The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they unfolded.
Germany welcomes the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, saying it hopes the truce can pave the way for a “future as good neighbors” for Israel and Lebanon.
The 10-day truce announced by US President Donald Trump “can offer people on both sides of the border an important respite,” Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says in a statement.
He says direct talks launched this week in Washington — the first since 1993 — open the door to “a future as good neighbors” provided “Israel’s legitimate security interests and Lebanon’s right to territorial integrity and sovereignty” are both respected.
He adds that the two sides must now work on border security, civilian protection along the Blue Line and the safety of UN peacekeepers deployed with UNIFIL.
“Lasting security in the region will only be possible with the effective disarmament of Hezbollah,” he says, adding it is now up to the Lebanese government to “implement this effectively.”
The foreign minister thanks Washington “for its efforts as mediator, particularly over the past few days.”
In an updated toll, Magen David Adom says three people were injured, including two seriously, as a result of Hezbollah’s rocket barrages on northern Israel this evening.
In the Karmiel area, a 25-year-old male motorcyclist and a 17-year-old girl are listed in serious condition, after being hit by shrapnel, MDA says.
In Nahariya, MDA says a man in his 40s was moderately injured by another impact.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc continues to fall far short of the electoral support necessary to form a coalition after the next election, according to several opinion polls released this evening.
According to Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language sister site, if elections were held today, Netanyahu’s Likud would receive 28 of 120 Knesset seats, followed by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar! and former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s Bennett 2026 party, with 16 each. Yisrael Beytenu would garner 10 seats, followed by Shas and The Democrats with 9 each, United Torah Judaism with 8, Otzma Yehudit with 6, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and the Islamist Ra’am with 5 each and Hadash-Ta’al and Blue and White each with 4.
The poll has the current coalition at 51 seats in total, while the Zionist opposition would receive 60 and the Arab parties 9. Neither side would be able to form a government without the support of the Arabs.
If Eisenkot, Lapid and Bennett ran together, their combined list would receive 38 seats, making it the largest faction in the Knesset, but it would not significantly change the size of the blocs, the poll finds.
According to a separate poll by the Israel Hayom daily, Likud dropped from 28 in a previous poll to 26 seats, while the coalition went from 53 to 52, a drop the paper linked to public anger over the current ceasefire with Iran. Bennett received 20 seats, followed by Eisenkot at 14, Otzma Yehudit at 10, Shas and The Democrats at 9, Yisrael Beytenu at 8, United Torah Judaism at 7, and Yesh Atid, Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am at 6.
Meanwhile, a Channel 12 survey finds Likud at 25, Bennett at 20 and Eisenkot at 14. Benny Gantz’s Blue and White fails to cross the electoral threshold. Per Channel 12’s poll, the coalition would get 51 seats while the opposition would garner 69, but 59 without the Arab parties.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party fails to cross the electoral threshold in any of the polls.
A man in his 40s is moderately hurt in Nahariya following Hezbollah’s latest rocket barrage, medics say.
Magen David Adom says the man was hit by fragments following an interception.
Rescue forces are responding to reports of a rocket impact in Nahariya following Hezbollah’s latest barrage.
Several cars are ablaze as a result of the impact, though there are no immediate reports of injuries.
Rescue forces are responding to reports of a rocket impact in Nahariya following Hezbollah's latest barrage.
Several cars are ablaze by the impact. pic.twitter.com/tckGpKNrZw
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 16, 2026
The Israeli Air Force struck several Hezbollah rocket launchers used in barrages on northern Israel a short while ago, the military says.
Hezbollah increased its rocket fire on the north this evening, shortly before a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon takes effect.
US President Donald Trump says Pope Leo is free to say what he wants but that it is important for him to understand that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the religious leader, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the US-Israeli war on Iran in recent weeks.
Trump says he is responsible for Leo’s appointment, and has accused him of being “weak” on foreign policy.
“The Pope has to understand — it’s very simple — Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. The world would be in great danger,” he tells reporters at the White House.
Trump’s criticism has triggered widespread backlash from US Christians across the political spectrum.
Leo, originally from Chicago, decried the “madness of war” in a peace appeal on Saturday.
“The Pope can say what he wants, and I want him to say what he wants, but I can disagree,” Trump says.
The White House indicates that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already agreed on Wednesday night, in principle, to a ceasefire with Hezbollah during a phone call with US President Donald Trump.
The ceasefire wasn’t announced until Thursday evening and caught Israel’s security cabinet off guard, given that they had ended a meeting about a potential truce the night before without making any decision on the matter.
Sharing how the ceasefire came about from Washington’s perspective, a White House official tells The Times of Israel that momentum began building following the trilateral meeting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio held at the State Department with Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to Washington this week.
During the meeting, the first of its kind in decades, Lebanon “acknowledged Hezbollah is a mutual problem for both Israel and Lebanon,” the White House official says. The next day, Trump held a phone call with Netanyahu during which the premier “agreed to a ceasefire with certain terms.”
Later on Wednesday, Rubio held a phone call with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun where he coaxed him to agree to Israel’s terms for a ceasefire, which apparently included allowing Israel to maintain a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
On Thursday morning, Trump spoke separately with Aoun and Netanyahu in order to finalize the agreement, which was then announced by the US president on Truth Social.
While those calls took place, the State Department worked with Lebanese and Israeli officials to craft a memorandum of understanding for the ceasefire, the White House official says.
The official expressed hope that the truce would help accelerate talks on a permanent peace deal between the two countries.
Channel 12 and Channel 13 reported tonight that Shin Bet chief David Zini’s recent letter to court authorities arguing security considerations prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from currently giving testimony in his criminal trial was written over the objections of the agency’s legal officials.
Channel 13 said unnamed legal officials wanted further details on the alleged risks to Netanyahu, while Channel 12 said the Shin Bet’s chief legal council opposed the letter outright, saying it contained problematic claims.
Zini is reported to have told the courts that there were concerns that Iranian agents may try to harm the premier. Responding to the report, the Movement for Quality Government watchdog group noted that former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar had said in an affidavit last year that he had refused a request by Netanyahu to provide an opinion to the court to advocate for the cancellation of his testimony based on security considerations.
Zini’s actions have led to claims by critics that he is carrying out Netanyahu’s wishes, in order to drag out the trial.
The State Attorney’s Office on Tuesday requested that the Jerusalem District Court hand over the reported Shin Bet document. In a letter to the court, the State Attorney’s Office said it had not received Zini’s position paper, despite standard practice for the prosecutor’s office to receive information pertinent to court proceedings, and had learned of it through media reports.
A man has been seriously wounded following Hezbollah’s latest rocket attack on northern Israel, medics say.
According to the IDF, some 10 rockets were fired toward Karmiel, eight of which were intercepted, and the rest hit open areas. Another five rockets were fired at Nahariya, four of which were intercepted, and the rest hit open areas.
Magen David Adom says it is treating a 25-year-old man in Karmiel who was apparently hit by fragments following an interception. He is listed in serious condition, MDA says.
The IDF said it was gearing up for increased Hezbollah rocket fire on northern Israel ahead of the upcoming ceasefire. As of now, there were no changes in the Home Front Command’s guidelines for civilians, the military added.
Hezbollah fired some 10 rockets and two drones from Lebanon at the Western Galilee a short while ago, a short time before a ceasefire between the sides is to go into effect.
According to the IDF, most of the rockets were intercepted, and one struck an open area, and the drones were also shot down.
There are no reports of injuries.
The text of the 10-day ceasefire agreement Israel agreed to in Lebanon allows the IDF to carry out strikes against “planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks,” but bars “offensive” operations against any Lebanese target.
“Israel shall preserve its right to take all necessary measures in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks. This shall not be impeded by the cessation of hostilities,” reads the text of the agreement released by the US State Department, which says the document was approved by Israel and Lebanon.
“Besides this, [Israel] will not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, including civilian, military and other state targets, in the territory of Lebanon by land, air and sea,” the agreement says.
The agreement says that the initial 10-day ceasefire can be extended by mutual agreement if progress is made during subsequent negotiations between the sides and “as Lebanon effectively demonstrates its ability to assert its sovereignty.”
The text also states that Lebanon will take “meaningful steps” to prevent Hezbollah and other non-state armed groups from carrying out attacks on Israel once the 10-day truce is in place.
Israel and Lebanon have requested that the US facilitate further direct talks between their countries “with the objective of resolving all remaining issues, including demarcation of the international land boundary, with a view to concluding a comprehensive agreement that ensures lasting security, stability and peace between the two countries,” the text states.
The memorandum of understanding also says that the sides “will work to create conditions conducive to lasting peace between the two countries, full recognition of each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and establishing genuine security along their shared border, while preserving Israel’s inherent right to self-defense.”
The MOU says both countries recognize the significant threat non-state armed actors, such as Hezbollah, pose to Lebanon’s sovereignty and regional stability.
Israel and Lebanon also recognize that armed non-state actors must therefore be curtailed so that the Lebanese security forces are the only ones in the country allowed to bear arms.
“Israel and Lebanon affirm that the two countries are not at war and commit to engaging in good-faith direct negotiations, facilitated by the United States, with the objective of achieving a comprehensive agreement that ensures lasting security, stability, and peace between the two countries,” the MOU says.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has a “historic” opportunity to reach a peace agreement with Lebanon, as a 10-day ceasefire is set to take effect tonight at midnight.
“We have an opportunity to reach a historic peace agreement with Lebanon,” Netanyahu says in a prerecorded video statement, noting that US President Donald Trump intends to invite him and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to the White House to advance talks.
He says the opening comes after Israel “changed the balance of power in Lebanon,” pointing to past operations such as the 2024 pager attack that targeted hundreds of Hezbollah operatives, the erosion of the group’s rocket and missile arsenal, and the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
He adds that Israel had received calls from Lebanon in the past month for direct talks “for the first time in over 40 years.”
“I answered that call,” Netanyahu says.
He says Israel agreed to a “temporary 10-day ceasefire” to try to move negotiations forward, but stressed that core demands remain unchanged: “The disarmament of Hezbollah” and “a sustainable peace – peace through strength.”
He says he rejected Hezbollah’s conditions for a ceasefire — “that Israel withdraw from all Lebanese territory up to the international border” and “a ceasefire in the format of ‘quiet for quiet'” — but that the group agreed to a truce anyway. He emphasizes that Israeli forces will remain in Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening:
"We have an opportunity to forge a historic peace agreement with Lebanon. President @realDonaldTrump intends to invite me and the President of Lebanon in order to try to advance this agreement.
1/13 pic.twitter.com/lYMjAzm2Je
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 16, 2026
“We are remaining in Lebanon in an expanded security zone… 10 kilometers wide much stronger, more powerful, more continuous, and more solid than what we had before,” he says, adding the deployment is meant to “block the threat of infiltration” and prevent anti-tank fire on northern communities.
Netanyahu acknowledges Hezbollah retains some capabilities, saying “there are still rockets that they have left. We will also need to address that as part of progress toward a security agreement and a lasting peace agreement.”
He also says that after speaking with Trump over the past two days, the American president is “strongly determined to continue both the naval blockade [on Iran] and efforts to dismantle what remains of Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” adding that joint steps could “remove this threat once and for all” and “fundamentally change our security and diplomatic situation for years to come.”
US President Trump says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will likely hold their White House meeting in the next week or two.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump expresses his optimism that the meeting will lead to an agreement between the two countries, which would ostensibly build on the 10-day ceasefire set to take effect in the coming hours.
Trump says the Lebanese government will “take care of Hezbollah.”
Describing the ceasefire he brokered hours earlier, Trump says, “It’s a very nice little package for about a week, and we’re not going to have lots of bombs dropping, and we’re going to see if we can make peace between Lebanon and Israel.”
Asked how this initiative will be different from other Israel-Lebanon peace efforts, Trump responds, “Me. I’m the difference.”
US President Donald Trump says a second round of talks with Iran could take place this weekend.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump expresses his hope that a temporary extension of the two-week truce set to expire on April 21 won’t be necessary and that the sides would reach a deal for a permanent ceasefire.
Trump says he may even travel to Pakistan for a signing ceremony if a deal is reached.
Trump claims the US blockade of Iranian-linked ships trying to cross through the Strait of Hormuz has been an effective tool in bringing Iran to the table.
“Iran wants to make a deal, and we’re dealing very nicely with them,” Trump says.
He insists his red line is that Iran cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. He then claims that Tehran has already agreed to this demand and to give up its stockpile of highly-enriched uranium — something the Islamic Republic has not shown any indication that it is prepared to do.
“We have a very good relationship with Iran right now… and I think it’s a combination of about four weeks of bombing and a very powerful blockade,” Trump says.
This week, the IDF Artillery Corps conducted its first operational shelling with the new Ro’em self-propelled howitzer, in support of ground forces operating in southern Lebanon.
The 282nd Artillery Regiment used the Ro’em, also known as the SIGMA 155, to shell Hezbollah rocket and anti-tank launch sites. The military says the shelling was “deemed successful and yielded achievements.”
The IDF says the Ro’em brings “groundbreaking capabilities to the battlefield,” including increased fire-rate, longer firing ranges, and better mobility than existing howitzers.
The Ro’em will enter service gradually through the conversion of artillery battalions that currently operate the aging M109 howitzer.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says he spoke with Anita Orban of Hungary’s Tisza party, following its election victory earlier this week, congratulating her on the win and her expected appointment as foreign minister.
In a post on X, Sa’ar also welcomes the commitment of Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar to continue Hungary’s efforts to combat antisemitism and protect its Jewish community.
“We have a very strong Jewish community living in Hungary, one of the largest, thankfully, in security, safety and peace and zero tolerance in Hungary to all forms of antisemitism,” Magyar said on Monday. “This is going to continue.”
Sa’ar says Israel values its “longstanding and excellent” ties with Hungary and that the two agreed to meet soon after the new government is sworn in.
Israeli troops will remain deployed to southern Lebanon amid the upcoming 10-day ceasefire with Hezbollah.
An Israeli official tells the Ynet news site that “our forces will remain deep inside Lebanese territory” and that the IDF will act against any threat, similar to the arrangement in the November 2024 ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel continued to strike Hezbollah operatives it said were violating the truce.
“As in Gaza and as in Lebanon before Operation Roaring Lion, we will act not only against danger but also against an emerging threat and strike it immediately,” the official is quoted as saying.
The official adds that “if in the next 10 days the Lebanese government does not take practical action to dismantle Hezbollah, we will do so with great force immediately afterward.”
The IDF is currently stationed several kilometers deep inside southern Lebanon amid a ground offensive against Hezbollah.
So far, there has been no official statement from Israeli officials or the military on the ceasefire and its terms.
Hezbollah says the presence of Israeli troops on Lebanese territory will grant Lebanon and its people “the right to resist,” adding in its first comment on a proposed truce that any ceasefire must not allow Israel freedom of movement within Lebanon.
In a written statement, Hezbollah ally and speaker of Lebanon’s Parliament Nabih Berri urges Lebanese to “postpone their return to their towns and villages until the situation becomes clearer, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement.”
Municipal leaders in northern Israel are expressing outrage over the announcement of a ceasefire with Lebanon.
David Azoulay, head of the Metula council and a member of the Yisrael Beytenu party, says residents of the north “feel betrayed once again” by the deal.
“The fact that it is the president of the United States who is the one announcing a ceasefire only highlights how disconnected the prime minister of Israel is from the people, and from the reality of the residents of the north,” says Azoulay. In a direct appeal to Netanyahu, he says: “Your basic duty as prime minister of Israel is to provide security to the citizens of the state. In practice, you fail at this time after time.”
Moshe Davidovitz, head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council and chairman of the forum of residents on the northern frontline, criticizes the agreement, saying: “Agreements are signed by tie-wearers in Washington, but the price is paid here in blood, in destroyed homes, and in shattered communities.
“The residents of the north are not extras in an international PR show,” he says. “Until we see Hezbollah stripped of its capabilities and our communities truly protected, any celebration of victory is nothing more than an attempt to pull the wool over the public’s eyes.”
Asaf Langleben, head of the Upper Galilee Regional Council, describes the ceasefire as “a pause” that will inevitably lead to another round of fighting. He says the north “deserves a decisive outcome that will create real security, not a temporary illusion whose end is disaster.”
Benny Ben-Muvhar, head of the Mevo’ot HaHermon Regional Council, tells Channel 12 that he cannot assure residents who evacuated southward that it is safe to return home, warning that “there is no security here.”
He says residents who evacuated south “are scared to come home,” adding, “We’ve been underground [in shelters] for two months so the IDF could do what it had to do… enough of these games.”
Ben-Muvhar also rejects the notion that a continued IDF deployment in Lebanon would ensure calm, saying it is “absolutely not” sufficient, and urges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene northern leaders for a closed forum on the matter.
Local leaders in northern Israel are warning residents to prepare for possible increased rocket fire from Hezbollah in the coming hours, ahead of the midnight start of a ceasefire.
Terror groups have often increased the rate of fire prior to cessation of hostilities in order to underline their remaining capabilities.
European Commission president Ursula Von Der Leyen welcomes the 10-day ceasefire declared between Israel and Hezbollah that was announced by US President Donald Trump.
“This is a relief, as this conflict has already claimed far too many lives,” von der Leyen writes on X, adding that it must lead to “permanent peace.”
“Europe will continue to call for the full respect of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she says.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett unveils a sweeping multi-point plan for increasing handicapped access and integrating the disabled into the Israeli economy, stating that this will turn Israel into “a light unto the nations.”
Addressing supporters and representatives of the disabled community at an event in the central city of Bnei Brak, Bennett pledges to ensure that intercity buses become fully accessible and promises to encourage the disabled to enter the workforce without endangering their government benefits, which he says have until now provided an “incentive” not to seek employment.
Doing so, he says, will help people who are “not looking for a handout but looking for an opportunity” and will greatly benefit the Israeli economy.
The idea is the brainchild of Zach Cutler, a disabled US-born tech entrepreneur. Speaking with The Times of Israel, Cutler calls the program the “Israeli ADA,” referring to the United State’s landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990.
“Ground transportation needs a big improvement, busses and taxis. Also, tourism sites throughout Israel, heritage sites, nature sites, things like that. [And] we’re going to do a lot of things to mobilize the disabled community much more into the workforce. We can grow GDP by up to 1% if we add 12,000 people a year for the next 10 years,” he says — adding that Bennett’s party also intends to make it significantly easier for disabled Israelis to serve in the IDF.
“Right now, you have to volunteer if you have a disability… and you have to go through a committee. It’s almost like you’re begging them to be in the army. And so the plan calls for making like serious track for people with disabilities to have senior positions, great positions in 8200 [signals intelligence unit] and other top units in a more normal dignified way.”
The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation (AJCF) filed a criminal complaint yesterday against far-right Polish lawmaker Konrad Berkowicz after he called Israel the “new Third Reich” and displayed an Israeli flag defaced with a Nazi swastika inside parliament.
Speaking in parliament hours before the annual March of the Living at Auschwitz-Birkenau on Tuesday, Berkowicz alleged that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza and made unverified claims about the use of phosphorus munitions against civilians. He compared the number of children killed in Gaza to the war in Ukraine and described graphic scenes of suffering before unveiling the modified flag.
The AJCF said the act distorted Holocaust history and risked inciting hatred. Polish law strictly prohibits Nazi symbolism, and legal experts say the parliamentary context may influence prosecutors’ assessment of the case, AJCF noted.
The complaint, submitted to prosecutors in Warsaw, alleges violations of Polish laws banning the promotion of totalitarian ideologies and incitement to hatred. The foundation also lodged an ethics complaint with parliament, calling for disciplinary action.
“When [Holocaust] history is inverted and its symbols are weaponized to incite new hatred, it is not only an offense against the dead. It is a direct assault on everything this institution stands for,” said AJCF director Tomasz Kuncewicz.
Polish MP Konrad Berkowicz compares Israel’s crimes against humanity to those of the Third Reich and displays an Israeli flag with a swastika.
Israel is the new Third Reich! pic.twitter.com/Uo8GBcgQcc
— Sławomir Mentzen (@SlawomirMentzen) April 14, 2026
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells security cabinet ministers that he agreed to a ceasefire with Lebanon at the request of US President Donald Trump, and pushes back against demands for an official vote on the matter, Hebrew media reports.
“When Israel’s greatest friend, President Trump, is acting alongside us in close coordination, Israel cooperates with him,” Netanyahu is quoted as saying by Ynet.
He also reportedly tells ministers that the IDF will remain positioned at the “strategic points” it currently holds during the 10-day ceasefire, which begins tonight.
The remarks come after ministers reportedly expressed anger at learning of the ceasefire from media reports rather than approving it through a formal cabinet decision.
Netanyahu’s discussion with the security cabinet is held on the ministers’ personal phones, rather than on secure lines, Channel 12 reports.
Netanyahu is also said to have pledged a security cabinet discussion on the issue at a later stage.
Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi tells AFP that the Lebanese terror group will respect a ceasefire with Israel announced by US President Donald Trump if Israeli attacks on the organization stop.
“We in Hezbollah will cautiously adhere to the ceasefire on the condition that it is a comprehensive halt to hostilities against us and that Israel not use it to carry out any assassinations,” he says.
“We express thanks to Iran for having applied pressure in Lebanon’s favour,” he says, adding that “the ceasefire would not have happened without Iran considering the ceasefire as equal to closing the Strait of Hormuz.”
Two sanctioned cargo vessels have crossed the Strait of Hormuz, apparently bound for Iranian ports despite Washington’s blockade in the Middle East war, tracking data indicates.
A trickle of ships has passed the crucial trade route over the past two days after the US imposed a counter-blockade following the failure of peace talks to end the nearly seven-week conflict.
The US military says on X that “after 72 hours of enforcement, 14 vessels have turned around to comply with the blockade at the direction of American forces.”
However, unlike previous updates, it does not say that it prevented all crossing attempts by vessels going to or from Iranian ports.
Late Wednesday, the sanctioned container ship Zaynar 2 made its way westward through the strait into the Gulf, according to the tracking platform Marine Traffic. The website specified its destination as Larak Island, close to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, and it last transponded close to that location late Wednesday.
The sanctioned cargo vessel Neshat followed a similar route, hugging the Iran coastline as it crossed the strait early Thursday, with Marine Traffic citing its destination as Bandar Abbas. Its latest signal at around 1500 GMT showed it anchored 10 miles (16 kilometres) from the port.
“There’s evidence that ships are perhaps breaking through” the US blockade, Tom Sharpe, a former commander with the UK’s Royal Navy, tells a briefing for the maritime analyst group Windward.
Opposition leaders are assailing the government for agreeing to a ceasefire in Lebanon while Hezbollah remains a threat.
“Not for the first time, all the promises of this government collapse in the face of reality,” says Opposition Leader Yair Lapid. “The confrontation in Lebanon can end in only one way — the permanent removal of the threat to the northern communities. With this government, that won’t happen. We’ll do it under the next government.”
Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman says: “The October 7 government has learned nothing. Once again, Hezbollah is being given time to recover and grow stronger. The war must not end without a clear victory and the elimination of Hezbollah. Otherwise, the next round is only a matter of time — at a heavier cost and under far worse conditions. In the next government, I will ensure the security of the residents of the north!”
Former IDF chief of staff and Yashar party chief Gadi Eisenkot says the ceasefire “is the result of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s inability to translate military achievements into political gains, and therefore a ceasefire is being imposed on us for the third time.
“A ceasefire should come from a position of strength, as an Israeli decision and from a position of power, in order to serve the negotiations. A pattern is emerging in which ceasefires are being imposed on us — in Gaza, in Iran, and now in Lebanon.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomes the newly announced ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.
“As I congratulate all Lebanese on this achievement, I pray for the martyrs who fell, and affirm my solidarity with their families, with the wounded, and with the citizens who were forced to flee their cities and villages,” he says on X. “I hold full hope that they will be able to return to them as soon as possible.”
أرحّب بإعلان وقف إطلاق النار الذي أعلنه الرئيس ترامب، وهو مطلب لبناني محوري سعينا إليه منذ اليوم الأول للحرب، وكان هدفنا الأول في لقاء واشنطن يوم الثلاثاء. وإذ أهنّئ جميع اللبنانيين بهذا الإنجاز، أترحّم على الشهداء الذين سقطوا، وأؤكّد تضامني مع عائلاتهم، ومع الجرحى، ومع المواطنين…
— Nawaf Salam نواف سلام (@nawafsalam) April 16, 2026
He goes on to thank international leaders for their efforts to end the fighting.
Passengers seeking to take the train to and from Jerusalem now need to register in advance following a new directive to maintain safety and security, unrelated to Israel’s external conflicts.
According to the new directive issued by the Israel Police earlier this month, each train on the Jerusalem line will be limited to 1,200 passengers to ensure a quick and safe response in the event of an emergency or evacuation on the mostly underground tunnel route, Israel Railways says. The Yitzhak Navon Jerusalem train station is located 80 meters underground.
Due to the restriction, each passenger taking the Jerusalem train is required to issue a travel voucher with a barcode either online, via customer service, or at a train station in addition to purchasing a ticket. As trains to and from Jerusalem operate every half an hour, they don’t reach a capacity of 1,200 passengers per train on regular days, Israel Railways says.
Details on the new rules can be found here.
Stock markets advance cautiously on expectations that a Mideast ceasefire will soon let oil and gas tankers resume transit through the Strait of Hormuz, easing inflation pressures that have upended economies worldwide.
Signs of fresh talks aimed at ending the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran have pushed stock indexes to all-time highs, suggesting investors expect a quick economic rebound from the conflict.
European stocks ended largely just in the green, with London and Frankfurt adding a little shy of 0.5 percent on the day, while Paris slipped slightly.
Two hours into Wall Street trading, the Dow Jones is up just 0.1 percent at 48,499.95 points, with the broader-based S&P 500 adding 0.2 percent, though the tech-heavy Nasdaq is off 0.1 percent.
The Tokyo stock market earlier reached a record high, following all-time peaks for key US indexes on Wednesday as investors cheered healthy earnings for American blue chips despite surging oil prices and rising inflation overall.
Tehran is “cautiously optimistic” about its negotiations on ending hostilities with the United States, the Iranian ambassador to the UN says, expressing hope for a “meaningful outcome.”
“Despite our deep mistrust of the United States, stemming from its repeated betrayal of diplomacy, we nevertheless entered the negotiations in good faith and remain cautiously optimistic,” Amir Saeid Iravani says during a meeting of the UN General Assembly.
He adds that if Washington adopts “a rational and constructive approach…these negotiations can lead to a meaningful outcome.”
Mediated by Pakistan, efforts are underway to organize a second round of negotiations between Tehran and Washington to bring a lasting end to the war, following a first round in Islamabad last weekend.
Moments after announcing a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, US President Donald Trump says he will be inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to the White House “for the first meaningful talks between Israel and Lebanon since 1983.”
“Both sides want to see PEACE, and I believe that will happen, quickly!” Trump writes.
The 1983 talks between Israel and Lebanon referenced by Trump were aimed at an Israeli withdrawal following the 1982 Lebanon war, though the agreement reached ultimately fell through.
Before Israeli and Lebanese envoys met in the US earlier this week, laying the ground work for today’s ceasefire announcement, the last time senior officials from the two countries met in-person was in 1993, as part of the Madrid Peace Conference, which sought to bring together Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Trump has referenced that previous meeting, while incorrectly stating that it took place 34 years ago.
A Netanyahu-Aoun meeting at the White House would be the Israeli premier’s seventh visit to the US, the most of any foreign leader by far.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an urgent meeting over the phone with members of Israel’s security cabinet to discuss the ceasefire with Lebanon, Hebrew media reports.
According to the reports, ministers were given just five minutes’ notice ahead of the call, coinciding with US President Donald Trump’s announcement a short while ago of a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon beginning tonight.
Reports say ministers expressed anger at hearing about the ceasefire from the media, and without having voted on the matter.
US President Donald Trump announces a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah will take effect at 5 p.m. Eastern Time (12:00 a.m. Israel time Thursday-Friday).
“I just had excellent conversations with the highly respected President Joseph Aoun, of Lebanon, and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel,” Trump writes on Truth Social.
“These two leaders have agreed that in order to achieve PEACE between their countries, they will formally begin a 10 Day CEASEFIRE at 5 P.M. EST,” Trump says.
Trump says he has directed US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine to “work with Israel and Lebanon to achieve a Lasting PEACE.”
Late Wednesday night, Trump announced that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon would be holding a historic phone call on Thursday. But Aoun balked at the idea, insisting that Israel agree to a ceasefire first. It’s unclear whether such a call will take place now that a truce has been announced.
A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon could be announced tonight, Reuters and Axios reporter Barak Ravid say, with both citing Israeli officials.
There is no official word on the matter from the government.
US President Donald Trump spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the past 24 hours, shortly before holding a call with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to discuss a potential ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, Channel 12 reports.
It remains unclear what Trump and Netanyahu discussed.
The report comes after Trump’s call with Aoun, during which the American president said he was committed to meeting the Lebanese request for a ceasefire.
Pope Leo blasts leaders who spend billions on wars and says the world is “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants,” in unusually forceful remarks in Cameroon days after US President Donald Trump attacked him on social media.
Leo, the first US pope, also decries leaders who used religious language to justify wars and urges a “decisive change of course” in a meeting in the biggest city in Cameroon’s anglophone regions, where a simmering conflict going back nearly a decade has left thousands dead.
“The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild,” the pontiff says. “They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found.”
Trump’s attacks on Leo, first launched on the eve of the pope’s ambitious four-country tour of Africa and repeated late Tuesday, have caused dismay in Africa, where more than a fifth of the world’s Catholics live.
Leo, who kept a relatively low profile for most of his first year as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church, has emerged as an outspoken critic of the war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir puts out a defiant statement following today’s High Court decision that limits his ability to make senior police appointments.
“I will continue to appoint [police officers] based on who implements [my] policy, as I have done up until this point, and if the attorney general interferes, we’ll blow up the negotiations,” he writes.
The ruling — meant to temporarily curb the far-right minister’s intervention in internal police matters as he enters talks to set defined limits on his influence — was issued in response to a petition demanding the court order his dismissal.
Petitioners claim Ben Gvir has routinely attempted to exert political pressure on police officers, undermining law enforcement’s independence.
Rather than accepting the petitioners’ request, justices enjoined Ben Gvir to reach an agreement with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara that would limit his ability to intervene in police promotions, investigations and other sensitive matters.
In the meantime the court bars the minister from appointing officers to sensitive and senior law enforcement positions without agreement from police’s senior command. Before making any appointment in the realm of “investigations, law enforcement, freedom of expression and demonstration or [police’s] legal counsel,” the minister must also notify Baharav-Miara one week in advance, so she can provide an opinion regarding the prospective appointment.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office confirms a phone call between him and US President Donald Trump earlier today.
Aoun thanked Trump for his efforts to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon, the Lebanese readout says, ostensibly referring to US pressure on Israel to hold its fire on Hezbollah — something Jerusalem has yet to agree to.
Trump responded by expressing his support for Aoun’s government, saying that he is committed to meeting the Lebanese request for a ceasefire, the Lebanese readout adds.
The Israeli Navy discloses that its Shayetet 13 commando unit conducted an unprecedented operation during the multifront war of recent years, at a location “thousands of kilometers” from Israel, in an area where it has never operated before.
No further details are given on the nature of the commando operation, including exactly when or where it was conducted.
Additionally, the Navy discloses that as part of the recent war with Iran, a submarine operated at the farthest-ever distance from Israel in the history of the submarine fleet.
Navy submarines were deployed at three arenas simultaneously during the war, with thousands of kilometers between them, according to the military.
Additionally, during the war the Navy was involved in some 40 “aerial threat incidents,” shooting down several dozen drones, the IDF says.
The Navy with its warships conducted 53 strikes in Lebanon and six in the Gaza Strip amid the war with Iran. And the Naval Intelligence Division provided information and planning for some 95 airstrikes in Iran, according to the military.
The information is published by the military as Vice Adm. Eyal Harel takes over the Navy from Vice Adm. David Saar Salama, who is retiring from the military after four and a half years in the role and 39 years of service.
A handover ceremony is being held this evening at the Atlit naval base near Haifa.
Hezbollah fired a barrage of five rockets at the Krayot suburbs of Haifa a short while ago.
According to the IDF, some of the rockets launched from Lebanon were intercepted and others hit open areas.
There are no reports of injuries.
Lebanese and Arab media outlets report that US President Donald Trump is currently speaking on the phone with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. According to a report by the Qatari channel Al-Araby, Trump told Aoun that a ceasefire in Lebanon is expected to be announced within hours.
No further details were provided.
The KKL-JNF Jewish National Fund announces a new, NIS 30 million ($10 million) budget to give northern residents respite from Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks.
The cash will enable each of around 15,000 residents living up to nine kilometers (5.6 miles) from the northern border to spend five days in one of 26 hotels, with half board, free transportation and educational and recreational activities.
Local authorities will choose the participants, giving priority to vulnerable populations such as the elderly, the disabled, and residents who lack adequate protection.
At the end of March, the KKL launched its first respite program, which took some 6,000 people living within two kilometers (1.25 miles) of the Lebanese border for a two-night rest in a hotel.
The organization has also budgeted around NIS 800,000 ($265,000) to take school pupils away from the immediate border area to quieter classrooms where they can study in peace.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein Hajj Hassan tells AFP that the Lebanese government’s decision to hold direct negotiations with Israel is a “grave error,” urging Beirut to stop making concessions to Israel and the United States.
“Direct negotiations with the enemy are a grave sin and a grave error… and serve no interest for the country,” Hajj Hassan says from his parliamentary office, urging authorities to halt “this series of useless concessions.”
Dozens of Palestinian children have been unable to go to school in the West Bank this week because of barbed wire erected by Jewish settlers across the path they normally use.
Dozens of children tried on Monday to get to school in the small village of Umm al-Khair near the city of Hebron for the first time since the US-Israeli war with Iran began. They found their way blocked by barbed wire that villagers said had been placed there by Israelis from the nearby Carmel settlement.
Khalil Hathaleen, head of the Umm al-Khair village council, said the barbed wire prevented children from the outskirts of the village taking their usual safe path through a valley to the school in the village center.
Otherwise, he said, the children would have to walk along a road he described as dangerous, because it passes closer to the settlement.
“We insist on using the main path that our children have always taken,” he said, accusing settlers of trying to take over the land so that they can expand their settlement.
TODAY: Children from Khirbet Umm al-Khair, a village in Masafer Yatta, in the southern West Bank, protest together with other residents after settlers blocked the only road leading to their school Sunday night, placing razor sharp wire fencing, jeopardizing the children’s safety. pic.twitter.com/Zlcy2ZfnZl
— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) April 16, 2026
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says the barbed wire is part of a coordinated campaign by settlers and the Israeli military to intimidate Palestinians and drive them from their land in the West Bank, which it said amounts to “ethnic cleansing.”
A video that a Palestinian activist said he had filmed on April 13, and verified by Reuters, shows boys and girls sitting and standing by the newly erected barbed wire fence.
Dozens of Palestinian children have been unable to go to school in the Israeli-occupied West Bank this week because of a barbed-wire fence villagers say was put up by Jewish settlers across the path they normally use https://t.co/Jiz5eDlsDu pic.twitter.com/azRFR100AY
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 16, 2026
Residents said Israeli soldiers had later fired teargas, causing several children to experience breathing difficulties. Some residents described the children’s symptoms as if they were suffocating. In the video, smoke can be seen rising.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday that soldiers had used “riot dispersal means” against several adult Palestinians who it said had tried to reach the security perimeter of the Carmel settlement. The military acknowledged that children were present but said they were not targeted.
An impact is reported in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona following the latest Hezbollah rocket attack, which triggered sirens in several northern communities.
There are no immediate reports of injuries.
Israel has told Ukraine it is too late to act against a Russian vessel accused of carrying stolen Ukrainian grain, as the ship has already departed Haifa Port, Barak Ravid of Channel 12 and Axios reports.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar reportedly sent a message to his Ukrainian counterpart saying the vessel can no longer be detained. Ravid says Israel had been aware of it two weeks before it arrived.
Senior Ukrainian officials tell Ravid they made clear to Israel they were demanding the confiscation of the wheat cargo.
The development comes after Ukraine on Tuesday accused Israel of allowing the Russian ship ABINSK –- allegedly loaded with grain taken from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory — to dock in Haifa.
Kyiv had urged Israel to block the vessel before it docked, with Ukrainian Ambassador Yevgen Korniychuk raising the issue with Israeli officials and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha discussing it directly with Sa’ar.
The High Court of Justice decides against ordering Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and instead issues a ruling enjoining the pair to reach an agreement with the attorney general meant to curb any undue influence by Ben Gvir over police.
The nine justices issue their decision after a lengthy hearing yesterday, in which they heard petitions arguing for Ben Gvir’s dismissal over his alleged attempts to interfere politically in police decision-making, threatening the force’s independence.
Under the ruling, Ben Gvir, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Netanyahu must reach a “framework of principles” agreement meant to prevent Ben Gvir from overstepping his mandate as minister. They must give the court notice of whether they’ve reached an agreement no later than May 3. If disagreements remain between the parties, this should be included in the notice sent to judges, the decision reads.
A similar agreement was reached last year between Ben Gvir and Baharav-Miara. The legally-binding compromise was set as a condition by Baharav-Miara before she agreed to support him against petitions demanding his removal.
In the months following its signing, Baharav-Miara alleged Ben Gvir repeatedly violated the agreement, rendering it meaningless, and subsequently backed the petition against him.
Today’s court ruling also bars the minister from appointing officers to sensitive and senior law enforcement positions without agreement from police’s senior command.
Before making any appointment in the realm of “investigations, law enforcement, freedom of expression and demonstration or [police’s] legal counsel,” the minister must also notify Baharav-Miara one week in advance, so she can provide an opinion regarding the prospective appointment.
He is also forbidden from commenting publicly on police’s use of force against civilians, including in the context of ongoing investigations.
The Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports that the Palestinian Authority extradited Mahmoud al-Atara, known as “Hisham Harb,” to France this morning, citing his status as the main suspect in a 1982 attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris.
The attack, in which six people were killed and 22 injured, was the deadliest antisemitic atrocity in France since World War II.
Harb is suspected of leading the attackers in the gun assault on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in Paris’s Marais district, a historically Jewish quarter. He has been the subject of an international arrest warrant for 10 years.
Last September, reports said Harb, now 70, had been arrested by Palestinian Authority security forces, though this was never officially confirmed by the PA.
According to the report, a hearing had been scheduled for today at a Palestinian court in Ramallah regarding France’s extradition request. However, Harb’s family instead received a call from the Ramallah police chief informing them that he was en route to Jordan, from where he would be extradited to France.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir denounces a High Court petition urging his dismissal as “delusional and unhinged” during a speech to officers at the National Police Academy, taking pride in his backing of officers implicated in lethal shootings.
The petitioners are requesting that the court order Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dismiss Ben Gvir, alleging the minister has unlawfully interfered in police operational matters to the detriment of the force’s independence.
Speaking at the institution’s annual Independence Day ceremony in Beit Shemesh, Ben Gvir says yesterday’s High Court hearing is “no secret” and calls the petition a “delusional and unhinged request to dismiss me, to dismiss a minister of the State of Israel.”
He then cites one of the arguments leveled against him in court — that his tendency to issue automatic, public support to police implicated in lethal shootings could erode officers’ restraint.
The far-right minister boasts of several times in which he gave backing to police officers who used lethal force against suspects.
“They claimed I gave backing to a Border Police officer who shot at a stone-thrower that sought to kill him… that I gave backing to cops who [criminals] tried to run over and harm and [the cops] shot them… that I gave backing to an officer who shot at someone who launched fireworks at him to blind him,” he says.
“The attorney general sees all these things as a problem. I see them as the biggest advantage… The time has come for you all to have a minister who will love, embrace and support you,” he continues.
Yesterday, High Court president Justice Isaac Amit said Ben Gvir’s routine support for officers seems to be conditioned on politics. “We see, and this isn’t [just] a feeling, that the minister very much supports the police officers — that’s fantastic — but only if they do something for one side,” the judge said.
“He supports the officers that hit a protester,” Amit said. “When [an officer] kills an Arab, whether in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or Tarabin [al-Sana], there is support.” Meanwhile, when “police beat Haredim at Mount Meron [during Lag B’Omer], there is no support, they are immediately accused.”
A young man has died in the hospital after being stabbed in the Negev Bedouin town of Tel Sheva.
The 24-year-old sustained critical injuries and was brought to a Magen David Adom clinic in the village, the emergency service says. From there, paramedics rushed him to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where he was pronounced dead by hospital staff.
He is the second person to be killed in Tel Sheva within a week, after a 50-year-old man was shot and killed in the village on Friday.
In a bitter verbal attack at a Pentagon briefing, US Defense Secretary compares members of the media to “Pharisees” in a New Testament story who condemn Jesus for performing a miracle in a synagogue on the Sabbath.
The Pharisees, a Jewish sect in the first century, are considered to have included the rabbis of the Talmud and to be the ideological predecessors of mainstream traditional Jewish practice today.
The story Hegseth recounts, which he says he heard on Sunday in church, is found in the New Testament Gospel of Mark. It details Jesus entering a synagogue on the Sabbath and healing a man with a shriveled hand. The text says some of the Pharisees “were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.”
After Jesus defies the Pharisees and proceeds to heal the man, the text says that “the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”
Hegseth, in his own take on the passage, says, “You see, the Pharisees, the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time, they were there to witness, to write everything down, to report. But their hearts were hardened. Even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn’t matter.”
He continues, “I sat there in church and I thought, our press are just like these Pharisees. Not all of you. Not all of you. But the legacy, Trump-hating press.”
A total of 170 IDF soldiers have been killed since last Memorial Day, the Defense Ministry says, ahead of the annual commemoration next week.
An additional 54 disabled veterans died from their injuries and were recognized over the past year as fallen soldiers.
The annual figures include all soldiers and police who died in the past year, whether in the line of duty, or as a result of an accident, illness, or suicide.
The ministry says the total number of Israel’s fallen since 1860 now stands at 25,644.
It adds that there are currently 59,583 bereaved family members in Israel, including parents, widows, children and siblings of the fallen, with 7,165 relatives added since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.
The IDF says it struck and killed two Palestinian terror operatives who crossed the Gaza ceasefire line in the Strip’s north earlier today.
Troops of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade identified the pair crossing the Yellow Line and “approaching the forces in a manner that posed an immediate threat,” the army says.
The Israeli Air Force then struck “and eliminated the terrorists to remove the threat.”
מוקדם יותר היום, כוחות החטיבה הצפונית הפועלים בצפון רצועת עזה זיהו שני מחבלים שחצו את הקו הצהוב והתקרבו לעבר הכוחות באופן שהיווה איום מיידי.
מיד לאחר הזיהוי, חיל האוויר בהכוונת הכוחות תקף וחיסל את המחבלים במטרה להסיר את האיום.
כוחות צה"ל בפיקוד הדרום פרוסים במרחב בהתאם להסכם… pic.twitter.com/gdWlOaxd7b
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 16, 2026
Speaking at the Pentagon, Joint Chiefs chair Gen. Dan Caine says US forces “will actively pursue any Iranian flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran” — anywhere in the world.
He issues a clear warning to any targeted vessel attempting to circumvent a US blockade: “Turn around or prepare to be boarded… We will use force.”
Caine describes the effort as a “blockade of Iran’s ports and coastline” with enforcement “inside Iran’s territorial seas and in international waters.” He notes that US forces in other areas of the world, including the Pacific, also will pursue vessels tied to Iran.
The blockade “applies to all ships, regardless of nationality, heading into or from Iranian ports” and includes “dark fleet vessels carrying Iranian oil.” He defines these as “vessels or those illicit or illegal ships evading international regulations, sanctions or insurance requirements.”
Caine says more than 10,000 sailors, marines and airmen using ships, planes and helicopters are working to enforce the blockade.
Any vessel that approaches the blockade is first warned to turn around or be boarded. Warning shots and other escalatory tactics could also be used, Caine says.
Caine says that so far no ships have had to be boarded. “Thirteen ships have made the wise choice of turning around,” he says.
Caine describes Navy warships maintaining the blockade against Iran “like driving a sports car through a supermarket parking lot on a pay day weekend.”
These maneuvers are being performed “with thousands of kids in that parking lot” as they position themselves to get to ships that would attempt to run that blockade, he says.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatens Iran in a Pentagon briefing, accusing it of “piracy” and “terrorism” in the Strait of Hormuz, and saying the US is ready to resume fighting with “more power than ever before” should the current ceasefire end.
Hegseth’s remarks come as efforts are underway to resume direct US-Iran talks, and after US President Donald Trump indicated that the war may be nearing its end. The current two-week ceasefire is due to end on April 22.
Kicking off the briefing, Hegseth says the US is building up its power, while claiming that Iran is unable to reconstitute its own strength. He says the US is “maximally postured to restart combat operations.”
“This is not a fair fight,” he says. He adds that while Iran is “digging out of bombed-out and devastated facilities, we are only getting stronger.”
He continues, “We are reloading with more power than ever before, and… better intelligence than ever before, as you expose yourself with your movement to our watchful eye.”
Hegseth claims that Iran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, a key pathway for the global supply of oil, does not amount to control of the waterway. Iran has demanded continued control of the strait in negotiations over an end to the war.
“You can’t control anything,” he says. “To be clear, threatening to shoot missiles and drones at ships, commercial ships that are lawfully transiting international waters, that is not control. That’s piracy. That’s terrorism. The United States Navy controls the traffic going in and out of the strait because we have real assets and real capabilities, and we’re doing this blockade.”
He adds that the US will ensure that “Iran never has a nuclear weapon.”
He says that instead of continued combat, Iran can engage in negotiations with the US and “choose a prosperous future, a golden bridge, and we hope that you do.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz says Iran faces a “historic crossroads,” threatening further Israeli strikes if Tehran continues on its current path, amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire agreement.
Speaking at a ceremony for bereaved families of fallen soldiers in the Defense Ministry ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day next week, Katz says Iran must choose between “a bridge to the future and an abyss of isolation and destruction,” adding that targets not yet hit by Israel would be “even more painful” than those already struck during the six-week US-Israeli campaign.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has informed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that he will not speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Lebanese news outlet LBCI reports.
Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed reported today that efforts were underway to arrange a trilateral phone call between Aoun, Netanyahu and Rubio to discuss a possible ceasefire between the two countries.
Last night, US President Donald Trump touted a call between the leaders of Israel and Lebanon, but earlier today Aoun said a ceasefire would be a “natural starting point” for talks. Israel has so far not agreed to a ceasefire in its conflict with Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group backed by Iran.
The Pentagon holds a briefing on the Iran war.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warns Iran against “piracy.”
He says the United States will prevent all shipping from entering or exiting Iranian ports for “as long as it takes.”
Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine describes the operation of the US naval blockade of Iran, and stresses it is not a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz but rather of Iran’s ports. He says 13 ships have been turned back, and warns that US vessels will pursue ships beyond the immediate region that are dealing with Iran.
“Let me be clear, this blockade applies to all ships, regardless of nationality, heading into or from Iranian ports,” says Caine.
Watch it live here:
A soldier shot and “neutralized” a suspect who hurled stones at troops during an operation in the West Bank village of Beit Duqqu earlier today, the military says.
According to the IDF, the incident occurred amid a violent disturbance that broke out during operational activity in the village, which is located northwest of Jerusalem.
The official Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA reports that clashes erupted during a large-scale Israeli operation in the village, with troops conducting searches of homes and detaining several residents for questioning.
It says a Palestinian man was shot and critically wounded during the raid, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent, which says its crews were prevented by Israeli forces from reaching the injured individual.
Iran’s speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, tells his Lebanese counterpart that a ceasefire in Lebanon is “as important” as in Iran, according to a statement posted on Telegram.
In talks to end the war between Iran and the United States, Ghalibaf says in a phone conversation with Lebanon’s Nabih Berri that Tehran has “been striving to compel our enemies to establish a permanent ceasefire in all the conflict zones, in accordance with the agreement. For us, a ceasefire in Lebanon is just as important as a ceasefire in Iran.”
Efforts are underway to advance talks between Israel and Lebanon amid conflict between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.
Pakistan’s powerful army chief meets Iran’s parliament speaker, Iranian state television says, after Pakistani mediators traveled to Iran to press efforts to end the war with the United States and Israel.
“Field Marshal Asim Munir, Commander of the Pakistan Army, who traveled to our country yesterday, met and held talks with Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf,” the report says.
IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon uncovered more than 130 weapons inside a school in the Bint Jbeil area, the military says.
The discovery was made by Givati Brigade forces, which the military says are continuing targeted ground operations against Hezbollah infrastructure.
According to the IDF, the cache included Kalashnikov rifles, pistols and other firearms. Troops also found Hezbollah flags and insignia at the site.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir accepts the Jerusalem District Court’s request that he reconsider his refusal to promote Ch. Supt. Ruti Hauslich, a police investigator who deals with incitement-related cases
He is to file a response to the court explaining his position on the matter within 10 days.
Hauslich is the second officer whose promotion Ben Gvir has refused to approve, bucking the counsel of senior brass, amid longstanding criticism that he uses promotions as a means of exerting political pressure on the force, which his ministry oversees.
Ben Gvir’s lawyer claims the reason for his refusal is that Hauslich took a position opposite to that of the Jerusalem District police during a Knesset committee meeting on police incitement probes.
Hauslich’s lawyer, Dov Gilad Cohen, contends that she did what was expected of her at the hearing by presenting the stance of the division she serves in, which is responsible for handling incitement probes.
The judge, unconvinced by Ben Gvir’s argument, holds off on handing down a ruling on the matter and instead gives him 10 days to reevaluate.
This is not the first time the minister has refused to sign off on the promotion of a police investigator, against the advice of senior commanders.
Earlier this year, the Jerusalem District Court determined Ben Gvir was motivated by “extraneous considerations” in his refusal to promote Rinat Saban, who was involved in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
After Ben Gvir repeatedly refused to obey the court’s orders to promote Saban, she was given her new rank of chief superintendent by force of a judicial decision, without the minister’s official signature.
An Israeli strike targeting a car on the road linking the Lebanese capital Beirut to the Syrian capital Damascus killed one person, the state-run National News Agency reports.
The attack happened in the Dahr al-Baidar area in the mountains east of Beirut, according to NNA.
The highway was subsequently shut, the agency says.
The Israel Defense Forces says it cannot comment on the report without more information on the strike’s location.
Turkey says it will continue supporting peace talks between the United States and Iran and calls on the sides to be “constructive” in negotiations to end the war.
Turkey, a NATO member and neighbor of Iran, has been in close touch with the US, Iran, and mediator Pakistan, and has repeatedly called for fighting to stop.
“We will continue to provide the necessary support for the ongoing ceasefire to turn into a permanent truce and eventually lasting peace, without becoming more complex and difficult to manage,” the Turkish Defense Ministry says at a weekly briefing.
Ankara hopes “the parties will be constructive in the ongoing negotiation process,” it says.
US and Iranian officials are weighing a return to Pakistan for further talks as early as the coming weekend, after negotiations ended on Sunday without a breakthrough.
A Turkish diplomatic source has said foreign ministers from Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt will meet on the margins of a diplomacy forum in the southern Turkish province of Antalya this weekend. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is also due to attend.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun stresses the importance of a ceasefire before any direct negotiations with Israel, ahead of possible talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Beirut has not confirmed will take place.
“The ceasefire requested by Lebanon with Israel is the natural starting point for direct negotiations between the two countries,” Aoun says in a statement.
His comments are the first on the matter today from a leader of one of the two countries. They came after US President Donald Trump announced that leaders of Israel and Lebanon would talk today.
Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel also said that Netanyahu and Aoun would speak today.
At least 11 people, including women and children, were killed and others wounded in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, Arabic media reports, citing Lebanon’s health ministry.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) says several strikes were carried out in the past hour, including one near the village of Qasmiyeh that wounded 15 people, and another that killed a motorcyclist in the same area.
NNA also reports that the IDF once again struck the Qasmiyeh Bridge over the Litani River, destroying it completely.
The strike is said to sever the last bridge linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country, according to a senior Lebanese security official who spoke to Reuters, and added that the strike “shattered” the bridge and left no possibility of repairing it.
The IDF has in recent weeks issued repeated warnings for civilians in southern Lebanon to evacuate north of the Zahrani River, which is north of the Litani River.
Israel previously targeted the bridge on March 23, accusing Hezbollah of using it to move operatives and weapons into the country’s south. That drew condemnation from Beirut, which at the time called the strike a “dangerous escalation.”
The IDF says it killed the commander of Hamas’s communications unit in a recent strike in Gaza City, identifying him as Ahmad Abu Khadra.
According to the military, Abu Khadra was involved in advancing imminent attack plans against IDF troops and was targeted in a precision strike.
In a separate strike earlier this week, the IDF says it killed two operatives from Hamas’s production unit — Islam Hisham Riyad Kanita and Mahmoud Hamed Youssef Hamduna — who were allegedly working to rebuild the group’s military capabilities during the ongoing ceasefire.
צה"ל חיסל מפקד ביחידת הקשר של ארגון הטרור חמאס: שני מפקדים ביחידת הייצור חוסלו בתקיפה נוספת
כוחות צה"ל בפיקוד הדרום תקפו וחיסלו שלשום את אחמד אבו חצ'ירה, מפקד ביחידת הקשר של ארגון הטרור חמאס במרחב העיר עזה.
אבו חצרה פעל לקידום מתווי טרור בטווח הזמן המיידי נגד כוחות צה"ל, היווה… pic.twitter.com/xjKF4FcVt2
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 16, 2026
Lebanese outlet Al-Jadeed reports that efforts are underway to arrange a trilateral phone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
According to the report, the call is expected to concern a ceasefire between the two countries and the launch of a process to implement steps on both sides aimed at reaching an agreement between Israel and Lebanon.
Iran halted all petrochemical exports to prioritize domestic supply and prevent shortages of raw materials, the economic newspaper Donya-e-Eqtesad reports, due to disrupted production after Israel struck several petrochemical hubs.
The instruction was issued on Tuesday by a senior National Petrochemical Company official overseeing downstream industries, and ordered petrochemical firms to suspend exports until further notice.
The export ban primarily aims to stabilize domestic markets and ensure supply to industries following damage caused by recent attacks.
Domestic prices for petrochemical and related products have been held at pre-conflict levels despite rising global prices, with officials saying the measures would remain in place to support local industry and consumers.
Key petrochemical production hubs in Asaluyeh and Mahshahr were targeted by Israel in recent weeks, with strikes hitting the utilities companies providing feedstock for petrochemical plants and disrupting production.
The US military began blocking shipping traffic in and out of Iran’s ports this week, a move aimed at dropping Iran’s export revenues and exerting pressure on Tehran as Iranian and American diplomats consider a second round of peace talks during the ongoing ceasefire.
According to Fars news, Iran exports around 29 million tons of petrochemical products per year, worth $13 billion.
Iran and the United States have made some progress as they push for an agreement to end weeks of warfare, but more than halfway through a two-week truce, big splits remain including over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, a senior Iranian official says.
The official says a visit by Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir to Tehran yesterday helped reduce differences in some areas, increasing hopes for an extended ceasefire and renewed talks between Tehran and Washington.
“The trip of the Pakistani army chief to Tehran was effective in reducing differences in some areas, but fundamental disagreements still remain in the nuclear field…. More hopes have been created for extending the ceasefire and holding a second round of talks,” the senior official says. “The fate of Iran’s highly enriched uranium and the duration of Iran’s nuclear restrictions are among the highly disputed issues for which no solution has yet been found.”
Memorial Day ceremonies at Israel’s military cemeteries will be held in accordance with Home Front Command wartime restrictions due to ongoing security concerns, the Defense Ministry says, and some may be prerecorded.
The guidelines are expected to be finalized shortly before the day itself, which begins at sundown on April 20.
State ceremonies, which generally draw large crowds, will be filmed in advance and broadcast on TV and digital platforms if in-person events cannot take place, the ministry says, in order to allow the public to participate and commemorate the fallen.
Gatherings are currently restricted to 5,000 attendees in some areas of the north, the West Bank, Jerusalem and the south. In central Israel and other areas of the north and the West Bank, gatherings are restricted to 1,000 people.
The military says it razed 70 Hezbollah sites in the Bint Jbeil area of southern Lebanon following a raid by commando forces yesterday.
Troops of the Egoz commando unit raided the Aynata “casbah,” or fortified neighborhood, adjacent to Bint Jbeil, which the IDF describes as a Hezbollah “combat compound.” The troops located numerous weapons, including RPGs, assault rifles, grenades, anti-aircraft missiles, and other equipment.
Meanwhile, troops of the Maglan commando unit killed “numerous” Hezbollah operatives in the area, the army says.
“After the searches were completed, the forces destroyed approximately 70 terror infrastructures within just one minute,” the IDF says.
העמקת הפעילות במרחב בינת ג'בייל נמשכת: לוחמי יחידת אגוז ויהל"ם השמידו כ-70 תשתיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בתוך דקה אחת בלבד
לכל הפרטים👇https://t.co/OKwyL4D3jl pic.twitter.com/ST7jJKqRAI
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 16, 2026
The government approves a five-year plan for the development of the Golan Heights and Katzrin between the years 2026 and 2030, with a total investment of approximately NIS 1 billion ($334 million).
The plan will make Katzrin the Golan’s first city, according to Ze’ev Elkin, a cabinet minister.
Yesterday’s announcement follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with Katzrin Local Council head Yehuda Dua and Golan Regional Council head Uri Kellner in Jerusalem on Monday.
The Directorate of Tnufa for the North, with local authorities, plans to bring 3,000 new families to Katzrin and the Golan Heights by 2030.
“We will strengthen academia, research, and the University of Kiryat Shmona with a branch in Katzrin, a faculty, and a veterinary hospital,” Dua says.
The government also plans to improve public services and increase employment opportunities in the region on the Syrian and Lebanese borders.
“I spoke with President Trump when he recognized our sovereignty over the Golan, and now we are coming with a massive development surge,” Netanyahu said at Monday’s meeting. “I hope to visit soon.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar thanks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for signing a law introducing criminal penalties for antisemitism in Ukraine, including a prison sentence of up to eight years.
“The ammendment (sic) constitutes an important step in the fight against hate crimes, particularly Antisemitism,” Sa’ar says in a post on X.
The law was signed on Tuesday, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, by Zelensky, who is Jewish. The legislation was overwhelmingly supported by the country’s parliament, according to local media.
Germany approved 6.6 million euros ($7.8 million) in arms exports to Israel during the first four weeks of the war with Iran, according to government data reported by the German press agency dpa, a modest volume in comparison to past deals.
The series of approvals took place between February 28, when Israeli and US forces began striking Iran, and March 27, according to responses from the German economy ministry to a parliamentary inquiry by the country’s Left party.
The figure is significantly lower than the 166.95 million euros ($196.82 million) in export licenses granted in the months after Berlin lifted arms restrictions tied to the Gaza war in November 2025.
Arms exports to Israel have been a politically sensitive topic in Germany. Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, Berlin initially expanded its support, but later imposed limits amid criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza before easing them again after a ceasefire agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas in October.
No dates have been decided for the second round of talks between the US and Iran, says a spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry.
Nuclear issues are among the subjects being discussed by the countries, he says.
Police have arrested the ex-husband of a woman killed in Kafr Qasim, hours after her lifeless body was found in a burning car in the central Arab city.
Marlene al-Touri, a resident of the city in her 30s, is thought to have been killed by her former spouse in what police now characterize as a “violent domestic dispute.”
The suspect was tracked down in an unrecognized Bedouin village in southern Israel, far from Kafr Qasim, and arrested before dawn.
The man was brought in for interrogation and is due for a hearing in court, where police will seek to extend his detention.
Sheba Medical Center announces that its global health tech innovation arm, ARC, officially launched a startup accelerator yesterday called ARC Landing Boston, in partnership with Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey.
Thee accelerator launches with six Israeli startups, which have raised $85 million to date, says a spokesperson for Sheba, also known as Tel HaShomer. The Boston hub will allow other Israeli companies to “accelerate and get a footprint” in America, the spokesperson adds.
The hub will also work with international companies. Currently, ARC’s global platform has more than 130 startups and a portfolio valued at over $6.7 billion.
The spokesperson says that ARC Landing Boston will work with local health care facilities, including Boston Medical Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“We’re proud to be developing the new wave of healthcare innovation, not just here in Boston but around the world,” says ARC Landing Boston CEO Dr. Yonatan Keschner in a statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun today, Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel tells Army Radio.
“The prime minister will speak for the first time with the president of Lebanon after so many years of a total disconnect in the dialogue between the two states, and this move will hopefully, in the end, lead to prosperity,” she says.
The statement by Gamliel, a member of the security cabinet, comes hours after US President Donald Trump posted on social media that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon would speak today. Trump did not specify in his post which leaders were slated to speak.
Following Trump’s post, multiple outlets reported that a Lebanese official said the country did not know of any upcoming contact with Israel.
Earlier this week, Israeli and Lebanese representatives met in Washington, DC, with American backing, the highest-level meeting between the countries to date. The meeting came amid reports that a ceasefire in Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group backed by Iran, could begin soon.
An IDF missile boat intercepted a drone launched from Lebanon toward Israel overnight, the military says.
The military adds that since the start of the war with Iran on February 28, navy missile boats have taken part in around 40 air defense incidents, detecting and intercepting unmanned aerial vehicles launched at Israeli territory.
במקביל למאמץ התקיפות: ספינות הטילים של חיל הים מגלות ומיירטות כלי טיס בלתי מאוישים שמשוגרים לעבר מדינת ישראל
במהלך הלילה, לוחמי ספינת טילים של חיל הים יירטו כלי טיס בלתי מאויש ששוגר מלבנון לעבר שטח מדינת ישראל.
עד כה מתחילת מבצע "שאגת הארי", ספינות הטילים לקחו חלק בכ-40 אירועים… pic.twitter.com/Px1VC7qGO7
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 16, 2026
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen reportedly held a discreet meeting this week with Israel’s ambassador to the country, Joshua Zarka, in an ongoing shift in Israel’s approach to European far-right parties.
The meeting – first reported by Hebrew media and confirmed by French news outlet Le Parisien, citing the Israeli embassy – was not publicly announced through official diplomatic channels. It comes against the backdrop of Le Pen’s vocal support for Israel, including her criticism of the policy of French President Emmanuel Macron, who defeated her in the country’s last two presidential elections.
Le Pen also reportedly met with Lebanon’s ambassador to France during the same period. Israel and Lebanon this week launched negotiations amid the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
Israel has traditionally boycotted European far-right parties, including Le Pen’s National Rally and its predecessor, the National Front.
In recent years, however, Israeli officials have begun engaging more openly with such factions. Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli has cultivated ties with European far-right politicians, and Jordan Bardella, another of National Rally’s leaders, spoke in Israel at a government conference on antisemitism last year.
Also last year, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar instructed diplomats to establish formal communication channels with Le Pen’s party along with far-right political parties in Sweden and Spain.
The meeting comes as Le Pen faces legal uncertainty ahead of France’s presidential race next year. A court decision expected in July could determine whether she remains eligible to run after she was found to be embezzling European Union funds.
The lifeless body of a woman was found last night in Kafr Qasim, an Arab city in central Israel, in what police are investigating as a likely homicide.
The deceased, a woman in her 30s named Marlene al-Touri, was extracted from a vehicle by Magen David Adom paramedics at around 9:30 p.m.
Police launched an investigation into the crime. They suspect her killing is linked to a so-called “blood feud” in the city. No suspects have yet been arrested.
With al-Touri’s death, 88 members of Israel’s Arab minority have been killed in crime-related circumstances this year, six of them women.
The previous night, a 61-year-old man, Ziad Hussein Abu Naji, was killed in Nazareth while he was fixing his car outside his home. According to the Ynet news site, he was shot more than twenty times from close range by a man who hopped the gate encircling his house.
Police are still investigating Abu Naji’s killing and have not yet arrested any suspects in the case.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich appoints Israel Malachi as the new director general of the ministry. Malachi will replace outgoing director-general Ilan Rom.
Rom informed Smotrich in late March that he was resigning from his position upon the Knesset’s passage of the state budget, which took place last month.
Malachi, 49, has served as deputy director general of the ministry for the past three and a half years and as a member of the ministry’s management. In his role, Malachi led the rehabilitation of southern border communities and reconstruction of the north in the wake of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Previously, he served as treasurer of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council in the West Bank, as a member of the KKL board of directors, and on that organization’s finance committee.
“What the Finance Ministry and the Israeli economy need now are stability and functional continuity,” says Smotrich. “The appointment of Israel Malachi as director general of the ministry is a natural and necessary continuation of his role as deputy director general, which he performs with great talent and success.”
Rom was appointed Finance Ministry director general in January 2025 to help strengthen Israel’s economic resilience during the war with the Hamas terror group in Gaza. During his tenure, Rom steered the state budgets for 2025 and 2026, led negotiations with the defense establishment over spending, and was involved in fighting corruption alongside the Tax Authority.
The Health Ministry says that 7,791 people have been admitted to hospitals due to the fighting with Iran and Hezbollah since the war began on February 28.
Of those admitted, 83 are currently hospitalized. One is in critical condition, 15 are in serious condition, 26 are in moderate condition, and 41 are in good condition. The casualty figures include soldiers and civilians.
The ministry does not give a breakdown of the causes of injuries. Some were indirect, such as people injured while trying to reach shelters, rather than being hurt as a direct result of missile fire.
Lebanon is “not aware” of any upcoming contact with Israel, an official source tells AFP, after US President Donald Trump said the leaders of the two countries would speak today.
“We are not aware of any planned contact with the Israeli side, and we have not been informed of any through official channels,” the source says.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social network late last night, local time, that Washington was “trying to get a little breathing room between Israel and Lebanon. It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years. It will happen tomorrow.”
He did not specify which leaders of the two countries were slated to speak. Lebanese and Israeli representatives met in Washington, DC, for a US-backed peace summit earlier this week, amid an ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group.
Hezbollah fired a missile from Lebanon at the southern Haifa Bay area overnight.
No sirens sounded in any towns as the missile struck an open area, according to the IDF.
The IDF publishes footage showing a drone strike on a group of Hezbollah operatives, as troops continue ground operations in southern Lebanon.
According to the military, troops detected two attempts by Lebanese terror cells to carry out attacks against them, before coordinating a drone strike with the IAF against the operatives.
The IDF says forces later located a large quantity of weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles, anti-tank missiles, RPG launchers and an underground weapons cache containing mortar shells.
תיעוד מפעילות כוחות חטיבה 769 בדרום לבנון: חיסול מחבלים שזוהו מתחבאים בשיחים ואיתור מחסן אמצעי לחימה תת-קרקעי
כוחות צוות הקרב החטיבתי 769 בפיקוד אוגדה 91, ממשיכים בפעילות קרקעית ממוקדת בדרום לבנון.
במהלך הפעילות, יחידת האיסוף 869 זיהתה שני נסיונות של חוליות מחבלים לממש מתווי… pic.twitter.com/pQzbmu7KLs
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 16, 2026
The US Department of Defense is appealing to leading American automakers to help increase weapons production, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Pentagon’s discussions with companies including Ford and General Motors comes as concern mounts about the depletion of American weapon stocks due to the wars in Ukraine and Iran. That has led US officials to look beyond traditional defense contractors for additional arms production, the report says.
Those familiar with the talks told the Journal that they began before the start of the Iran war in late February and that they were preliminary. The Defense Department asked if the companies could move quickly to defense production, according to the report.
During World War II, US automakers famously switched to producing military equipment, including trucks and aircraft, as part of the war effort.
Warning sirens sound in the northern border city of Kiryat Shmona and the surrounding area due to an attack from the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
The attack comes as efforts are underway to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon. Earlier today, US President Donald Trump said the leaders of Lebanon and Israel would speak today, without specifying which leaders he was referring to.
Two Palestinians were injured overnight when settlers threw stones at their vehicle in the Bethlehem area, the official Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA reports.
According to the report, they received medical treatment and are in stable condition. No further details are provided.
The IDF reiterates its wide-scale evacuation warning for southern Lebanon, as the fighting against Hezbollah continues.
“Hezbollah’s terror activities are forcing the IDF to act strongly against it. Strikes are ongoing… therefore, for your safety, we again urge you to evacuate your homes immediately and move at once to north of the Zahrani River,” says army spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee on X.
The IDF has repeated this warning numerous times in recent weeks. The Zahrani River is north of the Litani River, which has historically been seen as demarcating southern Lebanon.
#عاجل‼️ انذار عاجل إلى سكان جنوب لبنان المتواجدين جنوب نهر الزهراني
🔸إن نشاطات حزب الله الإرهابية تُجبر جيش الدفاع على العمل ضده بقوة في تلك المنطقة وهو لا ينوي المساس بكم.
🔴الغارات مستمرة حيث يعمل جيش الدفاع بقوة كبيرة في المنطقة. ولذلك وحرصًا على سلامتكم نعود ونناشدكم… pic.twitter.com/JS8BiWMJEJ
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) April 16, 2026
The IDF distances itself from controversial reservist Avraham Zarbiv, who has called to “flatten” Gaza and was selected as one of the honorary torchlighters at the state’s annual Independence Day ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on April 21.
Zarbiv, a rabbi and state rabbinical judge known for celebrating demolitions that his IDF reserve bulldozing unit carried out in Gaza, was chosen by Transportation Minister Miri Regev, the ceremony’s longtime planner. Zarbiv is also a vocal proponent of building Israeli settlements in Gaza.
“Rabbi Zarbiv was not selected in coordination with the IDF. He is not an IDF representative at the torch-lighting ceremony,” said IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin in response to a question at a press conference last night.
Defrin noted that the torch representing the IDF at the ceremony will be lit by Col. “Mem” — identified only by his first initial in Hebrew — the head of the Israeli Air Force’s Iran department, and Maj. Nurit Rokah, who was wounded while defending the army’s Urim base during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught, and was injured a second time during fighting in Gaza.
“Under the leadership of the head of the Personnel Directorate, IDF representatives to light a torch were selected through an orderly process. They are the IDF’s representatives,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is one of two dozen political leaders included on Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in 2026.
It is the long-serving premier’s fifth time making the list.
The magazine’s blurb on Netanyahu says he was “responsible for the worst security failure in his country’s history,” the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, but has since made a political comeback.
Israel’s fights in Lebanon and Iran, and the release of the hostages held in Gaza, “have boosted his standing with the Israeli public,” it says, even as those conflicts and West Bank settlement expansion “may also poison international attitudes toward his country” and have “eroded support among younger Americans.”
The list also includes US President Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US military chief Dan Caine and White House envoy Steve Witkoff.
Other political leaders featured include Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
The entry on Mamdani alludes to his harsh criticism of Israel, saying his “relationships with key constituencies—including parts of the Jewish community… will test his ability to put ideas into action.”
US President Donald Trump says the leaders of Israel and Lebanon will speak on Thursday.
“Trying to get a little breathing room between Israel and Lebanon. It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years. It will happen tomorrow. Nice!” Trump writes on Truth Social.
He doesn’t specify which leaders will be speaking — whether it’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun or Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
Before trilateral talks were hosted by the US this week, Israel and Lebanon last held negotiations in 1993, but those were not at the leader level.
Lebanon would likely demand a ceasefire before agreeing to hold such high-level engagement with Israel, but Jerusalem has to date been holding out on agreeing to one, as it seeks to continue degrading Hezbollah.
The security cabinet discussed a potential Lebanon ceasefire during a meeting last night, but the session reportedly ended without a decision.
Iran arrested four suspected Israeli spies, state media reports.
It came as US officials discuss possible peace talks with Iran after US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28 engulfed the Middle East in war.
“The four agents linked to the Mossad were apprehended in Gilan governorate” in northern Iran, IRNA reports, citing a statement from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
“The arrestees had provided Mossad intelligence officers with images and locations of some sensitive and critical military and security sites via the internet”, it claims.
The suspects have been handed over to judicial authorities, the report adds.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino says that Iran will “for sure” participate in the 2026 World Cup despite the Middle East war.
“Iran is coming for sure. We hope that by then the situation will be a peaceful situation, that would definitely help,” Infantino says on broadcaster CNBC.
“But Iran has to come, they represent their people, they have qualified, the players want to play,” he says of the team’s upcoming matches scheduled in the United States in June.
Iran’s participation in the global tournament had been thrown into doubt by the war with the United States and Israel that broke out on February 28.
“Sports should be outside of politics,” Infantino says.
“If there’s nobody else that believes in building bridges and keeping them intact and together, we are doing the job,” he continued.
The World Cup, jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, starts on June 11.
The US Senate has voted down a pair of resolutions to prevent weapons sales to Israel, but the vast majority of Democrats joined the minority, demonstrating a major shift in the party’s approach toward Israel.
Forty out of 47 Senate Democrats voted in favor of one of the resolutions to block a $295 million sale of bulldozers, which the initiative’s author Sen. Bernie Sanders said would be used to demolish homes in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon. Fifty-nine senators — mostly Republicans — voted against blocking the sale.
Thirty-six Democrats backed another resolution aimed at blocking a $152 million sale of 1,000-pound bombs to the IDF, which Sanders said would be used in Gaza and Lebanon. Sixty-three senators voted against blocking the sale.
Similar resolutions forced by Sanders in 2024 and 2025 were also rejected, but the number of Democrats voting with the Vermont Independent has more than doubled in less than two years amid Israeli military operations in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon as well as a stepped-up campaign by party activists who have increasingly viewed criticism of Israel as a litmus test for earning their support.
AP contributed to this report.
YouTube has terminated a channel belonging to a pro-Iran group producing viral Lego-themed AI videos that ridicule US President Donald Trump, the Google-owned platform said Wednesday, sparking online criticism.
Explosive Media, a group of pro-Tehran creators that describes itself as independent but is widely suspected of ties to the Iranian government, has gained internet notoriety during the US-Iran war for animation videos that have racked up millions of views.
“We terminated the channel for violating our spam, deceptive practices and scams policies,” a YouTube spokesman tells AFP, without elaborating.
The channel was suspended on March 27, he adds.
Explosive Media was still posting videos mocking the US war effort on other tech platforms, including the Elon Musk-owned X and Telegram.
Meta-owned Instagram also took down the group’s account, US media reported, but another account under its name was still active on Wednesday.
Lashing out at YouTube, Explosive Media writes on X: “Seriously! Are our LEGO-style animations actually violent?”
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf appears to try to capitalize on reports of a brewing ceasefire in Lebanon by insisting that it is the result of Tehran’s insistence on such a truce being part of the one reached between the US and the Islamic Republic.
“The completion and consolidation of a comprehensive ceasefire in Lebanon will be the result of the resistance and steadfast struggle of the great Hezbollah and the unity of the Axis of Resistance,” Ghalibaf says in a statement posted to X.
“The United States must comply with the agreement. Resistance and Iran are one soul, both in war and in ceasefire. America should withdraw from ‘Israel First’ mistake,” he adds.
Iran insists that Lebanon was supposed to be included in the ceasefire reached last week between Washington and Tehran. The US has argued otherwise and says such a result should only come out of talks between Israel and Lebanon.
Ghalibaf has been leading the negotiations with the US on behalf of Iran.
The United States threatens to sanction buyers of Iranian oil and said it believed China would pause such purchases as Washington enforces a maritime blockade on Iran.
“We have told countries that if you are buying Iranian oil, that if Iranian money is sitting in your banks, we are now willing to apply secondary sanctions,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tells reporters at the White House.
The US maritime blockade on Iran began on Monday as the Iran war entered its seventh week. China previously bought more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil.
“We believe (that with) this blockade … there will be a pause of Chinese buying,” Bessent says.
The US Treasury has also written to two Chinese banks and “told them that if we can prove that there is Iranian money flowing through your accounts, then we are willing to put on secondary sanctions,” he added.
The US Treasury Department has also targeted Iran’s oil transportation infrastructure, imposing sanctions on more than two dozen individuals, companies and vessels.
The move comes weeks after Washington issued a 30-day waiver of sanctions on Iranian oil at sea, which Bessent said last month allowed some 140 million barrels to reach global markets in a bid to relieve pressure on global energy supplies sparked by the war.
Bessent confirms that the waiver, issued on March 20 and set to expire April 19, would not be renewed, a move Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The US has also not renewed the waiver on Russian oil at sea, which expired on Saturday.
Reuters has also reported that the U.S. Treasury sent letters to China, Hong Kong, the UAE and Oman, identifying banks that have allowed Iranian illicit activity and warning that they face punitive U.S. measures.
Major Wall Street stock indices finished at records on Wednesday, extending an upward climb on optimism about an accord in the US-Iran conflict as the White House signaled openness to more talks.
The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 0.8 percent to a new all-time high of 7,022.96, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.6 percent to 24,016.02, also a record.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.2 percent to 48,463.72.
The US military says it successfully turned back 10 vessels that tried to sail out of Iranian ports during the first 48 hours of a naval blockade against the Islamic Republic.
“Ten vessels have now been turned around, and ZERO ships have broken through since the start of the US blockade on Monday,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) says in a post on X.
CENTCOM had earlier put the number of ships turned back at nine, but added a 10th that it said was “redirected” back to Iran by a US guided missile destroyer.
While CENTCOM says no vessels have made it through the blockade, maritime tracking data appeared to contradict that assertion.
Tracking data from Tuesday indicated at least three ships sailing from Iranian ports crossed the Strait of Hormuz, though some vessels taking the route later turned back.
The three ships were among at least seven Iran-linked vessels that passed through the strait after Washington’s blockade came into effect at 1400 GMT on Monday, according to maritime data provider Kpler.
Tehran’s forces effectively closed the strait after the start of the US-Israeli air campaign against the Islamic Republic on February 28, and the United States on Sunday announced its blockade of Iranian ports after peace talks failed.
Police in London have arrested two people over an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in the north of the city, amid an upsurge in antisemitic incidents in Britain.
The pair — a 47-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man — were detained in Watford, north of the capital, and are being held in custody, police say.
The attack shortly after midnight on Wednesday came after an arson attack on ambulances run by a Jewish charity in London last month and a deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester in October 2025.
The latest incident, which police say is being treated as an “antisemitic hate crime,” is being investigated with support from counter-terrorism detectives.
“I hope the swift action by officers today to identify and arrest two people provides some reassurance and demonstrates how seriously we take attacks of this nature,” Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams, who leads policing in the area, says in a statement.
Describing the attack in an earlier statement, police say two people wearing dark clothing and balaclavas approached the synagogue in Finchley and “threw two bottles suspected to contain petrol,” which did not ignite, the Metropolitan Police Force says.
The military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warns that Iran will sink American ships in the Strait of Hormuz if the United States decides to “police” the key shipping bottleneck.
The US is imposing a military blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after Iran blocked shipping for over six weeks during a conflict that is on hold as a fragile two-week ceasefire remains in place.
“Mr Trump wants to become the police of the Strait of Hormuz. Is this really your job? Is this the job of a powerful army like the US?” Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who was named as a military adviser by Khamenei last month, tells state TV.
“These ships of yours will be sunk by our first missiles and have created a great danger for the US military. They can definitely be exposed to our missiles and we can destroy them,” Rezaei, wearing his military uniform, tells the state broadcaster.
Long regarded as a hardliner even within the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, Rezaei says it would be “great” if the United States launched a ground invasion of Iran as “we would take thousands of hostages and then for each hostage we would get a billion dollars.”
He also adds, without giving further details: “I am not in favor of extending the ceasefire at all, and this is a personal view.”
A veteran and high-profile figure in Iran, Rezaei headed the Revolutionary Guards from 1981 to 1997.
