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Court rejects petition to halt bidding for key West Bank settlement project east of Jerusalem
The Jerusalem District Court has rejected an attempt from rights groups to freeze tenders for development in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, where construction would break the territorial contiguity of any future Palestinian state.
The court says in a ruling it has dismissed the motion, which aimed to stall the publication of tenders for the construction of seven residential compounds housing 1,234 housing units in E1.
Petitions against the plan are still under review, but the court rules that the tenders can move forward as planned in the meantime.
IDF says Air Force hit terror operative in Gaza City, Hamas infrastructure in Strip’s south
The Israeli Air Force targeted a terror operative in Gaza City and struck Hamas infrastructure sites in the Strip’s south a short while ago, according to the military.
Palestinian media reports that the strike in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood wounded several people.
The strikes in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis also wounded several Palestinians, according to the reports.
The IDF says it will provide further details on the strikes later.
متابعة| استهداف من الطيران الحربي على منزل يعود لعائلة فروانة في بطن السمين جنوب خانيونس. pic.twitter.com/AwGjcCz0M7
— فلسطين بوست (@PalpostN) September 8, 2026
Gantz recruits reservist and former Lapid adviser to depleted Blue and White slate
Blue and White party Knesset candidate Roy Kunkol (Elad Malka)
Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz announces that reservist Roy Kunkol is joining his party’s slate for the upcoming election, as Gantz seeks to rebuild a roster depleted by a string of recent departures.
Kunkol previously served as a spokesman and adviser to Yair Lapid, including during his tenures as opposition leader and prime minister. Earlier this year, he joined former minister Yoaz Hendel’s Reservists party, but quit in July following its merger with former Blue and White MK Chili Tropper (Tropper has since jumped ship to join Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar).
“I am joining Blue and White under Benny Gantz not because it is the easy choice, but because it is the right choice,” Kunkol says, arguing that Israel needs “a broad Zionist government” to confront the challenges facing the country.
His recruitment comes a day after former Beit Shemesh mayor Aliza Bloch joined Blue and White as well. Bloch had only last month joined the Unity party founded by Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein, which abandoned its election bid last week amid poor polling.
Gantz has been scrambling to rebuild Blue and White ahead of the election after several prominent figures left the party, including Tropper. Of its incumbent lawmakers, Pnina Tamano-Shata is expected to remain, while Alon Schuster has yet to publicly decide whether he will run with the party again.
Blue and White has struggled in most polls to clear the electoral threshold.
UK publishes legislation for tougher sanctions on Iran
Britain publishes legislation to introduce tougher sanctions on Iran, expanding trade restrictions and powers to target ships as part of what it describes as a wider effort to curb Tehran’s nuclear program and other hostile activities.
The government says the measures will restrict Iran’s access to the British financial system, expand trade bans to additional goods, technology and services, and prohibit Iranian aircraft from landing in Britain unless exemptions apply.
Qatar says working with China and others to resume US-Iran talks
Qatar is working with partners in the region and around the world, including China, to resume talks between the United States and Iran, a Qatar foreign ministry spokesperson says.
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani is currently leading a delegation in Beijing.
Reports claim pro-Netanyahu media personality Jacob Bardugo will get reserved spot in Likud
Jacob Bardugo at the Knesset in Jerusalem on May 20, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
There are currently reports that one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s final reserved slots in Likud will go to Jacob Bardugo, a pro-Netanyahu pundit and a close associate of the prime minister.
Likud has yet to confirm that Bardugo will be on the party slate. Channel 12 reports that the announcement is apparently being held up because Bardugo is demanding to be justice minister if Netanyahu forms the next government.
Bardugo was recently in the news after meeting with Shin Bet Chief David Zini to push for an investigation of Channel 12 over an alleged leak to the outlet regarding the date on which the war with Iran would begin earlier this year.
Bardugo has previously wondered at the fact that Channel 12 presenter Yonit Levy and commentators were already “in full makeup” minutes after the opening strikes were carried out on the morning of Saturday, February 28.
Allies of Netanyahu have long attacked the mainstream media and sought to delegitimize it due to its criticism of the premier.
Shas unveils election slate, with Deri retaining top spot and 2 newcomers, including a reservist IDF officer
Shas chairman Aryeh Deri attends a vote in the Knesset in Jerusalem on July 16, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Shas unveils its slate of candidates for the upcoming election, Hebrew media reports, with party chairman Aryeh Deri retaining the top spot and two new candidates joining the list.
The party has until 10 p.m. tonight to formally submit its slate to the Central Elections Committee.
MK Yinon Azoulay moves up from seventh place in the previous Knesset to second, followed by former religious services minister Michael Malkieli, MK Yoav Ben-Tzur and MK Haim Biton.
Maj. (res.) Dror Amos, chairman of the Haifa Religious Council and one of the slate’s two newcomers, takes the sixth spot, followed by MK Moshe Abutbul, former health minister Uriel Buso, MK Yosef Taieb and MK Yonatan Mishraki. Amos’s candidacy reflects Shas’s recent efforts to show openness to IDF service, having campaigned relentlessly in the past four years for a law that would enshrine the ongoing mass exemption from IDF service of young ultra-Orthodox men,
The other newcomer, Yosef Elnatanov, a representative of Israel’s Bukharan Jewish community, is placed 11th, followed by MK Erez Malul and former MK Simon Moshiashvili.
Deri had sought to remove Ben-Tzur from the slate, according to Haaretz, but was overruled by Shas’s Council of Torah Sages, led by former chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.
“This is a blow to Deri,” a source familiar with the matter tells the news outlet, saying Deri had been convinced he could secure Ben-Tzur’s ousting but that members of the rabbinical council insisted he remain.
Last month, Deri and Yosef held a reconciliation meeting after it was reported that the rabbi had instructed his students not to vote for Shas and called for the downfall of the right-wing bloc. The two subsequently reached an agreement giving Yosef greater influence over decision-making in the party alongside Deri.
According to recent polling, Shas is projected to win eight seats in next month’s elections.
Hungary expels 10 Russian diplomats for ‘unacceptable activities’ — minister
Hungary has expelled 10 members of the Russian diplomatic mission after they “engaged in activities in Hungary that are unacceptable for diplomats under the Vienna Convention,” Foreign Minister Anita Orban says.
The new government under pro-EU conservative Prime Minister Peter Magyar made the move to protect Hungary’s “security and sovereignty,” Orban says in a Facebook post, adding that it “does not imply breaking off diplomatic relations with Russia.”
Herzog: UK settlement trade ban would be ‘gross interference’ in Israel’s election, harm Palestinians
President Isaac Herzog at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, September 8, 2026 (Kobi Gideon / GPO)
President Isaac Herzog issues an unusually sharp warning to the United Kingdom against imposing its planned trade ban on West Bank settlements, arguing that the measure would interfere in Israel’s upcoming election, harm Palestinian workers, and undermine the security interests of Western nations.
“If this happens — and other nations may join — I believe it will prove to be a grave miscalculation, a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history,” Herzog says during a ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, according to a readout from his office.
“In the current context, it would be a gross interference in the democratic elections of a sovereign nation. And it will serve no one. It will directly harm, unfortunately, Palestinians, robbing them of business and employment. And, ultimately, it will undermine the interests and national security of freedom-loving nations,” the president continues.
Herzog does not elaborate on what he means by “gross interference,” but appears to suggest that the timing of such a punitive measure would politically influence domestic debates and voters’ choices.
“Sanctions are not a solution. Dialogue is. I say to all foreign governments: Stop! Step away from the dead-end of sanctions and boycotts. And turn toward constructive dialogue and toward cooperation,” he says.
Key Update
Arkia announces direct flights to Philippines starting January
An Arkia flight at Ben Gurion International Airport, February 25, 2026. (Yossi Aloni/FLASH90)
Arkia will launch nonstop flights to the Philippines in January and is set to become the first Israel carrier to operate a direct route to the capital Manila.
The new route to Manila’s main international airport will commence on January 3, 2027, with one weekly direct flight departing on Sundays. The route will be operated using a wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft. One-way ticket prices will start at $750 for economy class seats and $1,800 for business class seats.
El Al has expressed its intention to launch direct flights to Manila, but no firm start date has been announced.
“Following New York, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan, we continue to open new destinations for the Israeli public and expand the range of direct flight options from Israel,” Arkia CEO Oz Berlowitz says at a press conference in Tel Aviv.
“The Philippines is a fascinating destination with significant tourism potential, alongside business, economic and diplomatic potential for deepening ties between Israel and the Philippines,” says Berlowitz.
Also speaking at the conference, Philippine Ambassador to Israel Aileen Mendiola says the direct route will help unlock economic and bilateral trade opportunities between the two countries.
“One of my goals as an ambassador, aside from the direct flight, is that I want to start discussion on a free trade agreement between Israel and the Philippines,” Mendiola says. “This flight will make that happen, because we want cargo to be full with products from both sides.”
Earlier this year, Israel and the Philippines discussed deeper bilateral trade and technology cooperation under the Pax Silica Initiative, with a focus on critical minerals, semiconductors, and innovation.
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