The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
The Australian government says it secured three shipments of jet fuel from China and more agricultural-grade urea from Brunei, boosting fuel and fertilizer stocks amid disruptions caused by the Iran war.
The government says more than 600,000 barrels, or about 100 million liters, of jet fuel would arrive from early June, following discussions between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
Beijing has clamped down on fuel exports since March to protect domestic supply after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted crude and fuel flows.
Australia also secured 38,500 metric tons of urea from Brunei to support farmers and the agriculture sector, the government says.
Both shipments were secured through a new $5.36 billion fuel and fertilizer security facility.
The facility was established to help Australia’s agriculture and transport industries cope with supply pressures by providing financial help through loans, equity, guarantees, insurance and price support.
“The additional 600,000 barrels of jet fuel will help keep Australia moving, and the extra fertilizer will help provide certainty to our farmers,” Albanese says in a statement.
The extra jet fuel represents about 1% of Australia’s annual consumption.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Australia is working with countries in its region to respond to the shock to the global economy and ensure the continued flow of essential fuels.
Australia, which imports most of its fuel, has experienced localized shortages since the Middle East conflict began at the end of February.
Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter brands J Street as a “cancer within the Jewish community,” taking issue with the dovish Mideast lobby’s calls for restricting US aid to Israel over the latter’s treatment of the Palestinians.
“The worst thing about J Street is its duplicitousness,” Leiter says in remarks to a gathering of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism at Washington’s Museum of the Bible.
“How can you be pro-Israel and advocate for an arms embargo on a state that’s fighting a seven-front war against Iranian proxies?” Leiter says, referring to J Street billing itself as the “political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Americans.”
“If they said that they were pro-Palestinian, I wouldn’t have a problem meeting with them.I meet with pro-Palestinian groups,” Leiter claims, in remarks first reported by the JNS news site.
“But when you come and say in such a two-faced manner, ‘We’re pro-Israel, we’re pro democracy’ — there’s a democratically elected government in Israel. You don’t like Netanyahu, make aliyah, vote in the next election and express yourself. Don’t say you’re ‘pro-democracy’ and decry and defy the position of the democratic government of Israel,” he adds.
J Street says it brands itself as pro-democracy to emphasize its commitment to protecting democratic institutions, voting rights and liberal values in the US and Israel.
Leiter appears to reject the Jewish identity of J Street along with US Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has backed legislation blocking weapons sales to Israel.
“Don’t be fooled by the fact that they appear to be Jewish,” says Leiter, a longtime proponent of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the settlement movement.
“One senator told me that the sponsor is a Jew. The sponsor is not a Jew. The sponsor is a Communist, who may have Jewish pedigree. That doesn’t make him a Jew.”
Responding to Leiter, J Street president Jeremy Ben Ami says in a statement, “Instead of disparaging friends of Israel who disagree with its government and calling us names, Israel’s ambassador to the United States should be engaging seriously with us.”
“J Street represents a large and growing segment of the American Jewish community that supports and cares deeply about Israel but opposes policies we believe are making it less secure and more isolated,” Ben Ami continues. “Serving effectively as Israel’s ambassador to the US requires engaging with those disagreements, not attacking the patriotism or integrity of fellow Jews.”
Earlier this month, Leiter called out several mainstream American Jewish organizations for cosponsoring an event with the Spanish government, which has been strongly critical of Israel.
US President Donald Trump describeד Monday’s shooting at a California mosque complex as a “terrible situation,” following news that a pair of gunmen killed three people at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
“At the mosque, they’re giving a briefing. It’s a terrible situation. I’ve been given some early updates, but we’re going to be going back and looking at it very strongly,” Trump tells reporters.
Three days after an Israeli settler was filmed brutally clubbing a guard dog in the central West Bank village of Atara, Palestinian media publishes a new clip of a man it identifies as the same settler throwing a block at a pair of cats in the same village.
Israeli police reportedly launched an investigation into the attack on the dog, but no arrests have been made.
A photo of the Israeli settler who attacked the cat. https://t.co/e6gGRbs6P1 pic.twitter.com/vu1Jq5ZIPR
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 18, 2026
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announces another 30-day extension of a sanctions waiver allowing purchases of Russian seaborne oil to aid “energy-vulnerable” countries hit by the Iran war, reversing plans not to grant an extension.
Bessent says in a posting on X that the Treasury was issuing the 30-day general license after a previous waiver lapsed on Saturday. This will allow temporary access to Russian oil and petroleum products stranded on tankers without violating severe US sanctions on Russian oil majors, he says.
A source familiar with the decision had told Reuters that the second waiver extension was requested by poor and vulnerable countries that cannot get Gulf oil shipments due to the US-Israeli war with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“This extension will provide additional flexibility, and we will work with these nations to provide specific licenses as needed,” Bessent says. “This general license will help stabilize the physical crude market and ensure oil reaches the most energy-vulnerable countries.”
Bessent, who last month told the Associated Press that no further extension of the Russian oil sanctions waiver was planned, on Monday argued that the measure would help reroute existing supply to countries most in need, allowing them to compete with China for previously sanctioned oil.
The action marks the second time the Treasury has allowed the sanctions waiver to lapse and subsequently extended it.
Two senior Democratic senators, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, blasted the move as an “indefensible gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Trump administration last year slapped sanctions on Russian oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine by depriving vital oil revenues to Moscow.
But after US-Israeli attacks on Iran drove up global oil prices, the Treasury first issued the temporary license in March in an attempt to ease oil supply shortages and mitigate price spikes by releasing sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products stranded in tankers. The waivers do not apply to oil now being pumped by Russia.
Settlers torched agricultural lands on the outskirts of the central West Bank village of al-Mughayyir late Monday night, Palestinian media reports.
The Palestinian Authority’s official Wafa news site says that the IDF arrived at the scene after the fire broke out and prevented residents from approaching the area to try and put out the fire, firing live rounds toward those who disobeyed.
Palestinian media also reports that settlers prevented ambulances and fire trucks from reaching the scene.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
BREAKING: Right now, dozens of Israeli settler terrorists are attacking the village of Al-Mughayyir in the West Bank, burning olive fields and attempting to set fire to homes with families inside.
Residents are pleading with nearby villages for help to stop the attack. pic.twitter.com/4SGh9aS1WV
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 18, 2026
A shooting at a mosque complex in San Diego on Monday left three people dead, including a security guard, before the two suspected gunmen took their own lives in a vehicle nearby, police say.
Police say emergency response teams found the victims outside the sprawling Islamic Center of San Diego, before later finding the two reportedly teenage suspects also dead.
US President Donald Trump claims that the leaders of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar asked him to hold off on attacking Iran for “two or three days” because “they think that they are getting very close to making a deal.”
Trump tells reporters at a White House event that he informed Israel before announcing his latest decision earlier Monday to delay an allegedly planned attack on Iran.
He calls it a positive development but adds that “we’ll have to see what happens.”
The two suspects in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego are dead.
That is according to a police source who speaks on condition of anonymity because the person is not authorized to discuss further details.
Authorities earlier said they believe multiple people have been shot. They have not released more details.
The Islamic Center is the largest mosque in San Diego County, according to its website. The campus includes the Al Rashid School, which the website says offers courses in Arabic, Islamic Studies, and the Quran.
Aerial TV footage shows more than a dozen children holding hands and being walked out of the parking lot of the center that is surrounded by scores of police vehicles. The white mosque is in a neighborhood of homes, apartments, and strip malls with Middle Eastern restaurants and markets.
The sister of Ireland’s President Catherine Connolly is among eight Irish citizens intercepted by Israel on Gaza-bound aid flotilla ships, organizers say.
Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla earlier today after it sailed from Turkey last week, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denouncing the mission as a “malicious scheme” intended to support the Hamas terror group.
“The Israeli occupation has again illegally and violently intercepted our international fleet of humanitarian vessels and abducted our volunteers.”
Margaret Connolly, an Irish doctor and President Connolly’s sister, is among those “illegally kidnapped” by Israel, organizers say in a statement sent to AFP.
“Eight Irish people have been illegally detained in this operation,” it says.
President Connolly, on a planned trip to the UK, tells reporters after talks in London with King Charles III that the news was “upsetting.”
“I’m very worried about her, and I’m also very concerned about her colleagues on board,” she says, adding that she did not have any details.
Videos posted by the organizers on social media showed Connolly and five others, which appear to have been recorded in advance of their detention.
In her video, Connolly says: “If you are watching this video, it means I have been kidnapped from my boat in the flotilla by the Israeli occupying forces.”
“Her participation in this flotilla was her own decision and not related to President Connolly,” organizers say.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The mayor of San Diego reports an “active shooter situation” occurring at the Islamic Center in the city’s Clairemont community, and police say officers are on the scene, according to posts on social media platform X.
No further official details are immediately available.
US President Donald Trump announces that he has called off a major attack against Iran that he claims was slated to take place on Tuesday after Gulf allies assured him that a deal with Tehran is now possible thanks to the renewal of “serious negotiations.”
“I have been asked by the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to hold off on our planned military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow, in that serious negotiations are now taking place, and that, in their opinion, as great leaders and allies, a deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond,” Trump writes on Truth Social.
“This deal will include, importantly, NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR IRAN!” Trump writes, ostensibly referring to an Iranian commitment not to enrich uranium, though it is unclear if that would be a permanent one, as he last week indicated that he would be willing to suffice with a 20-year Iranian halt on uranium enrichment — itself an about face after repeated assertions that Iran must never be allowed to enrich uranium.
“Based on my respect for the above mentioned leaders, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine, and the United States military, that we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow,” Trump writes.
“But [I] have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable deal is not reached,” he claims.
Since the outbreak of the Iran war on February 28, Trump has repeatedly threatened major military assaults against Iran only to later call them off amid claims that progress was being made in negotiations.
Tehran has made no indication that it is prepared to permanently halt its nuclear program or curb its missile program or support for proxies — all demands that Israel has pressed the US to make.
A new version of the controversial legislation to increase government control over the role of the attorney general includes a clause that would require the attorney general to obtain permission from a district court before opening a criminal investigation into politicians or senior public servants.
The new version of the bill, introduced by Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman MK Simcha Rothman, would also require the attorney general to get approval from a special committee to file an indictment against such figures.
The officials listed in the bill are the prime minister, cabinet ministers and deputy ministers, members of Knesset, judges, and rabbinical judges, among others.
The special committee would be made up of a retired Supreme Court or district court judge to be chosen by the Supreme Court, as well as two private lawyers with expertise in criminal law, not from the state prosecutor’s office, one of whom would be chosen by the attorney general and one by the Knesset State Control Committee.
Committee legal adviser Gur Bligh says the clause is problematic since it will create a two-tiered justice system, one where regular citizens can be indicted simply by the prosecutor general, whereas politicians and senior public servants can only be indicted after the approval of three different bodies or decision-makers, which he says would have a chilling effect on filing indictments against such officials.
Professional representatives of the Justice Ministry, the State Attorney’s Office, and the police also oppose the new clause, saying respectively that it will harm the separation of powers, negatively impact the professional discretion of the attorney general, and will complicate the filing of indictments since the two private lawyers on the special committee would be exposed to sensitive information and could also refuse to even convene to file an indictment.
Rothman says he will begin voting on the legislation in committee tomorrow in order to pass it to the Knesset plenum for its first reading.
At least 10 people have been injured, including one critically, when a bus crashed into a tree and an electrical pole on Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Street, causing it to veer into pedestrian traffic.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says that among the injured is a 11-year-old girl in critical condition suffering from multi-system injuries. She is being transferred to Ichilov Medical Center while undergoing CPR.
In addition, a 49-year-old woman and a 76-year-old man are listed in serious condition, a 39-year-old man is listed in moderate condition and suffering from a back injury, and six others are lightly hurt.
Hundreds of people led by Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Druze religious leaders set out to Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate as part of an interfaith march for “human rights and peace” this evening.
The march, organized by left-leaning religious organizations for four years now, is meant to counter the nationalist and often violent Flag March that runs through the Old City each Jerusalem Day.
It saw several hundred coexistence activists depart from the Jerusalem YMCA and proceed down King David Street along its sidewalk. Many in the crowd held signs emblazoned with words such as “Justice,” “Peace” and “Soul” in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.
Nuns, an increasingly frequent target of nationalist attacks in Jerusalem, were also seen participating in the march.
Avi Dabush, one of the organizers of the event and a candidate in The Democrats party primaries, calls the march an alternative to last week’s Jerusalem Day revelry, which saw groups of extremist Jewish youth harass and attack Arab residents of the Old City.
“Jerusalem Day should be a celebration of this city in all its richness and of everyone who calls it home, not a day of pushing others out,” he says. “Violence and racism toward members of other faiths are a disgrace, and doubly so from within our own Jewish moral tradition, which teaches that every human being was created in God’s image.”
Upon reaching Jaffa Gate, marchers were led in prayer at separate points by a rabbi, a priest, and a Muslim social activist. They were then serenaded by Israel’s 2009 Eurovision contender Achinoam Nini, who performed her entry, “There Must Be Another Way.”
Sheikh Younes Amasha, a Druze clergyman who heads the Forum of Religious Leaders in Israel, called on marchers to “raise the cry of the minorities in Syria” during the main event, in particular the Druze, “who have experienced massacres, kidnappings, and severe harm to innocent people… at the hands of extremist organizations.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani doubles down on a video he posted for Nakba Day as national Jewish organizations joined a chorus of condemnation.
On Friday, Mamdani posted a video, produced by City Hall, with a “Nakba survivor” who said the “catastrophe” associated with Israel’s founding “continues to this day.”
Nakba is Arabic for “catastrophe,” and refers to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. The Nakba narrative and the associated “right of return” for the refugees’ millions of descendants are seen by many as demands for Israel’s demise as a majority Jewish state.
New York Jewish leaders have condemned the video for presenting a one-sided view of Israel’s War of Independence, saying the narrative contributes to discrimination and threats against Jews, and national Jewish groups now join the outrage.
“In his post sharing a one-sided video about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the mayor of New York City fueled real world harm,” the American Jewish Committee says. “At a time when Jews are being attacked in the streets of New York and worldwide because of antizionist narratives, amplifying misleading content doesn’t just distort public understanding, it puts the Jewish community at further risk.”
The statement reflects the pro-Israel US Jewish community increasingly viewing anti-Zionism as discrimination and a threat in itself, and not as legitimate political discourse.
The Anti-Defamation League says the “one-sided video” is “propaganda.”
“Releasing it right before Shabbat isn’t leadership. It’s provocation. Especially when Nakba Day ‘commemorations’ in this city featured open support for US-designated terror organizations, veneration of their leaders, and calls for Israel’s destruction. New Yorkers deserve a mayor with the moral clarity to call that out,” the ADL says.
Nakba Day marches in the city on Friday and Saturday saw protesters waving Hezbollah and Hamas flags, including on a truck carrying children.
There was a lot of chaos at today’s Pal-Awda Bay Ridge Nakba Day 78 protest, but this moment deserves special attention.
Children are being led in a chant while, directly behind them, you can clearly see a flag with the emblem of Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. pic.twitter.com/Epme3IZSPk
— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) May 17, 2026
Mamdani doubles down on the video at a press conference.
“I was proud to commemorate Nakba Day, which is an annual day on May 15th that commemorates the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from 1947 to 1945 during the creation of the State of Israel and for the year that followed,” Mamdani says, misstating the year of Israel’s founding.
“We wanted to ensure that the focus of this is just to hear from a New Yorker herself, on her own memories, of what it means to be expelled, what her life has been like, and she has found home in New York City,” Mamdani says.
He adds that he had planned to appear in the video himself, but he “did fall sick” and did not want to “create any kind of complications” for the subject of the video.
Mamdani is also asked about leading Jewish organizations boycotting an event he is hosting tonight for American Jewish Heritage Month and Shavuot.
“My message to Jewish leaders across this city is that my door is always open,” he says.
The affidavit submitted to the High Court of Justice by the military intelligence officer who investigated incoming Mossad chief Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman over a controversial incident in 2022 appears to demonstrate that Gofman did not lie during an IDF investigation about it, Hebrew media reports.
Gofman was accused of lying to the military intelligence officer, referred to as Gimmel, and therefore of having acted unethically during the investigation.
Specifically, allegations were raised in High Court petitions against Gofman’s appointment that he was asked by Gimmel during the investigation whether he knew that intelligence information from Gofman’s 210th Division was transferred to a blogger called Ori Elmakayes for a social media influence operation, and whether he knew that Elmakayes was a minor, 17-years old, at the time.
The claims against Gofman are that he lied to Gimmel and said he was unaware of these details, and that his appointment as Mossad chief was therefore inappropriate given this alleged violation of ethical conduct.
But according to the affidavit submitted by Gimmel to the High Court of Justice yesterday, Gimmel did not ask him these specific questions when he spoke with him at the time, asking instead if he was aware that classified documents had been transferred out of the 210th Division which Gofman commanded, i24 reports.
That means that Gofman could not have lied about his knowledge of the transfer of intelligence to Elmakayes, since he was not asked about it.
According to the affidavit, Gofman denied that classified information had been transferred out of the division, insisting that only open source material was used for any influence operations.
Gimmel also writes explicitly in his affidavit that neither he nor Gofman knew who Elmakayes was, and that the issue of Elmakayes’ identity did not come up in their conversation.
Gimmel’s affidavit appears likely to pave the way for the High Court to dismiss the petitions against Gofman and remove the legal obstacles to his entry into the post in June.
In a video message filmed on the northern border, former prime minister Naftali Bennett accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of failing to deal with the drone threat and stabbing IDF troops in the back by supporting draft exemptions for Haredim.
“We are nearly 1,000 days into the war, and only now does the government remember there is a threat of explosive drones? It is simply unbelievable. Citizens, we are distributing nets to soldiers here because the government didn’t deal with it,” Bennett says.
“While IDF soldiers are facing north toward Hezbollah, the government is stabbing them in the back by passing the despicable draft-dodging law, which deprives the IDF of the soldiers needed to accomplish the mission. Soon, we will replace them and fix this.”
Hezbollah has been launching near-daily explosive drone attacks on IDF troops in southern Lebanon.
Speaking at his weekly cabinet meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had warned of the drone threat six years prior, but did not address why, during his years in office since then, Israel has not come up with a solution to counter it.
Israel Police Commissioner Danny Levy’s order for police officers to detain draft dodgers “is a populist and dangerous step, constituting a severe blow to Torah scholars,” declares United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf.
“At a time when the State of Israel is dealing with a sharp increase in crime and a decline in personal security, it seems that the Israel Police is choosing to become a political tool and direct its resources to persecuting yeshiva students, instead of returning governance to the streets,” Goldknopf alleges in a statement.
Railing against the “irresponsible” move, the Hasidic politician argues that “no forceful policy or enforcement procedures on the ground will discourage us and Torah scholars will continue to sustain the world through their study.”
Hamas intelligence chief Mohammed Odeh has been selected to replace Izz al-Din al-Haddad as the terror group’s leader in Gaza and chief of its military wing, the Saudi Asharq Al-Awsat news outlet reports.
Al-Haddad was killed in an Israeli strike on Friday.
Odeh, who was the head of military intelligence in Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades during the October 7, 2023, attacks, is said by the Saudi news outlet to have been close to al-Haddad and had worked with him to “renew the organizational structure” of Hamas following the assassination of its former leaders Muhammad Deif and Muhammad Sinwar.
Citing a source familiar with the details, Asharq Al-Awsat reports that Odeh was initially approached to lead the al-Qassam Brigades following Sinwar’s assassination in May last year, but declined.
According to the outlet, Odeh was tasked with gathering intelligence on IDF bases near the Gaza border and on weak points in the military’s Gaza Division in the run-up to October 7.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene a small group of senior ministers and aides this evening for a security discussion, the office of one of the ministers tells The Times of Israel.
The meeting, which follows a similar discussion last night, comes after Iran submitted a new response to the US proposal to end the war.
US President Donald Trump will freeze sanctions on Iranian oil during ongoing nuclear talks, the semi-official Tasnim News Agency reports, citing an Iranian source close to the country’s negotiating team.
This would represent a new concession by the US.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control would issue waivers while negotiations continue, according to the report.
Earlier today, Iran submitted a new 14-point proposal through Pakistan, according to the outlet.
Separately, a senior Iranian source tells Reuters that Washington has also shown flexibility on allowing Iran to maintain limited peaceful nuclear activities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In its new proposal, the source says, Iran has again focused on securing an end to the war, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and lifting maritime sanctions.
The more contentious issues around Iran’s nuclear program and uranium enrichment, which remain the most difficult parts of the negotiations, have been deferred to later rounds of talks.
Israel Police Commissioner Danny Levy issues new orders to police officers to detain draft dodgers and wait for the Military Police to pick them up, following IDF complaints that civilian law enforcement was hindering efforts against evasion.
“During a random encounter between a police officer and a deserter, the police officer will detain the deserter, report to the Military Police and wait with the detainee until a representative of the Military Police arrives, who is required to arrive within 30 minutes of the report,” the police say in a statement.
“If the representative of the Military Police does not arrive, the deserter will be released and the police officer will issue him a summons to report to the Military Police.”
The Knesset’s ultra-Orthodox parties react harshly to the new policy.
“How much further will the Attorney General degrade Israeli society into the depths of the abyss? And of all people, it is the Police Commissioner who will be forced to confront Torah scholars, and this is what he will be remembered for,” says Degel HaTorah chairman MK Moshe Gafni.
“At a time when acts of violence and crime are surging and murderers walk free in the streets, instead of the police properly handling national security, they decide to divert resources to pursue precious Torah scholars like common criminals. It is an absolute shame and disgrace that this is happening in the Jewish State,” says the Sephardic Shas party.
IDF officials claimed in a meeting with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in January that the police have been systematically preventing the army from arresting draft evaders in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.
Last month, the High Court of Justice ordered the state to take “actual criminal proceedings” against Haredi draft dodgers, calling the police’s failure to arrest such people “unacceptable” and describing the situation as a “knowing and ongoing mass violation of the law.”
In an apparent effort to mock the activist flotilla that was intercepted sailing toward Gaza today to challenge Israel’s naval blockade, Israeli authorities blasted Britney Spears’s hit song “Oops I Did It Again” through at least one of the flotilla vessels’ speakers, according to footage on X verified by a source familiar with the details.
The IDF is playing Britney Spears “Oops I did it again” over the radio to the Gaza flotilla ???? pic.twitter.com/VqmedamKRs
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) May 18, 2026
In the video, an activist on board shows the song coming through the boat’s speakers, accusing the IDF of “jamming our communication channel with music” and “trying to prevent us from getting off mayday calls” — emergency signals used to alert authorities to life-threatening situations at sea.
“They are attacking a humanitarian flotilla, this is a true breach of international law and also a war crime. We are civilians and they are jamming our emergency channels. Free Palestine!” the activist says.
Organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla departed on more than 50 vessels last week from Marmaris, Turkey, just weeks after a previous flotilla was thwarted and two of its activists were detained.
Three apparent Hezbollah drones identified over an area of southern Lebanon where troops are deployed were intercepted a short while ago, the IDF says.
The “suspicious aerial targets” triggered sirens in several border communities.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demands that the ultra-Orthodox community’s leaders unequivocally endorse military service for those who are not engaged in full-time Torah study as a precondition for his Religious Zionism party’s support for legislation exempting yeshiva students from conscription.
“We understand full well that enlisting Haredim into the IDF involves a deep and complex social process. It will not happen overnight, and it cannot be solved with populist slogans. Out of this understanding, we were ready for many painful compromises…for which we paid a non-trivial public and political price,” Smotrich tells reporters ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.
“But we have a basic, principled, and moral requirement of the Haredi leadership, the condition for any law must be a clear statement from the Haredi leadership: whoever is not studying Torah must enlist! This is the minimum required so that it will be possible to move forward in this important and necessary process,” Smotrich says, appealing to Haredi MKs to “show responsibility” and not lend a hand to efforts to topple the right-wing government.
Senior ultra-Orthodox spiritual leaders appear to regard efforts to legislate and regulate Haredi conscription as a stalling tactic only intended to buy time, openly stating that they have no plans to allow Haredi youth to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces, according to recordings of conversations aired on Channel 12 in January.
The Haredim decided to push for the dissolution of the Knesset last week after Netanyahu informed them that his coalition does not have a majority to pass his coalition’s controversial draft exemption bill in the current Knesset, and suggested waiting until after the 2026 elections. They further rejected Netanyahu’s proposal to allow work on the bill to continue in the next Knesset under a proposed amendment to the Law of Continuity. A preliminary vote on a bill to dissolve the Knesset is scheduled for this Wednesday.
In what is believed to be an effort to convince the Haredim to postpone elections until October, the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox draft exemption bill has been placed back on the parliamentary agenda for Wednesday, with a discussion planned in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to prepare it for the final two readings needed for it to pass into law.
Jewish leaders in New York City say they are not attending Mayor Mamdani’s event marking Jewish American Heritage Month tonight.
Mamdani’s office describes the event as a “Pre-Shavuot Celebration in Honor of Jewish American Heritage Month.”
The UJA-Federation of New York and the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York — the two leading Jewish groups in the city — say they are not attending the event.
“We will not be attending the Jewish American Heritage Month celebration at Gracie Mansion being hosted by a mayor who denies a core pillar of our heritage — the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people,” the federation tells The New York Post.
Rabbi Joseph Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis, a prominent Jewish leader in the city, also says he’s not going.
Rabbi David Niederman, a prominent figure in the Satmar Hasidic community, tells The Post he will attend.
The Satmars are theologically non-Zionist, but are not aligned with Mamdani’s political anti-Zionism, and have a warmer relationship to Mamdani’s City Hall than mainstream Jewish groups in the city.
Mamdani’s event comes after his office released a Nakba Day video on Friday that stoked outrage among mainstream Jewish groups due to its one-sided narrative about Israel’s War of Independence and its implication that Israel’s existence is an ongoing “catastrophe.”
Mamdani, who has refused to recognize Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, did not recognize Israel’s Independence Day last month and will not be marching in the Jewish community’s annual pro-Israel parade, called Israel Day on Fifth, later this month.
Mamdani has consistently said he seeks to protect and “cherish” Jewish New Yorkers.
Iran’s new body set up to manage the Strait of Hormuz says that any passage without permission from it “will be considered illegal.”
“Navigation within the introduced boundaries of the Strait of Hormuz, which were previously determined by the Armed Forces and authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is contingent upon full coordination with these entities,” writes the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) on X, “and passage without permission will be considered illegal.”
The formation of the PGSA was announced earlier today.
The government has decided to establish an inter-ministerial team to assess the possibility of confiscating properties in a sensitive area of the Old City of Jerusalem, putting Arab residents at risk of eviction.
The team will gauge how to expropriate dozens of properties along Chain Gate Street, which in Hebrew is called HaShalshelet Street. The alley serves as the Jewish Quarter’s northern perimeter and ultimately leads to the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound.
The government decision comes at the initiative of the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry, currently headed by Likud lawmaker Yariv Levin. It is one of several resolutions pegged to Jerusalem Day, celebrated last week from Thursday to Friday evening.
The inter-ministerial team, which will be led by the director general of the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry, has a year to submit an actionable plan to the government, Channel 12 reports.
The decision is meant to further the “development and strengthening of the Israeli capital” and “exercise control over the [Jewish] Quarter in its entirety,” Levin’s ministry says in a statement.
According to Channel 12, the step could lead to the confiscation of roughly 50 buildings and the eventual eviction of the Muslim families residing there to make way for Jewish tenants.
The report notes that the prospect of seizing properties on Chain Gate Street — a sensitive area due to its proximity to the Temple Mount — encountered resistance from officials in the Finance Ministry, who argued the move could spark international opposition.
Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher for Ir Amim, an NGO that advocates for Palestinian Jerusalemites, says that the prospective confiscation of property on the street would be “an aggressive step.”
“On one hand, nothing is going to happen at the present moment, but on the other hand, it attests that this is what the government wants,” he tells The Times of Israel. “It basically means that wherever the government wants, it can take and expropriate Palestinian property.”
A source in the Jerusalem Ministry tells Channel 12 that the territory belongs to the State of Israel “on paper” after Israel issued expropriation notices upon capturing the Old City in the Six-Day War. The notices were reportedly based on the British Mandate-era Land Ordinance of 1943, which regulates the expropriation of land for public purposes.
The street, in addition to leading to the Temple Mount, is home to several well-known Palestinian institutions including the Khalidi Library, founded as a public library under Ottoman rule in 1900, as well as several Muslim mausoleums. During the late Ottoman period, a mix of Jewish and Muslim families lived on the street.
Amid economic hardship in the wake of the war against Iran, US President Donald Trump’s approval rating sinks to 37 percent, the worst mark since he returned to office, a New York Times/Siena poll finds.
The Iran war is a major drag on his popularity. Almost two-thirds of voters say his decision to go to war was wrong, though 70% of Republicans support the move.
The poll has bleak news for Israel as well. More respondents — 37% to 35% — say they sympathize with Palestinians more than Israelis. For young respondents up to the age of 29, the disparity is even more pronounced, as only 14% say they support Israel more, against 64% for the Palestinians.
On all major policy areas in the poll — immigration, the economy, Iran, the cost of living — Trump is underwater.
Forty-nine percent of voters say they strongly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and 56% express a similar stance on the war with Iran. Over half say that Trump should not go back to war with Iran if a deal is not reached.
Only 37% of respondents — and 5% in the 18-29 age range — support “additional economic and military support to Israel.”
In a joint statement, the leaders of the Knesset’s Zionist opposition parties call on all lawmakers to vote to dissolve the Knesset on Wednesday, adding that they have removed all opposition legislation from today’s plenum agenda.
“The 25th Knesset has ended its historic term. In the absence of a majority for the crumbling coalition, the opposition factions are withdrawing all of their bills from the Knesset plenum, thereby closing the session,” the statement reads.
“Instead of continuing to support the dysfunctional Knesset, we call on everyone to support the Knesset dissolution proposal that will be presented this coming Wednesday and to go to the polls as soon as possible.”
The coalition has also removed all of its bills from today’s agenda, ahead of Wednesday’s expected preliminary vote on a bill to dissolve the Knesset.
Without any legislation, the agenda only includes three separate pro-forma motions for a vote of no-confidence in the government, and a government announcement that the Israel National Digital Directorate will be transferred from the authority of the Economy Ministry to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The exact timeline for passing the Knesset dissolution bill remains unclear, though it is likely that it will be pushed through the Knesset quickly. After passing its preliminary reading, the bill will need to go to committee and then pass three readings in the plenum.
Former prime minister and Together chairman Naftali Bennett met with Yashar chief Gadi Eisenkot on Sunday evening, a spokesperson for Bennett announces.
“During their meeting, they discussed the necessary moves within the ‘correction and hope’ bloc ahead of the dissolution of the Knesset, leading it to victory, and establishing a Zionist government based on the ‘alliance of those who serve,'” the spokesperson says, adding that the pair “agreed to continue meeting soon.”
Bennett and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid launched their joint slate late last month, and the new union is now running neck-and-neck with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud to be the largest party in the Knesset after the next elections. Both have repeatedly invited Eisenkot to merge with them, with Lapid even saying he would be willing to take third place, rather than second, on their joint electoral slate if it would help secure a broader merger with Yashar.
While Eisenkot has indicated he may be open to the possibility, he recently criticized Bennett and Lapid, telling party activists that he had pushed for months to create a large centrist party.
However, he did not succeed and ultimately received a phone call informing him of Bennett and Lapid’s union only minutes before it was publicly announced.
The Knesset Education, Culture, and Sports Committee meets to prepare a controversial bill seeking to extend Israeli civilian control over antiquities in the West Bank for the second and third readings in the plenum, which would enshrine it into law. The proposal would bring an unprecedented change in the status of the West Bank, according to many, and would amount to de facto annexation.
Two additional committee sessions are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday to allow the bill to be voted into law before the expected proceedings to dissolve the Knesset begin. The bill passed its first reading last week.
“We are doing two things. One is creating an organized body in charge of our spiritual and cultural treasures in Judea and Samaria, and another is doing it through Israeli legislation,” says MK Amit Halevi (Likud), who sponsors the bill, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.
If approved in its current form, the proposal will change the decades-long status quo in the West Bank by establishing a civilian “Judea and Samaria Heritage Authority” to assume responsibilities currently held by the Defense Ministry.
This would include provisions, including in land management and expropriation, directly affecting Palestinians living in the West Bank.
The person responsible for the file now is a staff officer of the Archaeology Unit of the Civil Administration, a branch of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is responsible for civilian affairs in the territory.
“The bill would essentially create a new situation in Judea and Samaria in which Israeli governmental authority will be exercised directly, not subordinate to the military commander in the area, but to the Heritage Minister,” says Attorney Ayala Roash from the legal office at the Defense Ministry.
“In essence, this proposal removes the authority of the military commander, taking away its powers,” she adds. “This is essentially a contradiction of the paradigm according to which Israel manages the territories of the region. I must also say that we have not yet encountered such a model yet.”
Roash also notes that the scope of the proposal includes Areas A and B, where Israel has transferred civilian responsibility (and, in the case of Area A, also security responsibility) to the Palestinian Authority, creating further legal difficulties.
Halevi rejects the notion that Israeli legislators and government are not allowed to exercise their power directly in the West Bank, and expresses hope that the bill could become law as early as next week.
The IDF Home Front Command has pushed a new update to its mobile application that aims to improve the user experience with clearer notifications for attacks and for when an incident is over.
As part of the update, each type of alert will be displayed with different icons, colors, and sounds, which the military says has the goal of “enabling immediate identification of the type of incident and the required action.”
A yellow alert signals an early warning for a potential threat, while a red one instructs civilians to seek shelter. A green “all-clear” notification is sent once an incident has concluded.
All alerts and updates will now be displayed in chronological order on a central screen in the app.
Additionally, the new app includes upgrades to lock screen notifications and a clearer distinction between an alert in the user’s actual location and alerts in predefined areas of interest.
The IDF says the update was developed as part of an “ongoing learning and improvement process by the Home Front Command, and is based on lessons and insights learned during the war.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid warns coalition MKs that their voters will remember if they vote in favor of exempting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from military service and calls on them to resist pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“If an MK votes in favor of evading the IDF, his voters in the primaries should know that he is no longer a Zionist and that he is endangering their security,” he says, referencing reports that Netanyahu has been pressuring Likud MKs to support the controversial bill, which is set to be discussed in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday.
“Over the past two days, Netanyahu and his office have been applying a crazy amount of pressure on MKs from the coalition in order to convince them to support the evasion law after all. All to gain a few more days in office,” he says — arguing that efforts to secure a majority in favor of the bill constitute “a humiliation for Zionism [and] a betrayal of IDF fighters.”
Citing IDF data presented this week showing that the army’s manpower shortage is set to get worse, Lapid warns that he will target politically any lawmakers who support the bill.
“We will buy billboards all over the State of Israel, and if you support this law, in every corner of the country there will be a sign with your face and underneath it will be written: ‘Supports evasion from the IDF during wartime.'”
“This will not fly under the radar…there will not be a single Israeli who does not know about it. Your children will know, your neighbors will know, there will not be a single Likud voter who does not know that you have deserted the IDF fighters,” he adds.
Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon a short while ago, triggering sirens in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona and nearby border communities.
According to the military, some of the rockets crossed the border into Israeli territory. They were intercepted or struck open areas, and no injuries were caused, the IDF says.
In addition, an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah a short while ago struck Israeli territory, close to the Lebanon border, the military says.
As a result of the drone impact, the IDF says, “fragments were identified in the community of Shomera.”
Addressing reporters ahead of his Yisrael Beytenu party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Avigdor Liberman announces that he intends to support Druze MK Hamad Amar as his party’s candidate for national security minister in the next government.
“When we return to power, we will wage a total war against the criminal organizations,” Liberman says, warning that “it is only a matter of time before armed militias join the terrorists of [Hamas] Nukhba and the criminal organizations in the north join Hezbollah. Already today, there is cooperation between them in drug [smuggling]. We must wage a struggle against criminal organizations just as we fight against terrorism.”
He also calls for the establishment of special courts to deal with extortion and protection schemes as well as increased sentences of at least 12 years for those collecting protection money.
“Regardless of the identity of the next prime minister, the next minister of internal security will be MK Hamad Amer,” Liberman pledges.
Liberman also slams Arab party leaders, arguing that if Arab voters want to see progress in the fight against crime, they should “vote for Zionist parties.”
“You voted for Arab parties all the time, they didn’t deal with this, it doesn’t interest them. All they care about is Hamas and a Palestinian state,” he adds.
Asked about his ongoing contacts with Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot, Liberman doubles down on his recent criticism of the former IDF chief of staff over his willingness to entertain a coalition including Haredim, stating that “regarding our platform, we will not enter any negotiations.”
“Anyone who is not ready for conscription for everyone, without any tricks and without even a single exemption, I have nothing to talk about with them,” he says, referring to Eisenkot’s statement during a weekend visit to Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market that he would be open to sitting with the ultra-Orthodox parties.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says its forces had struck groups linked to the United States and Israel in the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, near the border with Iraq.
In a statement carried by the ISNA news agency, the Guards say groups from “northern Iraq and acting on behalf of the US and the Zionist regime were attempting to smuggle a large shipment of American weapons and ammunition” into Iran.
They say the groups were hit in the Iranian city of Baneh in the Kurdistan region.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blames both Attorney General Gali Baharv-Miara and the government led by former prime minister Naftali Bennet and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid in 2021-2022 for the surging violent crime in Arab communities, following yesterday’s shooting of Jadeidi Makr council head Suheil Milhim and deputy mayor Obaid Obaid.
“At a time when crime is rampant, this corrupt system is dealing with foolish investigations,” he says during a Knesset Constitution Committee discussion on splitting the position of the attorney general, vowing to soon “put an end to the dictatorship of the attorney general.”
Smotrich accuses Baharav-Miara without evidence of “covering” for former Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who leaked footage relating to allegations of IDF reservists severely abusing a Palestinian security detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility in 2024, which he dismisses as an “antisemitic blood libel,” as well as “persecuting” Shin Bet chief David Zini and nominated Mossad head Roman Gofman, whose candidacy she opposes.
The finance minister also blames the previous government for crime in Arab communities, repeating unsubstantiated claims that funds transferred to Arab municipalities under the previous government reached “crime and terror organizations.”
Opposition lawmakers clash with the finance minister throughout the discussion, with Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz, a former police major general and deputy public security minister in the previous government, dismissing Smotrich’s remarks as “a pile of nonsense and malice.”
“Let the public not be confused – you did nothing,” Segalovitz says, accusing the government of presiding over a “total collapse” of law enforcement and failing to tackle violent crime in Arab communities.
Rocket sirens sound in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona and other nearby towns on the Lebanon border.
The IDF says it is investigating.
A senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon’s eastern Beqaa Valley last night, the military announces.
Wael Mahmoud Abd al-Halim, who served as the commander of Islamic Jihad in the Beqaa region, was targeted in a strike on the outskirts of the city of Baalbek. Lebanese media reported that Halim’s 17-year-old daughter was killed alongside him.
The IDF says Halim led efforts to integrate Islamic Jihad operatives into “combat operations alongside Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon,” and also advanced other attacks on troops in recent weeks.
Speaking to local agricultural union leaders, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun defends continuing direct talks with Israel as part of his duty to find a way to end the IDF operations in the country.
“The framework that Lebanon has set for the negotiations consists of the Israeli withdrawal, the ceasefire, the deployment of the army along the borders, the return of the displaced, and economic or financial assistance to Lebanon,” he tells the delegation, according to his office. “Anything else being discussed otherwise is incorrect.”
“It is my duty, and stemming from my position and responsibility, to do the impossible and whatever costs the least to stop the war against Lebanon and its people,” he says.
“We have experienced wars and where they have led Lebanon, so is there anyone who can bear their cost afterward?” says Aoun.
Last week, the US and Lebanese ambassadors to Washington wrapped up the third round of direct talks, after which the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon was extended for another 45 days.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the commander of the Israeli Navy force that intercepted the latest Gaza flotilla that they managed to stop the ships with much less noise than the organizers intended.
“You are doing an outstanding job, both in the first flotilla and in this part as well, and are effectively thwarting a malicious plan intended to break the isolation we are imposing on Hamas terrorists in Gaza,” he says to the commander of the navy’s Missile Ship Fleet, the navy’s main surface warfare arm, speaking on the force’s radio.
“You are doing this with great success, and I must say also, quietly, and certainly with less publicity than our enemies expected,” says Netanyahu.
The conversation was part of Netanyahu’s visit with Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Eyal Zamir to the navy’s operational headquarters at the Kirya in Tel Aviv. They also received a briefing from navy chief Vice Adm. Eyal Harel, according to Netanyahu’s office.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich fails to recognize Danny Elgart, whose brother, Itzik Elgarat, was abducted during the Hamas-led October 7,2023 attacks and later murdered in captivity, during a Knesset Constitution Committee debate on the controversial bill to split the role of the attorney general.
“There is no other country in the world that abandons its hostages,” says Elgarat, directly addressing the finance minister, who is seated next to him.
In response, Smotrich asks Elgarat who he is, prompting outrage from lawmakers and Elgarat himself, who replies: “My brother was murdered because of you, and you don’t know who I am? Shame on you.”
Even after Elgart identifies himself, Smotrich barely acknowledges him or turns in his direction, instead continuing to shout at opposition lawmakers during the heated exchange.
Smotrich vocally opposed hostage deals and on multiple occasions threatened to quit the government over proposed agreements.
Itzik was one of 38 hostages abducted alive on October 7 and killed in captivity after October 8, 2023, according to the IDF.
Elgarat emerged as a prominent advocate for the hostages and a vocal critic of the government following his brother’s abduction, and in January, he announced that he had joined Yair Golan’s left-wing Democrats and would run in its primary.
Pakistan has deployed 8,000 troops, a squadron of fighter jets and an air defense system to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defense pact, ramping up military cooperation with Riyadh even as Islamabad serves as the main mediator in the Iran war.
The deployment, the full scale of which is reported by Reuters today for the first time, was confirmed by three security officials and two government sources, all of whom described it as a substantial, combat-capable force intended to support Saudi Arabia’s military if the kingdom comes under further attack.
Pakistan’s military and foreign office and Saudi Arabia’s government media office did not respond to requests for comment on the deployment.
The full terms of the defense agreement, signed last year, are confidential, but both sides have said it requires Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to come to each other’s defense in the event of an attack. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has previously implied that it places Saudi Arabia under Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella.
According to the sources, Pakistan has deployed a full squadron of around 16 aircraft, mostly JF-17 fighters made jointly with China, which were sent to Saudi Arabia in early April. Two of the security officials said Pakistan had also sent two squadrons of drones.
All five sources said the deployment includes around 8,000 troops, with a pledge to send more if needed, as well as a Chinese HQ-9 air defense system.
Ahead of Wednesday’s expected preliminary vote on a bill to dissolve the Knesset, all legislation is removed from the parliamentary plenum agenda for today.
Without any legislation, the agenda only includes three separate pro-forma motions for a vote of no-confidence in the government and a government announcement that the Israel National Digital Directorate will be transferred from the authority of Economy Ministry to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The exact timeline for passing the Knesset dissolution bill remains unclear, though it is likely that the legislation will be pushed through the Knesset quickly. After passing its preliminary reading, the bill will need to go to committee and then pass three readings in the plenum.
Germany is condemning attacks by Iran on the United Arab Emirates and other nations, Chancellor Friedrich Merz says, adding that Tehran must stop threatening its neighbors and open the Strait of Hormuz without restrictions.
“Attacks on nuclear facilities pose a threat to the safety of people throughout the region. There must be no further escalation of violence,” Merz says in a post on X.
He also says that Iran must enter into serious negotiations with the United States.
A drone strike caused a fire at a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates, officials there said yesterday.
Police arrest a suspect in last night’s shooting of the head of Jadeidi Makr’s local council alongside his deputy, which left both men wounded.
The suspect, a resident of the northern Arab village in his 20s, was arrested for interrogation a short time ago, police say.
He will be brought to court for a remand hearing after his interrogation.
The shooting left council head Suheil Milhim in serious condition, while the deputy mayor, Obaid Obaid, was moderately injured, medics said.
The apparent assassination attempt is being investigated by the Coastal District’s investigations and intelligence unit.
The relationship between Israel and Somaliland is “strategic,” says Somaliland’s first ambassador Mohamed Hagi as he presents his diplomatic credentials to President Isaac Herzog.
“We have built a great relationship,” he says, according to the President’s Residence, “which is a strategic one that will pave the way forward on many things in all domains, whether that is development, political cooperation, security cooperation, and, of course, the people-to-people relationship.”
Hagi says that Somaliland’s people “very much appreciate that Israel became the first country to recognize Somaliland in 1960, and again, after 35 years of independence and sovereignty, Israel again became the first country that recognized Somaliland.”
“Our relationship is unique because it’s not just about two governments, it’s about the people of Israel and the people of Somaliland,” he continues. “In Somaliland, you can see lots of Israeli flags and people waving them in the streets and in rural areas as well.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also hosts Hagi after he presented his credentials to Herzog.
Sa’ar says that he congratulated Hagi on Somaliland’s Independence Day today.
“I’ll continue building the relationship with Somaliland!” writes Sa’ar on X.
Another meaningful day on the path we’re paving together.
Glad to host at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem Somaliland’s first Ambassador to Israel, Dr. Mohamed Hagi @AmbMohamedHagi.
I congratulated him on presenting his credentials to the President of the State of Israel and… pic.twitter.com/8YRb6ZOcjt
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) May 18, 2026
Turkey condemns Israel’s interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla after it set sail from the Turkish port of Marmaris.
The interception, says the Turkish Foreign Ministry, “constitutes a new act of piracy.”
“Israel must immediately cease its intervention and unconditionally release the detained flotilla participants,” says the Turkish statement, adding that “the process is being closely monitored in cooperation with other countries.”
Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani says that his country’s embassies in Israel, Turkey and Cyprus have asked Israel to ensure the safety of the Italian citizens on the flotilla.
Coalition and opposition lawmakers clash in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee during deliberations on a controversial bill to split the role of the attorney general, as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in a rare appearance, dismisses concerns over weakening checks on government power.
“What checks and balances does the government have?” Yesh Atid MK Yasmin Fridman asks Smotrich. “If [the government] is not obligated to the opinion of any legal adviser, what checks and balances exist? What will protect citizens from a government where there is nothing to stop it?” she continues.
Smotrich evades the question, and instead asks whether Fridman “know[s] of another country in the world where the government is bound to [the opinion of] the attorney general,” calling the current system akin to a “dictatorship” by the attorney general.
Opposition lawmakers immediately fire back that other democracies have stronger separation of powers and institutional checks and balances, including a constitution, separate parliamentary bodies, and separations between executive and legislative powers, all of which Israel lacks.
When Fridman presses the finance minister on what safeguards would remain on executive power in Israel, he points to “judicial review by the courts,” prompting derisive responses from opposition lawmakers, who note that his government has for years been campaigning to weaken and delegitimize the judiciary.
The legislation, which has only passed a preliminary reading, would split the attorney general’s role into three separate positions, in a move critics say would significantly weaken one of the main checks on government power, including during upcoming elections.
The Haifa District Court convicts Shauki Abu Latif, head of the local council in the northern town of Rameh, after he pleads guilty to aiding and abetting extortion through threats, fraud and breach of trust.
The local politician was charged alongside his son, Razi Abu Latif, in 2023 as part of a case involving the extortion of factory owners in the town by the Abu Latif crime family.
The owners were subject to shootings at their homes and business, arson and death threats, the State Attorney’s Office says.
According to the amended indictment, the factory owners reached out to the politician, hoping he could help put an end to the violent intimidation by virtue of his ties to the family.
Instead, he conveyed messages to the factory owners behalf of the blackmailers and attempted to force them to pay NIS 1 million ($343 thousand) for the violence to cease, the State Attorney’s Office says. The first NIS 40,000 ($14,000) was to be paid in cash to his office.
As part of the plea deal, state prosecutors will request the court hand down an 11-month prison sentence, probation and a fine of an unspecified amount.
Abu Latif’s defense attorney is permitted under the deal to argue for a more lenient sentence.
In the wake of Israeli claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the United Arab Emirates during the war against Iran, Tehran warns “some countries in the region” against cooperation with Israel.
“The fact that there have been many exchanges between the Zionist regime and some countries in the region is not hidden from our view,” says Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei.
“The countries of the region, including the UAE, should learn from what happened in the last two or three months,” says Baghaei.
The contacts “have emboldened the Zionists in committing crimes, in genocide in Gaza, in the continuation of military aggression in Lebanon,” he insists.
The UAE denies that any such visit occurred.
“They saw that the military presence of the US and the Zionist regime in the region does not bring security, it brings insecurity for all countries in the region,” Baghaei says.
Arguing that the prosperity of Middle Eastern countries is harmed by cooperation with the US and Israel, Baghaei calls on them “to take control of their own land. They have made their resources available to the aggressors.”
He insists that Iran has “no enmity with any of the countries in the region.”
“We are and will be permanent neighbors with all countries in the region, including the UAE,” says Baghaei.
The UAE has been the country most targeted by Iran since the outbreak of war on February 28. On Sunday, a drone strike targeted the UAE’s sole nuclear power plant, sparking a fire.
Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, says that commercial oil inventories are depleting rapidly amid the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and that those inventories only have a few weeks left.
Birol also says at the G7 meeting in Paris that the release of strategic oil reserves had added 2.5 million barrels of oil per day to the market, but that these reserves are not limitless.
The IDF issues evacuation warnings for three villages in southern Lebanon ahead of airstrikes targeting the Hezbollah terror group.
Residents of Harouf, Burj al-Shamali and Debaal 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.
Iran’s top security authority announces the formation of a new body to manage the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively closed and wants to charge ships to traverse.
On its official X account, the Supreme National Security Council shares a post for the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) saying it will provide “real‑time updates on the #Hormuz_Strait operations and latest developments.”
The account of the Revolutionary Guards navy shares the same post.
Iran says it has responded to a new US proposal aimed at ending the war, adding that exchanges are continuing despite Iranian media reports describing Washington’s demands as excessive.
“As we announced yesterday, our concerns were conveyed to the American side,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei says during a press briefing.
He says exchanges are “continuing through the Pakistani mediator,” without providing details.
Baqaei defends Iran’s demands, including the release of Iranian assets frozen abroad and the lifting of long-standing sanctions.
“The points raised are Iranian demands that have been firmly defended by the Iranian negotiating team in every round of negotiations,” he says.
He also defends an Iranian stipulation that the US pay war reparations, describing the conflict as “illegal and baseless.”
On the possibility of another military confrontation, Baqaei says Iran is “fully prepared for any eventuality.”
Mohamed Hagi presents his diplomatic credentials to President Isaac Herzog, making him Somaliland’s first ambassador to a foreign country.
In December, Israel became the only country in the world to recognize Somaliland’s independence — something the territory has been seeking since declaring its autonomy from Somalia in 1991.
Hagi, appointed in February, has been serving as adviser to Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, and was an architect of Israel-Somaliland relations.
The new ambassadors of the Vatican, Australia, Korea and Vietnam are also presenting their credentials today at the President’s Residence.
Iran’s national football team is headed to Turkey today to play a final friendly match before flying to the United States for the 2026 World Cup, Iranian media reports.
“The Iranian national football team, consisting of 22 players and coaching staff, departed this morning for Antalya, Turkey to play its final friendly match before flying to the United States for the 2026 World Cup,” the Tasnim news agency reports.
Pakistan has shared with the US a revised proposal from Iran to end the conflict in the Middle East, a Pakistani source tells Reuters, as peace talks appear to remain stalled.
“We don’t have much time,” the source says, when asked if it will take time to close gaps, adding that both countries “keep changing their goalposts.”
The Israeli Navy has begun to intercept the activist mission sailing to the Gaza Strip to challenge Israel’s naval blockade.
A livestream shows naval commandos boarding one of Global Sumud Flotilla’s vessels at sea off the coast of Cyprus.
The Israeli Navy has begun to intercept the activist mission sailing to the Gaza Strip to challenge Israel's naval blockade. pic.twitter.com/YXeSwxPDOd
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) May 18, 2026
Earlier, Israel warned the “participants in this provocation to change course and turn back immediately.”
Israel has previously dismissed the flotillas as publicity stunts, after their organizers rejected calls to transfer the small amount of symbolic aid they had been carrying with them to Israel or international organizations to be taken into the Strip and distributed via official channels.
The IDF says it killed a Hamas sniper who was planning an attack on troops in the Strip’s south in an airstrike yesterday.
“The terrorist posed an immediate threat to IDF troops and was eliminated in a targeted manner to remove the threat,” the military says.
כלי-טיס של חיל-האוויר, בהכוונת כוחות אוגדת עזה (143), חיסל אתמול מחבל מארגון הטרור חמאס שקידם מתווי צליפה בטווח הזמן המיידי נגד כוחות צה"ל הפועלים בדרום רצועת עזה.
המחבל היווה איום מיידי על כוחות צה"ל וחוסל באופן ממוקד להסרת האיום. pic.twitter.com/IKBVPTz1RR
— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) May 18, 2026
Israel denies that the Rafah Crossing into Gaza has been shut, following reports in Hamas-linked media claiming that it had been.
COGAT, the Defense Ministry body that organizes Israeli activity in Gaza and the West Bank, says in response to a query from The Times of Israel that due to a backlog at the World Health Organization, people have not been entering or leaving every day, but the crossing itself is not closed.
WHO coordinates the entry and exit of patients and wounded people through the Rafah Crossing, which reopened in February after being shut for more than a year. Under an Egyptian-Israeli agreement, up to 50 medical patients are allowed to leave per day along with two family members to accompany each of them.
The Israeli Navy is gearing up to soon intercept an activist mission sailing to the Gaza Strip to challenge Israel’s naval blockade.
The Foreign Ministry says in a statement that “Israel calls on all participants in this provocation to change course and turn back immediately.”
Once again, a provocation for the sake of provocation: another so-called “humanitarian aid flotilla” with no humanitarian aid. This time, two violent Turkish groups – Mavi Marmara and IHH, the latter designated as a terrorist organization – are part of the provocation.
The…
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) May 18, 2026
According to tracking data, Global Sumud Flotilla — which includes some 57 vessels — is currently west of Cyprus, after departing from Turkey’s Mediterranean coast on Thursday.
Israel has previously dismissed the flotillas as publicity stunts, after their organizers rejected calls to transfer the small amount of symbolic aid they had been carrying with them to Israel or international organizations to be taken into the Strip and distributed via official channels.
Over the past day, the IDF says that it struck over 30 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
The targets included weapon depots, surveillance posts and buildings used by the terror group to advance attacks, according to the military.
The military says that it also struck and killed several Hezbollah operatives who were “advancing attacks against IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon.”
Gaza media outlets affiliated with Hamas report that the Rafah crossing, which is used for the entry and exit of people, has been closed for the second consecutive day for an unknown reason.
According to the reports, the Kerem Shalom crossing remains open as usual for the entry of goods.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony in his criminal trial is canceled for today after his lawyer filed a request telling the Jerusalem District Court that the prime minister needed to attend a series of security and diplomatic meetings during the course of the day.
Netanyahu’s attorney says that the prime minister’s schedule is entirely full with such meetings “until the late hours of the night,” and filed a confidential copy of Netanyahu’s schedule for today with the court.
A hearing is still currently scheduled for tomorrow morning.
President Isaac Herzog says that the attempted assassination of a mayor from northern Israel is a “serious and shocking event” which must be fought against.
“I was shocked to hear about the attempted murder last night of the head of the local council of Jadeidi-Makr, Suheil Milhim, and his deputy.”
“This is a serious and shocking event, which joins the unbearable wave of violence that is harming Arab society and claiming many victims, almost every day,” Herzog adds, calling it “a strategic threat to the State of Israel.”
Herzog says he spoke with Milhim several months ago about the threats he had been facing, and issues “a firm call to fight this terrible phenomenon with all the tools at our disposal.”
The Galilee Medical Center says Milhim is still in serious condition after undergoing several surgeries, while his deputy is in moderate condition.
Police say they arrested two suspects overnight in connection with the arson of a structure in the Palestinian village of Khirbet Wadi al-Rahim near Susiya, south of Hebron in the southern West Bank.
Police say that following reports of the arson, officers were dispatched to the scene and began searching for suspects while collecting testimony and evidence.
Earlier, Palestinian media reported that a structure used for storing livestock was set on fire, along with a traditional outdoor oven nearby, and that the owner of the property suffered a hand injury while trying to extinguish the blaze. No damage to the livestock has been reported.
Attorneys for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have requested from the court to cancel his scheduled testimony today in his ongoing corruption trial.
The hearing was slated to begin today at 9:30 a.m. Netanyahu’s attorneys cited “diplomatic and security reasons” for requesting the cancellation, something that has been commonplace during the period of his testimony.
The judges in the case have not yet ruled on whether to accept the request.
London police asked the organizers of an upcoming exhibition on Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre at the Nova music festival to take down the exhibition’s main banner, due to fear that the location will become the scene of extremist protest and potential terror attacks, Hebrew media reports.
Police reportedly ordered the organizers to only put the large sign back on the day the exhibition begins — which is Wednesday — to avoid revealing the location of the venue ahead of time.
The reports say police officials discussed several threat scenarios with the organizers, and said forces will be placed in and near the venue area, including undercover cops.
The steps come amid a wave of anti-Israel and antisemitic attacks targeting Jewish targets in London.
The Nova massacre saw Hamas-led terrorists invade from Gaza, kill over 360 participants of the rave near Re’im, and take dozens to the Strip as hostages.
BREAKING:
Britain’s Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has ordered the removal of the main sign for the Nova exhibition in London.The reason? Police fear it could trigger terrorist attacks or violent antisemitic protests from pro-Palestinian activists.
The Nova Festival was the… pic.twitter.com/Sa7ATqYrGq— Yossi BenYakar (@YossiBenYakar) May 17, 2026
Two men have been shot and wounded in the northern Arab town of Jadeidi-Makr, police say, with Hebrew media reports saying the two are the local council head and his deputy.
Police say forces are searching for the perpetrators of the suspected attempted hit.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says medics treated one man in serious condition and one man in moderate condition, both with gunshot wounds, and that the two have been taken to Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.
Hebrew media says the council head, Suheil Milhim, is in serious and unstable condition, while the deputy mayor is moderately injured.
An Israeli missile strike on an apartment in eastern Lebanon has killed an Islamic Jihad commander and his 17-year-old daughter, Lebanese state media says.
Emergency workers are searching the rubble for survivors of the blast on the outskirts of the city of Baalbek, the National News Agency reports.
US President Donald Trump publishes a Truth Social post with AI images of a Middle East map overlaid with an American flag, with a series of arrows pointing at Iran, in what appears to be another public threat to renew strikes on the Islamic Republic.
New media post from Donald J. Trump
( TruthSocial: May 17 2026, 5:26 PM ET ) pic.twitter.com/2igZeTblqx
— Commentary Donald J Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) May 17, 2026
More than a dozen settler activists illegally crossed the border into Syria in several incidents today, including ten a short while ago.
The military says that troops stationed in the area brought all of the suspects back to Israel, detained them, and handed them over to the police for further questioning.
“The IDF strongly condemns the incident and emphasizes that this is a severe event constituting a criminal offense that endangers civilians and IDF forces,” the military adds.
The activists, who called themselves the Bashan Pioneers, have breached the border and entered Syria numerous times in the past year. The group is calling to establish settlements in southern Syria, and it has received support from some coalition lawmakers.
ממשיכים בפעילות – שתי קבוצות נוספות עברו בדרך לכתר החרמון שלנו! ????️
כהמשך לפעילות א'-ב' סיוון, ימי שיחרור הגולן במלחמת ששת הימים, שתי קבוצות נוספות עברו בדרך לכתר החרמון שלנו! אחת נעצרה (ושוחררה מיד), והשנייה עדיין מטפסת על ההר! ????????????????
אנחנו קוראים לממשלה: אשרו לנו להתיישב בבשן! pic.twitter.com/EgXvnAzkWl
— תנועת חלוצי הבשן (@HaluzeyHabashan) May 17, 2026
