Aug. 27: IDF chief meets World Food Program head over Gaza aid situation

Iran says sanctions snapback may end any cooperation with nuke watchdog

Iran says cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog will be affected in the event that Britain, France and Germany trigger snapback sanctions outlined in the moribund 2015 nuclear deal.

“If this action is taken, the path of interaction that we have now opened with the International Atomic Energy Agency will also be completely affected and will probably stop,” deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi tells state TV.

Iran earlier said it was working with its allies, China and Russia, to prevent the reimposition of sanctions.

IAEA inspectors returned to Iran, agency head Rafael Grossi said earlier, but he noted that there was no agreement granting them access to sensitive sites where enrichment took place before Israel and the US bombed nuclear facilities in June.

Since suspending cooperation in the wake of the 12-day war, Tehran has said repeatedly that future cooperation with the agency will take “a new form.”

The spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said the IAEA inspectors were in Iran to oversee the replacement of fuel at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

He made no mention of whether inspectors would be allowed access to other sites, including Fordo and Natanz, which were hit during the war.

Ashkenazi chief rabbi visits Ukraine ahead of annual Uman pilgrimage

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber and Shas MK Michael Malchieli (center) meet with Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Serhii Petrovych Lysak (third from the left) in Dnipro in August 2025. (Courtesy)

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber visited Ukraine over the weekend, his spokesperson tells The Times of Israel, in what he describes as a visit to strengthen Jewish communities in the war-torn country.

The visit opened in the city of Uman, home to an annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage at the gravesite of Rabbi Nahman of Breslov that regularly draws tens of thousands of Jews, and a hefty helping of controversy.

Over the past several years, Ukrainian officials have tried — with little success — to tamp down on the pilgrimage, first due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and since 2002, because of security concerns stemming from the ongoing war with Russia.

In the last few days, ultra-Orthodox political leaders have spoken of efforts to make sure the pilgrimage is able to go ahead during the upcoming holiday, which begins on September 22, including reportedly securing NIS 10 million ($3 million) in government funds to facilitate travel there via Moldova. Shas leader Aryeh Deri is also seeking special permission for ultra-Orthodox men evading mandatory military conscription — which normally results in a travel ban — to be allowed to leave the country for the occasion.

Ber was apparently accompanied on the trip by Shas MK Michael Malchieli, who served as religious affairs minister until last month, when the party resigned from the government over the draft issue, which came to a head following the High Court of Justice declaring blanket exemptions in place for decades illegal.

Ber and Malchieli also visited the Dnipro region, where they met with rabbis, community members and local authorities, including the regional governor Serhiy Lysak, a picture shows.

“Like the Jewish people, so too the Ukrainian people will turn crisis into growth,” Ber says in a statement.

Sa’ar touts ‘productive’ meeting with Rubio

After meeting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says the two had a “productive meeting on mutual challenges and interests for both our nations.”

“Israel has no greater friend than the US led by POTUS Trump,” he writes on X, “and the US has no greater ally than Israel!”

I thank @SecRubio for his hospitality in Washington D.C. and his personal and unwavering support for Israel. We had a productive meeting on mutual challenges and interests for both our nations. Israel has no greater friend than the U.S. led by @POTUS Trump and the U.S. has no… pic.twitter.com/ilPNJyyK2B

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) August 27, 2025

There is no immediate comment from Rubio, though his X account tweets a picture from an earlier meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi, saying the two spoke about Iran’s nuclear program.

“We discussed ways to promote global nuclear safety, security, and safeguards — including IAEA efforts to monitor Iran,” he writes.

Reaffirmed U.S. support for the @iaeaorg in my meeting with Director General @rafaelmgrossi. We discussed ways to promote global nuclear safety, security, and safeguards—including IAEA efforts to monitor Iran. The U.S. is committed to advancing the peaceful uses of nuclear energy… pic.twitter.com/7Mrmjkdygj

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) August 27, 2025

Police issue warrant for American pro-Qatar lobbyist Footlik — reports

US lobbyist Jay Footlik. (Middle East Investment Initiative)

Police have reportedly issued an arrest warrant for US lobbyist Jay Footlik in connection with suspicions related to his role in the so-called Qatargate scandal, in which aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are accused of lobbying on behalf of Qatar while in the premier’s employ.

Footlik, a paid advocate for Qatar, is thought to have funneled money to Netanyahu spokesperson Jonatan Urich to do work for Doha. He is also suspected of paying money to Eli Feldstein, then Netanyahu’s military affairs spokesman, via an Israeli businessman based in the Gulf.

According to Ynet, the arrest warrant was issued after the Israel Police appealed to Interpol regarding the matter. In practice, the warrant means that Footlik will face immediate arrest should he ever set foot in Israel.

Police want to question Footlik over his role in the case, but have been unable to secure cooperation from the US Justice Department on the matter.

Efforts to coordinate an inquiry into Footlik alongside Washington were nixed by the Justice Department in early July without explanation, Hebrew outlets reported at the time.

News of the warrant comes hours after police took testimony from Opposition Leader Yair Lapid regarding the ongoing probe. The politician was asked about the conduct of the Prime Minister’s Office and his own meetings with Qatari officials in Paris regarding a hostage deal, which took place in the presence of hostages’ family members, Ynet reports.

Urich and Feldstein, the case’s primary suspects, are being probed for contact with a foreign agent and breach of trust. They are thought to have spearheaded a pro-Qatari campaign to cast the Gulf state in a positive light ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, hosted in Doha, while still working for Netanyahu.

Sa’ar meets with Rubio at State Department

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, at the State Department in Washington, Wednesday, August 27, 2025. (AP/Cliff Owen)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has started his meeting with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar at the State Department.

The two pose for photos before starting, but do not take questions from reporters.

School shooting designated domestic terror; suspect may have held antisemitic views

FBI Director Kash Patel says a deadly school shooting in Minneapolis is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.

Patel identifies the attacker as Robin Westman, who public records show to be a 23-year-old resident of the area. Court records show Westman’s name was changed from Robert Westman in 2020 on the grounds that they identified as female.

Officials say the shooter did not have an extensive criminal history and note they are trying to identify a motive.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, an unverified video purportedly filmed by the attacker shows several anti-Israel and antisemitic slogans written on guns they used.

Authorities say they found a smoke bomb at the scene and were searching a vehicle in the parking lot.

Public records show Westman’s mother, Mary Westman, had worked as an administrative assistant at Annunciation Church.

French twins accused of chopping down memorial tree for slain Jewish man

This photograph shows the trunk of the olive tree, presumably cut down with a chainsaw, which was planted in 2011 in front of a memorial to Ilan Halimi, in Epinay-sur-Seine, on the outskirst of Paris on August 15, 2025. (Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)

French authorities have arrested twin brothers accused of cutting down an olive tree planted in memory of Ilan Halimi, a young French Jewish man tortured to death in 2006, prosecutors say.

The tree, planted in 2011 in Halimi’s memory, was felled earlier this month in the northern Paris suburb of Epinay-sur-Seine, in an act that stirred outrage in the country.

The suspects are to be tried immediately in a fast-track process for the racially or religiously aggravated desecration of a monument, the public prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny says, confirming a report in French magazine Paris Match.

It is not immediately clear when they were arrested or precisely when the trial would take place. Their identities are also not made public.

Paris Match reported that both men were of Tunisian nationality and did not have a permanent address. It said they had been identified through DNA.

Halimi was kidnapped by a gang of around 20 youths in January 2006 and tortured in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux over three weeks. He died while being taken to a hospital and prosecutors later determined the killing to be motivated by antisemitism.

French President Emmanuel Macron had condemned the felling of the tree, vowing punishment for what he called an act of antisemitic “hatred.”

The incident stoked fresh concerns about an increase in antisemitic acts and hate crimes in France as international tensions mount over Gaza.

Officials have pledged to plant a new tree “as soon as possible.”

UN Security Council members — sans US — blame Israel for ‘manmade’ famine in Gaza

A joint statement from all United Nations Security Council members except the United States says the famine in Gaza is a “manmade crisis” and calls for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups, a substantive surge of aid throughout Gaza, and for Israel to immediately and unconditionally lift all restrictions on aid delivery.

“Famine in Gaza must be stopped immediately,” the statement reads. “Time is of the essence. The humanitarian emergency must be addressed without delay and Israel must reverse course.”

It warns that the use of starvation as a weapon of war is banned under international humanitarian law. Israel denies deliberately starving Gazans.

At a Security Council meeting earlier, acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea questioned the credibility and integrity of a report finding that Gaza is suffering a famine, saying it “doesn’t pass the test on either.”

“We all recognize that hunger is a real issue in Gaza and that there are significant humanitarian needs which must be met. Addressing those needs is a priority for the United States,” she told the 15-member council.

Israeli-organized psychedelic festival in Portugal faces shutdown after BDS campaign

Anta Gathering, a five-day music festival organized by Israelis scheduled to kick off tomorrow in central Portugal, says it is facing being shut down following a campaign by BDS Portugal.

Organizers had expected to receive final approval for the event today, but were instead told by the São Pedro do Sul municipality that there were additional regulations that needed to be fulfilled, including designating a fire-safe zone surrounding the festival site, a festival spokesperson says.

The event is advertised as a “psychedelic journey” on a wooded mountaintop some 30 minutes outside the city.

The producers spoke to the mayor and local politicians to understand the delay, and were told that there had been threats made against the local municipality, according to the festival spokesperson.

The spokesperson adds that organizers are trying to delay the start of the festival in order to receive the necessary permits from local authorities.

According to local media, pro-Palestinian opponents of the festival had pressed local officials to deny granting the festival necessary permits.

BDS Portugal posts on social media that it has also threatened several of the participating artists, causing some to cancel their appearances.

The organization claims online that the festival is being organized by Israeli soldiers who “took part in the genocide.”

Two brothers, Shahar and Dean Bickel, are producing Anta Gathering, and hosting it on land owned by Yotam Ittah, their cousin who built a retreat center in Portugal, the festival spokesperson says.

Shahar Bickel served in reserve duty for two weeks at the start of the war and never left Israel’s borders, while his brother, Dean Bickel, didn’t serve in the army, according to the spokesperson.

“We are people of peace, culture and love, and our sole purpose is to bring people together through music, art and connection,” organizers write in a statement. “Many forces driven by hate and ignorance are trying to prevent this event from happening simply because of where we were born. We are here to make it clear: We are not our country, we are not our government — we are human beings who want to spread a message of connection, peace and love.”

Fresh Israeli strikes reported in Syria’s Kiswah

Israel launched on Wednesday a series of strikes on former army barracks in Kiswah, in the southwestern Damascus countryside, two Syrian army sources and state-run El Ekhbariya TV reported, marking the second attack within 24 hours.

The Kiswah region and Jabal Manea were among the most significant military outposts used by pro-Iranian militias during the Assad era.

The latest strikes coincide with security talks between Damascus and its long-time foe aimed at reaching a deal to reduce tensions.

The IDF has not yet issued a response.

Syrian media reported yesterday that six Syrian soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike in the same area.

Sa’ar offers prayer over school shooting

A person walks out of the Annunciation Church's school as police response to a reported mass shooting, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar offers “thoughts and prayers” to the US and the Catholic community in the wake of a deadly shooting at a Minneapolis school.

Horrified by the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and with the injured. Israel stands in solidarity with the U.S. and the Catholic community.
🇮🇱🇺🇸

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) August 27, 2025

“Horrified by the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis,” tweets Sa’ar, who is on an official trip to the US. “Israel stands in solidarity with the US and the Catholic community.”

Two children, aged 8 and 10, were killed and 17 others were wounded when a gunman opened fire on students attending Mass at the Catholic school, authorities say.

The assailant, a man in his early 20s, fired dozens of rounds through the church windows at students sitting in church pews and then took his own life, officials say.

Investigators have not publicly identified a motive.

Dermer in Washington as White House meets on Gaza

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer arrived in Washington for meetings with Trump officials, as the White House holds a meeting to discuss ideas about the post-war management of Gaza, a source familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel.

The source does not say whether Dermer was participating in the White House meeting.

Dermer’s presence in Washington is a reflection of the Trump administration’s close coordination with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who counts the strategic affairs minister as a close confidant.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who is also in Washington, is not taking part in the White House meeting, his spokesman says.

Houthis claim early-morning missile attack

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a ballistic missile attack that triggered sirens in Jerusalem and parts of central Israel early this morning.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree says the rebels targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv “using a hypersonic ballistic missile.” The Houthis are not known to possess hypersonic missiles.

The missile was shot down by the air force, the military said on Telegram.

IDF chief meets World Food Program head over Gaza aid situation

A handout photo partially blurred by the military shows IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, left, meeting with UN World Food Program executive director Cindy McCain in Tel Aviv on August 27, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir met today with UN World Food Program executive director Cindy McCain to review ongoing humanitarian aid efforts to the Gaza Strip, the military says.

The meeting, attended by Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Israeli body that coordinates with assistance providers in Gaza, outlined key measures to stabilize the Strip’s humanitarian situation and emphasized ensuring aid reaches civilians directly, not Hamas.

The meeting days after the WFP-linked Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared famine in northern Gaza for the first time — a claim Israel swiftly rejected, accusing the report of relying on “biased and self-interested sources originating from Hamas.”

McCain, who has been an outspoken critic of Israeli aid restrictions, claimed in May 2024 that the Strip was already in “full-blown famine.”

She said last week hunger in the Strip was at “catastrophic” levels.

Jared Kushner, Tony Blair reportedly to join Trump meet on Gaza’s future

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, attends a meeting between Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi (not pictured) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, August 20, 2020. (Anna Moneymaker-Pool/ Getty Images/ AFP)

US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a senior adviser on the Middle East in his first term, is participating in the president’s meeting on the future of Gaza today, according to Axios, which cites “two sources with knowledge.”

Kushner and former British prime minister Tony Blair, who has been involved in Middle East initiatives since he left office in 2007, are presenting Trump with post-war proposals, according to the report.

In this July 15, 2014, photo, former British prime minister and Mideast envoy Tony Blair speaks during joint statements with Israel’s president Shimon Peres at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)

Blair has been discussing plans for Gaza’s future with Kushner and US special envoy Steve Witkoff for months, reports Axios.

The two are expected to discuss approaches to governing Gaza without Hamas, and how to increase the amount of aid going into the Strip in the meantime.

According to a US official quoted by the outlet, Trump has told staffers regarding Gaza that “I can’t watch it anymore. It’s a terrible thing.”

Trump does not oppose the emerging Israeli military operation in Gaza City, a US official tells Axios, but wants it done quickly.

“At some level, the president thinks that Bibi’s going to do what Bibi’s going to do,” says the official, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “So would you just hurry up and then we can get in there and take care of people?”

Israeli cycling team targeted by protesters in Spain

The Israel-Premier Tech cycling team says pro-Palestinian protesters endangered riders by trying to block their path at the Vuelta a Espana.

Several people with banners and Palestinian flags are seen on video trying to disrupt the team owned by Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams at the start of the fifth stage time-trial in Figueras, Catalonia.

Three people can be seen holding a banner with the inscription “Neutrality is complicity. Boycott Israel” in Catalan, before being removed by race officials.

💥 Estaba claro que algo tenía que pasar tarde o temprano.

Unos manifestantes interrumpieron la crono del equipo Israel en #LaVuelta25 con banderas palestinas. 🇵🇸

Es innegable que el clima es cada vez más insostenible. pic.twitter.com/rQZYBcuvPV

— Alberto Marcos Gallego (@albermg) August 27, 2025

Some riders were forced to slow down, but no accidents were reported.

A statement regarding today's protest at the Vuelta a España. pic.twitter.com/w1Y8tipbiM

— Israel – Premier Tech (@IsraelPremTech) August 27, 2025

In a statement, the team says it “absolutely condemn [s] the dangerous acts of the protesters on stage 5 of the Vuelta a España, which not only compromised the safety of our riders, race personnel, but the protesters themselves.”

The Israel-Premier Tech team were also targeted during the Tour de France.

IDF chief ignoring report into implementation of reforms stemming from Oct. 7 probes

Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has indefinitely postponed consideration of a report looking at the implementation of findings from the IDF’s internal probes into Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks, citing ongoing operations in Gaza, the IDF says.

Once conditions allow, the report will be presented to the General Staff Forum, and implementation of the required lessons will continue, it says.

The report was prepared by a panel of former senior officers and tasked with evaluating the IDF’s investigations, overseeing implementation of findings and recommending re-investigations if necessary.

The commission, appointed by Zamir in March, is led by Maj. Gen. (res.) Sami Turgeman, a former head of the IDF Southern Command and includes ex-Navy chief Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit, ex-IAF chief Maj. Gen. (res.) Amikam Norkin and other retired senior officers.

At the time of the panel’s appointment, the IDF said it reflected “the IDF’s deep commitment to processes of learning, streamlining and improvement, especially during the war, and for an analysis and examination of the operational, professional and organizational insights.”

Former hostage tells UN Security Council of sexual assault, starvation, captivity in struck hospital

Ilana Gritzewsky shows the UN Security Council a picture of her and her hostage partner Matan Zangauker on August 27, 2025. (Perry Bindelglass / Israeli Mission to the UN)

Former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky tells the UN Security Council of begging her captors not to rape her, describing starvation, beatings and other horrifying conditions she was kept in for 55 days.

“On the way to Gaza, when they started to touch me and sexually abuse me, I passed out physically and mentally. I couldn’t handle it anymore,” she says in testimony to the world body, according to a transcript published by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “I had to beg not to be raped, telling them I was on my period… I didn’t know exactly what had been done to my body in those lost minutes when I wasn’t conscious. But my soul already knew: nothing would ever be the same. I was suffering from a fractured jaw, a broken pelvis, ear damage from the explosions, and a burned leg.”

Gritzewsky, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz alongside her partner Matan Zangauker, who is one of 50 hostages that remain in Gaza, says she lost 12 kilograms (26.5 lbs.) while in Gaza before being released during a short ceasefire in November 2023.

“When it was time to eat, they took a lot of food to their room. They had meat, rice, vegetables. At the same time, they left us with our meal, which contained sometimes as little as 10 chick peas or a piece of dry flat bread, which wasn’t always well-cooked.”

She says her captors, who would subject her and other captives to cruel interrogations, were dressed not as Hamas fighters but as civilians, including one who claimed to be a teacher and another who said they were a lawyer.

She says during her captivity, she and other hostages were held for a time in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

“They took us through the back entrance and walked us past all the civilians. In the hospital, there was an area which was closed off and used only by Hamas, with an armed guard. They locked us in a room, where we met a third hostage,” she recounts.

An Israeli strike on the hospital on Monday, which reportedly killed 20 people, including five journalists, elicited widespread anger worldwide. Israel has indicated the attack was a mistake, but has also noted its use by the Hamas terror group.

Gritzewsky, who has recounted many of these details in the past, tells council members to use whatever leverage they have to push for a deal ending the war and freeing the hostages.

“Do not turn away. Do not look for excuses. Do not allow political divisions to silence the voices of victims. Use your influence, your power, your responsibility, to demand the unconditional release of every hostage. Not tomorrow. Not in some distant future. But now. We need to make a deal. Israeli citizens want this war to end,” she says.

Touring Gaza, IDF chief hints ultra-Orthodox cannot continue to evade service

IDF chief Eyal Zamir, center, during a tour of Gaza on August 27, 2025. (IDF spokesperson)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says Israel’s security is dependent on broad national participation in the military, in comments seemingly aimed at members of the ultra-Orthodox community evading mandatory conscription.

“”We cannot accept a situation in which not all parts of society bear the burden,” Zamir said while touring Gaza earlier in the day, according to an IDF readout. “Israel’s security requires the full partnership of all segments of the people… this is the order of the hour, and we must all answer it.”

The army has repeatedly stated it is facing a shortage of about 12,000 soldiers, including 7,000 combat troops, even as it finalizes plans to expand operations and conquer Gaza City, which will involve calling up some 60,000 reservists already fatigued by nearly two years of war.

About 80,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for service, but have not enlisted and ultra-Orthodox leaders remain fiercely opposed to efforts to end exemptions from service that the community has enjoyed in the past.

Zamir said during the tour that the IDF’s central focus “at this time is deepening the operation in Gaza City,” while reiterating commitments to bring home the hostages, defeat Hamas, and prevent a repeat of the October 7 massacre.

“We are in a multi-front campaign and are operating powerfully on all fronts,” Zamir said, stressing that the military is prepared to act again wherever required.

Praising reservists whose call-ups were recently extended, Zamir said their sacrifice was “an inspiration to us all,” adding that conscripts, career soldiers and reservists together embody “the deepest expression of Israeli solidarity.”

Israel threatens to target UN hunger monitor’s funding over ‘fabricated’ famine report

Palestinian children eat cooked rice from a charity kitchen in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 27, 2025. (AFP)

The Foreign Ministry will send a letter to the United Nations today demanding it retract the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system’s “fabricated report” declaring famine in Gaza, Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar Tal announces at an English-language press conference.

The letter, addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, warns the UN that if it does not walk back the report, Israel will launch a campaign encouraging IPC donor countries to halt funding by presenting evidence appearing to disprove its findings and highlighting the hunger monitor’s alleged unreliability.

At the press conference, Bar Tal accuses the IPC of deliberately ignoring its own evidence standards to reach a “prefabricated conclusion of famine” in support of “Hamas fake starvation propaganda,” backing up the ministry’s earlier denunciations of the report after its publication on Friday.

He presents evidence gathered by Israel claiming that the IPC manipulated data through cherry-picking and misrepresentation, relied on speculative rather than evidence-based mortality assumptions, and ignored or downplayed available signs of improvement.

Among the evidence Bar Tal brings are findings showing that the IPC based its conclusions on only half of its July data — 7,519 children averaging 16 percent acute malnutrition, just above the 15% famine threshold — instead of the full July dataset of 15,749 children, which showed acute malnutrition rates of 12–13.5%. He also says the IPC improperly relied on clinical samples rather than healthy population samples, in violation of its own guidelines.

In the letter, Bar Tal demands that the IPC “conduct an urgent and transparent review” of the findings against the report that “will address methodological breaches and avoid misleading the international community, the public and policymakers.”

The IPC report estimated that 514,000 people in Gaza — nearly a quarter of the population — are already experiencing famine, with numbers expected to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.

The report said thresholds for starvation and acute malnutrition had been reached and argued it was “reasonable to conclude” mortality levels had likely also been met.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says hundreds in the Strip have died of malnutrition since war broke out with the terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Man who confessed to killing son decades ago said to retract admission

Asher Goldstein, who confessed to murdering his 5-year-old son in 1974, two years before he killed his wife, at a court hearing in Eilat, August 24, 2025 (Yehuda Ben Itach/Flash90)

An octogenarian who admitted this week to killing his 5-year-old son over 50 years ago has retracted his confession, Hebrew media outlets report.

A judge at a hearing for Asher Goldstein, 88, confirms that he retracted his confession to police, but nonetheless orders him to remain behind bars until another hearing in six days, Channel 12 news and Ynet report.

Saying he sought to clear his conscience, Goldstein told police he drowned his son in the sea in Eilat in 1974, describing it as an act of mercy due to the boy’s cerebral palsy. The death was ruled an accident at the time.

Goldstein later served 11 years in prison for murdering his wife.

In his decision, Judge Guy Avnon writes that despite his age, the seriousness of the suspected crime does not allow him to release Goldstein on bail, Ynet reports.

Army says GHF to add aid site in southern Gaza

The IDF says two new aid distribution centers run by the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will be completed in the coming days in southern Gaza, while a facility in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood will close. Once completed, the total number of GHF centers in the Strip will rise from four to five.

According to GHF, which hands out boxes of dried, uncooked food, its centers have distributed more than 140 million meals in Gaza since operations began, including over 1.5 million meals delivered today alone.

The announcement comes days after global hunger monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared for the first time that famine has struck the densely populated northern Gaza Strip, nearly 22 months into the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel.

Israel swiftly rejected the finding, with the Defense Ministry body overseeing aid accusing the IPC system of relying on “biased and self-interested sources originating from Hamas.”

Israel has repeatedly denied reports of mass starvation in the Strip as false narratives, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office calling the IPC famine declaration an “outright lie” and “modern blood libel.”

US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said earlier this month that plans were in place for GHF to expand operations to 16 sites, with overcrowding a constant issue at existing centers.

Israel plans to conquer Gaza City and force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living there to move south, but aid groups warn such a move will worsen the Strip’s humanitarian crisis, with insufficient infrastructure to support the millions displaced by the war.

“The evacuation of Gaza City is inevitable,” spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in Arabic on X earlier. He said Israeli forces have surveyed vast empty areas south of the city “to assist the evacuating residents as much as possible.” He said the displaced would receive space for tents, and infrastructure would be set up to distribute aid and water.

Rubio discusses Iran with European foreign ministers as sanctions snapback looms

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed Iran with his counterparts from France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the US State Department says.

“French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy… all reiterated their commitment to ensuring that Iran never develops or obtains a nuclear weapon,” a short statement from the State Department reads.

Diplomats say the three European countries are set to start reimposing sanctions on Iran over violations to the 2015 nuclear pact, demanding that UN inspectors be given access to enrichment sites.

‘Horrific’ shooting reported at Minneapolis Catholic school

Police are responding to a shooting during the first week of classes at a Minneapolis Catholic school, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz says, calling the gunfire “horrific.”

There is no immediate information on any injuries.

The Minneapolis city government says the shooter has been “contained” after the gunfire at the Annunciation Church school, and there is no “active threat” to residents.

“I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence,” Walz writes on X.

A person answering the phone at Annunciation School says students were being evacuated.

Local and state police, federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and other authorities were converging on the school.

Dating to 1923, the pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school had an all-school Mass scheduled at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to its website. Monday was the first day of school, and social media photos from that day show students in green uniforms greeting each other at bicycle racks, smiling for the camera and sitting together.

Israel to have more on Gaza hospital attack in coming days, ambassador says

A man reacts as he holds the equipment used by Palestinian cameraman Hussam al-Masri, who was a contractor for Reuters, at the site where he was killed along with other journalists and people in alleged Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still image taken from a video shot by Reuters contractor Hatem Khaled, who was wounded shortly afterwards in another strike while he was filming the site, August 25, 2025. (REUTERS/Hatem Khaled)

Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon says there will be more information in the “next few days” on a strike on Nasser hospital in Gaza on Monday that killed at least 20 people, including five journalists.

“We’re still looking into the details of that incident, and so that in the next few days we will have more information about that,” Danon tells reporters.

“Our goal is to fight terrorists, not journalists, not anyone who is not involved in terrorism,” he says.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike on the hospital a “tragic mishap,” and the IDF vowed to thoroughly probe the circumstances of the shelling.

Troops seen clashing with Palestinians in Nablus

Members of Israeli security forces stand next to an armored vehicle during a military raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, August 27, 2025. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)

Pictures and videos circulating online show Israeli forces operating in the West Bank city of Nablus and facing off against stone-throwing Palestinians.

Footage shows military vehicles moving through city streets, with troops appearing to fire warning shots.

IDF has entered Nablus. pic.twitter.com/YIP88lzdSt

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) August 27, 2025

Additional clips capture soldiers detaining several local residents during the operation.

The official Palestinian Authority news outlet Wafa reports that two Palestinians were treated for gunshot wounds and dozens of others were injured by tear gas and rubber bullets, citing the Red Crescent.

The reports come a day after Israeli police said security forces seized roughly NIS 1.5 million ($447,000) in “terror funds” during a raid on a currency exchange office in Ramallah that authorities said was linked to Hamas.

Palestinians throw stones at Israeli forces during a military raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, dozens were wounded in yesterday’s raid, some by live fire and others by rubber bullets or tear gas inhalation.

The IDF has not yet commented on its activity in Nablus.

A Palestinian runs in front of an armored vehicle during clashes with Israeli forces following a military raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, August 27, 2025. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)

Israeli envoy to US says ‘temporary deal’ under consideration

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, February 16, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel’s ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter says Jerusalem is examining options for a ceasefire deal with Hamas, including the possibility of a partial agreement, but will not end the war in Gaza until Hamas surrenders or is destroyed.

“This is under discussion,” Leiter tells CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We’re looking at what the possibilities are for a ceasefire and a temporary deal, but at the same time it has to be very clear — it ends when Hamas ends.”

Israeli leaders have taken the position over the last several weeks that a partial deal is no longer an option, insisting that it will only agree to a ceasefire that frees all hostages.

Leiter says that Israel is wary of a partial hostage release because it could mean abandoning the captives left behind. “If we are not careful, what’s going to happen is we are going to get a few hostages out now, and we’re never going to see the rest of the hostages again.”

Hamas has agreed to a 60-day ceasefire during which 10 living and 18 slain hostages would be freed. Hostages’ families have said Israel should take the deal and use the time to negotiate an end to the war and the release of the rest.

This picture taken from a position on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip shows destroyed buildings in the territory on August 27, 2025. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

The envoy charges that Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar “haven’t applied the necessary pressure, if they could” on Hamas.

“Hamas leadership is sitting in Istanbul,” Leiter continues. “Where the hell is [Turkish President Recep Tayyip]… Erdogan? Why are Hamas leadership sitting in Qatar right now? Why is the international community not saying, the leadership of Hamas is being closed down, period?”

Hamas reconstituted during the ceasefire earlier this year, building up a force of 25-30,00 fighters, he claims.

“We can’t guarantee that the 23 hostages will come back soon, they’re being held by Hamas,” says Leiter, apparently misstating the number of living hostages, which Israel says is 20, along with two whose fate is unclear. Another 28 are thought to be dead.

“We can guarantee that we’re going to do everything in our power to get them out,” he says.

European powers to start reinstating sanctions on Iran tomorrow, sources say

Diplomats say Britain, France and Germany will likely begin the process of reimposing UN sanctions on Iran tomorrow, but hope Tehran will provide commitments over its nuclear program within 30 days that will convince them to defer concrete action.

Three European diplomats and a Western diplomat say talks yesterday between Iran and the so-called E3 did not yield sufficiently tangible commitments from Iran to delay the move, although they believe there is scope for further diplomacy in the coming weeks.

They say the E3 has decided to start triggering the so-called snapback of UN sanctions, possibly as early as Thursday, over accusations that Iran has violated the 2015 deal with world powers that aimed to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60% fissile purity, a short step from the roughly 90% of weapons-grade, and had enough material enriched to that level, if refined further, for six nuclear weapons, according the International Atomic Energy Agency. The deal capped enrichment at less than 4 percent, and limited the size of the stockpile Iran could hold.

The UN process takes 30 days before sanctions that would cover Iran’s financial, banking, hydrocarbons and defense sectors are restored.

“The real negotiations will start once the letter (to the UN Security Council) is submitted,” the Western diplomat says, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Tehran has warned of a “harsh response” if sanctions are reinstated.

The E3 have offered to delay the snapback for as much as six months to enable serious negotiations if Iran resumes full UN inspections and engages in talks with the United States. While Tehran has allowed inspectors into the country, they have not been allowed access to nuclear sites.

One diplomat says Iran showed signs of readiness to resume negotiations with the US in Tuesday’s meeting with the E3.

An Iranian source says it would only do so “if Washington guarantees there will be no [military] strikes during the talks.”

Police accuse Or Akiva man of defacing military grave, burning flag

A military grave that was vandalized in the Or Akiva municipal cemetery, partially blurred and shared by Israel Police on August 27, 2025. (Screen capture: Israel Police)

Police have arrested a 42-year-old man from Or Akiva on suspicion of vandalizing a grave in the military section of the city’s cemetery and burning an Israeli flag on top of the tombstone, law enforcement says.

Officers at the Hadera station received a report regarding the defaced grave over the weekend and located the suspect earlier this week. He was detained for questioning and brought to court, where his detention was extended until tomorrow, police say.

The suspected vandal has a history of mental illness, Ynet reports.

Trump urges federal racketeering charges against Jewish philanthropist Soros

George Soros, founder and chairman of the Open Society Foundations, before the Joseph A. Schumpeter award ceremony in Vienna, Austria, June 21, 2019. (Ronald Zak/AP)

US President Donald Trump says Jewish philanthropist George Soros and his son should be hit with federal racketeering charges over their support for what he says are “violent protests.”

“George Soros, and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America,” Trump writes on his Truth Social platform.

Charges under the RICO Act are usually used to prosecute organized criminal activity, including protection schemes, illegal bookmaking and loan sharking. They can result in heavy prison sentences.

Critics say Trump has increasingly shown a willingness to use his presidential powers to go after political enemies.

Illustrative: An anti-Semitic cartoon drawn by artist Ben Garrison depicting US government officials as puppets of George Soros and the Rothschilds. (Ben Garrison)

Reviled by conservatives, and often the target of antisemitic conspiracies, the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, 95, used his wealth amassed as a financier in the 1970s and 80s to create the Open Society Foundations, which support a broad arrange of causes and NGOs worldwide, ranging from good-governance and democracy-building programs to liberal public policy initiatives.

Alexander Soros has managed his father’s philanthropic activities since 2023.

In his post, Trump claims Soros “and his group of psychopaths, have caused great damage to our Country!”

“Be careful, we’re watching you,” Trump adds as a warning.

AFP contributed to this report.

Turkey slams Netanyahu for ‘politically motivated’ recognition of Armenian genocide

Thousands of members of the Armenian community march to the Turkish Consulate on April 24, 2017 in Los Angeles, California, on the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian genocide. (AFP Photo/Mark Ralston)

Turkey rejects remarks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday recognizing the genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in the early 20th century.

“Netanyahu’s remarks concerning the events of 1915 are an attempt to exploit past tragedies for political motives,” writes Ankara’s Foreign Ministry in a Turkish-language statement, saying, “We condemn and reject this statement, which is incompatible with historical and legal facts.”

Turkey repeats its accusation that Israel is carrying out a genocide in the Gaza Strip, saying, “Netanyahu, who is on trial for his role in the genocide committed against the Palestinian people, is attempting to cover up the crimes committed by himself and his government.”

Starting with Uruguay in 1965, nations including France, Germany, Canada, Russia and the United States have recognized the Armenian genocide, but Israel had long avoided the step, though a number of senior politicians have called for the move in recent years. Netanyahu’s remarks mark the first time an Israeli prime minister has done so, likely reflecting increasingly poor ties with Turkey, which has long rejected the characterization.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly compared Israel to Nazi Germany over its war against Hamas in Gaza.

IDF inaugurates 1st joint air and ground forces base, implementing lessons learned on Oct. 7

Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar (left) and Ground Forces head Maj. Gen. Nadav Lotan (right) at the inauguration of a new training base for the Combat Intelligence Collection Array at Ovda Airbase, August 26, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says it inaugurated a new training base yesterday for the Combat Intelligence Collection Array at Ovda Airbase, marking the first time the Ground Forces and air force will jointly operate a base.

The facility, part of the Border Defense Corps school, is designed to centralize the professional training of combat intelligence soldiers, with a focus on aerial and ground intelligence collection. According to the IDF, the move reflects lessons learned from the October 7 attack and aims to strengthen cooperation between the branches.

“This is an unprecedented step — establishing a [Ground Forces] training base inside [Ovda Airbase],” said Ground Forces head Maj. Gen. Nadav Lotan. He added that the project was part of efforts to build combat intelligence into a professional framework, stressing that the new base would provide “resilience for the observers and the readiness of the array.”

Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar said the initiative underscored the power of joint operations.

“Cooperation between the ground forces and the Air Force proves its strength as a significant force multiplier, one that has no substitute,” he said. “Today we are paving a new and shared path — operational, infrastructural, and cultural. This is the beginning of a deep process that spreads along and across the air force and the Ground Forces, a process that will strengthen the IDF and strengthen the security of the State of Israel.”

Bennett, Liberman meet to discuss ‘ways to replace the government as soon as possible’

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett (R) and Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman (L) meet on August 27, 2025 (Courtesy via Liberman's office)

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman met this morning to discuss a number of key matters facing the country, and the need for the current government to be replaced, according to a statement by the latter’s office.

“The two discussed the continuation of the war in Gaza, the negotiations for the hostage deal, the issue of conscription into the IDF, the Israeli economy, and also discussed the various ways to replace the government as soon as possible in order to fix Israel,” says a statement from Liberman’s office.

According to the statement, Liberman additionally “emphasized the need to advance the basic guidelines of the future coalition and maximum coordination between all Zionist parties.”

Earlier today it was reported that Liberman has written to Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, asking him to call a meeting of the “Zionist opposition party heads” — along with Bennett and former Knesset member Gadi Eisenkot — for a discussion on “formulating the basic outlines of the next government.”

According to the Walla report, Liberman indicated in the letter that those leaders will need to form an alternative to the current government.

The next general elections are scheduled for October 2026, but could be called earlier.

Health Ministry launches campaign to raise awareness of hospital ERs for sexual assault victims

The Health Ministry announces its second campaign to raise awareness and referrals to acute care rooms to treat victims of sexual assault in 11 hospitals around the country.

The acute care room is a special emergency room, separate from the regular emergency room, where a professional team of experts provides support, physical and mental care to victims, free of charge.

All victims of sexual assault, of any age, who have been harmed in the past seven days can go to an acute room without a doctor’s referral.

Minors over the age of 14 may arrive without a parent/guardian and receive treatment although it is recommended to arrive with a companion, if possible.

The campaign will run in both Hebrew and Arabic, with links on the ministry’s website and a map showing the location of the acute care rooms.

Israeli Air Force recently hosted US counterparts for 10th annual forum, IDF says

Senior officials from the Israeli and US air forces convene in the annual Air Senior National Representatives forum, in a photo cleared for publication on August 27, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israeli Air Force hosted its American counterparts for the annual Air Senior National Representatives (ASNR) forum on August 17-22, marking the forum’s tenth year, the IDF says.

The event, led by IAF chief of staff Brig. Gen. Omer Tischler in coordination with US Secretary of the Air Force and International Affairs (SAF/IA) assistant deputy Maj. Gen. Ricky Mills, included a visit by Lt. Gen. Derek C. France, commander of US Air Forces Central.

During the conference, both sides held professional discussions on operational cooperation, training, and force development, reviewing lessons from Operation Rising Lion and outlining a joint work plan for 2026.

The ASNR forum serves as a key platform for strengthening the strategic alliance between the Israeli and US air forces, the military says.

Meloni: War in Gaza ‘has gone beyond the principle of proportionality’

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni participates in a meeting at the White House on August 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. (WIN MCNAMEE /Getty Images via AFP)

Israel’s strike this week on a Khan Younis hospital that killed five journalists was “unjustifiable,” says Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, adding that the war against Hamas sparked by the terror group’s October 7 onslaught in Israel has “gone beyond the principle of proportionality.”

“We condemn the unjustifiable killing of journalists, an unacceptable attack on press freedom and on all those who risk their lives to report the tragedy of war,” she says during her address at an annual Catholic festival in Rimini, Italy.

“We did not hesitate for a single minute in supporting Israel’s right to defense after the horrors of the October 7 massacre,” continues the conservative premier. “But we cannot remain silent now in the face of a reaction that has gone beyond the principle of proportionality, claiming too many innocent victims, and even involving Christian communities.”

She says that Italy is “reaffirming its role” in Gaza, highlighting Italy’s involvement in medical evacuations from the Strip.

“There are those who go through the motions and those who save children. I am proud to be among the latter.”

The Israel Defense Forces said yesterday that its preliminary investigation into Monday’s deadly attack on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis found that Hamas had installed a surveillance camera on hospital grounds and that six of the more than 20 people killed were terror operatives, including one who took part in the October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel.

The IDF reiterated that it regrets civilian casualties and does not target journalists, while accusing Hamas of “cynically” exploiting medical facilities for military purposes.

Reports: US envoy cancels visits to south Lebanon amid protests over ‘animalistic’ journalists comment

Protesters hold up Hezbollah flags behind graffiti reading 'Barak is animal,' as they demonstrate against the planned visit of US envoy Tom Barrack to south Lebanon, on August 27, 2025, in Khiam. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)

Lebanese media reports that US regional envoy Tom Barrack canceled several visits he was scheduled to make today in the Tyre area of southern Lebanon, amid protests against a comment he made yesterday about journalists’ “animalistic” behavior.

Some demonstrators waved Hezbollah flags, while others held signs reading “The United States – Mother of Terror.”

Protesters also chalked slogans and a blue Star of David on the ground in Khiam.

The protests came in the wake of remarks Barrack made yesterday during a press conference, when he scolded journalists and said that if their behavior became “animalistic” and they did not “act civilized,” he would leave.

His comments sparked outrage, and Lebanon’s presidential office later issued an apology.

Barrack’s office has so far not commented on the incident.

مراسلة «#الأخبار»: نفّذ عددٌ من المواطنين وقفة أمام سراي #صور احتجاجاً على الزيارة التي كانت مقررة إلى المدينة للمبعوث الأميركي #توم_برّاك#توم_باراك#لبنان pic.twitter.com/vscpmGBRtp

— جريدة الأخبار – Al-Akhbar (@AlakhbarNews) August 27, 2025

IDF says Gaza City evacuation ‘unavoidable,’ dismisses ‘false rumors’ there’s no more room in south Gaza for displaced residents

Displaced Palestinians fleeing Jabalia move with their belongings on a street in Gaza City, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)

The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee dismisses what he calls “false rumors” that there is no space available in southern Gaza for displaced residents, as the military urges civilians in Gaza City and northern Gaza to evacuate ahead of its planned offensive to capture the city and target Hamas’s remaining strongholds.

In a video message posted on X, Adraee says the army has surveyed large open areas in southern Gaza, including in the central refugee camps and in Al-Mawasi, which he describes as empty of tents and ready to receive evacuees.

He says that evacuation from Gaza City is “unavoidable” and pledges that families moving south will receive increased humanitarian assistance.

According to the statement, preparations are underway for tent encampments, aid distribution centers, and water infrastructure.

The statement comes after UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said earlier this week that roughly 5,000 people had been displaced from northern Gaza to Deir al-Balah in the central Strip and to Khan Younis in the south since August 20. Another 8,000 have been displaced to the west of Gaza City, bringing the total number of new displacements since the end of the March ceasefire to more than 800,000.

#عاجل ‼️بيان مهم إلى سكان قطاع غزة وتحديدًا في مدينة غزة وشمال القطاع بخصوص ما ينشر من إشاعات كاذبة بأنه لا يوجد مكان فارغ في جنوب القطاع لانتقال السكان
⭕️قبيل التحول إلى المرحلة التالية في الحرب أود أن أؤكد بأن هنالك مناطق شاسعة فارغة في جنوب القطاع كما هو الحال في مخيمات… pic.twitter.com/SfApZFZKYb

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) August 27, 2025

Shmuel and Anat Harlap donate $180 million to Rabin Medical Center, the largest single donation to Israeli healthcare

From left to right, Anat Harlap, Rabin Medical Center Deputy CEO Liron Goldenberg, and Dr. Shmuel Harlap visit construction site of Rabin Medical Center's new 'Tower of Hope' in an undated photo (Courtesy/Elad Gutman)

The Rabin Medical Center announces that Anat and Dr. Shmuel Harlap have made the largest single donation to the Israeli healthcare system.

The couple donated $180 million (NIS 602,712,785) to construct a new heart and brain center called The Tower of Hope, symbolizing the couple’s desire to help heal divisions within Israeli society.

The new facility, expected to open in early 2027, will serve all sectors of the Israeli public, “secular, religious, ultra-Orthodox, Muslim, Christian, Druze, and Circassian,” says Anat Harlap. “It will be a lighthouse of hope for all.”

Lapid testifies in Qatargate affair, tells police Doha’s payments to PM’s aides ‘dangerous to state security’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid speaks to the press ahead of his Yesh Atid party's weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, June 3, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid gave testimony today in the so-called “Qatargate” affair at the request of police authorities, his office says in a statement.

“As part of his testimony, Lapid explained how the Prime Minister’s Office is supposed to operate under proper procedure, and why it is improper, dangerous to state security, and contrary to all procedure or law that Netanyahu’s advisers received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Muslim state that supports terror while simultaneously working in the Prime Minister’s Office,” reads the statement from Lapid, a former prime minister.

The testimony took place at the Tel Aviv offices of Lapid’s Yesh Atid party and lasted about half an hour, according to Ynet.

Lapid was asked about a meeting that took place in Paris with representatives from Qatar and families of the Gaza hostages, as well as about the functioning of the Prime Minister’s Office, Ynet adds.

The Qatargate affair revolves primarily around suspicions that top Netanyahu aide Jonatan Urich and spokesman Eli Feldstein committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, while working for the prime minister.

Palestinian reports: Gazan athlete killed by IDF fire near GHF aid distribution center; no comment from IDF

Palestinian media reports that Alam Abdallah al-Amour, an athlete from the Gaza Strip who has competed in international running events, was killed by IDF fire near a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution center in Khan Younis.

There is no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.

Three weeks ago, Gaza media reported that Suleiman al-Obeid, a well-known former Gazan football player, was killed by IDF fire under similar circumstances. FIFA paid tribute to al-Obeid, while the IDF responded several days later, stating: “From an initial and thorough review, we are not aware of any casualties resulting from IDF fire” near Gaza aid distribution centers on August 6, the day he was reported killed.

استشهاد العداء الفلسطيني الدولي علام عبد الله العمور، بعد إصابته بنيران جيش الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، قرب مركز توزيع المساعدات جنوب خان يونس pic.twitter.com/HjXMZL2c41

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) August 27, 2025

Report: Sydney antisemitic arson attack, with self-styled ‘James Bond’ at helm, preceded by bungled attempts

After Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that Iran was found to be behind a pair of antisemitic arson attacks in 2024, court documents published by The Sydney Morning Herald show how one of those descended into chaos at the hands of local Sydney criminals and a gangster styling himself as “James Bond.”

Australia’s national security service says it identified Iranian government involvement in at least two firebombing attacks — on the kosher Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney in October and the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne in December.

However, according to The Sydney Morning Herald report, the Bondi attack was preceded by two failed attempts on the wrong venue.

The alleged mastermind, Nomads motorbike chapter president Sayed Moosawi, directed the operation using the messaging app Signal, using the alias “James Bond.”

Moosawi arrived Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan in 2005 and has a long record of violent crime, the report says.

Moosawi allegedly said he was paid $12,000 to organize a fire in Sydney’s Bondi, according to the report.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Moosawi allegedly recruited Wayne Ogden and Juon Amuoi to attack the kosher Lewis’ Continental Kitchen on Curlewis Street in September 2024, but the pair fled after being spotted near the similarly named Curly Lewis Brewery, a beachfront bar with no Jewish connections.

Moosawi was furious, allegedly telling Ogden in an expletive-filled message that a ” f—ing 16 years kid could of got it done.”

Weeks later, two other men, Guy Finnegan and Craig Bantoft, were recruited to attack Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, reportedly for $4,000.

However, they mistakenly went to the same beachfront brewery on October 17, 2024, and set a small fire that was quickly doused by sprinklers.

Furious at the repeated bungles, Moosawi allegedly berated his crew over Signal: “Use [sic] f—ed the whole thing … It’s not even 2% burned f— me dead.”

Police arrested Finnegan within 24 hours, but Ogden allegedly returned days later to do the job.

According to the report, at 2:30 a.m. on October 20, he allegedly broke into Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, poured fuel across the premises, and ignited a blaze that caused more than $1 million in damage and forced nearby residents to evacuate.

Bantoft and Finnegan have since pleaded guilty over the brewery fire and are serving prison sentences. Ogden and Amuoi are awaiting trial on October 21, as is Moosawi, who was granted bail this month after posting $2 million surety, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Denmark summons US charge d’affaires over alleged Greenland interference

The port is pictured in Nuuk, Greenland, on June 15, 2025 (Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Denmark summons the US charge d’affaires for talks after reports of attempted interference in Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory that US President Donald Trump wants to control.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly said America needs the strategically located, resource-rich island for security reasons, and has refused to rule out the use of force to secure it.

The vast majority of Greenland’s 57,000 people want to become independent from Denmark, but do not wish to become part of the United States, according to a January opinion poll.

Danish public television reports that at least three US officials close to Trump have been observed in Greenland recently trying to gather information on past issues that have created tension between Greenland and Denmark, including the forced removal of Greenlandic children from their families and a forced contraception scandal.

“We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark. It is therefore not surprising if we experience outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen says in a statement to AFP.

“Any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the kingdom will of course be unacceptable,” he says, adding that he “asked the ministry of foreign affairs to summon the US charge d’affaires for a meeting at the ministry.”

Sa’ar decries Western moves to recognize Palestinian state, says war has been ‘successful, generally speaking’

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 decries Western moves to recognize a Palestinian state, telling the Wall Street Journal that Israel will prioritize strategic interests over “PR,” while adding that the humanitarian situation in Gaza has “improved dramatically.”

Speaking to the Journal during his first official visit to the United States since he took office, Sa’ar blames Israel’s mounting diplomatic damage nearly two years into the Gaza war on “huge propaganda” by Hamas and other anti-Israel actors, and the harsh reality of “a consistent two years of war.”

“I want to hope it won’t last with the same temperature on calmer days. We will finish this war,” he says, adding that “we will not risk real interests for a temporary period of quiet and better PR.”

On European recognition of Palestinian statehood, Sa’ar says many Europeans “cannot understand that the Palestinians  — all the factions — their ideology is to eliminate the Jewish state.” He reiterates that recognition is seen by Hamas and Palestinians as a reward for October 7, and warns that “Europe today has huge Muslim communities. There are already cells of radical Islam there. It has an effect.”

On Gaza aid, Sa’ar says, “The real aid situation has improved dramatically. The prices of basic products that had been very expensive fell during the past weeks. And this is because the quantities that enter the Gaza Strip, mainly by trucks, and also by airdrops, are huge.”

The WSJ cites economist Yannay Spitzer of Hebrew University, who found a nearly 90% drop in flour prices since July and called it “discrediting” that the UN-backed hunger monitor appeared to ignore the data to declare a famine.

Sa’ar says the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification’s famine declaration “is not humanitarian; it’s political,” though he acknowledges, “I’m not saying, of course, that the situation in Gaza is not tough. It has been two years of war.”

Describing the war as “successful, generally speaking,” Sa’ar says, “We restored Israel’s image of strength after the low point of Oct. 7. But it’s not only an image. It’s reality. . .  By dealing with the proxies around us, we exploded the architecture Iran built for decades. [By dealing directly with Iran,] we changed the entire strategic equation in the Middle East.”

Sa’ar is slated to meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials in Washington today.

Pope Leo makes ‘strong appeal’ for hostages to be freed, permanent Gaza ceasefire reached

Pope Leo XIV speaks during his general audience in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican on August 27, 2025. (Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)

Pope Leo makes a “strong appeal” to the global community to end the nearly two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas, calling for a permanent ceasefire, release of hostages and the provision of humanitarian aid.

“I once again issue a strong appeal… so that an end may be put to the conflict in the Holy Land, which has caused so much terror, destruction, and death,” the pontiff says in his weekly audience at the Vatican.

“I implore that all hostages be freed, that a permanent ceasefire be reached, that the safe entry of humanitarian aid be facilitated, and that international humanitarian law be fully respected,” he says.

Liberman asks Lapid to call meeting with opposition heads plus Bennett and Eisenkot to discuss next government

Welfare and Social Services Minister Meir Cohen, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during the weekly cabinet meeting on May 22, 2022. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman has written to Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, asking him to call a meeting of the “Zionist opposition party heads” — along with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and former Knesset member Gadi Eisenkot — for a discussion on “formulating the basic outlines of the next government,” the Walla news site reports.

According to the report, Liberman indicates in the letter that those leaders will need to form an alternative to the current government. The next general elections are scheduled for October 2026.

“I believe that especially during this period, we have a duty to show national responsibility and act together, for the sake of strengthening public trust and for a better future for the entire country,” writes Liberman, according to Walla.

Police say $450,000 seized in yesterday’s raid on Ramallah money changer accused of funding Hamas

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

Israeli police say that security forces seized roughly 1.5 million shekels ($447,000) of “terror funds” during a raid in the West Bank yesterday that targeted a local currency exchange office linked to Hamas.

A statement from a police spokesman says Border Police and IDF soldiers “raided a money exchange business in the heart of Ramallah that was used to transfer funds to the Hamas terror organization.”

“Forces seized significant sums of money in both foreign and local currencies, with a total value of approximately 1,528,832 shekels, including US dollars, Jordanian dinars, euros, and other foreign currencies,” the statement says.

“Nine wanted suspects accused of involvement in terror activity were arrested and taken, together with the seized evidence, for investigation,” it adds.

Dozens of Palestinians were wounded in the raid, according to the Red Crescent. Some were hit by live rounds, while the rest were injured by rubber bullets or tear gas inhalation, the organization said.

Israel carries out frequent raids across the West Bank, where tensions have remained high throughout the Gaza war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 ,2023, onslaught. However, incursions into central Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, are relatively rare.

Iran says security forces killed 13 militants from group suspected of recent attack on police

Iranian forces have killed 13 militants in a raid in the restive southeast, state media reports, adding they were members of a group suspected of a recent deadly attack on police.

“So far, 13 terrorists have been killed and a number of others arrested” in Sistan-Baluchistan province, the Revolutionary Guards say in a statement carried by state television.

It says operations were carried out in the cities of Iranshahr, Khash and Saravan.

The broadcaster says that some of those killed were suspected of being behind an ambush reported on Friday that killed five policemen in Iranshahr.

Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, has long been a flashpoint for clashes between security forces and armed groups, including drug traffickers and separatists.

Home to a large Sunni Muslim Baluch community, the province is one of the poorest regions of Shiite-majority Iran.

Sunni jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) claimed responsibility for last week’s ambush in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Iran regularly reports deadly attacks in the province targeting police or Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran’s military.

Authorities blame Sunni militant groups, including Jaish al-Adl, for such attacks.

On Saturday, Iranian forces killed six militants in another raid in the province, saying they were members of a group linked to Israel.

Iran link to Australian synagogue attack uncovered via money trail, spy agency says

Flowers and messages of hope and support seen at the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Ripponlea suburb of Melbourne, December 8, 2024, after it was gutted in an arson attack early on December 6, 2024. (Reuters)

Australia’s intelligence agency has traced the funding of hooded criminals who allegedly set fire to a Melbourne synagogue, linking the antisemitic attack to Iran, officials say, even as those charged with the crime were likely unaware Tehran was their puppet master.

A 20-year-old local man, Younes Ali Younes, appeared in Melbourne’s Magistrates Court today charged with the December 6 arson attack on the Adass Israel synagogue and theft of a car. He did not enter a plea and did not seek bail. His lawyer declined to comment to Reuters.

Australia’s spy chief Mike Burgess says a series of “cut outs,” an intelligence term for intermediaries, were used to conceal Iran’s involvement in the attacks, and warned that the country may have orchestrated others.

The investigation worked backwards through payments made onshore and offshore to “petty and sometimes not so petty criminals,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says in parliament.

The turning point in the investigation came weeks earlier, as Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) seized mobile phones and digital devices from suspects arrested in Victoria state over the synagogue attack — and highlighted a stolen blue Volkswagen Golf sedan used in unrelated attacks.

CCTV footage of the night of December 6 released by police shows three hooded figures unloading red jerrycans of fuel from the boot of the car, one of whom was wielding an axe, at the entrance of the synagogue and setting it alight before speeding away.

The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, an intiative between Victoria Police, @AusFedPolice and @ASIOGovAu has released footage of those believed to responsible for an arson attack on a Synagogue in Ripponlea last year.
https://t.co/YF7sIp063s pic.twitter.com/ZkmxskJ20K

— Victoria Police (@VictoriaPolice) May 15, 2025

Victoria’s Joint Counter Terrorism Team alleged Younes, 20, stole the car to carry out the attack and recklessly endangered lives by setting fire to the A$20 million synagogue when people were inside, a charge sheet shows. No one was wounded in the attack.

A co-accused, Giovanni Laulu, 21, appeared in court last month on the same charges.

Police have referred to the sedan as a “communal crime car” linked to other attacks that were not politically motivated.

Yesterday, Albanese said Australia’s intelligence agencies had shown the attack, and another in Sydney last year, were directed by the Iranian government, and expelled Tehran’s ambassador, becoming the latest Western government to accuse Iran of carrying out hostile covert activities on its soil.

IDF announces newly formed engineering battalion has joined fighting in Jabalia

The IDF announces the establishment of a new engineering battalion under the Givati Brigade, which has already joined the fighting in Jabalia in northern Gaza.

The 607th “Mapatz” Battalion was created following lessons learned during the war, with the military citing the need for dedicated engineering forces at the brigade level to support infantry operations, dismantle terror infrastructure, and ensure troop mobility.

A ceremony marking the appointment of the battalion’s commander was held yesterday in Jabalia, attended by the commander of the 162nd Division Brig. Gen. Sagiv Dahan, IDF chief engineering officer Brig. Gen. Yoav Torchansky, Givati Brigade commander Col. N, and other senior officers.

At the ceremony, Col. N said the battalion’s creation was “a direct implementation of the lessons of the war,” stressing the brigade’s leading role in combat across Gaza over the past two years.

IDF says troops continuing operations on Gaza City outskirts ahead of planned wider offensive

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip ahead of a planned Gaza City offensive, in a photo released for publication August 27, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says ground troops continue to operate on the outskirts of Gaza City ahead of the planned offensive to conquer the northern Gaza city, targeting the remaining Hamas strongholds in the enclave.

According to the military, forces from the 99th Division have been striking Hamas infrastructure both above and below ground, and in the past 24 hours destroyed several observation posts that posed a threat to Israeli troops. At the same time, the 162nd Division has been engaged in fighting in Jabalia and Gaza City’s outskirts in an effort to eliminate operatives from terror groups and dismantle their networks.

Elsewhere, the 36th Division continues its operations in Khan Younis, where the IDF says troops — with air support — killed several operatives and destroyed additional infrastructure.

Separately, an Israeli Air Force strike, guided by the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet, killed Mahmoud al-Asoud, commander of Hamas’s General Security Apparatus in western Gaza.

The IDF says al-Asoud played a central role in Hamas’s security apparatus both during the current war and in past years.

The air force, directed by the navy, also struck a naval weapons warehouse and a repair facility for Hamas’s naval armaments in Khan Younis.

UN nuclear inspectors ‘back in Iran’ for 1st time since war with Israel, watchdog chief says

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi attends an extraordinary Board of Governors meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria on June 23, 2025. (Joe Klamar / AFP)

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog says a team of its inspectors are “back in Iran,” the first to enter since Israeli and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities this year.

Iran suspended cooperation with the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency following a 12-day war with Israel in June, with Tehran pointing to the IAEA’s failure to condemn Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities.

“Now the first team of IAEA inspectors is back in Iran, and we are about to restart,” director general Rafael Grossi tells Fox News’ “The Story.”

“When it comes to Iran, as you know, there are many facilities. Some were attacked, some were not,” Grossi says.

“So we are discussing what kind of… practical modalities can be implemented in order to facilitate the restart of our work there.”

The announcement came as Iran held talks with Britain, France and Germany in Geneva yesterday, with Tehran seeking to avert a sanctions snapback that the European powers have threatened to impose under a moribund 2015 nuclear deal.

Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Lapid: Mediators called to ask if I know why Netanyahu hasn’t responded to latest hostage deal proposal

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on August 4, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says that top level hostage-ceasefire deal mediators called him to ask if he knows why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet responded to the latest proposal for an agreement.

“Over the past few days I spoke with mediators at the highest level in the negotiations, and they said ‘we don’t understand what happened, Hamas accepted the conditions that Netanyahu set,'” Lapid tells Army Radio.

“They called to ask me if I know why he isn’t getting back to them,” Lapid says, referring to Netanyahu.

According to a Channel 12 news report yesterday, “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.

“With considerable pressure, we got Hamas to agree to 98% of 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 quoted 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 said.

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.

A Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman yesterday also said Doha 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.

Yesterday, the security cabinet met briefly but reportedly did not discuss a response to the current proposal.

2 French teens charged over plot to attack synagogues, Eiffel Tower — report

Two French teens were charged earlier this month for conspiring to carry out terror attacks on synagogues and the Eiffel Tower, Le Figaro reports.

The newspaper says the two suspects came from Arab-Muslim families and shared a fascination with the Islamic State terror group.

The two minors — aged 15 and 17 — also discussed the possibility of traveling abroad to fight and were heavy consumers of ultra-violent online content, the newspaper says.

According to the French outlet, the teens were arrested on July 29 and 30 amid an investigation that began in April. The two were charged on August 1, the newspaper says.

Members of France’s Jewish community — one of the largest in the world — have said the number of antisemitic acts has surged following the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw another 251 taken hostage, sparking the war in Gaza.

7 arrested as anti-Israel protesters occupy Microsoft president’s office

FILE - A Microsoft sign and logo are pictured at the company's headquarters, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Washington. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond, File)

Police arrested seven people after they occupied the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith as part of continued protests over the company’s alleged ties to the Israel Defense Forces during the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, organizers say.

Current and former Microsoft employees were among those arrested, says the protest group No Azure for Apartheid.

Azure is Microsoft’s primary cloud computing platform, and Microsoft has said it is reviewing a report in British newspaper The Guardian this month that the IDF used it to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

The protesters could be seen huddled together on a Twitch livestream as officers moved in to arrest them. The video showed another group assembled outside.

During a media briefing, Smith said two of those arrested were Microsoft employees.

Eighteen people were arrested in a similar protest in a plaza at the headquarters last week. The group has been protesting the company for months. Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella, and in April it fired two others who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration.

The group’s demands include that the company cut ties with Israel and pay reparations to Palestinians.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

‘First step’: Netanyahu welcomes Australian decision to expel Iran ambassador over antisemitic attacks

Iranian Ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi (L) walks toward his car within the grounds of the Islamic Republic of Iran's embassy in Canberra on August 27, 2025 (Hilary Wardhaugh / AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praises Australia’s decision to expel Iran’s ambassador over antisemitic arson attacks, calling it a “first step.”

“A few days ago I appeared several times in the Australian media and attacked the Australian government’s conciliatory stance against antisemitism,” Netanyahu says in a Hebrew-language statement on X.

“I am pleased that Australia decided to expel the Iranian ambassador, after it was revealed that Iran was behind two antisemitic incidents in the country,” Netanyahu says. “This is a first step – and hopefully not the last.”

In a scathing and unprecedented attack in recent days, Netanyahu had said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was “weak,” accusing him of failing to act against antisemitism.

Albanese accused Iran yesterday of being behind a pair of 2024 antisemitic arson attacks in Australia, and expelled Tehran’s ambassador, calling the Iranian actions “dangerous acts of aggression” designed to undermine his country’s social cohesion.

Albanese announced that Canberra had also pulled its diplomats from the Islamic Republic and will list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization. It marks the first time Australia has expelled an ambassador since World War II.

This handout photo shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing an event celebrating the legalization of West Bank settlement outposts, on August 26, 2025. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Suspect in court for Melbourne synagogue arson attack Australia says ordered by Iran

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (C) and members of the local Jewish community visiting the torched Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 10, 2024. (DEPARTMENT OF PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET / AFP)

A man charged with setting fire to a Melbourne synagogue appears in court over an attack Australia says was orchestrated by Iran and has led to the expulsion of Tehran’s ambassador.

Australia said on yesterday Iran sought to disguise its involvement in two 2024 attacks, at the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne and on a kosher restaurant in Sydney, by using criminals and members of organized crime gangs.

Younes Ali Younes, 20, appeared for the first time via video link at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday in connection with the attack on the synagogue in December 2024, that gutted the building and destroyed sacred texts, causing millions of dollars in damage.

He spoke only to confirm he could hear and understand proceedings, and is yet to enter a plea.

His lawyer, Mark Aouad, declined to comment on the case, that is scheduled to return to court on December 4.

Police have already charged two alleged accomplices.

Canberra is the latest Western government to accuse Iran of carrying out hostile covert activities on its soil. Last month, 14 countries, including Britain, the US, and France, condemned what they called a surge in assassination, kidnapping, and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services.

IDF says it downed Houthi missile; no immediate reports of injuries or impacts

The Israel Defense Forces says it successfully intercepted the missile fired at Israel from Yemen.

There is no immediate reports of injuries or impacts, nor claim of responsibility by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

IDF says working to intercept Yemen missile as sirens sound in Jerusalem, elsewhere

The IDF says it identified a ballistic missile fired at Israel from Yemen and is working to intercept it.

The missile attack triggers sirens in Jerusalem and surrounding communities, as well as West Bank settlements and towns in central Israel.

UN nuclear watchdog chief said to receive 24/7 security detail due to Iranian threat

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi attends an extraordinary Board of Governors meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria on June 23, 2025. (Joe Klamar / AFP)

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has been guarded by a 24/7 security detail in recent weeks due to a specific Iranian threat against him, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report says that Rafael Grossi is being protected by the elite Cobra special services unit in Austria, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based. The security attachment was reportedly assigned to him in late June after Austrian intelligence was given intelligence about a threat to Grossi from an unidentified third party in the wake of the Israel-Iran war.

“We can confirm that Austria provided a Cobra unit but we cannot confirm where the specific threat came from,” Fredrik Dahl, an IAEA spokesman, tells the Wall Street Journal in response.

FM Gideon Sa’ar to meet with Rubio in Washington on Wednesday

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar in Jerusalem on February 16, 2025 (Rafi Ben Hakun/GPO)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in Washington on Wednesday, the State Department says.

Witkoff says Trump administration opposes additional partial hostage release deals

US special envoy Steve Witkoff says the Trump administration’s official position is to oppose additional partial Gaza hostage deals, lining up behind Israel which has avoided responding to a proposal accepted by Hamas for a phased release of the remaining hostages.

Trump himself indicated that this was his administration’s stance when he posted on Truth Social hours after Hamas accepted the Arab mediators’ latest proposal on August 18 that the remaining hostages would only be freed after the terror group has been completely destroyed.

However, the White House said the next day that it was still reviewing the latest phased hostage deal proposal, which is nearly identical to the one that Witkoff crafted several months ago.

Despite Hamas’s acceptance of that proposal, Witkoff says in a Fox News interview that Hamas is fully responsible for the lack of a deal to date, reiterating that the terrorist organization”slow played that process” last month when it added new conditions, which led the US and Israel to recall their negotiating teams.

While Israel has since declared that it was no longer interested in phased deals, the Arab mediators worked to bring Hamas down from its new demands by accepting their latest proposal, hoping that Jerusalem would reconsider.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held his ground, while advancing plans for the IDF to take over Gaza City, an operation that he argues will dismantle Hamas’s last remaining stronghold in the Strip. His critics argue that he characterized Israel’s 2024 conquering of Rafah in the same manner and that a new operation will only further entrench the Hamas insurgency, while hostage families fear the Gaza City offensive will put their loved ones at risk.

“It is Hamas now who’s saying we accept that deal, and I think in large part they’re saying that and changing their mind because the Israelis are putting some very intense pressure on them,” Witkoff tells Fox News, without saying whether Israel should do the same.

Fox’s Brett Baier notes that Israeli officials have said they no longer accept a partial deal, and he asks if the US feels the same way.

“That’s the official position, and that’s President Trump’s official position. I think that he has said to himself, ‘You don’t need to keep those hostages,'” Witkoff says.

Hamas has refused to release the remaining hostages unless Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw from Gaza, demands that Netanyahu has refused, arguing that doing so would leave Hamas in power.

Trump to hold White House meeting on ‘comprehensive plan’ for managing post-war Gaza

US President Donald Trump invites US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff to respond to a question in the Oval Office of the White House on May 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP)

US President Donald Trump will chair a “large meeting” at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the “comprehensive plan” that the administration is putting together for the post-war management of Gaza, his special envoy Steve Witkoff announces.

This appears to be the first time that Witkoff has revealed the existence of a US plan for the so-called day after, as Washington has largely deferred on the issue to its Arab allies in the region since Trump’s remarks in February on his vision to take over Gaza and permanently relocate its residents. While Israel welcomed the idea, it was roundly rejected by US partners in the region who Trump hoped would be willing to take in Palestinian refugees.

“Many people are going to see how robust it is and how well meaning it is, and it reflects President Trump’s humanitarian motives,” Witkoff says in a Fox News interview, without elaborating further.

Last month, Trump made headlines when he said he’d be unveiling a new aid plan for Gaza. The White House said the plan would be announced shortly thereafter but never ended up following through. Ultimately, the State Department indicated that the administration would suffice with increasing the number of distribution sites being operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation from three to 16. That expansion has yet to take place however and the US has only transferred half of the $30 million pledged for the project, which will likely cost much more.

Reuters and AP journalists killed in Gaza hospital strike weren’t ‘a target,’ says IDF spokesman

Two journalists for Reuters and the Associated Press who were killed in an Israeli attack on a Gaza hospital were not “a target of the strike,” a military spokesperson tells Reuters, adding the army chief had ordered a further inquiry into how the decision to strike the hospital was made.

Israeli forces struck Nasser hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 20 people including journalists who worked for Reuters, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other outlets.

“We can confirm that the Reuters and AP journalists were not a target of the strike,” military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani tells Reuters. Three other journalists were also killed in the strike.

Using its own camera equipment, Reuters has frequently broadcast a feed from Nasser hospital during the Gaza war. For the past several weeks the news agency had been delivering daily feeds from the hospital position that was hit.

At the moment of the initial Israeli strike on Monday, the Reuters live video feed, which cameraman Hussam al-Masri had been operating, suddenly shut down. Masri was killed in the attack.

None of the five journalists were among the six alleged Palestinian terror operatives that the Israeli military named in a written statement, released on Tuesday. The statement included photos of six individuals who were killed, including alleged members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“At the same time, the chief of the general staff regrets any harm caused to civilians,” the statement says, adding that the Israeli military directs its activities solely toward military targets.

The written Israeli military statement identifies what it calls “several gaps” that Israel’s chief of the general staff had instructed be further examined:

“Firstly, a further examination of the authorization process prior to the strike, including the ammunition approved for the strike and the timing of the authorization.

“Secondly, an examination of the decision-making process in the field.”

Hamas meanwhile slams an Israeli statement saying the strike was aimed at a camera operated by the terrorist group, claiming the accusation is “baseless.”

Israel “attempted to justify this crime by fabricating a false claim that it had targeted a ‘camera’ belonging to resistance elements — an allegation that is baseless, lacking any evidence, and merely aimed at evading legal and moral responsibility for a full-fledged massacre,” Hamas says in a statement.

Hamas also denies that any of the Palestinians killed in the attack were terror operatives. Its government media office says in a statement that one of the six Palestinians who Israel identified as terrorists was killed in al-Mawasi some distance from the hospital, and another was killed elsewhere at a different time.

The Hamas statement doesn’t clarify whether the two who were killed elsewhere were also civilians.

Syrian state TV reports 6 soldiers killed in Israeli drone strike near Damascus

Six Syrian soldiers were killed in Israeli drone strikes in the Damascus countryside, state-run El Ekhbariya TV reports.

‘It began in Gaza and will end in Gaza,’ Netanyahu says at event celebrating outpost legalization

This handout photo shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing an event celebrating the legalization of West Bank settlement outposts, on August 26, 2025. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Speaking after a security cabinet meeting on Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says cryptically, “It began in Gaza and it will end in Gaza.”

“We will not leave those monsters there; we will free all our hostages; we will ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,” says Netanyahu at a Jerusalem event celebrating the legalization of outposts in the Binyamin Regional Council.

He boasts that his government is blocking the creation of a Palestinian state.

“I said we would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state – and we are doing that, together,” he says. “I said we would build and hold on to parts of our land, our homeland – and we are doing that.”

Jerusalem church leaders discuss local Christians’ issues with US Senators who back arms embargo on Israel

Jerusalem Church leaders met Tuesday with US Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley, two progressive Democrats, at the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, according to a statement from the patriarchate.

Patriarch Theophilos III, together with the leaders of the Armenian, Franciscan, Latin, and Anglican Churches, shared the concerns of the Christian communities in the region, including their grave distress over the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the wellbeing of Christians in the Strip, the plight of Christians in the West Bank and issue related to tax disputes over Christian properties in Israel with the countries authorities.

Van Hollen and Merkley are among senators who have recently supported resolutions aimed at blocking arms sales to Israel.

According to Palestinian news agency WAFA, Van Hollen and Merkley also met Tuesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his deputy Hussein al-Sheikh in Ramallah.

In first, Netanyahu says he recognizes the Armenian genocide

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says for the first time that he recognizes the genocide carried out by Ottoman Empire against Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks in the early 20th century.

Asked by Patrick Bet David on his podcast why Israel doesn’t recognize the Armenian genocide, Netanyahu says, “I think we have. I think the Knesset passed a resolution to that effect,” though no such legislation has been passed into law.

Pressed on why no Israeli prime minister has, Netanyahu responds, “I just did. Here you go.”

BREAKING!

Prime Minister @Netanyahu OFFICIALLY recognizes the Armenian, Assyrian & Greek genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire. pic.twitter.com/fLtsr41YRy

— Patrick Bet-David (@patrickbetdavid) August 26, 2025

Israel has refrained from recognizing the genocide over fears it could harm its relationship with Turkey — the successor state to the Ottoman Empire — which hotly denies any such genocide occurred.

Ties with Turkey are at a nadir, with diplomatic ties largely suspended and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regularly comparing Israel to Nazis over the war in Gaza.