The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they unfolded.
The former commander in chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezaei, has been named head of the country’s highest national security body, the Iranian presidency announces.
“In light of the resignation of Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr from his position as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and his appointment to new functions, President Masoud Pezeshkian has named Mohsen Rezaei as the head of this body,” presidency spokesman Mehdi Tabatabaei says on X.
Rezaei, 71, led the Guards from 1981 to 1997 — a tenure that included almost all of the Iran-Iraq war — before going on to occupy several high-ranking political posts. He recently served as military adviser to new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
Rezaei declared in July that control of the Strait of Hormuz, now at the center of the ongoing conflict between Iran and the United States, was “more important than dozens of atomic bombs.”
His predecessor, Zolghadr, was also a former Guards commander and took up leadership of the council in March.
He will now become a political adviser to Khamenei, according to a statement released by the supreme leader’s office.
Board of Peace Gaza envoy Nickolay Mladenov seeks to dispel overwhelming Israeli skepticism about the US-backed board’s roadmap for the Strip, speaking in a Channel 12 interview broadcast a few hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he rejects the plan.
The roadmap’s goal is “to make sure that Gaza is never again a threat to Israeli security — that what happened before October 7 never happens again,” Mladenov tells the news outlet. And only the full, verified implementation of the plan can “guarantee” the October 7 tragedy will not recur, he says.
Mladenov stresses that Israel is not expected to withdraw IDF forces from their current positions until there are tangible steps toward disarming Hamas under the roadmap, which the terror group approved last week.
“Nobody is required to do anything – last of all Israel – before we actually have verified steps on the ground,” Mladenov says. “If there is verified decommissioning of weapons, that they are taken away from the factions, and stored, and ultimately rendered unusable, Israel then withdraws from Gaza.”
He specifies the plan does not require an IDF withdrawal from its positions along the Yellow Line at this stage, since the IDF is not currently deployed beyond that line.
“What we are asking is that the IDF do not position troops further [inside Gaza] from the Yellow Line, because the Yellow Line was agreed under the comprehensive plan,” he adds, referring to the US-brokered ceasefire agreement signed by Hamas and Israel last October. “So we would like them to stay at those positions, and to make sure that they do not shoot across at people unless they are a real threat to Israeli soldiers…”
“The yellow line, obviously, will move further back once there is decommissioning in Gaza,” he elaborates. “Once each [geographical] sector is decommissioned, and the weapons are certified — that they have been taken over and stored by the NCAG (the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza) the Board of Peace and rendered unusable — then Israel is required to move back progressively, step by step, in stages, ultimately to the fence in Gaza.”
Mladenov further stresses that Israel will not be restricted in its military responses to “imminent” threats under the Gaza roadmap. “None of the plan that we are preparing limits Israel’s options to react to a threat if it’s imminent and if it’s really endangering its troops.”
Noting that it will take “more than a decade” to destroy all of Hamas’s tunnel network in the Strip, Mladenov argues that working through the Board of Peace could accelerate the process. “With the Board of Peace, together, it can be done much quicker and much more effectively,” he says.
Mladenov attempts to assuage Israeli concerns regarding the potential presence of hostile states Turkey and Qatar in Gaza as part of the International Stabilization Force tasked with securing the enclave during its transitional period.
“My experience over the last eight months is that if it wasn’t for Egypt and for the other mediators, Turkey and Qatar, we would have not been able to get to a position in which Hamas would agree to the roadmap. Their contribution has really, really been critical to this,” he says, adding that there will be a “verification mechanism” to ensure all parties are complying with the roadmap and that the entire process will stop if commitments are not honored.
Mladenov acknowledges the risks involved in implementing the plan, but says its provisions are built around verification rather than trust between the parties.
Asked about the “consensual” mistrust in Israel about the entire plan, Mladenov says that many in Israel “think that we have based this whole plan on trust. But the only way that we do this is if we all agree that nothing happens on trust and everything needs to be verified, and everything needs to be done on a step-by-step approach.”
“I’m not building any of this on the basis of trust, and none of us are, and we’re very clear-eyed about the risks going forward,” Mladenov asserts. “We’re building it on verification, and this is pretty much the basic premise — which I would like both sides to really trust — that because of the verification process, we actually have a chance.”
He concludes by arguing that full, verified implementation of the plan would prevent a repeat of the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught.
“What happened on October 7 will never ever be allowed to happen, as long as we have a full implementation of the Board of Peace’s plan… The option that we are offering today is the only way that we move forward that guarantees that this tragedy will not occur again.”
Israeli security officials say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally approved a pilot IDF withdrawal from three small areas close to Rafah in southern Gaza, before apparently changing his mind in the past 24 hours and telling the cabinet today that Israel will not withdraw from any part of Gaza unless or until Hamas gives up all its weapons. The IDF and the security establishment reportedly only learned of Netanyahu’s change of mind from the media today.
The withdrawals in the Rafah area were discussed in consultations in the past week attended by Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, and the imminent withdrawals were approved by the IDF, by Netanyahu and by the United States, whose Trump-backed Board of Peace is seeking to advance peace efforts in Gaza, according to a Channel 12 report quoting sources in the security establishment.
The deliberations dealt with the specifics of where exactly the IDF would withdraw from, where the forces would redeploy, and how they would coordinate with the intended incoming troops from the International Stabilization Force (ISF).
Netanyahu’s announcement that he was rejecting the Board of Peace’s 15-point plan and would not agree to any IDF withdrawal from Gaza before Hamas completely disarms came as “a major shock” to the security establishment, Channel 12 reports.
It quotes an unnamed security official saying: “The shift in the prime minister’s position occurred in the past day. We learned of it today only through the media. In the discussions before today, the prime minister gave his personal approval to this plan and to the withdrawal from the points in the Rafah area.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently met with supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Khamenei’s office says.
Mojtaba Khamenei has not made any public appearances since he became supreme leader, and no recordings of him speaking have been aired — only written statements attributed to him by state media. He was reportedly injured and possibly deformed in some manner during the attack that killed his father at the start of the war, and has remained in hiding, reportedly communicating with other senior regime figures via a slow array of intermediaries to avoid being targeted.
“Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian met Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and spoke with him at the start of his third year in the presidency,” the supreme leader’s office says in a statement, without indicating the date of the meeting.
Pezeshkian, who took office in July 2024, had said in early May that he met with Khamenei, also without specifying the date, but the supreme leader’s office did not issue any statements at the time. The president had said on Wednesday that communication with Khamenei was “very difficult at the moment,” and speculation has swirled about the supreme leader’s health after he was reportedly wounded in strikes that killed his father.
Khamenei’s office says the two “discussed in detail the country’s issues and problems,” including the “current military situation and future prospects.”
On Sunday, Tasnim news agency cited a general in the Revolutionary Guards as saying that images showing Khamenei among the people and during meetings would be “published in the future,” without offering a timeline.
Hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that he rejects the 15-point plan by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and Hamas to completely disarm, White House officials reportedly say they are not troubled by Netanyahu’s stance, which they regard as a case of election politics. And they note that Israel has in fact halted strikes in Gaza for the past five days, and that IDF troops are not deployed deeper in Gaza than the so-called yellow line.
“We are not troubled by those comments from Netanyahu,” a senior US source tells Channel 12 news. “We understand his political needs [in this election period]. We have no problem with that, as long as he continues to do what we ask — especially as regards reining in the strikes in Gaza.”
According to the Channel 12 report, by US correspondent Barak Ravid, Netanyahu spoke last week to Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner and told him that he did not believe Hamas would agree to disarm, but that he was prepared to give the 15-point plan a chance — both by reining in strikes in Gaza and not deploying the IDF to the west of the yellow line.
The report says the US has been watching Gaza very closely, and Netanyahu has kept his word. Therefore, the report goes on, the US can say to Hamas that there have been no Israeli strikes in Gaza for five days, the IDF is back behind the yellow line, and it is time for the terror group to start disarming.
US President Donald Trump says Washington is “low keying” its approach to Iran, in a brief phone interview with Barak Ravid of Channel 12 and Axios, signaling that he is prepared to let mounting economic pressure on Tehran take its toll rather than launch a new military offensive.
“We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,” Trump tells Ravid, just a week after he was close to ordering a resumption of major combat operations.
Trump says Iran is “in very bad shape” economically and lacks funds to pay its troops, arguing that the US naval blockade is exacerbating the crisis. He also notes that oil prices have fallen to slightly above $75 a barrel, easing some of the war’s impact on American consumers.
“It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game,” Trump says.
According to Ravid, Trump made no new threats of renewed military action during the phone call and expressed no apparent frustration over Iran’s delay in finalizing an agreement with Oman regarding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Police have arrested the son of a former lawmaker near Ramle. A loaded handgun was found in his car.
Officials say cops stopped the vehicle after it raised their suspicion, as it traveled in the vicinity of a cement factory. Officers had to smash the glass in order to reach and subdue the suspect, who was uncooperative.
They then found the handgun in the car.
A 16-year-old boy has been killed during a rappelling accident at the Keshet Cave in the Galilee.
The boy was at the cave with his family when for some reason he fell, dropping some 30 meters onto the ground below. Rescuers took time to get to him due to the difficult conditions, with medics eventually rappelling down to him themselves.
אסון בצפון: נקבע מותו של הנער בן ה-16 שנפל מגובה במהלך סנפלינג במערת קשתhttps://t.co/kJ9gUWOw1I@karinkabessa pic.twitter.com/OwoTgVwAOT
— חדשות 13 (@newsisrael13) August 9, 2026
Medics attempted to resuscitate him, but were eventually forced to declare him dead at the scene.
Two people have been killed in a collision between two cars on the Route 1 highway in the West Bank, near Ma’ale Adumim.
A third person has been seriously injured and was rushed to a hospital.
According to some media reports, the two victims are Palestinians.
The military says it demolished a Hezbollah tunnel shaft in southern Lebanon last week.
The shaft was located by reservists of the 55th Paratroopers Brigade.
The IDF says the troops also located numerous weapons, including assault rifles, anti-tank launchers and missiles, and rockets.
תיעוד מהשמדת פיר של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה: פעילות כוחות צוות הקרב החטיבתי 55 במרחב הביטחוני
לכל הפרטים????https://t.co/VzaVLccaRb pic.twitter.com/cPNjr5qF5n
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 9, 2026
A Palestinian family from the village of Arraba in the northern West Bank was removed from its home yesterday for about 24 hours due to a cornerstone-laying ceremony held for the settlement of Einav Dotan, which was established near the village, a Palestinian resident of the area tells The Times of Israel.
According to the resident, who asked not to be named, IDF troops instructed the family to leave their home yesterday. The specific reason for the evacuation was unclear.
After the cornerstone-laying ceremony was held this morning, the family was allowed to return home in the past few hours, the resident says.
The IDF has yet to respond to a Times of Israel request for comment.
Exiled Palestinian politician Mohammed Dahlan says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement today that he rejects the Board of Peace Gaza roadmap is a “challenge, disdain, and deception toward the American administration and President Donald Trump’s team.”
He says that the mediators “now recognize Netanyahu as the obstacle to achieving security and stability.”
Dahlan is a former top Fatah official who has served as a key go-between in negotiations involving Palestinians.
Dahlan has become a close adviser to United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed, and Trump envoy Jared Kushner has also closely consulted with him while advancing his plan for the postwar management of Gaza.
Dahlan has preferred to largely remain behind the scenes, but one of his aides confirmed his involvement in the Hamas disarmament talks for the first time last month.
The Arab-majority parties Hadash and Balad release statements supportive of a proposed three-way joint list with the Ta’al party, despite the latter party having rejected the makeup of the roster.
The proposal was made by an inter-party “reconciliation committee” but was dismissed by MK Ahmad Tibi’s Ta’al following a meeting this afternoon.
Speaking with The Times of Israel, a spokesman for Hadash says that negotiations will continue because “there is no other option,” adding that two out of 10 of the committee’s members quit following Ta’al’s rejection of the proposal.
In a statement, Hadash, a joint Jewish-Arab leftist faction incorporating Israel’s old Communist Party, says that it welcomes the proposal and views it “as an expression of the public will, and we must all respect it.”
“Throughout the entire process, we made every effort to reach the broadest possible consensus out of a commitment to respect the public’s will. Now, the responsibility lies with all of us to move forward without delay and prepare for the joint campaign, to raise voter turnout among the Arab public, and to ensure political representation that is as strong and broad as possible,” the party says, calling an Arab joint list “the force that will prevent Netanyahu–Ben Gvir–Smotrich from continuing for another term.”
Similarly, the nationalist Balad party releases a statement calling on all three parties’ leaders and their teams “to meet immediately tomorrow to officially announce the tripartite list, form political, media, organizational, and field task forces, and approve the political program and strategic plan for the campaign, based on the deliberations and joint efforts that have taken place over the past year.”
According to a Hadash spokesman, the committee’s proposed joint list is as follows:
1. Yousef Jabareen – Hadash
2. Ahmad Tibi – Ta’al
3. Sami Abu Shehadeh – Balad
4. Jafar Farah – Hadash
5. Bakhar Awawdeh – Balad
6. Ofer Cassif – Hadash
7. Youssef Atauna – Hadash
8. Maha Karkabi – Balad
9. Ta’al (Unspecified)
10. Nihaya Washahi – Hadash
11. Hassan Nassasra – Balad
12. Ta’al (Unspecified)
13. Ayas Natour – Hadash
A 12-year-old boy has died after drowning in the Jordan River.
Extensive searches were launched for the boy after he fell off a small boat and disappeared in the area of Yesud HaMa’ala, in the Hula Valley.
Rescuers deployed to the scene found the boy and were forced to declare him dead at the scene.
סריקות נרחבות אחר ילד כבן 12 שנעלם בנהר הירדן: "התהפך מסירה ונותק עמו הקשר"https://t.co/HquA9FFMzG@karinkabessa pic.twitter.com/CIiQNpyrB8
— חדשות 13 (@newsisrael13) August 9, 2026
Syria says it reached a memorandum of understanding with Moscow over the fate of Russia’s two bases in the country, agreeing to convert the military facilities into joint training centers within three months.
Quoting the foreign ministry, Syria’s official SANA agency says the military bases and facilities at Hmeimim Airport and Tartus port will be turned into “joint training centers, within new arrangements that preserve mutual interests.”
French beauty giant Sephora is set to open several stores in Israel in the coming days, though its product selection will be far more limited than that found at stores around the world, at least for now.
The stores will be operated by Israeli franchisee Glam42, a local cosmetics chain. On August 20, Glam42 will simultaneously open three stores and five “corners” (boutiques located inside other shops). Stores will open at Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Center, the Ayalon Mall in Ramat Gan and the Malha Mall in Jerusalem. Three more stores are set to open soon.
At this stage Sephora stores in Israel will only sell the in-house brand Sephora Collection, and will not feature third-party brands that make up the majority of sales at Sephora stores globally.
According to Ynet, Sephora owner LVMH views the current store launch as a pilot, and will consider bringing other beauty brands to the Israeli shops if it is deemed a success.
Israel’s Arab parties fail to reach an agreement on a shared electoral slate proposed by an inter-party “reconciliation committee,” leaving the Arab sector’s prospects for representation in the next Knesset uncertain.
According to national broadcaster Kan, MK Ahmad Tibi’s Ta’al party has rejected the proposed slate with Hadash, a joint Jewish-Arab leftist faction incorporating Israel’s old Communist Party, and the secular nationalist Balad party.
Hadash announced in June that it was moving forward with reestablishing a joint electoral list with the Ta’al and Balad parties ahead of the upcoming national vote, while “leaving the door open” for Mansour Abbas’s Islamist Ra’am faction to join at a later stage.
The four Arab-majority parties signed an agreement in January committing to work together to revive the joint ticket ahead of this year’s election, but negotiations stalled for months, mainly due to Abbas’s insistence that the bloc be purely technical, to preserve Ra’am’s ability to join a governing coalition, which the other Arab parties oppose.
Abbas told Channel 12 in July that he will not run jointly with the other Arab parties in the upcoming elections.
The Joint List slate of Arab parties was first formed in 2015 and split up in 2021 after Ra’am broke away from the other parties to join the coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. The slate collapsed altogether ahead of the 2022 election, when the nationalist Balad pursued an ultimately unsuccessful solo run, leaving the remaining two parties to form the joint Hadash-Ta’al list.
Bennett, considered a leading candidate to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected Ra’am as a potential coalition partner, though the 2021-2022 government that he led did include Ra’am. Abbas has tried to distance Ra’am from its Islamist roots and is reportedly in talks about including former Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz, the former head of the Israel Police investigations and intelligence unit, on his slate.
Nefesh B’Nefesh is marking the arrival of its 100,000th new immigrant from North America since its founding in 2002.
The milestone was reached today with the arrival of Jeffrey and Atara Douglas from New York, who moved to Jerusalem with their three children, Nathaniel (10), Hallie (9), and Emilia (6).
In honor of the occasion, President Isaac Herzog met with the family at the President’s Residence alongside Immigration and Absorption Minister Ofir Sofer and Nefesh B’Nefesh co-founders Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart.
Nefesh B’Nefesh is widely credited with radically improving the immigration experience for North American Jews by streamlining bureaucracy, providing comprehensive guidance before and after arrival, and helping immigrants integrate into Israeli society.
“This milestone isn’t simply about welcoming our 100,000th Oleh [immigrant to Israel], it’s about the generations that have followed,” said Fass. “It’s about the sabra children born because their parents chose to build their future in Israel, and the grandchildren who know no other home.”
Central Elections Committee chairman and Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg orders National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit party, to blur the faces of police officers and other security personnel featured in a campaign video.
The ruling comes in response to a petition claiming that the video uses public assets in connection with election propaganda.
The ruling comes only days after the committee ordered Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot to take down a campaign video featuring AI-generated images of IDF soldiers “engaged in various military activities.”
In that earlier order, which was made last Thursday, the CEC said that “the use of uniforms — which are intangible public property, and the images of IDF soldiers is a significant component of the video’s propaganda message — creates a connection between [Eisenkot] and the IDF, and therefore constitutes a prohibited use of public property for election propaganda purposes.”
US President Donald Trump is focused on getting the Strait of Hormuz open, and could suspend attempts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran if shipping resumes in the waterway, US officials tell The Wall Street Journal.
The WSJ quotes the officials saying that Trump has been “laying the groundwork to declare victory” in the Iran war should Tehran fully reopen the strait, “even floating the idea privately to senior aides that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal.”
One White House official tells the WSJ that Washington achieved all of its military objectives against Tehran, and is focused on opening Hormuz.
Trump told top advisers that he believes that Iran would struggle to restart its nuclear program after its three main sites were destroyed last June, according to the report.
Trump has insisted that Iran could not attempt to revive its program or build a bomb without US intelligence finding out, and believes it has been deterred by the threat of US military action from even trying to go nuclear.
If there is no discernible advance in Iran’s nuclear program and the strait reopens, Trump is likely to keep the current ceasefire ongoing and lift the US naval blockade on Iran, US officials tell the outlet.
Trump had earlier insisted that any deal to end the war include measures to ensure Iran cannot revive its nuclear program.
A 5-year-old child who was found unconscious after being left in a hot car in the central city of Lod has been pronounced dead at Shamir-Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center, a hospital spokesperson says.
The spokesperson says that police are investigating the circumstances of the incident.
This is the fourth death of a child left in a vehicle since early July.
Toddlers dying after being forgotten in vehicles is a repeated occurrence in Israel, where temperatures inside locked cars can soar to 70°C (160°F) — a level that can prove dangerous to children even over brief periods.
Ambient temperatures in Lod at the time the boy was pulled from the car were around 32.7º C (90.8º F).
A military spokesperson for Yemen’s internationally recognized, Aden-based government says seven people were killed in a Houthi attack on the coastal city of Mokha.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree says the rebel group targeted “Saudi enemy” troops and equipment in the area with missiles and drones.
A military source says the Houthis also targeted pro-government forces and installations outside Mokha and sites on islands near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the shipping chokepoint at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.
The source says some locations targeted by the Iran-backed group housed Saudi troops but no casualties had been reported among military personnel from the Gulf kingdom.
Residents in government-controlled Mokha confirm to AFP hearing blasts in the area, with one saying they “heard explosions from drones and air defenses over the port and city.”
Another resident says they heard “six consecutive explosions” in the port.
Reserve soldiers and commanders who have served in the West Bank since the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught describe a growing breakdown in military authority, alleging that settler members of the Israel Defense Forces’ regional defense units, known as Hagmar, routinely act independently, intimidate troops and receive backing from senior commanders, according to an investigation by Haaretz.
The newspaper interviewed numerous active-duty and reserve soldiers, two of whom also provided testimony to the Breaking the Silence organization.
One reserve officer recounts arriving at the scene of a reported settler attack on a Palestinian family in the South Hebron Hills, only to have Israeli youths allegedly set a dog on him after he ordered them to leave. He says a man identifying himself as a member of Hagmar and owner of a nearby outpost then threatened that the youths would falsely accuse him of sexual harassment if he reported the incident.
According to the officer, the confrontation was captured on his body camera, but instead of receiving support from senior commanders, “the brigade commander called that settler to make peace with him… Afterward, my company commander and battalion commander arranged a ‘reconciliation,’ claiming that the regional defense unit was ‘doing holy work.'”
Another soldier describes troops evacuating an unauthorized settler encampment after Palestinian locals were allegedly attacked with stones, only to be confronted by armed members of a regional defense unit who arrived in a military vehicle and attempted to stop the operation, running over a soldier’s foot in the process.
“It shows how distorted the reality has become,” he says. “People in uniform carrying military weapons, driving a military vehicle, trying to prevent the army from carrying out a mission its own commanders had ordered.”
There have been numerous reports detailing allegations about Hagmar units taking part in settler attacks, or refusing to take action against them, including in The Times of Israel, but testimony from fellow troops has been rare.
Soldiers quoted in the piece allege that Hagmar members have established unauthorized checkpoints, entered military command centers and gained access to sensitive operational information, joined military operations without authorization, and in some cases participated in or shielded violent settlers.
Settlers are also accused of looting in the presence of soldiers, with one commander alleging that they stole car parts from confiscated Palestinian vehicles.
Several soldiers also question the purpose of their deployments, saying much of their time was spent responding to settler violence rather than counterterrorism operations, which is the IDF’s stated goal of its increased presence in the West Bank since October 7.
“We’re not preventing terrorism. It’s bullshit,” one reserve commander is quoted as saying. “During our entire deployment, there were maybe two arrests of people defined as Hamas terror operatives… Everything else was confronting Jews looking for provocations.”
Footage of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei “among the people and out in streets, as well in meetings with the commanders of armed forces” will be released in the future, Basij Organization deputy Qasem Qoraishi is reported as saying.
Khamenei, who was appointed supreme leader in March, has not been seen in public since being named.
A report on the Iranian judiciary’s news outlet Mizan carrying Qoraishi’s remarks appears to be aimed at quashing speculation about Khamenei’s health. Senior Iranian sources have said he suffered facial disfigurement and other injuries in the strike that killed his father on February 28, the first day of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran.
While praising US President Donald Trump for his partnership against Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declares that he knows how to stand up against Israel’s closest allies when he must.
“I have great appreciation for President Trump,” says Netanyahu at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. “He is a great friend of ours in the White House. I greatly appreciate the historic partnership with the United States against Iran’s attempts to acquire nuclear weapons. And I want to emphasize again: With an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”
“Unlike all those who preach to us, we are doing what needs to be done for Israel’s security, and we can and know how to stand our ground even against our very best friends when necessary,” he says.
Netanyahu rejected the Trump-backed 15-point plan for Gaza in the same meeting. Hamas still retains the ability to mount an assault on Israel, he claims.
“It may attack, but why have long weeks gone by without it attacking us? Because it knows what a powerful blow we will inflict on it if it does,” says Netanyahu.
The prime minister’s tough talk comes as the election season ramps up, and he has come under attack for letting Trump dictate what Israel does against its enemies.
“Regarding Lebanon — here too we are hearing all kinds of rumors,” he says. “I want to make it clear: in recent days, Israel has acted forcefully in Lebanon, eliminating terrorists, including in the Ali al-Taher ridge. I cannot elaborate on this. We are engaged in a very important operation. We are acting with sound judgment and wisdom.”
Netanyahu says that “the security of all Israel’s citizens is not up for negotiation. We stand firm on these interests.”
“We are not doing this in advertising agencies,” he says in a dig at his political rivals. “We are doing it for real, on the ground.”
The Jerusalem District Court rejects an appeal by IDF Central Command head Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth regarding the house arrest of Tal Yinon Dardik, a suspect in the severe assault of a Palestinian man in March.
The IDF’s Military Appeals Court for Judea and Samaria ruled in July that an administrative home detention order issued by Bluth requiring Dardik to remain under full house arrest at his mother-in-law’s home was not practical and could not be implemented.
Defense Minister Israel Katz subsequently ordered officials not to renew the detention decree, calling for an alternative solution to be found that would allow Dardik to leave jail while ensuring he does not post a threat. Dardik has insisted that any house arrest take place at his home at an unauthorized farming outpost in Area B of the West Bank, while Bluth didn’t want to allow him to return there.
Bluth appealed the Military Appeals Court’s determination at the end of July, with Dardik remaining locked up. The court’s decision, following a hearing Thursday, means the ruling that the house arrest order is not implementable remains in place.
It is unclear where Dardik stands now. According to the Honenu legal aid organization, Dardik’s lawyer Moshe Polski is now working to have his client, who is on hunger strike, released from prison.
Bluth’s decision to appeal the lower court ruling drew anger from right-wing elements who wanted Dardik freed, leading Katz to announce on TV last week that he would be replacing the general, which sparked an outcry over what was seen as election-related meddling in IDF appointments. The defense minister quickly backtracked after IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Eyal Zamir said he would not remove Bluth.
Dardik is suspected of carrying out a brutal attack in Khirbet Humsa, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, in March. According to the allegations, Dardik and other extremist settlers stripped a Palestinian victim, zip-tied his genitals, and paraded him around the village.
Dardik denies taking part in the incident.
Israel “rejects” the Board of Peace Gaza disarmament roadmap, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pushing back against claims it accepted the US-backed proposal.
“I want to clarify here,” says Netanyahu at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. “Israel rejects the 15-point document.”
The US-backed Board of Peace is trying to move forward with its roadmap for postwar Gaza, which Hamas has accepted. Israeli officials warn that the terror organization is exploiting the process to prevent renewed Israeli military action.
While the security cabinet approved having an International Stabilization Force enter Gaza to disarm Hamas and assume control of the territory, senior Israeli officials and ministers have publicly urged the premier to openly declare that he will not abide by the terms of the plan, which would see the IDF begin to pull back from Gazan territory.
“I heard people saying, ‘You didn’t say so,'” says Netanyahu. “So here I am saying it again: Israel rejects the 15-point document. The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed. And when I say Hamas must be disarmed, I mean the heavy weapons, the less-heavy weapons, all weapons. And we are talking about genuine disarmament, not a fictitious one.”
He says that Israel is discussing its reservations with the US. “They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not acceptable to us, and we know how to stand up to these things. We have proven this in the past, and we are proving it today as well. In addition, the IDF will continue to thwart threats against our forces and against our citizens.”
Netanyahu also stresses that he will never accept a Palestinian state in Gaza or the West Bank.
Police say they will indict a Ramat Gan man who allegedly hurled bricks that damaged the entrances to the offices of Channel 12, Haaretz and Israel Hayom, as well as the Justice Ministry, police say.
The suspect, identified as Avraham Hadi, also allegedly left a threatening letter at the Channel 12 office when he smashed the entrance on July 28. The letter said “someone will die” if the network doesn’t apologize for its coverage of the Sde Teiman prisoner abuse case.
In a pre-indictment court filing, police say Hadi, 44, will be charged with property damage and extortion by threat in the coming days.
Hadi was arrested on July 30, when officers who searched his home located “items of clothing and other findings that linked him” to five instances of vandalism throughout July, according to police.
The attacks on media outlets sought to “deter and threaten the outlets’ coverage,” police say. “Freedom of the press is one of the foundations of democracy, and Israel Police will act with force and determination against anyone who tries to use violence, bullying or intimidation to muzzle the freedom of expression.”
Rescuers are attempting to revive a young child who was found unconscious after being left in a hot car, the Magen David Adom rescue service says.
The child, whose age is listed as 5, was pulled from the car in the central city of Lod with signs of heatstroke. He is being rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition, MDA says.
Temperatures in the Lod area are currently around 32.7º C (90.8º F).
The Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund’s (KKL-JNF) Board of Directors says it will invest an “unprecedented” NIS 859 million ($285 million) in northern Israel, including earmarks for local authorities and projects meant to encourage teachers and others to populate the region.
The plan, to be rolled out over the next three years, includes towns in the Lower Galilee, such as Acre and Karmiel, as well as those on the northern border ravaged by war, such as Kiryat Shmona.
Over a third of the money, NIS 362 million ($120 million), will go to cities for infrastructure projects and other public works.
NIS 150 million ($50 million) will be used to purchase apartments for educators and teachers in northern communities, to encourage young families to settle in the north and strengthen the education system there.
Another NIS 120 million ($39.8 million) will push for groups to settle in northern towns, with the goal of bringing 1,200 people by 2030.
“This is an unprecedented event in its scope and broad deployment that sees the entire North as KKL-JNF’s main target for support this year and in the years to come,” says KKL-JNF chairman Eyal Ostrinsky. “We are entering all regions with strategic support for projects and environmental development, housing and settlement, education and culture, and all to show the residents of the north that they are our top priority.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud says former party stalwarts Yuli Edelstein and Gilad Erdan are “embittered fake right-wingers” who will help the prime minister’s opponents gain power.
Erdan and Edelstein, both former Likud ministers, announced last week the formation of a new right-wing party meant to capture Likud voters similarly dissatisfied with the direction the party has gone in under Netanyahu. They vow to push against ultra-Orthodox military draft exemptions and to seek to be part of a broad consensus government.
In a first official reaction to the unnamed party’s rollout, Likud charges that Edelstein and Erdan “are working to steal votes and transfer them to the fraudulent government of the left bloc headed by Eisenkot with Yair Golan and the Muslim Brotherhood.”
In response, Erdan releases a statement attacking Likud for being the one stealing right-wing votes.
“Those stealing the votes of right-wing voters are the ones who perpetuate draft evasion and abandon the families of soldiers and service members,” the statement says.
Iran and the US are not engaged in talks and Tehran will not start them as long as Washington breaches an interim deal signed in June, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says.
However, he adds that messages are being exchanged via intermediaries.
Araghchi repeats Iran’s position that an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz between Tehran and Muscat is in the “final stages” but would not involve reopening the strategic waterway. In comments reported by Mehr news agency, he says the agreement would set out the new shipping lanes to be used once the US fulfills other conditions allowing the strait to reopen to traffic.
Opposition politicians and leaders of parties running to unseat the government slam Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his senior aides for allegedly endangering national security after the Israel Hayom daily reports that three of the premier’s advisers leaked damaging information about Egypt to Qatar while they were allegedly on Doha’s payroll.
According to Israel Hayom, defense officials feared that the classified leaks, centered around whether Egypt was violating the peace agreement by streaming forces into the Sinai, could put the peace agreement with Egypt at risk, and could reduce Cairo’s willingness to help free the hostages held by Hamas. The information was used by Qatar to bolster anti-Egypt sentiment among the Israeli public, helping Doha take a leading role in negotiations.
“This is what treason against the State of Israel looks like. Netanyahu’s advisers who received money from Qatar jeopardized our strategic relations with Egypt to serve Qatari interests,” declares The Democrats chairman Yair Golan.
“Five wars and thousands of fallen soldiers led us to the peace agreement with Egypt, and Netanyahu’s office did not hesitate to jeopardize it for financial greed. Their bank accounts drove Israel’s foreign and security policy while the best of our sons were being killed at the front,” he posts on X.
Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot also slams Netanyahu and calls for a state commission of inquiry, declaring that “any reasonable prime minister would order an investigation to clear the air and ensure that his people work for the interests of the State of Israel, and not another country — but not this prime minister.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid notes that Likud torpedoed legislation he proposed declaring Qatar an enemy state, while Lapid’s B’Yachad partner Naftali Bennett uses the report to go after Doha, calling it a “venomous enemy” whose influence over Gaza he will work to erase if elected.
Netanyahu aides Yonatan Urich, Yisrael Einhorn, and Eli Feldstein are all key suspects in the “Qatargate” investigation, which primarily revolves around suspicions that they committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged pro-Qatar lobbying, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, while working for the prime minister.
Marking 25 years from a grisly Palestinian suicide bombing at a Sbarro pizzeria in central Jerusalem, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee calls for the extradition of a Jordanian woman who helped carry out the deadly attack, in which three Americans were among the 16 killed.
“Twenty-five years ago today, a Hamas suicide bomber murdered 16 people and injured more than 120 at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem,” writes Huckabee on X. “Among the victims were Americans Judith Greenbaum, Chana Nachenberg, and 15-year-old Malka Roth. May their memories be a blessing.”
Hamas terrorist Ahlam Tamimi chose the target and guided the bomber there. Tamimi found shelter in Jordan after being released from prison in a 2011 deal in which Israel freed 1,027 terrorists in exchange for captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
There she has lived freely, holding citizenship, hosting a TV program, giving lectures and making numerous public appearances extolling the bombing.
Twenty-five years ago today, a Hamas suicide bomber murdered 16 people and injured more than 120 at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. Among the victims were Americans Judith Greenbaum, Chana Nachenberg, and 15-year-old Malka Roth. May their memories be a blessing.
We stand with…
— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@USAmbIsrael) August 9, 2026
“We stand with Israel against terrorism in all its forms and remain committed to bringing every last fugitive of this heinous act to justice,” writes Huckabee, sharing a link to the $5 million State Department bounty on Tamimi.
In 2017, the US Justice Department announced it was seeking her extradition, a step that had been urged by the Roth family, but which was rebuffed by Amman.
In 2017, Jordan’s high court ruled she could not be extradited to the US, reportedly saying the 1995 treaty between the countries had not been ratified.
Tamimi has also claimed the US has no right to charge her because she was already tried and sentenced in Israel. The US insisted in a 2018 report, however, that the extradition treaty is valid in the case of Tamimi.
Officials are working to repatriate the body of a 4-year-old Jerusalem boy who drowned Saturday while on vacation in Mexico with his family, Hebrew-language media report.
The boy, named as Shalom Saginor, died after falling into a pool at a hotel in San José del Cabo, a resort town on the southern tip of Baja California, Ynet reports.
According to Haredi news websites, Saginor was the grandson of Rabbi Shalom Arush, an important figure in the Hasidic Bratslav movement.
Mexican officials reportedly sought to perform an autopsy, which is prohibited by Jewish law, but the family and volunteers with the Zaka rescue organization managed to get the boy’s body released without undergoing a postmortem examination.
Zaka and the Foreign Ministry are both working to return the body to Israel for burial, reports say.
Three advisors to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — Jonatan Urich, Yisrael Einhorn, and Eli Feldstein — leaked Qatar classified information about Israeli concerns regarding Egypt while they were allegedly on Doha’s payroll, Israel Hayom reports, citing an Israeli security official.
According to the report, the Qataris leaked the information they got from the trio to Israeli reporters as part of a campaign aimed at downgrading Cairo in the eyes of the Israeli public, creating room for Doha to take the lead role in hostage negotiations with Hamas.
The leaks came from meetings in March-May 2024 involving Netanyahu, the National Security Council, the IDF, and the Shin Bet, which examined Israel-Egypt ties and whether Egypt was violating the peace agreement by dispatching forces into the Sinai.
Articles on ostensible Egyptian violations appeared in the Israeli press in 2024 and early 2025.
Einhorn, Urich and Feldstein are all key suspects in the “Qatargate” investigation, which primarily revolves around suspicions that they committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged pro-Qatar lobbying, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, while working for the prime minister.
Investigators of Qatargate believed that the three received information from Qatar and fed it to Israeli reporters, but the new revelations show that the flow of information went in both directions.
Urich and Feldstein have both been arrested and questioned for their suspected role in the case. Einhorn, who resides in Serbia, was recently questioned by Israeli investigators in Belgrade after he refused to come to Israel for fear of arrest upon arrival.
According to Israel Hayom, defense officials feared that the leaks could put the peace agreement with Egypt at risk and could reduce Cairo’s willingness to help free the hostages held by Hamas.
Einhorn and Urich denied the reports, while Feldstein and Netanyahu’s office declined to respond.
Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz submits his resignation letter to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, three days after announcing that he was leaving Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party.
In a statement, Ohana’s spokesman says that according to the Yesh Atid list, Segalovitz is slated to be replaced in the Knesset by Michal Slawny Cababia. Cababia is an American immigrant who has headed the Yesh Atid English Speakers branch.
Segalovitz informed fellow Yesh Atid members on Thursday that he was leaving the centrist party, amid reported talks for him to become the first Jewish member of the Arab Islamist Ra’am party, headed by Mansour Abbas.
He has yet to confirm that he intends to join Ra’am, but he also hasn’t denied considering the unprecedented move.
His move to join the party could make it easier for Zionist parties aligned against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ally with Ra’am in a government, potentially shaking up coalition calculus following the October election.
Yemen’s Houthi rebel group takes responsibility for a fire that broke out overnight at an Aramco refinery in Jizan, Saudi Arabia.
A statement from the Iran-backed group’s armed wing says it successfully targeted the facility with a drone, in response to overflights from Saudi UAVs.
The Saudi Energy Ministry said earlier that firefighting teams had extinguished a fire that broke out at the Jizan refinery around dawn. No injuries were reported.
Jizan is located on the Red Sea in southern Saudi Arabia, near the border with Yemen.
The Foreign Ministry is warning Israelis in Greece to lie low and avoid displays that give away their identity, with large anti-Israel protests set to take place across the country today.
A group of pro-Palestinian organizations are planning a “day of rage” over the Gaza war in 36 locations in Greece, focusing on sites that Israeli tourists regularly visit.
“Given the expected scale of the protests and the possibility of large gatherings and disturbances, the Foreign Ministry recommends that Israeli citizens in Greece exercise increased vigilance, stay away from protest sites and large gatherings, and avoid any friction or confrontation with demonstrators,” the ministry states in a special travel warning.
“It is recommended to keep Israeli and Jewish identifying symbols discreet and to avoid posting your location in real time on social media,” it continues.
The warning comes with masses of Israeli vacationers in the country, a top tourist destination, for peak travel season. Nearly 50 flights are set to leave from Ben-Gurion Airport to Greece today alone, according to data from the Israel Airports Authority.
Army Radio reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz quietly gave the go-ahead for rehabilitation work to begin in southern Gaza, despite vowing that reconstruction of the badly damaged Strip would only take place once the Hamas terror group disarmed.
The reconstruction work, which involves building infrastructure for the establishment of residential housing, is taking place in an area of eastern Rafah under Israel Defense Forces control, but near the Yellow Line that forms the ceasefire line with Hamas.
According to the report, Netanyahu and Katz gave the green light two weeks ago, albeit without announcing the move, as the International Stabilization Force set to take control of parts of Gaza readied to deploy.
The Army report claims that Gaza contractors and laborers will carry out the work after undergoing security checks.
In response, the Prime Minister’s Office says the work began months ago, as part of an Emirati-backed project for temporary housing “free of Hamas rule.”
“As of now, the area has been cleared of terror infrastructure and tunnels,” reads the PMO statement provided to Army Radio.
The PMO also says electric, sewer and water infrastructure work will not be performed by Gazans, and will be under IDF supervision.
In January, Netanyahu insisted that reconstruction in Gaza would be allowed only once Hamas first gave up its weapons, something it has refused to do thus far, though a recent US-proffered agreement, rejected by Israel, appeared to pave the way toward disarming the group.
“I am already hearing the statements that we will allow Gaza’s reconstruction before demilitarization,” he said at the time. “That will not happen.”
Responding to the report, Transportation Minister Miri Regev tells the station that rebuilding work can begin in any area of Gaza not under Hamas control.
“We want Gaza to recover,” she says.
Palestinian media outlets report that settlers set fire to Palestinian property overnight in Wadi Rahim in the southern West Bank.
Footage from overnight shows unidentified individuals entering the yards of residents’ homes in the southern Hebron Hills village and setting fire to furniture outside one of the houses.
فيديو| جانب آخر لحظة هجوم المسـ.tـوطنين وإحراق ممتلكات المواطنين في منطقة واد الرخيم بمسافر يطا جنوب مدينة الخليل. pic.twitter.com/Wtrolv6uP5
— فلسطين بوست (@PalpostN) August 9, 2026
#متابعة | مستوطنون يُضرمون النيران في ممتلكات الأهالي خلال هجومهم على منطقة "واد الرخيم" بمسافر يطا، جنوب #الخليل pic.twitter.com/ojG8EtIKGq
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) August 9, 2026
No injuries are reported, and no suspects are named, though the incident is widely attributed to settler extremists.
The reports come on the heels of another reported settler attack in Wadi Rahim hours earlier in which four Palestinians were injured.
The fire that broke out at an underground parking lot at a construction site in Petah Tikva has been brought under control after several hours of efforts, Fire and Rescue Services say.
Firefighters are scanning the BIG shopping mall complex to ensure the blaze is completely extinguished.
PENTICTON, British Columbia — British Columbia declares a state of emergency after thousands of people in the western Canadian province are ordered to flee a fast-moving wildfire that nearly doubled in size overnight.
The Bald Range wildfire is burning out of control and has grown rapidly to about 9,500 hectares (23,500 acres), prompting evacuation orders in Summerland, Peachland and other districts west of Okanagan Lake in the province’s southern interior. The region produces most of BC’s wine and is Canada’s second-largest wine-producing area.
Premier David Eby tells a news conference that one fire official had likened the fire to “a bomb going off.”
“He described flames on 100-foot tree, flames going 200 feet above that, and the fire creating its own weather system, which creates lightning, which then feeds on itself,” Eby says.
“Homes have been lost, and properties have been destroyed. Some people became trapped as conditions changed very quickly, and needed to be rescued,” the premier says, adding it remained a very dynamic and threatening situation.
Summerland has a population of about 12,000 people, according to the 2021 census, and Peachland is home to about 6,500 residents.
A state of emergency grants the provincial government immediate access to special powers, including travel restrictions and supply protections to prevent price gouging, and specific tools to coordinate rescue work.
Officials say the Bald Range wildfire triggered the largest evacuation event so far this summer, and more than 20,000 people across BC have been forced to evacuate their homes.
“A lot of farms have been affected. We don’t know how many structures have been lost. They’re still busy fighting the fire,” Summerland Mayor Doug Holmes says in a phone interview from Penticton. “We have to brace ourselves for the worst.”
Summerland, British Columbia, Canada – August 7, 2026 – A forest fire affected parts of the area as fire activity continued near the community pic.twitter.com/3nxVTJuUWr
— Disaster Update (@DisasterUpdate2) August 8, 2026
A fire is raging at an underground parking lot at a construction site in Petah Tikva, according to Fire and Rescue Services.
Firefighters have been fighting since yesterday to get the blaze, located within the BIG shopping center complex in the city, under control.
Authorities instruct the public to keep away from the area.
השריפה באתר הבנייה בפתח תקווה: טרם הושגה שליטה באש
צוותי כיבוי והצלה ממשיכים לפעול במספר גזרות בחניון התת-קרקעי באתר הבנייה של מתחם BIG בפתח תקווה. רחוב ז'בוטינסקי חסום לתנועה, בעוד רחוב משה דיין נפתח לתנועה. הציבור מתבקש להימנע מהגעה לאזור. pic.twitter.com/zHzvuzWrP2
— כל החדשות בזמן אמת (@Saher_News_24_7) August 8, 2026
PARIS, France — FIFA condemns “a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine” the world game’s governing body and its president Gianni Infantino as the controversy over his now-shelved private investment plan rumbles on.
Infantino has faced calls to resign and was also subject to allegations from a British newspaper on Friday that he paid off a lover while at European governing body UEFA.
“Recent reporting has included unsubstantiated assertions and demonstrably false claims concerning FIFA and its President,” the FIFA statement says.
The US Defense Department has requested that American defense companies quickly boost their production and delivery of weapons amid an acute shortage of arms due to the Iran war, according to a memo cited by The Washington Post.
Industry chiefs were told Wednesday by Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg that they had a maximum of 21 days to present plans to “drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities,” the memo cited by the Post reads.
Feinberg said that “Years-long development cycles are not acceptable,” and demanded that firms “dramatically accelerate” their schedules and production capacity.
On Thursday, Trump denied reports that he is unhappy with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the depleted stockpile of American missile interceptors.
The shortage of interceptors was reportedly one of the main concerns discussed between Trump and his top advisers before the administration decided to hold off on escalating its campaign against Iran towards the end of last month.
