US House defeats amendment to end Israel aid, but nearly half of Democrats vote in favor

The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they unfold.

Iran says US strikes hit targets around Tehran, province that is home to its missile program

The latest US strikes hit around Tehran, Iranian state media reports. It also reports American attacks targeted Semnan province, home to Iran’s ballistic missile production and space program.

US military says command posts, coastal surveillance sites among targets hit in latest wave of strikes

The US Central Command says that the US military completed its latest wave of strikes on Iran that it carried out at President Donald Trump’s direction, hitting targets further north.

“US forces struck Iranian command centers, air defense sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities,” it says in a statement, adding it also hit targets in Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s largest port and key navy and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities on the Strait of Hormuz.

Massive poster depicting Trump in a coffin hung in Tehran

Iran has hung up a massive poster in Tehran depicting US President Donald Trump in a coffin, following calls to assassinate the American leader during the recent funeral of supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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Kuwait downs Iranian drones as air raid sirens sound in Bahrain

Kuwait says it’s intercepting Iranian drones, while air raid sirens ring out in Bahrain, following another night of American strikes on Iranian territory.

In a statement on X, the Kuwaiti army says they are “engaging hostile drone attacks following the nefarious Iranian aggression.” Bahrain’s interior ministry urges citizens and residents to “remain calm and head to the nearest safe place.”

Trump says Iran has released a wrongfully detained US citizen

In a sign of potential deescalation, US President Donald Trump praises Iran for releasing a “wrongfully detained” American citizen.

The woman held since December 2024 “is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition. The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran!” Trump writes on Truth Social.

Knesset passes law expanding gender segregation in academia

The Knesset votes 52-43 to pass a law to expand gender segregation in higher education by permitting universities and colleges to offer segregated master’s and doctoral degree programs subject to approval by the Council for Higher Education.

The law builds upon a 2021 High Court ruling that upheld the Council for Higher Education’s policy permitting limited and specific gender-segregated undergraduate programs aimed at integrating ultra-Orthodox students into higher education and, ultimately, the workforce.

The court stressed that the arrangement was specifically intended for the Haredi community and imposed safeguards, including limiting segregation to classrooms in mixed institutions and prohibiting discrimination against female lecturers.

The new legislation would extend that framework to master’s and doctoral programs and make it available to all students, not only the Haredi community, while a proposed amendment by Shas MK Yossi Taieb to expand segregation to additional areas of campuses was rejected.

Proponents frame the law as increasing educational opportunities for religious women, with the legislation’s sponsor Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech arguing the legislation will “advance women from sectors that have not received the opportunities they deserve,” while committee chair and Religious Zionism Zvi Sukkot has said it would “expand freedom of choice.”

Opposition lawmakers and academic representatives, who campaigned intensely against the law’s passage, argue that it unnecessarily expands gender segregation beyond existing arrangements, prioritizing religious rights over the rights of female students and lecturers to equality, dignity and freedom of movement while harming academic freedom and the quality of teaching and research.

US House defeats amendment to end Israel aid, but nearly 50% of Democrats back measure

The US House of Representatives defeats an amendment to cut off aid to Israel, despite nearly half of Democrats supporting it, reflecting the growing rupture between the party and Israel.

The House votes 314 to 104 to defeat the measure, offered as an amendment to a State Department spending bill by outgoing Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

Besides Massie, the only Republican to back the measure, 103 Democrats vote in favor, a sharp departure from previous years in which bills supporting Israel passed almost unanimously. Democrats on the party’s left flank have been strongly pushing to end US military aid to Israel entirely amid the midterm election primary campaigns, while its establishment wing wants to limit the assistance to solely defensive weaponry.

While 48 percent of Democrats backed Massie’s amendment, the figure was well below reported predictions that as high as 150 Democrats could vote for it.

The number was expected to be higher because the measure was certain to fail, allowing Democrats to vote against Israel without any practical policy consequences.

Enough Democrats still felt uncomfortable enough with the scope of Massie’s amendment that they decided to vote against it, even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is overwhelmingly unpopular in the party.

Massie is a fiscal hawk who opposes all foreign aid, but he said he was also responding to the toll on civilians of Israel’s attacks on Hamas in Gaza. “There have been 70,000 casualties in Gaza, and I don’t think we should be part of that,” he said during House debate, without differentiating between civilians and combatants.

His amendment would have barred any funding in the appropriations bill from being used for Israel, and blocked $3.3 billion in annual security assistance Washington sends Israel.

The vote would have been largely symbolic even if the House had backed the amendment. To become law, it would have had to pass the Senate and override an almost certain veto by President Donald Trump, who has made support for Israel a central plank in his foreign policy.

The issue has also divided party leaders. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic leader, said on Tuesday he would oppose Massie’s amendment, saying it was “too broad.”

But on Wednesday,the  No. 2 House Democrat, Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, said she would support it. “We should not provide a blank check for military aid to any country that does not comply with US law, interests, and values,” she said in a statement.

Vance claims Jeffrey Epstein had ties ‘to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence’

US Vice President JD Vance claims that Jeffrey Epstein had ties to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence, echoing unproven rumors regarding the late convicted pedophile’s ties with the Mossad.

“He clearly had connections to the highest levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence,” Vance says on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

Apparently referencing Epstein’s documented ties to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, Vance says “Epstein seemed to be connected to the elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of center. Like I’ve always found that fascinating.”

“It wasn’t like he was super connected to the right of center of Israeli politics. America, he was connected across the board. Like he had Republican friends, he had Democratic friends,” the vice president adds.

US military says it struck tanker attempting to breach blockade on Iran

The US military has disabled an unladen oil tanker attempting to sail toward an Iranian port, the US Central Command says in a post on X.

“The commercial vessel ignored multiple warnings as it attempted to violate the US blockade. A US aircraft disabled the vessel after firing hellfire missiles into the ship’s smokestack. The ship is no longer transiting to Iran,” it adds.