Activists with the left-wing Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights were pepper-sprayed and assaulted by settlers in the southern West Bank today, the organization says.
The group adds that soldiers “stood by and watched” the attack. The IDF has not commented on the incident. Footage posted by Rabbis for Human Rights shows soldiers trying to pull away a couple of the attackers, with limited success.
According to Rabbis for Human Rights, the attack took place in the village of Jannatah, near Bethlehem, where AFP also said today that its journalists were attacked by settlers.
The Israeli group was in Jannatah to help build a fence around a Palestinian home on the outskirts of the village, the group’s director tells the Kan public broadcaster.
Footage released by Rabbis for Human Rights shows assailants clad in masks and hoodies spraying activists in the face. At least one attacker wields a club, and some have Jewish ritual fringes, known as tzitzit, peeking out from underneath their shirts.
Jannata: Jewish terrorists are attacking our activists. Terrorists sprayed them with pepper spray, beat a 70-year-old activist, smashed the windows of four vehicles, and slashed their tires. Soldiers stood by and watched. The police arrived only hours after the attack had ended. pic.twitter.com/zeQjjpEiWL
— Rabbis for Human Rights (@rabbis4HR) August 25, 2026
According to Rabbis for Human Rights, the “Jewish terrorists” pepper-sprayed the activists, beat a 70-year-old activist, and smashed the windows and slashed the tires of four cars.
“The police arrived only hours after the attack had ended,” the group says.
Police do not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation.
Kan reports that officers from West Bank police who arrived on the scene launched an investigation and took testimony from people involved. It says the attack took place in the area of Kochav Yehuda, an illegal outpost that has been repeatedly dismantled — including as recently as yesterday, according to the outlet.
Settler violence has surged in recent months, with near-daily attacks and harassment. Prosecutions are rare, and critics accuse the IDF of condoning or even encouraging the violence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticizes Ofer Winter and other right-wing figures who have recently founded new political parties, warning that the fragmentation in his own political bloc could doom it to failure.
Winter, a controversial, hawkish former general, launched his “People of Israel” party today. Polls show the party receiving just enough votes to enter the Knesset, but suggest that those votes could come at the expense of the far-right, pro-Netanyahu Religious Zionism party, which would not pass the threshold of votes needed to make it in.
“Today we have three mushrooms after rain,” Netanyahu says at an event in the central West Bank, according to Hebrew reports, naming Winter as well as two far-right politicians, Moshe Feiglin and Avi Maoz. “Whoever doesn’t pass the electoral threshold wastes their votes. Whoever does pass will take down an existing party.”
He continues, “So there’s only one message for all of the new right-wing parties: Leave, or unite with the existing parties. If you care about the future of the state of Israel, that’s what you need to do.”
The remarks come after Netanyahu made similar comments yesterday, when he posted on social media, “Don’t waste your vote on small parties that may not pass the threshold and bring the left to power.”
British Finance Minister John Healey says the country supports US efforts to secure a diplomatic solution on Iran and welcomes steps to increase pressure, including the expanded sanctions on Iran announced yesterday.
Healey also calls on Iran to cease its “destabilizing activity” across the region, including in the Strait of Hormuz.
The head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group, announces their dissolution as part of a deal struck with the new authorities in Damascus.
“We announce today the end of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces and declare, with full responsibility, their dissolution as an independent military force,” leader Mazloum Abdi says in a televised speech at the presidential palace.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announces that Dutch representatives will be expelled from the US-backed international coordination center for Gaza in Kiryat Gat, citing a series of “anti-Israel measures” by the Netherlands.
“Representatives of the Netherlands will be expelled immediately from the International Gaza Aid Center in Kiryat Gat. I made this decision today, with the approval of Prime Minister Netanyahu, following a series of anti-Israel measures taken by the Dutch government,” Sa’ar writes on X.
He cites as the latest example the Netherlands’ July decision to ban imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, beginning September 22.
“Notice of this decision was delivered this evening to the Dutch Embassy in Israel and, of course, also to our American friends. The Dutch representatives have been instructed to leave Israel within one week,” Sa’ar adds.
The Netherlands has taken a series of steps against Israel in the wake of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and subsequent Gaza war, including barring Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir from entering the country, restricting arms exports to Israel and backing increased European pressure over Israeli policies in Gaza and the West Bank.
“The Dutch government’s anti-Israel policy has been accompanied by an unprecedented wave of antisemitism and boycotts in the Netherlands. Our message is clear: Those who act against Israel will have no foothold in the region. Israel will not allow measures to be taken against it without a response,” the minister says.
There is no immediate public response to the move by the Dutch authorities.
The Kiryat Gat center was originally established as the Civil-Military Coordination Center under US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war, housing international representatives tasked with monitoring the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, facilitating aid deliveries and developing postwar policy for the Strip.
It has since been overhauled and rebranded as the International Gaza Aid Center. It is not immediately clear how many Dutch representatives are currently stationed there or what roles they hold.
Dolly Parton, the country music icon whose soaring vibrato vocals, poignant songwriting and sparkling costumes defined her rise from a log cabin in the Tennessee mountains to the height of stardom and acclaim, has died. She was 80 years old.
Known for her curvy physique, massive blonde wigs and skin-tight outfits that served her self-deprecating wit, she was among the most beloved personalities in music and beyond — the rare celebrity whose appeal transcended generations, geography and politics.
She wrote hundreds of songs, including classics like “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” that totaled more than 100 million worldwide sales and more than 1 billion online streams. Parton, who plucked bejeweled banjos, guitar and dulcimers with her long fingernails during performances, was a generous philanthropist and successful businesswoman whose projects included a theme park in the Smoky Mountain foothills near her birthplace.
Her career was forever influenced by her upbringing as one of 12 children born into what she called a “dirt poor” Tennessee family. She started her education nonprofit, Imagination Library, to send free books to children in Tennessee because her father, who quit school to work on the farm, struggled to learn to read.
Parton’s first musical performances were in church, where her grandfather was a preacher. By age 10, she was learning guitar and singing on local television shows. At 13, she appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where Johnny Cash introduced her as “a little girl here from up in East Tennessee.”
Parton spanned social and political divides, through multiple generations of fans, urban and rural and in between. In tumultuous election years, it wasn’t uncommon to see “Dolly for President” shirts. But she was strict in not voicing her own political beliefs, often turning aside questions about presidents, candidates, policies and other controversies.
“I don’t do politics,” Parton told host Jad Abumrad on his hit podcast “Dolly Parton’s America.”
“I have too many fans on both sides of the fence. Of course, I have my opinion about everything, but I learned years ago to keep your mouth shut about things.”
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres condemns the Israeli takeover of a training center run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in East Jerusalem.
“The Secretary-General is greatly alarmed at this development, as it will deprive young people of the vocational education they were receiving,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric says.
He adds that the training center “and other UNRWA premises are premises of the United Nations. They are inviolable and immune from any form of interference.”
Israel believes that Turkey’s efforts to establish a military presence at a base in northern Syria have been thwarted for now, Channel 12 reports, after the base was attacked by Israel last week.
The decision is a result of intensive efforts to calm tensions following the Israeli airstrike, which have seen high-level contacts between Israel and Syria, as well as Israel and Turkey, notably including a meeting between Mossad chief Roman Gofman and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in Jordan on Sunday, the report says.
Israel will not hesitate to strike the base again, Channel 12 quotes Israeli security officials as saying.
Defense Minister Israel Katz, meeting with IDF troops in southern Syria earlier today, said Israel “acted against a Turkish attempt to establish itself in Syria, while putting Israel’s security interests at risk,” referring to last week’s strikes on the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Idlib. “We made this clear and will stand by it in the future as well,” he added.
The Syrian foreign ministry condemned Katz’s visit as illegal, and said his crossing of the international border was “a flagrant violation” of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir met with female surveillance soldiers on the border with the Gaza Strip today, telling them that their efforts are “important” and a “critical part of the IDF’s defense array.”
“You are our eyes on the front, the first to identify infiltration threats and activate forces,” he says, according to remarks published by the army, during a visit to the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit at the Re’im Base.
“I greatly appreciate you and know how important your role is. You protect the country’s borders, the communities in the area, and you are a critical part of the IDF’s defense array,” Zamir says.
He adds that the surveillance soldiers’ identifications and assessments “are important, and one of the lessons of October 7 is that we must listen carefully to every female and male soldier as part of assessments and the decision-making process.”
Leading up to that Hamas-led invasion and massacre in 2023, the surveillance soldiers sent alerts about terrorists training for the attack, and were infamously ignored. Some of the surveillance soldiers, who are women, said sexism was a factor in their warnings being brushed aside.
Earlier this month, surveillance soldiers on the border said they felt like they were experiencing a repeat of the unheeded warnings before the October 7 onslaught.
The Shin Bet confirms it is helping police search for Haymanut Kasau, who disappeared at age 9 from an absorption center in Safed more than two years ago after her family came to Israel from Ethiopia.
“Following appeals from police officials, and after consultation and approval of all relevant parties, the Shin Bet is helping carry out actions to support the investigation of the disappearance of Haymanut Kasau,” the Shin Bet says in a statement, adding that “by the nature of things” it can’t elaborate on the type or scale of the agency’s assistance in the police investigation.
The confirmation comes after President Isaac Herzog met today with Kasau’s family at his residence, and said Shin Bet chief David Zini told him recently that “the Shin Bet has entered the picture following a recent appeal from the Israel Police,” according to a statement from Herzog’s office.
“The Shin Bet is involved in the case and is entering with full force to contribute in every way to finding Haymanut,” Herzog said.
Kasau’s family has long demanded the Shin Bet get involved in the case.
At a protest earlier this month marking 900 days since she disappeared in February 2024, Kasau’s parents said they had difficulty believing the Shin Bet’s inaction was not due to racism.
Israeli authorities have been holding a Palestinian woman in custody for almost a week after she filed a police complaint about settlers allegedly torching her home, according to a Haaretz report.
The woman has been charged in a military court with filing a false complaint and harming regional security. Police claim the fire in the southern West Bank hamlet of Khillet al-Farra was actually caused by an electrical failure.
The woman told Palestinian media hours after the fire overnight Wednesday-Thursday that she woke up in the middle of the night to noises from masked men outside speaking in Hebrew. She said she saw them pour flammable liquid into the house and set it on fire.
A WhatsApp group of settler extremists that shares footage of their attacks on Palestinians posted footage of the incident later that day before deleting the clip shortly thereafter.
When she went to file a complaint on Thursday at a nearby police station, authorities decided to take her into custody, Haaretz says.
At a remand hearing yesterday, police failed to present the court with the fire department’s final report on its findings from its probe into the fire.
A police statement hours after the fire overnight Wednesday-Thursday declared that it had not been caused by settlers. But a police representative at the hearing acknowledged that the matter is still being investigated and that arson had not yet been ruled out as a potential cause.
Justifying the charge against the woman for allegedly harming regional security, the police representative claimed spreading false information could lead to acts of revenge against Israelis.
Despite the apparent inconsistency in the police’s story, the court ordered that the woman’s remand be extended for four more days.
Former general Ofer Winter, chairman of the new right-wing People of Israel party, declares that Arab-Israeli influencer Yoseph Haddad will be the country’s next public diplomacy minister, hugging the right-wing activist while supporters applaud during a campaign launch event in Jerusalem.
Addressing the crowd, Haddad insists that Israel needs a new right-wing party “that understands the mentality of the Middle East,” declaring that he intends “to be the first Arab in the Israeli security cabinet,” the key body that makes decisions on Israeli security affairs. He endorses Winter for defense minister.
Slamming the country’s Arab political parties, Haddad declares that Israel’s Arab communities need lawmakers in the Knesset who “represent them and not Gaza, Jenin and Ramallah” in the West Bank.
Police announce the arrests of three people suspected of involvement in the point-blank assassination of Yanis Yushvaev at a Caesarea gas station on Sunday.
Yushvaev, 40, was described in Hebrew media as the head of the Caucasian mafia in Israel. He was repeatedly arrested on suspicion of involvement in violent crime, but never convicted.
Officers from the Yamam counter-terrorism force arrested the three suspects in Hadera this afternoon following “intense intelligence activity,” police say in a statement that doesn’t name Yushvaev.
The suspects have been taken for questioning at Police Coastal District headquarters in Haifa, the statement says.
“Israel Police will keep acting resolutely to investigate the incident, locate all those involved and bring them to justice,” the statement adds.
Iran and Oman discussed a framework today to open a temporary joint shipping lane through the Strait of Hormuz, alongside a joint project to clear mines in the crucial pathway for oil and gas, according to a joint statement.
The Farsi-language statement, shared by Oman’s foreign ministry, follows a meeting between Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi and his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, in Tehran today.
“The two Ministers discussed a phased framework” that includes “the establishment of a joint temporary navigational corridor through the Strait of Hormuz and an agreement to implement a joint project to clear the Strait of mines,” reads the statement, adding that “technical negotiations” for a permanent solution would continue between the sides.
Both ministers “also emphasized the importance of holding joint talks with neighboring countries bordering the waters of the Persian Gulf” on the matter, the statement adds.
US President Donald Trump appeared to preempt the announcement by repeating his claim that all mines in the Strait have been detonated or removed in a post on Truth Social an hour ago.
The US president has made several contradictory claims regarding whether or not mines were ever planted at all in the strait.
AFP contributed to this report.
Controversial former IDF general Ofer Winter announces that his new right-wing party will be called the “Amcha Yisrael,” or “People of Israel,” party, and will pursue a hawkish security policy while also working to engender unity across Israel’s diverse citizenry.
Addressing a room packed with some 300 supporters in Jerusalem, Winter calls the upcoming October 27 election a “referendum on whether we are capable of handling the real challenges of the State of Israel — integrating the Haredim [ultra-Orthodox] into the IDF, connecting Arabs who want the good of the country, bringing about a significant change in the justice system, and dismantling protection rackets and wild crime stretching from the Negev to the Galilee,” an apparent reference to the wave of violent crime in Arab communities.
Winter, like much of the Israeli political spectrum, argues that there can never be a Palestinian state. But echoing voices on the hardline right, he says the only solution to the situation in Gaza is Palestinian “emigration,” declaring that “an enemy who starts a war against us will pay a heavy territorial price.”
He asserts, “This is the true morality. This and no other. And for this I promise that we will fight with determination.”
He calls on Israel to combat antisemitism abroad and repair what he described as its distorted defense “conception” at home, advocating to applause, “Less politics, more leadership.”
As a senior IDF officer, he says, “I saw how distorted concepts cause an entire system to dismiss alternative thinking” and says Israel’s leadership “ignores threats — even when they are right here, across the fence, when with unbearable arrogance we explain to the enemy that we know better than he does what he intends.”
He adds, “An enemy that launches a war against Israel will never return to the status it held on the eve of the war. We will never abandon our nation’s borders again.”
Winter cites the contributions of Arab and Haredi soldiers and says that “only together will we win.”
Winter has been the subject of controversy for a decade, and was released from the military in 2024 after being passed over for promotion.
He came under criticism during the 2014 Gaza war, when he served as commander of the Givati Brigade, for a letter to his subordinate officers in which he described the operation as a religious war against a “blasphemous” foe. The former Givati Brigade commander was also later accused of passing along sensitive information about the war effort to then-economy minister Naftali Bennett, bypassing the usual chain of command.
Winter argues that experienced politicians brought disaster upon the country, declaring that “anyone who thinks, after October 7, that the public will accept everything remaining the same in the political sphere, without new people entering the system, is making a bitter mistake.”
He promises to “do everything to establish as broad a right-wing government as possible, with as many Zionist partners as possible.”
Syria slams a visit by Defense Minister Israel Katz earlier today to troops in the country’s south, where he vowed to keep forces while “threats” persisted.
Syria “condemns the illegal entry today of Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and his crossing of the international border… in flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a Syrian foreign ministry statement says, urging the international community to take “the necessary measures to force the occupying authorities to halt these repeated violations.”
Former IDF general Ofer Winter’s new political party reveals its slate at a launch event in Jerusalem, introducing right-wing Arab-Israeli influencer Yoseph Haddad and Laly Derai, the mother of slain IDF soldier Staff Sgt. Saadia Derai, as candidates.
“I decided to enter the political arena out of a sense of mission and national responsibility. I chose to join Ofer Winter out of a belief in our shared values and vision for the country. From the Knesset, I will continue working toward strong Israeli advocacy worldwide, making the country a power in the Middle East, and strengthening partnership among all citizens of Israel,” says Haddad, in a prerecorded message in Arabic and Hebrew, leading to a standing ovation.
Also running with Winter are former Channel 13 journalist Netali Shem Tov and Sigal Kraunik, whose husband, Arie “Arik” Kraunik, 54, was killed on October 7 while battling the Hamas invasion and massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri.
“I am happy to join Ofer Winter, my neighbor in the Galilee, a courageous Israeli leader on and off the battlefield. Together, we will lead a real and determined change in priorities for the settlers, the residents of the periphery, and the guardians of the borders,” says Shem Tov, a resident of Metula who was evacuated due to Hezbollah fire on the northern city.
Other candidates include Eran Ben-Ari, the leader of the conservative opposition bloc within the Israel Bar Association, who declares that the Israeli “legal system needs a reform that will restore public trust,” and Davidi Ben Zion, the acting head of the Samaria Regional Council, an umbrella settlement body in the northern West Bank, who calls to strengthen settlement.
Col. (res.) Eli Gino (47), former commander of the Givati Reconnaissance Battalion, who served under Winter, also joins the list, as do economist Ronen Bodenro and IDF reservist activist Aviv Ezra, founder of the “Victory Generation” movement.
Another candidate is former deputy mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahum, who was born in London and moved to Israel as an adult.
“I made Aliyah 25 years ago out of a deep commitment to my people and my country. I served our capital city for eight years as a city council member and as deputy mayor. Following the October 7 massacre, I became a fighter in the advocacy arena. Today, I realize that I must continue serving my country directly from the Knesset,” says Hassan-Nahum.
The party stresses the geographical diversity of its candidates, who come from across the country and who include secular and religious Jews, immigrants and Arab citizens.
Ahead of the launch of former IDF general Ofer Winter’s new political party in Jerusalem, activists hand out purple T-shirts bearing the slogan “Winter is Coming” in a font reminiscent of the megahit HBO show Game of Thrones, which is the origin of the phrase.
Winter — who has been the subject of controversy for a decade and was released from the military in 2024 after being passed over for promotion — is targeting hawkish voters who are disappointed with the current government.
Last week, Winter aired a video slamming Israel’s years-long multi-front war as indecisive and urging a change in the country’s security policy.
Many of those in attendance at the launch event appear to hail from the national religious community, but there is also strong secular representation as well as a smattering of Haredim.
His party is reportedly set to consist of both religious and secular candidates who are all new to politics and not “tainted” by the failures surrounding Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, or by the decades-old sweeping military exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men, which he opposes.
“Winter is coming” was the slogan of the noble House of Stark in the show and the book series it was based on, “A Song of Ice and Fire.” In the story’s plotline, it also referred to an anticipated invasion. Politicians across countries have played on the slogan and associated memes since it first appeared on TV more than a decade ago.
Polls published in recent days indicated that Winter’s fledgling right-wing party has the potential to pass the electoral threshold.
However, Winter’s success could harm the far-right Religious Zionism party’s chances of returning to the Knesset and even have the effect of shrinking the bloc of parties supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a poll by Channel 12.
Netanyahu issued a public appeal to voters yesterday not to support smaller right-wing parties that may not pass the 3.25 percent electoral threshold in the October 27 election, warning that it could destroy the current coalition’s chances of retaining power and lead to the election of a “fascist regime.”
Oman’s top diplomat held talks in Iran today, Tehran says, as the two countries seek a way to regulate transit through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has obstructed since the beginning of its war with the US.
“Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi met and talked with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran,” an Iranian foreign ministry statement says.
No further details of the meeting are immediately announced.
Iran and Oman, both coastal states on the strait, have for weeks been discussing the future of navigation through the waterway, with Tehran saying the geographical coordinates of a route envisaged by the two countries “have been agreed upon.”
Iranian officials, however, have insisted that the strait will not fully reopen until the United States meets Tehran’s demands, including lifting its naval blockade, dropping oil sanctions and unfreezing assets abroad.
US CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Russia to attend meetings in Moscow today, US media outlets report, citing unnamed sources.
CBS News and Axios both report the visit by US President Donald Trump’s former director of national intelligence, who now runs the nation’s spy agency. The outlets did not say who Ratcliffe was meeting with or what the talks are expected to cover.
Representatives for the CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports, while Representatives for the Kremlin could not be immediately reached.
Officers confiscated hundreds of Ecstasy pills and over 6 kilograms (13.2 pounds) of suspected hashish in a “targeted and proactive” drug-busting operation at the entrance to Haifa, police say.
Police suspect the substances were meant to be sold.
Officers found the substances in a car they stopped for investigation after they identified it as suspicious, and they also arrested three residents of southern Israel who are suspected of involvement in the case, police say.
The three have been brought before a judge, who extended their detention until Sunday, August 30, according to the statement.
“Israel Police will keep acting resolutely against parties involved in drug offenses, by locating and arresting them, in order to prevent the distribution of drugs and keep the public safe,” police say.
The statement does not specify when the drug bust took place.
WASHINGTON — For the second time in a week, US President Donald Trump declares that all mines in the Strait of Hormuz have been detonated or removed.
“I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump writes on Truth Social.
While Trump’s post suggested that this was a new development, he made a nearly identical claim on August 18.
“The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water mines have been removed or detonated,” he wrote at the time.
Trump has made several contradictory claims regarding whether or not mines were ever planted at all in the strait, a key waterway for the global supply of oil.
In his latest post, Trump writes, “Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed. Through space force, we are watching every square inch of the strait, as we are, also, with Pickaxe Mountain and the already destroyed three other nuclear sites.”
“There is a Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement in full force and effect,” he adds.
Two days after being ordered to remove an election ad featuring a family with an IDF soldier son, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri posts a new campaign video featuring the same family.
The first ad showed a Sephardic family waiting to begin Friday night dinner until their son arrived home from the army and is welcomed by his brother, who studies full-time in a yeshiva. The ad was an apparent bid to hold onto moderate voters turned off by the party’s hardline stance against the IDF drafting ultra-Orthodox men, and the Central Elections Committee ordered it removed over concerns that it violated a ban on using images of security forces in campaign materials.
״הצלח תנועתנו״ pic.twitter.com/MUW0dosHQp
— אריה מכלוף דרעי (@ariyederi) August 25, 2026
The new video features the same family reciting the Havdala prayer at the conclusion of Shabbat, during which the yeshiva student son calls on God to bless Israel’s soldiers, while his brother, wearing an army-green T-shirt and a rifle strap, invokes divine assistance for those studying Torah. The new clip does not show the ostensible soldier in uniform and is framed so as to show only the strap, but not his rifle.
The ad also features a moment during which a disembodied voice calls for God to bring success to “our movement,” while a framed photo of Shas’s founder, the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, is shown on screen.
After being forced to take down the first ad, Deri posted a series of tweets featuring pictures of IDF soldiers and their families supporting Shas.
A US federal judge rejects a bid by Ghislaine Maxwell, a key accomplice of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, to throw out her conviction on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell, 64, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison and is the only person convicted of a crime in connection with Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting his own trial.
In his ruling, Judge Paul Engelmayer says Maxwell’s claims that her constitutional rights at trial and sentencing were violated “are all meritless and all or almost all are frivolous.”
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of supplying underage girls to Epstein, whose ties to powerful business executives, politicians, celebrities and academics have fueled years of scrutiny and conspiracy theories.
Under a new law passed last year, US President Donald Trump’s administration has released vast troves of investigative files relating to Epstein — drawing huge public attention to the case.
High-profile figures including Britain’s former prince Andrew have been publicly disgraced for their associations with Epstein.
In February, Maxwell was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee to discuss her relations with Epstein but refused to answer any questions. Her lawyer stated she would only speak if Trump granted her clemency.
The US Supreme Court last October declined to hear an appeal by Maxwell of her sex trafficking conviction.
Trump, who also had a years-long relationship with Epstein, initially opposed releasing the so-called Epstein files, prompting accusations of a cover-up that dogged his first year back in office.
He has denied any link to Epstein’s crimes.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says the hunt for terrorists involved in the October 7, 2023, onslaught continues in the Gaza Strip, despite calls by the US-led Board of Peace to limit strikes to “immediate threats.”
“The IDF is prepared and alert on all fronts. We will not allow our enemies along the borders, with an emphasis on Gaza and Lebanon, to rebuild their strength,” Zamir says during a visit to Gaza today, according to remarks provided by the army.
“We will continue to act to weaken [Israel’s enemies] in an offensive manner and systematically. We will not allow terror infrastructure to become established. We will take every opportunity to eliminate threats as they emerge,” he continues.
Zamir says that “the pursuit of the October 7 terrorists continues. Anyone who took part in the massacre will live under pursuit until they are eliminated.”
“This is a high-priority mission to which the [Southern] Command and the entire IDF are committed,” he adds.
In recent months, the IDF has stepped up its efforts to kill Palestinian terrorists involved in October 7, justifying the strikes amid the ceasefire by claiming that the targets had “posed an immediate threat.”
A Board of Peace official said in a statement today that Israel “must comply with the ceasefire; military action cannot extend beyond responding to genuine and imminent threats.”
An official from the US-backed Board of Peace says in a statement that “all militant activity” in Gaza, including kite flying, must stop, and that Israel must comply with the ceasefire in the Strip, after Jerusalem threatened a forceful response if the Hamas terror group revives a tactic of launching incendiary kites over the border.
“All militant activity in Gaza must stop, including the flying of kites. We have conveyed this message directly through the established mechanism,” an official of the Board of Peace tells multiple outlets.
“Israel, too, must comply with the ceasefire; military action cannot extend beyond responding to genuine and imminent threats,” he adds.
The statement comes after Israel appealed to the Board of Peace over the issue. It marks a rare admonition of Israel by the Board, which has largely refrained from publicly criticizing Israeli military activity in Gaza in recent months.
Officials have told The Times of Israel that senior US representatives and board members expressed concern during their recent meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel’s interpretation of “imminent threats” in Gaza is too “vague” and risks stalling advancement of Washington’s peace plan, which would see Hamas disarmed and have Israel withdraw.
In addition, Gaza parents have been warned to stop their children from flying kites in the war-ravaged enclave. The popular committees, comprising representatives of local non-government organizations and charities that run Gaza displacement camps and shelters in the Hamas-run area of the Strip, issued the warning in a statement late yesterday.
The announcement was coordinated with Hamas authorities, a source in the terror group says.
“We are working tirelessly on the ground and doing everything possible to stop this practice, not to restrict the childhood of our children, who have already been deprived of the most basic rights to play and live in safety, but to protect their innocent lives,” the statement says.
A total of 12 kites and four balloons have reportedly crossed from Gaza into Israeli border communities this month.
So far, none of the kites launched from Gaza in recent days have carried any suspicious items on them. But many have associated the objects with the kites and balloons carrying incendiary devices that were launched by Gaza terror groups for a number of years in the run-up to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, in which terrorists in hang gliders crossed the border.
A senior Israeli defense official says that Hamas is trying to provoke Israel by encouraging Gazans to fly kites across the border.
A Hamas official tells Reuters the group has complained to ceasefire mediators that “Israel was making fake pretexts to continue the war on Gaza.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterates again that the Israeli military will not leave its buffer zone in southern Syria, during a visit to the area today.
“We will not move from Mount Hermon and the security zone as long as there are jihadist threats to the State of Israel. The message to the president of Syria is clear — when you wake up in the morning in the palace in Damascus and look up at Mount Hermon and see the IDF, you know that we are here to defend our communities and our border,” he says.
Katz adds that Israel “acted against a Turkish attempt to establish itself in Syria, while putting Israel’s security interests at risk,” referring to last week’s strike on a Syrian airbase.
“We made this clear and will stand by it in the future as well,” he adds.
The US aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln will dock in Thailand next week, a Thai official says, following a prolonged deployment in the Middle East and reports of mental health concerns and deteriorating conditions aboard.
The Lincoln, which left the Middle East on Saturday, has not made a port call in more than 200 days, setting a modern-day record for consecutive days at sea, according to Democratic lawmakers.
Typically naval deployments are for between six and nine months, but during times of conflict, that can be extended.
The ship, which has roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard, will be in Thailand for “rest and recreation after their long sea journey,” the official says, asking not to be named.
Thailand’s Navy says a US Navy carrier strike group will make a brief stop in eastern Thailand for the purpose of rest and recuperation, with no exercises taking place. It does not name the three vessels or provide a date for the visit, citing security concerns.
“The stop is a routine port visit intended to allow personnel to rest and recuperate… as well as to receive logistical support,” the Thai Navy’s spokesperson says in a statement.
The US Embassy in Bangkok does not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Lincoln left its home port of San Diego in November and was later redirected to the Middle East to support US military operations in the Iran war.
Two military-focused outlets, Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, this month reported suicide attempts and declining morale on the ship. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the reports “completely misrepresented” the conditions on board.
Two Border Police officers and a civilian are charged with bringing Palestinians into Israel illegally through the al-Jib checkpoint north of Jerusalem, near the Givat Ze’ev settlement, the Department for Internal Police Investigations says.
The DIPI, a Justice Ministry agency for probing police, says the officers are accused of accepting cash, food and drinks to let in Palestinians without a permit, and the civilian is accused of paying bribes and smuggling in the Palestinians.
The smuggling incidents allegedly took place on a “large number of occasions” over the first half of 2024.
The officers also shared sensitive information about the checkpoint and its operations, according to the DIPI.
In addition, one of the officers is accused of deleting phone messages about the scheme “in order to thwart a legal proceeding,” and the other officer is accused of trying to coax colleagues into waiving security checks for Palestinians arriving from the West Bank without a permit, DIPI says.
The indictment filed at the Jerusalem District Court yesterday charges the officers with fraud and breach of trust, obstruction of justice, failure to fulfill their official duty and receiving bribes.
The civilian is charged with driving without a license and registration, unlawful transportation, and paying bribes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he ordered the dismantlement of a vocational training center run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in the East Jerusalem area of Kafr Aqab, hours after National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced the move.
Israel “will not allow an organization whose employees were involved in terrorism and in the October 7 massacre to operate on its territory, and will take action against it using every means at its disposal,” Netanyahu says in a Hebrew-language statement.
Israeli officials have repeatedly accused UNRWA of fomenting anti-Israel sentiment in its schools, and collaborating with Hamas in Gaza following the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023. It also accuses a portion of UNRWA employees of taking part in the onslaught. The UN agency denies the charges.
Ben Gvir had said that Israeli police were working to “get UNRWA out of the area,” after the Jerusalem municipality greenlit a plan this month to build a road and an “educational complex” over the 82-dunam (20-acre) area of the training center.
The area is officially owned by the Jewish National Fund. The municipality’s plan, first announced in April, says the complex will include classrooms, as well as a mosque and health, welfare and culture centers for Kafr Aqab residents.
UNRWA says the land was given to it later on by the Jordanian government in 1952 — when Jordan controlled East Jerusalem after it captured the area during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence — to establish the vocational training center that has operated there ever since. The UN body said earlier this month that it was aware of the municipal plan, and that carrying it out would violate protections for UN facilities under international law.
Israeli settlers in the West Bank attacked AFP journalists reporting on tension with Palestinians, in violence that left at least five people injured, the reporters and medics say.
A three-person team from the international news agency traveled to the village of Jannatah near Bethlehem to report on Israeli activists who conduct solidarity visits with Palestinians facing harassment by extremist settlers, who recently blocked a road in the area.
After an altercation broke out between the settlers and activists, the Israeli military ordered journalists to leave what it called a “closed military zone,” at which point two additional cars full of settlers swooped in, AFP reports.
The settlers, many of them children, threw stones toward the journalists and activists. One AFP journalist ducked a stone but then a child settler struck him in the chin with a stick, causing minor bleeding, he says.
The AFP journalists returned to see their two parked cars both damaged, with back windshields smashed in and tires punctured.
Five people were treated for injuries, the Palestine Red Crescent Society says, with AFP journalists reporting seeing at least one Israeli activist taken in a Palestinian ambulance.
Police announce that a “conference identified with the Palestinian Authority” in Jerusalem’s Old City was thwarted yesterday.
According to the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate, the event in question was a graduation ceremony for a Palestinian organization that teaches graduate students from Al-Quds University.
Four guests, including the director of the Center for Jerusalem Studies and the head of the Palestinian Jerusalem Tourism Cluster, were detained for interrogation, the governorate says.
Police say “intelligence activity by the Jerusalem District’s central unit” had uncovered the plans to hold the event “inside the Old City, in violation of the Implementation Law.”
The 1994 Law on Implementation of the Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which enshrined agreements reached as part of the Oslo Accords, forbade the Palestinian Authority from holding gatherings on Israeli territory without permission from Israel, and authorized the public security minister to order the closure of unapproved PA gatherings in Israel.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who changed the Public Security Ministry’s name when he took it over in late 2022, signed an order to shut down the Palestinian gathering after he and top police officers reviewed the plans to hold the event, police say in a statement.
Officers arrived at the site of the gathering, where “they noticed preparations and a number of people, and informed them about the order forbidding the event,” the statement says. It does not mention any arrests.
The ceremony was set to take place in Khan Tankaz, the compound that houses the Center for Jerusalem Studies in the Muslim Quarter’s Cotton Merchants’ Market.
The Center for Jerusalem Studies, which teaches an interdisciplinary graduate program on the city, is affiliated with Al-Quds University, a nonprofit independent institution overseen by the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The university, which is the only Arab university in Jerusalem, is accredited by the Palestinian Authority but not by Israel. It was established in 1995 as a merger of other Palestinian institutions.
According to its website, the university has about 12,000 full-time students and over 700 faculty.
US President Donald Trump appears to lament a “humanitarian crisis” in Iran.
“The failing Islamic Republic of Iran is not paying large segments of their military, while at the same time killing protesters, even when they are not protesting, at levels not seen before,” he writes on Truth Social.
It’s unclear whether he is referring to the killing of thousands of protesters in January, or to new, unreported ones. He may be referring to executions that Iran has been steadily carrying out of some individuals arrested during the protests.
“It is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, and must be stopped,” Trump adds in the social media post published shortly after 7 a.m. local time.
MK Yael Ron Ben Moshe announces her resignation from Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party, part of a wave of defections that has seen members jump ship to various other opposition factions.
In a lengthy post on Facebook, Ron Ben Moshe says that leaving was “one of the hardest decisions I have ever made in my life” and that while she retains “appreciation and gratitude” for Gantz, she could not continue working with him due to her inability to influence his political direction.
Gantz’s “new path” is no longer the unabashed centrist one “whose goals I identified with and was proud to take part in,” she says, adding that her former ally’s “effort to forge unity is beyond worthy” but that at this time “that effort may not only be in vain, but could even cause harm.”
Ron Ben Moshe specifically calls out the fact that Gantz’s potential partners going forward “would not be willing to join a government that Gadi Eisenkot might seek to establish in order to bring the change the country needs,” which she describes as “an extreme risk and a bright red line.”
Israeli politics is currently divided into two camps, that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and its associated supporters in the far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, and the so-called “change bloc” of Zionist opposition factions such as former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad and Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar.
Eisenkot left as Gantz’s number two in July 2025 to establish Yashar, which is currently leading in the polls. He was followed by multiple other lawmakers, including Eitan Ginzburg, who joined Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad list, and Chili Tropper, who is now leading the Zionist Home-The Reservists party.
Gantz and Tropper are part of the so-called “Third Bloc” of center-right parties that aim to forcing a compromise between the two larger blocs in order to create a broad Zionist unity government. None of the parties in the Third Bloc, including Blue and White, are currently polling above the electoral threshold.
According to Kan news, Gantz has recently been in contact with Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein’s Unity party, another member of the Third Bloc, regarding a potential merger ahead of the October 27 election. Erdan has said he will not sit in a narrow government led by Eisenkot.
The Israeli Air Force bombed five Hamas weapon depots located inside mosques and near aid sites, along with a rocket launch site, in the Gaza Strip yesterday, the military says.
According to the IDF, the arms sites were used to store rockets, weapons, explosives, and other military gear used by Hamas to advance attacks on troops.
“These storage facilities were established inside mosques and alongside humanitarian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip,” the military says.
Ahead of the strikes, the IDF published warnings to Palestinians residing in the area.
The military and Shin Bet say in a joint statement that the strikes “constitute a clear warning” to Hamas, adding that Israel “will not accept any kind of terror activity” in the Strip that threatens Israeli civilians.
ברחבי רצועת עזה: צה"ל ושב"כ תקפו והשמידו חמישה מחסני אמצעי לחימה ואתר שיגור של ארגון הטרור חמאס
צה"ל ושב"כ תקפו והשמידו אתמול חמישה מחסני אמצעי לחימה ואתר שיגור של ארגון הטרור חמאס במספר תקיפות ברחבי רצועת עזה >> pic.twitter.com/XXpSVYoZ9T
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 25, 2026
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich partially defends MK Zvi Sukkot, a member of his Religious Zionism party, following widespread condemnation of the hard-right lawmaker’s actions in smashing a Palestinian monument for “martyrs” in the West Bank village of Madama.
“The State of Israel should have long ago dismantled the terrorism monument that glorifies the despicable terrorist responsible for the murder of four Jews and the injury of 20 innocent Israelis. Similarly, there are dozens of other terrorism monuments throughout Judea and Samaria that need to be destroyed today by the IDF, and by it alone,” he says, appearing to agree with critics that such actions should only be taken by the military.
Despite this, “what should truly disturb us is the frantic rush of the left-wing opposition leaders to condemn MK Sukkot rather than terrorism itself,” Smotrich continues, accusing the opposition of intending to “form a government with overt supporters of terrorism, evacuate the settlements and farms we have established in Judea and Samaria, and establish a terrorist state in the heart of the country.
“That is the only thing that should disturb any sane person who desires to live in the State of Israel today,” he adds.
Politicians from both sides of the aisle issued harsh condemnations of Sukkot this morning. Critics reportedly include Religious Zionism faction chair Ohad Tal, who, according to Channel 12, questioned his colleague’s behavior in an internal party forum, asking if there was “some deep strategy here that I’m completely missing, or did we just decide to commit suicide for good?”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office joins in the chorus of condemnations over far-right lawmaker Zvi Sukkot’s smashing of a Palestinian “Martyrs’ Monument” in the West Bank village of Madama this morning.
“The IDF is the sovereign authority in Judea and Samaria and is responsible for implementing the decisions of the political leadership,” the Prime Minister’s Office says in a Hebrew-language statement, using the biblical term for the West Bank.
“Taking the law into one’s own hands, particularly by public officials, is unacceptable and interferes with the IDF’s ability to focus on its missions against terrorism and incitement,” the PMO adds.
The US is poised to send diplomatic staff back to embassies in the Middle East that were cleared out amid the war with Iran, The New York Times reports.
The newspaper notes that the move suggests Washington does not expect the military conflict to reignite in the near future.
It cites an internal State Department document that says diplomats’ redeployment could start as soon as this week.
The report names several countries expected to get staff reinstated, including Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman.
The State Department tells the paper it “continuously reviews the security posture at our diplomatic missions around the world. Based on our latest assessment, we are adjusting our staffing posture at certain posts in the Middle East to ensure we can continue advancing US foreign policy objectives while protecting the safety and security of our personnel.”
Religious Zionism faction chairman Ohad Tal reportedly slams fellow MK Zvi Sukkot in an internal party chat after the hard-right lawmaker released footage of himself smashing a Palestinian “Martyrs’ Monument” in the West Bank village of Madama.
“I want to understand, is this coordinated with the campaign? Is there some deep strategy here that I’m completely missing, or did we just decide to commit suicide for good? Genuinely asking,” Tal asks, according to Hebrew news outlets.
Tal does not immediately respond to The Times of Israel’s request for comment.
Politicians from both sides of the aisle issued harsh condemnations of Sukkot this morning, with Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot calling his behavior a “disgrace” and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar insisting that the decision to destroy such monuments must be made by the state via “the IDF and the security forces, and by them alone.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announces the start of operations to dismantle a vocational training center run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in the East Jerusalem area of Kafr Aqab, near the Qalandiya refugee camp.
“Large forces of Israel Police are working together with the relevant authorities to realize the law and get UNRWA out of the area,” Ben Gvir says in a statement. “An organization whose workers were involved in terrorism, and which served as a front for Hamas time after time, has no right to exist for even another second, and has no place in Jerusalem and the State of Israel.”
Footage from Palestinian media shows Ben Gvir on the scene with Israeli forces at the UNRWA facility.
اقتحام وزير الأمن القومي الإسرائيلي، إيتمار بن غفير، لمعهد قلنديا التابع لوكالة "أونروا" في مخيم #قلنديا شمال القدس المحتلة.
للتفاصيل: https://t.co/EA1eijviRd pic.twitter.com/ctCCOn8xyj
— موقع عرب 48 (@arab48website) August 25, 2026
The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate says Israeli forces ordered UNRWA employees to exit the facility and not return.
Israel has long accused UNRWA of fomenting anti-Israel sentiment in its schools, and in the aftermath of the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, also accused it of collaborating with Hamas in Gaza. The UN agency denies the charges.
In late 2024, Israel passed legislation banning UNRWA from Israeli territory, including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after the Six Day War of June 1967.
Ben Gvir’s announcement comes after the Jerusalem municipality this month greenlit a plan to build a road and an “educational complex” over the 82-dunam area, which is officially owned by the Jewish National Fund, which the Zionist movement founded in 1901 to buy plots of land for a future Jewish state.
The plan, first published by the municipality in April, says the complex will include classrooms, as well as a mosque and health, welfare and culture centers for Kafr Aqab residents.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the JNF bought the plot of land in 1937. UNRWA says the land was given it by the Jordanian government in 1952 — when Jordan controlled East Jerusalem — to establish the vocational training center that has operated there ever since.
The center trains about 340 students a year and was already open for registration for the coming school year starting on September 1, according to UNRWA.
The UN body said earlier this month that it was aware of the municipal plan, and that carrying it out would violate protections to UN facilities under international law.
“Should the Israeli authorities proceed with the implementation of the plan, such action would raise serious concerns regarding Israel’s obligations under international law, including its obligations as a Member State of the United Nations,” UNRWA said.
The suspect in the murder of a young boy in Beit Shemesh last week was under the influence of drugs when he carried out the deadly stabbing, according to a report.
Liel Ifergen had taken a substance before he stabbed to death 7-year-old Hillel Mordechai Dadon and injured his 4-year-old cousin, while their parents were out of the house, according to the Kan public broadcaster. The stabbing took place during a birthday party for Dadon.
The report does not specify what drugs Ifergen took.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court today ordered Ifergen kept in custody until at least September 3, police say.
The United Nations and Red Cross warn the world is “dangerously close” to a future where autonomous weapons — so-called “killer robots” — could target humans, and issue an urgent appeal for international regulations.
The warning follows a call in 2023 from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, for countries to establish specific bans and restrictions on the rapidly developing technology by this year.
“Today, we renew this call with even greater urgency,” they say in a joint statement, adding that while their “fundamental concerns remain unchanged… the risks have intensified.”
“We are now dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines,” they warn.
Lethal autonomous weapon systems are generally understood as weapon systems that select targets and apply force without human intervention.
There has to date been no confirmed use of fully autonomous weapons.
But with global tensions soaring and conflicts raging in the Middle East and Ukraine, where drone warfare has become a major feature of the battlefield, fears abound that it could soon happen.
There is currently no specific treaty on autonomous and artificial intelligence-enabled weapons.
“Autonomous weapon systems are not part of a distant future: a race towards greater autonomy in weapons systems is already well under way,” say Guterres and Spoljaric. “Future generations will ask whether leaders acted when there was still a chance to set limits before these weapons proliferated beyond control.”
They highlight that scientists and engineers involved in developing such systems have, in many cases, raised the alarm themselves.
“When the architects of this technology are calling for limits, states cannot afford to remain passive,” they said.
Politicians from both sides of the aisle issue harsh condemnations of Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot after the far-right lawmaker released footage of himself smashing a Palestinian “Martyrs’ Monument” in the West Bank village of Madama, while under IDF escort.
MK Sukkot’s behavior “is a disgrace for anyone who claims to represent the public and be a leader. He lied to and misled the IDF and its commanders, compromised security, and tarnished the entire State of Israel,” tweets Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot.
Eisenkot also slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declaring that the premier has “dismantled the system that enabled security and governance in Judea and Samaria” while “allowing anarchists like Zvi Sukkot and his ilk to do whatever they please, endangering security in the settlements and harming Israel’s standing in the world.”
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett argues in a statement that Netanyahu’s “government of chaos is harming Israel’s security and Israel’s standing in the world in order to gain views on TikTok,” declaring that “terrorism is fought with actions, not with pathetic provocations.”
Sukkot and Religious Zionism chairman Bezalel Smotrich not only fought to exempt the ultra-Orthodox from military service, he says, but “now they are also harming [IDF soldiers’] missions and endangering their lives for campaign videos.”
MK Sukkot, “like any other Knesset member, is not the sovereign in the territories of Judea and Samaria,” tweets Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, insisting that the decision to destroy such monuments must be made by the state via “the IDF and the security forces, and by them alone.”
The Democrats chairman Yair Golan recalls Sukkot’s participation in an ultranationalist mob that broke into an IDF base in 2024 and declares that “today, he is once again attempting to ignite more fire and more war with his own hands.”
“This is someone who belongs behind bars, not in the Knesset,” says Golan.
Democrats MK Gilad Kariv also slams Sukkot, and notes that he had repeatedly tried to coordinate entry to the Palestinian village of Qusra, where settlers besieged the residents, but was turned down by the IDF because there were “no available forces.”
“It turns out there are available forces to escort the pyromaniac Zvi Sukkot to the heart of a Palestinian village. Just yesterday, it was reported that the Central Command’s commanding officer warned Netanyahu that it would take just one match to ignite the West Bank. Zvi Sukkot is glad to light that fire, which may yet consume us all,” says Kariv.
Chili Tropper, who recently resigned from Blue and White and is now the chairman of the center-right Zionist Home-The Reservists party, also slams Sukkot in a post on Facebook, calling his actions a “disgrace” and accusing him of working “against the IDF, against security and against settlement.”
Israelis “deserve MKs who uphold the law,” says Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz. “Zvi Sukkot, who has already broken into an IDF base, endangered the lives of soldiers and civilians today for a political stunt in a campaign and a few likes on TikTok.”
“This is neither right-wing nor nationalist,” Gantz adds. “This is anarchy that only a broad and Zionist government without the extremists will be able to stop.”
European shares edge higher as investors take comfort in a softer-than-feared US sanctions package against Iran, while gains in defense stocks boost sentiment.
Yesterday, the Trump administration warned countries to cut their business ties with Iran or face secondary sanctions as part of what it billed as an “economic D-Day,” though the Treasury Department stopped short of imposing any penalties.
Oil prices fall further as traders see little immediate threat to global crude supplies from the latest US measures.
Iran promised to retaliate against the expanded US sanctions and said it was confident major trading partners would resist Washington’s pressure campaign.
Some 150 Palestinians from Gaza with dual citizenship and their companions left the Strip yesterday, in a move coordinated by Israeli authorities.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories says the Gazans left via the Kerem Shalom Crossing to Israel, traveled to Jordan, and from there headed to the United States and other countries.
Since February, COGAT says that over 6,000 have left Gaza, while another 6,000 have entered the Strip through the Rafah Crossing with Egypt.
“Israel enables these evacuations, including unrestricted medical evacuations for patients requiring treatment abroad and the departure of Gazans with residency permits for third countries, approving more than 98% of all evacuation requests received,” COGAT adds.
China says it will safeguard its interests after Washington laid out plans for the “economic asphyxiation” of Beijing’s economic partner Iran, issuing penalties on some entities including in China and expanding secondary sanctions threats.
“China has already stated many times that it firmly opposes illegal unilateral sanctions… China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian tells a regular news briefing.
Turkey welcomes the United States decision to remove Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, hoping that it will boost efforts to integrate the war-torn country with the world.
“We believe this decision will lend momentum to efforts to strengthen Syria’s ties with the international community and to establish lasting security and stability in the country,” the foreign ministry says in a statement.
The Israeli military says MK Zvi Sukkot’s trip to the West Bank village of Madama this morning, during which he and his aides smashed a monument while under IDF protection, had been approved. However, the army says that Sukkot and aides acted “deceptively and manipulatively” when they smashed the village’s “Martyrs’ Monument” amid the tour.
In response to the incident, the IDF says that on August 12, Sukkot submitted a request to conduct a “tour of monuments” in the villages of Beita, Burin, and Madama, located in areas A and B of the West Bank.
“This morning, the MK and his aides conducted the ‘tour of monuments’ under the security of IDF troops who were diverted from their duties for this mission,” the military says.
“Contrary to the coordination, the participants acted deceptively and manipulatively, without authority and in complete violation of the approved outline, and began demolishing one of the memorials in the village of Madama,” the army says.
The IDF says that when troops saw what was happening, they notified their commanders, who then instructed the forces to halt the tour and take the MK and his aides out of the village.
The military does not explain why it had approved the tour to begin with, which it claims diverted troops that had been “assigned to operational missions in the area,” and also “unnecessarily put them at risk, while the IDF is under operational strain.”
“The IDF views the conduct and lack of coordination by the MK gravely, and as an exploitation of the security provided by the security forces for a complete overstepping of authority,” the military says.
The IDF adds that it “regularly demolishes memorials and symbols of incitement,” subject to relevant approvals, and that it was planning another such operation soon. “This is an important activity in the fight against terrorism and incitement to terrorism.”
A US federal judge has postponed the trial of a Libyan man accused of making the bomb that destroyed a Pan Am flight over Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people, citing new evidence.
Jury selection for the trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, who allegedly worked as an intelligence operative for the regime of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi between 1973 and 2011, had been due to start on Wednesday.
Judge Dabney Friedrich cites “newly discovered evidence” and “evidence located in other countries” as the reason for postponing the trial.
No new trial date has been set but a court hearing is set for September 1 to discuss the status of the case.
Masud has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the “destruction of an aircraft resulting in death.” If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Pan Am Flight 103, bound for New York, was blown up 38 minutes after it took off from London, sending the main fuselage plunging to the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie and spreading debris over a vast area. The bombing — which is the deadliest-ever terror attack in Britain — killed all 259 people on board, including 190 Americans, and 11 people on the ground.
Masud has been in US custody since 2022, after being extradited from Libya.
Only one person has so far been convicted for the bombing. Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison after his conviction in 2001. He died in Libya in 2012, maintaining his innocence.
Footage from the West Bank village of Madama shows far-right lawmaker Zvi Sukkot and several others smashing a monument to slain Palestinians, including terrorists, while under IDF escort.
The video published by Palestinian media shows a soldier standing right next to the Religious Zionism party member and the other Israelis during the smashing of the village’s “Martyrs’ Monument,” while other troops are seen slightly further away next to an army vehicle.
A military source says the IDF had approved a “tour” of the village for Sukkot under guard, but had been unaware of his intention to destroy the monument.
תיעוד | צבי סוכות הרס אנדרטאות למחבלים בשומרון
לאחר שדרישתו מצה"ל לפעול להסרת אנדרטאות לזכר רוצחי ישראלים בכפרים מדמא ובורין לא מומשה, הגיע סוכות לבצע את ההרס בעצמו. צפו@tzvisuccot pic.twitter.com/Eic919zF8q
— ערוץ 7 (@arutz7heb) August 25, 2026
The monument at Madama honors several slain Palestinians, among them terrorists, including Yaman Tayeb Ali Faraj, whom Sukkot says had involvement in a 2003 suicide bombing at the Geha Junction in central Israel, in which four people were murdered and over 20 injured, and Shadi Nasser, a Palestinian suicide bomber who injured 14 in an attack at the Eshel HaShomron Hotel in the West Bank settlement of Ariel in 2002.
The December 25, 2003 suicide attack in Geha was claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group. Faraj, a PFLP commander, was killed by a missile fired from an IDF helicopter when fleeing arrest near Nablus in July 2004. A Palestinian lecturer and his son were also killed in the arrest operation, according to Palestinian media.
“Several days ago, I demanded that the army take action to remove the monuments that commemorate terrorists in the murderous villages of Madama and Burin, but unfortunately they remained in place. That is why I came myself and took action to remove them,” Sukkot says.
“We will not lend a hand to the incitement of terrorism in the heart of Judea and Samaria or to turning murderers into heroes. Smashing the monuments conveys a message with an iron fist to the next generation of terrorists,” adds Sukkot, calling on the army to “remove all monuments to terrorism in the territories of Judea and Samaria.”
“Every place where there is such a thing inciting to terror must be taken down,” he says. “Every child passing here who grows up in this village and sees this monument will want to be a ‘martyr’ when he grows up.”
عضو كنيست الاحتلال تسبي سوكوت يقتحم بحماية جيش الاحتلال قرية مادما جنوب نابلس ويحطم صرح الشهداء pic.twitter.com/2CblqYtLau
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) August 25, 2026
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa hails the United States’ removal of his country from the state sponsors of terror list, a major sanctions relief step.
“Today, Syria shakes off a dark stain and tears away a painful chapter of its past to embark on a path of development, reconstruction and rebuilding,” Sharaa says in a speech.
Washington’s decision yesterday rescinded a decades-old designation that came with severe economic restrictions, marking another step in warming ties between the countries following the 2024 ouster of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.
The Treasury Department announced corresponding sanctions relief.
Sharaa expresses his “many thanks to the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, and to all the friendly and supportive nations that stood by us.”
The US Department of State also revoked its designation of the al-Nusra Front — latterly known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — as a global terrorist organization. Sharaa led that group, which spearheaded the blitz offensive that toppled Assad.
It was formerly the branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria before breaking ties with it in 2016.
Syria’s new authorities are trying to attract investment to support the country and rebuild its infrastructure, heavily damaged by more than a decade of civil war.
The United States had initially announced in July its intent to delist Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, a move seen as a vote of confidence in Sharaa.
Monday’s move gives Syria “a path to prosperity,” according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The action “eliminates the final major barriers for private sector investment in Syria and promotes Syria’s economic recovery and reintegration into the global economy,” he said yesterday.
Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaibani described Washington’s delisting as a “historic milestone” and said it reflected “the new Syrian state’s commitment to international peace and security.”
An attempt to smuggle 10 handguns from Jordan into the West Bank overnight was foiled by the police and army, with two Palestinian suspects arrested.
In a statement, the Israel Police says its officers and IDF troops were dispatched to the Gesher Adam (Damia Bridge) area, after security forces identified suspicious activity indicating a smuggling attempt.
During their scans, two Palestinians from Jericho in their 20s were detained by the forces. They led the forces to a bag they had planted that contained 10 handguns, police say.
The pair were taken for further questioning, police add.
Tulsi Gabbard, the former US director of national intelligence, warned US President Donald Trump days before the start of the war with Iran on February 28 that killing its supreme leader Ali Khamenei would likely bring in a more hardline regime that would be more inclined to pursue nuclear weapons, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The report says Gabbard also predicted that Tehran would close the Strait of Hormuz and attack US forces and allies in the region.
The newspaper says various top officials, including the vice president, warned Trump of the risks of war, but that the president was eventually convinced by top Pentagon officials that US military might would prevail.
At one point, in April, the paper says Trump asked a friend whether he should escalate the fighting and “bomb the shit” out of Iran, but the friend advised against it and urged him to end the conflict.
The Journal notes Trump’s repeated frustration throughout the war with the regime’s resilience, and his efforts to find an off-ramp through diplomacy, which have so far produced little result.
Gabbard resigned her position in May, some three months after the start of the war, citing her husband’s ill health. A source familiar with the matter alleged to Reuters that Gabbard had been forced out by the White House amid her ongoing opposition to the war.
The Strait of Hormuz has been the main focus of the six-month war between Iran and the US and Israel, with many commercial vessels targeted in the vital conduit for oil and gas shipments.
In total, 68 incidents have been confirmed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the Gulf and neighboring bodies of water, the equivalent of one every 2.6 days.
Across all incidents, at least 20 seafarers or port workers were reported killed, 35 wounded and one missing, the UN maritime agency says.
About half of the incidents have involved tankers, 20 percent container ships and 15 percent bulk carriers.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) classifies 47 of the incidents as attacks.
Liberia-flagged vessels have been most affected, being involved in 13 incidents, followed by 10 vessels each from Panama and the Marshall Islands.
Iran-flagged vessels were reported as being involved in four incidents.
Pakistan and Iran made “significant progress” in talks that focused on the US-Israeli war on Iran and a path to peace, Pakistan’s interior minister says, at the end of a visit to Tehran.
Talks between the two sides focused on measures to prevent further escalation, reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and an expedited termination of the conflict, a statement from the Pakistani military says about the meeting between the country’s army chief, Asim Munir, and the Iranian leadership.
The two sides also exchanged views on regional peace and the way to arrive at a negotiated settlement to the dispute, the statement says.
“The Iranian President candidly shared his government’s perspective and we had a very constructive exchange on the issues involved,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who accompanied Munir to Tehran, says in a post on X.
The High Court of Justice has instructed the Knesset’s Finance Committee and the Finance Ministry to explain why plans to transfer hundreds of millions in funds to ultra-Orthodox schools and the Settlements Ministry should not be canceled.
The funds, over a quarter billion shekels, were approved during a special Finance Committee hearing convened after the Knesset had already entered recess.
The court froze the transfer earlier this month until it could hold a hearing on the matter, citing “apparent procedural flaws” in the convening of the committee itself, and now appears poised to nix the move.
Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir held discussions with Iran that were focussed on measures including the prevention of a further escalation of the conflict and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the Pakistani military says in a statement.
Munir discussed regional peace and ways to reach a negotiated settlement to disputes, the statement adds.
US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, appears to condemn recent comments from streamer Hasan Piker, a prominent surrogate for leftist Democrats.
The far-left Piker, who has a history of anti-Jewish rhetoric, blamed Jews for antisemitism and called Israel the “Jewish ISIS” in a stream last week.
“If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going to come around and take action, not against the State of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews,” Piker said.
He also said that Jews were feeding into the antisemitic tropes of dual loyalty and that Israel was fomenting Islamophobia.
“You’re running around basically tying your entire identity to a country that inevitably will be seen as, basically, Jewish ISIS, and you’re saying, as Jews, ‘This is all we care about.’ You’re making antisemitism worse,” he said.
Jeffries says in a statement, The malicious claim that American Jews are inviting violence against themselves is dangerous and antisemitic.”
“There is zero justification for threats against the safety of our Jewish brothers and sisters at a moment of rising hate. We will fight the cancer of antisemitism with the fierce urgency of now,” Jeffries says, without naming Piker directly.
Jeffries is the most high-profile member of the party to have criticized Piker’s latest comments.
Piker has been a prominent figure in far-left campaigns for Democrats such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
Halie Soifer, the head of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, says, “We can’t create a permission structure for the targeting of Jews due to the actions of Israel — which is antisemitic — and there can be no place for rhetoric normalizing violence in our politics.”
“All Democrats should separate themselves from Piker. He’s a gift to Republicans,” she says.
An oil tanker has been struck by an unidentified projectile and disabled about 9 nautical miles northeast of Oman’s Ash Shishah, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations says.
The strike damaged the vessel’s engine room, while its crew are reported safe, UKMTO says in an advisory note, adding the environmental impact isn’t immediately known.
Two men were wounded in a shooting late Monday in the northern Arab town of Baqa al-Gharbiya, according to first responders.
The men, aged about 30 and 25, were rushed to a local clinic in serious and moderate condition, respectively, before being taken from there to the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says.
Police say officers are collecting evidence at the scene.
The shooting is “apparently criminal” in nature, rather than nationalist, police add.
The new right-wing party set to be launched tomorrow by hawkish former IDF Gen. Ofer Winter would receive enough votes to enter the Knesset but would have the effect of shrinking the bloc of parties supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a poll by Channel 12.
The poll finds that if Winter’s party joins the fray, which is expected to happen tomorrow, it would receive four seats in the Knesset, but that the pro-Netanyahu bloc would win just 49 seats in total, far short of the 61 needed to form a government and one fewer than it would receive without Winter’s party. The anti-Netanyahu bloc, meanwhile, would win 60 seats, just shy of a majority and one more than it would win otherwise. Arab parties would win 11 seats.
The reason Winter’s entrance would hurt the pro-Netanyahu bloc’s tally is that many of his voters would be siphoned from the far-right Religious Zionism party, which is currently slated to win four seats. But if Winter’s party competes, it would effectively reshuffle the deck such that Religious Zionism would fall short of entering the Knesset, Netanyahu’s Likud party would lose a seat and the opposition B’Yachad party would gain a seat.
Leading the pack under that scenario would be the opposition Yashar Party, led by Gadi Eisenkot, with 24 seats, followed by Likud with 21 and B’Yachad with 16.
Next would come two opposition parties: The left-wing Democrats with 11 and hawkish Yisrael Beytenu with nine.
Among the smaller pro-Netanyahu parties, the far-right Otzma Yehudit would stand at nine, the Haredi United Torah Judaism and Shas parties would be at eight and seven, respectively, and Winter would be at four.
Among Arab parties, the Joint List would be at seven and Ra’am would be at four.
The poll also found that 44% of voters prefer Eisenkot to prime minister versus 34% for Netanyahu, though prime ministers are not elected directly. Sixteen percent are undecided.
