Aug. 1: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis vow ‘military response’ to Israel for killing of Haniyeh

White House announces new US military deployments after call between Biden and Netanyahu

President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The US has made new defensive military deployments to help defend Israel following the assassinations of Hezbollah senior general Fuad Shukr and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the White House announces in its readout of the call that just wrapped up between US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The statement doesn’t elaborate about the new defensive measures.

The White House says that the leaders discussed efforts to defend Israel against Iran and its proxies, particularly against ballistic missile and drone attacks, following the two killings earlier this week in Lebanon and Iran, which were widely attributed to the IDF.

While he stressed his commencement to Israel’s defense, Biden stressed to Netanyahu the importance of trying to de-escalate tensions in the region, the US readout adds, noting that Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris also joined the call.

Father of soldier killed, seized by Hamas on Oct. 7 urges hostage deal: ‘We want a place to grieve’

Ruby Chen, the father of Itay Chen, an American-Israeli soldier killed and abducted on October 7 by Hamas, speaks to a crowd in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square at rally marking 300 days since October 7 on August 1, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Onstage at a large rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, Ruby Chen, the father of American-Israeli soldier Itay Chen who was killed and abducted by Hamas on October 7, urges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to return the hostages and bring his son’s body back to Israel to be buried.

“We want a place to grieve, we want a place to close the circle and be able to continue the next chapter of our sad lives,” he says.

He recalls that last week, he and his wife, Hagit, met Netanyahu in the United States alongside US President Joe Biden. During the meeting, Chen told Netanyahu of a conversation that he had with Biden about his slain son.

“The same day that we received the terrible news, President Biden called us… I told President Biden that we chose not to sit shiva because Itay wasn’t there with us. He says that he told the president that “we won’t sit shiva so long as he does not return, and the government of Israel doesn’t return him.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and US President Joe Biden (L) meet with families of American hostages at the White House, July 25, 2024. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

“I reminded President Biden of that sentence, and then Biden asked Prime Minister Netanyahu: ‘Bibi, when will we sit shiva?'” Chen tells the crowd. “The response we got was not a good one.”

He invokes Netanyahu’s brother, Yoni Netanyahu, who was killed during the famous 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue operation.

“Remember your parents Benzion and Zila, may their memories be a blessing — they had a state funeral, a shiva, they had a grave to return to each year,” he recalls telling the prime minister. “I asked the prime minister where will we be on the next Yom HaZikaron, and the response I got then was also not good.”

“I very much hope that the prime minister, next time we see him, will succeed in giving me a better response and say: ‘I returned all the hostages… and the soldiers to burial because that is what this nation deserves.”

After advancing to three swimming semifinals, Israeli swimmers fail to qualify for any of the day’s finals

Anastasia Gorbenko, of Israel, competes during a heat in the women's 400m individual medley at the 2024 Summer Olympics, July 29, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP/Martin Meissner)

After advancing to three swimming semifinals earlier today, Israeli swimmers fail to qualify for any of the day’s finals.

Ron Polonsky finishes 12th overall in the men’s 200m individual medley semifinal, Anastasia Gorbenko finishes last (16th) in the women’s 200m backstroke semifinal and Meiron Cheruti finishes 13th overall in the men’s 50m freestyle semifinal.

Gorbenko will compete tomorrow in the women’s 200m individual medley and both she and Polonsky will compete together in the mixed 4×100m medley relay, also tomorrow.

IDF strikes Hezbollah rocket launcher in southern Lebanon used to fire barrage at Western Galilee this evening

A Hezbollah rocket launcher in southern Lebanon’s Yater, used to fire a barrage at the Western Galilee this evening was struck by fighter jets.

According to the IDF, several rockets launched in the attack this evening were intercepted by air defenses, while others impacted open areas. There were no injuries.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. The IDF says that a short while after the attack, the launcher in Yater was struck.

Earlier today, the IDF says it also shelled areas near southern Lebanon’s Rmeish and Ramyeh with artillery to “remove threats.”

בהמשך להתרעות שהופעלו בשעה 21:44 במרחב הגליל המערבי, זוהו מספר שיגורים שחצו מלבנון, חלקם יורטו והשאר נפלו בשטחים פתוחים, אין נפגעים.

בסגירת מעגל מהירה, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו את המשגר של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה ממנו זוהו השיגורים ממרחב יאטר שבדרום לבנון>> pic.twitter.com/kXF0r8j2dz

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 1, 2024

Reports: Cyber Directorate thwarted social media campaign with ‘price list’ for kidnapping, murder of Israeli athletes in Paris

Israel's delegation with flag bearers Peter Paltchik (2R) and Andrea Murez (R) sails on a boat during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (Damien Meyer/AFP)

Israel’s National Cyber Directorate has successfully taken down a social media campaign that threatened members of the Israeli delegation to the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to Hebrew media reports.

The video that was taken down reportedly showed a “price list” for the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes, with a reward of 40,000 euros for an assassination.

According to the Maariv newspaper, the social media clip was made to look like a news item, with a narration in broken English and images from the Olympics in Munich in 1972 during which a cell of Black September terrorists broke into the Olympic village and took Israeli athletes hostage, eventually killing 11 and a German police officer.

It featured photos of Israeli taekwondo practitioner Avishag Semberg and soccer players Dor Turgeman and Daniel Peretz, the latter of whom is not part of the Paris delegation having injured himself in the weeks before the Olympics.

The campaign was reportedly connected to a far-right French organization.

Last week, Channel 12 reported that a group of anti-Israel hackers calling themselves “Zeus” had published personal information about Israeli athletes and pictures from their military service. That campaign was reportedly promoted using social media profiles impersonating a French organization called GUD, a far-right students’ union.

Hezbollah takes responsibility for rocket fire from Lebanon in first strike since killing of its military chief in Beirut

Hezbollah takes responsibility for this evening’s rocket fire on the Western Galilee, its first attack in over 48 hours, since the killing of the terror group’s military chief in Beirut.

In a statement, Hezbollah claims to have launched dozens of rockets at the northern border community of Metzuba in response to an Israeli strike in the Lebanese village of Chamaa earlier today.

There were no reports of injuries in the rocket barrage on the Western Galilee.

The strike in Chamaa reportedly killed four Syrians and wounded several Lebanese civilians.

Hundreds march to Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue marking 300 days since hostages were taken

Marking 300 days since Israel's hostages were taken into captivity on October 7 by Hamas terrorists, hundreds of people march from Jerusalem's First Station Complex to the Great Synagogue, August 1, 2024. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

Marking 300 days since Israel’s hostages were taken into captivity on October 7 by Hamas terrorists, hundreds of people dressed in white, carrying yellow flags, Israeli flags and yellow ribbons, march from Jerusalem’s First Station Complex to the Great Synagogue.

They’re part of an event organized by the family of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin in support of the hostages, in memory of those killed and in support of their families.

Tzvi Zussman, father of Sgt. First Class Ben Zussman, 22, who was killed on December 3 while fighting in Gaza and was a classmate of Goldberg-Polin, leads the event at the open plaza in front of the Great Synagogue, which includes the recitation of the afternoon and evening services and singing, but no speeches.

The event is directed toward the entire Israeli public, including ultra-Orthodox, religious, traditional, and secular Israelis, women, men and children, and the audience reflects a wide range of Israelis.

The now-familiar red-and-black banner of Hersh Goldberg-Polin hangs centrally above the stage where musician Aharon Razel leads the crowd in singing songs of hope and sadness, of returning soldiers and hostages back to their borders, praying for the return of those held captive from sadness to happiness, from darkness to light.

‘The contract has been breached. Close the deal’: Hostage’s brother slams government at Tel Aviv rally

Nissan Calderon, brother of Hamas hostage Ofer Calderon, speaks at a rally marking 300 days since October 7 in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on August 1, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Nissan Calderon, who survived Hamas’s October 7 massacre and whose brother Ofer Calderon has been held in Gaza since, is speaking to a crowd of thousands in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, charging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with procrastinating on the signing of a hostage deal.

Calderon is speaking incisively against the premier and calls on the government to renew the “basic contract between the citizens of the country and the state.”

“The contract has been breached. Close the deal,” he says. “Again and again, you are not doing what you should’ve done 300 days ago, to stop everything and do only one thing, to return 115 citizens of the State of Israel, immediately.”

“A 17-year-old girl shouldn’t have to live her life with this terrible anguish that her father is there!” he shouts. “I want my brother alive, not a sign of life, not a video, alive! And today!”

The rally Calderon is speaking at is organized by the avowedly apolitical Hostages and Missing Families Forum and marks 300 days of captivity for the hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Yemen’s Houthis vow ‘military response’ to Israel for killing of Haniyeh

A demonstrator carries a mock drone during a rally in support of Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, in the Houthi-run Yemeni capital of Sanaa, February 23, 2024. On the mock drone's side is written 'Samad 4.' (Mohammed Huwais/AFP)

The leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels vows a “military response” to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran yesterday in an attack widely blamed on Israel.

“There has to be a military response to these crimes, which are shameless and dangerous, and constitute a major escalation by the Israeli enemy,” Abdul Malik al-Huthi says in a televised speech.

Haniyeh was in Tehran for the swearing-in of Iran’s newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian. Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied the assassination, but Iran and its proxies in the region have vowed to exact revenge on Israel.

Israeli surfer Anat Lelior loses in round 3 heat, ending her Olympic run

Israel's Anat Lelior carves off a wave in the 2nd heat of the women's surfing round 3, during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Teahupo'o, on the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti, August 1, 2024. (Ben Thouard/Pool/AFP)

Israeli surfer Anat Lelior loses in her heat in round 3 to Australia’s Tyler Wright, ending her Olympic run.

Far from Paris in the waves of Tahiti, French Polynesia, Lelior — who also represented Israel in Tokyo — scores 7.74 points to Wright’s 11.10.

Round 3 was delayed by several days after the events in Tahiti were repeatedly canceled due to a storm causing unsafe surfing conditions.

Erdogan declares day of mourning for Haniyeh ‘in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talks during a military parade, in the Turkish-occupied area of the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, July 20, 2024. (AP/Petros Karadjias)

Turkey will observe a national day of mourning tomorrow to honor the funeral in Qatar of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh after he was killed in Tehran, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says in a social media post.

“A national day of mourning will be declared tomorrow (Friday) in solidarity with the Palestinian cause and in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters,” Erdogan writes on X.

Hamas has called for a “day of furious rage” tomorrow, encouraging an outpouring of public anger following Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran in an attack blamed on Israel, as well as to protest the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Rocket sirens sounding in several Western Galilee communities amid apparent barrage from Lebanon

Incoming rocket sirens are sounding in several communities in the Western Galilee amid an apparent barrage from Lebanon.

It would potentially mark the first attack by Hezbollah in more than 48 hours, since the killing of the terror group’s top military commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.

Numerous Iron Dome interceptions reported over the Western Galilee, in the first attack from Lebanon in over 48 hours. https://t.co/oLZo51GBzf pic.twitter.com/qnuQn9RMbn

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 1, 2024

‘We won’t sit in silence’: Thousands of protesters rally in Tel Aviv marking 300 days since October 7

Protesters rally in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, marking 300 days in captivity for the hostages in Gaza and demanding an immediate deal for their return on August 1, 2024. (Dana Reany)

Marking 300 days since October 7, hostage families are rallying in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, demanding the government reach a deal to free the captives still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Before speeches begin, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum displays a brief video on the main stage from January of this year, when a few dozen hostage families gathered near the southern border to shout, sometimes cry, through giant loudspeakers in the direction of the Gaza Strip in hopes that their loved ones would hear them.

Actor Guri Alfi, who is emceeing the rally, speaks first. Behind him, people grip signs with hostages’ names and ages written on them. Many of the hostages’ ages have been updated, nearly 10 months since Hamas’s brutal massacre on Israel’s southern border.

“We are here today to say out loud: ‘We won’t agree to abandonment, we won’t sit in silence, they need to return home, now,'” Alfi says.

“These are critical days and there is a real chance for the signing of a deal to return them all, and we have to fight for it, we have to demand it,” he continues.

After organizers play a recording of the emergency phone call made by Nova partygoer Eden Yerushalmi before Hamas kidnapped her into the Gaza Strip, Shani and May Yerushalmi, sisters of the hostage, speak to the crowd.

“Her [Eden’s] last words to the police were: ‘Find me, OK?’ Eden is still waiting for us to find her,” says Shani. “It has already been 300 days since our sister is in captivity, 300 days that our home is not the same home.”

Earlier this evening, the families of hostages marched around the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv in support of a deal, accompanied by thousands of their supporters.

The families bound themselves in chains while walking along the route, representing the suffering of their loved ones in Gaza, and unfurled a 40-meter-long flag counting the days since the war’s outset.

Justice minister calls for revival of judicial overhaul after IDF soldiers accused of abusing Palestinian detainee

Justice Minister Yariv Levin attends a swearing in ceremony for newly appointed judges at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, on June 23, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

In highly controversial comments, Justice Minister Yariv Levin says that the judicial overhaul agenda to weaken the legal system he tried to steamroll through Knesset before October 7 needs to be brought back and that “foundational change” is needed in the justice system.

Speaking to a conference organized by the hard-right Tekuma Movement, Levin says the need for such change had been made clear in particular in the last few days, in an apparent reference to the arrest of nine IDF reservist soldiers on suspicion of violent sexual abuse against Palestinian terror suspects, a step which spawned violent far-right protests which sought to thwart the legal proceedings.

Far-right activists protest against the detention of nine Israeli reserve soldiers suspected of abusing a Hamas terror suspect, at the Sde Teiman military base near Beersheba, July 29, 2024. (Dudu Greenspan/Flash90)

Levin also says the need for judicial overhaul was especially acute regarding appointments and the need to weaken what he said was the judiciary’s “excess power” over them, apparently referencing vacant spots on the Supreme Court which he refuses to fill since the government lacks a majority on the judicial selection committee.

“The second conclusion which has become sharpened as a result of the war, including the events we witnessed just in the last few days, is the understanding that foundational change is needed in the justice system,” says Levin at the conference in Tel Aviv.

“At this time, it is right to make an effort to act in this field with as broad of agreement as possible, especially regarding everything to do with appointments,” he continues.

“There is no place for trying to forcibly make appointments and decisions while abusing the excess power that the justice system has today.

“This is not democracy, and this is not the required responsibility at a time of war. Many people understand better today the need for deep change in the justice system, and the obligation to open it up to all communities in Israeli society.”

Levin’s judicial overhaul agenda broke open huge schisms in Israeli society and led to massive protests against the government, which along with threats of reserve duty refusal, succeeded in stymieing the most far-reaching parts of his program.

Some critics of the government have pointed to the divisions opened up in Israeli society by the judicial overhaul program as a causative factor behind Hamas’s decision to attack on October 7, and the IDF has revealed that between March and July 2023, four different warning letters were passed by the IDF’s intelligence directorate to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “which showed how Israel’s enemies… viewed the harm to cohesion in the State of Israel and the IDF in particular.”

Israeli windsurfers Kantor, Reuveny both qualify for iQFoil semifinals

Israel's Sharon Kantor competes in the marathon race of the women's IQFoil windsurfing event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Roucas-Blanc Marina in Marseille, July 31, 2024. (Nicolas Tucat/AFP)

After another day plagued by delays and weather problems, Israeli windsurfers Sharon Kantor and Tom Reuveny both secure places in tomorrow’s semifinals, giving them each a solid shot at the podium.

Kantor finishes in second overall after 14 races in the women’s iQFoil, while Reuveny is also ranked in the 2nd spot after 13 races in the men’s event. Reuveny trails the UK’s Emma Wilson, who goes straight to the final, while Reuveny is behind only Australia’s Grae Morris.

In the semifinal, Kantor and Reuveny will each battle with three other qualifiers for the two remaining spots in the final. Qualifying for the final guarantees the athletes a medal.

Both events were supposed to have 20 overall races before tomorrow’s medal races, but low winds and weather issues canceled several races and delayed others.

Report: US worried Hezbollah involvement in potential Iran attack could impact regional defense coalition

The Biden administration believes Iran is going to attack Israel in the coming days as revenge for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this week, according to senior US officials quoted by Hebrew media.

The officials quoted by the Walla news site add that Washington is prepared to help Israel stop a potential attack from Iran and its proxies in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian Hamas terror group.

The US assessment is that the reprisal will be similar to Iran’s attack on April 13-14 when it launched a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for a deadly strike on Revolutionary Guard generals in Damascus on April 1. Almost all of some 300 projectiles in the barrage were shot down.

However, the officials say the response will likely be larger in scope, as it will likely involve Hezbollah, according to the Walla report.

The report adds that senior Biden administration officials are concerned that this could make pulling together a regional and international coalition to thwart potential attacks, as was the case when Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel in April, more difficult.

The US, Britain, Jordan and France all helped to intercept the massive barrage, while several Gulf States, among them Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, reportedly passed on intelligence about Tehran’s plans to attack Israel, providing vital information that was key to the success of the air defense measures.

IDF confirms Gaza strike that killed Al Jazeera reporter, says he participated in October 7 massacre

Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul reports from the Gaza Strip in an undated video that was broadcast during a report on his killing in an Israeli airstrike, July 31, 2024. (Screen capture: Youtube/Al Jazeera, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The IDF confirms carrying out a strike in Gaza City yesterday that killed Al Jazeera reporter Ismail Alghoul, saying he was a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force who participated in the October 7 onslaught.

In addition to his participation in the massacre on October 7, Alghoul also instructed other terror operatives on how to film and distribute videos of attacks on Israeli troops, according to the military.

“This activity is an integral part of the terror organization’s military activity,” the IDF says.

“The IDF and the Shin Bet are making every effort to attack and eliminate terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacre, and will continue to do so,” the statement adds.

The airstrike also killed Al Jazeera cameraman Ramy El-Rify.

Asked about Haniyeh killing, IDF spokesman says no other Israeli aerial strike apart from Beirut hit that night

An unverified image of the Tehran building where Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed on July 31, 2024. (Social media, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Asked about the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the military did not carry out any other airstrike overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, aside from the assassination of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

“We struck on Tuesday night in Lebanon and killed Fuad Shukr in an accurate aerial strike. I want to emphasize, there was no other aerial strike, not a missile and not an Israeli drone, in the entire Middle East that night, and I won’t comment further,” he says.

Earlier today, The New York Times reported that the explosion that killed Haniyeh and his bodyguard early yesterday morning was set off by a sophisticated, remote-controlled bomb smuggled about two months ago into the Hamas leader’s room at the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying.

Haniyeh was in Tehran for the swearing-in of Iran’s newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian. Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied the assassination, but Iran has vowed to exact revenge on Israel.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Spokesman says IDF ‘on high alert.’ No change to guidelines for civilians, but ‘be vigilant’

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari delivers an English-language address, June 16, 2024. (Screenshot)

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in a press conference says the military will know how to handle any threat, as the country braces for a response to the assassinations this week of Hezbollah’s military chief in Beirut and Hamas’s leader in Tehran.

“Since the beginning of the war. we have faced various threats from far and near,” he says.

“We have proven recently that the State of Israel knows how to deal with threats in defense, and to respond with a mighty attack,” Hagari continues.

He says the IDF is holding continuous assessments on the situation, but as of now, there is no change to Home Front Command guidelines for civilians. “We have our finger on the pulse all the time.”

“We have very good defense systems, and we have international allies that bolstered their forces in the area to aid us against these threats,” Hagari says.

But alongside this, Hagari says that Israel’s defenses are “not hermetic.”

“Be vigilant and continue to follow the instructions of the Home Front Command,” he says, adding that if there are any changes, the military will update immediately.

Hagari says that “the IDF is on high alert, both in defense and in attack. IDF troops are deployed in the air, at sea, and on the ground, and are ready for any scenario, and especially with plans to carry out attacks in the immediate time-frame.”

Israel said finalizing coordination with international coalition to face potential attacks

People gather around a component from an intercepted ballistic missile fired by Iran on April 14, 2024 that fell near the Dead Sea, April 20, 2024. (AP/Itamar Grinberg)

Bracing for the threatened response by Iran and Hezbollah to the killings of Ismail Haniyeh and Fuad Shukr, Israel is reportedly working to finalize the coordination of a regional and international coalition in order to thwart potential attacks, as was the case when Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on April 13-14.

According to Channel 12, this joint effort will be at the heart of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected conversation shortly with US President Joe Biden.

To that end, Britain’s defense secretary John Healey is expected to fly to Israel tomorrow, the report says.

Yesterday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin publicly said the US would “help defend Israel” if it is attacked in the wake of the Haniyeh killing. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the Hamas leader’s death in Tehran.

As of this writing, Israel’s Home Front Command has not issued new instructions to civilians regarding threats of revenge by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.

An unsourced Channel 12 report also says Israel has conveyed a message via Arab and other regional third parties to Hezbollah that, whereas the Lebanese terror group killed 12 children in Majdal Shams on Saturday night, Israel responded by hitting a military target, Shukr. If Hezbollah responds, the Israeli message is quoted as saying, it will be a case of “army against army. But if you start to hit civilian targets, this will be a broad war against Hezbollah, and Israel will see itself as unconstrained.”

What this means, the TV report suggests, is not that Israel would target civilians, but that it could target Lebanese infrastructure, including in Beirut. The goal of the message, the report says, is to constrain Hezbollah.

Channel 12 also quotes an unnamed senior Israeli source saying the current high state of military preparation for a potential attack could last for several days. While Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah “could attempt to respond quickly,” the source says, it could take the Iranians longer to decide “how and when they want to respond.”

The report also says that Biden, in his call with Netanyahu, is expected to press Netanyahu to utilize Israel’s latest achievements and show flexibility in efforts to conclude a ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas in Gaza.

However, Netanyahu, the report says, is convinced that only military pressure has yielded Hamas flexibility to date, and that now is not the time to take the foot off the gas.

Protesters block Begin intersection in Tel Aviv on 300th day of war, calling for hostage deal

People attend a protest march for hostages held in Gaza, marking 300 days since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, on August 1, 2024. (Pro-Democracy Movement/Noam Amir)

Hundreds of protesters, including relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, are blocking the Begin intersection near the IDF’s Kirya base in Tel Aviv, marking 300 days since October 7 calling for the government to close a hostage-ceasefire deal.

Earlier, the protesters marched through Tel Aviv holding yellow ribbons and photos of hostages.

Similar protests are also being held around the country in cities including Jerusalem, Beersheba and Herzliya.

Egypt and Qatar have warned that strikes on terror leaders this week undermine efforts made by mediators to reach an agreement for hostages to be released and a ceasefire.

It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, dozens of them thought dead.

After 300 long days and nights, our demand in NOW!

Release all the hostages, NOW!#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope pic.twitter.com/2AQLR8WZwJ

— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) August 1, 2024

Woman arrested in vandalism at Jewish Brooklyn Museum officials’ homes during anti-Israel protests

Illustrative: Anti-Israel demonstrators protest outside the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York on May 31, 2024. (Leonardo Munoz/AFP)

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who police say helped vandalize the homes of the Brooklyn Museum’s leaders with red paint during a wave of anti-Israel protests has been arrested on hate crimes charges.

Taylor Pelton, 28, was arrested yesterday on charges of criminal mischief and criminal mischief as a hate crime, according to police.

Police say Pelton was one of six people seen on surveillance video vandalizing the homes of Brooklyn Museum Director Anne Pasternak and museum President and Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Trueblood on June 12.

Pelton was arraigned last night and released with court supervision, according to a spokesperson for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.

A request for comment was sent to Pelton’s attorney.

According to court papers, Pelton was part of a group of people seen on surveillance video spray-painting red paint the homes of Pasternak and Trueblood and hanging banners with slogans like, “Blood on your hands” and “white supremacist, funds genocide.”

The vandalism targeting Pasternak, who is Jewish, was denounced by New York Mayor Eric Adams and other officials.

Israeli judoka wears yellow scrunchie for hostages in silver medal match: ‘Those who understand, will understand’

Italy's Alice Bellandi and Israel's Inbar Lanir (blue) compete in the judo women's -78kg gold medal bout of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Champ-de-Mars Arena, in Paris, August 1, 2024. (Luis ROBAYO / AFP)

Minutes after winning a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir says “I’m so, so happy right now.”

“It’s a little hard to be happy after losing in the final because I always want to beat everyone, but I’m really happy,” she tells the Sport5 broadcaster. “The fact that I have the privilege to give a little happy news during this time is worth everything to me.”

Asked about wearing a bright yellow scrunchie in her hair — the color of pins calling for the return of the hostages held in Gaza — Lanir says “of course” it has meaning, “those who understand, will understand.”

Lanir says, “Since the start of the war my stomach has been in knots, I knew that the one thing I could do is to keep training and doing what I’m best at because I have the privilege to represent the country and to raise the flag all over the world — and that gave me huge motivation.”

Her yellow hair scrunchie, she says, “is to show that I’m thinking about them also today.”

Plane carrying Haniyeh’s body arrives in Qatar ahead of Doha burial

A picture taken on August 1, 2024, shows the Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab Mosque in the Doha, on the eve of the funeral for assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. (Callum Paton/AFP)

A plane carrying the body of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, killed in a strike in Tehran blamed on Israel, lands in Doha after a public funeral in Iran, Qatar-based network Al Jazeera reports.

Haniyeh, who had resided in exile in the Gulf state with other members of Hamas’s political office, is to be buried in Qatar tomorrow following prayers at the Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab Mosque, Doha’s largest.

Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in a pre-dawn strike on their accommodation in Tehran early yesterday morning.

Hamas said in a statement yesterday that the burial ceremonies in Qatar will be held “with popular and factional attendance and the participation of Arab and Islamic leaders.”

A public funeral ceremony for Haniyeh was held in Tehran earlier today.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Haniyeh, having earlier threatened “harsh punishment” for his killing.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leads prayers over Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s coffin at Tehran University as Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian stands to his right, August 1, 2024 (Screengrab/AFP)

Israel’s airspace is safe, says airport chief; we proved in April that we’ll close it when we need to

Passengers at Ben Gurion International Airport, August 1, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

As more foreign airlines cancel their Israel services, leaving many passengers unable to depart as planned and others unable to return, Shmuel Zakai, the head of the Civil Aviation Authority, says almost 70,000 passengers flew in and out of Israel so far today, on almost 60 airlines.

“The cancellations are significant,” he notes, however, highlighting United Airlines and Delta halting their flights to and from the United States, and the Lufthansa-led group of European airlines suspending services.

The main reason for the cancellations, he says, “is that the flight crews are deterred from coming to Israel.”

“Flights to Israel are safe,” he says, citing not only the Israeli authorities but also global regulators, including the Federal Aviation Administration
and its European counterpart. In contrast to the situation in Lebanon, these authorities have not issued instructions to airlines not to fly to Israel, he says.

Israel’s air space “is absolutely safe,” Zakai says.

He says Israel proved on April 13-14, when Iran mounted an unprecedented and almost entirely thwarted missile and drone attack — “that when we think that the airspace is not safe for flights, we close it. That earned us a lot of credit internationally.”

File: General Manager of Ben Gurion Airport, Shmuel Zakai, in the Knesset, June 24, 2014. (Flash90)

This is not the first time that foreign airlines have suspended flights, he notes. Airlines have made their own decisions, he says.

When buying tickets, passengers should take into account that they might encounter delays and cancellations, and plan accordingly, Zakai adds.

Israeli airlines El Al, Israir and Arkia say they are operating their flights as usual, and preparing to add more flights if needed to help stranded Israelis get home.

Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir wins silver medal in Paris for women’s under-78kg weight class

Israel's Inbar Lanir reacts after winning against Portugal's Patricia Sampaio (unseen) during the bronze women -78 kg individual bout of the Judo European Championships Seniors at the Arena Zagreb, in Zagreb, on April 27, 2024. (Damir Sencar/AFP)

Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir wins a silver medal for Israel after losing against Italy’s Alice Bellandi in the final at the women’s under-78kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

This is the second-ever silver medal for Israel, the 15th overall Olympic medal for the Jewish state and the second at the Paris Games, after fellow judoka Peter Paltchik won bronze an hour earlier.

Earlier Lanir, 24, beat Mongolia’s Otgonbayaryn Khüslen in the round of 16, then took down the Netherlands’ Guusje Steenhuis in the round of 16 with an ippon in just 23 seconds, before defeating Germany’s Anna-Maria Wagner in the semifinal match.

Russia frees US reporter Evan Gershkovich in biggest East-West prisoner swap since Cold War

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Court officials say closing arguments in the espionage trial of U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich will be held Friday, July 19, 2024, as the proceedings picked up speed in a case that has seen the reporter held in pre-trial custody for over a year. (AP)

ANKARA, Turkey – US journalist Evan Gershkovich and a Russian intelligence colonel jailed for a Berlin killing are among 24 prisoners and two minors freed today in the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, officials say.

The 24 were brought to Ankara from Russia, the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus under the deal that Turkey says its MIT intelligence service has spent weeks putting together.

Ten Russians, including two minors, were exchanged for 16 Westerners and Russians detained in Russia, according to a statement released by the Turkish presidency.

US President Joe Biden calls the deal “a feat of diplomacy.”

“Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over,” Biden adds in a statement.

The Wall Street Journal says it is “overwhelmed with relief” at the release of Gershkovich, 32, who was detained in Russia in March 2023 and jailed in July, sentenced to 16 years on spying charges that were denounced by the United States.

Hopes for a prisoner exchange had risen in recent days after a number of high-profile prisoners in Russia, including Whelan, went missing from facilities where they were serving terms, fueling speculation they were being moved for a swap.

This was the first exchange between Russia and the West since star US basketball player Brittney Griner returned home in return for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022 and the biggest since 2010, when 14 alleged spies were exchanged.

Before then, major swaps involving more than a dozen people had only taken place during the Cold War, with Soviet and Western powers carrying out exchanges in 1985 and 1986.

Retaliation from Iran, terror proxies expected to be measured to avoid a wider conflagration — analysts

A handout picture provided by the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei office shows him leading the prayer over the coffin of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard, during his funeral procession in Tehran on August 1, 2024, ahead of his burial in Qatar. (Iranian Supremem Leader's Website/AFP)

Iran and its regional proxies are preparing coordinated retaliation for the deaths of Hamas’s leader and Hezbollah’s top military commander, meant to deter Israel but avert all-out war, according to sources and analysts cited by AFP.

A source close to Hezbollah says Iranian officials met in Tehran with representatives of the so-called “axis of resistance” to discuss their response to the assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and commander Fuad Shukr this week.

“Two scenarios were discussed: a simultaneous response from Iran and its allies or a staggered response from each party,” the source who had been briefed on the meeting tells AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

“There is a very strong likelihood that the response will be coordinated… among other resistance actors,” says Amal Saad, a Hezbollah researcher and lecturer at Britain’s Cardiff University.

“It’s going to greatly deepen the tactical coordination between Iran” and the terror groups it supports across the region, she says, naming Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi force.

A leader of the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, a loose alliance of pro-Iran groups, tells AFP that “Iran will lead the first response with the participation of Iraqi, Yemeni and Syrian factions, striking military targets, followed by a second response from Hezbollah.”

A televised speech by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is transmitted on large screens as fighters and mourners attend the funeral ceremony of slain top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut’s southern suburbs on August 1, 2024.(Khaled Desouki/AFP)

The Iraqi alliance has claimed attacks on US troops, most recently over the Gaza war, before suspending them in late January. It has also claimed to have targeted Israel with drones and rockets.

The anonymous source says Hezbollah may target civilians to avenge the killing of three women and two children in the strike that killed Shukr in Beirut.

Iran and its allies are widely expected to respond militarily to the killings blamed on Israel, which has claimed responsibility only for Shukr’s death, though experts say the retaliation would be measured to avoid a wider conflagration.

“Iran and Hezbollah will not want to play into [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s hands and give him the bait or ammunition he needs to drag the US into a war,” Saad says.

“They will more than likely try to avert a war while also strongly deterring Israel from continuing with this new policy, this targeted shock and awe.”

Iranian analyst Ahmad Zeidabadi, who specializes in international relations, says “a stronger response is expected” from Tehran than its first-ever direct attack on Israeli soil in April when it fired a massive barrage of drones and missiles after a strike blamed on Jerusalem killed Revolutionary Guards in Damascus.

The Dome of the Rock atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, with the lights of missile interceptions visible in the night sky, early on April 14, 2024, after Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel. (Social media/X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Zeidabadi says, “A repeat of the previous operation wouldn’t make much sense, because the missiles and drones did not hit sensitive areas or have a deterrent effect,” though he rules out a “generalized, all-out and out-of-control war.”

According to Middle East analyst Rodger Shanahan, “regime survival” is a top priority for Tehran, “the same as Hezbollah.”

“They will put a lot of pressure on the Israelis on behalf of the Palestinians, but they are not going to risk an existential threat against them,” he tells AFP.

Bronze medal winning judoka Peter Paltchik: ‘I just wanted to make everyone happy’

Israel's Peter Paltchik celebrates after defeating Switzerland's Daniel Eich during their men's -100 kg bronze medal match in the team judo competition, at Champ-de-Mars Arena, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, August 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP/Eugene Hoshiko)

Minutes after winning a bronze medal in judo at the 2024 Paris Olympics, an emotional Peter Paltchik tells Israel’s Sport5 broadcaster, “I can’t explain in words what I’m going through.”

“The period we’re going through in the country, the war, the wounds, the people who we won’t see again — I just wanted to make everyone happy,” says Paltchik, sending thanks to his family, “which sacrifices so much,” mentioning his wife, their twin sons and his daughter who is on the way.

“I fought for everyone, for our flag, we worked so hard for this moment,” says Paltchik, referencing also his coach, Oren Smadga, who decided to take part in the Olympics just a few weeks after his son, Sgt. First Class (res.) Omer Smadga was killed fighting in Gaza.

“Oren, after what he went through — I couldn’t give up for even one moment,” says Paltchik.

Smadga says Paltchik is “a lion, what a huge heart.”

Jordan says Israel turned ‘rogue state’ with Haniyeh assassination, calls on UN to intervene

Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh claps during the swearing-in ceremony of newly-elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, not in picture, speaks in Tehran, Iran, July 30, 2024. On the left is Hezbollah deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi says that Israel has turned “rogue” state with its “assassination” of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and needs to be stopped.

He says the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s politburo, is a clear sign that Israel has decided to undermine the US, Egypt and Qatar-backed hostage-ceasefire talks.

“Yesterday, Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh. He was the one who was negotiating the exchange deal. So how on earth is a country that wants to conclude a deal killing the main interlocutor in those negotiations?” Safadi tells a news conference.

“So when Netanyahu decided and sent his missiles to assassinate Haniyeh in Iran in violation of the sovereignty of another country and bringing escalation to a very high level, is that somebody who wants the deal to work?

“And all the work that has been done by Egypt, Qatar, and the US to bring a deal that would have brought a ceasefire, that would have released the hostages, that would have released prisoners, Israel decided to undermine all that.”

Israel has not commented on the assassination, though both Iran and Hamas said it was the result of an Israeli air strike in Tehran before dawn yesterday. The New York Times reported a short while ago that Haniyeh was killed by a sophisticated, remote-controlled bomb that was smuggled into the Tehran guesthouse he was staying in, not a missile strike.

Safadi demands action by the international community to rein Israel in.

“The [UN] Security Council must not allow a state that has turned rogue to impose more wars and more destruction on the region.”

National Security Council reiterates recommendation that Israelis reconsider all travel abroad

The National Security Council reiterates its recommendation that Israelis reconsider all travel abroad and calls on those who do need to travel overseas to avoid outward displays of their Jewish and Israeli identities, citing threats from Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah to avenge the killings of top terror leaders this week.

The statement says that Iran and its proxies in the region may target Israeli and/or Jewish targets abroad, including embassies and synagogues.

The warning does not apply to transit for flight connections, the statement notes, except “enemy countries” Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Yemen along with those with the highest threat level, Libya, Algeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Israelis should also avoid traveling on flights that pass over the countries listed above, the NSC adds.

Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik wins bronze medal in men’s under-100kg weight class at Paris Olympics

Israel's Peter Paltchik reacts after beating Netherlands' Michael Korrel in the judo men's -100kg repechage bout of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, August 1, 2024. (Luis Robayo/AFP)

Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik wins the bronze medal after defeating Switzerland’s Daniel Eich in the men’s under-100kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

This is Israel’s first medal of the Paris Games, and its 14th ever, with the 15th already guaranteed by fellow judoka Inbal Lanir, who will compete for the silver or gold in the women’s final in the coming hour.

Earlier, Paltchik, 32, defeated Mongolia’s Batkhuyagiin Gonchigsüren in his initial match, and then won against France’s Aurélien Diesse in the round of 16 before losing to Azerbaijan’s Zelym Kotsoiev — who is ranked first in the world — in the quarterfinal, sending him to the repechage round where he beat the Netherlands’ Michael Korrel.

Lapid: The only victory for Israel is ‘a hostage deal that will bring our children home and restore deterrence’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid makes a statement to the media at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, August 1, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says the only victory for Israel will be “a hostage deal that will bring our children home and restore deterrence,” while congratulating Israel’s defense establishment on “justified eliminations and precise operations.”

Lapid makes the comments at the so-called Hostages Square in Tel Aviv following his security briefing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Kirya military headquarters nearby, hours after the IDF confirmed the death of Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, in an Israeli strike in Gaza last month.

“Our enemies should know that we have a strong nation and a strong army that will reach them anywhere,” he says.

Lapid has been extremely critical of Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza and in the north, telling the Knesset earlier this month that “this government is failing to manage the country, the war, the economy, our relationship with the United States, and it’s losing the hostages, who are wasting away and being murdered and dying underground.”

Lebanon lodges complaint with UN over Israel’s disruption of its GPS systems

The Waze navigation app shows Tel Aviv motorists as if they were in Beirut on April 4, 2024. (Screenshot/Times of Israel)

The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodges a complaint with the UN Security Council and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres requesting to condemn “Israel’s cyberattacks on Lebanon,” the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reports.

The complaint is based on a report by Beirut’s Ministry of Telecommunications which found that signal interference from northern Israel led to a decline in the accuracy of navigation systems in Lebanon, impacting a host of applications.

Disruptions to the Global Positioning System (GPS) in Lebanon “jeopardize the country’s civil aviation services and telecom systems at vital facilities,” NNA writes.

The Israel Defense Forces has been blocking some GPS signals amid the ongoing war with the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and clashes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Since the early days of the war, Israeli motorists using navigation apps like Waze and Google Maps would often see their locations show up completely wrong — users in Tel Aviv would be marked in Cairo, while people in Haifa would show up as in Beirut.

In March, Beirut announced that it would file an urgent complaint with the UNSC over the same issue, which it then defined as a “violation of its sovereignty” by Israel.

Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir wins under-78kg semifinal in Paris, guaranteeing her a silver or gold medal

Israel's Inbar Lanir reacts after beating Netherlands' Guusje Steenhuis in the judo women's -78kg quarterfinal bout of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, August 1, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir defeats Germany’s Anna-Maria Wagner in the semifinal of the women’s under-78kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics, guaranteeing her a silver or gold medal in the upcoming final match.

Earlier Lanir, 24, beat Mongolia’s Otgonbayaryn Khüslen in the round of 16, and in the quarterfinal, she took down the Netherlands’ Guusje Steenhuis with an ippon in just 23 seconds.

This will be Israel’s 14th-ever Olympic medal, its seventh judo Olympic medal and either its first or second medal of the Paris Games, depending on judoka Peter Paltchik’s performance in the upcoming bronze medal match.

Hamas calls for ‘day of rage’ for Haniyeh’s burial tomorrow

DOHA, Qatar – Hamas calls for a “day of furious rage” tomorrow, coinciding with the burial of its assassinated leader Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar.

In a statement, Hamas encourages an outpouring of public anger following Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran in an attack blamed on Israel, as well as to protest the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

“Let roaring anger marches start from every mosque” following Friday prayers, the terror group says.

Haniyeh, who resided in exile in Qatar with other members of Hamas’s political leadership, is to be buried in the Gulf state tomorrow after a public funeral was held today in the Iranian capital.

Iranians follow a truck, center, carrying the coffins of Hamas terror group leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard who were killed in an assassination blamed on Israel on Wednesday, during their funeral ceremony at Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) Sq. in Tehran, Iran, August 1, 2024. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed Wednesday in a pre-dawn strike on their accommodation in Tehran, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said, in an attack that has stoked fears of a wider regional conflict.

Hamas calls on “the masses of our revolutionary people in the occupied West Bank” to show their support for Palestinians in Gaza, “affirming our commitment to our land and national rights, and confronting [Israel’s] plans.”

Lebanese media report several dead in alleged Israeli strike in south Lebanon; no comment from IDF

Lebanese media report that several Lebanese and Syrian civilians were killed and wounded in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanon village of Chamaa, located about 5 kilometers from the border.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

شهداء وجرحى من المدنيين اللبنانيين والسوريين في الغارة التي استهدفت قبل قليل منزلاً مأهولاً في بلدة شمع والتي تُستهدف للمرة الأولى pic.twitter.com/8Yk9l3XdNh

— جريدة الأخبار – Al-Akhbar (@AlakhbarNews) August 1, 2024

IDF: Fighter jets strike group of Hamas operatives hiding in Gaza City school

A group of Hamas operatives gathered at a school in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood were struck by a fighter jet a short while ago, the military says.

According to the IDF, Hamas was using the Dalal School as a hideout for operatives and commanders, and it had planned attacks against Israel from the site.

The IDF says it carried out “many steps” to mitigate harm to civilians, including using aerial surveillance and precision munitions.

Hamas authorities reported at least 12 dead in the attack.

Extremist Haredim block Route 4 in protest of ultra-Orthodox enlistment to IDF

Haredi protesters of the extremist Jerusalem Faction are blocking Route 4 near Bnei Brak to protest the recruitment of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to the Israel Defense Forces, according to Hebrew media reports.

Police have arrived at the scene and are evacuating protesters on the busy highway, who are reportedly chanting, “We will die and not enlist.”

Traffic is currently blocked from the Aluf Sadeh intersection heading north, according to a police statement.

עשרות חרדים מהפלג הירושלמי של הרב פרידמן חוסמים את כביש 4 לדרום סמוך לבני ברק, במחאה על חוק הגיוס@eli_hirschmann pic.twitter.com/QDldrfoIa3

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) August 1, 2024

The protest, one of many in recent months, comes in response to the High Court of Justice’s landmark ruling in June that ordered the military to begin conscripting ultra-Orthodox men and halt funding to yeshivas that do not comply.

Netanyahu and Biden to hold call today amid escalating tensions — official

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden will hold a phone call today to discuss escalating tensions in the Middle East, an official tells The Times of Israel.

Netanyahu met with Biden at the White House last week, for the first time since the US president took office in 2021.

Nasrallah: Fighting will intensify on the border tomorrow

In a eulogy for slain Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr, the terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah says it is seeking a “carefully considered response,” and that Israelis “don’t know where it will come from.”

He minimizes the impact of Shukr’s assassination on the functioning of the organization.

“When one of our commanders becomes a martyr, he is swiftly replaced. We have an excellent new generation of commanders,” he says.

He further denies that military pressure on Hamas, Hezbollah or other Iran-backed groups will cause them to surrender.

“The aspiration of [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu is that Hamas will tell him: ‘Come, here are the hostages and the weapons.’ This will not happen. We will not surrender, neither in Gaza, nor in Lebanon, nor in Yemen.”

He reiterates that the only way to end the war on the Lebanon front is for Israel to stop its “aggression” in Gaza, and says that he ordered Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon to reduce the fighting yesterday and today, and that they will resume with a higher intensity tomorrow.

Haredi minister urges dramatic expansion of settlement activity on visit to recently legalized outpost

Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Struck (second from left), Energy Minister Eli Cohen (center), Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf (second from right), Likud MK Boaz Bismuth (right) and Yesha Council chairman Israel Ganz (left) attend an inauguration ceremony for the illegal West Bank outpost of Sde Ephraim which the cabinet retroactively legalized in June 2024. (Courtesy Office of Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Struck)

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf calls for a dramatic expansion of settlement activity, while accompanying Settlement and National Projects Minister Orit Strock and Yossi Dagan, chairman of the Samaria Regional Council, on a visit to the recently legalized Evyatar outpost in the West Bank.

“For many years we were told that the settlements and the outposts are the obstacle on the way to peace and they slandered the settlers,” he declares, arguing that Israel’s response to October 7 “must be to settle as much of the Land of Israel as possible.”

Goldknopf calls on the government “to build settlements around the country “and in particular here in Judea and Samaria, so that there will be more Evyatars.”

Goldknopf, who heads the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, is unusual for an Haredi politician in that he has been an outspoken advocate for the settlement movement. Last summer, after Evyatar was resettled with tacit government approval, he visited the outpost and said that he wanted to see it grow to ten thousand residents, according to the right-wing Israel National News site.

He has also endorsed reestablishing Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip after the war against Hamas ends.

While the international community considers all settlements illegal, Israel differentiates between settlement homes built and permitted by the Defense Ministry on land owned by the state, and illegal outposts built without the necessary permits, often on private Palestinian land. Evyatar was one of several settlements considered illegal under Israeli law to recently receive official recognition, prompting accolades from Strock, who has welcomed what she terms a “miracle period” of settlement expansion.

Last month, Israel announced its largest appropriation of land in the West Bank since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, designating 2,965 acres of land as state land.

‘Whoever hurts us, we hurt them’: Netanyahu says Israel at ‘high level of readiness’ for all scenarios amid Iran threat

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) speaks at a briefing by IDF Homefront Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo (right) and Yoram Laredo, director of the National Emergency Management Authority (not pictured) at the Home Front Command HQ in Ramle, August 1, 2024. (Maayan Toaf / GPO)

As Israel braces for Iranian retaliation in the wake of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh’s death, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declares that the country “is at a very high level of readiness for any scenario, both defensively and offensively” and promises to “exact a very heavy price for any act of aggression against us from any front.”

“After we eliminated Hezbollah chief of staff [Fuad Shukr] yesterday, today came the final verification of the elimination of Hamas chief of staff Muhammad Deif. Deif was responsible for the terrible massacre of October 7 and also for many murderous attacks against the citizens of Israel. He was Israel’s number one wanted man for years,” Netanyahu says at the end of a briefing by IDF Homefront Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo and Yoram Laredo, director of the National Emergency Management Authority.

“His elimination establishes a simple principle that we established: Whoever hurts us, we hurt them,” Netanyahu declares.

Israel has not taken credit for or officially commented on Haniyeh’s death in Tehran this week. Iranian leaders have vowed revenge and Netanyahu said last night that there will be “challenging days ahead.”

In April, Iran fired 300 drones and missiles, most of which were intercepted, at Israel in retaliation for an alleged Israeli strike in Syria that killed several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members.

Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik wins men’s under-100 kg repechage match in Paris, advances to bronze medal match

Israel's Peter Paltchik (white) and Michael Korrel, of the Netherlands, compete during their men's -100 kg repechage match in the judo competition during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik defeats the Netherlands’ Michael Korrel with an ippon in the repechage round of the men’s under-100kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics, advancing to a bronze medal match later today.

Earlier, Paltchik 32, beat Mongolia’s Batkhuyagiin Gonchigsüren in his initial match, and then won against France’s Aurélien Diesse in the round of 16 before losing to Azerbaijan’s Zelym Kotsoiev — who is ranked first in the world — in the quarterfinal.

Nasrallah: Israel has crossed a red line, must expect rage and revenge

People watch a broadcast of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah giving a speech, as they sit at a cafe in Tyre, southern Lebanon August 1, 2024. (Reuters/Aziz Taher)

At the funeral for slain Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr, the terror group’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah says that while “Israelis are happy now,” they have “crossed a red line” and must now expect “rage and revenge on all the fronts supporting Gaza,” in reference to Iran-backed groups in the Middle East.

Shukr’s assassination was not a response to the rocket attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams in which 12 children were killed, but rather was an act of war, he adds. Hezbollah is “paying the price for its support to Gaza and to the Palestinian people.”

The Shiite group, however, is now beyond the support phase, Nasrallah adds, declaring an “open battle on all fronts.”

Safed hospital: Two kids seriously hurt in Hezbollah rocket attack on Saturday now in moderate condition

Residents rush to help injured children moments after a rocket hit a soccer field in the northern Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Shams)

Ziv Medical Center in Safed says that two children seriously wounded in the northern Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on Saturday are now in moderate condition.

Three other children are in good condition.

An injured man is in good condition in the ophthalmology department.

Nasrallah says war with Israel entered new phase, reiterates claim Hezbollah not responsible for Majdal Shams attack

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah says that the war with Israel has entered a new phase, and reiterates his claim that the terror group is not responsible for a rocket strike that killed 12 children in a soccer field in the northern Druze village of Majdal Shams on Saturday.

He says Hezbollah would have admitted if it made a mistake and killed civilians.

US and Israeli intelligence has indicated that the rocket was fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah.

Nasrallah notes global calls to calm tensions after Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike on the outskirts of Beirut yesterday morning.

Israeli archer Roy Dror loses in first round in Paris, gets knocked out of contention

Israeli archer Roy Dror competes in the ranking round of the men's individual competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 25, 2024. (Olympic Committee of Israel)

Israeli archer Roy Dror, 19, loses 6-2 to the Netherlands’ Steve Wijler in his first round in the men’s individual competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics and is knocked out of contention.

NYT: Haniyeh was killed by sophisticated bomb smuggled into Tehran guesthouse months ago; US officials ‘assess’ that Israel responsible

An unverified image of the Tehran building where Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed on July 31, 2024. (Social media, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed this week by a sophisticated, remote-controlled bomb that was smuggled into the Tehran guesthouse he was staying in, not a missile as has been widely reported, according to the New York Times.

According to the report, which cites seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians, and a US official, the explosive device was covertly smuggled into the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps building in Tehran about two months ago.

The Iranian officials, who are members of the IRGC, say the precision of the hit was reminiscent of the remote-operated machine gun that a Mossad team used to kill top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020.

There has been no official comment from Israel on Haniyeh’s assassination, though it has been widely attributed to Jerusalem.

The Times report cites five Middle Eastern officials saying that “Israeli intelligence officials briefed the United States and other Western governments on the details of the operation in the immediate aftermath.”

Moreover, it says, “several US officials who requested anonymity” have reached the “assessment” that Israel was responsible for the assassination.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) meets with Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 30, 2024. (Photo via KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)

Haniyeh had arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian. The officials quoted by the Times say the bomb that killed Haniyeh and his bodyguard was detonated remotely.

The report notes that the guesthouse is used for retreats, secret meetings, and “housing prominent guests” such as Haniyeh.

The officials cited by the Times note that while the explosion shattered windows and collapsed a portion of the wall of the compound, there was minimal damage to the building itself, indicating that it was unlikely to have been a missile strike.

Israel had vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas after the Gaza-based terror group’s devastating October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

Smotrich announces first meeting of committee to examine defense spending amid ongoing war

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, left, talks with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a discussion and vote on the state budget at the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, May 23, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announces that a public committee to examine defense spending will convene next Sunday under the auspices of the National Security Council.

The committee, which is set to be chaired by Brigadier General (Res.) Prof. Jacob Nagel, will include representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office, Finance Ministry, Defense Ministry and IDF, and will engage in an “examination of [the IDF’s] force structure and the defense budget to examine its suitability for the war and the security challenges facing the State of Israel.”

Welcoming the first committee as “a first step in the right direction,” Smotrich asserts that its role is important for the “continued management of the economic aspect of Israel’s security.”

“The Simchat Torah massacre [October 7] sharpened for all of us the critical need to reexamine the force structure and the way the defense budget is distributed. I am confident that the work of the committee in cooperation with all the parties will contribute significantly to the strength of the Israeli security system,” he says.

This May, following an extended fight with the defense establishment, Smotrich announced that he had reached an agreement with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to establish the committee.

Smotrich and Gallant had engaged in a public battle over the defense budget, with the finance minister previously threatening that he would not approve any “strategic and long-term future force build-up” until after the committee published its recommendations, claiming that “doing the same thing over and over again without learning from past mistakes will bring us a disaster.”

Finance Ministry to cut Haredi school systems from state bank accounts

Illustrative - Haredi schoolchildren outside a school in the city of Ashdod, January 22, 2021. (Jack Guez/AFP)

The Finance Ministry informs two Haredi education systems with state funding and huge deficits that they will be cut off from state-controlled bank accounts and budget-related computer systems on September 1.

The move by Accountant General Yali Rotenberg does not signify any reduction in funding for the two education systems, The Marker reports. It does, however, steer the two entities toward greater financial independence and may mean layoffs and other consequences if they fail to cover their deficits of hundreds of millions of shekels.

Rotenberg announces the move in letters to Eliezer Sorotzkin and Avigdor Ohana, the heads of the Independent Education and Fountain of Torah Education organizations, which are affiliated, respectively, with the Shas Sephardi Haredi movement and its Ashkenazi counterpart, United Torah Judaism.

The two organizations will be disaffiliated from and lose access to the computer networks of the state, the letter says. The finance and education ministries will continue to monitor the groups’ financial conduct through an external oversight body, it adds. The two groups will also lose access to the government’s bank accounts and are required to set up their own accounts, where the state will deposit funding, which today stands at about NIS 3.5 billion ($924 million) annually.

This could expose the two groups to the consequences of their tendency to go over their budgets. They currently have a joint deficit of about NIS 600 million ($158 million).

The two organizations will no longer be eligible for services by state accountants, the letter adds.

The system could make the groups insolvent, which would empower the treasury to take over aspects of their administration to remedy their finance, including through layoffs and restructuring, according to The Marker.

IDF limiting transportation of hazardous materials to factories in northern Israel as precautionary measure

The IDF has been monitoring and limiting the transportation of hazardous materials to several factories in northern Israel as a precautionary measure, as the country braces for a response to the assassinations this week of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

According to a military source, the Home Front Command has not ordered any of the relevant factories to halt their operations.

Ynet news reported last night that the Strauss ice cream factory in Acre was forced to halt operations because it was told to clear out the ammonia gas it normally uses, which may be harmful to the public in the event of a rocket attack.

In response to a query, the IDF says: “The Home Front Command maintains continuous contact with all the factories… which includes daily audits and ongoing situation assessments together with the local authorities and the Environmental Protection Ministry. This is to maintain readiness and a complete picture of the amount of hazardous materials.”

Saudi crown prince to host PA’s Abbas next week — Palestinian officials tell ToI

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left, meeting with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, April 19, 2023. (Wafa)

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, two senior Palestinian officials tell The Times of Israel.

Riyadh has intensified its engagement with the Palestinians over the past two years amid negotiations with the Biden administration about the kingdom signing a normalization deal with Israel.

Saudi Arabia has conditioned its agreement on Israel establishing a pathway to a future Palestinian state — a nonstarter for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, particularly as the war in Gaza sparked by the Hamas terror group’s October 7 attack drags on.

With a normalization agreement effectively off the table until at least the US presidential election, Abbas and bin Salman will try and calibrate their approaches to Washington, preparing for either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump to enter the White House in January, one of the Palestinian officials says.

Abbas’s visit will come less than a week after the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, and the two leaders will discuss its impact on the ongoing war in Gaza, according to both Palestinian officials.

The PA has long aimed to restore Saudi financial assistance, which dried up in 2016.

Ramallah has made progress toward that end and hopes that next week’s meeting will move Riyadh further in that direction, according to one of the Palestinian officials.

Abbas last met with bin Salman in Riyadh two months ago.

Lufthansa misled passengers on Tel Aviv flight that turned back for Munich, only let them off after argument — report

Passengers on a Lufthansa flight from Munich to Tel Aviv that landed in Larnaca, Cyprus, early this morning before turning around and returning to Germany tell Channel 12 that airline staff misled them, including by telling them that they were unable to land in Israel amid the threat of an Iranian attack.

“We were on a direct flight from Munich to Tel Aviv, but we were informed that we had to stop in Larnaca for technical reasons,” two passengers named Ziv and Gefen tell Channel 12.

A short while later, the passengers say the captain told them “that due to the Iranian threat, it was impossible to enter” Israel and they would all be flying back to Munich. “Some of the passengers decided not to go back to Munich. They got off without their luggage.”

Channel 12 plays audio from the plane of an announcement in which a member of the crew says: “There will be no flights to Tel Aviv tonight… in everyone’s best interest … [we will] go back to Munich with everyone on board.” Later he is heard announcing that he would “very much advise you against disembarking. We cannot organize for any bags to be offloaded.”

Another passenger, Granit Noham, tells Channel 12 that the passengers who didn’t want to return to Germany were only allowed to disembark in Larnaca after a quarrel with the airline staff.

Yet another passenger, Jonathan, says they were told that Israel had closed its airspace. “Then they said Lufthansa’s security department had made the decision” not to land in Israel. “They lied to us: They told us nobody would check our passports in Cyprus” if they wanted to get off the plane and find another route home. “They wouldn’t give us the suitcases. The suitcases went back to Munich and we simply entered Cyprus and ordered our own flights [home] via travel agents.”

“The way we were treated was shocking, shameful, disgusting, with constant threats about the police, as though we had done something wrong,” he says.

In a statement this afternoon, the Israel Airports Authority says that the security situation in Israel allows for flights to and from Israel.

“Some foreign airlines are suspending and/or reducing some of their flights to Israel, for their own internal reasons. Passengers must take into account that their return to Israel may be delayed. [Passengers should] keep in touch with the airlines and keep themselves updated about their flights,” the statement adds.

Several major airlines, including Lufthansa, United and Delta, have canceled flights to Israel this week, as the country braces for an expected response to the assassinations earlier this week of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut — after a rocket fired by the terror group killed 12 children in the Golan Heights on Saturday — and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Israel’s equestrian team finishes 9th overall in team jumping qualification, advancing to final

Israeli equestrian Ashlee Bond with her horse Donatello in a pre-competition Olympic event at the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 31, 2024. (Lily Forado/Israel Equestrian Federation)

Israel’s equestrian team — made up of Ashlee Bond, Daniel Bluman and Robin Muhr — finishes 9th overall in the team jumping qualification, advancing to tomorrow’s final.

Bluman, riding Ladriano, completes a perfect run with 0 penalty points, Bond, atop Donatello, was close to perfect with 4 points and Muhr, riding Galaxy, got 16 points.

The three riders will also compete in the individual jumping competition next week.

Report: Seven airlines cancel flights to Israel amid spiraling tensions with Iran

Passengers at Ben Gurion International Airport, July 26, 2024. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Seven airlines have canceled flights to Israel amid spiraling tensions with Iran, Channel 12 reports.

According to the report, Delta, United Airlines, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Air India have canceled all upcoming flights to Israel.

The report comes after a Lufthansa flight from Munich to Tel Aviv landed in Larnaca, Cyprus, early this morning, then turned around and returned to Germany, after the crew refused to fly to Israel.

FlyDubai has canceled some of its scheduled flights, Channel 12 adds.

Around 70,000 passengers are reportedly at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, with some trying to catch the last flights out of the country in case of more cancellations and others looking to cancel their flights out of fears that they won’t be able to get back into the country.

The cancellations come as the country braces for a response to the assassinations earlier this week of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut — after a rocket fired by the terror group killed 12 children in the Golan Heights on Saturday — and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Lapid to receive security briefing from Netanyahu for 1st time in two months

Yair Lapid, left, Avi Gil, center, and Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting at military HQ in Tel Aviv on April 9, 2023. (Government handout)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid is set to receive a security briefing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 5 p.m. at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, his first in two months.

The leader of the opposition is traditionally briefed once a month by the sitting prime minister on sensitive national security issues.

Lapid has been extremely critical of Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza and in the north, telling the Knesset earlier this month that “this government is failing to manage the country, the war, the economy, our relationship with the United States, and it’s losing the hostages, who are wasting away and being murdered and dying underground.”

Lebanese media reports Israeli strike in Kafr Kila, 1st alleged attack since killing of Hezbollah military chief

Lebanese media reports an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila, the first report of an attack since the assassination of Hezbollah’s military chief in Beirut on Tuesday.

No further details are immediately available.

Hezbollah has not carried out any attacks on northern Israel since the killing of Fuad Shukr in the Lebanese capital.

غارة للعـ دو على كفركلا قرب المسجد pic.twitter.com/NWkSftuoZe

— مصدر مسؤول (@fouadkhreiss) August 1, 2024

IDF: 24 Palestinians affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad detained in West Bank raids

The IDF says troops detained 24 Palestinians affiliated with the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups in arrest raids across the West Bank overnight.

Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,400 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank, including more than 1,850 affiliated with Hamas, according to the IDF.

Sa’ar: Israel’s enemies must not be allowed to conduct a long-term war of attrition

New Hope party leader Gideon Sa'ar leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Former security cabinet member Gideon Sa’ar congratulates Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel’s security forces for the “successful planning and execution of the assassinations” of Hamas’s Muhammad Deif and Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr, “each of whom was a bitter and dangerous enemy of Israel who was responsible for the murder of many Israelis.”

“The campaign imposed on us by the axis of destruction led by Iran must be continued determinedly and proactively,” says Sa’ar, arguing that Israel’s enemies must not be allowed” to “conduct a long-term war of attrition against Israel.”

Sa’ar, a former senior Likud lawmaker, pulled his nationalist New Hope party out of the coalition in March after Netanyahu declined to add him to the now-defunct war cabinet. He has repeatedly accused Netanyahu of failing to prosecute the war against Hamas aggressively enough.

Iran to hold talks with proxies from Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen on potential retaliation against Israel

Top Iranian officials will meet the representatives of Iran’s regional allies from Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen today to discuss potential retaliation against Israel after the killing of the Hamas leader in Tehran, five sources tell Reuters.

The region faces a risk of widened conflict between Israel and Iran and its proxies after Ismail Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran yesterday and the killing of Hezbollah’s senior commander on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Peter Paltchik loses to top-ranked judoka in quarterfinal of men’s under-100kg weight class

Israel's Peter Paltchik celebrates during the men's -100 kg judo competition, at Champ-de-Mars Arena during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP/Eugene Hoshiko)

Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik loses to Azerbaijan’s Zelym Kotsoiev — who is ranked first in the world — in the quarterfinal in the men’s under-100kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Paltchik will now move on to the repechage round this evening, where he will still have a shot at advancing to a bronze medal match.

Separately, Israel’s swimming team in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay finishes 11th in the heats with a time of 7:55.99 and does not advance to the final.

Hamas official refuses to confirm death of military wing commander Deif

The head of Hamas's military wing Muhammad Deif in an undated photo (Israel Defense Forces)

A senior Hamas official refuses to confirm Israel’s announcement that it killed Muhammad Deif, leader of the terror group’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, in an airstrike last month.

“Confirming or denying the martyrdom of any al-Qassam commander is the responsibility of the leadership of al-Qassam or the movement [Hamas],” Izzat al-Rishq says in a statement.

“Unless either one of them announces it, no news published in the media or by any other parties can be confirmed,” he adds.

Report: Haniyeh’s bodyguard was in cell that killed 5 IDF troops in 2014 Nahal Oz tunnel raid

Palestinian media outlets report that the bodyguard of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, killed with him in Tehran, was part of a terror squad that penetrated into Israel through a tunnel in July 2014 and fired an anti-tank missile at IDF forces in Nahal Oz, killing five soldiers.

According to Sama News and the Palestinian Media Center, Wasim Abu Shaaban was reportedly a member of the cell that carried out the attack during Operation Protective Edge.

Abu Shaaban was reportedly born in Gaza in 1988, studied sharia law at Gaza’s Islamic University, and was married with four children.

He is said to have begun his career in the terror group as an aide to former Hamas leader and Palestinian interior minister Said Siam, killed by Israel in 2009.

He was also reportedly a fighter in Hamas’s military wing, the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, where he rose to become deputy commander of a company in the Nukhba (elite unit) of Tel al-Hawa, in the southern part of Gaza City.

Abu Shaaban was later appointed to become a permanent member of the delegation accompanying Haniyeh as his bodyguard, after the latter left the Gaza Strip in 2019, the news outlets say.

A funeral ceremony for Haniyeh and Abu Shaaban is underway in the Iranian capital Tehran, before the two bodies are transferred to Qatar later today. In Doha, another ceremony will be held tomorrow in the country’s largest mosque before their final burial in Lusail, north of the capital Doha, in the same cemetery where the founder of the State of Qatar, Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, is interred.

ألموغ بوكير:

وسيم أبو شعبان صاحب الفيديو المشهور عام 2014 لحظة ضرب الجندي في ناحل عوز.

وسيم أبو شعبان يعتبر الحارس الشخصي لـ إسماعيل هنية والذي ارتقى معه في طهران، كان قد شارك في عملية مداهمة للموقع الإسرائيلي ناحل عوز في عام 2014. pic.twitter.com/Yuwrkroh8n

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) August 1, 2024

Judoka Inbar Lanir beats opponent in 23 seconds in quarterfinals of women’s under-78kg weight class

Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir after beating the Netherlands' Guusje Steenhuis in the women's under-78kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics, August 1, 2024. (Olympic Committee of Israel)

Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir beats the Netherlands’ Guusje Steenhuis in 23 seconds in the quarterfinals of the women’s under-78kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics, advancing to the semifinal round.

This evening she will face Germany’s Anna-Maria Wagner in the semifinal. If she beats Wagner she is guaranteed a medal.

Swimmer Ron Polonsky advances to men’s 200m individual medley semifinal in Paris

Israeli swimmer Ron Polonsky competes in the 100m breaststroke at the Paris Olympics on July 27, 2024. (Simona Castervillari/ Israeli Swimming Association)

Israeli swimmer Ron Polonsky advances to the men’s 200m individual medley semifinal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, finishing 7th overall in the heats with a time of 1:58.30.

The semifinal will be held this evening. This is the third semifinal qualification for Israeli swimmers so far today.

Later today, the foursome of Anastasia Gorbenko, Daria Golovaty, Ayla Spitz and Lea Polonsky will take part in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, and Gorbenko will also swim in the 200m backstroke semifinal, while Meiron Cheruti will compete in the men’s 50m freestyle semifinal.

Swimmer Meiron Cheruti advances to semifinal in men’s 50m freestyle at Paris Olympics

Israeli swimmer Meiron Cheruti advances to the semifinal in the men’s 50m freestyle after finishing 10th overall in the heats with 21.88 seconds at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Fellow Israeli Martin Kartavi comes in 19th overall in the heats with 22.01 seconds and doesn’t advance to the semifinal. The semifinal and the final will be held this evening.

Hostages’ families to hold Tel Aviv march, rally to mark 300 days in captivity

Protesters calling for a hostage deal block the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, August 1, 2024 (Danor Aharon/Pro-democracy protest groups)

To mark 300 days since the start of the war, the families of hostages held in Gaza announce they will hold a march and rally in Tel Aviv this evening.

The march, held under the banner of “Deal or abandonment,” will set off from Hostages’ Square in the coastal city at 7 p.m.

The protesters will make their way to the nearby military headquarters before returning to the square.

According to the Ynet news site, artists set to perform at the event include Arkadi Duchin, Ivri Lider, Lea Shabat and Karolina.

Other events will be held around the country.

Gali Idan, whose husband Tsahi is held in Gaza, says it’s crucial for the public to be reminded of the hostages.

“We want to raise awareness, so that they don’t forget,” she tells Ynet.

The outlet says that many of the families are deeply concerned that the recent killings of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders could frustrate the chances of a hostage and ceasefire deal.

Macron on 300th day of war: ‘Our thoughts are with the hostages’

French President Emmanuel Macron reviews troops that will take part in the July 14th Bastille Day parade in Paris on July 2, 2024. (Aurelien Morissard/ POOL/ AFP)

On the 300th day of the war, sparked by the devastating October 7 attack by Hamas, French President Emmanuel Macron highlights the plight of the hostages held in Gaza.

“Our thoughts are with the hostages held for 300 days by Hamas. France continues to work for their release,” Macron writes on X, in English and in French.

It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, with dozens of them presumed dead.

Rocket siren in Snir was ‘false identification,’ IDF says

A rocket siren that sounded in the northern community of Snir a short while ago was determined to have been a “false identification,” the IDF says, meaning not a threat.

Judoka Inbar Lanir reaches quarterfinal in women’s under-78kg weight class at Paris Olympics

Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir competes against Mongolia's Otgonbayaryn Khüslen in the round of 16 women's under-78kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics on August 1, 2024. (Olympic Committee of Israel)

Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir beats Mongolia’s Otgonbayaryn Khüslen in the round of 16 women’s under-78kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Lanir, ranked third in the world in her weight class, advanced straight to the round of 16 because of her ranking, and will next face either the Netherlands’ Guusje Steenhuis or Poland’s Beata Pacut-Kloczko in the quarterfinal.

Judoka Peter Paltchik advances to quarterfinal in men’s under-100kg class at Paris Olympics

Israel's Peter Paltchik and France's Aurelien Diesse (blue) compete in the judo men's -100kg round of 16 bout of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Champ-de-Mars Arena, in Paris on August 1, 2024. (Luis ROBAYO / AFP)

Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik beats France’s Aurélien Diesse in the round of 16 in the men’s under-100kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics, advancing to the quarterfinal.

Paltchik, ranked 10th in the world, will next face Azerbaijan’s Zelym Kotsoiev — who is ranked first in the world.

Anastasia Gorbenko advances to women’s 200m backstroke semifinal at Paris Olympics

Anastasia Gorbenko, of Israel, competes during a heat in the women's 400-meter individual medley at the 2024 Summer Olympics, July 29, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP/Matthias Schrader)

Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko advances to the women’s 200m backstroke semifinal after she finishes 13th overall in the heats.

Fellow Israeli Aviv Barzelay, who also swam in the heats, finishes 18th and does not advance.

The semifinal will be held this evening.

Rocket sirens sound in Snir near northern border

Sirens sound in Snir, close to the northern border, warning of incoming rocket fire.

The community is located near Kiryat Shmona.

Smotrich: With Deif’s death, collapse of Hamas ‘closer than ever’

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 15, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Hamas’s collapse is “closer than ever” in the wake of Muhammad Deif’s death and “we must not stop a moment before victory,” writes far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on X.

“Hamas chief of staff Muhammad Deif is eliminated, Hezbollah chief of staff Fuad Shukar is eliminated, many thousands of terrorists including very senior ones were eliminated, and we will continue like this until we destroy them all, restore security and bring the hostages back home,” he writes. He adds a biblical verse: “I will pursue my enemies and I will overtake them and I will not return until they are gone.”

On 300th day of war, Herzog calls on world leaders to work to free hostages from Gaza

People hold up images of five young female soldiers held hostage in Gaza, framed in the five Olympic rings during a protest in Tel Aviv on July 27, 2024 (RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP)

In English, President Isaac Herzog calls on world leaders to work to free the hostages as Israel marks 300 days since the devastating October 7 attack.

“For 300 days our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, grandparents, have been languishing in the dungeons of Hamas in Gaza,” he writes.

“Each second of every minute of every hour of these 300 days is a crime against humanity. And each second that passes the need to bring them home becomes more and more urgent,” he writes. “To all the leaders of the world who wish for peace in our region, I say clearly: help us bring our hostages home – all of them, young and old, men and women, Jews, Muslims and more. Help us bring them home now.”

Lapid: Deif’s killing an ‘unprecedentedly important’ achievement, everything must be done to bring hostages home

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid leads a Yesh Atid faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on July 22, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid welcomes the IDF’s confirmation of the death of Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip last month.

“I congratulate the IDF, the Shin Bet and the security forces for the successful elimination of Muhammad Deif,” Lapid says in a statement. “It is an unprecedentedly important military achievement. [Israel’s] military achievements should be translated into strategic political achievements and everything should be done to bring the hostages home now.”

Deif’s death is also welcomed by Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman, who tweets that “there is no place in the world for those despicable terrorists who slaughtered, raped and kidnapped Jews on October 7 and we must make sure that none of them die a natural death.”

Gallant crosses Deif off on wall chart: Military commander’s killing is ‘big step’ toward eradicating Hamas

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant crosses out Muhammad Deif's name on a wall chart depicting the structure of the Hamas terror group military leadership, August 1, 2024. (Yoav Gallant via X)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says that the confirmation of the killing of Hamas military commander Muhammad Deif is a “big step” toward eradicating the terror group.

“The killing of the master murderer Muhammad Deif, the ‘Bin Laden of Gaza,’ on July 13, 2024, is a big step on the way to eradicating Hamas as a military and governmental organization, and to achieving the goals of the war we set,” writes Gallant on X, along with a photo in which he is crossing Deif off with a black marker on a wall chart depicting the structure of the terror group.

“The high-quality and precise operation that was carried out was made possible by the best cooperation between the IDF and the Shin Bet, and those who head them,” he writes. “The results of the operation make it clear that Hamas is an organization in disintegration, and that the terrorists must choose between surrender and death.”

“The security system will pursue the Hamas terrorists — from the planners of the [October 7] massacre to the perpetrators,- — and will not rest until the mission is completed,” Gallant writes.

חיסולו של רב המרצחים מוחמד דף – ״בן לאדן של עזה״ בתאריך 13.07.24 , הוא צעד גדול בדרך למיגור החמאס כארגון צבאי ושלטוני, ולהשגת מטרות המלחמה שהצבנו.

הפעולה האיכותית והמדויקת בה חוסל התאפשרה שיתוף הפעולה המיטבי בין צה״ל לשב״כ והעומדים בראשם. תוצאות הפעולה מבהירות שהחמאס הוא ארגון… pic.twitter.com/TZ77SoBkMn

— יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) August 1, 2024

IDF confirms Muhammad Deif, commander of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in Gaza strike last month

The head of Hamas's military wing Muhammad Deif in an undated photo (Israel Defense Forces)

Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip last month, the IDF has confirmed.

The military says it obtained intelligence confirming his death in the last few hours.

Deif was targeted in a strike at a compound belonging to Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, in the Khan Younis area, on July 13.

A day later, Salameh’s death was confirmed by the military, but the IDF said it did not have final information regarding Deif.

The IDF believed that its intelligence indicating that Deif arrived at a compound belonging to Salameh was highly accurate, and that the pair were together in the building that was targeted with several heavy munitions.

Israeli fighter jets had patrolled the compound for half a day before the strike was carried out, after the IDF had early indications that Deif had joined Samaleh. At any given moment, two jets were in the air above the site.

Once the intelligence that Deif had arrived at the compound was confirmed by the military, the jets were given the order to strike, which was carried out within just a few minutes.

The IDF releases footage of the strike.

Deif, 58, who has commanded the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades for over two decades, has long been one of the terror figures most wanted by Israel.

He was an architect of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on Israel, the deadliest attack in the country’s history, when some 1,200 people were killed and around 251 others dragged to Gaza as hostages.

Judoka Peter Paltchik beats opponent with an ippon in first match at Paris Olympics

Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik (blue) beats Mongolia's Batkhuyagiin Gonchigsüren in the men's under-100kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics on August 1, 2024. (Olympic Committee of Israel)

Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik beats Mongolia’s Batkhuyagiin Gonchigsüren with an ippon in his first match in the men’s under-100kg weight class at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Paltchik advances to the round of 16 and will next face France’s Aurélien Diesse.

Fellow Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir will soon compete in her first match in the under-78kg weight class.

‘Everyone is putting pressure on Tehran’: Western diplomats rush to prevent full-blown Mideast war

A protester weeps as the others hold an anti-Israeli placard and a poster of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a demonstration to condemn killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, at Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in Tehran, Iran, July 31, 2024 (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Western diplomats are holding urgent discussions amid attempts to prevent full-blown war in the Middle East, the Financial Times reports.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has reportedly ordered a direct strike on Israel for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, while Tehran-backed Hezbollah has vowed revenge for the killing of the terror group’s commander Fuad Shukr.

“Everyone since last night is putting pressure on Tehran to not respond and to contain this,” a Western diplomat tells the British newspaper.

The report says Enrique Mora, one of the EU’s most senior diplomats, held talks in Tehran yesterday. Mora has extensive experience negotiating with Tehran, the report says.

At the same time, the White House’s top official on the Middle East, Brett McGurk, was in Saudi Arabia on a pre-planned trip for talks.

Blinken urges ‘all parties’ in the Middle East to stop ‘escalatory actions’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a conversation on Advancing Security and Prosperity in the Indo-Pacific Region with Singapore's Ambassador-at-Large Chan Heng Chee at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Suhaimi Abdullah)

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urges “all parties” in the Middle East to stop “escalatory actions” and achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a strike in Tehran that Iran blamed on Israel.

Speaking in the Mongolian capital, Blinken warns the Middle East is on a path “toward more conflict, more violence, more suffering, more insecurity, and it is crucial that we break this cycle.”

“That starts with a ceasefire that we’ve been working on,” Blinken tells reporters alongside his local counterpart.

“And to get there, it also first requires all parties to talk, to stop taking any escalatory actions. It requires them to find reasons to come to an agreement,” he says.

‘Our duty to respond at the right time, in the right place’: Revenge pledged at Haniyeh’s Tehran funeral ceremony

Iranians take part in a funeral ceremony for Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, on August 1, 2024 (AFP)

Calls for revenge are heard at the Tehran funeral ceremony for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, killed yesterday in a strike in Iran blamed on Israel.

Senior Hamas figure Khalil al-Hayya, the terror group’s foreign relations chief, vows that “Ismail Haniyeh’s slogan, ‘We will not recognize Israel,’ will remain an immortal slogan” and “we will pursue Israel until it is uprooted from the land of Palestine.”

Iran’s conservative parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says Iran “will certainly carry out the supreme leader’s order [to avenge Haniyeh].”

“It is our duty to respond at the right time and in the right place,” he says in a speech with crowds chanting “Death to Israel, Death to America!”

The caskets, with a black-and-white pattern resembling a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, were borne on a flower-bedecked truck, as machines sprayed cooling mists of water on the flag-waving crowds.

Malaysia PM accuses Meta of ‘cowardice’ for removal of Facebook post on Haniyeh’s killing

Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on May 14, 2024. (Karim JAAFAR / AFP)

Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim accuses Meta of cowardice after his Facebook post on the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was removed, in his government’s latest run-in with the firm over blocked content.

Anwar had posted a video recording of his phone call with a Hamas official to offer condolences over Haniyeh’s death, which was later removed.

Anwar, who met Haniyeh in Qatar in May, has said he has good relations with the Hamas political leadership but no links on a military level.

“Let this serve as a clear and unequivocal message to Meta: Cease this display of cowardice,” Anwar posts on his Facebook page.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment and Malaysia’s communications ministry said it would address the issue at a press conference.

Malaysia has previously complained to Meta over its takedown of content, including local media coverage of Anwar’s last meeting with Haniyeh, which was later restored.

Khamenei leads prayers over Haniyeh’s coffin at Tehran funeral ceremony

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leads prayers over Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s coffin at Tehran University as Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian stands to his right, August 1, 2024 (Screen grab/AFP)

Iran’s supreme leader and representatives of Palestinian terror groups pray over the coffins of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard in Tehran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leads prayers over Haniyeh’s coffin at Tehran University as Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian stands next to him.

State television shows the coffins then placed in a truck and moved toward Azadi Square in Tehran, with people throwing flowers at them.

After the funeral services in Tehran, Haniyeh’s remains are to be transferred to Qatar for burial tomorrow.

???? Imam Khamenei led funeral prayer for Martyr Ismail #Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of #Hamas & his companion who were assassinated by the Zionist regime. The prayer was performed at Tehran University on Thursday, August 1, 2024. pic.twitter.com/yXhCGpUlWF

— Khamenei Media (@Khamenei_m) August 1, 2024

Defense Ministry signs massive deal with Elbit Systems for ammunition, munitions

An Elbit mortar munition system anchored on a military vehicle. (Elbit)

The Defense Ministry has signed a massive NIS 1.5 billion ($340 million) deal with Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems for ammunition and munitions for the military.

As part of the deal, Elbit is to establish a new factory to manufacture the weaponry.

The ministry says the procurement is part of its “strategy to ensure a steady supply of critical materials for the IDF’s strength and longevity during ongoing and future operations.”

IDF says it destroyed rocket launchers in Khan Younis primed for attack on Israel

IDF troops seen operating in the Gaza Strip in an undated photo released for publication on August 1, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Rocket launchers in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis primed for an attack on Israel were destroyed in a drone strike, the IDF says.

The military says that some 35 more targets were hit by Israeli Air Force fighter jets and drones over the past day, including cells of gunmen and buildings used by terror groups.

Meanwhile, troops with the 162nd Division continue to advance in southern Gaza’s Rafah. The IDF says the division has been carrying out raids in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood, and destroyed a booby-trapped building in an area where Hamas was operating.

Reservists with the 252nd Division are meanwhile operating in the Netzarim Corridor of central Gaza. The IDF says the reservists directed drone strikes on several gunmen in the area in the past day.

‘Death to Israel’: Funeral processions for Hamas leader Haniyeh begin in Tehran

Funeral processions begin in Tehran for Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in a strike yesterday in Tehran that has been blamed on Israel.

Crowds carrying posters of Haniyeh and Palestinian flags gather in the Iranian capital. The crowd chants “death to Israel” and also waves signs calling for Israel’s downfall.

The Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will lead the prayers for Haniyeh in Tehran ahead of his burial in Doha.

Khamenei has threatened a “harsh punishment” for the killing of the Hamas leader, and has reportedly ordered a direct strike on Israel.

The public funeral ceremony begins for Martyr Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital Tehran. pic.twitter.com/Tmz7CokqU4

— IRNA News Agency (@IrnaEnglish) August 1, 2024

Report: Lufthansa flight to Tel Aviv lands in Cyprus after crew refuses to fly to Israel

Lufthansa aircrafts parked at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, September 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Probst,file)

A Lufthansa flight from Munich to Tel Aviv landed in Larnaca in Cyprus, leaving passengers stranded, Channel 12 news reports.

The outlet says the crew was not prepared to fly to Israel.

According to the report, the airline initially informed passengers that the plane would land in Cyprus for “technical reasons” and then it would be decided whether the flight would contribute to Tel Aviv.

However, after some time on the ground, it was announced that the plane would return to Germany.

Passengers were told they could disembark in Cyprus if they wished, but their luggage would remain on the plane and be taken back to Germany, the report says.

The airline tells Channel 12 that the plane landed in Cyprus “as a precautionary measure due to security activity.”

On day 300 of war, protesters block Tel Aviv highway in call for hostage deal

Protesters calling for a hostage deal block the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, August 1, 2024 (Danor Aharon/Pro-democracy protest groups)

On the 300th day of the war, protesters block the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, calling for a deal to free the hostages held in Gaza.

Channel 12 reports that relatives of hostages are among those blocking the highway.

Egypt and Qatar have warned that strikes on terror leaders this week undermine efforts made by mediators to reach an agreement for hostages to be released and a ceasefire.

It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, dozens of them thought dead.

One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.

Electricity company: Some areas could be without power for 48 hours if infrastructure targeted

Firefighters work to put out a blaze on an electricity pole in central Israel after a rocket attack from Gaza, October 26, 2023 (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

The head of the Israel Electricity Company says that in a worst case scenario, it could take up to 48 hours until crews are able to restore electricity to some locations if infrastructure in Israel is targeted in an attack.

“If strategic sites are targeted in an extreme situation, it could take 12-48 hours to fix them,” IEC CEO Meir Spiegler tells Channel 12.

Spiegler is careful to note that he is not saying that all of the country would be without electricity for up to two days, but he will not be drawn to name the areas that could be more vulnerable to prolonged outages.

Israel sent message to Hezbollah that wide-scale targeting of civilians will lead to war – report

A billboard displaying an image of late Iranian Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani (R) and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (C) stands in front of a building targeted in an Israeli military strike on a Hezbollah commander in Beirut the previous day, on July 31, 2024 (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)

After the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander, Israel conveyed a message to the terror group via western diplomats that the large-scale targeting of Israeli civilians will lead to full-blown war, the Ynet news site reports.

According to the report, the message sent to the terror group noted that Israel was targeting commanders and fighters in the terror group rather than infrastructure, and the expectation was that Hezbollah should therefore only target Israeli military personnel.

Israel is bracing for retaliation after Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike on the outskirts of Beirut, making him the most senior figure from the group to be killed in nearly 10 months of conflict with Israel.

Yesterday it was reported that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct strike on Israel for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Israel has not commented on the killing.

IDF says recent drone sirens in north were ‘false identification’

Suspected drone infiltration sirens that sounded in the Upper Galilee a short while ago were determined to have been a “false identification,” the IDF says, meaning not a threat.

Sirens in northern border communities warn of suspected drone attack

Sirens in a number of communities close to the northern border warn of a suspected drone attack.

Australian PM urges citizens to leave Lebanon, warns Beirut airport could soon close

File: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese smiles at the end of a press conference in Sydney, July 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

SYDNEY — Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urges thousands of Australian citizens in Lebanon to leave and warns that the Beirut airport could soon close.

“I take the opportunity to say to Australians: Do not travel to Lebanon at the moment,” Albanese tells reporters in Sydney.

“There is a risk that the Beirut airport might not be open for commercial flights and given the numbers of people who are there, there’s no guarantee that we can just guarantee that people will be able to come home through other means if that airport is shut.”

Khamenei to lead prayers at Haniyeh’s funeral in Tehran

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will lead funeral prayers for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday, Iran’s state-run Press TV says.

The funeral will be held in the Iranian capital Tehran, Press TV adds.

At UN, US calls for pressuring Iran ‘to stop escalating its proxy conflict against Israel, others’

UN Security Council countries on Wednesday call for stepped-up diplomatic efforts to avert a wider Middle East conflict, during the emergency meeting called after the killings of two terror leaders raised tensions.

China, Russia, Algeria and others condemn the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which Iran’s UN ambassador calls an act of terrorism, while the US, UK and France raise what they say is Iranian support for destabilizing actors in the region.

Robert Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN, urges members of the Security Council with influence over Iran “to increase pressure on it to stop escalating its proxy conflict against Israel and other actors.”

Iranian Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani claims Tehran has consistently exercised maximum restraint but reserves its right to respond decisively. He calls on the Security Council to condemn Israel and punish it with sanctions.

Israel’s deputy representative to the UN, Jonathan Miller, calls on the Security Council to condemn Iran for support of regional terrorism and increase sanctions on Tehran.

“We will defend ourselves and respond with great force against those who harm us,” Miller says, calling on the world to support Israel.

Pentagon announces plea deal with 9/11 mastermind, 2 of his accomplices

This March 1, 2003, file photo obtained by the Associated Press shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan. (AP Photo, File)

The United States has reached plea agreements with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants, the Pentagon announces.

“The specific terms and conditions of the pretrial agreements are not available to the public at this time,” the Pentagon says in a statement.

The other two men who reached plea deals are Mohammed’s accomplices Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawasawi.

Citing unidentified Pentagon officials, the New York Times reports that the three agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in exchange for a life sentence, allowing them to avoid the death penalty.

Among the other acts of terror that Mohammed has confessed to since being captured in Pakistan over two decades ago are the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, who according to a Pentagon transcript he admitted to personally beheading. He has never been charged for Pearl’s murder.

Security Council holding emergency meeting on Mideast tensions after terror chiefs killed

The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting after a set of airstrikes hours apart killed two top terror group officials in the Middle East, raising concerns that a regional war could erupt.

The killings of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran and of a top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon have stirred a diplomatic scramble at the UN and elsewhere to try to contain the complex, mounting tensions.

“The various attacks over the past few days represent a serious and dangerous escalation,” UN Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo says as the council meeting begins. She calls for diplomatic efforts “to change the trajectory and seek a path toward regional peace and stability.”

It appears unlikely that the Security Council can coalesce around any joint message on the airstrikes. The United States, a key ally of Israel, and Russia, which has close ties with Iran, are both council members with veto power.