The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they unfolded.
The IDF is probing footage showing an Israeli soldier beating a Palestinian in the West Bank village of Idna earlier today.
Footage published to social media showed the soldier alongside two Israeli civilians hitting the man.
مستوطنون وجنود إسرائيليون يعتدون على فلسطيني بعنف ويحاصرون مصلين داخل مسجد شرق بلدة إذنا غرب الخليل. pic.twitter.com/Y6eZrSFKAQ
— Tamer | تامر (@tamerqdh) August 8, 2026
The military says that troops were dispatched to Idna following a “confrontation” between Israelis and Palestinians in the village.
“The incident and the conduct of the forces are under review,” the IDF adds.
US Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper was in Israel today and met with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other senior military officials, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
Cooper, who arrived from Bahrain, has since departed for the United States.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF or CENTCOM.
Longtime Israeli journalist Oren Nahari bids an emotional farewell to listeners in his final radio broadcast, as Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) has begun harming his ability to breathe.
“I am not saying goodbye to the world for now. I am just saying goodbye to the studio and the microphone — to this frequency that has accompanied me for so many years,” Nahari says on his Saturday morning broadcast on Kan public radio.
“The stories will continue to be written, even without me. Other articles and reporters will continue to bring them to you. But remember: the world is wide and complex. Look at it with open eyes. That was my mission. This is my last request to you: keep looking, keep listening, keep asking questions, don’t take things for granted and keep being interested,” he says.
Nahari is surprised by a message from President Isaac Herzog that is played during the broadcast
“You opened a window to the wider world for us. With rare talent, you knew how to take complex issues, in all kinds of fascinating fields – in history, culture, science, society and politics – and turn them into fascinating and accessible articles and programs for everyone,” Herzog says.
אורן נהרי ❤️❤️❤️
איזה איש מדהים ומרגש. pic.twitter.com/TqaIaBpOcM— הדר סגל Hadar Segal ???????? (@hadarse) August 8, 2026
Hagit and Ruby Chen, parents of slain captive soldier Itay, call on the public to vote only for parties that pledge to form a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023.
“We’re not standing here to ask for pity. We’re here to demand answers,” Hagit Chen says to the roughly 200 people who came to the weekly anti-government protest on Tel Aviv’s Habima Square. “Who knew, who warned, who ignored, who’s responsible.”
“We call from here to every party and everyone that seeks the public’s trust in the election: Are you going to form a state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7? Yes or no?” she says. “Whoever is unwilling to commit to seeking the truth — we call on you not to give them your vote.”
Ruby Chen says the government’s failure to form a state commission of inquiry nearly three years after the Hamas attack “is an evasion from seeking the truth and taking responsibility.”
חייבים להחליף.
כמו שנתניהו אמר אחרי מלחמת לבנון השנייה: לתת לממשלה האחראית על מלחמת לבנון לנצח בבחירות זה כמו לתת לקפטן של הטיטאניק את המפתחות לעוד ספינה להשיט עם אלפי אנשים.
@Investigate0710 @bringhomenow @hagitchen pic.twitter.com/BLFCbDHueW— Ruby Chen (@EmailRubychen) August 8, 2026
He accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other ministers of fear-mongering against the opposition “in the hope we stop asking them what they actually did in the worst term a government has ever had here.”
“We’ll need to ask them time and again, where were you on October 7?” he says. “What did you do that caused a quarter of a million Israelis to leave Israel?”
A state commission of inquiry “does not belong to this or that political camp” but is rather “the basis for our being able to live here with the knowledge that the lessons are being learned and the next disaster is being averted,” he says.
Ruby Chen also calls on the state to “recognize the new reality that October 7 created,” of families like his own that suffered “psychological terrorism” waiting for the return of their slain loved ones’ abducted bodies.
Such families’ needs are “not being addressed by the State of Israel,” he says, as the crowd jeers.
Palestinian media outlets report that six Palestinians were injured in a settler attack in Wadi Rahim, in the southern Hebron Hills in the southern West Bank.
According to the reports, one of them was wounded by gunfire as dozens of settlers attacked the area.
No further details about the incident are currently available.
RIGHT NOW: A Palestinian man shot —
Dozens of armed settlers attacked Palestinians with live fire and rocks in the area of Wadi Rakhim, injuring seven Palestinians as well as one activist. One Palestinian man was shot in his shoulder and is now being evacuated pic.twitter.com/ovnUbf8c6k— מחוץ לעדר/ kivsa shchora (@masafering) August 8, 2026
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says that the defense pact his country signed yesterday with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is technically the same as NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense agreement.
Speaking to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Fidan says a committee of ministers similar to that within NATO would be formed as part of the alliance, as well as a general secretariat based in Saudi Arabia.
Egypt could potentially join the pact once certain technical matters are resolved, he adds.
Ex-Likud lawmaker Gilad Erdan says in an interview with Channel 12 that he was recently offered a spot on the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu-led party’s list, but says “I rejected it outright.”
“I was offered a seat in Likud, just in the last few days,” he says. “I rejected it outright, because as I explained, I have no interest in being in a system again where I cannot lead and make an impact.”
“I am not interested in being subject to the political decisions of some leader, and it does not matter which party,” he says.
Erdan recently announced the formation of a new, yet-unnamed party with fellow ex-Likud MK Yuli Edelstein. Both men vow to make universal IDF service a cornerstone of their platform and promise to only join a broad consensus government.
Iran’s politburo-like body known as the Supreme National Security Council says the Strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States “corrects its behavior,” and issues drastic new demands that could shake up talks on a deal to manage the waterway and traffic on it.
Iran’s state broadcaster publishes the statement by the council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the powerful Revolutionary Guard.
The US must never threaten Iran again, the statement says, and must permanently end the war with Iran and its regional proxies, including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. The US must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area.
The council is also demanding full compensation to Iran for all damage it sustained in the 2025 and 2026 wars, the lifting of all sanctions on Iran, and the unconditional release of all frozen Iranian assets.
The new list of demands reflects the demands Iran was previously making as a condition for a permanent accord with the US. That envisaged accord was intended by the US as also resolving the threat posed by Iran’s rogue nuclear program and its stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium. Instead, these demands are now being issued as conditions for an accord under which Iran would merely consent to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Barak Ravid, Washington correspondent of Israel’s Channel 12, says these are demands that “clearly the US cannot accept,” and that they are potentially capable of pushing US President Donald Trump back toward the military option that he put aside only days ago.
Residents of Kibbutz Zikim on the border with the Gaza Strip were briefly instructed to shelter overnight Friday-Saturday amid fears of an infiltration into the community.
The incident began shortly after 1 a.m. after Zikim’s security coordinator reported a hole in the kibbutz’s perimeter fence.
The IDF immediately said that it had not identified any crossing of the Gaza border, but was scanning the area to rule out any possible incidents.
It is unclear when the hole in the fence was made, the military added.
An hour later, the military ruled out any security incident.
No sirens were activated in the community during the incident.
In an interview with Fox News, US Vice President JD Vance says that Iran has told the US that it has “no plans” to impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz.
Vance’s claim comes amid reporting that Iran has issued multiple new demands, with the Supreme National Security Council saying that the strait will not open until the United States “corrects its behavior,” insisting that the US must never threaten Iran again, that the US must permanently end the war with Iran and its regional proxies including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, and that the US must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area. The council is also demanding full compensation to Iran for all damage it sustained in the 2025 and 2026 wars, the lifting of all sanctions on Iran, and the unconditional release of all frozen Iranian assets.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said earlier today that the US will be “forced to accept Iran’s conditions” regarding the waterway, seemingly referring to its earlier insistence on requiring ships to pay fees for passage, which the US opposes.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier today that Iran and Oman were “very close” to reaching an accord on a new shipping route through the strategic waterway. He added that there would be conditions, including compensation for what Tehran claims were US violations of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, the June agreement between the US and Iran to set terms for peace talks.
But according to Vance, Iran has indicated to the US that it is looking for a deal and will not charge tolls on the strait.
“Some people within the Iranian system” have talked about tolling the waterway, he says, adding that “the Iranians have told us they have no plans to toll the Strait of Hormuz.”
JD Vance on Iran:
You see some people within the Iranian system talk about tolling.
The Iranians have told us they have no plans to toll the Strait of Hormuz. pic.twitter.com/34AneiClu2
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 8, 2026
He adds that the expectation of the US is that “we see the same amount of oil and gas come out of the Gulf that you saw before the conflict.”
He further says that Iran is “hurting in a big way,” and is pushing hard for a deal to end the war, adding: “I think we have made some progress in the last few days.”
A diplomat from one of the mediating countries tells The Times of Israel that Vance is correct is stating that the temporary deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz will bar either any side from charging tolls.
Lebanese state media and a south Lebanon mayor claim that Israeli forces last night infiltrated a village that was recently handed back to the Lebanese military as part of the “pilot zone” program, adding that Israeli troops built an earthen barrier in the area and blocked a road.
Contacted by AFP, the Israel Defense Forces says it was “not aware of such an event in this area.”
“An Israeli occupation army force advanced into the village of Zawtar al-Gharbiya shortly after midnight… and erected a new earthen barrier near the town square,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reports. Zawtar al-Gharbiya was a designated “pilot zone” where the Lebanese army took over from the IDF last month as part of a US-sponsored framework agreement signed with Israel.
The town’s mayor, Abed Ezzeddine, tells AFP that he was surprised to see the barrier in the morning, located near the town square.
A Lebanese military source corroborates the incident and tells AFP it was a violation of the framework agreement.
Separately, the Lebanese military reports that “three soldiers were wounded, one of them moderately, while dismantling unexploded ordnance” in Zawtar al-Gharbiya.
Ex-premier and B’Yachad party leader Naftali Bennett and Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman are discussing a potential post-election union between their parties in the case that neither party wins the most seats among the opposition bloc, Channel 12 says in an unsourced report, in an apparent bid to prevent current frontrunner Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot from becoming prime minister.
According to the report, Bennett and Liberman are not looking to “make it easy” for Eisenkot to assume the premiership, even if his party wins the most seats, and instead are discussing a potential rotation agreement or a party merger to give them the most seats in the opposition bloc.
The outlet says Bennett had previously supported the top spot going to the leader of the largest party, but once Eisenkot overtook him in the polls, he has shifted to advocating for the “most experienced,” or “most right-wing” party leader within the bloc becoming prime minister.
The president does not automatically task the head of the largest party with building a coalition after elections. Rather, the president hears recommendations from the leaders of the new Knesset parties themselves on who they would favor to do so, and then gives the task to the MK the president judges is best able to build a coalition.
A recent poll by The Times of Israel’s Zman Yisrael sister site had Eisenkot winning the most seats at 23, with Bennett’s party at 15 and Liberman’s at 11, meaning that if Bennett and Liberman merged their parties, they would come out slightly ahead of Eisenkot with 26 seats.
The poll had Jewish opposition parties winning 57 seats, short of a majority without the Arab-majority Ra’am, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc would win 51.
Elections are set for October 27.
Extremist settlers have carried out several attacks on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank since last night, injuring at least five people, according to the WAFA news agency.
According to the outlet, settlers raided the village of Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, late last night, assaulting three Palestinians on the outskirts of the town. The three victims suffered moderate injuries, WAFA says.
This morning, settlers raided the neighboring town of Beit Furik, this time injuring two Palestinians, the outlet adds.
إصابة فلسطيني عقب اعتداء المستوطنين عليه في المنطقة الشرقية من بلدة بيت فوريك شرقي #نابلس بالضفة الغربية pic.twitter.com/5h2Weqv9Tz
— وكالة قدس برس (@qudspressagency) August 8, 2026
According to the report, the two victims were treated by an ambulance after they were beaten by the group of settlers.
In the West Bank’s south, settlers raided a Palestinian home near Bethlehem, smashing its windows and vandalizing the property, WAFA adds.
Extremist settler attacks regularly take place on Friday nights and Saturdays, during Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, even though many of the alleged perpetrators are religious.
The United Kingdom’s Charity Commission is probing one of the UK’s largest Muslim charity organizations for allegedly providing financial and material support to Hamas in the wake of the October 7, 2023, attacks, the Daily Mail reports.
The probe into the Al Khair Foundation (AKF) comes after its director, Mohammad Yousef Hasna, was arrested in the UK last week on US charges alleging he conspired to funnel money and supplies to Hamas through his senior role in what prosecutors say was a sham global humanitarian organization. Hasna, a 45-year-old Turkish national, was ordered held pending extradition to New York, where he will face a federal court.
According to the US Attorney assigned to the case, Hasna worked closely with Hamas’s senior leadership to deliver supplies, food and funding to Hamas under the guise of humanitarian aid.
The Daily Mail says it obtained US legal documents showing that AKF’s income ballooned from $41 million in 2023 to $81 million in 2024, all the way up to around $100 million in 2025.
It also says the documents show that Hasna and senior Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad had close ties, and exchanged several messages regarding the transfer of millions of dollars of funds directly to the terror group.
According to the report, Hasna even asked the senior terror leader for contacts with international organizations during a 2024 exchange: “I know that you have contact with the United Nations, the Red Cross, and details like that. Is it possible to share their numbers with me?”
In a statement, AKF says it is cooperating with the Charity Commission probe “with a view to answering questions posed, addressing concerns raised, and taking remedial action if needed.”
“We are a proudly British humanitarian organization, a registered charity with a distinguished record spanning more than two decades of delivering humanitarian assistance and alleviating poverty,” it adds.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif tells a news outlet in his country that “Israel is a threat to the entire Muslim world,” and calls for “a united military front” against it, just a day after Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey signed a joint defense agreement.
“In the context of Israel, all Muslim countries must unite. I have no doubt about this,” Asif says.
“Israel is a product of the Balfour Declaration, which was established in the 1940s as an illegitimate state, and it could pose a direct threat to any of the countries in the region,” he adds, referring to the 1917 British declaration of support for the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in the land of Israel, which set the stage for Israel’s independence three decades later. Pakistan was similarly established on the basis of a British declaration in 1947, just one year before the founding of Israel.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Israel:
When it comes to Israel, all Muslim countries should come together. There is absolutely no ambiguity in my mind about that.
Given Israel’s current conduct, as well as the historical evidence of what it has been doing—at one… pic.twitter.com/3Uqzo1cdnR
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 8, 2026
Asif, who has in the past called Israel “evil and a curse for humanity,” and a “cancerous state,” tells the interviewers that his fierce opposition to Israel will not change even if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is defeated in this year’s elections, which are set for October 27.
“No matter who comes to power in Jerusalem – whether it’s [former premier Naftali] Bennett or any other leader – the differences are only marginal,” Asif says.
“Their attitude towards the Palestinians and their anti-Islamic mindset will not disappear. They continue to incite Muslim countries against each other,” he charges, “and as long as the Palestinian issue is not permanently resolved, the Islamic world must stand against them as one.”
Former US President Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has spread to other parts of his body and is causing him pain, his son Hunter says in an interview with the BBC broadcast last night.
“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further,” he says. “It’s very painful and it’s very debilitating in many respects.”
The former president revealed his cancer diagnosis in May of last year, less than four months after he left the White House.
“It’s really sad to watch,” Hunter Biden says. “The only thing that I’d say about my dad, about his health right now, is I wish he would complain more, because it’s not good.”
But the former president’s son says his father remains “out there,” speaking publicly about the issues that are important to him: “He’s still doing his thing. He so believes in this country.”
A vessel has been struck by an unknown projectile 18 nautical miles east of Oman’s Khasab, causing a fire that was extinguished, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) says.
UKMTO says the vessel and crew were reported safe, with no reported environmental impact from the incident.
Lebanese authorities have detained a former Syrian army officer following an arrest warrant from Damascus accusing him of “killing and crimes against humanity,” a judicial official tells AFP.
Adel Issa, a 67-year-old former officer in the Syrian army’s 17th brigade under ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, headed to his country’s embassy in Beirut for paperwork on Friday, the official says on condition of anonymity.
When staff learned of an arrest warrant from Damascus filed in absentia for the “crimes of killing and crimes against humanity during his time with the Syrian army,” they called on Lebanese authorities to detain him, the official added.
He is still in their custody, and Lebanon’s public prosecutor has asked his Syrian counterpart to send the suspect’s extradition file before Beirut decides whether to hand him over.
Since Assad’s fall in December 2024, Syrian authorities have arrested dozens of people they say committed crimes during the country’s 13-year civil war, and trials began in April.
Rebels affiliated with the Islamic State attacked a village in Congo near the border with Uganda early Saturday, killing at least 13 people and burning and looting homes, a local civil society group says.
The attacks occurred in the village of Banana École, a suburb of the territorial capital of Mambasa.
Marie-Noelle Anotane, the head of the New Civil Society of Congo/Mambasa, and Sylvain Andali, a local resident, tell The Associated Press that the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, were behind the violence. Both say the attackers used known ADF tactics.
“This death toll of 13 civilians is only provisional because most residents aren’t responding to calls, and searches are continuing in other surrounding villages,” says Anotane.
The attacks forced people to choose between staying or risking travel to other parts of the province where the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak in history rages.
“I decided to leave Mambasa for Bunia because I fear repeated attacks by the ADF,” says Andali. “Many of my neighbors have already died, and I must protect my life and the lives of my family.”
The ADF, which has roots in Uganda and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2019, has long operated in the border region. It is one of numerous groups operating in Congo, routinely attacking civilians. In July 2025, the group killed 66 people in eastern Congo in what the United Nations called a “bloodbath.”
The country also faces attacks from roughly 100 other rebel groups, most prominently the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, which has seized key cities in the eastern region.
An IDF soldier was moderately hurt in an “operational accident” in southern Lebanon earlier today, the military says.
The IDF says the soldier was taken to a hospital and his family was notified.
Iran and Oman are “very close” to reaching an accord on a new shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says.
He adds that there will be conditions, including compensation for what Tehran says were US violations of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding.
Iran and Oman were discussing a temporary shipping route, while technical and legal issues surrounding a permanent route were resolved, Araghchi says.
Hamas is ready to proceed with a US-backed Gaza peace plan and urges the US to exert pressure on Israel to accept the deal, an official in the terror group tells AFP.
“Hamas and other factions have confirmed to mediators their readiness to begin implementing the agreement and move to the second phase, provided it receives Israeli approval and that Israel begins implementing the agreement,” the official says on condition of anonymity.
“Hamas is urging the US administration to exert pressure on Israel to compel it to abide by the agreement and move to the second phase,” the official says.
Hamas last week agreed to a US-backed “roadmap” to its disarmament, in line with the second phase of the comprehensive Gaza peace plan that US President Donald Trump presented in September 2025.
The US officially announced the beginning of the second phase in June, which entails demilitarization of armed groups in the Strip, the entry of the Board of Peace’s new technocratic government and the beginning of reconstruction in Gaza, alongside a pullout of Israeli forces from the part of the territory it controls.
But progress has been slow, and despite US President Donald Trump insisting that Israel has signed off on the plan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel has not agreed to the deal, and that the IDF would stay put until Hamas disarms completely.
The United Arab Emirates says Iran targeted a tanker belonging to the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
The foreign ministry in a statement condemns “the hostile Iranian attack that targeted a tanker belonging to ADNOC with a missile while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, without causing casualties.”
On Friday, ADNOC had put out a statement saying that since the start of the war, 15 of its vessels had been attacked in Hormuz, “including three vessels this week alone.”
The body of a deceased man was found in an open area near Rehovot today, police say, adding that foul play is not currently suspected.
The body appears to have been at the site for several days, and will be sent to the Abu Kabir forensic medicine institute for identification, according to police.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says reopening the Strait of Hormuz is unrelated to Iran-Oman negotiations but is conditional on the US accepting Iran’s conditions.
“The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is subject to the specific mechanisms and conditions of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is unrelated to the negotiations between Iran and Oman,” Iran’s Tasnim news agency cites Guard’s spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi as saying.
A US official on Friday reported progress between Iran and Oman that could soon reopen the Strait of Hormuz, potentially restoring oil exports that have been disrupted since the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28.
Iran’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that Iran and Oman were putting the final touches on arrangements for jointly managing the waterway. Officials cited by Iranian media said that any reopening of the strait would depend on the US ending restrictions on Iranian shipping.
US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche is confirmed as US attorney general after Senate Republicans shrugged off Democratic concerns over the politicization of the US Justice Department.
Blanche, who has already been serving as the top US law enforcement officer in an acting capacity, represented Trump as his private attorney in several criminal trials before entering government. The Senate, which Republicans narrowly control, confirmed him by 50 votes to 49.
Blanche says he is “deeply honored” to be confirmed as attorney general.
“I am deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me to lead the Department of Justice as our great nation’s 88th Attorney General,” Blanche writes on X, also expressing thanks to the Senate and to “the dedicated public servants of the Department of Justice.”
Dozens of Haredi men clash with cops outside central Jerusalem’s Basimta cafe, in the sixth straight week of ultra-Orthodox demonstrations against the cafe for operating on Shabbat.
Police are deployed in advance and maintain a wider perimeter around the cafe than on previous Saturdays to prevent a repeat of chaotic scenes seen last week, when protesters tried to force their way into the cafe itself.
Secular activists, including Yair Golan and members of his left-leaning Democrats party, flocked to Basimta this morning, with some forming a human chain to keep the Haredi protesters from approaching the cafe, footage shows.
Haredi protesters can be seen yelling “Shabbos,” while secular counter-protesters chant, “Shabbat belongs to all of us.”
Hebrew media reports that some people standing on porches near Basimta lobbed plastic bags full of water at secular people who came to the cafe.
The recently opened cafe has become a flashpoint in Jerusalem, where vanishingly few cafes operate on Shabbat. Police on Thursday announced the arrest of a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of having hurled a bag of feces at Basimta.
שירה בסמטה pic.twitter.com/AdwdryhPd4
— שלומי הלר | Shlomi Heller (@Heller_shlomi) August 8, 2026
The suspected terror infiltration alert in Ofarim this morning was triggered by a stolen car that breached into the West Bank settlement, the military says, adding that “there is no suspicion of a security incident.”
The IDF says security forces were chasing after the car when it entered Ofarim.
Additional forces were dispatched to the area, and after the driver, a Palestinian, exited the vehicle, “a security personnel member operating in the area carried out a suspect apprehension procedure that included fire toward him,” the military says.
The man was then detained and handed over to the police.
The IDF says “the incident has concluded” and there is “no suspicion of a security incident.”
The military issues an all clear shortly after alerting of a suspected terrorist infiltration in the northern West Bank settlement of Ofarim.
Terror infiltration alerts in the West Bank are frequently false alarms.
A suspected terrorist infiltration alert has been activated in the northern West Bank settlement of Ofarim, the IDF says.
Residents are instructed to immediately enter safe rooms until further notice.
“The circumstances are under investigation,” the military says.
The Central Elections Committee is set to brief Knesset faction leaders this coming week on the danger of efforts to discredit members of the committee ahead of the October 27 election, Channel 13 reports.
The report comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud has railed against recent appointments on the committee, prompting some experts to express concern that the ruling party was preparing to exert pressure on the committee and possibly dispute the results of the election.
The committee briefing for faction leaders this week will include a rundown of options to help counter both domestic and foreign interference in the election, Channel 13 says, without citing a source.
The committee has reportedly also formed a team to study responses to possible election interference.
The Central Elections Committee is an independent state body responsible for managing parliamentary elections and protecting their integrity. It is chaired by a Supreme Court justice and comprises representatives of the various factions in the Knesset.
The committee is in charge of tallying votes and has the power to disqualify parties ahead of elections.
Russian strikes in the Kyiv region overnight killed three people, including a child, an official says.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv regional administration, says Russian strikes were recorded at three locations in the Boryspil district, near the capital. Three more people were injured in the attack, he says.
In the capital itself, fires were reported in two districts, Mayor Vitali Klitschko says, following an air raid alert.
Reuters witnesses heard several powerful explosions that shook the city center.
Ukraine is chronically short of air defenses capable of downing Russia’s ballistic missiles.
US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine has privately said in recent weeks that the United States needs “an off-ramp” from the war with Iran, believing that the military options currently being considered could backfire and that airstrikes alone are unlikely to accomplish the administration’s goals, CNN reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The report says Caine isn’t the only administration official to believe the US is at a crossroads in the war and that he has discussed the possibility of an off-ramp with other top advisers of the president, including Vice President JD Vance, CIA chief John Ratcliffe and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella is sworn in as Colombia’s new president, after winning a June runoff on promises to crack down on armed groups, shrink the state by as much as 40%, restore ties with Israel and revive the oil and gas sector.
An ally of US President Donald Trump, de la Espriella, 48, represented well-known right-wing paramilitaries during his time as a lawyer. He has never before held elected office.
His ascension to office brings Colombia’s first-ever leftist government to a close.
A US federal prosecutor fired last year over critical comments he had written as a private citizen about US President Donald Trump sues the Justice Department, saying his termination violated his First Amendment rights.
Will Rosenzweig was two weeks away from trying a multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud case when a blog he had written years earlier covering a broad range of topics was publicized online by a conservative political commentator who also included a screenshot of Rosenzweig’s LinkedIn account and tagged senior Justice Department officials for their awareness.
Less than three hours after the post, the lawsuit says, Rosenzweig received an email signed by then-US Attorney General Pam Bondi informing him that he had been fired. The news came as Rosenzweig was out of town with his family observing Rosh Hashanah.
The September 2025 termination was part of a sweeping personnel purge over the last year and a half inside the Justice Department, which has fired prosecutors who worked on investigations into Trump and others seen as being against the administration’s efforts.
A lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami, where Rosenzweig worked as a federal prosecutor for five years, seeks reinstatement to the job as well as backpay and a court order declaring his firing unlawful.
The complaint says Rosenzweig was a highly respected prosecutor who received “consistent praise and awards” and was so highly valued in his office that he was told just weeks before his firing that he would be getting a special parking spot due to his performance.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declines to comment, citing pending litigation.
A US official claims that progress has been made in talks between Iran and Oman aimed at fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
“We expect a deal soon,” a US official says in a statement sent to querying reporters.
US President Donald Trump has been claiming a deal is imminent since Saturday, when he called off a major military strike against Iranian energy sites. Recent reports have indicated that the sides have reached a framework agreement.
“Once a deal is announced to restore commercial shipping without impediments, the US will lift the blockade of Iranian ports,” the US official says.
“US actions will continue to be performance-based and tied to Iran’s implementation of its commitments,” the official adds.
