The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
A Channel 12 survey ahead of the October 27 elections shows the current Zionist opposition parties winning 56 seats, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc at 50 seats, the centrist, tentatively named Zionist Home at 4, and the mainly Arab parties Ra’am and Hadash-Ta’al at 5 seats each. Since Chili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel’s Zionist Home has indicated that it would enter an anti-Netanyahu Zionist coalition, this puts the Zionist opposition bloc at 60 seats, just short of a majority in the 120-member Knesset.
The various parties score as follows in the first scenario: Likud: 23 seats; Eisenkot’s Yashar: 23. Bennett’s Together, 14; The Democrats 10; Yisrael Beytenu 9; United Torah Judaism 8; Shas 7; Otzma Yehudit 7; Religious Zionism 5; Ra’am 5; Hadash Ta’al 5; Zionist Home 4.
These numbers are broadly consistent with other recent surveys.
A second question deals with a possible scenario in which current Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz joins forces with the Arab party Ra’am, as is being mooted.
In that scenario, the numbers are unchanged, except for The Democrats losing a seat and Ra’am gaining one, meaning the Zionist opposition bloc slips to 55, the Netanyahu bloc stays at 50, Zionist Home stays at 4, and Ra’am rises to 6.
Segalovitz has indicated that he would only join Ra’am if it recognizes Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and supports civil service – an alternative to the military draft – for Arab citizens. Were this to happen — a very big if — and were the Zionist opposition parties then to consent to including Ra’am in a coalition — another non-given — the anti-Netanyahu bloc would rise to 65 seats, giving it a solid majority. (The Naftali Bennett-led 2021-22 coalition did include Ra’am, but Bennett has said he would not bring Ra’am into a coalition again, and the front-running Netanyahu challenger Gadi Eisenkot has taken a similar stance.)
However, the minimal change in outcome would suggest the survey likely did not spell it out to respondents that, in the second scenario, Ra’am would have recognized Israel as a Jewish state.
Channel 12 also surveys voters’ preferred prime minister. Netanyahu and Eisenkot are level — each preferred by 37% of respondents. Netanyahu is preferred to Bennett by 38% to 37%.
The surveys also found that 62% of respondents do not believe Israel will ever achieve Netanyahu’s promised “total victory” in Gaza, compared to 25% who do.
Large majorities also do not believe that Hamas or Hezbollah will ever agree to disarm — by 63% to 23% as regards Hezbollah; 72% to 18% as regards Hamas.
Separately, 27% believe the threat posed by Iran has grown as a consequence of Israeli policy, 28% that it is unchanged, and 35% that it has lessened. A narrow majority — 51% — favors renewing the war against Iran, with 34% opposed.
Culminating this line of questioning, the poll finds 62% do not believe Netanyahu has “led Israel to victory after three years of war,” compared to 28% who believe he has.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents give Defense Minister Israel Katz a “bad” grade for his performance, compared to 34% who rate it “good.” And 47% say Katz’s attempt to oust IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth was inappropriate, while 17% say it was appropriate.
The survey, by Midgam, with 503 respondents, has a 4.4% margin of error.
Hamas-affiliated media outlets in Gaza report that two people have been killed in a new strike targeting a vehicle in the Sheikh Ajlin neighborhood of Gaza City.
The reported strike is the first airstrike in about a day, coming after the Board of Peace published its roadmap, which calls on Israel to halt strikes in the Strip.
Yesterday, 19 people were reported killed in strikes in Gaza City. However, since last night, there had been no reports of airstrikes. Earlier today, several people were reported wounded by IDF fire in southern Gaza, apparently in an area where Israeli ground forces are operating.
Ten government employees who have submitted complaints to the State Comptroller’s Office about alleged corruption in government ministries and agencies in which they work have been refused protection under Israel’s whistleblower laws over the past month because there is no current serving state comptroller.
There have been 10 such complaints since previous state comptroller Matanyahu Englman stepped down at the beginning of July, Channel 12 news reports.
The State Comptroller’s Office confirms the report to The Times of Israel.
Government employees who wish to complain about corruption in their ministry or agency can get protection from dismissal and other retaliatory measures if the state comptroller, in his role as public complaints ombudsman, issues such an order after a complaint has been filed and reviewed.
Under the 1958 State Comptroller Law, only the ombudsman themself is empowered to grant such protection, however, and the State Comptroller’s Office says they are therefore currently powerless to accept such complaints.
On June 3, the Knesset elected Michael Rabello, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s longtime lawyer and adviser — as the next state comptroller, but the High Court of Justice annulled the election due to violations of the legal requirement for a secret ballot by at least six coalition MKs.
The court ruled that the Knesset should call a new election quickly, but Netanyahu and the government have since decided not to re-do the vote before the upcoming general election on October 27.
In practice, this means that any state employees who wish to report government corruption between now and the elections will be unable to get protection against dismissal or other reprisals.
On Monday, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana told Galei Yisrael Radio “I am proud that I did not obey the High Court ruling,” opining that the court had no authority to intervene.
A Hamas terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught was killed in an airstrike in central Gaza yesterday, the IDF announces.
The military says the strike in Deir al-Balah killed Abdallah Adnan Taha Abu al-Tayf, a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, who invaded Israel on October 7.
A separate strike in the Shati camp of Gaza City killed Jalal Sobieh, identified by the IDF as a commander in Hamas’s Daraj-Tuffah Battalion.
The IDF justifies the strikes amid the ceasefire by saying both terror operatives had been advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians, and they were “eliminated to remove the threat.”
US President Donald Trump claims the current talks with Iran are its “last chance to sign a good document.”
“I want to give them every last chance before decapitation,” Trump says.
Trump has routinely threatened to strike Iran, only to walk those threats back by claiming Middle East countries had assured him that a deal was imminent.
Trump claims the US and Iran are in the midst of talks that could see the Strait of Hormuz fully reopened by as early as tomorrow.
Next, the sides will hold talks on an agreement aimed at the “denuclearization” of Iran.
After denouncing IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth during a live television broadcast last night, Defense Minister Israel Katz now says that the top officer is “performing his duties well.”
The latest statement appears to be a further attempt by Katz to walk back his remarks made on Channel 14, where he had also announced a replacement for Bluth.
It also comes shortly after Channel 13 news reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was furious at Katz over the debacle, calling his conduct “obscene.”
Katz met today with mayors and heads of regional councils in the West Bank, his office says.
During the meeting, Katz “emphasized that the IDF is acting in accordance with government policy, that Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth has not been dismissed, and that he supports and backs all IDF commanders and soldiers.”
“The minister added that Maj. Gen. Bluth is performing his duties well and that there is no disagreement between them,” Katz’s office says.
The statement also adds that the heads of the local authorities “expressed tremendous appreciation for Maj. Gen. Bluth for his leadership, his security and settlement achievements, and his extensive efforts on behalf of the security of the State of Israel, and rejected the campaign against the defense minister and the Central Command chief.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was furious with Defense Minister Israel Katz over his live-on-television announcement yesterday that he was replacing IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, calling it “obscene behavior” and demanding clarification from him, Channel 13 reports.
Katz’s office later denies talking with Netanyahu about the subject, claiming that the Prime Minister’s Office has also denied this.
Meanwhile, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reaffirms his support for Bluth, telling him during a General Staff forum meeting, “You have my full support. You’re not going anywhere,” Hebrew media reports.
Katz, on the other hand, reportedly escalated his criticisms of Zamir during a meeting with West Bank settlement leaders earlier today, questioning why the chief of staff was “so surprised” by the attempted replacement of Bluth.
According to reports, Katz noted that Zamir himself had submitted Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa’s candidacy for the Central Command post as early as April.
Sources close to Katz cited by Channel 12 suggest Zamir had nominated Bar Kalifa only to prevent him from becoming Netanyahu’s military secretary.
“Could it be that he wanted Bar Kalifa as the Central Command candidate only so that the prime minister wouldn’t take him to serve as his military secretary?” they question, adding: “The moment the prime minister chose a military secretary, Bar Kalifa suddenly became unsuitable as Central Command chief?”
Separately, sources close to Bar Kalifa deny reports that he had committed to carrying out Katz’s policies in the West Bank, telling Channel 12: “He has made no commitment regarding any particular policy. In any event, he will act in accordance with the chief of staff’s decisions and the needs of the IDF.”
They add that Bar Kalifa has a good relationship with Bluth and is not allowing the public dispute to affect him.
The Board of Peace appears to change its conditions for the IDF to withdraw from Gaza after its top officials held a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today.
“Contrary to inaccurate reports, we note that the withdrawal of the IDF beyond the Yellow Line will take place only once decommissioning is complete, as Hamas committed to the mediators. This applies to light weapons, heavy weapons, and the tunnels alike,” the Board of Peace says in a statement confirming a Jerusalem meeting between its high representative Nickolay Mladenov, its senior adviser Aryeh Lightstone and Netanyahu.
An earlier version of the post included the word “full” before “withdrawal,” in what suggested that some IDF pullbacks could take place before the entire disarmament process is complete, as is specified in the proposal published by the Board of Peace last week.
But “full” was removed from the latest Board of Peace statement minutes after it was published.
Both versions appeared to contradict what Mladenov said last week, when he asserted that “Withdrawal must move in lockstep with decommissioning.”
The apparent shift appeared to be part of the Board of Peace’s efforts to get Israel on board with its disarmament plan, after officials in Jerusalem insisted that no withdrawal would take place until after the full disarmament of Hamas was complete, taking issue with the plan’s envisioning of a phased disarmament and withdrawal process.
But the apparent change to the disarmament terms risks losing Hamas, which only agreed to the original sequencing.
Moreover, while the latest Board of Peace statement referenced an Israeli withdrawal from the Yellow Line, another Board of Peace official clarified to The Times of Israel last week that the disarmament deal does require Israel to withdraw its troops to the original Yellow Line from the October 2025 Gaza ceasefire deal, which Israel violated by moving to take over 70 percent of the Strip, instead of the agreed upon 53%.
In its latest statement on the “constructive” meeting with Netanyahu, the Board of Peace writes, “The goal is clear and is not in question: the complete decommissioning of weapons in the Strip and the transition away from rule by the gun to civilian governance. Reaching it will be a process. And that process will be set out in the next phase of the work.
As Israeli officials continue to reject any halt to military operations in Gaza, the latest Board statement stresses that “continued progress towards implementation in full depends on each side fulfilling its obligations under the agreed framework.”
According to the Israel Hayom outlet, Netanyahu told Mladenov during the meeting that Israel will not hold its fire in Gaza and will not withdraw from the Yellow Line due to the ongoing threat posed by Hamas.
The report adds that before that, Israel handed the Board and US officials a list of reservations regarding the roadmap, protesting the fact that Jerusalem was not a party to it and did not get the opportunity to present its opinion.
An Israeli official familiar with the matter also tells The Times of Israel that Jerusalem also took issue with the Board of Peace’s plans to include representatives from Qatar and Turkey in the International Verification Committee tasked with monitoring the implementation of Hamas’s disarmament.
The official says Israel also objects to the proposal’s requirement that Hamas weapons merely be put in storage, as opposed to being destroyed.
For his part, Mladenov writes that it was “long day in Jerusalem.”
“This is the start of the hard phase and I have never pretended otherwise,” he continues on X. “Not much of what we do now is dramatic. It is slow, grinding and technical work.”
Even though US President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that negotiations with Iran are starting today, CBS News cites unnamed US officials as saying no “new” talks are planned beyond the ongoing indirect talks between envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and the Iranian team.
After Israel continues to express its opposition to the current Gaza disarmament roadmap, a Board of Peace official tells The Times of Israel that the body is “focused on implementation,” declining to criticize Israel’s stance.
“We have provided a pragmatic path forward to transform Gaza by removing Hamas from power and seeing it hand over its weapons,” says the official. “These steps would undoubtedly allow for the improvement of life in Gaza and enhancement of security in Israel.”
“We remain determined to advance these objectives,” says the official.
Former hostage Rom Braslavski hails the IDF’s recent killing of Mahmoud Fatair, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught and held him while in captivity.
Braslavski, who learned Arabic during his two years in Gaza, says in an Arabic-language video message that Fatair was “another one who destroyed my soul.”
“Yes, you were criminals, and yes, I was weak while with you, and you did whatever you wanted,” he says. “But now, you are being killed one after the other, and not even one will be left of you. Whoever works for Islamic Jihad, Hamas, or any terror group will die, one by one.”
He goes on to thank the IDF and the Israeli nation, concluding by quoting the biblical verse: “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
כל כאלב ביג יומו ????
7.10.2023 ????????️ pic.twitter.com/e5PpS9b5fw— Rom Braslavski (@RomBraslavski) August 3, 2026
Credit card provider Visa Inc. has agreed to buy Israeli fraud prevention company BioCatch for $2.4 billion to help clients better protect themselves and their customers from the threat of account takeovers, scams and digital fraud.
BioCatch, an Israeli pioneer in behavioral biometrics, has developed AI- and machine-learning-based software that analyzes thousands of application, device and network signals — such as keystrokes, touch gestures and device handling — to detect fraud and distinguish legitimate users from fraudsters in real time.
“Account takeovers and scams cost the global economy over $1 trillion annually and AI is enabling these attacks at unprecedented scale,” says Andrew Torre, Visa president of value-added services. “BioCatch will help our clients stop fraud before it reaches the point of payment.”
BioCatch says it has 760 million users globally, serving more than 350 banking clients in 21 countries, including more than 100 of the largest banks.
US President Donald Trump lashes out at Iran for denying his claim that talks would take place today on a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, insisting that negotiations have already begun and that more are scheduled imminently.
“Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous! They ask for a meeting, some would say ‘beg.’ Talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they’re only dealing with Oman,” Trump writes on Truth Social.
“They then go on to give their usual blather in saying, the Strait of Hormuz will be operated powerfully by them, when it is already completely controlled by the United States Navy and our blockade,” he claims.
“Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through unless a deal or total surrender is accomplished,” Trump says.
“Whether Iran wants to admit it or not we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused for decades,” he continues. “It is very simple, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”
Under legal pressure from the High Court of Justice, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to appoint a new interior minister following a 12-month period in which no permanent minister has filled the position.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel filed a petition to the High Court in December asking the court to order Netanyahu to appoint a new, permanent interior minister after previous minister Moshe Arbel resigned in July 2025 when the Shas party left the coalition over the issue of ultra-Orthodox IDF enlistment.
The petition also asked the court to annul government resolutions transferring some of the interior minister’s powers to Netanyahu, who cannot serve as minister due to the ongoing corruption trial against him.
Replying to the court on behalf of the state and Netanyahu, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara says that Netanyahu has now agreed to appoint a new interior minister “during the [current] election period,” although no firm date is stipulated for the appointment to be made.
In her update to the court, the attorney general says that the failure to appoint an interior minister and the transfer of authorities to the prime minister created practical legal difficulties which were getting worse as time passed.
These difficulties related to authorities transferred to Netanyahu regarding elections, voting for soldiers, immigration and citizenship, entry into Israel, senior appointments, local government, municipal tax, planning and construction, and education.
After Arbel resigned, Justice Minister Yariv Levin served in parallel as acting interior minister, but this temporary role expired in October 2025.
“The state today clearly acknowledges that the absence of a permanent interior minister creates a real legal and practical difficulty and undermines a long list of essential powers,” says Tomer Naor, deputy director of the Movement for Quality Government.
“A key government ministry cannot be managed over [a long period of] time through temporary solutions and ad hoc transfers of authority,” Naor continues, adding that “an expression of intent is not enough,” and that the organization will continue to monitor the situation so that a minister is indeed appointed.
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught and held hostage Rom Braslavski in captivity was killed in an airstrike over the weekend, the IDF announces.
The strike in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah killed Mahmoud Fatair, a member of Islamic Jihad’s elite forces, according to the military.
The IDF says Fatair invaded Israel on October 7 and took part in holding Braslavski in Islamic Jihad captivity.
The military says that in November 2023, during the release of Israeli hostages, Fatair was seen “participating in the hostage handover ceremony of numerous hostages,” including Amit Shani, Ofir Engel, Moran Stela Yanai, Itay Regev, Liam Or-Nassar, Raz Ben Ami, Rantin Phaiboon, Gong Sae Lao, Seekena Jakkapan and Saegkaew Charoemchai.
The IDF justifies the strike amid the ceasefire by saying that Fatair had been advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians, and he was “eliminated to remove the threat.”
צה"ל חיסל מחבל גא"פ שפשט ב-7 באוקטובר, לקח חלק בהחזקתו של רום ברסלבסקי בשבי ובטקסי מסירת חטופים
צה"ל תקף במרחב דיר אל-בלח במהלך סוף השבוע, וחיסל את המחבל מחמוד פטאיר, מפקד נוח'בה בחטיבת מחנות המרכז בארגון הטרור גא"פ.
המחבל פשט לשטח מדינת ישראל ב-7 באוקטובר ולקח חלק בהחזקתו של… pic.twitter.com/VHsEOE57Tn
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 3, 2026
Amid a major uproar over his live-on-television announcement last night that he was removing IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, and after his attempt today to walk back the move, Defense Minister Israel Katz launches a Likud primaries campaign video presenting him as a rare true right-wing defense minister.
“At last, a right-wing defense minister” is the slogan of the campaign, in which Katz claims he broke free of the security conception of his predecessors that enabled Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, and led an “offensive” rather than defensive policy that weakened Iran, eliminated terror chiefs and “increased the IDF’s freedom of action.”
סוף סוף שר ביטחון ימני. הצביעו 121 בפריימריז. pic.twitter.com/XShCHTT1Zq
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) August 3, 2026
The video itself features a montage of airstrikes from the war soundtracked with an apparently AI-generated hard rock song featuring lyrics extolling Katz’s ostensibly terrifying military potency, including the assertion: “The Iranians say, ‘God help us’.”
It ends: “Israel Katz, what a beast [totach / cannon in Hebrew].” And finally, bizarrely, “such a graceful smile.”
The Likud holds its primaries on August 17, with over 100,000 party members set to choose most of its Knesset slate — with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah adding in selections of his own. Katz placed a rather middling 12th in the last Likud primaries, in August 2022.
Former Mossad chief David Barnea is joining Ondas Defense Ltd. as its global president and chairman, according to the NASDAQ-traded company.
The defense technology company says that Barnea will focus on “the Middle East, Europe and Asia, where governments are accelerating investment in autonomous defense, counter-UAS, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, resilient communications, precision-strike and ground robotic systems.”
“The nature of warfare is changing rapidly, as demonstrated by the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine,” says Barnea in a statement. “Operational advantage increasingly depends on the ability to combine intelligence, artificial intelligence, resilient communications, autonomous platforms and precision capabilities into one coordinated operational environment.”
Barnea served as Mossad chief from 2021 to 2026, including during the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and onslaught, the subsequent wars against Hamas and Hezbollah, and the multiple Israeli bombing campaigns against Iran.
He was replaced by Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman in June.
A 75-year-old former IDF officer has been hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage after he was assaulted last week for taking down a banner that called for the release of Yigal Amir, the far-right assassin who killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, according to the hospitalized man’s family and lawyers.
Footage from the assault on Ilan Manes on Tuesday, July 28, shows several youths — reportedly right-wing extremists — dragging and kicking Manes after he removed the sign at the Hemed Junction on Route 1, near where he lives in Mevasseret Zion, west of Jerusalem.
Manes has filed a complaint with the police, but no one has been arrested over the assault, says the Protest Detainee Legal Support Front, a group of lawyers who offer pro bono services to anti-government protesters.
According to the group, Manes found his left hand to be unresponsive while he was working at home on Thursday, and the same thing happened again, “even more seriously,” on Saturday, at which point his family took him to the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital.
אילן מנס, שהותקף כשניסה להוריד את השלט ׳ישוחרר יגאל עמיר׳, מאושפז במחלקה נוירולוגית עם דימום במוח
ביום חמישי האחרון בעודו עובד בבית הבין אילן שמשהו לא תקין. אצבעות יד שמאל שלו הפסיקו לפעול וכל מה שאחז בו נפל. בשבת המקרה חזר על עצמו ואף באופן קשה יותר. הוא פונה על ידי משפחתו לבית… pic.twitter.com/wMQwNmJaN4
— אלימות ישראל (@Alimut_Israel) August 2, 2026
He is expected to undergo brain surgery at the hospital tonight, his daughter Talia tells Army Radio. She says he is responsive but “lost consciousness several times yesterday.”
Manes, a former lieutenant colonel in the IDF, was himself at the peace rally at Tel Aviv’s Kings of Israel Square — now called Rabin Square — that the premier addressed shortly before being shot dead, Talia Manes says.
“He couldn’t cope with the sign,” she says, referring to the banner over Route 1. “He understood he was getting into some kind of confrontation, but he didn’t imagine it would end like this.”
Israel continues its public opposition to the current Board of Peace roadmap for disarming Hamas in Gaza.
“Israel will not withdraw from the current line in the Gaza Strip,” says an Israeli official, “and will continue to eliminate any threats to our citizens and our soldiers.”
Amid ongoing Israeli pushback to the plan, Board of Peace high representative to Gaza Nickolay Mladenov and senior adviser Aryeh Lightstone met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today to press him to agree to stop military operations in Gaza, Axios reports.
The Board of Peace and unnamed US officials have expressed their frustration with Israel’s reticence, saying that Jerusalem was fully informed about the terms of the agreement for months.
Six Saudi-flagged supertankers have changed course in the Gulf of Aden in recent days and are heading to southern Africa amid threats by Yemen’s Houthi movement to target Saudi shipping, ship-tracking data shows.
The tankers, which are empty of cargo after returning from destinations in Asia, are sailing in formation towards southern Africa, rather than opting to transit the southern Red Sea via the Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint, according to AIS ship-tracking on LSEG and MarineTraffic.
This signals they are likely sailing around the entire African continent rather than using the significantly faster Red Sea-Suez Canal route.
Saudi officials do not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Settlements Minister Orit Strock demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately convene the security cabinet to prohibit the entry of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) into Gaza, as approved by the cabinet last week.
The cabinet approved the move to allow 200 troops from “friendly countries” into the Palestinian enclave. ISF troops would first deploy along the borders of a pilot humanitarian zone in Gaza being planned by the Board of Peace in the area of the flattened city of Rafah. According to the decision, the entry of ISF forces would still be subject to the specific approval of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
Writing to Netanyahu, the two far-right politicians assert that this decision had been based on “incorrect information” and that the Board of Peace road map for Gaza “is dangerous to Israel and completely contradicts the disarming of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza.”
A report last week said that passing the cabinet decision had been required for Netanyahu to secure his White House meeting with US President Donald Trump.
Smotrich and Strock call for reconvening the cabinet to roll back last week’s decision and “adopt a preventative cabinet decision that will block the implementation of the roadmap published by the Board of Peace, and to compel the Peace Council to amend the outline so that it aligns with the goals of the war and the commitments made to Israel.”
Responding to Smotrich and Strock, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid demands they name who they believe provided the cabinet with incorrect information.
“Since this is a diplomatic matter that was finalized with the Americans, could you specify who exactly delivered this incorrect information to you in the cabinet?” Lapid asks in a statement.
“Is there someone in the cabinet who is senior to you, managed the talks with the Americans, and was the one who provided you with incorrect information? Cabinet ministers cannot throw around such a serious accusation without stating who they are referring to,” he says, seemingly implying that they are referring to Netanyahu himself.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir welcomes Smotrich’s opposition to the ISF, writing in a statement that he will soon demand that the prime minister bring the agreement on Gaza to the Knesset for a vote.
“It was clear from the outset that no international force would do the job for us in Gaza; only the State of Israel can destroy Hamas,” he declares.
Despite claims to the contrary, over the past three years, the Education Ministry did not remove funding from schools failing to teach core subjects such as math and English, only deducting less than half a percent from the United Torah Judaism party’s network, Channel 13 reported last night.
The network’s revelations are in line with a 2025 research report by the Israel Democracy Institute, which found that only a small fraction of the ultra-Orthodox boys’ elementary schools that fail to teach core curriculum subjects as required by law face any sanctions.
Despite the lack of core subjects in the ultra-Orthodox school system, the Knesset Finance Committee is slated to vote tomorrow on allocating an additional NIS 200 million ($65.5 million) for Haredi schools.
Meanwhile, according to a newly reported December 2025 brief to the High Court filed by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, the Education Ministry last year warned dozens of ultra-Orthodox schools that they would lose their accreditation over their failure to teach core subjects.
According to Channel 12, the filing, which came in response to a petition against the transfer of some NIS 1 billion ($314 million) to ultra-Orthodox schools, stated that some 31 educational institutions affiliated with the Knesset’s Haredi parties received such warnings.
The filing further specified that the Education Ministry had offered all of the schools a chance to fix the issue and that only three schools refused to do so, losing their status as part of the party-affiliated networks.
Moreover, the filing stated that the Education Ministry considers schools that only teach some grades secular studies as meeting its criteria while the Finance Ministry believes that unless students through eighth grade participate in secular studies, the schools are not compliant.
According to the Finance Ministry’s criteria, 32% of Haredi institutions do not teach the required core subjects and 171 schools should be removed from their networks.
The deputy leader of Britain’s right-wing Reform UK party, Richard Tice, is under investigation over a possible failure to declare an interest, a parliamentary watchdog says, three months after it opened an inquiry into the party’s leader.
Tice says on X that the investigation is over whether he should have declared the interest at the start of a debate on UK democracy and Israeli influence, and says it is based on a complaint by an “antisemitic anti-Israel lobby group.” Tice’s list of registered interests includes a trip to Israel last September.
Contrary to garbage in media:
I am being investigated for standing against antisemitism. You could not make it up.
Standards Commissioner is considering complaint by anti semitic anti Israel lobby group over whether I should have referenced my register of interests at start of…
— Richard Tice MP ???????? (@TiceRichard) August 3, 2026
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards does not go into details on the investigation, but says it relates to rule six of the parliamentary code of conduct, which states:
“Members [of parliament] must always be open and frank in declaring any relevant interest in any proceeding of the House or its Committees, and in any communications with Ministers, Members, public officials or public office holders.”
An investigation by the commissioner does not mean that rules have been broken.
The watchdog launched an investigation into the populist party’s leader, Nigel Farage, in May over a £5 million ($6.73 million) donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire, then paused the probe after Farage resigned his parliamentary seat in July.
When he quit and announced plans to stand again for his seat, Farage said the establishment was bent on discrediting him over accusations about his finances.
British police are also investigating at least £500,000 ($673,000) in donations to the Reform UK party, which Tice has said is part of a “politically motivated smear campaign.”
Reform UK had been leading in the polls for more than a year until last week, when a number of polls suggested the governing Labour Party had caught up or even retaken the lead, reflecting a bounce for new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
The High Court of Justice recommends that petitioners retract a petition filed against legislation barring UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Palestinians, from working in Israel and restricting its operations in the West Bank and Gaza, indicating that it will likely reject them.
The recommendation comes at the end of a hearing in which the justices expressed skepticism that the rights of Palestinians have been adversely affected by the cessation of UNRWA’s activities, as claimed by the Adalah legal aid organization that filed the petition, noting that the Palestinian Authority and other organizations are still providing for the needs of those formerly aided by UNRWA.
At the start of the hearing, Likud MK Tali Gotliv began shouting at Adalah attorney Shuaa Masarwa Mansour, and a shouting match soon erupted also involving National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, with court security guards trying to calm the situation.
Gotliv and Ben Gvir told Mansour to “get out of here,” and said the fact that he had a lawyer’s license is “a disgrace to the Israel Bar Association.”
Mansour reacted in kind, calling Ben Gvir “worthless” and “a criminal,” in reference to the far-right minister’s multiple criminal convictions, including for incitement to racism and supporting a terror organization.
In October 2024, the Knesset passed two laws with massive majorities banning UNRWA’s operations in sovereign Israel, including East Jerusalem, and barring state agencies from cooperating with UNRWA for its operations in Gaza and the West Bank. The legislation was passed due to evidence of Hamas’s infiltration of UNRWA, the participation of some UNRWA members in the October 7, 2023, atrocities, and the rampant incitement against Israel and Jews in UNRWA’s vast educational network.
In October 2025, the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding advisory opinion asserting that Israel was legally obligated to allow UNRWA’s operations.
Israel rejected the ruling, saying the country would “not cooperate with an organization that is infested with terror activities.”
Two Thai workers, in their 40s, have been hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa due to acute poisoning from the bush tobacco plant (Nicotiana glauca), the hospital says.
One patient, sedated and on a ventilator, is in serious condition after developing respiratory distress. The other patient’s condition has improved, but he is still under observation.
The two men picked the plant near Haifa on Saturday, and then made soup with it. They began to suffer from symptoms indicative of poisoning a few hours later.
“We have never encountered a case of poisoning like this, and the fact that they arrived with the plant certainly helped expedite the diagnosis and treatment given to them,” says Osnat Aspis, head nurse in the hospital’s critical care division.
The National Poison Information Center at Rambam says that bush tobacco (Nicotiana glauca) is the only tobacco species that grows wild in Israel.
“The plant is common in almost all regions of the country,” says Dr. Yael Luria, director of the center. She says the toxic substance in the plant is similar to nicotine.
Ingestion of plant parts may cause irritation of the digestive system, including nausea and vomiting, as well as central nervous system damage.
“The severity of poisoning depends on the amount ingested,” she says.
“Accidental contact with this plant does not cause poisoning, but it is important to warn the public not to pick or prepare tea or stew from plants that have not been identified carefully by experts,” explains Dr. Luria.
Opposition politicians are seizing upon a report that found emigration from Israel remained at record-high levels in 2025, pointing to it as a failing of the current government.
Gilad Kariv, a senior Democrats lawmaker who headed the Knesset committee that dealt with immigration and Diaspora affairs, says he and colleagues repeatedly urged the government to appoint officials to deal with the problem of Israelis leaving in record numbers, and to draw up a comprehensive plan to reverse the trend, but got nowhere.
“This is a strategic threat to Israel’s future, and it is closely connected to the behavior of the government,” he charges on X.
Yesh Atid MK Meirav Cohen quips that “for all they promised that Gazans would emigrate willfully, in the end the October 7 government encouraged willful emigration from Israel.”
“Every day, more and more Israelis are seeing the massive failures and perilous corruption of this government and despair,” adds Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar.
A Hamas official tells Al Jazeera that a US-backed plan for the group to disarm and Israel’s military to pull out of Gaza will be hampered unless Israel halts what appears to be a stepped-up campaign of airstrikes in the Strip.
The official says the group has contacted mediators and urged them to intervene directly to compel Israel to completely cease its military operations in Gaza.
“We made it clear to the mediators that the continued attacks will disrupt the implementation of the agreement and the negotiations over its timeline,” the Hamas source says.
The demand comes after Hamas agreed late last week to a Board of Peace roadmap for the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement. Despite Hamas’s acceptance of the roadmap, Israel has pushed back, saying it won’t work so long as Hamas has arms, while carrying out nightly waves of airstrikes.
According to Hamas-run authorities in Gaza, 18 people were killed in Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours, one of the highest daily death tolls reported in recent months.
The Jerusalem District Court orders the Religious Services Ministry to disclose the work experience and qualifications of the heads and staff of state-funded local religious councils following a lawsuit by the ITIM nonprofit, which helps Israelis navigate the country’s religious bureaucracy.
In its ruling, the court states that such information on public officials’ professional experience is not private and must be provided to ITIM within 30 days, following the ministry’s refusal to disclose it. The ministry is also ordered to pay ITIM’s legal fees.
Municipal religious councils, which are taxpayer funded, have long been dogged by charges of nepotism and shady handouts of plum jobs.
The judgment is “a victory” not only for the plaintiff, “but for the entire Israeli public,” says ITIM chairman Rabbi Seth Farber.
“Religious councils are supposed to serve all citizens and manage public funds with integrity and sensitivity, and the public has every right to know that those who manage these bodies possess the required skills and experience and were not appointed out of political considerations,” he adds. “For two years, we fought against attempts to hide this information, and the court made it unequivocally clear: religious services in Israel are not immune from criticism and the duty of transparency.”
Under growing criticism from the Board of Peace, a senior Israeli spokesman says the Gaza disarmament roadmap “does not reflect Israel’s positions.”
“Israel has conveyed its comments and concerns on the proposed framework to our American counterparts,” says Prime Minister’s Office spokesman Doron Spielman. “The version that has been made public does not reflect Israel’s positions.”
The statement indicates that Israel is digging in on its refusal to halt military operations to give space for the disarmament plan to move forward, despite it being a White House priority.
“Over the past eight months, according to Israeli intelligence, Hamas has used the ceasefire to rearm, recruit thousands of additional terrorists, rebuild its military infrastructure, and prepare for further October 7-style massacres,” says Spielman.
He stresses that the first clause in the framework envisions a “deradicalized, terror-free zone that does not pose a threat.”
“That vision stands in direct contrast to the current reality and to Hamas’s stated intentions,” says Spielman.
He calls for the “genuine, verifiable, and irreversible demilitarization of Hamas.”
“Demilitarization means Hamas physically surrendering its weapons,” says Spielman. “Anything short of full demilitarization will leave Hamas with the capability to threaten Israel again.”
The road map calls for Hamas to hand over its heavy weapons to the new Palestinian technocratic government, and for the arms to be stored in the Gaza Strip. It also says Gaza will run under the principle of “one authority, one law, one weapon.”
Gazans will be allowed to keep personal weapons subject to licensing from the new government.
While the Prime Minister’s Office continues to criticize the Board of Peace road map for Gaza, President Isaac Herzog gives a more upbeat assessment, while stressing that Hamas must be “fully disarmed.”
“I see a lot of positive elements in the efforts of the Board of Peace, under the auspices of President Trump and his leadership,” says Herzog.
“I think his 20-Point Plan, which was adopted by the UN Security Council, and now, moving forward with the guidelines and the agreements that are going to be reached, is a very positive step with the clear caveat… that Hamas must be disarmed, and I hope Hamas will be disarmed fully,” he continues.
“This is clearly the basis of moving forward to the next phase by bringing in the government of technocrats,” says Herzog. “The efforts of the Americans, the Board of Peace, President Trump, and CEO of the Board of Peace Nickolay Mladenov can bring a certain vision of hope, also to the people of Gaza and to the people of Israel.”
Herzog makes the comments as he accepts the letters of credence from the new ambassadors of Germany, Chile, Honduras, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka.
Chile and Honduras recalled their ambassadors shortly after the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion.
Singapore has banned the two core members of British band Massive Attack from reentering the country after they displayed a Palestinian flag and expressed support for the Palestinian cause during their concert in the city-state last week.
Singapore police say in a statement that the two men were investigated over their actions during the July 29 concert, including the unfurling of a foreign flag and one member shouting “Free Palestine” on stage.
They were issued stern warnings and blacklisted from returning to the city-state, it says.
“The police take a serious view of acts which could potentially harm the racial and religious harmony in Singapore and urge the public, including foreigners, to refrain from importing foreign politics as this can undermine our social cohesion and the rule of law,” it says.
The police do not identify the men involved, but footage shared on local media showed it to be Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall.
Massive Attack get BANNED from Singapore after waving a Palestinian flag on stage.
Two members of the British band have been issued warnings by police and banned from re-entering Singapore after displaying the flag.
They are also banned from performing again in the country. pic.twitter.com/bnI440Ywtu
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) August 1, 2026
Massive Attack responds in a statement on Instagram, saying the band is “surprised and disappointed” by the decision.
The group says large sections of the auditorium had chanted “Free Palestine” before the start of their show and at the end of it. They didn’t expect that merely holding up the flag would violate any law, but they were proud to have made the “impromptu expression” with their fans in Singapore to show solidarity for the Palestinian cause, the band adds.
Police arrested a construction contractor suspected of hiding tens of millions of shekels in real estate assets from tax authorities despite undergoing bankruptcy proceedings since 2012, authorities say.
According to a police statement, the Lahav 433 major crimes unit arrested the contractor this morning, and also hauled in several other people on suspicion of involvement.
Hebrew media report that the suspects include a former lawmaker from the Likud party who still holds a key position in the ruling faction.
“The investigation suggests the suspects acted systematically to hide their holdings from the authorities and rake in enormous sums,” police say, adding that officers confiscated “much property” and will keep withholding it throughout the legal proceedings.
A day before the seventh round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon in Rome, the US ambassador to Lebanon encourages patience in implementing the trilateral agreement signed in June.
“A great deal of technical work remains to ensure civilian safety on the ground,” says Michel Issa in a statement. “There is a meaningful difference between drafting an agreement on paper and implementing it responsibly — moving too quickly risks jeopardizing the very civilians this process is meant to protect.”
“We believe it is better to take the time needed to get this right the first time,” he says. “Doing so will allow subsequent pilot zones to move forward more efficiently. Above all, both sides must agree on a clear, workable process before proceeding.”
The June deal called for the Lebanese military to deploy in pilot areas in southern Lebanon where the Hezbollah terror group had a military presence and influence, and for Israel to withdraw from its declared security zone in the south, dependent on Hezbollah disarmament.
The IDF carried out its first withdrawal from a pilot zone in southern Lebanon two weeks ago, though Beirut has since accused Jerusalem of hampering efforts by the Lebanese Armed Forces to operate in that area.
A record-setting wave of emigration from Israel continued unabated through 2025, driven by ongoing political tensions, economic strain, and prolonged military conflict, according to a new report by researchers at Tel Aviv University.
Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics cited by the report, shows that 268,509 Israeli citizens departed the country for trips lasting at least three months between 2023 and 2025.
In 2025, 90,922 Israelis stayed abroad for three consecutive months or more. That followed 91,499 who left for extended periods in 2024 and 86,509 in 2023.
For comparison, annual departures averaged roughly 60,000 per year throughout the decade spanning 2010 to 2019. During the three-year span a decade prior, from 2013 to 2015, only 183,219 Israelis left for similar periods.
The research was conducted by Prof. Itai Ater of the Coller School of Management and head of the Economists’ Forum for Democracy, Prof. Nittai Bergman, head of the School of Economics, and doctoral candidate Doron Zamir.
“In 2025, we continue to see deeply concerning numbers of Israelis leaving the country for a significant period of time, adding to the exodus seen in 2023 and 2024,” Ater said. “These figures on their own do not yet pose a threat to Israel’s resilience. However, looking ahead — and if there is no change — there is growing concern that emigration will escalate in a manner that endangers Israel’s security and economy.”
During the past two years, Israel has been facing a rare and significant net migration deficit, with more people leaving the country than entering it. With the exception of certain periods in the 1950s and 1980s, Israel has always had more Jews moving to Israel than leaving it, according to Sergio Della Pergola, one of Israel’s most respected experts on Jewish demographics.
But in 2024 and 2025, almost 50,000 more people moved abroad than came to live in the country, according to CBS data.
Historically, much of Israel’s emigration has been framed around the pursuit of better economic opportunities abroad. However, many of those leaving Israel now attribute their decisions to dissatisfaction with the government, specifically policy changes it seeks that critics say will undermine democracy, or Israel’s current security situation, according to a recent study by Lilach Lev Ari, a professor of sociology at Oranim College.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee votes 4-2 to approve a government-requested extension of emergency military mobilization until September 30.
The approval allows the IDF to call up a maximum of 240,000 reservists.
Such extensions have been granted every few months since the outbreak of war in Gaza.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urges his country’s judiciary to issue a long-awaited indictment over the 2020 Beirut port blast, on the eve of the catastrophe’s sixth anniversary.
“The issuing of the indictment by the investigating judge has become a necessity that can no longer be delayed,” Aoun says in a statement.
The massive Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, killed more than 220 people, injured more than 6,500 and damaged swathes of the capital.
Lebanese authorities have said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been stored haphazardly for years, apparently at the behest of Hezbollah, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.
Nobody has been held accountable for the disaster, with victims and their families still demanding justice in a country long plagued by official impunity.
The case, which is still with the public prosecutor, had been bogged down by political and legal wrangling since 2023, after Iran-backed Hezbollah led a campaign demanding judge Tarek Bitar’s removal and dozens of lawsuits also sought to remove him from the case.
Justice “means upholding rights, revealing the whole truth without any omission, and holding accountable” all those who were negligent or caused the catastrophe “whatever their position,” Aoun says.
“The Lebanese judiciary is called today more than ever before to prove its independence and ability to deliver justice to the victims. The indictment is not just a legal procedure, but a right owed by the living to the martyrs and their families,” he adds.
The US military is asking its troops for new ideas for pressuring Iran, CNN reports.
“We are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran,” a US Central Command intelligence officer wrote in an email to analysts, according to the US outlet.
The report would appear to suggest that the US is not satisfied with the results achieved via conventional pressure tactics, namely military action and financial sanctions.
“US Central Command has a long history of thinking and working in innovative ways,” Capt. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesperson for CENTCOM, tells CNN. “Admiral Cooper, in particular, reaches out to members of our great team, regardless of rank, to achieve the highest levels of operational performance possible.”
The request comes following another bombing campaign aborted by US President Donald Trump as he tries to restart talks with Iran.
Jewish organizations are condemning the desecration of a statue of the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides in Córdoba, Spain, over the weekend.
The graffiti was discovered Saturday on the base of the bronze statue in Tiberiades Plaza, in the heart of the city’s historic Jewish Quarter. Municipal workers later covered the vandalism with a temporary sign while a specialized team worked to remove the paint.
Spain’s National Police is investigating the incident.
The Federation of Spanish Jewish Communities calls the vandalism “an attack on our shared history, on the Golden Age, on our culture, on the values of knowledge, freedom, and coexistence that his legacy represents.”
The attack was “a stark reminder that antisemitism continues to target not only Jewish people, but also Jewish history, memory and culture,” the European Jewish Congress adds on X.
1/ A Nazi swastika has been painted on the statue of Maimonides in Córdoba, one of the city's most revered historical figures and one of the greatest Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages. pic.twitter.com/M56vP203L0
— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) August 2, 2026
The bronze statue, sculpted by Amadeo Ruiz Olmos in 1964, commemorates the 760th anniversary of the death of Maimonides, known as the Rambam in Hebrew. The 12th-century Jewish philosopher, astronomer, and physician is best remembered for his monumental legal code, the Mishneh Torah, and philosophical treatise, The Guide for the Perplexed, both of which profoundly shaped both Jewish law and Western thought.
Defense Minister Israel Katz denies that he called to oust Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth on live television last night, after a major backlash accusing him of politicizing the military.
During the Channel 14 broadcast, Katz had denounced Bluth and announced a replacement for him. The military quickly put out a sharp statement saying Bluth would remain in his post and noting that defense minister does not have the authority to unilaterally fire Bluth.
“The attempt to portray my remarks as if I called for the dismissal of the Central Command chief live on air is a complete lie, part of a political campaign directed against the government,” Katz says in a statement released by his office.
Katz cites a Channel 12 news report from April 24 which said that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir recommended IDF Personnel Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa as the next Central Command chief.
“On July 28, Channel 14 news reported that I had accepted the chief of staff’s recommendation, and after conducting an interview with Maj. Gen. Bar Kalifa and concluding that he was the most suitable candidate, I decided to advance his appointment in accordance with the procedures,” he claims, although the military said last night that the appointment of Bar Kalifa had not been “in accordance with procedures.”
“In other words, months before the interview, the chief of staff’s recommendation had already been made, approved by me, and the appointment process was already well underway. Therefore, the attempt to portray the decision as having been made following the interview does not stand up to the facts,” Katz says.
Despite the media reports, the IDF had not announced that Bar Kalifa would be replacing Bluth, and neither had Katz until last night.
Katz says that during last night’s Channel 14 broadcast, “when one of the participants called to ‘dismiss the general,’ I immediately and clearly responded: ‘No.'”
The defense minister says that “this is not a real controversy but a media attempt to divert the discussion from the real question: What will happen if Yair Golan, who has already threatened to dismiss Maj. Gen. David Zini, becomes defense minister in a government led by Gadi Eisenkot?” he says, refering to political leaders arrayed against the current government in upcoming elections
Golan, who heads the Democrats, has pledged that if voted into power, he will oust Zini as Shin Bet chief.
“In that case, there is concern that members of the old conception will once again be appointed, something that could harm the settlement enterprise and Israel’s security,” he adds.
The Israel Geological Survey says an earthquake alert sent to Israeli users’ phones this morning was not the result of a Home Front Command warning system, which was not activated by the 5.2-magnitude temblor that struck near the Suez Canal at 3 a.m.
In a post on Facebook, the state body says phones were activated by an internal Android system, which noticed that several devices running the operating system shook at the same time, concluded it was caused by a quake, and sent a warning to users in the region, including in Israel, of a 5.9-magnitude rattler.
The survey says its nationwide alert system, dubbed Truah, “identified the quake in real time, but given its magnitude and the distance from the state’s borders, the system was not supposed to activate warnings to Israelis, even if it was felt in part of Israel.”
Light shaking from the tremor was felt as far as away as Lebanon, according to the European Seismic Monitoring Center. No significant damage was reported in Israel or Egypt.
According to the Geological Survey, this morning’s alert was not the first time the system was activated. Early on the morning of June 13, 2025, the Home Front Command triggered a nationwide missile alert to warn that Israel was striking Iran, causing the entire country to fumble for its phones and scramble for shelter at once. The mass movement “was accidentally identified by the Google system as a 5.1-magnitude earthquake in Israel,” the survey says.
Military prosecutors have indicted a Palestinian terror commander responsible for a roadside bomb attack in the West Bank that killed a soldier two years ago, the IDF says.
On July 1, 2024, a Panther armored personnel carrier was hit by a bomb in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem, killing the driver, Sgt. First Class (res.) Yehuda Geto, 22, and seriously wounding another soldier.
The army announces that the Military Prosecution filed an indictment against Kamal Khatib at the Samaria Military Court yesterday, accusing him of detonating the bomb that killed Geto.
Khatib had been a member and later the head of the so-called Nur Shams Battalion, a local wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to the IDF.
He was arrested by the Palestinian Authority’s security services in February 2025, and transferred to Israeli custody on April 29 this year.
The indictment says that Khatib and other terror operatives detonated the explosive device, which had been planted on a road in Nur Shams ahead of time, using a cell phone.
In addition, the indictment accused Khatib of several other terror activities, including “managing and directing the Nur Shams Battalion, recruiting operatives for surveillance and manufacturing units, planting explosive devices, trafficking weapons, and transferring funds and military equipment to terrorists.”
He is charged with conspiring to intentionally cause death — the equivalent of murder under military law — attempted intentional causing of death, heading an unlawful association, trafficking in military equipment, and planting a bomb.
Iran is not currently holding talks with the United States and is now in discussions with Oman over a temporary safe route through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei says.
Baghaei adds that reaching an agreement with Oman is not sufficient to fully reopen the strait, as the situation will remain unchanged while US “aggression” continues.
US President Donald Trump said Sunday night that negotiations with Iran would begin today to finalize a deal that reopens the Strait of Hormuz, after he again called off a major attack on the Islamic Republic over the weekend.
Settlement leaders strongly criticize Defense Minister Israel Katz after he announced in a live TV interview that he intended to replace IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth over the top general’s decision to renew an administrative restraining order against an extremist settler.
While criticized by some on the far right for acting against settler violence, Bluth has also earned plaudits on the right for his support of settlement expansion, including backing the creation of wildcat outposts and ranches.
“It’s an absolute disgrace that the defense minister fires the head of Central Command who has established 104 settlements,” says the mayor of the settlement of Beit El, Shai Alon.
The current government has formally approved the establishment and retroactive legalization of 104 settlements, while the IDF’s Central Command under Bluth’s leadership has reportedly helped coordinate the establishment of dozens of illegal settlement outposts across the West Bank.
Katz’s announcement on Bluth, which was rejected by the IDF, was widely seen as a play for support from members of the far right set to vote in Likud primaries on August 17.
“Minister Katz, if you’re missing a few votes in the primaries, tell me and I’ll get them for you,” adds Alon, in reference to the upcoming Likud primaries in which Katz is running.
The Yesha Council, an umbrella body representing municipal settlement authorities in the West Bank, also expresses public support for Bluth, saying his offensive military tactics in the territory have been successful in tackling terrorism, and praising his actions in “developing settlement in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley.”
The Yesha Council says that the heads of settlement municipal authorities will be meeting with Katz this afternoon.
Speaking to Kan radio, Yesha chairman Yisrael Ganz tempers the criticism of Katz, even as he backs Bluth.
Ganz says that there is a “consensus” among heads of settlement municipal authorities that Bluth is “the best head of Central Command ever,” but adds that Katz is also “the best defense minister ever.”
Katz, like Bluth, has worked to expand the establishment of illegal settlement outposts around the West Bank, and both of them have praised illegal farming outposts for taking control over large swaths of land in the territory, claiming they add to the country’s security.
Civil rights groups note that the outposts are frequently the source of extreme violence and harassment against local Palestinians.
Together party head Naftali Bennett says the addition of Jewish Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz to the Ra’am party’s slate would not make the Islamist faction into a potential coalition ally.
“I don’t speak based on a person’s identity or race. I speak based on principles. The government will be Zionist,” Bennett tells Army Radio.
Segalovitz, a veteran centrist politician and former commander of the police’s Investigations and Intelligence Division, has reportedly been in touch with Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas about possibly joining his party. While Ra’am was part of Bennett’s broad but short-lived 2021-2022 coalition, the former prime minister has said he will not consider it a potential ally should he be tasked with forming a government after the election.
A right-wing political leader who has become one of the leaders of the bloc attempting to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bennett has joined forces for the upcoming election with Segalovitz’s Yesh Atid, creating a combined slate known as Together. A source close to Bennett is quoted by i24 claiming that Segalovitz’s turn toward Ra’am is due to the likelihood that he will receive a low slot on the Together slate, but could secure a ministerial role if placed near the top of Ra’am’s list.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has reportedly decided not to appoint any officers to senior roles until at least after the election season, following last night’s attempt by Defense Minister Israel Katz to replace the chief of the Central Command.
Under the IDF’s protocols for promotions of colonels and above, the IDF chief selects candidates, which then must be approved by the defense minister.
The Ynet news site reports that Zamir will freeze appointments of major generals until early 2027, after the October 2026 election season is presumed to have settled, in an apparent attempt to prevent Katz from interfering.
The move means that Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth will likely stay in his role for three years, which is not unusual.
Most other roles in the general staff are normally held for three to five years, meaning that no officers will be required to stay on longer than usual if Zamir holds off on appointments until 2027.
Katz’s attempt to remove Bluth, announced on live TV, has drawn widespread condemnation and accusations that it is a play for right-wing votes ahead of the Likud party’s primary. The IDF said earlier that Katz’s attempt to remove Bluth was not valid as it did not follow established procedures.
Gilad Erdan, a former Likud politician widely expected to form a rival party for the upcoming elections, accuses Defense Minister Israel Katz of engaging in “petty politics at the expense of our security” following the televised announcement of his decision to remove IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth from his post on Sunday evening.
“This time he has sunk to a new low: dismissing a dedicated IDF general live on air. This is not right-wing. This is a corrupted right-wing that shames us all,” Erdan, a former confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declares in a post on X. “A real right-wing respects IDF officers, a real right-wing backs IDF officers and acts out of consideration for the good of the state and not for personal gain.”
While Katz’s move has sparked wide condemnation, Erdan is one of the first still closely tied to Likud to speak out against him.
Erdan served as ambassador to the UN and US before being replaced in both posts in 2024. He is rumored to be set to establish a new “Likud B” party with fellow Likud castoff Yuli Edelstein, aiming to capture support from Likud faithful who no longer back its longtime leader.
Elazar Stern, a Yesh Atid lawmaker and retired senior officer, calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire Defense Minister Israel Katz over his decision to attempt to remove IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth from his post, a move viewed by critics as baldly political.
“Katz is working for [party] primaries and not the security of Israel,” he posts online.
Yair Golan, a former deputy IDF chief of staff who now leads the left-wing Democrats party, says Katz’s attempt to remove Bluth, announced while appearing on the right-wing Channel 14, is a “political attack,” using a word that normally denotes terror activity.
“The ousting of a Central Command general on live TV, without the necessary processes and without [the approval of] the chief of staff, is a crossing of a red line that proves that this destructive government has lost all restraint,” he writes on X.
Moshe Turpaz, another Yesh Atid lawmaker who serves as an officer in the reserves, writes that Katz is causing the IDF “critical harm” with his move “in the name of populism.”
Coalition lawmakers, meanwhile, have been mostly mum on the subject, neither defending nor criticizing Katz.
Iran has executed two of its nationals after accusing them of sending sensitive military information and security location coordinates to Israel during the 12-day war in June and the current war with Iran, state-run media reports.
The charges are detailed by Iran’s Mizan news outlet, which airs footage of the two and screenshots of messages they supposedly sent.
One of the executed individuals was accused of passing coordinates to the administrator of a Telegram channel that the IRGC charges was linked to Israel’s Mossad spy agency, according to Mizan.
The second person, described by Mizan as “one of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s soldiers” is said to have sent information to the Mossad as well as to Iran International, a leading news outlet for dissidents in exile that Tehran accuses of also being an intelligence front.
A political billboard for Yashar chief Gai Eisenkot in Cyprus was defaced with paint in the colors of the Palestinian flag, including red smeared over the former general’s face to look like blood, Cypriot and Israeli media reported.
Update: However, closer inspection of images of the alleged defacing suggested that the pictures were AI-generated.
A picture shared by the Kan public broadcaster showed the purportedly vandalized Hebrew-language billboard, which had sparked anger among some locals when it appeared last week, advertising to the many Israelis who flock to the nearby island for vacation. According to Kan, it is located on a road between Limassol and Larnaca.
הושחת שלט הדרכים של גדי איזנקוט ומפלגת "ישר!" שהוצב בקפריסין בין לרנקה ללימסול@DovGilHar
צילום עבור כאן חדשות: ליאון וידל pic.twitter.com/xTJuNBUCn3
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) August 3, 2026
Black, white and green paint were seen to cover the words “Israelis, enjoy, you deserve it,” as well as Eisenkot’s name and that of his newly founded Yashar party, which is leading the political front seeking to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Red paint appeared to be smeared over the face of Eisenkot, who served in the war cabinet for the first stages of the war in Gaza.
An Israeli flag behind him was left largely untouched.
Examination of the photograph suggested that the colors had been manipulated, and that the paint splash appeared unnatural, pointing to AI fakery.
In one other angle of the image I did find, the manipulation is even more prevalent:
1. The "NICHE" sign has been warped, with the letters not making any sense.
2. A part of the pole is blurred out. pic.twitter.com/K3D9rsBi0G— Tal Hagin (@talhagin) August 3, 2026
Israeli media literacy lecturer Tal Hagin posted on X that it was curious that the pictures of the damage showed the sign from the exact same angle, and posted what he said was a second such image in which part of the pole holding the sign was blurred out.
Former defense heads turned politicians are joining others slamming Defense Minister Israel Katz over his decision to replace IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, which he announced during a live TV interview last night.
Blue and White head Benny Gantz and former Likud minister Yoav Gallant, both former Defense Ministers, defend Bluth and accuse Katz of politicizing the military’s ranks.
“The attempt to turn discussions on IDF postings into part of the Likud primary campaign hurts the nation’s security,” Gantz writes on X. “The politicization of the IDF is not governance, it’s a real danger.”
Gallant, who was replaced by Katz, writes that the move to remove Bluth on live TV “is a contemptible act that crosses another red line.”
“Undermining the authority of commanders shakes the foundations of the army and bringing the IDF into the political arena is a perilous game that endangers the state of Israel,” he posts on X.
Katz, appearing on the right-wing Channel 14 last night, announced he was removing Bluth, who is the top general in the West Bank, over his decision to renew an administrative restraining order against a violent settler. The move, which the IDF said was invalid, was widely seen as a play for right-wing support with Likud set to hold internal primaries in the coming weeks.
Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman, another former defense minister (though not a highly decorated military veteran like Gantz and Gallant), writes on X that “anyone who acts solely based on the consideration of party primaries and central committee members is not fit or worthy to serve as Israel’s defense minister.”
A bicycle rider has been seriously injured in an accident in the southern town of Yeruham.
No one else was apparently involved in the incident that injured the man, aged around 30.
He was treated by medics at the scene and rushed to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba with a head injury.
The master of a tanker off the coast of Oman has reported hearing an explosion near the vessel, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre reports.
“The vessel and crew are all reported as safe,” says the UKMTO. The master is the highest-ranking person on an oil tanker.
The incident happened 20 nautical miles (37 kilometers) northeast of Khasab, in Oman, the monitor adds.
“Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity,” the UKMTO advises.
The report comes as Iran said Sunday it was nearing a deal with Oman over a new route through the Strait of Hormuz, hours after the US called off major strikes to allow for diplomacy.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told state television that a deal was close with Oman, which sits on the other side of the strait, over a new route through it. But he insisted that such an agreement did not mean the reopening of the strait.
Ukrainian attacks on Russia killed at least nine people on Sunday, while Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least five, according to officials in both countries.
The exchange of strikes comes amid signs both Moscow and Kyiv are increasing the scale and intensity of attacks on each other, nearly four-and-a-half years into their grinding war.
Civilian casualties in Ukraine have soared this year, as Russia has ramped up its use of hard-to-intercept long-range missiles, according to UN data.
Kyiv has meanwhile launched waves of retaliatory strikes on Russia, including on energy facilities and retail warehouses, in an effort to pressure Moscow into negotiations on ending its offensive.
The military says it will hold an exercise in the city of Ra’anana, which starts this evening and ends tomorrow morning.
“As part of the exercise, lighting will be used, and increased movement of military forces and emergency vehicles will be noticeable in the area,” the IDF says. “The exercise was planned in advance as part of the 2026 training program. There is no concern about a security incident.”
