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Letter Threatening Netanyahu Found on His Brother’s Grave

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, attends a graduation ceremony for new pilots with Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, left, and Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant, in Hatzerim air force base near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, Israel, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, attends a graduation ceremony for new pilots with Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, left, and Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant, in Hatzerim air force base near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, Israel, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (AP)
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Letter Threatening Netanyahu Found on His Brother’s Grave

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, attends a graduation ceremony for new pilots with Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, left, and Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant, in Hatzerim air force base near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, Israel, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, attends a graduation ceremony for new pilots with Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, left, and Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant, in Hatzerim air force base near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, Israel, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (AP)

Israeli intelligence said on Friday they found a letter threatening to kill Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu placed on the grave of his brother, Yoni, at Mount Herzl, Jerusalem.

Yoni was killed 47 years ago during the Entebbe Operation. He was an army officer who commanded the elite commando unit Sayeret Matkal during operation to rescue hostages held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda in 1976.

Netanyahu had visited the grave to mark the 47th anniversary of his brother’s death. During a regular security check preceding the PM’s visit, the Shin Bet, Israeli intelligence, discovered the letter, which was addressed to Yoni. The issue is being investigated.

“It's my request to tell your brother, Bibi [Benjamin] Netanyahu, that he has a few rights or a lot of rights, but they have ended. And now, Mount Herzl, this sanctified place, has the clock ticking down, until September 16, 2023, when your brother, thinks he will turn 74,” the author of the letter wrote, referring to the PM’s Hebrew calendar birthday.

The letter demanded of the prime minister to conquer Gaza, and bring back the body of Hadar Goldin (a soldier killed in Gaza in 2014, to whom the letter's author has a stated connection), and the other hostages.

The letter added, “Bibi, you are no Ariel Sharon. Sharon had a stroke and fell into a coma for eight years. To you, I wish worse things.” It ends with “The clock is ticking! You have a little over three and a half months.”

The Palestinian Hamas movement is holding the bodies of Goldin and Oron Shaul, who were both killed in the 2014 Gaza war.

Netanyahu had received several death threats recently. Last week, a 23-year-old suspect, a resident of Beit Shemesh, was arrested for writing what were allegedly threatening messages against Netanyahu in a WhatsApp group.

“Everyone should carry a weapon with them. Then there will be a gun for everyone and an opportunity to put a bullet in Bibi’s head,” he wrote, using the premier’s nickname.

“Whoever wants to buy a gun send me a message. When it’s about your life you don’t need a license. We don’t care about the law,” he added. A police investigation is ongoing.

Three weeks ago, protesters vandalized a memorial of Netanyahu’s late father Benzion Netanyahu with a sign calling the Likud leader a “dictator.”

The PM responded on his Twitter account saying: “Vile people vandalized the memorial in honor of my father today. The time has come for them to stop trampling on every norm of decency.”

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World

Iranian Traders and Shopkeepers Protest as Currency Hits Record Low

People shop at Tajrish Bazaar in the Iranian capital Tehran on December 29, 2025. (AFP)
People shop at Tajrish Bazaar in the Iranian capital Tehran on December 29, 2025. (AFP)
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Iranian Traders and Shopkeepers Protest as Currency Hits Record Low

People shop at Tajrish Bazaar in the Iranian capital Tehran on December 29, 2025. (AFP)
People shop at Tajrish Bazaar in the Iranian capital Tehran on December 29, 2025. (AFP)

Iranian traders and shopkeepers staged a second day of protests Monday after the country’s currency plummeted to a new record low against the US dollar.

Videos on social media showed hundreds taking part in rallies in Saadi Street in downtown Tehran, as well as in the Shush neighborhood near Tehran's main Grand Bazaar, which played a crucial role in the 1979 revolution that ousted the monarchy and brought clerics to power.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that traders shut their shops and asked others to do the same. The semiofficial ILNA news agency said many businesses and merchants stopped trading even though some kept their shops open.

There was no reports of police raids though security was tight at the protests, according to witnesses.

On Sunday, protest gatherings were limited to two major mobile market in downtown Tehran, where the demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans.

Iran's rial on Sunday plunged to 1.42 million to the dollar. On Monday, it traded at 1.38 million rials to the dollar.

The rapid depreciation is compounding inflationary pressure, pushing up prices of food and other daily necessities and further straining household budgets, a trend that could worsen by a gasoline price change introduced in recent days.

According to the state statistics center, inflation rate in December rose to 42.2% from the same period last year, and is 1.8% higher than in November. Foodstuff prices rose 72% and health and medical items were up 50% from December last year, according to the statistics center. Many critics see the rate a sign of an approaching hyperinflation.

Reports in official Iranian media said that the government plans to increase taxes in the Iranian new year that begins March 21 have caused more concern.

Iran’s currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar at the time of the 2015 nuclear accord that lifted international sanctions in exchange for tight controls on Iran’s nuclear program. That deal unraveled after US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from it in 2018.

There is also uncertainty over the risk of renewed conflict following June’s 12-day war involving Iran and Israel. Many Iranians also fear the possibility of a broader confrontation that could draw in the United States, adding to market anxiety.

In September, the United Nations reimposed nuclear-related sanctions on Iran through what diplomats described as the “snapback” mechanism. Those measures once again froze Iranian assets abroad, halted arms transactions with Tehran and imposed penalties tied to Iran’s ballistic missile program.

World

Israel’s Supreme Court Suspends Govt Move to Shut Army Radio

Israeli troops during a military operation in the Palestinian village of Qabatiya, near the West Bank city of Jenin, 27 December 2025. (EPA)
Israeli troops during a military operation in the Palestinian village of Qabatiya, near the West Bank city of Jenin, 27 December 2025. (EPA)
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Israel’s Supreme Court Suspends Govt Move to Shut Army Radio

Israeli troops during a military operation in the Palestinian village of Qabatiya, near the West Bank city of Jenin, 27 December 2025. (EPA)
Israeli troops during a military operation in the Palestinian village of Qabatiya, near the West Bank city of Jenin, 27 December 2025. (EPA)

Israel's Supreme Court has issued an interim order suspending a government decision to shut down Galei Tsahal, the country's decades-old and widely listened-to military radio station.

In a ruling issued late Sunday, Supreme Court President Isaac Amit said the suspension was partly because the government "did not provide a clear commitment not to take irreversible steps before the court reaches a final decision".

He added that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara supported the suspension.

The cabinet last week approved the closure of Galei Tsahal, with the shutdown scheduled to take effect before March 1, 2026.

Founded in 1950, Galei Tsahal is widely known for its flagship news programs and has long been followed by both domestic and foreign correspondents.

A government audience survey ranks it as Israel's third most listened-to radio station, with a market share of 17.7 percent.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had urged ministers to back the closure, saying there had been repeated proposals over the years to remove the station from the military, abolish it or privatize it.

But Baharav-Miara, who also serves as the government's legal adviser and is facing dismissal proceedings initiated by the premier, has warned that closing the station raised "concerns about possible political interference in public broadcasting".

She added that it "poses questions regarding an infringement on freedom of expression and of the press".

Defense Minister Israel Katz said last week that Galei Tsahal broadcasts "political and divisive content" that does not align with military values.

He said soldiers, civilians and bereaved families had complained that the station did not represent them and undermined morale and the war effort.

Katz also argued that a military-run radio station serving the general public is an anomaly in democratic countries.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid had condemned the closure decision, calling it part of the government's effort to suppress freedom of expression ahead of elections.

Israel is due to hold parliamentary elections in 2026, and Netanyahu has said he will seek another term as prime minister.

World

Thai Army Accuses Cambodia of Violating Truce with over 250 Drones

Displaced residents rest in a bunker in Thailand's Surin province on December 11, 2025, amid clashes along the Thai-Cambodia border. (AFP)
Displaced residents rest in a bunker in Thailand's Surin province on December 11, 2025, amid clashes along the Thai-Cambodia border. (AFP)
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Thai Army Accuses Cambodia of Violating Truce with over 250 Drones

Displaced residents rest in a bunker in Thailand's Surin province on December 11, 2025, amid clashes along the Thai-Cambodia border. (AFP)
Displaced residents rest in a bunker in Thailand's Surin province on December 11, 2025, amid clashes along the Thai-Cambodia border. (AFP)

Thailand's army on Monday accused Cambodia of violating a newly signed ceasefire agreement, reached after weeks of deadly border clashes, by flying more than 250 drones over its territory.

The Thai army said "more than 250 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were detected flying from the Cambodian side, intruding into Thailand's sovereign territory" on Sunday night, according to a statement.

"Such actions constitute provocation and a violation of measures aimed at reducing tensions, which are inconsistent with the Joint Statement agreed" during a bilateral border committee meeting on Saturday, it added.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said in remarks aired on state television on Monday that the two sides had discussed the incident and agreed to investigate and "resolve it immediately".

Prak Sokhonn described it as "a small issue related to flying drones seen by both sides along the border line".

Thailand and Cambodia agreed to the "immediate" ceasefire on Saturday, pledging to end renewed border clashes that killed dozens of people and displaced more than a million this month.

The reignited fighting spread to nearly every border province on both sides, shattering an earlier truce for which US President Donald Trump took credit.

Under the agreement signed on Saturday, the Southeast Asian neighbors agreed to cease fire, freeze troop movements and cooperate on demining efforts and combatting cybercrime.