Aug. 30: Netanyahu speaks with families of returned slain hostages Ilan Weiss, Idan Shtivi

Netanyahu speaks with families of slain hostages Ilan Weiss, Idan Shtivi

Idan Shtivi (Hostages Families Forum)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke this evening with the families of slain hostages Ilan Weiss and Idan Shtivi, after their bodies were recovered from Gaza in a joint IDF and Shin Bet operation, the Prime Minister’s Office says.

Netanyahu “praised the courage of Ilan and Idan, who acted on October 7 to save lives,” the PMO says, adding that he stressed to the families that Israel is “working tirelessly to return all hostages, both living and dead.”

IDF confirms it killed Houthi prime minister in Sanaa last week, along with other senior officials

The IDF confirms that the prime minister of the Houthi-led government in Yemen was killed in an Israeli strike on the capital Sanaa last week.

A news agency run by the Iran-backed Houthis had announced the death of the group’s prime minister, Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi, earlier today.

The military says that several Houthi military officials were killed in the strikes as well, along with other senior members of the group’s political leadership.

The exact outcome of the strike and the fate of some of those targeted has yet to be determined, it says.

“The strike was made possible by seizing an intelligence opportunity and completing a rapid operational cycle, which took place within a few hours,” the IDF adds.

Body of slain hostage Idan Shtivi recovered from Gaza

Idan Shtivi, 28, killed on October 7, 2023, and his body taken captive by Hamas terrorists from the Nova desert rave. (Courtesy, the family)

The IDF and the Shin Bet recovered the body of Idan Shtivi during an operation in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces.

On Friday, the IDF announced it had recovered the bodies of slain hostage Ilan Weiss and of a second hostage, whom it did not identify at the time.

Shtivi, now confirmed as the second slain hostage whose body was recovered in the operation, was killed at the Nova music festival during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel.

Shtivi, 28, was a nature lover and photography enthusiast who was studying sustainability and government at Herzliya’s Reichman University

His body was identified at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine.

In a statement, Netanyahu calls Shtivi “a man of great courage and heart.”

“On October 7, 2023, he took part in the Nova music festival, and when the terrorist attack began, he acted to rescue and save many participants at the party,” says Netanyahu.

He was seized by Hamas terrorists at the desert rave, where he had volunteered to photograph the event.

He joined the party at 6 a.m. — just half an hour before the attack started — and called his girlfriend at 7, telling her about the missiles overhead and that he was leaving.

Shtivi left in his car with two friends, Lior and Yulia, but was blocked by the terrorists on the road heading north. He then turned the car around and started driving south, but was driven off the road, lost control of the vehicle and hit a tree.

He was last seen in that location, and the car was later found full of bullet holes and blood. His friends’ bodies were found at the scene.

In a separate statement, Defense Minister Israel Katz sends his “deepest condolences” to Shtivi’s family, and praises his bravery.

Netanyahu and Katz both promise to bring back the remaining 48 hostages. Twenty of them are believed to be alive, there are grave concerns for two others, and the other 26 have been confirmed as dead.

White House planning to rebrand Department of Defense as ‘Department of War,’ WSJ reports

The Trump administration is advancing plans to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a White House official.

Restoring the Department of War name — last used in 1947 — for the government’s largest department could require congressional action, but the White House is exploring alternative methods to implement the change, the report says.

Reuters cannot immediately verify the report.

Katz lauds ‘unprecedented’ blow to Houthi leadership, vows it is only the start

The Israeli strikes in which the prime minister and several other officials of Yemen’s Houthi government were killed are “just the beginning,” warns Defense Minister Israel Katz.

“Two days ago, we dealt an unprecedented crushing blow to the senior officials in the military-political leadership of the Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen, in a bold and brilliant action by the IDF,” Katz says, hours after the Iran-backed group confirmed the death of Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi.

Rahwi was seen largely as a figurehead who was not part of the inner circle of the Houthi leadership.

“The destiny of Yemen is the destiny of Tehran — and this is just the beginning,” Katz continues. “The Houthis will learn the hard way that whoever threatens and harms Israel will be harmed sevenfold — and they will not determine when this ends.”

‘How do you explain to a little girl why her uncle isn’t coming back?’ Brother of hostage Avinatan Or pleads for his return

Moshe Or, the brother of Hamas-held hostage Avinatan Or, speaks to a rally in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on August 30, 2025. (Screenshot/Youtube)

Moshe Or, the brother of Hamas-held hostage Avinatan Or, tells a thousands-strong crowd rallying for a hostage-ceasefire deal in Tel Aviv that “what we haven’t achieved in two years of war, we most likely won’t achieve in years to come.”

“But for the hostages, they have something to lose every day, every night. Their lives, their health, their soul,” he adds. “Every moment of hesitation costs them, and us, an unbearably heavy price.”

He demands that the government negotiate a deal to release all the hostages in one fell swoop.

“We need a deal already, and that deal must be one deal with everyone together. Not the Witkoff outline, not in waves — everyone, together,” he declares.

He says that the last time he saw his brother was on his daughter’s third birthday, nearly two years ago. She is now almost five years old.

“How do you explain to a little girl why her uncle isn’t coming back? He is alive but not here. Why does he not visit her?” he says.

“Amid all of this, the public agenda is occupied with other things. The government is dealing with flight plans to Uman and other nonsense,” he says, referring to the yearly Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage made by many Hasidic Jews to the Ukrainian city.

“How is it possible that the beating heart of this nation, our hostages, is not at the top of the priority list?”

Houthis vow to avenge death of their prime minister in Israeli strikes

Yemen’s Houthi rebels vow to avenge the killing of their prime minister and other political leaders in Israeli strikes this week.

“We promise to God, to the dear Yemeni people and the families of the martyrs and wounded that we will take revenge,” the head of the group’s supreme political council, Mehdi al-Mashat, says in a video message posted on Telegram.

He warns foreign companies to leave Israel “before it’s too late.”

Plight of hostages shows Israel’s ‘failure as a state,’ says brother of hostage mistakenly killed by IDF

Tuval Haim, the brother of slain hostage Yotam Haim, speaks at a rally in Hostages Square, Tel Aviv, on August 30, 2025. (Paulina Patimer/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Tuval Haim, the brother of slain hostage Yotam Haim, who was mistakenly killed by IDF troops in Gaza in December 2023, tells a crowd of thousands at Hostages Square that the continued suffering of the hostages in captivity attests to “our failure as a state.”

“How can it be that ministers take pride in thwarting deals, while hostages are being murdered in tunnels?” he asks. “How can it be that the individual who shot Yotam didn’t even receive a photo of him and didn’t know what he looked like?”

He says that it was only after IDF troops accidentally shot his brother, alongside two other hostages, Alon Shamriz and Samar Talalka, that the IDF chief of staff began to distribute photos of the hostages to soldiers in Gaza.

“They promised us that Yotam would come back, they said they knew where he was, they said he was on his way home,” he says, teary-eyed. “Today I feel like they lied to us, that they didn’t actually give every effort then and still today. They told us he was the first priority, but they actually had different goals.”

“Today is my birthday, the second birthday that I don’t get a hug and a blessing from Yotam,” he laments. “What I wish for myself is that no one will ever have to go through what I went through, that they will get their siblings back so that they can sing with them.”

IDF reservist killed in suspected friendly fire incident in southern Gaza

Sgt. First Class (res.) Ariel Lubliner (Israel Defense Forces)

An Israeli reservist was killed during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip earlier today, the IDF announces.

The slain soldier is named as Sgt. First Class (res.) Ariel Lubliner, 34, of the 6036 logistics unit of the 36th Division, from Kiryat Bialik.

The circumstances of his death are being investigated as suspected so-called friendly fire. A preliminary IDF investigation indicates he was killed by a bullet fired accidentally by another soldier.

Lubliner immigrated from Brazil about 10 years ago. He leaves his wife Barbara, an immigrant from Spain, and their nine-month-old son, Lior. Lubliner was due to finish this latest of numerous stints of reserve duty tomorrow, Channel 12 reports, and the family was set to fly to Brazil for a vacation.

The TV report calculates that Lubliner is the 900th soldier killed on all fronts since war erupted with Hamas’s invasion and massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Security sources cautiously optimistic about outcome of strike on senior Hamas operative

Unnamed security sources express cautious optimism about the outcome of a strike in the Gaza Strip targeting a senior Hamas terrorist earlier this evening.

Hebrew media outlets reported that the target of the strike was the longtime spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, known by his nom de guerre Abu Obeida.

Abu Obeida, whose real name is Hudayfa Samir Abdallah al-Kahlout, always appears masked in statements to the media and is something of a symbol in the Strip.

“There is optimism, we have cautiously assessed that the direction is positive,” one security source tells Channel 12.

Another tells the Kan public broadcaster that the outcome of the strike is “looking good.”

At Tel Aviv rally, cousin of slain hostage Carmel Gat urges Trump to ‘end this war now’

Protesters display a large banner calling for US President Donald Trump to bring an end to the war in Gaza, free the hostages, at a protest in Tel Aviv on August 30, 2025. (Yair Palti/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Thousands of protesters gather in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square to rally for a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza, ahead of tomorrow’s scheduled security cabinet meeting in which ministers are expected to push ahead with plans for the IDF to take over Gaza City.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum calls the scheduled meeting “further proof that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government is aiming for a forever war and the sacrifice of the hostages,” and urges protesters to travel tomorrow evening to Jerusalem and demonstrate outside the Prime Minister’s Office.

Gil Dickmann, cousin of slain hostage Carmel Gat, speaks in Hostages Square, august 30, 2025 (Lior Rotstein / Hostages Families Forum)

“This coming week, we will go up to Jerusalem with one call, a deal before it’s too late!” says Gil Dickmann, the cousin of slain hostage Carmel Gat, from the stage.

In English, Dickmann appeals to US President Donald Trump to pressure Israel’s government into signing a deal to end the war.

“My cousin Carmel Gat was murdered in captivity one year ago; you weren’t president then, you weren’t there to save her. If you had been president then, maybe she’d be alive here today,” says Dickmann, who is a dual Israeli-American citizen.

“Don’t let Bibi fool you like he fooled resident Biden, save these hostages, Mr. President, like you saved so many others,” he continues. “President Trump, end this war now!”

Organizers have unfurled a massive banner visible from the sky that reads: “Trump, make history.”

Report: Security cabinet won’t discuss hostage deal offer in meeting tomorrow, despite pressure from security chiefs

The phased hostage release and ceasefire deal proposal that has been put to Israel won’t be discussed during tomorrow’s security cabinet meeting, Channel 12 reports, citing an unnamed official familiar with the details.

The deal in question, crafted by Egypt and Qatar and approved by Hamas on August 18, envisions the release of 10 hostages along with the bodies of 18 slain captives 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.

The government has yet to formally discuss the proposed deal, and despite it being nearly identical to an offer crafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and approved by Jerusalem only last month, it has signaled that it has no interest in pursuing it, preferring instead to push forward with a plan to capture and control Gaza City.

According to Channel 12, Israel’s defense chiefs are opposed to the decision to exclude the proposal from the agenda of tomorrow’s cabinet meeting, and are demanding to know why the government is so adamant on not even bringing the offer to a discussion.

The outlet cites an unnamed security official as saying that the cabinet has decided that taking control of Gaza, destroying Hamas, and a comprehensive hostage deal “is the only option.”

It notes, however, that the cabinet made this decision before Hamas said it would agree to the phased truce agreement, and has not readjusted its mindset since.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum says in response to the reports that this decision is “further proof that the Netanyahu government is turning to perpetual war and sacrificing the hostages, completely against the will of the people.”

Reports: Target of Israeli strike in Gaza was notorious Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida

Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida in a video address after the release of three Israeli hostages, January 19, 2025. (X)

Several Hebrew media outlets are reporting that the target of the Israeli strike in Gaza was the longtime spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, known by his nom de guerre Abu Obeida.

Abu Obeida, whose real name is Hudayfa Samir Abdallah al-Kahlout, always appears masked in statements to the media and is something of a symbol in the Strip.

His fate is currently unclear.

IDF says airstrike targeted senior Hamas operative in Gaza City

The IDF and Shin Bet say they carried out an airstrike on a senior Hamas operative in Gaza City a short time ago.

Officials say precautions were taken to minimize civilian harm, including precision munitions and aerial surveillance, along with additional intelligence.

There are no immediate details on the target or the results of the strike.

Palestinians say 4 Gazans killed waiting for aid, 10 die of starvation

A fisherman holds a crab in his mouth as he pulls in a net to shore along a beach in the Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on August 30, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Israeli gunfire killed four people trying to get aid in central Gaza, according to health officials at Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were taken.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry says 15 people were killed and at least 206 others wounded seeking aid over the past 24 hours.

The Health Ministry also says 10 people died as a result of starvation and malnutrition over the last 24 hours, including three children. It said at least 332 Palestinians have now died from malnutrition-related causes during the war, including 124 children.

The numbers cannot be immediately confirmed, and Israel denies that a famine situation exists in the Strip, pointing to hundreds of tons of aid that have gone in in recent weeks.

Israel also denies targeting aid seekers but has acknowledged firing warning shots at those who are seen as endangering troops.

Einav Zangauker warns PM: If Matan comes back in a body bag I will have you charged with murder

Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker attends a protest outside the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem, calling for a deal with the Hamas terror group to secure the release of the captives, August 22, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Einav Zangauker, mother of Hamas hostage Matan Zangauker, tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu she holds him personally responsible if her son is killed in Gaza and will try to have him charged with murder.

Speaking at outside IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv ahead of a rally for the hostages, Zangauker reacts to quotes from an unnamed senior security official who told Hebrew media that multiple living hostages could have returned last week and been home safe by now had Israel accepted the deal on the table that it had agreed to in the past.

“We keep having to deal with lying spin from Netanyahu,” she says.

“If Matan comes back in a body bag, it won’t only be Matan and me who pay the price,” she says in remarks addressed to Netanyahu. “I will personally ensure that you face charges of premeditated murder.”

Father of hostage Eitan Horn slams ‘deranged’ government, accuses them of gambling with lives of captives

Itzik Horn, father of hostage Eitan Horn and captivity survivor Yair Horn, leads protestors around the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv on August 21, 2025. (Yoav Loeff/protest movement)

The father of Hamas hostage Eitan Horn excoriates the government as “deranged” and condemns their plans to recapture the Gaza Strip, saying they were gambling with the lives of his son and of the other hostages.

“While my son is fighting for his life in captivity and an entire country is fighting to get him out of there, the government intends to occupy the Strip and gamble on his life and the lives of the living hostages, to make the dead disappear forever and also gamble on our heroic soldiers,” Itzik Horn says in a statement outside IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv ahead of a mass rally for the hostages.

“Sitting in the government and cabinet are a bunch of deranged people that every citizen of Israel needs to ask whether these people are worthy of making decisions about their fate,” Horn says. “They don’t want them back, and they don’t deserve to lead us.”

Yemen’s Houthis acknowledge prime minister, other top officials, killed in Israeli strike

Yemen's Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi visits the offices of Hamas in Sanaa, to offer his condolences over the killing of the terror group's leader Yahya Sinwar, on October 20, 2024. (Mohammed Huwais/AFP)

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels acknowledge for the first time that Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi was killed along with a number of other ministers in an Israeli attack on an apartment in the capital Sanaa.

“We announce the martyrdom of the fighter Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser Al-Rahawi… along with several of his ministerial colleagues, as they were targeted by the treacherous Israeli criminal enemy,” a statement by Houthi leader Mahdi al-Mashat says.

Al-Rahawi, who served as prime minister to the Houthi-led government since August 2024, was targeted along with other members of his Houthi-controlled government during a routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year, the rebels’ statement said.

The IDF assesses that the entire Houthi cabinet — including the prime minister and 12 other ministers — were likely killed in Thursday’s strikes in Yemen, Channel 12 reported yesterday, without citing any sources.

The network said the assessment was not definitive and that the IDF was still working to reach a clearer understanding of the strike’s results.

Thursday’s strikes marked the 16th time that Israel has attacked the Iran-backed rebel group in Yemen, located some 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) away.

The Houthis — whose slogan calls for “Death to America, Death to Israel, [and] a Curse on the Jews” — began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after the October 7 Hamas massacre in southern Israel.

EU urges US to reconsider ban on PA officials including Abbas attending UN assembly

European Union foreign ministers have urged the United States to reconsider its decision not to allow Palestinian officials, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, to take part in the UN General Assembly in New York.

“In the light of the existing agreements between the UN and its host state, we all urge for this decision to be reconsidered,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says, following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen.

Kallas also said she had asked EU governments to submit proposals next week for another package of sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine.

Palestinian Authority urges US to reinstate Abbas’s visa ahead of key UN meetings

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech during the opening of the Istishsari cancer center in Ramallah on May 14, 2025. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s office urges the US government to reverse its unusual decision to revoke his visa, weeks before he was meant to appear at the UN’s main annual meeting and an international conference about creating a Palestinian state.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rescinded the visas of Abbas and 80 other officials ahead of next month’s annual high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly, the State Department disclosed yesterday. Abbas has addressed the General Assembly for many years and generally leads the Palestinian delegation.

“We call upon the American administration to reverse its decision. This decision will only increase tension and escalation,” Palestinian presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh tells The Associated Press in Ramallah.

“We have been in contact since yesterday with Arab and foreign countries, especially those directly concerned with this issue. This effort will continue around the clock,” he says.

He urged other countries to put pressure on the Trump administration to reverse the decision, notably the countries that have organized a high-level conference on Sept. 22 about reviving efforts for a two-state solution for the Middle East. It is co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia.

Ukrainian former parliamentary speaker Parubiy shot dead in Lviv

Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy gestures as he speaks to lawmakers during an extraordinary hearing of the parliament in Kiev on May 22, 2019. Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Parubiy who formerly served as speaker of parliament was shot dead on August 30, 2025 in the western city of Lviv (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)

Ukrainian former parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy was shot dead in the western city of Lviv, and a search was underway for the killer.

The Prosecutor General’s office says a gunman had fired several shots at Parubiy, killing him on the spot. The attacker fled, and a manhunt was launched, it says.

Parubiy, 54, was a member of parliament, had been parliamentary speaker from April 2016 to August 2019, and was one of the leaders of protests in 2013-14 calling for closer ties with the European Union.

He was also secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council from February to August 2014, a period when fighting began in eastern Ukraine and Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula.

Officials give no immediate indication whether the murder had any direct link to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

IDF spokesperson chides Arabic media for spreading ‘false’ rumors of IDF casualties in Gaza

The IDF’s Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee criticizes Arab media for parroting widespread, apparently false rumors on social media that Israeli soldiers had been kidnapped, wounded, and killed in a Hamas ambush in Gaza.

In an Arabic-language post on X, Adraee accuses what he claims are Muslim Brotherhood-linked outlets of spreading “new false reports” aimed at boosting the morale of Hamas fighters and supporters who, he says, “know full well that their defeat is inevitable.”

Adraee says the propaganda depicts “prosperous Israel as defeated and destroyed Gaza as victorious,” describing it as an “illusion of victory” that Hamas is trying to sell, but insists that “in the end they will admit their defeat and apologize to all those whose minds they poisoned with lies.”

Military officials earlier said seven soldiers had been injured when an armored vehicle went over a bomb in northern Gaza. One soldier is in a moderate condition and the other 6 are lightly wounded.

الليلة الماضية نشر إعلام الإخوان المفلسين أخبار كاذبة جديدة عن معارك بطولية لحماس المهزومة في غزة وذلك لرفع المعنويات المنهارة للقادة والعناصر وداعميهم الذين يعرفون انهم سينهزمون لا محالة.

هكذا يصور هذا الإعلام المجرم والكاذب من خلال ابواق ولدت من رحم حماس اسرائيل المزدهرة… pic.twitter.com/ehc4mpMBVT

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) August 30, 2025

Israeli officials say only 10,000 out of 1 million have evacuated from northern Gaza

A vehicle towing a cart, both carrying cisterns and other belongings of displaced Palestinians fleeing south, moves along the coastal road through Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on August 30, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Israeli security officials tell Channel 12 that the evacuation of Gaza City ahead of the planned IDF offensive is going much slower than anticipated.

The official says that Israel estimates that only some 10,000 people have evacuated to the south in the three weeks since Israel announced it would empty the city of its civilian population ahead of a planned move by the IDF to capture Gaza City.

The official says that there are some 1 million people still in the area.

Spanish PM talks to PA’s Abbas, says US decision to withhold visas for UN gathering is ‘unjust’

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left and Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez embrace after a joint statement at the Moncloa palace in Madrid, Spain, September 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to tell him that Madrid supports him after the US denied him a visa to attend a United Nations gathering of world leaders.

The visa denial is “unjust,” Sanchez says in a post on social media platform X.

Israel said planning to slow or halt entry of aid into northern Gaza ahead of offensive

Displaced Palestinians fleeing south react as they ride in the back of a truck with belongings along the coastal road through Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on August 30, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

Israel will soon slow or halt humanitarian aid into parts of northern Gaza as it expands its offensive, attempting to cripple Hamas, an official says

The official, who speaks on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, tells The Associated Press that Israel will stop airdrops over Gaza City in the coming days and reduce the arrival of aid trucks into the northern part of the strip as it prepares to evacuate hundreds of thousands of residents south.

Israel on Friday declared Gaza City a combat zone, calling it a Hamas stronghold and saying that a network of tunnels remains in use despite several previous large-scale raids on the area throughout the nearly 23-month-long war.

The shift comes weeks after Israel first announced plans to widen its offensive in the city, where hundreds of thousands are sheltering. In recent days, the military has ramped up strikes and operations on the city’s outskirts.

It is unclear when the pause in aid would begin and when the airdrops would fully stop. There had been no airdrops for several days across Gaza, a break from the almost daily drops for the past few weeks.

Israel’s army didn’t respond to a request for comment about the airdrops or how it would provide aid to Palestinians as Israel ramped up its offensive.

On Friday, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee urged Palestinians to flee south, calling evacuation “inevitable.”

Aid groups warn that a large-scale evacuation of Gaza City would exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis.

Education Ministry slammed for posting AI image of fictional sextuplets starting 1st grade

An AI generated image purporting to show sextuplets starting 1st grade that was published by the Education Ministry on August 29, 2025. (Education Ministry)

The Education Ministry is being slammed for posting an AI image on Friday of a fictional sextuplets starting first grade in a social media post ahead of the start of the school year on September 1.

The ministry posted a picture of the six children standing in front of a school with the caption: “Next week we go back to school! In the meantime, meet the only sextuplets in the country who are entering first grade: Oren, Omer, Uri, Nadav, Dvir and Gil Orenstein.”

The post then quoted their fictional mother, Ilanit, as saying:  “I invested a lot in raising the children; it’s a great miracle that they were all born healthy. I took a two-year break from work to focus on raising the children and my husband was the sole breadwinner. I am most excited in the world to see them grow up.”

No such sextuplets exist, and the photo was AI-generated.

The post quickly drew a backlash on social media, with thousands of users slamming the ministry that is supposed to educate children for spreading blatant lies.

“One of your more embarrassing posts. The education system is collapsing, there are no teachers, no values, and schools are barely managing, and this is what you decide to post? A chauvinistic AI story about imaginary sextuplets with a mom who stays home and a father who supports them,” one person responded on Facebook.

“Focus on improving the education and not on degrading the conversation online.”

After being caught in the lie, the ministry defended the post.

“Ok, we admit these sextuplets are not really on the way to first grade, the photo was created with AI,” the ministry said in a further post.

“We wanted to open the school year with a smile and to remind you that just like in school, on the web we also need to stop, check, and use our critical thinking,” the ministry said.

“Wishing everyone a curious, fun school year full of good surprises,” its second post said.

Three wounded in suspected criminal car bombing in Jaffa

The scene of a suspected criminal car bombing in Jaffa on August 30, 2025 (MDA)

Three people are wounded in a suspected criminal car bombing in Jaffa, police and medics say.

Medics say two people are moderately hurt and a third sustains light injuries.

Police say they are probing the incident.

Hebrew media quotes police sources as saying that the bombing is likely linked to a feud between organized crime families.

Report: Israel targeted top Iranian leaders by hacking, tracing their bodyguards’ phones

Damage is seen to an apartment building after Israeli strikes in Tehran, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Israel was able to track and target senior Iranian political and military leaders and nuclear scientists during the June war by hacking and tracking the phones of their bodyguards and drivers, the New York Times reports.

According to the report that quotes several Iranian and Israeli officials, Iran was aware of Israeli plans to kill top officials and boosted their security. In doing so, they unwittingly allowed Israel to track and target the senior officials.

“We know senior officials and commanders did not carry phones, but their interlocutors, security guards and drivers had phones, they did not take precautions seriously and this is how most of them were traced,” Sasan Karimi, a former deputy vice president for strategy in Iran’s current government and now a political analyst and lecturer at Tehran University, tells the NYT.

The report says Israel discovered that not only were the guards still carrying phones, they were using them to post to social media.

“Using so many bodyguards is a weakness that we imposed on them, and we were able to take advantage of that,” one Israeli defense official says.

Israeli officials detail how they planned to decapitate Iran’s leadership at the start of the war, knowing it would be harder after the surprise strike.

Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Aerospace Force, was the first target, one Israeli official tells the Times. As Hajizadeh gathered his senior staff together for an emergency war meeting. They were then eliminated in an Israeli bombing.

Following the first wave of strikes, guards were ordered to carry only walkie-talkies. Only team leaders who do not travel with the officials can carry cellphones.

However, in at least one case, guards violated the orders allowing Israel to again target political leaders, the report says. However, that strike ultimately missed the intended targets.

The 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran began on June 13 with a surprise Israeli attack.

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

Red Cross chief says mass evacuation of Gaza City ‘impossible’

A Palestinian woman and children walk past a tent in Gaza City on August 29, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)

The head of the international Red Cross denounces Israel’s plans for a mass evacuation of Gaza City ahead of a military takeover, insisting there was no way it could be done safely.

“It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current conditions,” International Committee of the Red Cross president Mirjana Spoljaric says in a statement, describing the evacuation plan as “not only unfeasible but incomprehensible.”

Daughter of slain hostage Ilan Weiss thanks security forces for his recovered body, calls for return of all the captives

Noga Weiss holds a placard showing her hostage father Ilan Weiss at a demonstration urging the release of the hostages held by Hamas. (Paulina Patimer / Hostages Families Forum)

Noga Weiss, the daughter of slain hostage Ilan Weiss, whose body was recovered from Gaza, gives thanks to the security forces and calls for the remaining captives to be freed in a deal.

“We want to say a huge thank you in the name of the whole family to the security forces who brought back our father after 692 days,” she says in a post on social media.

“We hope and pray that all the hostages will be returned in one deal that will not endanger the security forces or the hostages today,” she writes.

Forces from the military and Shin Bet security service recovered the body of Weiss in an operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said yesterday.

His body was recovered along with the remains of a second hostage, whose name was not immediately published as the identification process was 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 from Hamas-led terrorists 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. Noga was drafted into the IDF in May 2024.

Houthi missile fired at Israel overnight fell short

Yemenis brandish weapons and daggers during a rally in solidarity with Palestinians and in condemnation of Israel and the US, in the Houthi-run capital Sanaa on August 29, 2025. (Photo by Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP)

A ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels at Israel overnight fell short, military officials say.

Hebrew media reports say the missile apparently fell in Saudi Arabia.

The missile did not trigger any alarms in Israel.

The missile came after Israel, on Thursday, carried out strikes that killed several top Houthi officials.

Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen have launched 72 ballistic missiles and at least 23 drones at Israel. Several missiles have fallen short.

Iran says eight arrested for suspected links to Israel’s Mossad spy agency

An Iranian woman walk past a billboard displaying pictures of nuclear scientists, centrifuges and a sentence reading in Farsi: " Science is the power", at the Enqelab square in Tehran, on August 29, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says they have arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reports.

They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.

Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

A Guards statement alleges that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It says they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.

State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.

Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.

Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.

Seven soldiers wounded, one moderately, when Gaza roadside bomb hits armored vehicle

Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli military strike in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Aug. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Seven Israel Defense Forces soldiers are wounded when the armored personnel carrier they were traveling in went over an explosive device in north Gaza’s Zeitoun neighborhood, military officials say.

One soldier was in moderate condition, and six others were lightly wounded in the incident that occurred overnight.

Five of the six lightly wounded troops have been treated and released from the hospital.

The families of the wounded have been notified.

France leads European calls for US to allow PA’s Abbas, other officials attend UN General Assembly

France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot arrives to attend a Franco-German cabinet meeting in Toulon, south-eastern France, on August 29, 2025. (Manon Cruz / POOL / AFP)

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says there should be no restrictions on access to next month’s UN General Assembly, after the United States said it would deny visas to members of the Palestinian Authority.

The US said yesterday it will not allow Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other officials to travel to New York next month for a United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.

“A UN General Assembly meeting… should not be subject to any restrictions on access,” Barrot says at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Denmark.

A string of ministers in Copenhagen echo France’s call for the United States to allow access to the Palestinian delegation.

The extraordinary step by Washington comes as France is leading a push to recognize the Palestinian state at the gathering of world leaders in New York.

Under an agreement as host of the United Nations in New York, the United States is not supposed to refuse visas for officials heading to the world body.

Egypt signs oil, gas exploration deals worth $340 million with global firms

This picture taken on February 6, 2023 shows a view of Tibbin dual fuel (natural gas and fuel oil) powerplant and Helwan Steelworks, in the Helwan suburb south of Egypt's capital. (Amir MAKAR / AFP)

Egypt has signed four agreements with international firms worth more than $340 million to explore gas and oil in the Mediterranean and Nile Delta, the Petroleum Ministry says in a statement.

They include a $120 million deal with Shell and a $100 million deal with Italy’s Eni, the statement says.

US judge blocks Trump from expanding rapid deportation process

US President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting, August 26, 2025, at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A US judge blocks the Trump administration from massively expanding a procedure that allows authorities to swiftly deport migrants without a court hearing, in a blow for the president’s mass deportation plans.

The process, which is called “expedited removal,” had previously been used to rapidly deport migrants detained near the Mexican border if they had entered the US in the previous two weeks.

However since January, the administration of Donald Trump has expanded the use of the procedure across the whole country — and applied it to migrants who have been in the US for up to two years.

US District Judge Jia Cobb blocks this expanded use of the procedure, saying it could lead to people being “erroneously” deported without due process, including the chance to prove they have been in the US for more than two years.

“Unlike the group of people who have traditionally been subject to expedited removal — those detained at or near the border shortly after crossing — the group of people the Government is now subjecting to expedited removal have long since entered our country,” Cobb writes in a 48-page opinion.

“In defending this skimpy process, the Government makes a truly startling argument: that those who entered the country illegally are entitled to no process under the Fifth Amendment, but instead must accept whatever grace Congress affords them,” she adds.

“Were that right, not only noncitizens, but everyone would be at risk.”

The ruling by Cobb, who was appointed by former president Joe Biden, was in a case brought by Make The Road New York, a rights group supporting migrants.

The judge emphasizes that the court was not casting “doubt on the constitutionality of the expedited removal statute, nor on its longstanding application at the border.”

Trump campaigned to return to the White House vowing to deport millions of undocumented migrants.

But his mass deportation program has been restricted by numerous court rulings, notably on the grounds that those targeted should be able to assert their due process rights.

Cobb also quotes the Constitution, which guarantees that “no person shall be removed from the United States without opportunity, at some time, to be heard.”

EU foreign policy chief ‘not optimistic’ bloc will agree on sanctioning Israel

Kaja Kallas, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice president of the European Commission talks to journalists before the EU-Southern Neighbourhood Ministerial Meeting in Brussels on July 14, 2025 (NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP)

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says she is “not optimistic” the bloc would take action against Israel over the war in Gaza due to splits between member states.

Foreign ministers meeting in Denmark will discuss a proposal to suspend EU funding to Israeli start-ups as initial punishment for the situation in Gaza.

But the bloc has so far failed to garner the majority needed to take that step — let alone move ahead with more forceful measures against Israel.

“I’m not very optimistic, and today we are definitely not going to adopt decisions,” Kallas tells journalists at the start of the Denmark meeting.

“It sends a signal that we are divided.”

Splits within the European Union between countries backing Israel and those favoring the Palestinians have seen the 27-nation bloc often left hamstrung in the face of the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza amid the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.

A string of EU countries are pushing for more far-reaching punishment for Israel, but have been frustrated.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

EU’s Kallas says Russia won’t get frozen assets back without paying reparations

Kaja Kallas, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice president of the European Commission talks to journalists before the EU-Southern Neighbourhood Ministerial Meeting in Brussels on July 14, 2025. (NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP)

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says it is not possible to imagine giving back Russian assets frozen inside the bloc due to the war in Ukraine unless Moscow has paid reparations.

“We can’t possibly imagine that … if … there is a ceasefire or peace deal that these assets are given back to Russia if they haven’t paid for the reparations,” she tells reporters before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen.

Report: Blair told Trump that Gazans want new leadership, hope the Strip can become the next UAE

Former British prime minister Tony Blair speaks during an interview in central London on March 17, 2023. (Daniel Leal/AFP)

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told US President Donald Trump that Gazans are seeking new leadership and hope the enclave can become developed in the same way as the United Arab Emirates, London’s The Times says it understands.

Trump presided over a policy meeting Wednesday on the Gaza war, receiving input from Blair and former Trump Middle East envoy Jared Kushner. A White House official said they discussed all aspects of the Gaza issue, including escalating food aid deliveries, the hostage crisis, post-war plans and more.

According to The Times, Blair told Trump that it was still possible to advance a peace deal, with Palestinians united under a single government.

The report says Blair presented polling done by his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in May, which found that the nation Gazans most admire as a potential model for their future was the UAE with 27 percent, then Turkey with 15% and Singapore with 14%. No details were given in the report as to the methodology of the polling.

The polling reportedly showed that 35% of Gazans believe the Palestinian Authority should govern the Strip after the war, with 27% wishing for a transitional international coalition working with local authorities. The polling found 22% want a national unity government including both Hamas and Fatah, and just 4% believe Hamas should remain the sole power in the enclave.

The report says that Blair is not an advocate of the plan to Gazans relocating or being relocated, but that his institute would not comment on whether the former UK premier would advocate for them to move temporarily during a potential reconstruction period.

Canadian PM condemns ‘outrageous’ stabbing of elderly Jewish woman in Ottawa

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a press conference after a cabinet meeting to discuss both trade negotiations with the US and the situation in the Middle East, at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on July 30, 2025. (Dave Chan/AFP)

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney condemns the “outrageous assault” after an elderly Jewish woman was stabbed at an Ottawa grocery store in what police are investigating as a hate crime.

“My thoughts are with her, as well as her family and the Jewish community in Ottawa,” Carney says in a post on X.

He adds: “To the Canadian Jewish community: you are not alone. In full solidarity, we denounce the hatred and threats to your safety, and we will fight antisemitism wherever it manifests.”

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre calls on Carney to strengthen hate crime laws.

“We must eradicate the growing scourge of antisemitism in Canada. Never again means never again,” he writes in an X post.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, recognizing the attack has “caused significant distress within Ottawa’s Jewish community,” says security will be expanded in certain neighborhoods.

Activists smear red paint on home of NY Times’ Jewish editor: ‘Joe Kahn lies Gaza dies’

The home of the Jewish editor-in-chief of The New York Times, Joseph Kahn, was vandalized by anti-Israel activists Friday, with red paint splattered across his apartment building’s walls and front steps.

The vandalism in Greenwich Village apparently took place overnight.

A message scrawled on the pavement read, “Joe Kahn lies Gaza dies.”

Pro-Palestine protester splatters paint all over New York Times editor’s home https://t.co/YwiominhmX

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) August 29, 2025

The paper’s headquarters in Manhattan was defaced last month with red paint and a similar message.

“Disagreement with our reporting is acceptable, but vandalizing property and threatening individuals and their families is unacceptable,” Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander told outlets. “We will work with authorities to address it.”

11 people lightly hurt by fire in Bnei Brak residential building

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 Dnipropetrovsk region under ‘massive attack’ — governor

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.

US appeals court finds Trump’s global tariffs illegal

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.