Aug. 26: Witkoff says US talking with a number of countries about joining Abraham Accords

Nazi-looted painting spotted in photo in Argentine real estate listing

A painting known as “Portrait of a Lady (Contessa Colleoni),” looted by the Nazis more than 80 years ago from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam, has been found on a real estate website advertising a home sale in Argentina, according to the Dutch newspaper AD.

The work by Italian baroque artist Giuseppe Ghislandi belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a leading Dutch art dealer who fled the Netherlands in mid-May 1940 and died during his escape. It is featured in a database of stolen work and recognized as “unreturned” art by the Dutch culture ministry.

Goudstikker’s wife and son made it to the United States, bringing with them a notebook in which he had kept detailed records of the more than 1,100 works in his gallery, according to La Nacion, an Argentine newspaper.

📢 “Retrato de una dama”, el valioso cuadro robado por los nazis que hallaron en Mar del Plata.

El periodista neerlandés Peter Schouten charló con Diego Ramos y el equipo de #RamosGenerales.

👉🏻 https://t.co/2FN5w8SfdO pic.twitter.com/xNRYK0d4ft

— Radio Nacional AM 870 (@NacionalAM870) August 26, 2025

La Capital de Mar del Plata, an Argentine daily, confirmed that the house is listed in the neighborhood of Parque Luro in Mar del Plata, the second-largest city in Buenos Aires province.

According to reports, the listing, which was posted earlier this year, is no longer available on the real estate agency website. The property is believed to have belonged to one of the daughters of Friedrich Kadgien, a senior Nazi official who fled Europe after the war and resettled in Buenos Aires, where he died in 1978, La Nacion reports.

In addition, the Guardian reports that two researchers at the Dutch government’s cultural heritage service say they believe Kadgien possessed a second looted artwork by 17th-century Dutch artist Abraham Mignon, based on a social media post by one of Kadgien’s daughters.

In latest flip-flop, key Shas rabbi retracts statement that Haredim who don’t study can serve in IDF

Rabbi Moshe Maya speaks during a rally marking one year since the death of Rabbi Shimon Hirari in Tel Aviv on February 28, 2016. (Yaacov Cohen/Flash90)

A senior spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party retracts his remarks that suggested young Haredi men who are not enrolled full-time in yeshiva could serve in the IDF under certain conditions.

Speaking with Radio Kol Hai Monday, Rabbi Moshe Maya, a member of Shas’s ruling Council of Torah Sages, had said that “if there is an arrangement whereby someone who enlists would not come to desecrate the Shabbat and would preserve his holiness and purity — why shouldn’t he enlist?”

The statement, coming amid a fierce legislative and societal debate over Haredi enlistment, appeared to be a dramatic reversal of Maya’s previous position.

In June, Maya was one of several senior Shas rabbis who signed an open letter expressing opposition to any enlistment legislation that would lead to the conscription of yeshiva students. In the letter, the rabbis declared that it was forbidden for those not in yeshiva to enlist, even into tracks specifically geared toward ultra-Orthodox soldiers.

However, today his office sends out a statement clarifying that even young ultra-Orthodox men who do not study in yeshiva are forbidden to enlist.

“I am not granting any approval or endorsement for any military track whatsoever; any attempt at dialogue will be carried out only with the consent of all the members of the Council of Torah Sages,” he says in the statement.

“The army in all its frameworks is a melting pot into the secular world, and therefore the position of all the great Torah sages, Ashkenazi and Sephardi alike, including our teacher Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, of blessed and holy memory, is well known: even a young man who observes Torah and mitzvot, but is not in a yeshiva program, is forbidden to enlist. All the more so, we will certainly not send him there,” he adds.

State Comptroller sends former officials drafts of findings from Nova massacre investigation – report

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman attends a meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on May 12, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The State Comptroller’s Office has sent drafts of findings from an investigation into the Nova massacre to former senior officials, Channel 12 reports.

The investigation is one of a range of probes the comptroller’s office is conducting into the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre. The investigations are controversial because critics have demanded the formation of a state commission of inquiry to look into the massacre. State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, who leads the office, has no legal background and was appointed under a Netanyahu-led government. The IDF has also sought to stop his probe.

Burnt cars are left behind at the site of the massacre three days earlier by Palestinian terrorists on the Supernova desert music festival near Kibbutz Re’im in the Negev desert in southern Israel, on October 10, 2023. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Channel 12 reports that Englman’s office has sent drafts of his conclusions regarding the Nova festival, where terrorists killed more than 300 people and took others hostage, to a number of former officials, including former IDF chief Herzi Halevi and former police commissioner Kobi Shabtai.

The network reports that some of the former officials in question protested that they received the conclusions before being interviewed by the office. The office said that they would have a chance to give testimony after reading the drafts.

Channel 12 does not detail the contents of the draft reports.

Haredi membership in Likud reportedly triples as thousands join party

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a rally against drafting Haredim to the IDF, in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem, June 30, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox voters have joined the Likud party as part of a bid to directly influence the workings of Israel’s ruling faction, Channel 12 reports.

The share of Haredi members in Likud, Israel’s largest party and one of only a handful to hold primaries for its electoral slate, has tripled, the network reports. The party’s liberal wing, meanwhile, has shrunk, the channel says.

The Haredi growth comes as Likud completes a drive for new and lapsed members to join the party, which currently leads the coalition in the Knesset and has governed Israel for most of the past half-century.

To illustrate the spike, Channel 12 notes that Haredi public relations strategist and Likud member Yossi Rosenbaum recently registered more than 2,100 new Likud members.  That figure brings the total number of Likud voters he has registered to approximately 7,300, Channel 12 reports.

According to the network, of Likud’s 140,000 members, fewer than 80,000 voted in the most recent primaries.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud’s present and longtime leader, has partnered with Haredi parties repeatedly in recent decades. Haredi parties recently left his government in a dispute over a law regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment.

Channel 12 says the growth of the Haredi membership reflects a desire to influence Likud and its lawmakers from within.

After footage of unsanitary conditions, IDF official stresses importance of health, notes ‘existing gaps’

IDF Ground Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Nadav Lotan tours the Border Defense Corps school, August 26, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Ground Forces head Maj. Gen. Nadav Lotan visited the school of the Border Defense Corps, emphasizing the military’s commitment to improving the quality of service and conditions for soldiers, the IDF says.

During the visit, Lotan toured the base, inspected new infrastructure, and met with commanders and trainees, stressing the importance of proper training and the health and well-being of soldiers.

“Our role is to ensure a professional and high-quality framework for service,” Lotan said. “We are aware of existing gaps and are investing maximum resources to ensure that our soldiers receive the best and most appropriate conditions — this is our commitment.”

The statement and visit come after videos circulated on social media in recent days showing unsanitary conditions and deteriorating infrastructure on other IDF bases, though the Border Defense Corps school was not among the facilities depicted.

Witkoff: US talking with a number of countries about joining the Abraham Accords

US special envoy Steve Witkoff attends a trilateral signing with US President Donald Trump, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 8, 2025 (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

US special envoy Steve Witkoff says, “We are negotiating multiple entries” of countries into the Abraham Accords.

Witkoff doesn’t specify which countries he is referring to, but he has been predicting such an expansion since at least May. The effort, however, appears to be hampered by the extension of the Gaza war.

In the meantime, the US is reportedly working to coax Azerbaijan, which already has ties with Israel, to enter the Abraham Accords. That push is an indication that the Trump administration is sufficing with more modest gains on the issue, as many of the potential candidates are demanding progress toward a two-state solution with the Palestinians, which Israel rejects.

Witkoff’s remarks are part of an over three hour public portion of the cabinet meeting during which members are going around the table one after the other updating Trump’s on their efforts, while primarily taking the time to praise the president.

US State Department declines to issue its own comment on Nasser hospital strike

The Trump administration is remaining mum on yesterday’s Israeli strike on the Nasser hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, which reportedly killed more than 20 people, including rescue workers and five journalists.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike a “tragic mishap,” but the IDF has since maintained that it was targeting a Hamas surveillance camera, while acknowledging that it was still investigating the matter.

Asked to comment on the strike, a State Department spokesperson told The Times of Israel, “We refer you to the government of Israel” — a policy increasingly adopted by an administration that has been far less critical than the previous one regarding Israeli policy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Witkoff says he hopes to settle multiple global conflicts, including Gaza war, by year’s end

US special envoy Steve Witkoff says he hopes to settle the Russia-Ukraine war, Iran nuclear talks, and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza by the end of the year.

“Russia-Ukraine, Iran, Israel-Hamas — we’re having meetings all this week on all three of those conflicts, and we hope to settle them before the end of this year,” Witkoff tells Trump during a cabinet meeting at the White House.

Witkoff doesn’t specify the nature of the meeting he referenced regarding the Gaza war.

Arab mediators are still waiting for Israel to respond to the proposal they crafted based on Witkoff’s framework, which was accepted by Hamas on August 17. The US has similarly refrained from commenting on the proposal and appears to be backing Israeli plans to take over Gaza City.

Trump said yesterday that he thinks the Gaza war will reach a “conclusive end” within two to three weeks, though he didn’t explain his rationale for that time frame, which he’s also cited in other contexts. Israel’s Gaza City operation is expected to take several months.

Witkoff says he wishes the Nobel Committee would “get its act together” and award Trump the Nobel Peace Prize, garnering applause from the other cabinet members in the room.

"There's only thing I wish for, that that Nobel committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate since the Nobel Peace, this Nobel award was ever talked about, to receive that award."

— Steve Witkoff pic.twitter.com/l9GnOrkcJx

— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) August 26, 2025

350,000 attend Tel Aviv rally for ceasefire and hostage-release deal, organizers say

A massive crowd marches to Tel Aviv's Hostages Square for a rally calling for a deal to release the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza on August 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

As rallygoers trickle out of Hostages Square, actor Lior Ashkenazi claims from the stage that tonight’s massive demonstration for a deal to release the captives drew a total of 350,000 attendees.

“This is the most moral and humanitarian struggle there is,” he says, calling on demonstrators to continue to take to the streets.

“We are done being polite, enough!” he yells.

Protesters join organizers in singing Israel’s national anthem to conclude the rally.

Police did not immediately provide their own independent estimate of the crowd size. Organizers of a similar rally on August 17 said that 500,000 had attended the demonstration that day.

Report: Relatives of hostages plan to focus on confronting politicians directly

Following two separate days of mass protest calling for a deal to release the hostages held in Gaza, relatives of the captives are planning to shift tactics and confront politicians directly, Channel 12 reports.

The network says the hostages’ relatives hope to “disrupt the day” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and cabinet ministers, including by protesting outside their homes on a daily basis. The families also plan to protest government and cabinet meetings, as a group did earlier today.

Protesters also plan to obstruct the politicians’ movements, the report says, in an effort to constantly remind them of the hostages’ plight.

The report comes at the end of a day of mass protest, culminating in a rally that is said to have drawn hundreds of thousands to Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square. Earlier in the day, amid the demonstrations, the security cabinet met and reportedly did not discuss a temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal that Hamas claims to have accepted.

A similar day of mass protest took place on August 17.

Hostage’s father at rally: ‘I don’t want to receive my boy in a bag’

Ofir Braslavski, the father of Hamas hostage Rom Braslavski, speaks to a mass rally in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on August 26, 2025. (Paulina Patimer/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Ofir Braslavski, the father of hostage Rom Braslavski, says in a speech at a mass rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square that he “no longer trusts the prime minister” after nearly two years have passed without the return of his son.

“I don’t want to receive my boy in a bag,” adds Braslavski.

Last month, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group released footage of Braslavski, appearing emaciated and in dire medical condition.

His father calls the video reminiscent of “the horrors of the Holocaust, seeing him tortured, suffering.”

But despite the footage, the government “isn’t doing anything,” Braslavski says from the stage. “Two years we are waiting… as if it’s something he [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] is doing intentionally.”

“I no longer trust anyone — I don’t trust the prime minister. I don’t trust the government… the only person I trust is the IDF chief of staff,” he says.

Braslavski refers to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who yesterday reportedly urged the government to take the hostage deal currently on the table, saying the choice is “in Netanyahu’s hands.”

The rally in Hostages Square caps a day of nationwide protests for a deal to free the captives and against the government’s planned military offensive in Gaza City.

Report: Nasser strike was meant to be via drone; tank shells fired after troops spotted apparent rifle scope

Palestinians try to reach casualties following an Israeli strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 25, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

A Channel 12 report offers further details on the circumstances surrounding the deadly Israeli strike at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis that reportedly killed more than 20 people, including several journalists, and sparked international condemnation.

According to the report, Golani Brigade troops first identified a surveillance camera installed by Hamas on the hospital grounds, which they determined was being used to monitor Israeli troop movements. Southern Command approved a drone strike — not a tank shelling — to neutralize the device.

Shortly afterward, the troops spotted what they believed to be a rifle scope near the site, assessed it as an immediate threat, and requested urgent authorization to strike. The division commander then approved tank fire. Two shells were fired initially, followed by two more after armed men were identified, for a total of four.

Channel 12 adds that military sources said 10 of those killed were Hamas operatives, though the IDF has officially confirmed only six. The army said one of those killed took part in the October 7 massacre.

In its preliminary findings, published earlier today, the IDF said the hospital’s camera had been used by Hamas to track troop movements and direct attacks. Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has ordered the probe to be expanded to examine the approval process for the strike, including the timing and choice of munitions.

The army reiterated that it regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians, while stressing that Hamas “cynically” exploits medical facilities for terror purposes.

Three more Gazans have died of malnutrition, Hamas-run health ministry says

Three more Gazans have died due to malnutrition or starvation in the past 24 hours, according the Hamas-run health ministry in the Strip, bringing the total of such deaths since the beginning of the war to 303, including 117 children.

UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, who cites the figure during a daily press briefing, says that Palestinians living in Gaza City’s Ad Daraj and Ash Sheikh Radwan neighborhoods have been ordered to evacuate, raising the total number of displaced people from northern Gaza since August 14 to 36,200.

Dujarric says Gaza hospitals are warning of a severe shortage of blood units. “With many patients critically injured by hostilities, more blood is needed to save lives, yet community donations have plummeted due to famine and malnutrition,” he says.

The UN spokesperson says six of the 12 UN missions to transfer humanitarian aid through Gaza yesterday were either canceled or only partially accomplished due to Israeli restrictions.

Daughter of slain captive rails against ‘forever war on the backs of our soldiers and hostages’

Noam Peri, the daughter of Israeli hostage Chaim Peri, poses for a portrait while holding a photograph of her father who was held captive by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, May 20, 2024. Chaim Peri was declared dead in captivity by the IDF in June 2024. (Yossi Aloni/FLASH90)

Noam Peri, the daughter of slain hostage Haim Peri, who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and murdered in captivity, speaks before a thousands-strong protest in Tel Aviv.

“We don’t want a forever war on the backs of our soldiers and hostages,” she says.

In English, she appeals to US President Donald Trump, urging him to “look at all this crowd… at the pictures from the streets of Israel.”

“The people of Israel are voting with their feet, the nation wants this war to end and the hostages brought home,” she says. “For my father, it is too late, but you can still save the other hostages and be remembered as the president who made history.”

She says that “my father, and the 41 other hostages murdered in Gaza, reveal the terrible truth,” claiming that continuing the war will lead to more hostages’ deaths.

Report: ‘Very senior Egyptian figures’ fume at Israelis for failing to respond to latest ceasefire proposal

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa (L) listens as Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty (C) speaks at a press conference on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing in Rafah on August 18, 2025 (Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)

“Very senior figures in Egypt” have conveyed to their Israeli counterparts their “disappointment, frustration and anger” that Israel, after eight days, has failed to respond to the latest ceasefire and hostage-release proposal that Hamas claims to have accepted, Channel 12 reports.

“With considerable pressure, we got Hamas to agree to 98% of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s demands, but [Israel] has yet to respond to us with a proper answer, and all we’re hearing is that ‘Netanyahu wants something else,'” the TV report quotes unnamed senior Egyptian officials saying.

“This is strange and unacceptable behavior. There is an opportunity to reach an agreement and secure the release of at least 10 living hostages, and Israel is simply turning its back,” the Egyptian officials reportedly say.

Netanyahu has publicly ruled out any further phased ceasefire and hostage-release deals, and is instead demanding a comprehensive agreement in which all the captives held by Hamas would be freed at once, along with other demands including the demilitarization of Gaza. Another of Netanyahu’s demands is for Gaza to be governed by “Arab forces” affiliated with neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.

Earlier tonight, the security cabinet met briefly but reportedly did not discuss a response to the current hostage-ceasefire proposal.

Channel 12 reports that an Egyptian delegation visited Israel yesterday, attempting to work out the situation.

A Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman earlier today also said Qatar had not yet received a response from Israel to the latest ceasefire proposal, which he said met almost all of Israel’s demands. “The ball is now in Israel’s court, and it seems that it does not want to reach an agreement,” the spokesman said.

The Channel 12 report speculates that Israel and the US might be holding off on a deal so that US President Donald Trump could announce it on a potential visit to Israel next month.

Lior Ashkenazi accuses government of ‘abandonment’ in fiery speech as rally for hostages begins

Actor Lior Ashkenazi delivers the opening speech at a thousands-strong rally demanding a hostage-release and ceasefire deal in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on August 26, 2025. (Uriel Even Sapir/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

In front of thousands of demonstrators gathered at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, actor Lior Ashkenazi delivers a fiery speech lambasting the government, accusing ministers of delaying the signing of a hostage deal.

“An entire week, an entire week has passed since Hamas sent its agreement,” he says, noting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet met earlier in the day. The ministers reportedly did not discuss the temporary ceasefire on the table.

“How callous, obtuse and indifferent must one be to behave this way?” he says. “This is abandonment, there is no other word,” he says, adding that “this evening proves it.”

“There will be no more routine so long as they [the hostages] are there,” he says, calling on the government to adopt the current proposal for a temporary ceasefire and hostage release.

“Move forward with this agreement, damn it!” he shouts.

“Whoever thought that last week was the peak [of protests] hasn’t seen anything,” he says to cheers from the crowd.

Reports: Seven injured in settler attack in southern West Bank

Palestinian media outlets report that seven people were injured during a settler attack in a village in the West Bank’s South Hebron Hills.

Those injured include four Palestinians and three Israeli activists who were in the village of Qawawis, the reports say.

Footage of the incident shows three individuals approaching residents’ homes and beating several locals with clubs.

According to the reports, settlers also threw stones, sprayed pepper spray, and smashed security cameras, car windows, and solar panels in the area. Several of the injured were evacuated to a hospital for treatment.

🚨🚨🚨
1/3 דיווח ראשוני: תקיפת מתנחלים קשה הערב בכפר גוואוויס. שתי פעילות סולידריות ומספר תושבות מפונות לבית החולים, תושבים נוספים פצועים. לפני זמן קצר קבוצת מתנחלים רעולי פנים וחמושים באלות פלשו לכפר גוואוויס, תקפו תושבים ופעילות סולידריות במכות עם אלות, אבנים ובגז פלפל> pic.twitter.com/YX817vXaWh

— מחוץ לעדר (@masafering) August 26, 2025

Democrats vote down resolution calling for arms embargo on Israel, recognizing Palestinian state

US Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin speaks during a news conference in Aurora, Ill., on August 5, 2025. (AP/Erin Hooley, File)

The US Democratic National Committee has voted down a resolution calling for an Israel arms embargo, recognition of a Palestinian state and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The text of the resolution did not mention the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Strip.

The resolution was not expected to pass, but was the latest measure to expose deep divisions within the Democratic Party over Israel, as discussion on the issue lasted longer than any other on today’s DNC agenda.

An alternative resolution submitted by DNC chairman Ken Martin that called for a ceasefire, a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the immediate release of the hostages and a two-state solution was initially advanced by the committee.

However, after the more hardline resolution was voted down, Martin announced that he was withdrawing his resolution and forming a task force with a diverse set of stakeholders to discuss the matter further and build bridges within the party.

Police disavow restrictions on political messaging at Haifa Pride Parade

People march during the annual Pride Parade in Haifa, June 18, 2021. (Roni Ofer/Flash90)

After a junior officer from the Haifa police station restricted political messaging at the city’s upcoming pride parade, a spokesperson for the Israel Police announces that the document was distributed “contrary to the policy of the district commander.”

The notice sent yesterday to parade organizers included new conditions that did not appear in the original license for the event granted by police, including a ban on political information booths and flying flags that could “disturb the public peace.”

The parade was initially set to take place in June, but was postponed amid that month’s war with Iran.

The restrictions were met with indignation from organizers of the parade, who petitioned against the regulations in the High Court of Justice earlier today.

Supreme Court Justice Dafna Barak-Erez harshly criticized the police’s conduct, prompting Police Commissioner Danny Levy to launch a probe into the incident, according to Ynet.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also rejects the regulations, calling them “out of place” and claiming they were distributed by a junior officer without the permission of Haifa station commander Eyal Shahar.

“The decision of a (junior) officer to restrict the freedom of political expression at the pride parade is out of place,” he writes on X, but clarifies that it “does not mean people should shame him — these are the same police that saved us on October 7.” He defends Shahar, who is taking flak for the notice, as a “professional and excellent” officer.

Police also stress that the document was distributed without senior officers’ knowledge and in violation of the original license, saying the Coastal District “works in full cooperation and arm-in-arm with the LGBT community and its representatives, out of respect and appreciation.”

But The Aguda, Israel’s foremost LGBT rights group, claims that proposals to limit political expression were also raised by senior officials in the district during discussions leading up to the event, slated to take place this Thursday. The police deny these claims.

Lawmakers head to event with settler leader amid day of protests, PM expected to attend

Ministers and MKs are heading into an event in Jerusalem’s Mishkenot Sha’ananim neighborhood with Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz, as demonstrators urging a ceasefire deal to free the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza protest outside.

The demonstration comes amid a day of protests for an agreement to free the captives.

The ministers have come directly from a cabinet meeting at which the issue of a hostage-ceasefire deal was reportedly not discussed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the event a little later.

ראש מועצת בנימין ישראל גנץ באירוע החגיגי לחגיגות להכרה והסדרת 17 יישובים בבנימין בהשתתפות ראש הממשלה:

״כעת חברי הממשלה עלינו להתקדם להחלת ריבונות על חבלי בנימין ויהודה ושומרון. עם ישראל כולו מאחוריכם. עם ישראל גאה בכם. לא היה נושא בכנסת שזכה לתמיכה מוחצת כזאת״. pic.twitter.com/7EfdVYb6R9

— ינון מגל (@YinonMagal) August 26, 2025

Thousands of protesters march to rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square

Large crowds of protesters demanding a hostage-release and ceasefire deal march to Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on August 26, 2025. (Aviv Atlas/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Thousands of demonstrators are marching in Tel Aviv, demanding a hostage-release and ceasefire deal.

The marchers proceed from Tel Aviv’s Savidor central train station to Hostages Square, in a mass demonstration meant to conclude a day of nationwide protests.

“Not left, not right, the hostages above all,” chants the crowd, marching behind the hostage families.

Security cabinet meeting ends, reportedly without discussion of temporary ceasefire

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on February 9, 2025. (GPO/Screenshot)

The security cabinet has ended its meeting without discussing the 60-day ceasefire and hostage-release deal on the table, Hebrew media report.

The meeting lasted less than three hours and did not include a formal vote, Channel 12 reports. The meeting had been moved up so that ministers could attend a Jerusalem event hosted by the West Bank’s Binyamin Regional Council.

It took place in the shadow of a day of mass, nationwide protests for a deal to bring back the 50 hostages still held by terror groups in Gaza, and against the government’s plans to escalate the war with the impending conquest of Gaza City. Protesters demonstrated outside the meeting as it took place at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Channel 12 reports that Israel has emphasized to Egypt that it is not interested in a phased agreement and will only negotiate over a comprehensive deal. The agreement on the table, which Egypt said Hamas had agreed to, reportedly includes a 60-day truce that would see the release of 10 living hostages.

According to the network, the government’s stance has not changed, in that it is moving ahead with its expanded offensive in Gaza City to pressure Hamas into agreeing to a comprehensive agreement.

Defense minister, IDF chief say they’ve ended feud over military appointments

Defense Minister Israel Katz (left) and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, June 20, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir announce that they have reached an understanding on the army’s appointment process, following tensions between the two earlier this month over a round of senior promotions.

In a joint statement, the two say they agree that the procedure for IDF appointments will continue to include prior consultation. They stress their commitment to full cooperation, maintaining command continuity, and bolstering the army’s ability to address security challenges.

“The appointment process in the IDF is a cornerstone of personnel management, and we will continue to do everything to advance it smoothly and professionally,” the statement reads.

Earlier this month, Katz had initially refused to approve a slate of promotions announced by Zamir — which included 14 officers raised to brigadier general and numerous other senior postings — saying the chief of staff had held a discussion on the matter “without prior coordination and agreement.”

Today’s statement did not refer directly to the candidates for promotion who were at the center of the dispute.

IDF: Nasser hospital strike targeted Hamas camera; further probe will investigate approval process, munitions used in attack

A view shows the fourth floor of Nasser Hospital damaged after an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on August 25, 2025. Twenty Palestinians, including five journalists and a firefighter, were reported killed in the attack. (Photo by AFP)

The IDF says a preliminary investigation into yesterday’s attack on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis determined that Hamas had installed a surveillance camera at the site to track Israeli troop movements and to help direct attacks against soldiers.

According to the army, Golani Brigade forces operating in the city in southern Gaza identified the camera on the hospital grounds and destroyed it after determining it posed an immediate threat.

More than 20 were killed in the strike, including several journalists, and it drew international condemnation. The IDF says that of those killed in the incident, six were identified as Hamas operatives, including one who took part in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel. The army reiterates that it regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir orders that the probe be deepened in several areas, including the approval process for the strike — particularly regarding the type of munition used and the timing of the attack — as well as the way decisions were made on the ground.

Military officials told Hebrew-language media outlets yesterday that an Israeli army tank team shelled a camera stationed at the hospital, believing the device was being used to track troops. Two shells were fired by the tank, the officials said.

The IDF, in detailing its initial probe today, says its findings were reinforced by intelligence indicating Hamas has been using Nasser Hospital for terror activity, as well as by the terror group’s repeated use of medical facilities for military purposes throughout the war.

Zamir was presented with the initial findings by Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor and instructed the military to complete a full investigation. He emphasized that Hamas “cynically” exploits sensitive civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, to conduct covert intelligence gathering and direct terror attacks.

The military stresses that its operations are directed solely at military targets.

Iran vows to reciprocate after Australia expels envoy over antisemitic attacks

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends the 17th annual BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 7, 2025. (AP/Eraldo Peres)

Iran vows “reciprocal action” after Australia expelled its ambassador over accusations that Tehran was behind antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

“The accusation that has been made is absolutely rejected,” says Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei during a weekly press conference, adding that “any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction.”

Earlier Tuesday, Australia declared Iranian ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi “persona non grata” and ordered him and three other officials to leave the country within seven days.

It also withdrew its own ambassador to Iran and suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran, which opened in 1968.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said intelligence services had concluded that Iran was behind the torching of a kosher cafe in Sydney’s Bondi suburb last October and had directed a major arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December.

No injuries were reported in the two attacks.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a post on X, calls Albanese a “weak politician” and says the accusation against Iran “makes zero sense.”

“Iran is paying the price for the Australian people’s support for Palestine. Canberra should know better than to attempt to appease a regime led by War Criminals,” Iran’s top diplomat says, referring to Israeli politicians.

Baqaei said the measures appear to be “influenced by internal developments” in Australia, including recent protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

“It seems that this action is taken in order to compensate for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed at the Zionist regime (Israel),” he adds.

In protest installation, former captives face photos of their partners still held hostage

Arbel Yehoud and Sharon Aloni-Cunio sit facing photos of their partners, brothers Ariel and David Cunio, in an installation at Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on August 26, 2025. (Ariela Karmel/Times of Israel)

Former hostages Arbel Yehoud and Sharon Aloni-Cunio are taking part in a somber installation at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, as part of a day of protest opposing the government’s decision to expand the war in Gaza, and calling for a deal to bring back the remaining captives.

The two women sit facing photographs of their partners, brothers Ariel and David Cunio, who remain held by Hamas in Gaza. From loudspeakers, voice recordings of Ariel and David play into the square.

Yehoud and Aloni-Cunio are joined by the men’s mother, Sylvia Cunio, who embraces them.

Yehoud was held for 482 days after being kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz with Ariel during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. She was released in January during the most recent ceasefire deal.

Aloni-Cunio was freed in November 2023 along with her two daughters, Yuli and Emma, after more than 50 days in captivity.

The day of protest is organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of most of the hostages.

Paintings by former captives displayed at Hostages Square as part of day of protests

Two halves of a self-portrait by released hostage Liri Albag, displayed at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on August 26, 2025. (Ariela Karmel/Times of Israel)

An exhibition of paintings created by former hostages is being displayed at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, as part of a day of protest demanding a deal to bring back the remaining captives, and opposing the government’s decision to expand the war in Gaza.

The exhibit, previously displayed at Ben Gurion Airport, features paintings and sculptures by released hostages, including Raz Ben Ami, Meirav Tal, Ilana Gritzewsky, Yarden Bibas, Karina Ariev, Naama Levy, Liri Albag, Keren Munder, Ohad Munder-Zichri, Margalit Mozes and Aviva Siegel.

Each work is accompanied by a paragraph written by the artist describing the emotions behind it.

Ben Ami, who has experience creating art, tells The Times of Israel that her painting is “about the chaos in all of our lives, but also about trying to find the good, and the good I see is when all of the hostages will come back.”

She adds, “It’s horrible that we have to stand here and remind people of this, but we have no choice. And we will do it until they are returned.”

Aviva Siegel, also in attendance at the square, writes that her piece takes viewers “to the darkest place in the whole world — where our hostages lie under piles of garbage, suffocating, afraid, sad, hungry, thirsty, frustrated, longing, worried, feeling forgotten. Just like I felt.”

Albag, released from captivity in February, writes that art was the only way she could express herself when she was in Gaza, drawing one half of a self-portrait while there. Now, her two paintings contrast that darkness with a colorful, smiling self-portrait.

“However, half of me is still in Gaza,” she says. “This painting is not just mine. It’s everyone who is still there. I painted myself, but I know that the eyes in this painting are those of someone who is still waiting.”

An artwork by released hostage Yarden Bibas, displayed at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on August 26, 2025. (Ariela Karmel/Times of Israel)

For Bibas, the exhibition is a way of commemorating his murdered family. Abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, Bibas was released in February after his wife Shiri, four-year-old Ariel, and baby Kfir were killed in captivity. His work, “Freedom and Love,” features wire butterflies and the word “love” for his son Ariel, who loved butterflies. “Through butterflies, I send my love to Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir. And through them I also demand freedom for all the kidnapped who are still in captivity,” he writes.

Lebanese president apologizes after US envoy suggests local journalists are ‘animalistic’

The office of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun issues an apology after US special envoy Tom Barrack, scolded journalists in Beirut during a press conference.

At the press conference earlier today, Barrack was seen approaching the microphone amid a din from the journalists. He stepped up to the podium and said, “Be quiet for a moment. And I want to tell you something: The moment that this starts becoming chaotic, like, animalistic, we’re gone. So you want to know what’s happening, act civilized, act kind, act tolerant, because this is the problem with what’s happening in the region.”

In a statement, the Lebanese presidency writes that it “regrets the words that were mistakenly said by one of its guests on stage today… We wish to emphasize our full appreciation for all journalists and media representatives.”

Deputy US envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus was also present at the meeting. Barrack’s office has not apologized as of yet.

השליח האמריקני טום ברק נזף בעיתונאים לבנונים במסע"ת אחרי פגישה בביירות. בנשיאות הלבנונית פרסמו התנצלות "על הדברים שנאמרו מעל הבימה שלנו על ידי אחד מהאורחים היום", והוסיפו "חשוב לנו להדגיש את הערכתנו לכלל העיתונאים ונציגי התקשורת" pic.twitter.com/FnXdo5pTID

— Nurit Yohanan (@nurityohanan) August 26, 2025

Senior Likud MK slams protesters as ‘rioters in Hamas’s service’ who will ‘bury’ hostages

MK Hanoch Milwidsky attends a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on November 25, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky decries those attending today’s protests calling for a deal to free the hostages and end the war in Gaza as “rioters in Hamas’s service.”

The lawmaker, who chairs the Knesset Finance Committee, posts on X that the protesters, who include relatives of the 50 hostages held by Hamas, are condemning the captives to death and endangering soldiers fighting in the Strip.

“The rioters in Hamas’s service are back,” he posts on X above a photo of a fire lit across an Israeli highway. “The torchers of granaries and highways are burying the hostages deep in the tunnels and are trying to weaken IDF soldiers in the middle of a war.”

The reference to granaries is an allusion to internecine Jewish fighting in the period of the Second Temple, some 2,000 years ago. In another reference to that era’s extremists, he calls the protesters “the Sicarii of 2025.”

Protests on behalf of a hostage deal have also drawn condemnations from other members of the coalition, who say the demonstrations undermine Israel’s fight against Hamas and lessen pressure on the terror group.

Germany’s Merz says he doesn’t believe Israeli strike on Gaza hospital targeted journalists

Friedrich Merz delivers his first speech as German chancellor in the parliament in Berlin, Germany, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says he does not believe at this time that an Israeli attack on a hospital in Gaza that killed at least 20 people was targeting journalists.

“But the Israeli army and the Israeli government have both promised to launch a comprehensive investigation into this incident,” Merz says at a press conference in Berlin.

“And I would like to wait for the results of this investigation before making a final judgment,” he adds.

Israel struck Nasser hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 20 people, including five journalists who worked for international outlets.

Germany’s Foreign Office said Monday that it was “shocked” by the strike, and urged an investigation.

Protesters to demonstrate outside security cabinet meeting, demanding hostage deal

Hundreds of protesters are marching to the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem where the security cabinet is currently meeting, with the demonstrators demanding a full hostage-release and ceasefire deal.

At the front of the demonstration, members of the socialist Hashomer Hatzair youth movement hold a banner that reads: “We are one step away from a complete torpedoing,” referring to fears that the government will tank a prospective hostage deal.

Police flank the demonstrators and have blocked off the road in one direction to allow the march to proceed.

“First of all, first of all, human lives above all,” protesters chant as they march down the street, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies of “abandoning the hostages.”

The demonstration is taking place as the security cabinet convenes in the Prime Minister’s Office to approve plans for the next stages of the IDF’s operation to take over Gaza City.

Hebrew outlets report that the cabinet will not discuss the phased ceasefire and hostage-release deal that Hamas said it accepted last week.

Protesters march to the PMO in Jerusalem as security cabinet convenes to approve plans for the army's operation to take over Gaza City pic.twitter.com/ICCGMmVnDb

— charlie summers (@cbsu03) August 26, 2025

IDF confirms daytime raid and arrests in Ramallah, troops seize funds allegedly meant for terror

Israeli soldiers conduct a raid in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on August 26, 2025. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

The IDF confirms that its forces conducted a daytime raid in Ramallah’s city center today, hours after videos circulated on social media showing Israeli troops and military vehicles moving through the city, which serves as the seat of the Palestinian Authority.

According to the military, soldiers from the Binyamin Regional Brigade, along with Duvdevan commando unit fighters and Border Police forces, stormed a currency exchange office accused of transferring funds to Hamas operatives to finance terror activity. The operation was carried out with intelligence guidance from Central Command and the Shin Bet.

During the raid, five suspects allegedly involved in terror activity were arrested, and hundreds of thousands of shekels identified as terror funds were confiscated, the IDF says.

Arab media reports several civilian casualties during the raid.

The military adds that the operation is part of its broader campaign across the West Bank to dismantle the financial networks of terror groups.

Summoned by French diplomats over letter decrying inaction on antisemitism, US envoy sends deputy in his stead

FILE - Charles Kushner arrives for the funeral of Ivana Trump, July 20, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

After being summoned by the French Foreign Ministry over a letter accusing Paris of failing to sufficiently combat antisemitism, US Ambassador Charles Kushner sent the embassy’s chargé d’affaires in his stead, says a French diplomatic source.

In the Monday afternoon meeting at the Quai d’Orsay, two senior French diplomats told the US official that Kushner’s letter was “unacceptable both in substance and in form.”

Kushner, a real-estate developer and father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, expressed in his letter to French President Emmanuel Macron “deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it.”

“The criticisms expressed by the ambassador amounted to interference in the internal affairs of our country and conveyed an assessment that did not reflect the reality of France’s steadfast mobilization in combating the scourge of antisemitism,” says the diplomatic source.

“The chargé d’affaires was reminded in particular of the key measures implemented under the National Action Plan against Racism, Antisemitism and Discrimination based on Origin, as well as of the French framework holding digital platforms accountable for the removal of hateful and violence-inciting content.”

The US official responded that Kushner is eager to work with France on combating antisemitism, according to the French source.

The French diplomats responded, the source says, that France is ready to follow up on bilateral discussions on antisemitism that took place in November 2024, “provided that our discussions take place in a climate of trust and in a constructive spirit, as can be expected from the United States.”

Security cabinet starts meeting, reportedly won’t discuss temporary ceasefire deal

A security cabinet meeting, in Jerusalem, June 14, 2025. (Avi Ohayon/GPO)

The security cabinet begins its meeting at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem, his spokesman’s office tells The Times of Israel.

The forum is expected to approve operational plans for the next stages of the IDF operation in Gaza City. According to Hebrew-language reports, it will not debate the phased ceasefire and hostage-release deal that Hamas said it accepted last week.

According to multiple reports, the security cabinet meeting was moved up to 4 p.m. — and will end by 7 p.m. — because of an event hosted this evening by the West Bank’s Mateh Binyamin Regional Council chief Israel Ganz in Jerusalem’s Mishkenot Sha’ananim neighborhood.

Eisenkot says government ‘not worthy’ of his son and others killed in Gaza war

MK Gadi Eisenkot attends an Israel Democracy Institute conference in Jerusalem on November 20, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff, says the government “is not worthy” of his son Gal, who was killed in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Eisenkot adds in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster that the government is also unworthy of other soldiers and hostages who have lost their lives in the nearly two-year war.

His son was one of the soldiers who “paid with his life to bring back the fallen,” Eisenkot says in the interview. “And this government is a government that is running away from its responsibility and is not worthy of Gal… and is not worthy of many other combat soldiers and unfortunately also hostages who lost their lives because of cowardice, because of political indecision, because of the political and ideological considerations of people who want to resettle the Gaza Strip.”

Eisenkot’s son was killed while serving in the IDF in Gaza in December 2023, while Eisenkot was a member of a since-dissolved emergency war cabinet formed in the wake of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre and launch of the Gaza war.

Eisenkot has since become an outspoken critic of the government’s approach to the war.

In the interview, he says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition doesn’t “understand their responsibility” and does not heed public opinion, which, surveys show, supports a deal to end the war and bring the hostages back.

Protesters block routes 1 and 6 as part of demonstrations for hostage deal

Dozens of protesters demanding a hostage-release and ceasefire deal block traffic on routes 1 and 6 as part of a nationwide day of protest on August 26, 2025. (Screenshot/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Dozens of protesters are blocking Route 1 and Route 6, two major highways in central Israel, near Daniel Interchange, where the two roads meet.

The blockages are part of a nationwide day of protest aimed at pressuring the government into negotiating a deal to release the 50 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

The highways between Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other major cities are blocked to traffic in both directions at the moment, Haaretz reports, with protesters burning tires at three different spots on the roads.

On Route 6, demonstrators unfurl a massive banner on the road that reads: “Ending the war, bringing everyone home.”

Protests on behalf of the hostages are taking place throughout the day and, earlier, groups of protesters blocked major roads.

Later tonight, thousands are expected to convene outside Tel Aviv’s Savidor train station and march from there to Hostages Square, calling for an agreement to return all Hamas-held hostages and end the war in Gaza.

Supermarkets reportedly beginning to ration milk amid shortage

A sign limiting customers to one carton of milk at an unnamed supermarket, aired on August 26, 2025 on Channel 12. (Screenshot)

Some supermarkets in Israel are beginning to ration milk, Channel 12 reports, amid a nationwide shortage of the dairy staple.

The channel displays photos of supermarket signage limiting customers to as few as one carton of milk per customer.

Correspondent Hili Keren says that such limits are rare but that the shortage is expected to get worse before it gets better.

“In all or most of the big chains we’re not seeing this kind of rationing,” she says. But she adds, “We’re jut at the beginning of the shortage… The real shortage is expected to come with the holidays” that begin with Rosh Hashanah in about a month.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently announced measures to try to ease the shortage.

UN inquiry on alleged Israeli violence hampered by funding shortfall, document shows

Attendees stand during a moment of silence during a ministerial high level meeting during the United Nations conference on a two state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, at UN headquarters on July 28, 2025, in New York City. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)

A team of UN investigators tasked with researching cases of violence by Israeli West Bank settlers and the transfer of arms to Israel for use in the Gaza war cannot complete their work because of financial constraints, a recent document shows.

The incident shows how dire funding shortages in the UN system, caused by donor fatigue and belt-tightening, are harming global accountability efforts for alleged abuses after a Congo probe was stalled earlier this year.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory – established in May 2021 by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council – can provide evidence of alleged international crimes used in pre-trial investigations by tribunals like the International Criminal Court.

Israel regularly criticizes the commission, which has condemned actions by the IDF since the onset of the war in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.

Last year, the council approved a request from Pakistan to research additional evidence on arms transfers to Israel in the context of the Gaza war and Israeli settler violence.

But Navi Pillay, who heads the inquiry, has told the council’s president in an August 6 letter that a lack of funds meant it was unable to hire staff.

“The Commission has started informing the sponsors of the two resolutions that it will be unable to produce these mandated reports and present them to the Council in March 2026,” writes Pillay, who has served as a judge at the ICC and is a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

A backlog of UN mandatory fees, including from the top donor, the United States, which owes around $1.5 billion, has worsened a long-running UN liquidity crisis. In response, the global body plans to cut its budget by 20 percent.

Overall, 12 of the current 47 voting members on the council – set to meet in September to discuss crises in Sudan and Afghanistan – have outstanding fees, according to a tally by the International Service for Human Rights.

Israel exploring ways to end war in Gaza, as US asks for Hamas’s demands – report

In this photo provided by the Government Press Office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, convenes his security cabinet to vote on a ceasefire deal in Jerusalem, January 17, 2025. (Koby Gideon/Israeli Government Press Office via AP)

Israel is exploring avenues for ending the war in Gaza, the Maariv daily reports, without citing sources. According to the outlet, US officials recently asked Qatari counterparts to get Hamas to lay out a list of its demands for ending the war and releasing all hostages.

Hamas has yet to respond, says the report.

Meanwhile, according to Maariv, a mid-level Egyptian delegation was in Israel on Monday to try to nail down the location of the next round of talks on a ceasefire in Gaza.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman says in a press conference that the location doesn’t matter, putting the onus on Israel.

“What matters now is not the venue,” says Majed Al-Ansari, “but that an agreement is reached now. There is already an offer on the table to which Israel must respond.”

“Attempts to stall by shifting locations or other tactics are clear to the international community, and it is time for Israel to give a serious answer to what it has already agreed to in the past.”

Israel’s security cabinet is about to meet to discuss the war and negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage-release agreement.

‘We know what fear is’: Holocaust survivors gather at Hostages Square in show of solidarity

Holocaust survivor and former Israeli lawmaker Colette Avital speaks at a protest of Holocaust survivors and relatives of the Gaza hostages in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, on August 26, 2025. (Ariela Karmel/Times of Israel)

Holocaust survivors gather at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, seated at a long table in the center of the plaza and facing rows of empty chairs draped with posters of the hostages, as part of a day of protest organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum demanding a deal to bring the captives home and condemning the government’s decision to widen the war in Gaza.

The table is set with empty plates, a few scraps of pita, cans of beans, and sand scattered across the black tablecloth, symbolizing the starvation and inhumane conditions in captivity.

“We know what a Holocaust is, what hunger is, and what fear is,” says Holocaust survivor and former Israeli lawmaker Colette Avital. “We came to this country with values of solidarity. We learned that we don’t leave people behind. We don’t see that this government is doing what it needs to do to bring back [the hostages].”

“Fifty years from now, you’ll ask yourselves where you were,” she says, urging Israelis to act. “Everyone needs to [go out] and fight. We all need to end this nightmare and bring everyone home.”

Shulamit Rudnik, another survivor, appeals directly to the prime minister: “Enough, Bibi. Stop. Give us our children, our grandchildren. Calm the mothers and grandparents.”

The survivors, seated at the table, are joined by family members of the hostages, including Moti Angrest, the grandfather of hostage Matan Angrest, holding a poster of his grandson, who is believed to be alive. Also in attendance is Zamir Haimi, the uncle of Tal Haimi, who was murdered during the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught on Kibbutz Nir Oz. His body is still being held in Gaza by terrorists.

IDF releases new footage showing destruction of Hamas tunnels in central Gaza

The IDF releases new footage showing the destruction of two Hamas tunnels in the central Gaza Strip, part of a monthlong operation by forces from the Gaza Division’s southern brigade, the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, and the Gaza Division’s engineering units.

According to the military, one of the tunnels, which featured multiple exit shafts, contained living quarters, food, weapons, and other facilities used by Hamas operatives. Troops filled the tunnel with concrete to seal it.

A second offensive underground route, stretching hundreds of meters, was destroyed with explosives.

The IDF says that in the course of the operation, dozens of Hamas fighters were killed, and both underground and aboveground terror infrastructure was dismantled. The military adds that the effort was aimed at widening the security buffer along the central and southern border of the Gaza Strip.

EU demands thorough investigation into ‘completely unacceptable’ strikes on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital yesterday

Israel’s deadly strike on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital yesterday is “completely unacceptable,” says the European Union’s diplomatic arm in a statement.

“Civilians and journalists must be protected under international law,” says the EU’s External Action Service. “The EU reiterates its call on Israel to respect international humanitarian law and to ensure that these attacks are investigated, noting the statement by the Israeli authorities that a thorough investigation will be conducted. There have been too many fatalities in this conflict.”

The Monday morning attack killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, according to media reports and the Hamas-run health ministry.

Man indicted for twice assaulting his disabled mother, causing brain hemorrhage

State prosecutors file an indictment against a 34-year-old man accused of twice assaulting his bedridden, partially paralyzed mother.

Police arrested the unnamed defendant on August 2 after he allegedly beat his 64-year-old mother to the point where she required hospitalization. Medical staff later found that she had sustained a brain hemorrhage as a result of the attack.

The defendant has a history of violence against his mother, who testified to having been assaulted by her son at an unknown date, in which he caused bleeding in her genital area, prosecutors say.

According to the indictment filed today, the defendant tried to keep his mother’s caregiver out of his parents’ house in Ashkelon by changing the locks.

When the caregiver arrived at the complainant’s home the morning of July 13, she realized she had been locked out and heard the mother shouting her name and crying for help.

The son cursed the caregiver from behind the locked door, refusing to let her in.

The caregiver called the police, who, after failing to convince the defendant to open up, forced their way into the house and arrested him.

He was released a week later, under a 15-day restraining order barring him from entering his parents’ house. But he violated the order in early August when he entered his parents’ home at night, as his father slept in another room.

The defendant punched and kicked his mother, causing her brain to hemorrhage. She also suffered severe bruising, skin-level wounds to her neck and upper chest, breathing difficulties and tremors as a result of the attack, reads the indictment.

The complainant was taken to Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center, where her condition deteriorated further, leading staff to transfer her to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where she was sedated and placed on a ventilator. She was discharged after two weeks of treatment.

The son is charged in the Beersheba District Court with assaulting a helpless person whom he is responsible for, causing severe injury; obstructing a police officer from performing his duty; and violating a court-issued restraining order.

Qatar: IDF incursions into Syria are ‘blatant violation’ of its sovereignty

Qatar “strongly condemns” reported IDF incursions into Syrian territory, calling them a “blatant violation” of sovereignty and urging the international community to “take decisive measures” to compel Israel to refrain from what it describes as repeated aggressions.

“The State of Qatar strongly condemns the incursion of Israeli occupation forces into the territories of the sisterly Syrian Arab Republic, considering it a blatant violation of Syria’s sovereignty, a flagrant breach of international law, and a challenge to the international will supporting Syria’s reconstruction, development, and the establishment of peace in the region,” writes the Qatari Foreign Ministry on X.

Doha calls on the international community “to take decisive measures” against Israel, “to compel it to cease its repeated aggressions on the Syrian territories and the irresponsible actions, which pose a serious threat to regional and international security.”

Earlier today, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would not retreat from positions on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon and in other areas across the border, a day after Syria condemned what it said was an Israeli military incursion into an area in the country’s south near the border with the Golan Heights, as well as Israel’s “control” of an area in the Mount Hermon foothills.

According to Syrian media, Israel shelled a home in a village near the border with the Golan Heights this morning, allegedly killing one civilian. There was no comment from the IDF on the alleged strike.

Katz said the IDF’s presence “on the summit of [Mount] Hermon and in the security zone” is necessary for “defending communities in the Golan and Galilee from threats emanating from the Syrian side.”

His comments came after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told Arab journalists this week that his government was in “advanced” negotiations with Israel on a security agreement, which reportedly could see Syria’s side of the Golan Heights demilitarized, with the Syrian army blocked from operating in sensitive areas.

B’nai B’rith report finds drastic increase in antisemitic incidents at European universities since Oct. 7

Students shout slogans and display a banner reading "Long live the student intifada" as they take part in an anti-Israel rally at the Sorbonne University in Paris on April 29, 2024. (Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/AFP)

There has been a dramatic increase in antisemitic incidents at European universities in the 22 months since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre and the outbreak of war in Gaza, a newly published B’nai B’rith report finds.

The report, “A climate of fear and exclusion: Antisemitism at European universities,” examines universities in eight European Union countries — Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden — as well as the United Kingdom.

The report finds that there are “clear and repeated patterns of antisemitic or otherwise harmful behaviors” at universities across the nine countries, B’nai B’rith says, adding that it used the IHRA definition of antisemitism throughout.

It says these behaviors include threats and physical violence toward Jewish students and staff; calls to violence as appropriate protest action; solidarity with Hamas; widespread Holocaust distortion; calls for Israel’s destruction; and widespread vandalism following protests, and targeted vandalism of Jewish premises.

The report also found that various student groups have worked with organizations that have ties to proscribed terror groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is classified as a terror group by the EU.

In Austria, Germany and Spain, B’nai B’rith says, protests have been supported by organizations with “ties to terrorist activity,” including Samidoun — the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Meanwhile, in Austria, it says, students are working with organizations such as Dar al Janub, which it says has “direct documented links to Hamas.”

In some instances, university students have engaged in Holocaust distortion and instrumentalization in order to draw a “false equivalence” with the war in Gaza, B’nai B’rith says, calling this behavior “particularly pernicious.”

These instances include protest chants such as “Zionists are all the same, Nazis by a different name,” which was heard at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and a move by the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht to cancel a lecture series on the Holocaust and antisemitism.

Antisemitic vandalism featured at many of the universities covered in the report.

In particular, it notes 17 instances of antisemitic or hateful “damage and desecration” at UK universities in Nottingham, Birmingham, Leeds, Kent, Norwich, London, Sussex, Oxford, Sheffield, Brighton, and Canterbury in the 2023-2024 academic year, up from just four instances a year prior.

According to B’nai B’rith, Jewish students at these universities “report feelings of fear, isolation, and disenfranchisement within academic spaces that should otherwise serve as environments of mutual respect and open discussion.”

The report also offers suggestions as to how universities can address these issues, including by creating new codes of conduct as well as “broader, long-term, sustained trust-building measures.”

“This report makes clear that Europe’s universities are failing their Jewish students,” say B’nai B’rith International president Robert Spitzer and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin. “Just as we have seen on campuses across the United States, antisemitism here is too often excused as ‘activism’—but in reality, it is a threat to safety, inclusion and the very integrity of higher education.”

Qatar says Israel hasn’t responded to latest ceasefire offer, appears uninterested in reaching deal

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari says Qatar has not yet received a response from Israel to the latest ceasefire and hostage deal proposal.

He says that the offer on the table “matches 90% of what Israel wants.”

“The ball is now in Israel’s court, and it seems that it does not want to reach an agreement,” Ansari adds.

His remarks, quoted in Arab media, are delivered during a Qatari Foreign Ministry press briefing.

In social media outburst, Katz says Brazil’s Lula ‘revealed his true face’ by withdrawing from IHRA last month

Defense Minister Israel Katz lashes out at Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, accusing him of being a “declared antisemite and supporter of Hamas” after Brazil officially withdrew from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in July.

Posting in Portuguese on X, alongside an AI-generated image showing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei manipulating a puppet-like Lula, Katz recalls that during his tenure as foreign minister, he had already declared the Brazilian leader “persona non grata” in Israel after Lula compared Israel’s war in Gaza to the Holocaust.

Katz charges that Lula has now “revealed his true face,” aligning Brazil with regimes such as Iran that deny the Holocaust and threaten Israel’s existence. He stresses that Israel “will know how to defend itself against the axis of radical Islam” even without Lula’s support, while lamenting that “the wonderful people of Brazil and the many friends of Israel in Brazil” must contend with their president’s stance.

Brazil’s withdrawal from the IHRA — an intergovernmental body dedicated to Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism — has been met with sharp condemnation from Jewish organizations worldwide, including the World Jewish Congress.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that it is downgrading diplomatic ties with Brazil after the South American country refused to approve the credentials of Israel’s ambassador-designate. The ministry noted that Brazil has pursued a “critical and hostile line” toward Israel since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre, which escalated after Lula accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and likened it to Nazi Germany.

Dutch carrier KLM to resume Tel Aviv-Amsterdam route from September 28

Dutch carrier KLM will resume flight services to and from Israel on September 28, after suspending operations over security concerns in June.

After a one-year absence, the airline had only just resumed its Tel Aviv-Amsterdam route when it canceled it again on June 13 due to the closure of Israel’s airspace following Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure and Iranian missile and drone barrages.

The airline will operate the Tel Aviv-Amsterdam route once daily with a Boeing 737-900, which seats 188 passengers.

For the time being, the flight time will be extended by about an hour to include a brief stop in Larnaca, Cyprus, in order to switch out crew members who are concerned about being in Israel for prolonged periods amid the ongoing war.

Police say 102 Palestinians residing illegally in Israel arrested in Tel Aviv raid overnight

Police nabbed 102 Palestinians residing illegally in Israel during a nighttime raid on an apartment building in Tel Aviv’s Florentin neighborhood, law enforcement announces.

Officers from the Jaffa police station and Border Police forces arrested the property owners, two brothers aged 76 and 80, on suspicion of harboring illegal residents in several units within the building.

Blurry footage distributed by the police depicts security forces raiding apartments in the building, then leading dozens of detainees down the stairs before gathering them outside.

Police say that licensing inspectors and investigators at the Jaffa police station will “pursue both administrative and criminal measures against those responsible.”

Police raid an apartment building in Tel Aviv’s Florentin neighborhood, detain 102 Palestinians illegally residing in Israel overnight on August 25-26, 2025. (Israel Police)

Lebanon to come up with plan on August 31 to convince Hezbollah to disarm, US envoy says

US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria and Lebanon Thomas Barrack delivers a statement following a meeting with Lebanon's president at the Presidential Palace in Baabda on August 26, 2025. (Anwar Amro/AFP)

Lebanon will come up with a plan on August 31 to convince Hezbollah to disarm, US Special Envoy for Syria and Lebanon Thomas Barrack says.

Israel will give a counterproposal when it receives Lebanon’s plan, Barrack says after meeting with the Lebanese president in Beirut.

Barrack says the plan Lebanon is preparing will not necessarily involve military action to persuade Hezbollah to give up its weapons.

“The Lebanese army and the government are not talking about going to war. They are talking about how to convince Hezbollah to give up those arms,” he says.

Last week, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem warned the Lebanese government against confronting the Iran-backed group, stating that there would be “no life” in Lebanon if it did.

Israel signaled it would reduce its military presence in southern Lebanon if the Lebanese Armed Forces acted to disarm Hezbollah, according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday.

Video footage appears to show IDF troops operating in Ramallah; no comment from military

Videos circulating on social media, allegedly taken earlier today, show Israeli forces operating in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

One clip appears to depict soldiers raiding a local currency exchange office, while others show military vehicles and troops moving through the city streets.

While the IDF has maintained a strong presence throughout the West Bank since the outbreak of the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, it is uncommon for the military to operate inside Ramallah, the administrative center of the Palestinian Authority.

The IDF has not yet commented on the reports.

♦️ פשיטה של כוחות מיוחדים על עסק של חלפן כספים במרכז רמאללה מה שגרם לבהלה בין התושבים. pic.twitter.com/krzwxf8Ghg

— Asslan Khalil (@KhalilAsslan) August 26, 2025

Egypt said bolstering troops along Gaza border, fearing Palestinians will try to flee expanded IDF op

Egyptian army soldiers man an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) deployed near the Egyptian side of the Rafah Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip on March 23, 2024 (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)

Egypt is bolstering its forces along its shared border with Gaza ahead of the IDF’s planned offensive to capture Gaza City due to concerns that the mass evacuation of Palestinians from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south will lead to chaos along the border, according to Arabic and Hebrew media reports.

Close to a million civilians, or almost half of the Strip’s population, have been residing in Gaza City, many of whom have started evacuating southward in anticipation of Israel’s offensive, although no official evacuation warnings have been issued yet.

Egyptian officials are concerned that this mass evacuation of Gaza City’s residents could lead to Palestinians fleeing over the border to Egypt, reports say.

As such, Arabic-language media say some 40,000 Egyptian soldiers are now deployed in the northern Sinai area, ready to man the 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) border that separates it from the Gaza Strip.

An unnamed Egyptian official tells the London-based Qatari outlet Al-Araby Al Jadeed that Cairo views the possible outpouring of Gazans into Egypt as a potential national security threat, which would create a humanitarian and security crisis in the Sinai region.

Egyptian sources tell the news outlet that the mass deployment also serves to send a message to Israel that it rejects any attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians into other countries, including Egypt.

In response to a query from the Kan public broadcaster, the IDF tells the outlet that “any introduction of military capabilities into Sinai is carried out in coordination with the IDF and the political echelon.”

Four-story scaffolding collapse at Tel Aviv construction site kills worker, injures 3

Magen David Adom paramedics arrive to the site of a scaffolding collapse in Tel Aviv which killed one construction worker on August 26, 2025. (Magen David Adom)

A construction worker has died after four-story scaffolding collapsed at a construction site in Tel Aviv, police and paramedics say. Three others were hurt in the collapse — one in moderate condition and two others with mild injuries.

Police arrested the site manager and took him in for interrogation by a special police division that focuses on construction accidents.

Paramedics arrived at the scene to find that the scaffolding surrounding a building under renovation had given way. The three injured workers were found amid the rubble, fully conscious, and were transported to the hospital.

“We were told that one person was still missing under the rubble. Rescue operations continued together with the firefighters and Home Front Command, and eventually, a man around 30 years old was located,” says a Magen David Adom medic.

The man had no pulse and was not breathing, and medics declared him dead at the scene.

Security cabinet to convene at 4 p.m. for talks on Gaza fighting, hostage deal efforts

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet at 4 p.m. today to discuss Gaza and efforts to reach a hostage deal, his office tells The Times of Israel.

The premier’s office declines to say whether Netanyahu will raise the ceasefire and phased hostage-release proposal that Hamas said it accepted last week, though Hebrew media reports it is not on the meeting’s agenda.

In the days following Hamas’s announcement, Netanyahu said he had instructed Israel’s negotiating team to resume talks toward a comprehensive agreement that would secure the release of all hostages and end the war on Israel’s terms, while reiterating his commitment to the cabinet-approved plan to seize control of Gaza City.

Talks are said to be ongoing over the location of the next round of talks, with their timing and the makeup of Israel’s delegation still undecided.

IDF says it foiled attempt to smuggle weapons from Egypt via drone

The IDF says that its forces foiled another attempt to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Israel.

According to the military, surveillance units spotted a drone crossing into Israeli territory across the Egyptian border earlier today. Troops intercepted the aircraft, which was carrying four MAG machine guns, and confiscated it.

The seized weapons were transferred to security forces for further investigation, the IDF adds.

In the past year, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egyptian border using drones. There have also been attempts to smuggle similar contraband from Israel into Gaza using drones.

כוחות צה”ל סיכלו ניסיון הברחת אמצעי לחימה לישראל בגבול המערבי

תצפיות צה”ל זיהו הבוקר במרחב חטיבת פארן, רחפן שחצה מהגבול המערבי לשטח מדינת ישראל בניסיון להבריח אמצעי לחימה.

לוחמי צה״ל איתרו והחרימו את הרחפן שנשא ארבעה נשקים ארוכים.

אמצעי הלחימה הועברו להמשך טיפול כוחות הביטחון pic.twitter.com/UxKeILNALL

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 26, 2025

Germany ‘doesn’t see requirements met’ for recognition of Palestinian state, Merz says

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (R) and Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney hold a joint press conference after bilateral talks at the Chancellery on August 26, 2025 in Berlin. (Tobias Schwarz/AFP)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says Germany will not join an initiative of Western allies to recognize the Palestinian state at next month’s United Nations General Assembly.

Merz is speaking at a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who said last month that Canada planned to recognize the state of Palestine at the General Assembly, following similar announcements by France and Britain.

“The position of the federal government is clear, as far as the possible recognition of the state of Palestine is concerned,” Merz says.

“Canada knows this. We will not join this initiative. We don’t see the requirements met.”

Iran claims Australia’s decision to expel ambassador driven by internal affairs

Australia’s decision to expel Iran’s ambassador was motivated by internal Australian affairs, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson says.

Australia said it would expel Iran’s ambassador to Canberra, as it accused Tehran of responsibility for two antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

MK Gilad Kariv says only public pressure will free hostages, urges Israelis to take to the streets

Labor MK Gilad Kariv in Hostages Square during a nationwide day of protests, on August 26, 2025. (Ariela Karmel/Times of Israel)

Labor MK Gilad Kariv calls on Israelis to take to the streets, arguing that only mass protest can bring home the remaining 50 captives still held in Gaza.

“Two hostage deals that returned [almost] 200 people to Israel only happened because of public pressure,” Kariv tells The Times of Israel at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, where he is taking part in a day of protests organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum over the government’s failure to reach a hostage deal and its decision to expand the war in Gaza.

“It’s true that the Biden and Trump administrations closed these deals, but without hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the streets, Netanyahu wouldn’t have even entered them.”

Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March, and one additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, in May as a “gesture” to the United States.

Prior to that, it freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and another four were released in the first weeks of the war.

Citing polls showing that most Israelis support ending the war in exchange for a hostage deal, Kariv argues that passive agreement is not enough.

“If a million Israelis don’t take to the streets, we won’t end the war, and there will be no hostage deal. It’s really in the hands of the Israeli public,” he says.

He posits that if there is enough public pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t be able to continue the war and will have to agree to a hostage deal, despite opposition from far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, who have threatened to collapse the governing coalition if he does so.

Hostages Square filling up in support of families marking nationwide day of protest

An exhibit displayed in Hostages Square, Tel Aviv, on August 26, 2025, aims to evoke the starvation and inhumane conditions of Hamas captivity. (Ariela Karmel/Times of Israel)

A crowd is steadily filling Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, as part of a National Day of Struggle called by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Following last week’s general strike, this day is framed as one of “civilian action,” and while the crowd is smaller, people are still coming to support families and attend events being held throughout the day.

At the center of the square stands a haunting exhibit: a long table lined with yellow chairs, each marked by the face of a hostage. Plates are set out but empty. A few scraps of pita, cans of beans, and sand are scattered across the black tablecloth — evoking the starvation and inhumane conditions in captivity.

Strollers sit opposite, symbolizing the mothers who will not give up on their children. Organizers say the strollers will be switched out throughout the day, with a group of Holocaust survivors taking their place, followed by other groups wishing to show solidarity.

Among those present are Kobi and Idit Ohel, whose son Alon was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7 and has been held in Gaza since. He is badly wounded in one eye.

“Alon has to be returned home,” Kobi tells The Times of Israel. “He’s suffering, wounded, [has spent] almost two years under the worst conditions. It’s a miracle that he’s surviving.”

“He’s strong, he believes in this country, and he knows that Israel will save him,” he continues. “They have to be saved now. There’s an agreement on the table. This is the time.”

On US visit, Sa’ar says Western ‘left-wing’ governments cannot force Palestinian state on Israel

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar speaks at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York, in an image released on August 26, 2025. (Ohad Kab/Foreign Ministry)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, on his first official visit to the US since taking office last year, accuses “left-wing” Western governments of trying to “force” a Palestinian state on Israel — a step he warns would amount to “suicide” for the country.

“Left-wing governments in various countries, including France, Britain, Canada, and Australia, are trying to force a Palestinian state on Israel,” Sa’ar says while briefing the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York, according to a readout from his office.

“Israel cannot allow this. For us, it would be an act of suicide,” he says, accusing Western capitals of “trying to build momentum” through their recently announced plans to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state in September.

The foreign minister tells the Jewish leaders that Israel is “in a better strategic position than we were two years ago,” pointing to Israel’s successes against the Iranian axis.

“But what was once a military siege is turning into an attempt at a political siege on Israel, with a clear goal: to force a Palestinian state upon us,” he warns.

Pointing to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre, Sa’ar claims that a Palestinian state in the West Bank or Gaza would place “all of our population centers under threat,” insisting that “west of the Jordan, there can be no foreign sovereignty or military presence.”

Israel’s consul in New York, Ofir Akunis, also joined the briefing, Sa’ar’s office adds.

Sa’ar is scheduled to meet in Washington tomorrow with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, as well as with AIPAC leaders. He will also host a reception for Jewish and Christian supporters of Israel.

IDF says mock explosive device made of plastic discovered near West Bank settlement overnight

The IDF says a suspicious object that was discovered last night near Kibbutz Migdal Oz in the West Bank was a mock explosive device made of plastic.

The military says that security forces located the object, which contained no explosives, and destroyed it in a controlled manner.

Images circulating on social media show what appears to be a sewer pipe with a propeller attached to the end, and which Hebrew media outlets describe as a “dummy explosive device.”

The IDF emphasizes that, contrary to some reports, the object was not a missile.

אמש, התגלה חפץ חשוד באזור מגדל עוז שבחטיבת עציון.

כוחות הביטחון איתרו את החפץ והשמידו אותו באופן מבוקר.
בניגוד לדיווחים, לא מדובר בטיל אלא בחפץ העשוי מפלסטיק ללא חומר נפץ כלל pic.twitter.com/fSnphA4I01

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 26, 2025

All roads now reopened after earlier protests, police say

Protesters block the Yakum Junction area along Route 2 as they demand an agreement to free the hostages and end the war in Gaza, on August 26, 2025. (Simon/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

All roads across Israel are now open to traffic after protests earlier this morning, police say.

The police stress that “freedom of protest and expression is not freedom to harm many others’ freedom of movement.”

“Blocking roads without permission and in a manner that may endanger road users or harm citizens’ freedom of movement will not be allowed,” the statement adds.

Syrian media reports one killed by IDF fire in village near border

Syrian media reports one person was killed by IDF fire near Quneitra, close to the Israeli-Syrian border, in the village of Tranjah, earlier this morning.

According to the reports, Rami Ranam was killed in an IDF strike on a house in his village.

It is unclear whether the strike was carried out from the air or if it was the result of gunfire during a ground operation in the area.

There is no immediate response from the IDF.

Katz insists IDF will maintain presence on Syrian Hermon, as Israel said in talks with Damascus on security deal

Defense Minister Israel Katz (left) and IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen, Tamir Yadai (right) in the Mount Hermon area in southern Syria, March 11, 2025. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

Defense Minister Israel Katz declares that the IDF will maintain its positions on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon and in security zones needed to protect Golan Heights and Galilee communities from threats emanating from Syria, calling it a “key lesson” from the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

Katz says that Israel will also continue to defend Druze communities in Syria, which have faced recurring violence in recent months.

His comments come after US envoy Thomas Barrack visited Israel Sunday for discussions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Syria and Lebanon, amid reports that Jerusalem is close to securing an understanding with Damascus.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa confirmed to Arab journalists that his government was in “advanced” negotiations with Israel on a security agreement, telling Sky News Arabic that any deal would be based on the 1974 disengagement lines. Sharaa stressed that while the time was not right for a peace treaty, he would accept any arrangement that benefits Syria and the wider region.

Channel 12 reported Sunday that the emerging deal would see Syria’s side of the Golan Heights demilitarized, the restoration of the Syrian army blocked in sensitive areas, strategic weapons barred from entering Syria, and a humanitarian corridor established to Jabal al-Druze. In return, Syria would receive reconstruction assistance from the US and Gulf states.

Clergy and nuns refuse to evacuate Gaza City church compound ahead of major IDF offensive

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, censes during Sunday morning mass at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City on July 20, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Clergy and nuns from the Greek Orthodox and Catholic churches in Gaza City have decided that they will not evacuate ahead of the IDF’s upcoming offensive to capture the city, and will instead remain within the church compounds to provide care for those unable to flee.

In a joint statement, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem explain that the Greek Orthodox compound of Saint Porphyrius and the Holy Family Church compound “have been a refuge for hundreds of civilians” since the outbreak of war in October 2023, among them “elderly people, women, and children,” as well as disabled Gazans.

“Like other residents of Gaza City, the refugees living in the facilities will have to decide according to their conscience what they will do,” they say.

“Among those who have sought shelter within the walls of the compounds, many are weakened and malnourished due to the hardships of the last months. Leaving Gaza City and trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence.”

The patriarchates say that “for this reason, the clergy and nuns have decided to remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds. ”

“We do not know exactly what will happen on the ground, not only for our community, but for the entire population,” they acknowledge. “We can only repeat what we have already said: There can be no future based on captivity, displacement of Palestinians or revenge.”

“This is not the right way,” they say, calling for both an end to the “senseless and destructive war” and for the return of the hostages being held by Gazan terror groups.

“ It is now time for the healing of the long-suffering families on all sides.”

In July, three people were killed and several were injured in an IDF strike on the Holy Family Church compound. The military later said that a misfired munition was to blame.

In the aftermath of the strike, which prompted widespread international outrage, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III entered the Gaza Strip to survey the damage and meet with members of the enclave’s Christian minority.

Protesters read names of hostages, blare horns outside homes of ministers

Protesters block the crosswalk in front of the Jerusalem home of Economy Minister Nir Barkat, on August 26, 2025. (Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Protesters pitch up outside the homes of several government ministers as they demand a deal to release the hostages and end the fighting in Gaza.

In Ness Ziona, people read out the names of the hostages outside the home of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and dozens more hold banners and signs outside Education Minister Yoav Kisch’s home in Hod Hasharon.

Shai Dickmann, the cousin of slain hostage Carmel Gat, speaks to protesters through a megaphone outside the Jerusalem home of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.

“Save them!” she yells, as protesters respond in kind and blare foghorns.

Elsewhere in the city, demonstrators block the crosswalk outside the home of Economy Minister Nir Barkat with long strings of hostage posters.

Major roads closed across Israel as hostage families, protesters take to the streets

Protesters block the Yakum Junction area along Route 2 as they demand an agreement to free the hostages and end the war in Gaza, on August 26, 2025. (Idit Avishay/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Major roads are blocked across Israel as protesters take to the streets to demand the release of the hostages and an end to the war in Gaza.

Route 2, also known as the Coastal Highway, is closed to traffic around Yakum Junction, north of Tel Aviv, after protesters light a fire in the middle of the road.

Sections of Route 1 and Route 443, both of which connect Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, are also closed to traffic.

Route 40 is closed to traffic around the Na’an Junction on the outskirts of Rehovot. Protesters there are joined by Yotam Cohen, the brother of hostage soldier Nimrod Cohen.

‘The people of Israel want an end to this nightmare’: Families of Gaza captives speak at Hostages Square

Relatives of the hostages deliver statements to the press from Hostages Square in Tel Aviv at the start of a nationwide day of protests, on August 26, 2025. (Uriel Even Sapir/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Relatives of the hostages gather in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to deliver a statement to the press at the start of a nationwide day of protests for the release of their loved ones.

Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, charges that after 690 days of war “without a clear goal,” it has become obvious that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “afraid of one thing — public pressure.”

His government, she says, “attacked captivity survivors and the families of the hostages — all in an attempt to silence them.”

“We have a wonderful nation but there is no government,” she says, calling for the public to join the protests today. “Only with our strength can we bring about a comprehensive agreement and an end to the war. The government abandoned them but the nation will bring them back!”

Itzik Horn, the father of hostage Eitan Horn and released captive Iair Horn, accuses the government of “another deliberate torpedo operation of an agreement to return hostages.”

The accusation comes after Hamas said last week that it had agreed to a hostage deal that would see half of the hostages released while talks kicked off to end the war and free the rest. Netanyahu has said, however, that Israel will only agree to a deal that sees all the hostages released at once, and has moved to approve plans for an offensive aimed at conquering Gaza City.

This government is one that “abandons its citizens…and collapses the basic moral framework of sanctity of life and mutual responsibility,” Horn says.

“The progress of a plan to occupy Gaza while there is a [hostage] deal on the table for the prime minister to sign is a stab to the heart of the families and the entire nation,” he says.

Yehuda Cohen, the father of hostage soldier Nimrod Cohen, refers to a previously unseen video of his son’s abduction from a tank on the Gaza border on October 7, which his family published yesterday.

“Israel is standing up, the people of Israel are standing up for the hostages, the people of Israel are with us and the polls show it too,” he says. “More than 80 percent want an end to the war and a hostage deal. The entire people of Israel want an end to this nightmare.”

“My son Nimrod was kidnapped from his malfunctioning tank. The videos we showed yesterday show the level of neglect from the Israeli government and the IDF.”

“Today, on the 690th day, we demand that the Israeli government make a deal and release all the hostages,” he says. “You owe it to them.”

Protesters block Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv nationwide demonstrations for the hostages get underway

Families of the hostages and protesters block Tel Aviv's Ayalon Highway at the start of a day of protests across Israel demanding the release of the hostages and the end of the war in Gaza, on August 26, 2025. (Zvulun Ziskiend/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Protesters are blocking the southbound traffic on Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway as they kick off a day of intensive protests across Israel in support of a deal to recover the hostages and end the fighting in Gaza.

The day of action, announced by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, kicked off at 6:29 a.m. — the time that Hamas launched its attack on October 7, 2023 — with protesters unfurling Israeli flags outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Then, at 7 a.m., protests kicked off at major junctions across the country.

Organized demonstrations will be held in Tel Aviv throughout the day, and marches will be held nationwide from 2 p.m. onwards.

The day is set to culminate in the evening with a large march from the Savidor Train Station in Tel Aviv to Hostages Square, where a final protest will take place.

מפגינים למען החטופים חסמו הבוקר את נתיבי איילון דרום בפתח יום המחאה והסולידריות בדרישה לסיים את המלחמה ולהחזיר את כל החטופים.
לשידור החי שהעברתי מהחסימה:https://t.co/KyGU4vaowN
צילומי סטילס 👇🏼 אדר איל, ציפי מנשה pic.twitter.com/briAbC7CpQ

— Or-ly Barlev 🎗 אור-לי ברלב (@orlybarlev) August 26, 2025

Australian PM: Credible intel shows Iran behind pair of 2024 antisemitic attacks

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Director-General of ASIO Mike Burgess speak to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, August 26, 2025. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused Iran of being behind a pair of 2024 antisemitic attacks, announcing that Canberra was expelling Tehran’s ambassador, had pulled its diplomats from the Islamic Republic and will pass legislation to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization.

The announcement comes less than a week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a scathing letter to Albanese accusing him of failing to act against antisemitism in Australia and giving him a deadline of next month’s Rosh Hashanah Jewish new year holiday to act against the phenomenon.

Netanyahu has taken particular issue with Albanese’s decision to join other Western countries in recognizing a Palestinian state next month. The Israeli premier subsequently branded Albanese a “weak politician who betrayed Israel.”

Albanese told reporters last week that he doesn’t “take these things personally,” as Netanyahu “has had similar things to say about other leaders” in the past.

At a press conference this morning in Canberra, Albanese says the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) “has now gathered enough credible intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion that the Iranian government directed” at least two of the recent attacks on Australia’s Jewish community.

The first was an arson attack on Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney on October 20, 2024. The second was an arson attack targeting the Adass Israel synagogue on December 6, 2024.

Albanese says that ASIO also assesses that Iran likely directed additional attacks, but he does not publicize the intelligence obtained by the agency indicating as much.

“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil. They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community. It is totally unacceptable, and the Australian government is taking strong and decisive action in response,” he adds.

“A short time ago, we informed the Iranian Ambassador to Australia that he would be expelled. We have suspended operations at our embassy in Tehran, and all our diplomats are now safe in a third country,” Albanese continues. “I can also announce the government will legislate to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC as a terrorist organization.”

Already in January, Albanese said that Australian intelligence was investigating whether Iran had paid suspects behind antisemitic attacks to carry them out in order to sow domestic discord.

Suspect who daubed ‘Gaza Holocaust’ on Kotel nabbed for doing it again at Church of Holy Sepulchre

The man suspected of spray-painting “There is a Holocaust in Gaza” on Jerusalem’s Western Wall earlier this month was arrested earlier tonight for allegedly daubing the same slogan on the nearby Church of the Holy Sepulchre, police say.

Officers caught the man with a can of spray-paint, and police say he will be brought before a judge later Tuesday for a remand hearing.

The suspect is a 27-year-old Haredi man who is said to be suffering from severe mental health issues.

Amnesty urges war crimes probe into Israeli destruction in Lebanon

Amnesty International says the Israeli army’s extensive destruction of civilian property in south Lebanon, including after a ceasefire with Hezbollah was struck, should be investigated as a war crime.

“The Israeli military’s extensive and deliberate destruction of civilian property and agricultural land across southern Lebanon must be investigated as war crimes,” Amnesty says in a statement.

The rights group’s Erika Guevara Rosas says in the statement that the destruction had “rendered entire areas uninhabitable and ruined countless lives.”

Israel has said its military action targeted Hezbollah sites and operatives, and it continues to strike Lebanon over what it says are Hezbollah violations of the November 2024 ceasefire. The Lebanese terror group began launching rockets at Israel shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

Amnesty says it sent Israeli authorities questions in late June about the destruction but had not received a response.

The group says its analysis covered from October 1 of last year until late January of this year, and showed “more than 10,000 structures were heavily damaged or destroyed during that time.”

It notes that “much of the destruction took place after November 27”, when the truce took effect.

“Israeli forces used manually laid explosives and bulldozers to devastate civilian structures, including homes, mosques, cemeteries, roads, parks and soccer pitches, across 24 municipalities,” it says.

The rights group says it used verified videos, photographs and satellite imagery to investigate the destruction.

“In some videos, soldiers filmed themselves celebrating the destruction by singing and cheering,” it says.

It adds that much of the destruction was done “in apparent absence of imperative military necessity and in violation” of international humanitarian law.

Amnesty notes that “the previous use of a civilian building by a party to the conflict does not automatically render it a military objective”.

In March, the World Bank put the war’s total economic cost on Lebanon at $14 billion, including $6.8 billion in damage to physical structures.

Authorities in cash-strapped Lebanon have yet to launch reconstruction efforts and are hoping for international support, particularly from Gulf countries.

Former hostages join thousands for pre-High Holiday prayers at Western Wall

Former hostages Keith Siegel and Yelena Trufanov joined thousands of Israelis for the pre-High Holiday selichot service at the Western Wall.

Siegel tells reporters he is participating for the first time after becoming closer to God while in captivity. Trufanov has described a similar experience.

The organizers of the selichot prayers begin the service with a prayer for the release of the remaining 50 hostages.

מעמד סליחות ראשונות ברחבת הכותל המערבי בהשתתפות בני משפחות חטופים ושורדי השבי. pic.twitter.com/EmtmvFpuFG

— זירת החדשות (@ZiratNews) August 25, 2025

עצרת הסליחות בכותל המערבי הלילה הוקדשה לתפילה להשבת 50 החטופים והתקיימה בהשתתפות בני משפחות חטופים יחד עם שורדי השבי קית׳ סיגל, ולנה טרופנוב. pic.twitter.com/DG0YDICoIF

— מה חדש. What's new❓ (@Gloz111) August 25, 2025

Security cabinet to meet Tuesday to discuss Gaza

The Israeli security cabinet will meet Tuesday evening in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman says, with local media reporting that it will discuss renewing negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Responding to a request from AFP, spokesman Omer Mantzour does not provide any details on the meeting’s agenda.

The security cabinet approved in early August a plan for the military to take over Gaza City, but according to Hebrew media, Tuesday’s meeting is expected to focus on resuming negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of hostages still being held in the Strip.

Netanyahu on Thursday said that he had ordered immediate talks on the release of all remaining captives in Gaza.

That came days after Hamas said it had accepted a new ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators that would see the staggered release of hostages over an initial 60-day period in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Israel has yet to respond to that proposal, but has indicated it is only interested in a deal in which Hamas releases all of the hostages at once and effectively surrenders to Israel.

Canada ‘horrified’ by deadly strike on Nasser Hospital

OTTAWA, Canada — Canada condemns an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital on Monday that reportedly killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, and says Israel had an obligation to protect civilians in the combat zone.

“Canada is horrified by the Israeli military strike at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza, which killed five journalists and many civilians, including rescuers and health officials. Such attacks are unacceptable,” Canada’s Foreign Ministry says.