Day 810 - Why Israel charges UN's new famine report on Gaza is skewed
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Times of Israel
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
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.
Legal and settlements reporter Jeremy Sharon joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.
Defense Minister Israel Katz told settlements leaders on Tuesday that, “With God’s help when the time comes, we will also establish… pioneer groups in northern Gaza, in place of the settlements that were evacuated.” He later walked back his statements, but not before Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich doubled down on them and also pushed for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convince US President Donald Trump to recognize annexation of the West Bank in his upcoming US trip. We dive into the issues of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in the first half of the program.
The IPC famine monitoring organization stated on Friday that food security conditions in the entire Gaza Strip “remain critical,” in a new report covering the second half of October and all of November that classified the territory as being in its “Emergency” Phase 4 category — the fourth highest of its five levels of food insecurity. Sharon explains Israel's criticism of the report and raises the question of whether the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry has been manipulating its numbers of war casualties.
Earlier this month, the High Court of Justice ruled unanimously 7-0 to annul the government’s decision to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, asserting that the government had failed to provide legal justification for its decision to change the way an AG is fired, and determining that the new system it designed was fundamentally flawed. Sharon reviews the decision and updates us on the ongoing existential crisis between the government and the court.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Katz vows Israel will build settlements in northern Gaza, later walks back comments
Dozens of settler activists enter Gaza, plant Israeli flags in bid to resettle enclave
PA accuses Israel of ‘tightening colonial control’ over West Bank with new settlements
Government announces 19 new West Bank settlements and legalized outposts
Israel says famine monitor did not seek aid facilitators’ input for upcoming Gaza report
High Court annuls firing of attorney general; cabinet ministers urge defiance of ruling
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IMAGE: A tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, December 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Times of Israel's daily briefing. |
| 0:06.6 | Today is Wednesday, December 24th, Day 810 of the War. |
| 0:12.9 | Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating. |
| 0:16.0 | I'm Amanda Worshaldane here with our legal and settlements reporter Jeremy Sharon. |
| 0:23.2 | Jeremy, thank you so much for joining me today. |
| 0:28.5 | Good to be with you, Amanda. Always a pleasure, and it's been a while, so we have a lot to catch up on. |
| 0:35.1 | And yesterday, the defense minister and finance minister issued statements pushing for Israel to resettle the Gaza Strip. |
| 0:42.8 | The defense minister later walked back to his statements, but the finance minister doubled down and also demanded that during the upcoming U.S. trip of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, |
| 0:49.0 | that Netanyahu somehow convinced U.S. President Donald Trump to also annex the West Bank. So we're going to hear |
| 0:56.4 | all about this and also these newly recognized and newly legalized settlements throughout the |
| 1:02.7 | West Bank. We're also going to talk about pushback from a recent IPC famine report in Gaza, |
| 1:09.5 | and we'll hear what the High Court of Justice had to say about |
| 1:12.9 | the firing of Attorney General Ghali Baharav Miyara. All of this and more when we're back. |
| 1:24.7 | This episode is brought to you by the Jewish Communal Fund, the largest and most active Jewish donor-advised fund in the country. |
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| 2:21.7 | Learn more at jcfn.org. |
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