The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

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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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.

Senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today's episode.

In a letter to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, obtained by our US bureau chief Jacob Magid on Tuesday, the White House warned Israel it has one month to implement significant improvements to the humanitarian situation in Gaza or jeopardize the continued supply of US weapons, noting that humanitarian assistance entering the Strip has plummeted in recent months.

Rettig Gur weighs in on how serious the US is on its demands and how this jibes with the announcement this week that it is deploying the THAAD missile defense system, along with some 100 US soldiers, to Israeli soil.

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

Discussed articles include:

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

Israel faces potential shortage of interceptor missiles — report

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: Children sift through waste at a landfill in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 15, 2024. (Bashar Taleb / AFP)

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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.

Political correspondent Sam Sokol and Arab Affairs reporter Gianluca Pacchiani join host Jessica Steinberg in today's episode.

Sokol discusses the government decision to set another memorial day for October 7 by Transportation Minister Miri Regev, held a few days after the holiday of Simhat Torah, the Hebrew date for October 7. Regev went ahead with a plan to memorialize fallen soldiers and civilians killed, in two separate events and will not have any bereaved family members at the events.

He also looks at the plans laid out by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to raise taxes, cut ministries and tax certain savings funds in order to continue funding the ongoing war.

Pacchiani looks at UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon since 1978, but lacking any real ability to stave off Hezbollah in the region.

He also talks about IDF efforts to dismantle Iranian weapons labs in Syria, including a daring mission in September, but one that needs to be happen more broadly in order to curb Hezbollah.

Finally, Pacchiani talks about his ongoing conversations with an Iranian dissident, and Iranian concerns over the impending Israeli attack, in response to the October 1 launch of missiles from Iran.

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

Discussed articles include:

No representative of Oct. 7 bereaved families asked to speak at 2nd government ceremony

Government sets second national day of mourning for October 7

Treasury proposes tax hikes for lowest earners, benefit cuts to fund war

The force that isn’t keeping the peace in Lebanon: 4 scenarios for the future of UNIFIL

A dissident in Iran awaits Israeli reprisal: ‘There’s a very real fear of all-out war’

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: Transportation Minister Miri Regev attends ceremony marking the one-year anniversary of the October 7 massacre, at Ben Gurion International Airport, October 7, 2024. (Photo by 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.

Zman Yisrael editor Biranit Goren and reporter Sue Surkes join host Amanda Borschel-Dan in today's episode.

Four IDF soldiers were killed and 58 others were wounded by a Hezbollah drone strike on a military base near Binyamina in north-central Israel last night. Forty-one soldiers of the 58 soldiers wounded in a Hezbollah drone strike on an army training base last night remain hospitalized, with eight in serious or critical condition, medical officials said this morning. Goren takes us through what happened in the strike and why it was so deadly.

The Pentagon on Sunday confirmed that Washington will send an advanced air defense battery to Israel to protect the country in case of an Iranian reaction to an expected Israeli reprisal attack, along with American soldiers to operate it, as Tehran appeared to threaten the US troops to be stationed in the region. Goren takes us through the brief history of US deployment in Israel and what makes this American bear hug so unique.

The Tekuma Authority, tasked with rehabilitating the Gaza border communities overrun by Hamas terrorists a year ago, will spend NIS 6.4 billion ($1.7 billion) during 2024, equivalent to 90 percent of the budget approved by the government, according to its first six-month report, covering April to September. While the budget is large, Surkes explains that parts are already being held up.

Ahead of Rosh Hashana, a holiday associated with eating honey, Surkes visited Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, some 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) south of Ashkelon, where the majority of Israel's honey is produced. She reports back.

To end with, we hear about an 18-month pilot project to test the effectiveness and popularity of eco-toilets at the IDF’s Nitzanim training base in southern Israel.

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

Discussed articles include:

Four soldiers killed, seven seriously hurt in Hezbollah drone strike on military base

US confirms it’s sending missile defense battery, 100 troops to operate it, to Israel

Tekuma Administration reports spending NIS 6.4b on Gaza border reconstruction this year

Despite the war, no shortage of honey for Jewish New Year

Army cleans up its act with eco-toilets

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 Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi talks to soldiers at a Golani base in northern Israel after a deadly Hezbollah drone attack on October 14, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

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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 for today's episode.

Hezbollah rocket fire continues to rain on Israel’s north as the IDF warns southern Lebanon residents not to return to their homes among ongoing air strikes and ground operations. In the last 24 hours, the Israeli Air Force has struck around 200 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and deeper into the country. We speak about weapons caches that were presumably stashed for an October 7-like invasion and other news from the conflict on the north.

There are reports IDF tanks have reached the outskirts of Gaza City among a renewed IDF push in the northern Gaza Strip. Over the past day in the Gaza Strip, the 162nd Division continued fighting in Jabaliya in northern Gaza. Berman explains the current fighting and puts it into a larger context.

There are reports that the US is considering sending Israel an advanced anti-ballistic missile defense system operated by American troops to protect the country in case of an Iranian reaction to an expected Israeli reprisal attack. Berman discusses how the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) air defense batteries would beef up Israel’s ability to fend off ballistic missiles and what it would mean to have US soldiers stationed in Israel at this time.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant accused Hezbollah of using UNIFIL posts as cover in his conversation last night with his American counterpart Lloyd Austin, according to the Israeli readout, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releasing similar statements today. Who makes up the forces of UNIFIL? 

On Thursday, the IDF for the first time brought Israeli journalists into a village in southern Lebanon. Berman suggests this is a clear indication that it feels it has asserted operational control over the area. We hear about his time in Lebanon.

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

Discussed articles include:

Security chiefs: Israel will stop terror groups reestablishing presence near Lebanon border

US may send Israel THAAD missile defense, as Iran seeks to ward off Israeli retaliation

40 countries contributing to UN’s Lebanon peacekeeping force condemn ‘attacks’

Finally on the offensive, IDF’s 91st Division slices through Hezbollah’s front lines

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: Destroyed buildings at a commercial street that was hit October 12, 2024, by Israeli airstrikes, are seen in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, October 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

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