A teenager who allegedly has links to neo-Nazi ideology is arrested by Canadian federal police following an FBI tip indicating he was planning to attack a school.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) say their US counterparts had shared intelligence about the youth several weeks ago.
He is suspected of using artificial intelligence to plan an attack on a Montreal school, and of posting threatening messages on the Telegram platform targeting various groups.
“Investigators had reasonable grounds to fear that the suspect might commit crimes related to violent extremism,” the RCMP statement says.
RCMP spokesman Erique Gasse tells AFP that the suspect is “affiliated with neo-Nazi ideology” and was targeting Muslim, Haitian and LGBTQ groups.
The Trump administration has informed Congress of its intention to pay $725 million to the United Nations, a congressional notification seen by Reuters shows, a move aid experts say is a welcome step toward paying billions in dues owed.
The administration has criticized the global body for not living up to its potential and slashed funding to many UN agencies. When asked about the planned payment, a US official said any payments will be contingent on continued reforms of the organization and added that the US has not transferred any funds as of today.
The allocation of funds — mentioned in an August 4 State Department notification letter to Congress that has not been previously reported — comes ahead of an expected speech by US President Donald Trump to the UN General Assembly in New York next month.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this year that the UN faces “imminent financial collapse” due to unpaid contributions from member states, and the global body has brought in large budget cuts.
“Over the past six months, the United States has achieved historic reforms across the UN — reforms long considered impossible — including the first real budget cut in UN history, resulting in nearly one billion in cuts,” a State Department official, responding to Reuters questions about the payment, says in an email.
In April, Devex, a development news agency, reported that the US had set specific conditions for the release of funds, such as more cost-cutting and moves to counter China’s influence.
The $725 million would be less than 20 percent of the more than $4 billion that the UN said in May that the United States owed — though Washington has said that total figure is much lower and that it has made some payments.
The US is the biggest contributor to the UN budget, but under the Trump administration it has refused to make mandatory payments to regular and peacekeeping budgets, and has slashed voluntary funding to UN agencies with their own budgets.
Washington has also withdrawn from dozens of UN and other international agencies.
A 20-year-old man was seriously injured in a stabbing in Haifa, Magen David Adom reports. He was taken to a hospital, and police are investigating.
Earlier today, a 33-year-old man was seriously injured in a violent act in the Israeli Arab town of Taibe. He was taken to the hospital after being treated on the scene, MDA says.
And late Friday night, reports came in from the Bedouin city of Rahat that a man, 47, was moderately injured in a violent act, and that two women, aged 42 and 19, were moderately injured with penetrating wounds in the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Ramleh.
An 18-year-old with a sword attacked a school today in central Sweden, killing one person and seriously injuring two others, a police chief says.
Police Chief Tommy Alriksson tells a news conference that the 18-year-old perpetrator at the school in the central town of Fagersta has been arrested.
Police confirm that shots were fired during the arrest, the TT news agency reports. The dead person was found as police entered the school to secure the premises.
The attack took place at the Brinell School in the city of Fagersta, northwest of the capital, Stockholm, while classes were in session, with about 400 to 500 students, officials say.
There is no immediate word on the attacker’s possible motive.
“We have no reason at this time to believe that there are multiple perpetrators,” says Alriksson, adding that an investigation is continuing.
Public broadcaster SVT, citing unnamed sources, reports that the attacker was a former student at the school who wielded a sword and wore a helmet. The person had a previous conviction for assault, SVT says.
Police spokesperson Pelle Vamstad, quoted by the TT news agency, says an alarm was received in the early afternoon Friday and that police rushed to the scene. He says officers will check any available camera footage for their investigation.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, in a post earlier on the X social media platform, lamented the violence in Fagersta “right after the summer break.”
“We do not yet know what lies behind the act, but we know that the police are working very intensively,” he added. “Our thoughts are with all those affected.”
The Fagersta city government says it set up a crisis center in a sports hall near the school. The Vastmanland county government says “many people” were affected and that police, fire services, and healthcare workers are among those caring for them.
Several nearby schools had been locked down following the incident, and roadblocks were set up, authorities say.
IDF brass is warning the country’s political leadership that the West Bank is on the brink of a violent escalation as settler violence and the growth of illegal settlement outposts continue to spread across the territory, according to Channel 12.
The report says rank-and-file Palestinians may begin to take action if acts of settler violence continue unabated. In recent months, the West Bank has seen near-daily settler harassment and attacks on Palestinians and their property. Arrests in such incidents are rare, and prosecution is rarer still.
Critics of the government have accused the IDF of condoning or even encouraging the settler attacks. Troops are regularly filmed not taking action in the face of settler violence.
Earlier today, a Palestinian teen was killed after an Israeli fired on him during a clash between Palestinians and settlers on an unauthorized “hike” on the outskirts of a Palestinian village.
The Channel 12 report quotes an unnamed senior military official suggesting more forceful action on the part of Israel is needed to stem the violence, and lamenting that some government officials support the extremist settlers.
“There’s a group here that wants chaos,” the official reportedly says. “Support from part of the local leadership and parts of the government make enforcement difficult. It’s unclear whether there’s anyone who wants enforcement. Commanders on the ground feel alone in the campaign.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen joins European countries in condemning plans by Israel to open up construction tenders for settlement homes in the controversial E1 area of the West Bank.
“The Israeli Government’s decision to publish construction tenders for the E1 settlement project is unacceptable,” she says in a post on X. “We have long opposed this step.”
A growing number of European and Middle Eastern countries have condemned the plan, which would connect the Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim areas, effectively scuttling the prospect of contiguous Palestinian statehood between the population centers of Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Khawaja Asif, the defense minister of Pakistan, shares a fake, AI-generated video of members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party brawling and writes that it reflects “bloody Zionists.”
The fake video in question depicts MK Tally Gotliv and Transportation Minister Miri Regev throwing chairs, and other cabinet members from the governing party fighting with each other amid a cacophony.
Asif writes above the video, “Runs in DNA of bloody Zionists.”
Runs in DNA of bloody Zionists.. https://t.co/uD7guDbxrB
— Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) August 21, 2026
This is not the first time Asif has lashed out at Israel on social media. In one instance, he wrote that Israel was “cancerous” and a “curse for humanity,” before deleting the post.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not use the spots he controls on the Likud party’s election slate to ensure that several senior lawmakers enter the next Knesset, according to a Channel 12 report.
Netanyahu controls eight of the top 30 spots on Likud’s list. The network says, as previously reported, that he is considering giving one of those spots to Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter.
But several other senior Likud members who placed low in this week’s primary may not be granted one of those spots, according to the report. The list of candidates who may be left out of the next Knesset includes Social Equality Minister May Golan, Environmental Minister Idit Silman, Knesset Finance Committee Chair Hanoch Milwidsky, and lawmakers Ariel Kallner and Keti Shitrit.
Silman being frozen out is especially notable because she was instrumental in Netanyahu returning to power in 2022, after she defected from the anti-Netanyahu government that was in place at the time, depriving it of a majority and leading to an election that he won.
Golan has lashed out at Netanyahu following her poor showing in the primary.
According to the report, Netanyahu has reassured his party members that if he wins, he will make extensive use of the so-called Norwegian Law, which allows lawmakers appointed to ministerial roles to resign their spots in the Knesset. Those resignations, in turn, would allow more of the party’s members to enter the parliament.
The US State Department reiterates US President Donald Trump’s opposition to Israel annexing the West Bank, but intentionally avoids condemning Jerusalem’s planned building of settlements in the controversial E1 area.
A growing number of Western and Middle Eastern countries have decried Israel’s advancement of the E1 project — which both supporters and opponents say could mark the death knell for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state by bisecting the West Bank and further preventing Palestinian territorial contiguity.
But when asked for comment on the project, the State Department repeats a statement it has previously used regarding Israeli policy in the West Bank, without referring to E1.
“As the president has clearly stated, the US does not support Israel annexing the West Bank. A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region,” reads a statement attributed to a State Department spokesperson that is being sent to querying reporters.
Turkey denounces Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “petty political tactics” in a statement from the president’s office, the latest salvo in a growing diplomatic row between the two countries.
In a statement posted on X, it condemns what it calls the Netanyahu government’s attempt “to present Turkey as a new threat.”
Earlier in the day, Netanyahu’s office called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an “antisemitic dictator” after Turkey called for Netanyahu’s arrest over the interception of an activist flotilla bound for Gaza.
That came after Israel bombed Syria earlier in the week, charging that Turkey was expanding its military presence there, which Ankara has denied.
An informal poll places Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett narrowly ahead in a contest to become the next UN secretary-general, three sources close to the process say.
The poll is the second such “straw poll” after a first round showed former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan, who would be the first Jewish UN chief, as the early front runner.
NATO’s top commander convened a video conference earlier this week to facilitate possible contributions to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, his spokesperson tells Reuters, adding that this is not a NATO mission.
“Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe hosted a meeting of interested Allies at the chief of defense level on Wednesday, 19 Aug 26, in order to facilitate their possible contributions to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” a spokesperson for the alliance’s top commander, US Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich, says.
“To be clear, this is not a NATO mission. But given NATO’s unique strengths in its ability to bring together Allies and understand the capabilities they bring to bear, it makes sense for NATO to facilitate in this way,” the spokesperson adds.
NATO allies have sought to avoid direct involvement in the Iran conflict, instead focusing on plans outside the alliance to reopen the strait, which before the start of the war in late February carried about a fifth of all traded oil.
France and Britain have led efforts to build a coalition among roughly a dozen countries to guarantee safe passage through the strait once tensions ease or the conflict is resolved, though any long-term arrangement would ultimately require Iranian acquiescence.
Ben Gurion Airport’s union chief tried to keep Transportation Minister Miri Regev’s bags from being loaded onto her flight to Morocco on Wednesday, a day before an alleged wildcat strike threw the airport into chaos, according to a Channel 12 report.
The union chief, Pinchas Idan, has denied calling a wildcat strike yesterday, and blamed management for the turmoil at the airport — where check-in counters were closed and baggage handling shut down for more than an hour.
But according to the Channel 12 report, Idan took steps a day ahead of the strike to make Regev personally feel the effects of the airport’s staffing shortage.
Regev and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the airport on Wednesday and praised its staff. After that, Regev boarded a plane to Morocco, where she is currently on a trip.
In a bid to demonstrate the problems the airport is facing, according to the report, Idan instructed workers not to load Regev’s luggage onto the flight.
Arkia Airlines CEO Oz Berlowitz then reportedly instructed workers to load Regev’s luggage. Yiftach Ron Tal, head of the Airports Authority, delivered the same order. Idan reportedly saw a video of Ron Tal talking to the staffers, leading him to relent and have the luggage loaded.
The following day, according to the report, Ron Tal and Idan were scheduled to meet at 9 a.m., but Idan ditched the meeting, later claiming he wasn’t feeling well. The turmoil at the airport began shortly afterward.
Idan denies the report in a statement to Channel 12.
Now, delays and cancellations have continued at the airport more than a day after operations resumed, with the FlightRadar24 monitoring service showing it as the world’s most disrupted airport as of Friday evening local time.
Channel 12 reported that tens of thousands of Israelis are stuck abroad, and that many are without luggage.
In an effort to stem the delays, Israeli carriers El Al and Arkia are offering vouchers to passengers for future flights.
The delays are expected to cost some NIS 30 million ($10 million), according to the report.
Rabbi Gilad Kariv, a lawmaker for the left-wing The Democrats party, says police barred party activists as well as Palestinians from a Palestinian West Bank village, while allowing settlers to stay in the area.
Kariv posts on X that a group of activists, including members of his party, went to the southern West Bank village of al-Maniya this morning to perform what’s known as “protective presence,” helping defend residents from settler attacks.
Kariv writes that Palestinian locals have suffered harassment from settlers in a nearby outpost established a year ago. He says the IDF declared the area a closed military zone in November, but that the settlers have not subsequently been evacuated.
But he writes that this morning, police used the same order to remove the activists, as well as around 15 of al-Maniya’s residents, from the area, while settlers there were not told to leave.
He attaches a video in which a police officer tells the activists, “This is a closed military zone,” adding, “When you see the order, you have to go.”
פעם אחר פעם, הצבא משתמש בצווי שטח צבאי סגור כדי לפנות פעילי נוכחות מגינה, ולהעניק חסינות למתנחלים אלימים.
הבוקר הגיעה קבוצה של פעילי הדמוקרטים הצעירים ובני אברהם לסייע לתושבי הכפר אל מיניה. לפני שנה הוקם בסמוך לכפר מאחז בלתי חוקי ומאז הם סובלים ממסכת התנכלויות.
בנובמבר הצבא… pic.twitter.com/HMAGEC37bR
— גלעד קריב (@KarivGilad) August 21, 2026
Kariv writes, “Closed military zone orders have become, in recent months, an inappropriate tool for masking deeds that should not be done to Palestinians, for obstructing Israeli citizens from speaking out and standing against injustices, and for putting wind at the backs of the hilltop gangs,” a reference to settler extremists.
He calls for the residents to be let back into their homes.
A judge has ruled that five pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists who vandalized a branch of Barclays bank in northern England will not be sentenced as terrorists, according to the Guardian.
The five, members of the anti-Israel group Palestine Action, were convicted in June of causing more than £200,000 ($272,000) worth of damage by breaking windows and throwing red paint on the bank branch in Burnley.
The vandalism was in protest of Barclays holding shares in Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit. The judge ruled that the extent of the damage did not meet the threshold for a terrorist act, according to the report.
The defendants will receive shorter jail sentences as a result of the determination.
There is currently an ongoing court battle over the UK government’s ban of Palestine Action as a terror group. In June, a separate group of Palestine Action members were sentenced to more than 20 years in prison in total over a 2024 raid on an Elbit factory.
A Hamas terror operative armed with a knife was captured by Israeli troops after crossing into the IDF-held portion of the Gaza Strip today, the military says.
According to the IDF, troops of the 99th Division operating in central Gaza spotted the Hamas operative approaching the “Yellow Line” that divides the enclave between Israeli and Hamas control.
“The forces monitored the terrorist, and after he crossed the Yellow Line, took him for questioning in Israel,” the military says.
Police are investigating the death of a 4-year-old who was found in a locked car in East Jerusalem.
An initial probe finds that, according to the family, the child was located after being locked in a car for an extended period of time, police say in a statement.
The child was taken to the hospital and declared dead after lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful, police say.
Police say they gathered evidence at the site of the incident and have detained the parents and another relative for questioning.
The government has undertaken efforts in recent years to prevent the deaths of children left in overheated cars during the summer months.
The foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates condemn Israel’s settlement policies in the West Bank and say they categorically reject a planned settlement expansion in the controversial E1 area.
“The Ministers call for immediate action to halt the ‘E1’ settlement plan, rescind all measures taken in connection with it, and cease all settlement activities and other measures aimed at altering the geographic and demographic character of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” they say in a joint statement, adding that the plan constitutes a “dangerous escalation” that further advances settlement expansion and annexation of Palestinian lands.
The E1 expansion would connect the Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim areas, effectively scuttling the prospect of contiguous Palestinian sovereignty between the population centers of Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Israeli settlement activists seek to develop the area in order to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Britain, Canada and Australia condemn as “shameful” Israel’s decision to close an investigation into the deaths of seven aid workers killed in Gaza in 2024.
The World Central Kitchen employees — three Britons, a dual US-Canadian national, a Pole, an Australian and a Palestinian — died in a drone strike on their vehicle convoy after overseeing the unloading of a food aid shipment.
Israel’s military called the incident a “tragic mistake.”
“In the more than two years since, we have been pressing for Israel to swiftly and thoroughly consider the case and hold those responsible to account,” the three nations say in a joint statement. The IDF’s announcement “that it would not pursue criminal investigations into this strike, without further explanation, is shameful,” it says.
The incident sparked global outrage and renewed calls to ensure the safety of aid workers in Gaza.
“Announcing this decision on World Humanitarian Day, while the world honored the courage and sacrifice of humanitarians, was particularly egregious,” the joint statement adds.
On April 1, 2024, Israeli forces ordered a strike on a convoy of WCK vehicles that officers suspected carried a Hamas gunman, despite a low level of confidence in the assessment and against army regulations. The strike left seven humanitarian workers dead.
The forces did not identify the vehicles as belonging to WCK when the strike was ordered, according to the investigation.
The investigation found that WCK had hired an armed security force to accompany the convoy to protect it from looting, a move that had not been coordinated with the army.
“After examining all the findings of the factual assessment, it was decided that despite failures in the process of forming the assessment that Hamas operatives were traveling in the vehicles, it was found that the commanders’ decisions did not cross the criminal threshold, in light of the sequence of suspicious signs and the overall operational circumstances,” the IDF said.
The US-based World Central Kitchen also condemns the decision, calling it “inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive.”
It demands an independent commission to investigate the airstrikes “because the IDF cannot credibly investigate its own conduct.”
Yesterday, Australia expressed outrage at the closure of the investigation and summoned Israel’s ambassador to the country.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issues a searing statement castigating Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, amid spiking tensions between the two countries over an Israeli strike in Syria and Turkey’s issuing an arrest warrant for the premier today.
Erdogan “now seeks to extend his aggression against Israel into Syria. Israel will not tolerate it,” the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement, in the latest barb between the countries following Israel’s strike on a Syrian airbase over Israeli concerns regarding the potential deployment of Turkish troops there.
The PMO reiterates past accusations by Israel against Erdogan, calling him “an antisemitic dictator who has massacred Kurds, harbors Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus, and jails record numbers of journalists and politicians who oppose him.”
The statement comes hours after Turkey issued an international arrest warrant for Netanyahu as part of an investigation into Israel’s interception of an activist flotilla bound for Gaza.
“Erdogan’s pathetic attempt to intimidate the leaders and soldiers of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, will go nowhere,” the statement adds.
In a separate Hebrew-language statement, the PMO asserts that “Israel will continue to act forcefully against Turkey’s attempts to destabilize the region and against any threat to its security.”
Turkish-Israeli relations, once close, have collapsed following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and subsequent Gaza war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has submitted an official request to his Likud party to expel Pinchas Idan, the chief of Ben Gurion Airport’s labor union, after operations halted at the airport yesterday, leading to chaos and widespread delays and cancellations.
He had declared his intention to kick out Idan yesterday.
The Israel Airports Authority says that the workers went on a wildcat strike yesterday, leading check-in counters and baggage handling to cease operations. Idan today vehemently denied calling a strike of any kind, and blamed the turmoil on staffing shortages and decisions by the airport’s management.
In his request, however, Netanyahu lays blame on Idan, noting that the chaos came one day after he and Transportation Minister Miri Regev had toured the airport.
“The event occurred one day after a visit by the prime minister and transportation minister at Ben Gurion Airport. It is clear that the timing was chosen to hurt the minister, the prime minister and Likud,” Netanyahu wrote, according to Hebrew media reports.
The alleged strike was reportedly due to take place on the day of Netanyahu and Regev’s visit, but was pushed off so as not to conflict with it.
Ben Gurion Airport’s embattled union chief, Pinchas Idan, hits back at reports that workers went on a wildcat strike yesterday, halting flights on the airport’s busiest day and throwing its operations into chaos, blaming the situation on the airport’s management.
As check-in counters closed, baggage handling ceased and successive flights were delayed or canceled outright, the Israel Airports Authority said workers at the airport had held a wildcat strike.
The umbrella Histadrut labor union had denied calling a strike, and today, in separate messages to the employees and to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Miri Regev, Idan denies any strike happened at all.
He blames the turmoil at the airport on festering staffing shortages that, he said, he had raised alarm about before. He says the airport’s management, not the staff, chose to halt operations.
“The outrageous and shameful event that took place yesterday at Ben Gurion Airport, in which check-in counters were closed and thousands of travelers were left helpless, was not preordained,” he writes in a letter to Netanyahu and Regev. “It was a direct result of a scandalous, unilateral, degrading and utterly irresponsible decision by management affecting the Israeli public and the workers.”
He continues, “There was no strike yesterday — not a wildcat strike and no planned stoppages at all.”
In his message to the workers, according to Channel 12, he calls reports of a strike “a complete lie.”
He adds in the letter to Regev and Netanyahu that the workers made no demands for increased pay, budgets, or benefits, and said what occurred was a result of “physical, health and human distress on the part of employees who simply ran out of energy.”
He adds, “We warned again and again in every possible forum… that the porters and baggage handling system were subject to a severe staffing shortage.”
He says staff were made to work shifts of up to 13 hours.
“Rather than demonstrating humanity and managing the situation responsibly, the management chose to take the aggressive step of closing the [check-in] counters on their own initiative, creating an artificial crisis on the backs of the passengers.”
He calls on the government to take emergency measures to increase staffing at the airport and improve conditions for employees there.
Yesterday, amid the chaos at the airport, Netanyahu kicked Idan out of his Likud party.
A Palestinian who crossed the IDF’s “Yellow Line” in the southern Gaza Strip earlier today was shot by forces, the military says.
The IDF says troops of the Givati Brigade “spotted a terrorist who crossed the Yellow Line and approached the forces in a manner that posed an immediate threat.”
The soldiers opened fire and “neutralized the terrorist to remove the threat,” the army adds.
Several people are injured at a Swedish high school by a person armed with a sword, the Fagersta municipality in central Sweden says in a statement.
“A call was received regarding a case of ongoing deadly violence at a school in Fagersta. Police have responded to the scene and one person has been taken into custody,” the police say in a statement. “Police are continuing to work at the scene with a number of different resources. The public is urged to respect the roadblocks and listen to police instructions.”
The government is in close contact with the police following the attack, Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer says in a statement to Reuters.
“We have been informed of a serious incident in Fagersta. The police are on site and working very intensively [on] the incident,” Strommer says.
Aftonbladet newspaper reports that a person wielding a machete had been shot in the leg by police.
The municipality does not specify the number of wounded but says police are searching the school and that other schools in the area have been locked down.
Public broadcaster SVT says ambulances, police cars and a police helicopter are outside the school in the small city of about 12,000 inhabitants.
The IDF says it struck a building in southern Lebanon earlier today after several suspects crossed the ceasefire line and entered it.
Soldiers of the Kfir Brigade spotted the suspects crossing into the military’s buffer zone in the area of the village of Baraashit.
The army says the suspects who entered the building “posed a threat to IDF troops,” and that a short while later, the Israeli Air Force struck the site.
The High Court of Justice is unfreezing some funds designated for the Religious Services Ministry, after the ministry warned that it would have to close more than 100 holy sites in Israel and the West Bank due to a budget shortfall, according to Hebrew media reports.
Two weeks ago, the High Court had frozen all funds allocated by the Knesset Finance Committee to ultra-Orthodox schools, the Settlements Ministry and the Religious Services Ministry, due to what it said were “apparent procedural flaws” in the convening of the committee itself.
But the court now unfreezes some NIS 30 million ($10 million) for the Religious Services Ministry to prevent the threatened closure of the holy sites, including Rachel’s Tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank, and the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in northern Israel.
Hezbollah says the United States “will not deter” its fighting against Israel after Washington announced new sanctions on the group, accusing the terror group of serving its sponsor, Iran.
The US Treasury Department amended Hezbollah’s legal designation yesterday to note that it operated in “service to the Iranian regime under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
It also announced new sanctions targeting 10 people who are allegedly part of a network that transfers cash to Hezbollah.
“All these unjust sanctions and classifications will not deter us from adhering to the path of resistance and the right of Lebanon and the Lebanese to defend their land, sovereignty and resources,” Hezbollah says in a statement.
The terror group, armed and funded by Iran, stresses that it “does not need anyone to vouch for its Lebanese identity and patriotism.”
“Our close and fraternal relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran is a relationship we cherish and are proud of,” it adds.
The Treasury statement said the group had a network that utilizes “couriers travelling on commercial airline flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the UAE and Iran to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions” to evade sanctions.
A US State Department official who requested anonymity says the US for years “documented the operational, financial and logistical integration” between Hezbollah and the Quds force, the IRGC’s foreign operations arm.
The group was merely “an extension” of the Quds force, the official says, and “not a Lebanese resistance movement.”
Hezbollah says the latest move aims “to target the resistance, its community, its environment and its supporters, and to besiege and pressure them” to protect Israel.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Turkey has issued an international arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of an investigation into Israel’s interception of an activist flotilla for Gaza, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced Friday on X.
Turkey has already issued warrants against Netanyahu and other top officials for “genocide” over Israel’s actions in its war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel firmly denies accusations of genocide.
Friday’s announcement is the latest sign of the collapse of Israeli-Turkish relations since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and subsequent Gaza war. Turkey has hosted Hamas leaders, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has praised the terror group and castigated Israel, ending trade and direct flights between the countries.
This is not the first spat between the countries over a pro-Palestinian flotilla to Gaza. In 2010, the countries entered a diplomatic spat after 10 Turkish activists were killed in a violent confrontation with Israeli naval commandos raiding a flotilla bound for the enclave.
A civilian security coordinator for the West Bank settlement of Metzad opened fire at Palestinians on the outskirts of the village of Sa’ir, north of Hebron, amid an unauthorized settler hike through the area, according to the military.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry said earlier that a 17-year-old had died from gunshot wounds in Sa’ir.
In a statement, the IDF says that troops had been dispatched to Sa’ir amid reports of settlers, from the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Metzad, being pelted with stones while they “were on an unauthorized excursion” on the outskirts of the village.
As a result of the stone throwing, some of the Israelis were injured, and a “member of the security forces” — the civil security coordinator for Metzad — fired shots in the area, causing “Palestinian casualties,” the army says.
Karim Shalaldeh, 17, died of his wounds after being shot, the Palestinian Authority health ministry said, and a second Palestinian was reportedly wounded amid the incident.
The IDF says it also received reports of an under-construction building that was set on fire in the area, allegedly by the settlers, which was later extinguished.
The Israel Police has launched an investigation into the incident, including whether the building had been set on fire by the settlers. The military says that the troops “dispersed the confrontation” and escorted all of the Israelis out of the Palestinian village.
“The IDF clarifies that unauthorized excursions endanger those who take part in them, and divert forces from defense and counterterrorism operations in the area,” the army adds.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says it is time to end the months-long Middle East war with the United States and Israel because Tehran is in a position of strength over Washington.
“It is better that we bring the war to an end now, as we are in a position of power and dignity, and the whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasizes that America has attacked our schools, hospitals and infrastructure in violation of all regulations and is hated around the world,” he says in a meeting with doctors.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry says that 17-year-old Karim Shalaldeh has died of his wounds after being shot earlier in the area of the village of Sa’ir, north of Hebron.
As previously reported, a media outlet affiliated with the settler movement claimed that ultra-Orthodox hikers were pelted with stones by Palestinians and that a member of the security forces who arrived at the scene opened fire at a stone thrower.
The IDF said earlier that the incident was under review and later said a member of the security forces opened fire in the incident.
A British teenager pleads guilty over an arson attack at offices linked to television station Iran International in northwest London earlier this year.
Nathan Dunn, 19, pleads guilty to a charge of “arson being reckless as to whether life is endangered” at London’s Old Bailey over the incident in April in which an ignited container was thrown towards premises belonging to Volant Media, the parent company of the London-based broadcaster.
The device landed in a car park and the fire extinguished itself, causing no damage or injuries.
Dunn had originally been charged alongside a 21-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be identified because of his age.
Iran International, a broadcaster critical of Iran’s government, said at the time that a suspicious vehicle had been denied entry to its London site shortly before the incendiary device was thrown.
Two Palestinians were wounded by settler gunfire in the area of Sa’ir, north of Hebron, Palestinian media outlets report.
One of the injured is reportedly 70 years old.
Hilltop News, a media outlet affiliated with the settler movement, claimed that ultra-Orthodox hikers had arrived in the area and were pelted with stones by residents of Sa’ir.
The outlet says that Israeli security forces arrived at the scene and opened fire at one of the people throwing rocks.
The IDF says the incident is under review.
اعتداء جديد على المزارعين..
عصابات المستوطنين تهاجم وادي سعير شمال الخليل. pic.twitter.com/MZ7ltiZYFw— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) August 21, 2026
International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane of Japan warns against “the demise of international rule of law” after she was hit by US sanctions.
“The sanction against me this time was something I had anticipated to an extent, so I’m not surprised,” Akane says in a statement released on X by her publisher Bungei Shunju.
“The important thing is not to let this be the beginning of the demise of international rule of law.”
The funeral for Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz, who went missing in the First Lebanon War’s battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982 and whose remains were returned to Israel on Tuesday, is underway at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, in Jerusalem.
Hundreds of people lined the streets to pay their last respects as the funeral procession set off from the Kerem B’Yavne yeshiva in southern Israel, where Katz studied before enlisting in the IDF.
Among those in attendance are Mossad chief Roman Gofman and the government’s former hostage and missing persons pointman Gal Hirsch.
Katz’s brother says the family will be sitting shiva — the seven-day Jewish mourning period — for him “because until now, we had not given up hope of finding him alive.”
“As far as we are concerned, Yehuda was killed this week, not 44 years ago.”
He is also eulogized by the head of Kerem B’Yavne, Rabbi Mordechai Greenberg, who points to Katz as proof that military conscription does not prevent one from living a religious lifestyle.
“There are those who think that yeshiva students are damaged in the army,” he says in remarks carried by Hebrew media outlets, referring to current discourse around the conscription of ultra-Orthodox men. “With Yehuda, it was the opposite.”
The Israeli Air Force has received its second Boeing KC-46 refueling plane, out of six ordered, in a move that will significantly boost Israel’s long-range strike capabilities, the military announced.
A ceremony was held yesterday at the Nevatim Airbase in southern Israel to inaugurate the second refueling tanker after it arrived from the United States.
The KC-46 aircraft, known in the IAF as “Gideon,” are to replace the military’s current fleet of aging Boeing 707 refueling planes, which played a key role in Israel’s recent wars against Iran.
The military says the refuelers “enable the extension of the operational range and loiter time of fighter jets in the air, alongside advanced and multi-mission transport capabilities.”
The arrival of the KC-46 “constitutes a significant enhancement of the Air Force’s capabilities in a multi-front war and in operations in distant theaters,” the IDF adds.
The suspect in the murder of 7-year-old Hillel Mordechai Dadon in Beit Shemesh earlier this week is believed to have visited the apartment where Dadon was staying hours before he stabbed the boy to death and injured his 4-year-old cousin, the Israel Police says in an update on the case.
Dadon and his 4-year-old cousin were attacked on Monday while their parents were out of the house.
The suspect, a 26-year-old male neighbor of the family, is identified by Hebrew-language media as Liel Ifergan, although the police update does not identify him by name.
According to the police, the suspect visited the home earlier in the day and had a brief conversation with the homeowner before departing. Hours later, he returned and stabbed the two boys.
The suspect’s motive is not yet known. The deputy head of the Jerusalem District Police’s interrogation division says the investigation is currently focused on “understanding exactly what the suspect’s motive was and what led him to attack the children.”
His remand has been extended until August 25.
A Hamas terrorist who held numerous hostages in captivity in the Strip during the war was killed in an Israeli strike in central Gaza this week, the IDF announces.
The Wednesday strike in Nuseirat killed Sobhi Sami Mahmoud Shahtot, identified by the military as a platoon commander in Hamas’s military wing.
The IDF says Shahtot invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught and “took part in holding numerous hostages in Hamas captivity during the war. ”
Shahtot was also seen taking part in Hamas’s hostage handover ceremonies in November 2023, according to the military.
The IDF justifies the strike amid the ceasefire by saying that the terrorist had been advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians. He was “eliminated to remove the threat,” the army says.
A Palestinian man who was shot dead while trying to stab Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Jenin overnight is identified as the father of a terrorist who killed three Israelis in Tel Aviv in 2022.
The military said overnight that soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade who were carrying out an arrest raid in Jenin were attacked by a Palestinian armed with a knife.
“The forces returned fire at the terrorist and eliminated him,” the IDF said, adding that no soldiers were hurt.
Palestinian media identified the stabber as Fathi Hazem, the father of Ra’ad Hazem, who opened fire at a bar in Tel Aviv on April 7, 2022, killing Tomer Morad and Eytam Magini, two friends both aged 27, and Barak Lufan, a 35-year-old father of three.
Hazem went on the run after the attack and was found hiding near a mosque in Jaffa after an hours-long manhunt involving hundreds of security officers. While initially raising his hands in surrender, Hazem reportedly then drew a gun and opened fire on the officers, who fired back and killed him.
At the time, Fathi praised his son for the killings and refused an Israeli summons for questioning.
الشهيد فتحي خازم، الذي ارتقى برصاص جيش الاحتلال أثناء محاولته تنفيذ عملية طعن عقب اقتحام منزله.
خلال تأبين نجله الشهيد رعد فتحي خازم في مخيم جنين، في الذكرى الأولى لارتقائه. pic.twitter.com/QzLxejJitD
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) August 21, 2026
Ben Gurion International Airport is currently the most disrupted airport in the world for departures, live data from Flightradar24 shows, with delays averaging between 70 and 90 minutes for departing flights.
Overall, when taking into account both departures and arrivals, the airport is currently the 10th most disrupted airport globally, the data shows.
The large-scale disruptions come after workers staged a wildcat labor strike yesterday, shutting down both check-ins and arrivals for more than an hour.
The strike began shortly after midday yesterday, and the stoppage entered into full force at 2 p.m.
Employees had fully returned by 4 p.m., but delays and crowding in the main terminal appear to have persisted.
Palestinian media outlets report that settlers set fire to a quarry in the South Hebron Hills in the southern West Bank overnight.
Footage from the scene shows several pieces of heavy machinery on fire.
There are no reports of injuries.
مستوطنون يضرمون النيران في "محجر" بمنطقة وادي الرخيم في مسافر يطا، جنوب الخليل. pic.twitter.com/YEPuQEwvNL
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) August 21, 2026
A 31-year-old man was shot and killed a short while ago in the northern city of Arraba, according to first responders.
Medics who were called to the scene found the man in critical condition, with penetrating wounds, not breathing and without a pulse, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A Palestinian assailant was shot dead after trying to stab an Israeli soldier in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, the Israel Defense Forces says.
No IDF troops were injured, the army adds.
California state Senator Aisha Wahab will serve out the rest of former representative Eric Swalwell’s term after securing victory Thursday in a special election.
Swalwell, a Democrat who was running for California governor, ended his campaign and resigned from Congress in April after he was accused of sexual assault and harassment, which he denies. Wahab will represent the state’s 14th Congressional District, which covers parts of Alameda County on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay, through Swalwell’s term ending in January.
She will be the first Afghan American to serve in Congress. The progressive Democrat defeated Bay Area Rapid Transit Director Melissa Hernandez even after a swell of spending by outside groups opposing Wahab in the race’s final stretch. She says her victory shows her district “cannot be bought.”
“I will fight for this district that raised me,” Wahab says in a statement. “From foster care to Congress, this journey shows the possibility of the American Dream.”
Hernandez’s campaign doesn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Wahab and Hernandez will face off again in a separate November election determining who will serve the next full two-year term.
Wahab won the June primary decisively, but she faced aggressive efforts to boost her rival ahead of the general. Groups affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, poured millions into supporting Hernandez, and thousands into opposing Wahab, who supports ending military aid to Israel and accused it of genocide during the Gaza war with Hamas.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul encourages New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to focus more on the city government and less on Israel.
Hochul is asked by The New York Times if Mamdani’s anti-Israel rhetoric could make Jewish New Yorkers uneasy.
“I encourage him to — ‘Let’s focus on blocking and tackling of city government,'” she says.
“That’s where I believe the main focus should be,” Hochul adds.
Hochul also vows to “throw my body against any antisemitism.”
Hochul is a moderate Democrat, while Mamdani is on the far left, putting them at odds on some issues, although the two have maintained a cooperative relationship.
Hochul campaigned in support of Mamdani during his run for mayor.
The United States announces new sanctions against an alleged Hezbollah financing network, while highlighting the Lebanese terror group’s close ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Hezbollah’s legal designation as a terrorist organization has been amended to note that it operates in “service to the Iranian regime under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” particularly the elite Quds Force, the Treasury Department says in a statement.
Washington designated Hezbollah as a “foreign terrorist organization” in 1997, and in 2001 updated its label to a “specially designated global terrorist” group.
The new redesignation “specifies that Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy, not a stand-alone operation as implied by the previous designation,” a State Department official says. “This underscores that Hezbollah operates with little to no regard for Lebanese sovereignty, the Lebanese people, or the Lebanese state.”
“This action builds on years of US designations that have repeatedly documented the operational, financial, and logistical integration between Hizballah and the IRGC-QF,” the State Department official says, calling Hezbollah “an extension” of the latter.
“It is not a Lebanese resistance movement,” as Hezbollah describes itself, the official says.
The new sanctions target 10 people who are allegedly part of a network that transfers cash to Hezbollah, which has already been punished with US sanctions many times, the Treasury statement says.
“The network utilizes couriers travelling on commercial airline flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the UAE, and Iran to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions, providing an avenue outside the formal financial system for Hezbollah to obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions,” the statement says.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The left-wing Yesh Din rights group publishes footage of Israeli troops tossing the clothes belonging to Palestinians from the window of a West Bank home that has been under siege by settlers and soldiers for 12 days.
The home in question was taken over by soldiers as part of an operation that is purportedly aimed at protecting the residents of Qusra from settlers who have established outposts nearby with the aim of evicting the Palestinians.
While the outposts have been taken down, soldiers have allowed the settlers to continue roaming the area, in defiance of the army’s own closed military zone order.
Soldier standing inside the besieged house in Qusra to Kusai Abu Ridi – “I am the owner”
This happens after soldiers through the women’s and children’s clothing from the balcony of the house. pic.twitter.com/PyRyAnnUBZ
— Yesh Din English (@Yesh_Din) August 20, 2026
Residents of the home taken over by the IDF asked for permission to enter the home to pick up some of their clothes.
But rather than approve the request, soldiers decided to just toss the clothes out of the window from the top floor of the home, after which the residents had to pick up the clothes from the ground.
“This is utterly outrageous. The footage shows that instead of protecting these families, the military is subjecting them to further abuse,” Yesh Din says in a statement.
“After failing to enforce the law against the settlers, the military itself has now imposed a siege on the families, who have been confined to two homes for a week without being able to leave, receive visitors, or obtain food and basic supplies,” it continues.
Now in Qusra: Women and children’s clothing being thrown from the balcony of the besieged families home – which has been under military occupation for the past week and is currently being used by soldiers.
video: Luai Abu Ridi pic.twitter.com/S4wFS9tgkY
— Yesh Din English (@Yesh_Din) August 20, 2026
“This appears to constitute prohibited collective punishment, even more so since none of the family members are suspected of any wrongdoing.”
“Throwing their clothes out of the house is yet another form of humiliation, in what appears to be a deliberate pattern of mistreatment and cruelty,” the statement adds.
