Oct. 1: Soldier filmed threatening Bedouin man in West Bank after settlers attack his family

UK maritime group says tanker struck by unknown projectile in Strait of Hormuz

The UK Maritime Trade Operations organization says a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile while transiting the Strait of Hormuz today, causing a fire.

The crew is reported safe, while damage and any environmental impact are unknown, UKMTO adds.

Rabbi who coached Adam Brody for ‘Nobody Wants This’ calls him ‘relatively ignorant Jew’ after ‘genocide’ remark

Kristen Bell as Joanne and Adam Brody as Noah in 'Nobody Wants This.' (Stefania Rosini/Netflix)

The rabbi who coached Adam Brody for Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This” slams him for saying that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

Steve Leder, the former senior rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, served as a consultant on depictions of Judaism for Season 1 of “Nobody Wants This,” a rom-com in which Brody plays a rabbi who falls for an agnostic non-Jewish podcaster.

Leder denounces Brody for telling GQ in a recent interview, “Put me down as thinking it’s a genocide. Put me down as wanting a free Palestine.”

Leder says in an Instagram video posted Wednesday that Brody’s statements were “truly shocking,” “flippant,” and “disgusting,” asserting his own view that “there is no genocide in Gaza.”

“You, by your own admission, are a relatively ignorant Jew, and your ignorance really showed the other day,” says Leder. “If you’re going to use a word like ‘genocide,’ you ought to know what it means.”

Leder appears to be referring to Brody’s previous descriptions of his limited Jewish education. Brody has said he is an atheist who “barely got bar mitzvahed and retained nothing from it,” adding that he prepared for the role of rabbi Noah Roklov in “Nobody Wants This” by attending a Shabbat service and working through books, podcasts and documentaries about Judaism.

Brody played high-profile Jewish characters including Seth Cohen in “The O.C.” and Seth Morris in “Fleishman Is in Trouble” before “Nobody Wants This,” which returns for a third season on October 22.

Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted four Houthi drones, two ballistic missiles

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis says it intercepted and destroyed four drones launched by the Iran-backed group over the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait and two ballistic missiles over Khamis Mushait and Jazan, also in the south.

The interceptions come amid a sharp escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, with the coalition reporting a series of Houthi drone and missile attacks on Saudi territory in recent weeks.

Amnesty says Iran must halt plans to flog singer, musicians over 2024 livestream

Amnesty International calls on Iran to halt any plans to punish a singer and eight other musicians with dozens of lashes each after they livestreamed a performance on YouTube.

The concert featured Parastoo Ahmadi singing powerful, mournful songs to an empty audience, on a dimly lit stage adorned solely with a large Persian carpet in the grounds of a traditional caravanserai complex.

Ahmadi was backed by a pianist, drummer, guitarist and bassist, and all the musicians wore black.

The singer was dressed in a long gown and wore deep red lipstick without adhering to strict Islamic dress code, in a country where women are banned from singing and must cover their hair in public.

A court sentenced the group to 74 lashes each, a sentence that was upheld by an appeals court in the northern province of Qom on Friday, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) and local media.

“Iranian authorities must immediately halt any plans to carry out floggings, which amount to torture, against singer Parastoo Ahmadi and eight others in connection to a live-streamed 2024 concert in Qom province,” Amnesty says in a statement posted on Instagram.

“Flogging constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, and violates the absolute prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment. These flogging sentences highlight the inhumanity and brutality of Iran’s justice system and its role in the ongoing assault on women’s rights,” the group says.

Ahmadi livestreamed the concert on her own channel in December 2024, where it has been viewed three million times. It has also been viewed many thousands of times more on other channels.

Increasing numbers of Iranian women are appearing without hijab, especially since protests erupted following the death in custody of a woman named Mahsa Amini in September 2022. She had been arrested for allegedly violating the dress code.

Amnesty says Iran must “also abolish compulsory veiling and corporal punishment and end the criminalization of freedom of expression.”

US could have 3 carriers in the Mideast soon, official says, as thousands of troops head to region

The USS Gerald R. Ford pulls up to Pier 11 at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia, on May 16, 2026. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)

Three US ships that together carry over 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines are heading to the Middle East, a US official says.

That includes the recently deployed USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group. It could mean three carriers are in the region as early as the end of October, according to the official, who speaks on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

That would be an unusually high US naval presence of more than 20,000 sailors and Marines and hundreds of aircraft. It comes as the war with Iran stretches past seven months. The US Navy previously had three carriers in the Middle East in April — for the first time since 2003.

The USS George H.W. Bush and the USS George Washington are there now, along with the USS Boxer amphibious readiness group. The Pacific-based Washington had moved to the Middle East to relieve the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln.

Flydubai attacker urged, ‘Kill me,’ when he had been subdued and bound, Israeli heroes recount

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with survivors of the flydubai flight that was attacked, October 1, 2026. Yaniv Hayun is seated to the left of the prime minister. (Screenshot/GPO)

Yaniv Hayun, one of the Israelis who overpowered the Omani copilot who was allegedly trying to crash flydubai FZ1073, says the attacker called out, “Kill me,” when he had been bound and immobilized and he knew his attempt had failed.

Several of the Israeli heroes met earlier today with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and described how they saved the plane.

In a clip released by the Government Press Office, Dr. Shota Musayev, who treated the plane’s stabbed captain, describes how the Israelis initially used headphone wire to tie up the copilot, “to ensure that he could not start to go wild.”

Hayun interjects, “He shouted, ‘Kill me, kill me,’ in English.”

Elaborates Hayun, “That means he had failed in the mission and preferred to die.”

ראש הממשלה נתניהו עם גיבורי הטיסה מדובאי: ״אני אומר לאזרחי ישראל ללמוד מכם, לפקוח עיניים ולהיות ערניים. אנחנו בתקופה מאוד רגישה. יש כוונה של האויבים שלנו לפגוע בנו״

במהלך המפגש, ראש הממשלה שמע את עדותם המטלטלת על מאמצי ההשתלטות: ״קשרנו את הטייס הדוקר עם החוט של האוזניות. הוא אמר… pic.twitter.com/qK7hvR2MBW

— ראש ממשלת ישראל (@IsraeliPM_heb) October 1, 2026

Netanyahu referred to this earlier today in a Fox News interview, in which he said the Omani copilot “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination” and also quoted the attacker as saying, “Kill me, kill me.”

Saudi government says Omani copilot was transfered to UAE this morning, confirms he attacked pilot

Saudi Arabia says its initial investigation confirms the basic facts of the incident, that the copilot of the flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv assaulted the captain during the flight, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in the Saudi city of Tabuk.

The emergency landing happened after passengers on the flight intervened and stopped the attack. Nearly all of the passengers were Israeli.

The Saudi Interior Ministry says in a statement, in the first comment by the Saudi government on the incident, that the captain and copilot, who were both treated in hospital for injuries, left for Abu Dhabi this morning after receiving medical clearance.

Saudi Arabia says it conducted the preliminary investigation with security teams from the United Arab Emirates.

Elections panel chief orders Ben Gvir to take down video where he tells jailed terrorist, ‘I want to kill you’

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir seen berating Hassan Salamah, a Hamas terrorist jailed for orchestrating a pair of 1996 Jerusalem bus explosions that killed 45 people, in a video posted to social media on September 27, 2026. (Screenshots/Itamar Ben Gvir via X)

Central Elections Committee chief Noam Sohlberg orders National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to remove a video in which the minister, flanked by armed prison guards, says to senior Hamas inmate Hassan Salamah, “I want to kill you.”

Salamah is responsible for a pair of 1996 Jerusalem bus bombings that killed 45 people.

Sohlberg, who is also the deputy president of the Supreme Court, finds in favor of petitioners from two NGOs — Choosing Israel, which advocates for transparency, and the Committee Against Torture — that Ben Gvir “took advantage of his position to produce an election campaign video.”

“Other candidates — and, it seems, other ministers — don’t have the same access to prisons, inmates and jailers. Minister Ben Gvir has the advantage of access to these public assets, and has taken full advantage of it,” Sohlberg says.

Ben Gvir is ordered to take the video down from all social media platforms and to pay a NIS 10,000 ($3,240) fine. Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit is ordered to pay an additional NIS 10,000 fine.

The minister has repeatedly been ordered to remove videos under similar circumstances.

UN worried about impact of latest Lebanon war on agriculture

This picture, taken from a position in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, shows a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) armored vehicle driving past destroyed buildings in southern Lebanon on July 22, 2026. (Jalaa MAREY/AFP)

The deputy director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization tells AFP she is “deeply concerned” about the impact of the latest Israel-Hezbollah conflict on agriculture in south Lebanon.

The latest war “puts additional pressure on farmers and rural communities that, frankly, were already facing considerable hardships,” says the FAO’s Beth Bechdol.

“We’re deeply concerned” about the situation in south Lebanon, where agriculture is “at the heart” of livelihoods, she says in an interview in Beirut.

“It is our best assessment that 56,000 hectares, which is more than 22 percent of Lebanon’s agricultural land, has been reported as affected or damaged,” including burned or physically damaged, she says.

Amid the fighting, which began when Hezbollah attacked Israel in March in support of its backer, Iran, Israeli forces have been carrying out widespread demolitions affecting villages and farmland. The IDF holds a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

“Farmers and their families are no longer able to be connected to their agricultural land,” Bechdol says, noting that the conflict has also “disrupted markets and reduced access” to essentials for food production, including fertilizers.

Saudi-led coalition says Houthis attacked power station in Medina that supplies holy site

Women pray at Al-Masjid an-Nabawi or the Prophet Muhammad’s Mosque, the second holiest site in Islam, after the annual hajj pilgrimage on last day of Eid al-Adha, in the Saudi holy city of Medina, September 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis says the group attacked a power distribution station in Medina this week, putting one transformer out of service but without affecting the electricity network.

The coalition says an investigation and examination of drone wreckage confirms Houthi involvement in planning and carrying out Tuesday’s attack. It says the station supplies electricity to the Prophet’s Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites.

A Houthi military source, quoted by the Houthi-run Saba news agency, denies the accusation, calling it a “lie” and saying it was intended to cover up what he described as Saudi Arabia’s failure to substantiate its earlier accusation that the Houthis targeted the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

Saudi Arabia said two weeks ago it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone south of Mecca before it entered restricted airspace over the city. The coalition described that incident as the second Houthi attempt to target Mecca since 2017, while the Houthis denied targeting Mecca or any other Islamic holy site.

The coalition says the Medina attack was part of what it described as repeated Houthi attempts to target the Two Holy Mosques and “provoke” Muslims worldwide. It said it would continue taking measures to protect the holy sites and pilgrims.

Trump suggests Iran linked to flydubai attacker, after Netanyahu said it’s too soon to tell

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Marine One as he leaves the White House, October 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

US President Donald Trump suggests the flydubai pilot who tried to crash a plane full of Israelis may be linked to Iran.

Asked by reporters outside the White House whether the pilot is linked to Iran, Trump responds, “We’re working on it. They’re being very open with us. I would say the answer based on what I’m hearing is yes.”

A reporter then pushes him on whether the pilot was either planted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps or radicalized some other way, and Trump gives a less definitive answer.

“Could have been, yeah,” he responds.

It’s unclear whether Trump has received intelligence or been briefed on the ongoing probe into the flydubai incident.

Yesterday, he suggested he was largely relying on information he received from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and wasn’t sure if it was accurate.

Netanyahu has told Fox News twice in the past day that it’s “too early” to know whether Iran was involved.

Senior official in government-run company interrogated for suspected crimes — police

A senior official in a government-run company was interrogated today on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust, forgery and perjury, police say.

Officers from the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit arrested the unnamed official this morning, searched his home and office, and seized documents and digital files for the investigation, according to police.

The official was released under restrictive conditions following the interrogation, police say.

Dual UK-Iranian national arrested over suspected terror plot at US-run air base in England

An armoured vehicle (C) patrols the interior at RAF Fairford base in Fairford, south-west England on September 28, 2026, a day after British counter-terrorism police were probing “a major” incident near the base. (Ben STANSALL/AFP)

British police have arrested a dual UK-Iranian national on suspicion of plotting a terror attack, following a security incident at a US-run air base over the weekend.

The 27-year-old man is arrested in London, and police have searched two properties in the UK capital.

On Sunday, five men, all in their 20s and from London, were arrested over the incident at RAF Fairford, which has been used by American bombers to strike Iran. They have since been released on bail.

Counter-terror police say a second man, a 26-year-old UK national, has also been questioned under caution.

“As we’ve made clear, we’re looking at all possible angles — including possible foreign state involvement,” the senior national coordinator for counter terrorism policing for the Metropolitan Police, Vicki Evans, says. “I’d like to thank the public for their continued support and patience whilst we work through this investigation.”

El Al prohibits luggage, carry-ons on Dubai-Tel Aviv rescue flights

Israel’s flagship carrier El Al says Israeli passengers on rescue flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv, which will begin tomorrow, will not be permitted to check their suitcases or bring carry-on luggage into the cabin.

Following directives by Israeli security authorities, passengers may carry only a personal bag on board for now, El Al says.

Passengers’ luggage is expected to be sent separately.

ToI poll: Netanyahu’s bloc leads, Likud tied for 1st, as voters fret over election’s outcome

The bloc of parties supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken the lead with less than a month to go until Israel’s October 27 election, and his Likud party is tied for the most votes with Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition Yashar faction, according to a new poll by The Times of Israel’s sister site, Zman Yisrael.

But the prime minister’s supporters, as well as the bloc of four Jewish-led parties opposing him, are both far from winning a majority of the 120-seat Knesset, the poll finds.

The poll is the latest one in recent weeks to show Netanyahu’s presumed bloc pulling ahead, after months in which nearly every poll showed his supporters trailing the presumed opposition bloc.

The shift has sparked anxiety among Netanyahu’s opponents, the poll finds, with 88% saying they are worried about the election’s outcome. But the other side is also uneasy, with nearly 70% of Netanyahu’s supporters saying they’re worried about the result.

Overall, the poll finds that more than 80% of voters are worried about the election’s outcome.

The poll finds that the parties supporting Netanyahu would collectively win 53 seats in the Knesset, while the four Jewish-led parties opposed to him would win 49. Both camps are far from a 61-seat majority.

Arab-led parties, which also oppose Netanyahu but have rarely been included in governing coalitions, would win 13, while a non-aligned party led by Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha would win five seats.

Sitting atop the poll are Likud and Yashar, with 21 seats each. Previous polls had shown Yashar in the lead by a few seats.

Next come two opposition parties, B’Yachad and Yisrael Beytenu, with 10 seats each. The Sephardi Haredi Shas party would win nine, followed by three parties with eight seats each: the left-wing Democrats, the Arab-led Joint List and the Ashkenazi Haredi United Torah Judaism.

The far-right Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism-Zehut parties would win six and five seats, respectively. The Arab-led Ra’am would also win five, as would the Hendel-Zelekha faction. The right-wing, pro-Netanyahu People of Israel party, led by Ofer Winter, would win four.

The poll was conducted on September 30 and October 1 by Yossi Tatika of Tatika Research & Media in collaboration with the Adgenda panel, and surveyed a total sample of 500 respondents with a margin of error of ±4.4%.

While horse-race polls are an almost daily occurrence in Israel in the months leading up to elections and are not seen as overly reliable, taken together, the surveys can often serve as a general gauge of the political climate and where the vote may be headed.

Syrian government officials and Hezbollah held secret talks in Turkey, sources tell Reuters

Syrian army soldiers patroling along the Syrian-Lebanese border in the rural area of Al Qusayr on April 1, 2026. (Bakr Alkasem/AFP)

Representatives of the Syrian government and the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah have held face-to-face talks in Turkey to try to calm tensions between them, six sources briefed on the first known meeting between the longtime foes tell Reuters.

The Syrian officials and Hezbollah met secretly at least once last month, say the sources — who include two Syrian officials, a US official and a senior Lebanese security source close to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah for years dispatched fighters to Syria to defend former President Bashar al-Assad’s government in the country’s civil war.

After Assad was ousted in late 2024 in a lightning rebel offensive, tensions rose between Syria’s new government and Hezbollah, with Damascus accusing the group of transferring arms through Syria, and the United States encouraging Syria’s military to send forces into Lebanon to fight Hezbollah.

The six sources say Hezbollah representatives and Syrian intelligence and foreign ministry officials took part in the meeting last month at the invitation of Turkish security and intelligence agencies in an effort to de-escalate.

All the sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the meeting.

Syria’s foreign ministry, Turkey’s foreign and defense ministries and the US State Department do not immediately respond to Reuters’ questions about the meeting. Hezbollah’s media office declines to comment.

After publication, the Syrian government’s English-language account on X denies such a meeting took place, saying, “these claims are false.”

The meeting focused on resolving points of tension between the two parties and went well, according to the US official, the Syrian officials and the Lebanese source.

One of the Syrian officials said both sides agreed they held no hostility towards one another, and that Syria assured Hezbollah that it would not intervene militarily in Lebanon to disarm the group.

In turn, Syrian officials asked Hezbollah to help stop cross-border smuggling attempts and dismantle its remaining sleeper cells, particularly in southern Syria, the official says.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Pilot to ToI: If relief pilots hadn’t been on flydubai plane, passenger could’ve landed it in miracle ‘gentle crash’

A flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft prepares for landing at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Lod on September 30, 2026. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Yaniv Hayun, one of the Israelis who helped subdue the flydubai copilot who stabbed the captain in an apparent attempt to crash the plane, grabbed the plane’s controls and says he learned from the TV show “Air Disasters” how to pull the levers to fly the plane upward.

After that, two off-duty flydubai pilots took over and landed the plane safely in Saudi Arabia.

If those pilots weren’t on the flight, could an untrained passenger such as Yaniv have landed it safely?

It is theoretically possible for a passenger to land it in “a gentle crash,” a commercial pilot tells The Times of Israel. “Most people could walk away.”

But the passenger would have to know how to get on the radio with a flight tower first, he says.

“You have to be a very smart person who can take a lot of instruction over the radio,” the pilot explains. “They would probably send them to a very, very long runway.”

“If he had the radio in his ear, you could listen to the radio and someone could talk you through,” he continues, cautioning that “It’d be a very big miracle.”

Of course, someone with experience flying small planes would have a huge advantage.

“A guy who flew a Cessna would be able to line up a plane,” says the pilot. He added, however, “Now, it wouldn’t be a pretty landing.”

Senior UN figure says he lost his job for criticizing Israel over Gaza

A senior official at the UN’s agriculture agency said yesterday that he had lost his job for criticizing Israeli policies in Gaza, as another official condemned staff who “play the game of human rights.”

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) director Ben Davis told AFP he had been informed in July that his contract would not be renewed after 26 years because he had allegedly breached impartiality rules.

“They accused me of organizing these moments of silence on the situation of starvation and famine in Gaza,” he said, referring to weekly silent protests by some employees at the Rome-based organization.

Davis was also criticized for a report he worked on about food availability in Gaza and humanitarian law, published in May.

“We were told to take it down,” he said. “We weren’t allowed to make any references to humanitarian law.”

Israel has repeatedly denied that there was a famine in Gaza, where hunger was widespread last year after Israel halted the entry of aid for more than two months. Israel accused Hamas of stealing aid and said there were sufficient supplies in the territory.

Israel also views the UN as systemically antagonistic to it, and frequently condemns or rejects reports put out by the global body.

FAO director-general Qu Dongyu appeared to warn FAO staff Tuesday that “we don’t allow you to play the game here of human rights.”

He was speaking in public comments made at the start of a filmed session on forestry.

“Of course, human rights is very important, but we have the human rights agency in Geneva,” he added. “If you want to take care, go there.”

“That’s why some senior members play the political game here, I fire [them],” he said. “You should follow the FAO constitution… You are against staff regulations… But I’m a very soft person, I didn’t fire that many.”

“I will fire more people if they are against the law,” he added.

FAO did not respond to a request for comment.

Asked if he thought the director general’s comments were about him, Davis said “absolutely.”

“He has already scolded me in public in the past for being too political,” he added.

Davis also said he was “concerned” about the director general’s comments on firing more people.

Hundreds of people attended the moments of silence at their height and there are now only 30-40 people coming on a weekly basis, he said.

‘He’s stabbing the pilot!’: Woman who alerted crew to flydubai attack recounts harrowing moments

Tali Manes, a passenger on the flydubai flight who alerted the crew to the attack, October 1, 2026. (Screenshot/Channel 12)

Tali Manes, the woman who alerted the crew on flydubai Flight 1073 to the attack taking place in the cockpit, recounts the experience in an interview on Channel 12.

Manes recalls that she was taking her young daughter to the bathroom on the flight when she heard strange noises coming from the cockpit. When she began to hear someone knocking on the cockpit door from the inside, which “sounded very, very unusual to me,” she alerted a flight attendant sitting nearby, she says.

“Something is happening in there,” she recalls telling the crew member. After she felt that the flight attendant wasn’t reacting, she says, “I screamed at him and touched his hand forcefully. I said, “Something is happening in there!’ He simply went to the door and opened it.”

Once the door was open, Manes says, she saw “blood all over the cockpit and very, very sharp fighting moves… I saw it all with my own eyes, and I began to scream.”

She continues, “I screamed, ‘He’s stabbing the pilot, he’s stabbing the pilot, come help!’ with screams of fear… People looked at me and didn’t understand. My voice is still a little hoarse.”

Manes says the thwarting of the attack, which saved the lives of the 180 people aboard the flight, was a “great miracle.”

Flydubai passengers to PM: We didn’t know if others were in on plot

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with survivors of the flydubai flight that was attacked, October 1, 2026. Yaniv Hayun is seated to the left of the prime minister. (Screenshot/GPO)

Flydubai passengers who intervened and took the Omani pilot who tried to attack the plane into custody tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they didn’t know initially if any crew members were also in on the attack plot.

In a video released by Netanyahu’s office, they say that they insisted that the attacker speak with crew members in English so that they would know what he was saying. “That’s very interesting,” responds Netanyahu.

“We tried to simply maintain control over the situation, because we couldn’t trust anyone,” one of the passengers says.

IDF: 170 Gazans killed in war who were named as journalists actually belonged to terror groups

A composite of 170 Gazans who, according to the IDF, were identified as journalists but who were in fact members of terror groups, October 1, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israeli military says it has determined that 170 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who were identified as journalists following their deaths were actually members of terror groups.

“Following extensive research, the IDF is now revealing that 170 Gazans killed during the war who were presented as journalists and media personnel were in fact serving as terrorists for terror organizations in the Strip, foremost among them Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” the army says.

According to the military, 118 of the journalists were active in Hamas’s military wing, while 49 operated in Islamic Jihad, two were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, and one was in the Mujahideen Brigades.

Seventeen of the people on the list invaded Israeli territory in the October 7, 2023, attack, the army says.

Some of the journalists appearing on the IDF’s list also worked for international media outlets, including Reuters, CNN, BBC, AFP, AP, Le Monde, ABC Australia and others.

The 170 names are published by the IDF on a dedicated website. Each includes the name and role of the journalist/terror operative, along with their civil and military ID numbers.

The military says it is publishing “verified evidence, including visual material and documents produced by the terror organizations, some of which were found in the field, indicating the organizational affiliation of those terrorists and the roles they held within the terror organizations.”

The IDF says that during the war, various international media outlets “repeatedly accused Israel and the IDF, without presenting verified findings, of deliberately harming journalists.”

“This was despite the fact that in some cases the terror organizations themselves presented those individuals as terrorists in their ranks and even claimed responsibility for them,” the IDF asserts.

“The information now being revealed illustrates the gap between the picture presented to the world and the reality on the ground, and presents additional and conclusive evidence that the IDF does not deliberately and systematically target journalists, but rather terror organizations and their terrorists, in accordance with international law,” the military adds.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has removed some names from its list of journalists killed in the war, after they were revealed to be terror operatives.

Flydubai pilots who took control of plane were there in order to fly it back to UAE — report

The two relief pilots — one of whom is British — who assumed control of flydubai flight 1073 yesterday and landed it safely following an attack by the copilot were on the plane in order to fly it back to Dubai from Tel Aviv, Channel 12 reports.

The original flight would have gone over the permitted flying time for pilots, reports the outlet, so the second crew was sent along.

Dozens of Omani pilots working for flydubai flew the Dubai-Tel Aviv route in recent years, according to Channel 12.

Netanyahu says flydubai heroes will light Independence Day torch, though it’s not his decision

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with passengers who helped thwart a copilot's September 30, 2026, attack on a flydubai plane, at his office on October 1, 2026. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells four Israeli passengers aboard the flydubai flight that was attacked yesterday that they will light a torch in Israel’s official Independence Day ceremony.

“The whole world sees [your] Israeli heroism… You will light a torch honoring civilian heroism on Independence Day,” Netanyahu tells Yaniv Hayun, Or Pardilov, Shota Musayev and his wife, Sigalit, during a meeting with them in his office.

Netanyahu listens to “their harrowing account” of helping to thwart the attack after the copilot attempted to crash the plane, telling them that “through extraordinary bravery, resourcefulness and faith, they had prevented a major disaster and saved many lives.”

Netanyahu, however, does not have the authority to unilaterally determine who will light a torch at next year’s traditional ceremony.

Under the government-established selection process, torch lighters are chosen through a public advisory committee and subsequently approved through the designated ministerial process.

Soldier who was seen kicking, hitting Palestinian man in Nablus will be disciplined — IDF

The Israeli military says a soldier seen kicking and hitting a Palestinian man during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus will face “disciplinary action.”

A video published by Palestinian media today showed troops conducting a random search of a Palestinian man at a market in Nablus.

During the search, one soldier is seen kicking the man in the legs and hitting him over the head before releasing him.

In response to the clip, the IDF tells The Times of Israel that “the actions seen in the video are grave and do not align with the IDF’s values.”

“The incident was referred for review and disciplinary action,” the military adds.

Israeli soldiers physically abuse Palestinian workers after raiding the vegetable market in the eastern neighborhood of Nablus. pic.twitter.com/g1clE1VkNo

— WAFA News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) October 1, 2026

France gripped by spreading student protests as PM calls crisis meeting

Students burn garbage as they protest to demand more resources at school, in Lille, France, October 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

France’s prime minister convenes a crisis meeting and cancels ministers’ trips to focus on the nationwide spread of protests, some violent, by high school students venting against under-resourced schools, long hours and other complaints.

The demonstrations erupted in Paris-region schools last week and have snowballed, with police making hundreds of arrests in clashes with the young protesters. Authorities report many dozens of injuries, including from hurled objects but also, in some suspected cases, from police riot-control projectiles.

The protests are quickly blowing up as a hot topic in the election campaign to replace President Emmanuel Macron next May, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term, and are heightening pressure on the government also beset by France’s growing financial problems.

Far-left presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Mélenchon has decried the government response to the protests as repressive. His critics have accused Mélenchon’s party of seeking to use the unrest to score points in the presidential campaign and of inciting violence.

The office of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu says he asked ministers to cancel any planned official trips in the coming days, to enable authorities and police to focus on dealing with the demonstrations.

Wounded flydubai pilot transfered to UAE, is ‘recovering well,’ Indian embassy says

The flydubai pilot who was stabbed in the thwarted attack aboard the plane yesterday has been moved from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates and is recovering, the Indian embassy in the UAE says on X.

Indian Ambassador Deepak Mittal “visited Captain Smit Machchhar and his family at the hospital. Captain Machchhar is in good health and recovering well. The Embassy remains in close coordination with local authorities to ensure his continued medical care and well-being,” the post says.

Election panel chair rejects bid to ban Religious Zionism’s AI video of judges being dragged from protest

An AI-generated video posted September 15, 2026 by Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich depicts (left to right) Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, fellow justice Daphne Barak-Erez, and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara being forcibly removed at a protest. (Bezalel Smotrich via X)

Central Elections Committee chairman Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg rejects petitions seeking to disqualify an AI-generated campaign video by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism party depicting Supreme Court justices and the attorney general being forcibly dragged away from a protest by security personnel.

Sohlberg rejects arguments by Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition Yashar party and the Israel Bar Association that the video threatens senior law enforcement officials or unlawfully interferes with the election, writing that there is “considerable doubt” that the officials depicted “feel threatened — or should feel threatened — by this video.”

Sohlberg says he personally found the video distasteful, but that his role is to assess it on legal grounds.

“In the absence of grounds [for intervention], the video will be judged by the voters, not by election law,” he writes.

The controversial 34-second video, released earlier this month to promote Religious Zionism’s new judicial overhaul platform, depicts Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, Justice Daphne Barak-Erez and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara being forcibly removed from an anti-Smotrich demonstration.

Egypt police arrest all 6 journalists at investigative outlet, allege Muslim Brotherhood link

Egyptian police arrest six journalists from a fact-checking and investigative media outlet, accusing them of spreading misinformation on behalf of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, which the publication denies.

The arrests comprise the entire newsroom of Matsaddash, a digital platform that has operated since 2018, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), which is providing the journalists with legal representation.

According to the EIPR, plainclothes security personnel started raiding the journalists’ homes on Monday evening and confiscated electronic devices.

In a statement disclosing the arrests, the interior ministry accuses the site of being managed from abroad as “part of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood’s media apparatus” with the help of Brotherhood “elements” inside the country.

Matsaddash denies it is affiliated with the Brotherhood. In a statement, it points to reports that it issued correcting what it described as misinformation published by Brotherhood-affiliated media outlets.

Egypt banned the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group in 2013, the year the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi, a Brotherhood member who was democratically elected.

Egyptian journalists and activists have frequently been arrested on charges of spreading false news and rumors, and many independent outlets say they struggle to operate under restrictive conditions.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 19 journalists are currently detained in Egypt.

Egypt’s State Information Service, which liaises with foreign media on behalf of state agencies, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

70 terror operatives killed in Gaza last month, including 17 who participated in Oct. 7 — IDF

IDF soldiers occupy a military position overlooking the Yellow Line in the central Gaza Strip, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

The Israel Defense Forces says it killed 70 terror operatives in the Gaza Strip in September, including three Hamas brigade commanders, two battalion commanders, and nine company commanders.

The IDF says that 17 of those killed had participated in the October 7, 2023, onslaught, kidnapped hostages, or held hostages in captivity.

Those 17 terrorists were killed due to the efforts of a unit in the Shin Bet security agency known as Nili, which aims to track down and eliminate all of those who took part in the Hamas-led attack that sparked the Gaza war.

While an October 2025 US-backed ceasefire halted major fighting in the shattered territory, it hasn’t ended strikes by the IDF, which the military says are meant to thwart attacks by terrorists.

The IDF in recent months has ramped up strikes on terror operatives in the enclave, including numerous October 7 terrorists, saying they posed a threat to Israeli forces.

The military says the targeted killings come following “prolonged intelligence and operational work that matured into several opportunities over a short period of time.”

Some of the operatives and commanders have been hiding in tunnels or densely populated areas, requiring the IDF to employ “prolonged surveillance… to achieve a high degree of certainty regarding their identities and locations and to create conditions that enable a precise strike while minimizing harm to uninvolved individuals,” according to the military.

According to the military, many of the strikes in the past month focused on Hamas operatives involved in building up the terror group’s force, as well as secret headquarters and Hamas’s civil control mechanisms in the Strip.

The IDF assesses that Hamas is no longer the military and governing organization it was before October 7, but the terror group “continues attempts to rebuild and rearm.”

2 terrorists who invaded Israel on Oct. 7, one of whom took hostages, killed in strikes — IDF

An IDF graphic on two terrorists it says were recently killed in strikes in Gaza, October 1, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)

Two terrorists who participated in the October 7 onslaught, including one who took part in abducting hostages, were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip earlier this week, the IDF announces.

One strike on Tuesday in Gaza City killed Muhammad Jamal Mahmoud Abu Al-Shaar, identified by the IDF as a commander of a cell in Hamas’s military wing.

On October 7, 2023, Shaar invaded Kibbutz Be’eri and took part in the abduction of hostages Sharon Hertzman-Avigdori, Noam Avigdori, Adi Shoham, Nave Shoham, Yahel Shoham, and Shoshan Haran, according to the military.

A separate strike in Jabalia on Tuesday killed Musab Abd al-Jalil Saqib Balbisi, who the IDF says was a commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

Balbisi also invaded Israel on October 7, the IDF says.

Both terrorists had recently been involved in advancing attacks against Israeli troops and civilians “in systematic violation of the ceasefire,” and they were killed “to remove the threat that they posed,” the military adds.

Report: Palestinian shot dead by settlers in West Bank

The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry says that Mashhour Yassin, 51, was shot dead by settlers in the village of Yasuf in the western West Bank today.

The director of the government hospital in Salfit tells the official Palestinian news agency WAFA that Yassin was killed during a settler attack on the village. It was also reported that earlier, during the settler attack, soldiers shot and wounded two residents and detained others.

Earlier reports in Hebrew media also said Palestinians were throwing stones in the area.

The IDF has yet to comment.

BREAKING: Israeli settler terrorists murdered 51-year-old Palestinian man Mashhour Yassin in the village of Yasuf in the West Bank. pic.twitter.com/AAaM5Ye42u

— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) October 1, 2026

Trump says he regrets nominating all 3 judges he appointed to Supreme Court in first term

US President Donald Trump attends a tea with first lady Melania Trump, China’s President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan in the Red Room of the White House, September 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

US President Donald Trump says he regrets nominating all three Supreme Court justices he appointed in his first term — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, as they have opposed him in recent rulings, according to a Time magazine interview.

The Republican president was asked about his recent comments regarding the three conservative justices in the interview, which was conducted on Monday.

“Do you regret nominating them?” the interviewer asked, referring to Trump’s comments in a recent Truth Social post.

“Yeah. Yeah,” Trump responded, according to a transcript of the interview. “What can I do? I put them in. They voted against me too often. I was very — I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often.”

Trump appointed Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett during his first term as president, building a 6-3 conservative majority and allowing the court to steer a dramatic rightward course since 2020.

“I do like loyalty, yeah,” Trump told the interviewer, who then asked whether that was what he wanted from the justices.

“No, I don’t want loyalty. I want good decisions,” Trump said.

After the top US judicial body declined to allow a Postal Service rule restricting the use of mail-in ballots in the November midterm elections, Trump said his appointees were behaving differently than they had during interviews.

“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” he wrote on Truth Social.

After the court in February struck down his sweeping global tariffs that it found he had imposed illegally using a law meant for national emergencies, Trump reserved special ire for Gorsuch and Barrett, who were in the majority in that 6-3 ruling.

High Court unanimously urges Abou Shahadeh to end candidacy, says majority backs ban

A hearing at the High Court in Jerusalem on the Central Elections Committee’s decision to disqualify Ra’am, Sami Abu Shehadeh, MK Ofer Cassif and the Joint List from running in the upcoming Knesset elections, October 1, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The High Court unanimously urges Balad chairman Sami Abou Shahadeh to end his candidacy in the upcoming election, with Supreme Court President Isaac Amit telling him that a majority of the nine-justice panel would uphold his recent disqualification by the Central Elections Committee.

“There is a majority for your disqualification,” Amit tells Abou Shahadeh during the hearing. “We recommend that Abou Shahadeh withdraw from the race.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose far-right Otzma Yehudit party filed the petition to disqualify Abou Shahadeh and who personally argued the case before the court, denounces the proposal as “far too lenient,” insisting the court should formally bar him from running.

“He should not be given the opportunity to withdraw. There should be a ruling,” Ben Gvir says.

The coalition-controlled CEC voted last week to disqualify Abou Shahadeh over an article he published a day after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, which the attorney general has argued constitutes support for armed struggle against Israel. The vote drew broad support from both sides of the aisle.

Abou Shahadeh expressed regret over the article during today’s hearing and denied supporting armed struggle.

Eisenkot seeks meeting with Gantz amid opposition push for Blue and White chief to quit race

Then-war cabinet ministers Gadi Eisenkot (right) and Benny Gantz hold a press conference at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, February 26, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot has reportedly asked to meet with Blue and White chief Benny Gantz, amid efforts by opposition parties to convince Gantz to drop out of the election race rather than risk wasting votes on a party that has for months consistently polled below the electoral threshold.

Channel 13 reports that Eisenkot directly approached his former political partner in recent days and that the two are expected to meet shortly. Gantz appears to publicly accept the invitation in a post on X, writing: “Gadi, 7 pm at Kfar Maccabiah.”

The meeting comes amid growing pressure on Gantz to withdraw from the race, after months of polls showing Blue and White failing to clear the 3.25% electoral threshold. Opposition leaders are reportedly “deeply” concerned that votes cast for his party could be lost, potentially costing their bloc seats in the Knesset.

Gantz has nevertheless insisted on remaining in the race even as Blue and White has hemorrhaged lawmakers, several of whom have joined rival opposition parties, including Eisenkot’s Yashar.

Separately, Gantz tells the Kan public broadcaster that he was previously offered one of the spots reserved for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handpicked candidates on Likud’s electoral slate and turned it down, which Likud swiftly denies.

“Fake news. Gantz did not receive an offer for a reserved spot on the Likud slate,” the ruling party says.

Gantz says he also held talks with leaders of the opposition bloc, including Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, but that none offered him a reserved place on their slates.

He ultimately chose not to join either camp and has resisted efforts to firmly align himself with the opposition bloc, while declining to explicitly rule out joining a Netanyahu-led government after the election.

Trump ‘can’t imagine’ Netanyahu ignored warnings ahead of Oct. 7; says ‘I don’t hear bad things’ about Eisenkot, but don’t underestimate Bibi

US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, September 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

US President Donald Trump discredits reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored warnings from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt ahead of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, saying he “can’t imagine” that it’s true.

Asked by Time magazine in an interview filmed on September 28 and published today about the warnings Netanyahu allegedly received, Trump says this is the first he’s hearing about it.

“I can’t imagine this,” Trump insists. “I don’t think so. You know, I think if he would have known, he would have done something about it. Certainly, he would have had people at least alert.”

Despite coming to the premier’s defense, Trump once again refuses to endorse him ahead of the October 27 election.

“I can only say that I’m not involved in politics anymore,” the US president says in response to being asked if Israel should give Netanyahu another term.

On Netanyahu’s main rival Gadi Eisenkot, Trump says, “I don’t hear bad things about him.”

Still, the president notes that “people have written off Bibi many, many times, just like they’ve written off me many, many times. I wouldn’t underestimate Bibi.”

Trump also pats himself on the back for his administration’s close ties with Israel, saying, “I’ve done a lot for them. Done a lot. I’ve done a real lot.”

Pressed on what he plans to do if Hamas doesn’t disarm, Trump dodges. “I think I’ll probably sit in the Situation Room and make an appropriate decision.”

Ben Gvir, Gotliv trade insults with Joint List politicians at Supreme Court

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Otzma Yehudit’s No. 2 candidate, Tally Gotliv, trade insults with Joint List politicians outside a Supreme Court courtroom amid throngs of protesters.

Justices are holding hearings throughout the day on last week’s Central Elections Committee’s disqualifications of Balad chairman Sami Abou Shahadeh, Hadash MK Ofer Cassif, the Joint List and Ra’am from the October 27 election. Ben Gvir and Gotliv, both lawyers, are representing the far-right Otzma Yehudit party in its bid to bar Abou Shahadeh.

Outside the courtroom, Ben Gvir tells Ta’al head Ahmad Tibi, Hadash MK Ofer Cassif and Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen: “You are terrorism’s front line in the Knesset. We’ll throw you out of the Knesset.”

“Every dog has his day,” Tibi responds in Arabic, while Jabareen and Cassif call Ben Gvir a “Nazi.”

In a separate instance, Gotliv approaches Tibi, shouting at him and demanding to know whether he recognizes a Jewish state. “I recognize your need for a psychiatrist,” he replies.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir trades insults with Ta’al chair Ahmad Tibi at a Supreme Court hearing about the banning of Arab parties from the upcoming election, on October 1, 2026. (Itamar Ben Gvir)

Ben Gvir demands extradition of Omani flydubai copilot accused of trying to crash plane

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir says he will demand that the security cabinet push for the extradition to Israel of the flydubai copilot accused of attempting to crash a Tel Aviv-bound flight carrying some 170 Israelis yesterday.

Ben Gvir says he will call on the Justice Ministry and relevant diplomatic officials to “use all means available” to extradite the suspect and prosecute him in Israel.

“Someone who planned to crash a plane and murder 180 Israelis should be extradited to Israel and pay the heaviest price here,” he says. “Anyone who tries to murder or harm Israelis will be pursued by the State of Israel and held to account anywhere in the world.”

Neither Saudi Arabia, where the plane was diverted and the alleged assailant is being held, nor Oman, the pilot’s home country, has diplomatic relations with Israel, potentially complicating any effort to extradite him directly.

Israel does have diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, though the two countries do not have a bilateral extradition treaty. The UAE is expected to take custody of the suspect after Saudi Arabia completes its initial investigation.

Islamic Jihad operative killed in Israeli strike in Gaza yesterday, IDF says

A Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket-launching operative was killed in an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, the IDF says.

The strike in Khan Younis killed Bilal Mahmoud Suleiman Samiri, identified by the IDF as a member of Islamic Jihad’s rocket array.

The IDF says Samiri was involved in advancing attacks “in systematic violation of the ceasefire,” as well as taking part in “ambushes targeting IDF troops” operating in the Strip.

“The terrorist was eliminated to remove the threat he posed,” the military adds.

להסרת איום: צה"ל חיסל מחבל במערך הרקטי של ארגון הטרור גא"פ

צה"ל תקף אתמול במרחב ח'אן יונס וחיסל את המחבל בלאל מחמוד סלימאן סמירי, מחבל במערך הרקטי של חטיבת חאן יונס, בזרוע הצבאית של ארגון הטרור גא"פ.

המחבל קידם מתווי טרור תוך הפרה שיטתית של הפסקת האש וביצע מארבים לכוחות צה"ל… pic.twitter.com/Cbu8tRAcBo

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 1, 2026

Transportation Ministry says repatriation flights from Dubai to start Friday after flydubai flights halted, warns airlines not to exploit situation

Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia and Israir are gearing up to start operating partly subsidized one-way repatriation flights on Friday to bring Israelis home from Dubai, the Transportation Ministry announces.

Upon receiving final approval from security authorities, Israeli carriers will operate commercial flights from Tel Aviv to Dubai without passengers and return with Israelis who were originally scheduled to travel back with flydubai.

The Dubai-based carrier suspended all flights to and from Israel amid a probe into the apparent attempt by one of its copilots to crash a plane en route to Israel yesterday.

At the prime minister’s direction and following a request from Transportation Minister Miri Regev, an agreement was reached with the Finance Ministry for the government to compensate Israeli airlines for operating one leg of the flight service without passengers.

“Israeli airlines are therefore required to maintain fair pricing and refrain from exploiting the situation,” the Transportation Ministry says in a statement.

The Transportation Ministry is urging Israeli passengers with flydubai tickets to contact flydubai to exercise all their statutory rights for compensation — including accommodation, flight refunds, and any additional necessary assistance.

El Al will be selling one-way tickets at a flat fare of $249, including a piece of carry-on luggage, and Israir at $299.

Additionally, an urgent request was submitted Wednesday night to increase the volume of flights operated by Etihad Airways from Abu Dhabi to Israel, the Transportation Ministry says.

IDF says it will reveal ‘unprecedented number’ of slain Gaza journalists who were members of terror groups

This graphic published by the IDF on October 1, 2026, shows a list of slain Palestinian journalists identified as terror operatives. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israeli military says it will reveal “an unprecedented number” of Palestinian journalists killed during the war in the Gaza Strip who were actually members of terror groups.

“Following extensive research, the IDF is now revealing the identities of Gazans killed during the war who were presented around the world as innocent journalists and media personnel, but who also held roles in the military wings of terrorist organizations, primarily Hamas and the Islamic Jihad,” the military says.

The first ten cases of such individuals are published by the IDF on a dedicated website. Each case includes the name and role of the journalist/terror operative, along with their civil and military ID numbers.

“In the next few hours, the IDF will reveal a large number of additional cases in which individuals who were presented as innocent journalists operated as military operatives. Their names will be published alongside intelligence information, documents, photographs, and additional evidence exposing their terrorist affiliations and the roles they held within the military wings of terrorist organizations,” the IDF says.

A Times of Israel investigation published in June identified multiple Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives previously reported as slain journalists. Another study by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center published last year asserted that a majority of Gaza-based journalists killed since the outbreak of the current war were operatives in, or closely affiliated with, terrorist organizations.

Man charged with assault for tossing salt shakers at Bennett during Bnei Brak election event

Police announce they have filed an indictment against 26-year-old Bnei Brak resident Eliya Azard, who allegedly hurled two glass salt shakers at former prime minister Naftali Bennett when the B’Yachad party chief spoke with voters in the Haredi city last Thursday.

Azard, who has been in custody since the incident, is charged with simple assault and conduct that could disrupt public order, police say, adding that they have requested the suspect be kept under house arrest until the end of the legal proceedings.

According to police, the first salt shaker Azard tossed hit two women on Bennett’s staff, while the second salt shaker fell short. The B’Yachad party has said one of the women was treated by medics on the scene.

Omani pilot to be handed over to UAE after Saudi investigation completed

The initial investigation into the Omani pilot who tried to crash flydubai flight 1073 yesterday will be carried out by Saudi Arabia, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.

Once the Saudi investigation is done, he will be handed over to the UAE for its investigation.

Israel is expecting more significant findings from the Emirati investigation, according to the official.

Israeli tourist dies in apparent kayaking accident in western Norway

A 24-year-old Israeli man from Jerusalem died yesterday during a kayaking incident on Lake Vangsvatnet in western Norway, the Foreign Ministry says, confirming reports on the matter.

“The Israeli embassy in Oslo and the Department for Israelis in Distress Abroad have been handling the case with the local authorities since the report was received. They are in contact with the family and are supporting them during this difficult time,” the ministry says.

According to a Norwegian police report, search and rescue operations for two men whose kayak had been overturned began around 2 p.m. and lasted for around two hours. A friend of the Israeli man, who had been with him during the outing, was rescued from the water conscious and taken to a local hospital for medical treatment, the report says. It’s unclear where and when the deceased Israeli man was confirmed dead.

Norwegian media reported that there was no indication of criminal activity, that both men were wearing lifejackets, and that an investigation has been opened to determine the cause of death.

UN chief ‘relieved’ that tragedy was averted on flydubai flight to Tel Aviv

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned” but “relieved that tragedy was averted” on the flydubai flight to Tel Aviv yesterday after the pilot was stabbed by his first officer in an apparent attempt to crash the plane.

Guterres “strongly condemns any act that places civilian lives and the safety of civil aviation at risk” and “is grateful to all the authorities concerned for ensuring the safety of all passengers and for conducting their investigation,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric says.

El Al says first repatriation flight from Dubai expected tomorrow; tickets to cost $249

Israel’s flagship carrier El Al says it expects the first repatriation flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv to depart on Friday to help stranded Israelis return home.

Following the cancellation of all flydubai flights to and from Israel, El Al will operate a special repatriation service to bring back Israelis currently in Dubai. El Al aircraft will depart from Tel Aviv without passengers.

Once approvals from security authorities are received, the flights will be available for booking via the El Al website and through travel agents.

These one-way flights will be sold at a flat rate of $249 per ticket, including a piece of carry-on luggage.

High Court begins hearings on ban of Arab parties and candidates from Oct. 27 election

A hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on the Central Elections Committee’s decision to disqualify Arab parties and candidates from running in the upcoming elections, October 1, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The High Court of Justice begins hearings on the disqualification of Arab parties and candidates from the October 27 election, as protesters gather outside the Supreme Court.

An expanded panel of nine justices is set to consider the Central Elections Committee’s decisions last week to disqualify Balad chairman Sami Abou Shahadeh and Hadash MK Ofer Cassif, as well as Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party and the Joint List — a bloc made up of Balad, Hadash and Ta’al. The court is beginning with Abou Shahadeh’s case, followed by Cassif, the Joint List and Ra’am later today.

Outside the court, protesters demonstrate against the disqualifications while Cassif tells the crowd ahead of the hearings that they will “bring justice, peace and a prosperous future for all our children — Palestinians and Israelis, Jews and Arabs.”

“We will defeat fascism, and it will be thrown into the dustbin of history,” he adds.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose far-right Otzma Yehudit party petitioned to disqualify Abou Shahadeh, arrives at the court wearing a lawyer’s robe alongside party No. 2 Tally Gotliv, also a lawyer, to represent the party in the proceedings.

“Sami Abu Shehadeh cannot be a member of Knesset. A supporter of terrorism belongs in prison, not in the Knesset,” Ben Gvir says, arguing that the Balad leader “supported” the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.

Most of the rulings are expected to be overturned with the exception of the ban on Abou Shahadeh, whose disqualification was supported by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara over an article he published a day after October 7 that she said expressed support for armed struggle against Israel. CEC chairman and Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, as well as parties across the Zionist opposition, also supported barring him.

Abou Shahadeh denies supporting violence or terrorism and argues that the article does not provide grounds for disqualifying him.

Lt. Col. Aryeh Amidror, son of former national security adviser, named as Gaza Division intel officer involved in Oct. 7 failures

Former Gaza Division intelligence officer, Lt. Col. Aryeh Amidror, is seen in an undated photo. (Screengrab: Channel 12 news)

The Supreme Court has permitted the publication of the name of a senior intelligence officer who is believed to have played a key role in the failures that led to the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

Lt. Col. Aryeh Amidror was the intelligence officer of the Gaza Division, the IDF regional unit responsible for the Gaza Strip and its border, and held the position on and before October 7, 2023.

Amidror had dismissed detailed warnings from a noncommissioned officer about the looming onslaught as “completely imaginary.”

In November, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir dismissed several senior officers, including Amidror, over their roles in the failures of October 7, 2023.

But only last month was Amidror officially released from service, after he had fought his ousting in court for months. Amidror also appealed against the publication of his name, even though it had already circulated online for months.

Amidror’s father, retired general and former national security adviser Yaakov Amidror, has been regularly interviewed on Israeli television on security matters without disclosing his son’s role, and once said he opposed a state commission of inquiry into October 7.

Supreme Court President Isaac Amit wrote in the ruling that there is a public interest in publishing Amidror’s name, “as someone who served as the intelligence officer of the Gaza Division during a traumatic event of biblical proportions that befell our country.”

Antisemitic conspiracies about flydubai attack spread quickly across social media, watchdogs find

Antisemitic conspiracy theories blaming Israel and Jews for yesterday’s attempted crash of an Israel-bound flydubai flight spread online within minutes of the incident, according to two separate reports.

Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM)’s Antisemitism Research Center says it identified 2,963 posts on X attributing the incident to Israel, the Mossad, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Zionists or Jews during a 12-hour monitoring period. The first such accusation appeared 67 minutes after the aircraft transmitted its initial distress signal.

The CAM report finds that about 72% of 4,136 posts containing the phrase “false flag” promoted conspiracy claims blaming Israel or Jews. That figure rose to 81% and 82% in the final two hourly monitoring periods.

“What’s striking here isn’t just the volume, it’s the speed,” says ARC Research Associate Oliver Marks. He adds that the incident appeared to become “fodder for antisemitic conspiracy theorists” within an hour.

CyberWell, a nonprofit fighting antisemitism on social media, similarly reports that “false flag” claims quickly emerged alleging that Israelis had hijacked or staged the attack. The organization said the claims reflected a broader antisemitic conspiracy theory portraying Jews or Israelis as orchestrating attacks against themselves.

Such narratives “recast victims as perpetrators” and can fuel hatred and further violence against Jews, says CyberWell CEO Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor.

‘Distorted, misleading, and disingenuous’: IDF publishes full response to ‘NAZA’ film

Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, left, speaks as he and his co-director Rachel Szor accept the Special Jury Prize for 'NAZA' during the closing ceremony of the 83rd Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido, Italy, on September 12, 2026. (Stefano Rellandini/AFP)

The IDF publishes a 10-page response to the “NAZA” film, centered on allegations that Israel intentionally killed tens of thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip using artificial intelligence, among a slew of other war crimes, after finally viewing the documentary weeks after it premiered.

In its response, the military says the film “presents a distorted, misleading and disingenuous picture of the IDF’s target planning and striking process” and that the film’s narrative is “based on substantial factual errors stemming from manipulative misrepresentations of reality.”

The military says that contrary to the film’s claims, the “binding IDF directives explicitly, comprehensively and clearly distinguish between military operatives and uninvolved civilians in Gaza,” and the processes for attacks “are fundamentally based on this distinction, prohibit intentionally directing strikes against civilians, and require mitigating the possibility of harm to them to the greatest extent feasible.”

The IDF says that it “has never planned, approved or carried out any strike in Gaza in which 500 civilians or anything close to that number were expected to be killed,” an allegation brought up in the film, adding that “nor has anyone seriously alleged that an IDF strike caused deaths on that scale or anything close to it.”

On claims of using AI to select targets and approve strikes, the IDF says “artificial intelligence has never independently selected targets to strike in the IDF,” and that “the identification of targets to strike is done only by authorized intelligence officers, strikes are planned by relevant professionals, and the decision whether to strike is made by operational commanders.”

The military also says its directives “have never granted automatic authorization for strikes against targets placing a fixed number of civilians at risk,” such as 20 civilians in an attack on a junior operative or 200 civilians in an attack on a senior commander, as claimed in the film.

On Lavender, described in the film as a tool used by the IDF to identify Hamas members and recommend them for strikes, the military says that Lavender “is not a database of targets approved to strike, but a database that assists intelligence analysts.”

On claims that the IDF carried out strikes in areas after issuing evacuation warnings, even if civilians are still there, the military says that its directives “do not permit an evacuation warning for an area to be treated as authorization to carry out strikes there while disregarding civilians who remain.”

The IDF says that, contrary to claims made in the film, it “does not ignore the aftermath of its strikes but acts to assess them, including with regard to unintended civilian harm,” adding that “these assessments have prompted reviews of hundreds of incidents during the hostilities and provide a basis for lessons learned.”

“Had the filmmakers conducted adequate verification and corroboration of facts in good faith, as professional standards require, they could have identified the substantial errors presented in the film. The end result shows that they did not,” the military says.

The IDF says that many errors in the film arise because “the interviewees, described as having served in IDF intelligence roles, usually refer to only limited, initial stages dealing with intelligence, rather than the much broader process of planning and approving strikes.”

“That process is not the responsibility of intelligence, but of operational bodies that manage and carry out targeting processes. Accordingly, it is apparent that in various cases interviewees raise speculation and assumptions without a factual basis,” the military says.

The IDF accuses the filmmakers of not showing “many of the other individuals involved in the full targeting process,” including those “responsible for planning that mitigates civilian harm, legal advisers who review proposed strikes, and commanders responsible for approving or rejecting them.”

“To fit the narrative the film seeks to promote, the filmmakers also omit context essential to understanding the war in Gaza and the IDF’s conduct during it,” the military says, adding that the film “does not give due weight to Israel’s security reasons for operating in Gaza and the October 7 massacre; to Hamas’ deliberate strategy of embedding itself within the civilian population, which is the root cause of harm to civilians; or the countless actions and methods the IDF employed to mitigate civilian harm, including warnings before strikes, selection of munitions and appropriate strike planning, facilitating humanitarian aid and more.”

Iraq gives Iran-backed factions until June 30, 2027, to disarm

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi announces June 30 as a new deadline for Iran-backed armed factions to turn over their weapons to the state, following the end of the US-led coalition’s mission in the country.

“October 1 is considered a serious beginning to address the issue of weapons outside state control… according to a clear roadmap and agreed timelines extending no later than June 30, 2027,” Zaidi says in a statement, after having backed away from an initial September 30 deadline.

Shin Bet agents said heading to Dubai for security prep ahead of repatriation flights

Shin Bet agents headed to Dubai this morning in preparation for the repatriation of Israeli travelers stranded there following yesterday’s attack on a flydubai plane, the Ynet news outlet reports.

The Shin Bet representatives will handle security preparations ahead of the repatriation flights, which are expected to begin tomorrow.

The flights will be operated by Israel to return passengers who had been booked on non-Israeli airlines and who now find themselves without a way home.

Flydubai, which usually operates up to 10 daily flights along its Dubai-Tel Aviv route, has temporarily suspended flights to Israel as it investigates yesterday’s attack aboard Flight 1073.

The copilot stabbed and seriously injured the pilot and sent the jet plunging nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds before being subdued and tied up by passengers. Two off-duty pilots who were aboard the flight took over the cockpit to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

A second flydubai plane was dispatched to Saudi Arabia hours later to return the roughly 170 passengers to Israel.

IDF: Terrorist who took part in Oct. 7, claimed to be a journalist, killed in Khan Younis

A graphic released by the IDF on October 1, 2026, shows Mhammad Abd al-Aziz, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, Gaza, on September 30, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)

A Hamas terrorist who participated in the October 7, 2023, onslaught and was claimed as a journalist was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, the military says.

The strike in Khan Younis killed Mohammad al-Najar, who Palestinian media identified after his death as a journalist. The IDF says Najar, as a member of Hamas’s military wing, invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.

Najar had been advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians and attempting to restore Hamas capabilities, “while systematically violating the ceasefire agreement,” the military says.

IDF says Hamas commander killed in Gaza City airstrike yesterday

A Hamas commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City yesterday, the military says.

The strike killed Ammar Mahmoud Muhammad al-Sharafi, identified by the military as a company commander in Hamas’s military wing.

The IDF says Sharafi was advancing attacks on Israeli troops and civilians, and working to restore Hamas capabilities, “while systematically violating the ceasefire agreement.”

He was killed to “remove the threat he posed,” the army adds.

Palestinian media reported yesterday that a strike in Gaza City killed four.

Man arrested for alleged plot ‘to shoot up’ Texas Capitol reportedly said he was mad at AIPAC

A 40-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of plotting to attack the Texas Capitol, authorities say.

The Texas Department of Public Safety says in a statement that it received “credible information about an individual planning a violent attack” for Thursday in Austin.

The tip came in Tuesday evening, and SWAT officers made the arrest about 3 a.m. Wednesday at a residence in Converse, near San Antonio.

Benny Caldera Jr. could face charges including felony terroristic threat against a public servant, the DPS statement says. He was jailed and then released on a $75,000 bond, according to the online case docket.

Messages were left seeking comment from John Bunk, an attorney listed for Caldera.

Officials don’t provide details about the alleged plot, citing the ongoing investigation, though an arrest warrant affidavit cited by NBC News quotes a friend of Caldera who said he was angry at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby group, and that “these people have to be exterminated.”

He also reportedly said: “I am going to the Capitol and I am going to shoot it up.”

DPS notified state lawmakers about the threat and arrest early Wednesday. The Capitol remained open during regular operating hours.

Texas Senate Secretary Patsy Spaw says in a notice that there will be increased security at the Capitol during the investigation.

Governor Greg Abbott says the state DPS was assisted by the FBI in making the arrest.

“Texas will NOT tolerate threats of violence against our Capitol,” the governor says in a statement on social media.

Indian PM Modi hails flydubai pilot’s ‘unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others’

In a post on X early on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauds Indian flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar, calling him a “hero.”

“In the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others. His valor helped save hundreds of lives and avert a great tragedy,” Modi says.

Netanyahu-led bloc regains lead in TV poll, but remains well short of Knesset majority

A weekly television poll published by Channel 13 news shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc regaining the lead over his rivals before the elections next month, though still well short of a Knesset majority.

The survey still showed former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party as the largest with 21 seats, down one from last week, followed by Netanyahu’s Likud with 19, B’Yachad with 11, Democrats with 11, Yisrael Beytenu with nine, Joint List with nine, Otzma Yehudit with eight, United Torah Judaism with eight, Shas with seven, Religious Zionism-Zehut with seven, Ra’am with five and People of Israel with five.

Unlike the network’s poll from last week, the party co-led by Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha — which has not committed to either bloc — failed to clear the minimum threshold to enter the Knesset.

Together, parties that support Netanyahu as prime minister would have 54 seats if the elections were held today, versus 52 for the opposition Zionist bloc and 14 for Arab-majority factions aligned with neither of the sides. Sixty-one seats are needed for a majority in the Knesset.

The survey has 1,013 respondents and a 2.5% margin of error.

Netanyahu says flydubai pilot, Israelis who stormed cockpit ‘managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster’

Appearing on CNN, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that those who thwarted the copilot of a flydubai flight from an apparent attempt to crash the plane “managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster.”

“That’s what it looks like was happening as far as the specific motivations of this,” Netanyahu tells the US cable network.

It’s not immediately clear if Netanyahu is suggesting that the copilot’s goal was to fly the plane into a building after attacking the pilot. The premier was earlier told by one of the Israelis who stormed the cockpit that the copilot was “trying to destroy the controls in order to disable the plane,” which at the time was over Saudi Arabia.

Netanyahu turns to his call with US President Donald Trump, who he hold “about this amazing, amazing act of heroism that saved a disaster that would have been not only a disaster for Israel, but you can imagine how it could affect the global aviation.”

“What distinguishes this incident from the other tragic attacks was at this time, the good guys won,” the prime minister adds.

He also says there was no prior intelligence about the attack.

Copilot ‘was perhaps a terrorist or a whack-job,’ says Trump after call with Netanyahu; marvels that Israeli plumber ‘leveled out the plane’

US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, September 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

US President Donald Trump says he spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the apparent attempt to hijack and crash a flydubai flight full of Israelis and that it seems the copilot “was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack-job.”

Trump says he was told by Netanyahu and others about how “an Israeli plumber, never flew a plane… saw what was happening,” tackled the suspect — “ripped this guy out of his seat” and then “took the stick, lifted it up, and leveled out the plane before it crashed.”

“I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got from Bibi and from a couple of other people,” Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office, referring to the heroics of Yaniv Hayun.

“When I asked how he did that,” Trump says, Netanyahu explained that the heroic plumber “watches that show Air Disasters.”

“They said [the copilot] wanted to crash the plane, but they don’t have that kind of [definitive] information,” he adds.