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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Tuesday, August 18, 2026

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The near-final Likud slate for the 2026 election, with silhouettes showing slots reserved for Benjamin Netanyahu's yet-to-be-named personal choices. Top left to bottom right: 1. Benjamin Netanyahu 2. Eli Cohen 3. Reserved 4. Israel Katz 5. Gideon Sa'ar 6. Amir Ohana 7. Yariv Levin 8. Miri Regev 9. Reserved 10. Ofir Katz 11. Oren Dobronsky 12. Yoav Kisch 13. Miki Zohar 14. Almog Cohen 15. Reserved 16. Amichai Chikli 17. David Amsalem 18. Haim Katz 19. Moshe Saada 20. Tally Gotliv 21. Shlomo Karhi 22. David Bitan 23. Boaz Bismuth 24. Nir Barkat 25. Gila Gamliel. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, Yonatan Sindel/Flash90, Ivan Burchak/iStock by Getty Images, Chaim Goldberg/Flash90, Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90, Yehoshua Yosef/Flash90, Courtesy Likud party, Miriam Alster/Flash90, Yossi Aloni/FLASH90, Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Cohen, Ohana, Levin and Regev top Likud party primary; Netanyahu ‘very satisfied’ with results

By ToI Staff and Sam Sokol

Energy minister will get No. 2 slot on party’s Knesset slate behind Netanyahu; ministers Elkin, Golan, Silman and Dichter will likely be out of jobs come October; Eisenkot denounces ‘the October 7 list’ of those who ‘blindly led Israel to its worst disaster’

Inside storyHaredi turnout high in Likud primary, amid fears they won’t vote for party in general election

Humanitarian aid trucks enter on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip in northeastern Egypt on February 4, 2026. (STR / AFP)

Live updates (closed)

Aug. 18: Uganda and Burundi reps visit Rafah amid talks to join Gaza stabilization force, official tells ToI

Israel confirms it struck Syrian air base, claiming Turkey was planning to deploy forces * Huckabee defends calling Qusra siege perpetrators ‘Israeli terrorists,’ says settler violence harms Israel, Jews, denies Kushner-Netanyahu tensions

8:51 pm

Syrian Petroleum Company says explosion occurred at gas export pipeline in the northeast
8:50 pm

UAE says all trade, commercial exchanges, financial transactions with Iran halted until further notice
8:45 pm

IDF chief on recovery of Yehuda Katz's remains: 'The Battle of Sultan Yacoub has come to an end'

A Syrian army checkpoint stands abandoned near the Abu al-Duhur military airport, east of Idlib, after Syrian opposition fighters took control of the area on December 7, 2024. (AP/Omar Albam)

Official says Israel shared intel with US ahead of strike

Syria says Israel struck military airport; US envoy pans Israel’s ‘unnecessary escalation’

By Emanuel Fabian, Nava Freiberg and Agencies

Damascus condemns ‘unjustified act of aggression,’ reports material damage but no casualties at base near Turkish border; US’s Barrack says Israel’s actions undermining regional stability

Promoted Content

Considering moving to Israel?

From generous living spaces to panoramic views, these 2–5 bedroom residences bring together contemporary design, comfort, and the character of Jerusalem.

A demonstrator draped in an Iranian flag waves the flag of Iran's Lebanese proxy Hezbollah in front of a billboard that depicts US aircraft falling into Iranian forces' fishing nets, alongside the Persian caption, 'The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed; the entire Persian Gulf is our hunting ground,' during a pro-government rally at the Islamic Revolution Square in Tehran, Iran, on May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Vessel struck in Hormuz; Iran vows to keep waterway shut until US complies with June deal

Crew casualty reported in attack on ship; data shows Hormuz crossings rose slightly from weekend, but remain in single digits

Iraq probing drone strike on Kurdistan PM’s office, as Iran warns of ‘false-flag ploys’

By Christy-Belle Geha

Saudi Aramco resumes commercial oil shipments from Strait of Hormuz

By Florence Tan and Siyi Liu

Battered by war, Iran’s rulers wary of renewed unrest if US tightens pressure

Poll finds maverick ex-general could shift electoral map

Liberman rules out participation in minority government floated by Eisenkot

Hawkish opposition MK says his party ‘won’t be there’ if the Yashar chair cobbles together a coalition with fewer than 61 seats that relies on external support

Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman tours a US- and Israeli-run facility located near the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel, which is expected to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza. (Tsafrir Abayov/ Flash90)

Exclusive

Amid Israeli pushback, source reveals Board of Peace weighing new disarmament framework

Official involved in talks tells ToI that US-controlled panel may abandon phased approach to Hamas weapons handover — already approved by Hamas but rejected by PM — in favor of wholesale plan

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Gaza Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov in Jerusalem on May 13, 2026 Foreign policy aide Caroline Glick is seated second from the left. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)

Left to right: White House adviser Jared Kushner, Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP, Chaim Goldberg/ FLASH90)

Meeting with Kushner, PM doubles down on IDF remaining in Gaza until Hamas disarmed

By Nava Freiberg, Agencies and Jacob Magid

US bureau chief Jacob Magid joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today's Daily Briefing podcast. (ToI/AP)

ToI podcastDaily Briefing Aug. 18 – US holds direct talks with Hamas. Why it’s the new normal

By Amanda Borschel-Dan and Jacob Magid

From the blogs

How to keep US-Israeli relations from going off the cliff

A generational shift is threatening decades of bipartisan support for Israel. The next government must change course before the damage becomes irreversible

Palestinian-American Louai Abu Ridi, whose home in the West Bank village of in Qusra has been encircled by extremist settlers for more than a week, hangs a US flag with his neighbor, after gaining access to his besieged home, August 17, 2026. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

Palestinian-American raises US flag upon return to Qusra home besieged by settlers

By Agencies and Nurit Yohanan

Louai Abu Ridi, who owns West Bank house that settlers started surrounding over a week ago, urges US embassy to provide him with protection

Footage of a fire reportedly sparked by settlers on the outskirts of the central West Bank Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya on August 17, 2026. (Screen capture/X)

Settlers reported to torch West Bank fields and attack Palestinians overnight

By Nurit Yohanan and ToI Staff

IDF admits to again marking detained Palestinians with numbers during raid, expresses remorse

By Nurit Yohanan, Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff

MK Ahmad Tibi says practice evokes ‘dark times’ after man with ’44’ on his forehead tells media outlets that he was interrogated by Israeli troops

A Palestinian marked by IDF soldiers during a raid of the northern West Bank village of Qabatiya on August 17, 2026. (Screen capture/X)

Steven C. Wernick

A rabbi and a shofar walk into a church…

After October 7, an unlikely friendship across a theological divide became a living lesson in what it means to show up for one another

I’m a teacher and a parent. When is a strike one too many?

Caught between students’ need for stability and teachers’ need for safety and fair working conditions, I wonder if another labor dispute will solve the problems in our schools

Eyal Greenwald, marketing manager of Kfar Blum Kayaks, stands in front of a sign that reads, 'We also missed the Galilee!' on Kibbutz Kfar Blum, in the Upper Galilee, on August 11, 2026. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)

Reporter's notebook'How can I build shelters along the Jordan?'

‘There’s plenty of water in the river’: Israelis trickle north amid tourism drought

By Diana Bletter

With IDF still in Lebanon, foreign tourists absent, and possibility of resumed war looming, business is down in Upper Galilee even as locals rally

Large billboards near the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv showing support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Trump declare: "Pundits talk, leaders lead," April 13, 2026. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Trump says he should stay out of Israeli election, but ‘may endorse’ someone

US president’s remarks follow a report claiming he is reluctant to endorse Netanyahu in part due to his poor showing in opinion polls and partially due to wartime disagreements

President Donald Trump waves to the media as he walks from Marine One to his limousine upon his arrival at the Ellipse just outside of the White House, August 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Trump’s approval rating sinks to presidency low of 33% as Iran war drags on

IDF Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF finds possible belongings of soldier missing since 1982 Syria battle

By Emanuel Fabian

Findings from Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz, located in special operation, are being inspected by his family

Child, 7, stabbed to death, 4-year-old wounded in Beit Shemesh; neighbor arrested

By ToI Staff and Noam Lehmann

Hillel Mordechai Dadon and his cousin were reportedly celebrating birthday, in care of teen relative; police rule out terrorism, arrest 25-year-old suspect

Police and emergency forces at the scene where two children were stabbed in the city of Beit Shemesh, August 17, 2026. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Alleged Islamic State backer charged with planning car-bomb attack at Beersheba club

By Noam Lehmann

Abdullah Gergawi, 20, allegedly procured machine guns and assault rifles and was in contact with purported Palestinian terror operative in preparation to blow up Forum nightspot

Abdullah Gergawi (L), who was indicted for planning to car-bomb a Beersheba nightclub, and a gun seized by police, in images published on August 18, 2026. (Israel Police)

Second cousins Adriana Turk and Raanan Gidron meet for the first time in Ben Gurion Airport, August 15, 2026. (MyHeritage)

'I just knew my father's whole family was murdered'

She thought the Holocaust erased her family. Then a DNA test found 50 relatives

Adriana Turk believed she was the last surviving member of her bloodline. Now, at 74, she is meeting cousins around the world, including in Israel

Illustrative: Lab staff prepare small petri dishes, each holding several 1- to 7-day-old embryos, for cells to be extracted from each embryo to test for viability at the Aspire Houston Fertility Institute's in-vitro fertilization (IVF) laboratory, in Houston, Texas, February 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Woman apparently impregnated from wrong donor’s sperm in latest Assuta foul-up

Single mother shocked when DNA test she performed abroad found newborn and his older brother don’t have same biological father, lawyers say

A Bengalese finch father (right) teaches his son how to sing. (Kazuo Okanoya)

Same rules, no words

Finches use the same rulebook as human babies to pick up language, study finds

International team that includes Israeli cognitive scientist adds Bengalese finches to humpback whales in search for animals that learn using same mathematical principles as we do

More Headlines

View of the northern town of Metula, on the border with Lebanon, June 22, 2026. (Chen Leopold/FLASH90)

Six foreign workers hurt in explosion of old munition in Metula

By ToI Staff and Diana Bletter

A homeless man sits on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, July 28, 2026. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

State covers just 13% of registered food aid charities’ budgets, study finds

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, greets a man tending to a grill as she visits a National Night Out community event while campaigning for Florida’s 20th congressional district, in Plantation, Florida, August 4, 2026.

In Florida, Rep. Wasserman Schultz sparks debate over representation in diverse areas

A bailiff puts handcuffs on Russian opposition politician Lev Shlosberg, sentenced to 11 years in prison over his criticism of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine at a city court in Pskov, northwestern Russia on August 17, 2026. (Olga MALTSEVA/AFP)

Russian court sentences anti-war politician Lev Shlosberg to 11 years in prison

By AFP

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