US President Donald Trump is no longer interested in reviving the June memorandum of understanding with Iran, adopting more hardline terms for ending the conflict with Iran, a senior diplomat from one of the mediating countries tells The Times of Israel.
The MOU fell apart within days over differing interpretations of its vaguely written terms regarding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
While mediating countries Qatar and Pakistan have sought to restore the MOU or negotiate a similar agreement, Trump has informed them that he is no longer prepared to accept those terms after feeling that the Iranians “burned” him repeatedly at the last minute, the diplomat says, confirming elements of the Wall Street Journal’s earlier reporting on the matter.
The mediating countries are still working to find a solution, but Trump is more interested in maintaining economic pressure against Iran, convinced that sanctions will lead the regime to capitulate to more favorable terms regarding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the curbing of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, according to a US official.
The diplomat from one of the mediating countries warns that the US will have to be prepared to wait Iran out for an extended period of time and questioned the administration’s ability to do so, given the war’s unpopularity among Americans.
Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei says reports about a potential plot to assassinate US President Donald Trump’s youngest son are a lie, in an interview broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Manar TV.
The US Secret Service said on Tuesday that it was aware of a video broadcast by Iranian state television discussing a plot to assassinate Trump’s youngest son, Barron Trump.
In the interview, Rezaei also says mediators have asked Tehran to set out its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and that Iran is preparing a list.
The conditions include ending the war in the region, he says.
Rezaei says Iran had agreed with Oman on a corridor for shipping through the strait, with parts lying in Omani and Iranian waters. Ships would transit through a designated central channel if the United States meets Iran’s conditions, he says through an interpreter in the Al Manar TV interview.
Two Hamas commanders were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip today, the military announces.
One strike in Gaza City’s Shati camp killed Bilal Ibrahim Saleh Raqi’i, identified by the IDF as a commander in Hamas’s anti-tank unit.
בעת האחרונה, המחבלים קידמו מתווי טרור נגד כוחות צה”ל ואזרחי מדינת ישראל ופעלו לשיקום יכולות הארגון, תוך הפרה שיטתית של הפסקת האש. התקיפה בוצעה במטרה להסיר את האיום.
כוחות צה"ל בפיקוד הדרום פרוסים במרחב בהתאם להסכם וימשיכו לפעול להסרת כל איום מיידי pic.twitter.com/OhDKmElD3a
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 27, 2026
A second strike in Khan Younis killed Azzam Rifaat Abd Abadala, who the military says served in Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade.
The IDF justifies the strikes amid the ceasefire by saying that both terror operatives had recently advanced attacks on troops and Israeli civilians, as well as acted to restore Hamas capabilities, “while systematically violating the ceasefire.”
The strikes were “carried out to remove the threat,” the army adds.
Israel’s military censor has today permitted publication of a long-censored report that then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar held direct negotiations over hostage releases with exiled Hamas leaders after the October 7 Hamas invasion through February 2025, when he was removed from his leading role in Israel’s negotiating team by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Channel 12 reports.
The direct contacts were held with the approval of Netanyahu, the war cabinet and security cabinet, the TV report says. Such a direct channel had proved more effective in the past than negotiations via mediators, Bar reportedly noted in closed-door conversations, which is why he was astounded when Netanyahu removed him from the negotiating team.
The TV network reports that it knew of these talks in April 2025, but was barred from publishing the news by the military censor. However, it says the censor contacted Channel 12 today and invited it to resubmit the story for approval before ultimately approving it to be published.
Bar resigned from the Shin Bet in June 2025; the cabinet had voted to fire him that March, but that decision was frozen by the High Court.
Channel 12 suggests that the censor decision is tied to today’s other report on secret Hamas contacts — those allegedly held by Netanyahu via his emissary Shlomi Fogel in 2014. The TV network says it does not know whether the military censor contacted the channel today of her own volition, or whether she was told to do so — implying this may have been a directive from the prime minister.
“Someone is trying to tell us here that if it was acceptable after October 7, after Hamas slaughtered us, raped our women and invaded our communities, to hold direct contacts with them, and Ronen Bar did so, then what was the problem with Shlomi Fogel, Netanyahu’s man, holding contacts [with Hamas] before October 7. That’s the subconscious message.”
The difference, editorializes Channel 12, is that Bar was an authorized member of the security establishment, whereas Fogel was a private businessman.
US President Donald Trump says the United States is not talking with Iran as Washington focuses on punishing Tehran economically, vowing to penalize countries that do business with the Islamic Republic.
“We don’t want to speak to them. We’re not looking to meet or anything,” Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office.
When asked if he would punish Russia for continuing to do business with Iran, Trump responds: “It depends. So far, I think Russia’s behaved quite well, having to do with the Strait of Hormuz, and you have to understand: for everything they do, we do also. You know, somebody was saying about China. What about China? We hear they’re spying. We spy on them too.”
Then when asked if he will sanction Chinese banks for doing business with Iran, Trump says: “Who said I’m not? You don’t know if I’m doing it… I don’t have to announce everything, do I?”
Hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his reputed emissary Shlomi Fogel denied a report that they secretly negotiated with Hamas in 2014, Channel 12 reports further details of the alleged interaction, which has provoked a political firestorm.
The report says Netanyahu was twice confronted about the secret channel by senior Israeli security officials, and twice claimed that he knew nothing about it.
The TV network claims the Israeli security establishment found out in real time that Fogel, a business associate of the prime minister’s, was holding the talks with senior Hamas Gaza official Ghazi Hamad, aimed at reaching terms for a ceasefire in that summer’s Operation Protective Edge, even as three generals and the head of the Shin Bet were in Cairo holding official discussions on a ceasefire on behalf of the prime minister.
Senior security officials went to ask Netanyahu about Fogel’s activities. He acknowledged that he knew Fogel but claimed he was unaware of any such talks and said he had not dispatched Fogel to meet with Hamas, the report says. Netanyahu encouraged the security officials to summon Fogel and tell him to stop.
Fogel was indeed summoned, the TV report says, and claimed that he was “doing this with authorization and permission.” The security officials retorted that they were telling him, with the prime minister’s knowledge, to stop.
But Fogel did not stop. Within days, intelligence was received that the Fogel-Hamas discussions were continuing. So the security officials went a second time to speak with Netanyahu, who again claimed he knew nothing about the Fogel talks, the report says.
Netanyahu then phoned Yossi Cohen, later the head of the Mossad, who was at the time the head of the National Security Council, and told Cohen to tell Fogel to stop, the report continues. Eyal Zamir, Netanyahu’s military secretary at the time, and the current IDF chief of staff, was in the room, the report says.
Fogel continued, nonetheless, and was summoned again and told he was breaking the law. He then pulled out “dozens of pages” of documents, “with all the records of his meetings… all the messages he had been instructed to convey to Ghazi Hamad,” the TV report says.
The security officials realized that this was Netanyahu’s modus operandi, the report says. It describes the episode as echoing Netanyahu’s appointment of billionaire philanthropist and World Jewish Congress leader Ronald Lauder as his secret personal emissary to negotiate with Syrian president Hafez al-Assad regarding the Golan Heights, in 1998, during his first term as prime minister.
The government tells the High Court of Justice that it opposes allowing the return of tens of thousands of residents from three West Bank refugee camps cleared entirely by the IDF in counter-terror operations.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel petitioned the High Court against the evictions from the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur al-Shams refugee camps, arguing that they illegally displaced some 33,000 Palestinians who are now reliant on aid from humanitarian organizations.
Responding to the State Attorney’s Office, the government credits the counter-terror operations that began in January 2025 for significantly improving the security situation for settlers in the West Bank.
Moreover, the government explains in its response that the IDF wants to maintain its presence in the three refugee camps because it believes armed Palestinian groups will resume operating there if the army withdraws.
Former Mossad chief David Barnea says there is no choice but to intensify attacks against Iran until the current regime is replaced.
“In my assessment, there will be no choice but to intensify the economic, diplomatic and operational actions against this regime until it falls — and it will fall,” Barnea says in public comments at a ceremony honoring him organized by the Jerusalem Municipality.
Barnea, who was replaced in the post by Roman Gofman in June after five years in the role, says that the people of Iran “long for [the regime’s] downfall. They need it [to happen] in order to see even a glimmer of light. The enlightened Western world wants it as well, led by the United States and Israel, which are more determined than ever.”
The ex-Mossad chief also says that the wars against Iran over the past year have shown that “it is clear to the entire world that the Iranian issue is not our problem alone.”
“The world is beginning to understand that if the problem is not resolved, it will reach everyone and everywhere — whether through ballistic missiles, terrorism or the development of nuclear weapons of mass destruction.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls on Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism parties to run together in the upcoming election in order to prevent either from failing to pass the electoral threshold.
“They have to unite. Every time we were united, we won,” says Netanyahu in a video message. “When we were divided, we lost.”
Netanyahu adds that “I know they have their personal issues, they have to get over it. I’ll invite them in the coming days and we’ll make great efforts to unite [them].”
The two factions ran together in the most recent election in 2022, but split immediately following the vote.
A Zman Yisrael poll published today predicted that if the parties run separately, Religious Zionism will fail to cross the electoral threshold, and Otzma Yehudit will receive 6 seats. Were the parties to unite, the poll shows they would receive a combined eight seats in the Knesset.
In response, Ben Gvir attacks Netanyahu, accusing him of wanting the Otzma Yehudit party to be small so that he can ultimately join up with Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party.
Ben Gvir accuses Netanyahu of seeking “to establish a ‘wide national government,'” saying that only strengthening his party, Smotrich and Ofer Winter’s People of Israel party “will allow the establishment of a fully right-wing government.”
The US military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe, largely driven by US President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, a US defense official in Europe and a NATO official tell The Associated Press, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in NATO countries to a potential Russian attack.
The US defense official says the most concerning shortfall involves Patriot missile interceptors, which can shoot down Russia’s high-speed ballistic missiles. The NATO official confirms the low inventories of Patriots among American and NATO forces in Europe. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.
In the event of a Russian ballistic missile assault on, for example, a military headquarters or power plant, NATO could be in a similar position to Patriot-starved Ukraine and be forced “to take punch after punch in the mouth,” the US defense official says.
In Europe, the American military “definitely” does not have enough Patriots to stop any possible sustained ballistic missile attack and would have “very limited” capability to defend against a single ballistic missile strike or a stray Russian missile that goes off course, the US official says.
People of Israel party chairman Ofer Winter announces that he will only recommend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the next premier following the upcoming national election.
“We are part of the right-wing camp. Netanyahu is the leader of the right-wing camp, and he is the only person we will recommend [for prime minister],” Winter says in a statement.
“We will not dance to anyone’s tune,” adds the controversial former IDF general. “The ultra-Orthodox will be integrated into the IDF, with or without the Haredi political operatives. There will be voluntary emigration from Gaza… there will be decisive victory, not containment.”
Following a national election, the heads of each party in the Knesset meet with President Isaac Herzog and nominate one person to form the next government. Herzog then taps the person with the most support to attempt to form a governing coalition.
Netanyahu’s Likud party has reportedly been concerned that the fledgling right-wing party — which has been critical of his government’s activity — would end up as part of the “change bloc” coalition, even attempting to give Winter a reserved spot on the Likud list to prevent him from launching his own party.
A Zman Yisrael poll today showed People of Israel would get six seats in the next Knesset, effectively pushing the Religious Zionism party out of the Knesset.
Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz issues an appeal to members of the so-called third bloc to unite ahead of the October 27 election to establish a “broad Zionist government.”
“After the fighting in the streets, we desperately need hope for peace among ourselves. The hope for unity must start with us. We have reached a time of decision. Faced with internal and external challenges, only a broad Zionist government can stand strong. I call on everyone who shares this vision: we must act together to achieve it,” Gantz declares in a video.
Blue and White is part of the so-called third bloc of center-right parties that aim to force a compromise between the two larger blocs in order to create a broad Zionist unity government. None of the members of the bloc have yet to pass the electoral threshold in polls.
Gantz reportedly met yesterday with Gilad Erdan, head of the Unity party, as part of ongoing contacts between the two parties. The deadline for parties to submit their official electoral slates is September 8.
A poll released today by Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister publication, shows the new People of Israel party headed by Ofer Winter receiving 6 seats, but seemingly pushing Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party below the electoral threshold.
The two parties are targeting a similar electorate: religious, right-wing, pro-settlement voters, though Smotrich has a declared alliance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Zman poll also shows that Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party would be the largest with 26 seats, followed by Likud with 22, Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad with 14 and Yisrael Beytenu with 10.
The Shas party would get 9 seats, United Torah Judaism 8, The Democrats 8, The Hadash-Ta’al-Balad joint slate 6, Otzma Yehudit 6 and Ra’am 5.
In addition to Religious Zionism, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party, Yoaz Hendel and Chili Tropper’s Zionist Home and Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein’s Unity party are all predicted to fall below the electoral threshold.
Therefore, the anti-Netanyahu Zionist parties (in the so-called “change bloc” would receive 58 seats. The pro-Netanyahu bloc — including the People of Israel party of Winter, who said Thursday afternoon that he would only back Netanyahu as prime minister — would get 51 seats. The Joint List of Arab parties and Ra’am would hold the remaining 11 seats.
The poll surveyed 500 Israelis with a margin of error of ±4.4%.
A Hamas commander who held three Israelis hostage in Gaza during the war was killed in a strike in the Strip’s south yesterday, the IDF announces.
The strike in Khan Younis killed Ismail Mohammed Ibrahim Barim, who, according to the IDF, took part in holding Edan Alexander, Matan Zangauker and Avera Mengistu hostage in southern Gaza. All three were later freed by Hamas.
The IDF justifies the strike amid the ceasefire by saying that Barim had recently advanced attacks on troops and Israeli civilians, as well as acted to restore Hamas capabilities, “while systematically violating the ceasefire.”
“The strike was carried out to remove the threat,” the army adds.
جيش الدفاع قضى على قائد في حركة حماس الإرهابية شارك في احتجاز عيدان ألكسندر ومتان تسنغاؤكر وأفيرا منغيستو في قبضة حماس الإرهابية
⭕️استهداف جيش الدفاع أمس (الأربعاء) في منطقة خانيونس، وقضى على المدعو إسماعيل محمد إبراهيم البريم، وهو قائد في الجناح العسكري لحركة حماس الإرهابية.… pic.twitter.com/ESk6XiKXPd
— Lieutenant Colonel Ella Waweya | إيلا واوية (@CaptainElla1) August 27, 2026
Medical and mental health professionals from NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief are on their way to Nepal following the massive flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border.
According to The Associated Press, the deluge was likely caused by a huge chunk of glacier that broke off and temporarily dammed a river. Scientists are still piecing together information from satellite and ground-level data to figure out exactly what happened to cause the flood, which has killed at least 353 people and left more than 1,300 missing, including foreigners and pilgrims.
“We are returning to Nepal with the experience and partnerships we built with the Nepali people after the 2015 earthquake,” says Gil Reines, chairman of NATAN’s executive board. “Precisely at a community’s moment of crisis, we are there to extend a hand, stand behind them, and walk alongside them on the path toward recovery.”
Separately, a group of rescuers from the Harel 669 private search and rescue company is also heading to Nepal to join the search for an Israeli hiker missing since the flash floods. The delegation from the insurance company is said to be made up of eight team members flying in to assist in the search for the man.
Defense Minister Israel Katz threatens Hamas with an immediate response to any launching of kites or balloons from the Strip at Gaza border communities.
“From our perspective, every launch is an act of terrorism in every respect — and we will treat it as such,” he says in a statement.
After an increase in such incidents last week, in recent days there have not been any reported launches of kites from Gaza.
“From now on, every launch will be met with a forceful response against those responsible, the organizers and perpetrators, as well as against the launch sites and infrastructure used by them,” Katz says.
The recent kite incidents revived memories of waves of kites and balloons launched from Gaza in previous years, notably in 2018-21, some of which sparked major fires in southern Israel.
A leading Canadian Jewish group and a prominent researcher of antisemitic propaganda criticize the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for telling reporters to not refer to the September 11, 2001, attacks as terrorism.
The CBC is Canada’s national public broadcaster.
Warren Kinsella, a political consultant who recently published a book on online antisemitic propaganda, reports obtaining a memo from the CBC to its staff.
“Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks. The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes,” the memo says.
The story is in @TheTorontoSun. https://t.co/y2Bw7XpNyh pic.twitter.com/9bG2hgkNcK
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) August 27, 2026
Kinsella, writing in The Toronto Sun, compares the directive to other news organizations that refer to terrorist groups as “activists,” “attackers,” “fighters,” or “militants.”
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, representing Jewish federations in Canada, links the instruction to the CBC refusing to label Hamas a terrorist group. Hamas is a designated terrorist organization in Canada.
“Sanitizing the most infamous acts of terror in modern history as mere ‘hijackings that led to crashes’ is a complete collapse of journalistic standards,” the center says.
A CBC spokesperson tells Kinsella: “CBC’s longstanding language guidance regarding the terms ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’ is a preference for the use of these words with attribution, a practice shared by many of the world’s top journalistic organizations. Our general manager and editor in chief has written publicly in the past on the subject.”
Palestinian media reports one dead and several wounded in an Israeli drone strike in Gaza City a short while ago.
The military tells The Times of Israel that it targeted a terror operative, with further details to be provided later.
Hard-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich unveils his “Yes, Judaization” plan for the Negev and Galilee, promising to significantly expand the periphery’s Jewish population while curtailing Arab building and intensifying “enforcement against illegal construction and the takeover of state land.”
Despite his Religious Zionism party’s failure to crack the electoral threshold in many polls, Smotrich declares that in the next government he will “demand” control over the Planning Administration and Israel Lands Authority in order to streamline building and reach his goal of “an additional million Jews in the Negev and Galilee through the establishment of 40 new settlements and dozens of farms, significant expansion of existing settlements, and the creation of hundreds of thousands of housing solutions.”
In order to secure these new communities, Smotrich calls for a broad initiative to “confiscate illegal weapons and target criminal organizations,” a reference to mounting crime in the Arab sector, which many critics blame on the current government.
At the same time, Smotrich’s plan calls for the cancellation of “the reckless plans approved in recent years in Arab localities, which have taken over vast land reserves and threaten the potential for Jewish development and settlement in the region.”
Smotrich says he will promote incentives for Jews to move there — including housing benefits aimed at doctors, educators, technology professionals and reservists — and establish large industrial zones.
This “national program for the Judaization of the Negev and the Galilee” is intended to “bring the revolution [Smotrich] led in recent years in Judea and Samaria to these regions,” Religious Zionism says in a statement, using the Biblical name for the region comprising the West Bank.
Smotrich, who holds sweeping powers in the West Bank as a minister within the Defense Ministry in addition to his post as finance minister, has worked to significantly boost settlement expansion, including the controversial E1 settlement project, legalize outposts and reestablish West Bank settlements evacuated during the 2006 Disengagement from Gaza.
Alongside his proposal — unveiled exactly two months before the upcoming national election — Religious Zionism releases an AI-generated video of two Arabs panicking over Smotrich’s plan.
כן מייהדים >>> https://t.co/1OEjhYiQNX pic.twitter.com/CVrhtY5TQP
— הציונות הדתית (@zionutdatit) August 27, 2026
Twelve countries, eight of them members of the European Union, strongly condemn Israel’s start of operations this week to dismantle a vocational training center run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in the East Jerusalem area of Kafr Aqab.
Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, all of which are members of UNRWA’s Advisory Commission, condemn Israel’s “unlawful” entry and seizure of the center, which sits near the Qalandiya refugee camp, on land Jerusalem says is controlled by the state.
The joint statement reiterates the countries’ support for UNRWA and calls for “immediate and full compliance with the UN obligations allowing UNRWA to carry out its mandated activities without interference,” urging Israel to “halt all disruptions” to the agency’s operations.
Israel has long accused UNRWA of fomenting anti-Israel sentiment in its schools, and in the aftermath of the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, also accused it of collaborating with Hamas in Gaza, providing evidence of agency employees who were also terror operatives. The UN agency denies the charges. In late 2024, Israel passed legislation banning UNRWA from Israeli territory, including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after the Six Day War of June 1967.
The Foreign Ministry has said this week’s operations were part of “renovation work” carried out by the Jerusalem Municipality on a “new educational and community complex” in the area “for the benefit of thousands of its Arab residents,” with over NIS 40 million ($13 million) allotted for the project, on land it says has been owned by the Jewish Agency since 1937.
The US State Department sent a cable to embassies around the world, directing diplomats to call on their host governments to boost security outside synagogues during the High Holidays.
“We urge your government to deploy law enforcement, counterterrorism or military forces, as appropriate, to synagogues and other locations hosting services or events,” reads a cable first obtained by the JNS news site.
A similar memo was sent ahead of the Passover holiday last year.
The White House reiterates that there are no negotiations ongoing with Iran, as Washington seeks to turn the screws on Tehran through economic sanctions.
“There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly says in a statement.
“The naval blockade remains in full force and effect, and Operation Economic Outcast is underway to sever every remaining economic lifeline sustaining the regime,” she adds.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tells Fox News: “No negotiations are happening right now, and this will continue until the president feels that maybe they come to the table in a meaningful way. We have not seen that yet.”
Around 40% of the South Pars gas field capacity damaged during the war is back in production, Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Ahmed Zeraatkar says, according to Fars news agency.
South Pars in the Gulf is shared by Iran and Qatar and is the world’s largest offshore natural gas field.
Separately, Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad says that Iran’s oil sales and deliveries in “distant waters” continue despite a reduction, according to state media.
B’Yachad chairman Naftali Bennett announces the addition of American-born candidate Jeremy Saltan to his Knesset slate ahead of the October 27 election.
Saltan is also serving as the party’s representative on the Central Elections Committee.
The political analyst, strategist and Knesset insider is a longtime ally and adviser who served as a campaign manager for Bennett’s Jewish Home party a decade ago. He later ran on Bennett’s Yamina party list and served as the secretary of its Knesset faction during Bennett and Yair Lapid’s short-lived “government of change.”
After Bennett’s exit from politics in 2022, Saltan worked with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in the Knesset.
In a statement, B’Yachad notes that Saltan, who immigrated 31 years ago at the age of 11, “spent years coordinating Bennett and his party’s English-language media, diplomatic and field operations” and that, as a company commander in the IDF reserves, he served 636 days since October 7, 2023.
“Among Jeremy’s priorities in the Knesset will be promoting equality in enlistment and supporting our reservists and their families, increasing levels of aliyah and improving absorption of immigrants, and strengthening Israel’s public diplomacy efforts. All areas in which he has significant personal experience,” the party adds, noting he is the third American immigrant on the B’Yachad list, following the additions of Michal Slawny Cababia and Mati Gill.
“My life’s mission has been service to the State of Israel. In the army, at the Knesset, and beyond. I’ve known Naftali Bennett for 14 years, and I know he is the right person at the right time with the right experience to lead Israel,” says Saltan.
The IDF says it carried out a series of strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon, following last night’s drone attack by the terror group on troops.
The targets included sites used to store weapons that Hezbollah intended to use in attacks on troops and Israeli civilians, the military says.
The strikes came after Hezbollah launched two drones at troops operating at the Ali Taher Ridge, beneath which Hezbollah has a major underground facility.
IDF troops shot down one of the drones and lost contact with the second, according to the army. No soldiers were hurt in the incident.
בתגובה לשיגור רחפני נפץ לעבר כוחותינו במרחב הביטחוני: צה"ל תקף תשתיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב נבטייה שבדרום לבנון
צה"ל תקף לפני זמן קצר תשתיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב נבטייה שבדרום לבנון pic.twitter.com/gSubn6YgFU
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 27, 2026
Lebanese official media says the Israeli airstrikes on the country’s south killed a woman.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reports a series of Israeli airstrikes including on the town of Arab Salim, where it says a woman who “had been married for 48 hours” was killed, with other people wounded.
Israel will not reopen the Erez Crossing with the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz say, following recent reports that such a move was planned.
Earlier, Hebrew-language media reported that the IDF was gearing up to open the Erez Crossing for the entry of goods into Gaza — not for pedestrian traffic — following pressure from the United States. The reports said the move was approved by the National Security Council, which is overseen by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The reports said that September 1 was the deadline for Israel to open the crossing. Israel’s own Deputy Ambassador to the UN Noa Furman told the Security Council yesterday that a truck scanner donated by Germany was installed at the Erez Crossing.
In a prepared speech, Furman said that the Erez Crossing would reopen as an “additional entry point for goods in September, alongside the Kerem Shalom crossing.”
However, Netanyahu and Katz pour cold water on the move, claiming that “there is no directive to open the Erez Crossing for goods.”
“Israel’s policy in Gaza is clear and has not changed: There will be no reconstruction before the Hamas terror organization is disarmed and the Gaza Strip is fully demilitarized,” they add in a joint statement.
Erez Crossing closed when Hamas launched its October 7, 2023, onslaught, which included an attack on the border crossing. It reopened for aid delivery in May 2024, before closing days later as other routes were used instead.
Qatar and Iran discussed a proposed phased framework that includes establishing a temporary joint shipping corridor with Oman through the Strait of Hormuz, Qatar’s foreign ministry says during a visit to Tehran by Qatar’s prime minister.
Lebanese media reports a series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon a short while ago.
The strikes come after the IDF said that Hezbollah launched two explosive drones at troops in southern Lebanon last night.
Hezbollah launched two explosive drones at Israeli troops operating at the Ali Taher Ridge in southern Lebanon overnight, the military says.
IDF troops shot down one of the drones, but lost contact with the second, according to the army.
No soldiers were hurt in the incident, which took place inside the military’s south Lebanon buffer zone.
“The IDF will not allow the Hezbollah terror organization to operate against IDF troops in the security zone. The IDF is currently operating and will continue to operate forcefully against its repeated attempts to harm IDF troops,” the military adds.
Hezbollah has a major underground facility beneath the ridge in the Nabatieh area, and several operatives are believed by the IDF to still be holed up there.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party announces that Hadar Muchtar has been appointed head of the party’s youth campaign division.
Muchtar, 24, ran in the 2022 election as the leader of her short-lived “Fiery Youth” party, which ultimately won just 0.18 percent of the vote, far below the 3.25% electoral threshold.
Since then, she has primarily made a name for herself as a right-wing agitator and TikTok personality, and is known for frequenting anti-government protests to argue with participants.
“Hadar, 24, has a master’s degree in computer science, is a veteran of the IDF’s Unit 8200, and is a public opinion leader,” Likud says.
Muchtar has long boasted of having a master’s in computer science — which she is currently studying for at Tel Aviv University — despite only completing a bachelor’s degree at the University of Haifa.
She served in the military as part of the Atuda program that combines an academic degree and a six-year stint as a career soldier. However, she was released from the military after just two years and was forced to pay a fine. She began her officers’ course in March 2023 and joined the Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 8200 in July 2023. But after major disagreements with her commanders following the October 7, 2023, onslaught, she was relocated to another part of the army for the remainder of her service.
The announcement follows reports yesterday that Muchtar had been vying for a spot on the far-right Otzma Yehudit party’s candidate list in the upcoming election, but that its leader, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, turned her down.
The Walla news outlet reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held direct negotiations with a senior Hamas official during the 2014 Gaza war without the knowledge of Israeli security officials.
According to the report, which cites a former senior member of Israel’s National Security Council, Netanyahu was put in contact with Hamas official Ghazi Hamad by Netanyahu’s business associate, Shlomi Fogel.
At the time, Hamad was a deputy minister in Hamas’s Gaza government.
The talks between Netanyahu and Hamad took place at the same time as official negotiations were underway in Cairo to end the monthlong war, the report says, adding that the Cairo delegation was unaware of Netanyahu’s backchannel talks.
The Prime Minister’s Office denies the report, saying that no such talks ever took place.
“These are false briefings by political elements trying to harm the prime minister,” the PMO says in a statement.
Fogel, in a statement, says he was “never dispatched by the prime minister or the head of the National Security Council to hold talks with Ghazi Hamad or any other Hamas officials. This is completely fake news.”
Yashar chair and election frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot says in response to the report that “every day, the explanation for why Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his life to thwart the establishment of a state committee of inquiry… becomes clearer.”
“For the umpteenth time, we are exposed to the failures of the Netanyahu government,” says the former military chief, accusing the premier of using “disorder, lies, and tactics of divide and conquer as a method of management.”
Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman declares in response to the report that the prime minister is a “danger to Israel’s security.”
“Netanyahu is the one who initiated the transfer of suitcases full of dollars to Hamas and personally offered immunity to terror leaders,” says the hawkish lawmaker. “Netanyahu corresponded with Yahya Sinwar. Netanyahu is a danger to Israel’s security.”
He reiterates the opposition parties’ pledge to establish a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack if elected in October.
Israel is considering expelling British representatives from the US-backed international coordination center for Gaza in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat, a source familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel, confirming an earlier Financial Times report and adding that “other measures” against London are also under consideration.
The source, as well as a second Israeli official, denies, however, that Israel is considering expelling Italian or German officials from the hub, as the FT report had claimed.
The move is being weighed amid a spat between Israel and the United Kingdom over London’s reported plans to impose a complete ban on trade in goods from West Bank settlements and take other punitive measures in response to the expansion of Israel’s controversial E1 settlement plan, which would impede territorial contiguity between major Palestinian population centers.
The source familiar with the matter says that in a recent call between Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, “Sa’ar made very clear to the Foreign Secretary that Israel cannot allow punitive measures to be taken against it without responding.”
Measures more extreme than the possible expulsion of British officials from the International Gaza Support Center are also being considered, the source says, without elaborating.
Given Israel’s sensitive pre-election period, the source says the punitive measures could be taken before elections are held on October 27 if the dispute is not resolved.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says he has ordered a major bolstering of troops in the West Bank in light of recent tensions in the territory.
“Many challenges lie ahead of us. We are advancing battle procedures on all fronts, from Iran and Lebanon to Gaza, and are on high alert in the face of multi-front volatility,” he says during an assessment this morning with the IDF’s top brass.
Zamir says that because of the tensions in the West Bank and the upcoming Jewish holiday period, he is ordering a standing army division headquarters to be put on standby to reinforce troops in the area if required.
Normally, the West Bank has two divisions, the Judea and Samaria Division, responsible for most of the territory, and the 96th “Gilad” Division tasked with the Jordan border.
“Beyond that, preparations must be made for the immediate deployment of units and battalions to reinforce the area,” he says.
Zamir says that the entire IDF, “across all its branches, will remain on full, multi-front readiness during the holiday period” and that there will be no reduction in forces.
Turning to other matters, Zamir says that “unfortunately, these days we are also engaged in a battle over the budget.”
“At a time when the IDF and its personnel are stretched across all fronts, we must contend with ’empty coffers.’ Such a situation harms the IDF’s readiness,” he claims.
Zamir says the IDF is “engaged in defending the security of the State of Israel; this is the only consideration.”
“We will not be dragged into issues that could divert our focus and readiness,” he adds.
The Israel Fire and Rescue Service says it has concluded its sweep of Jerusalem’s Yitzhak Navon railway station without incident, and passengers have been allowed to return.
The station was evacuated due to reports of smoke inside.
The rescue service says it did not find a source of smoke and there was nothing out of place in the station.
The Foreign Ministry says that it is doing all it can to assist with the search for a 60-year-old Israeli who went missing in the flash floods in Nepal yesterday.
It says that the Israeli consulate in Beijing and the Foreign Ministry’s Department for Israelis Abroad are in contact with the missing man’s family “and are assisting with all available means in an effort to locate him.”
The Israeli citizen crossed the Tibet-Nepal border on Wednesday morning shortly before the flood, and his condition and whereabouts are unknown.
More than 1,300 people remain missing along the Nepal-China border in the aftermath of the catastrophic floods, which left at least 168 people dead.
Nepal’s Tourism Board has said 517 of the missing people are foreigners.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Passengers have been evacuated from Jerusalem’s Yitzhak Navon railway station, and firefighters are on the scene after reports of smoke inside the station, the Israel Fire and Rescue Service says.
The statement adds that more information will be provided later “as needed.”
The former bodyguard of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and another terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught were killed in separate strikes in the southern Gaza Strip this week, the military announces.
A strike on Sunday in Khan Younis killed Hazem Musa, who the IDF says was a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force. On October 7, Musa raided the IDF’s Re’im Base on the border with the Strip, the military says.
Another strike in Khan Younis, on Monday, killed Razek Sahil Suleiman Abu Shahma, also a Nukhba Force terrorist who invaded the Re’im Base on October 7, according to the IDF.
Abu Shahma also previously served as the bodyguard of Sinwar, the military says.
The IDF justifies the strikes during the ceasefire by saying that both terrorists had been advancing attacks on troops and civilians, as well as trying to restore Hamas capabilities, “all in violation of the ceasefire agreement.” The strikes were carried out to “remove the threat,” the military adds.
Shipping traffic at the Strait of Hormuz has risen slightly even as a standoff persists between the United States and Iran, data shows.
Visible commodity vessel transits at Hormuz totalled 10 on Wednesday, up slightly from eight on Tuesday, data from Kpler shows. This was below a 10-day moving average of about 15 vessels.
Two medium-range fuel tankers, a liquefied petroleum gas carrier, a Panamax-sized tanker, and three handymax-sized tankers entered the strait from the Gulf of Oman.
A medium-range fuel tanker, a bitumen tanker and a bulk carrier exited the waterway from the Gulf.
A tanker was hit by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz earlier, causing a fire that was later extinguished, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency says.
Meanwhile, traffic has slowed for a second day at the other key waterway of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
A total of 19 commodity vessels passed through Bab el-Mandeb on Wednesday, with six tankers that exited, including a very large crude carrier, down from 24 the previous day, the Kpler data shows.
Some vessels may be sailing at the key waterways with their transponders turned off and may be missed in the counts.
Shortly before an annual pilgrimage of religious Jewish men to the Ukrainian city of Uman for Rosh Hashanah, the Israeli military published a video explaining to Haredi draft dodgers how to evade being denied permission to leave the country.
The AI-generated video was posted to the official Instagram account of the Personnel Directorate’s Haredi branch last night, before being removed following media reports about it.
In the video, a visibly Orthodox AI soldier, named “Dudi the explainer,” says that Haredi men who have not completed their recruitment process — before being officially declared a draft evader — will be stopped at Ben Gurion Airport and not be allowed to leave the country.
“This story also has another ending: a brief appearance at the recruitment office with the medical documents — and this order is behind you. Don’t get stuck at the gate,” the AI soldier says.
The Instagram post’s caption told Haredi draft dodgers that they “can continue as usual” after showing up to the recruitment office.
In response, the military says that the video was removed as it “does not reflect the IDF’s activity regarding the process of regularizing [recruitment] status.”
“At the same time, the original purpose of the video was to explain to relevant prospective recruits the process of regularizing their status, whose purpose is recruitment and service in the IDF, and at the end of which restrictions applying to the prospective recruit are also removed,” the military says.
The military adds that the video had also been uploaded in violation of IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin’s directive on “the uploading of content during the election period,” referring to an order he gave last month which instructed all units — aside from the Spokespersons Unit — to halt social media posts until after the October elections.
“The case will be investigated,” the army adds.
שימו לב לסיפור הבא:
זמן קצר לפני הנסיעות ההמוניות לאומן בראש השנה: צה״ל מסביר בסרטון לאוכלוסיה החרדית כיצד ניתן להתחמק מצו עיכוב יציאה מהארץ למשתמטים בנתב״ג
הנה סרטון שעלה לפני זמן קצר לעמוד האינסטגרם הרשמי של צה״ל לציבור החרדי – haredim.idf, והוא מסביר כיצד ניתן להימנע ממעצר… pic.twitter.com/3ff1Zy0XCo
— דורון קדוש | Doron Kadosh (@Doron_Kadosh) August 26, 2026
Defense Minister Israel Katz says in a statement to the media that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir must strip ex-military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi of all her financial benefits.
In May, Zamir formally ousted Yerushalmi from service over her involvement in the Sde Teiman leak scandal.
At the time, the military said that Yerushalmi would still receive a military pension, but would lose eligibility for a bonus that chiefs of staff normally grant to senior officers upon completing their service.
Ynet reports this morning that the Finance Ministry’s Accountant General had frozen most of Yerushalmi’s pension, contrary to Zamir’s decision, during ongoing criminal proceedings against the former top military lawyer.
Following that report, Katz says that “every possible procedure against the ousted military advocate general must be exhausted, and certainly no decisions should now be made that would ease her situation in light of the possibility of her being convicted in the future and facing the full force of the law — by virtue of the authority vested in you and the policy I am directing as the defense minister responsible for the IDF on behalf of the government of Israel.”
“Immediate steps must be taken to strip ousted military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi of all her financial benefits,” he urges Zamir in the statement sent to reporters by his office.
Yashar party chair and election frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot says that anyone who still believes in the two-state solution following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack is “delusional,” but criticizes the government for pushing ahead with the controversial E1 settlement plan, which would block territorial contiguity between major Palestinian population centers.
The former military chief also laments the spiralling settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, in an excerpt from an interview with the Israel Hayom daily which will be published in full on Friday.
“Anyone who is thinking about a two-state solution after October 7 is just delusional,” says Eisenkot, when asked about the broadly accepted international stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But at the same time, he says that the E1 settlement project — which supporters have said is intended to block a path to Palestinian statehood — is a “mistake” that is costing Israel on the international stage.
“I recall that Netanyahu himself opposed this for a long time, and due to coalition pressure, he gave in and approved it,” he says of the plan.
He criticizes the government, and particularly far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, for the IDF’s loss of control in the West Bank in the face of near-daily settler violence against Palestinians.
“Netanyahu gave the police to Ben Gvir and COGAT to Smotrich, and therefore the IDF lost its sovereignty in the region, and it must be returned,” says Eisenkot. Smotrich holds some control over COGAT, the unit that oversees civilian matters in the West Bank, through his ministerial position inside the Defense Ministry.
“The activities of these two ministers, together with the incidents of settler violence against Palestinians, are causing Israel to lose international legitimacy and are endangering the settlement movement in its entirety,” the Yashar chair warns. “The pair are sabotaging Israel’s national interests.”
Qatar’s prime minister will visit Tehran today in a bid to relaunch diplomacy after the US and Iran traded recriminations over Washington’s promise to increase economic pressure on Tehran by targeting its trade partners with sanctions.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani will discuss the continuation of Qatar’s mediation efforts and other developments in the region during his visit, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei says ahead of time.
The visit comes as the war started by the US and Israel on February 28 nears its sixth month, with fighting largely paused but no diplomatic breakthrough in sight. Both sides are at odds over control of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global oil supplies that Tehran has used as leverage.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson says on X that al-Thani will also address freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and the need to return to the pre-February 28 status quo, while also discussing with Iranian officials ways to “de-escalate tensions and create the conditions conducive to dialogue.”
A Gulf neighbor of Iran and a US ally, Qatar has served as a back-channel negotiator for the warring parties and played a direct role in securing the June ceasefire that briefly led to a cessation of hostilities.
Israel is considering expelling British officials from the US-led coordination center for postwar Gaza, the Financial Times reports.
The Israeli government in recent weeks has discussed removing the UK from the International Gaza Support Center, the multinational headquarters to monitor the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the newspaper says, citing people familiar with the matter.
The report says Jerusalem may decide to take similar measures against officials from other European countries as well.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Tuesday that Dutch representatives would be expelled from the center after a series of “anti-Israel measures” by the Netherlands.
Reuters cannot immediately verify the FT report.
The report comes amid a spat between Israel and the UK over the expansion of Israel’s controversial E1 settlements plan, which would block territorial contiguity between major Palestinian population centers.
UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Ed Miliband called the plan “unacceptable and destructive” in a written statement last week, and said his office was working to prepare a “comprehensive set of measures” in response, including sanctions against “those who participate in illegal settlement expansion.”
British media reported yesterday that UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham was preparing to announce a complete trade ban on goods from Israeli West Bank settlements in response to the E1 plan.
Sa’ar hit back at Miliband, calling his statement “patronizing,” and accused the British government of contributing “to a massive wave of antisemitic hatred and attacks against the British Jewish community” and harming the UK-Israeli relationship.
Nepal says that 468 tourists and travelers, including 393 foreigners, remain out of contact, 24 hours after a deadly flood tore through the border region with Tibet.
“About 468 tourists and travelers are out of contact, among them 75 are Nepalis,” Suraj Ghimire, Department of Tourism spokesman, tells AFP. At least 165 people have been confirmed killed, in both Nepal and in China, where a further 558 people are reported missing.
An Israeli citizen is among those missing.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
A tanker was hit by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire that was later extinguished, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency says.
All crew members are safe and accounted for, and no environmental impact is reported, it adds in an advisory note.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court has acquitted an Israeli man who was filmed assaulting a French nun in the capital’s Old City in April, concluding that he suffers from mental illness and ordered that he be hospitalized in a psychiatric facility for six years.
In his ruling, Judge Ofir Tishler accepted testimony from a psychiatrist who determined that Yona Schreiber was in a psychotic state when he carried out the attack.
תקיפת הנזירה אתמול באזור קבר דוד בירושלים – שוטרי מרחב דוד איתרו את החשוד (36) ועצרו אותו בחשד לתקיפה ממניע גזעני >>> pic.twitter.com/agRpznR84X
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) April 30, 2026
The incident unfolded against the backdrop of an uptick of attacks and harassment of Christians in Israel by Jewish extremists.
The phenomenon has included extremists spitting at Christian clergy and holy sites, with the latest example of this filmed on Tuesday outside the Saint James Monastery in the Old City’s Armenian Quarter.
WASHINGTON — A military court will try the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks starting in June 2028, multiple US media outlets report, citing a judge’s ruling.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was considered one of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenants before he was captured in March 2003 in Pakistan.
He was imprisoned in secret CIA facilities for three years before arriving at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006.
The Food and Drug Administration approves a groundbreaking new drug for advanced pancreatic cancer, offering US patients a more effective treatment against one of the deadliest types of cancer.
FDA officials give expedited approval to the first-of-a-kind pill, called daraxonrasib, which blocks a mutated protein that fuels tumor growth in more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancer cases. It’s an approach that previously eluded drugmakers for decades.
The daily pills will be sold by Revolution Medicines under the brand name Rasonque. A one-month supply would cost approximately $39,800, the company announced.
Patients taking the drug nearly doubled their survival time, with fewer severe side effects, in a study that randomly assigned them to receive the experimental treatment or more chemotherapy. The company-funded study enrolled 500 patients whose metastatic, or spreading, cancer had quit responding to prior treatment.
Patients getting the new treatment lived for a median of 13.2 months compared with 6.7 months for chemotherapy recipients. Side effects included skin rash, mouth sores, diarrhea, and other digestive issues.
“This is one of the most anticipated approvals I can think of,” Dr. Andrew Coveler of the Fred Hutch Cancer Center says. “This medicine is not a cure but a significant improvement.”
Pancreatic cancer is among the deadliest forms in large part because it is hard to detect before it starts spreading to other organs. The American Cancer Society estimates that about 67,000 new cases will be diagnosed in the United States this year and more than 52,000 people will die from the disease. The five-year overall survival rate is 13%.
CAEN, France — A man drove a car into a crowd in the northwestern French city of Caen, killing one person and injuring 10 others, firefighters and police say.
A police source says the man rammed the car into the crowd near the city’s train station after a fight in the area, and one suspect was arrested.
Firefighters say one of the victims died, four were seriously injured, and six were lightly hurt.
