Syria’s state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company says an explosion occurred at dawn on Tuesday at a gas export pipeline at Al-Jabsah gas plant in the country’s northeast, the Syrian state news agency reports.
The company says the explosion was a result of a “deliberate act of sabotage” based on initial investigations, adding that no injuries were reported among workers.
The United Arab Emirates has suspended all trade activities, exchanges and financial transactions with Iran until further notice, the foreign ministry says in a statement, citing regional escalation that it says undermines regional and international peace and security.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir spoke this evening with the family of Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz, whose remains were recovered by the military overnight, 44 years after he died in battle in the First Lebanon War.
“After 44 years, the Battle of Sultan Yacoub has come to an end. All those missing from the battle have been returned to Israel. This is a special day for me, both as chief of the general staff and as a soldier of the Armored Corps,” says Zamir to the family, according to remarks published by the IDF.
“From the day I enlisted in the Armored Corps, I was raised on the legacy of that battle and on the moral commitment to bring all of our missing home. An entire nation stands united with you and shares in your emotion today,” he adds.
The IDF says that Katz’s family thanked Zamir for the efforts to bring his remains to Israel for burial, and added that “his funeral would unite the entire nation and would be held in a manner reflecting his unique character.”
Israel confirms it was behind overnight airstrikes against a Syrian military airport, where it claims Turkey was planning to deploy forces.
“Israel and Syria agreed to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo,” says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in an English-language statement.
The Prime Minister’s Office says Israel “repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security.”
“Syria chose to ignore these warnings,” the PMO says, adding that Israel “will not tolerate threats to its security, and would welcome a return to the status quo.”
Earlier, a Turkish official denied to Axios that Ankara is seeking to establish a military presence at the base.
Apartments belonging to Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael – Jewish National Fund in the center of Tel Aviv are being handed out to friends and family of the leaders of its national union at low rents, according to a report on Channel 12.
Among the extensive landholdings of the forestry and development group and its subsidiaries is a building on Tel Aviv’s Zamenhof Street, in the pricey city center, according to the report. The network reports that several apartments in the building belong to, or are occupied by, friends and relatives of members of the KKL-JNF board of directors, including its leader, Yisrael Goldstein.
Apartments in the building rent for thousands of shekels below market rate, according to the report.
In an interview with Channel 12, Goldstein denies wrongdoing and says the apartments are rented out according to the organization’s by-laws.
The network also notes that Goldstein is a power broker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, detailing longstanding reports that he pressures the organization’s employees into registering as party members, and tells them whom to vote for in primaries.
The report also says KKL-JNF has given jobs to multiple spouses of cabinet ministers.
US special envoy Jared Kushner expresses optimism about expanding the Abraham Accords, but says progress on that front would have to wait until after the October 27 election.
The remark may be a knock on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, whose hardline policies toward the Palestinians have turned off countries from normalizing relations with the Jewish state.
Kushner is asked in an excerpt of a Fox News interview that aired Tuesday whether the Abraham Accords normalization agreements between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbors could still be expanded during the remainder of US President Donald Trump’s second term in office, which ends in early 2029.
“We have a lot of very good, active conversations going with countries — some obvious, some not obvious,” Trump’s son-in-law responds.
“Once we get this Gaza situation moving forward, that will hopefully deescalate the tensions here,” he says, referring to his efforts to advance the US-controlled Board of Peace’s plan for Hamas’s disarmament and an Israeli withdrawal. The plan has been approved by Hamas, but rejected by Israel.
He then notes a second factor that has held up efforts to expand the Abraham Accords.
“Israeli politics are complicated, and Israeli politics in an election are even more complicated. Hopefully, when we get after the Israeli election, there will be some opportunities for expansion,” Kushner says.
He doesn’t explicitly call out Netanyahu’s government, though Arab diplomats have long maintained that the hardline coalition in Jerusalem has become a primary obstacle in expanding the Abraham Accords. Netanyahu’s government opposes Palestinian statehood, with some ministers pushing for Israel to annex the West Bank. Saudi Arabia has conditioned normalization with Israel on progress toward a Palestinian state.
Nonetheless, Kushner says Trump is committed to building on the initiative he launched during his first term, when he brokered normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
“Everyone always said we can’t have normalization [with Israel] until the Palestinian issue is resolved. But what we showed through the first batch of the Abraham Accords, is that the Emiratis are actually the biggest donors to Gaza, and they’ve done a ton to help the Palestinian people,” he said, referring to Abu Dhabi funding over 40% of the humanitarian aid for the Strip during the recent Israel-Hamas war.
“It’s only by having relations with Israel that they’re able to help the Palestinians hopefully achieve a better outcome for themselves,” Kushner argues.
The United States is working to establish a deconfliction mechanism among Israel, Turkey and Syria, US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack says, after a reported Israeli strike on a Syrian airbase near the Turkish border.
Barrack, who is also US ambassador to Turkey, says Turkey had not been warned about the Israeli strikes, “and consequently observed the aircraft heading north toward its territory and therefore could have reasonably prepared its own response,” referring to possible Turkish military reaction.
“Thankfully, calm heads were able to prevent the situation from deteriorating further,” Barrack tells Reuters in a phone interview.
Turkey condemned Israel’s strikes on the Abu al-Dahur airbase in northwestern Syria but did not comment further, including about a potential deconfliction mechanism. Its relations with Israel have collapsed since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and subsequent Gaza war.
A deconfliction mechanism is a communications channel intended to prevent misunderstandings or accidental confrontations between military or political actors.
Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and signed a mutual defense pact this month with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, has become one of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s main allies.
Israel’s strikes on the Syrian airbase “reflected a perception — whether accurate or misplaced — that Türkiye might in the near future increase its presence at that base,” Barrack says, using the Turkish name for Turkey.
“This underscores the need for a deconfliction mechanism involving Israel, Syria and Türkiye. That is something we are actively working on to establish in order to prevent future miscommunication,” he says. “The priority now is to lower tensions and allow space for a more measured approach.”
Syria and Israel have held several rounds of de-escalation and border discussions since rebel forces under Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s command toppled Assad, but no agreement has been reached.
“An incident of the kind that occurred this morning demonstrates the need to intensify these efforts and expand the process,” Barrack says.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee denies reports of a confrontation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US envoy Jared Kushner over the next phase of Trump’s Gaza plan, stressing that Washington does not expect Israel to conduct pullbacks in Gaza while Hamas remains armed, during an interview with Channel 12.
“Where do the people get this? I was in the room. I was a part of every conversation. That simply did not happen like that,” Huckabee says of reported tensions in yesterday’s meeting. “There was an agreement, and it was a good agreement, that we all want to see this [plan] move forward, but we also recognize that what the president has made clear is that Hamas must disarm, demilitarize, and they have no future in the governing of Gaza.”
Amid reported and public disapproval from the Trump administration of Israeli strikes in Gaza, Huckabee says that Israel “never backed away” from its endorsement of Trump’s overarching 20-point plan for the postwar future of the Strip last year, and that the sides agree about Israel’s “right to defend itself.”
“Israel has always maintained, and the US has respected, that Israel has a right to defend itself. And if they have an imminent threat, they’re not expected to stand back and take it in the teeth. Nobody expects that of them,” he says.
Asked about Israeli withdrawals under the plan, Huckabee says it has “been clearly understood that Israel is not expected to move their boundaries as long as Hamas has still got arms and RPGs and grenades. That’s the whole point of the disarmament.”
Huckabee’s remarks come amid pushback from Israel over the Board of Peace’s plan to disarm Hamas, which envisions a phased IDF withdrawal from Gaza as the terror group hands over its weapons. Netanyahu has come out against the Board’s framework, insisting that Israel will conduct no withdrawals until Hamas has been completely disarmed.
While Huckabee downplays disagreement on the issue, sources familiar with the matter have acknowledged to The Times of Israel that the dispute was not resolved during yesterday’s Jerusalem meeting.
One source directly familiar with the negotiations told The Times of Israel that following the Kushner-Netanyahu meeting, the Board is considering a new framework which would see a complete Hamas disarmament and full Israeli withdrawal, but said nothing has yet been finalized.
In a separate interview with Channel 13, Huckabee is asked to respond to criticism within Israel of Kushner’s recent meeting with senior Hamas officials in Cairo, and replies that Kushner “didn’t meet with them because he thought that he was dealing with honest brokers, but he needed to convey the message very clearly from the United States: You’ve got to disarm, demilitarize, and you have no future.”
A senior Palestinian Authority official expresses “concern” that the US is “replicating” what he says has been Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy of bolstering Hamas at the expense of the PA.
The remark to The Times of Israel comes two days after US envoy Jared Kushner held a rare in-person meeting with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt before proceeding to Jerusalem for a sit-down with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, without making a stop in Ramallah to see anyone from the PA.
“The PA can play a critical role in stabilizing the situation in Gaza and the West Bank and should not be ignored,” the Palestinian official says, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official recalled how successive Netanyahu governments authorized Qatari payments to Hamas, which allowed for the bolstering of the terror group, even as Jerusalem gradually disengaged from the more moderate PA, which supports a two-state solution, and took steps to delegitimize it.
The official is careful not to explicitly criticize the Trump administration, as Ramallah apparently recognizes the limited leverage that it currently holds.
Kushner was asked in a portion of a Fox News interview that aired yesterday about the possibility of the US recognizing a Palestinian state and dismissed the idea for the time being, while knocking the PA.
“Before we can even talk about the political nature of a state, what we want to see is that the Palestinians can govern themselves. With the PA, they fall very, very short on the standard we need for somebody who can qualify for a state,” he said. “They have a lot of reforms they need to do, which the Saudis, the French and everyone agrees with us on. Governments are working on what the right set of reforms are.”
“Whether they’ll actually do it is another question. They’ve been threatening to reform for a decade now,” Kushner said of the PA.
Kushner recalled how the US has established a technocratic panel to govern postwar Gaza in place of Hamas, adding that “maybe we can talk about a political horizon later on in the future,” if the new committee shows that it can properly run Gaza.
The US plan for Gaza envisions that body, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, handing over control of the Strip to the PA once it has completed a series of reforms.
The Palestinian official insists that Ramallah is in the midst of such steps, but is significantly hobbled by a growing list of punitive measures taken by Netanyahu’s government that have brought the West Bank economy to the brink of collapse.
For example, the official noted that the PA has reformed its textbooks amid accusations from Israel that they have long included incitement against Jews.
The official says the curriculum has been updated online but that the PA education ministry doesn’t currently have the funds to print them en masse, as Israel continues to withhold billions of dollars in funds.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has no authority to impose restrictions on yeshiva students, declares MK Moshe Gafni, the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah faction, after the Attorney General’s Office releases a statement calling for increased enforcement and sanctions against Haredi draft evaders.
“Yeshiva students will continue to diligently study their Talmud, and nothing will stop them, not even an attorney general whom the government decided to remove from her position, and who continues to act on issues she has no authority to deal with,” Gafni says, declaring that Baharav-Miara is “impudent, corrupt, and acts against the law.”
Gafni’s faction is among the staunchest opponents of efforts to conscript Haredi men.
In a statement earlier this evening, the Attorney General’s Office insisted that it was “necessary to expand the basket of personal economic enforcement measures as soon as possible, and the army and police must also return to carrying out proactive operations and arrests against evasion from all segments of the population.”
In April, the High Court of Justice ordered the government to explain its failure to issue enough conscription orders to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to meet the needs of the IDF, and its failure to enforce the orders it has issued. The police subsequently announced in May that new orders had been issued to officers to detain draft dodgers and wait for the Military Police to pick them up.
A recent coalition bill to pause the arrest of evaders was frozen by the High Court of Justice.
US sanctions on top members of the International Criminal Court “undermine the rule of law,” the court says in a statement after Washington imposed sanctions on its president.
“When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk,” the court says in a statement sent to reporters.
A cargo vessel was struck by multiple unknown projectiles 40 nautical miles southeast of Yemen’s Mocha yesterday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) says.
The vessel, which was unmanned at the time of the incident, suffered “complete constructive loss,” the UKMTO says.
France will expel two Iranian diplomats in the coming days, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot says in a post on X.
Barrot’s comments came one day after Iran said two French embassy employees, who were involved in a diplomatic dispute in Tehran in July, would not be allowed to return to Iran.
Last month, the French ministry said the French embassy staff had been detained and physically intimidated by Iranian security services in Tehran.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee firmly defends calling the settlers besieging Palestinian homes in the Palestinian West Bank village of Qusra “Israeli terrorists,” during an interview with Channel 12.
Huckabee used the term in a public condemnation of the incident on X last week. He noted that one of the people being besieged was an American citizen.
“I’ve been rebuked by people who said, ‘Well, that’s not terrorism,'” he says. “But from the US definition of terror, when acts are conducted that cause people to change their behavior, and put them in fear for their lives, when things are done to people for the express purpose, whether they’re done to a nation, whether they’re done to a specific individual or to a family, but it causes them to be afraid to live their lives — that’s terror.”
Huckabee says the perpetrators come from “a very small minority” in Israel and claims many of them live outside the West Bank, saying, “they’re not settlers, they’re unsettlers.”
“They’re there to stir up trouble and the damage that they are doing to Israel, the damage they are doing to the Jewish people – I have no idea why they think that they’re accomplishing anything other than hurting the very people they claim to be fighting for,” he says.
Referring to the Qusra siege, the ambassador says he believes Israeli authorities were already “acting” to address the incident regardless of involvement from the US embassy. He notes, however, that “we don’t have a direct involvement if it doesn’t involve an American citizen.”
“But once it involves an American citizen, then our involvement is pretty much automatic and it’s going to be significant because that’s our job,” he says.
Asked by Channel 12 if he was disappointed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet condemned the incident, despite reports that the United States had pressed the premier to do so publicly, Huckabee says, “What we’re looking for is responsible action.”
The Qusra siege came amid a months-long surge in settler violence, with near-daily attacks on Palestinians and their property in which arrests and prosecutions remain rare.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis targeted an oil refinery on Saudi Arabia’s southern Red Sea coast today, the terror group’s media reported, as it ramps up attacks on the kingdom after announcing a maritime blockade.
The Houthis “targeted the Aramco refinery in Jazan with a number of drones… in response to airspace violations over the governorates of Saada and Hajjah” in Yemen, Houthi news agency Saba says, citing a military source.
Last month, the Houthis welcomed an Iranian plane landing in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, setting off a spate of tit-for-tat attacks.
They later announced a maritime blockade of the Yemeni government’s backer, Saudi Arabia — which has led a coalition that heavily bombed Houthi areas throughout the war.
The United Nations says it is “deeply concerned” by the reported strikes.
“Such attacks risk further entangling Yemen in the wider regional confrontation, at a time when the region is already facing intense pressure and regional trade and energy flows are under severe strain,” says UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ official spokesman.
The Houthis have hit Saudi tankers in the Red Sea and attacked Yemeni government forces since the latest round of fighting broke out.
They have also repeatedly targeted Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure and airports.
The African nation of Burundi is actively discussing joining the International Stabilization Force meant to secure Gaza under US President Donald Trump’s 20-point postwar plan for the Strip, an official with knowledge of the matter tells The Times of Israel, confirming recent Hebrew media reports.
As part of a “pre-deployment site survey,” senior military officers from Burundi and Uganda – the latter of which announced earlier this month that it approved the deployment of troops to Gaza as part of the ISF – visited the southern Gazan city of Rafah amid preliminary discussions with the Israeli defense establishment about joining the force, the official adds, confirming a Channel 12 report.
Nonetheless, the defense establishment assesses that there will be no significant change or agreement concerning Gaza before the October 27 election in Israel, according to Channel 12.
“Against the backdrop of the political situation, we do not expect any progress toward an agreement in the Gaza Strip. No one will make a dramatic move in Gaza until the elections are over,” a security source tells Channel 12.
The military says its strike earlier today near the port of Gaza City targeted commanders and operatives in Hamas’s elite Nukhba force while they were meeting.
One of the terrorists had invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, according to the IDF.
The military says that the targets included a Nukhba force company commander, three platoon commanders, and several more terror operatives, who were all planning attacks against Israeli troops operating in the Strip.
The results of the strike will be released once they are verified, the IDF says.
According to Palestinian media, the strike hit a cafe and killed six, wounding 10 others.
The army says that it took steps to minimize harm to civilians in the strike.
The United States imposes sanctions on Tomoko Akane, a Japanese judge who is president of the International Criminal Court, according to the US Treasury Department website.
It is the latest in a series of sanctions and other actions the US has taken targeting the court in The Hague, Netherlands. The US has objected to the ICC’s warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, who are accused of committing war crimes in Gaza. The US also objects to the ICC’s investigation into alleged crimes by US personnel in Afghanistan.
Ultra-Orthodox Israelis still comprise 80 percent of all draft evaders in the country, the Attorney General’s Office announces, despite an increase in the number of ultra-Orthodox draftees enlisting in the IDF.
The office calls for the state to strengthen its enforcement of draft orders, including by arresting draft evaders.
In a statement summarizing a discussion on the issue held between military, legal and police officials, the office of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara states that “the phenomenon of draft evasion is still widespread” even though increased enforcement, sanctions and the establishment of special service tracks geared toward Haredim have boosted conscription.
“In order to continue reducing the phenomenon of draft evasion and respond to the urgent security need to grow the army, it is necessary to expand the basket of personal economic enforcement measures as soon as possible, and the army and police must also return to carrying out proactive operations and arrests against evasion from all segments of the population,” the statement adds.
In April, the High Court of Justice ordered the government to explain its failure to issue enough conscription orders to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to meet the needs of the IDF, and its failure to enforce the orders it has issued. The police subsequently announced in May that new orders had been issued to officers to detain draft dodgers and wait for the Military Police to pick them up.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later tried to distance himself from efforts to exempt yeshiva students from military conscription, a key Haredi interest demanded by his ultra-Orthodox political allies, his Likud party recently helped push through a pair of laws declaring Torah study a “foundational value” of the Jewish people and freezing arrests of Haredi draft evaders.
The implementation of the law banning the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers, however, was immediately frozen by the High Court of Justice.
A Turkish official denies reported Israeli claims that Ankara is seeking to establish a military presence at a Syrian airbase near Idlib, which was struck overnight, reportedly by the IDF.
“There was no Turkish presence at the airbase. Israel is inventing pretexts to bomb neighboring countries and destabilize the region,” a Turkish official tells the Axios news site.
The UAE’s defense ministry says it detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran against the Gulf country.
It says one fell inside territorial waters, while another fell outside, and stresses the UAE’s readiness to deal with any threats.
There is no immediate comment from Iran.
Earlier today, the UAE’s interior ministry sent a phone alert stating that the situation was safe and people should resume normal activities after an earlier alert warning of a missile threat.
The US Defense Department is considering pulling back troops from the Persian Gulf following damage to its presence there during the ongoing war with Iran, the Washington Post reports.
The war has prompted what the report calls a “once-in-a-generation chance” for the US to consider whether to maintain its bases in the Gulf, and it is considering not rebuilding them as they were before the fighting broke out in late February.
One option, according to the report, is for the US to move its troops and bases further west in the region, an area that includes Jordan and Israel. American refueler jets have been stationed in Israel throughout the war.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not ordered a formal review of the question, but it is being explored by the Pentagon’s policy office and the US Central Command, according to the report.
Normally, about 40,000 US troops are stationed across the Middle East, according to the Post. The biggest American bases are in the Gulf, and the US has significantly increased its presence in the region during the Iran war. Gulf countries have been battered by Iranian missile fire during the war.
The remains of Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz, who went missing in the First Lebanon War’s battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982, have been returned to Israel, the military announces.
The battle 44 years ago was a skirmish between the IDF and the Syrian army in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. It claimed the lives of 21 Israeli servicemen, while more than 30 were injured during it.
Katz, a tank soldier, went missing during the battle along with Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel and Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman. Baumel’s remains were recovered with Russian assistance and returned to Israel in 2019. Feldman’s remains were recovered by personnel of the Mossad spy agency in May 2025.
In a statement, the IDF says that in an operation led by the Military Intelligence Directorate, in coordination with the Mossad, Katz’s bones were located and brought to Israel for burial.
The bones were taken for identification and were confirmed to belong to Katz.
Earlier, the military had said new findings thought to be related to Katz had been found overnight.
Chili Tropper, chair of the new center-right Zionist Home-Reservists party, declares explicitly that the party will not join a governing coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The statement marks a shift for the party, which was established in advance of the October 27 election. Previously, Tropper had said his party would not be the one to secure a majority in the Knesset for a Netanyahu-led coalition. He has also said anyone in power during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught needs to resign, a group that includes the prime minister.
But this is the first time he has said openly that the party “will not sit in a government led by Netanyahu.”
Addressing voters in a video message posted to X, the lawmaker commits to “only be part of a Zionist government” and pledges to “make a genuine effort to expand the government as much as possible with parties that accept its principles.” Those principles include ensuring that state benefits go to those who perform military or national service, rather than to ultra-Orthodox men who evade military service.
Zionist Home-The Reservists, established earlier this month as the result of a deal with former minister Yoaz Hendel, is a member of the so-called “Third Bloc” of center-right parties aimed at drawing votes away from Netanyahu’s Likud and forcing Zionist opposition parties to moderate in order to create a broad Zionist unity government.
Israeli politics has long been divided into two camps, supporting and opposing Netanyahu. The leaders of the “Third Bloc” aim to shift this dynamic, hoping to become electoral kingmakers between the two sides. Polls show, however, that none of the individual parties in the bloc would receive enough votes to enter the Knesset.
According to the Walla news site, Tropper’s position has drawn backlash within his own party as well as from Gilad Erdan, the leader of another “Third Bloc” party, whom it quotes as saying, “if you vote for Tropper, you get Yair Golan,” the leader of the left-wing Democrats party.
An Ashkelon resident was arrested early this morning on suspicion of installing malware onto the computers of dozens of Israeli companies and stealing sensitive information from them, police say.
The cyber division in the police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit searched the man’s home and several companies, and interrogated him under caution for charges including hacking, wiretapping and invasion of privacy, police say.
Following his interrogation, the suspect was brought before the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, which ordered that he stay in custody until Sunday, according to police.
At the defense’s request, the judge placed a gag order on the man’s name, police say.
The Israeli military says its strike near the port of Gaza City a short while ago targeted Hamas commanders who were planning attacks against Israeli troops operating in the Strip.
“The terrorists were struck in a precise aerial strike to remove the threat,” the army says.
According to Palestinian media, the strike hit a cafe and killed six and wounded 10 others.
The UAE’s interior ministry sends a phone alert that the situation is currently safe and to resume normal activities after an earlier alert warning of a missile threat.
Six people were killed, including a child, and 10 were wounded in the Israeli strike near the port of Gaza City, according to reports in Palestinian media.
The IDF said earlier that it had targeted a terror operative in the area.
Palestinian media reports one dead and several wounded in an Israeli strike on a cafe near the Gaza City port a short while ago.
The military tells The Times of Israel the strike targeted a terror operative, with no further details at this stage.
#شاهد| غارتين من مسيرات إسرائيلية داخل الميناء غربي مدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/LfdZ5bRCqt
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) August 18, 2026
The US Department of Defense orders 30 US universities to audit their partnerships with mostly Chinese universities and military training institutions as the Trump administration scrutinizes the country’s growing global influence.
The administration is also looking into Iranian influence.
If the schools don’t complete a review and terminate any arrangements deemed problematic within the next two weeks, they face losing funding. The goal is to protect taxpayer-funded research from theft and exploitation, the Pentagon said yesterday.
“The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security,” Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, says in a news release.
The release doesn’t name the schools, but a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters said they include Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University.
The schools didn’t immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The order comes after the Pentagon last month released an updated list of 130 foreign institutions it accused of engaging in “activities that increase the likelihood of U.S. government-funded research and development efforts being misappropriated.”
While the vast majority were Chinese, such as the University of Science and Technology of China and the country’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, several Iranian and Russian institutions also appeared on the list.
The Justice Department is also investigating whether Harvard University is allowing Chinese donors to create scholarships that exclude American students, adding to the barrage of federal inquiries the Trump administration has opened in its battle against the Ivy League school, including surrounding allegations of antisemitism during pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy says in a statement that the country opposes what it described as the politicization of “normal scientific, educational, and academic exchanges.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The United Arab Emirates issues a phone alert for “potential missile threats,” the first such warning in months amid the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran.
“Due to the current situation, potential missile threats, immediately seek a safe place in the closest secure building,” the interior ministry says in the alert, the first since a false alarm in June. Before that, the last missile warning came in May.
The Turkish foreign ministry condemns reported Israeli airstrikes on the Abu al-Duhur air base in northwestern Syria, urging the international community to take a stronger stance against what it calls Jerusalem’s violations of international law.
“We strongly condemn the airstrikes carried out by Israel” overnight, the ministry says in a Turkish-language statement, adding, “We call on the international community to adopt a more resolute stance in order to bring an end to Israel’s aggression against Syria… and to ensure accountability for these actions, which disregard international law.”
Israel has been seeking to prevent Turkish entrenchment and influence in Syria, and in the past has carried out strikes purportedly to stop Turkey from assisting in building up the new Syrian government’s air force.
Israel has yet to publicly comment on the strikes on the Abu Duhur military airport, which Damascus blamed on Jerusalem and which US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack publicly condemned as “confirmed Israeli airstrikes.”
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
Lebanon’s judicial authorities have decided to hand over a former senior Syrian military officer under ousted president Bashar al-Assad to Damascus after questioning him over crimes he allegedly committed during the country’s conflict, officials say.
Maj. Gen. Adel Issa will be the first military officer to be handed over by Lebanon since Assad’s fall in late 2024. He is expected to stand trial in his home country. There are no immediate details on the alleged crimes.
The decision comes days after a vote in parliament that made Lebanon the first Arab country to abolish the death penalty, a step that will become formal once it is published in the Lebanese Official Gazette.
The judicial officials say Issa is being handed over to Syria in accordance with a 1951 agreement between the countries that calls for handing over suspected criminals.
Issa is taken by members of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate, who will drive him to a border crossing and hand him over to Syrian authorities, two judicial and two security officials say. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Issa was questioned last week by judge Ahmad Rami Hajj, Lebanon’s public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, over alleged crimes he had committed in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor and the northern province of Raqqa during Syria’s civil war that broke out in 2011.
The judicial officials tell The Associated Press that Issa denied all the charges against him, saying he was a military officer carrying out orders.
The Syrian embassy in Beirut sent Issa’s charge sheet to Lebanese judicial authorities earlier this month, the officials say.
Police say they guided an Israeli family out of Jericho a short while ago and detained the parents for questioning after they entered the Palestinian city with their infant son, allegedly to go shopping.
Jericho is located in the West Bank’s Area A, which is meant to be under full Palestinian Authority control and which Israeli civilians are prohibited from entering.
Upon receiving a report that the family had entered the city, officers identified the location of the parents and instructed them on how to exit, police say.
The parents, a Jerusalem couple in their 30s and 40s, were then questioned under caution at the Jordan Valley police station, in the northern West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Efrayim, according to police.
“Israel Police reiterates that the entrance of Israeli civilians to Area A is forbidden under law and poses a tangible threat to the lives of both those who enter and the security forces,” police say.
The statement adds that entering Area A illegally carries a penalty of up to a year in prison. There have been a string of recent incidents in which Israeli citizens have been escorted out of Area A after entering without authorization.
Nuclear material found at an undisclosed site in Syria is not dangerous and will remain in Syrian custody, subject to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s guarantees, Syria’s foreign minister says.
Asaad al-Shibani adds in a joint press conference with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi in Damascus that Syria has the right to use the material for civil and peaceful purposes.
Since the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, Syria’s new authorities have committed to working with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog to address the legacy of nuclear activities during decades of Assad family rule.
Grossi says the agency was able to access the site after the Syrian government notified it.
Grossi adds that his agency had found several tons of nuclear materials at a previously undeclared site dating from the rule of Syria’s previous authorities.
“After your courageous decision to inform us that there was another place, another site where nuclear material had been stored, we were able to access this place… we are talking about a few tons of nuclear material that could be put to bad use,” he says.
Syria is not known to hold operational stockpiles of nuclear material for a weapons program, but Israel bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007 in the country’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
US President Donald Trump insists that there are “no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Yesterday, his senior aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner said there have been very “robust” conversations between the US and Iran, while acknowledging that Tehran isn’t yet ready to make a deal that is satisfactory to Washington.
But Trump denies the talks in a post on Truth Social, and writes that the US blockade of Iran’s ports remains in place. He claims that the Strait of Hormuz is “open and operating,” even though ship traffic is down dramatically compared to before the war.
Trump also declares that “all water mines have been removed or detonated,” though he has made a number of contradicting claims regarding whether or not mines were ever planted in the first place in the strait, a key waterway for the global supply of oil.
Soldiers were filmed today in Khirbet al-Tawil, near the Palestinian West Bank village of Aqraba south of Nablus, while a settler broke into a water cistern there that, according to Palestinians, is located on private land belonging to a Palestinian resident.
Doron Meinert, an activist with the Israeli group Looking the Occupation in the Eye who was assisting Palestinians at the scene, told The Times of Israel that when he arrived, one of the settlers called IDF troops — who were apparently local settlement defense forces, known as Hagmar.
He said those forces then called the police, who sought to remove him from the area on the grounds that it had been declared a closed military zone.
Meinert argued that he was not within the area covered by the order and later refused to leave. He is now under arrest and is expected to face a judge tomorrow. He spoke with The Times of Israel from the police station.
מתנחל פרץ הבוקר בור מים פלסטיני פרטי בח'ירבת א-טוואייל בעזרת מסור דיסק, השקה את הצאן וגנב מים. כל זאת בזמן שתושבי המקום ללא מים כבר מספר שבועות כי מתנחלים השחיתו את הצנרת והצבא מונע את תיקונה.
את השוד אבטחו חיילי הגמ"ר.
כשפעילי זכויות אדם ניסו למנוע את הביזה הגיעו כוחות משטרה… pic.twitter.com/HKv9JIi9i1— מסתכלים לכיבוש בעיניים (@Mistaclim) August 18, 2026
The settlers who were at the scene were not arrested. The IDF has yet to respond to an inquiry on the incident.
In a separate incident, footage published this morning showed young children throwing stones at a Palestinian ambulance in Hebron. No injuries were reported.
???? גם אמבולנס הוא מטרה.
הבוקר בתל רומיידה, בלב חברון, נערי המתנחלים מתקיפים אמבולנס של הסהר האדום הפלסטיני שמפנה מטופל.
לא בית, לא שדה, לא רועה צאן אמבולנס וצוות רפואי.
כשהאלימות מקבלת חסות, נשק, גיבוי וחסינות כבר אין קווים אדום.תיכף יספרו לנו על כמה ״עשבים שוטים״ , ״קומץ״,… pic.twitter.com/kWB68ykJJJ
— Roni (@Ron198413) August 18, 2026
FBI data shows that Jews were targeted in 1,528 hate crimes in the US in 2025.
The figure amounts to 63% of all religion-based hate crimes in the US last year, the Anti-Defamation League says in its response to the data.
There were 410 fewer antisemitic hate crimes last year when compared to 2024, part of an overall decline of hate crime incidents in 2025.
The number of antisemitic hate crimes last year was still the third-highest on record, the ADL analysis says.
Jews, who make up around two percent of the population, were targeted in 14% of all hate crimes in the US last year.
Israel notified the United States in advance of its reported overnight strike on an airbase in northwestern Syria, sharing “highly sensitive intelligence” related to the incident, a senior Israeli official tells Fox News.
“Highly sensitive intelligence was shared with the United States in advance, at the most senior levels of the various agencies and bodies,” the official says, adding that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa “understands that he cannot operate like the previous Syrian regime, which maintained proxy forces. It’s possible that he didn’t understand what was going on, or didn’t know.”
The official declined to provide Fox with additional details, “due to the highly classified nature of the intelligence.”
Israel has been seeking to prevent Turkish entrenchment and influence in Syria, and in the past has carried out strikes purportedly in order to stop Turkey from assisting in building up the new Syrian government’s air force.
Senior Israeli official to Fox News when asked about the reported Israeli strikes in Syria overnight:
“Highly sensitive intelligence was shared with the United States in advance, at the most senior levels of the various agencies and bodies," the official said. “Al-Sharaa…
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) August 18, 2026
Israel has yet to publicly comment on the strikes on the Abu Duhur military airport, which Damascus blamed on Jerusalem and which US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack publicly condemned as “confirmed Israeli airstrikes.”
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
Social Equality Minister May Golan, who is expected to lose her seat in the October election after a poor result in yesterday’s Likud primary, claims in a statement that she was “too right-wing” for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Golan, thanking the approximately 19,000 Likud members who voted for her, claims she was placed on an “elimination list,” circulated by Netanyahu’s circle, of candidates to be pushed out of the party.
She says she was a victim of “those who didn’t want a right-wing and opinionated woman in the party, and of those ‘sources close to the prime minister’… who decided that May Golan is ‘too right-wing’ and might interfere with their future plans for the government and its leader.”
Golan, 40, was once a rising star in Likud and was first elected in 2019. She has served continuously in the Knesset for more than six years and has sparked controversy with a number of inflammatory remarks. She has also faced allegations that she created fictitious no-show jobs for her associates.
Qatar, a key US-Iran mediator, says an agreement between Iran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz would make it easier to resume negotiations to end the war.
After war broke out between the United States and Iran in late February, Tehran effectively shut the strait, which normally carries one-fifth of the world’s natural gas and oil during peacetime.
Iran and Oman, both coastal states bordering the strait, have for weeks been discussing the future of navigation through the waterway, with Tehran saying the geographical coordinates of the route envisaged by both countries “have been agreed upon.”
“We are also awaiting an agreement between the Sultanate of Oman and Iran regarding the Strait, which would enable us to return to the framework of negotiations,” Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari tells reporters.
“The agreement over the Strait of Hormuz would make it much easier for us to resume the talks between the United States and Iran,” he adds.
A memorandum of understanding signed between the two sides in June effectively collapsed over management of the strait.
Earlier today, Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the strategic waterway will not be opened until the United States meets Tehran’s demands, including lifting a naval blockade.
Yesterday, Iran said that talks were “continuing in a serious manner” and views were being exchanged on the text of a “joint statement.”
Tehran has been requiring vessels to seek permission and pay transit service fees — a move opposed by Washington and several regional countries. It has been hitting vessels that try to transit the strait without requesting permission.
US President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of a deal with Iran on Hormuz, and called for Tehran to surrender in a war that has become a growing political burden at home.
Palestinian-American Louai Abu Ridi raised a giant American flag over his West Bank home, hoping it might deter extremist settlers besieging the property. But it wasn’t enough to stop one of them from walking onto Abu Ridi’s land today, sparking a tense face-off.
Abu Ridi arrived in Qusra late yesterday after traveling from the US, fearing he could lose the property to extremist Israeli settlers who have encircled three Palestinian homes in the village for more than a week, prompting US condemnation.
Abu Ridi, who grew up in the village in the West Bank, is taking a morning walk among his cherry and fig trees today when a settler approaches from the hill above, in an encounter filmed by Reuters, the only media outlet present.
“You came to make a mess, ha?” the settler says in Hebrew as he approached, holding what appeared to be a Torah in one hand and filming Abu Ridi with a cellphone.
“You are a terrorist settler, you know that?” Abu Ridi says, also filming with his phone.
An Israeli military vehicle drives by a few times before soldiers approach and speak to the settler, telling him it’s a closed military area.
“I’ll leave if they leave. There are a lot of guys here. We’re all just guarding our territory. If they go inside the house, we’ll leave,” the settler tells the soldiers.
The settler eventually retreats up the road before he is joined by two more settlers, and does not respond to a question from Reuters on what he was doing there. Eventually they amble up the hill and out of sight.
“Just be inside, they go, and you’ll be inside. Don’t talk to each other, ok? I’ll solve this problem,” an Israeli soldier tells Abu Ridi, instructing him to enter his home.
Ridi tells the soldiers the settler’s presence was illegal and he should be arrested.
The confrontation captures tensions in the village where extremist settlers began besieging the homes more than a week ago, part of what rights groups say is a wider effort by settlers to seize more land from Palestinians, further eating into territory where they aim to establish a state.
I was with Palestinian-American Loui Ridi tonight when he made it to his home in Qusra.
One of the first things he did was raise an American flag over his house.
I’ll have much more on this story soon- pic.twitter.com/xAZpeJrZlH— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) August 17, 2026
ُTimes of Israel staff contributed to this report.
United States President Donald Trump posts an image on his Truth Social account showing the Strait of Hormuz as a new US territory.
The post, bearing no caption, comes days after the US leader vowed he would “soon” declare the vital waterway a US territory, as Washington and Tehran struggle to reach a deal to end their nearly six-month conflict.
It remains unclear how serious Trump is about the move, as he has repeatedly issued sweeping threats against Tehran during the negotiation period that were not ultimately carried out.
New media post from Donald J. Trump
( TS: Aug 18 2026, 7:09 AM ET ) pic.twitter.com/MXZtcwYrhB
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) August 18, 2026
ANKARA, Turkey — The US special presidential envoy for Syria and Iraq blames Israel for airstrikes on the Abu Duhur Military Airport in northwestern Syria, saying they constitute an “unnecessary escalation” that does not advance regional stability.
In a statement on X, Ambassador Tom Barrack says the United States was deeply concerned by the attack and added that Washington was encouraging all parties to prioritize “logical discourse” over further military incidents.
Israel has yet to comment on the strikes.
We are deeply concerned that the confirmed Israeli airstrikes on Abu al-Duhur Airbase constitute an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.
The Al-Sharra government has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces. It has, in fact,…
— Ambassador Tom Barrack (@USAMBTurkiye) August 18, 2026
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemns what it says was an unjustified Israeli attack on an airbase in the country’s northwest earlier today, while Israel has not commented on the incident.
Syria “condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli airstrikes targeting” the Abu Duhur military air base in Idlib province “and considers them an unjustified act of aggression,” a Foreign Ministry statement says, urging the international community and the United Nations Security Council to “take a firm position against Israel’s repeated violations of Syrian sovereignty.”
Former Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen thanks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud voters for their backing after coming in at number eight in the party’s primary on Monday.
With Netanyahu taking the top spot on the list and with the addition of the premier’s handpicked candidates in several reserved slots, this means that Cohen will be placed 14th on the party slate for the October 27 election.
“I still can’t process the results, I’m stunned by all the love I received from the smart and patriotic Likud members,” Cohen posts on X. “Even though the ‘campaign’ lasted only three days, without stickers, without signs, and without a headquarters(!) — I received invaluable trust from the party members. I intend to treat this trust with utmost reverence and humility, and continue serving the public to the best of my ability.”
“I thank Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his vote of confidence and forward-looking vision. You believed in me even when others chose differently,” he adds.
Cohen, a deputy minister in Netanyahu’s government, announced his run last Wednesday after Netanyahu approved a shorter tenure period than usually required, paving the way for him to compete.
At the time, Netanyahu welcomed the move, praising the ultranationalist as a “warrior” in a joint video address announcing his candidacy.
“This is a warrior, a man of the Negev who chewed my ear off to bring an airport to the Negev. Well done! And he was with us on the decisive vote to pass the budget. I’m not forgetting that. I thank you,” Netanyahu added in the video, referring to Cohen’s push to approve a new airport in the south and his willingness to buck party discipline, as a member of Otzma Yehudit, to help pass the 2025 budget.
The former police officer and restaurateur was elected to the Knesset on Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit slate in 2022. He quickly developed a reputation as a firebrand, calling for opposition leaders to “be put in handcuffs,” screaming at the families of hostages held in Gaza and accusing them of “representing Hamas,” and likening Arab party MKs to sheep, which drew a reprimand from the Knesset Ethics Committee.
He was also the subject of a criminal probe, since closed, into allegations that he used violence against a civilian during his service in the Israel Police over a decade ago.
Beyond clashing with ideological opponents in the Knesset, Cohen also quarreled with his colleagues, repeatedly voting with the coalition despite Otzma Yehudit’s decision to oppose the 2025 state budget — an approach that led the party to slap him with several sanctions, including exclusion from faction meetings and removal from the party’s internal WhatsApp groups.
Cohen was also the sole Otzma Yehudit lawmaker not to temporarily resign from the coalition over the cabinet’s approval of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in the Gaza Strip that month, prompting party leader Ben Gvir to say that “his place is in Likud and I wish him great success.”
He was later appointed by Netanyahu to a deputy ministerial position and resigned as a lawmaker under the so-called Norwegian law, which allows cabinet members and deputy ministers to relinquish their Knesset seats while holding on to their ministerial posts.
Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot slams the Likud party following its primary election yesterday, declaring in a post on X that “no festive message or ‘victory’ parties will hide the fact that the Likud list for the 26th Knesset is, in practice, the October 7 list.”
“These are exactly the same people who shamelessly divided Israeli society, who blindly led Israel to the worst disaster since the founding of the state” and who, “instead of taking responsibility, clung to their seats at all costs and added insult to injury by enabling mass draft evasion during wartime,” he posts, arguing that the current Likud slate’s members “don’t know how to lead Israel to victory,” cannot unite the country and “are not worthy” of leadership.
“To the Likudniks who are fed up with leadership of lies and corruption, I want to say: you have a home. You can rely on us,” Eisenkot states.
Eisenkot’s Yashar, a new party unveiled in September, is not holding a primary. Eisenkot is selecting its Knesset slate.
The Yashar chairman’s comments come after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement declaring himself “very satisfied” with the results, which he said would enable Likud to achieve a “big victory” in the October 27 election.
“This is the only way to prevent a leftist government of Eisenkot, [Democrats party leader] Yair Golan, [Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor] Liberman, and the Arab parties,” Netanyahu’s statement asserted.
Former minister Matan Kahana decries what he calls “Haredi control over the Likud primary” and the lack of female representation in the governing party as the final results of the vote are released.
“I think that Likud voters also know that their party is no longer a liberal party,” Kahana, a member of Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition Yashar party, says.
“In what kind of liberal party are there only two women in the top 20 spots?” he says, commenting on the lack of female representation in the final results.
Police announce the arrest yesterday of a 75-year-old woman who was recorded overnight Friday-Saturday allegedly gluing the lock of Jerusalem’s Basimta cafe, which Haredi men have picketed on weekends for the past two months for opening on Shabbat.
The damage to the lock delayed the cafe’s opening by roughly 40 minutes on Saturday.
The woman is allegedly involved in several other cases of damage to the cafe, including spraying graffiti and hurling trash at it.
The woman was brought today before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, which released her with restrictions including a ban on approaching or entering the cafe, police say.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States meets the conditions of the interim deal with Iran, including lifting its maritime blockade and sanctions, as well as freeing Iran’s frozen assets, Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says in comments published by state media.
The memorandum of understanding, to which Israel is not a party to and which officially expired yesterday, largely broke down soon after it was announced.
Iran then resumed attacks on ships it accused of trying to transit the strait without its permission, leading to US retaliatory strikes.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The IDF responds to footage published yesterday showing a Palestinian man with a number marked on his forehead.
“Yesterday, during a brigade-level operation in the village of Qabatiya in the Menashe region, security forces marked suspects who were questioned as part of the operation. Commanders made clear to the troops the seriousness of the act, and lessons have been learned,” it says.
The IDF’s comment was similar to one it made in April after numbers were seen marked on the hands of Palestinians as they entered a military-controlled refugee camp.
In April, footage emerged showing Palestinian women with numbers marked on their hands as they entered the IDF-controlled Jenin refugee camp to collect belongings.
At the time, the IDF said the markings were made at the Palestinians’ initiative, but nevertheless described the practice as “an error in judgment,” adding that “procedures were clarified and lessons were learned.”
HORRIFIC: Israeli soldiers wrote identification numbers directly on the foreheads of Palestinian men in Qabatya, in the West Bank, before interrogating them. pic.twitter.com/Lyl0y7VSPt
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) August 17, 2026
Hamas says it remains committed to a Gaza peace deal backed by the United States after envoy Jared Kushner spoke to Israel about pressuring the terror group on disarmament.
“Hamas is committed to this agreed-upon process. It is clear that, so far, the Israeli side has not given the mediators clear approval of the roadmap,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem tells AFP.
The Board of Peace is considering abandoning its phased framework for Hamas’s disarmament amid Israeli pushback to the US-controlled body’s original plan, a source directly familiar with the negotiations told The Times of Israel on Monday.
While the shift to a wholesale framework could be enough to get Israel on board, it risks losing the support of Hamas, after the Board of Peace spent months coaxing the terror group to accept the phased disarmament plan.
That original disarmament roadmap, approved by Hamas on July 30, broke the roughly 47 percent of the Gaza Strip still controlled by Hamas into five sectors and envisioned each sector being demilitarized successively, the source said.
Jacob Magid and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) says it will use all means available to it to fight Defense Minister Israel Katz’s plan to transfer responsibility for civilian law enforcement from the military to the police.
It was unclear what impact such a measure would have on the ground. Israel has never formally annexed the West Bank, and therefore, the IDF has been responsible for enforcement in the area. In addition, the IDF already hands any suspects detained in the West Bank over to the police for interrogation or arrest.
In his announcement, Katz seemed to be implying he wanted police to be fully in charge of handling settlers and for the military to wash its hands of the issue.
ACRI says the move “is not a simple division of labor between agencies but a step towards annexation, in practice and in law: it places occupied territory under Israeli civilian rule and treats it as part of the state, while Israel holds no sovereignty there.”
ACRI also says it violates the attorney general’s determination that an outgoing government cannot create “irreversible facts” during an election period.
“ACRI argues that Katz’s initiative is exactly what that rule aims to prevent: a new and politically charged move, taken without professional staff work, opposed by the security and police officials who would have to carry it out, and structurally hard to undo once the powers have moved,” it says in a statement.
“For years, Palestinian residents of the West Bank have lived under severe and relentless settler violence. The forces bound by law to protect them have utterly failed to do so, and have often supported and enabled that violence,” says ACRI Executive Director Noa Sattath.
“Thousands of families have already left their homes because protection never came. We will use every legal means available to have this decision revoked,” she says.
A 20-year-old from a southern Bedouin town is indicted for allegedly plotting to set off a car bomb at Beersheba’s popular Forum nightclub after he connected online with Islamic State enthusiasts and a person “who presented himself as a Palestinian terror operative,” police and the Shin Bet and police say.
The Southern District Attorney’s Office charged Abdullah Gergawi at the Beersheba District Court this morning with security offenses and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, the joint statement says.
Gergawi was arrested on July 19 in his hometown of Segev Shalom, according to the statement.
Investigators who interrogated him discovered that in 2025, Gergawi “held many weapons in his home,” including MAG and Negev machine guns and Kalashnikov and M16 assault rifles, the statement says. In March and April of this year, Gergawi also allegedly possessed an illegal M-16 knockoff and fired it in an open area.
In addition, Gergawi “carried out actions” to produce an explosive device as part of his plan to attack the Forum, police and the Shin Bet say. The statement doesn’t specify the time of the preparations or when Gergawi allegedly planned to carry out the attack.
Gergawi had been “exposed for an extended period” to Islamic State propaganda on social media, the statement says, adding that he “identified with the organization’s ideology and consumed terrorist content.”
In addition to contacting the purported Palestinian terror operative, Gergawi also “participated in a Telegram group chat where materials were exchanged relating to Islamic State and terrorist activity,” the statement says.
The 4-year-old who was stabbed along with another young child in Beit Shemesh yesterday is in moderate, stable condition after undergoing surgery, Hadassah Medical Center says in a statement.
Prof. Dan Arbel, director of the Department of Pediatric Surgery, who operated on the child, reports that he is recovering to “his doctors’ satisfaction, with his family by his side.”
The boys were stabbed in an apartment in the central Israeli city and taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. The other child, 7, was declared dead after arriving at the hospital.
The incident is not being treated as an act of terror. A suspect, reportedly a neighbor, has been arrested and is thought to be mentally unstable.
SANAA, Yemen — Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have targeted an oil refinery on Saudi Arabia’s southern Red Sea coast, rebel media reports, as the rebels ramp up attacks on the kingdom.
The Houthis “targeted the Aramco refinery in Jazan with a number of drones… in response to airspace violations over the governorates of Saada and Hajjah” in Yemen, Houthi news agency Saba says, citing a military source.
The vote count for the Likud primary has been completed, with Energy Minister Eli Cohen taking first place.
Out of roughly 140,000 eligible members, Likud said 75,177 cast ballots — some 53.5%.
The top 16 candidates, who are likely to enter the next Knesset given Likud’s current polling performance, are as follows:
1. Eli Cohen
2. Amir Ohana
3. Yariv Levin
4. Miri Regev
5. Ofir Katz
6. Yoav Kisch
7. Miki Zohar
8. Almog Cohen
9. Amichai Chikli
10. David Amsalem
11. Moshe Saada
12. Tally Gotliv
13. Shlomo Karhi
14. Boaz Bismuth
15. David Bitan
16. Nir Barkat
The primary results will be used to form Likud’s Knesset slate, alongside politicians Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself is selecting in reserved places.
Our combo photo shows the apparently final top 25 on Likud’s Knesset slate, with silhouettes showing slots reserved for party leader Netanyahu’s yet-to-be-named personal choices.
In a statement, the party says Netanyahu is “very satisfied” with the results and declares it will claim a “big victory” in the October election.
“This is the only way to prevent a leftist government of Eisenkot, Yair Golan, Liberman, and the Arab parties.”
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught and abducted an Israeli hostage was killed in a strike in the southern Gaza Strip this week, the military announces.
The strike in Khan Younis on Sunday killed Tareq Anwar Khamis Ra’i, identified by the army as a company commander in Islamic Jihad’s supply unit.
On October 7, Ra’i invaded Kibbutz Be’eri “and took part in the abduction of an Israeli civilian,” the IDF says, without detailing who the hostage was.
The military justifies the strike amid the ceasefire by saying that Ra’i had recently been advancing attacks on troops and civilians. He was “eliminated to remove a threat,” the IDF adds.
New findings thought to be related to Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz, who went missing in the First Lebanon War’s battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982, have been found, the military announces.
The battle, 44 years ago, was a skirmish between the IDF and the Syrian army in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. It claimed the lives of 21 Israeli servicemen, and more than 30 were injured during it.
Katz, a tank soldier, went missing during the battle along with Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel and Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman.
Baumel’s remains were recovered with Russian assistance and returned to Israel in 2019, and Feldman’s remains were recovered by Mossad agents in May 2025.
Overnight, a special operation was carried out by the IDF, based on intelligence obtained in recent months, during which new findings were located, according to the military. The findings are not Katz’s remains, but are believed to be personal belongings.
The findings have been handed to the family, who are inspecting them. The IDF is also investigating the findings, and only later will it publish a formal statement on the matter, once the family has completed their inspection.
Saudi Arabia’s school textbooks have continued a years-long shift toward greater tolerance, coexistence and critical thinking, with the latest curriculum eliminating remaining examples of antisemitic content, according to a new report by the educational monitoring organization IMPACT-se.
The review examined 136 textbooks used in the 2025-26 school year and found continued reductions in extremist and discriminatory material, building on reforms documented in previous years.
The report said lessons increasingly promote dialogue and respect for different cultures and religious communities. Islamic Studies textbooks highlight examples of peaceful relations between the Prophet Muhammad and Jews, Christians and Arab tribes, while lessons on war prohibit harming noncombatants.
The curriculum has also further moderated its treatment of religious minorities, removing passages portraying Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians negatively. However, the report noted that the Holocaust remains absent from a Grade 9 Social Studies textbook.
References to Israel have become somewhat more neutral, including replacing the phrase “the Zionist enemy” with “the Israeli occupation.” Still, Israel does not appear by name on any maps reviewed, and textbooks continue to describe it as an occupying state.
The report also found expanded portrayals of women as contributors to Saudi society and the economy, reflecting the goals of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 modernization program.
“The overall trajectory is extremely encouraging and will inevitably contribute to greater regional stability and understanding,” says IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff.
Police announce the arrest of four people suspected of involvement in a brawl that preceded the disappearance and death of 22-year-old Dimona resident Eldar Dayan in July.
Two of the suspects were detained last night, and another two were detained this morning, police say.
All four had previously been interrogated at the Petah Tikva police station and were arrested “in accordance with the development of the investigation,” according to police.
Two of Dayan’s companions, who are suspected of involvement in his death, are already in custody, police add.
The military warns of increased helicopter activity this afternoon, as the 190th Squadron is permanently relocating from Ramon Airbase in the south to Ramat David Airbase in the north.
The squadron operates a fleet of AH-64A Apache choppers, known in the Israeli Air Force as Peten (Cobra).
“As part of the transfer, increased aircraft activity will be noticeable in the skies over the country,” the IDF says, adding that “there is no concern of a security incident” as the relocation was pre-planned.
Energy Minister Eli Cohen maintains his healthy lead as first place in the Likud party primary, with 91.2% of votes counted.
Cohen is trailed by some 3,000 votes by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who is followed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, and coalition whip Ofir Katz.
The results are as follows:
1. Eli Cohen
2. Amir Ohana
3. Yariv Levin
4. Miri Regev
5. Ofir Katz
6. Yoav Kisch
7. Miki Zohar
8. Almog Cohen
9. Amichai Chikli
10. David Amsalem
11. Moshe Saada
12. Tally Gotliv
13. Shlomo Karhi
14. David Bitan
15. Boaz Bismuth
16. Nir Barkat
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party consistently polling in the low 20s, and given that roughly one-third of the first 30 slots on the Likud list are reserved for candidates hand-picked by the premier, those finishing below the top 16 are unlikely to be elected to the next Knesset.
If the current results hold, that would mean current ministers Ze’ev Elkin, Gila Gamliel, May Golan, Idit Silman and Avi Dichter will be out of a job come October, along with current Likud MKs Hanoch Milwidsky, Keti Shitrit, Ariel Kallner, Amit Halevi, Avichai Boaron and Nissim Vaturi.
The IDF says it fired an interceptor missile at a “false target” over the community of Zarit on the Lebanon border a short while ago.
No sirens sounded “according to protocol,” the military says, adding that the incident is under further investigation.
The runway of a military airport in northwestern Syria was targeted overnight by unidentified fighter jets, according to Arab media, with some reports suspecting that Israel was behind the strike.
Al Jazeera reports that four strikes hit the runway of Abu al-Zuhour Military Airport near Idlib — not far from the border with Turkey — and Al Hadath described them as “likely Israeli.”
There has been no comment from Israel on the reports.
Israel has been seeking to prevent Turkish entrenchment and influence in Syria, and in the past carried out strikes purportedly to stop Turkey from assisting in building up the new Syrian government’s air force.
If confirmed to be an Israeli airstrike, it would mark the first such attack by the Israeli Air Force since March 2026, when the IDF said it hit Syrian military camps in the country’s south in response to an alleged attack on Druze civilians in the Sweida area. Before that, in July 2025, the IDF bombed the Syrian general staff command building in Damascus, also in response to attacks on the Druze.
Six Thai workers are injured in a blast from an old explosive in an agricultural field in Metula, according to police and medics.
The injured were brought to Ziv Medical Center in Safed this morning, the hospital says.
Two people who were seriously injured and another who was moderately injured were admitted to the trauma room for initial medical treatment.
Three additional wounded are being treated in the Emergency Department.
Prof. Aviram Nissan, Director of the Surgical Department at the Ziv Medical Center, says that one of the wounded is in serious condition and is currently being treated in the operating room.
The other seriously injured person is currently undergoing imaging tests to assess his condition and continue treatment.
Police say they are investigating the incident.
SINGAPORE — Ship crossings via the Strait of Hormuz were still in single digits yesterday, despite rising slightly from the weekend, according to preliminary shipping data today, amid a stalemate in US and Iranian peace talks.
Six commodity ships transited the strait yesterday, of which three were exiting the Gulf and three were entering, Kpler ship-tracking data shows, compared with the 10-day average of 11 ships. Three ships transited on Saturday while two moved through the waterway on Sunday.
There were no very large crude carriers or tankers carrying liquefied natural gas passing through.
Some vessels could be passing through the strait with their transponders switched off, and they are not considered in the tally.
The very large gas carrier (VLGC) Xavia entered the strait via the Iranian route under ballast, meaning empty of cargo, according to the data. VLGCs are typically used to ship liquefied petroleum gases such as propane and butane.
A medium-range fuel tanker and an intermediate-range tanker also entered the Gulf, the data shows, while a medium-sized LPG carrier, a Panamax bulk carrier, and a Panamax-sized fuel tanker exited the Gulf.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) receives a report that a vessel was struck by an unknown projectile while transiting outbound in the Strait of Hormuz, causing engine room damage and a crew casualty, with the remaining crew being assisted by the Omani Coast Guard.
With 53 percent of the vote counted, Energy Minister Eli Cohen is set to win first place in the Likud party primary.
Cohen is trailed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Transportation Minister Miri Regev and coalition whip Ofir Katz.
The current results are as follows:
1. Eli Cohen
2. Yariv Levin
3. Amir Ohana
4. Miri Regev
5. Ofir Katz
6. Miki Zohar
7. Yoav Kisch
8. Almog Cohen
9. Amichai Chikli
10. Moshe Saada
11. David Amsalem
12. Tally Gotliv
13. David Bitan
14. Shlomo Karhi
15. Nir Barkat
16. Boaz Bismuth
Given that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has consistently been polling in the low 20s, and given that roughly one-third of the first 30 slots on the Likud list are reserved for candidates hand-picked by the premier, those who do not finish in the top 16 in the Likud primary are not expected to make it into the next Knesset.
If the current results hold, that would mean current ministers Ze’ev Elkin, May Golan, Idit Silman and Avi Dichter will be out of a job come October, along with current Likud MKs Hanoch Milwidsky, Keti Shitrit, Ariel Kallner, Amit Halevi and Nissim Vaturi.
While Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel is not faring well, she is still leading the running for the last of three realistic spots on the Likud slate reserved for a woman, with Eti Atiya less than 100 votes behind.
Parents at Palo Alto High School in California are suing the school for taking students on a field trip to a mosque, where students were allegedly pushed to wear hijabs and given Qurans.
The trip was part of the school’s “Social Justice Pathway” and the trip framed Islam as aligned with social work, The New York Post reports.
The parents’ children are Jewish, Hindu and Zoroastrian, the report says.
The lawsuit is brought by a group called the Plaintiff Community Members for Religious Neutrality in Public Schools.
The Palo Alto Unified School District and the high school principle are also named in the lawsuit.
The students on the trip also met Zahra Billoo of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, the report says.
Billoo has a history of extremist statements against “Zionists.”
A school administrator tells The San Francisco Chronicle that, according to the school district’s policy, says that lessons about religion must be neutral, academic, and not devotional, and would not comment on pending litigation.
Settlers torched fields on the outskirts of the central West Bank Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya on Monday evening, the official Palestinian Authority Wafa news outlet reports.
Palestinian media also reports that the IDF held up a Palestinian ambulance that was trying to reach the village in order to put out the fire.
There was no immediate comment from the IDF.
فلسطين.. النيران تلتهم سهل بلدة ترمسعيا شمال رام الله بعد إشعالها من قبل مستوطنين pic.twitter.com/2Ua4Q65omL
— التلفزيون العربي (@AlarabyTV) August 17, 2026
Turmus Ayya has been one of the Palestinian villages most frequently targeted by settlers, who have established several illegal outposts nearby. The vast majority of the village’s residents hold American citizenship, but they knocked the US government for not doing enough to protect them from the Israeli attacks, which go largely unpunished.
The alleged attack in Turmus Ayya was one of several that took place on Monday evening alone, according to Wafa.
Settlers also raided the northern West Bank Palestinian village of Beita and hurled stones at residents, injuring two of them, Wafa says.
On a road outside the West Bank city of Bethlehem, settlers held up a Palestinian vehicle at gunpoint and proceeded to pepper spray the passengers inside the car, including a young child, according to Arabic media reports.
There are no reports of arrests.
Just another horrific day under Israeli settler terrorism in the West Bank.
Israeli settler terrorists pepper-sprayed Palestinian children after stopping their vehicle and pointing weapons at them on Abu Njeim Road, south of Bethlehem. pic.twitter.com/ghMAiYSOFf
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) August 17, 2026
IDF soldiers are still using markers to tag Palestinians on their bodies after it assured reporters several months ago that the practice was inappropriate and would cease.
A Palestinian interrogated by troops during a raid of the northern West Bank village of Qabatiya on Monday spoke to Palestinian media with the number 44 still seen on his forehead.
He says troops marked him along with others that it interrogated during its raid of the village.
Mr. No. 44 speaks about his arrest by the army.
The army writes numbers on the skin of young men from the West Bank for identification and interrogation. pic.twitter.com/Zbk2eEdSej
— Abo Bashar ابو بشار (@abomoamar) August 17, 2026
During the interrogation, the Qabatiya resident says troops warned him not to take part in clashes against settlers if the latter raids the village. Such settler incursions have become common throughout the West Bank, where violence by Israeli extremists has gone largely unchecked.
A similar incident unfolded in April, when Israeli troops used a marker to tag the hands of Palestinians it was allowing to briefly return to the Jenin refugee camp to gather their belongings.
The IDF has been conducting a counterterror operation in the camp for months, displacing thousands of Palestinians who were living there.
The army said troops were trying to maintain an orderly return of the residents to the refugee camp, which the IDF has divided into sections that it identifies by a number and a letter.
The IDF claimed writing the section of the camp to which each resident was from on their respective hand was the Palestinians’ idea.
Still, “this was a case of poor judgment,” the army said in a statement, insisting that proper conduct has been clarified and that lessons have been learned after critics accused the IDF of dehumanizing Palestinians.
After the latest incident unfolded in Qabatiya, a military source acknowledges to The Times of Israel that the soldiers involved acted inappropriately and that steps would be taken to address what happened.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged US President Donald Trump in a Monday phone call to pursue talks with Iran to de-escalate tensions between the two countries, and offered Ankara’s support for peace efforts, the Turkish presidency says.
Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and borders Iran, has repeatedly called for an end to the war. It has maintained close contact with the United States, Iran, and mediators such as Pakistan and Qatar, while also acting as an intermediary between the parties.
“Erdogan stated that it is of great importance to make the utmost of diplomacy regarding the tensions between Iran and the United States, that we hope the talks will continue, and that Turkey will continue to support peace efforts,” the presidency says in a statement.
The call comes after a senior Iranian official told Reuters earlier on Monday that Iran would shift to a “fully offensive” military posture because efforts to negotiate a permanent end to the war have stalled, as Washington ruled out extending a temporary ceasefire agreement.
Progress towards a resumption of oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has also stalled.
Turkey has criticised the US and Israeli assault on Iran, while also condemning the Iranian attacks on Gulf states and calling for the re-opening of the strategic strait.
On Monday, Turkey’s foreign minister discussed the strait’s re-opening and the continuation of the ceasefire with his Iranian counterpart.
The presidency adds that Erdogan and Trump also discussed bilateral ties, the war in Gaza, and a defence pact signed between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, adding that the Turkish leader praised the accord as a sign of a “strong stance” for regional stability and security.
It says Erdogan told Trump that Israel’s attacks on Palestinians had increased at a time when the second phase of Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan was supposed to come into effect.
The White House does not immediately respond to a request for comment on the call.
US special envoy Jared Kushner says conversations between the US and different areas of the Iranian government have probably been more robust than ever, but the two sides have not yet reached an understanding.
Kushner tells Fox News that Trump is currently focused on maintaining economic pressure against Iran, through the US blockade of Iranian ports and other means.
“If Iran is willing to finish the deal that they’ve been discussing with us to give up their ability to create a nuclear weapon, then [Trump] wants to make a deal that could be great for the Iranian people,” he continues. “But right now they’re not showing any interest in doing something that makes sense for us.”
“President Trump is going to be very patient. He doesn’t want to rush you a deal. He’ll make the right deal when the right deal is ready. But we are having very positive and active conversations,” Kushner adds.
