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The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they happened.
Lebanese media report fresh Israeli strikes along Lebanon-Syria border
Lebanese media report new Israeli strikes on the Lebanon-Syria border, near the Syrian village of Hawsh al-Sayyid Ali.
No further details are immediately available.
https://twitter.com/LebanonTrend_/status/1819474115276754997
Police open murder probe after Tel Aviv shooting victim dies of wounds
Police investigate at the scene of a fatal shooting in Tel Aviv, August 2, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Police announce the launch of a murder investigation after a man seriously wounded in a shooting in Tel Aviv dies of his wounds.
A police statement says the victim is a 34-year-old resident of Haifa, without naming him.
Josh Shapiro seeks to downplay his time as IDF volunteer after college op-ed resurfaces
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro speaks during a news conference in Philadelphia, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Pennsylvania Governor and potential vice presidential nominee Josh Shapiro tries to distance himself from a recently uncovered op-ed he wrote in college in which he identified as a former volunteer in the IDF and argued that the Palestinians are too “battle-minded” to pursue peace with Israel.
“While he was in high school, Josh Shapiro was required to do a service project, which he and several classmates completed through a program that took them to a kibbutz in Israel where he worked on a farm and at a fishery,” Shapiro’s spokesperson Manuel Bonder tells The Times of Israel.
“The program also included volunteering on service projects on an Israeli army base. At no time was he engaged in any military activities,” Bonder adds in a statement responding to an inquiry regarding the nature of his volunteer work.
In the 1993 op-ed, which dismissed the recently signed Oslo Accords, Shapiro wrote, “Despite my skepticism as a Jew and a past volunteer in the Israeli army, I strongly hope and pray that this ‘peace plan’ will be successful.”
While Shapiro’s Jewish roots are well established — including his enrollment at the Akiba Hebrew Academy in Philadelphia — the op-ed from his time at the University of Rochester appeared to be the first revelation of such direct ties to the IDF.
“Palestinians will not coexist peacefully,” Shapiro also wrote in the op-ed titled “Peace Not Possible.”
“They do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States. They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own,” added the then-20-year-old.
The article resurfaces days before Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is slated to announce her running mate. Shapiro has faced an aggressive campaign from far-left and anti-Israel activists, who have branded him “Genocide Josh” and warned Harris against picking him. Those critics have also faced charges of antisemitism, as Shapiro’s more recent views are no less critical of Israel than others on the shortlist who are not Jewish.
Asked about the op-ed at a press conference earlier Friday, Shapiro said, “I was 20.”
“I have said for years, years before October 7, that I favor a two-state solution — Israelis and Palestinians living peacefully side-by-side, being able to determine their own futures and their own destiny,” he added.
Earlier this year Shapiro called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “one of the worst leaders of all time and has steered Israel in a wrong direction.”
In a separate statement to the Inquirer responding to backlash over Shapiro’s views on Palestinians when he was in college, his spokesperson said, the governor “has built close, meaningful, informative relationships with many Muslim-American, Arab-American, Palestinian Christian, and Jewish community leaders all across Pennsylvania.
“The governor greatly values their perspectives and the experiences he has learned from over the years — and as a result, as with many issues, his views on the Middle East have evolved into the position he holds today,” the spokesperson added.
US deploying more fighter jets and warships to Mideast amid threats from Iran-led axis
Illustrative: A US Navy destroyer fires a missile. (US Navy photo)
WASHINGTON — The US military will deploy additional fighter jets and Navy warships to the Middle East, the Pentagon says, as Washington seeks to bolster defenses following threats from Iran and its allies Hamas and Hezbollah.
The US is bracing for Iran to make good on its vow to respond to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh two days ago in Tehran — one in a series of killings of senior figures in the Palestinian terror group as the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza rages.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has approved sending additional Navy cruisers and destroyers– which can shoot down ballistic missiles– to the Middle East and Europe.
The US is also sending an additional squadron of fighter jets to the Middle East.
“Austin has ordered adjustments to US military posture designed to improve US force protection, to increase support for the defense of Israel, and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies,” the Pentagon says in a statement.
The US military also intensified deployments prior to April 13, when Iran launched an attack on Israeli territory with drones and missiles. Still, the threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon could present unique challenges to any efforts by the United States to intercept drones and missiles given the group’s vast arsenal and immediate proximity to Israel.
At the time, Israel successfully knocked down almost all of the roughly 300 drones and missiles with the help of the United States and other allies.
Wizz Air halts flights to Israel over next day due to ‘escalating situation in region’
View of a Wizz Air flight taking off from Ben Gurion International Airport, September 3, 2014. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)
Budget carrier Wizz Air announces it’s cancelling all flights to and from Israel and Jordan over the coming day, citing “the escalating situation in the region.”
A statement from Wizz says the pause will be in effect until August 4.
https://twitter.com/wizzair/status/1819482163227906137
Mossad hired IRGC security agents to plant explosives that killed Haniyeh — report
A woman walks amid vehicles next to a billboard of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the Valise square in Tehran, August 1, 2024. (AFP)
The Mossad enlisted Iranian security agents to plant explosives in the Tehran guesthouse where Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was staying, according to a report in the Telegraph.
The report says the initial plan called for assassinating Haniyeh when visited Tehran in May to attend the funeral of president Ebrahim Raisi, but two Iranian officials tell the newspaper the operation was called off due to the large number of people in the building and seeming high possibility of failure.
The British daily says the agents nevertheless went ahead and planted explosives in three rooms at the compound, and later left Iran. They reportedly detonated the bombs from abroad.
“They are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi security unit,” an official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tells the newspaper, referring to a unit tasked with protecting senior officials.
Another IRGC official says: “It is a humiliation for Iran and a huge security breach.”
“It’s still a question for everyone how this happened, I can’t understand it. There must be something higher in the hierarchy that no one knows about,” the official adds.
Pentagon chief scraps plea deal with 9/11 mastermind and 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)
WASHINGTON — The United States government scraps a plea deal with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin removed the military official who facilitated the agreement from the case, as it would have eliminated the death penalty as possible punishment.
“I have determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused… responsibility for such a decision should rest with me,” Austin says in a memorandum addressed to Susan Escallier, who oversaw the military court at Guantanamo Bay.
“I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024 in the above-referenced case,” the memo says, referring to Mohammed and two alleged accomplices.
Netanyahu planning to fire Gallant and then replace IDF chief, Shin Bet head — report
From left to right: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet security services director Ronen Bar at a special operations room overseeing a mission to release hostages in the Gaza Strip, June 8, 2024. (Shin Bet security service)
Citing sources among Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close associates, Walla news reporter Tal Shalev says the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “is not a matter of if, but when.”
Speaking on the Kan public broadcaster’s main evening news program, Shalev reports that Netanyahu wanted to can Gallant when he returned from his visit to the United States, but the planned dismissal was held up by Hezbollah’s deadly attack on Majdal Shams and the killing this week of two terror chiefs.
She adds that there are sources in Netanyahu’s circle who say that after replacing Gallant, the premier then plans to axe IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar.
The reported goal of firing of them would be to eliminate opposition to his handling of the negotiations for the return of hostages seized by Hamas on October 7 and their charges that he’s risking a deal, instead elevating officials in their place who would be dependent upon him and do his bidding.
The report notes that opposition New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar’s name continues to be floated as a potential candidate for defense minister, despite his denials, but Shalev says some of Netanyahu’s associates have reservations about Sa’ar — a former Likud member who previously challenged him unsuccessfully for the party’s leadership — and that there is talk of a possible general cabinet reshuffle to create the appearance that the prime minister is not just giving Gallant the boot.
IDF says it launched airstrike on car carrying terror cell near Tulkarem
The Israel Defense Forces announces that an Israeli aircraft just struck a vehicle transporting a terror cell near the West Bank city of Tulkarem.
A statement from the military says it will soon release further details.
Greece said to fear potential terror attacks on Jewish, Israeli targets
Greek security forces are on heightened alert over fears of a potential terror attack on Jewish and Israeli targets, Channel 12 news reports.
According to the report, several intelligence agencies have warned Greece of potential attacks in revenge for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh this week in Iran, which was blamed on Israel.
In France, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has ordered local governments to boost security at synagogues amid then heightened tensions.
Local Hamas military chief in Tulkarem reportedly killed in IDF airstrike
A local leader of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was killed in an airstrike in Tulkarem this morning, Ynet reports, citing Hamas radio.
He is named as Haythem Balidi.
Five people in total were killed in the strike, Palestinian media reports.
https://twitter.com/yonibmen/status/1819584155631374375
NYT: Iran arrests dozens suspected of involvement in Haniyeh assassination
Iran has arrested at least two dozen people over suspected connection to the alleged Israeli assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, The New York Times reports, citing two Iranians familiar with the investigation.
Those arrested include senior Iranian intelligence officers, military officials, and staff at the IRGC-run guesthouse, the report says. Iranians fear a major security breach within high-ranking officials made the daring assassination possible.
The Telegraph reported earlier that the Mossad enlisted Iranian security agents to plant explosives in the guesthouse and then remotely detonate it, but a Hamas official in Iran told the Al-Araby Al Jadeed news outlet that an airborne projectile targeted Haniyeh.
Trump agrees to Sept. 4 Fox News debate with Harris
This combination of pictures created on July 22, 2024, shows US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump. (Brendan Smialowski and Patrick T. Fallon/AFP)
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he has agreed with Fox News to debate Democratic presidential candidate US Vice President Kamala Harris on September 4.
“I have agreed with FoxNews to debate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, September 4th,” Trump writes on his Truth Social platform, but it was not immediately clear if Harris had agreed to the debate.
Hostage family releases video of Gazans kicking abducted dead body of Eitan Levy
The family of Eitan Levy, who was killed and kidnapped to Gaza on October 7, has released graphic footage of Gazans abusing the dead body of the captive.
The video, published on Instagram, shows Gazans seeing the body in a half-opened trunk of a car, and then excitedly chasing after it. The footage then cuts to Gazans kicking Levy’s body lying on the ground.
In a statement carried by Ynet, the family says they decided to share the video of the “lynch,” adding that the video is “proof that there is no innocent civilian in Gaza.”
“Fourty-three weeks we’ve lived in indescribable suffering. One hundred and fifteen hostages are left behind. This is the time to bring them all home,” the family says.
https://twitter.com/YosephHaddad/status/1819606692998324694
Israel’s Olympic judo team reaches round of 16 after tie-breaker against Mongolia
Mongolia's Erdenebayar Batzaya and Israel's Sagi Muki (Blue) compete in the judo mixed team round of 32 bout of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Champ-de-Mars Arena, in Paris on August 3, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)
Team Israel in judo rises to the round of 16 after a tie-breaker match against Team Mongolia in the round of 32.
Silver medalist Raz Hershko lost her match, the sixth and final weight category, leading to a nail-biting Wheel of Fortune style choice of Sagi Muki (90+) and his Mongolian counterpart to break the tie.
In the ‘Golden Score’ format of the final, Muki won on a one-point waza-ari.
Team Israel will face Team France in the round of 16.
Sweden announces closure of embassy in Beirut amid regional tensions
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Sweden says it is shutting its embassy in Beirut amid fears the war in Gaza could escalate into a region-wide conflict, after urging thousands of its citizens to leave Lebanon.
The killings of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr this week have heightened regional tensions amid the Israel-Hamas war.
“The foreign ministry has instructed its staff to leave Beirut and travel to Cyprus, and the foreign ministry is planning a temporary relocation of its embassy,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom tells Swedish Radio.
The decision had been taken “initially for the month of August but may be extended depending on the security situation.”
“The ministry is monitoring developments closely,” he says.
According to the foreign ministry, as many as 10,000 Swedish nationals may have traveled to Lebanon this summer, defying a travel warning in place for the country since October 2023.
“I urge Swedes in Lebanon to leave the country by whichever means possible, while they still can,” he says.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Israeli airstrike reportedly hits vehicle in Lebanese town
Lebanese media report an Israeli airstrike against a vehicle in the town of Bazourieh, near Tyre.
No further details are immediately available.
أنباء عن استهداف سيارة في بلدة البازوريّة pic.twitter.com/2navzWiiJX
— MTV Lebanon News (@MTVLebanonNews) August 3, 2024
Instagram blocked in Turkey for second day in a row
This picture taken in Istanbul on August 2, 2024, shows the logo of the social network Instagram on a smartphone with the Turkish flag in the background. (Yasin Akgul/AFP)
ISTANBUL, Turkey — Instagram users in Turkey find access to the social media network blocked for a second day, following censorship accusations against the US company from a high-ranking Turkish official.
The BTK communications authority announced on its website Friday that the Meta-owned platform had been frozen, without giving any reason.
But Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Friday Instagram had ignored government demands for it to remove certain posts.
“Our country has values and sensitivities. Despite our warnings, they did not take care of criminal content.
“We blocked access. When they abide by our laws, we’ll lift the ban.”
On Wednesday, the president’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, had accused Instagram of censure, saying it was “preventing people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr [Hamas leader Ismail] Haniyeh.”
“This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censure,” Altun said on X.
Haniyeh, the political leader of the Hamas terror group and a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was killed in Tehran on Wednesday in an attack blamed on Israel.
Erdogan decreed a national day of mourning in memory of Haniyeh, who played a key role in talks aimed at ending nearly 10 months of war in Gaza.
An anonymous BTK source denies the move was due to Instagram blocking posts about Haniyeh, telling website Medyascope that it was due to “insults to Ataturk,” the founding father of modern Turkey, and “crimes” including “drug games [and] pedophilia.”
Hezbollah claims convoy of trucks struck by Israel on Syrian-Lebanon border
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A source close to the Hezbollah terror group says that Israel carried out strikes on a convoy of trucks entering Lebanon from Syria.
“Three Israeli strikes targeted a convoy of tanker trucks on the Syrian-Lebanese border in the Hawsh el-Sayyed Ali area, injuring one Syrian driver,” the source tells AFP.
It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes in the border area, the source adds.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor also reports Israeli strikes inside Syria near the border with Lebanon, without mentioning any casualties.
The strikes targeted an area near a border crossing “used by Hezbollah to move trucks and group members” between Lebanon and Syria, the Britain-based Observatory says, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
“One of the strikes targeted a truck convoy,” while another targeted “a farm on the outskirts of Qusayr in Homs province,” the Observatory says.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has a strong presence on both sides of the eastern stretch of the Lebanese-Syria border, where it supports the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Team Israel knocked out of Olympic judo competition after 0-4 loss to France
France's and Israel's teams react after their judo mixed team round of 16 bout of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Champ-de-Mars Arena, in Paris on August 3, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)
Team Israel in judo ends its medals run in the Olympic group competition in the round of 16 against Team France in a 0-4 loss.
Team Israel, which won a bronze in the group competition in Tokyo, has now finished its judo competitions.
Iran says Hezbollah to strike ‘broader and deeper’ civilian and military targets
Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations warns Hezbollah will strike “broader and deeper” civilian and military targets in response to the Israeli strike that killed top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut earlier this week.
A spokesperson for the mission tells CBS that until now, Hezbollah has limited itself according to an “unwritten understanding” with Israel “confining their actions to border areas and shallow zones, targeting primarily military objectives.”
“However, the [Israeli] regime’s attack on Dahieh in Beirut and the targeting of a residential building marked a deviation from these boundaries. We anticipate that, in its response, Hezbollah will choose both broader and deeper targets, and will not restrict itself solely to military targets and means,” the spokesperson says.
IDF launches counterterror op in Tulkarem after morning airstrike
An Israeli soldier takes position in a street in the West Bank city of Tulkarem on August 3, 2024. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP)
Shortly after an IDF drone strike in Tulkarem this morning, Israeli troops entered the West Bank city to carry out a counterterrorism operation, a military source says.
There are ongoing exchanges of fire between IDF troops and gunmen in the area.
Five Palestinians, including a local Hamas commander, were killed in the drone strike.
Rocket sirens blare in Western Galilee
Incoming rocket sirens are activated in the Western Galilee community of Matat.
Red Alert [11:52:39] – 1 Alert:
• Confrontation Line — Matat#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/Gt6W14zcG6
— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) August 3, 2024
One killed in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon’s Bazourieh — report
One person was killed and two others were wounded in the Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese town of Bazourieh this morning, Lebanese media report.
The IDF has not yet commented on the strike.
الدفاع المدني في جنوب #لبنان: إستشــ ـهاد
شخص في الغارة "الإسرائيلية" التي استهدفت سيارة في محيط بلدة البازورية#ملحق pic.twitter.com/SLmbkr19M2— Mulhak – ملحق (@Mulhak) August 3, 2024
IDF says Tulkarem drone strike targeted terror cell on way to carry out attack
The IDF says the drone strike in the West Bank this morning targeted a cell of terrorists en route to carrying out an attack.
The strike hit a vehicle with five gunmen in it, on the outskirts of Tulkarem, killing all of those inside.
According to the military, the five gunmen were “on their way to carry out a terrorist attack.”
Palestinian media say that among the dead is Haitham Balidi, a commander in a local wing of Hamas in Tulkarem.
The IDF publishes footage of the strike.
צה"ל תקף במרחב הכפר קפין שבחטיבת מנשה, בהכוונה מודיעינית של שב"כ ובאמצעות כלי טיס של חיל האוויר, רכב ובו חמישה מחבלים שהיו בדרכם לבצע פיגוע טרור.
כוחות צה״ל, שב״כ ומג״ב ממשיכים לפעול כעת בטול-כרם שבחטיבת מנשה לסיכול טרור במרחב pic.twitter.com/fF5gqcfDQi
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 3, 2024
IDF carries out another drone strike in Tulkarem as it battles gunmen in area
The IDF says it has carried out a drone strike in the West Bank city of Tulkarem amid clashes with gunmen in the area.
Further details will be provided later, the IDF adds.
It is the second drone strike in the West Bank today, after five gunmen were killed in an attack on their vehicle in a nearby town this morning.
Top security officials arrive in Cairo for hostage-truce deal talks — report
Ronen Bar (left), head of the Shin Bet security services, speaks with Mossad chief David Barnea during the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem, May 5, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
A high-level Israeli delegation has arrived in Cairo for talks on reaching a hostage-truce deal, the Walla news site reports, citing two sources with knowledge of the details.
Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea, Shin Bet security agency head Ronen Bar, and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories COGAT Ghassan Alian are set to hold meetings with Egyptian Intelligence head Abbas Kamel and senior Egyptian military officials, the sources say.
Discussions will focus on the release of hostages, as well as security issues regarding the Egypt-Gaza border.
Air France, Transavia nix flights to Beirut until Tuesday over regional tensions
PARIS, France –Flights to Beirut by Air France and low-cost carrier Transavia France will remain suspended until at least Tuesday due to “security” concerns in the region, parent company Air France-KLM says.
The two French airlines first stopped servicing the route on Monday, a day after Israel vowed to retaliate following rocket fire from Lebanon that killed 12 children in the town of Majdal Shams. Flights to Tel Aviv will continue as normal, a spokesman tells AFP.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
IDF says ‘central terrorist’ in Hezbollah killed in southern Lebanon strike
A prominent Hezbollah operative in the terror group’s so-called Southern Front unit was killed in an Israeli drone strike this morning in southern Lebanon, the IDF says.
The strike in the town of Bazourieh, near the coastal city of Tyre killed Ali Abd Ali.
The IDF says Ali was a “central terrorist in the Southern Front of the Hezbollah terror organization,” and involved in planning and carrying out numerous attacks.
His killing is a “significant blow to the functioning of the Southern Front and the Hezbollah terror organization in the region,” the IDF adds.
The Southern Front is a Hezbollah regional unit responsible for the terror group’s activities in the entire southern Lebanon, the equivalent of a regional command.
צה"ל חיסל הבוקר, באמצעות כלי טיס של חיל האוויר, במרחב אל בזוריה שבדרום לבנון, את עלי נזיה עבד עלי, מחבל מרכזי בחזית הדרום של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה>> pic.twitter.com/W8rrbCfgvj
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 3, 2024
Israeli windsurfer Sharon Kantor heads to Olympic finals, guaranteeing medal
Sharon Kantor, of Israel, warms up before a women's iQFOiL windsurfing class race during the 2024 Summer Olympics, August 3, 2024, in Marseille, France. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Israeli windsurfer Sharon Kantor finishes first place during the Olympic women’s iQFoil semifinals and goes through to the finals, to be held later today.
Qualifying for the final guarantees athletes a medal in the competition.
IRGC: Haniyeh slain by short-range projectile, vows revenge ‘at appropriate time, place, and manner’
Hamas’s slain leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran by a short-range projectile with a warhead of about 7 kilograms, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says in a statement.
Tehran’s revenge for the attack will be “severe and [taken] at an appropriate time, place, and manner,” the statement says, blaming Israel — “the adventurous and terrorist Zionist regime” — for his death.
IDF says it struck gunmen, seized weapons in Tulkarem op
The IDF says it killed a cell of gunmen that opened fire at troops operating in the Tulkarem area in the West Bank earlier today.
It publishes footage of the strike and the weapons seized from the gunmen.
It was the second drone strike in the Tulkarem area today after five gunmen were killed earlier today.
בפעילות משותפת של צה״ל, שב״כ ומג"ב חוסלה חוליית מחבלים נוספת, במהלך היתקלות של כוחות מיחידת דובדבן בטול-כרם שבחטיבת מנשה. זוהו ארבעה מחבלים אשר פתחו בירי לעבר כוחותינו, בהכוונה מודיעינית של שב"כ, לוחמי דובדבן ויחידה 636 כלי-טיס של חיל-האוויר חיסל את החוליה. pic.twitter.com/3y3ofQN1rP
— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) August 3, 2024
Israel drone strike reportedly hits vehicle on Damascus-Beirut highway in Syria
Lebanese media report an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle on the Damascus-Beirut highway in Syria.
Further details are not immediately available.
استهداف سيارة على طريق #دمشق – #بيروت الدولي بهجوم إسرائيلي مسير والمعلومات الأولية تفيد بأنه اغتيال pic.twitter.com/Nqn32zvyRK
— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) August 3, 2024
Israeli windsurfer Sharon Kantor wins silver in women’s iQFoil final
Peru's Maria Belen Bazo German, Israel's Sharon Kantor and China's Yan Zheng compete in the semifinals of the women's IQFoil windsurfing event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games sailing competition at the Roucas-Blanc Marina in Marseille on August 3, 2024. (Christophe Simon/AFP)
MARSEILLE, France – Italy’s Marta Maggetti wins Olympic gold in the women’s windsurfing final.
Israel’s Sharon Kantor wins silver and Britain’s Emma Wilson lands bronze.
Kantor, 21, is the daughter of immigrants from Australia and South Africa. She was a heavy favorite for a medal at this year’s Games. She won the gold at the 2024 World Championships and the silver at last year’s European Championships. She has been windsurfing since age 10.
This is Israel’s fourth medal in the games. Tom Reuveny is set to claim Israel’s fifth at the male iQFoil final.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Tom Reuveny wins windsurfing final, picking up Israel’s first gold at 2024 Olympics
Israel's Tom Reuveny celebrates with his team after winning the gold medal in the men's IQFoil windsurfing final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games sailing competition, at the Roucas-Blanc Marina in Marseille on August 3, 2024. (Christophe SIMON / AFP)
Tom Reuveny finishes first in the men’s iQFoil windsurfing final, picking up Israel’s first gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Reuveny’s win is something of a sensation, as he had previously not even been expected to make it to the semifinals.
The son of a British mother and Israeli father, he began sailing at age eight. Now 24, these are his first Olympic Games.
He previously took fourth place in the 2022 iQFOiL Wold Championships and before that won gold and bronze medals at the RS”X Youth World Championships in 2017 and 2016, respectively.
תום ראובני אלוף אולימפי! 🥇
רגע הזכיה של מדליסט הזהב בשיט pic.twitter.com/yMNG9oJDEq— Shem Tov Heavy (@ShemTovHeavy) August 3, 2024
Tom’s win takes Israel to five total medals at the Paris Olympics so far, breaking the previous record set in Tokyo (4). This is Israel’s fourth Olympic gold ever, and its second in windsurfing following Gal Friedman in Athens 2004.
Israel’s two windsurfing medals today (Reuveny’s alongside Sharon Kantor’s silver) are its first Olympic windsurfing medals since the Beijing Games in 2008.
Reuveny after winning gold: ‘Wanted to do everything to hear Hatikvah’
Tom Reuveny says that while others may not have expected to win gold at the Olympics, he always believed in himself.
“It will take me a week to understand this,” he tells the Sports Channel about processing his first-place finish. “I was the dark horse.”
“I wanted to enjoy the crazy experience and do everything to hear Hatikvah,” he adds, referring to Israel’s national anthem.
“I’m happy that we’re hearing Hatikvah for the heroes who fell in the war and the captives in Gaza. This is pride for Israel,” he says.
Reuveny also notes his first-place finish comes 20 years after his coach Gal Friedman won Israel’s first ever Olympic gold medal.
Incoming rocket sirens sound in Hula Valley moshav
An incoming rocket siren is activated in She’ar Yashuv, a moshav in the northern Hula Valley.
IDF releases file seized in Gaza to show Al Jazeera reporter was a Hamas member
Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Alghoul 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 publishes a 2021 Hamas document obtained from the Gaza Strip which it says proves that Al Jazeera reporter Ismail Alghoul was a member of the terror group.
Alghoul was killed in an IDF drone strike in Gaza City on Wednesday, alongside Al Jazeera cameraman Ramy El-Rify.
The IDF said that Alghoul participated in the October 7 onslaught as a member of the terror group’s elite Nukhba force, and was later involved in instructing terror operatives on how to film and distribute videos of attacks on Israeli troops.
The document, which the IDF says was obtained from Hamas computers seized in the Gaza Strip, included the details of thousands of operatives in the terror group’s military wing.
According to the document, from 2021, Alghoul was an engineer in Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade, the IDF says.
“Despite the false attempts by Hamas and Al Jazeera to present Alghoul as a journalist, Alghoul was an active terrorist in the Hamas terror organization,” the military adds.
#عاجل #اسماعيل_الغول لم يكن صحفيًا بل إرهابيًا حمساويًا!
استكمالًا لما كشفنا عنه حول المدعو إسماعيل الغول، الذي تم القضاء عليه الأربعاء الماضي، كان إرهابيًا في وحدة النخبة وشارك في مجزرة السابع من أكتوبر نكشف اليوم عن وثيقة من عام 2021 وُجدت في أجهزة حاسوب خاصة بحماس والتي صودرت… pic.twitter.com/opIsSzhzFQ
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) August 3, 2024
Rocket sirens activated in 2 Western Galilee towns
Rocket warning sirens are activated in a pair of communities in the Western Galilee.
Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat wins silver in floor gymnastics final
Israel's Artem Dolgopyat celebrates his silver medal at the end of the artistic gymnastics men's floor exercise final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris, on August 3, 2024. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP)
Israeli gymnast Artem Dolgopyat finishes second in the final of the men’s floor exercise in artistic gymnastics, winning silver and picking up Israel’s third Olympic medal of the day.
Dolgopyat finished first at the previous Olympics, making him the first Israeli athlete to win medals at consecutive games.
The medal is the sixth won by Israel in Paris, surpassing the record four medals it received at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Amid war fears, US urges Americans to leave Lebanon on ‘any ticket available’
BEIRUT — The US embassy in Lebanon urges its citizens to leave Lebanon on “any ticket available,” amid fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah and a broader regional conflict.
Despite flight suspensions and cancellations, “commercial transportation options to leave Lebanon remain available,” the embassy statement says. “We encourage those who wish to depart Lebanon to book any ticket available to them, even if that flight does not depart immediately or does not follow their first-choice route.”
Thousands of Moroccans demonstrate against Haniyeh’s killing at pro-Hamas rally
Demonstrators burn a flag of Israel during a rally in Rabat on August 3, 2024, protesting the killing of the Hamas terror group's leader Ismail Haniyeh. (Fadel Senna/AFP)
RABAT, Morocco — Thousands of Moroccans protest in Rabat in support of Palestinians and to condemn normalization with Israel, holding portraits of killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, AFP journalists report.
Waving Palestinian flags, and brandishing pictures of Haniyeh and a cardboard coffin adorned with his image, thousands of people march to the parliament building with black and white keffiyeh scarves, which are symbols of the Palestinian cause, draped across their shoulders.
“Greetings from Rabat to our Gazan friends and to the Al-Qassam [Brigades],” the crowd chants, referring to the armed wing of Hamas.
“The people want the end of normalization,” they also chant, a message also carried on their placards, the AFP journalists report.
Some in the crowd burn an Israeli flag, the journalists see.
The rally was organized by the National Action Group for Palestine, which brings together leftist groups and the Islamist Justice and Development Party.
Morocco established official ties in Israel in 2020 as part of the US-led Abraham Accords.
The North African kingdom has officially called for “the immediate, complete and permanent halt to the Israeli war on Gaza,” but has not publicly discussed undoing normalization.
IDF says it struck Hamas command and control center in Gaza City school building
A Hamas command and control center based out of a former school in Gaza City was struck by fighter jets a short while ago, the IDF says.
According to the military, Hamas operatives were using the Hamama School in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood to plan and carry out attacks against troops in the Strip.
The IDF says the site was also used by Hamas operatives to manufacture and store weapons, as well as train with them before carrying out attacks on Israeli troops.
Hamas’s government media office reports that at least 10 were killed in the attack, and that the school was being used as a shelter for displaced Gazans.
To mitigate harm to civilians in the strike, the IDF says it carried out “many steps,” including using precision munitions, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.
“The Hamas terror organization systematically violates international law, brutally exploiting civilian institutions and the population as a human shield for terror activity,” the military adds.
In recent months, dozens of airstrikes have been carried out against Hamas sites embedded within schools and other sites used as shelters for civilians, according to the IDF.
#تحديث| شهداء وجرحى بقصف الاحتلال مدرسة حمامة التي تؤوي نازحين في حي الشيخ رضوان شمال مدينة غزة pic.twitter.com/H2x53T5OOn
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) August 3, 2024
British FM calls on UK citizens in Lebanon to ‘leave now’
LONDON — The UK government urges its citizens in Lebanon to leave the country immediately, amid fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah and a broader regional conflict.
“Tensions are high, and the situation could deteriorate rapidly,” UK Foreign Minister David Lammy says in a statement. “While we are working round the clock to strengthen our consular presence in Lebanon, my message to British nationals there is clear –- leave now.”
IDF strikes Hezbollah sites in Lebanon as terror group claims rocket attacks on north
Israeli fighter jets struck several buildings used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Tayr Harfa and Kafr Kila today, the IDF says.
IDF tanks also shelled sites used by the terror group in Rab al-Thalathine.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah took responsibility for several rocket attacks on Israeli communities and IDF posts along the border, in the upper and western Galilee.
The IDF says that at least one projectile impacted the community of Avivim, causing no injuries.
It also says that troops shelled the launch sites in southern Lebanon with artillery.
Meanwhile, sirens that sounded in Shear Yeshuv were determined to have been false alarms, according to the IDF.
מטוסי קרב תקפו משעות הלילה תשתיות טרור ומבנים צבאיים של חיזבאללה במרחבים טיר חרפא וכפר כילא שבדרום לבנון.
בנוסף, צה"ל תקף בירי טנקים תשתית טרור אשר שימשה את הארגון במרחב רב א-תלתין שבדרום לבנון>> pic.twitter.com/ie7lZhFarP
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 3, 2024
Egypt voices concern over ‘dangerously increasing pace of escalation’ in region
CAIRO — Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty expresses to his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib his country’s “deep concern over the dangerously increasing pace of escalation” in the region.
Abdelatty affirmed, in a phone call with Bou Habib, Egypt’s support to Lebanon in confronting the threats surrounding it, the Egyptian foreign ministry says in a statement.
Hostage’s mother: Netanyahu carrying out ‘targeted killing’ of proposed hostage deal
Families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza demonstrate outside the Kirya IDF Military Headquarters in Tel Aviv, August 3, 2024. Einav Zangauker is second from right in a white shirt. (Oded Engel/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
The families of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas deliver statements to the press outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, ahead of the weekly rally urging a deal for the release of their loved ones.
“There is a deal on the table and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is carrying out a targeted killing of it,” says Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists on October 7, alluding to the assassinations this week of Hamas’s leader and Hezbollah’s top military commander.
Zangauker accuses the premier of “choosing to drag us into an escalation, instead of closing a deal that will save lives and prevent an escalation.”
Far-right demonstrators clash with British cops in Liverpool, Manchester
British police officers face off with far-right protesters in Liverpool on August 3, 2024, during a demonstration held in reaction to the fatal stabbings in Southport on July 29. (Peter Powell/AFP)
Far-right protesters clash with British police as unrest linked to misinformation about a mass stabbing that killed three young girls spreads across the UK.
Demonstrators throw chairs, flares and bricks at officers in the northwestern city of Liverpool, according to an AFP photographer, while British media report scuffles between police and protesters in nearby Manchester.
Clashes reported in West Bank after settlers enter Palestinian town
A group of masked settlers clash with Palestinians after entering the West Bank town of al-Mughayyir, according to Hebrew media reports.
Citing security sources, the Kan public broadcaster says 20-30 Israelis threw rocks and set several fires, while around 30 Palestinians hurled rocks at them.
Video shows IDF troops at the scene, as they apparently attempt to disperse the riot.
The Palestinian Authority’s official Wafa news agency says one Palestinian was wounded “by gunfire from Israeli colonists.”
התפרעויות אלימות סמוך לכפר אל מוע׳ייר: לפי גורמי ביטחון – כ-20 ישראלים רעולי פנים ירדו לכפר, יידו אבנים לעבר פלסטינים והציתו מספר מוקדים. כ-30 פלסטינים יידו אבנים לעברם.
כוח צבאי שהוקפץ למקום ביצע ירי. הפלסטינים מדווחים על פצוע ירי
@carmeldangor pic.twitter.com/rBzw0HZh7L— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) August 3, 2024
WATCH: ‘Hatkiva’ plays as Israel’s Tom Reuveny gets his gold medal; noting Gaza war, he says winning is ‘much bigger than me’
Israeli windsurfers Sharon Kantor (left), a silver medalist, and Tom Reuveny (right), a gold medalist, show their medals after their successes at the 2024 Olympics, August 3, 2024. (Olympic Committee of Israel.)
MARSEILLE, France — Israel’s Tom Reveny receives his gold in the men’s windsurfing at a ceremony on the beach in Marseille.
He says his success means far more than Olympic glory because of the war in Gaza, Israel’s Tom Reuveny says after his victory.
“My brother has been a combat soldier since the war began … it’s much bigger than me to win this event and it feels amazing,” Reuveny tells Reuters after coming ashore.
Reuveny’s gold followed a silver for his team mate Sharon Kantor, 21, in the women’s windsurfing, with the pair delivering Israel’s best Olympic sailing medals result.
“We are in a tough year and a tough position … in this situation to represent Israel is a big honor for everyone and we all understand our roles: to give a bit of joy,” says Eli Zuckerman, head coach of Israel’s Olympic sailing team.
Gold 🏅 Tom Reuveny!
HATIKVA – Israeli National Anthem.(He who raised the flag, you need to get a new job. You're suck at this one.)#StandWithIsrael #OlympicGamesParis2024#OlympicGames #Olympia2024 pic.twitter.com/Q8kcTREa6u
— Hen Papirman (@HenPapirman) August 3, 2024
“I’m very happy that we succeeded,” he tells Reuters, adding: “I think the athletes are also very happy and very proud to do it while our country is in such a complicated situation.”
Reuveny, 24, says he felt all of Israel was behind him in the run-up to the Games, which had helped him through. He thanks everyone for the many messages of support.
“It was so hard to go training while everyone else was crying over lost people, dead people. It’s been so hard and I still had to put my head down and keep training and its all for this moment,” says the visibly emotional sailor.
Longtime Netanyahu rival Sa’ar hints he could serve as defense minister if Gallant fired
New Hope chair Gideon Sa'ar leads a faction meeting, at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on July 22, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Opposition New Hope party leader Gideon Sa’ar is asked if he would serve as defense minister in the current government, amid reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is looking to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“I won’t bind my hands on anything,” he tells Channel 12 news.
Asked about the years of a bad blood between him and Netanyahu, Sa’ar responds by saying the ongoing war is more important.
In an interview with the network right after Sa’ar finishes speaking, Education Minister Yoav Kisch of Netanyahu’s Likud party calls “to refrain” from axing the defense minister in the middle of a war.
Biden told Netanyahu to ‘stop bullshitting me’ during Thursday phone call — report
US President Joe Biden meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 25, 2024. (AP/Susan Walsh)
US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “stop bullshitting me” during their phone conversation on Thursday, according to Channel 12 news.
The network says the outburst came after Netanyahu told Biden that Israel was moving forward with negotiations on a hostage-for-ceasefire deal and would soon send a delegation to resume talks.
At the end of the conversation, Biden also reportedly said, “Don’t take the president for granted.” According to Channel 12, this comment was made in the context of Israeli-US cooperation and a possible descent into regional war.
Netanyahu’s office says the prime minister does not comment on the content of his private discussions with the president of the United States. According to Channel 12, his office further says that Netanyahu does not intervene in American politics and does not expect the US to intervene in Israeli politics.
Protesters rally near homes of Deri and Gallant after Hostages Square demonstration cancelled
Anti-government protesters in Haifa carry a banner that reads: "He who abandons one life, abandons an entire world" on August 3, 2024. (Eilat Markovitch/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Marking over 300 days since Israeli hostages were taken to Gaza by Hamas terrorists, demonstrators urging their return gather outside the homes of at least three senior coalition members.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum cancelled its weekly rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv and instead called on demonstrators to gather outside the home of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Amikam near Hadera, and by the Jerusalem home of Shas party leader Aryeh Deri.
The forum represents relatives of hostages who back a hostage-for-ceasefire deal and has held a rally at Hostages Square every Saturday night for the past several months. This weekend’s action is taking place amid concerns of a retaliatory attack by Iran and Hezbollah for the assassinations of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran.
Separately, hundreds of anti-government protesters gather outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Caesarea, as they have on weekends in recent months.
As in past weeks, thousands of people are also protesting opposite the Kirya army base in Tel Aviv on Kaplan Street. Among the protesters is Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan in presumed to be held in Gaza. “Stop the death, stop the bereavement, human lives above all,” she chants with other hostage families and protesters at the rally.
Other rallies are taking place in Haifa; at Hemed Junction near Jerusalem and in the city itself; in Hadera; at Amiad Junction in the Galilee; and in Ness Ziona near Rehovot.
Gallant, Halevi both said to tell PM he knows his new demands are dooming hostage deal
From left to right: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet security services director Ronen Bar at a special operations room overseeing a mission to release hostages in the Gaza Strip, June 8, 2024. (Shin Bet security service)
More details emerge from a Wednesday night meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his security chiefs at which they reportedly urged him to close a deal with Hamas, he slapped them down, and they left the meeting concluding that he was not interested in a hostage-ceasefire deal at present.
Further quotes from the meeting show IDF chief Herzi Halevi and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant both telling Netanyahu that the new conditions he is demanding, which have reportedly been included in an updated Israeli proposal, will doom the deal, and that he knows this.
In response, Channel 12 quotes a senior source, who it indicates is Netanyahu himself, accusing his critics of acting out of political motives.
According to tonight’s report by Channel 12 news, which first reported on the meeting last night, Halevi said during the heated discussion: “The conditions for the deal are there. I think it is correct to engage in negotiations and bring the best achievement possible. We’ll continue to apply [military] pressure on Hamas until then, and once we’ve brought a deal we can turn our attention to the north.”
Halevi reportedly added, “As regards [control of the] Philadelphi [route along the Gaza-Egypt border], I do not recommend that we turn it into an obstacle or something that prevents us from bringing home from [Gaza] 30 people in the first stage [of the deal], half of them women.”
Gallant reportedly weighed in: “For all the moral and strategic reasons, I think we have to look at the deal as an opportunity. There won’t be a deal with the [four new] conditions you’ve inserted [into the proposal], and you know it.”
Gallant reportedly added: “There is no security reason to delay the deal. Since we’re speaking candidly, I am telling you that you are making considerations that are not beneficial to the matter.”
The TV report says Netanyahu’s office insists that he does want a deal, and is insisting on conditions that will prevent Hamas from regaining power in Gaza and carrying out further October 7-style attacks.
It says that Israel’s negotiators are “on the edge” and that matters “are close to blowing up” — in an apparent reference to the friction between the prime minister and the security chiefs.
Israel’s negotiators, including Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, traveled to and from Cairo today for talks on the Philadelphi Corridor issue and the Rafah border crossing. But Channel 12 quotes a senior source familiar with the negotiations saying, “This was a trip solely for reasons of protocol, playing for time. Netanyahu’s current positions will not yield real progress.”
The report then quotes a “political source,” who it indicates is actually Netanyahu himself, saying that there is no deal to be finalized at present. Those who say there is a deal on the table “are not telling the truth and are acting out of political motives.”
Defense Minister Gallant’s office says it does not respond to grave leaks from sensitive discussions.
Last night, when denying the accuracy of the initial report on Wednesday’s meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office released a statement specifically dismissing the claim that Mossad chief Barnea said at the meeting that there is a deal ready and that Israel must take it.
Netanyahu is reported to be planning to fire Gallant, and possibly Halevi and Bar as well.
US military says it destroyed Houthi missile launcher in Yemen
US forces successfully destroyed a Houthi missile and launcher in Yemen, US Central Command says in a statement.
Egyptian FM warns of ‘unprecedented, very dangerous’ threats to regional stability
CAIRO — Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stressed in a phone call with Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani that recent developments in the region were “unprecedented, very dangerous” and threatening to stability, Egypt’s government says.
On July 31, Palestinian terror group Hamas’s top leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran, an act both Hamas and Iran have accused Israel of carrying out and have pledged to retaliate against.
Netanyahu’s office rails at ‘leaks and false briefings’ criticizing his handling of hostage talks
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks from IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, July 31, 2024. (PMO video Screenshot)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushes back against news reports that top defense officials and members of the government’s negotiating team have criticized his management of the indirect hostage-ceasefire talks with Hamas.
“The leaks and false briefings by unknown parties in the media create a false representation to the public,” the Prime Minister’s Office tells the Kan public broadcaster after it reported Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar accused the premier of “making changes” to Israel’s proposal in the middle of negotiations.
According to Kan, members of the negotiating team further told Netanyahu that his position regarding the Netzarim corridor would “collapse the deal” and that “we approved a proposal that treats the corridor differently.”
Responding to the report, Netanyahu’s office says, “while Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to the outline, Hamas is trying to introduce dozens of changes which effectively cancel it.”
“The prime minister has not added anything to the outline and continues to adhere to the basic conditions for Israel’s security,” the statement from his office continues. “Whoever offers to give in to Hamas’ demands in order to receive applause in [television] studios harms the chances for the release of the hostages and returns us to the reality of October 6.”
Netanyahu himself last month added several “non-negotiable” demands to the hostage deal proposal, including Israeli control over the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt and the Netzarim Corridor, which currently splits the Strip in two.
The Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors are not specified as locations where Israeli troops will be allowed to remain, according to the text of the Israeli proposal from May recently published in full by The Times of Israel.
In fact, the document calls for the “withdrawal of Israeli forces eastwards away from densely populated areas along the borders in all areas of the Gaza Strip including Gaza Valley (Netzarim axis and Kuwait roundabout).”
Braced for attack on ‘several fronts,’ Israel’s leaders reportedly discuss readiness for potential ‘all-out war’
Israel is braced for potential attacks by Iran and Hezbollah in the coming days, and assesses that they could come from “several fronts,” Channel 12 reports.
It says the Israeli security establishment is on “peak alert” and that members of a US-led international coalition aimed at thwarting such attacks are braced to try and deter and intercept them.
Israel’s leadership has been holding discussions on how Israel would respond to such attacks, including as regards “a readiness for an entry into all-out war in this context.”
As things stand, Home Front Command instructions to the public are unchanged. If something changes, the IDF has stressed, the public will immediately be told.
The TV report notes that today’s edition of Iran’s Kayhan pro-regime newspaper, in its editorial, warned that, in contrast to Iran’s almost completely thwarted April attack on Israel, its attack this time would target areas deep inside Israel, such as Tel Aviv and Haifa, strategic centers and the homes of Israeli officials.
The TV report also notes that Shi’ite militias in Iraq are threatening to strike at both Israel and US targets.
While the report notes that Iran has already impacted Israel by prompting the cancellation of flights by numerous foreign airlines and by inducing concern among Israelis over an imminent attack, it says the killing, blamed on Israel, of Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh at an IRGC-run guesthouse in the heart of Tehran early Wednesday has left the regime feeling “deeply penetrated” and “completely exposed” to Israeli intelligence.
Lapid accuses PM of ‘delaying hostage return deal for only political reasons’
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid attends a protest calling for the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip and against the current Israeli government outside Hakirya Base in Tel Aviv, June 15, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “continuing to delay the deal for the return of the hostages for only political reasons.”
Lapid calls on the heads of Israel’s security establishment to “come out and tell the public the truth,” stating that “if the Israeli government has given up on the hostages, it should be honest with the families and stop playing games.”
According to press reports, senior defense officials and members of Netanyahu’s negotiating team have accused Netanyahu of taking positions which would “collapse the deal.”
An Israeli source is quoted by the Haaretz daily saying that today’s talks in Cairo failed to produce results and that “the very departure of the delegation to Egypt under these circumstances is the only good news.”
Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea, Shin Bet security agency head Ronen Bar, and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories COGAT Ghassan Alian held meetings with senior Egyptian intelligence and military officials focused on the release of hostages, as well as security issues regarding the Egypt-Gaza border.
Herzog phones Olympic medal winners: You brought ‘a great light’ to a nation at war
Left to right: Israel's Tom Reuveny celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men's IQFoil windsurfing final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (Christophe Simon/AFP); Israel's Artem Dolgopyat celebrates his silver medal at the end of the artistic gymnastics men's floor exercise final (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP); Israel's Sharon Kantor celebrates her silver medal win after the women’s IQFoil windsurfing final (Christophe Simon/AFP), August 3, 2024.
President Isaac Herzog calls all three Israeli Olympic medal winners today to congratulate them on their accomplishments.
Waiting until after Shabbat ended, Herzog first speaks with Tom Reuveny, who won gold in the men’s windsurfing event, lauding him for “an amazing achievement.” He tells Reueveny that “you made an entire nation happy, a nation that is at war and that is praying for the return of its hostages… you brought us a great light… you caused our national anthem to be played at this Olympics in Paris.”
Reuveny replies to the president that such a goal was “the most important to me, that was what I was thinking before I sailed — I feel like it’s so much bigger than me.”
Herzog then calls Sharon Kantor, who won silver in the women’s windsurfing, telling her that she “made history! [Israel’s] first woman to win a sailing medal… thank you on behalf of an entire nation who was so excited.”
The president then speaks to Artem Dolgopyat, who won a silver medal in the men’s gymnastics floor exercise — after winning gold in Tokyo: “You’re such a panther, I watched you and I was so impressed, you’re like a flying lion,” says Herzog. “I salute you, and I think I speak for the entire Israeli public who salute you.”
Herzog also spoke earlier in the week with Israel’s three other medalists so far — judokas Inbar Lanir, Peter Paltchik and Raz Hershko. Israel has now won six medals at the 2024 Paris Games so far — already surpassing the four medals it won in Tokyo, which was its best-ever performance until now.
Netanyahu feels emboldened to strike Israel’s foes since Biden quit race — report
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a meeting with US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 25, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is feeling more emboldened to act against Iran after US President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 election, according to a report in the Telegraph that cites a senior Israeli official.
The official tells the British newspaper that Biden was seeking to “restrain” Netanyahu while he was still in the race, and had “told him not to respond too harshly to Iran’s attacks.”
“And Iran knew this, which is why they exploited the situation to attack Israel,” adds the official, who says the US president will now do what he “believes is right.”
The official continues: “His true agenda is to support Israel fully. And he has done so for decades. Netanyahu knows this, which is why he’s being more bold and feels confident that he can attack Israel’s enemies and still have the full support of the US,” he added.
The official also says Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid is a “big game changer” in the region because Iran planned to exploit his campaign.
A different senior Israeli official quoted in the report says Biden wants a ceasefire.
“That is how he wants to leave his term. The conversation they (Biden and Netanyahu) held two days ago was tense,” the official adds, echoing other recent reporting on the phone call.
Hezbollah announces operative’s death following Israeli strike in Lebanon
The Hezbollah terror group announces the death of a member killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes.
The announcement comes after a reported Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanon village of Deir Seryan this evening.
The operative is named as 17-year-old Hassan Karim, from Deir Seryan.
His death brings the terror group’s toll since October to at least 387.
Hamas announces start of consultations to select Haniyeh’s successor
Hamas, the terror group that runs the Gaza Strip, issues a statement saying that it has initiated a broad consultation process to select a new leader following the assassination of its former chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Thousands rally outside PM’s residence in Jerusalem: ‘Time has come for hostage deal and elections’
Diplomat Eran Etzion speaks at a rally calling for a hostage deal and new elections outside the Prime Minister's official residence in Jerusalem. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Thousands of protesters are rallying for a hostage deal outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem tonight, marking over 300 days since the captives were seized during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
“The time has come for a deal, and the time has come for elections,” says former diplomat Eran Etzion to the large crowd.
He insists that a hostage deal “has been ready” to be signed for a long time, but that Netanyahu is deliberately stalling negotiations for “political, personal and criminal reasons.”
“He [Netanyahu] is stirring up a regional war with the worst imaginable starting circumstances, when Israel is weak, isolated, and the IDF is worn out,” he warns.
Etzion calls on Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other heads of Israel’s security establishment to pressure Netanyahu into a deal.
“Your time has come,” he urges them. “The time has come to bang on his table and say: ‘You have no authority to kill the deal and the hostages!’
Hundreds of anti-government demonstrators clash with mounted cops in Tel Aviv
Police confront demonstrators during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for the release of Israelis held hostage in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, August 3, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Hundreds of anti-government demonstrators clash with mounted police in Tel Aviv.
In the clashes on Begin Street in Tel Aviv, lawmakers Naama Lazimi and Gilad Kariv of the Labor party shout at police to refrain from pushing the demonstrators, who the lawmakers argue are nonviolent.
The clashes follow the blocking of an intersection on Begin Street by protesters who splintered off from the weekly anti-government protest on Kaplan Street, which thousands attend every Saturday night.
Erdogan’s son speaks at pro-Hamas rally in Istanbul: Israel ‘treacherously murdered’ Haniyeh
Pro-Hamas demonstrators take part in a rally to condemn the assassination of the Palestinian Islamist terror group's leader Ismail Haniyeh, at Hagia Sophia Square in Istanbul, on August 3, 2024. (Kemal Aslan/AFP)
ISTANBUL — Thousands of demonstrators gather in Istanbul to denounce the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran earlier this week.
Haniyeh was buried on Friday in Qatar, where he had been based. Israel, accused by Hamas, Iran and others of the attack, has not directly commented on it.
Gathered at the call of several conservative and pro-government associations, demonstrators wave Turkish and Palestinian flags, as well as portraits of Haniyeh in front of the former Byzantine basilica Hagia Sophia.
“Israel has murdered an important hero in a way that suits it: treacherously,” says Bilal Erdogan, the son of the Turkish head of state, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He adds: “Haniyeh had called on millions of people to demonstrate (for Gaza). We respect his last wish.”
On Wednesday, the Turkish leader condemned the “perfidious assassination” of his “brother” Haniyeh, which he said was the work of “Zionist barbarity.”
Haniyeh, who frequently resided in Turkey before the war in Gaza, was received in Istanbul in April by Erdogan, a fervent supporter of Hamas, which he describes as a “liberation movement.”
IDF says it hit Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon, confirms earlier drone strike on operative
Buildings used by Hezbollah, alongside other infrastructure, were struck by fighter jets in Kafr Kila in southern Lebanon this evening, the IDF says.
The IDF also confirms the killing of a Hezbollah operative in the village of Deir Seryan earlier today in a drone strike.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו מטרות טרור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב כפר כילא, בהם תשתיות טרור ומבנים צבאיים.
מוקדם יותר היום, כלי טיס של חיל האוויר חיסל מחבל של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב דיר סירין.
בנוסף, צה"ל תקף באמצעות ארטילריה תשתיות טרור במרחב אל עדייסא שבדרום לבנון pic.twitter.com/DYmG6s4S3r
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 3, 2024
Jordan calls on its citizens to leave Lebanon as soon as possible
Citing “the developments taking place in the region” and concerns for its citizens’ safety, Jordan’s foreign ministry publishes a statement urging all Jordanian nationals in Lebanon to leave as soon as possible.
It also says those planning to travel to Lebanon should not do so.
Blinken speaks with French and UK counterparts about rising Mideast tensions
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shared their concern over rising frictions in the Middle East in a phone call today, France’s foreign ministry says in a statement.
“They agreed to continue calling on all parties to exercise the greatest restraint in order to prevent any regional upheaval that would have devastating consequences for countries in the region and for peace prospects, starting with a lasting ceasefire in Gaza,” it says.
Tensions have soared following the assassination of Palestinian terror group Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a top military commander from Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah.
“The secretary and the foreign minister discussed ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire to secure the release of hostages and surge humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as the importance of preventing further escalation of conflict in the Middle East and the challenges posed by threats from Iran,” says the US readout on the call.
Blinken also spoke today with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, with the US state Department saying the two “reaffirmed the need to deescalate rising tensions in the Middle East and prevent the conflict from spreading.”
“They stressed the importance of finalizing the ceasefire and hostage release deal under negotiation as soon as possible,” the statement adds.
Police say 5 arrested for disturbing the peace at Tel Aviv demonstration
Police say they arrested five protesters for disturbing the peace during an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv this evening.
Rocket barrage fired from Lebanon at north; Iron Dome intercepts many
The Iron Dome system intercepts projectiles fired from Lebanon at the Galilee Panhandle in the early morning of August 4, 2024. (Screenshot)
Numerous Iron Dome interceptions are seen over the Galilee Panhandle amid a rocket barrage from Lebanon.
Sirens had sounded in Kiryat Shmona and several nearby communities.
Numerous Iron Dome interceptions seen over the Galilee Panhandle amid a rocket barrage from Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/nVIVVzoGby
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 3, 2024
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