As the holiday season approaches, public health experts are sounding the alarm about low vaccination rates against the coronavirus, flu and RSV. With gatherings and travel on the rise, many people are heading into the next few months unprotected against these respiratory illnesses, which typically peak from December to February.
Experts worry that the unenthusiastic embrace of vaccines could spark outbreaks and increased hospitalizations.
As of this month, about 37 percent of adults 18 and older had received a seasonal flu shot, while 19 percent had received updated coronavirus vaccines and 40 percent of adults 75 and older – the group at greatest risk – got an RSV vaccine.

Resettling the Israeli towns that were destroyed as part of the 2005 disengagement from Gaza is the answer to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and the ICC case against the Jewish state’s leaders, Israeli Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf said on Thursday.
Writing on X after a visit to the Gaza border with Zionist activist Daniella Weiss, Goldknopf—the head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party—said that “Jewish settlement here is the answer to the terrible [Oct. 7] massacre and to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.”

Israel Defense Forces prosecutors filed manslaughter charges on Thursday against a reservist who mistakenly killed an armed Israeli bystander during a terrorist attack in Jerusalem in November 2023.
Staff Sgt. (res.) Aviad Frija will face charges of manslaughter under diminished responsibility for killing Yuval Doron Castleman in the heat of the Nov. 30, 2023, Hamas shooting at the western entrance to Israel’s capital.
IDF soldiers convicted of manslaughter have previously been convicted to sentences of less than two years, while the diminished responsibility defense could shorten the time to several months.

A confidential clause in the U.S.-Israel side agreement to the Lebanon ceasefire deal focuses on the Islamic Republic, Hebrew media reported on Wednesday.
Dubbed the “Iranian clause” by Israeli officials, the provision is part of a two-and-a-half-page letter the full contents of which have not been fully disclosed, according to Channel 12 News.
“The U.S. commits to working with Israel to prevent Iran from destabilizing the region, establishing a foothold in Lebanon, or undermining the principles of the agreement—either directly or through its proxies,” the letter states, according to the report.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that Moscow would deploy all available weaponry if Ukraine were to gain nuclear capabilities.
Last week, The New York Times cited unnamed Western officials who reportedly floated the idea that U.S. President Joe Biden might consider arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons before his term ends.
“If the nation we are essentially in conflict with were to become a nuclear state, how should we respond? In that scenario, we will utilize every, and I stress this, every method of destruction at Russia’s disposal. Absolutely everything: we will not permit it. We’ll be monitoring their actions closely,” Putin stated during a press briefing in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The United Kingdom, Germany and France on Thursday appealed to Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to extend a waiver allowing Israeli banks to do business with the Palestinian Authority, claiming Ramallah has taken “significant steps” to combat terrorist financing.
The E3 foreign ministers said they were “deeply concerned that Israel has yet to provide assurances it will extend the indemnifications for essential correspondent banking relationships between Israeli and Palestinian banks for a minimum period of at least 12 months.”

Several foreign airlines are resuming service to Israel following the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, with others expected to follow suit next month as quiet holds and security conditions improve.
Azerbaijan Airlines plans to restart its Tel Aviv-Baku route on Nov. 30; Greece’s national airline, Aegean Airlines, announced it will restart flights to Israel on Dec. 10; and Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air will gradually resume operations in Israel starting on Dec. 20.
Major European carriers that have suspended service to Israel until mid-December are now expected to restart flights as well ahead of the Christmas holidays, assuming Israel’s northern front remains peaceful.

The Israel Defense Forces plans to form the first company of the new Hasmonean Brigade, to be made up of ultra-Orthodox soldiers, by Chanukah, which this year starts on Dec. 25.
The IDF wants to capitalize on the symbolism. The Hasmonean Dynasty began after the Jews threw off the yoke of Hellenistic rule in the Maccabean Revolt (167 to 141 BCE) against the Seleucid Empire, liberation that the holiday commemorates.
Thirty young men have already passed the first screenings and dozens of others have expressed interest in serving in the brigade, Ynet reported.

In the past 14 months, Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah is believed to have suffered as many as 10 times the casualties as it did during the month-long 2006 Second Lebanon War.
According to an assessment by Israel’s Channel 12 News and Institute for National Security Studies, the Israeli military believes that approximately 3,000 terrorists were killed in Lebanon, including at least 11 brigade-level commanders, 37 battalion commanders and 46 company commanders.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and noncombatants, reports 3,823 killed and 15,895 injured during the conflict.