The Times of Israel liveblogged Friday’s events as they happened.
Eleven people have been lightly injured from smoke inhalation as a result of a fire in a residential building in Bnei Brak.
Medics evacuated nine to a local hospital, with two receiving treatment on site.
Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region is under a “massive attack,” the governor says, reporting strikes in Dnipro and Pavlograd.
“Explosions are being heard,” Sergiy Lysak writes on Telegram, warning residents to take cover.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Dnipropetrovsk had been largely spared from intense fighting. But Kyiv acknowledged on Tuesday that Russian troops had entered the region, after Moscow claimed its troops had gained a foothold there.
Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea — that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory.
A US federal appeals court has ruled that most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, impacting numerous trading partners, are illegal — finding that he exceeded his authority in imposing them.
The decision marks a blow to the president who has wielded duties as a wide-ranging economic policy tool. But judges allow the tariffs to stay in place for now, while sending the case back to a lower court for further consideration.
The US visa ban on Palestinian officials who were planning to attend the United Nations General Assembly next month will cover Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas along with 80 other PA officials, a State Department official tells The Times of Israel.
The State Department announced that it would be implementing a visa ban on Palestinian officials earlier Friday but did not specify who specifically would be targeted.
The State Department has said it is following through with a July 31 decision to deny visas to Palestinian officials over purported violations of US law that tracks Ramallah’s adherence to the Oslo Accords and commitments to fighting terror. It has cited Ramallah’s “attempts to bypass negotiations through international lawfare campaigns, including appeals to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice, and efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.”
Donald Trump is still working on a peace meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, the White House says, after French President Emmanuel Macron warned the US president risked being “played” by Vladimir Putin.
“President Trump and his national security team continue to engage with Russian and Ukrainian officials toward a bilateral meeting to stop the killing and end the war,” a White House official tells AFP on condition of anonymity.
Human rights lawyers said on Friday they have filed a criminal complaint in Argentina’s federal courts seeking the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in the country, amid reports of a possible visit in September that remains unconfirmed.
The criminal complaint filed in Argentina federal courts calls for Netanyahu’s arrest in the country and an investigation into the Israeli political and military authorities for an incident on March 23 in which 15 people were executed, among them several first responders helping victims of a bombing, according to the complaint reviewed by Reuters.
Netanyahu is expected to visit Argentina in September, according to media reports, but the government has not confirmed the visit.
Argentina newspaper Clarin reports that Netanyahu may instead request a meeting with Argentine President Javier Milei while both leaders are in New York for the United Nations General Assembly at the end of September.
“It is understood that Netanyahu is criminally responsible as a co-perpetrator of the war crime of intentionally causing death by starvation; of crimes against humanity such as homicide, persecution, and other inhumane acts,” says the complaint, which was filed by Argentine human rights attorney Rodolfo Yanzon and Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
An arrest warrant for Netanyahu had already been filed in Argentine federal courts in early August by the Association of State Workers (ATE) and the human rights group HIJOS.
The White House lashes out today at what it calls a “foreign influence operation” by German-owned US news outlet Politico after it criticized US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff’s Ukraine negotiations.
US Vice President JD Vance slammed Politico, bought in 2021 by German media giant Axel Springer, over an article that quoted unnamed officials as saying Witkoff’s “inexperience shines through” in his talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“This story from Politico is journalistic malpractice. But it’s more than that: it’s a foreign influence operation meant to hurt the administration and one of our most effective members,” Vance says on X.
A string of other White House officials made similar attacks, with Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair calling the article a “foreign influence operation run through a German-controlled online media outlet.”
The officials did not offer evidence of any foreign party or government behind the story.
This is not the first time Trump officials have rushed to defend Witkoff amid allegations that he is in over his head as special envoy.
The attacks came as Berlin and France cast doubt on whether Trump’s Ukraine peace efforts would bear fruit, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying the war would last “many more months.”
Witkoff is a property tycoon whom Trump has named as his special envoy for peace talks to end the Ukraine and Gaza wars, despite having no diplomatic experience.
The Politico article was one of a series of articles in recent days by several outlets, including The Atlantic, that said Witkoff’s negotiations with Russia have caused confusion.
Witkoff has made a number of trips to Moscow to meet Putin. He was meeting Ukrainian officials in New York on Friday. He said the “statement from our amazing Vice President speaks for itself.”
A Turkish diplomatic source clarifies that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan was only referring to Israeli government flights and flights carrying weapons to Israel when he said earlier today that Ankara wasn’t letting Israeli “airplanes to go into our airspace.”
“The minister’s comments refer to official Israeli flights and flights carrying weapons or ammunition to Israel. This does not apply to transit commercial flights,” the source says.
Foreign ministers from the European Union will confront their divisions over the war in Gaza on Saturday after the bloc’s humanitarian aid chief called on them to “find a strong voice that reflects our values and principles.”
Ministers from the EU’s 27 member countries will discuss the war at a meeting in the Danish capital Copenhagen.
Many EU governments have sharply criticized Israel’s conduct of the war, particularly over the deaths of civilians and restrictions on supplies of humanitarian aid.
The outcry intensified after a global hunger monitor that works with the United Nations and major aid agencies said last week it had determined there was famine in Gaza – a finding rejected by Israel.
But EU members have been divided over a common response, with some calling for economic measures to pressure Israel and others stressing a desire to maintain dialogue.
The EU’s executive body proposed last month to curb Israeli access to an EU research-funding program, but the proposal has so far not found enough support from member countries to pass.
Countries including France, the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland have shown support for the proposal, but others, such as Germany and Italy, have not backed it so far, diplomats say.
Hadja Lahbib, the European Commissioner for crisis management who oversees EU humanitarian aid, said it was “time for the EU to find a collective voice on Gaza.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says that Iran does not seek war, but if Israel and the United States attack, Iran will stand against them “forcefully.”
“America and Israel seek to divide and destroy Iran, but no Iranian wants Iran to be divided,” he says in a pre-recorded TV interview.
Sixty percent of Israelis say Israel’s next step in the war against Hamas should be to secure a hostage deal, compared to 31% of respondents who say Israel should first move ahead with plans to take over Gaza City, according to a poll aired on Channel 12.
The results indicate that the majority of Israelis disagree with the government’s decision to move ahead with the Gaza City operation, ignoring the phased proposal that Hamas accepted on August 18.
Sixty-five percent of respondents say the most important war aim is returning the hostages, compared to 27% who say it is destroying Hamas.
This, too, appears to indicate that the public does not agree with the government, which has made both the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas official war aims. However, at times, Netanyahu had indicated that the latter takes precedent, which the decision to ignore the phased deal on the table further indicates.
The IDF currently assesses that the entire cabinet of the Houthi cabinet — including the prime minister and 12 other ministers — were likely killed in yesterday’s strike in Yemen, Channel 12 reports without citing any sources.
The network says the assessment is not definitive and that the IDF is still working to reach a more definitive understanding of the strike’s results.
Channel 12 says the Houthi defense minister and military chief of staff were en route to the location of the cabinet meeting shortly before the strike and were apparently at the site when it was hit.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s office expresses its “deep regret and astonishment” at the US decision to deny visas to Palestinian officials planning to attend next month’s UN General Assembly.
Abbas’s office says the the “decision stands in clear contradiction to international law and the UN Headquarters Agreement, particularly since the State of Palestine is an observer member of the United Nations.”
Abbas’s office calls on the US to reconsider and reverse the move, “reaffirming Palestine’s full commitment to international law, UN resolutions and obligations toward peace, as conveyed in President Mahmoud Abbas’s letters to world leaders, including US President Donald Trump.”
Hamas warns Israel that the latter’s planned offensive to conquer Gaza City will subject hostages in the area to the “same risks” as the terror group’s fighters.
“We will take care of the prisoners the best we can, and they will be with our fighters in the combat and confrontation zones, subjected to the same risks and the same living conditions,” Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, says in a statement.
Channel 12 quotes a senior Israeli security official who says that living hostages could have already returned home last week had Israel accepted the phased proposal crafted by Arab mediators that Hamas approved on August 18.
The offer envisions the release of 10 hostages along with the bodies of 18 slain captives who would be released in five batches over a 60-day ceasefire during which the sides will hold talks on the terms of the release of the remaining hostages and a permanent end to the war that would go into place at the conclusion of the two-month truce if agreements are reached.
The phased proposal is nearly identical to the one crafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, which Israel approved last month before Hamas added new demands in late July that led to the collapse of talks, Arab diplomats told The Times of Israel.
The Arab mediators subsequently managed to bring Hamas down from those new demands, but Israel in the meantime has said it is no longer interested in a phased deal.
Israel has yet to even hold a cabinet meeting on the phased proposal, Channel 12 says, adding that several of Israel’s security chiefs are slated to press the government during a Sunday planned ministerial meeting to accept the offer rather than proceed with plans to take over Gaza City, which will risk the lives of the hostages.
The security chiefs backing the phased deal are joined by National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, but do not include the acting chief of the Shin Bet, Channel 12 indicated, without identifying the supporters of the proposal by name.
Germany, France and Britain have offered a plan to delay reinstating UN sanctions on Tehran that is “full of unrealistic preconditions,” Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani says.
He says they should instead support “a short, unconditional technical extension of resolution 2231”, which enshrined the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The IDF says it has eliminated Ahmad Naeem Maatouk, a senior Hezbollah Radwan Force operative, in a targeted strike earlier today in southern Lebanon’s Sir El Gharbiyeh municipality, just north of the Litani River.
According to the military, Maatouk served as the operations officer of a Radwan Force battalion and advanced multiple terror plots against Israel during the war. The IDF claims that his actions violated understandings between Israel and Lebanon.
The IDF announces that it has eliminated the highest-ranking ISIS official in the Gaza Strip, Muhammad Abd al-Aziz Abu Zubaida, in a strike carried out over the past week in the Al-Bureij area of central Gaza.
According to the IDF, the strike was carried out using aerial assets under the direction of the Southern Command and guidance from the Military Intelligence Directorate.
Abu Zubaida served as the head of ISIS’s Palestine District and was responsible for the policy, planning and implementing the group’s operations in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula.
The military says the organization has actively engaged in combat against IDF forces and facilitated the transfer of weapons and terror funding from the West Bank into Gaza.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir held a situational assessment earlier today, outlining the military’s ongoing operations across the Middle East, the IDF says.
During the meeting, Zamir highlighted the IDF’s major strike yesterday against strategic targets of the Houthi terror regime in Yemen, reportedly killing senior Houthi officials.
“The Houthis operate as an additional terrorist branch of Iran, continue to attack Israel, and threaten regional and international stability. Our message is clear — there will be no tolerance,” he said.
He also addressed the recovery of the remains of two hostages killed by Hamas in Gaza earlier today — 55-year-old Ilan Weiss and another hostage whose identity has not yet been released — while noting that the Southern Command is intensifying its operations in Gaza City.
“Last night, based on precise intelligence, our forces acted to recover the bodies of hostages murdered by Hamas. This is an ongoing, principled effort that we will continue to pursue. We will not rest or remain silent until all our hostages are returned by any means possible,” Zamir added.
The New York Post says it has obtained an internal US State Department memo recommending that a visa ban policy on Palestinian officials be applied to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The memo was issued ahead of today’s announcement by the State Department that it was following through with a July 31 decision to deny visas to Palestinian officials over purported violations of US law that tracks Ramallah’s adherence to the Oslo Accords and commitments to fighting terror.
However, today’s announcement doesn’t name the individuals to whom the US is denying visas, so it’s not immediately clear whether the memo’s recommendation was heeded.
The memo also cites reports that Abbas was preparing to introduce a “constitutional declaration” declaring Palestinian independence at the General Assembly, though a senior Palestinian official tells The Times of Israel that the idea has already been shelved.
The declaration “reduces US options in ceasefire talks and in the postwar ‘endgame,’” the memo says, according to The Post.
The memo also argues that a French-Saudi conference aimed at promoting a two-state solution at the UN next month would only serve as a “major propaganda victory for Hamas and the content of it is designed to the Palestinian state as the only possible conclusion to the war in Gaza.”
Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad says a return of sanctions under the so-called “snapback” will create restrictions on oil sales, but Tehran has learned to bypass them and exports won’t be shut in, Iran’s YJC news agency reports.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar hails the US decision to deny visas to Palestinian officials ahead of next month’s UN General Assembly.
Sa’ar thanks US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for holding the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority “accountable for rewarding terrorism, incitement and efforts to use legal warfare against Israel.
The foreign minister says the Trump administration is “standing by Israel once again” with the “bold step.”
An IDF combat soldier was seriously injured earlier today during a training exercise at a military base in central Israel, the military says.
She was evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment, and her family has been notified.
The IDF says alerts were activated a short while ago in open areas of the Gaza border region.
According to the military, an interceptor missile was launched at a false target.
The alerts were carried out in accordance with standard policy.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office releases new footage from Hamas’s October 7 onslaught in an attempt to raise awareness of the terror group’s barbarity on that day, as Israel’s image is repeatedly bludgeoned in the international arena over the prosecution of the war in Gaza.
The clip is CCTV footage from the Tasa family home in Netiv Ha’asara and shows 46-year-old father Gil rushing his two sons Koren, then 12, and Shay, then 8, out of the house and into an outdoor bomb shelter as Hamas gunmen pursue them.
One of the terrorists then hurls a grenade into the shelter, and Gil is then seen lying on the ground after it goes off, apparently having jumped on it to save his two sons.
Koren and Shay — still in their underwear as the attack began at 6:29 in the morning — are then seen walking out of the shelter, passing their father’s lifeless body, as they head back into the house.
Their both bloodied from the grenade fragments, and Shay ultimately lost sight in one of his eyes as a result of the attack.
The two are seen in the living room begging for help while writhing in pain. Unfazed, a terrorist comes inside and takes a beverage from the fridge.
In a statement releasing the footage, Netanyahu’s office says, “Out of respect for the family’s wishes, this video is not for broadcast or distribution inside Israel.”
Before the clip is shown, Netanyahu stands beside Sabine Tesa, whose older son, Or, was also on October 7 during Hamas’s attack on Zikim beach where the 17-year-old had been fishing.
“Sabine’s courage shames these terrorist cowards. She and her children carry scars that I’m afraid will never heal, yet she stands tall with dignity, with strength,” Netanyahu says.
“This film should break every decent heart that still beats. It should silence every lie that still circulates. To the leaders who vilify Israel, I say, ‘Watch this film.’ To the terrorists of Hamas who vow to repeat the October 7 massacre again and again, I say, ‘We won’t let you do it.’ We’ll destroy Hamas. We’ll bring our hostages home because we remember October 7. And so should you,” Netanyahu says.
“When you have an enemy next to you, you cannot sleep [well] at night. You [don’t] know when he will attack. I’m here to show all of the world my story, to show the world the truth that October 7 happened in Israel,” Tesa says.
The US State Department announces that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is denying and revoking visas from Palestinian officials ahead of next month’s United Nations General Assembly.
The move comes one month after the State Department first announced that it would pursue the policy, which it now appears to be implementing, but again doesn’t name which individuals will be barred.
Justifying the seemingly unprecedented move, the State Department announcement says, “It is in our national security interests to hold the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace.”
Barring world leaders from attending the annual General Assembly high-level week would appear to violate US commitments to the UN, but the State Department says it is in compliance with those requirements as it will still allow the existing Palestinian delegation already based in New York to attend the event by granting those diplomats visa waivers.
“Before the PLO and PA can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism — including the October 7 massacre — and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by US law and as promised by the PLO,” the statement says.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas did condemn October 7 for the first time in June.
Unlike the July 31 State Department announcement previewing the move, Friday’s statement did not mention the PA’s controversial welfare program that included payments to the families of security prisoners based on the length of their prison sentence. No explanation was given for the removal. Abbas had signed a decree in February ending the policy and replacing it with a new one, which the PA has begun implementing and invited the US to certify is now in place, though the Trump administration has yet to send a delegation to Ramallah.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the change.
“The PA must also end its attempts to bypass negotiations through international lawfare campaigns, including appeals to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice, and efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state,” the State Department statement continues.
“Both steps materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks,” the statement claims.
Rubio has claimed France’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state led Hamas to raise its demands in hostage negotiations, which collapsed the talks on July 24. But an Arab diplomat and a second source involved in the negotiations told The Times of Israel that Hamas’s new demands were submitted several hours prior to French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told The Times of Israel in an interview this week that France was the party leading the latest drive for countries to recognize a Palestinian state, not the PA.
The State Department statement ends by insisting that the “US remains open to re-engagement that is consistent with our laws, should the PA/PLO meet their obligations and demonstrably take concrete steps to return to a constructive path of compromise and peaceful coexistence with the State of Israel.”
Israeli media and some officials are trying to make sense of the latest critical statements made by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan earlier today over the war in Gaza.
Notably, Fidan declared that Turkey has closed its airspace to Israeli planes, but Israeli carriers say they have been given no instructions to that effect.
“Türkiye has cut all trade with Israel, does not allow Turkish ships to go to Israeli ports, and closed its airspace to Israeli aircraft,” said Fidan in an address to parliament.
Israel officials do not believe there is anything new in Fidan’s statements, The Times of Israel has learned, and considers that he was broadly laying out actions Turkey has already taken against Israel, with some inaccuracies.
Last year, Turkey said it was stopping all exports and imports to and from Israel, though some are said to have quietly continued.
The two countries had a trade volume of $6.8 billion in 2023, and Turkey was Israel’s fifth-largest source of imported goods. Israel and Turkey have free trade agreements from the mid-1990s that are now being violated.
In April, Turkish carriers waived their flight slots at Ben Gurion Airport.
For many years, Istanbul was a popular destination for Israeli tourists, many of whom were flying on Turkey’s airlines and using Atatürk Airport as a cheaper option for connecting flights to destinations in Europe and elsewhere. Before the war, Turkish Airlines was the fourth-largest carrier at Ben Gurion Airport.
Despite Fidan’s statement, Israeli planes for now are still flying over Turkish airspace, and have received no instructions to do otherwise, Army Radio reports.
“Following reports about Turkey’s decision to close its airspace to Israeli planes, Arkia is in contact with the relevant authorities,” the Israeli airline tells The Times of Israel. “At this stage, no operational instructions have been received.”
Israir also tells The Times of Israel that “the airspace has not been closed.”
“Our flights are operating as scheduled with no changes, and we are in regular contact with the Civil Aviation Authority,” says the carrier.
However, one expert sees the foreign minister’s talk of closing Turkish airspace to Israel as credible and dramatic.
“Turkey is adopting a gradual punishment strategy against Israel,” says Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, Turkey expert at the Moshe Dayan Center. “When Israel declared its intention to launch an invasion of Gaza City, Ankara imposed naval sanctions that barred Israeli ships from visiting Turkish ports. And today, following news that the IDF launched an extraterritorial raid against Syrian army outposts, where Turkey had intelligence devices to track the activities of Israeli troops, Ankara made a new decision and shut down its airspace to Israeli planes.”
“This move is certainly unprecedented, and it will not be easy to reverse in the future.”
Sharon Wrobel contributed to this report.
The IDF says that its forces carried out a series of overnight operations in southern Syria, detaining several suspects accused of advancing terror activity against Israeli troops in the area.
The raids, conducted by the 226th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade under the 210th “Bashan” Regional Division with assistance from field investigators in Military Intelligence’s Unit 504, also uncovered weapons during searches, the army says.
Israeli forces remain deployed in the buffer zone to prevent the entrenchment of terror operatives, it adds.
The IDF’s statement does not address separate reports by Syrian state media yesterday that Israeli commandos staged a raid near Damascus following two days of airstrikes. The army has yet to comment on those claims.
Five people, including two children, died from malnutrition and starvation in Gaza over the previous 24 hours, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says, bringing the total number of deaths from such cases to 322 since the start of the war.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military has stepped up armed operations around Gaza City on Friday, ending temporary pauses there that had allowed for aid deliveries.
The assault on Gaza City has gradually intensified over the past week as Israel has urged civilians to leave for the south of the Palestinian enclave.
Israeli fire across the besieged Palestinian enclave killed 48 people on Friday, local health authorities say.
Two days after meeting UN World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office blasts the American for what it claims are statements that contradict what she said in their sit-down.
“Ms. McCain agreed that the aid looted by Hamas does not reach its intended humanitarian destination and that Hamas seizes the aid and sells it at exorbitant prices,” says the PMO.
“McCain said that during her recent visit to Gaza, she observed a dramatic improvement: food was available, prices had dropped and markets had sufficient goods at reasonable prices,” Netanyahu’s office continues. “It is unfortunate that since the meeting, Ms. McCain has issued statements that contradict what she said in Jerusalem during that meeting.”
The PMO did not specify which allegedly contradictory statements of McCain’s it was referring to.
US Senator Lindsey Graham was at the meeting, and said that it went very well.
McCain did speak multiple times about starvation in Gaza, but stopped short of directly pointing the finger at Israel.
“I met starving children receiving treatment for severe malnutrition – and I saw photos of when they were healthy. Today they are unrecognizable,” McCain said, according to the WFP.
“What we need is a ceasefire. My heart goes out to the mothers in Gaza, as well as to the mothers of the Israeli hostages, whose children are currently starving. Enough is enough,” McCain said during a visit to Ramallah. “We can quickly scale up humanitarian aid to reach the most vulnerable inside Gaza, support the return of all hostages, and lay the foundation for peace and stability.”
Netanyahu and McCain released a joint statement a full day after their meeting, calling it “constructive” and noting the recent increase in aid going into Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office sought to paint McCain as having blamed Israel for the hunger in Gaza, but there don’t seem to be comments from her making that allegation explicitly.
“Instead of falsely accusing Israel, the World Food Programme should fully cooperate with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is operating successfully and providing food in Gaza,” says the PMO. “The only people being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages held by Hamas.”
The IDF confirms it targeted the Houthi army chief of staff and defense minister in a strike yesterday, following Hebrew media reports that the IDF had intelligence that the former was en route to a meeting with senior officials, including the defense minister.
According to the reports, the two top officials were the intended targets of the strike, though the military is still awaiting confirmation on the outcome.
“This was a complex strike based on intelligence regarding their gathering,” the IDF says. “We exploited a narrow intelligence window to carry out a precise operation.”
The military adds that it is preparing for possible retaliation by the Iran-backed group, but stresses that at this stage, this is not based on a concrete warning but rather a general assessment.
The Haaretz daily publishes footage from a settler attack on the village of Qawawis earlier this week in which the assailants destroy the security camera used to film the crime.
The report says three cameras were destroyed in total, along with nine solar panels used by the village in the South Hebron Hills, which has faced repeated settler attacks.
Seven people were hospitalized as a result of the Tuesday attack.
תיעוד של תקיפת מתנחלים בכפר קוואויס בדרום הר חברון השבוע. בתקיפה נפצעו שבעה בני אדם, בהם ארבעה שפונו לבית החולים. היד של אחת מהן, פעילה ישראלית, נשברה.
התיעוד הוא ממצלמה של קומט-מי, ארגון חשוב שמספק אנרגיה סולרית לכפרים. במתקפה נופצו תשעה לוחות סולריים ו3 מצלמות של הארגון. pic.twitter.com/qhh9305aZ1
— Hagar Shezaf (@hagar_shezaf) August 29, 2025
עוד מהמצלמה של קומט מי – והרגע בו היא נופצה.
בדיוק השבוע אמרו לי בצבא שנראה שהמצב בשטח השתפר לאחרונה. ככה נראה שיפור. pic.twitter.com/tvDEwJ42CL— Hagar Shezaf (@hagar_shezaf) August 29, 2025
🚨🚨🚨
1/3 דיווח ראשוני: תקיפת מתנחלים קשה הערב בכפר גוואוויס. שתי פעילות סולידריות ומספר תושבות מפונות לבית החולים, תושבים נוספים פצועים. לפני זמן קצר קבוצת מתנחלים רעולי פנים וחמושים באלות פלשו לכפר גוואוויס, תקפו תושבים ופעילות סולידריות במכות עם אלות, אבנים ובגז פלפל> pic.twitter.com/YX817vXaWh— מחוץ לעדר (@masafering) August 26, 2025
In another clip from a settler attack from earlier this week in nearby Masafer Yatta that has gone viral, an Israeli can be seen shoving to the ground an elderly Palestinian man in crutches due to an amputated leg.
The Palestinian was reportedly detained by the IDF after the incident, while no Israeli settlers were arrested.
Arrests, let alone indictments or convictions, against Israeli settlers in alleged attacks on Palestinians are exceedingly rare.
הטרור היהודי | מקורות פלסטיניים מפרסמים סרטון ממסאפר יטא שבדרום הר חברון בו נראים פורעים יהודים מכים מבוגר פלסטיני קטוע רגל ומפילים אותו ארצה, לאחר שפשטו על אדמותיו.
לטענת המקורות, צה"ל עצר את הפלסטיני בתום התקרית.
(גיא מעיין, כאן) pic.twitter.com/h0QNSKm6qI
— חדר מלחמה (@waroomisrael) August 28, 2025
A boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Mauritania earlier this week, killing 69 people, officials tell AFP.
The accident occurred late on Tuesday night when the migrants saw the lights of a town off the coast of Mauritania, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital Nouakchott and “moved to one side, causing it to capsize”, a senior coastguard official tells AFP.
One of the coast guard’s patrols had been able to rescue 17 people, the official says.
An earlier toll had put the number of dead at 49, but a senior coast guard official later revised it higher to 69.
According to a statement from the migrants, the boat had left The Gambia a week earlier with about 160 people on board, including Senegalese and Gambian nationals, the official adds.
Drownings are frequent during the perilous crossing between Africa and Europe, with strong ocean currents and ramshackle vessels making the long crossing dangerous.
At least 10,457 migrants died, for example, while trying to reach Spain by sea in 2024, according to the NGO Caminando Fronteras.
Officials do not say where the migrants in Tuesday’s accident were headed.
A fierce debate has erupted in Germany around a neo-Nazi who is set to begin a jail term in a women’s prison on Friday after legally changing gender.
Marla-Svenja Liebich, 54, has been sentenced to 18 months at the Chemnitz prison for offenses including incitement to racial hatred and slander.
At the time of sentencing in 2023, the defendant was called Sven Liebich but legally changed gender after Germany last year passed an identity law called the Self-Determination Act.
The move by Liebich, who started wearing lipstick, golden earrings and a leopard print top, was widely seen as intended to mock the law and perhaps obtain easier prison conditions.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt says that “the judiciary, the public and politicians are being made fools of here because the Self-Determination Act offers the opportunity to do so.”
The conservative minister says Germany needed to have “a debate about how clear rules against the abuse of gender reassignment can be established.”
German neo-Nazi Sven Liebich, jailed in 2023 for hate speech, legally changed gender to female and adopted the name Marla-Svenja.
Now set to serve the 18-month sentence in a women’s prison. pic.twitter.com/wiLoTiPX8x
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 21, 2025
Liebich has been a high-profile figure in eastern Germany’s right-wing extremist scene for decades and used to be a member of the banned Blood and Honor group, according to German media reports.
He also ran a business that sold products online that are popular with xenophobic groups, including a baseball bat with the slogan “deportation assistant.”
In 2022, he disrupted an LGBTQ pride parade in the city of Halle, calling the participants “parasites on society,” according to activists.
Liebich has also claimed to have converted to Judaism and requested kosher meals and rabbinical supervision in prison.
Germany’s antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein, has condemned the move as making “a mockery not only of Jews, but of all religious people, regardless of their faith.”
The World Health Organization has run out of critical medical supplies in Gaza that it needs to treat a surge in cases of a rare paralysis-causing syndrome in the Palestinian enclave, the UN agency says.
There have been 94 documented cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome in Gaza since June, resulting in 10 deaths, although GBS had rarely been seen in the enclave before the Israel-Hamas war began nearly two years ago, it says.
GBS is a rare condition that involves a person’s immune system attacking the peripheral nerves. Severe cases can result in near-total paralysis and breathing problems, the WHO says.
The fatalities include four children under 15 and six older patients with an average age of 25, the WHO says. Two of the victims had received no treatment, reflecting critical shortages in essential treatment supplies, it adds.
Although GBS is usually treatable, the WHO says its treatment efforts were constrained by a lack of certain medical supplies.
“Intravenous immune globulin (IVIG), the (Gaza) ministry of health’s first-line treatment for GBS, and plasmapheresis filters remain out of stock, leaving no treatment options available for suspected GBS cases,” the WHO said.
Plasmapheresis is the removal, treatment and return or exchange of blood plasma or components thereof from and to the blood circulation, it says.
The surge in GBS has primarily been driven by gastrointestinal and respiratory infections, closely linked to deteriorating water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, it says.
“Given the water sanitation and health situation…the conditions are ripe for any infection,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier tells reporters in Geneva.
Overcrowding and compromised immunity in the population, compounded by rising malnutrition cases, are also factors, the WHO says.
Though surveillance has improved, diagnostic capacity is limited, and serum samples from suspected GBS cases admitted to hospitals are being sent abroad for testing, the WHO says.
Egyptian authorities have been rounding up teenaged TikTokkers with millions of followers, detaining dozens in recent weeks on accusations ranging from violating family values to laundering money.
Police have announced dozens of arrests, and prosecutors say they are investigating at least 10 cases of alleged unlawful financial gains. They have imposed travel bans and asset freezes and confiscated devices.
Critics say the escalation fits into a broader effort by the state to police speech and codify conduct, in a country where social media has long served as one of the few alternatives to traditional media largely controlled by the state.
Many of those who have been detained were only small children when activists used Facebook to mobilize the 2011 protests that toppled long-serving president Hosni Mubarak.
Lawyers say indecency laws are vague. The authorities can go through a TikTokker’s entire back catalogue of posts, and if they find even a single post they consider indecent, they can declare influencers’ income illegal and charge them with financial crimes over their earnings.
Mariam Ayman, a 19-year-old who has gathered 9.4 million followers posting videos since she was a schoolgirl under the name Suzy El Ordonia, has been jailed since August 2. She faces charges of distributing indecent content and laundering 15 million pounds ($300,000).
The Egyptian interior ministry says she was arrested after the authorities received complaints about her posts. In her final video, posted the day before her arrest, she seemed aware that she was facing a threat.
The young man arrested this week on suspicion of urinating on a mosque will remain in detention until Sunday, police announce.
The 20-year-old Israeli filmed himself urinating on the wall of Al-Uzair Mosque in Abu Ghosh, outside Jerusalem, and then posted the video to TikTok.
He was arrested overnight Wednesday-Thursday, after the video went viral.
Jerusalem District officers finished last night interrogating the suspect, who is suspected of “insulting religion” and “behavior that could disturb the public peace,” police say.
He was brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court earlier today where he was ordered to remain in police custody for another three days.
Speaking in Tel Aviv after a visit to Lebanon yesterday, US Senator Lindsey Graham said that if Hezbollah does not agree to disarm, it should face military action.
“If we cannot reach a peaceful disarmament solution for Hezbollah, then we need to look at plan B,” he said at a Thursday night press conference. “Plan B is disarming Hezbollah by military force.”
The US should support the Lebanese Armed Forces in that effort, he said.
“If we have to use military force to disarm Hezbollah, I think it’s in America’s interest to make sure the Lebanese army is successful.”
The Lebanese government is expected to present a plan next week for disarming Hezbollah.
On whether Israel should accept a partial hostage deal endorsed by Hamas, Graham, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, said that the president “is going to back Israel’s decision no matter what they do.”
“One thing to me is non-negotiable,” he said. “Hamas needs to go and they need to go this year.”
Graham visited Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution sites in southern Gaza during his trip.
Turning to the June airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear program, Graham argued that the success of the operation was “an antidote to the problems we face by withdrawing from Afghanistan.”
He said that the US and Israel “obliterated these nuclear sites and the conversion center. But the desire of the Ayatollah to have a nuclear weapon has not been obliterated. His capability has.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz offers condolences following the recovery of the bodies of two Israeli hostages from Gaza.
Katz extends “deep condolences” to the family of Ilan Weiss, the 55-year-old member of Kibbutz Be’eri’s emergency squad who was killed and abducted on October 7.
Weiss’s body was recovered in the operation along with the remains of another hostage, whose identity has not yet been released.
Weiss, he notes, “bravely managed the defensive battle in Be’eri and prevented an even greater disaster, alongside other heroes.”
Katz also hails the “heroic” work of IDF and Shin Bet forces in the mission, adding, “We will not rest and we will not stop until everyone returns home.”
President Isaac Herzog sends his “heartfelt condolences and support” to the family of slain hostage Ilan Weiss after his body was recovered from Gaza.
“692 days after he was brutally kidnapped with his wife Shiri and their daughter Noga, Ilan’s body was recovered in a joint IDF and Shin Bet operation. A moment of deep sorrow, but also of closure,” says Herzog.
Weiss was killed while defending Kibbutz Be’eri against invading Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken to Gaza.
“Ilan showed courage and noble spirit when he fought the terrorists on that dark day. In his death, he gave life. And ever since, his family has shown extraordinary strength in their struggle for his return,” says Herzog.
The president calls for the world to “show moral clarify, apply pressure, and act for the immediate release of all the hostages.”
“We will not rest until every one of them is brought home, the living to the loving embrace of their families, and the fallen to be laid to rest in dignity. Every last one.”
IDF and Shin Bet forces recovered the body of slain hostage Ilan Weiss in an operation in the Gaza Strip, the military says in a statement.
His body was recovered along with the remains of a second hostage, whose identity is not yet public, the IDF says.
The identification process for the second recovered body is still ongoing at the Abu Kabir National Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Weiss, 56, was killed on the morning of October 7, 2023, while defending Kibbutz Be’eri as a member of the emergency response team.
His wife Shiri and daughter Noga were also taken hostage and later freed during a weeklong truce and hostage release deal in November 2023.
The IDF says the complex recovery mission in Gaza was carried out by Southern Command forces with intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Directorate, the Shin Bet, and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Netanyahu sends his condolences to the families and praises security forces for their “determination and courage.”
He reiterates that Israel “will not rest until all hostages are returned — the living and the dead.”
According to official figures, 48 hostages now remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip, of whom 20 are believed to be alive.
At least 841 people have been executed in Iran since the start of the year, the UN says, decrying “a systematic pattern of using death penalty as a tool of state intimidation.”
“In July alone, Iranian authorities executed 110 individuals. This represents more than double the number of people executed in July of last year and follows a major increase in executions during the first half of 2025,” United Nations rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani tells reporters in Geneva.
The IDF announces that as of 10:00 a.m. today, the localized tactical pause of military activity for the distribution of humanitarian aid will not apply to Gaza City, describing the area as a “dangerous combat zone.”
The military has been implementing such pauses in parts of the Strip in recent weeks to allow for the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid.
It says it will continue supporting those efforts across the enclave — with the exception of Gaza City — while simultaneously carrying out “offensive operations against terror groups in Gaza to protect Israeli civilians.”
The military is gearing up for an offensive which aims to capture Gaza City, where an estimated one million Palestinians — or roughly half of the enclave’s population — are sheltering.
Russia warns that the reimposition of sanctions against Iran risks “irreparable consequences,” after Britain, France and Germany moved to reintroduce curbs over Tehran’s failure to comply with the 2015 nuclear deal.
“We strongly urge them to reconsider and review their erroneous decisions before they lead to irreparable consequences and further tragedy,” Russia’s foreign ministry says in a statement.
It accuses the European trio of undermining diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the stand-off over Iran’s nuclear program.
Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is a party to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, which provided Iran with sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
The three countries, also dubbed the E3, notified the UN Security Council on Thursday that they “believe Iran to be in significant non-performance of its commitments” under the agreement.
The foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany said they invoked the process known as “the ‘snapback’ mechanism,” which initiates a 30-day deadline for reimposing sanctions suspended under the 2015 accord.
Iran warned that it would “respond appropriately” to the move, which risks drawing a curtain on the most sustained diplomatic push for a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.
Tehran and Moscow have been bolstering political, military and economic ties over the past decade as Russia drifted away from the West. Relations between the two countries grew even closer after Russia launched its offensive on Ukraine.
The Office of the Attorney General informs the government that it has no right to create a mechanism that allows ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers to leave Israel, after reports this week suggested that it was planning on doing just that to allow men to make an annual pilgrimage to Uman, Ukraine, for Rosh Hashanah.
In a letter sent to the government this morning, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon says that although he is not currently aware of any plans to create a loophole to allow draft evaders to leave Israel for Uman, doing so would be illegal.
“Although, as stated, we are not aware of any concrete intentions…we would like to clarify, if only to provide a complete picture, that a plan whose purpose is to avoid exercising law enforcement powers against draftees who do not enlist and violate their duty at the airport or at border crossings, is contrary to the law,” he writes.
He also notes that “the law does not allow the government or any of its ministries to formulate an outline that would amount to interference in law enforcement activities or to order enforcement authorities to refrain from exercising law enforcement powers.”
It was reported earlier this week that Haredi lawmakers were pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF to allow draft dodging yeshiva students to partake in the Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to Ukraine, with Shas leader Deri claiming that the journey is a religious obligation and should not be treated as leisure travel.
At the same time, United Torah Judaism chair Yitzhak Goldknopf was said to have asked Netanyahu that Hasidic Jews be permitted to flout restrictions in order to fly to New York and other destinations during the High Holidays, calling the trip “a sublime spiritual experience that has no substitute.”
It would appear that for the time being, these efforts have not been successful, as reports yesterday stated that the IDF is planning to station military police at ports of entry across Israel, including Ben Gurion Airport, to arrest draft evaders trying to head out for the holidays.
A Palestinian man married to a Jewish Israeli woman was arrested recently and held at the Sde Teiman detention facility for a brief period without any reason or arrest warrant, the Haaretz newspaper reports.
He was held for four days and was briefly hospitalized before a petition was submitted to the High Court of Justice and he was released, with the military acknowledging that there had been no formal order for his arrest.
The man, identified by Haaretz as Ashraf Aldgamin, lives in Beersheba, in southern Israel, with his wife and son, but was arrested during a raid on his family home in the West Bank village of as-Samu last Friday, the newspaper reports.
His wife, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child, was present at the time of the arrest.
Aldgamin was held for two days at the Sde Teiman detention facility, which is primarily used as a holding site for Hamas members and suspected terrorists captured inside Gaza, and where staff have been accused of mistreating prisoners.
He was then briefly transferred to Ofer Prison, before the IDF decided to hospitalize him under heavy security due to his congenital heart defect, Haaretz reports.
Aldgamin’s wife tells the newspaper that Israeli forces broke into the house in as-Samu last Friday, claiming that they received information about weapons being stored there, but refused to present a search warrant to justify their actions.
They then returned the following day to arrest Aldgamin.
He tells Haaretz that he was left blindfolded and handcuffed to a chair for the first six hours of his detention, during which time he endured verbal abuse from the soldier guarding him because he was married to a Jewish Israeli.
He says the IDF initially wanted to transfer him to Soroka Medical Center, but he waived his right to hospitalization, believing that the sooner they interrogated him, the sooner he would be released.
Instead, he was moved to Sde Teiman.
“They put me in a small, freezing room and left me there handcuffed,” he says. “Every now and then, they gave me food in plastic cups.”
He was held for two days before agreeing to be admitted to Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, where he was handcuffed to the bed and guarded by two soldiers at all times, Haaretz says.
During this time, a petition was filed with the High Court of Justice demanding an explanation for Aldgamin’s arrest, leading the military to confirm that he was taken into custody without any formal reason, Haaretz says.
He was then released, with High Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg reportedly demanding that the court be provided with a full explanation of the events leading up to his arrest and detention.
In response to the report, the IDF tells Haaretz that Aldgamin was arrested during an IDF weapons raid in the village due to an “unknown underground infrastructure” underneath the house.
It further claims that detainees “are not generally handcuffed in their cells, except in specific cases where handcuffs are used due to the high risk of the detainees,” but does not clarify why Aldgamin was determined to be “high-risk.”
Aldgamin tells Haaretz that he believes a resident of as-Sur had a hand in his arrest, as he had threatened him just days earlier over his marriage to an Israeli Jew.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says the coming weeks offered an “opportunity” to hammer out a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program, after European powers triggered a 30-day deadline for sanctions to come back into force.
“We are entering a new phase with this 30 days that is now giving us also the opportunity to really find diplomatic ways to find a solution,” Kallas tells journalists.
The Health Ministry says that a patient with measles traveled by plane from Budapest to Tel Aviv recently, exposing other passengers to the disease.
The passenger flew on Arkia flight number IZ292 from Budapest on Monday, August 25, at 9:50 p.m. and landed at Ben Gurion Airport on August 26 at 3:00 a.m.
Since this is a highly contagious disease, the ministry is asking individuals who were on this flight to ensure that they are vaccinated in accordance with recommendations.
Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that manifests itself in a fever, general malaise, runny nose and a rash, and may have serious and even life-threatening complications.
The Israeli Defense Ministry announces it will not participate in the upcoming DSEI UK 2025 defense exhibition in London, which takes place next month, after the British government decided to restrict the official participation of Israeli government and military representatives.
The “harmful and disgraceful” move was directly targeted at Israeli representatives, the Defense Ministry charges. As a result, Israel will not establish a national pavilion at the exhibition, though Israeli defense industries that choose to attend will still receive full ministry support.
The ministry criticizes the decision as a political step that “serves extremists, grants legitimacy to terror, and is driven by political considerations that fall outside the professional and customary framework of international defense exhibitions.”
The decision to restrict the Defense Ministry’s participation in the event was first reported yesterday by Politico. The outlet cited a spokesman for the UK government, who confirmed that Israel’s plans to expand the fighting in the Gaza Strip and capture Gaza City had led to the decision.
Unnamed government officials told Politico that Israeli arms companies would be allowed to participate as normal, however, and that large protests should be expected in the area of the conference as a result.
The IDF expresses regret for an incident yesterday in which an Israeli drone that had crashed in southern Lebanon exploded, killing and wounding several members of the Lebanese Armed Forces.
In a statement, the military says the IDF has opened a probe into the incident, which it attributes to a “technical malfunction.”
It acknowledges that following the explosion, “the IDF received reports that a number of Lebanese army soldiers were harmed.”
“The possibility that the incident was caused by an IDF weapon explosion is being examined,” the military says, adding that it “regrets the harm to Lebanese army soldiers.”
According to the military, the drone had been intended to target a Hezbollah site that the terror group was rebuilding “in violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and not against the Lebanese army soldiers.”
The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee issues a similar statement in Arabic on X.
The Lebanese military has said that two people were killed in the blast, including an officer, and two others were injured.
🔸هاجم جيش الدفاع أمس آلية هندسية في منطقة الناقورة في جنوب لبنان كانت تهم بإعادة اعمار بنى تحتية عسكرية لحزب الله في المنطقة.
🔸خلال الغارة وقع خلل فني اسفر عن عدم انفجار الذخيرة وسقوطها على الأرض حيث وردت فيما بعد تقارير عن اصابة عدد من عناصر #الجيش_اللبناني. يجرى فحص امكانية… pic.twitter.com/LsQ3wBrmC7
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) August 29, 2025
The Iranian parliament has started drafting a plan to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the semi-official Tasnim News Agency reports, after the UK, France and Germany launched a process yesterday to reimpose UN sanctions on the country over its nuclear program.
Speaking to Tasnim News, Iranian lawmaker Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani says that the plan to withdraw from the NPT will be available for lawmakers to review tomorrow and will be approved next week.
“These are the consequences of activating the snapback mechanism,” he says, accusing the E3 countries of being “the source of many problems in the world.”
He says that “other measures that are unfortunate for the key countries of the snapback will also be taken.”
Iran first warned in July that it would leave the NPT, one of the last remaining safeguards against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, if snapback sanctions were reimposed.
Yemen’s Al-Jumhuriya channel reports that the prime minister of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, Ahmed al-Rahawi, was killed in an apartment in Sanaa during the Israeli strikes yesterday.
The Aden Al-Ghad newspaper adds that Rahawi was killed along with several of his companions.
It appeared from the reports to have been a separate strike from the one yesterday that was said to have targeted 10 senior Houthi ministers, including the defense minister, as they gathered in a location outside of Sanaa to hear a planned speech by the group’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.
The outcome of that strike has yet to be made clear.
Iran is ready to resume “fair ” negotiations over its disputed nuclear program if the West shows goodwill, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says hours after three European powers triggered the process to reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran.
“Araghchi reaffirmed Iran’s readiness to resume fair and balanced diplomatic negotiations, on the condition that the other parties show seriousness and goodwill and avoid actions that harm the chances of success,” he says in a letter sent to European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Anta Gathering, a five-day music festival organized by Israelis scheduled to kick off today in central Portugal, was shut down by local police following a campaign by BDS Portugal.
The organizers announce the cancellation on social media.
“In the last days, we faced a well-funded and orchestrated BDS campaign built on lies and hatred,” they write. “For months, they worked to sabotage our vision, spreading disinformation fueled by money and nationalism. Their goal was never about music or community, but only to divide, intimidate and cause pain. The damage has been devastating and made it impossible to move forward.”
The event, advertised as a “psychedelic journey,” was organized by two Israeli brothers to be held at a mountaintop retreat owned by their Israeli cousin.
The festival producers say they will refund anyone who requests it, but ask people to consider not canceling their ticket or requesting a full refund in order to help them pay suppliers, legal and other expenses.
“Anta is about love, freedom and community — and no campaign of hate will ever destroy that,” write the organizers. “With your support, we will heal, rebuild, and dance together again,” the last words a reference to the Nova desert rave attacked by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.
The organizers said yesterday that they had been hit with additional regulations and bureaucracy by local authorities just before the start of the festival, which they blamed on BDS pressure and threats aimed at canceling the event.
Sephardi Chief Rabbi David Yosef holds a meeting with leaders from the major religions in Israel at the Druze “Emergency Center” set up by Druze Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif in the Druze village of Julis in the Galilee, according to a Chief Rabbinate spokesperson.
“We have a blood covenant with the Druze community, and the state must do everything to protect the Druze wherever they are,” Yosef says, according to the spokesperson’s statement.
Some 780,000 Druze live in the Syrian province of Sweida, the site of major violence over the past two months in which around 1,800 Druze were killed, including some by Syrian government-led forces, according to reports.
“Here sit the leaders of religions from around the world, and every religion worthy of this name is obligated to sanctify life,” Yosef also says. “We must raise a clear and unequivocal voice: we choose life.”
In addition, the chief rabbi appeals to his colleagues to raise their voice for the release of the hostages in Gaza.
Several imams and Christian leaders attend the meeting, including Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III.
“The visit of Rishon LeZion Rabbi David Yosef, together with the heads of the Christian communities and Muslim religious leaders, and their solidarity with the Druze community, is an explicit statement of light against darkness, of good against evil,” Tarif says according to the Chief Rabbinate statement.
“This solidarity is encouraging and serves as a light at the end of the tunnel in the face of the evil and inhumanity that our Druze brothers in Syria have experienced during attempts at annihilation,” he adds.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also visited the emergency center earlier today.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met in Washington today with US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to address ways to combat antisemitism, the minister writes in a post on X.
The two “discussed concrete ways to cooperate in the fight against antisemitism,” according to Sa’ar, who thanks Noem “for standing firmly by Israel and American Jewry,” calling her “a true friend of Israel.”
Ahead of the meeting, Sa’ar lays a wreath outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, at the site of the murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple working at the Israeli embassy in Washington who were killed in a May shooting attack.
Noem visited Israel in the wake of the attack and attended a memorial ceremony hosted by Sa’ar.
