The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they unfolded.
A man pleaded guilty to assaulting US Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar during a January town hall in which the lawmaker condemned Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, the US Justice Department says.
“Anthony James Kazmierczak, 55, pleaded guilty today to one count of Assaulting a United States Officer in U.S. District Court,” the Justice Department says in a statement.
Kazmierczak admitted in a Thursday hearing before US District Judge Joan Ericksen that he “planned the assault and that he did not agree with Representative Omar’s political views,” the Justice Department says.
In her remarks during the town hall, Omar was criticizing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) for its crackdown in Minnesota and the fatal shootings by federal agents of two US citizens in Minneapolis.
Kazmierczak sprayed Omar with apple cider vinegar from a syringe, which landed on Omar’s clothing and skin, the Justice Department says, adding that lab analysis confirmed the liquid contained acetic acid. Omar was uninjured in the attack.
Omar, who is Muslim, came to the US as a 12-year-old girl and became an American citizen in 2000.
Trump has repeatedly targeted Omar in public remarks and social media posts, while also taking aim at her Somali nationality and saying she should be “institutionalized” and removed from the US.
Kazmierczak gestured and shouted at Omar during the town hall before security guards subdued him. He was subsequently arrested. The town hall meeting in Minneapolis was temporarily disrupted, but Omar later continued her remarks.
US President Donald Trump insists the ceasefire with Iran is still in place, despite the recent exchange of fire between the two countries in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Yeah, it is. They trifled with us today. We blew them away,” he says.
This is the second time in days that Trump has tried to downplay escalations with Iran, as he appears intent on preventing a resumption of the war while trying to keep global markets calm.
Speaking to reporters while touring construction of the Washington, DC, Reflecting Pool, Trump posits that a deal with Iran “might not happen, but it could happen any day. I believe they want the deal more than I do.”
US President Donald Trump on Thursday tells reporters that the United States is negotiating with Iran, following a fresh exchange of fire between the two countries.
US President Donald Trump says three US Navy destroyers transited out of the Strait of Hormuz under fire, adding that the American destroyers were not damaged but “great damage was done to Iranian attackers.”
Earlier, Trump tells a reporter from ABC News that the recent US strikes were “just a love tap” and adds that “the ceasefire is going. It’s in effect.”
On Truth Social, Trump writes that the US attacked Iranian seacraft that fired at US Navy ships.
“Three World Class American Destroyers just transited, very successfully, out of the Strait of Hormuz, under fire. There was no damage done to the three Destroyers, but great damage done to the Iranian attackers,” Trump writes on Truth Social.
“They were completely destroyed along with numerous small boats,” he says.
He threatens Iran with further attacks unless it agrees to a deal in ongoing talks with the US.
“A normal country would have allowed these destroyers to pass, but Iran is not a normal country. They are led by LUNATICS, and if they had the chance to use a nuclear weapon, they would do it, without question,” he writes. “But they’ll never have that opportunity and, just like we knocked them out again today, we’ll knock them out a lot harder, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don’t get their deal signed, FAST!”
The American military confirms carrying out “self-defense” strikes in Iran in response to “unprovoked Iranian attacks” against US Navy missile destroyers that transited the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman.
“Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), and USS Mason (DDG 87) transited the international sea passage,” US Central Command says in a statement.
CENTCOM says it intercepted the “inbound threats,” and “no US assets were struck.”
In response, CENTCOM says it targeted Iranian military facilities “responsible for attacking US forces.” The targets included “missile and drone launch sites, command and control locations, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance nodes,” according to CENTCOM.
“CENTCOM does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces,” the statement adds.
Iran accuses the United States of violating a ceasefire by targeting two ships at the Strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas, the country’s top joint military command says early on Friday.
The US targeted “an Iranian oil tanker traveling from Iran’s coastal waters near Jask toward the Strait of Hormuz, as well as another vessel entering the Strait of Hormuz near the Emirati port of Fujairah,” a spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters says in a statement carried by state media.
“At the same time, with the cooperation of some regional countries, they carried out air attacks on civilian areas along the coasts of Bandar Khamir, Sirik, and Qeshm Island.”
The US strikes on an Iranian port city and an island in the Strait of Hormuz came following anger from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia over Iranian attacks on the UAE, which US officials had downplayed, according to a Fox News reporter.
Iran shot more than a dozen missiles at the UAE on Monday amid an American operation to open up the strait, a key pathway for the global oil supply that Iran has blocked. On Tuesday, US officials said that the Iranian strikes did not mean the current ceasefire had ended.
That statement sparked anger in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Fox reporter Jennifer Griffin posts on X, writing that Riyadh subsequently withdrew permission for the US to use its bases and airspace for the Hormuz operation. That permission has since been restored, she writes, citing a senior US official.
“The strike on one of Iran’s oil ports comes two days after Iran fired 15 ballistic and cruise missiles at UAE Fujairah Port, eliciting anger from Gulf countries after top Pentagon leaders said Tuesday that the Iranian strikes did not rise to the level of breaking the ceasefire, calling it low level attacks that didn’t rise to that level,” Griffin writes.
“[T]the Saudis and Kuwaitis abruptly halted permission for the US to use its bases and air space for Project Freedom, a decision that this official said has been reversed. Saudi officials reportedly were angry at the Pentagon downplaying the Iranian strikes on Monday,” she writes.
Iran’s Mehr news agency reports air defenses have been activated in Tehran after a pair of loud blasts in the Iranian capital. It also reports that fresh explosions have been heard in the Persian Gulf port city of Bandar Abbas.
The US military carried out strikes on Iran’s coastal city of Bandar Abbas and the island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz, an American official tells Fox News, after Iranian media reported the sounds of explosions in both locales.
The official says the strikes don’t mark a resumption of the war.
Iran’s state broadcaster, citing an unnamed military official, says “enemy units” operating in the area of the Strait of Hormuz came under Iranian missile fire, following an attack by the US military on an Iranian oil tanker, forcing the units to retreat.
Iran threatens the UAE as its semi-official Tasnim news agency says there are “signs of a hostile action” by the United Arab Emirates following reports of the sounds of explosions in the Persian Gulf coastal city of Bandar Abbas and an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz.
The report says Iran hasn’t yet confirmed there was an attack, but adds if so, then Abu Dhabi “will pay the price.”
A man is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to killing one person and injuring a dozen others in a 2025 firebombing attack on a demonstration in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages held by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman looks down at a desk throughout the sentencing. He has meanwhile pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges for the attack last June. Prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty in the federal case, according to his attorneys.
Authorities say Soliman threw two Molotov cocktails at demonstrators at a pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder, a city of 100,000 people northwest of Denver that’s home to the University of Colorado.
Karen Diamond, 82, was injured in the attack and later died. A dozen others were also injured.
Soliman is an Egyptian national who federal authorities say was living in the US illegally. Investigators allege he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people.”
Speaking to the court through an interpreter for nearly a half hour, Soliman offers apologies to the victims and condolences for Diamond’s death. “There are no words that can express my sadness for her passing,” Soliman says.
He says he isn’t asking for leniency at sentencing for his convictions in state court and wants prosecutors pressing federal hate crime charges against him not to seek the death penalty.
“If I went back, I would not have done this as this is not according to the teaching of Islam,” Soliman says. “What I did came out of myself and only myself.”
In a statement read earlier in court by a prosecutor, Diamond’s sons asked that Soliman not be allowed to see his family again “since he is responsible for our mother never seeing her family again.”
Hezbollah launched several rockets and mortars at troops stationed in southern Lebanon in two incidents a short while ago.
The IDF says the projectiles exploded near the forces but did not cause any injuries.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has approved the sale of hundreds of air-defense interceptors and other weapons to Middle East partners in deals worth $25.8 billion, Bloomberg News reports.
Iran’s Fars news agency reports that several sounds resembling explosions are heard near the coastal city of Bandar Abbas, adding that the origin and the location of these sounds are unknown.
The Mehr news agency, meanwhile, reports sounds of explosions in Qeshm, an island in the Strait of Hormuz.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announces an agreement for the state’s 2027 budget that includes a measure to establish protective zones around synagogues and other houses of worship.
Hochul, a moderate Democrat, had pushed to include the legislation in the state’s budget agreement. Buffer zone legislation is a priority for mainstream Jewish groups.
“Establishes buffer zones to protect places of worship so New Yorkers can practice religion, a guaranteed right, free of harassment,” Hochul’s office says, claiming an agreement with the legislature on the delayed, $268 billion state budget.
State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie says the legislature has not yet agreed to anything, though.
“There is no budget deal,” Heastie says. “I don’t care what the governor says.”
New York governors sometimes preempt budget agreements to put pressure on the state legislature, but Hochul’s announcement indicates the governor’s office and legislature are likely near a deal, and that the buffer zone stipulation is still on the table.
Hochul’s announcement says that “a conceptual agreement” is in place and that the legislature is expected to pass bills to enact the measures she announced “in the coming days.”
So-called buffer zone bills are contentious due to conflicts between freedom of speech and freedom of worship, both of which are protected by the First Amendment.
Leading Jewish groups back the measures to protect congregants, while leftists oppose them, claiming infringements on Constitutional rights.
New York City passed a bill meant to shore up police protection for houses of worship late last month, while New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoed a similar bill for educational facilities.
The buffer zone legislation in the city and state came in response to vitriolic protests outside New York City synagogues that targeted events connected to Israel.
The state bill carries more force than the city’s measure because the state legislation sets a firm 25-foot buffer zone and establishes a criminal penalty for protesting in that zone.
The city’s bill did not include any specific distance or criminal penalty, but ordered the NYPD to formulate and publicize plans to protect worship sites during protests.
New York Representative Tom Suozzi, a moderate Democrat from Long Island, also introduced a federal buffer zone bill last month.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have lifted restrictions on the US military’s use of their bases and airspace that were imposed after the launch of a US operation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing US and Saudi officials.
The US officials cited in the report say the Trump administration is now seeking to resume Project Freedom, the naval operation to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, after the US president announced earlier this week he was pausing the mission amid Pakistani-mediated negotiations with Iran.
Saudi officials tell the Wall Street Journal that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait decided to prevent the US military from using their bases and skies after senior US officials downplayed Iranian attacks on the Gulf in response to the US operation, fearing American forces might not protect them if they are similarly targeted.
An investigation by the UK’s Sky News has identified a Palestinian elderly woman and her daughter from Gaza who were last seen blindfolded and in Israeli custody in a December 2023 photograph posted on social media by an Israeli soldier.
The family of 78-year-old Aisha Bakr al-Aqqad and her 41-year-old daughter Huda tells the network they have received no information on their whereabouts and are unsure if the pair are in Israeli prison or what happened to them.
Responding to the report, the military said “the individuals mentioned are not being held by the IDF, and there is no indication that they were held in IDF detention facilities. The women were released in the Gaza Strip shortly after [the photograph was snapped].”
“The incident has been referred for review,” it adds.
Among the most heartbreaking stories in Gaza are those of the abducted women.
Palestinian women were abducted by Israeli forces during raids or displacement, then completely disappeared behind prison walls.
Among them are Aisha and Huda Al-Aqqad, a mother and daughter who were… pic.twitter.com/yvhD14P0II
— Osama Abu Rabee أسامة أبوربيع (@dn_osama_rabee) May 7, 2026
President Isaac Herzog secretly met with journalist Jacob Bardugo, a confidante of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in late March to discuss the premier’s request for a pardon, Channel 12 news reports.
The nighttime meeting at an apartment in Shoham, which was not revealed to the public, took place shortly before Herzog urged dialogue between the sides on a plea bargain. It also came about after bitter criticism of Herzog by Bardugo on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 for not pardoning the prime minister, who has refused to admit wrongdoing despite High Court precedent indicating he must do so for a pardon.
In response, Herzog’s office confirms the meeting but describes it as a “background conversation” of the type he holds with many journalists.
“The meeting in question was strictly a general background conversation, and there was no conclusion, promise, or concrete discussion around a pardon,” says the President’s Residence.
Police announce the reopening of roads around the entrance to Jerusalem after ultra-Orthodox demonstrators blocked the light rail to protest Israel’s mandatory conscription policies.
A police statement says five suspects were arrested.
If no deal is reached with Iran before US President Donald Trump’s return from China next weekend, the military option is back on the table, a senior US official tells Channel 12 news.
The White House is expecting to receive tomorrow Iran’s answer to the latest US proposal, according to the outlet.
Trump’s top envoy Steve Witkoff will not join the president on his China trip in order to continue working on a deal with Iran.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak to Trump this evening after a meeting at IDF headquarters with top aides, Channel 12 reports.
Israel believes Iran didn’t respond to the assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut last night because it doesn’t want to risk upsetting talks with the US, according to the outlet.
A senior Israeli official says the country is worried about the direction talks with Iran are heading.
“A deal like this is not signed with vague statements, but will precision, technical details, processes, timetables, oversight mechanisms and the like,” says the official of the one-page agreement reportedly under discussion.
“By not going into nitty-gritty one every one of those issues, the Iranians will find easy paths for a renewed nuclear foothold.”
The official tells Channel 12 that Israel does not believe that the US is going to push hard for Iran to agree to limits on its ballistic missile program.
The IDF confirms carrying out a strike in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, saying it hit Hamas gunmen who posed a threat to Israeli troops.
The strike had targeted a Hamas command center “while armed terrorists from the Hamas terror organization were operating inside it to advance and carry out terror attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians,” the military says.
The IDF says several armed Hamas operatives were killed in the strike. Earlier, Hamas’s interior ministry said three officers and members of the security apparatus were killed in the strike.
The Health Ministry says there is no patient in Israel with the hantavirus, according to Hebrew news media.
There is an unconfirmed report of a patient who returned to Israel from Europe with hantavirus in December 2025.
However, Dr. Daniel Grupel of the clinical microbiology and infectious diseases department at Hadassah Hospital says he isn’t aware of any recent case of hantavirus in Israel.
He also says that the virus on the cruise ship, MV Hondius, is New World Hantavirus, which can be transmitted between humans.
“It is a different virus altogether and more severe than the disease found in Europe,” he says, with that virus being passed from rodents to humans.
“I think this is a really bad situation for the people on the cruise ship right now, but Hantavirus is probably not the next pandemic,” Grupel says, “and there is no reason for anxiety in the general public.”
According to the World Health Organization, seven cases have been identified on the ship, including three deaths, one critically ill patient, and three individuals reporting mild symptoms. The ship is now heading to the Canary Islands.
Symptoms include fever, gastrointestinal symptoms and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Following a review of intelligence, the IDF says it can confirm that a Hamas terrorist whom it killed in the Gaza Strip last week had abducted former hostage Mia Schem during the October 7, 2023, onslaught.
On April 29, the IDF struck and killed Ibrahim Abu Sakkar, a Hamas operative and a paramedic in the terror group’s Military Medical Services, who the military said had planned an attack on troops “in the immediate timeframe” and during the war led numerous attacks on soldiers and Israel.
“Following intelligence analysis, it can be confirmed that the terrorist Abu Sakkar infiltrated Israeli territory during the brutal October 7 massacre and participated in the abduction of Mia Schem from the Mefalsim area,” the military says.
Schem, a partygoer at the Nova music festival, was returned to Israel in a hostage deal with Hamas in November 2023.
The terrorist accused of lobbing gasoline bombs at a pro-Israel hostage rally last year in Boulder, Colorado, killing one person and injuring at least a dozen others, pleads guilty to all charges he faces in state court.
The fire-bombing suspect, Mohamed Soliman, 46, an Egyptian national living illegally in the US with his family, enters his plea to dozens of felony counts, including first-degree murder under two definitions of the offense, each carrying a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Iran can withstand the US naval blockade for at least 3-4 months before severe economic hardship takes hold, the CIA told the Trump Administration this week, according to the Washington Post.
“The leadership has gotten more radical, determined and increasingly confident they can outlast US political will and sustain domestic repression to check any resistance” inside Iran, says a US official. “Comparatively, you see similar regimes lasting years under sustained embargoes and airpower-only wars.”
Iran also has managed to retain 75% of its mobile missile launchers and 70% of its missiles, according to the document cited in the report. Almost all of its underground storage facilities have reportedly been restored and reopened as well.
Palestinian media outlets report that three Palestinians were injured in a settler attack in Khirbet Samra in the northern Jordan Valley. According to the reports, they were beaten by armed settlers who also opened fire.
No Palestinians, however, were reported to have been struck by gunfire.
Footage circulated on social media appears to show Palestinians fleeing the area, while objects resembling stones are thrown at them as they escape.
فيديو | إصابات بين الفلسطينيين جراء اعتداء مستوطنين عليهم بالضرب المبرح وإطلاق النار في خربة سمرا في الأغوار الشمالية. pic.twitter.com/q3e5e78H60
— فلسطين أون لايـن (@F24online) May 7, 2026
The United States has imposed sanctions on Iraq’s deputy oil minister and militias over support for Iran, the Treasury Department says.
The Treasury Department accuses Iraq’s deputy minister Ali Maarij Al-Bahadly of abusing “his position to facilitate the diversion of oil to be sold for the benefit of the Iranian regime and its proxy militias in Iraq.”
Iraq’s oil ministry and the deputy minister don’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush has sent a letter to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, asking him to pressure Israeli authorities against arresting ultra-Orthodox draft evaders.
“Today, under the leadership of a true personal friend of the Jewish people, President Donald J Trump – who heads a “Kingdom of Kindness” (“Malchut Shel Chesed”) – we see an administration that also honors the Torah of the Jewish people,” reads the letter circulated by UTJ’s Agudat Yisrael faction, chaired by Porush.
“I appeal to you with the request that the American government exercise its moral influence and call upon the judicial authorities in Israel to immediately and completely cease the arrests of Torah scholars Yeshiva students,” the documents further reads, suggesting that this would be a fitting way for the United States to mark “Jewish American Heritage Month,” which is celebrated in May.
Over 79,000 conscription orders have been issued to ultra-Orthodox men since the High Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that they were obligated to enlist, after the law allowing for blanket exemptions expired the previous year.
Since that time, only 2,100 have enlisted, while the police have generally avoided arresting those who have ignored enlistment orders. Between January 2025 and January 2026, only 17 Haredi men were proactively arrested by police for draft evasion.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
A group of Democratic US senators have called for the US Central Command to answer questions about American coordination with Israel in declaring broad “ evacuation zones” in Lebanon and Iran, claiming the practice may violate international law.
The letter underlines how the Democratic Party — both its leaders and the base — has increasingly turned against Israel.
Since the beginning of the US-Israel war against Iran and the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, the Israel Defense Forces has regularly issued maps covering large areas of territory along with warnings telling all residents of the zones to flee. Israel had previously used a similar approach in Gaza, with the evacuation warnings aimed at minimizing civilian casualties amid strikes on military targets.
The senators allege the sweeping warnings have “been used to permanently displace people and destroy homes and towns” and that some civilians who refused to leave their homes in the areas have been killed by subsequent strikes.
The 12 senators led by Vermont Senator Peter Welch, in a letter dated May 4 to CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper, state that Israel’s practice of unilaterally declaring mass evacuation warnings in Lebanon and Iran “likely contravene international laws the United States has helped develop around humane warfare.”
The other signatories include senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.
The letter asks the CENTCOM chief whether US forces have coordinated military targets with Israeli forces during the recent war with Iran, whether they provided assistance or intelligence helping Israel’s military to impose the evacuation zones in Lebanon and Iran, and whether CENTCOM signed off on US military support for the targeting of people or infrastructure in the evacuation zones. It also asks whether the US military has reviewed the legality of the practice.
The Israeli military declines to comment when asked about the letter. CENTCOM doesn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police say they are working to remove ultra-Orthodox rioters who are blocking the light rail near the entrance to Jerusalem, the latest demonstration by Haredi protesters against military enlistment.
A statement from the force says that after demonstrators ignored calls to clear the road, police are using a water cannon to remove them and get traffic moving again.
The US State Department confirms that it will host the third round of talks between representatives from Israel and Lebanon on May 14 and 15.
The previous two meetings in Washington were at the ambassador level, as Beirut has bucked US pressure to have Lebanese President Joseph Aoun meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Aoun has said such high-level engagement wouldn’t be appropriate before the sides reach a security agreement and before Israel halts its strikes in Lebanon.
The sides have been discussing a framework for an eventual peace deal that would see Israel withdraw from Lebanon, an empowered Lebanon disarm Hezbollah as well as the normalization of diplomatic ties between Jerusalem and Beirut.
The previous meeting on April 23 saw the US announce a three-week extension of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
That truce has not been felt in southern Lebanon, where Israel has continued to target Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure, and the Iran-backed terror group launches attacks on both northern Israel and Israeli troops that have established a six-mile buffer zone beyond the border, which Jerusalem says is to protect northern communities from enemy fire.
While the US has okayed Israeli strikes in Lebanon against targets that Jerusalem deems a threat, it has drawn a line on strikes in Beirut, which until Wednesday had gone untouched since early April. Israel said the strike targeted a Hezbollah operative responsible for planning attacks on Israeli forces.
UK police say they arrested a man wielding a weapon who “was behaving in an intimidating manner” close to the home of former prince Andrew in eastern England.
Norfolk police confirm they were called to an incident late Wednesday near the Sandringham Estate “and the man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offense and possession of an offensive weapon.”
Naftali Bennett files a defamation suit against Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, MK Ohad Tal and Channel 14 for NIS 2 million, accusing them of making and publishing “grave falsehoods” that constitute libel.
The lawsuit centers around a recording of Silman in which she says that Bennett took lots of medication while he was prime minister “to enable him to function.”
Tal, of the Religious Zionist Party, responded to the publication by making derogatory comments that appeared to about Bennett’s mental well-being, adding, “Get well soon Naftali.”
In his libel suit, Bennett asserts that he has “never taken any medication for his mental functioning.” He says Silman made up the accusation to justify having abandoned his Yamina party and to “try and save her fading political career,” in reference to her standing in the ruling Likud party.
“The defendants published serious lies about the plaintiff that never happened. These are cheap and wild slanders that a desperate politician is inventing to mislead the public regarding the plaintiff’s mental state,” the lawsuit says.
Silman says in response to the suit, “Naftali, maybe take a chill pill. I understand that the polls are stressful.”
The IDF says it razed a 30-meter-long Hezbollah tunnel in the Labbouneh area of southern Lebanon, during recent operations by the 146th Division in the Israeli-held security zone.
Additionally, the military says troops captured a cache of weapons at a Hezbollah command center.
The IDF also publishes a clip showing a first-person view (FPV) drone strike carried out on a Hezbollah operative who it says was trying to flee on a motorcycle.
Two former senior military officers deny claims that have been recirculated in recent days that High Court of Justice decisions led to a tightening of the IDF’s open-fire regulations at the Gaza border.
Such claims have been made since the start of the war by government ministers and others who oppose the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, whose members would be selected by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. They claim that the High Court bears responsibility for the events of October 7 due to the ostensible restrictions it had imposed on the military regarding its open-fire regulation on the border with the Gaza Strip during Hamas-led riots in 2018.
In 2018, the High Court rejected a petition by human rights groups calling for stricter IDF open-fire regulations during the mass border riots, saying it had very little authority to intervene.
In an op-ed published by Channel 12 news, Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon — the head of the Operations Directorate at the time and responsible for determining the IDF’s rules of engagement — and the head of the International Law Department in the Military Advocate General’s Corps at the time, Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Shamir-Borer, say that “the rules of engagement on the Gaza border were determined according to operational needs” and the High Court’s decision to reject the petitions “had no limiting effect on the rules.”
They say the rules of engagement at the time “proved effective,” and the military “successfully fulfilled its mission of preventing mass infiltrations into Israel and harm to civilians living nearby.”
“The court did not intervene in the rules of engagement implemented by the IDF on the ground,” the former officers say, adding that “just as the rules of engagement did not change before the petition to the High Court was filed or due to it, so too they did not change following the ruling.”
“The claims now being heard against the High Court are baseless. Beyond being an excuse not to establish a state commission of inquiry, they essentially express a rejection of the very concept of the rule of law,” they add.
Far-left UK Green Party leader Zach Polanski claims “Palestine is one of the elements on the ballot” in today’s local elections.
Asked by the BBC to explain what that means and why Green candidates don’t say local issues such as schools and waste management are also on the ballot, Polanski responds, “I think they can be about all of those things.”
Polanski, who is Jewish, is also pressed on whether he believes Israel has a right to exist.
“I don’t believe any country has a right to exist. People have a right to exist,” he says. “The Israelis have a right to exist. The Palestinians have a right to exist. And I think it’s our role as a third country to make sure that there’s fairness and transparency and accountability about a peace process.”
He also claims that discussing whether Israel has a right to exist “actually just ends up in gatekeeping, which is partly how we ended up in this mess in the first place of the Balfour Declaration,” the 1917 British declaration in support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Due to the possibility that Hezbollah will fire rockets at Israel in response to the killing of the commander of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, the IDF says it is canceling several civilian events on the northern border that had been exempt from the Home Front Command’s wartime guidelines.
The current guidelines in the Lebanon border communities limit gatherings indoors to 600 and outdoors to 200.
After a fresh assessment and following the IDF’s strike in Beirut last night, the military says, “it was decided to cancel events that had been exempted from the Home Front Command’s defense policy in the confrontation line (northern border) area, due to the possibility of retaliatory fire by the Hezbollah terror organization toward the area.”
The IDF says it calls on the public to “remain alert and vigilant.”
As of now, there are no changes to the Home Front Command guidelines.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry, announces that the Civil Administration agency has uprooted some 3,000 trees planted by Palestinians in the northern West Bank, which he says were located on state land.
“We are building the Land of Israel and destroying the idea of a Palestinian state,” says Smotrich, a refrain he has repeated numerous times in recent months.
The trees were planted on some 50 acres of land close to the Shakak Industrial Park near the Shaked settlement. Although his statement doesn’t say so, it appears from pictures sent by Smotrich’s office that olive trees were removed.
Smotrich says the trees were planted within the boundaries of the zoning masterplan for Shakak and that removing them would enable the further expansion of the industrial park together with the establishment of a new settlement, in accordance with approvals already issued by the government.
State land is land not privately owned and is available for the government to allocate for the public benefit, such as the construction of residential homes, infrastructure as well as economic and agricultural activity.
Of the state land in the West Bank allocated for any use by Israel, fully 99.8% is allocated for the use and needs of Israeli settlements, according to information provided by the Civil Administration in 2018.
The uprooting of the 3,000 trees on Wednesday followed numerous other tree removal operations by Israeli forces in the West Bank in recent days.
“While the state supports hundreds of illegal outposts which constitute focal points for severe violence by Israelis against Palestinians, it compounds one crime with another, by cutting down thousands of olive trees just because they belong to Palestinians and thereby does mortal damage to the income of thousands of people,” Yesh Din says.
Over 120 illegal outposts have been established during the course of the current government, mostly on state land and often with the coordination of municipal settlement authorities.
Hezbollah launched several rockets and explosive drones at Israeli troops stationed in southern Lebanon in the past few hours, the military says.
The rockets and several of the drones were shot down, while some drones exploded near Israeli forces.
No injuries were caused by any of the attacks, the army says.
Ohio gubernatorial candidate Casey Putsch, whose rhetoric has included antisemitic dogwhistles, did not come close to winning the Republican primary.
But he was not swept aside by the electorate, either: Nearly 150,000 Ohio Republicans voted for him, making up 17.5% of voters.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the former presidential candidate who had US President Donald Trump’s backing, prevailed with 82.5% of the vote.
Putsch, an automotive engineer and political outsider, made headlines during his campaign when he advertised an upcoming “beer hall rally,” which, combined with his last name, evokes the name of the “beer hall putsch,” a failed coup attempt led by Adolf Hitler. He had also made a YouTube video in which he asked the artificial intelligence tool Grok to name Hitler’s “good” qualities.
Hamas’s interior ministry says three officers and members of the security apparatus were killed in an IDF strike on a security headquarters guard post in western Gaza City.
The statement adds that four operatives were seriously wounded, in addition to several civilians.
Three men are charged with aggravated murder over the killing of 18-year-old Eviatar Azarzar, who was found dead in a pit nearly seven years ago.
Bnei Brak residents Nuriel Hajani, Yehuda Cohen and Israel David are accused of conspiring to murder Azarzar, whom they knew personally. All three defendants have prior convictions for violent crimes, with Hajani having been found guilty of murder.
On December 8, 2019, the trio allegedly lured Azarzar to a field near a cemetery in Ramat Hasharon, just north of Tel Aviv, and shot him dead with a handgun. They fled the scene and left the young man’s body in a ditch, prosecutors write.
After three weeks of searches, his decomposing body was found by a passerby, alongside his scooter.
According to the indictment, the vehicle used by the trio to get to the field was set on fire, either by the defendants or others working on their behalf.
The alleged murderers also disposed of a helmet, gloves, ski mask and lighters that belonged to Azarzar. Hajani and Cohen left Israel soon after the killing, only to return several days later, prosecutors write.
In a request to keep the three in custody until a sentence is handed down, state prosecutors say the defendants sent “false reports” to police about the teen’s disappearance. Hajani went so far as to speak with Azarzar’s mother, claiming he was helping to search for her missing son.
The three are charged in the Tel Aviv District Court with aggravated murder, destroying evidence and obstructing justice.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s meeting with Pope Leo at the Vatican shows a “strong” relationship between the Holy See and the US, a State Department spokesman says.
Leo, the first US-born pope, met with Rubio amid an atmosphere of tension between Washington and the Vatican following US President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on the Catholic leader over the Iran war, which the pontiff has spoken out against.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott says the meeting between Rubio and the pope also “underscored… their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity.”
Spain has summoned Israel’s top envoy in Madrid to protest the “unacceptable and intolerable” detention of a Spanish activist from a Gaza-bound flotilla, the foreign minister says.
An Israeli court has extended until Sunday the detention of Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national of Palestinian origin, as well as that of another activist, Brazilian Thiago Avila.
On Wednesday, “we again summoned Israel’s charge d’affaires to convey to her how unacceptable and intolerable it is to extend the detention of our citizen,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares tells parliament.
The chief of the Ground Forces, Maj. Gen. Nadav Lotan, has appointed a senior officer to be responsible for finding solutions for the drone threat troops are facing in southern Lebanon.
The officer, a brigadier general and a pilot, heads the Ground Forces’ Strike Division, which is normally tasked with developing doctrine for combined air, intelligence and ground operations.
Several officers are working under the general to find solutions for first-person view (FPV) drones, especially those guided by fiber-optic cables, which are immune to electronic jamming and difficult to detect.
To counter the fiber-optic FPV drones, the IDF has deployed passive physical defenses in southern Lebanon, such as netting above troops, vehicles and outposts. According to the military, these measures have proven effective when troops “maintain operational discipline.”
The IDF has also deployed mobile radars to southern Lebanon, which are adapted to identify drones flying at different ranges and alert forces, who can then attempt to shoot them down.
The military is examining and implementing several methods of shooting down the drones by ground troops, including shotguns at short ranges, special ammunition that disperses in the air, and automated turrets.
The Ground Forces is also experimenting with other technological solutions for the drones, and cooperating with international partners as part of the effort, according to the military.
Hamas says several people have been killed and wounded in an IDF strike on a “guard post belonging to a security headquarters” in western Gaza City.
Earlier, media outlets in Gaza reported a strike in the area.
No further details about the incident are currently available. The IDF has not issued a comment on any such strike.
عاجل| طيران الاحتلال يشن غارة على المناطق الغربية لمدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/DVwXEMGQMW
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) May 7, 2026
British counter-terrorism police have arrested a 19-year-old man in connection with an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in north London last month, marking the third arrest in the investigation, the force says.
The man was arrested on suspicion of attempted arson and remains in custody, police say. The investigation relates to an incident in the early hours of April 15 at a synagogue in Finchley, north London, in which no damage was caused and no injuries were reported.
A 38-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man were arrested on the day of the attack on suspicion of arson endangering life. Both have since been released on bail until July.
Police say the inquiry is being led by Counter Terrorism Policing London and forms part of a wider set of investigations into recent arson attacks across the capital against Jewish targets.
A Hezbollah operative who launched rockets at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon overnight was killed in an airstrike while trying to hide the launcher in a building, the military says.
The IDF publishes footage showing the rocket fire and the Hezbollah operative then moving the launcher into a “civilian building” in the town of Jouaiyya.
The Israeli Air Force then bombed the building, killing the rocket-launching operative, the military says.
In another incident today, the IDF says it struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher that had been used to fire at troops in southern Lebanon.
No injuries were caused by the rocket attacks, according to the military.
צפו בתיעוד משיטת הפעולה של חיזבאללה: מחבל ששיגר רקטות לעבר כוחותינו ניסה להסתיר את המשגר במבנה אזרחי וחוסל
במהלך הלילה, מחבל מארגון הטרור חיזבאללה שיגר רקטות שנפלו בסמוך לכוחות צה"ל הפועלים בדרום לבנון, אין נפגעים.
בתיעוד שנחשף כעת, ניתן להבחין בשיטת הפעולה של ארגון הטרור… pic.twitter.com/wnVvlpH10R
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 7, 2026
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets Pope Leo in the Vatican for a potentially fraught encounter, as US President Donald Trump has continued a series of disparaging attacks on the Catholic leader over the Iran war.
Rubio’s convoy drove through the central Roman boulevard leading to the Vatican under tight security, arriving at 11:10 a.m. (0910 GMT) for the first visit between the pope and a Trump cabinet official in nearly a year.
The closed-door meeting between Leo and Rubio, who also serves as Trump’s national security adviser, was expected to last about a half-hour. Rubio will meet afterward with the Vatican’s top diplomat, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Leo, the first US pope, drew Trump’s ire after becoming a firm critic of the US-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration’s hardline anti-immigration policies.
The president has kept up an unprecedented series of public attacks on the pope in recent weeks, drawing a backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.
The IDF confirms carrying out strikes in the southern Lebanon town of Nabatieh earlier, saying it hit Hezbollah weapon manufacturing infrastructure and other buildings used by the terror group.
Separately, the IDF says that overnight it struck some 20 Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon, including weapon depots, drone launch sites and a cell of operatives that was transporting weapons in a truck.
צה"ל תקף תשתית לייצור אמצעי לחימה בנבטיה: במהלך הלילה הותקפו כ-20 מטרות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון
צה"ל תקף לפני זמן קצר תשתית לייצור אמצעי לחימה ומספר מבנים בשימוש צבאי של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב נבטיה.
בנוסף, במהלך הלילה הותקפו כ-20 מטרות צבאיות נוספות של ארגון… pic.twitter.com/zTiKWIplxH
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 7, 2026
Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot has asked the British Foreign Office to intervene after the British Museum removed some references to “Palestine” in some of its displays, the Guardian reports.
In February, the museum changed the content in some of its panels after complaints over historical accuracy by pro-Israel group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).
The museum at the time told media outlets that “for the Middle East galleries for maps showing ancient cultural regions, the term ‘Canaan’ is relevant for the southern Levant in the later second millennium BCE. We use the UN terminology on maps that show modern boundaries, for example, Gaza, West Bank, Israel, Jordan, and refer to ‘Palestinian’ as a cultural or ethnographic identifier where appropriate.”
The Roman province of Judea was renamed “Syria-Palestina” after the Romans defeated the Jewish Revolt led by Simon Bar-Kochba in 135 CE. The name “Palestine” is believed to have been chosen to echo the name of the Philistines, a population that lived in the region during the Iron Age (1200-586 BCE) and frequently appears in the Bible as one of the Israelites’ enemies.
According to the Guardian, after the changes were made, Zomlot approached the museum to persuade the museum to reverse them. In March, he was invited to meet the museum’s director, Nicholas Cullinan. However, Cullinan did not commit to fulfilling his request, prompting the ambassador to address the Foreign Ministry.
“I sent a letter to the minister in charge of the Foreign Office, and we are waiting for [a response]” Zomlot said. “For me, this is not only a political issue. This is not only a legal issue. This is not even just a historical issue. This is an existential issue. Because erasing our past is erasing our present.”
A British government spokesperson told the Guardian, “Museums and galleries in the UK operate independently of the government, which means that decisions relating to the management of their collections are a matter for their trustees.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his recent tough talk, this time in the wake of the killing of the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force in Beirut.
“This is the same senior terrorist who led the plan to conquer the north,” he says in a video statement. “He believed he could continue directing attacks against our forces and our communities from his hidden terrorist headquarters in Beirut.”
“He apparently read in the press that he had immunity in Beirut. So he read — and that will no longer happen.”
Netanyahu boasts that in the past month, Israel has killed more than 200 Hezbollah operatives.
“We are doing the same thing in Gaza — eliminating terrorist cells, including yesterday,” he says.
In both theaters — as well as in Iran — a US-backed ceasefire is in place, and both Hamas and Hezbollah refuse to disarm.
“I say to our enemies in the clearest possible way,” Netanyahu continues, “no terrorist has immunity. Anyone who threatens Israel puts his own life at risk.”
Netanyahu faces a national election within the next six months, in which his leadership of the post-October 7, 2023, wars is sure to be a central issue.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin says that if the two hardline conservative academics he wants appointed to the Supreme Court do not get appointed, he will let the court “disappear” by refusing to make any new appointments to the top court at all.
Levin was responding to questions about the large number of vacancies on courts around the country, including the Supreme Court, in an interview with the Ynet news site.
The justice minister has refused to make appointments to the Supreme Court for the entire duration of his tenure, because he has lacked the votes on the Judicial Selection Committee to have Aviad Bakshi and Raphael Bitton appointed.
There are four vacancies on the Supreme Court at present, and that number will rise to nine by the end of the next Knesset if no new appointments are made.
“I insist that people who express a different worldview [than the current justices] enter the Supreme Court,” says Levin, accusing even the strong conservative judges on the court at present of judicial overreach.
“I’m not asking to determine all of the judges [on the Supreme Court]. Throughout the entire process I proposed compromise solutions,” insists Levin.
“I say the following to the judges and to the opposition members: there are currently four vacant seats on the Supreme Court, and in the next term another five justices will leave. Altogether there will be nine vacant seats. I support reaching an agreement and making appointments that will diversify the court; if there is willingness [to do so], all the better. If there is no willingness, the court will gradually disappear on its own.”
The deadlock on the Supreme Court could be resolved without such tactics in the next Knesset if Levin remains justice minister, since a controversial law passed by the government enabling both the coalition and opposition to force through the appointment of their desired candidates will come into effect.
That law itself will be reviewed by the Supreme Court in its capacity as the High Court of Justice.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian says he met recently with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, state media reports, offering a first public account of him meeting Khamenei after the latter suffered severe wounds at the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Khamenei has not been seen in public or in any video statements since he took on the role following the killing of his father in an Israeli airstrike in February.
The meeting was marked by a “humble and deeply cordial” atmosphere, Pezeshkian is reported as saying.
Following reports that Gadi Eisenkot, head of the nascent Yashar party, and Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman are in talks on a potential merger, the two politicians announce that they are working to expand cooperation ahead of the next election but do not confirm any plans to run on a unified slate.
In a joint statement, the two parties say that Eisenkot and Liberman met last night.
“At the conclusion of the meeting, both instructed their teams to deepen the cooperation between the parties in order to lead the ‘coalition of those who serve’ to victory and establish a Zionist, statesmanlike government,” the statement adds.
Asked by a reporter this week about reports of a potential merger with Liberman, Eisenkot answered that the two have “maintained a long relationship” and have met and spoken in recent months, but that he did not want to get into specifics.
Asked about the same issue during a press conference yesterday, Liberman said the primary goal of the upcoming election is to replace Netanyahu’s government and that “any move that brings an added value of two or three mandates is necessary. But there must be added value. If a move doesn’t contribute to adding mandates, then in my view, it’s a waste of time.”
A union between Yashar and Yisrael Beytenu — which currently holds six seats in the Knesset but has been consistently polling at about 10 seats — could yield a combined 25 seats, bringing it neck-and-neck with former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Together slate.
Yair Golan calls on Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot to merge with either his Democrats party or former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s Together party rather than attempting an independent run in the upcoming elections.
“This moment is bigger than all of us… Splitting the [anti-government] bloc does not bring new votes; it just disperses the strength we have and weakens our political camp,” Golan declares during a speech at the Berl Katznelson Foundation.
“I call on you not to further divide the bloc and to come to a decision that will allow us to win: join the Bennett-Lapid alliance, or join us, the Democrats, and strengthen the ideological and moral home of the liberal camp. Victory in the elections, and saving the state, depend on our ability to stand strong together,” Golan appeals to Eisenkot.
Last week, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid told Bennett that he was willing to take third place, rather than second, on their joint electoral slate if it would help secure a merger with Eisenkot, a source close to Lapid said.
Eisenkot at the time welcomed Bennett and Lapid’s new union, calling them “allies,” but suggested the union might find it hard to draw votes away from the pro-Netanyahu right. He subsequently invited most of the opposition leaders to convene to coordinate a path to a victory by a “Zionist majority” over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in October’s election.
According to a Channel 12 poll released last week, in the event that Eisenkot would join Bennett and Lapid on a single ticket, their united party would garner 41 seats, but the overall balance of the blocs would remain unaffected.
While Eisenkot has rebuffed calls to join Together, discussions with Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman have reportedly begun, with no details yet on who would lead a potential joint slate or how seats would be allocated.
Yona Schreiber, the man who is accused of violently shoving a nun to the ground in Jerusalem last month, is indicted on charges of assault causing actual bodily harm, motivated by hatred toward a religious group.
The State Attorney’s Office has requested that Schreiber, who is 36 and a resident of the West Bank settlement of Peduel, be kept in custody until the end of the legal proceedings against him.
Video footage of the incident, which took place in April in front of the Cenacle holy site on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, showed Schreiber running up to the nun from behind and shoving her to the ground. He is then seen walking away, then returning to kick the woman while she is still lying on the ground.
תקיפת הנזירה אתמול באזור קבר דוד בירושלים – שוטרי מרחב דוד איתרו את החשוד (36) ועצרו אותו בחשד לתקיפה ממניע גזעני >>> pic.twitter.com/agRpznR84X
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) April 30, 2026
A passerby intervened to stop Schreiber’s assault against the woman, whereupon Schreiber attacked that man as well.
The nun sustained a bloody head wound as a result of Schreiber’s attack, and also suffered from dizziness following the assault, the indictment says.
החשוד בתקיפת הנזירה – והקשר לגורמי ימין קיצוניים | מבדיקה שערכנו עולה שיונה שרייבר, שנעצר בחשד לתקיפה האכזרית שהתרחשה ביום שלישי בעיר העתיקה, הוא אחד ממייסדי עמותת "הניצחון היהודי" עם פעיל הימין משה מירון – שמוכר כמי שמגיע להפגנות עם השלט "שמאלנים בוגדים" >> pic.twitter.com/ewplKfOTut
— טוביה יגלניק (@tuvyayagelnik) May 1, 2026
Schreiber is indicted for assault on both the nun and and the passerby.
Assault causing actual bodily harm carries a sentence of up to three years in prison, while such a crime motivated by hostility toward a specific group carries double the original sentence.
The IDF issues evacuation warnings for three villages in southern Lebanon ahead of airstrikes targeting the Hezbollah terror group.
Residents of Deir ez-Zahrani, Bfaroueh and Habboush are instructed to evacuate at least a kilometer away.
“In light of the Hezbollah terror organization’s violations of the ceasefire agreement, the IDF is forced to act against it with force and does not intend to harm you,” warns army spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee.
The IDF says two more prominent Hezbollah commanders were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon yesterday.
They are identified by the military as Muhammad Ali Bazi, chief of intelligence in Hezbollah’s Nasr regional division; and Hussein Hassan Romani, head of aerial defense in the terror group.
“These commanders worked to advance and carry out terror attack plans against IDF troops and Israeli citizens,” the military says.
Since the start of the ceasefire in Lebanon on April 16, the IDF says it has killed more than 220 Hezbollah operatives who had posed a threat to troops and Israeli civilians.
An Israeli airstrike has killed the son of Hamas’s chief negotiator in US-mediated talks over Gaza’s future, according to a senior Hamas official.
Azzam Al-Hayya, son of Khalil Al-Hayya, succumbed to his injuries after being struck in an Israeli attack last night, says senior Hamas official Basim Naim. He is the fourth son of Hamas’s exiled Gaza chief to have been killed in Israeli attacks.
The IDF has not responded to a request for comment.
Hayya, who has seven children, has survived multiple Israeli attempts to kill him. An Israeli strike in Doha last year targeting Hamas leadership killed one of his sons, though Hayya survived. Two other sons were killed in past Israeli attempts on his life, in Gaza strikes in 2008 and 2014.
The Ramle Magistrate’s Court orders Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to submit his medical records to the court, including details of the prostate cancer he was recently treated for, and when it was first diagnosed.
Judge Menahem Mizrahi issues the order in the context of a libel suit Netanyahu filed against journalists Uri Misgav and Ben Caspit, and prominent Netanyahu critic Gonen Ben Yitzhak, for asserting publicly in 2024 that the prime minister had a serious illness.
Earlier this week, Misgav filed a request to the court to summon the head of Netanyahu’s medical staff, Dr. Tzvi Berkovitz, and the head of the medical team who treated his prostate cancer, Prof. Aron Popovtzer, to give evidence in the libel case, after Netanyahu disclosed last month for the first time that he had been diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer.
Mizrachi rules that Netanyahu must file up-to-date medical records to the court. The file will be sealed and will not be made publicly available.
The judge orders that Berkovitz write a signed letter to be submitted alongside the medical file stating that the file presents an up-to-date account of Netanyahu’s health and medical situation, and includes details on “the time when the plaintiff’s prostate cancer was discovered.”
Netanyahu must file the medical records by May 13.
Mizrachi adds that once Netanyahu himself has testified in the case, he will decide whether to summon Berkovitz and Popovtzer to give evidence in court.
The IDF confirms killing the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, Ahmed Ghaleb Balout, in an airstrike in Beirut last night.
Balout was targeted in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. The IDF publishes footage showing the strike.
The military says that for years, Balout held several roles in the Radwan Force, including previously serving as its chief of operations.
During the war and recently, Balout directed “dozens” of attacks against IDF troops in southern Lebanon, including anti-tank guided missile fire and explosives, the IDF says.
The IDF says Balout had also “advanced efforts to restore the capabilities of the Radwan Force unit, particularly the implementation of the ‘Conquer the Galilee’ plan,” referring to the terror group’s plans to invade Israel.
The strike marked the first in the Lebanese capital in almost a month, with the last having been on April 8 — after US President Donald Trump asked Israel to stop targeting Beirut.
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation is slated to vote Sunday on a proposed amendment to the Law of Return proposed by Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman that would define conversion to Judaism — which offers eligibility for immigration — as that carried out “in accordance with halacha,” or Jewish religious law.
If passed into law, the proposal would invalidate the legitimacy of non-Orthodox conversions for the purposes of immigration and citizenship. In its explanatory notes, Rothman, who currently serves as the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, states that his bill comes in response to a 2021 ruling by the High Court of Justice that people who convert to Judaism in Israel through the Reform and Conservative movements must be recognized as Jews for the purpose of the Law of Return, and are thus entitled to Israeli citizenship.
The justices, Rothman notes, specified that they had previously withheld issuing a ruling to allow the state to handle the matter, but the state had failed to do so. He asserts that changing the language of the law “expresses a return to the principles established by the founders of the state and is necessary for the unity of the Jewish people both in Israel and in the Diaspora.”
Non-Orthodox and liberal leaders condemn the bill.
“As is well known, the Reform and Conservative movements constitute the largest public among world Jewry, and even in Israel, the majority of Jews do not maintain an Orthodox lifestyle. Instead of supporting our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora who are facing antisemitic attacks, the Israeli government is slamming the door in their faces. Passing this law will lead to unprecedented consequences regarding Diaspora Jewry’s relationship with Israel,” declares Anna Kislanski, CEO of the Reform movement in Israel.
The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv, an ordained Reform rabbi, says, “Simcha Rothman and his associates aren’t content with the terrible destruction they’ve sown within Israeli society, and now they seek to restart the campaign of destruction within the Jewish people and to collapse the bridge between the State of Israel and Jews around the world.”
“Anyone with common sense must wonder aloud whether this group is being controlled by those who hate Israel,” he adds.
Last summer, lawmakers voted down another amendment to the Law of Return proposed by Noam MK Avi Maoz, which would have denied non-Jews the right to immigrate to Israel and automatically obtain citizenship even if they have a Jewish grandparent.
The United Kingdom is initiating a “complete step change” in protecting Jewish communities and cracking down on antisemitism, says British Ambassador Simon Walters.
The first step is the security of Jewish communities, through funding Jewish community security and increased police presence, he says.
“The Metropolitan Police has significantly increased the number of officers in and around North West London,” he says in a briefing at his Ramat Gan residence, “including both uniformed and plainclothes officers, and additional powers to stop and search individuals have been introduced across the areas affected. Armed response vehicles and counter-terrorism policing resources have been deployed alongside local police.”
The UK, says Walters, is also commissioning independent reviews into antisemitism in the education system and the National Health Service, in addition to existing requirements for universities to develop and implement plans to deal with antisemitism.
The UK has given more authority for police to confront antisemitism and calls for violence in protests.
Last week, notes Walters, “the Crime and Policing Bill was given Royal Assent, meaning it came into force, which gives police much more powers over protests and the conditions around them, including the power to deal with large repeated protests as well as demonstrations outside places of worship to ensure that intimidation is not tolerated on our streets. The government is bringing in urgent new legislation to enable people working for state organizations, not just foreign intelligence agencies, to be prosecuted under the National Security Act.”
His comments come after a spate of violence against British Jews in recent months, including a stabbing in London last week and a string of arson attacks.
Former Jerusalem chief rabbi Aryeh Stern has died at age 81.
Stern, a leading figure in the Religious Zionist community, was a close student of one of its founding figures, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, and later taught in some of the movement’s flagship religious institutions, including Yeshivat Merkaz Harav in Jerusalem.
Stern served in the army and fought in both the Six Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, according to Hebrew media reports.
In 2014, he was appointed Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Jerusalem and remained in the position until 2019.
“Jerusalem was blessed to have Rabbi Aryeh Stern, of blessed righteous memory, and absorbed from his great Torah scholarship and his noble character,” Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion says in a statement. “During his years serving as the city’s rabbi, Rabbi Aryeh Stern led Jerusalem through his conduct, humility and halachic [Jewish law] rulings, leaving a deep impact on the spiritual life of the capital.”
COGAT, the Defense Ministry body that coordinates Israeli activity in Gaza, says it is working to help counter the rat infestations in the Strip.
In a statement, COGAT says it is working with the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center “to manage sanitation efforts in the Gaza Strip.”
In line with that goal, COGAT says that yesterday “hundreds of cartons of specialized pesticides for rodent and rat control” entered Gaza alongside 20 tons of “pesticides and pest-control equipment.”
With hundreds of thousands of Gazans living in tent camps, rat infestations have been rising, sparking fears of spreading diseases.
Lebanese media reports Israeli airstrikes in the southern Lebanon town of Nabatieh.
Israel has not struck in Nabatieh for several weeks.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
????غارة تستهدف النبطية pic.twitter.com/mF7sKXtCyb
— bintjbeil.org (@bintjbeilnews) May 7, 2026
Hezbollah launched several rockets at Israeli troops stationed in southern Lebanon this morning, the military says.
According to the IDF, the rockets struck near the forces but did not cause any injuries.
Meanwhile, the military says it struck more than 15 Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon yesterday.
The IDF says the targets included weapon depots, weapon manufacturing sites, command centers, rocket launching positions and buildings used by the terror group.
אתרי שיגור וייצור אמצעי לחימה: צה"ל תקף אתמול יותר מ-15 תשתיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במספר מרחבים בדרום לבנון
צה"ל תקף אתמול יותר מ-15 תשתיות טרור במספר מרחבים בדרום לבנון. בין התשתיות שהותקפו: מחסנים ואתרי ייצור אמצעי לחימה, מפקדות, אתרי שיגור ומבנים בשימוש צבאי. מחבלים… pic.twitter.com/dnjN4WTbKP
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 7, 2026
Lebanese media reports three dead in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon this morning.
One person was killed in a strike targeting a car near Maifadoun, and two others were killed in a strike targeting a pickup truck near Habboush, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
The IDF has not yet commented on the strikes.
Police say that a leading communal rabbi from Meron in northern Israel has been arrested for alleged “serious sexual offenses.”
A statement from the Israel Police says the 54-year-old rabbi was arrested overnight following a covert investigation after multiple complaints were received.
The suspect is expected to be brought before a court for a remand hearing later today.
Police call on anyone who may also have been harmed by the suspect or have any knowledge of alleged crimes to come forward.
Iranian soccer chief Mehdi Taj says he will have a meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino in the next three or four days at which he will seek assurances that his country will be respected at the World Cup in the United States.
Canada, which is co-hosting the June 11 to July 19 World Cup with the US and Mexico, said it refused entry to Taj last week because of his links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Taj says Iran will not take part in the tournament if FIFA could not guarantee respect for the country’s institutions in the US, where the team will be based and play all three of their group matches.
“We will tell [FIFA] what our expectations are. If they can address them, we will definitely participate,” the FFIRI president tells state broadcaster IRIB in Tehran. “But if there is no guarantee that they will be addressed, then no one has the right to insult us or the pillars of our system.
“And if they continue on the path of disrespect, and even ask our players those kinds of questions, we may make a different decision,” he adds.
Both the US and Canada classify the IRGC as a “terrorist entity” and have made it clear they will not admit people with links to the elite military force.
The IDF says a soldier was seriously wounded and three others lightly hurt on Wednesday by an explosive-laden Hezbollah drone in southern Lebanon.
All the injured soldiers were taken to hospitals for medical care and their families have been notified, the military adds.
A regional source tells CNN that Iran on Thursday is expected to give mediators its reply to a US proposal for ending the war.
US President Donald Trump halted the naval operation to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz after Saudi Arabia told the United States it wouldn’t allow American aircraft taking part involved in the effort to take off from or fly through the Gulf kingdom’s skies, NBC News reports.
Citing US officials, the report says the Saudis and other Gulf states were surprised by Trump’s announcement of Project Freedom on Sunday, adding that the US president later spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the matter but was unable to reach a resolution.
Asked by the network if the operation caught Saudi leaders off guard, a source from the kingdom tells NBC that “the problem with that premise is that things are happening quickly in real time.” The source also says Saudi Arabia is “very supportive of the diplomatic efforts” by Pakistan to broker an agreement between the US and Iran.
A White House spokesperson says “regional allies were notified in advance,” though a Middle Eastern diplomat quoted by NBC says the US didn’t coordinate with Oman until after Trump’s announcement.
“The US made an announcement and then coordinated with us,” the diplomat says, adding, “we were not upset or angry.”
US President Donald Trump predicts the war in Iran will be over quickly, as he seeks a deal to end the stalemate over the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran’s nuclear program.
“When you look at the kind of things that are happening, we are doing that for one very important reason: We cannot allow them to have a nuclear weapon. So I think most people understand that. They understand that what we are doing is right, and it’ll be over quickly,” Trump tells a tele-rally for Georgia Republican governor candidate Burt Jones.
NEW YORK — A note Jeffrey Epstein’s former cellmate claims he found after the financier’s first suspected jail suicide attempt is made public after it had been sealed and locked in a courthouse vault for nearly five years as part of an unrelated legal dispute.
US District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, New York, orders the note’s release after the New York Times petitioned last week to unseal it and other documents in a case involving the cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione.
Few people had known about the note until Tartaglione, a former police officer who is serving a life sentence for killing four people, mentioned it on a podcast last year. Tartaglione claimed he discovered the note in a book in his cell after Epstein was found on July 23, 2019, with a strip of bedsheet around his neck.
“They investigated me for month — found nothing!!!” says the short note, which is hard to decipher in some places. “It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye,” the note continues. “Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!”
“NO FUN,” the note concludes, with those words underlined. “NOT WORTH IT!!”
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has been serving as the Islamic Republic’s top negotiator in talks with the US, appears to mock the Trump administration for pausing the naval effort to assist ships in leaving the Strait of Hormuz.
“Operation Trust Me Bro failed. Now back to routine with Operation Fauxios,” Ghalibaf writes on X.
In announcing the pause on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said he was doing at the request of Pakistan and others while claiming “great progress in the negotiations with Iran.
Sirens are activated in the northern border city of Kiryat Shmona and several neighboring communities, amid suspected Hezbollah drone and rocket fire.
