stoked foreign demand for the weapons and other technology used by Israeli troops.
Israeli start-up executives say that foreign requests to purchase their weapons and related systems are up sharply. Industry experts predict that the trend will continue as the U.S. and other NATO countries surge defense budgets and Israel’s arms manufacturers and private sector start-ups announce more partnerships with militaries around the world.
Hagai Balshai, founder of Robotican, a start-up developing remote-controlled robots said that the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, prompted an awakening by Israel’s military, which quickly turned to the private tech sector for help. Overnight, systems such as drones, robotics and advanced sensors were rushed into use. Dozens of Balshai’s employees were called up. While on military duty, he said they used the robots they’d developed to scan booby-trapped buildings, detect noxious gases and shoot at drones or militants.
When an Iranian missile hit Soroka Medical Center during the June War, Balshai outfitted his robots with thermal sensors to search for survivors in the devastated medical wards. Those sensors were then adopted by Israeli special forces for missions “in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and beyond,” he said. (Washington Post)
Why British Jews Are Leaving For Israel During Wartime
Throughout the years, and out of 3,530,814 olim, Russia, the United States, and France have stood out as the main countries from which Jews immigrate to the Holy Land in a sustained trend. But recently, and more precisely in the last two years, an intensifying Aliyah trend has been recorded from a country with more modest numbers, specifically during one of the most complex security periods Israel has known – Britain.
Britain has the fifth largest Jewish community in the world, and the second-largest in Europe after France, with approximately 300,000 people. Ministry of Immigration and Absorption data show that annual immigration from Britain remained relatively low throughout the early 2000s. Then in 2025, at the height of the war, the country recorded its highest number of olim in twenty years: 889. This stands in stark contrast to 2023, when the war began, and immigration hit its lowest point at 406, representing a drop of more than 50%.
As can be assumed, the widespread pro-Palestinian support in the country, whether by Islamists or by anti-Israel activists from the far left, and as a result the substantial rise in anti-Semitism, has led to a growing sense of insecurity for the Jewish community, more than half of which lives in London.
“It’s not the same place my grandmother grew up in” ‘A’ (23), a soldier in the Israeli Air Force’s technology division who made Aliyah as part of Garin Tzabar (a pre-army immigration program) in 2025, told Israel Hayom: “It’s not easy. I lost quite a few friends after October 7. When I started thinking about what I wanted my future to look like, I didn’t see myself in England..” He shared about the decision to leave his homeland at a young age.
The reason for this is a combination of unprecedented events that have begun to open the eyes of British Jews. A fresh scandal from within the BBC – Britain’s public broadcaster – joining a series of serious incidents of fake news and biased coverage, was the wording that omitted the targeted Jewish extermination in international Holocaust Remembrance Day broadcasts, for example. Alongside the sense of lack of representation in local media, there are incidents more severe than that – such as the attack at the synagogue in Manchester on last Yom Kippur, which led to the deaths of two people, and ended a long period from the year 1190 in which, as far as is known, no anti-Semitic attack took place in the country.
Particularly worrying data published in the British Telegraph in September 2025 as part of a survey revealed that one in five Britons is anti-Semitic and almost half of Britain’s population (45%) believes that Israel treats Palestinians the way the Nazis treated Jews – and together with the government’s policy under Keir Starmer, who, as will be recalled, recognized the establishment of a Palestinian state despite criticism that it was a “prize for Hamas,”and leaders like London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who said in the past that “from the river to the sea” is not an anti-Semitic call. Naturally, the heads of Jewish organizations are worried, to say the least.
“The Israel-Palestine issue has shown deeper issues in our society,” British-Jewish journalist Nicole Lampert told Israel Hayom, “I’ve been writing about anti-Semitism since October 7, and some people of the Jewish community are thinking, do we have a future in this country? Anti-Semitism has infiltrated areas of everyday life, like the teachers’ union, which is obsessed with Israel, and the health services – there is a frightening number of anti-Semitic doctors. Jewish people are frightened to go to hospitals and use their full names. Some ask to have their Jewish identity taken off their medical records,” she said about the troubling trend.
“There’s a problem for Jews, but also for the country as a whole. People feel let down by the Labour Party. They’re trying to hold on to the Muslim vote. Leaders would repeat every accusation made by Hamas, it felt very dangerous,” she said, adding, “British Jews had an awakening: however integrated we are, we’re still going to experience hatred.”
Lampert emphasized that these feelings are joined by the understanding that there is no ability to rely on the country’s security mechanisms to protect the Jewish community. Therefore, during her visit to Israel to cover the war, despite the complex security, she felt a weight lifted from her shoulders. “There, you’re not going to be judged for being Jewish,” she concluded.
Ancient Pilgrimage Road Leading To Temple Mount Opened To Public After 13 Years Of Excavations
The Pilgrimage Road, a circa first-century route linking the Pool of Siloam to the foot of the Temple Mount, has been opened to the public after 13 years of excavation.
The City of David which operates the national park site, and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) , which has led the dig, announced the site’s opening last week in a joint social media post.
“We have been waiting for this moment for 2,000 years,” the post read. “For many generations, the road was buried under layers of destruction. In recent years, we have been privileged to re-expose its entire length in a joint project between the City of David and the Israel Antiquities Authority.”
Archaeologists say the stepped street served as Jerusalem’s main thoroughfare for pilgrims during the Second Temple Period, as countless coins and a “special weighing table” were discovered during excavations.
An ancient drainage channel was discovered beneath the road, believed to have been used by Jewish rebels during the Second Temple, according to the City of David, “as cooking pots, oil lamps, hundreds of bronze coins from the Great Revolt and even a sword belonging to a Roman legionnaire, were all discovered in the channel.”
Former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman praised the opening in a post on X, saying that the road is “one of the world’s most significant archaeological discoveries and proof that the Bible is a matter of fact, not simply faith.”
The road was officially inaugurated in a Se[tember 2025 ceremony.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee took part in the event, alongside IAA Director Eli Escozido, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon, and other government and high-ranking officials.
At the time, Rubio called it”an extraordinary archaeological site,” framing his appearance as a celebration of shared heritage.
In remarks at the ceremony, Netanyahu said the unveiling reflected the Jewish people’s ancient bond with Jerusalem and vowed that the city would remain united, while Huckabee praised the excavation as a moment that “lets the stones speak.” underscoring the continuity of Jewish presence in the city.
