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Israel Today: Ongoing War Report - Update from 2026-01-22 at 14:09
Published 1 month ago
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HEADLINES
Iranian spying surge 2025: 25 Israelis indicted
Gaza 2025: Hamas leaders killed, casualties rise
Rafah crossing to reopen next week
The time is now 9:01 AM in New York, I'm Noa Levi and this is the latest Israel Today: Ongoing War Report.
This is the 9:00 AM news update.
In a sweeping security assessment, Israel’s Shin Bet reported that 2025 saw a sharp surge in Iranian spying activity directed at Israelis, alongside continued efforts by various groups linked to Israel’s borders and settlements. The agency said 25 Israelis, including Jews, and foreigners living in Israel were indicted for spying for Iran in 2025, and it noted that Iranian plots to recruit Israelis as spies rose by 400 percent from 2024, which itself had seen a 400 percent rise from 2023. The Shin Bet said it thwarted 120 separate Iranian spying operations that year. Most of the Jewish-Israeli individuals who spied for Iran acted for financial gain and focused on photographing installations or gathering other information. In a related security update, the Shin Bet reported 130 Israeli-Arabs indicted for terror-related offenses and 219 arrested; the report noted 40 cases in which Israeli-Arabs pledged allegiance to or undertook activities for ISIS, and indicated about 20 Israeli-Arab minors were interrogated for terror connections, with likely references to attempts at using artificial intelligence content in phishing-style efforts to compromise Israeli accounts. Collectively, Israeli-Arab actors were linked to five actual terror attacks. Beyond that, 129 east Jerusalem residents were arrested on terror suspicions, and 2,530 West Bank Palestinians were arrested in Shin Bet enforcement actions. On Gaza, Shin Bet said 2025 involved 300 full interrogations in its facilities and 1,250 Gazan terrorists interrogated at the joint IDF-Shin Bet Sde Teiman facility, with information from those interrogations aiding the location of senior Hamas leaders and Israeli hostages. In numbers, Shin Bet’s operations helped account for the killing of about 1,200 Gazan terrorists in 2025, of nearly 2,500 killed in the conflict, with more than 200 of those at senior command levels, including six top Hamas leaders such as Mohammed Sinwar, Raad Saad, and Mohammed Shabanah. The annual report did not include statistics on nationalist Jewish violence, and the Jerusalem Post reported that the agency had not replied to a request for that data. Separately, the Israeli military acknowledged that 2025 saw a rise in nationalist Jewish incidents—violent attacks and vandalism against Palestinian property—surging to 867, up from 682 in 2024, though still below peaks seen in 2023 and 2022. Officials stressed that the rise included more serious incidents and mass assaults, not just single attacks, underscoring concerns about security and stability across the West Bank and within Israel’s borders.
In European diplomacy, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning Iran’s crackdown on protesters, urging the European Council to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and to extend restrictive measures such as visa bans and asset freezes. The motion, approved by a large majority, called for immediate action to halt executions, release detainees, and push for progress toward democracy and the rule of law in Iran. The resolution’s passage followed contentious debate over how to address Tehran’s human rights record and the behavior of Iranian authorities toward dissenters and protesters.
On the judicial front in Israel, the Supreme Court ruled that the name of a man who infiltrated IDF command facilities after the October 7 attacks may be published, in a case tied to high-security matters within the Southern Command. The defendant, Assaf Shmuelovitz, faces charges including aggravated espionage and unlawful possession of classified material. The decision reflects a shift toward greater openness in a case char
Iranian spying surge 2025: 25 Israelis indicted
Gaza 2025: Hamas leaders killed, casualties rise
Rafah crossing to reopen next week
The time is now 9:01 AM in New York, I'm Noa Levi and this is the latest Israel Today: Ongoing War Report.
This is the 9:00 AM news update.
In a sweeping security assessment, Israel’s Shin Bet reported that 2025 saw a sharp surge in Iranian spying activity directed at Israelis, alongside continued efforts by various groups linked to Israel’s borders and settlements. The agency said 25 Israelis, including Jews, and foreigners living in Israel were indicted for spying for Iran in 2025, and it noted that Iranian plots to recruit Israelis as spies rose by 400 percent from 2024, which itself had seen a 400 percent rise from 2023. The Shin Bet said it thwarted 120 separate Iranian spying operations that year. Most of the Jewish-Israeli individuals who spied for Iran acted for financial gain and focused on photographing installations or gathering other information. In a related security update, the Shin Bet reported 130 Israeli-Arabs indicted for terror-related offenses and 219 arrested; the report noted 40 cases in which Israeli-Arabs pledged allegiance to or undertook activities for ISIS, and indicated about 20 Israeli-Arab minors were interrogated for terror connections, with likely references to attempts at using artificial intelligence content in phishing-style efforts to compromise Israeli accounts. Collectively, Israeli-Arab actors were linked to five actual terror attacks. Beyond that, 129 east Jerusalem residents were arrested on terror suspicions, and 2,530 West Bank Palestinians were arrested in Shin Bet enforcement actions. On Gaza, Shin Bet said 2025 involved 300 full interrogations in its facilities and 1,250 Gazan terrorists interrogated at the joint IDF-Shin Bet Sde Teiman facility, with information from those interrogations aiding the location of senior Hamas leaders and Israeli hostages. In numbers, Shin Bet’s operations helped account for the killing of about 1,200 Gazan terrorists in 2025, of nearly 2,500 killed in the conflict, with more than 200 of those at senior command levels, including six top Hamas leaders such as Mohammed Sinwar, Raad Saad, and Mohammed Shabanah. The annual report did not include statistics on nationalist Jewish violence, and the Jerusalem Post reported that the agency had not replied to a request for that data. Separately, the Israeli military acknowledged that 2025 saw a rise in nationalist Jewish incidents—violent attacks and vandalism against Palestinian property—surging to 867, up from 682 in 2024, though still below peaks seen in 2023 and 2022. Officials stressed that the rise included more serious incidents and mass assaults, not just single attacks, underscoring concerns about security and stability across the West Bank and within Israel’s borders.
In European diplomacy, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning Iran’s crackdown on protesters, urging the European Council to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and to extend restrictive measures such as visa bans and asset freezes. The motion, approved by a large majority, called for immediate action to halt executions, release detainees, and push for progress toward democracy and the rule of law in Iran. The resolution’s passage followed contentious debate over how to address Tehran’s human rights record and the behavior of Iranian authorities toward dissenters and protesters.
On the judicial front in Israel, the Supreme Court ruled that the name of a man who infiltrated IDF command facilities after the October 7 attacks may be published, in a case tied to high-security matters within the Southern Command. The defendant, Assaf Shmuelovitz, faces charges including aggravated espionage and unlawful possession of classified material. The decision reflects a shift toward greater openness in a case char