Sept. 1: After High Court ruling, justice minister says ‘only the gov’t’ will decide who AG is

Netanyahu thanks US for denying visas to ‘those who glorify terror’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanks the US after it refused to issue visas to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other PA officials, ahead of the UN General Assembly later this month.

“On behalf of the State of Israel, I thank President Trump and Secretary Rubio for their moral clarity,” Netanyahu writes on his official X account. “Denying visas to those who glorify terror is not punishment, it is justice. There are no prizes for terror and no rewards for barbarism.”

Lebanon and Syria to form committees on prisoners, missing persons and border issues

People wait at the entrance of the Al-Masnaa eastern Lebanese border crossing with Syria on January 3, 2025, after Syria imposed new restrictions on the entry of Lebanese citizens. (Hassan JARRAH / AFP)

Lebanon and Syria will form two committees to decide the fate of the nearly 2,000 Syrian prisoners held in Lebanese jails, to locate Lebanese nationals missing in Syria for years, and to settle the shared unmarked border, judicial and security officials say.

Today’s announcement comes as a Syrian delegation, which includes two former cabinet ministers and the head of Syria’s National Commission for Missing Persons, visits Beirut, a first since insurgent groups overthrew Syrian president Bashar Assad’s government in early December.

Syria’s new administration, under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, wants to “open a new page” with Lebanon and pave the way for a visit by the Syrian ministers of foreign affairs and justice, though a date is yet to be set, a Lebanese judicial and two security officials tell The Associated Press.

Talks today with Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri included the topic of Syrians held in Lebanese jails, of which about 800 have been detained for security reasons, such as attacks and shootings, the officials say, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Many Syrians held in Lebanon are in jail without trial.

They also say that the two sides discussed Lebanese citizens missing in Syria and the two countries’ shared border, where smuggling is common, and the estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon who escaped the uprising-turned-conflict in their home country over 14 years ago.

The Syrian side wants to review bilateral agreements that were in place during the Assad family’s 54-year dynasty, but Lebanon suggests forming new agreements to deal with pending issues between the two nations, the Lebanese officials say.

UK foreign secretary slams Israel for ‘man-made famine’ in Gaza, says Israel’s reputation diminishing among world’s young people

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy delivers a speech on the Middle East in the House of Commons in London, on September 1, 2025. (PRU / AFP)

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy says he is “outraged by the Israeli government’s refusal to allow in sufficient aid” to Gaza.

“This is not a natural disaster,” he says, speaking in the House of Commons. “It’s a man-made famine in the 21st century.”

Israel’s reputation is “diminishing in the eyes of young people across the globe who look at this with horror,” Lammy says of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

He urges the Israeli government “to step back and recognize the reputational damage caused by its actions.”

He also blasts Hamas for “deliberately starving Israeli hostages.”

Calling for an immediate ceasefire and hostage release deal, Lammy says that “further military operations in Gaza City will only prolong and deepen this crisis. So together with our partners, we demand an immediate halt to this operation.”

IDF chief said to blast Netanyahu, ministers: ‘Where were you on October 7?’

L-R: Defense Minister Israel Katz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, and IAF chief of staff Brig. Gen. Omer Tischler at the IAF's command center, August 24, 2025. (Elad Malka/ Defense Ministry)

During the contentious cabinet meeting last night on the next stage in the war in Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir blasted the assembled ministers for insisting on the military defeat of Hamas now after not doing so for the previous 22 months of war, Channel 13 reports.

“Good morning,” he reportedly said sarcastically. “You are the cabinet of October 7. Now you remember to talk about the defeat of Hamas. Where were you on the 7th? The 8th? The 9th? Now you remember, after two years.”

“When I moved into this position, Gaza was not defeated,” Zamir continued, according to the report. “Today, 70 percent of Gaza is defeated.”

Zamir and other security chiefs oppose plans to conquer Gaza City militarily, arguing instead for a staged hostage release deal and ceasefire.

Abbas says Netanyahu is only obstacle to PA returning to govern Gaza

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas outside the Government Palace in Beirut, Lebanon, May 22, 2025. (AP/Hassan Ammar)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says in an interview with the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya channel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the only obstacle to the PA’s returning to rule Gaza.

“The Palestinian Authority governed Gaza before 2007, and it was completely calm. There is no obstacle to the PA returning to Gaza — except for Netanyahu’s refusal,” Abbas says.

Netanyahu has insisted that the PA not be allowed to return to govern a post-war Gaza, despite the idea’s popularity among many Western nations. He has asserted that an as-yet determined body, that is not Israel, will rule the Strip in the future.

Addressing growing international recognition of a Palestinian state, Abbas says that “many heads of state have told me that they intend to recognize a Palestinian state. We recognized Israel in 1988, and in the Oslo Accords we signed on it. If many countries recognize [Palestine], we will go to the UN to request full membership.”

After turning back due to weather, Gaza flotilla departs Barcelona again

A vessel of a civilian flotilla, carrying pro-Palestinian activists, remains moored at Barcelona port on September 1, 2025, after being forced to return there due to bad weather. (Lluis GENE / AFP)

A Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and pro-Palestinian activists including environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg departs Barcelona again, several hours after winds forced it to return to the Spanish port, according to AFP journalists at the scene.

Around 20 vessels left the Spanish city yesterday aiming to “open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people,” during the Israel-Hamas war, said the Global Sumud Flotilla — sumud being the Arabic term for “resilience.”

After High Court ruling, justice minister says ‘only the government’ will decide who AG is

Justice Minister Yariv Levin speaks at the Second Right-Wing Conference in Tel Aviv, July 31, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Justice Minister Yariv Levin denounces the High Court’s decision recommending that the government cancel its dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, and strongly implies that the government will not comply with a final ruling annulling its decision to fire her.

Levin describes the decision as a “theater of the absurd,” and insists that the government was justified in firing her since there had been a breakdown of cooperation between the two sides.

“You can’t force the government, especially when we’re in the midst of a war, to work with her even for one more day. The government and only the government will determine who its attorney general will be,” says Levin.

“But no judicial order can force cooperation that did not exist with Attorney Baharav-Miara, and there will not be any,” he adds.

Levin has refused to refer to Baharav-Miara as the attorney general since the government formally fired her last month, despite the High Court’s order freezing her dismissal until a final ruling and instructing the government not to change its working relationship with her.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, a sharp opponent of Baharav-Miara, claims that the court’s injuction is “illegal and therefore void.” He vows that the government will ignore the order and work quickly to appoint a new permanent attorney general.

Gradual call-up of 60,000 IDF reservists to begin tomorrow, ahead of planned Gaza City op

Reservists of the Jerusalem Brigade operate in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued by the IDF on May 15, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF will start its gradual call-up of 60,000 reservists tomorrow. The troops will be deployed to fronts across the country, as the IDF moves more active and reservist troops to Gaza ahead of a planned operation to conquer Gaza City.

The majority — around 40,000-50,000 — would be ordered to show up for duty on September 2, the IDF said last month. Another wave is slated to take place in November-December, and a third wave in February-March 2026.

The number of reservists being called up is in addition to tens of thousands of reservists who are currently already serving in the reserves.

The IDF said it was also extending reserve duty for some 20,000 reservists who are currently on duty by another 30-40 days. This would bring the total number of reservists at a given time during the offensive to around 130,000.

Netanyahu to be questioned again in connection to Qatargate probe — report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Tel Aviv District Court, July 14, 2025. (Reuven Kastro/ POOL)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly going to be questioned again by police as part of the ongoing Qatargate probe.

According to Channel 12 news, police are waiting to issue the summons to Netanyahu until they are given the OK by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

Netanyahu was already questioned by police in March 2025, in connection to the case, which centers around allegations that his senior aides were illegally doing business with Qatar while employed by the Prime Minister’s Office.

Lapid: If Netanyahu wins the next election, ‘it will be the end of Zionism’

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid speaks at a Yesh Atid conference in Tel Aviv on September 1, 2025. (Courtesy, Yesh Atid)

Israelis are facing “the last chance to save the country,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares, insisting that if Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu’s coalition wins the elections again, it will be the end of Zionism.”

Addressing political activists at a gathering of his Yesh Atid party in Tel Aviv, Lapid insists that “if we don’t save the country now, in two years, there will be nothing left to save. The window of opportunity will close.”

Israelis currently are presented with two choices: “a successful, sophisticated, world-renowned first-world country, with liberal values ​​and love for Jewish tradition and a strong sense of community, or a violent and backward third-world country, which turns Judaism into racism and wants to eliminate our democracy,” he insists.

Declaring that Israel needs to pass a constitution, improve its education system, and “protect the police and the courts,” Lapid argues that “only with us can you be 100 percent sure that no one will steal your vote and pass it on to Netanyahu after the elections.”

Opposition politicians ranging from Gadi Eisenkot to Naftali Bennett have all “declared that they will be prime minister, or at least defense minister,” and while he has “no problem with people having ambitions,” somebody “also needs to know how to take all these forces and build a government from them,” Lapid says.

“We are in an election year. Apart from Yesh Atid, there is no one who knows how to do it. If you want this to happen, if you really want us to win the elections and form a government, Yesh Atid must be big, must be strong, must lead the camp,” he adds.

The next national election must be held by October 27, 2026.

High Court unanimously recommends government cancel its dismissal of the AG

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara attends a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, April 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

In a highly consequential decision, the High Court of Justice decides unanimously to recommend to the government that it cancel the dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

The court advises the government to consult the public, professional committee –which since 2000 has been tasked with recommending the appointment and dismissal of the attorney general — and to abandon the new process it approved in June this year designed specifically to enable it to fire Baharav-Miara.

The court tells the government to inform it by September 14 whether it accepts the court’s recommendation to abolish its new method for firing the attorney general, and by extension to cancel its dismissal of Baharav-Miara.

If the government decides not to respond to the court’s recommendation, then it can submit affidavits to the court by October 30, after which a final ruling can be issued.

The court therefore cancels the hearing for the petitions against Baharav-Miara’s firing, which had been set for this Wednesday.

Judge Noam Sohlberg had already issued a recommendation for the government to consult the public, professional committee back in July, but today’s decision by all nine judges on the presiding panel gives Sohlberg’s proposal the full backing of the court.

It also indicates conclusively that the court sees the government decision to change the method of firing the attorney general after it had already embarked on the original process established in 2000 as highly problematic, and that it is likely to rule against it in the petitions calling for the court to annul the government decision to fire Baharav-Miara.

The decision was prompted by the government’s failure to file a response to the court defending its position against the petitions, a highly irregular step.

In its unanimous decision, the High Court panel, which includes a majority of conservative judges, says it has not been presented with any justification for the government to deviate from the method established in 2000.

It also stresses that Sohlberg’s decision last month that froze Baharav-Miara’s dismissal and upheld the binding nature of her legal advice on the government remains in place.

Following Gafni comments, Deri says answer to anti-Sephardi racism is ‘actions on the ground’

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri attends the first day of classes at a school in Ofakim on September 1, 2025. (Courtesy, Shas)

Marking the beginning of the new school year, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri declares that the best way to respond to anti-Sephardi discrimination in education is to open more and more sectoral schools.

While attending an event in the southern city of Ofakim, Deri declares, “We stop sectarian discrimination not by shouting, but by actions on the ground, by opening more and more excellent educational institutions throughout the country, with a high level of education and education in values.”

Deri’s comments appear to come in response to United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni’s statement this morning calling on Shas to open additional schools for Sephardi students in the city of Beit Shemesh so that “your girls” do not need to “crowd into our institutions.”

Discrimination against Sephardi students has plagued the Haredi community for years and critics charge that many Ashkenazi schools maintain unofficial quotas of Sephardi students, stemming from racism against families of Middle Eastern origin. United Torah Judaism represents Haredim of Ashkenazi, or European, origin, while Shas represents those of Middle Eastern and North African extraction.

According to Channel 13, dozens of Sephardi girls in Beit Shemesh were not accepted to schools this year. Efforts by the city to persuade Ashkenazi institutions to accept the students led some rabbis to threaten not to open their schools this year.

In a statement, the Shas party replied that its mission is “to establish excellent educational institutions for the Sephardi community, and it has been operating with great success for decades throughout the country.” Gafni’s remarks, it said, “made it clear how important it is that the Shas movement continues to be strong and independent, and how much the Sephardic community cannot rely on any other party to take care of it.”

Yemen’s Houthis hold funeral for PM, 11 other officials killed in Israeli strike

The Yemeni honor guard carries the coffins of the prime minister of Yemen's Houthi-led government, Ahmed Ghaleb Al-Rahwi, and other officials who were killed in an Israeli strike days earlier, during the funeral procession in Sanaa, Yemen, on September 1, 2025. (Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP)

Yemen’s Houthi rebels hold a funeral for their prime minister and 11 other senior officials killed in an Israeli air strike that decimated its political cabinet.

Twelve coffins draped in flags are displayed at Sanaa’s Al-Shaab mosque, as masked gunmen patrol the area and thousands of mourners flooded in.

Houthi prime minister Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, nine ministers, and two cabinet officials were killed as they attended a government meeting in the Sanaa area on Thursday.

The Houthis, part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” of anti-Israeli groups, vowed to step up their attacks on Israel following Thursday’s killings.

China and Russia back Iran in rejecting European snapback sanctions

UN Security Council permanent members China and Russia back Iran in rejecting a move by European countries to reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran loosened a decade ago under a nuclear agreement.

A letter signed by the Chinese, Russian and Iranian foreign ministers says a move by Britain, France and Germany to automatically restore the sanctions under a so-called “snapback mechanism” was “legally and procedurally flawed.”

China and Russia were signatories to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, along with the three European countries, known as the E3. US President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in his first term in 2018.

The letter published by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X today says that the course taken by Britain, France and Germany “abuses the authority and functions of the UN Security Council.”

Liberman slams Avi Maoz for criticizing Elkin’s appointment as head of Nativ

Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on July 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman slams far-right lawmaker Avi Maoz after he claimed that minister Ze’ev Elkin’s appointment as the minister in charge of Nativ, the government office tasked with assessing citizenship eligibility for people from the former Soviet Union, will flood Israel with non-Jews.

Citing Elkin’s opposition to Maoz’s recently failed bill that sought to deny non-Jews the right to immigrate to Israel even if they have at least one Jewish grandparent, the sole MK representing the anti-LGBTQ, misogynistic Noam party claimed that the government decision yesterday to put Elkin in charge of the agency will “ensure the removal of all barriers and thereby facilitate the arrival of tens of thousands of gentiles to the country.”

Maoz quit his position as a deputy minister in March and left the coalition in July. During his time as a member of the government, he headed a Jewish National Identity Office which oversaw Nativ.

While Elkin, an Orthodox lawmaker who grew up in Soviet Ukraine, did not appear to respond, Liberman, whose party represents many Russian-speaking Israelis, lambasts Maoz.

“Avi Maoz claims that most immigrants from the USSR are ‘goyim.’ The truth is that they are the ones fighting in the IDF, working, paying taxes, and contributing to high-tech, medicine and culture. They are more Israeli than all the draft dodgers,” Liberman tweets.

In 2019, for the first time ever, Israel announced that Jewish immigrants to Israel were outnumbered by non-Jewish immigrants due to large numbers of newcomers from the former Soviet Union.

UK police: Another 47 people charged with supporting banned Palestine Action

A protester is carried away by police officers at a 'Lift The Ban' demonstration in support of the proscribed group Palestine Action at Parliament Square, central London, on August 9, 2025. (HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)

London’s Metropolitan police say it has charged another 47 people with supporting Palestine Action, bringing the number of activists accused of backing the banned terrorist group to 114.

The accused, aged between 18 to 81, will appear in court on October 27 and 28, and face a possible maximum sentence of six months’ imprisonment if found guilty, the Met says in a statement.

The UK government proscribed Palestine Action as a terror group in July after two planes were vandalized at a Royal Air Force base, causing an estimated £7 million ($9.3 million) of damage.

More than 700 people have been arrested, mostly at demonstrations, since the group was outlawed under the Terrorism Act 2000. A total of 114 of those detained have been charged.

Interior Minister Yvette Cooper has said the group had a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage.”

Meeting Iranian president, Putin says countries in constant contact over nuclear program

Russia and Iran are constantly in contact over various aspects of the international agenda, including issues related to Iran’s nuclear program, Russian President Vladimir Putin says.

Putin meets with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in China.

Earlier, the SCO warned against reinterpretation of a United Nations resolution endorsing a 2015 Iran nuclear deal, after European powers triggered a mechanism to reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran.

The SCO member states reaffirmed the “binding nature” of the resolution, saying “any attempts to misinterpret or arbitrarily reinterpret this resolution will undermine the authority of the Security Council,” according to the final declaration of their summit in Tianjin.

‘Taken at his peak’: Slain hostage Idan Shtivi laid to rest in central Israel

Family members and friends attend the funeral of slain Israeli hostage Idan Shtivi, in Kfar Ma’as, central Israel, September 1, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Slain hostage Idan Shtivi is laid to rest in central Israel after his body was retrieved from the Gaza Strip last week, almost 23 months after he was killed.

“Idan had a pure heart, he always saw others and cared for the weaker elements of society,” says his mother, Danit, at his funeral. “He was full of generosity, so sensitive and loving. He was taken from the world at his peak. Idani, you are a child of God… I’m sorry I couldn’t watch over you and protect you.”

He is buried in Kfar Ma’as after a funeral procession through central Israel that was lined by Israelis waving flags and signs reading “Sorry.”

Idan was murdered at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and his body kidnapped to Gaza. It was retrieved by IDF troops last week along with the body of Ilan Weiss, who is also slated to be buried today, in Kibbutz Be’eri.

Houthi drone intercepted before it reached Israel, says IDF

Israel successfully intercepted a drone fired by the Houthis in Yemen before it reached Israeli territory, the IDF says in a statement.

No sirens were sounded in Israel, notes the military.

IDF chief said to warn plan to conquer Gaza will lead to ‘military government’

IDF Chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir (center) directs strikes on Yemen on August 28, 2025, from the Israeli Air Force's command center. (IDF)

In the heated cabinet meeting last night over the next steps in war in Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned that the plan to conquer Gaza City will drag Israel into a full-fledged occupation of the Strip, the Ynet news site reports.

“You are heading to a military government,” said Zamir. “Your plan is leading us there. Understand the implications.”

“Your decision to conquer Gaza City — and afterwards this will lead to the conquest of the refugee camps in central Gaza — and then it will be a military government, because there will be no other body that could take responsibility for the population,” continued Zamir.

According to the report, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs pushed back, saying that a decision had been made already that there would be no military government in Gaza.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said, “Instead of a military government, encourage voluntary emigration.”

“Understand the implications,” Zamir repeated, to which Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich responded, “We made a decision.”

At that point, according to the report, Ben Gvir called for a vote on a partial hostage deal, in order to prove that the majority of the cabinet opposed it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused, saying that there was no deal on the table and effectively dismissing the phased hostage deal set out by mediators that Hamas said it had agreed to earlier this month.

Israel has said it will only consider a comprehensive deal that would see Hamas lay down its arms and release all of the hostages.

Gantz, Golan slam reported Bismuth plan for interim resolution on Haredi draft

Blue and White-National Unity head MK Benny Gantz speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv on August 23, 2025. (Tal Gal/Flash90)

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth’s plan for ultra-Orthodox enlistment will not solve the conscription crisis and is only intended to preserve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, declares Blue and White-National Unity chairman Benny Gantz.

“First of all, let me be clear: everyone serves. Every 18-year-old youngster is required to serve, regardless of whether he is in the Ponevezh yeshiva or in high school in the Eshkol Regional Council,” tweets Gantz.

“But as long as the state continues to put goals on paper, without sanctions, personal responsibility and without changing the rules of the game — nothing will move. What was presented is not a new outline for mobilization — it is a new outline for preserving the coalition.”

Bismuth reportedly supports the passage of a wartime “emergency regulation” that would allow for the immediate conscription of enough soldiers to solve the problem of the military’s current manpower shortage while also lifting sanctions on ultra-Orthodox draft evaders.

The Democrats party chief Yair Golan also slams Bismuth’s reported plan, stating that it “won’t recruit a single Haredi,” adding that the Likud politician is “spitting in the faces of tens of thousands of soldiers and reservists” with his “shameful evasion scheme, designed to waste time lying to the public and try to buy more time in power.”

Israel says genocide scholars’ designation is ‘disgraceful’ and an ’embarrassment to the legal profession’

Palestinians receive a hot meal prepared by volunteers, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, August 21, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejects a declaration from the International Association of Genocide Scholars that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza as “disgraceful.”

The organization’s resolution “is an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard,” the Foreign Ministry says in a statement. “It is entirely based on Hamas’s campaign of lies and the laundering of those lies by others.”

The ministry accuses the organization of not verifying any information it considered before making its designation.

“Above all, the IAGS has set a historic precedent — for the first time, ‘Genocide Scholars’ accuse the very victim of genocide — despite Hamas’s attempted genocide against the Jewish people, murdering 1,200 people, raping women, burning families alive, and declaring its goal of killing every Jew.”

Erdogan tells Iran’s president that continuing nuclear talks is useful

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian that he believes it is useful for Tehran to continue nuclear negotiations and that Ankara will maintain its support for Iran on the matter, Turkey’s presidency says.

In a meeting on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in China, Erdogan also says that cooperation between the neighbors, namely in energy, is to the benefit of both sides, the presidency says in a statement.

Houthis said to fire drone at Israel

Amid foreign reports that the Houthis in Yemen launched drones at Israel, IDF sources tell Hebrew-language outlets that one drone has been identified.

“We are tracking it,” a military source tells Walla.

There has been no official statement from the Houthis or Israel.

Many Houthi drones fall short or disintegrate before reaching Israel.

Bismuth said to push for interim ’emergency regulation’ on issue of Haredi enlistment

Likud MK Boaz Bismuth chairs a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, August 12, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Viewing the passage of an IDF conscription law in the near-term as increasingly unlikely, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth is reportedly pushing for the approval of a wartime “emergency regulation” which would allow for the immediate conscription of enough soldiers to fill the military’s current manpower shortage while also lifting sanctions on ultra-Orthodox draft evaders.

According to the Walla news site, Bismuth supports the adoption of such a measure for the period of one year, during which time an unspecified number of Haredim would be drafted “according to the needs of the army.”

At the same time, enforcement against Haredi draft dodgers would be halted. This would include an end to arrest operations by military police and the resumption of yeshiva funding. Last year, the government cut off significant funding to yeshivas in the wake of a High Court order barring it from providing money for students eligible for IDF enlistment. The Attorney General’s Office has also ordered a halt to daycare subsidies for the children of draft evaders.

Bismuth was selected last month to head the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which is drafting legislation dealing with ultra-Orthodox conscription, following the ouster of former chairman Yuli Edelstein.

Responding to the Walla report, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman declares that “the evasion government has no right to exist” because it is “once again succumbing to the extortion of the ultra-Orthodox activists in the Knesset.”

Bismuth is “harming national security,” he tweets. “Instead of strengthening the IDF and drafting everyone, he seeks to cancel sanctions and protects deserters.”

International Association of Genocide Scholars declares Israel committing genocide in Gaza

Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli military strike in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, August 30, 2025. (AP/Leo Correa)

The world’s leading genocide scholars’ association passed a resolution saying that the legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, its president says.

Eighty-six percent of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars backed the resolution declaring: “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948).”

The three-page resolution adopted by the scholars calls on Israel to “immediately cease all acts that constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza, including deliberate attacks against and killing of civilians including children; starvation; deprivation of humanitarian aid, water, fuel, and other items essential to the survival of the population; sexual and reproductive violence; and forced displacement of the population.”

There was no immediate response from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israel has in the past strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self defense.

In Gaza, Hamas welcomed the resolution. “This prestigious scholarly stance reinforces the documented evidence and facts presented before international courts,” says Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office.

The resolution “places a legal and moral obligation on the international community to take urgent action to stop the crime, protect civilians, and hold the leaders of the occupation accountable,” he adds.

The resolution also states that Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which sparked the ongoing war, constituted international crimes.

Israeli man charged with inciting in support of ISIS, owning illegal weapon

Prosecutors file charges against a resident of Lakiya, a Negev Bedouin town, accusing him of identifying with the Islamic State terror group and illegally possessing a firearm, police and the Shin Bet announce.

Operating off intelligence from the Shin Bet, police officers arrested Islam al-Sana several weeks ago on suspicion of sharing extremist content in support of ISIS and encouraging acts of terror.

During his interrogation, al-Sana handed over to investigators an M16 assault rifle he had possessed illegally, police add.

He is indicted today on charges of incitement to terrorism, expressing support for a terrorist group and weapons offenses.

People line the route as funeral procession begins for slain hostage Idan Shtivi

A woman holds a sign saying 'Sorry, Idan' at the funeral procession for slain hostage Idan Shtivi in Rishon Lezion on September 1, 2025 (Dafna Yosha/pro-democracy protest groups)

The funeral procession begins for slain hostage Idan Shtivi, whose body was brought back from Gaza in a military operation on Friday.

People line the streets of the route with Israeli flags and signs apologizing to Shtivi and calling for all of the hostages to be brought home.

Shivti will be buried in Kfar Ma’as at 4 p.m.

Ilan Weiss, whose body was also brought back on Friday, will be buried at 5 p.m. in Kibbutz Be’eri.

Shtivi, 28, was murdered at the Nova music festival during the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel.

Weiss, 56, was killed on the morning of October 7, 2023, while defending Kibbutz Be’eri from Hamas-led terrorists as a member of his community’s emergency response team. His wife Shiri and daughter Noga were also taken hostage and later freed during a weeklong truce and hostage release deal in November 2023.

Ilan Weiss (L) and Idan Shtivi (R) in undated photographs (Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

UK’s PM appoints ex-Columbia University president, criticized for response to anti-Israel protests, as chief economic adviser

Columbia President Nemat (Minouche) Shafik testifies before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appoints Minouche Shafik, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England and the ex-president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser.

Shafik resigned last year as Columbia University president after the New York campus became an epicenter of unrest following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Her resignation came after sustained criticism of how she handled pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests that convulsed the Ivy League school for months following October 7.

Shafik was the Bank of England’s deputy governor for markets and banking between August 2014 and February 2017, before leaving midway through her term to become vice chancellor of the London School of Economics.

In 2023, she became president of New York’s Columbia University, but quit after little more than a year when the university’s handling of months of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protests drew criticism from both sides.

Earlier in her career, Shafik was the top civil servant in Britain’s foreign aid ministry and subsequently deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund, where she oversaw the IMF’s work in Europe and the Middle East during the euro zone debt crisis and the Arab Spring.

“This role and the additional expertise will support the government to go further and faster in driving economic growth and raising living standards for all,” Starmer’s office says.

Russia suspected of jamming GPS on EU chief’s plane; pilots reportedly use paper maps to land

President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a joint press conference with Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda at the Border Guard School near Lithuanian-Belarusian border, near the village Medininkai, east of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was hit by GPS jamming over Bulgaria in a suspected Russian operation, a spokesperson says.

The plane landed safely in Plovdiv airport and von der Leyen will continue her planned tour of the European Union nations bordering Russia and Belarus, says the commission’s spokesperson Arianna Podestà.

“We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming,” says Podestà. “We have received information from the Bulgarian authority that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia.”

Von der Leyen, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s war in Ukraine, is on a four-day tour of the EU nations bordering Russia and its ally Belarus.

“This incident actually underlines the urgency of the mission that the president is carrying out in the front-line member states,” Podestà says.

She says that von der Leyen has seen “firsthand the everyday challenges of threats coming from Russia and its proxies.”

“And, of course, the EU will continue to invest into defense spending and in Europe’s readiness even more after this incident,” she says.

The Bulgarian government confirms the incident.

“During the flight carrying European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to Plovdiv, the satellite signal transmitting information to the plane’s GPS navigation system was neutralized,” a government statement says.

“To ensure the flight’s safety, air control services immediately offered an alternative landing method using terrestrial navigation tools,” it said.

The Financial Times newspaper, which first reported the incident, said the plane was forced to land using paper maps.

13-year-old stabbed, moderately injured at Hadera school; feuding families engage in gunfight near Hura kindergarten

A car crash that occurred after a suspect in a shoot-out near a kindergarten tried to flee the scene and rammed into a police car, in Hura, in southern Israel, on September 1, 2025. (Israel Police)

A 13-year-old was stabbed in the leg in a brawl with a fellow student in Hadera and a gunfight broke out between feuding families near a kindergarten in Hura, in cases of violence on the first day of the new academic year.

The teen boy was stabbed in the leg and moderately injured during a brawl with another student. He was taken to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, Magen David Adom paramedics say.

The second student was also injured in the fight, but did not require hospitalization.

Police are investigating the circumstances of the stabbing.

In the southern Bedouin town of Hura, a gunfight broke out between two feuding families near a kindergarten, police say.

Police arrested five people and seized two pistols from those involved in the gunfight. No injuries were reported.

Southern District officers had already been dispatched to the area to guard schools kicking off the academic year. They arrested three people at the scene and chased down two additional suspects who tried to flee.

One of the individuals who fled took off in his car and rammed into a police car, whereupon he was arrested, police say.

Ben Gvir says will implement protest crackdown policies unless AG responds to proposal in 24 hours

Left: National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90); Right: Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara (Oren Ben Hakoon/Pool)

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tells the Attorney General’s Office he is giving it 24 hours to respond to his policy proposal document on banning various forms of protest before he brings those policies into effect.

He insists that, despite the attorney general’s opposition, he is entitled to determine policy on operative police actions during protests, and accuses the office of seeking to “extort” him by threatening not to defend him against petitions in the High Court seeking his dismissal as minister.

The Attorney General’s Office told Ben Gvir today his proposed policies violated key principles restricting him from intervening over key aspects of policing, including police policy relating to freedom of expression and protest.

“Your letter reflects a threefold error: that I could be threatened and thereby made to relinquish my authority to set policy – ​​which is not possible; that I could be misled on legal matters – which is not possible; and that my intention to set policy could be thwarted through the illegal refusal of the Attorney General’s Office to participate in the proceedings – which is not possible,” Ben Gvir writes.

“Determining policy in this context is the legal authority and even the duty of the national security minister,” he adds.

Ben Gvir threatened last week that if Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara did not respond within five days to his policy proposal document, which he first submitted in June, he would put it into effect.

But the Attorney General’s Office told him today that it could only deliberate on the minister’s policy proposal once it had been adjusted to conform with a set of principles agreed upon between Ben Gvir and the attorney general in April.

That agreement was designed to ensure Ben Gvir did not interfere with police policy regarding freedom of protest and police appointments, in order to guarantee the support of the attorney general in the High Court against the petitions for his removal.

Ben Gvir says the “threat” to refuse to defend him reflected the “illegitimate politicization” of the Attorney General’s Office, and adds that “threats and extortion” would not divert him from his intended course of action.

“I grant you 24 hours to fulfill the duty of [providing] legal advice in a professional and business-like manner,” he threatens, adding that if the Attorney General’s Office does not respond by that time he will put the new policies into effect.

Gaza flotilla carrying Greta Thunberg returns to port in Barcelona due to stormy weather

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, center left, waves from a boat taking part in a civilian flotilla bound for Gaza, aiming to break the Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid, in Barcelona, Spain, August 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A flotilla of dozens of boats that set sail for Gaza yesterday carrying aid and pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists, including climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, has returned to port in Barcelona due to stormy weather, organizers say.

“We conducted a sea trial and then returned to port to allow the storm to pass. This meant delaying our departure to avoid risking complications with the smaller boats,” the Global Sumud Flotilla Mission says in a statement, adding winds had been up to around 35 mph (56 kph).

The organizers do not say when they plan to resume the journey.

The maritime convoy departing from the Spanish port city was made up of about 20 boats and delegations from 44 countries, and was claimed to be the largest attempt to date to try and break the blockade on Gaza.

It was not the first time Thunberg has attempted to reach Gaza’s waters this year. Israel deported her in June after the Madleen, the ship she was traveling on with 11 other people, was stopped by the Israel Defense Forces.

IDF rejects allegations of ‘enforced disappearances’ of Palestinians at Gaza aid distribution sites

Displaced Palestinians carry bags of humanitarian aid they received at a distribution center run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the central Gaza Strip on August 4, 2025. (AFP)

The Israel Defense Forces rejects allegations by a group of United Nations experts of “enforced disappearances” of Palestinians at aid distribution sites in Gaza, saying the military lawfully detains individuals who approach aid compounds after hours or in ways that endanger its forces.

“The claim of the forced disappearance of Gaza residents in aid compounds is baseless and entirely unfounded,” reads the statement, released days after UN rights experts voiced alarm at reports of such incidents at distribution sites run by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Seven independent experts said in a joint statement that they had received reports that several individuals, including one child, had been “forcibly disappeared” after going to GHF aid sites in southern Gaza, and that the IDF was reportedly “directly involved in the enforced disappearances of people seeking aid.”

The IDF Spokesperson’s Office responds that it “permits the [GHF] to operate independently and distribute aid to Gaza residents, and operates near the distribution zones to allow the distribution to take place alongside the IDF’s continued operational activity in the Strip,” and that within its activity, “suspects who arrive at the compound during hours when it is closed and approach the forces in a way that endangers them are detained and brought in for further questioning.”

“If the initial field questioning raises suspicion that a detainee has engaged in activity against our forces, the suspect is transferred for further interrogation in Israel,” it continues, adding, “Detainees for whom there is no justification for detention are released in the Gaza Strip, while those for whom grounds exist for continued detention, in accordance with the law, are brought before a judge and are entitled to legal representation as provided by law.”

“When minors are involved, this is taken into account, and they are treated with the required sensitivity and in accordance with the law,” the IDF adds.

The GHF said in response to the UN experts’ statement that there was “no evidence” of enforced disappearances at its aid sites. “We operate in a war zone where serious allegations exist against all parties operating outside our sites,” it noted.

Gafni against Sephardi students: ‘Your girls’ should have somewhere to study ‘without crowding into our institutions’

United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni chairs a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee, July 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni calls on the Shas party to open additional schools for Sephardic students in the city of Beit Shemesh so that “your girls” don’t need to “crowd into our institutions,” in comments made at the opening of the school year.

Discrimination against Sephardi students has plagued the Haredi community for years and critics charge that many Ashkenazi schools maintain nonofficial quotas of Sephardic students stemming from racism against families of Middle Eastern origin.

United Torah Judaism represents Haredim of Ashkenazi, or European, origin while Shas represents those of Middle Eastern and North African extraction.

“There is a problem with the high schools. Why do we have to constantly crowd together and reach a situation where there is no room,” Gafni asks at the opening of a new school in the city. “There is no room for Ashkenazim. No room for Sephardim. Shas is a big party, it has capabilities, it also has an education system that [can] open schools where girls can go. Why do we have to constantly deal with these problems?”

In a written statement accompanying a video of his remarks, Gafni is quoted as saying that Shas should establish new schools so “your girls will have a place to study comfortably… without having to crowd into our institutions,” which cannot accommodate everyone.

According to Channel 13, dozens of girls in Beit Shemesh were not accepted to schools this year. Efforts by the city to make Ashkenazi institutions accept the students led some rabbis to threaten not to open their schools this year.

In a statement, Shas says that its mission is “to establish excellent educational institutions for the Sephardic public, and it has been operating with great success for decades throughout the country.” Gafni’s remarks, it  says, “made it clear how important it is that the Shas movement continues to be strong and independent, and how much the Sephardic public cannot rely on any other party to take care of it.”

250 international media outlets join protest over Gaza journalist deaths, Reporters Without Borders says

More than 250 media outlets in over 70 countries staged a front page protest highlighting the deaths of scores of journalists in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, the Reporters Without Borders media freedom group says.

“At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no-one left to keep you informed,” the group’s general director Thibaut Bruttin says in a statement.

The protest made its way to the website front pages of publications including Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera, British news site The Independent, French newspapers La Croix and L’Humanite and Germany’s TAZ and Frankfurter Rundschau, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Israel says that many of those it targets who are said to be journalists are in fact members of terror groups.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry slams the Reporters Without Borders initiative as an example of anti-Israel bias.

“When 150 media outlets choose in a synchronized manner to stop reporting news, to throw values of the press and plurality of opinions into the trash, and instead publish a uniform, pre-scripted political manifesto against Israel – that tells you how great the bias against Israel,” the ministry says.

While Israel has repeatedly chastised international media for relying on information coming out of Hamas-controlled Gaza, it has barred journalists from entering the Strip since the start of the war, except on occasional, tightly controlled trips with the military.

@Independent front page today ???? pic.twitter.com/iTCqkxGBzn

— Alex Croft (@alxcroft) September 1, 2025

PM visits school in northern town on 1st day of academic year

Education Minister Yoav Kisch (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Begin school in Nof Hagalil on September 1, 2025 (Haim Zach/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits children on their first day of school at the Begin school in the northern town of Nof Hagalil, accompanied by Education Minister Yoav Kisch, according to a statement from his office.

Netanyahu wishes first-grade students “a successful and fruitful school year.”

Netanyahu and Kisch are also joined by the town’s mayor, Ronen Plot, and Teachers’ Union Secretary-General Yaffa Ben-David, the statement adds.

The premier also paid tribute at a memorial for Staff Sgt. Ilya Senkin, a Givati Brigade soldier from Nof Hagalil killed in Gaza, and met with his family, the Prime Minister’s Office adds.

AG to Ben Gvir: Plan to crack down on protests violates agreed limitations on his powers

Left: National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90); Right: Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara (Oren Ben Hakoon/Pool)

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara tells National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir that a policy proposal document he drafted for the police to ban various forms of protest would violate key principles restricting the minister from interference in operative police policy relating to freedom of expression and freedom of protest.

Ben Gvir threatened last week that if Baharav-Miara did not respond to his policy proposal document within five days he would put it into effect.

The new policies would prohibit protesters from blocking highways and major traffic arteries; roads leading to hospitals and isolated towns; emergency routes and Ben Gurion Airport; and also require protesters to obtain approval from the police, whom Ben Gvir oversees, in order to block roads within cities.

In April, the attorney general and the far-right minister agreed on a set of core principles with which the minister would comply in order for her to agree to defend him in the High Court against petitions asking the court to order him removed from office for unlawfully interfering with operative police policies and appointments.

“It can already be said that, on the face of it, the document that was formulated does not comply with these principles,” writes Baharav-Miara’s office to Ben Gvir, adding that it also does not comply with the police commissioner’s position on the minister’s new policy proposals.

“Publishing the policy document in its current form, without a proper consultation process with the police commissioner and the attorney general, would constitute a blatant violation of the principles document, which — as stated in the [new] document itself and as also submitted to the High Court — binds you from the date of its formulation,” the Attorney General’s Office adds.

“Publishing the document would also overstep the authority of the national security minister toward the Israel Police.”

Government approves $11.9 million for Haredi schools that don’t teach core curriculum subjects

The government yesterday approved the transfer of NIS 40 million ($11.9 million) in state funding to ultra-Orthodox schools affiliated with the Shas party’s Bnei Yosef educational network over the objections of the Attorney General’s Office, Kan reports.

According to the national broadcaster, Education Minister Yoav Kisch presented the cabinet with a proposal omitting any requirement for the schools to teach the core curriculum as a condition for the funds, contradicting government guidelines and a High Court ruling.

Shas’s schools are fully state-funded and are expected to teach the entire core curriculum. However, a study by the Israel Democracy Institute released last month found that only a small fraction of the ultra-Orthodox boys’ elementary schools that fail to teach core curriculum subjects as required by law face any sanctions.

In a statement to Kan, Kisch’s office states that the approval of the funds fully complied with both government guidelines and court rulings and that the position of the Attorney General’s Office had not been accepted by the government.

The cabinet also voted to implement an across-the-board cut of 0.6 percent to government ministries in order to fund security for schools for the upcoming academic year, giving in to the demands of Kisch and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

PM told cabinet a partial hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas ‘not on the table’ – reports

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting at an undisclosed secure location on August 31, 2025 (Screenshot/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his stance during last night’s security cabinet meeting that a partial ceasefire and hostage-release deal with Hamas is “not on the table,” according to Hebrew media reports.

According to the reports, during the six-hour cabinet session, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir pushed for an official vote against accepting any partial frameworks for a deal, to which Netanyahu replied: “There is no need for a vote. It is not on the table.”

Reports quote Netanyahu as saying during the meeting that United States President Donald Trump has urged him not to accept any partial deals with Hamas and to instead fight the terror group “with full force.”

“Forget the partial deals. Go in with full force and finish this,” the premier reportedly said Trump told him.

Before the security cabinet meeting, Channel 12 news cited unnamed sources as saying Trump was increasing pressure on Netanyahu to move more rapidly toward defeating Hamas, after losing faith in the efficacy of ceasefire and hostage release talks.

In response to the premier’s remarks, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum writes in a statement that Netanyahu “is opposing the very method he initiated,” by rejecting partial frameworks which he formerly agreed to, and that “this is not a negotiation strategy, it is a strategy of obstruction.”

The forum accuses Netanyahu of “sacrificing the hostages and the soldiers on the altar of his political survival, while there is a concrete proposal on the table,” referring to the phased hostage-release and ceasefire framework Hamas agreed to last month, which is said to be nearly identical to a US proposal that Israel previously agreed to.

The forum argues that the current framework “could evolve into an agreement” that would return all the hostages and end the war.

However, the proposal was reportedly not discussed by the security cabinet last night, as Netanyahu pushes forward with the cabinet-approved plan to conquer Gaza City in October, aiming only for a comprehensive deal that would release all the hostages and end the war on Israel’s terms.

Kindergarten opens in Lebanon border town Moshav Zarit for 1st time in 20 years

Children starting kindergarten at Moshav Zarit near the Lebanese border on September 1, 2025 ( Moshav Movement)

After 20 years without a kindergarten, Moshav Zarit, located on the Lebanese border, opens a new class, with 13 children.

“Who would have believed that after 20 years, there would be a generation here who can bring hope and a future to the moshav located near the border with Hezbollah in Lebanon?” the moshav’s chairman, Itzik Ben Mocha says, referring to the threat from the Iran-backed terror group.

The Moshav Movement’s secretary general Amit Yifrach say: “It is precisely now, from the fragments, that a symbol of life, of continuity and of a community that believes in the future has been born. The children of Zarit represent a new generation that is growing hope, values ​​and a great love for the place.”

Over 800 killed in Afghanistan earthquake, Taliban government says

Civil defense workers, locals, and army soldiers prepare to evacuate injured victims of an earthquake that killed hundreds and destroyed numerous villages in eastern Afghanistan, in Mazar Dara, Kunar province, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan has risen to over 800, the Taliban government spokesman says, with the majority in remote Kunar province.

Some 800 people died and another 2,500 were injured in Kunar, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tells a press conference in the capital Kabul, adding that the toll of 12 dead and 255 injured in Nangarhar province had not changed.

Mother of hostage Matan Angrest: ‘Do not endanger any soldiers to rescue him, we need to reach a deal’

Matan Angrest was taken hostage on October 7, 2023 from his tank unit at the Nahal Oz army base. (Courtesy)

The mother of hostage Matan Angrest pleads for no attempt to be made to rescue her son, a year after six hostages were murdered by their captors in a Rafah tunnel as IDF troops neared.

“My son is still alive and I ask: Do not endanger any soldier to rescue him. Matan will not be able to live with this in peace, and neither will we,” Anat Angrest tells Channel 12.

“No one needs to die to save him. We need to reach a deal and return the hostages home, as well as the soldiers and reservists who are collapsing under the strain,” she says, referring to the repeated call-ups for multiple rounds of military service in almost two years of war.

“Right now, soldiers are being sent to endanger themselves and the hostages,” she says.

Angrest, 21, an IDF soldier, was kidnapped from a tank by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. He is said to be suffering serious injuries.

Just eight hostages have been rescued from captivity alive by troops since the start of the war.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 26 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.

Herzog praises students’ resilience in visit to school in previously evacuated northern border town

President Isaac Herzog visits children at the Rambam school in Kiryat Shmona on September 1, 2025. (Courtesy/President’s Residence)

President Isaac Herzog visits children at the Rambam school in Kiryat Shmona on the first day of the school year, praising the northern town for its perseverance throughout Israel’s fight against Lebanon’s terror group Hezbollah since the war in Gaza began.

“In the past two years [Kiryat Shmona] has… stood at the front line, on the border, against a terrible and relentless assault,” Herzog tells children at the school, which was damaged during the war and resumed activity about six months ago, according to a statement from his office.

Herzog is accompanied by Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern, the statement adds.

“You left your homes, some of you stayed behind to defend the town — and here we are now, as a symbol of courage, a symbol of victory,” he continues.

Herzog joins the school’s students and teaching staff in releasing yellow balloons, as a symbol of solidarity with the remaining hostages in Gaza.

“May we know better days, and may our prayer be fulfilled to see all the hostages return home as quickly as possible,” the president says.

According to the Education Ministry, 95 percent of students who were evacuated from 32 northern communities, after Hezbollah began attacking in support of Gaza during the war with Hamas, are returning to school there today, following the gradual return of residents since Israel’s November ceasefire with Hezbollah.

In cabinet clash, far-right minister accuses IDF chief of cowardice over his support for hostage deal

(R) Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock attends a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, January 27, 2025 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90) and (L) IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir meets with top officers on August 13, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock clashed with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir during yesterday’s cabinet meeting, implying that that the top military commander was a coward, Hebrew media reports.

Zamir expressed support for a partial hostage deal with Hamas despite the issue not being on the agenda, prompting pushback from far-right lawmaker Strock, whom national broadcaster Kan quoted as citing the Biblical verse “Is there anyone afraid and disheartened? Let him go back to his home, lest the courage of his comrades flag like his.”

Hitting back, Zamir declared that he had two missions, “preventing a nuclear Iran and destroying Hamas,” leading Strock to once again recite the verse.

In response, Zamir apparently raised his voice and said that he had called for the operation in Iran, declaring that he “approves strikes everywhere. No one is fearful and fainthearted.”

“If you want blind discipline, bring somebody else,” he declared, prompting agreement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said, “I don’t want blind discipline.”

Responding to the incident, Blue and White-National Unity chairman Benny Gantz tweets that Israelis “deserve a cabinet that backs the IDF.”

Report: Education Ministry removes principles of liberal democracy, role of constitution from civics matriculation exam

The Education Ministry has decided that matriculating students will no longer be examined on principles of liberal democracy, socioeconomic rights, the legal status of the Declaration of Independence, and the role of the constitution in limiting actions by the government, The Marker reports.

According to the outlet, a focus document from the ministry shows the topics have been removed from the civics matriculation exams.

However, the report says that students will still be examined on concepts of a state with a religious-traditional identity and the role of religious law.

While subjects that are not examined may still be taught during the school year, teachers tell The Marker that in practice, they rarely are.

When contacted for comment by The Marker, the Education Ministry does not address whether students will be tested on the subjects and instead denies that the topics have been removed from the curriculum entirely.

US envoy Huckabee visits children returning to school in Gaza border towns: ‘Evil didn’t win’

United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visits children on their first day of school in the Eshkol Regional Council of southern Israel – the district hit hardest by the Hamas-led invasion and massacre on October 7, 2023.

“I’m reminded today that evil didn’t win!” writes Huckabee on X, celebrating that “Hamas is near annihilation and these children are starting school” only “a few hundred yards from Gaza.”

My day started at 1st day of school in Eshkol district just a few hundred yards from Gaza. Many of the children had parents or friends murdered or taken hostage. I’m reminded today that evil didn’t win! Hamas is near annihilation and these children are starting school. https://t.co/5oEIjuJsGI

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) September 1, 2025

He adds that many of the schoolchildren “had parents or friends murdered or taken hostage” by the terror group.

Huckabee is quoted in Hebrew media reports as telling the children: “Very bad people tried to prevent you from starting this day, but one of the things I appreciate most about Israelis: No matter how many times they try to stop you: you get right back up and keep going.”

According to Ynet, the principal of the Shachar Eshkol school, Eyal Dvori, told Huckabee during his visit that the school’s art teacher, Yaffa Rudaeff, “is still waiting” for her partner Lior, whose body is being held by Hamas in Gaza, asking the envoy to “do everything in your power to bring back the hostages and end the war.”

95% of students evacuated from northern towns have returned to their schools, Education Ministry says

Children arrive to their first day of school at the Gamla School in the northern Israeli town of Katzrin, on September 1, 2025 (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

The Education Ministry says that 95 percent of all students who were evacuated from 32 northern communities will start the new school year today in those areas.

In October 2023, there were 30,141 students registered in the school districts. As of today, there are 28,640 returning students.

According to the ministry’s records, 86% of students have returned in Kiryat Shmona. At the largest school, ORT Danziger, the ministry says the number of enrolled students exceeds the figures from before the war.

In Metula, 34% of the students have returned. Students from Metula’s Hanadiv Elementary School will study in Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar for one year.

The ministry also says that 97% of the teachers have returned to teach in the former evacuated zone in the north.

Hezbollah-led forces began attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the northern border on October 8, 2023, with the terror group saying it was doing so to support Gaza amid the war against Hamas there. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was reached last November, and since then, northern border residents have gradually returned to their homes.

Houthis say they fired missile at Israeli ship in Red Sea; maritime agency says projectile missed

The Iran-backed Houthis say they fired a missile at an Israeli-owned tanker in the Red Sea, days after the prime minister of Yemen’s Houthi government and several other ministers were killed in an IDF strike on the capital Sanaa.

The Iran-backed rebels, who sank two tankers in July, say they targeted the Liberian-flagged Scarlet Ray, claiming a direct hit. The ship is Israeli-owned, according to maritime security company Ambrey.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) says the attack missed its target.

UKMTO, which monitors the region, says the ship’s crew “witnessed a splash in close proximity to their vessel from an unknown projectile and heard a loud bang.

“All crew are safe and the vessel continues on its voyage.”

The Houthis — whose slogan calls for “Death to America, Death to Israel, [and] a Curse on the Jews” — began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after the October 7 Hamas massacre in southern Israel.

Over 23,000 students to start school year in Gaza border communities

The Tekumah Directorate, responsible for the rehabilitation of the area in southern Israel bordering the Gaza Strip, reports that 23,522 children will start the new school year today.

Reflecting the return of most residents to the area following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, and some demographic growth, this figure is 1,763 (8 percent) higher than last year.

In the Eshkol Regional Authority, which suffered the most from the Hamas invasion, in which some 1,200 people were murdered and 251 kidnapped to Gaza and held hostage, the rise in the total number of students starting school is 22.5%.

Of this, there are 35% more children under the age of three, 5.5% more kindergarteners, and 17% more elementary school-age children, in a reflection of the return of families to the communities.

The authority does not provide the figures for the period prior to October 7, 2023.

Residents of 5 more localities to be eligible for gun permits, Ben Gvir announces

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir leads an Otzma Yehudit faction meeting at the Knesset on July 7, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announces the addition of five additional cities and local councils to the list of localities whose residents are eligible for a private firearms license. In a statement, the ultranationalist politician states that residents of Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Malachi, Gan Yavne, the Megiddo Regional Council and Tel Mond — some some 100,000 people — will now be eligible for such a permit.

“The reform we are leading has already saved many lives and has proven itself in the field. It is designed to enable law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and their communities,” says far-right lawmaker Ben Gvir.

In a statement, Ben Gvir’s office says that the decision was made in light of an “increase in security incidents across the country” and came after “professional and thorough staff work” by police and the National Security Ministry. Since the beginning of Ben Gvir’s efforts to increase gun ownership, the government has issued around 230,000 new firearms licenses, it says, calling on people to “check your eligibility” because “a gun in the right hands saves lives.”

Israelis have submitted over 403,000 requests for firearms licenses since October 7, 2023, over half of which have been conditionally granted, the National Security Ministry informed the Knesset National Security Committee in June.

Requests for gun permits surged following Hamas’s massive attack on southern Israel. Last March, Ben Gvir celebrated the approval of 100,000 new gun licenses since October 7, claiming that putting more weapons on the streets has made Israel safer. Women’s groups have decried the rising number of guns in Israeli homes, saying it poses a risk to victims of domestic violence.

In the wake of October 7, the National Security Ministry also granted temporary authority to Ben Gvir’s personal staff appointees, Knesset employees, and others to approve gun license applications. Several were subsequently investigated by police on suspicion that the ministry inappropriately issued firearms permits.

Last November, the High Court of Justice said that licenses were issued “seemingly without authority.”

Germany urges Israel to ‘immediately’ improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians flee Gaza City toward the southern areas of the Gaza Strip, in Nuseirat, on August 28, 2025.(Eyad Baba/AFP)

Israel must “immediately” improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza, the German government’s representative for human rights and humanitarian aid says, ahead of a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Until recently Israel has enjoyed broad support across the political spectrum in Germany, but Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s tone toward Israel has sharpened as the humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated.

“The Israeli government must improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza immediately, comprehensively, sustainably, and in accordance with humanitarian principles and international law,” says envoy Lars Castellucci, a lawmaker of the Social Democrats, which governs with Merz’s conservatives.

He condemns the “immeasurable” suffering of civilians, especially children, who are trapped in the conflict and “bear neither guilt nor responsibility.”

German humanitarian aid to Gaza “has been increased several times,” but it is “pointless” as long as it does not reach those in need, he says.

While he reaffirms Germany’s “special responsibility” for Israel’s security and calls for the “immediate release” of hostages held by Hamas, he also stresses the urgency of a ceasefire and advocates for a two-state solution.

A UN hunger monitor said last week that parts of Gaza were suffering from famine. Israel, which stopped the flow of aid into Gaza for nearly three months until mid-May, has rejected the report as a “modern blood libel” and accused Hamas of looting aid deliveries.

Slain hostages Ilan Weiss and Idan Shtivi to be buried today

Ilan Weiss (L) and Idan Shtivi (R) in undated photographs (Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

The funerals are set to be held today for slain hostages Idan Shtivi and Ilan Weiss, whose bodies were brought back from Gaza on Friday in a military operation.

The funeral procession for Shtivi will begin at Ahad Ha’am Street in Rishon Lezion at 2:45 p.m.and will reach the Beit Dagan Junction, HaShiv’a Interchange to Route 4 heading north at 3:15 p.m. At 3:30 p.m.the procession is expected to pass the Messubim and Aluf Sadeh interchanges, before reaching the Ono Interchange at 3:45 p.m.

Shivti will be buried in Kfar Ma’as at 4 p.m.

Weiss will be buried at 5 p.m. in Kibbutz Be’eri.

Shtivi, 28, was murdered at the Nova music festival during the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel.

Weiss, 56, was killed on the morning of October 7, 2023, while defending Kibbutz Be’eri from Hamas-led terrorists as a member of his community’s emergency response team. His wife Shiri and daughter Noga were also taken hostage and later freed during a weeklong truce and hostage release deal in November 2023.

Students at dozens of high schools strike on 1st day of academic year in call for hostage deal

Students and parents protest for a hostage deal at the Nahalal Interchange on September 1, 2025 (Tzvika Golan/pro-democracy protest groups)

High school students at dozens of schools are striking on the first day of the academic year in a demand for a hostage deal.

The students are refusing to return to classes in light of the continuation of the Gaza war and the government’s perceived foot-dragging in ceasefire deal negotiations.

Yesterday, dozens of teenage protesters blocked traffic on Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway and set fire to classroom desks, demanding a general strike ahead of the start of the academic year.

Police arrested two protesters, a 17-year-old boy and a 35-year-old woman, on suspicion of disorderly conduct. Around 20 others were detained at the scene and later released.

2.5 million children head back to school with the start of the academic year

Israeli children going into 1st grade, meeting with the new teacher ahead of the first day of the new academic year, at the Tali school in Jerusalem, August 28, 2025 (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

Some 2.5 million children are heading back to school and kindergarten on the first day of the academic year.

There are approximately 180,600 students entering first grade this year, and 149,000 entering twelfth grade.

The Education Ministry claims that the system is suffering a shortage of 488 teachers, however the Ynet news site questions whether that could be possible given that it found two weeks ago that there were 4,254 educators lacking.

For the first time in Israel’s history, this year thousands more children will begin first grade in religious Jewish schools than in secular ones, according to data the Education Ministry provided to The Times of Israel. Experts say the change could be a harbinger of a large-scale shift in Israeli society.

Hundreds feared dead, injured as magnitude 6 earthquake hits Afghanistan

Hundreds are feared dead and injured in a earthquake of magnitude 6 that struck Afghanistan’s rugged northeastern province of Kunar, authorities say, as rescuers comb the rubble of homes in a hunt for survivors.

Early reports show 0 dead in a single village, the health ministry says, but adds that accurate casualty figures had yet to be gathered in an area of scattered hamlets with a long history of earthquakes and flooding.

“The number of casualties and injuries is high, but since the area is difficult to access, our teams are still on site,” health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman says in a statement.

Hundreds of injured were taken to hospital, says Najibullah Hanif, the provincial information head, with figures likely to rise as reports arrive from remote areas with few roads.

Rescuers are working in several districts of the mountainous province where the midnight quake hit at a depth of 10 km (6 miles), to level homes of mud and stone on the border with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, officials said.

Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.

A series of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, underscoring the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest countries to natural disasters.

IDF says Hezbollah terrorist killed in south Lebanon strike yesterday

Plumes of smoke rise following an Israeli strike on the Ain el-Taher hill in the southern Lebanese village of Nabatiyeh al-Faouqa on August 31, 2025. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)

The Israel Defense Forces says it killed a Hezbollah terrorist in a strike in the Nabatieh region of south Lebanon yesterday.

The military says the operative was targeted at a “significant” site for the terror group.

The IDF says the terrorist was acting in violation of the ceasefire agreement reached in November between Israel and Lebanon.

The Lebanese government agreed last month to move ahead with a US-backed plan for the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah, although the terror group has vowed to resist.

Man shot dead in north, as Arab violent crime epidemic persists

A 32-year-old man is shot dead in the Arab town of Nahf, near Karmiel, in the north.

The victim is taken in critical condition to Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, where medics pronounce him dead.

Police say they have arrived at the scene, started searches for suspects and launched an investigation.

Since the start of the year, 168 Arab Israelis have been killed in violent incidents, according to the Abraham Initiatives watchdog, amid a surging crime wave that has been plaguing Arab locales in recent years.

Man arrested for crashing car into Russian consulate in Sydney

A man is arrested after ramming his car into the gates of the Russian consulate in Sydney, Australian police say.

Police say that officers responded shortly after 8 a.m. (2200 GMT) to reports of an unauthorized vehicle parked in the driveway of an address on Fullerton Street that corresponds with the location of the Russian consulate.

Officers attempted to speak to the driver before he drove his vehicle into the gates, New South Wales police says in a statement.

A neighbor who witnessed the incident says he saw the car force its way through the gates after the driver was instructed to step out of the vehicle.

“The policemen continued to ask him to get out of the car, he didn’t get out of the car. They drew their firearms,” he says, declining to give his name.

US refusing visas to Palestinian passport holders, in unannounced policy — report

The United States has quietly instituted a blanket freeze of almost all types of visa applications by holders of Palestinian Authority-issued passports, The New York Times reports, citing four unnamed American officials.

While Donald Trump’s administration publicly announced on Friday that it will not allow entry to PA President Mahmoud Abbas and some 80 more Palestinian officials for the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York, the outlet says the new policy is much broader.

The temporary suspension covers “visas for medical treatment, university studies, visits to friends or relatives and business travel,” the report says.

It does not apply to those who already have visas, or to Palestinians who have a second passport and use that other passport to apply for visas.

The policy was reportedly laid out in a message sent on August 18 by the State Department to all US diplomatic missions, making use of a mechanism — section 221-G of the US Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 — that is usually only used to demand extra documents or information from certain people to help make a decision on their request.

“Effective immediately, consular officers are instructed to refuse under 221(g) of the Immigration Nationality Act (INA) all otherwise eligible Palestinian Authority passport holders using that passport to apply for a nonimmigrant visa,” the State Department cable says, according to The Times.