Feb. 26: US proposes severing Swiss bank from financial system over alleged Iran links

Family of UN rapporteur Albanese sues Trump over sanctions

The family of the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinians, Francesca Albanese, sues US President Donald Trump and members of his administration over their sanctions against Albanese.

The plaintiffs in the case are Albanese’s husband, Massimiliano Cali, and her daughter, a minor who is identified by her initials, L.C. The other defendants are US Attorney General Pamela Bondi, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Albanese, who has long been accused of antisemitism and extremist rhetoric against Israel, was sanctioned by the Trump administration last year for alleged “political and economic warfare” against the US and Israel.

Albanese has said the sanctions have been devastating, barring her from work opportunities and everyday financial transactions.

Cali and Albanese own a home in Washington, DC. Their daughter was born in the US, and the family is “part of the national community,” says the lawsuit, which was filed in a federal court in Washington, DC.

The lawsuit claims the sanctions are a violation of First Amendment free speech protections; bar the family from accessing its home in an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment; and violate Fifth Amendment due process rights.

Albanese and Cali are not US citizens, but the lawsuit argues that their daughter, who is a citizen, can file the claims.

Albanese is barred from bringing the claims in her own name by UN policy.

The family lived in the US from 2012 until 2015.

The lawsuit asks the court to rule that the sanctions are unconstitutional.

Albanese, in her role as an independent investigator for the UN, is supposed to act as an objective observer, but is accused of functioning more as an anti-Israel activist. She has parlayed her position into celebrity status, speaking at conferences and in the media, featuring in a documentary film, publishing popular books and garnering more than 1 million followers on social media.

Jewish groups sue California for alleged antisemitism in schools

Two Jewish advocacy groups sue California for alleged antisemitism in the state’s school system.

The suit, filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and StandWithUs, also names the California State Board of Education, the State Department of Education, and the state superintendent, Tony Thurmond.

The case, filed on behalf of Jewish parents, alleges antisemitism in school districts including Los Angeles, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland.

Some of the incidents targeting Jewish students described in the lawsuit include a third-grade student called a “racist” by her teacher; a student forced to attend a teacher’s celebration of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of Israelis; a ninth grader whose art teacher displayed a Star of David being punctured by a fist; a walkout that included chants of “Fuck the Jews”; a middle schooler who was choked by a classmate and told, “Shut your stupid Jew ass up;” a student’s mother mocked as a “Zionist Nazi bitch” after reporting antisemitic slurs at a school board meeting; and a middle schooler who was chased by classmates and told, “We want you to die,” after he was heard speaking Hebrew.

The lawsuit says teachers and teacher unions contributed to anti-Jewish discrimination, including by adding a book to the curriculum for kindergarteners and elementary school students that said, “I is for Intifada.”

The suit claims California administrators did not adequately address the incidents in violation of civil rights protections.

The case, filed in the Los Angeles state superior court, has the backing of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the Anti-Defamation League.

Mamdani says he had ‘productive’ meeting with Trump at White House

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani tweets that he had a “productive” meeting with US President Donald Trump earlier this afternoon at the White House.

“I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City,” he writes.

He later tweets that he held a subsequent phone call with Trump, who informed him that a Columbia University student arrested this morning by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers has been released.

Mamdani says he raised the young woman’s case during his meeting with Trump.

I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon.

I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City. pic.twitter.com/XnPbt0KXYU

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) February 26, 2026

‘May your village burn’: Jewish extremists protest outside Arab journalist’s home for 5th time this week

For the fifth time within a week, Jewish extremists are protesting outside the Tel Aviv apartment building of Arab Israeli journalist Lucy Aharish.

Participants are heard chanting, “May your village burn,” “Lucy you’re a w**re” and “Leftists are traitors.”

Many of the protest organizers have been associated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, but the premier has yet to condemn the phenomenon.

The anger at Aharish was sparked by a statement she made on Channel 13 earlier this month, where she pointed to the “righteous anger” of Arab Israelis due to perceived government inaction over the crime wave that has claimed the lives of hundreds in the community in recent years.

Arab citizens, she said, in the next elections will “flock to the voting booths” to bring a change in government, and added the Arabic word “Inshallah,” meaning “God willing.”

Against the backdrop of the harrassment of Aharish,  dozens of Israelis stage a parallel protest outside Channel 13’s studio in support of her.

Participants included Einav Zangauker, the mother of former hostage Matan, who is wearing a shirt with the Hebrew word “Inshallah.”

Aharish was vocal in her support of the hostages and other victims of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught over the past two-plus years.

גם הערב הגיעו תומכי הממשל להטריד את לוסי אהריש מתחת לביתה. המשטרה איפשרה להם להיות מתחת לבניין זמן רב. למעשה חלק מהזמן ועד להגעת קצין שוטרי מג״ב ישבו ברכב. בין הקריאות: ״שמאלנים בוגדים״ ״שישרף לכם הכפר״ ו״מוות לשמאלנים״.

אדם ששמע את קריאות שמאלנים בוגדים הגיע לרועי סטאר התווכח… pic.twitter.com/aKUPp975Ej

— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) February 26, 2026

Iranian foreign minister: Third round of nuclear talks was most serious yet

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi tells Iranian state television that the third round of nuclear talks that took place today in Geneva “was one of the most serious” yet.

Araghchi says the sides discussed Iran’s nuclear program as well as US sanctions on Iran.

He says understandings have been reached on some issues, while gaps remain on others but that both sides have shown “clear seriousness” to reach a solution.

Araghchi says talks will be held in Vienna on Monday at the headquarters of the UN’s nuclear agency “in order to reach a framework and structure on some of the technical issues.”

Masked settlers filmed beating Palestinian in southern West Bank; no arrests made

Masked settlers are filmed assaulting a Palestinian man outside his property in the southern West Bank city of Halhul.

The settlers can be seen arriving at the scene on an ATV, similar to the ones that the government has gifted to residents of illegal outposts in the West Bank.

The suspects are seen striking the Palestinian with clubs and stones.

There are no reports of any arrests, which are highly rare in incidents of settler violence.

רעולי פנים תקפו היום פלסטיני באלות ואבנים מחוץ לשטח הפרטי שלו בסמוך לעיר חלחול@HGoldich pic.twitter.com/JVsvdtxLZH

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 26, 2026

In a separate incident earlier today near the village of Duma, a settler can be seen hitting a Palestinian toddler with a stick.

#شاهد | لحظة اعتداء مستوطن على طفل خلال اقتحام تجمع "الشجرة" البدوي شرقي بلدة دوما، جنوب نابلس. pic.twitter.com/JbdbcK6W9c

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) February 26, 2026

IDF says it killed several ‘terrorists’ who crossed Gaza ceasefire line

The Israeli Air Force struck and killed several Palestinians, who the IDF identifies as terror operatives, after they crossed the Gaza ceasefire line in the Strip’s north earlier today.

According to the IDF, the operatives crossed the Yellow Line and approached reservists of the 205th “Iron Fist” Reserve Armored Brigade, “in a manner that posed an immediate threat.”

Following their identification, the military says the ground troops directed an airstrike, which “eliminated some of the terrorists in order to remove the threat.”

Palestinian media reported earlier that two people were killed east of Gaza City, and their bodies were taken to Al-Shifa Hospital.

Since the start of the ceasefire in October, the IDF has said it has killed dozens of terror operatives and other “suspects” who have crossed the Yellow Line — demarcating the military’s withdrawal in the Strip — and approached troops. Such incidents have taken place on a near-daily basis.

Earlier, the IDF said troops killed a Palestinian they identified as a terrorist who crossed the ceasefire line in the Strip’s south.

Report: Trump aides leave Iran talks disappointed as gaps persist

US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met twice today with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva, as gaps between the sides remain significant and more issues are still under discussion, Channel 12 reports.

According to the network, the talks – which were mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi and included UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi – lasted several hours and included both direct and indirect exchanges.

Tehran reportedly offered to limit uranium enrichment to medical needs, while nuclear activity would cease for an unspecified, limited number of years. Enrichment would later resume under a regulated regional framework.

The US, for its part, is demanding an agreement without a time limit. Washington is said to be willing to allow low-level enrichment at the Tehran research reactor, but is insisting on the full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear facilities and the transfer of all enriched uranium out of the country.

A source cited by Channel 12 says that Witkoff and Kushner left the day’s first round of talks disappointed by what the Iranians had presented, underscoring the depth of the remaining disagreements.

Smotrich: From the river to the sea, there will only be a Jewish state

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (right) and Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz admire plans for a new highway connecting the West Bank settlements with central Israel, February 24, 2026. (Courtesy Binyamin Regional Council)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich posts a video on Facebook responding to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, who warned that the far-right Israeli cabinet member is trying to expand Israel’s borders from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Smotrich is filmed getting onto a bulldozer that is being used to build a new road to benefit settlers in the West Bank.

“We’re setting out to destroy the dreams of Mohammed Shtayyeh, who thinks that one day an Arab state will be established in the land of Israel,” Smotrich says, misnaming the PA prime minister. Shtayyeh hasn’t been in the position since March 2024.

“Forget about it. From the river to the sea, only a Jewish state,” Smotrich says.

Many Israeli officials and American Jewish organizations have characterized the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as antisemitic.

Oman FM: Nuclear talks wrap after ‘significant progress,’ technical talks set for next week

Oman’s foreign minister says that “significant progress” was made during today’s nuclear talks between the US and Iran in Geneva and that a round of technical talks will take place next week in Vienna.

“We have finished the day after significant progress in the negotiation between the United States and Iran,” Badr Albusaidi, who is mediating the talks, tweets.

“We will resume soon after consultation in the respective capitals,” he continues. “Discussions on a technical level will take place next week in Vienna.”

The apparent decision to schedule a subsequent round of negotiations would suggest that enough progress was made for the US to hold off on long-threatened military strikes against Iran.

However, in June 2025, Omani mediators had scheduled a round of nuclear talks that never ended up taking place because the US struck Iran’s nuclear facilities.

We have finished the day after significant progress in the negotiation between the United States and Iran. We will resume soon after consultation in the respective capitals. Discussions on a technical level will take place next week in Vienna. I am grateful to all concerned for…

— Badr Albusaidi – بدر البوسعيدي (@badralbusaidi) February 26, 2026

Journalist arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting teen boy

A journalist has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a minor, Hebrew outlets report.

Police took testimony from the alleged victim, a teenage boy, after receiving a report of the incident two days ago.

Officers from the Rishon Lezion police station raided the man’s home this evening and detained him for questioning.

Mamdani flies to DC to hold second meeting with Trump — report

President Donald Trump hosts New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has flown to DC to meet this afternoon with US President Donald Trump at the White House, The New York Times reports.

This will be their second sit-down after the pair had a surprisingly chummy meeting in November.

The NYT says the two are expected to discuss issues pertaining to public housing in New York City.

US, Iranian delegations back for resumed nuclear talks in Geneva after pause

US and Iranian officials have returned to the Geneva location where their high-stakes indirect nuclear talks were due to resume, a diplomatic source tells AFP.

AFP journalists see convoys of cars belonging to US and Iranian diplomatic missions arriving back at the residence of Oman’s ambassador before 1700 GMT following a break of several hours after an initial round of discussions on Thursday morning.

High Court knocks IDF over failure to protect Palestinians from settler violence

The High Court of Justice issues a conditional order against the commander of the IDF’s forces in the West Bank Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth and the head of the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration department Brig. Gen Hisham Ibrahim, ordering them to justify why they had failed to protect a group of Palestinian farmers in the Jordan Valley from harassment and violence by settlers.

The court order specifies in particular Moshe Sharvit, the manager and resident of an illegal outpost in the region close to the West Bank settlement of Hamra, and asks the IDF and the Civil Administration why they do not use their authority to bar Sharvit from entering the land and dwelling area of the Palestinian farmers who filed the petition.

The court also asks the IDF and Civil Administration to justify their failure to take effective measures to stop Sharvit from encroaching on land which he is not entitled to work.

And the court asks the IDF and Civil Administration to justify their failure to guarantee access for the Palestinian farmers to their land and their ability to work it. The order mentions specifically a gate built on an access road in the area, allegedly by Sharvit, which has blocked the farmers from accessing their own land.

Sharvit established his illegal farming outpost in 2020 and put up the gate blocking the Palestinian farmers’ access to their land in October 2023, while serially harassing the farmers.

According to the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) which filed the petition, IDF soldiers who Sharvit called when Palestinian farmers sought to reach their own land order the farmers off their own land.

In March 2025, a court issued restraining orders against Sharvit over his actions toward the local Palestinians, but ACRI said he violated the order three days later.

Sharvit has previously been hit with sanctions by the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and the United States for his violent conduct toward Palestinians in the area, although the US sanctions were subsequently removed.

“The military’s failure to act is not passivity – it is complicity,” says Noa Sattath, ACRI’s Executive Director. “Soldiers have repeatedly arrived on the scene at Sharvit’s request and ordered Palestinian landowners off their own land. That is not law enforcement. That is the enforcement of lawlessness. Amid the military and police failure to act, we are determined to use every tool we have to end settler violence — also by targeting violent settlers.”

Foreign Press Association launches online petition demanding Israel allow journalists into Gaza

The Foreign Press Association has launched an online petition calling on Israel to lift its ban on journalists being allowed into Gaza to independently report.

“For more than two years, Israel has barred the foreign press from entering Gaza to report freely. This ban is unprecedented and an affront to press freedoms and the public’s right to information,” the petition states.

The Foreign Press Association has relentlessly lobbied Israeli officials, diplomats and international organizations to reverse this ban. They even petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court. At every turn, Israel has responded with stalling tactics and vague security arguments along with a refusal to engage in dialogue,” the petition continues. “This cannot go on.”

The IDF and the Defense Ministry have applied a blanket ban on independent press access to the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war. It has, however, allowed Israeli journalists, and to a lesser extent foreign journalists, to enter specific areas of Gaza as embedded reporters with IDF forces.

Israel has argued that the entry of journalists into the Strip would pose security risks to IDF soldiers and to the journalists themselves.

Let us in.

For more than two years, we’ve been barred from entering Gaza to report freely. It’s long past time for Israel to lift this ban and #LetUsIn.

Join us. Share this post. And sign the FPA’s petition: https://t.co/Z7JMO4wu2K pic.twitter.com/7X4UZDPCMv

— Foreign Press Assoc. (@FPAIsPal) February 26, 2026

US proposes severing Swiss bank MBaer from financial system over alleged Iran links

The US Treasury Department has threatened to sever MBaer Merchant Bank AG’s access to the US financial system on the grounds the Swiss bank had supported illicit actors linked to Iran, Russia and Venezuela.

The move is rare and unleashes the most powerful tool in sanctions enforcement by the United States on a Swiss bank.

MBaer does not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The Treasury alleges MBaer and its employees had facilitated corruption linked to Venezuelan and Russian money laundering as well as money laundering and terrorist financing on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force, which are under sanctions from the US.

The Treasury proposes a rule change that, if finalized, would prohibit covered US financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for, or on behalf of, MBaer.

Hillary Clinton demands Trump testify under oath about Epstein

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton speaks during the Clinton Global Initiative, Sept. 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki, File)

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton says that the House committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein should call President Donald Trump to testify about his ties to the late convicted sex offender.

Clinton, in an opening statement at her deposition before the Republican-led House Oversight Committee, accused the panel of deposing her to “distract attention” from Trump.

“You have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers,” Clinton says.

She says the committee should ask Trump “directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files.”

Trump was a one-time close friend of Epstein but has not been charged with any wrongdoing related to the disgraced financier, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

Clinton, whose husband, former president Bill Clinton is to testify before the committee on Friday, says she has no knowledge of the criminal activities of Epstein or his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

She accuses the committee of an “institutional failure” that was designed to “protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors [of Epstein].”

IDF to relocate 11 bases from central Israel to free up land for real estate

The Defense Ministry, Treasury, and Israel Land Authority have signed an agreement to relocate another 11 IDF bases from central Israel, freeing up land for real estate.

The IDF decided in 2011 to move many of its bases from the center of the country to the south, consolidating operations to save money and opening up land for development in the center of the country.

The Defense Ministry says the relocation of the 11 bases will free up 2.3 square kilometers of land, and bring about the construction of approximately 19,000 new housing units, around one million square meters of new commercial and industrial centers, and 1,000 hotel rooms.

The deal will also see “the establishment of new and modern bases and their adaptation to security challenges and the continuity of the IDF’s operations,” the ministry says.

The 11 bases that will be relocated, mainly to southern Israel include: The Military Colleges in Glilot, which will be moved to Jerusalem; Technological and Logistics Directorate bases in Tzrifin, Tel Hashomer, Haifa, and Tirat Carmel; the Dotan training base near Pardes Hana; some of the Home Front Command’s headquarters at the Rehavam base in Ramle; and the remaining units at the Tzrifin base, including compounds belonging to the C4I and Cyber Defense Directorate, Medical Corps, Israeli Air Force, and the the Magal unit, which is in charge of the army’s basic training.

The bases will be moved gradually over the next decade, according to the Defense Ministry.

The ministry says that it will also establish a joint directorate with the IDF to “examine the feasibility” of relocating the military’s Kirya headquarters out of Tel Aviv.

Eurovision vows tight security at Vienna contest amid tensions over Israel’s participation

Tight security will be enforced at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna in May, organizers and police say, following tensions over Israel’s participation.

While no concrete threat has been identified, according to police, 500 security personnel will be deployed to the Stadthalle, the venue hosting the event near the city centre.

“Our top priority is to have a safe event,” Oliver Lingens, director of events at Austrian public broadcaster ORF, tells a press conference.

No bags will be allowed in the venue, while sniffer dogs will be deployed throughout the city, even before the event takes place from May 12 to 16.

Asked whether special security measures would be in place for the Israeli delegation, Lingens declines to comment, saying: “The security of all delegations is obviously very important to us.”

Some countries have vowed to boycott this year’s edition of the world’s biggest live televised music event over Israel’s participation.

Broadcasters from five countries have pulled out of the contest over Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

Vienna is hosting the contest after Austrian artist Johannes Pietsch won last year’s edition in Basel, Switzerland.

Fire breaks out at industrial complex in Iran’s Abadan, state media says

A fire broke out at an industrial complex in Iran’s southern city of Abadan, state media reports, saying initial indications are that the incident took place at a plastic raw materials factory.

Trump administration asks US Supreme Court to end protections for Syrian immigrants

US President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene in its effort to strip deportation protections from about 6,000 Syrians living in the United States.

The Justice Department in an emergency request asks the Supreme Court to lift a judge’s November decision that blocked the administration’s move to end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Syrians while litigation challenging the move continues.

It is the third time the administration has turned to the Supreme Court related to its efforts to terminate these protections for migrants. The court sided with the administration on both previous occasions, involving the revocation of TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.

TPS is a humanitarian designation under US law for migrants from countries stricken by war, natural disaster or other catastrophes, shielding people given this status from deportation and allowing them to work in the United States.

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has moved to terminate TPS for 12 countries, including Syria. Similar lawsuits have led to court rulings that are currently blocking the end of TPS for people from nations including Ethiopia, South Sudan, Haiti, Syria and Myanmar.

Instagram to warn parents when teens search for suicide terms

Instagram will begin notifying parents when their teenage children repeatedly search for content related to suicide or self-harm, platform owner Meta announce, as the company faces mounting legal pressure over its handling of young users.

The alerts, rolling out in the coming weeks in the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada, will be triggered when a teen makes multiple searches for such terms within a short period of time.

The alerts will be expanded to other regions later in 2026.

Parents using Instagram’s parental supervision tools will receive notifications via email, text or WhatsApp, as well as through the app itself, along with expert resources to help them navigate potentially difficult conversations with their children.

Instagram already blocks searches for terms associated with suicide and self-harm, directing users instead to help lines and support organizations. The new alerts are designed to flag cases where teens persistently attempt such searches despite those restrictions.

Meta says it consulted with its Suicide and Self-Harm Advisory Group in setting the alert threshold, adding that it deliberately erred on the side of caution, even if that meant some notifications might be sent without genuine cause for concern.

The announcement comes as the company faces mounting legal pressure over the use of its platforms by young people.

Swastikas tagged at former Nazi transit camp near Paris

This photograph taken on October 5, 2001 shows the carriage used for deportation at the Cité de la Muette in Drancy, where several thousand Jews were interned between 1941 and 1944. (Frederick FLORIN / AFP)

Two swastikas have been found spray-painted on buildings in a Paris suburb that served as a World War II transit camp for some 63,000 Jews deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Drancy internment camp served as the main departure point for Jewish deportees from France to Nazi death camps between August 1941 and August 1944.

The two swastikas were drawn in two different buildings. One measured a few centimeters across, while the other was nearly one meter (3.2 feet) in diameter.

A candidate in the upcoming municipal elections spotted the swastikas Wednesday while campaigning, before notifying memorial associations, he tells AFP.

“In this neighborhood more than any other, which was once a transit camp for Holocaust victims before they were deported to death camps by the Nazis, these acts are extremely serious,” Gokhan Unver, a mayoral candidate for the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), says.

Three local lawmakers had filed a report with judicial authorities, he adds.

A memorial near the housing estate where the swastikas were spray-painted, was vandalized in March 2024.

France is home to western Europe’s largest Jewish population, at around half a million people, as well as a significant Muslim community sensitive to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Members of France’s Jewish community have said the number of antisemitic acts has surged following the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023 which triggered Israel’s military response.

The interior ministry recorded 886 antisemitic acts between January 1 and August 31, 2025, 20-percent down on the same period in 2024.

IDF says its east Lebanon strikes hit 8 compounds belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force

The Israeli Air Force struck eight military compounds belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force in eastern Lebanon a short while ago, the military says.

According to the IDF, the sites in the Beqaa Valley were used by Hezbollah to store numerous weapons, including rockets, as well as for training by the Radwan Force for planned attacks against Israel.

Hezbollah’s activity at the sites and attempts by the terror group to re-arm “constitute a violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and pose a threat to the State of Israel,” the IDF says.

מצורף תיעוד מתקיפת מחנות צבאיים של יחידת 'כוח רדואן' במרחב בעלבכ שבלבנון באמצעות חיל האוויר pic.twitter.com/4cNyEaFv7c

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) February 26, 2026

In recent weeks, the Israeli military has stepped up airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, with assessments indicating that the Iran-backed terror group may join Tehran in a new conflict against Israel.

A Hezbollah official told AFP yesterday, though, that the group would not intervene on Iran’s behalf if the US carries out a limited strike against the Islamic Republic.

Settler said to spray mace into home while Palestinian family sleeping at 4 a.m.

An Israeli activist says a settler from a nearby illegal outpost woke up a Palestinian family in the Bedouin hamlet outside the central West Bank village of Duma by spraying mace into their home.

The settler extremist is then filmed returning to the family’s home later in the morning to film and harass the residents.

Such tactics are part of a broader effort to drive Palestinians off lands in the West Bank’s Area C for settlers to expand their presence in the territory.

Hundreds of Bedouin families have been forced to flee their homes in the past year alone, with Israeli authorities doing little to crack down on the phenomenon.

אין כמו להתעורר ב־4:15 לפנות בוקר.
רק שזה לא שעון מעורר . זה גז פלפל.

בארבע בבוקר מתנחלים ריססו גז פלפל לתוך הבית של רעאד
ובבוקר חזרו . הפעם עם מצלמות ועלבונות.

המטרה ברורה.
להפוך את זה לבלתי נסבל.
שנלך.
כדי שיוכלו להרוס גם את הבית הזה, כמו שכבר קרה לעוד ועוד בתים באזור.… pic.twitter.com/hd2PYe2Oyp

— Roni ???????? (@Roni65043634) February 26, 2026

UN rights chief: Israel aims to bring ‘permanent demographic change’ to West Bank, Gaza

Israel’s actions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip seem aimed at creating “permanent demographic change,” UN rights chief Volker Turk says.

“Taken together, Israel’s actions appear aimed at making a permanent demographic change in Gaza and the West Bank, raising concerns about ethnic cleansing,” Turk says in a speech before the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Turk points in particular to an ongoing, year-long Israeli military operation in the West Bank’s north that has caused the displacement of 32,000 Palestinians.

Last week, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that the goal of Israel’s next government would be to “encourage the migration” of Palestinians from the West Bank in addition to Gaza.

Herzog expresses oblique criticism of Saudi Arabia at UAE iftar event in Tel Aviv

President Isaac Herzog issues oblique criticism of recent Saudi censure of the UAE and Israel, saying there are “nations spreading blasphemy and hate against both countries,” at an iftar dinner hosted by the Emirati embassy in Tel Aviv.

Saudi Arabia has intensified its public criticism of both countries recently in the wake of growing Saudi-UAE tensions in Yemen and in Africa.

Herzog calls UAE President Mohamed Bin Zayed “one of the most impressive, strong and wise leaders in our generation.”

The UAE, says Herzog, “has become an anchor of stability, prosperity and peace.”

שגריר איחוד האמירויות בישראל, מוחמד אל חאגה, אירח היום את סעודת האיפטאר המסורתית בתל אביב. במהלך האירוע, דיבר השגריר על סובלנות, שלום בין העמים ודו קיום. באירוע השתתפו נשיא המדינה, יצחק הרצוג, ושר החוץ, גדעון סער, יחד עם חברי כנסת, שייחים ומכובדים נוספים.
עוד לקחו חלק באירוע… pic.twitter.com/sqUk5Zxwwp

— roi kais • روعي كايس • רועי קייס (@kaisos1987) February 26, 2026

He also expresses Israel’s “love and admiration for the people of the UAE.”

“I wish the world could see this incredible picture,” says Herzog

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also attends the dinner and offers brief remarks.

The dinner at the Hilton hotel is a very public display of the UAE’s relationship with Israel, even as many of Israel’s Arab partners have taken pains to avoid public events with Israeli officials in the wake of the war in Gaza.

UAE Ambassador Mohamed Al Khaja and Bahraini Ambassador Khaled Al Jalahma were at Herzog’s iftar dinner on Tuesday.

The UAE event is also attended by a range of foreign ambassadors, Knesset members, Israeli diplomats, and local Muslim leaders.

US said demanding Iran dismantle its 3 main nuclear sites, ship enriched uranium to US

US negotiators were expected to demand in today’s Geneva talks that Iran dismantle its three main nuclear sites — Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — and deliver all remaining enriched uranium to the US, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed officials.

The officials also tell WSJ that the US was planning to demand that any nuclear deal with Iran last forever, rather than including sunset provisions, as was the case in the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by former US president Barack Obama.

Shin Bet chief rejects ‘inside job’ conspiracies about Oct. 7

New Shin Bet chief David Zini dismisses pervasive conspiracy theories about the October 7, 2023, onslaught, saying that “it is clear and known that there was no ‘treason’ or ‘cooperation’ [with the enemy] on the part of the Shin Bet or any members of the security establishment.”

The conspiracy theories have been pervasive among hardline supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has avoided commenting on the matter as his critics say he is seeking to shift responsibility for October 7 failures onto the security establishment.

Zini, during a conference this week attended by Netanyahu, says he accepts the Shin Bet’s internal investigation into the failures of October 7, which was conducted under the agency’s former head, Ronen Bar.

“As the head of the investigative team noted, there are still additional issues to examine, but there is no disputing the conclusions of the investigation team, and they contain extensive material to work with and to correct,” Zini is quoted as saying by the Shin Bet.

“Unfortunately, we committed a severe professional failure, and we must work day by day, hour by hour, in order to correct and implement all the lessons and complete what remains to be investigated,” he adds.

Police reportedly launch probe of settler killing of Palestinian-American teen

Nasrallah Abu Siam, 19, died of gunshot wounds sustained in a settler attack on the Palestinian village of Mukhmas, northeast of Jerusalem, on February 18, 2026, according to the Palestinian Authority. (Screen capture: X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Police have reportedly launched an investigation into the lethal shooting and subsequent beating of a Palestinian-American teen during a settler attack in the West Bank last week.

Nasrallah Abu Siam, a 19-year-old who resided in Mukhmas, a Palestinian town in the central West Bank, was shot when dozens of masked, armed settlers attacked residents’ barns and stole their livestock, while accompanied by IDF troops, according to witnesses.

The military began probing the incident but denies its troops were involved in the killing. Today, the IDF passed the case to the West Bank District police, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

Though the case is now in the police’s hands, they are said to still be pushing for the IDF Military Police’s involvement in the investigation, but the army has resisted this.

Police do not respond to a request for comment regarding the number of suspects in the case at this stage.

תיעוד: פלסטינים זורקים אבנים לפני הירי אתמול בשטחי מרעה ליד רמאללה שממנו נהרג נסראללה אבו סיאם, תושב הכפר מוחמאס. בצה״ל עורכים תחקיר של מפקד החטיבה ומפקד אוגדת איו״ש לגבי זהות היורה – חייל הגנה מרחבית או מתנחל@HGoldich pic.twitter.com/Ryxz7iLmE2

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 19, 2026

While incidents of settler violence have been taking place on a near-daily basis across the West Bank, arrests are highly rare, while indictments and convictions are even more so.

On Wednesday last week, settlers stole hundreds of sheep from pens in Mukhmas, then herded them up a hill as some Palestinians followed them, according to Kan. Clashes broke out as both sides hurled rocks at each other from afar.

At this point, at least one settler opened fire on the Palestinians below, wounding several, including Abu Siam. While lying wounded and unconscious on the ground, settlers approached the 19-year-old and began beating him with clubs for several minutes, an eyewitness told Haaretz.

“The army was there at this point, watching and doing nothing,” the witness said to the outlet. “The soldiers stood and smoked as if nothing was happening. It was terrible.”

Abu Siam and two others were rushed to a hospital in Ramallah. The Palestinian Authority announced his death the next day, after he succumbed to his wounds.

According to Kan, it was still unclear if the settler who fired the shot was part of one of the IDF’s so-called area defense forces, known by the Hebrew acronym Hagmar. Dozens of soldiers from such units, which comprise local settlers in reserve duty, have been dismissed for violations, including attacks on Palestinians, the military said last month.

IDF says it launched wave of strikes against Hezbollah sites in eastern Lebanon

The IDF says it has launched a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah infrastructure in eastern Lebanon.

The infrastructure being targeted in the Baalbek area belongs to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, according to the military.

No further details are immediately provided by the IDF.

مشاهدٌ من الغارات الإسرائيلية التي اسنهدفت البقاع pic.twitter.com/51yAKaBYAK

— Lebanon Debate (@lebanondebate) February 26, 2026

Jewish congressional candidate Lander and Mamdani condemn AIPAC in campaign video

Zohran Mamdani (L) is joined by Brad Lander during an election night gathering on June 24, 2025, in the Long Island City neighborhood of the Queens borough in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP)

New York City politician Brad Lander and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemn AIPAC in a video for Lander’s congressional campaign.

Lander is running to represent New York City’s 10th Congressional District against incumbent Dan Goldman.

Lander and Goldman are both Jewish progressives who are largely in line in their opposition to issues like the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and other issues.

Lander is to the left of Goldman, though, particularly on Israel. Goldman is a critic of the Netanyahu government, but Lander goes further, such as charging Israel with genocide. Lander, the former city comptroller, is also marked by his alliance with Mamdani, whom he backed in the mayoral campaign.

I’m proud to be supporting my friend Brad Lander for Congress. @BradLander has spent his career taking on big fights for New York’s working families. He’ll bring principled leadership to Washington and make sure Congress works for the many, not just the few. pic.twitter.com/DJ5Xf1og22

— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) February 25, 2026

“I’m Brad Lander, a lifelong progressive, and I’m running for Congress,” Lander says in the kitschy campaign video while walking alongside Mamdani.

“A lifelong progressive? You mean you haven’t sold out to special interests?” Mamdani says.

“Or AIPAC either,” Lander says.

“That’s impressive, though it shouldn’t be,” Mamdani responds.

AIPAC is the sole target mentioned in the brief clip.

AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, has become a ubiquitous subject of derision on both the left and right.

Senior PLO official: Hamas in talks to sell its arms, raze its tunnels

PLO Executive Committee member Ahmad Majdalani in his Ramallah office in 2024. (Courtesy)

Senior PLO official Ahmed Majdalani says Hamas is engaged in talks with Israel and the US about selling off its arms and dismantling its military infrastructure in Gaza.

In an interview published today by Saudi network Al-Arabiya’s Mazeej podcast, Majdalani accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of using the disarmament issue as an “excuse” to keep the war in Gaza alive.

“Hamas is discussing its arms with both the Americans and the Israelis,” Majdalani says. He does not specify whether the talks with either Israel or the US are direct or indirect.

The talks, says Majdalani, revolve around three issues: “First… the gathering of heavy weapons; second, demolition of military infrastructure — the tunnels and manufacturing workshops; and third, restricting weapons to the police,” the new Palestinian force that is supposed to replace Gaza’s Hamas-run police as part of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

Hamas is demanding that its disarmament take place “according to the Irish model — the weapons will be gathered and sold… weapons in exchange for money,” Majdalani says, without specifying to whom the weapons would be sold.

It’s also unclear which “Irish model” Majdalani is referring to. Under the 1998 Belfast Agreement, anti-UK paramilitary forces in Northern Ireland destroyed their weapons and did not directly receive money in exchange for them.

“I didn’t make this up,” he says, adding of Hamas: “I wish they would come out and face the people and say this.”

Hamas’s frequent statements that it will hold onto its weapons until there is an independent state of Palestine are meant for “public consumption,” Majdalani claims.

“That’s not the tone in discussions with us,” he adds.

Israel, which insists Hamas disarm before Gaza is rebuilt, “wants an excuse” to keep fighting, Majdalani alleges.

“First, the excuse was the soldier’s body, and it was found,” he says, referring to the body of Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage in Gaza, whose remains were found last month. “Today, the excuse is the weapons.”

“Netanyahu will keep using this excuse for as long as possible to undermine the possibility of an agreement to end the war,” he says.

“Today we have an agreement on a ceasefire, not an end to the war,” he adds, pointing to Israeli airstrikes that have killed dozens of people in Gaza since the ceasefire deal was signed in October. Israel has said the killings come in response to ceasefire violations.

Majdalani is a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Council, which is made up of representatives of PLO member factions. A former minister in the Palestinian Authority, Majdalani sits on the top PLO body by dint of his being secretary general of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, a small left-wing faction in the PLO. He is also head of the Tamkeen organization responsible for the distribution of welfare payments to Palestinians in place of a controversial previous program in which prisoners were given stipends based on the length of their sentence.

Majdalani’s comments come after PLO Secretary General Azzam al-Ahmed, a member of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, said the PLO rejects calls for Hamas to disarm and its classification as a terror group.

6 more refueling tankers set to depart for Israel as part of US buildup in Mideast

Six more American refueling tankers are scheduled to head for Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport today as part of the United States’s massive buildup of military forces in the Middle East, according to analysts monitoring open-source flight tracking data.

This week, several American refuelers and cargo planes were spotted at Ben Gurion Airport, and 11 F-22 stealth fighter jets — along with accompanying logistical support planes and aircrews — landed at Ovda Airbase in southern Israel.

According to analysts tracking the movement of military aircraft, five American KC-46 refueling planes will depart Portsmouth International Airport in New Hampshire, and a sixth tanker will depart from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. All are scheduled to land at Ben Gurion Airport.

Fast-Jet & Tanker Movements Update 26/02/2026 #FreeIran‌
— "Operation LION & SUN" —

Below is a full summary of fast-jet movements from the US to Europe so far today, and of Tankers from the US to the Middle East so far today:

——————————
Coronet East 044…

— DefenceGeek ???????? (@DefenceGeek) February 26, 2026

Dozens of fighter jets — including F-35s, F-22s, F-15s, and F-16s — have been spotted heading to the Middle East by the Military Air Tracking Alliance, a team of about 30 open-source analysts that routinely analyzes military and government flight activity in recent weeks.

The team says it’s also tracked dozens of accompanying fuel tankers, as well as hundreds of cargo flights, heading into the region this month.

Jewish leaders condemn ‘Tax the Jews’ chant at San Francisco protest

Jewish leaders condemn protesters who chanted “tax the Jews” at an event in San Francisco yesterday.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who is Jewish, says that protesters had chanted “Tax the rich” at an event he hosted with Bilal Mahmood of the city’s board of supervisors and labor leaders.

The chants then switched to “Tax the Jews,” Lurie says.

“Suggesting that Jews are wealthy is a tired trope, and targeting our community at an event focused on creating economic opportunity for San Franciscans is decidedly antisemitic,” Lurie says. “I will never accept hate directed at the Jewish community or any community in our city.”

In a video, at least one woman is heard chanting “Tax Israel” and “Tax the Jews.”

For those curious, a source sent me this video of the press conference. You can hear a woman chanting “tax Israel” and “tax the Jews” about 30 seconds in. https://t.co/0fDb9H8TXH pic.twitter.com/PkdHLGzBc1

— Gabriel Lorenzo Greschler (@ggreschler) February 26, 2026

The chant stands out because it is aimed at the Jewish people, not against common Israel-related targets, such as “Zionism,” or Zionists.

“What does antisemitism look like? This,” says Amy Spitalnick of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. “This is hate and extremism masquerading as progressive politics when, in fact, nothing about it is progressive — and it only undermines the fight for justice, all of our safety, and our democracy.”

The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area says the chant “was a despicable act of antisemitism and must be universally condemned.”

Rudy Gonzalez of the city’s Building and Construction Trades Council, who participated in the event, blames the far-left Democratic Socialists of America, which he says “disrupted the event with antisemitic chants.”

The Democratic Socialists of America branch of San Francisco says its members had been protesting and that “a non-member joined the crowd and spouted disgusting anti-semitic remarks.”

“DSA members and other protesters asked her to stop, but she refused. We want to be clear that whatever hate she holds isn’t shared by DSA members and we categorically reject antisemitism,” the group says.

Israeli-American mindreader Oz Pearlman tapped as entertainer for White House Correspondents Dinner

Oz Pearlman attends the 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 11, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California. (Monica Schipper/Getty Images/AFP)

The White House Correspondents Association announces that Israeli-American mentalist/mindreader Oz Pearlman will be the entertainment at the organization’s annual dinner on April 25.

“As the world’s most celebrated mentalist, Oz Pearlman will offer a fascinating glimpse into what’s truly on the minds of Washington’s newsmakers,” WHCA president Weijia Jiang says in a statement. “We look forward to an exciting, fresh, and interactive evening as we celebrate the First Amendment and Washington news coverage together.”

Pearlman is an Emmy Award winner and New York Times bestselling author.

“I am thrilled to be the featured entertainer at this year’s WHCA dinner and join the ranks of Frank Sinatra, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, among many other legends,” says Pearlman in a statement. “This is a rare opportunity to gather so many accomplished, perceptive people in one place and invite them to share moments of wonder, surprise and awe.”

Herzog calls Zelensky on 4-year anniversary of Russian invasion

President Isaac Herzog calls Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to mark four years since the Russian invasion and to express “heartfelt condolences and solidarity with the people of Ukraine,” says Herzog’s office.

Herzog stresses “Israel’s support for Ukraine in the recent vote at the UN General Assembly, as well as Israel’s ongoing efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to those impacted by the war,” says the President’s Residence.

They also discuss efforts by US President Donald Trump to end the war.

Senior Iranian official: Deal with US possible if nuclear and non-nuclear issues separated

The United States and Iran could reach a framework for a deal if Washington separates “nuclear and non-nuclear issues,” a senior Iranian official tells Reuters, adding that remaining gaps need to be narrowed during a third round of talks in Geneva.

The negotiations have been intense and serious, says the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Reuters reported on Sunday that Tehran was offering undefined new concessions in return for removal of sanctions and recognition of its right to enrich uranium. Iran had said earlier on Thursday it would show flexibility at the talks.

Crimes against humanity complaint filed in Switzerland against Iran deputy minister

A complaint has been filed in Switzerland accusing Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi of crimes against humanity linked to anti-government protests in his country in recent years, lawyers say.

The complaint, filed by an Iranian-Swiss citizen, said Gharibabadi “may have committed serious crimes contrary to international law” linked to protests over the death in custody of a woman, Mahsa Amini, the lawyers tell AFP, demanding the arrest of the deputy minister who has been in Geneva this week.

It suggested he could be “a co-perpetrator or, at the very least, that his responsibility could be engaged due to his position as a hierarchical superior at the time of the events.”

“We expect the Swiss authorities to arrest the accused as soon as possible,” say the lawyers William Bourdon and Philippine Vaganay, both French nationals.

“There is no other option,” they say in a statement sent to AFP.

“This obligation to arrest him is imperative under both Swiss and international law; otherwise, the fight against impunity for those responsible for the most serious crimes is a pipe dream.”

London bakery vandalized for second time in a week after ‘funding Israel’ accusation

The new Gail’s Bakery branch in the Archway neighborhood of London was vandalized for the second time in less than a week, after pro-Palestinian protesters accused the company of funding Israel’s military in Gaza.

London’s Metropolitan Police said officers were called to the bakery on Junction Road early Wednesday morning following reports that several windows had been smashed and paint sprayed across the premises. Officers visited the bakery later that morning and spoke with staff. No arrests have been made.

Detectives are investigating whether the incident is linked to a similar act of criminal damage on Feb. 18, when red paint and political slogans were daubed on the storefront on the eve of the branch’s opening. Police said extensive inquiries, including a review of CCTV footage, are ongoing.

Metropolitan Police said in a statement that it increased uniformed patrols in the area and would take an “assertive and determined approach” to antisemitism and other hate crimes.

For the second time in a few days, a new branch of bakery Gail’s in Archway has been vandalised by ‘pro Palestinians’.
The chain was founded by a British/ Israeli Jewish woman but has been majority owned by American venture capitalists Bain since 2021.
The haters will say it’s… pic.twitter.com/qSetCwqz7C

— Nicole Lampert (@nicolelampert) February 25, 2026

Gail’s Bakery, which operates roughly 170 locations throughout the United Kingdom, recently opened the new branch in Archway, where it was met by protesters calling to “Boycott Israel For Genocide And War Crimes in Gaza.”

Gail’s was founded as a wholesale bakery by a team of Israeli bakers, including Gail Mejia and Ran Avidan, in the 1990s, and opened its first storefront bakery in 2005. The company was acquired in 2021 by the American investment firm Bain Capital, which has invested in Israeli tech companies.

Iran-US talks in Geneva to resume after pause

Iranian and US delegations have held consultations with their respective capitals during a pause in talks, which will resume shortly, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said.

“Both delegations needed to carry out consultations with their respective capitals,” Esmaeil Baqaei told state TV.

Tehran and Washington held a third round of talks, the latest in a process that began earlier this month following a heavy US military buildup in the region.

Baqaei described the first session of negotiations, which lasted about three hours, as “intensive and very serious.”

It was held in the presence of Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi and United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi, said Baqaei.

He added “very important and practical proposals” were put forward to address Iran’s nuclear program and to secure sanctions relief for Tehran, without elaborating.

Likud warned of infiltration by activists from Haredi parties

Writing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud party’s ultra-Orthodox wing warns that activists affiliated with the Knesset’s Haredi factions are infiltrating their movement in an effort to unduly influence the party from the inside.

The letter cites recent reporting about what it describes as an organized effort by members of outside parties to join Likud “who do not seek to integrate [into it] as an ideological movement but rather to misdirect its elected officials, harm its leader, cunningly insert representatives on their behalf through internal elections, take control of its institutions, and continue to support and operate politically in other parties.”

It calls on Netanyahu to establish “filtering mechanisms” to “ensure that Likud activists are actual supporters of the movement” and are not acting on behalf of other parties.

Spokespeople for Likud and the ultra-Orthodox Shas, Degel HaTorah and Agudat Yisrael factions do not immediately reply to The Times of Israel’s requests for comment. Degel HaTorah and Agudat Yisrael comprise the larger United Torah Judaism party.

Last August, Channel 12 reported that thousands of ultra-Orthodox voters had joined the Likud party as part of a bid to directly influence the workings of Israel’s ruling faction.

The share of Haredi members in Likud, Israel’s largest party and one of only a handful to hold primaries for its electoral slate, has tripled while the party’s liberal wing has shrunk, the network reported.

The increase in Haredi membership is likely tied to efforts to pass a bill exempting yeshiva students from military service. While Netanyahu’s party supports the bill, the current version of which was drafted by party MK Boaz Bismuth, dissension within Likud threatens to hamper its passage.

German intelligence service must not refer to AfD party as right-wing extremist, court rules

The German domestic intelligence service must not refer to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as right-wing extremist for now, according to a decision issued by an administrative court in Cologne.

French court sentences Iranian woman to jail for justifying terrorism

A French court has sentenced Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari to one year in prison for justifying terrorism in a case linked to a possible prisoner swap with two French citizens held in Iran.

Esfandiari, 39, was also handed a permanent ban from French territory, according to an AFP journalist present at the court.

Observers see Esfandiari as a potential bargaining chip in negotiations with Tehran for the release of French nationals Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who are detained in Iran.

India’s Modi departs Israel after packed two-day visit

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has boarded his plane to depart Israel, concluding a two-day official visit that included a  Knesset address and saw the two countries sign numerous agreements reaffirming and expanding cooperation in innovation and technology, security and defense, trade, and more.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, stand by after seeing the Indian premier off in a farewell ceremony at Ben Gurion airport.

Trump won’t punish Herzog if he doesn’t pardon Netanyahu, predicts US envoy Huckabee

US Ambassador Mike Huckabee addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations' Leadership Mission in Jerusalem, February 16, 2026. (Courtesy)

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says he doesn’t expect US President Donald Trump to punish President Isaac Herzog if Herzog declines to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his corruption trial.

“He has every right to take his time in making the decision,” Huckabee tells Ynet, adding that Herzog “is an honorable and good man.”

Asked about a potential US strike on Iran, Huckabee says Tehran should “look at the signs.”

“They’re either going to come to terms and act like civilized people, or the president will make a different decision,” he says.

“They know what the US can do with limited strikes,” says the ambassador, referring to Operation Midnight Hammer last June, in which the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities at the end of the 12-day Israel-Iran war.

“Imagine what they are capable of with the level of assets that they have assembled that are currently poised and staged and ready to go,” he says.

Huckabee says his comments during a recent interview with far-right pundit Tucker Carlson — in which he suggested Israel could conquer much of the Middle East amid a conversation on Israel’s rights to the biblical borders of the promised land — were “taken out of context,” and that it was “downright dishonest on Tucker Carlson’s part to carefully and strategically edit my response so that he could create some narrative that is utterly false.”

He says he sent the full transcript to Arab leaders after widespread criticism from across the region.

Huckabee also says that he hopes Herzog sues Carlson for defamation after Carlson, who has invited a string of antisemitic and anti-Israel guests on his show — falsely accused Herzog of visiting sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s island. Carlson later apologized for the accusation and excised that clip of the interview from the published version.

“You can’t let Tucker Carlson get away with antisemitic, anti-Israel hate. It’s really dangerous,” Huckabee says.

Restrictive conditions on Netanyahu’s chief of staff extended until March 1

Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Tzachi Braverman arrives for the funeral of Asher Hayon, a former chief of staff and adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, at a cemetery in Modi’in, February 17, 2026. (Jonathan Sahul/Flash90)

The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court extends restrictive conditions on Tzachi Braverman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, until March 1.

Braverman is being investigated on suspicion of interfering with an investigation and other crimes, in connection with the allegation that he told Eli Feldstein, a spokesperson for Netanyahu, that he could quash a military investigation into Feldstein over the leak of a classified document to the German newspaper Bild.

Judge Menahem Mizrahi tells the police to update the court by that date as to when Netanyahu himself can given open testimony, which does not implicate him as a suspect, in the investigation into Braverman. The judge says that will allow him to make a ruling on the original police request for the restrictive release conditions on Braverman to be extended until March 10.

Braverman, who was designated to be ambassador to the United Kingdom in September but has yet to take up the post, is barred from leaving the country, and cannot contact Netanyahu or other officials in the Prime Minister’s Office, as conditions for his release from detention.

Berlin said to see record 2,267 antisemitic crimes in 2025, up from 381 three years earlier

llustrative: Police officers seen during searches of a site in Berlin on October 29, 2025. (Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)

Police in Berlin tallied a record 2,267 antisemitic crimes in 2025, a sharp increase from 1,825 cases recorded in 2024 and 900 in 2023, according to German daily Tagesspiegel.

The data was released by the city’s Senate Department for the Interior in response to an inquiry by Social Democratic lawmaker Sebastian Schlüsselburg.

Antisemitic activity in Germany and around the world skyrocketed, according to reports, after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which launched the war in Gaza. In 2022, Berlin police logged just 381 antisemitic offenses, according to the report.

Antisemitic offenses categorized as motivated by foreign ideology, which the report says mostly concern the conflict in the Middle East, rose to 1,484, up from 24 in 2022. Crimes motivated by religious ideology climbed to 348, compared to six in 2022.

Antisemitic crimes associated with right-wing extremism have remained relatively stable over the past five years, at around 300 cases annually, the report says.

“The current figures on antisemitic crimes in Berlin are shameful,” Schlüsselburg tells Tagesspiegel. “Especially here, in the city where the crime against humanity known as the Shoah was planned and ordered, we bear a special historical responsibility to protect Jewish life.”

US-Iran nuclear talks pause, Omani FM says, hailing ‘creative and positive ideas’

In this handout photo released by the Omani Ministry of Foreign Affairs on February 26, 2026, US special envoy Steve Witkoff (center) and Jared Kushner hold a meeting with Oman's Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi (right) in Geneva. (Omani Foreign Ministry / AFP)

Today’s round of US-Iran nuclear talks in Geneva has paused for a break after commencing this morning, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi writes on X.

“We’ve been exchanging creative and positive ideas in Geneva today, and now both US and Iranian negotiators have adjourned for a break. We’ll resume later today. We hope to make more progress,” the minister says.

Two reportedly killed in Israeli airstrike near Gaza City; IDF has yet to comment

Palestinian media reports two dead in an Israeli airstrike east of Gaza City.

The reports say their bodies were brought to Al-Shifa Hospital.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF on the reports.

Earlier, the IDF said troops killed someone they identified as a terrorist who crossed the ceasefire line in the Strip’s south.

Israeli drone strike said to hit southern Lebanon, no casualties reported

Lebanese media reports an Israeli drone strike on the outskirts of the southern city of Nabatiyeh.

There are no reports of casualties in the strike, and the IDF has not yet commented.

مراسلة "ZNN": الطيران المسيّر المعادي استهدف حرش علي الطاهر ــ قضاء #النبطية#عاجل #لبنان #جنوب_لبنان pic.twitter.com/tc8eILGRW0

— ZNN-LEB (@znn_lb) February 26, 2026

Former Nazareth mayor, mob boss among those charged with stealing from city

The former mayor of Nazareth, the head of a powerful crime family and 10 other defendants are accused in court of embezzling millions of shekels from the municipality’s coffers over the course of a decade.

The indictments filed in the Nazareth District Court constitute a major blow to one of Israel’s most notorious mafia-style crime syndicates, thought to be one of the main forces driving a rampant wave of violent crime in Arab society.

Ali Salam, Nazareth’s ex-mayor, is charged with overseeing the transfer of some NIS 61 million ($20 million) to the Bakri crime family from 2015 to 2025, via a front, a private security service called Shomrei HaGalil.

Suspects from the Nazareth municipality and Bakri crime family are brought to the Northern District police headquarters as part of a far-reaching investigation into the funneling of public funds to criminal elements, in footage shared by police on February 26, 2026. (Israel Police)

The company was given contracts by the municipality, while Salam and his associates in the municipality used false invoices and inflated working hours to transfer the large sums of money to Samir Bakri, the head of the crime family, and his accomplices.

Last year, the mayor allegedly tried to back out of the scheme and suspend payments to the Bakri family, but they wouldn’t allow it, and began to make threats against Salam and his son.

The investigation was launched after one of the many victims of the Bakri family’s alleged extortion contacted police. He was forced to sell his home and ultimately repay his blackmailers via phony invoices from four companies that provided him no services, which also served as fronts for the crime syndicate, prosecutors say.

The defendants are indicted in the Nazareth District on a litany of charges, among them fraud, breach of trust, bribery, money laundering and extortion.

Modi says India, Israel agree ‘no place for terrorism in the world’

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seen at a joint press conference at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, February 26, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi says Israel and India agree there is “no place for terrorism in the world,” as he wraps up a two-day visit aimed at strengthening ties with Israel.

The trip, which has drawn criticism at home, marks Modi’s second visit to Israel as prime minister since he took office in 2014.

“India and Israel are clear that there is no place for terrorism in the world, in any form… We will oppose it shoulder to shoulder. We will always oppose it in the future,” Modi says at a press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

“Humanity must never become a victim of conflict,” he adds.

Modi also speaks of future cooperation between Israel and India in a variety of fields, including technology and energy.

Netanyahu, who describes Modi’s visit as “amazing” and “extraordinarily productive,” also speaks of joint innovation between the two countries.

“We’re proud ancient civilizations, very proud of our past. But absolutely determined to seize the future, and we can do it better together,” he adds.

Davos forum CEO Borge Brende resigns after Epstein links revealed

Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani (R) speaks with World Economic Forum President and CEO Borge Brende during the WEF annual meeting in Davos on January 21, 2025. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)

Borge Brende announces that he is resigning as head of the World Economic Forum, which organizes the annual Davos summit that gathers the world’s political and business elite, after revelations of his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“After careful consideration, I have decided to step down as President and CEO of the World Economic Forum,” the former Norwegian foreign minister says in a statement, adding that he believes “now is the right moment for the Forum to continue its important work without distractions.”

IDF says it demolished 5 kilometers of Hamas tunnels in northern Gaza

A cache of weapons that the IDF says it found in a Hamas tunnel in northern Gaza's Beit Hanoun, in a handout photo published on February 26, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says it recently demolished five kilometers (three miles) of Hamas tunnels in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun.

In one of the tunnels, the army says troops located a cache of weapons, including explosive devices, firearms, RPGs, grenades, and ammunition, as well as surveillance equipment.

The military believes that at least 60 percent of Hamas’s estimated 550- to 650-kilometer (350-400 miles) tunnel network across the Strip is still intact.

Rafah Crossing could open 7 days a week, says EU mission chief

Ambulances line up to enter the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP/Mohamed Arafat)

The Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip could open seven days a week in the foreseeable future, says the head of the European Union monitoring mission at the site.

It currently is open five days a week, but there is a push to increase the number of people moving through the crossing, according to Nataliya Apostolova, head of the mission, known as EUBAM. There is currently an average of 45 people moving through the crossing in each direction every day.

Some 86% of those who have entered since the crossing was reopened in both directions on February 2 have been women and children, she says.

IDF says troops killed terror operative who crossed Gaza ceasefire line

The military says a Palestinian terror operative who crossed the Gaza ceasefire line in the Strip’s south earlier today was killed by troops.

According to the IDF, the terror operative crossed the Yellow Line and approached soldiers of the Golani Brigade “in a manner that posed an immediate threat.”

The troops then “eliminated the terrorist in order to remove the threat,” the army says.

Ex-Shin Bet head Ronen Bar to co-lead new politics institute, angering Oct. 7 victims’ families

Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar attends a ceremony at Yad Vashem on Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 23, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Ronen Bar, the former head of the Shin Bet who led the intelligence agency before and during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, is one of the members of the board of a new school of political leadership affiliated with Reichman University in Herzliya, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

His new role has drawn the ire of relatives of those killed in the attack, the worst in Israel’s history. Bar, who stepped down in June 2025, has taken responsibility for his and the agency’s role in failing to prevent the attack.

Bar is taking an active role in setting up the institution, holding meetings regarding its formation, Kan reports. The report says other public figures are also involved in the institute.

Kan quotes Shelly Meshel-Yogev, mother of Libby Cohen Meguri, 22, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists while trying to flee the Nova music festival on October 7, expressing anger at the news.

“Whoever had a hand on the steering wheel on October 7 can’t teach us anything about leadership,” she says.

The October Council, which represents relatives of some of the victims of the Hamas attack, issues similar criticism, according to Kan.

“We won’t allow someone who was responsible for the debacle that led to the massacre of our loved ones shape the character of future Israeli leaders,” the group says.

India, Israel to push free trade pact, boost defense cooperation, Modi says in Jerusalem

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, February 26, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

India will soon give final shape to a mutually beneficial free trade agreement with Israel, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says at a press conference alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

The two countries will also pursue joint development, production, and transfer of technology in defense, Modi says at the end of his two-day trip to Israel.

Modi also said the visit featured “extensive discussions on regional and global issues,” according to the Indo-Asian News Service.

“Promoting regional connectivity, we will advance with renewed momentum on initiatives such as the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and India–Israel–UAE–USA (I2U2),” Modi says at the conference, according to the outlet.

He was referring to two US-backed initiatives: the IMEC transport corridor, which aims to connect India to Europe via the Middle East by sea and rail, and I2U2, a strategic partnership between India, Israel, the UAE, and the US centered around economic, technological, energy, and food security cooperation to promote regional stability.

Alongside Modi, Netanyahu says India, Israel ‘bent on innovation’ with ‘concrete plans’ in ag, tech

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, February 26, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Making a statement to the press alongside visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasizes India and Israel’s intention to promote cooperation in the fields of agriculture, technology and government.

Following an expanded meeting with their teams, Netanyahu says, “We spoke about cooperation with the extraordinarily talented people of India and our people, and we’re working this into concrete plans.”

He highlights “precision agriculture” and “software and AI” as fields that the two countries plan to collaborate on.

The two countries signed 16 bilateral memorandums of understanding primarily in the fields of innovation and technology at the event.

“Israel and India are bent on innovation,” Netanyahu continues, adding that the countries also plan to increase cooperation between their governments: “We’ve decided to have a [government-to-government] meeting in India as soon as we can arrange it.”

Netanyahu reiterates his personal connection with Modi, telling him “how deeply and from the heart we feel both our personal friendship and the friendship between our governments and our peoples, and may this continue and flourish and strengthen, as I’m sure it will as a result of this visit.”

Israel, India sign 16 MOUs on agriculture, tech, at Jerusalem press conference

Indian and Israeli officials sign memoranda of understanding at a press conference in Jerusalem, February 26, 2026. (Shlomi Amselam/GPO)

Sixteen bilateral memorandums of understanding are signed between Israel and India, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s office announces, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a press conference at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

Within this framework, Sa’ar and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar signed “cooperation agreements in the areas of agricultural innovation and technologies, the use of civilian drones, satellite data, irrigation and fertilization management, pest control, greenhouse cultivation, and the transfer of knowledge in advanced agricultural technologies,” reads a statement from Sa’ar’s office.

The ministers also signed a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of a research and innovation center in the field of agriculture in India, the statement adds, saying that under the initiative, “training programs for instructors, expert exchanges, and academic collaborations will also take place.”

WATCH: Netanyahu, Modi hold press conference in Jerusalem

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a press conference in Jerusalem as Modi wraps up his visit to Israel.

Watch their remarks live here:

Syrian government forces and Druze factions exchange prisoners in Sweida

Security personnel and officials gather next to buses with prisoners on board during an exchange of prisoners' ceremony between Syrian authorities and Druze fighters, in Sweida, Syria, on February 26, 2026. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

The Syrian government and Druze factions controlling the southern city of Sweida carry out their first prisoner exchange since deadly clashes last summer, the Syrian government’s Sweida media office says.

The swap involves Damascus releasing 61 prisoners from the Druze factions detained in Adra Central Prison near the capital, in return for the Druze National Guard Forces freeing 25 Syrian government personnel, the media office says.

The operation takes place under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Heavy sectarian clashes in Sweida between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes erupted last July. The clashes intensified further when forces of the Islamist-led government were sent to quell the fighting in the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

The clashes drew strikes from Israel backing the Druze against Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government.

A comprehensive ceasefire was announced later in the month to halt the fighting following days of bloodshed in which hundreds were killed.

Greek spyware scandal suspects, including two Israelis, get 8-year jail terms

A screenshot from a 2019 Forbes profile of Tal Dilian, founder of the Intellexa Consortium, sanctioned by the US. (Screenshot/Forbes)

A Greek court sentences four suspects, including two Israelis, to eight years in prison over a landmark spyware scandal that shook the government in 2022.

The case involved the illegal use of Predator software to target the phones of over 90 politicians, journalists, business leaders and senior military officials.

The defendants include Tal Dilian, a former Israeli soldier and founder of Intellexa, a company specializing in the supply of spyware, which marketed the Predator software in Greece. His partner, as well as two former Greek executives of the company, were also on trial.

The defendants, who were not present in court, are found guilty of “breaching the confidentiality of telephone communications,” according to the judge.

They are also found guilty of “tampering with a personal-data filing system… on a repeated basis,” as well as of “illegal access to an information system or data,” he says.

The four will remain free pending an appeal requested by their lawyers.

Predator is sophisticated software that makes it possible to infiltrate mobile phones, access messages and photos, and even remotely activate the microphone and camera.

Netanyahu holds meeting in Jerusalem with Indian PM Modi and his delegation

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet in Jerusalem alongside top ministers and advisers, February 26, 2026. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds an expanded meeting in Jerusalem with visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his delegation, Netanyahu’s office says a in a statement.

The sides will sign a series of agreements on “economic, security, and diplomatic matters” at the conclusion of the meeting, after which Netanyahu and Modi will deliver statements to the press, the statement adds.

Police commander in north probed on suspicion of misconduct with 2 subordinates

A police station commander in northern Israel is being probed on suspicion of sexually harassing a female officer subordinate to him, and having illicit romantic relations with another policewoman at the station, The Times of Israel has learned.

He was interrogated last night by detectives in the Department of Internal Police Investigations, a body in the State Attorney’s Office that investigates police.

He was released after questioning, subject to restrictions, including a 12-day ban from the station premises. He is also forbidden from contacting officers who serve under him.

Neither the commander nor his station are named in the announcement of the investigation.

Over 1,500 Gazans have passed through Rafah Crossing since February 2 opening — EU

Ambulances carrying Palestinians seeking medical treatment drive on the Egyptian side of the Rafah Crossing with the Gaza Strip on February 3, 2026. (AFP)

Since the Rafah Crossing opened for pedestrian traffic in both directions on February 2nd, 1,532 people have transited through the crossing, the only one between Gaza and Egypt, the European Union monitoring mission at the site tells The Times of Israel.

In total, 763 Gazans have entered into the Strip and 769 have left, including 278 requiring medical treatment.

According to the Egypt-Israel agreement on the crossing, a maximum of 50 Gazans are allowed to go through in each direction daily, as well two family members accompanying each outgoing patient. Numbers have generally been lower amid logistical and other complications.

Municipalities, rabbis urge refraining from loud noise during Purim celebrations to respect those with PTSD

People read from Megillat Esther (the Story of Esther) during the Jewish holiday of Purim, at the Great Synagogue in Tel Aviv, on March 16, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The municipalities of Jerusalem and several other Israeli cities, including Ashdod, Ramat Gan, and Yavne, are calling on people to avoid firecrackers and loud noises that are traditional during the upcoming holiday of Purim next week, in order to be considerate of people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Purim is a holiday of joy, costumes, and color, but this year more than ever we are called upon to show mutual consideration,” the Ashdod municipality says in a statement published on its website, saying that the recent war in Gaza “has left many people feeling sensitive and on edge.”

It adds, “For soldiers who have returned from the front, bereaved families, those suffering from anxiety, and children who were exposed to sirens and rocket interceptions, the sudden sound of a boom is not a game, it is a trigger that instantly takes them back to difficult moments.”

For the same reason, the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization asks people attending readings of the Book of Esther to forgo the tradition of making a din with noisemakers known as “groggers” when the name of Haman, the story’s antagonist, is mentioned.

“Many communities are home to heroes who have returned from the battlefield,” Tzohar says in a statement. “Our brothers and sisters continue to suffer the emotional impacts of combat and it is therefore critical that everyone, children and adults alike, be sensitive to those challenges. For these individuals, the sudden loud sounds that are traditionally part of the Megillah [Book of Esther] reading are not innocent or fun, but can be painful triggers bringing them back to the traumas of war.”

In September, the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department said it was caring for a total of 81,700 wounded veterans, including 31,000, suffering from mental health conditions. The number includes veterans of the Gaza war and previous conflicts.

Purim will be celebrated on Monday night and Tuesday across the world. It will be celebrated on Tuesday night and Wednesday in Jerusalem and several other cities that were encircled with a wall in ancient times.

Hadassah opens center for complex dental challenges, student training

The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine has opened a center on its campus in the Ein Kerem neighborhood of Jerusalem to offer dental care for people with physical, cognitive, and complex medical challenges that will serve as a training ground for Hebrew University-Hadassah dental students, Hadassah Medical Organization announces.

The Schattner Oral Health Center will deliver multidisciplinary care to 30 to 40 patients each day in five specially designed treatment rooms, allowing dental students to learn how to care for patients with physical or cognitive challenges.

The center will provide “accessible and compassionate care to everyone who comes through its doors,” says Dr. Yoram Weiss, director general of the Hadassah Medical Organization.

India’s Modi visits Yad Vashem with Netanyahu, then meets Herzog

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays a wreath and a rock at the Hall of Remembrance during his visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, February 26, 2026. (AP/Leo Correa)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem together.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu showed Modi the names of Holocaust victims from the family of his wife Sara, after which Modi laid a wreath in Yad Vashem’s Hall of Remembrance.

Laid a wreath at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Grateful to PM Netanyahu for accompanying me during this visit.

Also visited the Hall of Names, a solemn space that preserves the memory of those who suffered and perished during the Holocaust.

The Holocaust… pic.twitter.com/fU8PrM9ZJu

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 26, 2026

Modi then drives to the President’s Residence in Jerusalem to meet with President Isaac Herzog.

Glimpses from the meeting with President Herzog. Our talks were extremely fruitful and wide ranging.@Isaac_Herzog pic.twitter.com/1dVN5fTI9I

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 26, 2026

Modi is slated to fly out of Israel this afternoon.

Iran says talks with US to focus only on nuclear issue, nuclear watchdog head Grossi to join

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei during the weekly press conference held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital Tehran, on February 10, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

The third round of talks between Iran and the United States, which began this morning in Geneva, will focus solely on Tehran’s nuclear program and the lifting of US sanctions on Iran, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman says.

“The subject of the negotiations… is focused on the nuclear issue,” says Esmaeil Baqaei, adding that Tehran will push for lifting sanctions and asserting Iran’s right “to peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

He adds that Iran’s delegation has relayed these views to the Omani foreign minister mediating the talks.

The US has repeatedly pressed for the talks to also address Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional terror proxies.

Baqaei also says United Nations nuclear chief Rafael Grossi will likely attend the talks today.

US aircraft carrier, world’s largest, departs Greek island of Crete

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, has departed the Greek island of Crete, footage shows.

US President Donald Trump ordered the carrier strike group to the Middle East this month as part of a massive military buildup while he weighs whether to take military action against Iran.

Footage circulating online shows the carrier leaving Crete’s Souda Bay, where it arrived this week for a supply stop at the US Naval Support Activity base there.

The USS Gerald R. Ford has departed the port in Crete and is heading toward the eastern Mediterranean pic.twitter.com/Iz27jnaWEN

— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) February 26, 2026

Satellite images from Chinese intel firm show 11 US F-22 fighter jets at Israeli air base

Chinese intelligence firm MizarVision publishes satellite images showing the deployment of American F-22 stealth fighter jets at the Israeli Air Force’s Ovda Airbase.

The images provide visual confirmation of 11 F-22s at the airbase, along with what appears to be the deployment of an air defense system in the area, which MizarVision labels as a Patriot model.

MizarVision has alleged ties to the Chinese military and has been accused of republishing imagery from other satellite firms with its own overlays.

The movement of the jets comes as part of the United States’s massive buildup of military forces in the Middle East, as US President Donald Trump considers whether to take military action against Iran.

The deployment of US fighter jets at Israeli airbases for operational activities — rather than for joint training with the IAF — is extremely rare.

MizarVision has released new satellite imagery confirming 11 U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters deployed at Ovda Air Base in Israel.

The images also appear to show components of an air defense battery, likely associated with the MIM-104 Patriot missile defense system. https://t.co/qDtFyFRoRD pic.twitter.com/hXYjH8DUio

— Egypt's Intel Observer (@EGYOSINT) February 26, 2026

The F-22, operated exclusively by the US Air Force, is the world’s most advanced air-superiority fighter, built for unmatched speed, maneuverability, and stealth in air-to-air combat.

On Tuesday, 12 F-22s departed from the Royal Air Force Lakenheath airbase in England and headed to Israel. Eleven of the stealth fighters were deployed to the IAF base in southern Israel, while one returned to the airbase in England due to a technical issue.

According to analysts monitoring open-source flight tracking data, another 12 F-22s arrived at RAF Lakenheath yesterday. The additional 12 F-22s, along with the one with the technical issue, are all expected to later head to Israel and be deployed at the same IAF airbase, eventually bringing the total number of American stealth fighters stationed in Israel to 24.

Senior Shin Bet agent accused of smuggling goods to Gaza after he’s found with $2 million

Trucks line up to enter the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing, heading for inspection by Israeli authorities before entering the Gaza Strip, January 27, 2026. (AP/Mohamed Arafat)

A senior Shin Bet agent is accused of smuggling goods into Gaza, after NIS 6.5 million ($2.1 million) was found in his possession, Hebrew outlets report.

The defendant, who is not named, is suspected of trafficking equipment worth millions of shekels via trucks headed into the enclave, according to a police source speaking to Haaretz. He faces the serious offense of assisting the enemy during wartime.

Earlier this month, Bezalel Zini, the brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini, was indicted on similar charges after he allegedly abused his access to Gaza in order to smuggle cigarettes into the Strip on three occasions, earning a total of NIS 365,000 ($117,405). He denies the charges.

He was indicted alongside Aviel Ben David, another reservist in the same unit, and Ben David’s acquaintance Amir Dov Halperin, both of whom allegedly smuggled cigarettes into the Strip on five occasions.

Investigators began probing Zini after they came upon a larger smuggling network linked to his case, consisting of 12 people, among them IDF reservists. They were indicted the same week as Zini and his alleged accomplices.

Pivotal third round of US-Iran nuclear talks reportedly kicks off in Geneva

Left: US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Paris, France, April 17, 2025. (Ludovic Marin, Pool Photo via AP); Right: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Moscow, Russia, April 18, 2025. (Tatyana Makeyeva/Pool Photo via AP)

The third round of US-Iran negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program has begun in Geneva, Switzerland, Hebrew media reports.

The talks are being led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the Iranian side, with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner representing the US. Oman is mediating the talks.

US President Donald Trump, who has demanded that the Islamic Republic halt all nuclear enrichment, has threatened to strike Iran if it does not agree to a deal. Iran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium, and two previous rounds of negotiation did not reach an agreement.

The outcome of today’s talks is expected to factor heavily in Trump’s decision on a strike.

Bus carrying IDF soldiers crashes in the Negev; 17 injured, 2 moderately

The scene of a traffic accident on February 26, 2026, in which a bus carrying IDF soldiers crashed, injuring 17 people. (Magen David Adom)

A bus transporting a large group of IDF soldiers has crashed on Route 40 in the Negev, injuring 17 people inside.

The driver and one of the passengers sustained moderate injuries, while the remaining 15 were lightly wounded, Magen David Adom says. Paramedics are treating those injured at the scene.

Around 50 people were on the bus at the time of the accident.

Police are at the scene of the crash and have closed the highway to traffic in both directions.

Russia questions how Trump’s Board of Peace will work with UN Security Council

General view of a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Iran at the United Nations headquarters in New York on January 15, 2026. (ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

Russia questions how US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace would work with the United Nations Security Council, which has served as the fulcrum of collective international peacemaking since the end of World War II.

Trump first proposed the board in September, when he unveiled his plan for a ceasefire in Gaza, which it will oversee. Later, he said its remit would expand to tackle other conflicts globally — efforts traditionally overseen by the United Nations.

The United States is the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to have joined the board. The other council members are Russia, China, Britain and France.

“The charter of the Board of Peace defines itself as a new international structure designed to replace ‘mechanisms that have too often proved ineffective,'” Russian foreign ministry official Kirill Logvinov tells state news agency TASS.

“It is clear that this approach raises questions about how the Board of Peace will coexist with the United Nations and its Security Council, which is the only universally recognized body for maintaining international peace and security,” he says.

The board’s charter says it will undertake “peace-building functions in accordance with international law.”

Its chairman, Trump, will wield extensive executive power, including the ability to veto decisions and remove members, subject to some constraints.

The UN Security Council’s primary responsibility is to maintain international peace and security, the UN says.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Iranian president reiterates Iran’s opposition to building nuclear weapons — state TV

In this handout picture provided by Iranian presidency, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian addresses cabinet members, as they visit of the tomb of the late Iranian revolutionary leader ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in Tehran on January 31, 2026 (Handout/Iranian Presidency/AFP)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has banned weapons of mass destruction, which “clearly means Tehran won’t develop nuclear weapons,” President Masoud Pezeshkian says.

Pezeshkian speaks ahead of a third round of nuclear talks today with the US in Geneva. US President Donald Trump has threatened to attack Iran if an agreement is not reached on Tehran’s nuclear program, and called in his State of the Union address for Tehran to pledge not to obtain a nuclear bomb.

Khamenei, who has the final say on the nuclear program, banned the development of nuclear weapons in a fatwa, or religious decree, in the early 2000s, and Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire the weapons.

However, it has enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Prior to the June 2025 war between the countries, Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.

Man shot and killed in Reineh in latest apparent homicide to hit Arab community

A man was shot and killed this morning in Reineh, an Arab town just north of Nazareth, in an apparent homicide, as a rash of violent crime continues to plague the Arab community.

Paramedics found the victim, who is thought to be around 60 years old, unconscious and in critical condition, and rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police arrive at the scene and say they have launched an investigation into the lethal shooting. No arrests have yet been reported.

Since the start of 2026, 58 members of the Arab community have been killed in crime-related circumstances. At its current pace, the homicide rate in Arab society this year is set to exceed that of 2025, which saw 252 violent killings in the community’s deadliest year on record.

Greek court to deliver verdict on 2022 spyware scandal involving Israeli defendants

A screenshot from a 2019 Forbes profile of Tal Dilian, founder of the Intellexa Consortium, sanctioned in 2024 by the US. (Screenshot from YouTube, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

A Greek court is due to deliver its verdict on an illegal wiretapping scandal targeting politicians, journalists, business leaders and senior military officials that shook the country’s conservative government in 2022.

Dubbed the “Greek Watergate” by local media, it forced the resignation of senior officials in Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s administration.

Four defendants — two Israelis including a former soldier and two Greeks — face up to five years in prison for violating the confidentiality of telephone communications. They deny involvement in illegal conduct.

The defendants include Tal Dilian, a former Israeli soldier and founder of Intellexa, a company specializing in the supply of spyware, which marketed the Predator software in Greece. His partner is also on trial.

The sentences are expected to be suspended, to the outrage of lawyers for the victims. The defendants could benefit from a 2019 law under which breaches of the confidentiality of communications are classed as a misdemeanor.

According to Greek media reports, Dilian, who remains free pending judgement, is not expected to be in court for the verdict.

The affair broke in early 2022 when a Greek investigative journalist, Thanassis Koukakis, discovered he had been wiretapped by the country’s intelligence services (EYP) and that his phone had also been infected with the Predator spyware.

Predator is sophisticated software that makes it possible to infiltrate mobile phones, access messages and photos, and even remotely activate the microphone and camera.

Intellexa was sanctioned by the US in 2024 under then-US president Joe Biden. His successor, Donald Trump, dropped the sanctions the following year.

According to the Greek Authority for Communication Security and Privacy watchdog (ADAE), the software was used against more than 90 people.

‘Spitting on our voters’: Likud’s Amsalem says Netanyahu must tap Mizrahi MKs for senior roles

Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem David Amsalem at the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 13, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, says the premier must appoint a Mizrahi politician to a senior ministerial role if he wins this year’s elections.

Amsalem, born to immigrants from Morocco, is one of the most senior Likud politicians of Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern Jewish, descent.

In an interview with the Ynet outlet, he is asked if Netanyahu should tap a “hardcore” Mizrahi politician from Israel’s periphery for a senior ministerial role following an election victory.

“It must be so,” Amsalem replies, saying that to do otherwise would be a swipe at the party’s base.

“If not, he’s spitting on our voters,” Amsalem says. “There’s no reason this can’t happen. We’re the majority. Likud relies on these people. It can’t be that a few Ashkenazim come to control and manage us.”

This is not the first time Amsalem has leveled this charge. He previously lashed out at Netanyahu in 2023 for snubbing Mizrahi politicians after he was initially denied a cabinet post in the current government.

Ashkenazi politicians have held the most senior government positions for most of Israel’s history, and there has never been a Mizrahi prime minister. Mizrahi politicians, however, have in the past held the most senior ministerial roles, including helming the Defense, Foreign and Finance Ministries.

FBI reportedly fires at least six agents linked to Trump classified documents probe

FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a news conference with President Donald Trump in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, August 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The FBI has fired at least half a dozen agents linked to a 2022 probe into US President Donald Trump retaining documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence, American media reported yesterday, drawing anger from the association representing personnel of the US investigatory bureau.

The FBI raided Trump’s residence in Florida in 2022, when he was out of office, as part of a now-dropped investigation into the mishandling of classified documents after his first White House term.

FBI director Kash Patel ordered the firing of at least six agents over their work on the case, multiple US media outlets report.

The FBI declines to comment.

Trump allegedly kept classified documents — which included records from the Pentagon and CIA — unsecured at his Mar-a-Lago home and thwarted efforts to retrieve them.

The materials included secret nuclear and defense documents, according to prosecutors.

US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed the documents case against Trump in July 2024, ruling that former special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed.

The Justice Department appealed Cannon’s ruling but dropped the case after Trump won the November 2024 presidential election.

Trump also denied any wrongdoing in the case, one of several cases leveled against him after his first term in office.

The FBI Agents Association confirms that firings had taken place, without specifying a number, and condemns them in a statement for violating “the due process rights of those who risk their lives to protect” the United States.

“These actions weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce, undermining trust in leadership and jeopardizing the Bureau’s ability to meet its recruitment goals — ultimately putting the nation at greater risk,” the association says.

Iran said to be floating ‘economic bonanza’ for US in bid to avert attack

A part of Pardis petrochemical complex facilities in Assalouyeh on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf, Iran, Sept. 4, 2018. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

Iran is seeking to offer financial incentives to US President Donald Trump in a bid to reach an agreement on its nuclear program and avert an American attack, the Financial Times reports.

According to one source quoted in the report, the Islamic Republic will appeal to Trump’s affinity for deal-making and float a “bonanza” to the US, including investments in its large oil and gas industries.

Such an offer would be “specifically directed at Trump, a major economic bonanza in oil and gas and mining rights, critical minerals and all of that”, the source tells FT.

The report comes as US and Iranian negotiators are set to meet in Geneva today for a third round of talks over Tehran’s nuclear program. The US is demanding that Iran cease nuclear enrichment, which Iran claims it has a right to pursue. Trump has threatened to attack Iran if a deal is not reached, and has amassed forces in the Middle East.

A US official tells the publication that the Americans have yet to receive an economic proposal from Iran. “This was never discussed. President Trump has been clear that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon or the capacity to build one,” the official says.

Another source says that Iran is gleaning lessons from the situation in Venezuela, where the US has sought access to the country’s vast oil reserves after seizing its president in a nighttime raid last month.

Trump advisers said to prefer Israel attack Iran before US strikes: ‘The politics are a lot better’

The USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier is docked at Souda Bay in the Greek Mediterranean island of Crete on February 24, 2026. (Costas Metaxakis/AFP)

Senior advisers to President Donald Trump prefer that Israel attack Iran before the US launches strikes on the Islamic Republic, according to Politico.

Citing two people familiar with the discussions, the news site says the unnamed administration officials argue that an Israeli strike would lead Iran to retaliate, helping build support among the US public for an American military offensive.

“There’s thinking in and around the administration that the politics are a lot better if the Israelis go first and alone and the Iranians retaliate against us, and give us more reason to take action,” says one of the sources quoted in the report.

Both of the sources tell Politico that a joint US-Israeli operation could be a possible course of action, whether or not Israel strikes first, with one saying that though the talks with Iranians are serious, those closest to Trump believe “we’re going to bomb them.”

The report says the extent of a potential American military campaign remains unclear, citing concerns that the depletion of US munitions could encourage China to attempt an invasion of Taiwan, and that a more expansive offensive raises the prospect of casualties.

“If we’re talking about a regime-change scale attack, Iran is very likely to retaliate with everything they’ve got. We have a lot of assets in the region and every one of those is a potential target,” says one of the sources. “And they’re not under the Iron Dome. So there’s a high likelihood of American casualties. And that comes with lots of political risk.”

Rubio warns of ‘big problem’ if Iran keeps refusing to negotiate missiles

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters in a departure lounge before returning to Washington following meetings with Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders, at Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis on February 25, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool/AFP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Iran is attempting to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles and that talks on Thursday with Iran will largely be focused around Tehran’s nuclear program.

Rubio warns that Iran must negotiate on its missile program, a day after US President Donald Trump alleged Tehran was working on rockets that could hit the United States.

“I would say that the Iranian insistence on not discussing ballistic missiles is a big, big problem,” Rubio tells reporters.

Vance says US has seen evidence that Iran is trying to rebuild its nuclear weapons program

US Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, DC, on February 25, 2026. (Oliver Contreras / AFP)

The United States sees evidence that Iran is trying to rebuild its nuclear program after US-led strikes against Iranian nuclear sites in June, US Vice President JD Vance says.

“The principle is very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Vance tells reporters, a day ahead of talks in Geneva between US and Iranian delegations. “If they try to rebuild a nuclear weapon, that causes problems for us. In fact, we’ve seen evidence that they have tried to do exactly that.”

Vance notes that US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are due to attend the negotiations with Iran on Thursday, adding that Trump wants to address the Iranian nuclear program “diplomatically, but of course the president has other options as well.”

NEW: Vice President JD Vance on Iran:

Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon; if they try to rebuild the nuclear weapon, that causes problems for us.

In fact, we've seen evidence that they have tried to do exactly that. pic.twitter.com/Hr4gEKnC6e

— Tabz (@TabzLIVE) February 25, 2026

Red Crescent says man critically wounded, reportedly shot by settlers

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says it received a 35-year-old man from the IDF in critical condition and rushed him to a hospital after he was shot near the village of Yatta, south of Hebron in the southern West Bank. The IDF has not commented on the incident.

WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, says the man was shot by settlers who pursued and opened fire on a vehicle carrying him and several other Palestinians. The settlers then fled with the vehicle, according to eyewitnesses cited by the PA outlet.

Netanyahu dons traditional Indian clothing for dinner with Modi

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) is seen in traditional Indian clothing with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi before a dinner in Jerusalem, February 25, 2026 (Ma’ayan Toaf/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office releases photos of Netanyahu dressed in traditional Indian clothing with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi before their dinner this evening.