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The Times of Israel liveblogged Friday’s events as they unfolded.
Israel said refusing further withdrawals from Lebanon amid spat over who will verify Hezbollah disarmament
Israel is reportedly refusing to conduct further withdrawals from southern Lebanon amid disagreements over the mechanism for inspecting whether territory has been cleared of Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure.
After three days of US-mediated talks in Rome this week, the sides have yet to agree on which countries would be represented on the verification committee, Haaretz reports, adding that a small list of potential countries has been put together but that no consensus has been reached.
11 civilians said wounded in Houthi attack on Saudi border region
The Saudi-led military coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognized government says that 11 civilians were wounded in what it described as a Houthi attack on the southern Saudi border region of Najran.
The coalition’s spokesperson says in a statement that the wounded included seven Saudi nationals, among them a woman and a four-year-old child who suffered second-degree burns, as well as one Yemeni, two Egyptians and one Pakistani national.
Bomb planted on minibus kills two near Damascus, Syrian officials say
A bomb planted in a minibus killed two people and wounded 14 others on the outskirts of Syria’s capital Damascus on Thursday night, officials say.
The blast occurred in the predominantly Druze area of Jaramana, outside Damascus. A security source tells the state-run Ekhbariya TV that the blast was caused by an explosive device planted on the vehicle, citing preliminary information.
Footage from the scene showed the blown-up husk of a white minibus being dragged away from the site of the blast.
Jaramana resident Samer Abbas was meters away in his clothing store when the explosion went off. A piece of shrapnel hit the storefront.
His son, who had been sitting outside, was the first thing that came to Abbas’s mind. Fearing the worst, Abbas says he could not rest until he confirmed his son was safe.
Over at the Mujtahid Hospital in Damascus, Bassel Imad says the bombing was “sadistic.” His cousin Safouh was driving the vehicle that exploded and lay injured.
The targeted street in Jaramana is somewhat narrow and includes shops and street vendors, Imad said, as people clamored around him.
Factions within Syria’s Druze community have clashed with the country’s new Islamist leadership. A UN investigation in March found more than 1,700 people, most of them civilian members of the Druze religious sect and some members of the Bedouin community, were killed in the southern Sweida province in July 2025.
It said Syrian government forces, tribal fighters and Druze armed groups may have committed war crimes.
Saudi Arabia expects imminent attacks from north and south, senior official says
Saudi Arabia expects imminent coordinated attacks from the north and south by Iraqi militias and Yemen’s Houthis under the supervision of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a senior Saudi official says.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says intelligence reports from Saudi Arabia, the United States and other regional countries indicated civilian and economic sites could be targeted, including energy infrastructure, ports and airports.
Saudi Arabia had also observed drones and missiles being moved, suggesting coordinated operations from both directions, the official says.
The official says the reported threats were particularly alarming as Riyadh continued to pursue de-escalation and a negotiated settlement, adding that contacts with all parties, including Iran, and mediation efforts appeared to be moving “in the right direction.” The official says the planned attacks could be intended to disrupt those diplomatic efforts.
The official says Saudi-US cooperation remained “very high” at all levels, including operationally with US Central Command, and said Saudi Arabia was prepared to take all necessary measures to respond to any aggression.
On July 29, Saudi Arabia said it carried out strikes with CENTCOM against Iran-backed groups in Iraq after blaming them for drone attacks on its oil facilities. Iraqi militias said they would respond to the Saudi strikes.
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have escalated in recent weeks after the Iran-aligned group imposed what it describes as a naval blockade on the kingdom in the Red Sea and claimed a series of attacks on Saudi shipping and military targets. Saudi Arabia has responded to the recent Houthi attacks with strikes on military sites in Yemen.
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan to sign joint defense agreement on Friday
Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will sign a joint defense agreement in Saudi Arabia on Friday, two regional sources with direct knowledge of the matter tells Reuters.
Riyadh is seeking to deepen security cooperation with key allies while warning of an expanding regional threat from Iran-backed groups.
Details of the agreement were not immediately available.
Saudi Arabia already has a defence cooperation agreement with Pakistan. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in the kingdom Thursday, while Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was due to arrive on Friday.
Tennessee voters oust Trump-backed congressman, set fall matchup for redrawn Memphis-area House seat
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., speaks to supporters after being declared the winner in his Republican primary race, August 1, 2024, in Franklin, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Former Tennessee agriculture commissioner Charlie Hatcher has defeated US Rep. Andy Ogles in a Republican primary for a significantly reshaped congressional district — marking a rare rejection of a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Ogles, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, had faced controversies related to his campaign finances and resume, among other things. But Trump gave him an early endorsement last fall — and praised him on Election Day as “a Conservative Warrior” — as Ogles sought a third term in the reshaped district.
Ogles capitalized on a previous redistricting in the 2022 elections, winning a formerly Democratic-held seat that was reshaped to Republicans’ advantage by splitting the Nashville area among three districts.
The new 5th District stretches from Ogles’ base in central Tennessee to the northwest corner of the state before snaking south along the Mississippi River to Memphis — with 82% of its voters new, according to an Associated Press estimate.
Although he lacked Trump’s endorsement, Hatcher was backed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, under whom he served for seven years. Hatcher campaigned as pro-Trump while emphasizing his farming background.
“Think what President Trump could do if our congressman spent less time talking and more time doing,” Hatcher’s campaign website said.
Trump has mostly backed winners so far in this year’s Republican primaries, though his favored candidate in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District primary, Amir Hassan, lost Tuesday.
Ogles’ controversies have included the FBI seizing his cellphone in 2024 as part of an investigation into his campaign finance reporting. The Justice Department recently agreed to return the device, signaling that it was abandoning the probe, which began under the Biden administration.
In 2023, Ogles acknowledged that he had graduated with a liberal studies degree from Middle Tennessee State University, saying he was “mistaken” for previously describing it as an international relations degree.
Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder won the Democratic primary in the 5th District.
Sa’ar meets Colombia’s incoming president ahead of inauguration
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar meets with Colombia’s incoming President Abelardo de la Espriella a day before the latter’s inauguration.
Sa’ar will attend the inauguration as well.
The pair have a three-hour private meeting and lunch at De la Espriella’s office in Barranquilla, says Sa’ar’s office.
They discussed ways to strengthen bilateral diplomatic, security and economic relations, according to the Israeli readout.
Mi amigo, @ABDELAESPRIELLA, quien asumirá mañana como presidente de Colombia, es un líder decidido e inspirador. Su elección es una gran noticia para su país, pero también para la relación entre Israel y Colombia. De la Espriella es un gran amigo del pueblo judío y del Estado de… pic.twitter.com/6HVLKj3LHM
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) August 7, 2026
Sa’ar thanks De La Espriella for his decision to move Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem, telling him, “You have laid a brick in the walls of Jerusalem.”
The two last met in Buenos Aires in November.
In Sa’ar’s Washington, DC meeting with Colombia’s incoming Foreign Minister last month, Omar Bola Escobar, the two agreed on restoring full diplomatic relations, appointing ambassadors, lifting visa requirements, and relocating Colombia’s embassy to Jerusalem.
They also agreed to renew Colombian coal shipments to Israel and for Bogota to withdraw from South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Reports: 80-year-old Palestinian American injured in alleged assault by IDF soldiers in West Bank
Palestinian media report that Khamis Rabee, an 80-year-old Palestinian, was injured yesterday after allegedly being beaten by IDF soldiers in the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya.
A video circulating on social media appears to show Rabee lying on the ground with a head wound, bleeding, as three soldiers stand nearby. A Palestinian identifying himself as Rabee’s nephew is seen trying to speak to the troops, who do not respond.
According to the claim made in the video, Rabee is a US citizen.
The IDF has not yet responded to a request for comment.
مشاهد توثق اعتداء قوات الاحتلال على خميس جبارة "80 عاما" في بلدة ترمسعيا بالضفة الغربية pic.twitter.com/HV8w05wvIx
— الجزيرة مباشر (@ajmubasher) August 7, 2026
DOJ says man charged in Philadelphia mosque fire targeted it because it was a mosque
The US Justice Department (DOJ) says a man charged in connection with a mid-July fire at the Northeast Philadelphia Islamic Center targeted the house of worship because it is a mosque.
Vincent Lang, 60, “was charged by indictment with one count of malicious damage by means of fire to a building used in interstate commerce and one count of damage to religious real property,” the DOJ says in a statement.
The indictment alleges that “Lang carried out the act because of the religious character of that property, that is, because it was a mosque.”
The defendant has been detained in federal custody since his mid-July arrest, the DOJ says.
The indictment alleges that, in the early hours of July 5, Lang maliciously damaged and destroyed, and attempted to damage and destroy, by means of fire, the Northeast Philadelphia Islamic Center.
Local media reported no one was injured in the incident.
If convicted, Lang faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of five years’ imprisonment, the DOJ says.
A representative of Lang could not be reached for comment.
US rights advocates have noted rising Islamophobia in the decades following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, and more recently because of anti-immigration policies, white supremacy and the fallout from Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Palestinian resident, Israeli civil rights activists say they were beaten by extremist settlers near West Bank town
A Palestinian man living on the outskirts of the West Bank Palestinian town of Taybeh and three Israeli civil-wing activists say they were assaulted yesterday by settler extremists on as they tried to rebuild fences torn down by extremists on Wednesday.
Video footage shows one of the extremists punching Charlotte Mandel, a Canadian-Israeli activist in her 50s who was helping rebuild the fences.
According to longtime Palestinian rights activist Rabbi Arik Ascherman, extremist settlers have been breaking down fences around homes on the outskirts of Taybeh over the last three days.
Naif Ka’abanah, a Palestinian resident of the area, tells The Times of Israel he was beaten over the head by extremists from a nearby illegal settlement outpost, and had to be taken to hospital to treat his head wounds. He was subsequently released and returned home.
Three civil rights activists with Ascherman’s Torat Tzedek organization doing what is dubbed “protective presence” activities were also assaulted by the extremists as they tried to stop the fences from being torn down once again, the rabbi says.
Civil rights activist Charlotte Mandel is apparently assaulted by a settler extremist as she tries to defend the home of Naif Ka’abanah on the outskirts of the Palestinian West Bank town of Taybeh, August 6, 2026. (Courtesy Torat Tzedek)
Ka’abanah and Ascherman both allege that despite repeated calls for assistance, the IDF and police failed to come to the scene for several hours.
The IDF and police have not responded to requests for comment.
“There is a fence around my house; they knocked it down [on Wednesday] and so [on Thursday] I made a new fence, and they came to knock it down again,” says Ka’abanah.
“They brought their goats into my house, into the living room. I have children, daughters, a wife at home. We called the police [starting] in the morning; they didn’t come until the settlers had already left [in the] evening,” he continues.
“Every day for two months we call the police when the settlers come and the police only come once the settlers have left. How is it possible for anyone to live in this country if the police don’t function?”
Ascherman says that despite the IDF having imposed a closed military zone order over the area, the settler extremists continue to enter the zone to assault the Palestinians, and the IDF and police fail to detain them.
“The clear refusal of security forces to protect Palestinians and to enforce closure orders against human rights defenders but not against violent settlers has led to a sharp upswing in settler violence in Taybeh in recent days,” says Ascherman.
“‘Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds,’ the Bible commands. For their trouble this afternoon, Torat Tzedek’s human rights defenders were beaten by violent settlers, along with Palestinians.”
Opposition-aligned outlet claims Iranian supreme leader may be on his deathbed
A man holds a picture of Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Grand Mosque, during funeral ceremonies for slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei and members of his family, in Tehran, Iran, July 5, 2026. (AP/Altaf Qadri)
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t met any Iranian cabinet members since the US-Israeli strikes that killed his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, the opposition-aligned IranWire outlet reports, citing two unnamed sources close to President Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration.
The sources claim that “rumors that he is in extremely critical condition and could pass away at any moment are circulating widely within the highest levels of the regime.”
One of the sources is quoted as saying: “We would not be surprised if we heard news of his martyrdom soon.”
Mojtaba Khamenei has not made any public appearances since he became supreme leader, and no recordings of him speaking have been aired — only written statements attributed to him by state media. He was reportedly injured and possibly deformed in some way during the attack that killed his father, and has remained in hiding, reportedly communicating with other senior regime figures via a slow array of intermediaries to avoid being targeted.
Pezeshkian himself said in an interview aired by state TV on Wednesday that interaction with Khamenei is currently “very difficult.”
Father of murdered hostage confronts Likud minister at campaign stop: ‘You caused Oct. 7! Shame on you’
Transportation Minister Miri Regev is confronted during a campaign stop in Jerusalem by Nissim Louk, the father of Shani Louk, who was murdered at the Nova festival on October 7, 2023, and had her body dragged to Gaza, where it was recovered by commandos seven months later.
In one of the most shocking videos from the Hamas onslaught, her body was seen in a video, slung across the back of a pickup truck, surrounded by gunmen and paraded through Gaza.
In video from the incident shared on social media, Louk is seen shouting at Regev, outside the Mahane Yehuda marketplace.
“You caused October 7! Shame on you all! Shame on Likud!” he exclaims.
“You don’t know how proud we are [to be in Likud],” Regev responds.
“My daughter, Shani Louk, was murdered because of you! Shame on you all!” he says. “3,000 people were murdered because of you! Shame on you, Likud!”
תקשיבו לניסים לוק
אביה של שני לוק הי"ד
שנרצחה ב7.10
סוף סוף קול צלול pic.twitter.com/VGbn2kuDEf— ????יאיר אנסבכר (@AnsbacherYair) August 6, 2026
After a few of these shouts, men in the area – identified by the Walla news site as Likud activists – begin to challenge Louk, asking what Likud has to do with his daughter’s murder.
“Likud funded Hamas!” the bereaved father responds. “You funded Hamas!”
“You’re trash!” says one of the activists through the din, though it’s unclear he’s heard what Louk was saying.
When Louk repeats that his daughter was murdered, the activist responds: “What does that have to do with her?” referring to Regev.
Amid the back-and-forth, the activist chides the bereaved father: “Don’t come making provocations.”
“Are you joking?” he responds, again accusing Likud of funding Hamas.
“No, you funded Hamas,” says the activist, pointing his finger at Louk. “You, and Bennett, and Liberman, and Bennett, and Lapid, all of the stupid people!”
In a statement quoted by Walla, Regev’s office responds: “Minister Miri Regev shares in the enormous pain of the families that lost their loved ones in the October 7 massacre, among them the family of Shani Louk.”
“The minister spoke at length with the father, comforted him in his pain, and told him that her daughter, also, is a Nova survivor and that her friends were murdered at the Nova.”
It continues: “At the end of the conversation, the minister promised that she was committed to establishing a national commission of inquiry that will investigate absolutely everything.”
The statement uses the word “national” as opposed to “state,” indicating support for the government’s effort to set up a politically appointed probe, rather than a state commission of inquiry, which is the traditional body for investigating major incidents and the only body empowered to subpoena witnesses. Polls consistently show the latter has majority support.
Ministers, security chiefs said to discuss potential defiance of Gaza roadmap by resuming strikes
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in the Knesset, February 7, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90/File)
Ministers and security chiefs reportedly discussed yesterday how to deal with recent US-backed Board of Peace moves to go ahead with a roadmap for postwar Gaza, to which Jerusalem objects.
While the security cabinet approved having an International Stabilization Force enter Gaza to disarm Hamas and assume control of the territory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel did not agree to the terms of the disarmament plan, which was accepted by the terror group last week. Some ministers have publicly urged the premier to openly declare that he will not abide by the terms.
“Hamas agreed to the 15-point plan, but hasn’t abandoned the vision of destroying Israel,” warned Brig. Gen. Ofir Mizrahi-Rozen, head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate’s Research Department, according to the Israel Hayom daily.
“It is apparent that there is a Hamas effort to put the ball in our court,” he added, warning of internationalizing the conflict by placing foreign forces, including from hostile states such as Turkey and Qatar, close to Israeli border towns.
Shin Bet chief David Zini reportedly said that Hamas signing the agreement “is a process of strategic deception aimed at buying time and ensuring we don’t return to [military] action in Gaza before the [October 27] election.”
“This is a strategic ambush by Hamas,” he asserted, according to the report.
According to the Ynet news site, Zini also said Hamas views the roadmap signing as a “diplomatic October 7,” equivalent to the military success of the 2023 invasion.
The Israel Hayom report adds that National Security Adviser Shmuel Ben Ezra said Israel has handed the US a list of corrections it is demanding to the roadmap, and that Netanyahu has said the roadmap contradicts November 2025 understandings reached with Washington.
He added that there is great pressure on Israel to withdraw to the original Yellow Line set last year — handing Israel control of 52 percent of the Strip, which it has since expanded to 70% — and to stop targeted strikes on terror officials.
Minister Ze’ev Elkin is quoted as calling for Israel to resume operations in Gaza in a way that makes clear that it does not accept the recent developments, which include a near-total 14-day freeze on military operations and strikes.
“If Israel doesn’t carry out offensive action for two weeks, the meaning is that we have accepted and entered the process. That’s why we need to publish that we are not signing these 15 points,” Elkin said.
Israel Hayom says ministers Bezalel Smotrich, Orit Strock and Avi Dichter backed this demand.
Smotrich is quoted as telling Netanyahu: “You are a master at maneuvering, but now that there is an official document, we must delegitimize this document. We can’t maneuver.”
Houthi attack kills three members of Yemen government forces — source
A Houthi drone attack on Yemen’s Marib province has killed three members of government forces, a Yemeni military source tells AFP, as rebels ramp up the conflict a day after the deadliest Houthi attack in years.
“Three killed and four wounded in a preliminary toll from the Houthi drone attack on the Harib area, in the south of Marib,” the source says, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The official earlier told AFP that artillery exchanges and clashes were taking place in Sirwah and on the Al-Kasara front, north of Marib city, where Houthi drones were spotted.
The rebels also hit an arms depot in the province.
The latest violence has raised the specter of a return to war in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, where a 2022 truce between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government had largely held before unraveling last month.
Yesterday, the Iran-backed rebels killed at least 58 government troops in missile and drone attacks, a military source said, in one of the deadliest incidents between the two sides in years.
Yemen, which has been embroiled in more than a decade of war, last month became the latest front to be sucked into the US-Iran conflict, as the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels upended the 2022 truce.
The rebels welcomed an Iranian plane directly to the capital Sanaa, triggering a series of tit-for-tat attacks, and later announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began hitting its tankers.
Last month, the Houthis killed 16 troops in an attack on government-aligned forces south of the port city of Hodeidah, two medical officials told AFP.
Report: Deal framework reached on temporarily reopening Hormuz; US support not assured
Tankers and cargo vessels are seen in the Gulf of Oman, along shipping routes linking the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea, June 16, 2026. (AP)
A temporary Iran-Oman deal framework has been reached regarding the Strait of Hormuz, the MS Now (formerly MSNBC) US outlet reports.
The report, which cites two unnamed Middle East diplomats with knowledge of the talks, says Oman has agreed to the temporary deal but doesn’t explicitly say that Iran has, although it cites an unnamed Iranian government official as saying it will establish a new Iran-controlled entry route and an Oman-controlled exit route from the waterway, a critical oil trade route.
The Iranian official is cited as saying that under the deal, ships won’t currently be required to pay tolls or fees.
The same official adds that the United States and the United Nations International Maritime Organization will be involved in the deal’s formal announcement, although the timing isn’t yet known.
However, a US official is quoted as saying Washington will only support the deal if it includes no fees and also no “impediments — meaning no approvals or permissions.” The report doesn’t say if the framework includes such provisions.
The members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have also endorsed the agreement, the report says, citing an unnamed Gulf government official.
Various outlets have reported progress in the talks and details of the deal for about a week. It is said to set a 60-day period in which the US and Iran will negotiate long-term arrangements and an end to the war that began in late February.
Turkey’s President Erdogan lands in Jeddah ahead of deal signing — Saudi media
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Saudi Arabia’s city of Jeddah, Saudi media reports, where he is expected to sign a defense agreement with the kingdom and Pakistan, sources tell AFP.
Saudi Arabia’s Alekhbariya television reports that the Turkish president arrived in the Red Sea port city.
Six, including four minors, charged with murder of Benayahu Razi in Jerusalem Airbnb apartment
Benayahu Razi, a 19-year-old resident of Jerusalem who was found stabbed to death in a rental apartment in the city's Nachlaot neighborhood on July 11, 2026. (Facebook)
Prosecutors charge 19-year-old Agam Tsarafi, 20-year-old Shilat Houta, 17-year-old Avior Sasson and three other minors with the murder of 19-year-old Benayahu Razi in an Airbnb in Jerusalem’s Nachlaot neighborhood on July 11.
Another woman, 46-year-old Jerusalem resident Linor Sasson — Avior’s mother — is charged with helping the other suspects flee after the four minors allegedly stabbed and beat Razi and a male friend of his with knives, brass knuckles, a club and a kitchen mallet.
Tsarafi, Houta and the four minors, including Avior Sasson, are charged with murder with intent and causing grievous bodily harm with intent. The four minors, including Avior Sasson, are also charged with illegal possession of a knife. Linor Sasson is charged with aiding and abetting after the act. All seven suspects face additional charges of obstruction of justice.
The indictment is filed in the Jerusalem District Court. Police request the court to keep all seven suspects in custody until the end of the legal proceedings. The four minors, aged 15-17, are unnamed in the indictment in accordance with Israeli privacy law. However, Avior Sasson has been publicly named after police asked the public to help find him while he evaded arrest for some two weeks after the incident before he was caught.
Tsarafi and Houta had rented the apartment for the weekend and invited Razi and his friend to join, the indictment says. It adds that Tsarafi and Razi were in a romantic relationship.
Tsarafi and Houta left the apartment in the afternoon on July 11, following an argument with Razi and his friend, and made their way to Linor Sasson’s home, where they recounted the argument to the four minors and alleged that Razi had been violent, according to the indictment.
Tsarafi, Houta, Avior Sasson and the three other minors then jointly decided to “finish” Razi, and Linor Sasson drove the six murder suspects to the Airbnb apartment while Houta threatened Razi and the unnamed friend and demanded they exit, the indictment says.
Upon arrival, the suspects found Razi and his friend outside the apartment, and the four minors coaxed the two victims to go back inside for a conversation, according to the indictment.
Once inside, they allegedly cornered Razi and attacked him, and also wounded the friend when he came to Razi’s defense. Houta stood in the doorway and broadcast the violence to Tsarafi via video call, prosecutors say.
After the attack, Linor Sasson allegedly helped all six suspects flee the crime scene.
She drove Houta and Tsarafi to Jerusalem’s Malha neighborhood, near the home of Tsarafi’s sister, and then drove with the minors in the direction of Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood, dropping off one of them — her son Avior — on the way in a location unknown to prosecutors, according to the indictment.
Linor Sasson and the remaining three minors were arrested en route, while Avior Sasson managed to evade arrest for some two weeks.
Katz said to leave security cabinet meeting to attend wedding of Likud official’s son ahead of primaries
Defense Minister Israel Katz attends a conference of the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon in Jerusalem, December 25, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Defense Minister Israel Katz left a security cabinet meeting yesterday in the middle to attend the wedding of a Likud official’s son, Hebrew media reports, in an apparent case of campaigning for the August 17 primaries, sidelining national security discussions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly asked, “Where is the defense minister?” after Katz headed to the wedding of Kiryat Ata Mayor Yaakov Peretz’s son, and then to the engagement party of a family member of senior ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto.
Katz reportedly also attended a series of other such events in recent days during security flare-ups, including meeting other Haredi rabbis and a group of Likud women, which were held inside ministerial offices in violation of laws barring the use of government assets for party politics.
Katz’s office responds that he held close to 10 hours of security discussions yesterday, won’t go into detail regarding the security forums, and that the meetings were held at the Defense Ministry due to his busy schedule that included other meetings there.
Oct. 7 participant arrested after getting permit to enter Israeli-held part of Gaza as truck driver
Trucks and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip seen at the Kerem Shalom Crossing, on the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. (Flash90)
A Palestinian terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught was captured by the IDF earlier this week while working as a truck driver who arrived in the Israeli-held portion of the Gaza Strip to collect goods, according to security sources.
The member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force had requested a permit to deliver private sector goods inside the Strip, and was granted one by the Shin Bet security agency.
Upon arriving at the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing on Wednesday to collect the goods, Israeli troops apprehended him, the sources say.
He was then taken to be questioned by the Shin Bet.
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan sign defense pact; Turkish official claims it’s not against any specific actor
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shake hands during a welcome ceremony, in Ankara, Turkey, June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)
A defense pact has been signed in Mecca between Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the countries say in a joint statement.
The agreement is signed in the Saudi holy city during a meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The pact, dubbed the “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement,” ties together the three countries amid the backdrop of the Middle East war and a revived conflict in Saudi Arabia’s southern neighbor, Yemen.
“The Agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression, and stipulates that any armed attack against any one of the three States shall be regarded as an attack against them all,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry says.
The agreement is purely defensive in nature and pledges mutual support only for defense, a Turkish official says.
The official says the agreement — widely seen as an alliance designed to counter Iran — is not against any specific actor and is open to other regional countries as well. The pact does not abrogate or replace any existing bilateral or multilateral agreements between these states or with other states and organizations, the person adds.
Source close to Saudi army says coalition won’t ‘stand idly by’ on Houthi attacks in Yemen
A source close to the Saudi military says the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s government since 2015 will not “stand idly by” as the Houthi rebels escalate their attacks on Yemeni troops.
“The Coalition does not seek escalation, but we will not allow the current balance of power on the ground to be changed,” the source adds, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Palestinian American elderly man injured in West Bank, says soldiers threw stun grenade at him
Khamis Rabee, an 81-year-old Palestinian American, tells Al Jazeera that he suffered a head injury last night after leaving his home when soldiers allegedly threw a stun grenade toward him.
He says the blast caused him to fall and hit his head. He was evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment.
Earlier today, footage circulated showing Rabee bleeding from the head while several soldiers stood nearby.
Rabee adds he had come to Turmusayya for a month-long visit, apparently from the United States, and is due to return in about two weeks.
The IDF has not yet responded to a request for comment from The Times of Israel.
يروي الفلسطيني خميس ربيع (81 عامًا) تفاصيل إصابته في بلدة ترمسعيا شمال شرق رام الله، بعدما ألقى جنود الاحتلال قنبلة صوتية باتجاهه أمام باب منزله، ما أدى إلى إصابته في الرأس ونقله لتلقي العلاج#رقمي pic.twitter.com/nfaVYxxGri
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) August 7, 2026
Report: Top Haredi rabbi met Satmar billionaire to discuss petitioning ICC against draft dodger arrests
Grand Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter of the Gur Hassidic Dynasty attends the Siyum HaShas, a celebration marking the completion of the Daf Yomi, a seven-and-a-half-year cycle of studying the Talmud, at the Jerusalem Arena Stadium, January 2, 2019. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, leader of the Gur Hasidic sect, met with an American billionaire from the rival anti-Zionist Satmar movement to discuss creating an organization aimed at petitioning the United States Congress, the International Criminal Court and other foreign bodies against Israeli efforts to conscript previously exempt ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
According to Channel 13, which broke the news last night, Alter and Yoeli Landau compared Israel to North Korea and are planning on spending millions of dollars on the effort. It is unclear if Landau was acting on behalf of the Satmar community or its leader.
Gur is the largest and most influential Hasidic sect in Israel, with its rabbi controlling hundreds of millions of shekels in assets. United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf, a member of the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, is a member of the group.
In 2024, politicians from across the political spectrum, including then-defense minister Yoav Gallant, Blue and White party chief Benny Gantz and Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben Gvir, attended the wedding of Gur powerbroker Motti Babchik’s daughter, drawing criticism from the left.
Haredi demonstrators against the draft have held up signs appealing to US President Donald Trump to intervene and “save us” at multiple demonstrations.
In May, Agudat Yisrael MK Meir Porush sent a letter to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, asking him to pressure Israeli authorities against arresting ultra-Orthodox draft evaders.
Yemeni minister says two civilians killed in Houthi attacks on government-held city
Yemen’s Houthi rebels shelled residential neighborhoods and displacement camps in the government-held city of Marib today, killing at least two civilians and injuring 14 others, the health minister says.
“Shelling by the terrorist Houthi militia today, Friday, targeting residential neighborhoods and displacement camps in the city of Marib, has resulted — according to an initial toll — in the deaths of two civilians and injuries of varying severity to 14 others,” says Health Minister Qasim Buhaibeh in a post on X.
Reports of fatalities in minibus bombing outside Damascus were mistaken, Syria says
A Syrian official says 14 people were wounded in a minibus bombing on the outskirts of Damascus yesterday, but that initial reports of fatalities were mistaken.
Officials had said yesterday that two people were killed in the blast. The health ministry’s head of media, Riad al-Sayed Hasan, told Reuters that the assessment was based on the discovery of body parts at the scene, which turned out to be those of some of the people severely wounded.
The blast occurred in the predominantly Druze area of Jaramana, outside Damascus. A security source tells the state-run Ekhbariya TV that the blast was caused by an explosive device planted on the vehicle, citing preliminary information.
Footage from the scene showed the blown-up husk of a white minibus being dragged away from the site of the blast.
Authorities have not blamed anyone for the attack, which took place in an area where there have been clashes between the Druze and Islamist militants backing the authorities that took over after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in 2024.
3 stabbed in Israeli Arab town of Taibe, 2 of them seriously
Three men were wounded in a stabbing in the central Arab town of Taibe in Israel, two of them seriously and one moderately.
The men, in their 30s, were brought to a local medical clinic and then to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba.
The incident occurs days after a man in his 50s was shot and killed in Taibe, as part of what police characterized as an “ongoing blood feud.”
Saudi official says defense pact with Pakistan, Turkey not tied to nuclear ambitions
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shake hands during a welcome ceremony, in Ankara, Turkey, June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)
A Saudi official says the joint defense pact signed with Turkey and Pakistan is not linked to “any nuclear ambitions” and is not a threat to any country in the region.
“The agreement does not represent an effort to establish a military axis or a sectarian bloc. Nor is it linked to any nuclear ambitions or arms race, rather it is focused on building sustainable capabilities,” Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Rayed Krimly writes in a post on X.
He says the deal “does not constitute a threat to the security of any country in the region, nor does it represent an escalation of tensions between any two states.”
Saudi Arabia just signed a deal with the United States to obtain nuclear energy, with the possibility of enrichment on Saudi soil, though US President Donald Trump later said the deal was conditioned on the kingdom normalizing its ties with Israel.
Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
United Airlines set to resume nonstop service between NYC and TLV on September 8
United Airlines is preparing to resume nonstop flight services from New York to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on September 8, with flights operating out of Newark, New Jersey.
“United still plans to resume service between Newark and Tel Aviv on Sept. 8 with two daily flights,” the US airline says in an e-mailed statement.
United previously put the route on hold through September 7 after repeatedly suspending Israel operations following the closure of the country’s airspace to most commercial traffic on February 28 at the onset of the US-Israel war with Iran. Ben Gurion Airport has since been fully reopened with foreign airlines slowly resuming their flight services to Israel.
Last week, US rival American Airlines announced that it will not resume flights to and from Israel before March 27, 2027, while Delta’s New York and Atlanta routes to Tel Aviv are suspended through September 5.
The hiatus of US airlines amid the war with Iran has left travelers entirely dependent on Israeli airlines El Al and Arkia for nonstop flights between Tel Aviv and US destinations.
The resumption of routes in early September means that US travelers will have more ways to get to Tel Aviv ahead of the Jewish holiday season, which begins with Rosh Hashana on the evening of September 11 and typically sees a large number of tourists in Israel.
Addressing reports of injured US-Palestinian man, IDF says troops in area used crowd-control measures
The IDF responds to reports that an 81-year-old Palestinian-American man was injured yesterday by a stun grenade thrown by soldiers, saying troops deployed crowd-control measures after a gathering formed near the force.
“During a patrol in Turmusayya, a gathering was identified near the force that interfered with the troops’ mission. The forces used crowd-control measures to disperse the gathering and restore order in the area. A Palestinian who was nearby fell to the ground and was later evacuated for medical treatment,” the IDF says.
The injured man, Khamis Rabee, is a US citizen.
Rabee told Al Jazeera that he suffered a head injury last night after leaving his home when soldiers allegedly threw a stun grenade toward him. He said the blast caused him to fall and hit his head. He was evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment.
Netanyahu’s ex-chief of staff says apparent call from relative led PM to abruptly nix refugee deal
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Prime Minister's Office Director-General Yoav Horowitz, right, arrive for a weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, December 16, 2018. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former chief of staff says that in 2018, a brief phone call the premier received from someone in his home led him to abruptly cancel a landmark refugee deal with the UN, moments after announcing the agreement in a televised statement.
Yoav Horowitz, also a former director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, makes the comments in an interview with Channel 13 news, from which a snippet was aired last night and which is set to air in full tonight.
Last month, Horowitz left Netanyahu’s Likud Party and joined Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition Yashar party.
The deal in question was intended as a compromise to address the population of African migrants and asylum seekers in Israel. Under the deal, 16,250 migrants would be resettled in Western countries while an equal number would remain in Israel. The presence of the migrants in Israel, and especially in south Tel Aviv, where many were based, was a festering political issue in Israel.
But hours after announcing the agreement, Netanyahu reversed course and announced that it would be frozen, in the face of blowback from right-wing voices that objected to the migrants’ presence in the country.
In the interview with Channel 13, Horowitz says that Netanyahu’s about-face occurred following a call “from home” — apparently a reference to one of Netanyahu’s relatives — and just moments after he announced the deal.
“We’re returning [from the announcement],” Horowitz says. “And he gets a call from home, and as he’s walking, we get to the office, he turns and tells me, ‘Yoav, tell them it’s canceled, I changed my mind.'”
In a statement responding to Horowitz’s remarks, Likud does not address his account and says, “Everyone already knows the strategy: Whoever is looking for an embrace from the media knows well what they need to do — to smear the Netanyahu family.”
The statement goes on to accuse Horowitz of joining the political left, noting his presence at anti-government protests in Tel Aviv.
‘The revolution is still the goal’: Hundreds gather to mark 2 years since Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s murder
A memorial ceremony for Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was killed two years ago in Hamas captivity in Gaza, August 7, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)
Hundreds gather this afternoon in Jerusalem to honor the memory of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and killed in captivity along with five other hostages in August 2024.
The ceremony, organized by family and friends, marks his second yahrzeit, the date of his death on the Hebrew calendar.
In late August 2024, Goldberg-Polin was shot by his Hamas captors at close range in an underground tunnel in Gaza, along with fellow captives Almog Sarusi, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alex Lubanov and Ori Danino. They were killed shortly before being located by IDF troops.
Goldberg-Polin, an American Israeli, was the most well-known globally of the 251 people taken hostage in the October 7 attack. That was largely due to the relentless efforts of his parents, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, who traveled the world advocating for their son’s release and spoke in a variety of high-profile forums.
At the memorial ceremony, Rachel Goldberg-Polin speaks last, following her husband, daughters Leebie and Orlee, and friends of Hersh.
Goldberg-Polin speaks poetically about being stuck in time, with Hersh frozen at the age at which he was taken from them, 23.
She speaks to the crowd of friends and neighbors who joined the family in their struggle to get Hersh released:
“All of us here, we ran, and begged and prayed and screamed and drowned and rose and boiled and baked and tore and kneeled and keeled and stood and pled and bat and cracked and kicked and crashed and thrashed and tried and cried and lied and grabbed and fell and waited and shrieked and died and lived and live and loved and loved and loved and love and love and failed,” says Goldberg-Polin.
Jon Polin speaks in Hebrew about the need for unity, emphasizing the importance of first listening to one another.
“Say I will try to hear what you’re saying and listen even if I don’t agree,” says Polin. “Understanding comes before peace.”
His final message is to his son.
“Hersh, the revolution is still the goal,” says Polin, referring to the refrain repeated after Hersh’s death, “May his memory be a revolution.”
Colombia’s senior cabinet members join its vice president in meeting with Sa’ar
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar meets with Colombia's vice president and members of its cabinet, August 7, 2026. (Office of Gideon Sa’ar)
Senior members of the new Colombian cabinet unexpectedly join the meeting between Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and freshly inaugurated Colombian Vice President Jose Manuel Restrepo in Cali.
The new foreign, defense, finance, justice, environment and trade ministers show up at the meeting, Sa’ar’s office tells The Times of Israel.
Sa’ar is attending the inauguration of Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella. The new president has pledged to have much friendlier relations with Israel than his left-wing predecessor, Gustavo Petro, who severed diplomatic ties with Jerusalem.
“You designated 2026 as a year for expanding its ties with Latin America,” says Restrepo. “For Colombia, 2026 will be marked by the deepening and strengthening of its relationship with the State of Israel.”
Foreign Ministry, Huckabee fire back at WSJ article on harassment of Israeli Christians
Christian pilgrims visit the Cenacle, traditionally believed to be the site of the Last Supper, in Jerusalem, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A Wall Street Journal article about the mistreatment of Christians in Israel draws a furious response from Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which calls it “disingenuous, misleading and shameful.”
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who is a Christian pastor, also criticizes the article.
The WSJ piece, published earlier this week, focused on the rise in harassment of Christian clerics.
Christians in Israel say they are increasingly coming under assault, including a series of incidents in recent years in which mostly young Orthodox Jews made a habit of spitting on the ground in front of clergy and other Christians, mainly in Jerusalem’s Old City, an act that may be prosecuted in Israel as a hate crime.
There have also been acts of vandalism against churches and cemeteries, and physical assaults, including actions that bear the hallmark of extremist Jewish settler violence familiar to the West Bank.
The Foreign Ministry is leading a push to change the conversation around Israel’s Christians, in a bid to get ahead of potential tensions. The ministry’s social media has been highlighting Christian sites and citizens in recent weeks, none of whom, it says, were included in the piece.
“The WSJ took radical voices and extreme cases and turned them into the face of an entire country, while ignoring nearly 200,000 Christians whose lives tell the opposite story,” says the Foreign Ministry.
The ministry says the WSJ “has now repeated the same formula: find those most willing to condemn Israel, present them as so-called ‘authentic’ Christian voice[s], and reduce the Christian experience here to the disgraceful actions of a tiny extremist fringe.”
“Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the Christian population is consistently growing,” says the Foreign Ministry, noting Christian representation on the Supreme Court and across the country’s professional industries.
“Churches operate freely. Christians participate at the highest levels of Israeli society,” it says.
Huckabee, an outspoken Christian Zionist, also pushes back on X.
Huckabee acknowledges there are “occasional but rare” attacks that he adds are condemned by Israel’s leadership.
“Occasional challenges? Sure,” writes Huckabee. “I’ve been throughout the Middle East & know of no place where there is much religious diversity as there is in Israel.”
He adds, “Israel protects Christian Holy sites & Muslim Holy sites just as they do Jewish Holy sites.”
Abu Dhabi Oil Co. says attacks on vessels, staff significantly impacting operations
Illustrative - In this Sept. 21, 2016, file photo, an oil tanker approaches the new Jetty during the launch of a $650 million oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company says it is being significantly impacted by what it describes as unprovoked attacks on its people and assets, as it seeks to continue meeting customer requirements in an “exceptionally challenging environment.”
ADNOC says in a statement that 15 of its vessels have been attacked by missiles and drones while transiting the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the conflict, including three this week, leaving one crew member dead and 20 injured.
The Strait of Hormuz, between Iran and Oman, is the world’s most important oil shipping chokepoint, carrying roughly a fifth of global oil consumption before the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran in late February. Shipping through the waterway has been repeatedly disrupted since the war began, as Iran has obstructed the strait and attacked vessels.
ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi state oil company, is one of the world’s largest energy producers and exports crude oil, natural gas and refined products to customers worldwide.
ADNOC says it is working closely with relevant authorities and taking all necessary measures to protect its people, assets and operations, while meeting customer requirements as much as possible.
“Freedom of navigation and the safe, uninterrupted passage of commercial shipping through international waterways must be respected and protected without threat, harassment or attack,” ADNOC says.
Report: Gantz, Shaked in talks to run for Knesset with their own center-right party
Left, Defense Minister Benny Gantz leads a faction meeting in the Israeli parliament on June 21, 2021. Right, Interior Minister, Ayelet Shaked at a ceremony in Jerusalem on June 14, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Yonatan Sindel/Flash90; collage by Times of Israel)
Benny Gantz and Ayelet Shaked are in talks to form their own center-right party ahead of the October 27 election, Channel 12 reports.
If the two do form a party, it will be at least the third new faction seeking to appeal to right-wing voters disaffected from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud. Former Likud ministers Yuli Edelstein and Gilad Erdan formed their own party last night, and a new party led by Yoaz Hendel and Chili Tropper is in the same political lane.
The B’Yachad party, Hebrew for “together,” led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, is also making a play for Likud voters.
The Gantz-Shaked party would be a political comeback bid for Shaked, a longtime former ally of Bennett in the right-wing Jewish Home party and other factions. She has served as justice and interior minister.
And it would be an attempt by Gantz, a former defense minister, to remain in office following months of polls showing the once-popular politician falling short of entering the Knesset.
According to the Channel 12 report, Gantz would lead the party in name, but Shaked would have first choice of ministries if the party joined a governing coalition.
Far-right provocateur confronts Eisenkot, who tells him to serve in IDF, ‘then get back to me’
Far-right provocateur Mordechai David (left) confronts politician Gadi Eisenkot on August 7, 2026. (Screenshot/Social media, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Far-right provocateur Mordechai David confronts opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot on a beach, accusing him of advocating surrender following the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught, prompting the former IDF chief to rebuff him over his lack of military service.
“A few weeks after the massacre that Hamas committed, you wanted to surrender. You said a deal at any price. And now you’re coming at Bibi,” a shirtless David says, using Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nickname.
Eisenkot, who served as an observer in the war cabinet following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, advocated for a ceasefire deal to secure the return of the hostages held in Gaza. He criticized the government while still a member and quit in June 2024, slamming Netanyahu’s handling of the war and accusing him of failing to make the necessary strategic decisions to achieve its goals.
Eisenkot also lost a son and two nephews in the war that began with the October 7 attack.
“I only engage with those who served in the army,” Eisenkot responds to David. “You didn’t serve in the army. Go serve, then get back to me.”
איזנקוט למרדכי דוד הדביל: ״לך תשרת בצבא ותחזור אליי״ pic.twitter.com/i1qq06Px6A
— Yosef Yisrael (@yosefyisrael25) August 7, 2026
David, a convicted felon who did not serve in the IDF, has claimed that he sought to enlist but that the military would not accept him, apparently due to his criminal record.
David then asks Eisenkot, “So that’s why you’re going with the Zionists Mansour Abbas and Sami Abu Shehadeh?” referring to the leaders of the Arab parties Ra’am and Balad, who likewise did not serve in the military.
Eisenkot, who did not respond to that remark, leads the centrist Yashar party and has emerged as Netanyahu’s main rival ahead of the October 27 election.
Balad is currently not represented in the Knesset and is expected to run on a joint list with the Arab-majority Hadash and Ta’al parties in the upcoming October 27 election. It is not expected to join a governing coalition with Eisenkot. There is ongoing discussion over whether Ra’am, which joined an anti-Netanyahu coalition in 2021, could do so again this year.
David, an activist and convicted felon with ties to Likud, is known for serially harassing left-wing and liberal journalists and public figures.
In June, he was detained after harassing Arab Israeli journalist Lucy Aharish and her husband, actor Tsahi Halevi, and he has previously been questioned by police over incidents in which he blocked the vehicles of former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak and former soccer star and news presenter Eyal Berkovic.
Lebanon, Israel said to agree on list of countries that could verify Hezbollah disarmament
Weapons and a Hezbollah flag uncovered by Israeli troops in a civilian home in the southern Lebanese village of Tallousa, July 7, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)
Lebanon and Israel have agreed on a shortlist of countries that could send troops to verify the disarmament of Hezbollah under a US-brokered agreement, a Lebanese official says, with the United States due to pick countries from the list.
The official declined to identify any of the countries on the shortlist or say how many there were. Another Lebanese official and two foreign diplomats have previously told Reuters that Israel and the United States had vetoed France, a former colonial power in Lebanon.
The list was produced during meetings between Lebanon and Israel at the US embassy in Rome this week, the latest round of talks on how to implement a June 26 deal that links Israel’s gradual withdrawal of troops from Lebanon to the disarmament of Hezbollah, which would be “verified” by a third party.
“We have reached a short list of countries. We decided which parties were impossible for each and set the potential actors,” the Lebanese official says. “The Americans will now decide, and could pick more than one country.”
Haaretz reported earlier that a shortlist had been drawn up but that the parties had yet to agree on it.
Hezbollah is not a party to the agreement and has refused to give up its arsenal.
There is no immediate response from Israel’s Foreign Ministry to Reuters questions regarding the shortlist. When asked about the shortlist, a State Department spokesperson says the talks were “productive on the technical and expert levels” but does not provide further details.
The Lebanese official says Beirut had rejected an earlier proposal for private security companies to play the role of third-party verifier of Hezbollah’s disarmament.
“All of the actors proposed are countries. We still need to discuss exactly how this would work, how many forces would be deployed and how they would work with the Lebanese army,” the official says.
The next round of talks is set for early September, the official says.
Footage shows settler infiltration of West Bank Bedouin village
Young settlers are filmed infiltrating a Bedouin hamlet on the outskirts of the central West Bank village of Taybeh.
In one clip taken by prominent Israeli civil rights activist Rabbi Arik Ascherman, a settler is seen grazing his livestock through the yard of a Palestinian family’s home.
4 th time in two days breaking down fences and invading brave family's home pic.twitter.com/AsRh3DrrfE
— Rabbi Arik Ascherman (@RavArik) August 7, 2026
In another clip, a settler is seen roaming through the hamlet. Ascherman says the settlers tore down the fence that Palestinians put up to try to prevent such infiltrations.
פעם רביעית ביומיים אצל משפחה אמיצה בטייבה pic.twitter.com/yEVkcJi1iv
— Rabbi Arik Ascherman (@RavArik) August 7, 2026
Ascherman says the settlers have infiltrated the hamlet four times in the last two days alone.
Yesterday, a settler child was filmed repeatedly punching an Israeli rights activist in the head after tearing down the village’s fence.
מתנחל מרביץ למדינה זכויות אדם ובסוף הצליחו להוריד גדרות ולפרוץ למתחם של משפחה פלסטינית. מגיעים פעמיים ביום צ. הערב שעות כוחות לא הגיעו וזה לא חריג pic.twitter.com/l2QhmKVM9E
— Rabbi Arik Ascherman (@RavArik) August 6, 2026
Such harassment takes place on a near-daily basis, with the goal of making the lives of the Bedouin intolerable. The strategy has led to the displacement of several thousand West Bank Palestinians from areas under full Israeli control since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught. It is part of a string of near-daily settler violence that frequently goes unprosecuted.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis say they struck Saudi-backed forces in Marib
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels say they struck Saudi-backed forces, depots, vehicles and military equipment at the country’s Sahn al-Jinn camp with a number of missiles and drones.
Yemen’s state television said earlier today that air defenses shot down several drones launched by the Houthis over Marib, east of Sanaa.
Yemen’s state news agency SABA, citing local authorities in Marib, says the Houthis had launched ballistic missiles and drones at displacement camps and residential neighborhoods in the city this morning, killing two people and wounding 14 others.
Iran awaiting security council approval for Hormuz deal with US and Oman — Axios
Iran is waiting for its Supreme National Security Council to approve an agreement with the US and Oman on opening the Strait of Hormuz, and expects that okay to come shortly, Axios reports, citing a diplomat from one of the mediating countries.
Earlier, MS Now (formerly MSNBC) had reported that a framework deal had been reached for Iran and Oman to jointly control the key waterway that Iran has obstructed since the beginning of its war with the US and Israel in late February.
Under the deal, ships would not be charged tolls. US support for the deal was said not to be guaranteed.
Gaza technocratic committee holds workshop on temporary housing for displaced families
Palestinians inspect destroyed buildings at the scene of an Israeli airstrike, at al-Maghazi refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, August 1, 2026. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with replacing Hamas in governing Gaza says it has just wrapped up a two-day urban development workshop aimed at “translating broad commitments on temporary housing into a practical delivery plan for displaced families in the Gaza Strip.”
The workshop of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) was held in partnership with the Board of Peace’s Gaza envoy Nickolay Mladenov and Board of Peace Executive Board member Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change.
“Discussions covered planning standards, site conditions, rubble clearance, post-construction site management and governance, culminating in an agreed action plan with defined outputs — a concrete step within the wider Gaza Recovery Program toward a safe, dignified future for all,” the NCAG says in a statement.
The NCAG moved a major step closer to finally entering Gaza following a month-long delay after Hamas accepted the Board of Peace’s disarmament proposal last week. But progress on the plan has stalled amid Israeli opposition to it.
Israel has revoked entry permits of US Jews who volunteered with Palestinians — report
Protective presence activists (R) face off as they film using their mobile phones an Israel settler also filming them with his mobile phone, as he tries to enter the home of a Bedouin family in the West Bank, east of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, just outside the village of Taybeh on June 22, 2026. (ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP)
Israel is revoking entry permits of Jewish Americans who volunteered in the West Bank to protect Palestinians from settler violence, The Forward reports.
The publication interviews seven American Jews who have had their electronic travel authorizations (ETAs) revoked over activity known as “protective presence” over the past two years.
One of them says no reason was given by Israeli authorities for the decision, but she recalls being stopped by IDF soldiers while accompanying a Palestinian farmer during a grape harvest. Her group was held for several hours and she said her passport was confiscated by a soldier who agreed to let her go after finding no reason she should be deported.
Another Jewish American activist, Sam Sherman, tells The Forward that he was informed of his revoked visa while in the midst of a seven-week protective presence stint in the Masafer Yatta region of the West Bank, which has long been subject to Israeli demolitions.
Sherman, too, says he was never arrested for his work, rather stopped several times by soldiers who photographed his ID before letting him go.
“It happened to me and a few others in my cohort … within the same hour,” Sherman says. “A few of us got the same email within minutes of each other.”
More experienced activists told him he wouldn’t be able to return to Israel unless he made aliyah.
“If I’m the wrong kind of Jew for Israel… Sure. Great,” he says sarcastically.
Israeli authorities do not respond to The Forward’s requests for comment.
US Senate passes sweeping Russia sanctions bill negotiated by Lindsey Graham
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on July 10, 2026, shows Ukrainian's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and US Senator Lindsey Graham (R) meeting in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine (Handout / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP) MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS
The US Senate overwhelmingly approves a punishing Russian sanctions package, the result of a year-long campaign by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham to reinforce US support for Ukraine and try to force Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hand as the grinding war drags on.
The bipartisan legislation, which passes the Senate 86-11, would penalize countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas and other exports, seeking to deprive Putin of revenues fueling the war. It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the Capitol hours after Graham’s funeral last month.
The sweeping show of force from the Senate is the most substantial move yet during US President Donald Trump’s second term to shift the dynamic of the more than four-year war. Congress has struggled to ensure US funding and munitions flows to Ukraine, but Trump has given a nod to the sanctions package, putting pressure on the House to take it up for a vote and send it to the White House for his signature.
The bipartisan package that carries Graham’s name allows the president to impose tariffs on the world’s top five purchasers of Russian oil or natural gas, including China and India. It provides exceptions for countries that import less than 15 percent of their natural gas from Russia and are taking steps to reduce those imports.
The legislation also includes sanctions on Putin, senior Russian political and military leaders, Russian financial institutions and Russian energy projects. It would expand US sanctions to target older, reflagged oil tankers that Russia uses to circumvent existing US sanctions on Russian oil and energy revenues.
The negotiated bill also includes waiver authority for the president, allowing the White House to waive sanctions or restrictions if the president certifies to Congress that the waiver is in the national interest.
US sanctions Dubai crypto exchange for aiding Iran’s IRGC, following Reuters report
The United States sanctions an unlicensed multi-state cryptocurrency exchange, alleging it processed millions of dollars of crypto for Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other groups linked to the Iranian regime.
The designation follows a Reuters investigation published on July 31 that identified the Dubai-based exchange, Shelbit, as the hub of a $4 billion Iranian sanctions evasion scheme. The investigation found that Shelbit moved crypto on behalf of Iran’s central bank, one of the world’s largest illegal online gambling networks, and to addresses linked by the Israeli government to the IRGC.
The US Treasury also sanctions the expatriate Iranian who founded Shelbit and a network of other companies, Siavash Kayvanpour, for providing material support to the IRGC and Nobitex, Iran’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange. The US sanctioned Nobitex on June 2 for enabling the Iranian government to circumvent Western sanctions, also after a Reuters investigation.
“Treasury will hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the regime afloat,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent says in a statement.
Shelbit’s website had been down for months, with no way for customers to carry out transactions, but the exchange continued to process money, even during the US-Israeli war against Iran. The site reactivated the day after the Reuters investigation was published.
“Shelbit LLC categorically rejects any suggestion that the company knowingly participated in money laundering, terrorist financing, illegal gambling activity, sanctions evasion, or activity on behalf of any sanctioned, military, or governmental organization,” Shelbit said in a statement on its reactivated website on August 1. Shelbit also said it had ceased operations in January 2026.
Shelbit and Kayvanpour do not immediately respond to a request for comment.
PM’s ex-chief of staff: He has ‘one-man-rule,’ demanded personal loyalty, family involved in security decisions
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) listens to his chief of staff Yoav Horowitz (R) as he attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on September 3, 2017. (AFP Photo/Pool/Abir Sultan)
Yoav Horowitz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, castigates the premier, saying he considers himself “between a king and an emperor,” and that the Netanyahu family demanded personal loyalty from the prime minister’s staff.
Horowitz led Netanyahu’s office from 2016 to 2019 and is now a candidate with the opposition Yashar party, led by Gadi Eisenkot, seen as Netanyahu’s top rival.
Horowitz tells Channel 12 in an interview that the family inserts itself in the country’s security decisions, and that there is functionally no separation between Netanyahu and his wife, Sara.
“Sara Netanyahu and Bibi Netanyahu are one; it’s impossible to separate between them,” he tells the network. He calls Netanyahu’s son Yair, who is known for making inflammatory statements, “another factor” in the prime minister’s circle.
He says the family members are in contact with the country’s professional security leadership and have influenced decisions. He tells Channel 12, as well as Channel 13 in a separate interview, that a call from one of Netanyahu’s family members led him to abruptly reverse course on an agreement with the United Nations to address the population of African migrants and asylum seekers in Israel.
“The family’s influence is significant,” Horowitz says. “There’s no separation. Everything is connected to everything: personal issues and economic issues and political issues and security issues. Everything is in the same box, and the family has influence.”
At one point, he recounts, a staff member from the Prime Minister’s Office relayed a demand that all employees sign a pledge of loyalty to the Netanyahu family.
“The demand for personal loyalty hovered there the whole time,” he says. “It was a kind of obsession.”
He adds, “One of the office staff came to me and said there was a demand from the house [i.e. the family] to make all of the office staff sign a pledge of loyalty to the Netanyahu family.”
Horowitz claims Netanyahu endorsed the demand, but that he refused to carry it out.
Horowitz says — repeating a claim he has made previously — that Netanyahu is antidemocratic and exercises authoritarian rule.
“When there’s one-man rule, and people are scared and deterred, the idea of the rules, the country’s laws, doesn’t exist,” he says.
“Since 2019, there isn’t really democracy in Israel,” he adds. “There’s a Prime Minister’s Office that rules totally over the Knesset, that degraded the judicial system, took over the police, and there aren’t any checks and balances.”
In a statement responding to Horowitz’s remarks, Likud says Horowitz has “found his new political home on the left.” It does not address his claims.
IDF stays mum as Hezbollah drone strikes near troops in south Lebanon; no injuries
A Hezbollah explosive-laden drone struck near Israeli forces in southern Lebanon earlier today, an incident which the IDF chose not to publicize.
The attack in the Ali Taher Ridge area caused no injuries or damage.
The incident was first reported this evening by Ynet news.
In response, the IDF publishes an unusual statement saying that it “releases information to the public based on professional considerations and situational assessments.”
“The IDF spokesperson will not publish information that, according to the situational assessment, could endanger our forces operating in the combat zones,” the military adds.
Report: Rome airport cancels Israeli defense firm’s contract to operate anti-drone shield
Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci International Airport has canceled a contract with Israel’s defense contractor Rafael to run its anti-drone shield following a court ruling, the Italian outlet Il Messaggero reports.
The contract, inked in 2022, will be handed over to an Italian contractor, the report says.
The contract was invalidated because government technicians determined that the system in place was a military as opposed to a civilian system, and that it therefore was missing permits. Rome’s airport authority defended the system’s use, according to the report, saying it is in place in other locations in Europe.
The cancellation is the latest setback for Italian-Israeli ties. In April, Italy ended its defense agreement with Israel. In May, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed outrage at a video posted by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir showing him taunting pro-Palestinian flotilla activists, including Italians.
Mauthausen staff call police after dispute erupts over teen wearing ‘Free Palestine’ shirt
Police were called to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp Memorial in Austria due to a dispute over a teen who wore a shirt reading “Free Palestine” that also featured the Palestinian flag and an apparent picture of a terrorist.
A video circulating on social media shows the teen touring the site of the Nazi concentration camp in Austria. The picture on his shirt is apparently of Dalal Mughrabi, who took part in a brutal 1978 terror attack that killed dozens of civilians.
The person filming, who is not identified, berates him over the shirt and confronts staff about whether the shirt or other political messaging is allowed in the camp. The teen does not respond to the criticism. The tour guide also does not respond to the questions about the shirt and attempts to continue her tour.
When the person filming says the shirt sends the message that “It’s OK to murder Jews,” a person on the tour responds, “No he is not. He is saying it’s not OK to murder Palestine people [sic].”
Another participant in the tour says the shirt opposes Israel committing genocide in Gaza.
The person filming vehemently objects to that characterization and tells the group, “Do better, your teachers have to do better. This is a fucking genocide here, what you’re learning about. Don’t fucking call other things a genocide. This is a genocide. Shame on you.”
Visitor to concentration camp wears Palestine t-shirt featuring terrorist who murdered Jews.
A video circulating online appears to show a visitor at the Mauthausen concentration camp wearing a shirt featuring a Palestine flag and an arch-terrorist responsible for the deaths of…
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) August 7, 2026
The memorial site says in a statement that the teen in question was on a large tour from an anti-fascist camp, and that staff had not noticed his shirt.
“An incident occurred during a visit by around 600 participants from an international anti-fascist youth camp,” the statement says. “One participant was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan ‘Free Palestine.’ Our staff had not noticed this whilst supervising the large group. Nor was it initially possible to make sense of the vociferous reaction from one female visitor.”
The statement adds, “Once it became clear what the issue was, our staff reacted immediately. They tried to de-escalate the situation and, at the same time, called the police for assistance. However, the situation had already been brought under control by the time the police arrived.”
The statement adds that the site does not allow materials that “promote anti-Semitic, racist or generally discriminatory views, and do not undermine the dignity of the victims.” It does not say whether the shirt falls into that category.
The statement adds, “Currently, there is an increasing number of situations where political matters are associated with these sites, matters which are diametrically opposed to one another. The history and dignity of this place demand that such conflicts be resolved objectively and with mutual empathy. Provocative behaviour by other visitors is not welcome, and the memorial reserves the right to issue warnings in such cases.”
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