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The IDF said on Wednesday, October 28, that it had killed Ahmed Muhammad Ahmed Baraka, a Nukhba operative in Hamas's military wing, in a strike in southern Gaza on Thursday, October 22. Baraka took part in the seizure of several Israeli civilians during the October 7 Massacre, including Alexander Dancyg of Kibbutz Nir Oz. During the war, he helped keep many hostages in captivity, among them Nimrod Cohen in southern Gaza.

In a second strike, in northern Gaza on Friday, October 23, the IDF killed two more members of Hamas's military wing: Omar Awadallah, a Nukhba platoon commander, and Moataz Mahmoud Mohammed Al-Nimr, a Nukhba terrorist. Both men had carried out attacks on IDF troops and Israeli civilians and were working to rebuild Hamas's capabilities, in violation of the ceasefire. The aerial strikes were carried out to remove the threat the three men posed.

Before the strikes, measures were taken to reduce harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance. “IDF troops under the Southern Command remain deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement,” the IDF said, adding that its forces will keep operating to remove any threat. (INN/VFI News)

The Military Prosecution on Thursday, October 29, indicted an IDF soldier arrested in September 2026 on charges of working for Iranian intelligence for about a year, passing on sensitive military information and carrying out assignments for money. The indictment carries three counts: providing information to the enemy with intent to harm state security, providing information for the enemy's benefit, and contact with a foreign agent. The investigation was a joint operation of the Shin Bet, the Israel Police's Ayalon District, the Military Police's Central Unit for Special Investigations, and the IDF Information Security Department.

The soldier allegedly passed on information about his unit's operations and the IDF's readiness and emergency mobilization procedures, including details of his own emergency call-up after Operation Roaring Lion began. He knew his handler was an Iranian operative but kept in contact and carried out assignments, receiving payment through cryptocurrency wallets as the handler directed. His disclosures went beyond his own unit: he allegedly gave information about military bases and their locations and photographed interceptor missiles, military vehicles, and American refueling aircraft at an Israeli airport for his handler.

Among the most serious findings, he allegedly handed over personal details of fellow servicemen and commanders, knowing the handler would try to recruit them for espionage, and told the handler about a Telegram group for Israelis preparing to enlist in the IDF, which the handler then joined. The handler instructed him to install encrypted messaging apps and suggested he buy a “dumb phone” and a handgun, and the two agreed on codes and a cover story in case security forces discovered their relationship. At one point, the soldier was offered a trip to Iran in exchange for $200,000. (INN/VFI News)

The count for the 26th Knesset neared completion on Thursday, October 29, with about 97.3% of votes tallied as of 2:55 p.m. and the bloc standings unchanged: 53 seats for the Netanyahu bloc and 48 for the anti-Netanyahu bloc. Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, leads with 27 seats, and Yashar, led by Gadi Eisenkot, is second with 21. Together, led by Naftali Bennett, has 12 seats; the Joint List has 11; and the Democrats, led by Yair Golan, and Ra'am, led by Mansour Abbas, have eight each.

Yisrael Beytenu, Otzma Yehudit, and United Torah Judaism hold seven seats each, while Religious Zionism, Zehut, and Shas have six. Shas's six seats are its lowest result since the 1988 election for the 12th Knesset; it won 11 seats in 2022 and has lost almost half its parliamentary strength. The Reservists and Economic Party, led by Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelicha, stands at 2.67%, below the 3.25% threshold for entry, and Amcha Yisrael, led by Ofer Winter, is also outside the Knesset at 1.63%.

Final seat totals could still change as the Central Elections Committee counts more than 400,000 double envelopes and completes the seat-allocation calculations. The two Arab parties, the Joint List and Ra'am, hold 19 seats between them. With neither bloc at the 61 seats needed for a majority, forming the next government will depend on which parties can cooperate. Voter turnout was 77.7%, the highest since 1999, with about 80% in Arab communities and 79.9% among IDF service members. (INN/VFI News)

“Heavenly Father, we pray in Yeshua's Name that You guide Israel through the days of government formation now beginning. Grant wisdom to every leader at the negotiating table, that they would seek the good of the nation above party and faction. We thank You for the record turnout of a people who still believe in their country, and we ask You to bring forth a stable government that will stand firm for Israel's security. Amen.”

Two days after his defeat in Brazil's presidential election, Flavio Bolsonaro's whereabouts were unknown on Tuesday evening, October 27. Bolsonaro, who had led in the polls, lost to incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday, October 25, and has refused to recognize the result. On Monday, October 26, the Supreme Court ordered him to surrender his passports within 24 hours over fears he might flee the country while under investigation for corruption.

After the deadline passed on Tuesday evening, authorities said he had not complied and canceled his passports. People close to him said he had left for the United States, and a US official confirmed he was on his way. Federal Police said they were trying to locate him, while speculation grew that he had crossed overland into Argentina, governed by his ally Javier Milei; Argentine authorities said they had no record of his entry, a Milei spokesperson said “there is no asylum request,” and a senior Federal Police official said Bolsonaro had not left through any official border crossing.

Bolsonaro, favored by one to two points in the polls, lost by more than 3.5 points, taking 48.21% of the vote to Lula's 51.79%. He alleged irregularities and said he would not recognize the results, as his father Jair Bolsonaro had after narrowly losing in 2022, though his party recognized Lula's victory on Monday, October 26. The Supreme Court's order came amid several investigations, including a corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion case in which he acknowledged seeking about $12 million from former banker Daniel Vorcaro to finance a film about his father's life; he denies wrongdoing. (YNN/VFI News)

Pessy grew up in Leipzig and quickly bore witness to unspeakable atrocities acted upon her family and the other Jews of Europe. Her harrowing tale of escape, heroism, and redemption serves as an example—both of the inhuman treatment inflicted by the Nazis and the powerful perseverance of the faithful.

The BBC has agreed to pay £400,000 in compensation to Jewish documentary filmmaker Lucie Kon, who alleged that colleagues harassed her for being Jewish and that she was forced out after the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, it emerged on Tuesday, October 27, 2026. Kon, 57, who has won an Oscar and an Emmy for her BBC work and has family members in Israel, says her treatment changed sharply after the massacre.

Kon says colleagues called Zionists “evil” and challenged her description of Hamas as a terrorist organization; one told her that if she called Hamas terrorists, she also had to call Israel terrorists. She was also urged to “think about what drove Hamas to do what they did.” After she formally complained, the BBC told her to stay at home for months, kept her out of work, and eventually eliminated her position.

Kon filed for unfair dismissal, and the BBC settled for £400,000 without admitting liability; the payment is partly funded by the television licence fee. The broadcaster has neither apologized nor acknowledged that Kon faced antisemitism. Kon, who spent more than two decades at the BBC, says her Jewish identity caused no difficulty in her first 22 years there, but that changed after October 7: “It was like having Jew stamped on my forehead.” (INN/VFI News)

Deganit Sanker-Lange, director-general of Israel's Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, says she has never seen such urgency in aliyah work. “Basically, it's an earthquake,” she said in London on Sunday, October 25, when two aliyah-focused events drew large numbers of British Jews. A pro-Palestinian demonstration took place outside, with anti-Israel leaflets being handed out, and both events operated under exceptionally heavy security.

An aliyah fair organized by Ofek Israeli, in partnership with the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and the Jewish Agency, drew more than 1,200 British Jews considering a move to Israel. MedEx UK, held in London for the second time, brought about 130 Jewish doctors together with Israeli government representatives, hospitals, and health maintenance organizations to discuss practicing medicine in Israel. MedEx is part of a national medical aliyah initiative led by several Israeli ministries and Nefesh B'Nefesh, in partnership with the Jewish Agency, which helps doctors through the aliyah process and aims to address staffing shortages in Israel's health system.

Sanker-Lange says antisemitism is “partly” the reason for the interest, but not “the whole story”; Israel's efforts to recruit skilled professionals, especially doctors, and integrate them into the health care system are also a factor. Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer has made France and the United Kingdom strategic priorities, and the growing interest in Britain reflects expanded investment and stronger outreach to British Jews. The urgency shows in prospective immigrants' questions and in their determination to act now rather than wait: “I want to come now. What can you give me now?” (YNN/VFI News)

Intel is acquiring Classiq, an Israeli developer of quantum computing software, in a $2.3 billion deal paid in cash and stock, the largest acquisition in the history of the quantum computing industry, it was announced on Tuesday, October 27. The price tops the previous industry record of $1 billion, set in 2025 when IonQ acquired Oxford Ionics.

For Intel, the deal ranks among its largest purchases of Israeli technology companies, after Moovit for about $1 billion in 2020 and Habana Labs for $2 billion in 2019. Intel later bought other Israeli firms, including Granulate in 2022, in deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars; Classiq would be its first Israeli acquisition since Granulate. Multibillion-dollar acquisitions are common in Israel's cybersecurity sector but unusual in quantum computing, which still struggles to turn its potential into widespread commercial use.

Only 117 quantum computers exist worldwide, and high costs and limited access keep adoption low; even so, Israel ranks among the top five countries in quantum computing by the number of active companies and the private capital invested. Classiq was founded six years ago and employs about 150 people; its founders are CEO Nir Minerbi, Chief Product Officer Amir Naveh, and Chief Technology Officer Prof. Yehuda Naveh, Amir's father. Its hardware-agnostic software simplifies building and running quantum applications across different quantum systems, serving customers that include BMW, Rolls-Royce, HSBC, Deloitte, Toshiba, and Citi. (INN/VFI News)

Two centuries-old Jewish ritual textiles taken from a burning Berlin synagogue on November 9, 1938, the night of the November Pogrom known as Kristallnacht, have returned to Berlin almost 88 years later. In postwar Germany, Moishe Saksenhaus, a young Holocaust survivor from Belarus, bought a Torah wimple and a parochet from a man who claimed to have taken them from the synagogue that night, paying with Crisco, coffee, and cigarettes. Moishe brought them to America and displayed them only on special occasions.

After his death in 1993, his family gave the items to Temple Chai in Phoenix, Arizona, where they were displayed until the building was deconsecrated in 2026 and the congregation moved to Scottsdale that spring. On Thursday, October 22, at a ceremony at the New Synagogue Berlin–Centrum Judaicum on Oranienburger Strasse, Associate Rabbi Bonnie Koppell of Temple Chai handed the items to Gideon Joffe, president of the Berlin Jewish Community, in the presence of Rabbi Gesa Ederberg, historian Rabbi Andreas Nachama, Berlin community members, and 29 visitors from Arizona.

Koppell said some people in Phoenix felt personally attached to the objects, but the congregation ultimately agreed they belonged with the people from whom they were taken. The parochet is embroidered with the Kiddush blessing over wine in its Sabbath and holiday versions, and the wimple, used to bind a Torah scroll, carries a blessing for a boy named Yitzchak “Itzik” ben Kavod Ha-rav Gistori. The parochet will join the Centrum Judaicum collection, and the wimple will be displayed at the community center on the site of the former Fasanenstrasse synagogue. (INN/VFI News)

The suggestions, opinions, and scripture references made by VFI News writers and editors are based on the best information received.

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