The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s events as they unfolded.
Iran’s Top Joint Military Command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, says that Israel should expect a hard response from the Iranian armed forces if it does not stop its attacks on southern Lebanon, days after Tehran and Washington announced a deal to end the regional war.
Tehran has insisted that the memorandum of understanding requires Israel to halt its offensive against Hezbollah — a claim that both Jerusalem and Washington have disputed.
United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush declares that if Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara “does not stop persecuting Torah scholars” by pushing for their arrest over draft evasion, there will be “no choice” but to “drive her out with sticks and stones.”
Addressing representatives of local authorities belonging to his Shlomei Emunim political movement — part of the UTJ party’s Agudat Yisrael faction — at a conference in Betar Illit, Porush says that they “must be prepared together for a difficult and complex campaign” against efforts to conscript yeshiva students into the IDF.
“The day may not be far off when I will contact you with the decision that we must completely disassociate ourselves from cooperation with other government authorities that are taking part in the persecution against us. We may have to lead economic moves that will shake the economy and make the other side understand that we cannot be messed with,” Porush says.
His remarks echo Shas chairman Aryeh Deri’s threat of a Haredi “tax revolt,” and Degel HaTorah chairman Moshe Gafni’s recent instruction to local party representatives on regional councils across the country to halt all cooperation with the police over the arrest of yeshiva students.
“I saw this week that Ehud Barak, former prime minister and chief of staff, one of the leaders of the Kaplanists [the term used by many to refer to left-wing and anti-government activists], said that ‘if Netanyahu tries to sabotage the elections, there will be no choice but to expel him with sticks and stones,” Porush says. “Once war has been declared against the world of the Torah, everything that is permitted to them is permitted to us, and if necessary, even more than that.”
Last month, Porush appeared to call on police to refuse orders to arrest yeshiva students who disobey draft orders, stating that they should “think carefully” about their actions.
A 2025 Times of Israel investigation found that a telephone hotline linked to Porush, then a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, was counseling callers to “just ignore” summonses to the IDF’s recruitment bureau.
Under Israeli law, someone inciting others to evade service during wartime is liable to a prison term of 15 years.
Shas chairman Aryeh Deri’s son Yanki is set to be appointed as associate chairman of the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), a position previously held by Deri’s brother Shlomo and that comes with staff, a car, and an office, Channel 12 reports.
Deri’s office tells the network that “this is an unpaid position” and was “initially intended for former MK Moshe Arbel, but due to a conflict of interest, he announced he would not be able to accept it,” and that his son, who had “served for years as a board member of the World Zionist Organization,” was only being appointed on a “temporary basis” until the position can be filled full-time.
The large Zionist institutions, WZO and KKL-JNF alike, have long been criticized as a source of political patronage and nepotism.
Israel fears Iran will use the reported 60-day nuclear negotiation period with the United States as part of the emerging memorandum of understanding to advance its nuclear program and make progress towards developing a nuclear weapon, Channel 12 reports, citing senior Israeli officials.
According to the report, Israel assesses that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has no intention of reaching a final nuclear agreement and approved the MOU primarily to open up the Strait of Hormuz and secure economic relief for the regime.
Israeli defense officials reportedly warn the government that Tehran “will drag out the process, and the 60 days of negotiation will turn into much more.”
One senior Israeli official tells the network it would be surprising if Iran did not use “all its efforts and tricks to shorten the timeline to nuclear breakout under the cover of negotiations.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition will advance a new draft of its controversial bill declaring Torah study a foundational value of the State of Israel, in which it will remove wording referring to the benefits granted to yeshiva students and directly equating full-time Torah study to military service by referring to it as a “significant service,” instead, Channel 12 reports.
According to the network, the Haredi parties do not believe that the change will make a substantive difference to their aim of passing a bill allowing yeshiva students to avoid conscription that will not be struck down by the High Court of Justice.
At the same time, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri will try to advance legislation lifted from the coalition’s now-halted draft exemption bill that would release yeshiva students held in prison for draft evasion, the network reports.
Israel and Lebanon are nearing a US-mediated lasting ceasefire agreement, with significant progress made in recent talks in Washington, Channel 12 reports.
According to the report, details of the agreement are being finalized, and the Lebanese Armed Forces have begun deploying on the ground as part of the emerging deal.
The framework is also expected to allow residents of southern Lebanon who evacuated amid Israeli strikes on Hezbollah to return to their homes.
The US-Iran memorandum of understanding set to be signed in person on Friday provides for a full cessation of hostilities by Iran, the US, and their allies, including in Lebanon, Channel 12 reports, citing a senior US official.
The framework reportedly sees Iran reaffirm its commitment not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons. In 60 days of negotiations beginning immediately after the deal is signed, the MOU further reportedly states, Washington and Tehran are to work to resolve the issue of Iran’s existing stockpile of enriched uranium and to hold talks on future enrichment and the Islamic Republic’s civilian nuclear needs.
Under the reported terms, the US will lift its naval blockade, refrain from imposing new sanctions or reinforcing military forces in the region during the negotiations, and grant Iran sanctions relief for oil sales. Iran, meanwhile, will maintain the status quo regarding its nuclear program and ensure free commercial navigation through the Strait of Hormuz for the 60 days of nuclear talks.
The report says the memorandum will also make Iran’s frozen assets available upon implementation and, if a final lasting agreement is reached, will lead to a US withdrawal of forces deployed to the region and the lifting of all sanctions on Iran. A final deal would also reportedly include a $300 billion fund for investment and reconstruction in Iran.
Channel 12 further reports that senior US officials were divided over the proposal, with Vice President JD Vance and envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff supporting it, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe expressed doubts that Iran would uphold its commitments.
Meanwhile, Israel has yet to be briefed on the agreement’s official terms.
According to Channel 12, Jerusalem requested to review the memorandum, but Washington declined, reportedly out of concern that the details would be leaked.
Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi visits the Knesset, a day after opening his country’s embassy in Jerusalem.
Writing in the parliamentary guestbook, Abdullahi calls his visit a “historic moment for me” and expresses his appreciation “on behalf of all 6.5 million citizens of Somaliland.”
Abdullahi is making his first state visit abroad since becoming president. In December, Israel became the first country in the world to recognize Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991.
Receiving Abdullahi, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana says it is “an exciting and special day for us” and that the opening of the Muslim nation’s embassy in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim hi-tech park was “an important and significant step.”
Ohana was joined by the foreign, defense, and energy ministers to greet the Somaliland president.
“The entire nation of Israel was thrilled along with you to see the outburst of joy and the waving of Israeli flags in Somaliland upon the. announcement of official recognition,” Ohana tells him. “It is important to us that the people of Somaliland know that we are your true friends.”
The suspects arrested for plotting to attack the White House during a mixed martial arts event over the weekend targeted politicians linked to Israel, according to a criminal complaint.
FBI Director Kash Patel said earlier that US law enforcement had disrupted the planned attack by five individuals, who had discussed using drones and gunfire to attack the event.
One of the suspects, Tycen Proper, told his co-conspirators on May 13 that the assailants should target US Sen. Marsha Blackburn, an FBI agent writes in a criminal complaint, citing a review of Proper’s phone.
Asked why the group should target Blackburn, Proper said, “She’s taken money from the Israel pro Israel [sic] lobby and supports them,” according to the complaint.
Two weeks later, Proper said in a text message, “These are people we’re going to focus on,” alongside images of two US senators and two members of the US House.
The images appeared to have been taken from the website “TrackAIPAC.com” and included information about how much money each lawmaker had received from “pro-Israel PACS,” the complaint says.
During the investigation, police spoke with Proper’s father and grandmother, who said that Proper had recently made statements in support of Adolf Hitler and posted antisemitic comments on social media, the complaint says.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi urges Israel to abandon its plan to take control of 70 percent of Gaza, as he attends the G7 summit in France.
Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the IDF to take control of more territory in the battered Gaza Strip, flouting the terms of a fragile ceasefire that took effect in October.
Under the deal, Israel is supposed to remain in control of just over 50% of the Strip, but Netanyahu said that troops today hold around 60% of the enclave, and are pushing toward 70%.
“Only 30% of the Strip is effectively left for the Palestinian people,” Sisi says at a G7 summit session on Middle East stability in the French resort of Evian.
This approach “must stop immediately,” he adds at the session, also attended by G7 and EU leaders, as well as the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Sisi says there is “no alternative to reaching a just and lasting settlement to the Palestinian cause based on the two-state solution” and urges “the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in the Gaza Strip.”
Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas since the terror group’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel triggered the war in the enclave.
The first phase of the Gaza truce saw the release of the remaining hostages seized in the October 7 attacks, in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.
The transition to the second phase, which was supposed to involve Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual withdrawal of the IDF, has been stalled for months as Hamas refuses to give up its weapons.
Some 60 percent of the 257 local authorities in Israel do not have plans in place to deal with the effects of climate change, the state comptroller finds.
Out of 88 councils without plans that were questioned on the matter, 75% cited lack of money, 70% said they lacked the manpower, and 87% had not even mapped the climate risks relevant to their areas.
Climate change, writes the state comptroller, will challenge local authorities in many ways, for example, by increasing pests and air pollution — the latter as higher temperatures, disrupted weather patterns, and events like dust storms and wildfires interact. It will also impact local authorities through increased electricity consumption for heating or cooling, as extreme weather becomes more regular, and through damage resulting from rising sea levels, heavy rainfall and storms, and wildfires.
The comptroller’s report notes that despite government decisions and policy documents putting the responsibility for preparing for climate change on local government, and the publication of a guide for preparation by the interior, environmental protection, and energy ministries, just NIS 13 million ($4.46 million) was allocated to 101 local authorities for the purpose by April 2025.
The comptroller notes the government’s failure to pass a climate bill that would oblige local authorities to complete preparedness plans.
The report, based on data collected between June and October 2025, also finds that the Environmental Protection Ministry does not monitor local government’s readiness for climate change.
The US is readying to begin offering Iran sanctions relief in the form of a waiver allowing Tehran to export its oil, after the sides inked a memorandum of understanding to end the war between them on Sunday, a US official and a Mideast diplomat tell The Times of Israel.
The US has insisted that the MOU conditions any sanctions relief for Iran on Tehran’s willingness to make concessions in subsequent talks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and its conduct in the region.
But the up-front US sanctions waiver on Iranian oil sales would indicate that Iran is not in fact required to make further concessions in order to have some of the economic restrictions against Tehran lifted.
A senior US official briefing reporters on Monday seemed to hint at the sanctions waiver, saying the US would make “some small gestures… in the beginning,” but said those would be conditioned on “small gestures… that show they’re willing to meet their commitments.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the sanctions waiver earlier today, but was unclear as to whether it was already in effect.
The report noted that an Iranian oil tanker was allowed to cross the US blockade today, in an indication that the waiver is at least partially in place.
While lifting its curbs on oil exports offers some much-needed relief to Iran, it is seen as one of the more minor steps that the US can take in the realm of sanctions relief.
Washington even signed such a waiver during the recent Iran war, temporarily lifting sanctions on Iranian oil for 30 days, in order to ease pressure on global energy supplies and lower oil prices.
Several rockets launched by Hezbollah at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon this morning were intercepted by air defenses, the military says.
A short while later, the Israeli Air Force struck and destroyed the launcher, the IDF says.
Additionally, the IDF says it spotted a suspicious vehicle in an area of southern Lebanon where troops are operating today. The soldiers fired warning shots, and later carried out a strike “to remove the threat,” the army says.
צה"ל תקף את המשגר ממנו נורו רקטות לעבר כוחותינו בדרום לבנון
מוקדם יותר היום, חיל האוויר יירט מספר רקטות ששוגרו על ידי ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה לעבר המרחב בו פועלים כוחות צה"ל בדרום לבנון. על פי מדיניות, לא הופעלו התרעות.
תוך זמן קצר, חיל האוויר תקף והשמיד את המשגר ממנו נורו חלק… pic.twitter.com/6haA3LkRzV
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) June 16, 2026
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee reiterates that Hezbollah is not included in the deal between the US and Iran, as Tehran continues to insist that Israel is required to halt its offensive in Lebanon under the terms of the agreement.
In response to Hezbollah claiming that the terror group received assurances from Iran that there will be no nuclear deal without Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, Huckabee says that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio “made clear” that the two issues aren’t connected.
“Israel doesn’t need Iran permission to defend itself,” he writes on X. “The tether of terror must end.”
Lebanese media report four dead in Israeli airstrikes near Nabatieh in southern Lebanon this afternoon.
Initially, a car was targeted in a drone strike in Mayfadoun, before a second strike hit the area after locals gathered there, Lebanon’s National News Agency reports.
NNA says a third strike hit another car in the town, and a fourth strike hit a car in the adjacent town of Shoukine.
The strikes resulted in the deaths of four and injured others, according to NNA.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
The Lod District Court rules that Likud MK Tally Gotliv does not have parliamentary immunity from a defamation lawsuit filed against her by anti-government activist Shikma Bressler for revealing the identity of her partner, a Shin Bet agent.
The court ruled, however, that Gotliv does have immunity from the other items detailed in the lawsuit, thus dismissing it with the exception of the items related to her revealing the identity of the Shin Bet officer.
The lawsuit filed by Bressler is separate from the criminal proceedings against Gotliv by the Attorney General’s Office for revealing the Shin Bet officer’s identity.
The lawsuit and the criminal case both refer to a series of social media posts from Gotliv in 2024 in which she identified Bressler’s husband as a Shin Bet agent while promoting baseless conspiracy theories linking him to Hamas and insinuating that he bore responsibility for the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.
In his ruling, Judge Rami Haimovich explains that Gotliv’s parliamentary immunity is being partially upheld because the reason such immunity exists to “ensure a proper democratic process.”
“Caution should be exercised against restricting the freedom of speech and expression of Knesset members, for fear of a chilling effect that would make carrying out their job difficult.”
However, he notes, “immunity is not absolute.”
As such, the portion of the lawsuit pertaining to the identity of Bressler’s husband will not be dismissed, in line with a Supreme Court ruling that determined that “intentional disclosure of the identity of a security official does not qualify for immunity,” Haimovich writes in his decision.
Furthermore, he writes, Gotliv did not reveal the agent’s identity in a “neutral security context,” but rather due to his relationship with anti-government activist Bressler and alongside claims relating to Bressler’s alleged influence on the war against Hamas.
Gotliv has repeatedly alleged that US intelligence agencies had intercepted a conversation between Bressler’s partner and then-Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in the run-up to October 7, 2023.
According to the conspiracy theory, then-Mossad head David Barnea had summoned Bressler for a meeting as a result of the intelligence, days before the October 7 attack on southern Israel.
Bressler filed the NIS 2.6 million ($890,000 at the current exchange rate) defamation suit against Gotliv in February 2024.
The Swiss foreign ministry confirms to AFP that the US-Iran deal will be signed at Switzerland’s mountainside Burgenstock resort on Friday.
The site, located near Lucerne in central Switzerland, is difficult to access and therefore easily secured. It “was proposed by the Pakistani and Qatari mediators, as well as by the US and Iran,” Switzerland’s foreign ministry says.
The Foreign Ministry denies that Israel has abolished the 1997 Hebron agreement with the Palestinian Authority, after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed that it had done so.
The agreement gives the city’s Palestinian municipal council authority over planning, zoning and construction in the area of the city where its Jewish settlement is located, and which includes the Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site.
Smotrich claimed earlier that the Civil Administration had implemented a decision to transfer authority over these issues in the area of Jewish settlements.
In a statement published in English, the Foreign Ministry explains that the agreement “has not been canceled,” although Israel has implemented several changes.
“Several months ago, the security cabinet adopted a decision that specifically concerns jurisdictions in the field of planning and construction with regard to the Jewish community in Hebron and Jewish heritage sites,” it says, adding that “this decision was made following years of a complete lack of cooperation on these matters by the Hebron Municipality.”
“Beyond that, no changes have been made,” it says.
Hezbollah has received assurances from its backer Iran that it will demand a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in its next phase of talks with the United States, Hezbollah’s media relations office tells Reuters.
An IDF withdrawal will be the result of, and not a pre-condition for, continuing talks between Tehran and Washington following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries on Friday, Hezbollah says.
The group tells Reuters that there will be “no nuclear deal between Iran and the United States unless the Israelis withdraw” from Lebanon.
All bills are removed from the Knesset plenum agenda for the second day in a row, as ultra-Orthodox lawmakers continue their boycott of coalition legislation to protest the lack of advancement of the so-called Daycare Law.
The continuation of the boycott appears to spell at least a temporary halt to the coalition’s legislative blitz, coming as lawmakers attempt to pass laws splitting the role of the attorney general, establishing a political commission of inquiry into October 7, and giving the government significant control over the media before the upcoming pre-election Knesset recess.
Speaking to The Times of Israel this afternoon, a senior Haredi political source said that the Knesset’s ultra-Orthodox parties do not believe that the legislation aimed at restoring government daycare subsidies to the children of Haredi draft evaders will return to the parliamentary agenda because “there’s no majority” in favor. Therefore, the source said, the boycott would continue.
The boycott began yesterday afternoon with the removal of all legislation from the Knesset agenda, and the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism and Shas parties issuing a joint statement declaring that they had “informed the coalition chairman that due to the failure to put the Daycare Law on the agenda, we will not vote today in favor of coalition legislation in the Knesset plenum.”
After announcing that the boycott would continue for a second day, the Degel HaTorah faction of United Torah Judaism says in a statement that: “There was a commitment by the prime minister and the Likud to bring the Daycare Law for approval. We firmly insist upon this and will not accept any delay or retreat from it.”
The second faction that makes up the party, Agudat Yisrael, confirms that “the entire faction stands united with Degel HaTorah” in its demand that Netanyahu allow the Daycare Law to pass.
“Failure to pass the law would mean an admission by the prime minister that he is ultimately interested in dissolving the Knesset and going to elections,” it adds.
There is no immediate comment from Shas.
According to Hebrew-language reports, the coalition declined to bring the Daycare Law to the plenum yesterday, despite gaining approval from the Knesset Finance Committee, due to opposition from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party.
Ahead of today’s plenum session, the Knesset Finance Committee canceled a debate on changes to the 2026 budget after ultra-Orthodox lawmakers threatened to vote against any budget transfers unless the Daycare Law was advanced.
The Labor Ministry was ordered by the Attorney General’s Office to cut daycare subsidies for the children of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers in August 2024, following a High Court ruling stating that ultra-Orthodox men were not exempt from mandatory military service.
The new legislation is an attempt to circumvent that decision and restore the subsidies.
Oil prices have fallen to a three-month low on optimism over the expected reopening of the Strait of Hormuz after a deal between the United States and Iran.
Brent Crude, the international benchmark, drops 3.8 percent to $79.99 a barrel, dipping under $80 for the first time since early March.
The main US oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, slides 3.9 percent to $77.61 a barrel.
Police arrest a man from Rehovot on suspicion of stabbing his elderly father to death today.
Officers and medics arrived at the apartment of the victim, a man in his 80s, and found him lifeless with stab wounds.
Police say that officers on patrol arrested the victim’s son, a man in his 40s, at the crime scene after finding a knife on his person.
According to Hebrew reports, the suspect called the Magen David Adom emergency medical service and confessed to the murder over the phone.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s Together party announces former Ra’anana Municipality director general Michal Negri as the latest addition to its election slate ahead of this year’s parliamentary election.
The former senior municipal official has “been active in the fight against the proposed draft evasion bill,” the party says in a statement, referring to a bill that would enshrine blanket exemptions for IDF service to yeshiva students.
Negri’s son Roi, an officer in the IDF reserves, was killed fighting Hamas at Kibbutz Be’eri during the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre.
In a post on Facebook, Negri writes that she chose to join Bennett out of a sense of “deep trust” in his “ability to lead with responsibility, clear values, and a heart that is in the right place.”
“Over the years, I have held many senior positions in educational and municipal systems” and “today, I choose to take all the experience and knowledge I have accumulated to the place where the decisions that shape our lives are made,” she adds.
Negri is the latest in a series of female former officials chosen by Bennett to run on his list. The first two candidates announced by Bennett in April were Keren Terner, who resigned as director general of the Finance Ministry in 2021, and Liran Avisar Ben-Horin, who resigned as director general of the Communications Ministry in 2023.
Addressing a so-called “women’s headquarters conference” late last year, Bennett vowed to stack both his party and senior governmental positions with women, stressing that six of his party’s nine co-founders were women in senior positions, “not because they are women, but because they are excellent.”
Speaking with The Times of Israel last week, Bennett said that “women make up the majority of my team. On average, I believe they are better managers and leaders.”
Law enforcement officials disrupted “planned attacks” meant to target the UFC cage-fighting show staged at the White House this past weekend for US President Donald Trump’s birthday, and multiple people are in custody, FBI Director Kash Patel says.
The nature of the potential threat was not immediately disclosed, with additional details expected to be released once charges are unsealed later today.
Five people were arrested from states including Ohio, Missouri and California, says a law enforcement official familiar with the matter. The official speaks to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that was not yet public.
The FBI learned about the possible threat on June 10, four days before the mixed-martial arts extravaganza on the White House’s South Lawn, “and thanks to the rapid action of the FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold,” Patel says in a post on X.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran says in a separate statement that his agency “worked around the clock to identify those responsible and hold them accountable.”
Trump, who celebrated his 80th birthday at the UFC event on Sunday, sought to tie the fights to larger celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the United States.
The United States has “no obligation” to invest in Iran even after its deal with the Islamic Republic to end the Middle East war, US President Donald Trump says.
“We are not investing any money” in Iran, Trump says at the G7 summit in France after talks with the emir of Qatar.
The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemns Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s announcement that he has canceled part of the Hebron Agreement and given Israel planning and construction authority in the area of the city containing its Jewish settlement and Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site.
In a statement, the presidency says it “warns against the step announced by one of the ministers in the right-wing government and views this measure as harmful to the political and legal status of the city of Hebron and to the signed agreements concerning it.”
The statement adds that “such unilateral measures are unacceptable and constitute a violation of the agreements signed by the Israeli side, as well as international law.”
The PA presidency calls on the international community, and particularly the US, to intervene immediately to stop what it describes as “this most dangerous step.”
Police overnight detained four Palestinian men from the southern West Bank who are suspected in a string of car burglaries in Ma’ale Adumim.
The men are suspected of having stolen several cars from the West Bank settlement over the past two months, police say, without specifying the number of vehicles stolen.
Officers located one of the suspects as he was driving a car he allegedly stole two days before.
Police also seized an additional vehicle that they believe was used in the burglaries.
The suspects will be brought to court tomorrow where police will request to extend their detention.
Leaders of the Arab-Jewish left-wing movement Standing Together launch a new political party called Makom Lekulanu (“A Place for Us All”) ahead of upcoming national elections, pledging to advance a platform centered on “truly equal” Jewish-Arab partnership.
The new party will be led by Standing Together national co-directors Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green, who are taking a leave of absence from the movement to focus on the party.
Speaking at the party’s launch in Nazareth, Daood calls this “the last moment to save our society.”
“We are being abandoned, murdered, our future is being burned,” she says, arguing that efforts to replace the government must be accompanied by a positive vision. Referring to the prime, national security and finance ministers, she adds, “Not only will we be part of the struggle to replace Netanyahu, Ben Gvir and Smotrich, but we will also lead the struggle for Israeli-Palestinian peace, national and civil equality, and social justice.”
Green tells The Times of Israel that the party aims to offer a model of Jewish-Arab partnership largely absent from Israeli politics.
“It’s time to have a truly equal Jewish-Arab partnership,” he says. “I don’t think this means an Arab representative in a Jewish party or a Jewish representative in an Arab party. Jewish-Arab partnership can start in the same political party.”
The largely Arab party Hadash, which is running jointly with other Arab parties, holds a designated seat on its list for Jewish candidates, while many Jewish-majority parties including the left-wing Democrats reserve a slot for an Arab candidate. The ruling Likud party has a reserved spot that is generally held by a Druze lawmaker.
Daood will head the slate, making her the only woman currently leading a national political party in Israel. The party in addition calls her the first Palestinian woman to lead a national party in Israel. Green will occupy the second slot.
Other candidates on the new party’s slate include Haifa City Council member Sally Abed; activist Itamar Avneri; Yonatan Zeiger, the son of Vivian Silver, the peace activist killed in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack; and activist Ghadir Hani.
A spokesperson stresses that the party is entirely independent, including legally and financially, from Standing Together.
Three Iranian tankers and two vessels carrying essential goods are currently sailing toward Iranian southern ports from the Indian Ocean, Iranian state TV says, despite a US military advisory note saying yesterday that a blockade of Iranian ports remains in effect until Friday.
The Knesset Finance Committee cancels a debate on changes to the 2026 budget after ultra-Orthodox lawmakers threaten to vote against any budget transfers in response to the coalition’s failure to advance legislation aimed at restoring daycare subsidies to the children of Haredi draft evaders.
MK Moshe Gafni, the chairman of the United Torah Judaism party’s Degel HaTorah faction, has “now informed the coalition that due to the lack of progress in advancing the Daycare Law, the two Degel Hatorah representatives on the Finance Committee will vote against all budget transfers that will be brought to the committee for approval today,” a spokesman for the lawmaker says in a statement.
Speaking with The Times of Israel today, a senior Haredi political source expressed doubt that the daycare bill would be passed, stating that there was “no majority” for it. The source said that the Haredi parties would thus continue a boycott of coalition legislation that began yesterday afternoon.
Vladimir Beliak (Yesh Atid), an opposition member of the committee, tells The Times of Israel in light of the news, “The representatives of the draft dodgers in the Knesset are this time disrupting the activities of government ministries and blocking budget transfers in the Finance Committee, including funds for social ministries.”
He says, “This is a coalition in disarray, this is a paralyzed Knesset. It is time to stop the disgrace, dissolve the Knesset and go to elections.”
US President Donald Trump praises his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, describing it as “very good” and “unbelievable,” following a series of negative comments he made about the premier in recent days.
But he says Israel owes its continued existence to the United States.
“If it weren’t for the United States of America, with me, because Obama was the opposite, Israel would not exist right now. Israel would have been blown off the face of the earth, 100 percent. And every smart person in Israel knows that,” the US president says in comments at the G7 summit of global leaders in France.
“Without me, there’d be no Israel,” he stresses, “because no other president was willing to do what I did [in tackling Iran].” He says Iran was “two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon” and would have used it against Israel if the US had not intervened.
Asked whether he is frustrated with Netanyahu after the two clashed over Israel’s bombing of Hezbollah targets in Beirut on Sunday. Trump praises their relationship.
“We have a very good relationship,” he says. He adds later, using the premier’s nickname, “So, when you ask me about Bibi: an unbelievable relationship. But Israel would have been blown up a long time ago had I not gotten involved.”
The Knesset’s ultra-Orthodox parties do not believe that the so-called Daycare Bill, aimed at restoring government daycare subsidies to the children of Haredi draft evaders, will return to the parliamentary agenda, and the parties will thus continue their boycott of coalition legislation, a senior Haredi politician source tells The Times of Israel.
“There’s no law. It won’t be raised, there’s no majority,” the source says.
All legislation was removed from the plenum agenda on Monday afternoon over the issue, with the United Torah Judaism and Shas parties issuing a joint statement that they had “informed the coalition chairman that due to the failure to put the Daycare Law on the agenda, we will not vote today in favor of coalition legislation in the Knesset plenum.”
According to Hebrew-language reports, the coalition was not expected to bring the so-called Daycare Law to the plenum yesterday afternoon, following its approval by the Knesset Finance Committee last week, due to the opposition of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party.
In August 2024, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered the Labor Ministry to cut daycare subsidies for the children of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who disobey military draft orders, explaining that since the High Court ruled that members of the ultra-Orthodox community must be inducted into the army, there was no longer a legal basis for the state to fund daycare for families of those who don’t comply. The Haredi-backed legislation is an attempt to circumvent the attorney general’s orders.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claims to have abolished the components of the 1997 Hebron agreement that gave the city’s Palestinian municipal council authority over planning, zoning and construction in the area of the city where its Jewish settlement is located, and which includes the Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site.
According to Smotrich, the move was based on a security cabinet decision introduced by Smotrich himself, which he says was approved “several months ago.”
He adds that yesterday, the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration, a department of the Defense Ministry that Smotrich controls and that oversees civilian affairs in the West Bank, implemented the decision.
Smotrich does not say which Israeli agency will now have authority over such issues in the area of the Jewish settlement. His spokesman said merely that the “State of Israel” will control planning, zoning and construction in the zone and declined to elaborate further.
Security cabinet decisions are not made public.
“Yesterday we annulled the Hebron Accords,” declares Smotrich at a dedication ceremony for the establishment of a new settlement in the Mount Hebron region of the southern West Bank.
“For many years, one of the most absurd clauses of the Oslo accords remained in place, in which authorities concerning the Jewish settlement in Hebron and the holy sites were dependent on the terrorist municipality of Hebron. Yesterday we put an end to that.”
He added that the decision was part of the government’s broader effort to legalize illegal settlement outposts and “deepen Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” the West Bank.
The Hebron agreement, or the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron as it is formally known, was a continuation of the 1995 Oslo II agreement and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process initiated by the Oslo Accords in 1993.
Under the terms of the Hebron agreement, Israel withdrew its security forces from the area in Hebron designated as H1, some 80 percent of the city, and the Palestinian police assumed responsibility for security issues there.
Israel retained security control in the area designated as H2, the other 20% of the city which includes the Jewish settlement in Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs. But civil powers, including planning, zoning and construction in H2, were transferred to the Palestinian authorities.
Hebron, whose population is almost entirely Palestinian, has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Peace Now organization, which supports a two-state solution with the Palestinians, accused Smotrich of trying to divert attention from what it said was the government’s failures in the wars it has waged since the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and atrocities.
“After the government promised victory and failed on all fronts, Smotrich the pyromaniac is trying to set the West Bank on fire. This is a dangerous and irresponsible step of a failed politician who is ready to harm Israel’s interests and security in order to gather a few votes from the extreme right,” says Peace Now.
Continuing his remarks about the US agreement with Iran at the G7 summit, US President Donald Trump claims he “never cared about regime change” as a goal in the US-Israeli campaign against Tehran, while reiterating his belief that the elimination of so many senior officials in the Islamic Republic effectively amounts to regime change.
“You talk about regime change. I never cared about regime change. It [was] never a part. But I guess you have regime change because you know better than anybody, the first group, they’re all dead. The second group, they’re dead. A part of the third group is gone,” he says, referring to echelons of the Iranian leadership.
“And we’re dealing with people that I think are very rational people. They were nice to deal with. They were strong people, smart people. I think actually they’re smarter than the first and second group, but they’re not radicalized and they’re, you know, looking to help their country,” he continues.
Trump says, “I don’t believe in regime change. And I’ve watched regime changes for years. They never work. It has to just happen [naturally],” he says.
On the first day of the war in late February, Trump indicated that the goal of the strikes in Iran was to topple the regime, and called on the Iranian people to seize the opportunity to take over their government, telling them “the hour of your freedom is at hand.”
“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations,” he said at the time.
At the G7, he pauses to compliment the leadership of Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who is sitting beside him, before acknowledging the brutal crackdown by the Iranian regime against anti-government protesters earlier this year — which helped catalyze the US-Israeli campaign — though he doesn’t linger on the subject.
Qatar “is a country where the emir is so respected and the prime minister is so respected by the people. And that’s the way a country should run. It should run out of respect, not fear,” Trump says, before acknowledging that, “as you know, at least 42,000 protesters were killed in Iran” during anti-regime protests earlier this year. He calls the execution of protesters “tough stuff.”
“Working with Qatar and the people of Qatar was really a pleasure. They were tough, they were strong, they are closest to Iran physically. You were in a more dangerous position, but I do have to say you fought and you helped us and with great bravery,” Trump says, suggesting that Qatar joined the US in striking Iran — something Doha has not publicly confirmed.
US President Donald Trump criticizes Israel’s conduct against Hezbollah and says that Syria should take over the fight against the Iran-backed terror group in Lebanon.
He says that the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has gone on for too long and suggests that Israel is killing too many noncombatants.
“Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed,” Trump says in remarks at the G7 summit of global leaders in France. “And you don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody. Because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses. And they’re not all Hezbollah — that I can tell you.”
Trump says later, “I’m not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah. They should have been able to do the job faster. It just goes on forever. And when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal, and that’s the deal with Iran.”
He reiterates that he was upset about Israel’s strike on Hezbollah in Beirut on Sunday, shortly before the interim peace deal between Iran and the US was announced.
“I didn’t like where, two hours before we’re signing the agreement, that there was an attack in Lebanon, in Beirut,” he says.
He refers to Ahmed al-Sharaa, the president of Syria, saying that he would more effectively lead the fight against Hezbollah.
“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah,” Trump says. “Because to be honest with you, I think they’d do a better job of doing it.”
He says of Sharaa, “He’s very capable. And he’s been very good for me. He’s protected everything that I’ve asked for.”
“If Israel can’t do the job without killing everyone else, he’ll do the job. Syria will do the job,” Trump adds.
Speaking at the G7 summit in France, US President Donald Trump warns that “all hell will rain down” on Iran if it attempts to develop, purchase, or otherwise acquire a nuclear weapon, as he discusses an interim agreement between Washington and Tehran, which US Vice President JD Vance said was digitally signed by both sides earlier this week, to end their war.
“They’re not going to acquire a nuclear weapon. If they do, all hell will rain down on them,” Trump says.
He adds that the preliminary deal “says it loud and clear. They’re not going to develop it. They’re not going to buy it. They’re not going to do anything with it. And if they do, they suffer unbelievable consequences.”
He says that he only agreed to sign the document after Tehran agreed to adjust the wording so that it prevented them not only from developing a nuclear weapon but also from purchasing one or acquiring it through some other means.
A massive ultra-Orthodox anti-conscription demonstration planned for later this week was canceled after Rabbi Dov Lando, the senior spiritual leader of the United Torah Judaism party’s Degel HaTorah faction, expressed opposition, the Israel Hayom daily reports.
Lando is currently on a fundraising trip in the United States to compensate for recent cuts to yeshiva budgets implemented on the order of the High Court of Justice. Asked about the report, a spokesman for Lando in Israel says that he “doesn’t know” about it.
Recent weeks have seen a spate of mass Haredi demonstrations against the arrest of draft evaders, including violent attacks and protests at police stations and the homes of security officials and a judge, as well as a large demonstration last week that blocked traffic on central highways.
According to public broadcaster Kan, this week’s demonstration, which likely would have taken place on Wednesday, was to have featured large convoys of hundreds of cars blaring slogans and slowing traffic while en route to an IDF military prison where draft evaders are being held.
It had been given the go-ahead by Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, another of Degel HaTorah’s top rabbis, whom the network quoted as saying that a protest was necessary so that the public “can see that something is being done.”
Following a mob attack on two female IDF servicewomen in Bnei Brak in February, both Lando and Hirsch had called on ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to refrain from attending demonstrations, stating that it was “strictly forbidden, under any circumstances, to participate in or be present among those who go to places where there are confrontations with the police.”
A planning document for this week’s demonstration approved by Hirsch and published by Kan stated that it would have been carried out with police approval and without “being drawn into unnecessary violence and provocations, especially since the public will remain inside vehicles and everything will be done in an orderly and respectful manner.”
A spokesman for the ultra-Orthodox Shas party tells The Times of Israel that it is not involved in the demonstration.
Regional Cooperation Minister David “Dudi” Amsalem suffered a minor heart attack last night, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
Amsalem, 65, was taken to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center and then released this morning, the report says.
The hospital says that he suffered a “light heart incident” and “successfully underwent catheterization.”
In a statement, Amsalem’s office says the minister is resting at his home in good spirits, and “is continuing from there to fully manage and operate the activities of his office.”
Iran executed two individuals described as “armed leaders of early 2026 unrest” in the county of Shahrud, the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan says, identifying the defendants as Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi.
The two men were convicted of Moharebeh, or waging war against God, corruption on earth, damaging public and private property, and crimes against national security.
The United States military has overseen scores of secretive ship-to-ship oil transfers to keep Gulf energy exports flowing, using aerial and water drones as well as helicopters in an operation to guide convoys to awaiting tankers.
The operation on the edge of the Strait of Hormuz employs a shuttling technique long used by Iran to skirt sanctions.
Two specific locations where the oil transfers take place are identified by 11 people familiar with the operation – one off the coast of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates and the other off Oman’s port of Sohar. It started in early May, and at least 92 ships have been involved in the transfers, according to shipping data and satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters.
As recently as June 11, 17 pairs of ships could be seen carrying out simultaneous oil transfers at the two sites, according to satellite images reviewed by Reuters.
An Apache helicopter downed by Iran on June 9, sparking retaliatory bombings by the US, was involved in the mission, according to four sources, including a former US official with knowledge of the attack. Using satellite imagery, Reuters counted six pairs of tanker ships clustered together in a small area off the port of Sohar the day the Apache was shot down.
Reuters could not confirm what role the Apache played in the operation. In response to Reuters questions, a US defense official says no Central Command forces are taking part in an offshore ship-to-ship oil transfer operation. Both crew members were rescued by a drone boat, US officials say.
The extent of the ship-to-ship transfers, how they work, and the Apache’s role in the operation have not been previously reported. The White House refers questions to CENTCOM. The Iranian government does not respond to requests for comment about the transfer operation.
Law enforcement raided Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem overnight, seizing firearms including three M-16 assault rifles, police say.
The raid took place after police investigators began suspecting that a resident of the refugee camp had been smuggling firearms in the area.
The man was arrested and brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court this morning, where his detention was extended for two days.
An axe, knife, ammunition and magazines were also seized in the searches, police add.
Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will be present for the signing of an interim agreement to end the war with the US, an Iranian deputy foreign minister confirms, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
Majid Takht-Ravanchi says it remains unclear where exactly the signing will take place and in what format it will be conducted.
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that Vice President JD Vance would attend the formal signing ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Supreme Court rejects the appeal of Gaza hospital chief Hussam Abu Safiya, a Hamas officer, against his ongoing detention, ruling that he can continue to be held under Israel’s law for unlawful combatants despite criminal charges not having been brought against him.
The text of the decision and its reasoning has yet to be released.
Abu Safiya, who runs Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested by Israeli forces during the war in Gaza in December 2024 and is one of the most prominent Gazan detainees. He is being held in solitary confinement and rights groups have called for his release.
He holds the rank of colonel in the Hamas Military Medical Services, according to the service itself and Palestinian media reports. A photograph from 2016 showing him wearing a Hamas uniform and sitting next to senior members of the terror group emerged after his arrest.
“The rejection of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s appeal and his continued detention without charge represent a profound moral and legal failure,” says Naji Abbas, director of the Prisoners and Detainees Department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel, following the rejection of the appeal.
“Rather than upholding the fundamental principles of the rule of law and due process, the court has endorsed the indefinite detention of a hospital director who remains in solitary confinement while suffering from medical conditions that are not receiving appropriate treatment.”
During a visit by lawyers from Physicians for Human Rights Israel on June 4, the lawyers learned that he had been placed in solitary confinement. The Israel Prison Service has declined to say why he was moved to solitary confinement.
Abu Safiya’s lawyer says he is being held in Nafha Prison “under harsh detention conditions” and claims he is being denied “necessary medical care despite his deteriorating health.”
Israel currently holds over 1,300 Palestinian detainees under the terms of the law for unlawful combatants, in a practice known as administrative detention. Such detainees include those arrested by the IDF and security services inside Gaza during military operations but who have not been charged with a crime.
Members of the Knesset House Committee vote unanimously to refer a proposed Basic Law declaring Torah study a foundational value of the State of Israel to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.
The bill, which was approved in a preliminary reading in the full Knesset plenum last week, would recognize those who dedicate themselves to long-term Torah study as performing “meaningful service” to the state, effectively equating it to army service and conferring upon yeshiva students equal rights to those who serve in the army.
The bill now moves to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee to be prepared for the first of three votes in the full Knesset plenum needed for it to pass into law.
While the coalition has insisted that language equating Torah study with military service will be removed before the bill’s next reading, members of the opposition have expressed skepticism, accusing the Netanyahu government of seeking to preserve the blanket exemptions from IDF service that have long been given to ultra-Orthodox men.
The US military is planning a permanent war-ready stockpile of weapons for its Marine Corps on Australia’s southeast coast, tender documents show and officials confirm to AFP.
Documents published by the US Navy this month show plans for $30 million allocated to build warehouses and offices in southeastern Victoria state for “critical forward provisioning,” including “crew served weapons.”
The development of the stockpile, a first for the Marine Corps in Australia, comes as the United States is keen to leverage the continent’s strategic location in the South Pacific to counter China’s rapid military build-up, analysts say.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that an Israeli drone struck a vehicle in southern Lebanon.
The strike took place on a road between the towns of Haddatha and Haris, according to the NNA.
There are no immediate reports of injuries.
The IDF has yet to comment on the reports.
Iran will soon begin connecting its electricity grid to Qatar’s, with studies in the final stages and the project entering the early phase of execution, Iran’s anergy minister says, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
Abbas Aliabadi adds that studies are also underway to link Iran’s power grid with those of other Gulf countries.
Iran and the US will start a new round of negotiations on Friday in Switzerland to reach a final agreement, after the official start of an interim agreement that day, Iran’s foreign minister says.
Abbas Araghchi also warns that any Israeli attack on Lebanon or continued presence on Lebanese territory from now on constitutes a violation of the interim agreement with the United States.
Israel has said it will keep troops in Lebanon despite mediators and Iran saying that the US-Iran agreement includes a ceasefire in the conflict there between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.
“In our view, the two parties to this memorandum are the US and Israel on one side, and Iran and Hezbollah on the other,” Araghchi says.
He calls ending the war in Lebanon was the “most important issue” in the deal with the United States.
“This is perhaps the most important issue in the memorandum — the declaration of an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” he says.
“Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end,” he says, saying further Israeli attacks on Lebanon “will be considered by us a violation of the memorandum of understanding.”
Hezbollah began attacking Israel days after the beginning of the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic, and Israel responded with airstrikes and by expanding its presence on the ground in Lebanon. Peace talks have been taking place between Israel and Lebanon, though ceasefires that were declared there in recent months have unraveled.
Dozens of teen girls try to disrupt a prayer service by the Women of the Wall group at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
According to a statement by the group, during the service, a member of the holy site’s security personnel also tries to confiscate a Torah scroll from the worshipers.
Women of the Wall, an activist group that advocates for women-led prayer and Torah readings to be allowed at the holy site, holds an all-female prayer service in the women’s section to mark the beginning of each Hebrew month.
Today, which marks the first day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, at least 30 apparently Orthodox teens, who appeared to be accompanied and led by an older woman, gathered around approximately 15 Women of the Wall worshipers and screamed and whistled for the entire duration of the service.
Women of the Wall services are regularly disrupted by protesters.
“When the security guard takes a megaphone to disrupt the Torah reading and attempts to forcibly take the Torah scroll from us, this constitutes a brutal violation and an unprecedented assault on freedom of worship,” the group says in a statement, calling the conduct of security personnel “a green light for continued silencing and violence at the Wall.”
Security guards appeared to try to keep hecklers and worshipers separate. Others prevented a group of religious men from entering the women’s section.
There are over 100 Torah scrolls in the Western Wall compound, but none are located in the women’s section or made available to women (in most Orthodox spaces, women do not read publicly from Torah scrolls or come in contact with them, even though a growing number of communities are beginning to change those practices, especially when they take place during all-female services).
The Western Wall Foundation, which sets the rules for the holy site, bars private worshipers from bringing scrolls into the area.
Established in 1988, Women of the Wall has been fighting the current arrangement. In 2023, it had a minor win when the High Court ruled that security guards at the entrances were not permitted to search visitors for Torah scrolls.
David Azoulay, head of the Metula Regional Council on Israel’s border with Lebanon, slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that continued rocket fire on the north has made a return to normal life impossible there.
“If you thought, following the prime minister’s declaration, that quiet has returned to the Middle East, tonight has (again) proven otherwise,” Azoulay writes, according to Israeli reports, referring to Netanyahu’s speech last night defending his government’s performance in the war with Iran.
Azoulay mentions a “series of [missile] interceptions” in the area and “nonstop sounds of explosions.”
He attaches a photo of interceptor fragments that he says fell in Israeli territory.
“There are the prime minister’s out-of-touch statements, and then there’s the reality of explosions and interceptor fragments,” he adds.
Earlier today, Israel intercepted Hezbollah fire on IDF positions in Lebanon, according to Hebrew media outlets.
US President Donald Trump will host Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at the White House next month, the Iraqi leader’s office and the US embassy in Baghdad say.
“Special Presidential Envoy Barrack conveyed President Trump looks forward to welcoming Prime Minister Al-Zaidi to the White House mid-July to discuss the future of this important relationship,” said a joint statement from the Iraqi leader and Trump’s special envoy to Iraq, Tom Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkey.
The announcement comes during a visit by Barrack to Iraqi capital Baghdad during which he discussed with the prime minister disarming and dissolving Iraq’s armed groups operating outside state authority.
Police this morning shot and injured a Palestinian man suspected of stealing a car and trying to ram officers near a West Bank checkpoint.
Officers were dispatched to the Hashmonaim crossing, north of Modiin, after receiving a report of a stolen vehicle in the area, police say.
After noticing law enforcement, the suspect tried to flee in the car and crashed into several police cruisers.
He then tried to run over officers at the scene, police say. Police guarding the checkpoint opened fire on the man.
The injured suspect, a Palestinian from Bethlehem, is being treated by medics and Hashmonaim Crossing is currently blocked to traffic in both directions.
In a missive to soldiers, Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Omer Tischler confirms that a planned large wave of strikes on Iran was called off during the recent round of fighting.
Before the cancellation, the Air Force did strike some targets in Iran last week in response to Iranian missile fire on Israel.
“In parallel with the defensive battle, the Air Force launched an offensive 1,500 kilometers [932 miles] from home. Within a few hours, dozens of targets in Iran were struck, significantly damaging the Iranian air defense system and hitting additional regime components,” he writes.
But a larger planned operation did not go forward. Tischler says that by the afternoon hours of June 8, “the entire Air Force was ready to take off for a broad strike sortie,” an attack that would have included strikes on “hundreds of targets in the heart of Iran.”
However, he says, “the strike was halted while we were briefing in the squadrons, just one hour before the departure for the sortie.”
The strike was reportedly nixed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after US President Donald Trump instructed him not to escalate the fight with Iran.
The coach of Iran’s World Cup team says it was ordered to leave the US and return to its training base in Mexico only a few hours after opening its politically charged tournament by playing to a 2-2 draw with New Zealand last night.
Coach Amir Ghalenoei doesn’t say who ordered the Iranians to leave earlier than planned. The team had expected to spend the night in California to maximize the normal recovery process after its opening game, only to be told after the match that everyone must immediately get on a plane for the 140-mile trip back to Tijuana.
“They didn’t even give us time to recover,” Ghalenoei says through an interpreter. “After the game today, they said to us, ‘You have to leave immediately.’ It’s very important for us to have time for recovery, [but] we are asked to get on a plane and return to our camp in Tijuana, and we are really troubled by that.”
Iran captain Mehdi Taremi says the team endured five hours of travel and security checks during what’s normally a very short trip from Tijuana to the Los Angeles area on Sunday.
“We don’t know why they are returning us, to be honest,” Ghalenoei says. “I think it’s very strange. It seems like others are doing the planning for us. The decision-making for us is being made elsewhere. We were supposed to come two nights before the game, and we were supposed to stay tonight to recover and return tomorrow at lunchtime. We have no idea why.”
He adds, “I think our team is perhaps the most oppressed in the World Cup.”
The Iranians’ remaining two games in group stage play are against Belgium in Inglewood on Sunday, followed by a trip to Seattle to face Egypt next week.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid denies reports that his political union with Naftali Bennett is splitting up amid drooping poll numbers, calling the rumors “fake news.”
“The poison machine is now spreading, ‘Lapid and Bennett are thinking about breaking up,’ because fake news from anonymous sources is their way of trying to hurt whatever is threatening them,” Lapid posts on X, in a reference to outlets aligned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At a press conference last night, Bennett also denied the reports, which came following a series of polls showing that the “Together” alliance between the two former prime ministers is slipping behind Yashar, the opposition party founded by former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot. Both slates seek to unseat Netanyahu.
Lapid writes that he’s “completely for this union” with Bennett, and says it “will save Israel and win the election.”
Senior aides to US President Donald Trump were surprised by his social media post that he had reached an agreement with Iran, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the report, Trump’s post on Truth Social on Sunday saying that the “deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete” came after Trump digitally signed the document in the White House soon after 5 p.m. local time (midnight Israel time).
But Trump’s own top aides were caught off-guard by his posts on the deal, which they thought was still being negotiated, the Journal reports.
The text of the agreement, which is said to be a page and a half long, has not been made public. During a press conference yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that Israel is not a party to the memorandum of understanding and does not yet know the full details of the agreement.
The Journal reports that Trump inked the deal while speaking to journalists, allies and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone, and as he prepared to attend the cage fights being held on the White House lawn in honor of his 80th birthday that day.
Shipowners will not resume transit through the Strait of Hormuz for weeks until they are confident that the US-Iran deal is “material”, the chief executive of Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines tells the Financial Times in an interview published today.
“What will have to come in place is not just a simple agreement between the relevant countries, but it has to be material and translated into the real situations in the Strait of Hormuz, so that shipping lines can make themselves comfortable to go through,” Mitsui OSK’s Jotaro Tamura says.
A World Cup video review official says his hand gesture resembling a white supremacist sign was caused by an involuntary twitch, and a FIFA committee concludes the Australian didn’t breach the sport’s disciplinary code.
FIFA’s discrimination monitor had called for Shaun Evans to be removed from the tournament.
Evans worked Germany’s opening 7-1 win over Curaçao on Sunday as an assistant to the video assistant referee, based at the World Cup broadcast center in Dallas.
When the official broadcast cut before the game to show the video review officials, Evans made an “OK” symbol with his right hand in front of his right leg.
“I did not intentionally make a hand gesture or symbol to communicate a message, affiliation, game or belief of any kind,” Evans says in a statement released Monday by FIFA. “The only explanation I can offer is that the movement was an involuntary, subconscious twitch and I was unaware I had done it at the time. Images taken later during the match showed that I repeated this movement many times while holding a pen between my fingers.”
In 2019, the gesture — with thumb and forefinger touching in a circle and other fingers outstretched — was designated a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League.
“Advice from our experts is that the gesture used clearly resembles an upside down ‘OK’ hand symbol used as a ‘white power’ symbol in global far-right circles,” says the Fare network, a long-time partner of FIFA and European soccer body UEFA that monitors racist and discriminatory chants, flags and symbols at international games.
“Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup,” Fare says in its statement, describing the gesture as “neo-Nazi.”
Evans is working at his second World Cup, and it was his first game of this year’s tournament.
“FIFA’s independent disciplinary committee can confirm that, after looking into the matter involving support video assistant referee Shaun Evans, it has found no evidence of breaches of the FIFA disciplinary code,” the FIFA panel says in a statement. “The disciplinary committee has also taken note of Mr. Evans’ statement.”
The IDF says it will be holding a military drill starting this morning through the afternoon in the northern West Bank area.
The military warns residents to expect significant movement of security forces in the area as well as the sounds of explosions, but assures them that it is not due to a security incident.
Iran twice battles back for a 2-2 draw with New Zealand in its frenetic opening match of a World Cup campaign that has been utterly overshadowed by war, politics and protests.
At last able to focus on the soccer, the Iran players twice found themselves trailing to the tournament’s lowest-ranked team, thanks to goals from New Zealand striker Elijah Just.
But with a vocally pro-Iran crowd drowning out planned protests by anti-government demonstrators, equalizers from Ramin Rezaeian and Mohammad Mohebi spared Team Melli any further blushes.
Many inside the stadium sported anti-government emblems, nonchalantly flouting FIFA rules against political messaging, and the Iran anthem received boos and cheers.
The game’s final half hour saw Iran on the front foot, but unable to grab a winner due to a combination of sloppy finishing and dogged New Zealand defending.
The draw dents Iran’s hopes of progressing to the knockouts for the first time, though fellow Group G contenders Egypt and Belgium also drew today.
US Vice President JD Vance says that he believes Israel will become a party to the emerging US-Iran deal at some point in the future.
“What we know is this agreement is going to make Israel safer, it’s going to make the entire region safer,” Vance tells NBC News in an interview. “What I’ve seen is a lot of misinformation about this agreement — sometimes in the Iranian media, sometimes in the Israeli media.”
“We believe quite firmly that when the Israeli people understand what’s in this agreement, they’re going to see this as a pathway to a new Middle East, to peace and prosperity in that region,” Vance adds. “That’s all we can really ask for. We feel quite confident the Israelis are going to be bought in on this when we get a little further down the road.”
During a press conference this evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that Israel is not a party to the memorandum of understanding and does not yet know the full details of the agreement.
Asked about US President Donald Trump’s harsh public criticism of Netanyahu in recent days, Vance said that “Israel is often a good partner, we also have aligned interests, but also sometimes we’re going to disagree on issues from time to time.”
Vance added that “that’s totally reasonable, even our closest allies, from the United Kingdom to Israel, we sometimes have disagreements.”
Iran kicks off its World Cup in Los Angeles today in front of a crowd that consists of both fans cheering them on and Iranian Americans waving symbols of protest against the Tehran government.
Around 300 to 500 protesters gather outside the stadium, waving anti-Iranian government signs and flags. They say they did not want to attend the match as it would imply support for Tehran.
Others went into the game but took with them symbols of protest, including the pre-revolutionary Iran flag, which is the same colors as the current official flag but has a different lion-and-sun motif.
Iran had threatened to halt matches if unofficial flags were brought in or slogans chanted, but the game today proceeded as planned.
US Vice President JD Vance tells Fox News that US President Donald Trump may decide to release Washington’s agreement with Tehran before Friday.
The agreement, which was electronically signed by leaders in the US and Iran, is expected to be signed in person on Friday.
US President Donald Trump declares: “Iran has agreed to never have a Nuclear Weapon!”
The president’s latest Truth Social declaration appears to refer to a reported clause in the MOU signed on Sunday by the US and Iran in which the latter commits to never obtain a nuclear weapon.
Iran has long insisted it does not seek a nuclear weapon, and made such a commitment in the 2015 deal that Trump vilified and withdrew from in 2018. Both of Trump’s administrations, along with Israel, have refused thus far to take Tehran at its word — something the president is now suggesting he is prepared to do.
Truth also writes in his Truth Social post that, “the story that the US is paying Iran 300 million Dollars is Fake News, put out” by Democratic operatives.
However, hours earlier, one of his top aides briefing reporters about the Iran deal said the US has discussed with Iran, “the possibility of releasing frozen funds, sanctions relief and a big $300 billion fund to rebuild their country,” which will be tied to concessions it makes in subsequent nuclear talks with the US.
Both the US and Iran have sought to frame the MOU as a political victory, cherry-picking purported clauses that they believe help make their case.
The top Trump aide briefing reporters on Monday said the text of the MOU would likely be released in 24 to 48 hours, contradicting the president who said it wouldn’t be released until after Friday’s signing ceremony.
US Vice President JD Vance is asked during an NBC News interview why the White House isn’t just releasing the MOU, given that it is repeatedly calling out Iran for mischaracterizing the terms of the deal.
“There are some technical details to work out — not related to the text of the MOU itself, but the implementation,” Vance responds, without clarifying further.
The director of the CIA reportedly told US President Donald Trump that intelligence findings indicate Iran is not necessarily willing to make nuclear concessions it has committed to pursuing.
A report in the Axios news site, citing three sources, says CIA director John Ratcliffe suggested to senior government officials that “the intelligence reflects that the Iranian intentions are not in line with their commitments under the deal,” a source says.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly joined Ratcliffe in expressing skepticism, as did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but advisers Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have expressed support for the deal.
The report says that US Vice President JD Vance, Witkoff and Kushner are slated to meet Friday with Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to discuss the next elements of the deal that are slated to be worked out in line with the memorandum of understanding.
US Vice President J.D. Vance tells NBC News in an interview that nuclear inspectors will “absolutely” be allowed to return to Iran as part of a deal with the US to end the war between the two countries.
“In fact, one of the core parts of the agreement is that the [International Atomic Energy Agency] and the United States are going to help Iran destroy the highly enriched stockpile, and that’s something that’s spelled out very clearly” in the memorandum of understanding the US and Iran have already agreed to, NBC quotes Vance saying.
Eight people are feared to have died when a B-52 bomber crashed shortly after take-off in California today, says the US air force base where the accident happened.
“An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress carrying eight people on a routine test mission crashed today shortly after take-off at 11.20 am (PDT). Initial indications are that the crash was not survivable,” says a statement from Edwards Air Force Base.
Iran’s Mehr news agency says that the sound of three explosions was heard south of Qeshm Island and in the Strait of Hormuz area, adding that initial reports suggest the blasts were likely carried out to “manage traffic in the strait.”
US Vice President JD Vance says the US’s memorandum of understanding with Iran is “a very general document” with specifics of the deal to be worked out during further negotiations.
“The MOU… is about a page and half so it is a very general document,” Vance says on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper. “On a number of issues, we are going to have to figure this stuff out during the technical negotiation phase.”
A $300 billion fund the Trump administration is considering for Iran would be created for companies keen to invest in the country and not from governments, the Financial Times reports, citing a source briefed on the talks.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
Israeli officials were shocked by the Sunday announcement that the US and Iran had reached a deal, with one senior Israeli official calling the agreement “terrible for us,” Channel 13 news reports.
Jerusalem had long assessed that the negotiations would end up collapsing, the report notes.
It adds that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently held a tense phone call with US Vice President JD Vance in which the latter asked for Israel to scale back the IDF’s presence in Lebanon, but Netanyahu refused.
“The IDF won’t withdraw, but from now on, every action will be scrutinized,” a source is quoted as saying by the network.
Hezbollah fired several rockets at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon a short while ago, the military says, one of several attacks carried out by the terror group today.
The IDF also confirms striking Hezbollah operatives who “posed a threat” to forces in southern Lebanon today.
According to the military, the rockets fired at Israeli forces a short while ago were intercepted by air defenses. No sirens sounded in any towns in Israel.
Additionally, Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile and several mortars at troops in southern Lebanon, in several separate attacks today, with no injuries caused, the IDF says.
Also, in four separate incidents today, the IDF says, troops spotted “several terrorists traveling in vehicles and approaching IDF soldiers, in a manner that posed an immediate threat to them.”
The Israeli Air Force then struck “all of the threats in a precise manner,” the military adds.
