Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

US bureau chief Jacob Magid joins Jessica Steinberg for today's podcast.

Magid discusses Mossad chief David Barnea heading to Doha again for hostage negotiations, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahyu's recent meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The negotiations are the first in two months, and follow the death last week of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

He also talks about the effects of a possible Donald Trump win in the upcoming US election, a victory that would offer Netanyahu more leeway in maintaining his hardline government and in the ongoing war in Gaza, but there is also a possible clash as Trump keeps saying, "End the war very quickly."

Magid reviews the latest proposal for getting aid into Gaza through an Israeli-American businessman who hopes his company will be chosen for the subcontracting job, with a plan for constructing gated communities in Gaza run by outside security forces.

Magid reviews the October 31 deadline for renewing the bank agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, a process that involves Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

Mossad chief heads to Qatar Sunday to try to restart Gaza talks; Hamas team in Cairo

Blinken pushes Israel to publicly say it’s not aiming to besiege north Gaza; PM demurs

If Trump wins, Israeli officials fear clash over inability to quickly end Gaza war

As Israel weighs subcontracting Gaza aid delivery, a philanthropist makes his pitch

US official: PA has met Israeli requirements for Smotrich to extend banking deal

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on October 24, 2024. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

In this special Simhat Torah holiday episode, host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with Rabbi Avi Poupko, who is currently serving in reserve duty as part of the IDF rabbinate along the northern border.

Simhat Torah is an annual celebration of the completion -- and restarting -- of the Shabbat Torah-reading cycle. Usually a day of joyous prayer, singing and dancing, the observance of this holiday is forever intertwined with last year's Hamas massacre of 1,200 and the hostage-taking of another 251 to Gaza.

Poupko talks about observing the Sukkot holiday while listening to rocket fire overhead and gives historical context to how Jews have always adapted to tragedy and carried on "doing Jewish."

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

How Israeli Jews face the Simhat Torah holiday, forever marred by Oct. 7 massacre

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

Illustrative image: A Jewish man carries a Torah scroll during Simhat Torah celebrations at Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, on October 21, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Reporters Sue Surkes and Diana Bletter join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.

Surkes discusses the funerals of Druze commander Ehsan Daqsa, one of the most senior officers killed in Gaza, and Elishai Young, 19, a combat soldier from the Hebrew Israelites community in Dimona, both members of minority populations in Israel that grapple with societal acceptance yet gave their lives to Israel.

Bletter speaks about recent scientific research that looks at the effects of alcohol intake as opposed to psychedelics on Nova survivors suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from the rave massacre on October 7.

She also talks about a visit to Klil, a northern hippie hamlet that isn't connected to the country's electricity grid, and therefore doesn't hear sirens warning of incoming rocket attacks.

Surkes reviews her report on planned budget cuts to the Agriculture Ministry, even as the ministry had plans to invest in Israel's food security, as war has exposed need for food independence without reliance on imports.

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

Druze IDF colonel Ehsan Daqsa, slain in Gaza, remembered as a ‘natural leader’

Death of soldier reopens debate about citizenship for non-Jewish Hebrew Israelites

Study: Nova survivors who drank alcohol before Hamas attack more likely to suffer PTSD

An off-the-grid hippie hamlet in Israel’s north struggles for survival under rocket fire

Plans to ensure food security threatened by Treasury bid to slash agriculture funds

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: The funeral of Colonel Ehsan Daqsa in Druze community Daliyat al-Karmel on October 21, 2024 (Photo by Michael Giladi/Flash90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Editor David Horovitz joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan in ToI's Jerusalem office for today's episode.

Yesterday, prosecutors announced that seven Israeli citizens were arrested last month on suspicion of spying for Iran for as long as two years, carrying out hundreds of tasks at the behest of the Islamic Republic. This morning, another Iranian espionage case was announced in which seven East Jerusalem residents have been arrested on suspicion of planning attacks in Israel, including the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist and a mayor in central Israel. Horovitz discusses these incidents and other similar Iranian efforts.

The IDFs on Monday declassified intelligence on the Hezbollah terror group’s finance hub, including a bunker hidden underneath a hospital in south Beirut that it said contains hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold. We observe the way this cynical use of a hospital played out in international media.

The Israel Aviation Authority briefly halted and then resumed takeoffs at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport yesterday around the time in which the IDF said that helicopters and fighter jets intercepted and shot down five drones over the Mediterranean Sea, before they entered Israeli airspace. Horovitz speaks about Israel's increased isolation during this time of war.

Almost a week after the elimination of Hamas head Yahya Sinwar, Horovitz weighs in on leaders' predictions that this is a turning point in the war.

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

Seven Jewish Israelis arrested for spying for Iran on security figures, IDF bases

Air Force pounds Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold after civilians told to evacuate area

IDF: Hezbollah hiding $500 million in gold, cash in bunker under Beirut hospital

Ben Gurion briefly halts takeoffs as drones downed over sea; rocket lands near Tel Aviv

British Airways suspends all Israel flights until March 2025 amid escalation fears

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

Illustrative image: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei listens to a speaker in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, October 2, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Military reporter Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan in ToI's Jerusalem office for today's episode.

The commander of the Israel Defense Force’s 401st Armored Brigade, Col. Ehsan Daqsa, was killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday. We hear about Daqsa, 41, from the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel, who was one of the most senior officers to have been killed in the fighting in Gaza.

Yesterday, Fabian spent several hours in Rafah, where he was debriefed by Col. Sivan Bloch -- the head of Bislamach, the School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders -- who stressed that the elimination of Yahya Sinwar by a patrol under his command was “not a stroke of luck.” We hear why.

The IDF said jets hit dozens of sites overnight that are linked to an organization that funds the Hezbollah terror group in Beirut and south Lebanon. We learn about the strikes' targets: branches of an unlicensed gray-market bank seen as one of the group’s main sources of cash.

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

Commander of IDF’s 401st Armored Brigade killed in battle in northern Gaza

At site of Sinwar’s slaying, IDF commander says incident was ‘not a fluke’

Blasts rock Beirut as Israeli sorties target financial group helping fund Hezbollah

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: The house where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by troops, in southern Gaza’s Rafah, October 20, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan in ToI's Jerusalem office for today's episode.

The elimination of Hamas’s most dominant figure could open a small window of opportunity to achieve Israel’s elusive war aims, none of which have yet been secured, believe senior world figures, however, on Friday, Hamas released a statement saying the 101 hostages still held in Gaza would not be freed until the war ends and Israel fully withdraws from the enclave. Berman discusses this weighty moment.

In mid-March, US officials told the Politico news site that US President Joe Biden would consider limiting future military aid to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went ahead with an offensive against Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, which eventually occurred in May. Does this vindication of the Rafah operation affect the diplomatic balance between the US and Israel in any way?

Israel’s military chief said Friday that at least 1,500 Hezbollah operatives are believed to have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the conflict there. According to IDF chief Herzi Halevi, Hezbollah forces are often surrendering. Berman describes Iran's role in an attempt at diplomacy, as well as the differences between the Hamas and Hezbollah fighting forces.

Two gunmen claimed by the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan breached the border from Jordan into Israel Friday morning, south of the Dead Sea. They were killed shortly after crossing the border by troops who scrambled to intercept them, in a clash that also injured two soldiers. Should we expect more attacks from this direction now?

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

PM sees opportunity in Sinwar’s death. Does that mean escalation in fighting or a deal?

Confirming Sinwar’s death, Hamas insists hostages won’t be freed unless war ends

After Sinwar killing, Netanyahu sees vindication in his Rafah approach

IDF says Hezbollah toll at 1,500; Lebanese PM: A lesson to stay out of regional conflicts

IDF troops kill two gunmen who breached Jordanian border; 2 soldiers injured

Keen to avoid all-out war after attacking Israel, Iran tries both diplomacy and threats

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Illustrative: A woman holds a Palestinian flag, with the image of the Dome of Rock on it, during an anti-Israel protest to honor Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza on Wednesday, in Istanbul, Turkey, Octember 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Today, we bring you a bonus episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan.

This week we speak with the editors of a new prayerbook -- "Az Nashir - We Will Sing Again: Women’s Prayers for Our Time of Need" --  written by women, for women, in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on southern Israel.

The anthology was compiled and edited by Shira Lankin Sheps, Anne Gordon and Rachel Sharansky Danziger, and it was published by The Layers Press, an imprint of The SHVILLI Center.

The three editors join Borschel-Dan in The Times of Israel's Jerusalem office this week and explain their impetus to tackle such an ambitious project and the decisions they made while putting it together, such as the inclusion of "visual prayer" -- 30 colorful illustrations by female artists.

According to the editors, the Hebrew-English tome is a prayer book companion that emulates a long tradition of Jewish women writing prayers, supplications and liturgical poems in their own mother tongues.

So this week, we ask Shira Lankin Sheps, Anne Gordon and Rachel Sharansky Danziger what matters now.

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: The editors of 'Az Nashir - We Will Sing Again: Women’s Prayers for Our Time of Need,' (from left to right): Anne Gordon, Rachel Sharansky Danziger and Shira Lankin Sheps. (courtesy): 

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

US bureau chief Jacob Magid joins host Jessica Steinberg on today's podcast.

Magid discusses the different methods used to identify Sinwar's body and what can be seen about Sinwar in the drone footage taken at the scene just prior to the strike that killed him.

He reviews some of the reactions from the Biden administration, including calls made to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and various leaders in Qatar and Egypt in the hopes that Sinwar's death can shift the dynamic in the stalled hostage negotiations.

Magid talks about who could be the new Hamas leader with Sinwar gone and how extreme or hardline some of those successors could be compared to the Hamas leader killed in Gaza by IDF troops on Wednesday.

Magid also discusses the possibility of a more dialed-back response to the Iran attack on Israel on October 1, and looks at Israel letting aid into northern Gaza, with shipments from Jordan and other crossings reopened to allow aid to flow in more easily, after threats from the US administration to withhold arms deliveries.

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

World leaders welcome Sinwar’s death, hope it will precipitate hostage deal, end to war

Oct. 17: Footage shows Sinwar hurling stick at IDF drone moments before he was killed

Israel lets 50 aid trucks into northern Gaza after US threat to curb arms deliveries

US gives Israel 30 days to address Gaza aid crisis, threatens to curb weapons supply

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: IDF soldiers carry the body of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar from the building where he was killed in Rafah, Gaza on October 17, 2024. (Courtesy)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Editor David Horovitz joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today's special report.

Tonight, Israel announced that IDF troops had killed Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar in Gaza on Wednesday in a firefight in Rafah, in southern Gaza.

Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel, was shot dead along with two other terrorists by a force from the 828th Bislamach Brigade.

The terror chief became leader of Hamas after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran blast in July, when he was selected by Hamas’s 50-strong Shura Council, a consultative body composed of officials elected by Hamas members in four chapters: Gaza, the West Bank, the diaspora and security prisoners in Israeli jails.

Horovitz describes what we currently know about Sinwar's killing and the identification of his remains. We learn how Israeli top leadership is responding to Sinwar's death and whether this could be a turning point in the war with Hamas.

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

Hamas leader and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar killed by IDF troops in Gaza

Yahya Sinwar: Radical Islamist ideologue utterly committed to Israel’s destruction

Full text of Netanyahu’s address after killing of Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's leader in Gaza, gestures on stage during a rally in Gaza City, on May 24, 2021. (Mahmud Hams/ AFP/ File)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Today, for the Sukkot holiday, we are bringing you a special extended episode from our partner podcast, Israel Story.

Israel Story writes:

This is an episode we never wanted to air. One that marks a year of war and a year of pain. A year since a day of ghastly violence, which led us into a nightmare that still has no end in sight.

A year has passed, but the trauma is still fresh. With all that has gone on since October 7, 2023, we haven’t really had time, or opportunity, to pause. So our commemorative episode today is an attempt to step back and reflect. It’s not a news hour, and doesn’t follow the roller-coaster of events we’ve experienced since October 7th. Instead, it’s a collage of the dozens and dozens of people we’ve heard from throughout the year, alongside others whose episodes haven't aired yet.

It will, we hope, offer an emotional journey, and paint a picture of what it has been like to be here this year.

May the year ahead be a quieter and calmer one. A year with less pain and suffering and more peace and hope. May the hostages return home, and may we all know better days to come. Amen.

The end song is B'Shana Haba'ah ("In the Next Year") by Shiri Maimon. (Licensed by Israel Story through Acum.)

Produced in partnership with The Times of Israel.

Subscribe to Israel Story on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

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