Jerusalem, 29 December, 2025 (TPS-IL) — President of the State Yitzhak Herzog visited today, Monday, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’ offices in northern Israel, where the President issued a warning to Israel’s enemies.

First, the President received a comprehensive overview of the company’s diverse systems and the company’s activities during the war, and in particular as part of June’s Operation “Rising Lion” against Iran.

After receiving an overview of the system, the President of the State called Yael Oster, the mother of the late Captain Eitan Oster, who was killed while fighting in Lebanon last year and whose birthday was today, while standing next to a model of the system. In his conversation with her, he noted that it was a great honor that such a significant system is named after a hero of Israel.

“The Or Eitan system (part of the vaunted Iron Beam Laser Defense system) is a system that is changing the face of defense and attack throughout the world,” said Herzog. “The entire combat doctrine will change through laser technology, with all that this implies.”

“This is a very big day for the State of Israel, and it is another huge contribution to global security, and to the entire region being able to cooperate together against a great common enemy, who is constantly trying to destabilize the region and try to destroy us. In the end, he will fall,” he added referring to the system’s delivery to the Israeli military.

“This is also a message to our enemies,” declared Herzog. “We suggest that you simply not mess with us, and understand that Israel is an existing fact, and instead of engaging in a discourse of war – engage in a discourse of peace.”

Jerusalem, 29 December, 2025 (TPS-IL) — TASE Top 10 Indices monday, december 29, 2025

Index | Value | +/- Change in Value
TA-35 | 3,627.18 | +0.23%
TA-90 | 3,779.30 | +0.04%
TACombo – 90&Banks-5 | 3,895.50 | +0.59%
TA125 | 3,653.65 | +0.18%
Money Market | 464.96 | -0.02%
TA125-Value | 3,986.95 | +0.80%
TA Sector-Balance | 4,244.28 | +0.07%
All-Bond | 420.37 | +0.07%
Bond-CPI A | 420.12 | -0.19%
Tel-Bond 60 | 414.67 | +0.07%

Equity Turnover
(NIS Thousands) | | 4,081,888
Bonds Turnover
(NIS Thousands) | | 3,496,614

(NIS Thousands)

(NIS Thousands)

Jerusalem, 29 December, 2025 (TPS-IL) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a joint conference call from Florida last night (Sunday) with entrepreneur Elon Musk, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, and the head of the National Headquarters for Artificial Intelligence, Erez Eskel.

During the call, said |Netanyahu’s office, Musk accepted the Prime Minister and Minister Regev’s invitation to participate in a smart transportation conference to be held in March.

They also discussed continuing collaborations with Tesla and advancing the law regarding autonomous vehicles.

Netanyahu and Musk spoke at length about promoting and developing artificial intelligence technologies in Israel, and the Prime Minister said in their conversation: “We intend to jumpstart Israel and make it a world leader in the field, just as we did in cyber and other technologies.”

Jerusalem, 29 December, 2025 (TPS-IL) — The following are the end of day exchange rates as set by the Bank of Israel Monday, December 29, 2025:
(Units are given in the foreign currency and the rate is given in its value in Shekels)

Currency | Unit | Rate (NIS) | Daily Change (against the Shekel)
US Dollar | 1 | 3.2030 | +0.534%
GB Pound | 1 | 4.3264 | +0.497%
Japanese Yen | 100 | 2.0494 | +0.284%
Euro | 1 | 3.7684 | +0.295%
AUS Dollar | 1 | 2.1454 | +0.318%
Can Dollar | 1 | 2.3392 | +0.356%
DAN Krone | 1 | 0.5047 | +0.338%
NOR Krone | 1 | 0.3190 | +0.063%
SA Rand | 1 | 0.1926 | +0.574%
SWD Krona | 1 | 0.3490 | +0.316%
SWS Franc | 1 | 4.0530 | +0.081%

Jerusalem, 29 December, 2025 (TPS-IL) — The Israel Police said that a “broad operational activity” is taking place with the participation of hundreds of officers from the Southern District and Border Police in Tarabin, a Bedouin Village in the Negev. There is no suspicion of a security incident.

Hundreds of police officers and other security forces are conducting a full encirclement of the village of Tarabin as part of this activity.

The operation comes following what the police called “revenge operations” by alleged criminals in Tarabin at the end of the weekend and following the governance tour conducted by the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Police Commissioner Danny Levi on Sunday.

Locals protested the presence of Ben-Gvir in the village due to his right-wing policies.

“The activity is being carried out with force and determination, with the aim of strengthening governance, enforcing the rule of law, and providing a clear and decisive response to any attempt at serious criminal activity,” said the police.

“Israel Police is working toward full control of the area and will not allow harm to public security or public order,” it added.

Jerusalem, 29 December, 2025 (TPS-IL) — There were 21,900 new immigrants from 105 different countries who arrived in Israel since the beginning of the year. About a third of them were young people aged 18–35. The increase in immigration from France and Britain continued.

This is according to data for 2025, released by Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption and the Jewish Agency, which shows that the year was characterized by relative stability in the number of immigrants who arrived in Israel in the shadow of the war, a strengthening trend of immigration by young people from the West, and a significant increase in the rate of immigration from France and Britain.

A breakdown of the data shows that Russia still leads in the number of immigrants, with about 8,300 immigrants (a decrease of about 57% compared to about 19,500 last year). The United States follows with 3,500 immigrants; a 5% increase compared to the previous year and 30% from 2023. A 45% jump was recorded from France, with about 3,300 immigrants, compared to 2,228 immigrants in 2024 and a 200% jump from France.

The UK is on the rise for the second year in a row, with 840 immigrants compared to 700 last year – an increase of 19%, and almost 100% the year before, and the trend is expected to continue.

For comparison, in 2023, 2,717 immigrants immigrated to Israel from the US, 1,109 immigrants from France and 406 immigrants from the UK.

Jerusalem, 29 December, 2025 (TPS-IL) — The Israel Police reported that seven people, including five security guards, in the Givat Zeev area (northwest of Jerusalem) were arrested on suspicion that they exploited their positions and smuggled hundreds of illegal Palestinian residents into Israel.

During an undercover investigation by the Jerusalem Central Unit and the Jerusalem Envelope Border Guard Unit, it was revealed that a planned criminal connection was formed between security guards and Palestinian elements, aimed at enabling “free passage” for illegal residents, bypassing security checkpoints.

Jerusalem, 28 December, 2025 (TPS-IL) — Israel’s National Cyber Command warned of an increase in targeted phishing attempts, which may appear particularly credible, impersonating well-known entities and distributed via messaging apps, including WhatsApp and Telegram.

The attacks are targeted and “tailored” to the interests of senior officials and key figures in various fields, including academia, government, and the media.

In these cases, the attacker does not distribute a random message, but builds an attack based on information gathering and prior planning.

Jerusalem, 28 December, 2025 (TPS-IL) — Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure publishes today (Sunday) the annual electricity consumption index in local authority properties in Israel for 2024. As in previous years, this year too, the index is based on data from the authorities’ own consumption reports, and presents both the total electricity consumption in the authorities’ properties in relation to the number of residents in the authority and the total electricity consumption for outdoor lighting in relation to the area of the authority (square kilometers).

In 2024, 213 authorities out of 259 local authorities in Israel reported on their energy consumption – an addition of more than 40 new authorities compared to 2023. Despite the significant increase in the number of those reporting, it can be seen that the indices were maintained at levels similar to previous years.

The data shows that electricity consumption per resident in local authority properties in 2024 increased by 6% compared to 2023, from 150 kWh per resident in 2023, to 159 kWh per resident in 2024. The increase appears to stem, among other things, from the consequences of the war that continued throughout 2024, during which operating hours were extended to serve residents, some authorities operated in emergency situations, and increased use of lighting was made – which likely also led to an increase of approximately 6.8% in outdoor lighting consumption compared to 2023.

The index shows that in 2024 there was an increase in the number of local authorities ranked in the minimum electricity consumption category, from 69 authorities in 2023 to 78 authorities in 2024 – an increase of approximately 13%. In contrast to this increase, the number of authorities in the maximum consumption category hardly changed, despite the expansion of the circle of reporting authorities.