The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they happened.
Saudi authorities have announced the execution of a man on terrorism charges, despite advocates’ objections that he was convicted over offenses committed as a minor.
“The death sentence was carried out against Jalal bin Hassan bin Abdul Karim Labbad, a Saudi national, in the Eastern Province,” the state news agency SPA reported.
Labbad, it said, had “committed terrorist crimes including joining a foreign terrorist organization.”
The agency added that he was convicted for killing a judge in Qatif governorate, as well as firing and launching explosives at security forces with the intent to kill them.
Labbad was among a number of people sentenced to death for offenses committed when they were under 18 years old.
In October 2023, Amnesty International said the Saudi supreme court had issued a decision in secret to uphold the death sentence for Labbad, a member of the kingdom’s Shiite minority.
He was sentenced on terrorism charges alongside eight others, including Abdullah al-Derazi, who was also a minor at the time, over their involvement in rare anti-government protests in 2011, according to Amnesty.
UN experts in May called for the release of Labbad and four others convicted over offences committed when they were minors.
Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most prolific practitioners of the death penalty, has carried out at least 250 executions so far this year.
The conservative country is on course to outstrip last year’s 338 executions — the most since public records first documented the cases in the early 1990s.
The US has asked Israel to reduce “non-urgent” military action in Lebanon, fearing continued IDF strikes are undermining the Lebanese government’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah, Axios reports, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
Israel claims it’s strikes are in response to Hezbollah violations of a November ceasefire. Beirut has pushed back against those claims, saying Israel is violating the ceasefire and its sovereignty.
Appearing to side, at least slightly, with the Lebanese government on the matter, the US has also asked Israel to consider withdrawing from one of the five outposts that the IDF has established inside Lebanon, Axios says.
Hostage families and their supporters are currently marching to the IDF’s Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv calling for the release of their loved ones as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a security consult at the IDF’s Southern Command headquarters in order to approve the army’s plans to take over Gaza City.
Hostage families are opposed to the plan, fearing that it will place their loved ones at risk.
Palestinian factions have begun handing over some of the weapons held in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut to the Lebanese army, an initial step in implementing a plan officials announced three months earlier for removing arms from the camps.
It is a modest first step. One pickup left the camp loaded with light weapons packed in bags. The butts of machine guns could be seen protruding from some of the sacks.
It remains unclear whether all factions will abide by the decision.
Representatives of Hamas and the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for Hamas sent a statement signed by “the Palestinian Factions in Lebanon” that calls the handover of weapons “an internal organizational matter within the Fatah movement” that “has no connection, near or far, to the issue of Palestinian weapons in the camps.”
It adds, “Our weapons have always been and will always be linked to the right of return and the just Palestinian cause and will remain so as long as the occupation remains on Palestinian soil.”
משאית עם נשק מועברת לידי הצבא הלבנוני במחנה הפליטים הפלסטיני בורג' אל-בראג'נה. לפי הצהרות של פלסטינים מוקדם יותר – מה שנמסר שם כפעימה ראשונה זה נשק בינוני וכבד (ולא קל) ומה שיימסר בכללי זה רק הנשק "הבלתי חוקי". מהתרשמותי אם זה המודל לפירוק חיזבאללה זה חלקי מאוד pic.twitter.com/pJHSTRarpZ
— Nurit Yohanan (@nurityohanan) August 21, 2025
There are no plans “at this stage” to send an Israeli delegation to Qatar or Egypt for talks on a ceasefire and hostage-release deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office tells The Times of Israel, following the premier’s announcement that he “instructed to begin immediate negotiations” for the release of all the hostages in Gaza and an end to the war on Israel’s terms.
Netanyahu didn’t say to whom he had given the order and again avoided commenting on whether Israel would accept the proposal for a phased hostage release deal that Hamas accepted on Monday.
A rocket was launched from an area next to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis toward a corridor used to deliver humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip earlier today, the IDF says.
According to the military, the rocket was launched while a convoy of trucks was heading toward Kerem Shalom Crossing to collect aid.
The military says the rocket struck some 300 meters from the route. No injuries were reported in the incident.
“The launch is yet another example of the ongoing attempts by the terrorist organization to systematically and brutally sabotage the passage of humanitarian aid by the international organizations and disrupt the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians,” the IDF adds.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has “instructed to begin immediate negotiations” for the release of “all of [the] hostages” in Gaza, while simultaneously working to approve the government’s plan to take over Gaza City.
In a brief video message delivered from the Gaza Division under the IDF’s Southern Command, Netanyahu doesn’t say to whom he has given the order and again avoids commenting on whether Israel will accept the proposal for a phased hostage release deal that Hamas accepted on Monday.
“We are at the stage of decisive victory. I came today to the Gaza Division in order to approve the plans that the IDF presented to me and to the Defense Minister for taking control of the city of Gaza and for defeating Hamas.”
“At the same time, I instructed to begin immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages and for ending the war under conditions acceptable to Israel,” he continues, apparently referring to the decision approved by the cabinet earlier this month under which Israel will only agree to end the war if Hamas releases all of the hostages at once and agrees to Israel’s surrender terms.
“These two things — the defeat of Hamas and the release of all our hostages — go hand in hand,” Netanyahu asserts, adding that he “greatly appreciate[s] the mobilization of the reserve soldiers, and of course the standing army, for the sake of this vital mission.”
Hostage families have pushed back on the argument, pointing to the fact that Hamas hasn’t released any hostages since Israel abandoned the previous hostage deal proposal in March. Moreover, they feel that further expanding military operations to Gaza City, where some of the captives are believed to be held, will put their loved ones at risk.
The Trump administration on Thursday issued a fresh round of Iran-related sanctions targeting 13 entities based in Hong Kong, China, the United Arab Emirates and the Marshall Islands, as well as eight vessels, according to a post on the US Treasury Department website.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says Israel’s decision to approve the controversial E1 settlement project, preventing Palestinian contiguity in the West Bank, was a response to the decisions by Western countries to announce plans to recognize a Palestinian state.
Huckabee tells Al Arabiya that US President Donald Trump’s administration hasn’t taken a position on the E1 approval, but did reverse longstanding US policy in his first year by declaring that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are not a violation of international law.
“One of the reasons we’re seeing the more aggressive decision to move into some of these areas is because it’s in reaction to what the Europeans have done — in concert with the Palestinian Authority — pushing for a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state… that has had a totally disastrous effect, not only on the tension in Judea and Samaria, but it’s had a detrimental effect on resolving things in Gaza,” Huckabee says.
The US has argued that Hamas hardened its stance in negotiations after countries began to recognize a Palestinian state, but the French decision that began the trend came after the terror group submitted its response that led to the collapse of negotiations in Doha last month.
Moreover, the Knesset passed a non-binding resolution in favor of annexing the West Bank, also prior to France’s decision.
“I don’t know what the Europeans thought they were going to accomplish, but by their actions, they’re accomplishing something that I don’t think they wanted to do, and that is to essentially to give a green light or encourage the Israelis to go ahead and take more pieces of Judea and Samaria, either by declaring sovereignty or annexation,” Huckabee says, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.
“I don’t think that was their goal, but pushing for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state without the cooperation and participation of Israel is a violation of Oslo,” Huckabee says.
“If there’s going to be this massive violation of the Oslo agreement, then I think people have to prepare for the consequences of that on both sides of the conflict,”
Israel has also been accused of violating the Oslo Accords due to a number of its policies in the West Bank and through its withholding of billions of shekels in tax revenues that belong to the PA.
Twenty-seven countries, including Britain, France and Germany, have signed onto a statement calling on Israel to allow “immediate independent foreign media access” into the war-torn Gaza Strip
“Journalists and media workers play an essential role in putting the spotlight on the devastating reality of war,” the members of the Media Freedom Coalition say in a joint statement.
The signatories are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The undersigned members of the Media Freedom Coalition urge Israel to allow immediate independent foreign media access and afford protection for journalists operating in Gaza.
Full statement: https://t.co/NXoIn17n1H pic.twitter.com/CzPnUgHiCS
— Media Freedom Coalition (@MediaFreedomC) August 21, 2025
The Israel Defense Forces has been barring Palestinians from using a road in the West Bank that is open to all Israelis, Haaretz reveals.
The policy has been maintained through a series of checkpoints that the IDF has established along Route 367, which runs east-west from within the Green Line to towns in the southern West Bank.
While Israelis are allowed to use the road without issue, Palestinians are turned away.
The only exceptions are residents of the villages of Jab’a and Khallet Sakariya, which are located along Route 367, and Palestinians with permits to work in settlements along the road.
During the weekend, only Jab’a and Khallet Sakariya residents are the only Palestinians allowed onto the road.
The IDF confirms the Haaretz report, saying that it is authorized to impose movement restrictions aimed at ensuring the security of settlers in the region and maintaining public order.
It also insists that it has only been restricting Palestinian access to the road on weekends.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says the military is pushing ahead with its plans to capture Gaza City during a visit to southern Gaza’s Khan Younis earlier today.
“We are advancing with the efforts for action in Gaza City. We already have forces operating on the outskirts of the city, and additional forces will join them later,” Zamir says to troops of the Kfir Infantry Brigade and 188th Armored Brigade, who repelled a Hamas attack on their encampment yesterday.
“Our missions remain the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas; we will not rest and will not stop until we complete them. Achieving these missions is essential for our future and for our values as a society,” he says.
Zamir says the IDF has dealt Hamas a “severe blow.”
“From the terror army we experienced on October 7, it has become a guerrilla organization. We will continue to strike Hamas everywhere, pursue them as long as necessary and wherever necessary,” he says.
Speaking on the 60,000 reservists the IDF has called up for the Gaza City offensive, Zamir says, “We call them only when needed. I am certain they will show up until the mission is completed.”
“We are discussing with the political echelon the plans going forward and creating the best operational achievements on the battlefield in order to present them with the widest range of options,” he adds.
The UK Foreign Office says it has summoned Israel’s ambassador to London, Tzipi Hotovely, in protest of Jerusalem’s approval of the E1 settlement project that severely hampers efforts to establish a Palestinian state.
The UK also joins 20 countries in a joint statement condemning the project.
“If implemented, these settlement plans would be a flagrant breach of international law and would divide a future Palestinian state in two, critically undermining a two-state solution,” the statement from the foreign ministers of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom says.
Anti-Israel activists in New York City claim they were assaulted yesterday by staff at the Egyptian mission to the UN.
Video shows men at the mission pulling two activists into the building and appearing to strike them.
Other footage shows two young men being escorted from the mission by police officers after the incident. They appear unscathed.
It’s unclear what preceded the altercation.
The protesters are holding regular rallies at the mission demanding Egypt do more to aid the Palestinians.
???? EMERGENCY ACTION THURSDAY AUGUST 21 at 2PM: EGYPTIAN MISSIOM IN NYC (304 E 44th St #306, New York, NY 10017) ????
Egypt is not just a bystander, it is complicit in the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza. The Sisi regime keeps Rafah closed, collaborates with Israel, and now its thugs… pic.twitter.com/65GHzwHwNk
— Nerdeen Kiswani (@NerdeenKiswani) August 20, 2025
The footage is shared widely by activist groups and spurs calls for additional rallies at the mission, including later today.
The incident comes days after a video leaked of Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty berating Egypt’s ambassador to The Netherlands, asserting that the mission’s staff needs to take a harder line against those protesting outside the embassy.
Protests have ramped up around the UN ahead of the UN General Assembly next month.
The rallies are led by Within Our Lifetime, a hardline activist group that advocates for the violent destruction of Israel.
The protests are targeting diplomatic offices of Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Turkey.
Transportation Minister Miri Regev blames recent public transportation delays on Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, with Regev claiming the attorney general was refusing to outlaw road blockages by anti-government and Haredi protesters.
“If the attorney general had not authorized [them] to block roads, the buses would have arrived on time,” Regev says at a press conference.
Commuters have been facing significant disruptions this week as Israel Railways work to repair damage caused by a freight train to several hundred meters of electric cable infrastructure.
The IDF denies a report claiming that figures from a “classified military intelligence database” indicate five out of six Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip during the war were civilians, saying that the authors of the story lack “fundamental military understanding.”
The report, by the Israeli left-wing activist outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call, and the UK’s Guardian, claims the Military Intelligence Directorate has only identified the deaths of 8,900 terror operatives in Gaza by name, out of a list of 47,653 confirmed members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s military wings.
The report cites intelligence sources as saying that the total number of terror operatives killed is likely higher than the number in the database, because it does not include Hamas and PIJ operatives who were killed but not identified by name; Gazans who participated in the fighting and were not members of the two groups; or Hamas members who were not members of its military wing.
The IDF has, during the war, provided numbers on the number of terror operatives it assesses it has killed in Gaza, following fresh assessments and intelligence.
In January, the military said 20,000 terror operatives had been killed, and yesterday it updated that number to over 22,000. Hamas authorities say 62,000 people in the Strip have been killed during the war.
In May, IDF officials said that the combatant-to-civilian deaths ratio has remained relatively the same throughout the war, with two to three civilians killed for every dead Hamas terror operative.
Responding to the Guardian, the IDF says, “The figures presented in the article are incorrect and do not reflect the data available in the IDF’s systems.”
“Throughout the war, continuous intelligence assessments are conducted regarding the number of terrorists eliminated in the Gaza Strip, based on BDA (bomb damage assessment) methodologies and cross-checking efforts from various sources. One of the sources of information cross-referenced is documents originating from terrorist organizations in the Strip,” the response continues.
“The IDF is a professional military that operates according to operational methods accepted by many armies worldwide — the claims presented in the article are not only false but also reflect a fundamental lack of military understanding,” the IDF adds.
Full IDF Statement:
The figures presented in the article are incorrect and do not reflect the data available in the IDF’s systems.
Throughout the war, continuous intelligence assessments are conducted regarding the number of terrorists eliminated in the Gaza Strip, based on BDA… pic.twitter.com/xTLCHu9PQ2
— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) August 21, 2025
The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency voices concern that children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza will die if emergency provisions are not immediately put in place during Israel’s Gaza City military operation.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini says that its data showed a sixfold increase in the number of children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza City since March.
“We have a population that is extremely weak that will be confronted with a new major military operation,” he tells a Geneva press club meeting. “Many will simply not have the strength to undergo a new displacement.”
“Many of them will not survive,” he said of the children, addressing the audience in French. “It is a manufactured and fabricated famine. It is deliberate. Food has been used as an instrument of war,” he says.
In May, a global hunger monitor said that half a million people in the Gaza Strip faced starvation but stopped short of using the term famine.
Israel’s military agency that coordinates aid, COGAT, has previously said it invests considerable efforts to ensure aid reaches Gaza and has denied restricting supplies.
Turkey is reportedly moving to ban the movement of Turkish ships to Israel — including goods bound for the Palestinian Authority — Globes reports, without citing sources.
The report says the measure, coming more than a year after Ankara imposed a $7 billion annual trade embargo on Israel over its war in Gaza against Hamas, would prohibit all direct ship traffic from Turkey to Israel and bar Turkish-flagged vessels from docking in the country. While its headline describes the move as “a new sanction” by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the report does not specify the formality of the decision.
Globes adds that merchant ships will be required to provide documents showing whether they make regular calls in Israel. While vessels with “Israeli connections” could still be accepted under certain conditions, their cargo could reportedly not be handled in Turkey.
In practice, no cargo activity linked to Israel would be allowed, including containers — effectively blocking the flow of goods to the Palestinian Authority, which relies on Israeli ports. The move also raises doubts about Turkey’s ability to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, most of which enters through Ashdod, the report says.
In a subsequent report, Reuters presents a narrower picture of the reported restrictions.
According to two shipping sources cited by Reuters, Turkish port authorities have begun informally requiring shipping agents to submit guarantee letters stating that vessels are not linked to Israel and are not carrying military or hazardous cargo destined for the country.
The instructions, reportedly given verbally by the harbor master’s office and said to apply across Turkey, have not been issued in any official medium.
One source added that the letters must confirm that vessel owners, managers, and operators have no ties to Israel, and that banned cargo such as explosives, radioactive material, or military equipment is not on board.
The Turkish transportation ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene a security consultation with top military officials and a handful of top ministers in order to approve the IDF’s plans to take over Gaza City, Hebrew media reports.
It is unclear whether the ministers will also discuss the phased hostage release deal proposal accepted by Hamas on Monday, to which Israel has yet to formally respond.
Netanyahu has indicated that he is not interested in the deal and plans to move ahead with the Gaza City takeover.
Earlier this month, the cabinet authorized Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz to make decisions moving forward regarding the Gaza City takeover without requiring the cabinet to convene each time.
The IDF says it foiled another attempt to smuggle weapons into Israel from Egypt using a drone last night.
Troops located the drone after it crossed the border, which was found to be ferrying six rifles and ten handguns, the military says, adding that the contraband and drone were handed over to the police.
In the past year, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egypt border using drones. There have also been attempts to smuggle similar contraband from Israel into Gaza using drones.
An IDF soldier was moderately injured by gunfire in the Zeitoun area on the outskirts of Gaza City earlier today, the military says.
The IDF suspects he was hit by Hamas sniper fire.
The soldier was taken to a hospital for treatment, the military adds.
Rabbi David Stav, chairman of the national religious Tzohar rabbinical organization, slams Haredi leaders for holding a day of prayer and fasting against conscription while tens of thousands of reservists are preparing to go into battle in Gaza.
“It is truly shocking to witness how while hundreds of thousands of families are being separated from parents and children being called back into war in Gaza, a segment of the population is completely absolving itself of their social responsibility,” the rabbi tells The Times of Israel in a statement.
“They are clearly transgressing the commandment prohibiting standing by while the blood of their brothers and sisters is being spilled; and to do so while claiming to be acting in the name of the Torah is nothing short of a despicable disgrace of God’s name.”
Ultra-Orthodox leaders called for an international day of prayer and fasting on Thursday in response to recent government efforts to conscript ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students and arrest those who ignore government orders to enlist.
Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of Degel Hatorah, one of the two factions of the Haredi United Torah Judaism party, issued a public appeal to Jews around the world to treat the day as if it were Yom Kippur Katan, a minor fast day in which worshipers recite prayers usually read on the Jewish Day of Atonement.
In the United States and Europe, Haredi Jews are “preparing to tear open the gates of heaven to overturn the conscription decree that threatens the Torah world,” party newspaper Yated Neeman declared on its front page on Tuesday, quoting Lando as saying that “Jews are persecuting Jews because they are learning Torah.”
Rav Dov Lando and yeshiva students at Slobodka in Bnei Brak say Yom Kippur prayers to appeal for the end of conscription of Haredi yeshiva students pic.twitter.com/yYdert39tu
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) August 21, 2025
Leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis affiliated with the Shas and United Torah Judaism parties hold special gatherings to mark an international day of prayer and fasting in response to recent government efforts to conscript a small minority of yeshiva students and arrest those who ignore government orders to enlist.
At Bnei Brak’s Slobodka Yeshiva, Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of UTJ’s Degel Hatorah faction, participates in a prayer service modeled on Yom Kippur Katan, a minor fast day on which worshipers recite prayers usually read on the Jewish Day of Atonement.
Chatting with The Times of Israel outside the yeshiva, Lando’s driver jokes that the Haredi community’s rabbinic leadership should issue a pulsa dinura curse against those behind efforts to enlist Haredim into the IDF. The pulsa dinura is a kabbalistic death curse that translates to “lashes of fire” in Aramaic.
Asked if the rabbi supported such a curse, the driver replies “God forbid” and then jokingly asks if it’s okay to pray that God deal with such people.
Yesterday, police arrested a 36-year-old man suspected of making threats on the life of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, after he allegedly asked former chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef for halachic approval to kill her.
Addressing yeshiva students at a private event following the prayers, Lando declares that only Torah study protects Israel and that learning is the greatest thing a Jew can do.
He then shakes hands with a draft evader who was recently released from military prison. Still holding the student’s hand, Lando begins dancing with him and others in the room to a song about the plots of the Jews’ enemies coming to naught.
Earlier in the day, former chief Sephardic rabbi and current Shas party spiritual leader Yitzhak Yosef addressed a gathering of Haredim aimed at providing ideological encouragement for “the holy and mighty yeshiva students in the face of the conscription decrees.” While he did not directly address the issue of enlistment, Yosef said that those who toil in the Torah are praiseworthy.
Rav Lando dancing with a draft dodger while yeshiva students sing a song about the plots of the Jews’ enemies coming to naught pic.twitter.com/C7lcgtmkik
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) August 21, 2025
Lebanese media reports that the army will start confiscating weapons tonight from the Al-Buss and Burj al-Barajneh refugee camps near Tyre and Beirut respectively.
These camps were established in 1948 when Palestinian refugees arrived in Lebanon, and over the years armed Palestinian groups effectively ruled them, with Lebanese authorities having no control inside.
According to the reports, the move is part of Lebanon’s broader effort to ensure that all weapons are held exclusively by the state, with its main focus being the disarmament of Hezbollah.
The reports in Lebanon note that the step follows cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and the Lebanese government.
While the PA has no direct control over the refugee camps, it retains some influence over them due to the Palestinian identity of their residents.
“Today marks the beginning of the first phase of the process of handing over weapons from inside the Palestinian camps,” Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee chairman Ramez Dimashkieh says in a statement.
Fans of the Columbus Crew soccer team in the United States will be allowed to display a Palestinian flag at home games to pay homage to Wessam Abou Ali, who also plays for the Palestinian national team, the US’s Major League Soccer has announced.
Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, MLS banned the display of any national flags not already displayed in a team’s home venue.
After signing Abou Ali, a Danish-born striker of Palestinian heritage, the Crew appealed to the MLS on behalf of its fan section, known as the Nordecke, to allow the flag to fly at home games in Ohio, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
The MLS decision allows the Nordecke to fly a single flag per nationality included on the team, including the Palestinian flag and a host of other banners representing its international players.
According to The Athletic, the club wants to display the flag in a designated section of its Lower.com Field, a suggestion that is expected to be discussed later today.
Several Israeli footballers also play across the league. The MLS ban on Palestinian, Israeli and other national flags remains in effect elsewhere in the MLS.
A man arrested yesterday on suspicion of making threats against the life of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara will remain in detention for an extra day, police announce.
The suspect allegedly sent a letter yesterday to former chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef requesting permission according to Jewish law to kill the attorney general, who is a largely unpopular figure among Israel’s right-wing and ultra-Orthodox populations.
Yosef told the director general of the Religious Affairs Ministry, Yehuda Avidan, about the letter, who in turn reported it to police.
Police arrested the suspect hours later and brought him this morning to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. “At the end of the hearing, the court granted the police’s request and ordered his detention extended by another day, until August 22,” law enforcement officials say.
The military says it has begun to give “initial warnings” to medical authorities and international organizations in the northern Gaza Strip, ahead of the planned offensive in Gaza City.
The IDF says that as part of its preparations to evacuate the civilian population from Gaza City to the Strip’s south, officers of COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration to Gaza on Tuesday told medical officials and aid groups in the northern part of the enclave “to prepare for the population’s movement to the southern Gaza Strip.”
“I am speaking with you about the possibility of the army entering Gaza City. There will be a full evacuation from Gaza to the southern Strip,” a COGAT officer is heard saying in a call with a health official in Gaza, according to a transcript provided by the IDF.
“This requires you to prepare a plan for transferring medical equipment from north to south, so that you can provide care for all patients in the southern Strip and prepare the hospitals to receive patients coming from the north,” the officer says.
“It is important to us that you receive this from an official source. We are going to provide you with a place to be, whether it is a field hospital or any other hospital,” he adds.
The IDF says the officers emphasized to the medical officials that “the hospital infrastructures in the southern Gaza Strip are being adapted for the absorption of the sick and wounded, alongside an increased entry of necessary medical equipment in accordance with the requests of the international aid organizations.”
Police arrested two American citizens yesterday on suspicion of photographing a sensitive security facility in Jerusalem, Hebrew outlets report.
The two, who are both studying in Israel, were caught by a security guard at the site near the city’s entrance, which is not identified, after hopping the facility’s perimeter fence. Police arrived at the scene and searched their phones, where the officers found that the pair had documentation of the site.
Officers are expected to file a court request to extend the suspects’ detention by five days, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
Israel Police does not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel demolishes a number of homes in the West Bank’s northern Jordan Valley, despite an order postponing the demolitions until September 3 amid a legal battle by local residents against the demolitions.
IDF forces and the Civil Administration, the body responsible for enforcing construction laws in the West Bank, demolish some three structures in Ein al-Hilweh, a community of several Palestinian families in the area.
The demolitions were carried out despite an order issued by the Civil Administration on August 3 to delay the works for a month.
The Civil Administration does not immediately respond to an inquiry about the demolitions.
Aircraft from Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Singapore and Indonesia airdropped 155 pallets of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip today, the IDF says.
Each pallet contains several hundred kilograms of food, according to the military.
Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, does not have relations with Israel.
Israel returned to allowing aid airdrops on July 26, amid mounting international criticism over the hunger crisis in Gaza.Since then, over 415 tons of aid have been airdropped in Gaza, according to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Defense Ministry body that coordinates humanitarian matters in the Gaza Strip.
Airdrops are able to deliver only a small fraction of what can come into Gaza by land, via trucks. They also pose safety risks for civilians who can be hit by the packages from above.
A Palestinian suspect who drew an air gun at troops at a military post in the West Bank city of Hebron was shot, the army says.
Soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade initially thought it was a real gun and opened fire on the man, seriously wounding him.
“After an investigation at the scene, it emerged that it was an air gun,” the military says.
Israel’s expanded offensive aimed at conquering Gaza City and targeting the remaining Hamas strongholds in the enclave is “intolerable,” the Red Cross says.
The IDF plan, which includes the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists, has deepened international fears that the campaign will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Strip.
“The intensification of hostilities in Gaza means more killing, more displacement, more destruction and more panic,” Christian Cardon, chief spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), tells AFP.
“Gaza is a closed space, from which nobody can escape… and where access to health care, food and safe water is dwindling,” says Cardon. “Meanwhile, the security of humanitarians is getting worse by the hour.”
“This is intolerable,” he says.
Cardon has taken an active role in the Red Cross’s humanitarian activities on the ground, and has been involved in every exchange of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas in the terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack.
The Red Cross has faced heavy criticism in Israel since October 7 for its failure to secure any meaningful aid for the 251 hostages taken in the attack, whether by monitoring their conditions or providing them with basic humanitarian assistance, including medicine.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
A member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force was killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon earlier today, the IDF says.
The military says the Radwan member was operating in the Deir Seryan area, and that his activities were a violation of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
Since a November 2024 ceasefire, the IDF has remained in several areas of Lebanon and says it has killed over 230 Hezbollah operatives in strikes in the country, saying they were violating the terms of the truce.
https://twitter.com/IAFsite/status/1958473587058209079?s=19
An Israeli civilian who had been jailed in Lebanon for the past year was returned to Israel today, Israel’s coordinator for hostages and missing persons, Gal Hirsch, says.
Following negotiations held in recent months, with the assistance of the Red Cross, Salah Abu Hussein was returned to Israel by Lebanese authorities through the Rosh Hanikra Crossing, Hirsch says in a statement sent by the Prime Minister’s Office.
“After an initial questioning and medical examination,” Abu Hussein was transferred by the IDF to a hospital where he will undergo additional examinations and treatment, “after which he will meet his family,” the statement says.
It is unclear how and when Abu Hussein entered Lebanon. In recent years, there have been several cases of Arab Israeli civilians crossing the border into Lebanon before being returned to Israel by Lebanese authorities.
Channel 12 reports that Abu Hussein was imprisoned in Lebanon in July 2024 and that Lebanese prisoners held in Israel were not freed in exchange for him.
Hirsch says “the circumstances of the incident are under investigation by the security forces.”
Relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza urge the government to accept a proposed ceasefire deal that would free 10 living captives, warning that a failure to do so would endanger their lives.
“History is repeating itself,” says Lishay Miran Lavi, wife of Omri Miran, who is thought to be alive, at a press conference convened by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of most of the hostages held in Gaza.
“We’re a step away from a total torpedoing” of the hostage agreement, she continues, in a play off a vow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made last year that Israel was “a step away from victory.”
“There’s an agreement on the table that can save living hostages and bring deceased ones back for a proper burial,” she adds. “Hamas has agreed but the Prime Minister’s Office is toiling to… decree a death sentence for the living hostages and a sentence of disappearance for the deceased ones.”
Hamas agreed earlier this week to a 60-day ceasefire that would reportedly free 10 living hostages. Netanyahu has insisted on a comprehensive deal to end the war and has not convened his cabinet to discuss the 60-day truce.
His government recently approved an invasion of Gaza City, and his far-right partners vehemently oppose a ceasefire deal. Opposition parties have vowed to back the deal, ensuring a majority for it in the Knesset.
Families of hostages have accused Netanyahu’s government of prolonging the war, and of passing up opportunities to release hostages in an agreement, for political motives. They have warned that an invasion of Gaza City will endanger the lives of hostages held by Hamas.
The government has repeatedly blamed Hamas for obstructing deals and making unreasonable demands.
“The nation demands that the hostages be brought back and that the war end, because it has lost all sense,” says Zamir Haimi, uncle of Tal Haimi, whose body was taken by terrorists to Gaza after he was killed during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack. “Because a war for political preservation can’t be run for 22 months.”
Bar Goddard, daughter of Meni Goddard, who was killed on October 7 and whose body is held in Gaza, says, “One who chose, for three days already, not to respond to an agreement the government has already approved, not to convene the cabinet or the government, has essentially chosen to sacrifice the hostages.”
Turkish port authorities have begun informally asking shipping agents for letters declaring that vessels are not linked to Israel and are not carrying military or hazardous cargo bound for the country, according to two shipping sources.
The sources said the harbor master’s office had verbally instructed port agents to provide written assurances, adding that there was no official circular on the issue.
One of the sources said the instruction applied to ports across Turkey.
The guarantee letter is meant to state that vessel owners, managers, and operators have no ties to Israel, and that certain types of cargo, including explosives and radioactive materials or military equipment, are not on board en route to Israel, the second source said.
The Turkish transport ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last year, Turkey severed trade with Israel worth $7 billion annually over Israel’s war in Gaza with the Hamas terror group.
Several suspected weapons dealers were detained during a raid in southern Syria yesterday, the military says.
The IDF says troops of the 810th “Mountains” Regional Brigade raided several former posts belonging to the commando forces of the Bashar al-Assad regime in the Mount Hermon area.
“As part of the activity, the troops arrested and interrogated a number of suspects who were involved in smuggling and trading weapons from Syria to Lebanon,” the IDF says, adding that it captured several weapons belonging to the dealers.
During the raid at the commando posts, the IDF says it seized over 300 weapons.
Yesterday, the IDF said four soldiers were lightly injured by a blast, apparently caused by an old Syrian grenade, during the operation.
The IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries.
Troops have been operating in areas up to around 15 kilometers (9 miles) deep into Syria, aiming to capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of hostile forces.
Amid mounting global condemnation of Israel over the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Foreign Ministry announces an “unprecedented” initiative to host hundreds of foreign delegations before the end of the year, “to help spread the Israeli narrative in international media.”
“As part of the battle of perception against the global anti-Israel narrative,” the ministry says in a statement, “by the end of December, around 400 delegations with more than 5,000 participants are expected to arrive in Israel to help spread the Israeli narrative in international media and among global audiences.”
By comparison, the ministry says it had brought an average of just 25 delegations annually in previous years.
The plan is slated to cost roughly NIS 135 million (about $40 million), part of a broader NIS 545 million ($163 million) budget for public diplomacy efforts announced by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar late last year.
While no comprehensive spending plan has been made public, officials noted the budget was later slightly reduced, to NIS 543 million, and only released in April, delaying the rollout of programs until then. They stressed that a major share of the effort will go toward bringing delegations to Israel in order to bypass official diplomatic channels and reach foreign populations directly, primarily through media exposure.
According to the statement, the delegations will include foreign government officials, legislators, journalists, influencers, academics, and people from the legal, religious, cultural and sports worlds. Each group will receive “a tailor-made” itinerary catering to their background and influence. Activities are set to include tours of southern communities hit by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre, meetings with survivors, and screenings of footage from the attack, as well as visits to Jerusalem, the north, and sit-downs with senior Israeli officials.
The ministry lists several upcoming delegations, largely arriving from the United States, including a contingent of 250 US state legislators, a delegation of 1,000 pastors and religious leaders from across four US regions. In addition, 160 representatives from all 16 German federal states are due to land in Israel. Journalists from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America are now arriving “almost weekly,” the ministry adds.
Over 250 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip yesterday through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities (COGAT) says.
According to COGAT, the Defense Ministry body that coordinates humanitarian matters in the Gaza Strip, nearly 390 trucks’ worth of aid were also collected by the United Nations and other international organizations from the Gaza sides of the crossings yesterday to be distributed.
“The contents of hundreds of trucks are still awaiting collection on the Gazan side of the crossings,” COGAT says.
Another 154 pallets of aid — about four trucks’ worth — were airdropped by the United Arab Emirates, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Singapore, and Indonesia in Gaza yesterday, according to the IDF. Each pallet has several hundred kilograms of food.
Similar amounts of aid deliveries have been reported daily for approximately the past week.
The UN has said 600 trucks of aid need to be distributed each day in order to properly feed the Strip’s roughly two million people amid the war.
COGAT also says that “tankers of UN fuel entered for the operation of essential humanitarian systems” yesterday, and that it coordinated the exit of 155 sick Palestinians — mostly children — and their caregivers through Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Ramon Airport in southern Israel for treatment in the UAE.
State prosecutors file charges against six people, including two minors, for hurling a grenade at a rival group of young people in Tel Aviv, injuring four.
Three of the defendants also allegedly bombed a bicycle shop belonging to the father of someone in the rival group, badly damaging the establishment.
The defendants apparently became embroiled in a brawl with the rival group at a public park in Tel Aviv in May. Prosecutors say that around half an hour later, the defendants returned to the park armed with clubs, knives, pepper spray, a machete and a grenade.
One of the defendants allegedly sprayed the group with pepper spray, while another chucked the grenade at them, which prosecutors note is capable of killing. Four were injured, two of whom were taken to the hospital.
“It was only by miracle that major loss of life was avoided,” prosecutors say, adding that the defendants’ actions demonstrate they are “reckless, violent and crossed serious red lines.”
All defendants are charged in the Tel Aviv District Court today with conspiracy to commit a crime and aggravated assault as a group. Ariel Amrani, 21, is charged with carrying and transporting a weapon, since he allegedly brought the grenade to the park.
Amrani, along with another 21-year-old, Aharon Rodef Shalom, and a minor whose name is barred from publication, are also accused of attaching an explosive device to the entrance of a bicycle shop belonging to a father of someone in the rival group two days after the initial incident.
State prosecutors request that the court keep the defendants in custody until the end of legal proceedings against them.
The IDF says it was a “failure” that Hamas gunmen managed to breach an army encampment — including into a building where troops were stationed — in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis yesterday, though the soldiers managed to fight back and successfully repel the attack.
According to an updated IDF probe of the incident, the Hamas operatives emerged from a tunnel some 40-50 meters (130-160 feet) from the military post, which served troops from the Kfir Infantry Brigade, as well as the 74th Armored Battalion.
The tunnel had been known to the military, and part of it had been previously demolished.
The gunmen split into three groups, with one stationed on a dirt mound for suppressive fire, the second heading into a building in the encampment that was not occupied by any soldiers, and the third attacking a building that had soldiers stationed in it.
Two Hamas gunmen breached the building where the troops were stationed, and they exchanged fire for around five minutes. Fighting also took place outside the building with additional gunmen from the same group.
At least one of the gunmen was killed by the soldiers in the building, while the other fled and was killed outside, according to the IDF’s probe.
Three soldiers were injured in this exchange of fire, one seriously and two lightly. The seriously wounded soldier’s condition has since improved.
Fighting inside the encampment lasted for no longer than 10 minutes before the gunmen began trying to flee back to the tunnel, according to the IDF’s probe. Israeli Air Force drones and helicopters were also dispatched and struck the fleeing gunmen.
In all, between six and eight Hamas gunmen were killed inside the post and in the area surrounding it, and another four to seven operatives — who had been launching mortars — were eliminated on the outskirts. Around eight gunmen managed to flee back to the tunnel, the IDF probe finds.
Sources tell the Saudi channel Al-Arabiya that Israel and Syria have agreed on 80% of the points under dispute between them, following a meeting two days ago in Paris between the Syrian foreign minister and an Israeli delegation that aims to reach a permanent agreement between the Syrian regime and Israel.
The meeting in Paris was reportedly attended by an Israeli delegation including Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, as well as US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack.
It was also reported that the parties agreed to continue the discussions that began in Paris, and that have also been held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The channel did not detail which issues the sides have agreed on and which are yet to be resolved.
The IDF is hunting for the suspect in today’s shooting attack in the West Bank.
The military says a Palestinian gunman opened fire on Israeli civilians near the northern West Bank settlement of Adei Ad this morning.
According to the IDF, “a physical confrontation developed” between the assailant and civilians in the area, during which one Israeli man was lightly injured and taken to a hospital.
“IDF troops are now encircling the village of al-Mughayyir and other villages and conducting a manhunt for the terrorist,” the military says.
Iran launched its first military exercise since the end of its 12-day war with Israel, state television reports Thursday, with navy vessels launching missiles at targets at sea in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean.
While such drills are routine in the Islamic Republic, the “Sustainable Power 1404″ exercise comes as authorities in Iran are trying to project strength in the wake of a war that saw Israel, along with the US, destroy air defense systems and bomb nuclear facilities and other sites.
The state TV report says naval vessels would fire cruise missiles at targets and use drones over the open water. It did not immediately air any footage from the exercise.
Iran’s navy, estimated to have some 18,000 personnel, apparently avoided any major attack during the June war.
The navy, based out of the port city of Bandar Abbas, patrols the Gulf of Oman, the Indian Ocean and the Caspian Sea, and broadly leaves the Persian Gulf and its narrow mouth, the Strait of Hormuz, to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
The Guard’s naval forces are known for seizures of Western vessels during the breakdown of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, as well as closely shadowing passing US Navy vessels coming into the region.
Since the end of the war, Iran has increasingly insisted that it is ready to counter any future Israeli attack.
Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh said that the country has equipped its forces with new missiles, in remarks reported Wednesday by the state-run IRNA news agency. “In response to any potential enemy adventurism, our forces are prepared to use these new missiles effectively.”
Dozens of cadets and staff at the Bisla air defense base in the Negev have reported symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea in recent days, according to Hebrew media reports.
Around 40 trainees and 10 staff members have required medical treatment, and the IDF has begun an investigation to determine the source of the outbreak.
Soldiers and parents have described alarming sanitary conditions at the base, including spoiled food, cockroach infestations, and a dead pigeon near the kitchen. Some troops reportedly fainted due to extreme heat and lack of air conditioning, while others were hospitalized.
“This is the lowest standard the IDF can serve,” one soldier tells Channel 12. “The food is full of flies and cockroaches. After a minute in the dining hall we’re already running to the bathroom. Everyone suffers from food poisoning, diarrhea, and vomiting. This happens all the time.”
The incident comes amid broader concerns about hygiene and infrastructure problems at IDF facilities. This week, video footage from another southern base showed poor hygienic conditions, crumbling infrastructure and spoiled food, while troops at a base in the Eilot region were left without electricity or water during a heatwave.
תמונות מחרידות: ימים ספורים לאחר הדיווחים על קריסות תשתית בבסיס סיירים בנגב – המראות חוזרים על עצמם. הפסקות חשמל ממושכות, תנאי היגיינה ירודים, אוכל מקולקל ותשתיות מתפוררות.
בסרטון : ג'וקים ופגר במטבח. pic.twitter.com/EcGMIoJN4O
— מה חדש. What's new❓ (@Gloz111) August 19, 2025
In response, the IDF says all affected soldiers received medical care and most training activities have been suspended pending comprehensive health checks, food and water testing, and an epidemiological investigation.
The Rescuers Without Borders emergency service says the Israeli wounded during a shooting in the West Bank was injured from fighting with the shooter, not from a gunshot wound.
The organization says that in the attack this morning, a gunman from the Palestinian village of Al-Mughayyir shot a number of times at an Israeli shepherd at the outpost of Gal Yosef.
The shooter then fought with the Israeli man, who was lightly wounded in his head in that scuffle. He has been brought to Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem, the organization says.
Magen David Adom paramedic Shaul Malka says that first responders found the man, in his 20s, fully conscious. The man told them he sustained an injury to his head.
Medics provided him with first aid on site.
“The incident could have ended differently,” Malka says.
A police spokesman tells The Times of Israel that the IDF is managing the situation as it develops, “as with any operational incident in Judea and Samaria,” the biblical name for the West Bank.
Police in the West Bank District, alongside the Shin Bet, are set to open an investigation later on, but have not yet announced one at this point.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu steps up his personal attacks on Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, saying Albanese’s political record had been damaged forever.
Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel have soured since Albanese’s center-left Labor government last week announced it would conditionally recognize Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain and Canada.
The decision prompted Netanyahu to launch a personal attack on Albanese, and he doubles down on his condemnation in an interview to be broadcast on Sky News Australia.
“I think his record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of this Hamas terrorist monsters,” Netanyahu says, after describing Albanese earlier this week as “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews.”
Albanese yesterday played down Netanyahu’s criticisms, saying he did not “take these things personally” and that he treated the leaders of other countries with respect.
Last week, Albanese said the Israeli prime minister was “in denial” about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the UN has warned of the risk of widespread starvation and international pressure is growing for Israel to allow unrestricted aid into the territory.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry in separate letters sent yesterday to both leaders urged them to discuss differences through diplomacy rather than public posturing.
“We write to express our deep dismay and concern at the recent ‘war of words,'” the letters said.
“If things need to be said publicly, they should be said using measured and seemly language befitting national leaders. Australia and Israel are mature democracies and their governments need to act accordingly,” the council said.
Israel this week revoked the visas of Australian diplomats to the Palestinian Authority after Albanese’s government cancelled the visa of an Israeli lawmaker over remarks it considered controversial and inflammatory.
The IDF says it is investigating a “security incident” near the Malachei Hashalom settlement in the northern West Bank.
Hebrew outlets report a shooting targeting Israeli shepherds near the settlement, with one 20-year-old lightly wounded.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid pledges that his Yesh Atid party will support any hostage deal, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right partners vow to oppose the ceasefire agreement presented to Israel.
Lapid’s party, the Knesset’s second-largest, has 24 seats. The opposition leader says he will not demand anything in return from the premier for approving the truce.
“I remind Netanyahu that I have a safety net of 24 votes for any hostage deal,” Lapid posts on X Thursday morning. “He doesn’t even need to give anything in exchange, just bring them home.”
Yesterday, the Kan public broadcaster reported that Benny Gantz’s centrist opposition party, Blue and White-National Unity, is considering joining the government to support a hostage deal.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, meanwhile, has vowed to resign if the deal is approved, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose party briefly left the government earlier this year during a previous ceasefire, claims that the premier has “no mandate” for the deal.
Support from Lapid’s and Gantz’s parties, together with Netanyahu’s Likud, would give the agreement a majority in the Knesset.
The deal on the table, which Hamas has agreed to, would reportedly free 10 living hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners during a 60-day ceasefire.
Netanyahu’s cabinet has yet to meet to discuss the proposal, and is advancing a plan to conquer Gaza City. Polls show that most Israelis support a deal to return the hostages and end the war.
North Korea has built a secret military base near its border with China which may house Pyongyang’s newest long-range ballistic missiles, new research says.
The “undeclared” Sinpung-dong Missile Operating Base lies about 27 kilometers (17 miles) from the Chinese frontier, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report published yesterday.
The facility in North Pyongan Province likely houses six to nine nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and their launchers, the study says.
It says the weapons “pose a potential nuclear threat to East Asia and the continental United States.”
North Korea has ramped up its nuclear weapons program since a failed summit with the United States in 2019, and leader Kim Jong Un recently called for the “rapid expansion” of the diplomatically isolated nation’s nuclear capability.
A group of 17 US senators send a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling for the United States to press Israel to grant access and protection to journalists in Gaza.
“The United States must make it clear to Israel that banning and censoring media organizations and targeting or threatening members of the press is unacceptable and must stop,” the Democratic senators say in a statement.
The letter to Rubio, a staunch supporter of Israel, says: “We urge you to press the Israeli government to protect journalists in Gaza and allow international media to access the territory.”
Last week, an Israeli strike killed four journalists for Al Jazeera, including Qatari television correspondent Anas al-Sharif, as well as two freelance journalists. The Israel Defense Forces has accused Sharif of being a Hamas operative, while alleging several of those with him were also members of terror groups.
The attack spurred an international outcry.
The letter condemns the attack, writing: “Absent a compelling explanation of the military objective for this attack, it appears Israel is publicly admitting to targeting and killing journalists who have shown the world the scale of suffering in Gaza, which would be a violation of international law.”
Among the signatories are Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine and 13 other Democratic senators, as well as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a registered independent who caucuses with the Democrats.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, after Israel announced the first steps of an operation to take over Gaza City.
“It is vital to reach immediately a ceasefire in Gaza,” to avoid the death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza City would cause, Guterres says in Japan where he is attending a conference on African development.
Guterres calls for the unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas. He also urges Israel to reverse a decision to expand “illegal” settlement construction in the West Bank.
Police officers arrested 18 people at worker-led protests at Microsoft headquarters Wednesday as the tech company promises an “urgent” review of the Israeli military’s use of its technology during the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.
Two consecutive days of protest at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington called for the tech giant to immediately cut its business ties with Israel.
But unlike Tuesday, when about 35 protesters occupying a plaza between office buildings left after Microsoft asked them to leave, the protesters on Wednesday “resisted and became aggressive” after the company told police they were trespassing, according to the Redmond Police Department.
The protesters also splattered red paint resembling the color of blood over a landmark sign that bears the company logo and spells Microsoft in big gray letters.
“We said, ‘Please leave or you will be arrested,’ and they chose not to leave so they were detained,” says police spokesperson Jill Green.
Microsoft late last week said it was tapping a law firm to investigate allegations reported by British newspaper The Guardian that the Israeli Defense Forces used Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Blue and White-National Unity MK Alon Schuster is asked by the Kan public broadcaster about its report that Benny Gantz’s party is considering rejoining the government if needed to shore up votes for a potential hostage release and Gaza ceasefire deal.
“There are currently no contacts about joining the government, but if we understand that doing so will lead to the release of hostages then that is what we will do,” Schuster says. “What do you expect? That we will let the hostages die?”
Hamas says that Israel’s military plans to conquer Gaza City show its “blatant disregard” for efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the nearly two-year conflict.
The “announcement by the terrorist occupation army of the start of an operation against Gaza City and its nearly 1 million residents and displaced persons,” the terror group says in a statement, displays “a blatant disregard for the efforts made by the mediators.”
Hamas recently accepted a proposal for a 60-day ceasefire and hostage release. Israel is weighing the offer.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The US Reform movement’s Religious Action Center (RAC) sends a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi stating the group’s opposition to the death penalty for Elias Rodriguez, who is accused of killing two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, earlier this year.
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, the group’s director, writes to Bondi: “I write to you with a heavy heart to urge that in holding accountable the murderer of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, you do not seek the death penalty. Even in this most heinous circumstance, we cannot endorse the further taking of human life.”
The letter points out that Milgrim grew up in the Reform movement in Kansas City.
“Despite the pain of Sarah and Yaron’s murders and despite the hateful motivation behind their deaths, we believe that the death penalty is a stain upon civilization and our religious conscience. For the past 2,000 years, with the rarest of exceptions, Jewish courts have refused to punish criminals by depriving them of their lives,” the letter says. “Both in concept and in practice, Jewish tradition found capital punishment repugnant, and we continue to do so today.”
“We pray that as you work to hold the perpetrator accountable for his actions, you ensure he is both punished for his crimes and is never again a threat to Jews or anyone else. As you do so, do not compound the already deep pain by pursuing the taking of another life,” the letter says.
US prosecutors said earlier this month that they were examining a possible death sentence for Rodriguez.
Adi Alexander, father of former American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, spoke on the phone with Palestinian-American mediator Bishara Bahbah earlier today, thanking him for his involvement in the May release of his son, both parties on the call confirm to The Times of Israel.
Bahbah operated a backchannel in the hostage talks over the past several months, passing along messages between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and senior Hamas officials, and playing a key role in Alexander’s release.
Hamas’s decision to free Alexander was framed as a goodwill gesture to the Trump administration that the group hoped would lead the US to coax Israel into ending the war in Gaza.
