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

The IDF denies carrying out an airstrike against a car in southern Lebanon earlier today, saying that the blast was actually caused by an attempt by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons.

“Earlier today, false Lebanese reports were published about an Israeli airstrike in the area of the village of Toul in southern Lebanon. After examining the reports, it was found that the car explosion resulted from a failed attempt by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons,” says Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman.

He says that Hezbollah “continues to violate the understandings [between Israel and Lebanon], as its operatives move under civilian cover and endanger the residents of Lebanon.”

Military representatives have notified the family of Meny Godard that his body was returned to Israel by Hamas tonight, after forensic experts completed their identification.

Godard, 73, was murdered by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023, alongside his wife Ayelet, 63, and his body was abducted to Gaza by the Hamas-allied terror group.

The couple is survived by their children, Mor, Gal, Bar, and Goni, a number of grandchildren, and several siblings.

In March, troops recovered findings belonging to Godard at an Islamic Jihad post in southern Gaza’s Rafah. The findings found at the post were taken to Israel and identified as belonging to Godard, but his body remained held in Gaza.

Hamas, in a joint statement with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said that the body had been located in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza earlier today.

The bodies of three slain hostages now remain held in the Strip — two Israelis and one Thai national: Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, Dror Or and Sudthisak Rinthalak.

“The Israeli government shares in the deep sorrow of the Godard family and of all the families of the fallen hostages,” the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement.

The PMO says that Israel is “determined, committed, and working tirelessly” to bring back the remaining three slain hostages for burial, adding that Hamas is “required to fulfill its commitments to the mediators and return them as part of the implementation of the agreement.”

Two Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank earlier today were both 15 years old, the Palestinian Authority says, after the Israeli military said it had killed two terrorists “on their way to carry out a terror attack.”

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority health ministry announces without further details “the martyrdom of Bilal Bahaa Ali Baaran (15 years old) and Muhammad Mahmud Abu Ayash (15 years old), killed by bullets from the occupation this afternoon, Thursday, near Beit Omar, north of Hebron.”

The IDF said earlier today that troops killed two Palestinians who were “on their way to carry out a terror attack” near the West Bank settlement of Karmei Zur.

The military did not elaborate on what the two suspects were planning.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.

A man was found lifeless in southern Tel Aviv tonight, paramedics say, adding that he was discovered with signs of violence on his body.

Police forces are currently at the scene where the body was found.

Earlier tonight, a woman in her 30s was shot and killed near Kafr Qasim, an Arab city in central Israel.

Paramedics arrived to find the victim unconscious and in critical condition.

They attempted to resuscitate her while taking her to a nearby hospital, but she soon succumbed to her wounds, Ynet reports.

The US publicly calls on fellow members of the UN Security Council to back Washington’s resolution to establish an International Stabilization Force to help secure postwar Gaza.

A statement from the US Mission to the UN says that the Trump administration has been working on the resolution for the past month, with input from Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE.

Last week, the US mission began negotiations on a draft with fellow Security Council members in order to provide an international mandate for the ISF that would “begin a stable, secure, peaceful and prosperous future for Palestinians in Gaza, free of Hamas,” the US statement says.

“We........

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