Aug. 28: IDF says troops uncovered and destroyed kilometer-long tunnel in south Gaza

Netanyahu, Katz condemn ‘heinous’ vandalism outside IDF chief’s home

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemns the vandalism earlier today outside the home of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir by anti-war protesters.

“The IDF, led by its chief, is working morally and determinedly to defeat Hamas and to bring back all of our hostages, and any attempt to harm him must be condemned,” Netanyahu says in a statement issued by his office.

The prime minister calls on law enforcement to “bring the perpetrators of this heinous act to justice.”

Police and demonstrators said earlier that eight people had been arrested over the incident, in which red paint was poured outside his home in Hod Hasharon.

Defense Minister Israel Katz also condemns the vandalism, calling it “a red line.”

“I strongly condemn the violent protesters who vandalized the home of the chief of staff, who works day and night to defend the State of Israel,” Katz says. “I expect law enforcement to bring the offenders to justice and punish them to the fullest extent.”

Second woman alleges sexual misconduct by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan

Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court looks up prior to a press conference in The Hague, Netherlands, July 3, 2023. (Peter Dejong/AP)

Another accuser has come forward alleging sexual misconduct by International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan.

In a report from the Guardian, an unnamed woman who worked for Khan in 2009 said that he “behaved inappropriately, subjecting her to unwanted sexual advances, abused his authority over her, and repeatedly sought to pressure her into sexual activity.”

She described his behavior as a “constant onslaught” of advances.

Khan, who was responsible for pursuing ICC arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, temporarily stepped aside from his role earlier this year after other allegations emerged of sexual misconduct in the past two years.

His associates have tried to paint the allegations as a pro-Israel smear campaign, although the Guardian says there is “no evidence” of such a plot.

Anti-war protesters arrested for pouring red paint outside IDF chief’s house

Anti-war demonstrators protest outside the home of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir in Hod Hasharon on August 28, 2025. (Standing Together)

Police arrested several anti-war activists who poured buckets of red paint outside of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir’s home in Hod Hasharon earlier today, police and protesters say.

Dozens of protesters gathered earlier today outside the IDF chief’s home, demanding he refuse to carry out any plans to occupy the Gaza Strip as the government advances an operation to take over Gaza City.

Demonstrators held a banner with Zamir’s face that read: “You are against the occupation of Gaza, the time has come to refuse,” referencing leaked comments attributed to the IDF chief calling for Israel to instead accept a hostage deal. The participants then took buckets of red paint, pouring it on the street and an adjacent wall.

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The red paint symbolizes “the rivers of blood that will be spilled if Israel moves to re-occupy Gaza, endanger the hostages and kill innocents,” says the Standing Together movement in a statement.

According to police, officers from the Kfar Saba station arrested five demonstrators who “caused damage to a street and a building.” Protesters from the Standing Together movement say three additional women were arrested an hour after the demonstration, which would put the total number of arrests at eight.

They claim that one of the women arrested after the protest did not partake in the demonstration at all, and was detained because she and the other two drove home in the same car used to bring the paint to Zamir’s residence.

2 Lebanese army personnel killed after crashed Israeli drone explodes

Lebanon’s army says two personnel were killed today after an Israeli drone that had crashed in the country’s south exploded, the latest deadly incident for Lebanese troops near the Israeli border.

Under a November ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of open war between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon’s army has been deploying in the country’s south and dismantling the Iran-backed terror group’s infrastructure there with the support of UN peacekeepers.

“While army personnel were inspecting an Israeli enemy drone after it fell in the Naqura area, it exploded, leading to the death of an officer and a soldier and wounding two other personnel,” the army says in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from the IDF on the incident.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun says in a statement that “the army is once again paying in blood the price of maintaining stability in the south.”

He says it was the fourth deadly incident for the army since it began deploying in south Lebanon after the ceasefire.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam expresses his condolences and the government’s “full solidarity with the military institution.”

He says the army is Lebanon’s “safety valve, the stronghold of sovereignty and the support of national unity.”

Report: Dermer set out Israel’s needs to White House meeting on future of Gaza

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer walks into the Executive Office Building next to the White House in Washington, DC on December 26, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)

During yesterday’s White House meeting on the future of Gaza, US President Donald Trump called Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer into the meeting while it was already in progress to set out Israel’s needs for the “day after” Hamas, Channel 12 reports.

Dermer, a top confidante of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Trump that Israel does not want to permanently occupy the Gaza Strip or deport Gaza’s residents, according to the report. What Israel does want, Dermer said, is to destroy Hamas before handing Gaza over to a governing body that won’t threaten the Jewish state.

Citing an unnamed source, Channel 12 reports that Dermer said that if Israel’s conditions were met, it was open to compromise on all other issues in Gaza.

The source says that the aim of the White House “day after” effort is for the US to lead the building of a governance mechanism for Gaza that enjoys international support and allows Israel to withdraw safely, without Gaza being taken over by a terrorist group.

According to the report, the White House meeting on Wednesday did not end with any definitive decision or conclusion, but it did highlight the pressing question of who can govern Gaza after Hamas.

Jewish educators in NYC say they’re leaving teacher union due to antisemitism

Jewish educators protest outside the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, August 28, 2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

Several dozen Jewish activists gather outside the office of a leading teachers union in New York City to protest against alleged antisemitism by the union. The protest takes place outside the office of the United Federation of Teachers in lower Manhattan.

Jewish teachers hold signs that say, “UFT leadership: Failing Jewish students. Failing New York,” and, “Educate against hate.” The protesters chant “Enough is enough.”

Some of the protesters are UFT members who wear the union’s shirts, but write, “UFT doesn’t represent me” on the back of the shirts.

The activists accuse the UFT of a “pattern of silence and inaction that has eroded trust with Jewish teachers, students, and parents,” such as endorsing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a harsh critic of Israel.

Karen Feldman, co-founder of the New York City Public School Alliance, an advocacy group established after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, says she was a union member for 26 years before leaving due to antisemitism.

“We are gathered here today because students and educators in New York City public schools no longer feel safe,” she says, citing incidents in which a Jewish teacher was surrounded in a cafeteria and derided as a “Zionist,” the slogan “From the river to the sea” posted in a hallway, and a Jewish student group that was excluded from student equity meetings.

Moshe Spern, a history teacher with the United Jewish Teachers group, shows the crowd a stack of about 50 opt-out letters from Jewish union members who are leaving the union in protest. He says another 100 educators have reached out to him about leaving.

“Why is the Jewish community always ignored? Just talk to us, stand up for us,” he says. “We’ll come back to this union, we’re not done, we believe in the union, but only when the union wants to make a difference for Jewish educators, all educators and our students.”

The protesters demand the UFT adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism; ban classroom content that demonizes Jews, Zionism or Israel; provide antisemitism training to UFT members; retract endorsements of politicians who “normalize antisemitic slogans,” such as “Globalize the intifada” — a reference to Mamdani; and audit UFT materials for antisemitism.

The protest is organized by an array of groups opposing antisemitism and bias in schools, including the New York City Public School Alliance, the Lawfare Project, EndJewHatred, Parents Against Antisemitism and SAFE Campus for Equality.

Netanyahu tells WFP chief McCain Israel will ‘redouble efforts’ to boost Gaza aid

People wait for rice from a charity kitchen providing free food in the west of Gaza City, August 28, 2025. (Bashar Taleb / AFP)

Prime Minister Netanyahu met United Nations World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain in Jerusalem yesterday for a “constructive meeting concerning the ongoing and continued provision of humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians,” they say in a joint statement.

The meeting comes days after the global hunger monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared for the first time that famine has struck the densely populated northern Gaza Strip. After visiting Gaza earlier this week, McCain also met yesterday with IDF chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Foreign Ministry director-general Eden Bar Tal and COGAT chief Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, as well as today with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Ramallah.

Netanyahu and McCain discuss “the importance of protecting civilians from hunger and malnutrition and ensuring that their basic essential needs are met” and note the increase in aid entering Gaza over the past month.

According to their statement, Netanyahu and McCain agree to “redouble efforts to expedite and sustain the entry of humanitarian goods into Gaza given the dire needs on the ground.”

They also agree that, wherever possible, aid must reach “the most vulnerable people where they are.” The language of the joint statement seems to indicate an impending reform to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation model, which sees Gazans walk several kilometers in dangerous conditions to receive aid.

The IDF said this week it was opening two new GHF sites in southern Gaza and closing one. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said earlier this month that plans were in place for GHF to expand operations to 16 sites, with overcrowding a constant issue at existing centers.

Netanyahu and McCain also agree “that humanitarian aid is provided exclusively to civilians.” Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid and using it to fund its operations against Israeli forces.

Speaking to the Associated Press, McCain says that she “personally met mothers and children who were starving in Gaza. It is real and it is happening now.”

Netanyahu, she says, was “obviously very concerned that people aren’t getting enough food,” and that “we agreed that we must immediately redouble our efforts to get more humanitarian aid in. Access and security for our convoys is critical.”

After trip to Damascus, 3 US lawmakers criticize Israel for ‘destabilizing’ strikes on Syria

A bipartisan trio of US lawmakers who recently got back from meetings with Syrian officials in Damascus issue a rare condemnation of Israel, taking issue with last night’s IDF strikes in Syria.

Democratic ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee Jeanne Shaheen, along with Republicans Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. Joe Wilson, say the message they got from Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and other top officials in Damascus was that “Syria needs a chance to succeed and move past the violence and strife that consumed the country for over 14 years.”

“Last night’s destabilizing strikes on Syria by Israel make that goal more difficult to achieve,” the lawmakers say.

“We commend President Trump for taking the bold step of lifting sanctions off Syria earlier this year. Through the work of the President’s Special Envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, a once-unthinkable and historic meeting occurred directly between the Syrian and Israel governments just this month,” they continue.

“The Syrians are prepared to move forward with Israel to advance peace. It is unclear how long the door to this opportunity will remain open. We call on Israel to seize the moment and immediately cease hostilities so the progress made by Syrians and Special Envoy Barrack can continue,” the US lawmakers add.

“A stable and secure Syria is the only path toward freedom from Iran’s reach and containment of the ISIS threat.”

Israeli strikes in Yemen reportedly targeted gathering of Houthi leadership

IDF Chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir (center) directs strikes on Yemen on August 28, 2025, from the Israeli Air Force's command center. (IDF)

Hebrew media outlets report that Israel carried out its most dramatic strike yet in Yemen earlier today, aiming to wipe out the Houthi leadership.

According to the reports, citing unnamed security officials, Israeli intelligence learned earlier today that 10 Houthi ministers, including the minister of defense, and senior officials had gathered outside Sanaa to hear a speech by the group’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.

The IDF then launched a strike targeting the meeting. It remains unclear if the Houthis’ chief of staff, Muhammad Al-Ghamari, was present, the reports say.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi gives a televised address on August 28, 2025. (X screenshot)

Israeli intelligence provided real-time details of the gathering, enabling the strike, which was carried out despite heavy air defenses in the area. As al-Houthi delivered his address, Israel reportedly monitored it to see whether he realized his senior officials were being targeted, and he gave no indication of being aware, the reports say.

The outcome of the strike is not immediately clear.

While officials have cast the strike in dramatic terms, previous Israeli operations in Yemen framed similarly have failed to halt the Houthis’ continued drone and missile attacks during the ongoing war.

The IDF carried out the targeted strike after two IAF interceptions of Houthi drones earlier in the day, marking the second Israeli attack on Yemen this week.

“Whoever raises a hand against Israel, his hand will be cut off,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement earlier today.

Smotrich calls to begin annexing parts of Gaza if Hamas refuses to disarm

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, pictured outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on August 18, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls on the government to begin annexing parts of the Gaza Strip if Hamas stands by its refusal to lay down its weapons.

The far-right minister, who has vocally opposed striking a deal with Hamas to end the nearly two-year war, presents his plan to “win in Gaza by the end of the year” at a press conference in Jerusalem.

Under Smotrich’s proposal, Hamas would be given an ultimatum to surrender, disarm and release the hostages still held in Gaza since the group’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war.

If Hamas refuses, Smotrich says Israel should annex a section of the territory each week for four weeks, bringing most of the Gaza Strip under full Israeli control.

According to Smotrich, Palestinians would first be told to move south in Gaza, followed by Israel imposing a siege on the territory’s north and center to defeat any remaining Hamas terrorists there, and ending with annexation.

“This can be achieved in three to four months,” he claims, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to adopt this plan in full immediately.”

IDF troops uncover and destroy kilometer-long tunnel in northern Gaza, says military

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip, in a photo cleared for publication, on August 28, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF troops operating in northern Gaza’s Zeitoun area discovered and destroyed a roughly one-kilometer-long Hamas tunnel equipped with living quarters and weapons, the military says.

Soldiers from the 7th Brigade, under the 99th Division, located the underground tunnel during operations on the outskirts of Gaza City. According to the IDF, the tunnel was used by Hamas operatives for military purposes.

In addition, the brigade, working alongside the Israeli Air Force, dismantled other terrorist infrastructure, seized additional weapons, and neutralized several terror operatives who allegedly posed a threat to troops in the area.

Israel welcomes UN move to end UNIFIL peacekeeping force after next year

An armored vehicle of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) moves past destroyed buildings along a road in the village of Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon near the border with northern Israel on August 27, 2025. (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)

Israel welcomes the United Nations Security Council’s decision to terminate the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon at the end of next year.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar hails the move and credits Washington for enabling it, saying in a statement from his office: “Israel appreciates the stance of the United States, and particularly that of Secretary of State Rubio, which made this outcome possible. US involvement in shaping a more secure environment for the states of the region is welcome.”

“The recent developments in Lebanon are positive developments. Israel will continue to ensure that these gains are not eroded and that the security of the residents of the north is safeguarded,” he continues.

The Foreign Ministry adds that ahead of the Security Council discussion on UNIFIL, it “coordinated interagency preparations together with the IDF and the National Security Council,” and held talks with “key international partners,” in efforts it claims led to the decision to end UNIFIL’s mandate.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, celebrates the “good news” in a video message, saying UNIFIL “has failed in its mission and allowed Hezbollah to become the region’s most serious threat.”

“The Lebanese government now needs to take responsibility and ensure that no other force is present on its border with Israel,” he adds.

The mandate is set to formally expire in December 2026, with UNIFIL troops scheduled to withdraw from Lebanon during 2027.

While Israel had pushed for the observer force’s mandate to be terminated even sooner, arguing it had not sufficiently acted against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, its ally the US ultimately joined the rest of the Security Council in backing UNIFIL remaining in Lebanon for another year.

Netanyahu says IDF operating in Syria because he ‘knows who we’re dealing with’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Druze leaders in Julis on August 28, 2025. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Visiting the war room set up by Israeli Druze to aid their co-religionists in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he ordered the use of military force in Syria because he is “not a naive person.”

“I understand who we are dealing with, what we are dealing with, and that is why we used force,” he says during a visit to the Druze town of Julis in northern Israel. “I told President Trump: we both believe in the same idea — it’s called peace through strength. First comes strength — then comes peace. That’s how it is, certainly in our region, but not only here. But first and foremost, in our region.”

Israel is focusing on three goals around the Druze in Syria, he says: Protecting the community in Sweida and elsewhere in the country; ensuring that there is a demilitarized zone south of Damascus; and establishing a humanitarian corridor to send aid to the Druze in southern Syria.

The operation center sits in the compound of Israeli Druze leader Sheikh Muafak Tarif, leader of the 150,000-strong community.

UN Security Council unanimously renews UNIFIL mission for one final year

French UN peacekeepers patrol the Lebanese-Israeli border in the village of Houla, southern Lebanon, Aug. 20, 2025 (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The United Nations Security Council unanimously extends the long-running peacekeeping mission in Lebanon until the end of 2026, when the operation will then begin a year-long “orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal.”

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), established in 1978, patrols Lebanon’s southern border with Israel.

Israel had opposed the move, arguing that the UNIFIL observer force did not sufficiently act against Hezbollah’s entrenchment in southern Lebanon.

The US appeared to be leaning toward Jerusalem’s position, but ultimately joined the rest of the Security Council in backing the observer force remaining in Lebanon for another year.

770 measles cases detected in Israel in past three months, says Health Ministry

A notice warning of measles is seen on a door in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, July 31, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The Health Ministry reports that 770 people in Israel have been diagnosed with measles over the past three months, of whom 228 are active patients and 24 of whom are hospitalized — two in intensive care.

Most of those hospitalized are children who were not vaccinated against the disease. Two toddlers without underlying diseases who were not vaccinated against the disease died of measles in mid-August.

The ministry also says that a measles patient traveled by public transportation during the contagious period of the disease.

On August 25, the patient took bus line 465 from Emmanuel to Jerusalem at 11:30 a.m. and later took bus lines 65 and 39 within Jerusalem, before taking the 465 back to Emmanuel at midnight.

Since this is a highly contagious disease, the ministry asks individuals who may have come in contact with the patient to ensure they are vaccinated in accordance with recommendations. Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that manifests itself in fever, general malaise, runny nose and rash, and can have serious and even life-threatening complications.

Energy Minister Eli Cohen testifies to police over Qatargate affair

Energy Minister Eli Cohen attends a hearing of the Knesset Economics Committee in Jerusalem, December 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Energy Minister Eli Cohen spoke to Israel Police interrogators today about the ongoing Qatargate probe, according to Hebrew media reports.

Cohen — the former foreign minister — reportedly spoke to police for less than 15 minutes in his office. He was asked about his connection to US lobbyist Jay Footlik — whom police issued a warrant for yesterday in connection with the case.

Yesterday, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid was also questioned by police in connection with the case.

The Qatargate affair revolves primarily around suspicions that top Netanyahu aide Jonatan Urich and spokesman Eli Feldstein committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, while working for the prime minister.

Snapback sanctions are ‘important step’ to countering Iran’s nukes, says Sa’ar

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem, July 29, 2025. (Sivan Shachor/GPO)

Iran hasn’t given up its aim of attaining a nuclear weapon, says Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, after the European signatories to the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal announce they are starting the process of initiating the snapback sanctions against Iran.

Writing on X, he says the return of the sanctions is “inevitable.”

He calls the move by the E3 “an important step in the diplomatic campaign to counter the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions.”

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon also welcomes the move, saying that the “countries of the world are… joining the fight against the axis of evil.”

“This is an important step on the way to stopping the Iranian nuclear program and increasing pressure on the regime in Tehran,” he adds.

Rubio welcomes E3 decision to initiate snapback sanctions on Iran

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives for a joint press conference with President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska on August 15, 2025. (AP/Jae C. Hong)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomes the decision by the E3 countries to initiate snapback sanctions against Iran.

“These European allies have laid out a clear case of Iran’s continuing ‘significant non-performance’ of its nuclear commitments, establishing a strong basis for initiating snapback,” Rubio says in a statement.

“Moreover, the E3 could have initiated snapback at any point since 2019 but chose instead to first pursue intensive outreach and engagement — to provide Iran with a diplomatic offramp from its strategy of nuclear escalation.”

Rubio says the US will work with the E3 countries — France, Germany and the UK — and other UN Security Council members to successfully implement the sanctions, while remaining open to direct engagement with Tehran to secure “a peaceful, enduring resolution to the Iran nuclear issue.”

“Snapback does not contradict our earnest readiness for diplomacy; it only enhances it. I urge Iranian leaders to take the immediate steps necessary to ensure that their nation will never obtain a nuclear weapon; to walk the path of peace; and to, by extension, advance prosperity for the Iranian people,” he adds.

UK, Germany, France say Iran snapback necessary due to ‘clear and deliberate’ noncompliance

An Iranian flag flutters in front of the Iranian Consulate, where Iranian diplomats meet counterparts from Germany, Britain and France for renewed nuclear talks, in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 25, 2025. (Yasin AKGUL / AFP)

Citing Iran’s “clear and deliberate” violations of the terms of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, the French, German, and British foreign ministers lay out in a joint statement their rationale for initiating the snapback mechanism against Tehran.

“Iran’s non-compliance with the JCPOA is clear and deliberate, and sites of major proliferation concern in Iran are outside of IAEA monitoring,” say the E3 diplomats.

They describe Iranian actions since 2019 that go beyond agreed-upon limits on enriched uranium, heavy water and centrifuges, and its restrictions on the International Atomic Energy Agency inspection regime.

“Iran has no civilian justification for its high enriched uranium stockpile — now over 9 Significant Quantities — which is also unaccounted for by the IAEA.”

The ministers stress that Iran’s nuclear program is “a clear threat to international peace and security.”

The European signatories to the JCPOA negotiated in good faith for years to try to bring Iran back into compliance, they say, but were rebuffed by Iran.

The three diplomats stress that they will use the 30-day period until UN Security Council sanctions are reinstated to continue to engage with Iran in an attempt to convince it to comply with its JCPOA commitments.

IDF confirms striking Houthi targets in Sanaa area of Yemen

Defense Minister Israel Katz (center) and IDF chief Eyal Zamir (right) approve strikes on Yemen on August 28, 2025. (Elad Malka/Defense Ministry)

The IDF confirms that the Air Force carried out a targeted strike on a military site of the Iran-backed Houthis in the Sanaa area of Yemen, following two Israeli Air Force interceptions of Houthi drones earlier today.

Defense Minister Israel Katz, together with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and senior commanders, coordinated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via the Red Line communication system before authorizing the operation, Katz’s office says.

“As we warned the Houthis in Yemen: After the plague of darkness comes the plague of the firstborn,” Katz says in a statement, a reference to the biblical 10 plagues. The comment appears to confirm remarks in Hebrew media attributed to a senior Israeli official that the strikes are targeting Houthi political figures.

The IDF says the Houthis have acted aggressively since the start of ongoing war, aiming to harm Israel and its allies, destabilize the regional order, and disrupt global maritime freedom.

“The IDF is acting forcefully against the Houthi terror regime, alongside intensifying operations against Hamas in Gaza, and will continue to work to eliminate all threats to Israeli civilians,” the military says in a statement.

The new strike follows Sunday’s IAF operation in Houthi-controlled Sanaa, reportedly killing at least four people and injuring scores. That strike came after a Friday night ballistic missile attack from Yemen, in which the Houthis for the first time used a projectile with a cluster bomb warhead.

Incoming head of IDF Tech Directorate promoted to major general

From left to right: Maj. Gen. Rami Abudraham, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Maj. Gen. Mishel Yanko, and Defense Minister Israel Katz at Abudraham’s promotion to major general, August 28, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF announces the promotion of Brig. Gen. Rami Abudraham to major general, with him assuming command next week of the IDF Technology and Logistics Directorate, replacing Maj. Gen. Mishel Yanko.

Abudraham was named to the post in July as part of a broader round of senior General Staff appointments.

At the ceremony in Tel Aviv, Defense Minister Israel Katz says: “This immense responsibility — ensuring the logistical and technological response for all IDF units — is now your mission.” Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir adds: “Your command has been marked by a deep understanding of the field alongside a broad view of the entire campaign.”

Abudraham, previously chief of staff of the IDF Ground Forces, said, “I proudly bear the privilege of serving our soldiers, conscripts and reservists alike — those standing in defense and at the spearhead of the offensive.”

Iran vows response to ‘unjustified and illegal’ European sanctions snapback

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (R) meets with ambassadors and diplomatic representatives in Tehran, Iran, on July 12, 2025. (Hamid FOROUTAN / Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs / AFP)

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran will respond to a decision by France, Britain and Germany to trigger a mechanism reimposing UN sanctions under a moribund 2015 nuclear deal.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will respond appropriately to this illegal and unjustified action by the three European countries, in order to protect and guarantee its national rights and interests,” Araghchi tells his French, British and German counterparts in a phone call, according to a statement from his ministry.

A senior Iranian official tells Reuters that the move is “an action against diplomacy, not a chance for it… However, Iran will continue diplomacy with the E3… [But] Iran will not concede under pressure.”

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot asserts that the decision does not signal the end of diplomacy.

“We are determined to use the 30-day period that is opening to engage in dialogue with Iran,” Barrot says on X. “We remain committed to diplomacy to ensure that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon.”

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul calls for Iran’s full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and a clear commitment to direct negotiations with the United States, saying diplomacy can still continue.

Israeli official claims to Saudi outlet that IDF troops confiscated ‘secret equipment’ near Damascus

Illustrative: Syrian security officers stand guard in a war-damaged building during a gathering to mark the anniversary of the 2013 chemical weapons attack by former president Bashar Assad's forces, in Zamalka on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, August 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Saudi outlet Al-Hadath reports that Israeli forces located and confiscated “secret and sensitive equipment” near Damascus, citing a senior Israeli security official. The claim follows reports overnight of an Israeli airdrop of troops on the outskirts of the Syrian capital.

According to the report, the IDF dismantled Turkish surveillance devices planted in the Damascus area intended to monitor Israel. The source said Jerusalem has warned the new Syrian government against aligning with Ankara, calling it “playing with fire.” The source further claimed the equipment had been housed in Syrian military bases for over a decade.

Separately, a Syrian official told Al Jazeera that four Israeli Air Force helicopters and two fighter jets arrived at a military base in the al-Kiswah area, just south of Damascus, deploying dozens of troops — reportedly special forces — who carried out searches at the site for two hours before withdrawing. Fighter jets allegedly “cleared the way” for the helicopters and blocked Syrian reinforcements, though no clashes were reported.

The IDF has yet to officially comment on the reports, but Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier today, “Our forces are operating on all battle fronts day and night for the security of Israel.”

Israeli forces striking again in Yemen, reports Houthi-run TV

The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reports that Israeli forces have once again struck targets in Yemen, following Israeli Air Force interceptions of two UAVs earlier today launched by the Iran-backed Houthis.

The IDF has not yet commented on the reports.

The air force also carried out strikes Sunday in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa, in response to a ballistic missile from Yemen. Those strikes reportedly killed at least four people and injured others.

Chris Froome, cyclist for Israel-Premier Tech, hospitalized after training crash

Israel-Premier's British rider Chris Froome cycles during the second stage of the UAE Tour cycling race in al-Hudayriyat island in Abu Dhabi on February 18, 2025. (Giuseppe CACACE / AFP)

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome will undergo surgery today after “a serious training crash” that saw the British cyclist airlifted to a hospital in France.

Froome’s team Israel-Premier Tech says he is “stable and did not sustain any head injuries” but adds that scans confirmed a pneumothorax, five broken ribs and a lumbar vertebrae fracture.

Froome was taken to hospital in Toulon by helicopter yesterday after the accident, which happened while he was training near Saint-Raphaël. His team says “no other cyclists or vehicles were involved.”

This latest incident could spell the end of Froome’s career as his contract with Israel-Premier Tech — which he joined in 2021 — is coming to an end.

PM’s lawyers threaten to quit if corruption trial ramped up to 4 days a week

Lawyer Amit Hadad speaks to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the courtroom of Tel Aviv District Court, March 31, 2025. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense attorneys in his corruption trial tell the Jerusalem District Court that they will not be able to continue to represent him if the court ramps up proceedings to four times a week, as it has demanded.

The Jerusalem District Court judges announced earlier this month that four hearings per week will be held starting in November, and Netanyahu will testify in three of them until the end of his cross-examination, “in light of the current need to advance the trial.”

Chief defense attorney Amit Hadad tells the court that the decision will “severely harm” their ability to represent other clients and the “freedom of the defense team to practice,” threatening to resign if it moves ahead with the decision.

Hadad asks the court to schedule a hearing on the matter in the presence of Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s trial on three charges of corruption has been ongoing since May 2020, with the prime minister’s testimony beginning in November 2024, although many hearings have been delayed and canceled due to his schedule.

The trial is expected to take at least another several years, though multiple unsuccessful efforts have been made to reach a plea deal that would end proceedings.

Addressing Gazans, IDF general promises boosted aid, tents ahead of expanded offensive

Displaced Palestinians flee Gaza City toward the southern areas of the Gaza Strip, in Nuseirat, on August 28, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

The head of Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, issues an Arabic-language video message to Gaza residents as the IDF prepares to expand its operations against Hamas in Gaza City and move civilians southward.

Alian accuses Hamas of orchestrating a “false starvation campaign,” stressing that “Israel does not pursue a policy of starvation. On the contrary, Israel works to prevent it.”

He says more than 300 humanitarian aid trucks enter Gaza daily — most carrying food — and that four crossings have been opened to facilitate deliveries, which he claims have driven down market prices and improved access to food.

COGAT, Major General Ghassan Alian, to the residents of Gaza in light of the @IDF preparations to expand operations against Hamas in Gaza City and ahead of moving the population from Gaza City southward for their protection:

"In recent weeks, the terrorist organization Hamas… pic.twitter.com/m0dH8Hkx4r

— COGAT (@cogatonline) August 28, 2025

“Hamas, and only Hamas, is responsible for the humanitarian crisis,” he says, charging that the group seizes aid and uses civilians as human shields.

Alian says the IDF’s upcoming Gaza City offensive is aimed at bringing about “the collapse of this terrorist organization,” while ensuring safe passage for civilians to the southern Gaza Strip.

To support that effort, he notes that Israel has facilitated the entry of tents for shelters, worked to set up additional field hospitals and enabled the transfer of medical equipment to bolster the health system in the south.

“Hamas will continue spreading lies,” he adds. “We will continue working together with the UN and international organizations to facilitate the entry of large-scale food supplies and ensure that the aid reaches you, the residents of Gaza, and not Hamas.”

Expelled from Australia, Iranian ambassador denies connection to antisemitic attacks

Iranian ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi leaves the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 27, 2025. (Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP)

Iranian Ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi, arriving at Sydney Airport before an expulsion deadline, rejects as “lies” Australia’s accusation that Tehran directed antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

Australia gave Sadeghi 72 hours on Tuesday to leave the country, the nation’s first expulsion of an ambassador since World War II. Three other Iranian embassy officials were given seven days to leave.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was briefed by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation on Monday on evidence of payments to criminals that he said linked two attacks, on a synagogue and a kosher restaurant, to offshore individuals and Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“These are all baseless allegations and lies,” Sadeghi tells reporters from local television networks Nine and Seven at Sydney Airport.

Earlier in Canberra, Sadeghi came outside his residence to say goodbye.

“I love Australian people, bye bye,” he said, waving to television cameras.

UK, France, Germany launch process to impose snapback sanctions on Iran

An Iranian flag flutters in front of the Iranian Consulate, where Iranian diplomats meet counterparts from Germany, Britain and France for renewed nuclear talks, in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 25, 2025. (Yasin AKGUL / AFP)

Britain, France and Germany launch a 30-day process to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, a step likely to stoke tensions two months after Israel and the United States bombed Iran, according to a letter sent by E3 to the UN Security Council seen by Reuters.

The trio, known as the E3, say in a statement they had decided to trigger the so-called snapback mechanism before they lose the ability in mid-October to restore sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.

They have held several rounds of talks with Iran since Israel and the United States struck its nuclear installations in mid-June, aiming to agree to defer the mechanism, but they deemed that talks in Geneva on Tuesday did not yield sufficiently tangible commitments from Iran.

The E3 have pressed ahead now over accusations that Iran has violated the 2015 deal that aimed to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. The United States, which was party to that deal, pulled out under President Donald Trump in 2018, and held failed indirect negotiations earlier this year with Tehran.

The E3, whose ministers informed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of their decision yesterday, says they hoped that Iran would engage by the end of September to provide commitments over its nuclear program that will convince them to defer concrete action.

Iran has previously warned of a “harsh response” if sanctions are reinstated.

More Palestinian groups in southern Lebanon hand their weapons over to army

Lebanese soldiers stand guard outside an army base in the southern city of Tyre, on August 28, 2025, upon arrival of trucks transporting weapons handed over by armed Palestinian groups in refugee camps. (MAHMOUD ZAYYAT / AFP)

Palestinian groups in three refugee camps in south Lebanon hand over heavy weapons to the Lebanese army today, under a disarmament deal reached earlier this year, say Lebanese and Palestinian authorities.

During a visit to Beirut in May, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun agreed that weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian camps would be handed over to the Lebanese authorities. The implementation of the deal — part of Lebanese authorities’ decision to disarm all non-state groups — began last week as Abbas’s Fatah movement surrendered its weapons in south Beirut’s Burj al-Barajneh camp.

The official Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee says that “heavy weapons belonging to the factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Rashidieh, Al-Bass and Burj al-Shemali camps were handed over to the Lebanese army.”

Abbas’s Fatah is the most prominent PLO faction. Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are allied to Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group, are not part of the organization. By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the Palestinian camps — where Fatah, Hamas and other armed groups are present — and leaves the factions to handle security.

The statement says six truckloads of weapons were removed from Rashidieh, and one truck each from the other two locations, adding that the process will continue in the rest of Lebanon’s Palestinian camps.

Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations agency UNRWA.

US envoy Tom Barrack apologizes for calling Lebanese reporters ‘animalistic’

US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria and Lebanon Thomas Barrack delivers a statement following a meeting with Lebanon's president at the Presidential Palace in Baabda on August 26, 2025. (Anwar Amro/AFP)

A US diplomat apologizes for using the word “animalistic” while calling for a gaggle of reporters to quiet down during a press conference in Lebanon earlier this week.

Tom Barrack, who is the US ambassador to Turkey and envoy to Syria and has also been on a temporary assignment in Lebanon, says he didn’t intend to use the word “in a derogatory manner” but that his comments had been “inappropriate.”

Barrack visited Beirut along with a delegation of US officials on Tuesday to discuss efforts by the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah and implementation of the ceasefire agreement that ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah in November.

At the start of a press conference at the presidential palace, journalists shouted at Barrack to move to the podium after he started speaking from another spot in the room. After taking the podium, Barrack told the crowd of journalists to “act civilized, act kind, act tolerant.” He threatened to end the conference early otherwise: “The moment that this starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic, we’re gone.”

The comment sparked an outcry, with the Lebanese press syndicate calling for an apology and calling for a boycott of Barrack’s visits if none was issued. The Presidential Palace also issued a statement expressing regret for the comments made by “one of our guests” and thanking journalists for their “hard work.”

In an interview with Mario Nawfal, a media personality on the X platform, an excerpt of which was published Thursday, Barrack says: “Animalistic was a word that I didn’t use in a derogatory manner, I was just saying ‘can we calm down, can we find some tolerance and kindness, let’s be civilized.’ But it was inappropriate to do when the media was just doing their job.”

He adds, “I should have been more generous with my time and more tolerant myself.”

Israeli tourists attacked by anti-Israel protesters after departing cruise ship in Crete

Israeli passengers disembark from the Crown Iris cruise ship in Heraklion, Greece on August 28, 2025. (Times of Israel)

HERAKLION, Greece — Israeli tourists are briefly blocked and attacked by anti-Israel protesters when departing from the Crown Iris cruise ship in Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete.

The protesters, some waving Palestinian flags, clash with police who were seeking to secure the passageway of the Israeli tourists.

Passenger Ido Nachum says he was escorted from the port towards the town center by police officers, but tells The Times of Israel that around a dozen protesters attacked and accosted them, physically assaulting the police officers who were forced to call for backup. Nachum says that the protesters were masked and wearing keffiyehs and that he felt “a bit scared.”

Police then advised the Israelis to return to the ship, as there appeared to be protesters waiting at all routes from the port.

“It is a shame,” says passenger Marlyn Zohar, as she stood in the port. “We came from Israel, we wanted to enjoy ourselves.”

The ship docked without incident yesterday at Rhodes, though under heavy security from armed officers. The ship had been scheduled to sail from Rhodes to Nikanos but changed its destination due to bad weather.

Katz joins condemnations of Haaretz op-ed: ‘Antisemitic incitement’

Defense Minister Israel Katz speaks to press at the site of a missile impact in Holon on June 19, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)

Defense Minister Israel Katz joins IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in condemning Haaretz over its criticism of Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, calling it a “despicable blood libel” and “antisemitic incitement.”

Firebrand Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy castigated Bluth as a “general of bloodshed” and a “war criminal,” and called him an “uberkommandant,” an apparent reference to a Nazi-style military rank.

In a statement, Katz says he “fully backs” Bluth and all IDF commanders and soldiers operating in the West Bank, praising their efforts to defend Israeli settlers and safeguard the country’s security. He noted that their operations have led to an 80% drop in terror attacks in the West Bank and “saved many lives.”

That figure appears to refer to an IDF and Shin Bet report from April, which noted that during Ramadan this year there were only three major attacks originating from the West Bank, compared to 27 last year — an 80% decrease. Security forces also arrested 401 wanted suspects, eliminated 13 gunmen and seized 105 weapons during the same period.

“The attempt by Haaretz to smear him and the IDF… serves enemy propaganda and weakens the fight against terror,” Katz says. “The IDF is the shield of the Jewish people, and no hostile element, inside or out, will be allowed to undermine its legitimacy or the justice of our cause.”

7 extremist settlers arrested over past month freed to house arrest

Seven of eight West Bank settlers arrested by security forces earlier this month were released to house arrest today by the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court, according to the right-wing legal aid group Honenu.

One of them remains in custody.

The eight were arrested in three separate incidents over the course of the past month, amid simmering tensions between extremist settlers and security forces in the West Bank.

The arrest of five of the eight was announced on Sunday by the police and Shin Bet, which said they were suspected of engaging in “grave and violent activities against security forces.” They were detained as part of an ongoing investigation, whose details are under a gag order until September 3.

“The Shin Bet and Israel Police view these acts of terror as a grave threat to national security and will continue to work to thwart such activity and to prosecute perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law,” the agencies said at the time.

The night before the five were arrested, a group of 30-40 settlers set fire to an olive grove adjacent to a Shin Bet facility in central Israel, in an attempt to obstruct the probe currently underway, Channel 13 News reported.

In letter, hundreds of UN staff push rights chief to call Gaza war a genocide

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk addresses media personnel in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

Hundreds of UN staff at the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk have asked him to explicitly describe the Gaza war as an unfolding genocide, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

The letter sent yesterday said the staff consider that the legal criteria for genocide in the nearly two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza have been met, citing the scale, scope and nature of violations documented in the Strip.

“OHCHR has a strong legal and moral responsibility to denounce acts of genocide,” said the letter signed by the Staff Committee on behalf of over 500 employees. “Failing to denounce an unfolding genocide undermines the credibility of the UN and the human rights system itself,” it added.

It cited the international body’s perceived moral failure for not doing more to stop the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israel adamantly rejects accusations of genocide in Gaza, saying it makes an effort to minimize civilian casualties and accusing Hamas of embedding among noncombatant populations.

The war began with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel, in which invading terrorists killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages. The ensuing war in Gaza has killed almost 63,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, while a global hunger monitor says part of the enclave is suffering from famine — a determination Israel disputes.

Some rights groups such as Amnesty International have already accused Israel of committing genocide. UN officials have in the past said that it is up to international courts to determine genocide.

Turk, who has repeatedly condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza and warned of the increasing risk of atrocities there, says the letter raised important concerns.

“I know we all share a feeling of moral indignation at the horrors we are witnessing, as well as frustration in the face of the international community’s inability to bring this situation to an end,” he says in a copy of his response seen by Reuters, calling for employees to “remain united as an Office in the face of such adversity.”

Palestinian reports: Palestinian amputee arrested after being shoved to ground

Palestinian media reports that Sa’eed al-Amour, a resident of Khirbet al-Rakiz in the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank, was arrested after being assaulted by settlers.

In video footage from today, settlers are seen walking in orchards near the village and knocking the Palestinian man to the ground. He is then seen walking alongside Israeli soldiers who, according to the reports, arrested him. The IDF has yet to comment on the incident.

Al-Amour is an amputee. In April, he was reportedly shot by settlers during clashes around the village, an incident that led to his leg being amputated.

1/2 הבוקר ברכיז: מתנחלים פולשים למטע זיתים ותוקפים את השייח סעיד, בעל האדמה, שנורה על ידי מתנחל לפני מספר חודשים ואיבד את רגלו. משטרה מגיעה ועוצרת את סעיד עצמו, בעוד המתנחלים ממשיכים לפלוש למטע. https://t.co/otFz4lQfz3 pic.twitter.com/BGGydhLxov

— מחוץ לעדר (@masafering) August 28, 2025

IDF: Air force strikes Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including rocket launcher

The IDF says that its aircraft struck several targets of Hezbollah terror infrastructure, including a rocket launcher, in multiple areas of southern Lebanon.

According to the military, the presence of the targets constituted a violation of understandings between Israel and Lebanon.

عاجل | أغار الطيران الحربي الاسرائيلي منذ قليل مستهدفًا محيط بلدتي #المحمودية والعيشية بالإضافة إلى مجرى نهر #الخردلي ووادي برغز، فيما يواصل تحليق الطيران على مستويات منخفضة في أجواء الجنوب اللبناني pic.twitter.com/ee3kotRxSl

— Al Modon – المدن (@almodononline) August 28, 2025

Egyptian FM: Israel not responding to ceasefire efforts, is not changing its position

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty arrives at the Rose Garden for an interview on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at United Nations Headquarters in New York, September 22, 2024. (Photo by Bryan R. SMITH / AFP)

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, speaking at a press conference about efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, says, “The Qatari and Egyptian mediation efforts have not stopped, despite the unfortunate lack of responsiveness from the Israeli side and its insistence on its position.”

Alongside his Qatari counterpart, he adds, “We will continue our pressure and remain in contact with regional and international parties so that they press the Israeli side to accept the ceasefire proposal, which is based on the initiative presented by the American mediator [Steve] Witkoff.”

Hamas said last week that it accepted an outline for an agreement in which 10 of the living Israeli hostages the terror group holds would be released during a 60-day truce. Israel has not responded to the proposal, instead pushing for a comprehensive deal to end the war and release all of the 50 hostages held by terror groups in the Strip. At least 20 of the captives are thought by Israel to be alive.

Hamas-run health ministry says 71 killed in Gaza in past 24 hours

Displaced Palestinians evacuate Gaza City toward the southern areas of the Gaza Strip, in Nuseirat, on August 28, 2025.(Eyad BABA / AFP)

The IDF killed at least 16 Palestinians across Gaza today, Hamas-run health officials say, and wounded dozens in the south of the Strip, as residents reported intensified military bombardment in the suburbs of Gaza City.

Thursday’s deaths took to 71 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said.

The IDF is preparing to take Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban center, an operation that is expected to displace the roughly 1 million Palestinians sheltering there.

Residents there said families were fleeing their homes, with most heading towards the coast, as Israel forces bombarded the eastern suburbs of Shejaiya, Zeitoun, and Sabra.

Earlier today, the IDF said its troops were continuing to strike Hamas and other terror groups across the Strip, and had destroyed dozens of targets over the past day as part of preparations for a broader offensive to seize Gaza City.

In southern Gaza, dozens of Palestinians were admitted to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis with gunshot wounds, according to a doctor there who says the IDF had opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians gathered near an aid distribution site.

Mohammad Saqer, the head of nursing, tells Reuters most of the patients had been admitted with gunshot wounds to the upper parts of the body and many were in critical condition.

The patients had reported being shot as they sought to collect food from a distribution site in nearby Rafah, he says.

The military had no immediate comment. It has acknowledged firing warning shots at crowds near the distribution sites but has said death tolls at the sites are inflated.

The Hamas-run health ministry also says that four more people, including two children, died of malnutrition and starvation in the enclave, raising deaths from such causes to 317 people, including 121 children, since the war started.

Israel disputes the health ministry’s fatality figures and on Wednesday asked a global hunger monitor to retract an assessment that found that Gaza City and surrounding areas are suffering from famine.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this post. 

IDF: Air force intercepted another drone from Yemen

The IDF says that the air force intercepted another UAV launched from Yemen.

According to the military, the drone was downed before it crossed into Israeli territory. Alerts were sounded in open areas in line with protocol.

The interception comes amid repeated attempts by the Iran-backed Houthi terror group in Yemen to target Israel with long-range drones and missiles since the outbreak of the war in Gaza nearly two years ago.

France reportedly considering opening embassy in West Bank after recognizing Palestinian state

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Prince Rahim al-Hussaini, Aga Khan V, at the presidential Elysee Palace for a working lunch in Paris on July 11, 2025. (Thomas Samson/AFP)

France is weighing the opening of an embassy in Palestinian Authority territory in the West Bank, alongside the opening of a Palestinian embassy in France, Ofer Bronchtein, a longtime adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron on Israeli-Palestinian affairs, tells Channel 12.

Bronchtein says the move — under consideration at a time of rising diplomatic tensions between Jerusalem and Paris — would be a natural step following France’s promised recognition of a Palestinian state in September at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

The French embassy would likely be located in Ramallah, he adds, reiterating his view that a Palestinian state is in Israel’s interest. He argues that the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre would not have happened if there had been a Palestinian state, claiming the stability such a state would provide would have prevented the attack.

The French Embassy in Israel did not respond to a request for comment on Bronchtein’s remarks.

The Palestinian Authority governs day-to-day affairs in Palestinian population centers, including Ramallah, where it is based.

The Israeli government opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state and has rejected recognition of one as a “prize for terror.”

Cabinet reportedly to discuss applying sovereignty to parts of West Bank

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes his cabinet on June 18, 2025.(Haim Zach/GPO)

The cabinet is expected to discuss applying sovereignty to certain parts of the West Bank on Sunday, Channel 12 reports, amid growing calls for annexation among right-wing Israeli lawmakers.

According to the network, the discussion comes in light of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s announcement that he will advance a major settlement construction project in the contentious E1 area in the West Bank, between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim

There is no suggestion that a vote on the matter is expected.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on the reported Sunday discussion or the issues on the cabinet’s agenda.

The Ynet news site reported this morning that Netanyahu is holding closed-door talks with senior ministers on the issue of sovereignty in the West Bank. While the government has weighed similar moves many times in the past without results, details of a closed-door meeting of senior officials last week, obtained by Ynet, suggest that “the political climate may create a rare opening for such a step.”

In that meeting, Netanyahu convened with officials including Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, and Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, according to Ynet.

Dermer reportedly voiced clear support for annexation, emphasizing that “the question is over which parts.”

Likud MK Avichai Boaron said in a Hebrew-language radio interview this week that “the people of Israel” want West Bank sovereignty and that this will happen “in parallel” with the United Nations General Assembly in September, where France and other Western allies have pledged to recognize a Palestinian state.

Some cabinet ministers, such as Smotrich, Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strock, and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, are also said to be pressing for the move ahead of the UNGA.

Last month, the Knesset approved a non-binding motion in favor of annexing the West Bank by a vote of 71-13.

Ben Gvir seeking to outlaw protests blocking major roads, seeks AG’s approval

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir leads an Otzma Yehudit faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on June 30, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is seeking the approval of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara for a policy paper that would outlaw protests blocking major roads and protests in synagogues.

The new policy would prohibit protests blocking highways and major routes, as well as those leading to hospitals, isolated towns, emergency routes and Ben-Gurion Airportֿ.

The policy paper comes after years of anti-government protesters, as well as demonstrations on behalf of the hostages held in Gaza, blocking roads in Tel Aviv and elsewhere. Two major days of protest for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal this month saw demonstrators block major highways.

The policy would also require protesters to obtain approval from the police, who Ben Gvir oversees, in order to block roads within cities.

Protests in synagogues, Ben Gvir writes, would likewise be prohibited based on the claim that they impede freedom of religion.

Ben Gvir has feuded regularly with Baharav-Miara, whom the government voted recently to push out — a move that was frozen by the High Court until further notice. He has asked her approval for the new policy, according to the Haaretz daily, based on an April agreement that requires him to confer with the attorney general and police commissioner before setting policy on protests and freedom of expression.

Netanyahu decries ‘blood libel’ against IDF general tarred as ‘war criminal’ in Haaretz op-ed

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a Newsmax event in Jerusalem, on August 13, 2025. (Shalev Shalom/POOL)

Prime Minister Netanyahu “strongly rejects” what he calls “vile accusations” made against Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth in a Haaretz opinion column, after Bluth remarked that the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir would “pay a heavy price” following a shooting attack by one of its residents.

The premier “strongly rejects the vile accusations against [Bluth] and against the settlers in Judea and Samaria. These are antisemitic blood libels characteristic of our enemies around the world,” writes his office in a statement, using the Biblical term for the West Bank.

“The prime minister expresses his full support for and strengthens Maj. Gen. Bluth and the IDF soldiers who operate day by day to eradicate terror in Judea and Samaria. They do so with determination and with uncompromising morality, and we all salute them,” adds the statement.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir similarly defended Bluth, hours after Haaretz published a piece by firebrand columnist Gideon Levy in which Bluth is described as a “general of bloodshed,” a “war criminal,” and an “uberkommandant,” an apparent reference to a Nazi-style military rank.

After an attack by a resident of al-Mughayyir, the IDF uprooted thousands of olive trees in the village and imposed a three-day curfew. Bluth’s remarks were criticized for seeming to endorse collective punishment, though the IDF later said the uprooting of trees was an act of operational necessity to clear vegetation that enabled the gunman to flee, and senior officers emphasized his moral conduct and commitment to distinguishing civilians from terrorists.

Netanyahu’s statement accuses Haaretz of “allowing nonstop incitement,” after Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has called on the IDF to cut off contact with Haaretz in light of the column.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this post. 

Communications minister urges IDF to cut off Haaretz after columnist calls general ‘war criminal’

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi at a committee meeting at the Knesset, June 24, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi calls the Haaretz newspaper “antisemitic” and urges the military to sever any links with the publication after one of its columnists called an IDF general a “war criminal.”

“The Haaretz newspaper continues to show its antisemitic, anti-Zionist face that incites against IDF soldiers,” Karhi writes on X.

Karhi’s post is accompanied by a screenshot of a headline from this morning by firebrand columnist Gideon Levy, who called Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth a “general of bloodshed” and a “war criminal.”

Bluth sparked controversy by saying a West Bank village would “pay a heavy price” after a resident committed a shooting attack.

IDF Chief Eyal Zamir has also spoke out in defense of Bluth. Karhi says the military should not “suffice with condemnations” and should cut off contact with Haaretz.

“It cannot be that senior IDF officers read the slime of Gideon Levy and other haters of Israel in the newspaper,” Karhi writes, urging Defense Minister Israel Katz and Zamir to “immediately cut off contact with the Haaretz newspaper.”

The controversy is playing out after, over the weekend, the army uprooted thousands of olive trees in the village of al-Mughayyir following the shooting attack last week by a resident of the village. A three-day curfew was also imposed on the area, lifted Sunday morning.

Bluth, visiting the scene last Thursday night, declared the village would “pay a heavy price” for the attack, language widely seen as implying collective punishment. In a clarification later, the IDF confirmed the uprooting but said it was an “operational necessity” to clear vegetation that had enabled the gunman to flee.

Karhi has led an effort to halt any state subscriptions or advertising in the left-leaning daily.

Drone from Yemen successfully intercepted, IDF says

Following the hostile aircraft infiltration sirens that sounded a short while ago in the Bnei Netzarim area near the Gaza Strip, the IDF says a UAV launched from Yemen was successfully intercepted by the Israeli Air Force.

Sirens activated in Bnei Netzarim over hostile aircraft, IDF says

The IDF says red alert sirens have been activated over a hostile aircraft infiltration in the Bnei Netzarim area near the Gaza border, details under review.

New regulations on handling medication in state institutions to take effect next year

The Welfare and Social Services Ministry says it will enforce new regulations for the administration and storage of medication in state-funded institutions such as boarding schools and employment centers, the Walla news site reports.

The directive, developed over three years, will take effect on January 1, 2026.

Until now, the distribution of medication in these facilities has been carried out without uniform guidelines. The ministry says the new policy will ensure greater oversight and consistency across institutions.

As part of the directive, facilities will be required to report any errors in administering medication.

“For the first time in 77 years, there is a clear procedure that protects both patients and staff,” says Dr. Sagit Arbel Alon, the ministry’s chief physician and the initiative’s lead. “Until now, medication was distributed without legal coverage and without training, and this led to many problems in the field. This procedure saves everyone – both the recipients of services and the caregivers themselves.”

IDF chief defends general who said West Bank village would pay ‘heavy price’ for shooting attack

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir speaks at a handover ceremony for the head of the Military Colleges at the Glilot base, August 14, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir strongly condemns what he calls an “inciting and disgraceful” attack against Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, who sparked controversy by saying a West Bank village would “pay a heavy price” after a resident committed a shooting attack.

Zamir’s statement comes hours after the publication of a piece by firebrand Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy in which he castigates Bluth as a “general of bloodshed” and a “war criminal,” and terms him an “uberkommandant,” an apparent reference to a Nazi-style military rank.

Over the weekend, the army uprooted thousands of olive trees in the village of al-Mughayyir, covering some 300 dunams (74 acres), following the shooting attack last week by a resident of the village. A three-day curfew was also imposed on the area, lifted Sunday morning.

Bluth, visiting the scene last Thursday night, declared the village would “pay a heavy price” for the attack, language widely seen as implying collective punishment. In a clarification later, the IDF confirmed the uprooting but said it was an “operational necessity” to clear vegetation that had enabled the gunman to flee.

The military stressed that Bluth “acts out of operational considerations and in accordance with the law” and rejected claims of punitive intent. A senior officer added that Bluth instructed troops to distinguish between civilians and terrorists while aiming to minimize disruption to daily life in the area.

“General Bluth is a combat officer of the first order, moral and ethical, who has worked for years, day and night, for the security of the State of Israel and its residents, and specifically for the residents of Judea and Samaria,” Zamir says in the statement, using the biblical term for the West Bank. “Using this twisted imagery against him crosses every red line.”

Netanyahu denies that Israel considered ceding Mount Dov area in deal with Syria

View of Mount Dov, also known as Shebaa farms, from the village of Ghajar on the Lebanon border, August 2, 2023. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denies as “fake news” a report by the Kan public broadcaster that Israel seriously considered ceding the Mount Dov area in exchange for Syria giving up its claim to the Golan Heights in security talks with Damascus weeks ago.

“The claim that Israel supposedly considered handing over Mount Dov is absolute fake news,” the PMO says in response to the report.

The report concerned the Mount Dov region, an area on the Golan’s border also known as the Shebaa Farms, which is claimed by Israel, Lebanon and Syria.

According to Kan, Israel examined the possibility of transferring the area in return for Damascus suspending its sovereignty claim to the Golan, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed. The report said officials explored the “political feasibility” of the move, which would require approval from 80 Knesset members, during talks that were suspended following sectarian violence in Syria’s southern Sweida province earlier this month.

The report notes that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa told Arab journalists this week that Damascus cannot join the Abraham Accords while the Golan remains under Israeli control. At the same time, Sharaa confirmed that his government is in “advanced” talks with Israel to pursue a security deal based on the 1974 UN-brokered disengagement lines following the Yom Kippur War, which created a ceasefire zone between Israeli- and Syrian-held territory on the Golan Heights.

Germany launches drive to ramp up military enlistment without conscription for now

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz takes part in a discussion in Berlin on May 26, 2025. (Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)

Germany’s leaders on Wednesday launched a drive to attract more people into voluntary military service as the country scrambles to strengthen its armed forces in the face of growing fears about Russian aggression, a project that some in the governing coalition say doesn’t go far enough.

Germany, a leading NATO and European Union member, has moved to modernize its long-neglected military since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That year, it set up a 100 billion euro ($117 billion) special fund to modernize the Bundeswehr, much of which has been committed to procuring new equipment.

New Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition this year pushed plans through parliament to enable higher defense spending by loosening strict rules on incurring debt. Merz has said repeatedly he wants the Bundeswehr to be “the strongest conventional army in Europe.”

The government is redoubling its efforts to attract more recruits, which the military struggled to do in recent years. Germany had some 181,000 active servicepeople at the end of last year. But the government says it needs to increase that in the long term to 260,000, plus some 200,000 reservists.

Merz’s cabinet recently approved his plan for a new military service system. It aims to draw sufficient recruits without reviving compulsory conscription for men, which was suspended in 2011, but leaves the door open for parliament to do so if not enough people volunteer. The plan still needs parliamentary approval.

Report: Israeli intel helped Australia as it uncovered Iran’s role in antisemitic attacks

This handout photo taken and released by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on December 10, 2024 shows Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (C) and members of the local Jewish community visiting the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 10, 2024, after it was set ablaze on December 6. (Handout / DEPARTMENT OF PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET / AFP)

A tip from Israeli intelligence helped Australia in its investigation of Iran’s orchestration of two antisemitic attacks last year, Sky News reports, citing anonymous sources.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organization had already determined that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind the attacks on a Sydney kosher restaurant and Melbourne synagogue, both late last year, the network reports. But Israeli intelligence gave ASIO a lead connected to one of the firebombings, the report says.

Sky says the tip indicates that the intelligence relationship between the two countries remains strong despite a major diplomatic spat between Jerusalem and Canberra.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Iran on Tuesday of being behind the attacks, expelled Tehran’s ambassador, and said Australia will designate the IRGC as a terror group.

In 2017, Israeli intelligence informed ASIO of a plot to bomb an Etihad Airways flight from Sydney, Sky reports.

Russia kills 10 in Kyiv in second-largest barrage of war, Ukraine says

Smoke rises following an explosion during a night mass drone and missile strikes on Kyiv on August 28, 2025, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)

Russian missiles and drones ripped through apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv this morning, killing at least 10 people in what President Volodymyr Zelensky says represents a clear disregard for peace negotiations.

Russia has rained down aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities despite US President Donald Trump’s push for a ceasefire and even as it talks up the importance of ending the war triggered by its February 2022 full-scale invasion of the neighboring country.

The attack came as Russia fired 629 drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight — the second-highest figure of the entire war — Ukraine’s air force says. The air force says on social media that Moscow had launched 598 drones and 31 missiles — including two hypersonic Kinzhal missiles and nine ballistic missiles, whose speed make them hard to intercept.

At dawn, residents and emergency service workers were clearing debris from streets strewn with broken glass and building materials, an AFP journalist at the scene of one strike in central Kyiv reports.

The attack had blasted a five-story crater in one apartment block, ripping the building in two, images posted by Zelensky show.

EU chief Antonio Costa says he is “horrified” by the fresh round of Russian strikes, which also damaged a building of the bloc’s diplomatic mission.

“My thoughts are with the Ukrainian victims and also with the staff of the EU delegation, whose building was damaged in this deliberate Russian strike,” European Council president Costa writes on X.

Zelensky calls for a tough response from Ukraine’s allies, including fresh sanctions.

He also calls on Russia’s ally China and EU member Hungary to take a much tougher stance against Moscow.

“All deadlines have already been broken, dozens of opportunities for diplomacy ruined. Russia must feel accountable for every strike, for every day of this war,” he says.

Moscow had fired ballistic and cruise missiles as well as Iranian-designed Shahed drones from different directions to “systematically” target residential buildings, he says.

Last month the capital suffered one of its worst-ever attacks when strikes killed more than 30 people, including five children.

IDF says it destroyed dozens of targets over past day ahead of Gaza City offensive

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip, in a photo cleared for publication, on August 28, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says its troops continue to strike Hamas and other terror groups across the Gaza Strip, destroying dozens of targets over the past day, as part of preparations for a broader offensive to seize Gaza City in the north of the enclave.

According to the military, Golani Brigade forces under the 36th Division killed several gunmen and destroyed terror infrastructure in southern Gaza. The 188th Brigade also operated in the southern city of Khan Younis, working to secure control over the Magen Oz corridor linking the eastern and western parts of the city, and struck Hamas positions in the area.

In northern Gaza, the IDF’s 162nd Division targeted terrorists in addition to both aboveground and underground infrastructure. The Givati Brigade reported destroying several tunnels in Jabalia, while the 401st Brigade spotted and killed three Hamas operatives with air support.

Rami Heuberger, prominent actor and director, dies at 61

Rami Heuberger, a prominent Israeli actor and director, has died at age 61.

Hebrew media report that the cause of death was cancer. Heuberger had publicly revealed the diagnosis in April.

Heuberger acted and directed in dozens of plays, movies and television programs. Among his credits were the 1993 Oscar winner “Schindler’s List,” the 2023 biopic “Golda,” and the TV series “In Treatment.” In Israel, he is also known for acting in the 1990s sketch comedy show “Hahamishia Hakamerit,” or “The Chamber Quintet.”

Heuberger is survived by four children and one grandchild, Channel 12 reports.

השחקן הענק רמי הויברגר הלך הלילה לעולמו, בבית חולים, ממחלת הסרטן. בן 61 היה במותו pic.twitter.com/YA2EgAP9ak

— Sagi Bin Nun שגיא בן נון (@sagibi) August 28, 2025

IDF reportedly preparing to arrest Haredi draft evaders when they head to Uman

Orthodox Jews pray at the gravestone of Rabbi Nachman, the great grandson of the founder of Hasidic movement, to mark the Jewish new year in the town of Uman, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

The IDF is planning to arrest ultra-Orthodox men who have not responded to draft orders, on their way out of the country as they head to an annual pilgrimage to Uman, Ukraine, for Rosh Hashanah, say Hebrew media reports.

Tens of thousands travel annually to Uman for the Jewish New Year to be at the gravesite of the Hasidic sage Rabbi Nahman of Breslov, who lived at the turn of the 19th century.

But the Ynet news site reports that now, leading rabbis of the Breslov Hasidic movement are urging their followers to forgo the pilgrimage if they are facing draft orders. The rabbis reportedly fear that if the ultra-Orthodox men are arrested, they may agree to be drafted in order to avoid prison time.

“The draft decree is a decree of annihilation on its face, and certainly let us not even think of falling into the trap they’ve laid,” the rabbis write in a letter, according to Ynet.

The warning comes as the IDF is reportedly planning to station military police at ports of entry across Israel, including Ben Gurion Airport, in order to arrest draft evaders. Those evading conscription are prohibited from leaving the country.

The pilgrimage to Uman for the Jewish New Year next month has become an increasingly urgent priority for Haredi leaders, who have asked for permission for Haredim to head to the site and reportedly worked to secure NIS 10 million ($3 million) in government funds to facilitate travel to Ukraine via Moldova.

The discussions over Uman come amid a national debate over the longstanding Haredi exemption from mandatory military service. Some 80,000 Haredi men are eligible for the draft at a time when the IDF says it is facing an urgent manpower shortage.

Haredi leaders have instructed their followers to avoid the draft, portraying it as a threat to their way of life, and are pushing to enshrine mass exemptions in law.

Hostage’s father: ‘I have nothing to lose,’ will do ‘extreme things’ if needed

Ofir Braslavski, father of hostage Rom Braslavski, addresses a rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, August 17, 2025. (Paulina Patiner/ Hostages Families Forum)

Ofir Braslavski, the father of hostage Rom Braslavski, tells Channel 12 that he is prepared to do “extreme things” to free his son.

“It can’t be that after we see him dying — my child — and tortured, we are carrying on as normal, as if nothing happened,” he says in an interview this morning. “It’s inconceivable, I can’t understand it.”

Last month, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group released footage of Rom Braslavski, appearing emaciated and in dire medical condition. At a mass rally for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal on Tuesday,  his father called the video reminiscent of “the horrors of the Holocaust, seeing him tortured, suffering.”

In today’s interview, Ofir says he will not rule out any action to free his son.

“I can’t be silent anymore, and I’ll tell you: Anything I can do, I will do,” he says. “I don’t care. Anything I can do, I will, and even extreme things if I need to. I have nothing to lose.”

The government has indicated that it is not accepting a temporary ceasefire deal on the table that would free 10 living hostages, and will proceed with a military offensive in Gaza City while pressing for a comprehensive deal to end the war.

Israeli official accused of Nevada sex crime ordered to appear in court via Zoom

ILLUSTRATIVE: Las Vegas Police parked on the strip, January 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

An Israeli official accused of trying to meet a 15-year-old girl for sex outside Las Vegas has been ordered to appear via video link next week after he missed his arraignment hearing on Wednesday, local media report.

Tom Alexandrovich, a senior cybersecurity official with the Israeli government, was one of eight people arrested as part of a multi-week operation by Nevada and federal authorities targeting “child sex predators,” according to an August 15 statement from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

He was due to be at a court in Henderson, just outside Las Vegas, on Wednesday for a felony arraignment hearing, according to court records.

Local media, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal and local news station KLAS-TV, say he skipped the hearing. The Review-Journal quotes his lawyers as saying they had agreed with the district attorney’s office that Alexandrovich did not have to appear in person.

The judge is quoted by the newspaper as saying the district attorney’s office had no authority to make that agreement and ordered his appearance next week. The outlets say Alexandrovich’s lawyers arranged for him to appear remotely via Zoom.

Messages left by Reuters with the district attorney’s office were not returned. The court docket shows that a new arraignment hearing has been set for September 3. Alexandrovich’s lawyers say in an email that their client “will appear by Zoom as permitted by the Court.” Attempts to reach Alexandrovich have been unsuccessful.

Alexandrovich was arrested in Henderson after arranging to meet a decoy posing as a teenage girl, according to a police report cited by local media. He quickly posted bail and returned to Israel, drawing international scrutiny and raising questions over whether the US or Israeli governments had exerted any pressure to speed his release.

In comments to the local media, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, whose office has jurisdiction over Las Vegas and Henderson, called the bail conditions “standard” and said there had been no special treatment. The US State Department has said the American government had no involvement in the case.

After reported raid in Syria, defense minister says IDF fighting ‘on all fronts day and night’

Defense Minister Israel Katz posts on social media that Israeli troops are fighting “day and night” across fronts, following Syrian reports of an Israeli commando helicopter raid southwest of Damascus.

“Our forces are operating on all battle fronts day and night for the security of Israel,” Katz posts on X.

He does not indicate what he is referring to, but Syrian army sources said Wednesday that a unit of the Israeli army conducted an airborne landing on a strategic hilltop southwest of Damascus and carried out a two-hour operation before leaving the area.

They said the troops landed near Jabal Manea, which was once a major air defense base operated by Iran prior to the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s rule, before it was destroyed by Israel.

A number of troops from the new Syrian army are positioned at the base.

Police raid for Nazi-looted painting finds tapestry instead; Argentina vows continued search

Argentine authorities raiding the former home of a fugitive Nazi officer were unable to find an 18th-century Italian portrait believed to have been looted 80 years ago from a Jewish collector, the public prosecutor says.

Authorities vow to keep pressing their search for the painting, known as “Portrait of a Lady (Contessa Colleoni).” The work by Italian baroque artist Giuseppe Ghislandi belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a leading Dutch art dealer who fled the Netherlands in mid-May 1940 and died during his escape. It is featured in a database of stolen work and recognized as “unreturned” art by the Dutch culture ministry.

📢 “Retrato de una dama”, el valioso cuadro robado por los nazis que hallaron en Mar del Plata.

El periodista neerlandés Peter Schouten charló con Diego Ramos y el equipo de #RamosGenerales.

👉🏻 https://t.co/2FN5w8SfdO pic.twitter.com/xNRYK0d4ft

— Radio Nacional AM 870 (@NacionalAM870) August 26, 2025

The artwork was found on a real estate website advertising a home sale in Argentina, according to the Dutch newspaper AD. The property is believed to have belonged to one of the daughters of Friedrich Kadgien, a senior Nazi official who fled Europe after the war and resettled in Buenos Aires, where he died in 1978, La Nacion reported.

But when police raided the home on Tuesday, to their surprise, hanging on the wall behind the green velvet sofa where the painting had been pictured was a large pastoral tapestry of horses.

The federal public prosecutor’s office says the raid had turned up potentially relevant German documents and prints from the 1940s, but not the sought-after stolen painting.

Two Microsoft workers fired after occupying president’s office to protest ties to Israel

FILE - A Microsoft sign and logo are pictured at the company's headquarters, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Washington. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond, File)

Two Microsoft employees are fired after taking part in a sit-in at the office of the company’s president to protest the firm’s alleged ties to Israel.

A Microsoft spokesperson says the workers were terminated following “serious breaches of company policies and our code of conduct” stemming from “the break-in at the executive offices.”

Anna Hattle and Riki Fameli received voicemails informing them that they were fired, the protest group No Azure for Apartheid says in a statement.

Azure is Microsoft’s primary cloud computing platform, and Microsoft has said it is reviewing a report in the British newspaper The Guardian this month that the IDF used it to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

The workers were among seven protesters who were arrested on Tuesday after occupying the office of company President Brad Smith. The other five were former Microsoft workers and people outside the company.

“We are here because Microsoft continues to provide Israel with the tools it needs to commit genocide while gaslighting and misdirecting its own workers about this reality,” Hattle says in a statement.

No Azure for Apartheid has demanded that the company cut its ties to Israel and pay reparations to Palestinians. Smith said on Tuesday: “We respect the freedom of expression that everyone in this country enjoys as long as they do it lawfully.”

Other Microsoft workers have also protested the company’s ties to Israel. Eighteen people were arrested in a similar protest in a plaza at the headquarters last week. Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella, and in April it fired two others who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Top Biden aide backs withholding weapons from Israel after opposing policy last year

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv on December 12, 2024. (Abir Sultan/Pool/AFP)

Former US national security adviser Jake Sullivan says he would back withholding weapons from Israel after opposing such calls during the Biden administration.

“The thing that we were grappling with throughout all of 2024, which is not the case today, is that Israel was under attack from multiple fronts. It was under attack from Hezbollah, from the Houthis, from Syria, from Iraq, obviously from Hamas and from Iran itself. So the idea of saying Israel we’re not going to give you a whole set of military tools in that context was challenging,” Sullivan says during an interview on the Bulwark podcast.

“The case for withholding weapons from Israel today is much stronger than it was one year ago. One, they don’t face the same regional threats. Two, there was a ceasefire hostage deal in place and the ability to have negotiations, and it was Israel who just walked away from it without negotiating seriously. Three, there is a full-blown famine in Gaza. And four, there are no more serious military objectives to achieve. It’s just bombing the rubble into rubble,” he says.

Sullivan then reveals that he has counseled Democratic lawmakers who were weighing how to vote on resolutions last month on withholding weapons to Israel that doing so was a “totally credible position that I would support.”

Chinese officials "were saying, it's very interesting to watch President Trump because we've had a long-term strategy to basically try to weaken and divide America's alliances….President Trump is just doing it for us."

Jake Sullivan joins @Timodc on today's Bulwark Podcast: pic.twitter.com/PVVjVHbYVT

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) August 28, 2025

Netanyahu said to accuse Zamir of attacking him in media briefings

Left to right: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference at his office in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. (Nava Freiberg/Times of Israel); IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir in Jerusalem on March 5, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir of attacking him in media briefings to reporters, according to Channel 12 news.

Citing two sources familiar with the matter, the report says Netanyahu leveled the accusation during talks they held before Tuesday’s meeting of the security cabinet, and also hit out at Zamir over several other issues, including for saying Israel should accept the hostage deal currently on offer.

The IDF says it won’t comment on the report while the Prime Minister’s Office claims it’s “fake news.”

UN Security Council to vote Thursday on resolution to wind down UNIFIL at end of 2026

UNITED NATIONS — The Security Council scheduled a vote Thursday on a resolution that would end the more than four-decade operation of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon on December 31, 2026.

Two council diplomats say that the United States, which has been demanding that the force known as UNIFIL be terminated in a year, doesn’t object to a French draft resolution with that end date in 16 months.

That signals the resolution will be approved, but it’s not clear whether the United States will vote in favor or abstain, the diplomats say, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations have been private.

UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. Its mission was expanded following the monthlong 2006 war between Israel and the terrorist group Hezbollah.

The resolution would terminate UNIFIL’s mandate and halt its operations at the end of 2026. The process of withdrawing its 10,800 military and civilian personnel and equipment would start immediately in consultation with the Lebanese government, to be completed within a year.

The draft says the aim is to make the Lebanese government “the sole provider of security” in southern Lebanon north of the UN-drawn border with Israel known as the Blue Line. It calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from north of the Blue Line.

Syrian state media says IDF first launched strikes on troops who found ‘eavesdropping devices’

Syria’s official SANA news agency reports that initial Israeli drone strikes on Tuesday had targeted soldiers who, while on patrol, discovered “surveillance and eavesdropping devices.”

Ongoing strikes prevented other troops from reaching the area until the following evening. Other soldiers were able to retrieve the bodies of the eight soldiers killed the day before and to “destroy some of the (surveillance) systems by targeting them with the appropriate weapons,” SANA says.

The report comes after SANA said reported more Israeli strikes and an airdrop commando raid in the area, “the details of which are not known.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Videos linked to Minneapolis shooting suspect show antisemitic, anti-Israel messages

Law enforcement officers gather outside the Annunciation Church's school in response to a reported mass shooting, August 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Videos linked to the alleged shooter of a Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, include antisemitic messages written on weapons.

Authorities have identified the suspect, who died by suicide at the scene, as Robin Westman.

Videos posted online believed to be from Westman show firearms and ammunition magazines marked with messages written in white.

The Anti-Defamation League says preliminary research indicates the shooter had written antisemitic and anti-Israel references on the weapons, as well as praise for mass killers from across the ideological spectrum, including white supremacist, Islamophobic and anti-government attackers.

Messages on the weapons in the videos say “Burn Israel,” and “Destroy HIAS,” referring to a Jewish refugee agency that white supremacists have used as evidence of the Great Replacement Theory, which falsely claims that Jews are attempting to bring non-white immigrants into the US to supplant the white population.

On the handle of one firearm was the name “Robert Bowers,” a white supremacist who murdered 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2018. Bowers had ranted against HIAS online ahead of the shooting.

On another weapon, the alleged shooter wrote, “6 million wasn’t enough,” an apparent reference to the Holocaust.

An object that appeared to be a smoke grenade had the words “Jew Gas.”

The videos also have anti-Christian messages and racist terms for Hispanic and Black people, and the message “Kill Donald Trump.”

The videos have not yet been verified by law enforcement.

Helicopter-borne Israeli troops raid base on key hilltop near Damascus — Syrian sources

A unit of the Israeli army conducted an airborne landing on a strategic hilltop southwest of Damascus and carried out a two-hour operation before leaving the area, two Syrian army sources says.

They say the troops landed near Jabal Manea, which was once a major air defense base operated by Iran before being destroyed by Israel prior to the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

A number of troops from the new Syrian army are positioned at the base.

Sa’ar thanks Rubio for Trump administration backing

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar in the Treaty Room of the State Department on August 27, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

In their meeting this afternoon in Washington, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar thanked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for his “firm” commitment to standing by Israel “over the years, as well as for the clear support of President Trump’s administration for Israel,” according to an Israeli readout.

The two diplomats discussed “the various challenges and opportunities in the Middle East,” says Sa’ar’s office.

Among the issues they discussed, says Israel, were “the issue of Iran following the unprecedented cooperation between the countries to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat and the ‘snapback’ issue, the war on Hamas in Gaza, and the UN General Assembly discussions next month. Cooperation to repel anti-Israeli moves in the international arena was also raised.”

The State Department readout says the pair “discussed key issues in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.”

Rubio also stressed “the importance of countering Iran’s malign influence,” the US readout says, adding that the pair “agreed that continued close cooperation between their countries is vital to the security and prosperity of the region.”