Aug. 13: Smotrich says credit downgrade ‘natural’ amid war, Israeli economy resilient

Blinken stresses need for Hamas to attend Thursday ceasefire talks in call with Turkish FM

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) shakes hands with Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Hakan Fidan during a meeting at Vahdettin, a private residence of the presidency, in Istanbul, on January 6, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AFP)

In a phone call with his Turkish counterpart earlier today, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the importance of Hamas attending Thursday’s summit in Doha aimed at finalizing a ceasefire agreement between the terror group and Israel, the State Department says.

Hamas announced yesterday that it would not attend, calling on mediators to coax Israel into agreeing to the updated proposal that the terror group submitted in early July.

That offer saw Hamas cave on its long-held, central demand that Israel commit up-front to a permanent ceasefire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by submitting a series of new demands that Hamas has rejected, Israeli and US officials say.

The US readout doesn’t go as far as stating that Blinken urged Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to pressure Hamas to attend the Thursday meeting, but that does appear to be the implication.

Hamas officials regularly reside in Turkey and the country’s president holds a warm relationship with the terror group’s leadership.

Smotrich: Fitch credit downgrade ‘natural’ amid war, but Israel’s economy is strong

Finance Ministry Bezalel Smotrich calls Fitch’s decision to downgrade Israel’s credit rating “natural” amid the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza and maintains that the country’s economy is strong.

“Israel is in the midst of an existential war – the longest and most expensive in its history,” says Smotrich in a statement. “The war is being waged on several fronts and has been going on for almost a year.”

“The downgrade amid the war and the geopolitical risks it creates is natural,” he adds.

Smotrich states that the government will “pass a responsible [2025] budget that will continue to support all the needs of the war while maintaining fiscal frameworks and promoting growth.” He asserts that Israel’s credit rating will subsequently rise “very quickly.”

Fitch cut the country’s credit rating to A from A+, citing the “continuation of the war in Gaza, heightened geopolitical risks and military operations on multiple fronts.”

FBI probes alleged Iran hack attempts of Trump, Biden camps

The FBI is investigating suspected hacking attempts by Iran targeting advisers to the Democratic campaign of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as the targeting of an associate of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the Washington Post reports

The FBI began the investigation in June, when Biden was still running for president, suspecting Iran was behind the attempts to steal data from two US presidential campaigns, the newspaper said, citing sources.

The Harris campaign does not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Investigators have not found evidence that hacking attempts into the Democratic campaign were successful, the Washington Post reports.

Trump’s campaign said over the weekend that Iran had hacked one of its websites and the FBI said it was investigating that.

Iran denies interfering in US elections.

Israel, US don’t believe Iran’s retaliatory attack will take place tonight — report

The latest assessment from the Israeli and American governments is that Iran’s retaliatory attack against Israel will not take place tonight, Axios reports, citing officials from both countries.

Fitch lowers Israel’s credit rating from A+ to A, warning war could last well into 2025

This photo shows signage for Fitch Ratings, in New York, October 9, 2011. (Henny Ray Abrams/AP)

The Fitch credit rating agency has lowered Israel’s credit rating from an A+ to an A and says its outlook for the country’s economy is “Negative” as the war in Gaza could drag well into 2025 and threatens to spread to additional fronts.

“The downgrade to ‘A’ reflects the impact of the continuation of the war in Gaza, heightened geopolitical risks and military operations on multiple fronts,” the agency says in a press release.

“Public finances have been hit and we project a budget deficit of 7.8% of GDP in 2024 and debt to remain above to 70% of GDP in the medium term. In addition, World Bank Governance Indicators are likely to deteriorate, weighing on Israel’s credit profile,” Fitch Ratings says.

Explaining the “Negative” outlook, the agency says, “In our view, the conflict in Gaza could last well into 2025 and there are risks of it broadening to other fronts. In addition to human losses, it could result in significant additional military spending, destruction of infrastructure and more sustained damage to economic activity and investment, leading to a further deterioration of Israel’s credit metrics.”

Other factors driving the downgrade are the country’s “political fractiousness, coalition politics and military imperatives” that are putting new fiscal consolidation measures at risk, Fitch says.

Fitch is the third major credit agency to lower Israel’s credit rating, following S&P and Moody’s.

In April, Fitch removed Israel from “credit rating negative” and affirmed the country’s A+ credit rating — but with a negative outlook, citing uncertainty about the duration and magnitude of the war with the Hamas terror group and its toll on the government’s debt burden.

Research center revises scale of Mideast earthquake from 5.4 to 4.8

A 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck Jordan and Syria late on Monday, according to the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), with residents across both countries and in Lebanon feeling its impacts along with locals in northern Israel.

The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), GFZ says. It had earlier reported the magnitude at 5.46 but revised it down minutes later.

Syria’s state news agency says it had registered the earthquake’s epicenter near the Syrian city of Hama.

Residents across Syria felt the quake, with people in the northern Syrian city of Azaz saying they had immediate flashbacks to the deadly 2023 earthquake that killed thousands in northern Syria and neighboring Turkey.

The Syrian civil defense operating in opposition-held areas of the war-torn country said they had deployed to several areas to respond to any prospective emergency but had not received reports of any damage thus far.

Residents across Lebanon also felt the quake.

Reports: 5.4-magnitude earthquake in Syria and Lebanon felt by northern Israel residents

Residents of northern Israel are reporting having felt an earthquake.

Arabic media says a 5.4-magnitude earthquake just shook Lebanon and Syria, with the epicenter being in the latter country.

Former Cornell student gets 21 months in prison for posting threats to shoot, stab Jews

Cornell University students sit outside on November 3, 2023, in Ithaca, New York. (Matt Burkhartt/ Getty Images/ AFP)

SYRACUSE, New York — A former Cornell University student arrested for posting statements threatening violence against Jews on campus last fall after the start of the war in Gaza has been sentenced to 21 months in prison.

Patrick Dai, of suburban Rochester, New York, was accused by federal officials in October of posting anonymous threats to shoot and stab Jewish people on a Greek life forum. The threats came during a spike in antisemitic rhetoric related to the war in Gaza and rattled Jewish students on the upstate New York campus.

Dai pleaded guilty in April to posting threats to kill or injure another person using interstate communications.

He was sentenced in federal court to 21 months in prison and three years of supervised release by Judge Brenda Sannes, according to federal prosecutors. The judge says Dai “substantially disrupted campus activity” and committed a hate crime, but noted his diagnosis of autism, his mental health struggles and his non-violent history, according to cnycentral.com.

He had faced a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Dai, who was a junior at the time, was suspended from the Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York.

Tisha B’Av gathering at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv brings religious and secular Israelis together

Families and supporters of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip gather to mark the Tisha B'Av fast day at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, August 12, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Thousands gather at the so-called Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, to mark the Tisha B’Av fast and call for the release of captives held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, bringing together religious and secular Israelis from across the country.

Under the banner, “United for their return,” the event begins with prayers and the readings of the Book of Lamentations followed by discussion circles and sharing of testimony from survivors of the brutal Hamas massacre.

A call for unity from President Isaac Herzog is screened at the event.

“I watch with great concern as these dangerous winds of division return to us even now, threatening our unity, our existence as one people in one state,” he says in the pre-recorded message.

“We are all as a nation in testing days. We must stand and overcome them together, in partnership, brotherhood, and with the love of Israel.”

Reading of Megillat Eicha on the eve of Tisha B'Av at the Hostages' Square in Tel Aviv: Israelis from across the country gathered for the communal prayer. ✡️❤️ pic.twitter.com/JEG50qOIwb

— Adam Albilya – אדם אלביליה (@AdamAlbilya) August 12, 2024

Right-wing activists hold prayers for Tisha B’Av near Gaza border, calling to resettle the Strip

Right-wing activists pray during a gathering to call to reestablish Israeli settlements in Gaza and to mark the Tisha B'Av fast, close to Kibbutz Sa'ad, near the border with the Gaza Strip on August 12, 2024. (Oren Ziv/AFP)

Right-wing activists gather near the Gaza border to hold prayers for Tisha B’Av and call for the renewal of settlements in the Strip.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi joins the protest and shares a video on social media.

“Tonight, together with the crowds of the House of Israel, on the border of the Gaza Strip, lamenting the past and praying for the future, mourning the destruction and hoping for Jewish settlement in all parts of our homeland,” he writes.

Tisha B’Av is a Jewish fast day that commemorates the Hebrew date on which the two ancient Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed, centuries apart.

יידע מי שמתזמן מתקפה נגד ישראל בתשעה באב, שגם המן ניסה לתזמן בשבעה באדר וזה התהפך עליו. תשעה באב הוא גם היום שעל פי המסורת שלנו נולד בו מלך המשיח. הוא גם התחלת הגאולה. אז מי מתנדב להיות ה״המן של תשעה באב״?

הערב, יחד עם המוני בית ישראל, על גבול רצועת עזה, בקינה על העבר ובתפילה… pic.twitter.com/g4weJfp36E

— ????????שלמה קרעי – Shlomo Karhi (@shlomo_karhi) August 12, 2024

Prior to the event, the settler activists said they were planning to hold a traditional reading of the Book of Lamentations near the entrance to the so-called Netzarim Corridor, a road that bisects Gaza and that is under Israeli control, during the ongoing war against Hamas.

One of the organizing groups behind the prayer event, Nahala, which advocates for reestablishing Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, insisted that there was no intention for participants to enter the Palestinian enclave.

The IDF extended its closed military zone around the Gaza border in advance of the event, due to concerns that terrorists may try to attack the gathering, including through possible rocket fire.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report. 

Report: Hamas courier gave intel on Deif’s location, leading to Israeli airstrike that killed him

Palestinians inspect the damage at a site hit by an Israeli operation targeting Hamas's shadowy military commander Muhammad Deif in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A Hamas courier passed on the location of the commander of the terror group’s military wing, Muhammad Deif, leading to his assassination in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip last month, according to a Saudi report.

According to a Hamas source quoted by the Al-Arabiya outlet, says the courier had been carrying messages from Hamas’s Rafah Brigade commander Muhammad Shabana, who leaked the details of where Deif and Khan Younis Brigade commander Rafa’a Salameh, who was also killed in the strike, were planning to meet.

The airstrike was carried out when the courier confirmed that the two had entered the building, according to the report.

Israel has said that fighter jets patrolled the compound for half a day before the strike was carried out and that it was called in within a few minutes of receiving the intelligence that Deif had arrived at the compound.

The IDF released footage of the July 13 strike when it confirmed Deif’s death earlier this month.

The Al-Arabiya report claims that Israel has also attempted to assassinate Shabana three times amid the ongoing war in Gaza based on intelligence provided by the same courier.

He also reportedly handed over maps of Rafah including details of weapons stashes in Hamas’s subterranean tunnel network.

According to the report, the Palestinian “agent” was being investigated.

Thousands gather at Western Wall for Tisha B’Av, as Jewish communities set to mourn Oct. 7 victims

Jewish men pray as they gather for the ritual of Tisha B'Av at the Western Wall, in the Old City of Jerusalem, on August 12, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Thousands gather at the Western Wall in Jerusalem to mark the beginning of Tisha B’Av and read the Book of Lamentations, describing the destruction of Judaism’s First Temple, some 2,600 years ago.

Thousands of synagogues across all denominations are expected to incorporate texts about Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre in their Tisha B’Av ceremonies this year, causing some to predict the onslaught’s eventual canonization in Jewish liturgy alongside other catastrophes.

The fast of Tisha B’Av, which mourns the destruction of both the First and the Second Temples in Jerusalem, began this evening and lasts for 25 hours.

After call with German chancellor, Iran president says Tehran has ‘right to respond’ to attacks

Vehicles drive past a huge billboard depicting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at Tehran's Valiasr Square on August 12, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says his country has “the right to respond” to any aggression, after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged de-escalation, given soaring tensions with Israel.

“While emphasizing diplomatic solutions to issues, Iran will never give in to pressure, to sanctions and to bullying and considers it has the right to respond to aggressors in accordance with international norms,” Pezeshkian says, according to a statement published by official news agency IRNA following a phone call with Scholz.

German spokesman Wolfgang Buechner says Scholz “appealed to President Pezeshkian to do everything possible to prevent a further military escalation,” expressed “great concern about the danger of a regional conflagration in the Middle East” and said “the spiral of violence in the Middle East must be broken now.”

Iran has threatened a major reprisal attack for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, which it blames on Israel.

IDF says it has no intel to confirm or deny Hamas claims its guards killed, wounded Israeli hostages

Abu Obeida, spokesman of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, speaks during a memorial in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on January 31, 2017. (Abed Rahim Khatib/ Flash90)

The IDF says it cannot confirm or deny claims made by the military wing of Hamas this evening that members of the terror group assigned to guard Israeli hostages killed and wounded captives.

The spokesman for the Al Qassam Brigades, Hudhaifa Kahlout — known by the nom de guerre Abu Obeida, claimed in a statement issued on Telegram that Hamas guards in two separate incidents killed a hostage and seriously wounded two others.

“At this stage, we do not have any intelligence that allows us to refute or confirm the claims of Hamas,” the IDF says.

“We are continuing to check and investigate the credibility of the statement, and will update as soon as possible with any information we have,” the IDF adds.

Abu Obeida said that “attempts are being made to save” the lives of the wounded hostages.

He also said that Israel is to blame for the incident and that a committee would be formed to investigate the circumstances.

At the beginning of the war, Abu Obeida threatened to execute Israeli hostages and release footage of the killings.

Israel has previously dismissed Hamas’s statements on the deaths of hostages as deplorable psychological warfare.

Anti-Israel activists call for boycott of new Snow White movie starring Gal Gadot as evil queen

Anti-Israel activists on social media call to boycott Disney’s new Snow White movie, starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot as the evil queen, after the first trailer is released.

“A character that tries to kill a child and steal her kingdom. How fitting,” writes one user.

Another user using the #FreePalestine hashtag writes, “Make sure to BOYCOTT the Snow White movie as they have cast an Israeli terrorist Gal Gadot in the film. She is a trained killer who served in the Israeli degenerate forces. Don’t let Zionist terrorists normalize this EVER!”

Gadot, who starred in the “Wonder Woman” blockbuster movies, has publicly advocated for Israel over the years, especially since Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.

Gal Gadot is a Jewish Israeli actress. Because of her ethnicity/nationality, her new role in Snow White has generated protest online, relating her as a child killer and calling to boycott the movie.

The “humanitarians” remind us once again that they are just racists, bigots,… pic.twitter.com/UTUR9b9mIQ

— Elica Le Bon الیکا‌ ل بن (@elicalebon) August 11, 2024

IDF confirms Palestinian who shot, seriously wounded Israeli man in Qalqilya was killed by troops

The IDF confirms that the Palestinian gunman who shot and wounded an Israeli man and two Palestinians in the West Bank city of Qalqilya this evening was killed by troops.

The terrorist opened fire at an Israeli man near a car repair shop in the city, wounding him seriously. Another two Palestinians next to him were also wounded, according to the military, although their conditions are not known.

Troops then launched a pursuit after the terrorist, killing him a short while later just outside Qalqilya, the IDF says.

The Palestinian Authority health ministry names the gunman as Tariq Daoud, 18. It says his body is being held by Israeli authorities.

الهيئة العامة للشؤون المدنية تبلغ وزارة الصحة باستشهاد الشاب طارق زياد عبد الرحيم داود 18 عاماً، برصاص الاحتلال قرب بلدة عزون شرق قلقيلية pic.twitter.com/ld0Mfcrf7X

— وكالة سند للأنباء – Snd News Agency (@Snd_pal) August 12, 2024

In joint statement, US, France, Germany, Italy, UK express support for Israel against Iranian threat

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden spoke to the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the UK today to discuss de-escalating tensions in the Middle East and a ceasefire in Gaza, a White House spokesperson says.

In a joint statement released by the White House, the leaders of all five countries also express support for Israel against any Iranian threat.

The leaders say they endorse a call from the United States, Qatar, and Egypt for a renewal of talks for a Gaza ceasefire to conclude a hostage-truce deal as soon as possible.

They “stressed there is no further time to lose,” the statement says.

Palestinian gunman shot dead by troops in West Bank after IDF got reports of wounded Israeli – military sources

A Palestinian gunman was shot dead by troops in the West Bank city of Qalqilya, not long after the IDF received reports of an Israeli man wounded by gunfire in the area, according to military sources.

The Israeli man was wounded near a car repair store. The military also received reports of two Palestinians wounded in the same area, although the circumstances of their injury is unclear.

The IDF is investigating if the gunman whom troops killed carried out the attack in which the Israeli was wounded.

Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba says the man in his 60s wounded in the shooting in Qalqilya is in moderate condition.

Two Border Police officers lightly injured when grenade detonated accidentally in Hebron

Two Border Police officers were lightly wounded by shrapnel from a grenade that apparently detonated accidentally at a guard post near the Cave of the Patriarchs, also known as the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Police say that the incident is under further investigation.

White House decries ‘appalling’ stabbing of Jewish man outside Chabad HQ in Brooklyn

Screen capture from video showing Vincent Sumpter, left, moments after he allegedly stabbed an Israeli yeshiva student, right, in Brooklyn, New York, August 10, 2024. (X. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

White House spokesman Andrew Bates calls reports of the stabbing of a Jewish man near the Chabad Hasidic movement’s headquarters in Brooklyn over the weekend “appalling,” adding, “our prayers are with the victim.”

“Like President Biden and Vice President [Harris] have consistently said: Antisemitism and violence have no place in this country whatsoever. As Americans, we must come together and speak with one voice against the horrifying rise in antisemitism that is an affront to our most deeply held values.”

A 22-year-old man has been charged with eight felonies including assault as a hate crime for the incident, according to an arrest report.

IDF: We’re on ‘peak alert’ for attack by Iran, Hezbollah, but no change to emergency guidelines

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

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari again says that there are still no changes to emergency guidelines for civilians, even as reports claim that an Iranian attack on Israel is imminent.

He says that the military is on “peak alert” for a potential attack from Iran or Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“In recent days, we are tracking our enemies and the developments in the Middle East, especially Hezbollah and Iran,” Hagari says in a press conference.

He says that the Israeli Air Force has increased its patrols over Lebanon, “to detect and intercept threats.”

“We view the statements of our enemies seriously, and are therefore prepared at the highest level of readiness for defense and attack,” Hagari says.

Hagari says that there are no changes to the Home Front Command guidelines, and if there are, “we will update immediately.”

“We will update [the public] as early as possible… but without giving our enemies an intelligence or operational advantage,” he adds.

IDF investigating reports of Israeli wounded in shooting in West Bank city of Qalqilya

The IDF says it has received reports of an Israeli wounded by gunfire in the West Bank city of Qalqilya.

The incident is under investigation, and further details are unclear at this stage.

White House says Iran, proxies could launch ‘significant set of attacks’ on Israel this week

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, July 8, 2024. (AP/Susan Walsh)

White House spokesman John Kirby says Washington shares Jerusalem’s assessment that Iran and/or its proxies could launch the major attacks that they have threatened against Israel this week.

“We share the same concerns and expectations that our Israeli counterparts have with respect to potential timing here. Could be this week,” Kirby tells reporters.

“We have to be prepared for what could be a significant set of attacks,” he adds.

Kirby says the US has increased its regional force posture in recent days.

“We obviously don’t want to see Israel have to defend itself against another onslaught, like they did in April. But, if that’s what comes at them, we will continue to help them defend themselves,” Kirby notes.

He adds: “It is difficult to ascertain at this particular time if there’s an attack by Iran or its proxies what it could look like.”

“The president is confident that we have the capability available to us to help defend Israel should it come to that,” Kirby says, adding, “Nobody wants to see it come to that.”

Iran has threatened retaliation against Israel for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the assassination.

Kirby also notes that the timing of any attack could affect Gaza hostage-ceasefire talks, currently scheduled to resume on August 15.

Everyone needs to show up for talks on Thursday, he says.

Israel has confirmed that it will send a delegation to the talks, while Hamas has refused to attend.

Gallant decries ‘evil’ leaks from closed-door Knesset briefing, insists he’s aligned with Gaza war goals

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attends a meeting of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, August 12, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant decries “evil” leaks of quotes from “sensitive and confidential forums,” after Hebrew media outlets reported on a closed-door briefing earlier today in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

During the meeting, Gallant reportedly called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promises of “absolute victory” in the ongoing war “gibberish” and questioned the premier’s courage to make tough decisions to achieve that aim.

Netanyahu later clapped back, declaring that the defense minister was bound by the promise of “absolute victory,” and charging that his remarks were “anti-Israel” and obstructed talks for a hostage deal.

In his statement, Gallant rejects Netanyahu’s criticism and insists that he is aligned with Israel’s war goals of dismantling Hamas in Gaza and returning the hostages held by the terror group since October 7.

“I’ve served the State of Israel for 48 years, in uniform and in the government. I am determined to continue to carry out my mission while maintaining the priorities that have followed me all my life: the security of the State of Israel, strengthening the IDF and the security organizations, and then everything else,” he insists.

“We are facing challenging days in which we will be required to stand firm and take powerful defensive and offensive actions, our duty is to concentrate on protecting the citizens of Israel and harming our enemy,” he says.

Netanyahu fired Gallant in March 2023, after the defense minister warned about the danger to national security of rifts that he said were extending into the military over the government’s judicial overhaul plans. Thanks to public protests, Gallant was reinstated two weeks later.

Some members of the government have called on Netanyahu to fire Gallant again, criticizing his conduct in the ongoing war, though according to Hebrew media reports, the premier is not considering the move.

Lebanese healthcare system preparing for a wider war with Israel, minister says

Lebanon’s crisis-battered healthcare system is now preparing for the possibility of a wider conflict with Israel, the country’s health minister tells The Associated Press in an interview Monday.

Inventory has been built up to four months’ worth of critical supplies, Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad says, adding, “We hope that all the efforts we are doing for preparing for this emergency go to waste” and a wider war is averted.

“The best thing that we want is for all of this to turn out to be unnecessary,” he says.

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the northern border with Lebanon on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.

The region is currently braced for escalation as Israel girds for threatened major attacks from Iran and its proxy Hezbollah for the killings of terror chiefs in Beirut and Tehran last month.

Abiad says that Lebanese health authorities take the possibility of hospitals being targeted in a wider conflict “very seriously.”

Lebanon’s health sector was once renowned as one of the best in the region. But the country has has faced compounding crises since 2019, including a fiscal one that followed decades of corruption and mismanagement. Other challenges include the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Beirut Port explosion that damaged or destroyed key healthcare infrastructure and dwindling international aid to help Lebanon host more than 1 million Syrian refugees.

US says it expects Gaza hostage-ceasefire talks to continue, believes deal still possible

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration says it expects Gaza peace talks to move forward as planned, adding that it believes that a hostage-ceasefire agreement is still possible.

State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel, speaking to reporters at a briefing, says the department fully expects talks scheduled for August 15 to continue and that it would continue to work with the parties involved.

Report: Iran has prepped missile, drone units just like it did before April attack on Israel

A TV report shows missile alerts across Israel, as Iran fires ballistic missiles and the IDF moves to intercept them, shortly before 2 a.m. on April 14, 2024. (Channel 12 screenshot)

Iran has prepped its missile and drone units, similarly to steps taken before Tehran’s unprecedented attack on Israel in April, according to senior officials in Washington and Jerusalem quoted by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid.

In a post on X, Ravid writes that the officials stressed that neither Israel nor the US can predict the exact timing of the retaliation attack that Iran has threatened for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month.

Ravid also quotes a senior Israeli official as saying, “The Iranians openly signal (on the ground) their determination to carry out a significant attack in addition to their public statements that the attack will exceed the one they carried out in April. Iranian public statements do not reflect any retreat.”

In its first direct attack on the Jewish state, Iran fired some 300 missiles and drones at Israel on April 13-14, most of which were downed by Israel and its allies.

Israeli windsurfer Tom Reuveny says his gold medal is thanks to soldiers fighting to protect country

Israel's flag bearers march during the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony at the Stade de France, August 11, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP/Kin Cheung)

Israeli Olympic windsurfer Tom Reuveny says that the gold medal around his neck is thanks to the brave soldiers fighting to protect the State of Israel.

Speaking at a press conference after arriving at Ben Gurion Airport, Reuveny, 24, says that the ongoing war in his home country was on his mind at that critical moment in Paris a little more than a week ago.

“I really remember myself, just before the deciding final race, I thought about the whole State of Israel, I knew that the gold would not just be for me,” he says. “There are so many soldiers who have been called together to protect us, and thanks to them I am here right now.”

“I want to give a warm embrace to the families of the fallen [soldiers], that also thanks to them I’m even standing here, and thanks to them we were even able to go to this Olympics,” Reuveny adds.

Sister of captive IDF soldier says she wants Iran to ‘get it over with already’ so hostage deal can move forward

Sasha Ariev, sister of Hamas hostage Karina Ariev, runs a Havdalah end-of-Sabbath event marking her sister's 20th birthday at Jerusalem's Kol Haneshama synagogue, August 3, 2024. (Yishay Shavit)

Sasha Ariev, whose sister Karina Ariev was taken captive by Hamas terrorists from the Nahal Oz base where she was serving in the surveillance unit on October 7, tells The Times of Israel that the impending Iranian attack “doesn’t interest us.”

“I say to Iran and Hezbollah, ‘Go ahead, attack and let’s get it over with already’, so we can continue our battle to return the young women,” she says.

Karina Ariev is one of five young women taken hostage from the Nahal Oz army base, along with Liri Albag, Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy.

A still from footage showing the capture and abduction of Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniela Gilboa and Naama Levy at the Nahal Oz base on October 7, 2023. (The Hostages Families Forum)

Sasha Ariev, about to turn 25, is a neurobiology student at Hebrew University. She paused her studies and work for the last 10 months to lead her family’s efforts in urging the government to move forward on a hostage deal.

The Arievs, along with the other families of the female hostages, are asking that the government begin any hostage release with the young women, one of the details that caused the last hostage agreement to fall apart, she says.

“I’m trying to be the backbone of the family, to hold everyone, to raise morale, to continue to function and not to give up,” said Ariev, who moved home to be with her parents after October 7. She speaks regularly in the Israeli and international media and meets with Israeli companies, groups and organizations to discuss the hostage situation.

Ariev’s parents, Albert and Ira Ariev, are struggling, says their elder daughter. They do not want to give up, but every day is a little bit harder, as they experience the helplessness of being unable to free their younger daughter from captivity, says Ariev, who organized a community event of prayer and solidarity in their Jerusalem neighborhood on August 5, to mark Karina’s 20th birthday in captivity.

“It doesn’t matter what I do each day because when I get into bed at night, at the end of a long day, I want to sleep but I can’t because my thoughts keep running,” said Ariev. “How can I sleep when we haven’t succeeded in bringing Karina and all the other hostages home? How can I sleep when I’m in my bed and she’s a hostage?”

Surveillance soldier Karina Ariev, who is held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, pictured (right) in captivity in a photograph that was made public by her family on July 16, 2024 (Courtesy)

IDF strikes Hezbollah rocket launcher in southern Lebanon as rockets fired at northern Israel; none hurt

A Hezbollah rocket launcher in southern Lebanon’s Wardiyeh was destroyed in an airstrike earlier today, the Israeli military says.

The IDF says it also struck several buildings used by Hezbollah in Chihine and Jebbayn today.

Several rockets and missiles were fired by Hezbollah at northern Israel today, including the Ramim Ridge area, Metula, and Mount Dov.

The IDF says there were no injuries in the attacks.

A Hezbollah rocket launcher in southern Lebanon's Wardiyeh was destroyed in an airstrike earlier today, the Israeli military says.

The IDF says it also struck several buildings used by Hezbollah in Chihine and Jebbayn today.

Several rockets and missiles were fired by Hezbollah… pic.twitter.com/fnIGzGmiAx

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 12, 2024

‘The athletes proved that the Israeli spirit cannot be stopped’: Olympic delegation arrives home

Gymnast Artem Dolgopyat (left) and sailors Tom Reuveny (center) and Sharon Kantor pose with their silver, gold and silver Olympic medals in Paris on August 4, 2024. (Olympic Committee of Israel)

Yael Arad, the president of the Olympic Committee of Israel, says in a press conference after arriving at Ben Gurion Airport that Israel’s seven-medal haul in Paris surpassed every expectation after “a very difficult year.”

Arad says that when Israeli Olympic officials earlier this year “set 4-5 medals as the goal, people raised their eyebrows,” suggesting that the effects of the war had harmed Israel’s ability to train and compete at the highest level.

“As you saw over the past two and a half weeks, this delegation surpassed all imagination,” says Arad. “The athletes proved that the Israeli spirit is something that cannot be stopped.”

Arad specifically thanks all the many Israeli security bodies involved in protecting the athletes and the delegation, who “allowed all of us to do what we came to Paris to do… without them we wouldn’t have been able to.”

עם 7 מדליות: משלחת ישראל הרשמית לאולימפיאדה נחתה בישראל והתקבלה בתשואות@MahalalEitan pic.twitter.com/q8iKg5tJzv

— גלצ (@GLZRadio) August 12, 2024

Hostage’s mother: I expect Netanyahu to ‘stop targeting Gallant’ and bring the hostages home

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan has been held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, speaks to Channel 12 News on August 12, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan has been held hostage in Gaza since October 7, says that the prime minister’s statement earlier today accusing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of harming Israel’s chances of a hostage deal indicates that Netanyahu will torpedo upcoming talks planned for later this week.

“I expect the prime minister to stop targeting his defense minister and the negotiating team,” she tells Channel 12. “I expect the prime minister to show leadership and to bring my son home after 10 months, and to bring back all of the hostages, alive and dead, every last one.”

Netanyahu said earlier this week that Israel will send a negotiating team to the August 15 talks “to finalize the details of the implementation of the agreement framework.” Hamas says it is not sending a delegation to the talks.

“I demand that the prime minister… find a diplomatic solution [to bring the hostages home], to talk about postwar plans for Gaza. All of the country’s security chiefs say that the barriers to a deal have been removed. That means we can proceed to a deal,” she says.

It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Iran, proxies in the Middle East could attack Israel within the next 24 hours — Fox News

A man walks past a banner depicting missiles launching from a representation of the map of Iran colored with the Iranian flag in central Tehran on April 15, 2024. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran and its proxies in the Middle East could launch an attack on Israel within the next 24 hours, unnamed sources in the region tell Fox News.

“Officials [in the Middle East] believe we are reaching hour zero,” Fox News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reports.

Iran has threatened a major attack against Israel in retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month. Israel has not taken responsibility for the assassination.

Israel is also bracing for a reprisal attack from Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, for the assassination of the terror group’s top commander, Fuad Shukr, in Beirut, hours before Haniyeh was killed.

The Axios news site reported yesterday that while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wants to avoid a harsh response, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is pushing to launch a larger attack than it did on April 13-14, when hundreds of drones and missiles were launched in Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel. Almost all the projectiles and UAVs were intercepted during that attack.

‘The coffee was still hot’: IDF general Goldfus says troops were ‘minutes’ from catching Sinwar in Gaza tunnels

IDF Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus speaks to Channel 12 in an interview aired August 11, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The outgoing head of the IDF’s 98th Division says he and his troops were “minutes” from catching Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in the tunnels of Gaza earlier this year.

Asked in a lengthy Channel 12 interview screened last night how close he came to catching the architect of Hamas’s October 7 invasion and slaughter in Israel, Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus replies: “We were close. We were in his compound. We got to an underground compound. It was ‘hot.'”

Hamas’s Gaza Strip leader Yahya Sinwar in a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, October 10, 2023 (IDF Spokesman)

What does that mean? he is asked.

“We found a lot of money there. The coffee was still hot. Weapons strewn around.”

So it was minutes after he’d left?

Goldfus: “Minutes, really.”

Goldfus has been appointed the next head of the Northern Corps and Multi-Domain Joint Maneuver Array, and will soon be promoted to the rank of major general.

IDF chief approves plans for ‘different fronts’ as country anticipates Iran-Hezbollah attack

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi (center) meets with senior officers for an assessment at the IDF HQ in Tel Aviv, August 12, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi held an assessment and approved plans for “the different fronts,” the military says in a terse statement, as the country anticipates an Iranian and Hezbollah attack.

“The chief of staff emphasized the continuation of high readiness and assessment efforts for attack and defense,” the military says.

The meeting was attended by the IDF deputy chief of staff, heads of the Intelligence and Operations directorates, head of the Northern Command, head of the Air Force, head of the Home Front Command, and other top officers.

Man in his 40s stabbed to death in Rishon Lezion, apparently not a terror attack

A man in his 40s was stabbed to death in a public park in the central city of Rishon Lezion, according to Magen David Adom.

Paramedics pronounce the man dead at the scene, after attempting to resuscitate him.

Hebrew media outlets report that the incident is believed to have been criminal and not a terror attack.

Funeral held in Jerusalem for former IDF commando killed in West Bank terror shooting

Family and friends attend the funeral of Yonatan Deutsch, who was killed in a terror shooting attack in the Jordan Valley, at Har HaMenuchot Cemetery in Jerusalem, August 12, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Yonatan Deutsch, who was killed in a terror shooting attack in the Jordan Valley yesterday, is laid to rest in Jerusalem.

Deutsch, 23, was a commando in the IDF’s Maglan unit and was part of the security forces who scrambled to Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the day of the Hamas October 7 massacre.

The Beit She’an resident also served in Gaza during the ongoing war. He was recently discharged and was planning to marry his fiancée, Emuna.

“Yonatan wanted to work in education, to join a youth village, to guide. He was a people person, a giving person, a joyful person. He loved his country and his people in an extraordinary way,” his father, Uri Deutsch, told Kan news earlier today.

“Among other things, he was involved in a project called ‘Tikvateinu’ (“Our hope”), a project that works to connect all parts of Israeli society, religious and secular people. We all have a common basis of being Jews, Israelis. He dreamed of establishing a movement and influencing the entire Israeli society.”

Deutsch was shot dead in a terror attack yesterday when his car came under fire in an attack claimed by Hamas near the Mehola Junction on Route 90, the main north-south artery in the Jordan Valley.

Germany’s Scholz urges Iran’s new president Pezeshkian to avoid further Middle East escalation

Vehicles drive past a huge billboard depicting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at Tehran's Valiasr Square on August 12, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

BERLIN – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appeals to Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to do everything possible to prevent a further military escalation in the Middle East, according to a German government spokesperson.

The spiral of violence in the Middle East must be broken now, as any other course would lead to incalculable danger for the countries and people in the region, Scholz was quoted as telling Pezeshkian during a phone call earlier today.

Billboard campaign in Lebanon calls on Hezbollah to end campaign against Israel

Billboards crop up across Lebanon to demand an end to Hezbollah’s military campaign against Israel. The posters, which read “Enough, we are fed up” and “We don’t want war” have appeared in regions dominated by opposition parties and in some parts of Beirut, the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat reports.

No specific party or civil society organization has claimed responsibility for the campaign, but an unnamed leading member of the Lebanese opposition tells the Saudi paper that the billboards reflect the position of the “vast majority of the people, regardless of their sect and affiliations,” and that those who have died in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon “are sacrificed at the altar of the Iranian agenda, not the liberation of Jerusalem or defense of Palestine.”

Even the Shiite community in southern Lebanon, “which used to forgive all of Hezbollah’s mistakes,” is now showing signs of discontent after the terror group’s actions have led to their displacement and the destruction of their homes, the opposition figure says.

شعارات «بيكفّي – تعبنا» و«ما بدنا حرب» تنتشر في لبنان… ولا أحد يتبنّاها —- #لبنان_لا_يريد_الحرب https://t.co/EiPXuR7FdT

— mustapha alghamdi (@mustaphaghamdi) August 12, 2024

Iraqi FM denies latest rumors that Hamas leaders may relocate to Baghdad

This video grab shows senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, center, praying near the coffin of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard during the funeral prayers in Doha, Qatar, August 2, 2024. (Qatar TV via AP)

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein denies that his government has made any decision regarding the opening of a Hamas headquarters in Baghdad, the Qatari-owned Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports, quoting an interview Hussein gave to an unnamed Iraqi TV channel.

Iraq is in continuous contact with the [Palestinian] factions, Iran and the United States to “keep the fire of war away from Iraq,” Hussein adds.

However, an unnamed member of the ruling coalition in the Iraqi parliament tells Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Baghdad would not object to hosting Hamas leaders if they requested it.

In late June, it was reported that Hamas leaders were planning to leave Qatar for Iraq, as the terror group was coming under increasing pressure from Doha and Washington to accept a ceasefire deal and release the hostages held in Gaza since October 7, and Ankara refused to host them. The move had apparently been approved by the Iraqi government, a report that Baghdad denied at the time.

In mid-July, the UAE-owned Sky News Arabia doubled down on the rumors, saying that not only Hamas, but also three other Palestinian factions – the Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and its offshoot, the General Command – had opened offices in Baghdad, had been holding meetings with Iraqi factions loyal to Tehran, and were about to transfer their headquarters to the city.

Iran believes that if the Hamas leadership were to be based in Baghdad, it would be easier to maintain the terror group’s cohesion in the face of internal divisions, Sky News Arabia wrote then, quoting analysts.

Gallant calls Netanyahu’s ‘absolute victory’ slogan ‘gibberish’; PM says defense minister adopting ‘anti-Israel narrative’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attend a press conference at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, October 28, 2023. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant appears to take a swing at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a Knesset committee discussion about Israel’s response to ongoing cross-border tensions with the Hezbollah terror group.

“I hear all the heroes with the war drums, the ‘absolute victory’ and this gibberish,” he says during a meeting of Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

His remark reportedly follows his answer to a question on why Israel has not initiated war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, in which Gallant says: “The conditions today for war in Lebanon are unlike those at the beginning of the war [last October].”

Firebrand Likud MK Tally Gotliv jumps to Netanyahu’s defense in the discussion and later posts a call on X for the premier to fire his defense minister.

A short while later the Prime Minister’s Office releases a statement titled, “Gallant is bound by ‘absolute victory,’ too.”

“When Gallant adopts an anti-Israel narrative, he hurts the chances of reaching a hostage deal,” the statement reads.

“He should have attacked [Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar], who refuses to send a delegation to negotiations, and who was and remains the only obstacle to the hostage deal.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attends a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, August 12, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

The statement reiterates Netanyahu’s stance that Israel must achieve “absolute victory,” which the PMO says consists of the elimination of Hamas’s military and governance capabilities and the release of the remaining 111 hostages abducted on October 7.

“This is the clear directive of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the cabinet, and it is binding on everyone — including Gallant,” the statement concludes.

Despite the sparring, Hebrew media sites report that Netanyahu is not considering firing Gallant.

IDF, Shin Bet name another 12 Hamas, Islamic Jihad operatives killed in strike at Gaza school, bringing total to 31

This infographic released by the IDF on August 12, 2024, shows terror operatives it says it killed in an airstrike on a Hamas-Islamic Jihad command room at a school complex in Gaza City. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israeli military and Shin Bet security agency say they have now verified the deaths of 31 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives in Saturday’s airstrike on a school in Gaza City.

Hours after the strike, the IDF named 19 Palestinians it said were terror operatives killed in the attack against an “active” Hamas and Islamic Jihad command room, based out of a mosque in the al-Taba’een school complex, in Gaza City’s Daraj neighborhood.

The IDF now releases the names and pictures of another 12 Palestinians it says were killed in the strike and were terror operatives.

More than 100 people were killed in the strike, according to Hamas authorities. The IDF expressed heavy skepticism over the claim, saying the numbers appeared to have been inflated.

IDF criticized after announcement regarding closures around Gaza border left residents believing there was a security incident

The Israel Defense Forces faces criticism from the public after it said earlier today that it was extending its closed military zone around the Gaza border without offering an explanation as to why.

The decision to expand the closed zones was made as settler activists are planning to reach the Gaza border tonight to hold Tisha B’Av prayers.

This was not communicated in the initial announcement, however, and people in southern Israel say they feared the announcement was related to a security threat, Kan news reporter Asaf Pozailov writes on X.

The announcement was made “without any explanation or updates offered to the residents, and sent a lot of people, who were sure there was a security incident, into stress and hysteria,” he states. “People left work and ran home. A lot of people expressed panic.”

Two settlers detained on suspicion of assaulting Arab Israeli women and child in West Bank outpost

Police detained two Israeli settlers suspected of assaulting four Arab Israeli women and a three-year-old girl in the West Bank outpost of Givat Ronen on Friday.

Police and the Shin Bet say in a joint statement that during the “grave attack,” the suspects hurled stones at the victims, made threats with weapons, and set fire to their car.

The two suspects were detained earlier today, and are currently being questioned.

Tomorrow, police say, they will request to extend their detention amid the investigation.

The victims, residents of the Bedouin city of Rahat in southern Israel, were on their way to the West Bank city of Nablus.

They had accidentally driven into the outpost, in an area that has seen repeated clashes between extremist settlers and Palestinians.

The five were taken to Beilinson Medical Center in Petah Tikva after being attacked by the settlers.

IDF slams Kan’s Arabic channel for showing faces of suspects detained in Sde Teiman abuse case

An Israeli media outlet recently showed the faces of several suspects detained in the Sde Teiman abuse case, drawing harsh criticism from the IDF.

“The IDF views with severity the publication of the faces of those suspected of abusing a security detainee under aggravating circumstances, which constitute a blatant violation of the military court’s gag order,” the IDF says in a statement.

The images had been aired by the Arabic-language channel of Kan news, Makan.

“As soon as the incident was discovered, a comprehensive inspection was carried out and a request was made to the media outlet on behalf of the IDF Spokespersons Unit to remove the footage,” the military adds.

Five soldiers are currently held over the suspected sexual abuse of a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility.

Hamas convinced new ceasefire talks are attempt to avert Iran attack, sources say

Sources close to Hamas say that the Gaza terror group believes the US, Egypt and Qatar coordinated with Israel ahead of releasing a joint statement last week calling for both parties to return to the negotiating table and finish the arrangements for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

The terror group said yesterday that it would not join the upcoming negotiations on Thursday, unless they were based upon plans from previous rounds of talks rather than on amended frameworks.

According to two unnamed sources, Hamas is convinced that the renewed push for negotiations was an attempt to deter responses from Iran and Hezbollah to the assassination of the group’s chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which they have blamed Israel for, and a top Hezbollah leader in an IDF strike in Beirut.

A Palestinian official close to the talks says that things may change, regarding Hamas’s decision to remain absent from the negotiating table, but that at present “Hamas believes [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu isn’t serious about reaching a deal.”

Gallant: Iran, Hezbollah attacks may materialize; we need vigilance and readiness, not fear and panic

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attends a meeting of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, August 12, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Israel has been bolstering its defenses in recent days amid an anticipated Iranian and Hezbollah attack on the country, as well as preparing potential attacks as a response, or preemptive actions if needed.

“We are in the days of vigilance and readiness, the threats from Tehran and Beirut may materialize and it is important to explain to everyone that readiness, preparedness, and vigilance are not synonyms for fear and panic,” says Gallant at a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

“In recent days, we have been devoting our time both to strengthening defenses and to creating offensive options in response, and also as an initiative if required, anywhere and in any region, with the main goal being the protection of the citizens of the State of Israel,” he adds.

Also at the meeting, Gallant says he supports a hostage deal with Hamas, even if it is in multiple stages.

“It is our duty as decision-makers to strive to bring about the operational achievement, and… to create the conditions to return the hostages. The creation of the conditions comes through military pressure, and it can bring about a deal to [release] the hostages, even if it will be in more than one round,” he says.

‘Revenge is a dish best served cold,’ Lebanese parliament speaker says of anticipated Iran-Hezbollah attack

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri opens the 4th session to elect a new president in Beirut on October 24, 2022. (JOSEPH EID / AFP)

Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon and a staunch Hezbollah ally, says of a tensely anticipated joint Iranian and Hezbollah attack on Israel that “revenge is a dish best served cold.”

He warns that the “response is inevitable” after the recent killings of top Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Although both Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of being behind the killing of Haniyeh, Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

In an interview with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Jumhuriya, Berri says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s alleged decision to carry out the assassinations does not reflect “the behavior of someone who wants to reach a ceasefire.”

He does not rule out the possibility of a large-scale war between Hezbollah and Israel as long as Netanyahu remains in power, but notes that Iran-backed groups in the region “are managing the battle in a calculated manner.”

Commenting on Lebanese domestic affairs, Berri says that the conflict with Israel should serve as an incentive to expedite consultations for the election of a new president to strengthen the home front. The country has now been without an effective president for over two years, with 12 rounds of voting in parliament failing to elect a new leader.

IDF says one rocket was fired from Gaza at Ein Hashlosha and struck an open area

One rocket was fired from the southern Gaza Strip at the Israeli border community of Ein Hashlosha a short while ago, setting off sirens there.

The IDF says the rocket struck an open area, causing no injuries.

PA’s Abbas arrives in Moscow ahead of meeting with Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pose for a photo at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, November 23, 2021. (Yevgeny Biyatov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrives in Moscow on an official visit at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The meeting between the two leaders is scheduled to take place tomorrow, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. They are expected to discuss ways to support efforts to stop Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and to bring humanitarian aid into the Strip. The development of bilateral relations will also be on the agenda.

This is the PA president’s first visit to Moscow since 2021. In March, Moscow hosted unity talks between Fatah — Abbas’s secularist party, which dominates the West Bank-based PA — and rival Hamas. The Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group also participated in the talks.

Amid threat of Iranian attack, Air Force chief bars servicemembers from traveling abroad

Amid heightened tensions over an anticipated attack on Israel from Iran, the chief of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, has barred servicemembers from traveling abroad, the military says.

The directive applies to career officers and NCOs, not conscripts.

The IDF says that the move follows a new assessment of the situation, but there are no changes to guidelines for civilians.

Vatican tells Iran to refrain ‘in every way’ from escalating Middle East conflict

The Vatican is calling on Iran to refrain “in every way” from worsening the conflict in the Middle East.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, appeals instead for Tehran to embrace dialogue, negotiation and peace, during a call with Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to congratulate him on the start of his mandate.

According to a Vatican statement, Parolin “expressed the Holy See’s serious concern about what is happening in the Middle East, reiterating the need to avoid in any way the widening of the very serious conflict underway and preferring instead dialogue, negotiation and peace.”

The Vatican has tried to maintain a balanced position on the war between Israel and the Hamas terror group in Gaza. It has reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself and called for Hamas to release the hostages it seized during its October 7 assault, but has also demanded a ceasefire, an end to the conflict and for humanitarian aid to reach Palestinian civilians.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Tel Aviv residents petition court to allow public gender-segregated Yom Kippur prayers

Activists from the Rosh Yehudi organization set up a 'mechitzah' divider made of Israeli flags ahead of a public prayer event in Dizengoff Square, Tel Aviv, on Yom Kippur eve. September 24, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90)

Tel Aviv residents petition a district court to order the municipality to allow gender-segregated prayers on public grounds on Yom Kippur.

In their petition to the District Court of Tel Aviv, 14 residents and the Rosh Yehudi organization, which encourages Jews to embrace an Orthodox-religious lifestyle, call the municipality’s refusal to approve their request to hold the prayer event “discriminatory,” citing sex-segregated Muslim prayers, among other arguments.

“Just as nothing prevents a separate policy for Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s Muslim minority, which has segregated events, so there should be no opposition in principle in our multicultural society for the practices of the Jewish-religious minority,” reads the petition.

The petitioners note that thousands of Muslims attended a segregated Eid al-Adha public prayer at Charles Clore Park in Tel Aviv on June 16, where the partition between men and women was made up of fencing emblazoned with the municipality’s logo.

The municipality, the petitioners note, claimed it had never authorized the event. But by allowing it to take place without a permit, the petitioners argue, it also creates a discriminatory reality benefitting minorities that hold segregated prayer without permit and punishing those who seek to obtain it.

The petition follows a letter last week by the municipality’s deputy director Rubi Zluf, who declined the organizers’ request from April to hold a prayer on Dizengoff Square. “The municipality does not make available intensively-used public spaces […] to serve as synagogues,” the letter states.

Segregated prayer on public grounds in Tel Aviv is a controversial issue. Some Tel Aviv residents say it’s religious coercion at taxpayers’ expense, claims that led to clashes last year on Dizengoff Square between worshipers and anti-religious activists.

The municipality says it’s reviewing The Times of Israel’s request for comment about the petition.

Lufthansa, Swiss Air cancel flights to Israel, Lebanon until August 21

Germany’s Lufthansa Group has extended its suspension of flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran, Beirut, Amman and Erbil up to and including Aug. 21, the airline says amid fears of an escalation in conflict in the Middle East.

Lufthansa will not be using Iranian and Iraqi airspace during that period, it adds in an emailed statement.

At the same time, Swiss International Air Lines says it has also extended the suspension of its flights to and from Tel Aviv and Beirut up to and including August 21.

It adds that it will avoid airspace over Iran, Iraq and Israel until that date.

Iran’s FM tells Chinese counterpart deterring Israel necessary for regional stability

Iran’s acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri tells his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that Iran has the “right to an appropriate and deterrent response” against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.

Iranian state media adds that Bagheri told Wang that deterring Israel was necessary in order to ensure regional stability.

Iran’s VP for strategy says he’s resigning from role just days after being appointed

Then-Iranian foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attends talks in Moscow, Russia, January 26, 2021. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)

Iran’s former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who negotiated a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with major world powers, announces that he has resigned from his new post as the country’s vice president for strategic affairs.

“I resigned from the position of vice-president for strategic affairs last week,” Zarif says in a post on X, less than two weeks after the newly elected reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian chose him as one of his several deputies.

Zarif cites several reasons for his resignation, most notably his disappointment with the lineup in the newly proposed 19-member cabinet.

“I am ashamed that I could not implement, in a decent way, the expert opinion of the committees (responsible for selecting candidates) and achieve the inclusion of women, youth and ethnic groups, as I had promised,” he says.

Pezeshkian on Sunday presented his cabinet, which included one woman, to parliament for approval.

The proposed list drew criticism from some among Iran’s reformist camp, including over the inclusion of conservatives from the government of late president Ebrahim Raisi.

Zarif points out that he also faced pressure after his appointment as vice president because his children hold US citizenship.

“My message… is not a sign of regret or disappointment with dear Dr. Pezeshkian or opposition to realism; rather it means doubting my usefulness as a vice president for strategic affairs,” he says, noting he will return to academia and focus less on Iran’s domestic politics.

IDF extends closed military zone around Gaza Strip as settler activists plan to hold Tisha B’av prayers along the border

Israeli tanks stand near the Israel-Gaza border as seen from southern Israel, July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

The IDF says it is adjusting its closed military zone in the Gaza border area, following a new assessment.

The move comes as settler activists plan to reach the Gaza border tonight to hold Tisha B’Av prayers.

According to the latest order signed by Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, the chief of the IDF Southern Command, several areas on the Gaza border will be added to the closed military zone and entering them will be prohibited without prior coordination with the army.

The new closed zones include fields between the Erez crossing, Yad Mordechai, Shaar HaNegev junction area and Nahal Oz; fields between the access road to the cemetery in Netivot and Route 234, and from there to the Gaza security barrier; and areas between the Re’im and Urim junctions, and from there to the security barrier.

Yair Golan says he’s unsure whether Israel is ‘truly a democratic state anymore’

Labor party leader Yair Golan holds a press conference outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, on July 15, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Yair Golan, leader of Israel’s left-wing Democrats party, says in an interview with the Guardian newspaper that he doesn’t know whether Israel can be considered a democracy anymore.

“I’m not sure whether Israel right now is truly a democratic state anymore,” says Golan, who formed the Democrats as a merger between the left-wing Labor and Meretz parties after winning the Labor primaries earlier this year. “It is not a question of left or right any more: these titles are meaningless.”

“The right today in Israel is people who think we can annex millions of Palestinians, and Israel should adopt some sort of policy of revenge, that we can live by our swords and not attempt to reconcile with the Palestinians or any other hostile entity in the region,” he says. “I think 180 degrees the opposite.”

Golan tells the Guardian that while his party believes in putting an end to Israel’s military and civilian presence in the West Bank and implementing a two-state solution, it knows that Israel cannot go down that path until security is restored.

“Our vision is a two-state solution, but right now we are a nation in trauma. People lost their sense of security; people do not trust the IDF to protect them,” he says. “We need to be proactive militarily, but at the same time we need to combine it with political vision.”

“The liberal camp in Israel is still alive,” he says. “We do not fight for revenge. We fight for the security of Israel.”

Air France, Transavia France extend suspension of Beirut flights through Wednesday

Air France and its subsidiary Transavia France have again extended the suspension of their flights to Beirut, through Wednesday, because of continued tensions in the region, the companies say.

The flights have been suspended since July 29 because of the “security situation in Lebanon” and their resumption “will be subject to a new assessment of the situation on the ground,” Air France says in a statement.

Lebanese media: Hezbollah relocated entire operation away from Beirut, including political wing

Lebanese media reports that in recent days Hezbollah has entirely evacuated its headquarters in the Beirut suburb of Dahieh.

Earlier this month, following the assassination of Hezbollah’s top military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, it was reported that the terror group was moving its senior personnel away from its Beirut stronghold, in anticipation of potential Israeli strikes.

Now, however, Lebanese news outlet Al Joumhouria reports that Hezbollah has moved its entire operation out of Beirut, including its political wing.

The move comes as Hezbollah threatens to make Israel pay for the killing of Shukr and, according to the report, indicates that it is “preparing for the worst” with regard to Israel’s response if it finds itself attacked by the Iran-backed group.

Gallant, US counterpart Austin discuss regional threats in overnight call

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke overnight with his American counterpart, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, in the seventh such call in recent weeks.

According to a readout issued by the Defense Ministry, Gallant and Austin “discussed both operational and strategic coordination in light of recent developments.”

“Gallant detailed IDF readiness and capabilities in the face of threats posed by Iran and its regional proxies, and discussed interoperability with the wide range of US military capabilities deployed to the region,” the ministry says.

Gallant also “highlighted the urgency of achieving an agreement for the release of hostages and thanked the US administration for its leadership and commitment to this issue.”

UK, France and Germany warn Iran it will ‘bear responsibility’ for jeopardizing peace if it attacks Israel

The United Kingdom, France and Germany issue a joint statement warning Iran not to attack Israel, calling on it to avoid sending the region spiraling into an all-out war.

“We are deeply concerned by the heightened tensions in the region, and united in our commitment to de-escalation and regional stability,” the statement reads.

“In this context, and in particular, we call on Iran and its allies to refrain from attacks that would further escalate regional tensions and jeopardise the opportunity to agree [to] a ceasefire and the release of hostages,” the statement continues, referring to the negotiations for a deal between Israel and Hamas which are scheduled to resume later this week.

The countries warn that if Iran attacks, it will “bear responsibility for actions that jeopardise this opportunity for peace and stability.”

“No country or nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East,” the statement concludes.

IDF announces death of soldier Omer Ginzburg in battle in southern Gaza

Sgt. Omer Ginzburg, 19, killed in battle in the southern Gaza Strip on August 11, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

An Israeli soldier was killed during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, the IDF announces.

He is named as Sgt. Omer Ginzburg, 19, of the Paratroopers Brigade’s 101st Battalion, from Kiryat Tivon.

Ginzburg was killed in a Hamas-claimed sniper attack in Khan Younis.

His death brings Israel’s death toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 332.

US to deploy guided missile submarine to Mideast, hasten strike group’s arrival

The guided-missile submarine USS Georgia transits the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, December 21, 2020. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Indra Beaufort/US Navy via AP)

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the deployment of a guided missile submarine to the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region, the Pentagon says, taking the rare step of announcing the movements of a submarine.

In a statement, the Pentagon adds that Austin has also ordered the Abraham Lincoln strike group to accelerate its deployment to the region.

Elon Musk’s X the easiest platform to find Hamas content, anti-terror tech group said to warn

A tech industry counter-terrorism organization that also fights antisemitism is concerned over content posted on Elon Musk’s X on behalf of the Hamas terror group, and is worried about the social media platform’s membership on its board, The Sunday Times reports.

Members of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) believe the group’s credibility is undermined by X’s membership and position on the board, according to The Sunday Times.

The report says X, formerly Twitter, is now the platform where it is the easiest to find Hamas videos, citing reduced content moderation and other changes introduced by Musk.

IDF says 30 rockets launched, no casualties; Hezbollah claims responsibility

The IDF says around 30 projectiles were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel in the nighttime volley.

Several of them landed in open areas and there are no casualties, the army says, adding that it is striking the area from where the rockets were fired.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah claims responsibility for the barrage, claiming to target a military base, according to the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen site.

Over 10 rockets said fired at north; some downed, some impact and cause fires but not injuries

Reports indicate over 10 projectiles were fired toward the Western Galilee in the latest barrage, with some intercepted and some falling in open areas.

The reports say there have been no casualties.

Fires have broken out, however, near Moshav Avdon, according to Ynet.

You could hear the rocket interceptions from Haifa. Listen to my video below. pic.twitter.com/qPPwGJfgQh

— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) August 11, 2024

מטח לילי לצפון. בתיעוד: כך נראות נפילות בשטחים פתוחים מול המצלמה pic.twitter.com/naQwPkCpXJ

— Itsik Zuarets איציק זוארץ (@Itsik_zuarets) August 11, 2024

Incoming rocket sirens sound in Nahariya, surrounding communities

Nighttime rocket alarms sound in the northern city of Nahariya and in nearby towns.

There are no immediate reports of impacts or injuries.

Report: Gallant told Pentagon chief large-scale attack expected from Iran

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke today with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and told him Iran’s military preparations suggest Iran is getting ready for a large-scale attack on Israel, Axios reporter Barak Ravid says on X, citing a source with knowledge of the call.

The Kan public broadcaster and Channel 13 news similarly say Israel’s updated assessment is that Tehran intends to launch a major attack this week.

Kan assesses that the attack will be bigger in scale than its drone and missile attack in April, without citing sources.

Channel 13 reports, also without citing sources, that there could be a combined attack by both Iran and Hezbollah, whether simultaneously or successively. The network says one factor that has delayed the promised response to the assassinations of terror chiefs is French pressure on Iran and Hezbollah not to launch a major attack during the Paris Olympics, which ended several hours ago.

Borrell says EU must mull sanctions on Ben Gvir, Smotrich for ‘incitement to war crimes’

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell attends a meeting with Vietnam's Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son (not pictured) at the Government Guest House in Hanoi on July 30, 2024. (Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)

The European Union foreign policy chief says the bloc should consider sanctioning far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for comments he says constitute “incitement to war crimes.”

Writing on X, Josep Borrell condemns Ben Gvir for once again urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut all aid and fuel to the Gaza Strip.

He also slams Smotrich’s “sinister statements” and says he supports UN rights chief Volker Turk in his condemnations — appearing to refer to the finance minister’s recent remark that starving 2 million Gazans in order to get the Hamas hostages back might be “justified and moral,” which Turk condemned.

“Sanctions must be on our EU agenda,” Borrell writes.

“I urge the Israeli government to unequivocally distance itself from these incitements to commit war crimes,” he says, adding that Jerusalem must show “good faith” in talks for a ceasefire and hostage deal.