The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they unfolded.
Police will begin presenting the findings of their probes evaluating law enforcement’s response to the October 7, 2023, massacre to the families of the victims tomorrow, the agency announces, after a year of investigating.
The force discreetly launched several probes overseen by senior officers in August 2025, which were meant to assess how police responded to the Hamas-led attacks on Israeli communities throughout the Gaza border region.
Police chief Danny Levy stressed the probes would not assign blame to individuals, Hebrew outlets said at the time. Instead, they were reportedly meant to help police draw operational conclusions to strengthen law enforcement’s emergency preparedness.
At this point, all probes have been approved by the police senior command, police say, noting that the investigations were presented a week ago to officers who survived combat against Hamas terrorists during the invasion.
A statue honoring French army captain Alfred Dreyfus arrived at its new permanent home in Paris today, 120 years after his sentence for treason was overturned.
The 3.5-meter (12-foot) bronze sculpture of Dreyfus, wrongly convicted of treason in 1894, in a notorious act of antisemitism, now stands outside the Cour de cassation in Paris, the court that overturned the Jewish army captain’s wrongful treason conviction on July 12, 1906.
Its unveiling on July 12 coincided with France’s national day of commemoration for Dreyfus, established by President Emmanuel Macron last year.
Created in 1985 by artist Louis Mitelberg, the statue was effectively hidden from the public for decades after proposed sites were repeatedly rejected. The new location corrects “a final injustice” to Dreyfus, said Paris Center Mayor Ariel Weil, a descendant of the Dreyfus family.
Dreyfus was convicted by a secret military court in 1894 after he was falsely accused of spying for Germany. Evidence later proved another officer was responsible, but the military concealed the discovery in an affair that divided France.
The affair famously led then-journalist Theodore Herzl to found the Zionist movement, convinced that a solution for antisemitism would never be found without an independent Jewish state.
Last year, parliament approved a bill promoting Dreyfus posthumously to the rank of brigadier general.
120 ans après l’arrêt de la Cour de cassation qui a proclamé l’innocence d’Alfred Dreyfus, la République lui a rendu aujourd’hui un #hommagenational, en présence de sa famille et des plus hautes autorités de l’État.
Comme l’a rappelé le Président de la République, le dreyfusisme… pic.twitter.com/dvTYmcIsvJ
— Bâtonnier de Paris (@batonnierparis) July 12, 2026
In the weeks before his death over the weekend, US Senator Lindsey Graham had been working on a new initiative to broker a historic normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Axios reports, citing conversations between Graham and Axios reporter Barak Ravid.
Graham, a veteran Republican Israel-backer, had worked on achieving Saudi-Israel normalization for years, including during the Biden administration, and believed that the US-Israeli campaign against Iran had created an opening for US President Donald Trump to broker such an agreement, according to the report.
The senator reportedly sought to begin an intensive diplomatic push after Israel’s late-October election and the US midterm elections, with the aim of reaching an agreement before the new US Congress is sworn in, in January.
Graham had recently urged Trump to authorize a short, overwhelming military operation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if diplomacy failed to resolve the crisis there before the initiative got underway, the report adds.
In mid-May, Graham began discussing the idea with Trump, telling him it should be the focus on the “day after” the Iran war, the report says.
Trump’s reported push during a May conference call for the leaders of several Arab and Muslim countries to establish relations with Israel, if an agreement with Iran was reached, came a week after that conversation, according to Axios.
In recent weeks, Graham had discussed the initiative with senior Trump advisers such as Jared Kushner, as well as with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s confidant Ron Dermer, Saudi Ambassador to Washington Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, the report continues, adding that he had planned to visit both Israel and Saudi Arabia in August to assess the readiness for a breakthrough and to possibly begin working toward an agreement in September.
Graham told Axios that any agreement would have to include a significant Palestinian component and Israeli concessions to secure enough Democratic votes for Senate approval, and that he intended to work with Trump and his team to make clear to Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders before the election that this was Washington’s expectation.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has previously expressed willingness to normalize relations with Israel, but Riyadh has continued to insist that any agreement include an irreversible, time-bound path toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu’s current coalition has rejected that condition, and securing such commitments from Israel’s next government, particularly if Washington intended to begin pressing it while coalition negotiations were still underway, would be a major challenge.
Excerpts from a handwritten document by former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar from August 2022, obtained by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and published by Channel 12, show the terror group’s preparations for the October 7, 2023, large-scale assault on Israel and anticipation towards the possibility Israel would “even use a nuclear bomb” in response.
The document states that Israel would initially be “surprised by the attack and enter into chaos” before responding with “the means and weapons at its disposal,” adding, “It is possible that it will even use a nuclear bomb.” It goes on to describe the planned assault as “a campaign of life or death,” calling for “a popular operation of returning to the villages and recapturing them symbolically.”
According to the document, the plan called for breaching the border fence at 25 locations facing 25 junctions simultaneously using 2,500 fighters, organized into separate, well-trained squads of 100 fighters each, with the objective of seizing the junctions.
Sinwar also laid out a broader force allocation of 10,000 “well-trained fighters,” assigning 2,210 fighters to attack 221 kibbutzim and small communities, 1,600 to eight larger communities, 1,200 to cities, and 2,000 to military bases, more than what actually occurred on October 7, while noting that “no one knows the general objective of the plan.”
The document further instructs terrorists that “the goal is to expel the settlers with their cars,” giving “priority to children and women,” while ordering that “the men aged 17-50 are taken hostage” and that “all phones must be taken, along with any additional documents they are carrying on their person.”
The newly published excerpts come after the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center released a similar Hamas document in October 2025 that had been written by Sinwar and described plans to deliberately create “horrifying images” during the October 7, 2023, massacre and broadcast the atrocities live.
The Board of Peace announces that a small delegation of soldiers from Kosovo has arrived in Israel as the US-led body tasked with overseeing the postwar management of Gaza takes another small step toward deploying an International Stabilization Force in Gaza.
The Kosovo troops join counterparts from Morocco who arrived in Israel last month. Albania and Kazakhstan are also slated to send troops, but Israel has yet to take several legal and political steps necessary to allow their deployment into Gaza.
The Board of Peace is establishing a logistics hub in southern Israel where the ISF will be based, but has not yet started building a base for the force inside Gaza, and there is no timeline for when they will actually deploy.
The #ISF welcomes the newest members of the Kosovo Security Force to the team. They will support the Gaza security effort in areas such as logistics and civil affairs.#StabilityStartsHere pic.twitter.com/Pv0xWif4Gz
— Board of Peace (@BoardOfPeace) July 12, 2026
US President Donald Trump orders all flags across the US to be flown at half-staff until Saturday evening in honor of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died on Saturday night at the age of 71.
“In honor of the remarkable life and achievements of Senator Lindsey Graham, a dear friend of mine, and a truly great man, who achieved so much for our Country, and his beloved Home State of South Carolina, I am ordering all American Flags throughout the United States lowered to Half Mast until Saturday evening at 6 p.m.,” Trump writes on Truth Social.
“GOD BLESS YOU LINDSEY!” he adds.
The front page of a state-published Iranian newspaper declares: “Revenge is coming soon,” in Hebrew, English, and Persian.
The multi-lingual threat featured on the front of the Jam-e Jam newspaper is imposed on a photo from the funeral of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, where mourners held a banner declaring “Trump, we’re going to kill you.”
Also on the front page is the quote from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei promising that “vengeance is the will of our nation” and will “inevitably be carried out.”
הכותרת של העיתון האיראני ג'אם ג'אם בסימן איום הנקמה של מוג'תבא ח'מינאי עם הכיתוב בעברית ובאנגלית: "נקמה בקרוב" pic.twitter.com/bUpIGwB5wS
— roi kais • روعي كايس • רועי קייס (@kaisos1987) July 11, 2026
Kuwait’s army said one worker was injured on Sunday after a drilling platform owned by Kuwait Oil Company was targeted by a “hostile” drone.
The army also said on X that three border posts in the north were subjected to an attack, resulting in material damage.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for the fourth time postponed a scheduled meeting with Likud’s Constitution Committee chairman, Minister Haim Katz, to determine how the party’s primaries will be conducted, Channel 12 reports.
The meeting, planned for this evening, has now been pushed off until tomorrow, though it remains unclear whether a decision will be reached then, according to the Hebrew network.
Likud sources tell Channel 12 that Netanyahu delayed the meeting in the hope of allowing the coalition to complete a raft of end-of-session legislation before the Knesset adjourns on Friday, by avoiding a scenario in which disgruntled Likud lawmakers boycott or abstain from key votes over the party’s decided election method.
Some Likud backbenchers are concerned that the longer the Constitution Committee goes without convening to launch the primary process, the more likely it is that Netanyahu will instead push for an internal candidate selection committee, which would effectively give him the power to handpick candidates for the party slate and risk them losing their seats.
The US carried out several strikes on Iranian missile and air defense systems and targeted small speedboats of the IRGC at several locations around the Strait of Hormuz, Axios reports, citing a senior US official.
Shin Bet chief David Zini met with opposition leader Yair Lapid this evening for a first meeting since entering the role, the security agency says.
The Shin Bet says Zini gave Lapid a security briefing and an “operational update,” and the pair also discussed “the importance of the Shin Bet’s activity to thwart threats in the various arenas.”
Iran’s IRNA state news agency says missiles were launched by the “enemy” towards Qeshm Island a while ago, adding that no casualties were reported.
Earlier, Fars News Agency reported explosions around Qeshm Island.
The IDF says it bombed a Hamas weapons manufacturing site in Gaza City earlier today, while members of the terror group were operating there.
Recently, Hamas operatives worked the site to “manufacture weapon components in an attempt to restore the organization’s capabilities,” in a “violation of the ceasefire agreement,” the military says.
“The manufacturing site was struck while several Hamas terrorists were operating inside it,” the IDF says, adding that the operatives were advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians.
Palestinian media reported that four people were killed in the strike.
בזמן שמחבלים פעלו מתוכו: צה"ל השמיד אתר לייצור אמצעי לחימה של חמאס בעיר עזה
צה"ל תקף לפני זמן קצר במרחב העיר עזה והשמיד אתר לייצור אמצעי לחימה של ארגון הטרור חמאס.
לאורך התקופה האחרונה ובניגוד להסכם הפסקת האש, מחבלי חמאס פעלו מתוך האתר לייצור רכיבי אמצעי לחימה על מנת לנסות… pic.twitter.com/qRS4T4CNFl
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 12, 2026
Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reports explosions to the east of the port city of Bandar Abbas and in the coastal area around Qeshm Island.
It says the cause of the explosions is not immediately clear.
Knesset House Committee chairman Likud MK Ofir Katz announces that elections will be held on October 27, the date set by law, as the current Knesset completes its full four-year term this week on July 17.
Katz makes the announcement during a House Committee discussion on legislation related to party financing ahead of the elections.
Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik adds during the discussion that the current Knesset “will complete its full term and will not be dissolved,” meaning no early dissolution bill is required.
This would mark the first election to be held on schedule in Israel in nearly 40 years, and the first government to complete its full term in over 50 years.
US President Donald Trump claims Iran “agreed to a deal” on Saturday before striking a ship in the Strait of Hormuz with a drone.
“We had meetings with them. They agreed to a deal yesterday. A perfect deal for us. No nuclear… They gave up everything, and then… within an hour, they launched a drone at a ship,” Trump tells NBC’s “Meet the Press.” It’s unclear what deal Trump is talking about.
“I said, ‘You people are sick, and so it’s one of those things,'” Trump adds of Iran.
He insists that the Strait of Hormuz remains open — despite Iran’s claims to the contrary — and that the US “bombed the hell out of them last night” before insisting that the interview keep its focus on the passing of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Trump says he talked with him on the phone shortly before he died and that Graham “sounded a little tired, but perfect.”
“I got to know him during the [2016 presidential] campaign. He said, ‘I’ll see you in South Carolina.’ But when it came to South Carolina, I won it by a lot.”
“I thought he was just going to live forever,” Trump says of Graham.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the late senator Lindsey Graham urged him to strike Iran.
“He came to me and said, Bibi, you have to do it,” Netanyahu tells NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “You have to knock out this nuclear weapons program before they knock us out.”
Netanyahu does not indicate when the conversation took place.
He says that US President Donald Trump “wants to exhaust the possibility of achieving an agreement, especially on the nuclear issue, through negotiations.”
“But he is obviously not shy of using force when the Iranians break every commitment they make, usually a few hours or a few minutes after they make it,” he continues. “We should let the president have his opportunity.”
Netanyahu adds that Israel is “keenly grateful for the fact that America and Israel joined forces to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.”
The Israeli Air Force struck a makeshift weapons production site in Gaza City a short while ago, according to the military.
Footage published by Palestinian media shows the moment of the strike, indicating that the IDF gave a prior warning.
لحظة قصف الاحتلال مصنعا في حي الصبرة في مدينة غزة pic.twitter.com/XchWEO45jS
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) July 12, 2026
About 300 people were evacuated yesterday from a neighborhood in Sarcelles, a multicultural Paris suburb with a large Jewish population, owing to a “suspicious” car near the town’s synagogue, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez says.
Nunez, speaking to French broadcaster BFM, says the incident took place on Saturday evening.
Nunez says an investigation is underway and that a “military weapon” had been found in the vehicle, and that the motive and suspect have not been identified.
US President Donald Trump says the United States hit Iran hard in response to its latest attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
“We hit them very hard last night,” Trump told CNN by telephone in an interview centering mainly on the death of Senator Lindsey Graham.
Trump claims the United States and Iran had been close to “a deal” on Saturday.
“They were giving up everything, and then all of a sudden, two hours after that, they hit a ship with a drone. These people, there is something wrong with them,” he says.
Two Hamas operatives who were advancing attacks on troops were killed in separate strikes in the Gaza Strip last week, the IDF announces.
A strike on Saturday killed Hassan Mustafa Zahir Al-Razina, whom the military says tried to plant explosive devices “in the area of the Yellow Line,” and advance other attacks.
A separate strike on Thursday killed Mohammad Mahmoud Abd al-Mu’ti Fayyoumi, identified by the IDF as a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force.
Fayyoumi was advancing “imminent” attacks on troops operating in Gaza, the military says.
Both operatives had “posed an immediate threat to the troops and were eliminated in aerial strikes,” the IDF adds.
Palestinian media reports heavy airstrikes in Gaza City a short while ago.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
الاحتلال ينفذ غارة جوية ضخمة على مدينة غزة pic.twitter.com/2neCWa2m2A
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) July 12, 2026
Earlier, four people were reportedly killed in an Israeli strike on a “metal workshop” in Gaza City this afternoon.
Iran doubles down on insisting that the Strait of Hormuz is again closed to shipping, blaming “illegal movements” by US forces, after US Central Command said that traffic through the waterway was “flowing” as normal.
“Due to the recent illegal movements of the United States military forces in the region, passage through the Strait of Hormuz is currently not possible,” writes Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the agency Tehran created in May in an attempt to control shipping through the key strait.
“As soon as stability and calm are restored, all requests will be reviewed based on the schedule, and the necessary permits will be issued,” says PGSA on X.
Iran also fired missiles and drones at Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar earlier today in response to widespread American strikes, as a flare-up with the US continued to erode a ceasefire agreement between the two foes.
The Strait of Hormuz is open to all vessels and US military forces are “positioned and prepared” to ensure freedom of navigation, US Central Command says, a day after US and Iranian forces exchanged fire and Iran said it had closed the vital waterway.
“Iran does not control the strait,” CENTCOM adds. “Traffic is flowing.”
Iran’s IRGC navy said yesterday that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz until further notice and until the end of US “interference” in the region.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Oman issued a formal protest to the Iranian ambassador following an attack on the country, state media reports, in a rare instance of it publicly accusing Tehran of targeting its territory.
“Oman expresses its profound dismay at these irresponsible acts, and underscores the imperative of adhering to the provisions of state sovereignty, good neighborliness, non-interference in internal affairs,” the state news agency says in a post on social media, one day after Oman hosted the Iranian foreign minister for talks on the Strait of Hormuz.
Hamas-affiliated media in Gaza report that two people were killed and several were wounded in a strike on a “metal workshop” in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City.
There is no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
مشاهد من قصف الاحتلال ورشة وارتقاء شهيدين في حي الصبرة بمدينة غزة pic.twitter.com/PiknNob4Gz
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) July 12, 2026
The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approves for its final readings in Knesset a bill that would grant ultra-Orthodox military service draft dodgers temporary immunity from arrest for a 90-day period starting on the date the legislation is signed into law.
The committee’s legal adviser had previously warned that the bill was discriminatory and violated the principle of equality before the law, while the Knesset legal adviser had said that the way the bill was legislated was “illegitimate.”
The committee nevertheless approves the bill for its back-to-back second and third readings in the Knesset plenum, which could be held before the Knesset is dissolved at the end of this week.
To be eligible for immunity from arrest, a yeshiva student must study between 40 to 45 hours a week, not including yeshiva vacation periods, in a yeshiva registered by the defense minister for this purpose.
Tens of thousands of Haredi yeshiva students are currently considered draft dodgers and are subject to arrest. Although very few have been detained, the anger and protests over the small number who have been arrested have caused the ultra-Orthodox parties and the coalition a severe political headache, prompting the new legislation to freeze such arrests.
Religious Zionism MK Ohad Tal, chairman of the Knesset Committee on Public Projects, makes a last-minute decision to postpone a discussion on a controversial bill restoring the Chief Rabbinate’s exclusive control over kosher certification, delaying its advancement to the Knesset plenum.
“The decision to postpone the discussion stems from the need to coordinate, among all parts of the coalition, the legislation that will be brought forward this week as part of the Knesset’s end-of-session legislative push. Until agreements are reached, we have decided to halt further progress,” Tal tells The Times of Israel when asked for the reasoning behind the move.
The bill – which would reverse reforms from the previous coalition that allowed private Orthodox organizations to issue kosher certificates in their own name, provided they meet the state’s standards – was expected to come before the Knesset plenum for its final votes this week, before the parliament is expected to dissolve on July 17 ahead of elections.
The postponement comes amid a dispute between Tal’s Religious Zionism party and the Ultra-Orthodox Shas party over several contentious issues.
The bill appeared to form part of the coalition’s agreement with the ultra-Orthodox parties to advance several Haredi priorities, in exchange for support on key coalition bills.
A minister from the far-right Otzma Yehudit suggests his party may try to attract voters from the Haredi Shas party in the upcoming election.
“The Sephardic Haredi public is Zionist. It was Zionist before Shas arrived and pulled it more toward the Litvak side of the map,” Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu tells the Kan public broadcaster, referring to the so-called Lithuanian stream of Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox Judaism.
“We made a mistake, we gave up on them and fought them, even my sector [of the community] we didn’t get close enough to them, until the Otzma Yehudit party was established,” he says.
Eliyahu is asked about comments last night by Shas spiritual leader and former Sephardic chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who said he has lost hope in the possibility that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will ever “repent” — apparently for his perceived refusal to heed core ultra-Orthodox demands related to drafting Haredi men and sanctioning evaders — but expressed hope that the main Netanyahu rival in the upcoming election, Yashar party chair Gadi Eisenkot, could still do so.
“I think there’s an opportunity for Shas voters to come to Otzma Yehudit,” Eliyahu says.
Overnight US strikes on Iran killed one soldier, Iranian media reports.
“Lieutenant Hamidreza Dehghani, of the navy of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces, was martyred during the criminal, terrorist attack last night by the United States on the port of Jask” in southern Iran, the Mehr and Tasnim news agencies say, citing a local official.
A conservative newspaper in Iran known for its provocative tone has published a list of people to be targeted as revenge for the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, including the leaders of the US, Israel and European countries.
US-Israeli strikes killed the late ayatollah on February 28, the first day of the war, and his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei has vowed revenge.
The Hamshahri newspaper, which is published by authorities in the Iranian capital, released an infographic online late yesterday featuring photos of 13 foreign leaders alongside Mojtaba’s statement.
The infographic includes US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, among others.
Also on the list are US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
It does not appear in the paper’s print edition today.
Hamshahri, a newspaper owned by Tehran Municipality, published an image depicting US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in crosshairs, alongside the caption: “Revenge is certain.”
The image also showed Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Brad Cooper,… pic.twitter.com/I4mA8LwhG0
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) July 11, 2026
A year and eight months after Sgt. Gur Kehati was killed during an unauthorized visit by a civilian researcher to southern Lebanon, the IDF has reportedly presented his family with its operational investigation into the incident.
On November 20, 2024, Col. (res.) Yoav Yarom — who served as chief of staff of the Golani Brigade in the reserves — allowed researcher Ze’ev Erlich to enter the western sector of southern Lebanon, in IDF uniform, to examine an archaeological site without the necessary approvals.
The visit took place at the height of an Israeli ground offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, a week before a ceasefire between Israel and the terror group brought a halt to more than a year of hostilities.
Yarom and Erlich were joined by a team of soldiers as they entered a medieval fortress in the southern Lebanese village of Shamaa, revered by Christians and Shiite Muslims as the 1st-century burial place of Saint Peter.
Believing the area had been cleared of threats, Yarom led Erlich and accompanying troops to the site, where two Hezbollah operatives ambushed the forces, killing Erlich and Kehati. An officer was seriously wounded, and Yarom himself was moderately wounded, before the gunmen were killed.
Kehati’s grandfather, Assaf Agmon, tells the Ynet news site that the IDF scheduled its presentation of the investigation on Friday, July 10, the final day that the family had set as a deadline before filing a petition to the High Court against the military.
“Our darkest fears turned out to be correct,” Agmon tells Ynet after seeing the investigation’s findings.
The IDF has not yet publicly published the findings of the investigation.
Yarom asked to resign from his position a week after the incident, though he was already slated to be dismissed after recovering from his wounds. In December 2025, Yarom was officially dismissed from reserve duty and ended his service in the IDF. A criminal investigation into Yarom’s actions was closed that same month.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering attending the funeral of late US Senator Lindsey Graham, a source in the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.
The time of the funeral has not been released to the public.
Netanyahu has already been working with the White House to arrange a meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington in the coming weeks.
Qatar condemns Iranian attacks against its territory and that of its neighbors, after the Islamic Republic launched salvos against Arab countries.
“Qatar condemns in the strongest possible terms the renewed attacks carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the foreign ministry says in a statement, also referring to the targeting of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait and calling the barrages a “dangerous escalation.”
Amit Almog, who was convicted in December last year of murdering his partner Maya Vishniak in 2020, is sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay her family NIS 258,000 ($86,000).
Almog admitted having murdered Vishniak after originally pleading that he had committed the crime while mentally ill and therefore had reduced responsibility.
“It hardly needs saying how important deterrence is in general in cases involving violence against women, particularly with respect to the most serious offenses on the spectrum of criminal crimes, as in the present case,” writes Judge Gilad Neuthal of the Tel Aviv District Court in handing down the sentence.
Almog strangled 22-year old Vishniak to death at his Ramat Gan home in May 2020. He claimed for many years to have been mentally incompetent at the time he killed Vishniak, that he heard voices telling him to kill her, and that he had taken drugs at the time.
Only in December 2025 did he admit in the framework of an agreement with prosecutors to the charge of deliberate murder.
An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader says the Strait of Hormuz is more important than “dozens of atomic bombs,” vowing to protect the vital waterway.
“This strategic passage is more important than dozens of atomic bombs, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will protect it,” Mohsen Rezaee is quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying.
The legal advisory staff to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee says that legislation being prepared that would freeze the arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers for 90 days would constitute unlawful discrimination and violate the principle of equality before the law.
The assertion made in a legal opinion paper submitted to the committee would significantly harm the chances of the legislation passing judicial review in the High Court of Justice.
The bill is one component of an agreement between the ultra-Orthodox parties and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to preserve Haredi support for key coalition bills being pushed through the Knesset before it is dissolved and elections called at the end of this week.
The legislation would exempt yeshiva students who have ignored military draft orders and are therefore deemed to be draft-dodgers from being arrested for a 90 day period.
The legal advisory staff to the committee, headed by Miri Frenkel Shor, says in a legal opinion paper that the legislation would create a “sectoral exemption” from the obligations of Israel’s military service law, which would create an arrangement that “exempts a specific group from the obligation to abide by the instructions of the law,” without any provisions balancing this injury to the law that might increase ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
“Legislation that practically exempts a certain population from its obligations under the law… does not meet constitutional tests, is incompatible with the principle of equality before the law, and amounts to unlawful discrimination,” the opinion paper states.
In a related development, the Knesset House Committee rejects an effort by opposition MKs to stymie the legislation based on the fact that it is far removed from the original bill, which was the government’s so-called ultra-Orthodox enlistment law.
Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik describes the process by which the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee drafted the legislation to freeze arrests for 90-days as “illegitimate,” explaining that the committee “took one clause and deleted all the rest” of the original bill.
“When the plenum approves a bill in its first reading and then it is substantially changed in its preparation for its second and third reading, this is not a legitimate proposal. You cannot take one small leaf from the tree of a bill… and turn it into the principal,” says Afik.
The Knesset House Committee nevertheless rejects her advice and sends the bill back to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for its final votes, after which it can be brought to the plenum for its final readings sometime this week.
Ahead of a planned meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tonight, Likud’s Constitution Committee chairman, Minister Haim Katz, denies reports that he is promoting the establishment of an internal selection committee instead of holding party primaries.
Katz “is not promoting the establishment of an [internal] selection committee. [Claims to the contrary] stem from briefings by interested parties,” the minister says in a statement, adding that he “supports and wants the Likud primaries to take place,” and “reiterates that the ultimate decision regarding the election method will be made by Likud members when they cast their votes this coming Tuesday.”
The denial comes hours before Katz is set to meet with Netanyahu to discuss how the party will select its Knesset slate, amid an internal Likud dispute over whether to hold primaries or instead empower a committee to determine the candidate list.
A reported Netanyahu plan to cancel the primaries altogether appears to have been shelved following opposition from senior Likud figures. However, the premier has continued negotiating over the scope of his authority to reserve places on the party list, on the assumption that primaries will go ahead.
Nevertheless, party lawmakers told Ynet last week that the longer the Constitution Committee fails to convene to set up primaries, the more likely it looks that Netanyahu will get his preference for an internal selection committee that would effectively give him the power to handpick candidates for the party slate. Ynet reported that many ministers quietly support the idea of such a committee, but Likud backbenchers strongly oppose it, fearing they will lose their seats.
Netanyahu may also seek to delay a final decision until at least Friday — when the Knesset is set to adjourn for an extended recess ahead of the election campaign — allowing the coalition to complete a raft of end-of-session legislation before resolving the contentious issue, to prevent disgruntled Likud lawmakers from possibly boycotting or abstaining from key votes.
The early warning of missile fire that was mistakenly sent to cellphones in the central city of Bnei Brak was caused by a glitch at the Cellcom cellular provider, according to the military.
The IDF says that maintenance work and infrastructure upgrades carried out by the provider on its network caused several old alerts that had become “stuck” in the system to be released.
As a result, an early warning of missile fire was mistakenly distributed to cellphones in the Bnei Brak area.
The military says the incident was caused by a technical malfunction at Cellcom, not the army.
The Omani government lambasted an attack on its territory, state media announces, with Iran’s Guards saying they targeted it during a barrage aimed at countries across the Gulf.
The Oman News Agency says on X that “the Sultanate of Oman affirms its condemnation and denunciation of this attack,” which came just hours after the country hosted Iran’s foreign minister to address security issues in the Strait of Hormuz.
US Senator Lindsey Graham “understood that the security of Israel and America are inseparable,” says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement after the South Carolina lawmaker’s sudden passing.
“He devoted his life to defending America, strengthening our alliance and standing up for the free world,” says Netanyahu.
“Israel has lost one of its greatest friends,” he continues. “America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend.”
US President Donald Trump calls Senator Lindsey Graham “one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known,” after the South Carolina Republican’s office announces his sudden passing.
“He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!!” writes Trump on Truth Social.
After bitterly criticizing Trump when both were candidates for the presidency in 2015, Graham became one of Trump’s most die-hard supporters.
Due to a technical malfunction, the IDF issued an early warning for a missile attack to cellphones in some areas of central Israel a short while ago.
The IDF says the warning was issued due to a technical error, “there is no fear of a security incident,” and the incident is under further investigation.
US Sen. Lindsey Graham apparently died of a heart attack, NBC reports.
The US broadcaster says emergency services responded to a call to Graham’s Washington, DC, home for a “cardiac arrest,” according to police scanner audio.
Jordan’s army says that three Iranian missiles fell on the kingdom’s territory at dawn amid renewed hostilities between Iran and the United States.
“Three missiles fired from Iranian territory fell at dawn in several locations across the kingdom, without causing any casualties. The damage is limited to minor material losses,” says a military source quoted in an army statement.
One Indian national is missing after an attack on the commercial vessel GFS Galaxy off the coast of Oman, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs says.
“Of the 11 Indian nationals on board, 10 have been rescued so far, while one Indian national is reportedly missing,” the ministry says, while condemning the attack.
India’s embassy in Oman is closely monitoring the situation, and coordinating with the Omani authorities in the ongoing search and rescue operation, the ministry adds.
Iran said earlier it had firing a warning shot that struck a vessel traveling on an unapproved route.
Pakistan’s top diplomat calls for “de-escalation” and for parties in the Iran conflict to “show restraint” during a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, a foreign ministry statement says.
“Both leaders exchanged views on the evolving regional situation,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry says in a statement after the call between Ishaq Dar and Abbas Araghchi.
Dar “further underscored that dialogue and diplomacy remain the only viable path to resolving disputes and achieving lasting peace and stability in the region,” it says.
President Isaac Herzog says he is “shocked and heartbroken” upon hearing of the death of US Senator Lindsey Graham, whom he calls a “great American patriot, a great friend of Israel, and my dear friend.”
“Senator Graham was a beacon of moral clarity and a true leader of the US-Israel partnership,” says Herzog on X. “We will never forget how he stood by the people of Israel in our most difficult moments, and we will remain eternally grateful for his sense of justice, truth, and loyalty.”
“The people of Israel mourn his loss, and I will miss my great friend very dearly.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz says in a statement that the South Carolina senator “stood with Israel in its most difficult moments, worked tirelessly to strengthen the strategic alliance between Israel and the United States, and was an unwavering voice in support of Israel’s security and its right to defend itself.”
He notes that Graham flew to Israel repeatedly after the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion, “standing shoulder to shoulder with our people in an extraordinary demonstration of solidarity and unwavering friendship.”
“He was an exceptional leader, a man of principle, and a dear friend whose legacy will endure for generations,” writes Katz.
US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a leading supporter of Israel on Capitol Hill, died last night after a “brief and sudden illness,” says his office in a statement.
“Senator Graham’s family appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period,” says his office.
The GOP senator’s current and former communications directors also put out messages on his death.
After bitterly criticizing Donald Trump when both were candidates for the presidency in 2015, Graham has since become one of the US president’s most die-hard supporters.
Trump has warmed up to him considerably and Graham has used the relationship to aggressively lobby in favor of US military action in Iran.
Graham traveled to Israel regularly to meet with top Israeli officials. He also visited Saudi Arabia often, and pushed for normalization between the US allies.
The Iran hawk was initially highly critical of the emerging Iran deal and said in May that the agreement putting Iran in a strong position in the region would lead to a “nightmare for Israel.”
“If a deal is struck to end the Iranian conflict because it is believed that the Strait of Hormuz cannot be protected from Iranian terrorism and Iran still possesses the capability to destroy major Gulf oil infrastructure, then Iran will be perceived as being a dominate [sic] force requiring a diplomatic solution,” he posted on X.
Once it was signed, he was more open to giving Trump a chance to test whether diplomacy could curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
At the same time, Graham had no hope of Hamas disarming voluntarily.
“My advice to the President [Trump] is until Hamas is dealt out of the game militarily and politically, the chance of success is pretty remote,” he told The Times of Israel in late 2025.
“These people are religious zealots,” he said. “They’re religious Nazis. I have no confidence, short of their demise, that they’re ever going to do anything other than what they promised to do. Did they stop wanting to destroy Israel? Did they change their stated goals? No.”
In the same interview, he also urged the US to join in on any potential attack on Hezbollah: “I would like to fly with Israel. I would like the United States to participate in military operations, in the aerial side, against Hezbollah, if that’s what it takes to knock them out.”
Graham was in Kyiv on Friday and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf posts an apparent warning to the US amid rapidly rising tensions.
“The era of one-sided deals is OVER. We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking,” he writes on X, with an image of a clause on the Strait of Hormuz from the memorandum of understanding.
The era of one-sided deals is OVER. We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking. pic.twitter.com/B97ogCYGaj
— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) July 12, 2026
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who as ruler of Qatar transformed the tiny Persian Gulf nation into a global player in diplomacy, media and investment, and then shattered tradition by voluntarily turning over power to his son, has died, state media reports. He was 74.
The state-run Qatar News Agency reports his death. It offers no cause.
Sheikh Hamad, who stepped down in June 2013 after 18 years as emir, was the architect of energy-rich Qatar’s stunning ambitions that turned it from a backwater into an international crossroads in less than a generation. Qatar owns the Harrod’s department store in London and founded the powerful Al Jazeera satellite news network.
Qatar’s political reach today stretches from North Africa to Afghanistan and it hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the world’s most-watched soccer event. Sheikh Hamad, though long out of power, received thunderous applause from Qataris attending its opening match.
But Qatar’s rise under Sheikh Hamad also rankled regional and Western allies with its independent-minded policymaking, including its close ties to Shiite powerhouse Iran, the Palestinian Hamas terror group and Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Police say six suspects have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the killing of a young man during an altercation at a Jerusalem apartment yesterday.
A 19-year-old was stabbed and killed during an argument in an apartment that had been rented for the weekend in the Nachlaot neighborhood.
The six are due in court later today for a hearing on their detention.
A neighbor said that they had complained to police about drugs and prostitution at the apartment.
“I contacted the police several times,” the neighbor told Ynet.
“On Thursday I told them that there were drugs, prostitution and a mess in the apartment,” they said, adding that police told them they could not do anything about it, despite several warnings of criminal activity.
Kuwait’s armed forces say they are intercepting hostile aerial targets inside Kuwaiti airspace.
The announcement comes as Iran attacks a number of Gulf nations in response to US strikes launched in the wake of attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claims that its aerospace forces carried out a heavy attack on US aircraft carrier support and refueling platforms in the port of Duqm, in Oman, in the third stage of its response to what it called US military “aggression.”
The IRGC adds that the operation targeted logistical support centers for US naval vessels.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it struck and disabled a second vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, and says it targeted the US strategic airbase at Al Udeid in Qatar with ballistic missiles, claiming it destroyed its fighter jet maintenance center and command and control facility.
The IRGC additionally claims it destroyed a command and control centre and drone hangars at a base in Jordon, and targeted a base in Kuwait.
The US military says it hit some 140 targets in Iran in retaliation for an Iranian attack on another commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
“US forces hit approximately 140 Iranian military targets with precision munitions launched by land- and sea-based fighter aircraft, drones, and naval vessels,” the US Central Command says in a statement.
The targets included missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks and coastal surveillance locations, it adds.
The Revolutionary Guards say they have destroyed a command and control center and drone hangars at a base in US ally Jordan, after the US struck Iran in response to Tehran earlier targeting a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, declaring the waterway shut and threatening to target “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more attacks.
Meanwhile, authorities in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar signal they are under attack as well.
Abu Dhabi’s defense ministry says its air defenses are engaging with missiles and drones coming from Iran.
Manama’s interior ministry says sirens have sounded in Bahrain.
And booms are heard in Doha as Qatar’s government sends a security alert to mobile phones, according to a witness.
Interceptions are seen in the sky above Qatar, a key mediator between Washington and Tehran, as residents receive messages on their phones urging them to “remain in their homes and safe places.”
Doha subsequently says its armed forces intercepted a missile attack.
The crew of a ship damaged off the coast of Oman has abandoned the vessel, British maritime agency UKMTO reports, an attack the United States has blamed on Iran.
“UKMTO has been informed by military authorities and the CSO of the vessel that the crew have abandoned the vessel and are currently embarked in a lifeboat,” it says of the incident that took place around 17 kilometers (10 miles) east of Oman.
Iran said earlier that it struck and stopped a ship in the Strait of Hormuz for ignoring repeated instructions to use an “approved” route.
A senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is filmed talking to an antisemitic American far-right streamer at a Tel Aviv nightclub.
Braden Peters, known as Clavicular, is a popular misogynistic “manosphere” influencer who in January was filmed singing along to the Ye song “Heil Hitler” in Miami alongside other influencers, including avowed antisemite Nick Fuentes and brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, as well as Myron Gaines who also performed a Nazi salute several times.
Peters, who sang along enthusiastically to the Ye (Kanye West) song, subsequently said at the time: “I am not sorry. I don’t apologize for what I did. I would do it again today.”
Shortly after that, he appeared on a livestream with Fuentes to lament how “the entire grocery store is filled with goyslop.”
He is now in Israel, with footage showing him repeatedly approaching women and men in what critics have warned is an attempt to embarrass them and take their words out of context to create content for his radical viewership.
Channel 13 news reports that he has been seen talking to Netanyahu adviser Topaz Luk at Tel Aviv’s Shalvata beach bar and nightclub. There has been speculation that the premier may make an appearance on Clavicular’s channel.
Luk tells the network in response: “I met him at an event by coincidence. He said sorry for his antisemitic remark.”
Channel 13 also reports that Peters was thrown out of a club in Israel, without specifying if it was Shalvata.
JTA contributed to this report.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee confirms reports that Israel recently shared with the United States intelligence about an Iranian plot to assassinate US President Donald Trump.
“This week, Israeli intelligence tipped off our side, the president and our officials, that there was a very specific plot that was designed to take out President Trump,” Huckabee says in an interview with Fox News.
Huckabee refuses to answer a question on whether the Israeli warning is what caused Trump to depart Turkey on an older Air Force One plane rather than the new plane recently gifted by Qatar.
“I can only speak to what’s in the public reports — that is that there was a plot, Israeli intelligence picked it up and shared it with the US. That’s public knowledge, that’s all I can really add to that,” he says.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that some US officials believe that the threat shared by Jerusalem was not entirely credible, and that it was shared in hopes it would prompt Washington to resume a full-on war with Iran.
Trump himself has denied the reports, telling The New York Post in a phone interview Friday: “No, no. Israel came up with nothing. No, no. I’ve been number one [on Iran’s kill list] for a long time, and it’s the way life is.”
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth comments on the latest strikes on Iran, which came after the Revolutionary Guards fired on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz and declared the waterway closed until further notice.
“Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay,” Hegseth writes on X.
Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay. https://t.co/8m4fEfgrXv
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) July 11, 2026
Iranian media reports explosions being heard in several coastal areas along the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, including Bushehr, Asaluyeh and Chabahar.
Three blasts have reportedly been heard in Bandar Abbas and two in Sirik, with explosions also heard in Qeshm Island.
The US military is carrying out a new round of strikes on Iran, the third in recent days, in response to the Revolutionary Guards’ announcement that it has attacked a vessel there and closed the waterway until further notice, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announces.
CENTCOM tweets that the strikes come after Iran “blatantly attacked M/V GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged container ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
“A civilian crew member is missing and the vessel is unable to continue the journey due to an onboard fire and significant engineroom damage,” it adds.
“Iran was provided yet another opportunity to demonstrate adherence to the Memorandum of Understanding after being held accountable for earlier attacks on commercial vessels but has again failed. In response, the United States is imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait.”
The strikes “are being carried out at the direction of the Commander in Chief,” it says, meaning US President Donald Trump.
The strikes are on targets near the Strait of Hormuz, the Axios news site reports, citing an unnamed US official.
A senior government official reportedly suggests that the recent High Court order for the Knesset to hold a repeat vote for state comptroller will hand future oppositions a tool to sabotage future secret ballots held among lawmakers, including elections for president.
The remark comes as coalition members have urged defying the court order, which was issued due to several Likud lawmakers having publicly documented their vote for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal lawyer Michael Rabello, thus violating the vote secrecy.
“It’s amazing that the High Court justices don’t understand the ramifications of this ruling,” the unnamed government official is quoted as saying by the Kan public broadcaster.
“If we are in the opposition, we intend to disrupt every secret ballot, election for state comptroller or election for president. We will violate the [vote] secrecy and demand that the High Court annul the results, as decided by the High Court, and then we’ll see how they deal with it.”
The Israeli women’s under-20 basketball team reaches the finals in the FIBA EuroBasket tournament for the first time ever, after beating Belgium 78-69.
ISRAEL ARE HEADING TO THEIR FIRST EVER #U20EUROBASKET FINAL! ✨ pic.twitter.com/O5rySuMYgb
— FIBA Women's EuroBasket (@EuroBasketWomen) July 11, 2026
The team will face France in the final on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. (Israel time) in the European championship tournament, hosted by Lithuania.
The semifinal match was in itself a first for Israel.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz until further notice and until the end of US “interference” in the region, after firing a warning shot at a vessel it says attempted to transit along an “unapproved” route, state media reports.
The statement says the vessel subsequently stopped.
It warns that no vessel will be allowed to cross the waterway, and if the “enemy” uses the decision as a “pretext” to make any “misstep,” this will be met with a “severe response.”
