Sept. 23: Rubio says Trump doesn’t think the world ‘needs a West Bank crisis’ right now

IDF reports arrest of 2 suspects along Jordanian border

Israeli forces arrested two suspects along the Jordanian border, according to the military.

A statement from the Israel Defense Forces says lookouts were alerted to “suspicious movement in the area of the eastern border,” leading soldiers and police to pursue the suspects, who were apprehended and taken for questioning.

‘Won’t accept international hypocrisy’: Eisenkot slams Macron’s false claim that Hamas has ‘never been active’ in West Bank

Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot joins Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in condemning French President Emmanuel Macron for falsely claiming Hamas has “never been active” in the West Bank, a remark he calls “extremely divorced from the reality on the ground.”

“As someone who commanded the Judea and Samaria Division and as someone who fought to defeat Hamas terrorism, I am very familiar with the terror organization’s operations in Judea and Samaria and the threat it poses to Israeli citizens,” Eisenkot writes on X, using the biblical names for the West Bank.

“The fight against terror is not up for negotiation, and we will not accept international hypocrisy at the expense of Israeli citizens’ security,” Eisenkot adds.

Witkoff indicates talks with Iran weren’t direct, says mediators ‘shuttled’ between US and Iranian delegations

From left, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, are seated as President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky during the United Nations General Assembly, September 22, 2026, at the UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

NEW YORK — US special envoy Steve Witkoff suggests that Washington’s talks with Iran on Tuesday were not direct, as President Donald Trump suggested.

“Today, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, we engaged in lengthy talks with the Iranian delegation through the mediators, who shuttled between the two sides throughout the day,” Witkoff tweets.

“They successfully completed a round of discussions that we hope will prove constructive and promising. The mediators will continue their work,” he adds.

Burnham: Public trust in politics ‘would fall even lower’ if UK didn’t sanction settlements

Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham addresses the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters September 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

UK Prime Minister tells the UN General Assembly that the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror atrocities were “utterly horrific” and says Britain stands with Israel and Jews worldwide as they face continued Iranian threats.

“But this does not justify the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza or the West Bank,” he says. “We will not stand by as the horrific suffering continues to grow and the prospect of a two-state solution… comes under attack.”

Burnham slams Israel for issuing tenders for the controversial E1 settlement project near Jerusalem, which he says would “threaten to put a viable Palestinian state beyond reach.”

“It cannot be allowed to happen,” he continues, noting his government’s recent decision to ban all dealings with settlements.

Burnham defends that decision by saying “we live in an age of low trust in politics. If we were to continue to talk about the two-state solution, but fail to back those words with deeds, that trust will fall even lower and our enemies will seek to exploit the alienation that follows from that. We won’t let it happen.”

‘The problem is with Israel, not us’: Syrian leader says Oct. 7 shouldn’t dictate Israeli policy

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa, right, arrives ahead of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, September 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa is asked during an appearance in New York City whether he can envision his country having diplomatic relations with Israel, and whether Damascus is demanding the return of the Golan Heights as a precondition to establishing ties.

Al-Sharaa notes to the Atlantic Council that the countries have already held direct talks in the past year, before saying Israel must first withdraw from areas in southern Syria it occupied after the fall of the Assad regime.

“Then we get into discussions on security arrangements. If those arrangements succeed, then we can get into lasting peace,” he continues according to a translation of his remarks. “The Golan Heights is Syrian territory under recognition of the United Nations… So there is no discussion.”

He is later asked whether he understands the concerns of Israelis after the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught by Hamas, and what message he has for the Israeli public.

“I understand what happened on October 7 for some of the innocent people, but at the same time, it’s not possible that all policies are based on an incident that happened,” he says. “At the same we need to understand what happened in Gaza and more than 70,000 people have been killed there.”

“It’s not appropriate that what happened on October 7 set the policy for Syria,” adds al-Sharaa, who led a jihadist group formerly affiliated with al-Qaeda before taking power. “Israel needs to change its policy because it is creating problems around it.”

“I believe the problem is with Israel, not with Syria.”

Iranian president arrives in New York ahead of speech at UN General Assembly

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has arrived in New York where he is expected to speak at the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian state media reports.

State broadcaster IRIB posts a video clip of Pezeshkian exiting a plane with a caption saying that the Iranian president has arrived at a New York airport. This is the first time that a leader whose country is at war with the United States sets foot on American soil to address a UN gathering, analysts say.

Argentinian president visits NYC yeshiva, dances with students

Argentinian President Javier Milei, in New York City for the UN General Assembly, visits a yeshiva in Far Rockaway, Queens.

Milei, a firm supporter of Israel and the Jewish community, is presented with the school’s “Ohev Israel,” or “Lover of Israel,” award and speaks to students at Yeshiva Darchei Torah.

Argentina's President Javier Milei at Yeshiva Darchei in Far Rockaway today. pic.twitter.com/QQwXEwDVHz

— KolHaolam (@KolHaolam) September 23, 2026

Milei delivers a speech to the students in Spanish then dances with students on his way out, according to footage shared by his office.

Discurso del Presidente Javier Milei en la institución educativa Yeshiva Darchei Torah, en Nueva York, tras recibir el Premio Ohev Yisrael. pic.twitter.com/285Jvf4hhz

— Oficina del Presidente (@OPRArgentina) September 23, 2026

Iran says Qatar mediated talks with US, demands end to war on all fronts

Iran says it engaged with the United States through a Qatari mediator in New York and conveyed conditions including an end to the war on all fronts and a halt to what Tehran called US “acts of aggression,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei tells state news agency IRNA.

Baghaei says Iran’s conditions also included an end to the naval blockade and economic warfare, and the release of Iranian assets, IRNA reported.

Yisrael Beytenu says it backs barring Ra’am, Joint List from running

Yisrael Beytenu announces that it will back the disqualification of the Joint List of Arab parties as well as Ra’am and Joint List politicians Sami Abou Shahadeh and Ofer Cassif.

The Central Elections Committee is slated to hold hearings today and tomorrow on requests to bar a number the Arab parties and politicians, as well as parties on the far right.

Avigdor Liberman’s hawkish party has regularly led efforts to disqualify Arab political representation, but formerly allied with Ra’am as part of the 2021-2022 government led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. It has since distanced itself from the Islamist faction and sworn off any future partnership.

“Any Zionist government that takes office after elections must set the elimination of Hamas as a central goal of its security policy,” the party says in a statement. “Any party opposed to that has no place in the Knesset.”

Basic Law: The Knesset explicitly prohibits anyone expressing support for armed struggle against the State of Israel from running for Knesset, but contains no such rule mandating support for specific security policies against terror organizations.

The CEC is led by a judge but comprised of representatives of all Knesset parties, making its decisions highly politicized. Most disqualifications are struck down by the Supreme Court on appeal.

However, on Tuesday Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman told the Central Elections Committee that it should “seriously consider” barring Abou Shahadeh, leader of the Joint List’s hardline Balad faction, citing an article he wrote on October 8, 2023, that they said constituted support for armed struggle against Israel.

The opinion could make the court more likely to uphold a decision barring the Balad leader from running.

Reports: IDF troops arrest Palestinian Authority security officer

Palestinian media outlets report that IDF troops arrested Majdi Amer, a colonel in the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service, this morning in the village of Kafr Qallil, south of Nablus.

The arrest of an officer in the PA security forces is a relatively rare occurrence.

The circumstances surrounding the arrest are unclear.

The IDF has yet to comment.

مصادر محلية: قوات الاحـ.tـلال تعتقل "مجدي عامر" عقب محاصرة منزله خلال اقتحام قرية كفر قليل شرق نابلس. pic.twitter.com/2vwQdC6kfm

— فلسطين بوست (@PalpostN) September 23, 2026

Iran says half of damaged production at behemoth South Pars gas field restored

FILE - A natural gas refinery is visible at the South Pars gas field on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf, in Asaluyeh, Iran, March 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Iran has restored about 50 percent of damaged production capacity at the South Pars gas field, Deputy Oil Minister Ahmad Zeraatkar is reported as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.

He adds that all planned restoration work will be completed before winter.

Zeraatkar said in late August that about 40% of the damaged capacity had been returned to production.

The offshore South Pars gas field, which makes up around a third of the world’s largest reservoir of natural gas, was struck by Israel in March, in an attack coordinated with the US.

Most of the gas Tehran produces from South Pars is for domestic use.

Eisenkot said facing internal pressure to rule out Ra’am as Yashar slips

Yashar party chair Gadi Eisenkot (L) in Rosh HaAyin, September 7, 2026, and Ra'am party chair Mansour Abbas in Jerusalem, September 7, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90, Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Members of the Yashar party have unsuccessfully pressured leader Gadi Eisenkot to preemptively disqualify the Ra’am party from a possible governing coalition, Haaretz reports.

Among Zionist parties in the bloc seeking to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, only Yashar and the Democrats have not ruled out allying with Ra’am. Among those who have disqualified a future coalition with the Islamist party is B’Yachad, headed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, who included Ra’am in their 2021-2022 government.

According to the unsourced report, calls for Eisenkot to join them have increased as Yashar has begun to slip in the polls. Several surveys last week showed the party down two or three seats, presaging a slight edge for the pro-Netanyahu bloc in the tightly contested race.

Eisenkot has responded that his conditions for Ra’am joining a potential government headed by him have not been met. But he argued that disqualifying the party now would narrow the party’s path to forming a government, which would also turn voters away, and noted that he has also not ruled out working with parties on the far right.

While horse-race polls in the months leading up to elections are not seen as overly prescient, parties nonetheless use them to gauge whether various decisions will win or lose them votes.

Gazans report one killed in IDF strike in Khan Younis

Hamas-affiliated media outlets in Gaza report that one person was killed and several others were injured in a strike on a car in western Khan Younis.

The IDF has yet to comment.

Pictures show the fiery aftermath of the purported attack.

عاجل | مجمع ناصر الطبي: شـ&يد ومصابون في غـ،،ارة استهدفت مركبة بمواصي خان يونس. pic.twitter.com/mN16qvOYFT

— فلسطين بوست (@PalpostN) September 23, 2026

OECD says economies weathering Iran war shocks, but warns of persisting inflation

Cranes load a cargo ship at Panama Canal’s Port of Balboa, managed by CK Hutchison Holdings, in Panama City, on January 30, 2026. (AP/Matias Delacroix)

Economic growth has remained “resilient” in many countries despite the war in the Middle East, the OECD says, slightly raising its GDP forecasts for the year.

Global economic growth is now seen at 2.9 percent, a 0.1-point increase from estimates in June by the Paris-based group of 38 industrialized countries.

Even though energy prices have soared since the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran in February, the OECD notes that “broader financial conditions remain supportive,” as seen in rising equity markets and continued access to credit.

“Sizeable oil inventories, additional supply from outside the Gulf economies and discretionary government support measures all helped to cushion the impact on the global economy,” the group said in its quarterly update.

It also cites the massive investments in artificial intelligence and the resulting boost to production and trade, which could result in “stronger growth than projected.”

But it warns of prolonged inflation if the Mideast war continues, with price increases in the G20 group of developing and emerging economies seen at 4.1% overall this year.

“Other significant downside risks include potential weather-related supply shocks, including a very strong El Nino, that adversely impact agricultural production and add to rising food price pressures,” it says.

Three Jerusalem minors arrested over synagogue attacks after Reform temple repeatedly vandalized

Three minors from Jerusalem have been arrested over alleged involvement in damage to a synagogue building in the city’s Baka neighborhood, authorities say.

Police do not name the synagogue, but the arrests follow repeated incidents of vandalism against Baka’s Reform Kol HaNeshama congregation. On Sunday night, during Yom Kippur, unidentified assailants tore through a window screen at the synagogue and threw a glass plate into the building, where it shattered.

A week before that, youths dressed in religious garb egged congregants during Rosh Hashanah. Last month, an LGBTQ Pride flag inside the building was torn down by trespassers.

Police say they will request the suspects be kept in custody, at an arraignment today.

Security forces razing hamlet in West Bank’s Masafer Yatta, as evictions ramp up

Illustrative: A Palestinian man walks inside his house in the West Bank Bedouin community of Jinba, Masafer Yatta, May 6, 2022. (AP/Nasser Nasser)

Israeli security forces are currently carrying out demolitions in the West Bank Palestinian hamlet of Jinba in the Masafer Yatta region in the south of the territory, a rights group says.

The B’Tselem human rights group says that at least 19 buildings have been destroyed so far in Jinba this morning, apparently by the Civil Administration, an agency of the Defense Ministry in charge of enforcement against illegal structures in the West Bank.

Security forces, Civil Administration, demolishing buildings in Palestinian hamlet of Jinba in South Hebron Hills/Masafer Yatta region right now. 19 buildings demolished so far according to B'Tselem… pic.twitter.com/jq4VAjmgJD

— Jeremy Sharon (@jeremysharon) September 23, 2026

The demolitions in Jinba are the third such operation in the last three weeks.

On September 2, the Civil Administration demolished the entire hamlet of Khirbet a-Taban, also in Masafer Yatta, including all 12 homes and almost all other buildings. The dwelling had been home to 12 families, numbering some 70 people.

And on September 8, the Civil Administration demolished five homes belonging to four families numbering 32 people in Khirbet al-Fakhit, less than two kilometers from Khirbet a-Taban, as well as sheep pens, external toilets, water tanks, solar panels, water cisterns and chicken coops.

The homes are in an area that the IDF declared a firing zone in the 1980s, setting off a decades-long legal battle over the fate of several hamlets that fell within the wide borders of the zone.

In May 2022, the High Court of Justice upheld the right of the military to establish the firing zone in the West Bank, and determined that the residents had not successfully proved they had lived in the villages as permanent residents before the army declared the area a training zone. This gave the army the green light to demolish the villages, although demolitions have taken place only sporadically since then.

Top Hamas moneyman killed in Gaza strike, Israel says

Hamas’s top financial official was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip a short while ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz announce.

The strike in Khan Younis killed Mohammed Abu Alwan, the head of the terror group’s financial department, they say in a joint statement.

“We continue to pursue Hamas commanders and operatives, strike its sources of funding, and destroy its terror infrastructure. We will not allow Hamas to rebuild its strength, and we will not stop until there is no Hamas in Gaza,” Netanyahu and Katz say.

The IDF has not yet issued a statement on the strike.

Liberman proposes Jordan take responsibility for parts of West Bank, drawing fire

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, center right, visits construction of the new Amichai settlement in the West Bank on October 18, 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman proposes transferring security and administrative responsibility for Areas A and B of the West Bank to Jordan, drawing sharp criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of his government.

“You have to reach an understanding with the Jordanians that they will manage Judea and Samaria. Let them take security and administrative responsibility. You can’t have a vacuum,” Liberman says on a podcast for religious nationalist outlet Besheva, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.

Asked whether he trusts Jordan to take on such a role, Liberman says Amman has “no choice,” adding that it could either deploy its military or establish forces under Jordanian command.

Liberman, who himself lives in the settlement of Nokdim southeast of Jerusalem, initially refers to Jordan taking control of Areas B and C during the podcast, but later clarifies that he meant Areas A and B, which are currently administered by the Palestinian Authority. The PA also maintains security control in Area A, while Israel retains overall security control in Area B and full civil and security control in Area C, where all settlements are located.

Netanyahu slams the proposal, accusing Liberman, a right-wing security hawk and former defense minister, of having moved to the political left.

“I never believed you would propose today that the Jordanian army control territories of the Land of Israel. Retract your statement immediately,” Netanyahu writes on X.

Liberman responds that Israel should maintain “complete control” over Area C but should not be responsible for governing Palestinians in cities such as Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarem. He also rejects continued PA rule, calling the PA a “terrorist organization” and accusing it of engaging in “diplomatic terrorism,” in contrast to what he described as Hamas’s armed terrorism.

“In order to prevent a vacuum that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorists would enter, an agreement must be reached with Jordan for it to administer Areas A and B – an Israeli-Jordanian confederation,” he says.

Shas leader Aryeh Deri also attacks the proposal, accusing Liberman of having “forgotten what it means to be right-wing” and describing the plan as akin to Israel’s controversial 2005 disengagement from Gaza, when it unilaterally withdrew its military and evacuated all Israeli settlements in the Strip.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich similarly accuses Liberman of seeking to relinquish Israel’s security responsibility in the West Bank.

“Listen to Liberman: Someone who presents himself as a right-winger is proposing that we give up our security responsibility in Judea and Samaria and hand it over to the Jordanians,” Smotrich says.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tries to make hay out of the Area C gaffe, accusing Liberman of being “confused.”

“Judea and Samaria isn’t a delivery that can be transferred to Jordan. This isn’t Wolt,” he says, referring to the popular food delivery app. “These are parts of our homeland.”

Mahan Air flight lands in China despite US threat against Iranian airlines

Pedestrians walk past an office of Iranian airline Mahan Air in Baghdad, Iraq, September 23, 2026. (AP/Hadi Mizban)

A Mahan Air commercial flight from Tehran landed in southern China today, a tracking data website says, despite the US threatening to “shut down” Tehran’s carriers and punish anyone doing business with them starting today.

Flight IRM093 landed in Guangzhou at 4:39 pm local time on Wednesday, according to the tracking website FlightRadar24.

The flight was not listed on the official website of Guangzhou Baiyun airport, which was the location shown as the landing site of the Mahan plane.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a CNBC interview on Monday that on September 23 “all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world,” as the war launched by the United States and Israel nears the seven-month mark.

“If they land, you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets or you will be knocked out of the dollar system,” he added.

Staff at the Mahan Air office in Shanghai say they received no notice about any flights canceled, and tickets for the upcoming week are being sold as normal.

The US Treasury does not reply to an AFP query asking for clarification.

Democrats threaten to sue unless Shin Bet okays guards for party head Golan

Leader of the Democrats party Yair Golan leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on June 15, 2026. Photo by (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The left-wing Democrats party says it will petition the High Court of Justice if Shin Bet chief David Zini does not order state-funded security for party leader Yair Golan by September 27, amid what it says are escalating threats against the former general’s life.

In an urgent letter to Zini, the party notes that police have assessed Golan’s threat level at four out of six — the same level as Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot — but that the government’s Advisory Committee for Personal Security has so far approved protection only for Eisenkot, while delaying a decision on Golan.

“Ignoring the severity of the threats directed at the chairman of the Democrats and the concrete intelligence concerning him could lead to harm to [Golan’s] life, possibly in the near future,” the letter states, warning that “if security protection is not approved, [the party] intends to petition the High Court of Justice.”

The letter cites documented threats against Golan and his family, including calls for his murder by hanging or shooting, and notes that Golan was the sole party leader named in a threatening letter attached to a brick thrown in an overnight attack of Channel 12’s news offices in June.

The Democrats have previously accused the committee of dragging its feet and being politically motivated, noting that two of the committee’s three members are appointees of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Neither Golan nor Eisenkot is currently an MK and therefore neither automatically receives the security afforded to elected officials, so any state-funded protection must be separately approved.

Senate Democrats set to propose wide sanctions over E1 settlement plan

View of the area of the planned controversial E1 West Bank construction project between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim, August 21, 2025 (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

A group of US Senate Democrats will introduce legislation on Wednesday to sanction individuals or groups that facilitate Israel’s “E1 project,” a widely condemned West Bank settlement plan cutting across land the Palestinians seek for a state, according to a copy of the legislation seen by Reuters.

The bill would impose sanctions on foreign companies, individuals or other entities that the Treasury Department determines to have been responsible for or complicit in the construction of any Israeli settlements or related structures in the E1 area of the West Bank, including by submitting a bid for E1 tenders.

It also would sanction those who attempt to organize, direct, finance or facilitate the transfer of Israeli civilians into settlements in the E1 area.

The E1 project would link Jerusalem to the settlement of Maaleh Adumim, cutting a stretch of Israeli housing deep into the West Bank and leaving only a sliver of land to link the northern and southern portions of the West Bank. Both critics and supporters say it would make a contiguous Palestinian state on the West Bank impossible.

Israeli authorities recently advanced the plan, drawing fresh scrutiny and international condemnation.

The measure’s lead sponsors are Chris Coons of Delaware, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Ruben Gallego of Arizona. Several other Democrats are co-sponsers.

“As Palestinian civilians face a campaign of devastation and fear from violent extremist settlers, the United States must send a strong message that this behavior is unacceptable and that it remains committed to freedom, security, prosperity and self-determination for all Israelis and Palestinians,” Coons says in a statement.

Democrats currently control only 47 seats in the 100-member Senate, but polls show they could win majorities in November 3 midterm elections from President Donald Trump’s Republicans, who have aligned themselves closely with Netanyahu.

Congress’s lower chamber, the US House of Representatives, is currently not in session, so even in the unlikely chance of the bill’s passage in the Senate, the House would not be expected to take it up before the midterms.

PA colonel arrested in rare undercover raid suspected of terror, police say

In a rare occurrence, Israeli commandos apprehended a senior member of the Palestinian Authority’s security services during a raid in the West Bank overnight, police confirm.

Palestinian media reported earlier that Israeli forces arrested Majdi Amer, a colonel in the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service, in the village of Kafr Qallil, south of Nablus.

In a statement, the police say that undercover Border Police officers raided Kafr Qallil overnight and apprehended a “wanted operative in the Fatah terror group.”

The wanted Palestinian is suspected of advancing terror activities, the police say.

“The undercover forces entered the village in disguise and reached the compound where the wanted man was residing,” police say.

The officers surrounded the building and carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker,” which involves escalating the volume of fire against a building to flush suspects out.

The wanted man eventually exited the building and “surrendered himself to the troops,” according to the police.

Panel votes to disqualify Balad chief Abu Shehadeh with support from Sohlberg, opposition

Balad chair Sami Abou Shehadeh appears on a screen behind the Central Elections Committee during a disqualification hearing at the Knesset in Jerusalem, September 23, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Central Elections Committee votes 30-4 to disqualify Balad chairman and Joint List No. 3 Sami Abu Shehadeh from running in the October 27 election, with the support of all opposition parties and rare backing from the Supreme Court justice heading the panel.

The committee accepts both grounds cited in the petition to ban Abu Shehadeh’s participation: supporting armed struggle by an enemy state or terrorist organization against Israel, and negating Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state.

Justice Noam Sohlberg participates in the vote — the first time in decades a committee chairman has done so — saying Abu Shehadeh failed to adequately answer allegations that he expressed support for Hamas’s armed struggle against Israel in an article published a day after the October 7, 2023, massacre.

All opposition parties, including Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar, Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad, Yair Golan’s Democrats, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu, ultimately backed the petition.

The backing of Sohlberg and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who penned an opinion yesterday supporting the disqualification, raises the prospect that the Supreme Court may uphold the decision, which must receive the court’s approval before taking effect, despite its historically high threshold for disqualifying candidates.

The petition, filed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, centers on an Arabic-language article Abu Shehadeh published on October 8, 2023, in which he described the assault a day earlier as “an important historic event militarily, politically and strategically” and wrote that others could learn from Hamas’s success in surprising Israel.

Abu Shehadeh, who denies supporting the attack or political violence, calls his disqualification an attempt to “silence” him and Arab society’s political voice. “I have never called for violence or terrorism. I oppose armed struggle,” he says.

Jewish Diaspora groups call on UN to elect leader who will fight antisemitism

UN member states should elect a secretary general who will make the fight against antisemitism a priority of their tenure, a coalition of Diaspora Jewish community organizations says in an open letter.

Anti-Jewish bias has become a serious failure within parts of the UN system, charges the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, which represents Jewish communities in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The letter is issued as the United Nations holds its high-level General Assembly this week. It does not recommend a particular candidate.

Jewish groups in New York City plan to rally against antisemitism outside the meeting later today.

The UN is set to hold elections in the coming months to replace Secretary General António Guterres, who is nearing the end of his term and has been accused of harboring anti-Israel and antisemitic biases.

The J7 letter cites its latest annual report, which found that 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks across the seven countries in more than three decades. It recorded more than 23,000 antisemitic incidents and 20 people killed in such attacks.

The J7 urges member states to select a secretary-general committed to addressing antisemitism, based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which controversially defines some criticism of Israel as antisemitic.

It also calls for the appointment of a fully resourced UN special envoy on antisemitism and for greater oversight of UN officials and mandate holders.

The coalition further urges member states to ensure that UN funds, personnel and institutional resources are not used to support or legitimize antisemitism, extremism or incitement.

Work really does set you free, insists unapologetic far-right French lawmaker

The entrance to the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau with the lettering 'Arbeit macht frei' ('Work makes you free') is pictured in Oswiecim, Poland on January 25, 2015, days before the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camp by Russian forces. (Photo by Joël SAGET / AFP)

A prominent lawmaker in the far-right party of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen insists he did nothing wrong after repeating the Nazi slogan “work sets you free” in a speech at a rally.

Jean-Philippe Tanguy, a deputy in Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), had last weekend used the slogan whose original German “Arbeit macht frei” had notoriously been inscribed above Nazi concentration and extermination camps, including Auschwitz.

The snippet of footage has now been widely shared on social media.

⚡️????????VIDÉO – À Vierzon, le 19 septembre, le député #RN de la Somme Jean-Philippe #Tanguy a repris l’expression « le travail rend libre », traduction française de la formule « Arbeit macht frei », inscrite sur le fronton des camps de concentration #nazis… pic.twitter.com/Q0rsBnfq3U

— Brèves de presse (@Brevesdepresse) September 23, 2026

Tanguy, 40, a rising star in the party and one of its most prominent figures in the media, says the phrase he used at the rally in Vierzon in central France had been taken out of context.

“It was a speech about how, with a good salary and the means to afford housing… individuals can, quite literally, emancipate themselves and gain freedom,” he tells Europe 1 radio.

When asked if he regretted the phrasing, Tanguy replied: “I am not going to apologize for every accusation.”

However, he does apologize to those with “painful family histories” and to victims of antisemitism “not for what I said — because I said nothing wrong — but because they may have been personally hurt.”

“I respect the suffering and pain of the individuals and families who were tragically scarred by Nazi barbarism,” he adds.

RN co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen made repeated remarks that were antisemitic or played down the Nazi occupation of France in World War II.

High Court delays decision on state commission on October 7 until after election

People attend an anti-government protest demanding the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into Hamas's onslaught of October 7, 2023, at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, February 21, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The High Court of Justice gives the government until January 15, 2027, to provide an update on how it intends to investigate the failings behind the catastrophic Hamas invasion and atrocities on October 7, 2023.

The decision means that the court will not issue a ruling on petitions asking the court to order the government to establish a state commission of inquiry into the terrorist assault, the worst-ever invasion of Israel’s borders, until after the upcoming election.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 disaster, arguing in public, although not in court, that an independent panel appointed by the Supreme Court would be biased against the government.

The government has in the last year said it would support an inquiry appointed by a panel of lawmakers, with its mandate and scope set by politicians. However, in July it told the court that it had not had time to pass legislation establishing the inquest before elections were called.

A state commission of inquiry into the failings surrounding the massacre has been a major demand of families of victims and others since the attack took place, and opposition factions have vowed to set one up should they take control of the government.

Two hurt, cargo ship ablaze in Strait of Hormuz attack, watchdog says

A cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz was struck by an unidentified projectile, leaving it on fire and adrift and causing two casualties, the United Kingdom ​Maritime Trade Operations center says.

UKMTO says all crew have been evacuated from the vessel, citing a report it received.

Authorities are investigating, and there are no reports of any environmental impact, the monitor says.

Palestinian pair accused of plotting Ben Gvir assassination, soldier abduction

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrives for a hearing on a request to disqualify Balad chairman Sami Abou Shahadeh at the Central Elections Committee at the Knesset in Jerusalem, September 23, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Military prosecutors have indicted two Palestinians from the Nablus area in the northern West Bank for allegedly planning to carry out “a series of terror attacks” against Israeli civilians and troops, including abducting soldiers and assassinating National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, police and the Shin Bet say in a joint statement.

The suspects allegedly began “advancing ‘military’ activity” in late 2023, including recruiting other operatives, holding shooting training, discussing attack plans and stocking up on assault rifles and ammunition, the statement says.

The suspects made up their minds to kill Ben Gvir in 2024, the statement adds.

After they saw a video of Ben Gvir arriving at the scene of a terror attack, one of the suspects allegedly suggested that the pair carry out its own attack in order to lure Ben Gvir to the scene and kill him.

The same suspect later “suggested using an explosive drone for the assassination, and even tried buying drone parts from China” to that end, the statement says.

In tandem, the suspects also allegedly planned to carry out car-bomb and drone attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, and also plotted mass shootings and the abduction of a soldier.

The statement does not identify the suspects or specify when they were arrested. It says their detention has been extended periodically until the indictment and that they remain in custody until the end of the legal proceedings.

Ben Gvir says in his own statement that the assassination plot in the indictment is the 11th against him.

Knesset panel boosts defense budget by nearly NIS 15 billion

The Knesset Finance Committee approves the transfer of nearly NIS 15 billion ($5 billion) to shore up the Defense Ministry and IDF budgets for this year.

The committee approves transferring NIS 11.75 billion ($3.9 billion) from the general reserve to the Defense Ministry, along with another NIS 3 billion ($995 million) from various defense expenditure and transportation budget items.

Details of how the funds will be used are classified and were presented to a joint meeting of the Finance Committee and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to the Knesset.

The committee also approves NIS 164 million ($54.4 million) for National Insurance payments to workers placed on unpaid leave during Operation Roaring Lion and some NIS 801 million ($265.5 million) for the Finance Ministry, including NIS 630 million ($208.8 million) to bolster the Compensation Fund for payouts to businesses affected by the conflict with Iran.

New documents reportedly revive suspicions over Hitler’s role in niece’s death

In this Dec. 5, 1931 file photo, Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialists, is saluted as he leaves the party's Munich headquarters. (AP, File)

Newly unearthed records in a Munich archive cast doubt on Adolf Hitler’s whereabouts at the time of his niece’s suspicious 1931 death, according to news magazine Der Spiegel.

Hitler’s unusually close and controlling relationship with his niece, Geli Raubal, has long been the subject of speculation and rumor, and newspaper reports at the time suggested that Hitler may have played a role in her death.

Raubal died from a gunshot wound to the chest from a pistol belonging to Hitler, in what was officially determined to be a suicide.

According to the official account, Hitler’s personal servant, Georg Winter, discovered the 23-year-old Raubal’s body on the floor inside her locked room in Hitler’s apartment in Munich on September 19, 1931, a Saturday.

Hitler, who at the time was a prominent far-right extremist but had not yet seized power in Germany, was away in the city of Nuremberg that day, giving him what appeared to be a strong alibi.

But according to an article in Der Spiegel, historian Harald Sander recently discovered documents in archives in Munich casting doubt on that account — and raising questions about whether Nazi sympathizers in the police may have falsified records to protect Hitler.

Two death notices and an entry in an official local death registry all put the date of the discovery of Raubal’s body on September 18, a full day earlier, when Hitler was known to still have been in Munich.

Hitler’s relationship with Raubal, the daughter of his half-sister Angela Raubal, was the subject of intense speculation. Some contemporaries believed that Hitler had been abusive or had pursued a sexual relationship with his relative.

Hitler reportedly strictly controlled nearly every aspect of Raubal’s life after she moved to Munich in 1927.

She reportedly quarrelled intensely with Hitler just before her death after Hitler refused to allow her to move to Vienna.

Sandner tells the magazine that the discrepancy in the documents over the date of Raubal’s death may point towards a cover-up by the police, though there is no decisive proof.

IDF discovers 600-meter tunnel in Gaza

Inside a central Gaza tunnel located by the IDF on September 23, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)

Israeli combat engineers located a tunnel in the central Gaza Strip today, the military says.

The 600-meter-long passage runs from the Israeli-controlled side of the Yellow Line into the Hamas-held part of the Strip, according to the IDF.

The discovery comes as part of the military’s efforts to clear the IDF-held portion of Gaza of all Hamas infrastructure.

WATCH: Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa addresses UN General Assembly as second day of leaders’ speeches begins

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa addresses the United Nations General Assembly at the start of the second day of speeches by world leaders.

Watch the address live here:

Election panel votes overwhelmingly to bar Ra’am from election; Supreme Court reversal likely

Ra'am party head MK Mansour Abbas leads a faction meeting, at the Knesset on May 11, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

The Central Elections Committee votes 18-5 to disqualify Mansour Abbas’s largely Arab Ra’am party from running in the October 27 election, accepting petitions filed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit and the Choose Life Forum, an organization representing victims of terror.

The decision will automatically be reviewed by the Supreme Court and is likely to be struck down given the court’s historically high threshold for disqualification.

The CEC is headed by a Supreme Court justice but composed of representatives of Knesset factions, in which Netanyahu’s coalition holds a majority, making its decisions highly political. Most disqualifications are overturned by the court.

The petitions sought to bar Ra’am under provisions of Basic Law: The Knesset, a quasi-constitutional law prohibiting parties that negate Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state or incite racism.

Ra’am’s disqualification is especially notable given that the party, which has Islamist roots, joined a governing coalition from 2021-2022 and recently added Jewish former lawmaker Yoav Segalovitz to its slate.

A representative for Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara tells the committee that her office opposed Ra’am’s disqualification, consistent with its position that none of the petitions before the CEC had sufficient grounds except the one against Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh, which the committee approved earlier today.

“We explained in our written submission that the quotations cited in the petitions themselves demonstrate that MK Mansour Abbas recognizes Israel’s Jewish character,” she says.

She adds that the allegations of incitement to racism rested on a “very thin” petition that failed to meet the evidentiary threshold required for disqualification.

Syria’s Sharaa slams Israeli attacks, says peace available to those who wish to live in peace

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, September 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Speaking at the United Nations, Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa indicates that Israel can have peace with Syria if it changes its approach.

After lambasting Israeli attacks against his country, Sharaa says, “The opportunity for peace and security is available to those who wish to live in peace, a just peace that maintains the rights of all.”

He says that while the world is accepting Syria back into the international community, “Israel is launching attacks against Syria.”

Sharaa says hundreds of Israeli airstrikes, detentions, and incursions are “at odds with the direction we see at the global level” and “reminiscent of an era we thought was long gone.”

Sharaa calls for the withdrawal of Israeli forces, which pushed into a buffer zone in Syria upon the fall of longtime dictator Bashar Assad in late 2024.

He insists that he will never give up Syria’s claim to the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed in 1981: “Any attempts that violate our sovereignty, violate international law, will be stopped. Golan will remain Syrian territory.”

Netherlands ends its Eurovision boycott over Israel’s participation, says it’ll compete next year

Joost Klein, who represents the Netherlands, takes the stage during the dress rehearsal on the eve of the final of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2024 on May 10, 2024, at the Malmo Arena, Sweden. (Tobias Schwarz/AFP)

The Netherlands announces that it will take part in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, reversing its boycott over Israel’s participation after just one year.

The Dutch NPO umbrella public broadcaster says it has decided to “carefully” return to the 2027 contest after “extensive discussions” with the European Broadcasting Union.

Last month, the AVROTROS Dutch broadcaster — which traditionally took part in Eurovision — said it would not return next year, but noted that a different broadcaster in the Netherlands could instead take its place.

NPO says that this year, its NOS broadcaster will be responsible for taking part in Eurovision in place of AVROTROS.

“We understand that taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest gives rise to mixed feelings in the Netherlands,” says Jet de Ranitz, chair of the NPO board in a statement. “We have explicitly asked the EBU to make the unifying character of the contest a central part of the event once again, in recognition of a time of geopolitical unrest, war and polarization.”

In its statement, NPO says that it welcomes the “important steps” the EBU has taken regarding the rules of the contest, likely pointing to a new regulation unveiled last month barring conflict-hit countries from hosting even if they win, as well as rules about voting rolled out last year in response to allegations of voter fraud aimed at Israel.

The Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia, Iceland and Ireland all pulled out of the 2026 competition in protest of Israel’s inclusion. Ireland announced last week that its boycott would continue next year, but Spain, Slovenia and Iceland all have yet to make a final ruling — and the Netherlands’ decision could play a role in influencing them.

Belgium’s VRT public broadcaster also announces that it will take part in next year’s competition, after it had weighed joining the boycott.

UAE central bank imposes strict sanctions on Bank Melli Iran branches, cutting off lifeline

The United Arab Emirates’ central bank says it has prohibited a major Iranian bank, Bank Melli, from operating in the UAE, citing noncompliance with regulations.

Links with the UAE provide a crucial lifeline for Iran’s economy.

French foreign minister says Palestinians ‘must’ hold election after repeated delays

France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot gives a press conference after a crisis meeting in Paris on March 2, 2026. (Thibault Camus / POOL / AFP)

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says the Palestinians “must” hold fresh elections amid growing international concerns that the vote will again be delayed because of logistical challenges.

“They absolutely must be held,” he says, noting that legislative polls had been slated for November 2026 and presidential elections for the first quarter of 2027. Neither election has been held in decades.

WATCH: Iran’s Pezeshkian addresses UN General Assembly

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian takes the podium at the UN General Assembly. His speech comes amid his country’s ongoing war with the United States, which began in late February with US-Israeli strikes.

Israel and Iran largely stopped exchanging fire in April but US-Iranian tensions over the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program continue. The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen are also currently fighting a Saudi-led coalition.

Watch the address live here:

Israeli man seriously injured in car-ramming attack in West Bank; assailant shot dead

Illustration: The scene of a stabbing at the Maccabim Junction along Route 443 on September 25, 2019. (United Hatzalah)

An Israeli man in his 30s was seriously injured in a car-ramming attack at the Maccabim Junction in the West Bank a short while ago, the military and medics say.

The IDF says troops operating at the scene shot dead the assailant who carried out the ramming.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service says its medics are treating an unconscious man in his 40s in serious condition who was hit by a car at the checkpoint on Route 443.

Rubio says Iran deal would involve hard work over time, Trump has military options

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during an event at the renamed "Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace," September 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that a deal with Iran would involve hard work over a period of time, telling reporters that US President Donald Trump also has military options.

Asked about a military campaign by the Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition, Rubio says the United States will live up to its commitments in its defense agreement with Saudi Arabia.

Iran threatens to paralyze airports in neighboring countries if they stop Iranian flights

If neighboring countries cooperate with the United States by stopping Iranian flights, Iran will ensure their airports cannot function, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, says in an interview with state TV.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that all Iranian airlines would be forced to stop operating today by the threat of secondary sanctions on air services providers, seven months into the war between the United States and Iran.

Iran’s Pezeshkian at UN: We’re open to talk with US without ‘bullying,’ Gaza ‘resistance’ to go on

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian holds an image of late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, September 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Tehran is willing to negotiate with the US, says Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in his address to the UN General Assembly, but will not give in to pressure or threats.

“The resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions, pressure, and increased bullying,” he says at the United Nations.

“Iran must be understood by Mr. Trump,” Pezeshkian says in reference to the US president. “We are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force.”

Turning to the Strait of Hormuz, he says, “We cannot let some have free access and gain their interests from the waterway, while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggressions upon us… to forbid us access to our own waterways.”

Pezeshkian accuses the US of blocking Iranian shipping while bringing missiles through the strait to its allies. Iran has sought to obstruct the strait, a vital pathway for the global energy supply, since the beginning of the war. In response, the US imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.

Speaking about Gaza, Pezeshkian says “resistance will continue” against “occupation and aggression and injustice.”

“If it is weakened in one form, it will reemerge in others, perhaps stronger still,” he threatens.

“What other choice do they have? Succumb to bullying?” he asks. Iran is a longtime backer of Hamas, whose onslaught from Gaza into Israel on October 7, 2023, launched the war in the Strip.

Pezeshkian accuses the UN’s nuclear agency, the IAEA, of double standards regarding nuclear inspections, referring to Israel’s alleged nuclear weapons program.

“Atomic and nuclear bombs are in the hands of the Israeli regime, but the inspectors are requested to come to Iran,” he says.

Netanyahu says there will be ‘surprises’ in his UN speech

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a video announcement, September 23, 2026. (Screenshot)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will have “surprises” in his speech tomorrow at the United Nations General Assembly.

“I am leaving tonight for New York in order to defend, from the UN podium, Israel and IDF soldiers,” he says in a video released by his office.

“You hear the terrible lies that are being spread there,” he says.

“I will fight against the lies, I will fight for the truth, for our soldiers, for our country,” he promises. “There will also be surprises.”

Harvey Weinstein resentenced to 15 years in prison for 2006 sexual assault

Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court, May 15, 2026, in New York. (Steven Hirsch /New York Post via AP, Pool)

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was at the center of abuse allegations that spurred the Me Too movement in Hollywood, is resentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting a former production assistant.

In 2020, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years for assaulting Miriam Haley but his conviction was overturned on appeal in 2024. A jury found him guilty again in 2025 after a retrial in New York.

Iran’s Baghaei: US must end war ‘on all fronts,’ accept new Hormuz deal for talks to even begin

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei during a weekly press conference at the Foreign Ministry in the capital Tehran, on February 10, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei says Iran conveyed its conditions for renewing talks “in a manner that leaves no doubt or ambiguity and provides no excuses or pretexts for any party” during a meeting with top US officials yesterday, which he insists lasted only two hours, not three.

Writing on X, he says that the war must end “on all fronts,” a reference to the end of Israeli operations against Hezbollah or Hamas.

Baghaei repeats Iranian demands that the US blockade of Iranian ports, as well as economic sanctions, must end, and frozen Iranian assets must be released in order for talks to resume.

He also says that the US must agree to a “safe shipping route” through the Strait of Hormuz that is determined by Iran and Oman.

Amid spiking tensions, IDF moves to ‘enhance defensive and offensive capabilities’ in West Bank

IDF soldiers operate in the village of Tell, near the West Bank city of Nablus, July 25, 2026. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

In a rare step, the headquarters of the military’s 98th Division will take responsibility for some sections of the West Bank amid heightened security tensions in the area following several recent terror attacks.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered the 98th Division’s headquarters to take charge of the Judea and Etzion regional brigades, tasked with the southern portion of the West Bank, following a fresh assessment, the military says.

The West Bank has also seen near-daily incidents of settler violence and harassment recently.

The two regional brigades are normally under the responsibility of the Judea and Samaria Division. The move means that the headquarters of the 98th Division will take responsibility for the two brigades to alleviate pressure on the Judea and Samaria Division. The 98th Division is not deploying its organic units in the West Bank as part of the move.

“Activating the division headquarters in the area is part of strengthening command and control, in order to enhance defensive and offensive capabilities” in the West Bank, the army says, adding that it comes against the backdrop of recent terror attacks and an effort to “enhance security during this tense period.”

Argentina’s Milei tells UN it’s a ‘useless organization’ full of ‘arrogant parasites’

Argentina’s President Javier Milei speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, September 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Argentine President Javier Milei attacks the UN in a speech to the world body’s General Assembly, calling it a “useless organization” filled with “arrogant parasites.”

The firebrand Milei, one of US President Donald Trump’s closest Latin American allies and an outspoken supporter of Israel, has repeatedly used the UN platform to criticize global governance and its “woke” agenda.

He accuses the United Nations of having failed in its duty to guarantee collective security and human rights, saying it has instead allowed “chaos, violence and international terrorism” to flourish.

The UN, he says, “has become a useless organization, serving only to feed a caste of fatally arrogant parasites disguised as well-intentioned bureaucrats.”

He accuses the organization of “looking the other way” on Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory which Argentines refer to as Las Malvinas and claim as part of their land.

Argentina has accused Britain of flouting a UN resolution ordering both parties to desist from unilateral action in the islands, over which the two countries fought a war in 1982 that the UK won.

“Those who follow the rules receive no reward for doing so, while those who break them face no repercussions whatsoever,” Milei said.

Katz to Sharaa: Golan is eternal part of Israel, we won’t pull out of Syria buffer zone

Defense Minister Israel Katz attends a ceremony at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, May 31, 2026. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Responding to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s insistence that the Golan Heights are Syrian territory, Defense Minister Israel Katz says that the strategic plateau in the northeast is “an integral, eternal part of Israel,” and that the IDF will not withdraw from a buffer zone it has held in Syria since Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s ouster in 2024.

“We will not withdraw from Mount Hermon and the security zone, which were captured in heroic fighting during the 1973 defensive war and handed over to Syria under the 1974 disengagement agreement, under clear conditions that were violated, as Syria became an Iranian base and a threat to Israel and its borders,” says Katz in a statement, referring to the 1973 Yom Kippur War and diplomacy that followed.

Israel, he continues, “will remain on Mount Hermon and in the security zone as long as there is a jihadist threat to the border and Israeli communities, whether from your security forces or from other jihadist organizations and groups in Syria.”

If Israel is attacked from Syria, he warns, “any territory we take this time will remain ours forever, in accordance with the laws of war.”

“We will not allow Syria to become a threat to Israel, and we will act as necessary to prevent this,” Katz promises.

Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, but most of the international community considers it Syrian territory.

Police say they discovered tunnel storing firearms in West Bank’s Qalqilya; four arrested

The opening of a tunnel in the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, in a photo published by police on September 23, 2026. (Israel Police)

Police say they discovered a tunnel storing guns and ammunition in the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, which abuts the territory’s border with Israel.

Four suspects were arrested on the scene and taken for interrogation, police say.

The tunnel is about 25 meters (82 feet) deep and is still under construction, police say, adding that officers also discovered “the start of an excavation of another tunnel.”

The equipment in the tunnel included an M16 assault rifle, a sniper rifle and material to produce explosives, according to police.

Netanyahu: We’re ‘praying for a miracle’ for Amb. Leiter’s son, seriously hurt in West Bank attack

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he, his wife, and all of Israel “are praying for a miracle,” after Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter’s son Neria, a reservist soldier, was seriously injured in a car-ramming attack in the West Bank.

“Yechiel, my dear friend, we are all with you,” he writes on X.

Ambassador Leiter returning to Israel after son seriously hurt in ramming attack

Ambassador Yechiel Leiter is on his way back to Israel, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.

Leiter’s son Neria, a reservist soldier, was seriously injured in a ramming attack earlier today in the West Bank.

Indian sailor killed in attack on vessel in Strait of Hormuz — Indian, Omani authorities

The sun sets over commercial vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, with the city’s skyline in the background, September 6, 2026. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

An attack on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz killed an Indian sailor, Omani and Indian authorities say, with the latter condemning the ongoing attacks in the vital shipping lane.

Since the start of the Iran war, Tehran has sought to impose its control over the maritime conduit for Gulf oil and gas, occasionally striking ships accused of failing to coordinate with its authorities or deviating from its preferred route.

In retaliation, the United States has been enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports, carrying out strikes of its own on ships it says refuse to comply.

Oman’s Maritime Security Center says in a statement that the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged Cape Dao was attacked 2.5 nautical miles off the country’s coast, “causing a fire in the engine room and leading to the death of one crew member.”

Twenty-seven crew members were evacuated by the Omani navy, it adds.

In a statement, India’s foreign ministry condemns the attack on the Cape Dao, in which “one Indian national tragically lost his life,” urging the warring parties to return to negotiations.

“The targeting of commercial shipping, seafarers and civilian infrastructure in the region must end, and free and unimpeded navigation and commerce through the international waterways in the region must be restored at the earliest,” it adds.

India is one of the largest contributors of sailors to merchant shipping worldwide, and several of its mariners have been killed in Hormuz attacks since the war began.

Report: US dismissed Iran’s Hormuz offer during UN talks, saying Tehran doesn’t control strait

White House envoys Jared Kushner, left, and Steve Witkoff, listen as US Vice President JD Vance (not in picture) speaks during a news conference after meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Iran, in Islamabad, Pakistan, April 12, 2026. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

US negotiators dismissed Iran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz during indirect talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, telling Tehran that it does not control the waterway and questioning its standing to make such an offer, Channel 12 reports.

According to the network, Iran gave Washington one week to meet its publicly stated demands, which include “the immediate lifting of the [US] naval blockade, the prompt payment of all Iranian assets that have been frozen, and an end to the war on all resistance fronts,” according to state news agency IRIB.

Providing new details on how the talks unfolded, Channel 12 says US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner sat in one room while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sat in another. Qatari mediators shuttled between them.

The talks were the first round of negotiations between the two sides since mid-June. Israel, which launched the military campaign against Iran jointly with the US in late February but has largely refrained from strikes since April, is not represented at the talks.

Further indirect meetings could be held before the UN General Assembly concludes, but the mediators are awaiting US President Donald Trump’s decision on whether to continue the process or pursue another course, Channel 12 reports, citing a source familiar with the matter.

PM to push back on Western sanctions against settlements in UN address – report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to use his address to the UN General Assembly tomorrow to push back against mounting Western pressure over Israeli settlements and settler violence in the West Bank, Channel 12 reports.

The issue gained urgency earlier this month when 12 Western countries announced plans to impose or support restrictions on trade with Israeli settlements. Britain, France and Canada separately pledged to ban imports of settlement goods and target settlements and those who facilitate or profit from them.

According to Channel 12, Israeli officials believe Britain and France are leading an effort to persuade the Trump administration to adopt a tougher position on the issue.

Israel is reportedly concerned that measures initially targeting settlements and businesses operating beyond the Green Line could ultimately be extended to companies inside Israel’s pre-1967 territory, given the difficulty of separating their activities and supply chains.

Netanyahu is expected to defend Israel’s conduct in both Gaza and the West Bank, Channel 12 says. US diplomats cited by the network say concern over settler violence has already spread beyond Europe and is now regularly raised within the Trump administration.

Earlier today, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “We’ve communicated to everyone that the president really doesn’t think the world right now needs a West Bank crisis.”

Adalah NGO to appeal at Supreme Court against election ban on Arab parties, candidates

Balad leader MK Sami Abu Shehadeh votes on November 1, 2022 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Adalah, a legal rights NGO, says it will appeal before the Supreme Court against the Central Elections Committee’s decisions to disqualify all Arab-led parties and several candidates from running in the October 27 election, denouncing the proceedings as an “arbitrary, inciteful and racist process.”

The NGO represented the Joint List, Mansour Abbas’s historically Islamist Ra’am party, Balad chief Sami Abu Shehadeh and Hadash MK Ofer Cassif, all of whom were disqualified by the CEC earlier today. The Supreme Court is due to consider the decisions next week. Cassif is the Joint List’s sole Jewish member.

Adalah says the proceedings amounted to an “illegitimate political process aimed at persecuting ideas the majority does not accept,” arguing that the petitions failed to meet the high evidentiary threshold established by the Supreme Court for disqualification.

The group notes that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara had previously determined there was no legal basis to disqualify Ra’am, the Joint List or Cassif. The exception was Abu Shehadeh, whose disqualification she said the committee should “seriously consider” over an article he published following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, making the fate of his case before the Supreme Court less certain. In the article, he described the onslaught a day earlier as “an important historic event militarily, politically and strategically” and wrote that others could learn from Hamas’s success in surprising Israel.

The Joint List, which comprises the Arab-majority Hadash, Ta’al and Balad parties, separately denounces the CEC’s decision to disqualify all Arab parties and disenfranchise “more than one million voters, who make up 20% of the country’s citizens,” and expects the Supreme Court to overturn the decision. The Supreme Court is expected to overturn some of the decisions due to the high bar for banning parties from running.

“Netanyahu and Ben Gvir know that the only way for them to remain in power is by disqualifying Arab political representation and suppressing voter turnout in Arab society,” the bloc charges.

3 Israelis separately arrested, fined in Cyprus for suspected tobacco smuggling — customs office

FILE- This June 14, 2018, photo shows Marlboro packs and cartons cigarettes, a Philip Morris brand, on sale at JR outlet in Burlington, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)

Three Israelis were arrested in separate incidents in Cyprus on Monday after they were found to be carrying excessive amounts of unmarked tobacco products, says the Cypriot Customs Office, which warned last month of growing instances of Israelis smuggling tobacco products from the island’s Turkish-occupied north.

Two Israeli women were caught at the Paphos Airport carrying, respectively, 19 and 10 cartons, each of which holds 200 cigarettes, the customs office says, while the legal limit for passengers leaving Cyprus for a non-EU country is one such carton.

The women were released from custody after they paid fines of €1,140 and €600 (some $1,300 and $685), respectively, the office says.

Another Israeli man was arrested after a routine security check of a vehicle driving him at the Deryneia crossing, between the Island’s two halves, according to the customs office.

The man, who was en route to the Larnaca Airport, was carrying 7.4 kilograms (16.3 pounds) of hookah tobacco, the office says, while the legal limit one is allowed to take to a non-EU country is 250 grams (0.55 pounds), the customs office says.

He was released upon payment of a €2,600 (nearly $3,000) fine, the office adds.

The tobacco products caught at both the airport and the crossing were confiscated and set for destruction, according to the customs office.

In both cases, the tobacco products bore neither a serial code nor a mandatory Greek- and Turkish-language health warning, indicating taxes on the products were unpaid, the office says.

Last month, after another Israeli was caught carrying an illegal amount, the customs office said a network smuggling tobacco from Cyprus to Israel by boat appeared to have reverted to “ant smuggling” —where many smugglers each carry a small amount of contraband — following major busts of the boat scheme last year.

In June and July, Israelis accounted for a significant minority of those caught with illegal amounts of tobacco products at crossings between north and south Cyprus, according to the Cypriot Customs Office.

Chief Rabbi of Safed visits, praises illegal outpost in PA-run Area A of West Bank

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu visits an illegal settlement outpost in Area A of the West Bank, September 23, 2026. (Screenshot/Hilltop News WhatsApp channel)

Chief Rabbi of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu visits an illegal settlement outpost in Area A of the West Bank, which is run by the Palestinian Authority and where Israelis are prohibited by military order from entering.

The outpost in the northern West Bank, the precise site of which neither he nor the settler activists disclosed, appears to be located east of the Homesh settlement and north of Nablus. It was established last night.

Speaking in a video filmed at the outpost, Eliyahu, a prominent religious leader of the far right, praises settler activists who have established dozens of illegal outposts around the West Bank in the last four years, and denounced the 1990s-era Oslo Accords, which were seen as a stepping stone to the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.

“The Oslo Accords were against the covenant that the Holy One, blessed be He, made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and are destined to be abolished,” says Eliyahu in a video distributed by settler activists.

“Thank God, we have merited to see today that settlers are settling all over Areas C, B and A,” says the rabbi, referring, respectively, to areas under Israeli control, shared Israeli-PA control, or PA control. He also denounces the use of the terms, saying they are not part of Hebrew or Jewish culture.

The outpost is set up by Rabbi Elishama Cohen, who heads the yeshiva in Homesh, with activists stating the yeshiva’s activities have now been moved to the outpost.

“It is a great merit to help all the settlements in these territories today because this is the covenant of our forefathers,” says Eliyahu.

The IDF does not immediately respond to a request for comment as to whether the rabbi received a military permit to enter Area A, whether the outpost was known to the army, and if steps were being taken to remove it.

A spokesperson for Eliyahu also does not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some 240 illegal settlement outposts have been established in the West Bank over the last four years according to Peace Now, mostly in Area C where Israel has civilian and security control, but increasingly in Area B where there are around 30 such outposts but where the Palestinian Authority (PA) is supposed to have civilian control.

A small number of outposts have also reportedly been established in Area A as well, where the PA is supposed to have civilian and security control.

US drafted memo slamming UK’s settlement sanctions that was never released — report

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks alongside Paraguay’s Vice President Pedro Alliana (not pictured), in the Treaty Room at the US State Department, August 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tierney L. Cross)

In early September, US officials in Jerusalem and Washington prepared a draft statement attributed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemning plans by the UK, France and Canada to block imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The document was dated September 8 and previously unreported. Two sources say it was driven by David Milstein, an influential aide to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.

It proposed that Rubio describe the countries’ actions as a series of hostile measures against Israel that contribute to antisemitism.

“These tactics unacceptably draw from the playbook of the antisemitic boycotts, divestments and sanctions movement,” the draft document, reviewed by Reuters, said, referring to the anti-Israel BDS movement.

The statement was never released.

According to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, the statement was not supported by the White House and the State Department’s senior leadership.

Instead, speaking to reporters on September 8 in Florida before traveling to Latin America, Rubio refrained from outright criticism of the decision or any particular country.

“Obviously, we’re not going to do what the UK did. We saw their announcement today, but I don’t have any comment on it right now,” Rubio said.

Israel fumed over the sanctions, and in the days following the announcement, a request was made by Jerusalem for Washington to intervene on its behalf, according to an Israeli official, who said Jerusalem wanted to prevent the dozen Western countries from quickly implementing their sanctions plans.

The episode illustrates a widening divide between the White House and Trump’s senior diplomats in Israel about how best to respond to the expansion of Israeli West Bank settlements under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government.

US President Donald Trump earlier this year expressed his opposition to settlement expansion, but his administration has put little pressure on Israel to change its policy. That has at times put him at odds with Huckabee, who is a staunch supporter of settlements.

In response to questions from Reuters, a senior US official says the draft statement was not prepared in consultation with the State Department or White House. The US embassy refers questions, including requests for comment from Huckabee and Milstein, to the State Department.

The White House does not respond to a request for comment.

Zelensky, at UN, urges leaders to keep choking Russia’s revenues and impeding its war efforts

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, September 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urges the world’s leaders to keep choking Russia’s revenues and impede its war efforts, telling the UN General Assembly that “Russia’s revenues must remain a target.”

“When someone gives Russia more money through trade, they give this war more time. And that is exactly why we insist on limiting trade with the aggressor, and why we are burning Russia’s revenues ourselves,” he says in English, a language he often uses at the world body.

Russia gets its turn Saturday to address the assembly. President Vladimir Putin hasn’t traveled to the gathering in years, sending Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instead.

Lavrov told the UN Security Council earlier today that Russia is prepared to negotiate toward a lasting peace but won’t just “pause” the war. He argued that such a pause would just buy Ukraine and its backers time to line up more weapons.

Zelensky casts doubt on Russia’s interest in ending the fighting.

“Something always seems to stop Putin from saying, ‘That’s it. Enough. Peace,’” Zelensky says. “Can you even imagine him without war? He is ‘Patient Zero,’ the one from whom war keeps spreading further. … ‘Patient Zero’ must be stopped.”

At UN, OpenAI’s Altman calls ‘for extreme care’ in AI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman participates in a discussion during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit, San Francisco, November 16, 2023. (Eric Risberg/AP)

The current moment in AI development “calls for extreme care,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tells the UN Security Council, noting that the technology’s advancement could accelerate rapidly.

“The industry must not accept too much technological risk just because the benefits are too great and important to slow down,” Altman tells the United Nations’ top body.

Gal Gadot to distribute $3 million to Israeli mental health orgs as part of Genesis Prize honors

Gal Gadot attends the Los Angeles premiere of Amazon MGM Studios’ “The Runner” at Harmony Gold on August 27, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images/AFP)

Gal Gadot, the Israeli actress named as the laureate of the 2026 Genesis Prize, will distribute $3 million to some two dozen Israeli organizations focusing on mental health and trauma care.

The prize, known as the “Jewish Nobel,” comes with a $1 million award that laureates have traditionally dedicated to a philanthropic cause. Through a matching program with the Jewish Funders Network group of philanthropists, that sum has been expanded to $3 million.

The groups receiving grants include the United Hatzalah emergency service and Make-a-Wish Israel, according to reports.

“After three years of war, loss, and extraordinary hardship, I believe recovery starts from within,” Gadot, best known for playing Wonder Woman on screen, says in a statement posted to Instagram.

Netanyahu visits family of Neria Leiter, injured in West Bank attack, in Jerusalem hospital

Before taking off to address the UN General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the family of Neria Leiter at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where he is being treated, Netanyahu’s office says.

Leiter, an IDF reservist who is the son of Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, was seriously injured in a car-ramming attack in the West Bank earlier today.