July 2: Likud’s Edelstein makes progress with Ayelet Shaked on new right-wing political alliance – report
Oct 7 survivors, families rail at government: ‘They’ve never taken responsibility’ * Protesters block Ayalon Highway during march to memorial event * Finance Ministry agrees to transfer another NIS 15 billion in budget funds to IDF
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Ayelet Shaked attends a farewell ceremony for outgoing Supreme Court justice Yosef Elron at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, September 18, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they unfolded.
A suspect in a shooting in Shfaram, July 2, 2026 (Israel Police)
Police and Shin Bet say the suspect believed to be behind a shooting in the Shfaram area last night has been arrested after an hours-long search.
Two other suspects were arrested over the course of the search, the statement adds.
Law enforcement had published a photo of the suspect earlier today, warning that he may be armed and urging the public to report any sightings to the police.
In this photo released by the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, center right, and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, center left, are greeted by Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, right, and Army Chief Field Marshal Gen. Asim Munir, left, upon their arrival at Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, April 11, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)
US officials indirectly warned Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf that Israel may try to target them in assassination attempts, while they were engaged in negotiations with Washington to end the war earlier this year, The New York Times reports.
The report, which cites current and former US officials, alleges that some officials believed Israel may have been planning to kill the top Iranian negotiators in the weeks following the April 8 ceasefire that halted fighting in the US-Israel war with Iran.
In light of those concerns, the US officials asked their counterparts across the region to warn Tehran that Israel may try to target the two men.
Officials quoted by the Times note that when the war began on February 28, and as Israel worked its way through killing much of Iran’s senior leadership, both Araghchi and Ghalibaf could have been legitimate targets.
But once a ceasefire was declared in early April and the two men were selected to represent Iran’s position in ceasefire negotiations, the officials say any attempt to kill them would have likely blown up the talks and triggered new fighting.
According to the report, a concrete Israeli threat against Ghalibaf emerged while the Iranian parliament speaker was traveling back to Iran from Islamabad following talks with US Vice President JD Vance on April 12.
Iranian security forces notified Ghalibaf’s plane of intelligence indicating that Israel planned to attack the plane, two US officials tell the Times, and that two Israeli fighter jets had entered Iran’s airspace from Iraq. The plane made an emergency landing in Mashhad, northeastern Iran, and Ghalibaf and the rest of his delegation returned to Tehran by land, the report says.
In March, while fighting was still ongoing, a Pakistani official told Reuters that Israel had taken both Araghchi and Ghalibaf off its hit list after Pakistan requested that Washington not target them.
At the time, the official said Islamabad had warned the US that if either or both of the men were killed, there would be “no one else to talk to” about negotiating a ceasefire. “Hence, the US asked the Israelis to back off,” the official added.
US Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, speaks during a press conference after he and other congresspeople met with the Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, August 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A veteran, pro-Israel Republican lawmaker blasts Israel’s conduct in Syria, where it has established an expanding buffer zone purportedly aimed at protecting communities in the Golan Heights.
“As the founder of the Republican Israel Caucus, I have been a friend of Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu throughout my career,” Rep. Joe Wilson tweets before offering considerable criticism of Israel’s current policy in Syria.
“Israel’s continuing aggressive operations in Syria are deeply disturbing, especially in recent days, including bombing and taking more Syrian cities,” Wilson writes.
“Israel’s actions in Syria are counterproductive and harmful to the interests of Israel. These actions are irresponsible and go against what President Trump, Secretary Rubio and Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack have tried to do,” Wilson writes.
“They also make it more difficult to remove War Criminal Putin’s malign influence in Syria,” he continues. “Taking Syrian land and attacking Syrian cities will hurt Israel in the long term and need to end immediately.”
Wilson touts the Trump administration’s efforts to aggressively take on Iran and its proxies, while also brokering peace talks between Israel and Lebanon and “giving Syria a chance,” by lifting sanctions put in place during the previous Assad regime.
He argues that US policy in Syria has paid dividends, including for Israel’s security
“Rather than being a land bridge to Hezbollah, Syria now actively shuts down Hezbollah routes and networks in the country. The IRGC has totally withdrawn from Syria,” he writes.
“Under the new government, Syria has not launched a single attack against Israel and pledges to never allow Syrian land to be used against its neighbors,” Wilson asserts.
“In my talks with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the Syrian leadership, I have been deeply impressed by their foresight and openness to seeking good and respectful relations with Israel,” he says, praising US efforts to broker a non-aggression pact between Jerusalem and Damascus that have largely stalled in recent months.
Wilson says such a deal “has the potential to stabilize the region, including for the Druze populations in both countries.” Israel has justified its presence and actions in Syria as being designed to protect Druze communities that have come under attack from regime-tied forces.
But Channel 12 aired a report earlier this week in which they interviewed IDF soldiers stationed in Syria who said they have very little to do there and that there’s no clarity regarding what their mission is.
Former UN ambassador and ex-Likud minister Gilad Erdan is no longer the only right-wing figure in talks with Likud MK Yuli Edelstein about a potential new political alliance, as Edelstein has also made recent progress in discussions with former cabinet minister Ayelet Shaked, Channel 12 reports.
Erdan, Edelstein, and Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel have all been mentioned in recent months in reports about the possible formation of a new party dubbed “Likud B,” aimed at creating a more “statesmanlike” alternative to the ruling party, which would eschew some of the extreme populist elements of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current party and cater to right-wing voters who assign blame to the premier for the failures that enabled Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023.
Channel 12 says Erdan is simultaneously continuing efforts to establish a separate joint list focused primarily on promoting equality in military service.
According to the report, a group of prominent religious Zionist rabbis is also attempting to broker the formation of a new party aimed at religious Zionist voters who feel they currently lack a political home. The emerging party would reportedly oppose relying on Arab parties to form a government and support advancing legislation to address military burden-sharing.
Channel 12 adds that broader efforts to unite parties in the political center-right remain hampered by disagreements over leadership, candidate placements and post-election coalition strategy, including whether to join a government led by Netanyahu or one that includes ultra-Orthodox parties.
Eyal Eshel, father of slain IDF surveillance soldier Roni Eshel, speaks at the protest in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, on July 2, 2026. (Marcelo Sznaidman/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Eyal Eshel, the father of slain IDF surveillance soldier Roni Eshel, compares the reality of his life over the past 1,000 days since October 7, 2023, to recent remarks from members of the government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which have appeared to make light of the situation.
“There’s Benjamin Netanyahu, for whom what has changed is that he lost weight. There’s Bezalel Smotrich, who claims that the hostages returned thanks to him, even those who came back in body bags,” Eshel says at the Hostages Square event marking 1,000 days since the massacre. “There’s Simcha Rothman, who claims they [the coalition] had a wonderful term. There’s Orit Strock, who thinks we’re living in a time of miracles.”
“And then there’s me, Eyal Eshel. Exactly 1,000 days ago, my life was stopped.”
“My Ronki,” he says, referring to his daughter by a pet name, “I promise you that we will not allow the truth to be covered up, that we will not allow your death to be turned into a chapter in history for someone else to re-write.”
Former Palestinian Islamic Jihad hostage Rom Braslavski speaks at a memorial event marking 1,000 days since October 7, 2023, at Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, on July 2, 2026. (Danor Aharon/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Former Palestinian Islamic Jihad hostage Rom Braslavski addresses protesters at the Hostages Square event marking 1,000 days since the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre.
“I was held in Gaza for two whole years. We’re marking 1,000 days, but for me it’s been an eternity,” he says. “I went through 1,000 lifetimes in 1,000 days.”
He says that although the war against Hamas is over, his “personal war,” of rehabilitation and his war against PTSD, “continues every single day.”
Jews in New York City were targeted in 55% of all confirmed hate crimes in the city in the first half of 2026, despite making up around 10% of the population, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says.
“There is no room for hatred of any kind in our city,” Mamdani says at a quarterly crime briefing, highlighting City Hall’s budgeting increase for preventing hate crimes.
There have been 178 confirmed antisemitic hate crimes so far in the city this year, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch says.
Hate crimes overall are up 8% in the city in the past six months, since Mamdani took office at the start of the year.
Most other major crimes, such as murders and robberies, are down across the city, continuing a downward trend that started under the previous mayoral administration.
Hate crimes have increased by 2% against Jews, Mamdani says, a smaller increase than hate crimes against some other groups, but Jews were already targeted far more than any other group.
Michael Rabello, who was elected state comptroller in a controversial vote that the High Court of Justice invalidated earlier today, has no intention of taking office without a new Knesset vote, even if the government defies the ruling and refuses to hold one, Channel 12 reports, citing sources close to him.
According to the report, Rabello, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal attorney, has made clear he will not assume a post clouded by questions over the legality of his election. The network says he also hopes to be appointed to the Supreme Court one day and would not want to jeopardize that possibility or expose himself to disciplinary action against his law license.
Channel 12 also reports that Rabello spoke with coalition leaders this afternoon and made clear he would not assume the role under the existing circumstances.
The High Court ruled earlier today that Rabello’s election was invalid because of breaches of ballot secrecy, after several ministers either displayed their voting slip with Rabello’s name visible outside the voting booth or photographed or filmed themselves casting their ballots for him inside it.
Protesters mark 1,000 days since the October 7, 2023, attack, at an event in Tel Aviv, on July 2, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Thousands of people are gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square for a protest and memorial event marking 1,000 days since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion and massacre.
The protesters are demanding a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding the attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history.
Rom Braslavski, who was held captive by Palestinian Islamic Jihad until his release in October 2025, speaks from the main stage of the event.
Rom Braslavski speaks at a memorial event marking 1,000 days since October 7, 2023, at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, on July 2, 2026. (Vardit Alon-Korpel/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Merav Svirsky, whose parents were murdered in the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri and whose brother Itay was abducted to Gaza and killed, also speaks at the event.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of former hostage Matan Zangauker and a leading member of the protest movement that advocated for a hostage deal throughout the two-year war with Hamas, is in attendance, along with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and Democrats chair Yair Golan.
Defense Minister Israel Katz says he was updated in an assessment today that the military has demolished 83% of the Hamas tunnels in the IDF-held portion of the Gaza Strip.
The assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other top officers was held to mark 1,000 days since the October 7 onslaught.
“We thwarted Iran’s nuclear program and removed an existential threat from the citizens of Israel, eliminated Khamenei and most of Iran’s ruling leadership, and severely damaged its strategic capabilities — and the IDF must prepare for an independent ‘blue and white’ strike on Iran whenever necessary,” Katz is cited as saying by his office.
The Finance Ministry has reached an agreement with the Defense Ministry to immediately transfer an additional NIS 15 billion in budget funds for the military.
The agreement, mediated by the National Security Council, comes after the Defense Ministry had been demanding NIS 40 billion in additional funds in recent weeks amid a shortfall due to wartime spending.
The Finance Ministry emphasizes that, as a result of the compromise agreement, the 2026 state budget won’t have to be reopened, thereby avoiding the need for new taxes or cuts to public services.
In addition, it was agreed to establish an oversight mechanism for the Finance Ministry, together with the Defense Ministry, to monitor expenditures requested by the defense establishment.
A Palestinian suspect who allegedly attacked a settler near the West Bank town of Beit Ummar earlier was detained, the military and Defense Ministry say.
The suspect had driven his car into a farm near the settlement of Karmei Zur, and physically assaulted a settler, police said. Afterward, the suspect tried to ram the settler with his car before fleeing the scene, according to the police.
A short while ago, Defense Ministry security guards at the Metzadot Yehuda Crossing, along with IDF troops in the area, detained the suspect and took him for further questioning, the military says.
Protesters march on Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv to demand a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, as they mark 1000 days since the massacre, on July 2, 2026. (Idit Avishay/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv is closed to northbound traffic, as protesters descend into the road to demand a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.
The protest is taking place on the 1,000th day since the invasion and massacre in southern Israel.
Rescue workers carry Hernán Alberto Gil Flores Gil who was pulled from the rubble eight days after he was trapped by twin earthquakes that struck Catia La Mar, Venezuela, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
An international team has rescued a security guard who had been trapped for eight days in the rubble of the building where he worked, following the twin earthquakes that jolted Venezuela.
Hernan Gil, 43, had been buried underneath the seven-story building in Catia La Mar, a coastal area in the state of La Guaira devastated by the disaster.
After three days of careful digging, Gil was brought out on a stretcher as elated rescuers cheered and hugged each other. He was loaded into a waiting ambulance and driven away.
Rescuers from seven countries — Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico — were involved in the painstaking operation.
In the final phase, two rescuers dug inside the three-meter tunnel that had been hollowed out to extract him, while around 30 people worked tirelessly in the building’s parking lot to clear the debris.
Rescuers used a rotary hammer to break through a metal plate after warning of the risk of collapse of a neighboring building.
Throughout the operation, they gave Gil water and installed a tube through which they supplied him with air.
“I have never seen anything so difficult. I don’t know if there’s ever been such a long rescue like this,” says one rescuer at the scene, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said yesterday that the number of deaths had risen to 2,295, and more than 11,000 people were injured.
After the government yesterday advanced a highly controversial Basic Law declaring Torah study a foundational value of the State of Israel, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says that soldiers should be the ones to be prioritized.
“The soldiers and commanders in mandatory service, career service, and the reserves are the State of Israel’s most important resource,” Zamir says during an assessment this morning.
“It is fitting and right that they be first in the order of priorities to receive the state’s appreciation through its decisions and resources, while ensuring care for them, their families, and their future,” he says.
Also at the assessment, on the 1,000th day of the multi-front war, Zamir says Iran remains the military’s “central focus.”
“We mark today 1,000 days since the outbreak of the longest war in our history,” he says, in remarks provided by the military.
“Iran continues to be the central focus of our preparedness. We are in an interim period across all theaters of combat. All theaters remain active at varying levels of intensity. The theaters are interconnected, and every action in one may affect the others,” Zamir says.
He says the IDF “must continue to remain vigilant and prepared for rapid escalation and an immediate return to fighting” on all fronts.
Zamir adds that the IDF “must use the coming period to reduce burnout, care for our people, and improve operational readiness.”
A Hezbollah operative who emerged from the terror group’s underground facility at the Ali Taher ridge in southern Lebanon was killed in an airstrike earlier today, the IDF says.
The military says troops of the Egoz Commando Unit spotted a Hezbollah operative emerging from one of the tunnel shafts on the ridge, which is located inside the IDF’s south Lebanon security zone.
“The terrorist posed an immediate threat to our forces,” the IDF says, adding that the Israeli Air Force struck “and eliminated the terrorist to remove the threat.”
The IDF says it continues to operate at the Ali Taher ridge, beneath which Hezbollah has a massive underground complex, where some 30 operatives are holed up. The military says it will “not allow Hezbollah terrorists to exit the underground tunnel network or move in the area of the ridge.”
צה"ל חיסל מחבל חיזבאללה לאחר שיצא מתשתית הטרור התת-קרקעית ברכס עלי טהאר
כוחות יחידת אגוז הפועלים בפיקוד אוגדה 36 זיהו מוקדם יותר היום, מחבל מארגון הטרור חיזבאללה שיצא מאחד הפירים של התשתית התת-קרקעית הנמצאת ברכס עלי טהאר, במרחב הביטחוני בו פועלים כוחות צה"ל.
This photo circulated on social media on June 30, 2026, shows a bound and blindfolded suspect in IDF custody. (Social media; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
“After a thorough investigation, the incident in question was located,” the military says in response to a query by The Times of Israel.
An investigation by the soldiers’ commanders is underway, and those involved will be “treated in accordance with the findings,” the IDF adds.
The photo was shared online yesterday by anti-Israel social media accounts, which claimed that it was taken during operations of the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion in the northern Gaza Strip.
Representatives of the Chief Rabbinate deliver a kashrut certificate to a local restaurant in central Jerusalem, on December 31, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
In what is being hailed as a historic decision, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate has ruled that the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization will be allowed to offer kashrut certification under Israeli law for the first time.
The ruling is expected to lead to shakeups within Israel’s food industry, increasing transparency and reducing prices while decentralizing state control over the kosher certification process.
Tzohar, an organization dedicated to bridging gaps between religious and secular Jews in Israel, has been operating as an alternative kosher certification service since 2018. It now acts as a supervising agency for hundreds of individual restaurants, hotels and food production facilities, it says, despite not being allowed to use the word “kosher” in its certification until now due to lack of government recognition.
Today’s decision by the Rabbinate to recognize Tzohar as a kashrut authority comes after years of efforts by the organization, Tzohar says in a statement.
The ruling is already being challenged by Religious Services Ministry director general Yehuda Avidan, who charges that the approval was not authorized properly within the Chief Rabbinate and is therefore invalid.
Advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are considering telling the premier to defy the High Court after it ruled that the Knesset vote to elect Michael Rabello as state comptroller was invalid and ordered it to hold a new vote, Ynet reports.
According to the report, the prime minister’s advisers are currently meeting with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to discuss possibly ignoring the ruling.
Doing so would spark a constitutional crisis, wherein a state institution, in this case the State Comptroller’s Office, would not know whether to follow the instructions of the court or the Knesset.
Before striking down Rabello’s election as invalid, the court had recommended that the Knesset redo the election “cleanly and properly,” but Ohana refused.
Several coalition lawmakers, including Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, had called to ignore the High Court ruling even before it was issued.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid welcomes the High Court ruling, saying the opposition will “continue to uphold the rule of law.”
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett says the affair is yet another instance in which “the coalition has failed again in managing state affairs,” while Democrats chair Yair Golan urges all opposition parties to unite around a candidate for state comptroller ahead of the new court-ordered vote.
The police say forces are searching for a Palestinian suspect driving a car with Israeli license plates, after he allegedly attacked an Israeli settler in the West Bank a short while ago.
According to the police, the suspect drove his car into a farm near the settlement of Karmei Tzur and assaulted a settler. Afterward, the suspect tried to ram the settler with his car before fleeing the scene, police say.
The IDF also said troops were responding to the incident and launched searches in the area.
A hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on petitions seeking to overturn the election of attorney Michael Rabello as state comptroller, June 28, 2026 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
The High Court of Justice rules unanimously that the vote in the Knesset in which Michael Rabello was elected state comptroller is invalid because of violations of the secrecy of the ballot.
The court rules that the Knesset must hold a new election for the state comptroller position.
The court notes that during the second round of voting, several MKs either made their voting slip with Rabello’s name visible outside the voting booth, or photographed or videoed themselves voting for him inside the booth.
Deputy President Noam Sohlberg writes in the ruling for the court that Basic Law: State Comptroller and the Law for the State Comptroller require that the vote be held by secret ballot, and that the stipulation was designed to allow Knesset members to vote their conscience free from external pressure, such as party political pressure.
Sohlberg writes that there was a real possibility that the violation of the secret ballot requirement influenced the outcome of the election, and that it must therefore be held again.
A bomb blast at a crowded cafe in central Damascus has killed at least five people and wounded 16, Syrian state media reports.
Syrian state TV says a bomb had been planted at the cafe, which is near the Palace of Justice in the center of Syria’s capital. There are no other immediate details on the apparent attack and no immediate claim of responsibility.
Damascus has been hit by a small number of attacks since the toppling of former president Bashar al-Assad in late 2024. His ouster by Ahmed al-Sharaa, now Syria’s president, and his rebel forces effectively ended 14 years of civil war.
Former hostage Eli Sharabi laments recent “embarrassing” and “impertinent” comments from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich about the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught, during which he was taken captive and his wife and daughters were killed.
Netanyahu, in an interview with the right-wing pro-government Channel 14 this week, joked that what October 7 changed about him was that he has “lost a little weight,” sparking outcry from political opponents and others for ostensibly making light of the attack.
Smotrich, two days prior, claimed credit for the return of all the hostages held by terror groups in Gaza, despite having repeatedly voted against deals that would have seen them released earlier.
“This was another embarrassing statement from people who claim to be the leaders of Israel and for the people of Israel,” Sharabi says to the Kan public broadcaster about Netanyahu’s Channel 14 interview.
Smotrich’s comments, Sharabi says, were “impertinent.”
“October 7, and many days after it, became days of disaster and national mourning for thousands of families. Statements of this kind are simply impertinent.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz hosted a group of right-wing activists, including several controversial figures, in his office today for a security briefing, according to participants.
“A short while ago, we met at the Kirya for a lengthy meeting with Defense Minister Israel Katz. He gave us a security briefing on all fronts,” writes activist Liran Baruch on X, attaching a photo showing the participants of the meeting.
Among them are Sheffi Paz, an anti-migrant activist and convicted felon; Aviad Gadot, a rabbi who leads a far-right religious nationalist organization, Torat Lehima, which aims to remove women from combat service and from the IDF entirely; Eliyahu Yosian, a far-right TV pundit, known for his extreme views; and Yigal Malka, a Likud activist who has claimed “treason” caused the October 7 onslaught.
There was no immediate comment from Katz’s office on the meeting.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which tracks media workers killed while on the job, including those killed by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon since October 7, 2023, says its board has voted to reaffirm its existing definition of who is a journalist after facing public backlash over its decision to launch a “full review” of its Gaza casualty database.
The review was announced following a Times of Israel investigation that identified multiple Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives previously reported as slain journalists.
The board says it rejects claims that CPJ had planned to change its definition to exclude certain groups, including Palestinian and Lebanese journalists killed during the war. Instead, it votes to affirm its longstanding policy, “anchored in international humanitarian law,” which includes “journalists working for state-backed media and those working with media organizations affiliated with militant groups provided they are not engaging in combat or inciting violence in a manner likely to have imminent effect.”
“It is not true that CPJ planned to change our definition of who is a journalist to exclude slain Palestinian and Lebanese press killed in the Israel-Gaza war,” CPJ board chair Jacob Weisberg says, adding that such “unsubstantiated allegations” undermine the organization’s documentation efforts.
CPJ previously removed eight names from its database after determining the individuals were Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, and another 12 for other reasons.
Its review of the remaining entries is expected to be completed this month.
In a separate X thread, CPJ defends its removal of the 20 names to date, saying the organization “did not remove any of these names because of political pressure… The only time we remove or add names is if new information, verified by CPJ, establishes that an individual should have been included or excluded as per our existing and long-standing methodology,” such as cases when media workers were later found to have engaged in combat.
The Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund’s (KKL-JNF) Board of Directors says it will invest NIS 15 million ($5 million) to establish a new regional agritech center in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, in partnership with the University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee, formerly Tel-Hai College, which is currently in the process of becoming a university.
The center is designed to foster innovation in agriculture, food technology, and environmental sciences as part of the broader effort to rehabilitate northern Israel following the war.
As part of this initiative, the MIGAL Galilee Research Institute, an applied scientific research institute in the Galilee, will be integrated into the new university. MIGAL, which specializes in agrotechnology, environmental sciences, and biotechnology, is expected to serve as the institution’s primary research and development arm.
The new center, which links research, development, academia, and industry, will help “transform Kiryat Shmona and the eastern Galilee into a regional hub for agricultural and technological innovation, attract new investment, create academic and scientific jobs, and encourage positive migration to the region,” KKL-JNF says.
“The establishment of the Agritech Center in Kiryat Shmona is a practical step toward rebuilding northern Israel,” says KKL-JNF chairman Eyal Ostrinsky. “KKL-JNF is committed to building a genuine engine for growth in a region that has stood on the front lines, with cutting-edge research, innovation, quality employment opportunities, and stronger communities.”
Bereaved families visit at the site of the Nova music festival massacre near Gaza border, marking the 1,000th day since the October 7, 2023 massacre, July 2, 2026. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
Opposition lawmakers slam the government for seemingly failing to mark 1,000 days since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught while pressing ahead with contentious legislation to shield Haredi draft evaders and weaken the role of the attorney general.
Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz calls the lack of any official commemoration “a criminal attempt to erase the massacre and the failure from the public agenda.”
Across Israel, bereaved families, survivors, and relatives of the former hostages are marking 1,000 days since the massacre with ceremonies and protests, including renewed calls for a state commission of inquiry into the attacks — something that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has never accepted explicit responsibility for the attacks, has refused to establish despite broad public support.
The Knesset has made no official acknowledgment of the date, instead hosting an exhibition marking the 250th anniversary of American independence ahead of the Fourth of July.
“This morning should have begun by marking 1,000 days since the massacre,” says Democrats MK Gilad Kariv at the Knesset Constitution Committee as it debates legislation to curtail the powers of the attorney general — one of Israel’s few checks on executive power.
Instead, he notes that the Knesset entrance includes an “exhibit celebrating 250 years of American independence, with no mention whatsoever of the 1,000th day.”
“The fact that on this day we are convening for yet another discussion of this bill shows that you have learned nothing,” he adds, accusing the government of pushing ahead with the very legislation that “destroyed us” and led to enormous division before October 7.
At the same time, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is debating highly contentious legislation to freeze arrests and enforcement against draft evaders.
Yesh Atid MK Matti Sarfati Harkavi tells the committee she wanted to spend the day with bereaved families today but couldn’t, “because I have to be here defending the blood of my children and grandchildren.”
The coalition is trying to blitz through several pieces of legislation ahead of entering its pre-election recess, amid reports that Netanyahu reached an agreement with the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties to advance key Haredi legislative priorities in exchange for supporting coalition initiatives such as the bills regarding the attorney general, although both parties have denied that such a deal exists.
Deputy Minister Almog Cohen blames the left for October 7, arguing that some reservists’ threats that year to refuse to show up for reserve duty — due to the government’s judicial overhaul efforts — led to the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
Responding to the day’s many protests throughout the country to mark 1,000 days since Oct. 7, including by many bereaved families that lost loved ones that day, Cohen dismisses the protesters as “the far left.”
“We don’t need you to remember” what happened on October 7, the far-right politician declares in a video posted to his X account. “We remember every day the refusal that you brought upon us in this disaster. How on that same morning, you stayed in your homes. You didn’t even go out to help anyone.”
Cohen’s claim is a falsehood. Israelis from all political backgrounds and all walks of life rushed to help the south that day.
“How days before that, you said ‘You have no army and you have no air force.’ How, in your ultimate audacity, you took the future of our children, their security, and compromised it for some political payoff,” he charges.
השמאל הקיצוני מציין היום 1,000 ימים לטבח הנורא שנגרם בעקבות אסון הסרבנות. אנחנו לא צריכים תזכורת או יום מיוחד, כולנו זוכרים יום-יום, שעה-שעה את האסון שהבאתם עלינו! pic.twitter.com/0nokjHIY6U
— אלמוג כהן Almog cohen (@almog_cohen08) July 2, 2026
“We will not forget and we will not forgive Shikma Bressler, Brothers in Arms, Yair Golan and Gadi Eisenkot,” he says — referring to a prominent anti-government activist, a leading protest group, the head of the left-wing Democrats party, and the chief of the Yashar party. “They literally sacrificed our children to Hamas. The People of Israel live, do not forget, and do not forgive.”
Golan, a retired IDF general, was celebrated for rushing south to rescue people with his car on October 7. Eisenkot lost a son who fought in the ensuing war.
President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog host survivors and bereaved families from Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, July 2, 2026 (Haim Zach/GPO)
As Israel marks 1,000 days since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre, President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog host survivors and bereaved families from Kibbutz Kerem Shalom at the President’s Residence, according to a readout from Herzog’s office.
Herzog calls the day “a milestone that reminds us of Israel’s ability to emerge from crisis and unimaginable pain — to remember and never forget.”
“This is the story of Israeli resilience. The enemy made no distinction between us — not between one opinion and another, nor between those who wear a kippah and those who do not. It came to destroy all of us. Our answer, and our true victory, lies in rebuilding, in restoring our communities, and in returning to the kibbutzim,” he says.
Yigal Moskovitz, chairman of the Kerem Shalom community committee, adds: “Today, the kibbutz has the same number of members it had on October 7, and more families are expected to join us. That is Israel’s victory.”
Nearly 90 percent of pre-October 7 residents have returned, and six new families have arrived at Kerem Shalom — one of the communities that were worst affected by the massacre — as of last September.
David Habaz, a survivor of the attack and the kibbutz’s longest-serving farmer, tells Herzog at the event that “returning to the kibbutz is the most important thing we’ve done. But emotionally, even after one thousand days, I still haven’t truly returned. The fears are still there, including the fear of what is still happening beyond the fence,” referring to the border with Gaza, where Hamas remains armed and in control of most of the Strip’s population (though the IDF holds a broad security zone inside Gaza and along the border)
The 1,000th day since October 7 is being marked around the country with unofficial memorials as well as events protesting the government’s failure to prevent the Hamas attack and its handling of the war in Gaza and the efforts to return the hostages.
Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, at a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset, May 20, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
A senior military officer again stresses to lawmakers that the IDF urgently needs the government to extend the mandatory service time for conscripts, among other legislation, to address the army’s personnel shortages.
Speaking at the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, says the IDF needs three laws that will help solve the manpower crisis: “an effective conscription law,” lengthening mandatory service, and a new reserve duty law — given that currently the IDF relies on emergency call-up orders with various limitations.
“The standing army is reaching its limit, for the overwhelming majority of the year it is at war, and there are many casualties. The intensity of the fighting is only increasing, and this is what the coming years are going to look like,” Tayeb says.
The IDF has repeatedly urged the government to extend mandatory military service for men to 36 months again, after it was shortened to 30 months in August 2024. The government has so far refused to approve this move. The first cohort enlisted under this shorter service period will be discharged in January 2027, further exacerbating manpower issues unless the existing law is changed.
“Extending service will provide an answer for force buildup and burnout, as well as flexibility,” he says, while noting that meanwhile, the IDF has “done a great deal to expand its ranks,” including establishing dozens of reserve battalions, forming two new infantry battalions, and returning “tens of thousands of personnel to [reserve] service.”
“We are also taking unprecedented steps to integrate members of the ultra-Orthodox community, [but] the reality shows that what we are doing is not enough,” Tayeb says.
He warns that in January 2027, “we will have a cohort gap. Because we operate on a four-month cycle, a service length of 30 months does not allow continuous rotation between cohorts, and thus a gap of an entire cohort is created.”
“This means the loss of thousands of combat soldiers,” he adds.
The IDF has repeatedly said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits — including 7,000 combat troops — due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the yearslong multifront war.
A man has been arrested for allegedly attempting to abduct a young girl as she crossed a street in Petah Tikva.
The incident occurred yesterday in the central city. The shirtless men accosted the 11-year-old girl as she crossed, picked her up and walked away. Alert passersby stopped the man and called the police to the scene. The girl was unharmed.
ילדה בת 11 ניצלה אתמול, על פי החשד, מניסיון חטיפה בפתח תקווה, לאחר שגבר בשנות ה-40 לחייו אחז בה, הרים אותה והחל להתרחק עמה. מחקירת המשטרה עולה כי הילדה הייתה בדרכה לחוג, ובמהלך הדרך ניגש אליה החשוד. לפי החשד, הוא ניסה לחטוף את מכשיר הטלפון שהיה בידה. באותם רגעים שוחחה הילדה עם… pic.twitter.com/lkDLxiTEVp
A suspect in a shooting in Shfaram, July 2, 2026 (Israel Police)
Police and the Shin Bet say forces, including special units, “are currently operating in the Coastal and Northern districts to locate a suspect who is believed to have carried out a shooting overnight in the Shfaram area before fleeing the scene.”
The suspect may be armed and the public is urged to report any sightings to the police.
Hamas says it has executed a Gaza resident accused of collaborating with Israel.
The man is identified only by the initials M.M.
According to the statement, the man collaborated with Israel and assisted in the killing of several senior Hamas figures, including the head of Hamas’s military wing, Izz al-Din Haddad, who was killed last May.
Pedestrians walk past a poster showing the slain Iranian supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, and the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini on a sidewalk at the Islamic Revolution square in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP/Vahid Salemi)
An Iranian military commander warns the United States and Israel against any attack on Iran as it prepares for the state funeral of the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in airstrikes on the first day of the war.
“We warn the enemies of Iran, especially the US and the Zionist regime, to avoid any miscalculation and to think about the harsh retaliation our armed forces would make to any threat and aggression against our country,” Ali Abdollahi, commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, says in a statement carried by state media.
Funeral processions for Khamenei will begin on July 4 in Tehran and conclude on July 9 with his burial in his hometown of Mashhad, with additional ceremonies planned in Qom and Iraq in-between these dates.
Yesterday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi gave a similar warning that Tehran would deliver an immediate and powerful response to any threat against its people or leadership after comments by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz that Iran’s current Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was “marked for death.”
Iranian media reported heightened security measures during the funeral period, while the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation said that temporary airspace restrictions would be implemented over several cities, including Tehran and Mashhad.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (L) meets with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at the speaker's residence in Beirut on July 2, 2026. (JOSEPH EID / AFP)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani meets Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, for the first time, in a visit to Beirut.
Shaibani’s visit comes as Damascus has insisted it does not want to intervene militarily in Lebanon, despite pressure from the United States to do so.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that Syria could “take care of Hezbollah,” criticizing Israel’s strategy in its war with the Iran-backed terror group.
But Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who came to power in December 2024 after leading a coalition that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, has stated that he has no intention of intervening or reopening old wounds.
The Syrian minister, on his second visit to Lebanon, was received on arrival by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, before going on to meet Berri, according to local media.
The new Syrian authorities are hostile to Hezbollah, which was allied with Assad, and have announced arrests of alleged cells affiliated with the group.
An 8-year-old boy was hit by a bus and killed in the central West Bank settlement of Modiin Illit around noon, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.
Police officers are on the scene and investigating the accident, police say.
Commercial vessels are seen in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
Iran’s joint military command warns that all oil tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz must use its approved routes or face a “forceful response,” again ratcheting up tensions over a waterway crucial for international energy supplies.
The strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has emerged as one of the top issues in negotiations to reach a permanent end to the Iran war. The statement from the Khatam al-Anbiya military command, reported by Iranian state television, comes after both US and Iranian diplomats met with mediators yesterday in Qatar.
It isn’t immediately clear what sparked the threat from Iran. However, the US military’s Central Command put out a statement about having a meeting with officials from Mideast nations in Bahrain that said “leaders underscored their shared commitment to the free flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz.”
That appears to have been the phrase to anger Iran, which is preparing for the funeral beginning this weekend of the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the war’s first moments in February.
“Any failure to comply, deviation from the designated route, or disregard for the navigation protocols of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz will be met with an immediate and forceful response from the armed forces, endangering the security of the violating vessels,” the Iranian statement says. It also says the continued presence of US fighter jets over the strait “causes insecurity in this waterway and threatens regional security.”
“Any attempt by the United States to interfere in security matters or any disruptive action in the Strait of Hormuz will be considered a threat to Iran’s national sovereignty and will be met with a rapid and decisive reaction,” the Iranian warning adds.
A pro-government woman holds an Iranian flag under a banner showing a portrait of the slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf calls for massive turnout at Ali Khamenei’s funeral to avenge the supreme leader’s death in US-Israeli strikes at the start of the war.
“I invite all the Iranian people… to write a glorious page in the history of Islamic Iran through your presence” at the funeral ceremonies starting Saturday, says Ghalibaf, who is also Iran’s parliament speaker.
“The nation’s call for vengeance must ring in the ears of the whole world,” he adds in a statement.
Khamenei’s funeral, initially delayed at the height of the Middle East war, will take place as Iran and the United States observe a fragile ceasefire after signing a preliminary deal to halt the conflict.
Khamenei, a spiritual figure for many Shias, was killed at the age of 86 at his compound in the center of the Iranian capital on February 28, the first day of the war. His public funeral will begin on Saturday, with his body lying in state at the colossal Grand Mosalla complex in central Tehran that hosts major Friday prayers, official ceremonies and religious gatherings. The bodies of his slain relatives will also be presented.
The ceremonies are expected to draw between 15 and 20 million mourners, according to officials, which would make it the biggest state funeral in the country’s history.
“Iran… is preparing to experience one of the most significant moments in its history,” Ghalibaf says.
Tehran, as well as the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad, which will host later stages of the funeral and burial ceremonies, will observe public holidays while the events are underway.
Authorities have ordered public and private offices in Tehran to close from Saturday through Monday, while traffic restrictions will make much of the city center inaccessible to private vehicles.
The Defense Ministry warns that Israel’s system for rehabilitating wounded soldiers could “collapse” under the weight of the growing number of casualties, urging the government to immediately implement the recommendations recently made by a public committee.
Marking 1,000 days since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, the ministry says approximately 26,200 wounded IDF soldiers and security personnel have sought treatment through its Rehabilitation Department since the war began, up from a tally of 25,000 just last month. Some 65 percent are receiving care for psychological conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and difficulties surrounding reintegration into civilian life.
The ministry says the total number of wounded from all of Israel’s wars under the department’s care is expected to surpass 90,000 in 2026, a more than 40% increase within three years, and reach around 100,000 by 2028. Roughly half are expected to be coping with psychological harm.
Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram warns that failing to implement the public committee’s recommendations “is not an option,” saying the rehab system “could collapse under the burden” if additional resources are not allocated.
Among the committee’s proposals were increasing the Rehabilitation Department’s budget, assigning every wounded veteran a dedicated personal case manager, and expanding psychological treatment options.
According to the Defense Ministry, approximately 17,000 of those wounded since October 7 are coping with psychological injuries, including 7,700 who also sustained physical wounds, while around 9,000 are being treated solely for physical injuries.
Minister of Heritage Amichay Eliyahu attends an Education, Culture and Sports Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on May 19, 2026 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit) says former hostage point man Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon is to blame for the killings and kidnappings on Oct. 7, 2023.
“In my view, he is to blame for people being murdered and kidnapped,” Eliyahu tells Army Radio.
“They were murdered because of Nitzan Alon and this approach that allowed terrorists on the fence,” Eliyahu says. “If we had gone along with him, we would now have Hamas on [our border] fences, and then what would have happened? Who would be to blame? Nitzan Alon and his group are to blame for the October 7 massacre.”
Alon, a major general in the reserves, is a former head of the IDF’s elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit. He later served in various roles in the West Bank and as the chief of the IDF’s Operations Division. He retired in 2019. Alon began his reserve duty as the IDF’s point man on hostage negotiations on the morning of the October 7, 2023, attack, during which 251 people were abducted, and was appointed by former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi to head the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters. He left the position in November 2025.
Eliyahu’s comments came after Alon said on Wednesday that the war in Gaza could have ended “at least a year earlier,” hitting back at Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who claimed credit this week for the return of all the captives held by terror groups in the Strip.
“In Gaza, we fought a long war that could have been ended at least a year earlier,” Alon said at the Herzliya Conference at Reichman University. “When talking about the return of all the hostages, it should be remembered that around 40 hostages who were abducted alive were killed in captivity, and I do not forget that.”
“In certain cases, with different conduct and decisions, or different negotiations, we might have been able to bring them back alive,” he said.
Smotrich voted repeatedly throughout the two-year war against deals that would have seen the hostages released earlier than they ultimately were. Eliyahu’s Otzma Yehudit party did likewise.
A man from Tajikistan holding a Russian passport was recently arrested on suspicion of spying on Israel on behalf of Iran and working to recruit additional spies, authorities announce.
A joint investigation by the police, Shin Bet, and the Defense Ministry found that Behrouz Sobirgon, a Tajik citizen, was in contact with an Iranian handler starting in January, with most of his “security activity” taking place during the recent war with Iran.
A statement says that during the war, Sobirgon “sought to help Iran achieve operational successes and advance its objectives in the international arena against the State of Israel.”
The investigation found that Sobirgon was approached with “an innocent job offer,” but he “quickly realized that it had been made by an Iranian agent and nevertheless maintained contact.”
The missions he carried out for the Iranian handler included “documenting and transferring the locations of Iranian missile impact sites” during the Iran war, providing coordinates of the Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv, sending a photo of the Haifa Port, and attempting to photograph a “sensitive security facility” in northern Israel, the joint statement says.
“In addition to all of this, he actively assisted in recruiting additional people for missions on behalf of Iranian operatives,” the police, Shin Bet, and Defense Ministry say.
Sobirgon was arrested in June, and prosecutors now announce their intention to file an indictment against him. They also ask that he be kept in custody until the end of legal proceedings.
He is the latest person to be arrested on suspicion of spying for the Islamic Republic, a burgeoning phenomenon that the security establishment has struggled to stem, even during the recent war against Iran.
Palestinian media publishes footage from last night showing Israeli soldiers beating and detaining a Palestinian man in Khirbet Umm al-Khair, in the South Hebron Hills in the southern West Bank, while settlers hang Israeli flags on a nearby home in the village.
The footage shows several people exiting a car that arrived in the village and hanging Israeli flags. Seconds later, an IDF jeep arrives and three soldiers get out. A Palestinian man emerges from a nearby house and approaches the area where the soldiers and settlers are standing, with a phone in his hand.
תיעוד מאתמול מחירבת אום אל-חיר בדרום הר חברון: אנשים שיוצאים מרכב תולים דגלי ישראל על הבתים, שניות אחר כך ג'יפ של צה"ל מגיע. פלסטיני יוצא מאזור הבתים לכיוון תולי הדגלים והחיילים, נראה עם פלאפון ביד – והחיילים ממהרים אליו. אחד מהם נשמע אומר "מה קרה? מה אתה איזה גנגסטר?" ומכה אותו… pic.twitter.com/x2pjJ7wgvs
The soldiers immediately move toward him. One of them can be heard saying, “What’s going on? What are you, some kind of gangster?” before striking him in the leg.
The man is then detained by the soldiers, who are heard demanding that he identify himself.
Meanwhile, the settlers continue hanging Israeli flags on the nearby house.
The IDF says its forces were called to respond to reports of a confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians.
“Upon arriving at the scene, the troops acted to disperse the confrontation and briefly detained a Palestinian, who was released shortly afterward,” it says.
Protesters demonstrate outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, during events marking the 1,000th day since the October 7 massacre, July 2, 2026 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
As families mark 1,000 days since Oct. 7, the mother of a murdered hostage vows not to drop her demand for a state commission of inquiry into the disaster.
Esther Buchshtab, the mother of Yagev Buchshtab, who was abducted and murdered in Hamas captivity, says: “One thousand days have passed since the abandonment began. Military pressure did not save hostages — it harmed them. But the government continued on its path and failed to see the people who were there.
“We, who lived through the massacre and experience its devastation and loss every single day, will neither forget nor give up on the demand for a state commission of inquiry to investigate and explain what happened on the day of the disaster and what has happened since. We have returned to the kibbutz and still don’t know what caused the disaster of October 7 or how to prevent the next one. In the grief and pain I live with, I am not seeking revenge. I am seeking hope — hope for my family, for the people around me, and for Israeli society.”
Danny Elgarat, the brother of murdered hostage Itzik Elgarat, says at a rally outside IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv: “For a thousand days I’ve heard over and over again people saying, ‘The hostages have returned.’ Not all of them have returned.”
Elgarat says, “Those who came back alive returned. Those who were kidnapped alive, abandoned in captivity, murdered, and brought back in a coffin — did not return. My brother Itzik did not return. Itzik was kidnapped alive and could have come back alive, but he was abandoned to die. And what came back to us was not my brother. What came back was a body, and no one will ever be able to blur that truth.”
Protesters demonstrate outside IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv, during events marking the 1,000th day since the October 7 massacre, July 2, 2026 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Yoram Yehudai, father of Nova festival victim Ron Yehudai, says at a memorial held there today: “Above all, it’s a thousand days without Ron, a thousand days of a rent heart. A thousand days for the bereaved families, a thousand days of torment inflicted on the people. A thousand days of not knowing what happened and how it happened.”
Former hostage Omri Miran tells Kan’s Reshet Bet: “On the national level we don’t see any change in how things are being handled. We haven’t learned that lesson. Military officers tell me first and foremost, ‘We’re sorry, and we’re ashamed.’ I don’t see that from our leadership.”
Of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s claim this week that he should be thanked for the return of the hostages, Miran says he “should stop talking nonsense. He bragged about having torpedoed so many hostage deals. It’s possible that more hostages who could have been with us today were murdered there.”
Miran says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should “take responsibility and start dealing with what taking responsibility actually means — instead of focusing on the draft exemption law for Torah scholars just to buy yourself another two weeks in power.”
Elad Or, whose brother Dror Or was murdered on October 7 with his body seized and taken to Gaza, said of Smotrich’s claim: “It’s such a huge lie. It’s part of the campaign the government decided to wage against us after it realized the public does care about the hostages and its citizens, and that the public is with us. For political reasons, the government launched a campaign against us, at our expense, trying to smear us — as if the disaster we’ve endured wasn’t enough.”
“The statements by these despicable people like Smotrich are just a continuation of that campaign. It’s infuriating but it’s not surprising. We’ve been hearing them spread these lies for more than two years. The only thing we can do on this day is tell the public the truth: what happened, and the scale of the disaster, the failure, and the abandonment for which they have never taken responsibility.”
Protesters demonstrate outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, during events marking the 1,000th day since the October 7 massacre, July 2, 2026 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Protests and memorial events are being held throughout Israel this morning to mark 1,000 days since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on Israel, the worst terror attack in the country’s history.
Protests against the government are being held at numerous intersections.
At Re’im, in the south, families of victims hold a memorial event at the scene of the Nova music festival massacre.
1000 ימים לטבח | יורם וסיגל יהודאי בטקס זכרון במקום בו נרצח בנם רון בפסטיבל הנובה
— Dave Acting Now???????????????? (@DaveActNow) July 2, 2026
The focus of many of the protests is the government’s refusal to set up a state committee of investigation, the country’s most powerful investigative body, to investigate the failures of Oct. 7. The government claims that due to its efforts to curb the powers of the judiciary, a state committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, will be biased against it. It has sought to form a government-appointed commission. Critics say the government fears it will be blamed for the disaster, and are outraged that it seeks to appoint its own investigators.
Protesters demonstrate outside IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv, during events marking the 1,000th day since the October 7 massacre, July 2, 2026 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)Protesters demonstrate outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, during events marking the 1,000th day since the October 7 massacre, July 2, 2026 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Following scans, the IDF confirms that all of the Israeli civilians who entered Mukhmas overnight have since left the West Bank Palestinian village.
“All of the civilians were located, and the concern of a security incident was ruled out,” the military says.
The Israelis, reportedly a group of around 10 Hssidic Jews, had been on the run from the police after allegedly committing traffic violations. The cops stopped chasing them as they fled into Mukhmas, where their vehicle flipped over and crashed.
Security and rescue forces at the scene of a terror shooting, a gas station at the entrance to Kochav Ya'ir, June 7, 2026 (Tal Gal/Flash90)
Police and the Shin Bet announce that three Arab Israelis are set to be charged for assisting the terrorist who went on a shooting spree in central Israel early last month, killing one man and wounding several others.
Omar Mundar Yassin of the Arab town of Tayibe opened fire on people at a gas station near Kochav Ya’ir and outside the communities of Tzur Yitzhak and Tzur Natan. A civil defense squad member was killed and five were injured. Yassin was shot dead by security forces.
Authorities say Alaa al-Din Jaheim and Weam Masarwa of Tayibe were aware of Yassin’s intention to carry out an attack and took no action to prevent it. They say Muhammad Aftima of Baqa al-Gharbiyye supplied Yassin with the improvised Carlo submachine gun used in the attack.
The military has ruled out a suspected kidnapping after contact was lost with several Israelis who entered the Palestinian West Bank village of Mukhmas, north of Jerusalem, overnight.
At around 4 a.m., the military received a report from Israeli civilians who said they were in Mukhmas and “felt threatened.” The military says it then lost contact with the Israelis.
The army declared a suspected security incident after finding an abandoned and damaged vehicle with Israeli license plates just outside the village. The car also contained personal items apparently belonging to the Israelis.
Large forces from the IDF, Shin Bet, and Israel Police were deployed to the area to conduct searches, with the assistance of an Israeli Air Force helicopter. The IDF also encircled the village during the searches and blocked nearby roads.
Then this morning the army received a report from one of the civilians stating that they had all left the village.
The IDF says troops are still scanning the area to rule out any other possible security incidents.
Police say three men will be charged in a murder that took place at a carwash in Nazareth last year.
The three men, aged 18, 21 and 33, are accused of killing Basel Farouni at the carwash as part of a feud between underworld families. They misidentified Farouni as the owner of the business, who was their target, shooting him before fleeing the scene.
♦️ מזירת הרצח היום בעיר נצרת
צעיר בן 20 נקבע מותו בעסק לרחיצת רכבים כוחות גדולים של משטרת מחוז צפון נמצאים בזירה אנשי המעבדה לזיהוי פלילי אוספים ממצאים מהזירה כולל בדיקת מצלמות אבטחה. נמסר שהצעיר באסל אשראף פרעוני, בן 20, הוא קורבן הרצח שאירע היום בתוך עסק לרחיצת רכבים. pic.twitter.com/Iy4kkuBxQn
Russia conducted a massive attack on Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv and other locations using long-range, high-precision air-, land-, sea-launched weapons and drones, the Russian Defense Ministry says in a Telegram post.
The ministry adds it hit military and energy facilities around Kyiv, as well as military airports in several regions including in Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk, in what it says is retaliation for Ukraine’s attack on civil infrastructure.
The Russian missile and drone strikes killed at least nine people and wounded dozens.
IDF forces are searching for several Israelis with whom contact was lost in the area of the Palestinian West Bank village of Mukhmas, north of Jerusalem.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, and Speaker of the Islamic Parliament of Iran, Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, 2nd from left, with the Delegation of Iran at the Lake Lucerne Summit at the Buergenstock resort in Obbuergen, near Lucerne, Switzerland, June 21, 2026. (Urs Flueeler, Pool Photo via AP)
The head of Iran’s negotiating team again denies that inspectors from the UN nuclear agency will be allowed access to nuclear sites bombed by the US.
According to Al Jazeera, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has been leading Iran’s negotiating delegation, says on state TV that it is not true that inspectors will be allowed to access Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
Ghalibaf says reports Iran has granted such access are “false” and that “IAEA inspectors do not have the right to inspect nuclear sites bombed by the US,” Al Jazeera quotes him as saying on the IRIB state broadcaster.
“Currently, inspectors only have access to two locations: Bushehr power plant and Tehran reactor,” he reportedly says.
International Atomic Energy Agency boss Rafael Grossi said Friday that “there is an agreement and to comply with that agreement, the IAEA will have to have access and inspect,” he told a press conference in Japan, without naming the specific sites in question.
Such visits have been a contentious sticking point in negotiations in recent days, with all sites speaking out publicly about the disagreements.
A man is shot dead in the northern Arab town of Reineh, marking a particularly deadly week amid an ongoing crime wave.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says that paramedics responded to a call about a man who was wounded, and pronounced him dead at the scene.
An MDA paramedic said that when they arrived the victim, around age 30, was unconscious, without a pulse and was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Several hours ago, a man was shot dead in Haifa and two others were seriously wounded, and yesterday three people were killed in Israel, including a man in Shfaram, a man in Haifa, and a rabbi in Netanya who was allegedly killed by his student.
Iraqi security sources say an explosive-laden drone targeted a camp belonging to an Iranian Kurdish opposition group in the Koysanjaq district, east of Erbil in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, causing a fire at the camp.
There was no immediate information on casualties or who was responsible for the attack.
First responders at the scene of a shooting in Haifa early in the morning of July 2, 2026. (MDA)
A man has been shot dead and two others seriously wounded in Haifa, police and medics say, amid a spiraling crime wave across the country.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says that three men who are all around age 25 were seriously wounded in the shooting, and that paramedics were treating them at the scene. One was later confirmed dead.
Police say that officers have opened an investigation into the shooting and began gathering evidence and searching for suspects. Police say they believe the incident is criminal in nature and not linked to terrorist activity.
Qatar foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari confirms that Qatari and Pakistani mediators have concluded separate meetings with US and Iranian negotiators in Doha.
“Positive progress [was] made on issues related to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, building on the outcomes of the Lake Lucerne Summit,” Ansari tweets, referring to the MOU inked last month and a subsequent summit held by negotiators in Switzerland.
“The parties agreed to continue discussions over the coming period, with the next meeting to be scheduled at the earliest possible time, following the funeral processions of the former Iranian supreme leader,” the Qatari spokesperson adds.
Funeral ceremonies for Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli strike on the opening day of the recent Iran war, are set to begin on Saturday and last for several days, concluding with an official burial at his hometown of Mashhad on July 9.
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