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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the drone attack on the office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party leader, posting on X/Twitter on Monday that “Kurdish friends” should be aware of “false-flag ploys” aimed at “sowing discord between neighbors.”

Two drones targeted the office of Masrour Barzani, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s prime minister, and the home of the region’s intelligence chief in northern Iraq on Monday, the KRG security agency announced.

The attack was launched from Iranian territory, it said in a statement

“Nothing justifies the reckless attack on PM Barzani’s office. Kurdish friends should be vigilant against false-flag ploys to sow discord between neighbors,” Araghchi wrote. “We protected our Kurdish friends against Saddam and DAESH, and we’re thankful for security they’ve provided on our border.”

Nothing justifies the reckless attack on PM Barzani’s office. Kurdish friends should be vigilant against false-flag ploys to sow discord between neighbors.

We protected our Kurdish friends against Saddam and DAESH, and we’re thankful for security they’ve provided on our border.

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) August 17, 2026

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ismaeil Baqaei doubled down on Araghchi’s statements in comments to Iranian state media on Monday, describing the attack as “highly suspicious.”

“This development is highly suspicious and requires all sides to exercise vigilance,” he told IRNA, adding that he had information indicating that Iraqi intelligence was holding groups responsible for planning and carrying out the “sinister plots.”

Security analyst accuses Iran’s response of being incomplete

Security analyst Roger Macmillan said that the response by the Iranian officials was lacking.

“The Kurdistan Counter-Terrorism Service didn’t just say ‘Iran did this.’ They named the munition type, two Hadid-110 drones, and stated a launch origin inside Iranian territory,” he explained.

“That’s a forensic claim, not a political one. A false-flag narrative needs to explain how a third party sourced and launched an Iranian-designated drone type from inside Iran’s own territory. Araghchi’s statement doesn’t engage with that detail at all; it simply asserts the incident is ‘suspicious’ and pivots to blaming unnamed others.”

The attack came after a report from Axios published on Sunday claimed that the Trump administration used Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani as a backchannel to speak with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Commander Ahmad Vahidi. The report was later confirmed by a spokesperson to Iran International.

Macmillan said that the fact that the strike came within days of the confirmation indicated that the motive behind the attack was to punish KRG and warn its leadership against making further admissions going forward.

IRGC attacks Kurdish territories, ‘Post’ confirms

Erbil has seen frequent attacks from Iran since the outbreak of the war. A Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) report seen by The Jerusalem Post claimed that between February 28 and August 1, the IRGC and affiliated groups were responsible for 423 attacks on five Kurdish organizations in the territory, resulting in 20 casualties. The Post has also previously spoken with Ardalan Mama, whose home was destroyed by an Iranian missile.

Since the outbreak of the war, Araghchi has frequently commented on the risk of alleged false-flag attacks. In March, he warned his Turkish counterpart of repeated false-flag operations aimed at undermining regional ties a day after NATO intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Iran over Turkey, and only weeks ago he described a drone strike on Egypt’s Damietta Port as an Israeli false-flag operation.

تُعدُّ مصر صديقًا وشريكًا مهمًا في المنطقة، ويُشكّل أمنُها أهميةً قصوى بالنسبة لنا.
يجب علينا جميعًا أن نكون يقظين تجاه المخططات الإسرائيلية وعمليات “العَلَم الزائف” التي تهدف إلى تقويض السلام الإقليمي.
إن التهديد واضح، ومشترك، ويخشَى تضامن المسلمين.

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) July 30, 2026

“Egypt is considered a friend and important partner in the region, and its security constitutes an utmost priority for us. We must all remain vigilant toward Israeli schemes and “false flag” operations that aim to undermine regional peace,” he wrote. “The threat is clear, shared, and fears Muslim solidarity.”

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Anti-Israel protesters demonstrated outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Monday, including by pouring red liquid on the ground and setting up fake graves covered in Palestinian flags, footage from the Combat Antisemitism Movement showed.

Among the signs held by the protesters were ones reading “No place for Israel in a good world” and “Israelis are baby killers.”

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A post shared by Combat Antisemitism Movement (@combatantisemitism)

This is a developing story.

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A 75-year-old suspect was arrested for allegedly vandalizing the Basimta cafe in Jerusalem, following weeks of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protests against it for being open on Shabbat, Israel Police announced on Tuesday.

According to the police, the suspect is thought to have vandalized the cafe with graffiti, thrown garbage at it, and damaged the cafe’s lock.

The suspect had restrictive conditions on her extension by the court, which also barred her from approaching or entering Basimta.

Haredim protest cafe for being open on Shabbat

The cafe has seen protests against it being open on Shabbat every weekend for seven consecutive weeks, alongside counterprotests in support of the business owners.

On July 4, the first Saturday it drew protesters, dozens of haredi demonstrators, many of them reportedly minors, descended on the cafe in four separate waves, surrounding it, banging on its windows and overturning tables, according to cafe staff and footage circulated online.

Last month, it was revealed that the cafe is an official project of Jews for Jesus, a flagship organization of the diffuse movement of Messianic Judaism, which believes in the divinity of Jesus while claiming to practice Judaism, an overlap that no denomination across the Jewish world accepts as compatible.

Theia Chatelle contributed to this report.

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Pressure is growing among senior Likud officials on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to use the “swap” provision approved before the primaries to move Minister Avi Dichter into a realistic position on the party slate.

This message is now being conveyed to Netanyahu primarily because of Dichter’s status as a former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief and concerns that Likud could enter the election without a senior security figure in a realistic position.

Dichter was pushed outside the realistic range in the primaries, and the result has raised concern among senior Likud officials. Following the retirement of Yoav Gallant, Dichter is considered the most prominent security figure among the party’s senior members, and Likud officials believe his presence on the slate has electoral importance in an election campaign in which security issues are expected to play a central role.

The possibility of returning Dichter to a realistic position is already anchored in Likud’s election rules. Before the primaries, the party’s Constitution Committee approved a mechanism allowing Netanyahu to move a candidate who competed in the primaries into a position designated for one of the party chairman’s reserved slots, while moving the reserved candidate to a lower position. The mechanism became known as the “swap.”

The provision that could now help Dichter was at the center of a fierce dispute before the primaries. Petitions were filed against it with the Likud court, including claims that it was intended to allow certain candidates to be promoted. Haim Katz was mentioned at the time as one of those who could potentially benefit.

The court rejected the petitions and approved the provision, reasoning that the promotion would come at the expense of a position reserved for the party chairman and therefore would not push back another candidate elected by party members.

Likud court president supports preference for primary candidates over reserved

Likud court president Michael Kleiner expressed support in principle for giving preference to a candidate who competed in the primaries over a reserved candidate. Kleiner said he supported “any step that advances a person who competed and was elected over a person who was given a reserved spot.”

At this stage, pressure among senior officials is focused on Dichter. Other names could come up later, but no similar consensus exists around another candidate. The decision now rests with Netanyahu.

Using the provision for Dichter would mean using one of Netanyahu’s reserved slots to promote a minister who competed in the primaries, rather than bringing in a new candidate from outside the party. The provision, which sparked a battle even before the vote, could now be used for the first time following the results, returning Dichter to a realistic position on the Likud slate.

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The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States meets the conditions of the interim deal with Iran, including lifting the marine blockade and sanctions, as well as freeing Iran’s frozen assets, Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in comments published by state media on Tuesday.

Ghalibaf claimed that the US only agreed to the original Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) “out of desperation,” alleging that the US reneged on the commitments outlined in the MoU to compensate for what he alleged was “heavy political defeat.”

This is a developing story.

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The State Attorney’s Office filed an indictment with the Beersheba District Court on Tuesday against Abdullah Gergawi, 20, from the Bedouin town of Shaqib al-Salam, Israel Police announced on Tuesday morning.

Gergawi was arrested on July 19 on suspicion of having contact with a foreign agent, possessing weapons, and planning to carry out a terror attack near the Forum Club in Beersheba.

Police said that Gergawi had intended to use a booby-trapped vehicle to target the nightclub. 

It added that the investigation revealed that Gergawi had been in contact with ISIS activists and consumed related terror content, as well as planning to join the organization in Syria.

This is a developing story.

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Energy Minister Eli Cohen won the first slot in the Likud’s Knesset slate, it was confirmed on Tuesday morning, following counting of the votes in the ruling party’s primaries held across the country on Monday.

The voter turnout reached 53.5%, with 76,068 party members voting in the primaries, up about ten percentage points from the primaries held four years ago, taking into account the difference in voting hours, the Likud stated.

The primaries came amid fierce internal tensions over changes that have expanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s control over the party’s Knesset slate, which have made the primaries more competitive than in past years. The prime minister was granted the authority to determine eight slots within the first 30 spots on the party list last month following a vote on the controversial decision by the Likud Central Committee.

Cohen was followed at the top of the Likud slate by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, alongside Transportation Minister Miri Regev and coalition chairman Ofir Katz to round out the top five.

The rest of the top 10 consists of Education Minister Yoav Kisch, Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar, Deputy Minister Almog Cohen, Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, and MK Dudi Amsalem.

MKs Moshe Saada and Tally Gotliv, the latter of which was reportedly targeted for “political elimination” by the prime minister, received realistic slots ahead of the upcoming election.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and MKs Boaz Bismuth, Nir Barkat, and David Bitan were all hovering around the cutoff for realistic Knesset slots.

Women’s Advancement Minister May Golan, Innovation, Science, and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel, Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, and MKs Hanoch Milwidsky, Keti Shitrit, Ariel Kallner, Avi Dichter, and Nissim Vaturi have not reached realistic positions and are expected to remain outside the Knesset.

After the completion of the vote count, Netanyahu hailed Likud’s new list as one of “renewal and integration,” adding that he was very pleased with the results.

“The new Likud list reflects renewal and the integration of new figures at the top of the list,” the Likud stated. “Together with the reserved slots to be filled, which will further strengthen the list, the Likud team led by Netanyahu will lead the party to a major victory and the establishment of a broad national government immediately after the election.

“This is the only way to prevent a left-wing government made up of Eisenkot, Yair Golan, Liberman, and the Arab parties,” the Knesset’s ruling party added.

Because of the slots reserved by Netanyahu, candidates ranked as high as 17th initially could be pushed as low as 25th on the final adjusted slate. The district slots also affect the picture: the candidate ranked 18th in the raw results will be placed 32nd on the adjusted slate.

Likud had announced last week that one of Netanyahu’s first reserved slots would go to entrepreneur and businessman Oren Dobronsky. Additional reserved slots were later granted by Netanyahu to three ministers: Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and Likud Central Committee Chairman Haim Katz, who also holds multiple ministerial portfolios.

Accusations of fraud at Likud polling station in Yeruham

Overnight, Minister Golan and MK Amit Halevi filed complaints with the Likud Central Election Committee, demanding an immediate halt to the vote count at the Yeruham polling station, alleging repeated incidents of erasures, alterations, and vote markings were taking place during the count in ways that did not correspond with the names of the candidates being read aloud.

In some cases, the records were corrected only after the observer at the site intervened and demanded the amendments.

Golan and Halevi demanded that the count be stopped immediately and that a reinforced team of lawyers and Election Committee representatives be sent to the polling station.

Additionally, following a report by Amit Segal that Netanyahu had received polls showing that Likud would lose seats if Gotliv were elected near the top of the slate, and Netanyahu’s statement that he trusted Likud members to make the right considerations, Gotliv claimed on Tuesday morning on her X account that some polling stations had forged forms that did not include her name.

“Stay alert. Likud functionaries and vote contractors are hysterical over the power of the free votes,” she wrote.

The Likud primaries were held throughout Monday, with polling stations opening at 10 a.m. and closing at 9 p.m. with a total of 107 designated polling sites set up across the country.

Likud has for years prided itself on conducting primaries in which its registered members are eligible to vote for the Knesset list. Parties are not required to hold primaries in Israel, and only a few do so.

The party currently has around 40 ministers and MKs serving in the government and Knesset, but recent polls project the party winning only around 22 seats, intensifying competition for realistic spots on the party’s Knesset slate.

Shir Perets and Avi Solomon contributed to this report.

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The Religious Zionist Party (RZP), founded in 2021 as a successor to National Union-Tkuma, is one of the many parties vying for citizens’ votes in the election for the 26th Knesset, to be held on October 27. 

Led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, RZP is considered a far-right, religious-nationalist party with a platform focused on Jewish identity, settlement expansion, and Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank.

In the 2022 election, a joint list with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit won 14 seats, seven of which were held by RZP in the 25th Knesset.

However, Smotrich has said he intends for RZP to run independently in the upcoming October election. The finance minister recently told The Jerusalem Post that he believed his party could succeed running alone and did not consider Ben-Gvir a partner for a joint run.

While Smotrich will not run alongside Ben-Gvir, he has also ruled out relying on Arab parties to form a government, previously stating that forming a government with the Arab party Ra’am would be worse than the October 7 Hamas massacre.

The finance minister has faced criticism over state budgets approved during the government’s term that allocated significant amounts of funding to the haredi sector. He has also pushed for a sweeping reform over the country’s dairy sector, calling for lowering milk and cheese prices by addressing monopolies that dominate the market. 

The reform was not passed during the government’s term due to opposition from within the coalition. Smotrich has called for continued efforts to advance the reform and address the high cost of living by increasing competition in the market.

Where Religious Zionist Party stands on the major issues

Smotrich has framed the party’s central mission around security, Jewish identity, West Bank sovereignty, and judicial reform.

At the RZP’s July 2026 election list launch, Smotrich told The Jerusalem Post that the party, “strengthens the identity of the Jewish people,” and said the party would work on security and “fixes to the judicial system.” 

In a separate interview with the Post, he said RZP was “committed to Israel’s security” and would seek to “put an end to the disastrous idea of dividing the land, handing over territory, and establishing a terrorist state in the heart of the Land of Israel.”

During the government’s term, he also served as the head of the Settlements Administration, a Defense Ministry body established in 2023 that manages matters in West Bank settlements and advances construction and housing in the area.

In his role, Smotrich has pushed to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In July 2026, the government approved plans and funding for 34 new settlements, bringing the number initiated during his tenure to 103.

Similarly, Smotrich has stated that Israel should “return to the whole of Gaza in a big way,” and has called to “abolish the Oslo Accords” and dismantle the Palestinian Authority, replacing it with a military administration before ultimately applying Israeli sovereignty.

The far-right minister’s statements calling for West Bank annexation often drew sharp international condemnation, as well as criticism for harming Israel’s global standing.

Additionally, RZP has provided support for controversial haredi-backed legislation such as the bill to enshrine Torah study in the country’s Basic Law, and the bill to freeze the arrests of haredi draft evaders. Opponents argued the legislation encouraged draft evasion amid the IDF’s severe manpower crisis. RZP could continue supporting bills sponsored by the haredi parties if they are part of the country’s next coalition together.

While Smotrich has declared his commitment to military service and said he would work on a framework for drafting haredim in the next term, his party has supported legislation sought by the haredi parties. In June, six of the party’s seven MKs backed the proposed Basic Law enshrining Torah study as a fundamental value.

MK Moshe Solomon voted against it, and was subsequently removed from his Knesset committee positions by Smotrich.

Judicial reform and the role of the attorney-general

RZP has consistently supported a significant restructuring to Israel’s judicial system, including limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to intervene in government decisions and giving elected officials greater influence over judicial appointments.

RZP MK Simcha Rothman, who chairs the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, has been a central figure in advancing the reforms, and Smotrich previously instructed Rothman to advance legislation limiting the court’s use of the “reasonableness” standard.

Regarding the role of the attorney-general, Rothman advanced a bill that would separate the roles of government legal adviser, head of the state prosecution, and the state’s representative in court. Under the proposal, the government would appoint the attorney-general, and their legal opinions would no longer be binding. Rothman accelerated work on the bill again in May 2026, as the coalition pushed to advance several controversial judicial reforms ahead of the election.

What a vote for this party is likely to produce

Smotrich has said RZP will support Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister and seek to continue the “National Camp” partnership.

If Netanyahu is able to form a coalition, RZP would likely seek to join a government alongside many of the parties that made up the current coalition, including the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, who Netanyahu has relied on as key coalition partners. 

Smotrich would be expected to continue pushing for West Bank annexation and expanded settlement construction. He has also advocated for increasing aliyah rates and told the Post that he has been working on plans to encourage more Diaspora Jews to immigrate to Israel and provide them with additional benefits.

Despite his party’s support for haredi-backed legislation in the previous Knesset term, Smotrich told the Post in a recent interview that he believes haredim should be enlisted in the IDF, adding that if his party is part of the next coalition, it would seek to develop a framework for haredi enlistment.

Keshet Neev, Zvika Klein, and Sam Halpern contributed to this report.

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There is no indication that human remains found near the home of Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie’s mother were related to the ongoing investigation into her disappearance, Arizona‘s Pima County Sheriff’s Department announced on Monday.

CNN reported that the sheriff’s department had declined to comment about who found the remains, when they were located, and why the announcement had indicated that they were unrelated to Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.

Earlier this month, two ransom notes purportedly written by kidnappers who abducted Nancy Guthrie were released, six months after she vanished.

Copies of the two email messages were posted online by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department with a notice appealing again to members of the public to come forward with information that might help identify the masked prowler caught on video by Nancy Guthrie’s doorbell camera outside her home around the time she went missing.

Nancy Guthrie last seen nearly eight months ago

Nancy Guthrie, in frail health with limited mobility, was last seen alive on January 31 at her home in Tucson. She was reported missing on February 1 after a friend alerted family that she did not appear for Sunday church services as expected.

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Russia warned Britain on Tuesday that it would face consequences for supplying drones to Ukraine that are used to attack targets on Russian territory.

Russia’s embassy in London was responding to a report in the Times newspaper on Saturday which said British-made drones had been used for long-range strikes against Russia for the first time.

“London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer,” the embassy said in a statement posted on its Telegram channel.

“The deeper its involvement in the conflict and the greater its support for Kyiv’s terrorist machinery, the higher the price it will pay.”

Ukraine has been using deep-strike drones to hit oil refineries and logistics facilities.

Britain‘s Ministry of Defense did not confirm whether British drones had been used.

Britain promises thousands of drones for Ukraine in funding package

In June, Britain said it would provide 150,000 drones to Ukraine by the end of 2026 as part of a £752 million funding package.

Asked about the Russian embassy comments, a defense ministry spokesperson said: “Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and we are committed to providing the equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against Putin’s illegal invasion.”

Since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has repeatedly warned Britain and other Western allies that their support for Kyiv, including the supply of equipment, could provoke retaliatory measures and increase the risk of a broader confrontation.

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As children walked into the zoo near Gaza‘s Nuseirat refugee camp, they found a lion barely looking back at them through the bars of its cage and chimpanzees sitting listlessly in their enclosure.

Many of the animals were malnourished, weakened by shortages of food, medicine, and vaccines. But they were still alive, largely thanks to the efforts of zoo owner Mahmoud Gomaa.

He originally ran the attraction in the southern city of Rafah, but said he had to flee in 2024.

As the Israel-Hamas war raged, he moved the surviving animals from town to town before finding a place in Nuseirat in central Gaza earlier this year.

There, he reopened the zoo, hoping to give traumatized youngsters something to enjoy after nearly three years of destruction.

Zookeeper returned to find animal bones

“In the beginning of the war, people were looking for a way to survive… and I was looking for a way to save the animals more than saving myself,” Gomaa told Reuters.

Municipal records show that there were a number of zoos in Gaza before the Israel-Hamas war erupted, displaying exotic and wild animals, including lions and eagles.

Anyone trying to keep one open now faces enormous challenges, vets and animal experts said, not least in getting food in a territory struggling to feed its human population.

“Owners are currently feeding them frozen meat,” veterinarian Nidal Fadel said. “This is a wrong nutritional plan because in nature they eat fresh prey.”

The animals themselves are bearing the brunt of the war – sometimes directly.

When Gomaa fled Rafah, he said he had to leave behind three lions, several crocodiles, and some African ostriches.

A few months later, Gomaa returned and claimed he only found the bones of the crocodiles and the ostriches. Those three lions, which he had locked in their cages, had disappeared.

Animals traumatized by sounds, sights of war

There is also the trauma caused by the sound and sight of the conflict raging around them.

“Lions can detect sounds and disturbances that humans may not notice,” said Amir Khalil, a veterinarian who has led several trips to Gaza by the animal welfare organization Four Paws and rescued other zoos’ animals.

“Bombing and constant conflict create enormous stress and fear for them,” he added.

In Nuseirat, the surviving lion barely looked up at the visitors. But the children had better luck with some of the other animals, letting parrots ride on their shoulders and petting smaller monkeys.

It was a rare chance to relax in an enclave still facing regular airstrikes against Hamas, despite a fragile ceasefire. Israel’s military, which says its attacks are aimed at Hamas terrorist targets, did not immediately respond to questions about the conflict’s impact on civilian facilities like zoos and their animals.

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Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order the IDF’s complete takeover of the Gaza Strip and permit settlements in the area, speaking to students at the Sderot Yeshiva on Sunday.

Smotrich spoke in the presence of Yeshiva head Rabbi David Fendel and Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi, after a full day and night of targeted killings of Hamas terrorists in the Strip and developments in US President Donald Trump’s 15-point plan for Hamas’ disarmament.

“The State of Israel must agree to take responsibility for Gaza. To conquer it completely, establish a military government there, establish Jewish settlement there,” he said, speaking on the occasion of the first day of the new semester at the yeshiva.

Smotrich insisted that Israel’s security won’t be guaranteed without settlements.

“Because,” he said, “over time it has been proven that where there is settlement, there is an army and there is security, and where there is no settlement, over time there is no army and there is no security.”

Smotrich backed voluntary emigration, decried Trump’s new plan

The minister also called for voluntary emigration from Gaza, a proposal popular among the Israeli right-wing, to be encouraged by the government. 

Smotrich criticized Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, which calls for an international force to take security control over Gaza.

“There is no one in the world who will do the work for us. There is no country in the world that will send its soldiers to shed their blood and forcibly disarm Hamas,” he told the students.

“I have been telling the prime minister since the first day of the war: It is either us or them,” he added.

“Either the State of Israel will courageously rule Gaza and tell the entire world, ‘We will not allow two million, or 1.8 million, Nazis to live on our border and plot against our communities and our children,’ or terror will rule Gaza.”

Turning to the students, Smotrich reiterated his position of “conquest, military government, settlement.”

Located about one kilometer from Gaza, Hamas’ brutal October 7 attacks hit Sderot hard. Dozens of civilians, and a number of police officers and soldiers were killed during the terror group’s onslaught. 

Efforts to rebuild the city have been underway and most residents have returned after initially evacuating to other regions.

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Israel is not fully in sync with the United States, Yaki Dayan, a former Israeli consul in Los Angeles, told Radio 103FM on Monday while discussing the meeting between Jared Kushner, Board of Peace officials, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Kushner, Nickolay Mladenov, Tony Blair, and members of the Board of Peace arrived in Israel to meet with Netanyahu. During the meeting, held on Monday, several understandings were reached regarding the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. 

“We are not completely in sync with the Americans, and that needs to be said,” Dayan said at the start of the interview. “I saw that the prime minister reprimanded Kushner over his meeting yesterday with Hamas leaders. It is really infuriating to see the Americans meeting with them, even though that is their practice and that is how they operate, but still, they are sitting with these murderous people and discussing things with them.”

Asked why the United States conducts negotiations with terrorists, Dayan said that “during Donald Trump’s time, every taboo has been broken,” adding that the Americans tend to meet with all parties across the spectrum as part of their standard practice, something that has angered Netanyahu.

US looking to begin Hamas disarmament as Israel withdraws

“The Americans are trying to find some kind of formula in which steps will be taken simultaneously,” Dayan explained. Under this formula, Hamas would begin disarming while Israel carries out limited withdrawals at the same time. The proposal has raised suspicions in Israel.

“We want Hamas to completely disarm, and not leave the weapons in some warehouse under Palestinian guard,” he said. He added that Israel would not accept a situation in which Hamas determines the conditions for an Israeli withdrawal or an end to the fighting.

Netanyahu not accepting US plan for Hamas, Gaza

Later in the interview, Dayan said, “What the prime minister is saying right now is: ‘This is not acceptable to me.’ I already saw the statement that came out of the meeting between Kushner and Netanyahu. It said that the Americans would be responsible for this entire process, which is interesting wording.”

He stressed that he was not referring to a joint statement, but rather to the wording of the statement issued by Netanyahu’s office.

Nevertheless, the Americans are insisting on progress. “The Americans want to see movement, and you need them on the nuclear issue, so there are things on the margins where you can compromise with them. Now all that remains is for us to define what those margins are,” he said. “And that is exactly the task we have to accomplish, because otherwise we are defining ourselves as a full-fledged client state, and that must not happen.”

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Police arrested two additional suspects on Tuesday morning on suspicion of involvement in a fight that preceded Eldar Dayan‘s disappearance and death, as part of the investigation being conducted by the Sharon Central Unit in the Central District.

The arrests follow those of two other suspects on Monday night on the same suspicion. All four suspects had previously been questioned at the Petah Tikva police station on suspicion of involvement in the fight.

Following developments in the investigation and its findings, investigators from the Sharon Central Unit arrested them. The four are expected to be brought before a court on Tuesday, where police will request that their detention be extended in accordance with the needs of the investigation.

Two arrested on suspicion of involvement in Dayan’s death

Dayan‘s two friends, Omri Peretz and Maxim Barberman, who were arrested on suspicion of involvement in his death, remain in custody. At this stage, six suspects in total are therefore under arrest as part of the investigation, four on suspicion of involvement in the fight that preceded his death, and two on suspicion of involvement in his death.

As noted, two additional suspects were arrested on Monday night over their alleged involvement in the fight that preceded Dayan’s death. The arrests have brought investigators from the Sharon Central Unit back to the moment that, according to one of the main versions being examined in the case, marked the beginning of the entire sequence of events.

Dayan and his friends met in the area between Hod Hasharon and Kfar Saba, where a confrontation developed between them and another group of young people. Peretz and Barberman claim that Dayan was beaten during the fight and that they themselves were also attacked. One of them described it during questioning as, “We hit them and got hit.”

Suspects claim they attempted to leave area after fight

According to their account, the three got into a vehicle after the confrontation and tried to leave the area. During their escape, one of Dayan’s friends said a member of the other group clung to the windshield of the vehicle. Peretz and Barberman claimed they were convinced they had struck him and even feared they had run him over, leading them to believe that police were already pursuing them.

The three then continued to the area of the Paz gas station at Yarkon Junction, where Peretz said he bought a bottle of water for Dayan. Security camera footage from the location showed all three leaving the store together and heading toward an open area.

The footage is significant for investigators because it shows Dayan alive after the fight and together with Peretz and Barberman. For that reason, suspicion of murder has so far focused on his two friends rather than on the young people who took part in the confrontation that preceded his disappearance.

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Nearly four years after the last time they teamed up to play doubles, Serena Williams and Venus Williams lost a first-round match to Peyton Stearns and Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 1-6, 1-0 (8) on Monday at the Cincinnati Open in Mason, Ohio.

“I thought it was fun,” Serena said. “I thought it was special. We kicked off a little rust in the middle of the match and just, you know, (we were) starting to feel it. I didn’t come out here to win this tournament. Winning is obviously great. But in this position just, you know, having fun. It was really cool to be able to do this again.”

It was the third doubles match of the year for Serena, 44, who returned to the tour this year for the first time since 2022. She won a doubles match while teaming with Canada’s Victoria Mboko in a Wimbledon warm-up tournament in London, but the pair couldn’t compete in the next round after Mboko got hurt. Serena lost a first-round doubles match with the Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova in Berlin.

Serena has played just one singles match this year, a first-round loss to Australia’s Maya Joint at Wimbledon. In that match, the 23-time major singles winner sustained an injury that kept her from competing with her sister in the Wimbledon doubles event.

Serena has yet to reveal her plans for the US Open, which starts on August 30.

Venus ends match with double fault

Venus, 46, is 3-9 in doubles matches and 0-10 in singles matches in 2026.

On Monday, Stearns and Kostyuk jumped ahead 6-0 in the decisive first-to-10 tiebreaker that the pro tennis tours use in place of a third set in doubles. The Williams sisters rallied within 8-7 and 9-8 before Venus served a match-ending double fault.

Venus said, “It’s our first time playing together in forever. It was great for us to get out there and do it.”

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An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck off Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Tuesday at a depth of 18 miles, the country’s geophysics agency said.

This is a developing story.

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Afghan journalist Tahmina Usmani became one of the most visible women working in her country’s media after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. She continued presenting news as female journalists disappeared from television screens, then appeared on air with her face covered when Taliban authorities imposed a new dress code.

Now living in Paris, Usmani told The Media Line that her decision to remain on television reflected both her commitment to journalism and her determination to preserve a public voice for Afghan women.

Originally from Panjshir, Usmani was born and raised in Kabul. Her father worked in the automobile business, while her mother, who had been denied an education herself, encouraged her children to study.

“Honestly speaking, she was a strong supporter of my dreams,” Usmani told The Media Line.

Usmani earned a bachelor’s degree in law and political science from Rana University in Kabul and completed a journalism course. She hoped to continue studying international relations, but Afghanistan’s political upheaval disrupted those plans.

She began her broadcasting career at Noor TV, where her income helped support her parents and three siblings. Usmani joined TOLOnews in August 2020 and returned to political news programming on August 27, 2021, less than two weeks after the Taliban captured Kabul.

Usmani described herself as the first female TOLOnews anchor to appear after the takeover. Contemporary reporting shows that presenter Beheshta Arghand interviewed a Taliban representative on August 17, making Usmani more accurately one of the first women to return to the network’s broadcasts and political programming under the new authorities.

Her presence soon became part of a larger battle over whether women would retain any place in Afghanistan’s media.

In May 2022, Taliban authorities ordered female television presenters to cover their faces on air. Women initially resisted, but broadcasters were told that presenters who refused would be reassigned or dismissed. Usmani appeared on TOLOnews wearing a face covering, with international photographs capturing what became an emblem of the Taliban’s tightening control over women journalists.

“It is very difficult for us,” Usmani said at the time, explaining that presenting while veiled made breathing and speaking harder. Male TOLOnews employees later wore masks in solidarity with their female colleagues.

Talibans claim women to remain in broadcasting, expand restrictions

Taliban officials said they did not intend to remove women from broadcasting, but the restrictions expanded. Television dramas featuring women were banned, female presenters were subjected to strict dress requirements, and journalists faced growing pressure over what they could report and ask.

“Women were required to cover their faces, and journalists faced censorship in both their reporting and interview questions,” Usmani told The Media Line.

By August 2022, Usmani was among the few female journalists still working inside Afghanistan. She told Agence France-Presse that joining TOLOnews and serving as a voice for Afghan women gave her a sense of purpose during an increasingly bleak period. 

Usmani now believes independent journalism has become impossible inside the country.

“In my view, nowadays, there’s no truly independent media in Afghanistan under Taliban rule,” she told The Media Line. “Media organizations can only operate if they publish content approved by the Taliban. Journalists who criticize the authorities risk arrest or torture or even death.”

Human Rights Watch reported in 2025 that Taliban intelligence officials monitor media content, morality authorities enforce dress and conduct rules, and journalists face punishment for perceived criticism. The organization said the restrictions had produced a sharp decline in the number of women working in Afghan media. 

Usmani eventually concluded that remaining in Afghanistan was no longer safe.

“When I realized that I could no longer live and work freely or safely in Afghanistan, I decided to leave the country,” she said. “It was one of the most difficult decisions of my life.”

Journalist joins Afghanistan exile broadcaster in Pakistan

She moved to Pakistan and joined Afghanistan International, an exile broadcaster that reports for Afghan audiences from outside the country. Leaving brought a different set of hardships: separation from her family, uncertain residency status, cultural adjustment, language barriers, and the struggle to find stable work.

Usmani later relocated to France and is studying human rights and humanitarian action at Sciences Po in Paris through a professional certificate program in social and human sciences for young refugees.

She hopes to continue both her education and her journalism while using the opportunities available to her in exile to advocate for those denied them at home.

“I also hope that one day all Afghan girls, Afghanistan girls and women, as well as my fellow journalists and media colleagues, will have access to meaningful educational and professional opportunities,” Usmani told The Media Line.

“Above all, I hope to see Afghanistan one day become a free, peaceful, and prosperous country where everyone can live with dignity, freedom, and hope.”

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As the Likud primary campaign ends and the final results of the primaries are published, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attention is turning to the eight reserved slots at his disposal, which will allow him to influence the composition of the party list even after members have cast their votes.

On Monday, one name returned to center stage, illustrating what the prime minister hopes to achieve through the reserved slots: Moshe Kahlon.

The former finance minister arrived to vote in Haifa, where senior Likud officials conveyed a message to him on Netanyahu’s behalf: “If you want, I’ll save you a high spot.”

Kahlon neither accepted nor rejected the offer, telling associates that he has not yet decided whether to return to politics. Likud has recently conducted polling on the cost of living and found that Kahlon remains strongly associated with the issue.

Another name under consideration for a reserved slot is Tsega Melaku, who withdrew from the primary race. Members of the Ethiopian-Israeli community have been campaigning for her to receive a reserved place, and 32 kessim, Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders, signed a letter to Netanyahu asking him to guarantee her a spot on the list.

Reserved slots carry significant weight as results are counted

Likud officials say that, according to polling conducted by the party, she could bring Likud support equivalent to about half a Knesset seat from members of the community.

After the results the published, each reserved slot will carry significant personal consequences for Likud MKs.

Anyone who finishes in 25th or 28th place will know that every candidate Netanyahu places ahead of them could be the person who pushes them out of the Knesset. Likud officials therefore believe it will be considerably more difficult for the prime minister to secure approval for additional reserved slots after the count, particularly if they are not given to candidates with clear electoral value.

The challenge also has an institutional dimension.

The Likud Secretariat must vote on the reserved slots in person, with 48 hours’ notice, and senior party officials believe MKs in borderline positions will arrive at the vote with a clear personal interest in the outcome.

Democrats chairman Yair Golan’s decision to forgo reserved slots in his party is also expected to be cited by opponents of the practice in Likud, who will argue there is no justification for pushing back candidates elected in the primary. Likud officials estimate that Netanyahu may ultimately settle for only one or two additional reserved slots, and only if he finds candidates with clear public and electoral appeal.

MKs who fail to secure a realistic place on the list will continue serving until the general election, and some also retain influence within the party’s institutions. This is one reason Netanyahu has held talks with incumbent MKs in recent days. An elected official who already knows they will not return to the Knesset on the Likud ticket is less dependent on the prime minister and on party discipline.

Polls closing doesn’t end process

Internal party discussions have even raised the possibility that political rivals could try to recruit disappointed MKs to move against Netanyahu before the election, including through a constructive no-confidence vote. For now, there is no indication that such an effort is actually being organized, but the possibility remains in the background.

Legally, the closing of the polls does not necessarily mark the end of the process.

The primary reached the voting stage after weeks of petitions concerning district slots and reserved positions, while allegations involving ballots and technical problems were already raised during voting day. The votes will be counted manually and under supervision, with results from polling stations transmitted to the central operations room.

Narrow margins, particularly in district races and guaranteed representation slots, could lead to further appeals to the Likud court.

The list of winners and losers that will begin to take shape Tuesday morning will reveal much more than the order of the candidates. It will show how much influence remains with political deals and organized blocs, how far independent voters succeeded in breaking their hold, which ideological positions Likud members rewarded, how many incumbents were pushed out, and how closely the elected list resembles the one Netanyahu would have chosen himself.

The morning after the primary, the battle will shift to Netanyahu and the question of the reserved slots. If he seeks to use them to alter the list chosen by Likud members, he will have to secure approval from MKs for whom every position they are pushed down could determine whether they serve in the next Knesset.

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A weeklong confrontation around Palestinian homes in Kusra has turned the village, about 10 miles south of Nablus, into the latest focal point of an increasingly volatile West Bank, drawing unusual rebukes from Washington and the Vatican and renewing questions inside Israel over the state’s ability – and willingness – to contain violent settlers.

The immediate crisis began on Sunday, August 9, when Israeli settlers blocked access to three Palestinian homes on the outskirts of Kusra and established a tent near the properties. Residents said their water and electricity had been cut. The United Nations later said about 15 Palestinians, including two children, were trapped inside the affected homes without running water or electricity.

The confrontation had not been conclusively resolved by Sunday, August 16. Reuters continued to describe the homes as besieged and photographed Israeli forces outside one of them that day. Pope Leo XIV, speaking after noon prayers at his Castel Gandolfo residence, appealed for an end to repeated violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and urged the international community to advance a two-state solution. He did not refer to Kusra by name.

The three properties belonged to Palestinian families living in the same area, but subsequent Israeli military statements focused specifically on one of the homes closest to the tent. That distinction caused some confusion during the standoff: The IDF referred in its statement to “the Palestinian family” and “the house,” while reporting from the scene continued to describe three besieged homes. Reuters also noted that it was unclear which of the three properties the military meant in parts of its statement.

By Wednesday, August 12, Israeli forces had attempted to remove the settlers from the immediate area. Witnesses and video reviewed by Reuters showed troops using tear gas during clashes with settlers. Forces removed part of the tent structure before withdrawing, after which settlers attempted to break through the gate of one of the Palestinian homes. The operation did not immediately end the confrontation.

That same Wednesday, senior Israeli commanders – including the head of the IDF Central Command, the commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, and the commander of the Judea and Samaria Border Police District – visited Kusra and spoke with one of the Palestinian families affected by the confrontation.

“The commander of the IDF Central Command, the commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, and the commander of the Judea and Samaria Border Police District toured the area of Kusra and the nearby outposts this morning and spoke with the Palestinian family residing there, who informed them that the house has electricity and water infrastructure,” the IDF told The Media Line.

The military added, “Near the house, in Area B where a closed military zone order was issued, a tent was erected where Israeli civilians were staying. Border Police forces evacuated the tent and are working to evacuate the civilians who were staying there. The incident is still ongoing, and security forces are currently at the scene.”

The IDF described the people at the tent as “Israeli civilians”; reporting from Kusra identified them as settlers. In this article, “settlers” is used when referring to the group involved in the confrontation, while “Israeli civilians” is retained when quoting or describing the military’s legal and operational terminology.

Despite its military-style organization, the Border Police is part of Israel Police rather than the IDF. The IDF retains broader security authority in the territory, including the ability to declare closed military zones, while police authorities enforce criminal law involving Israeli civilians. In Kusra, soldiers secured the area while Border Police personnel were tasked with removing civilians from the disputed site.

“During the tour, the commanders expressed their grave concern over the actions carried out by Israeli civilians against the Palestinian family and instructed that several measures be taken moving forward,” the IDF said in the same August 12 statement.

Those measures did not immediately end the standoff. On Thursday, August 13, the IDF reinforced its deployment in Kusra, saying troops had been sent that morning to carry out defensive missions, patrol the area, and protect residents. Reuters reported that Israeli soldiers took positions around and inside several Palestinian homes while the confrontation continued.

The number of settlers present fluctuated, and Israeli authorities did not provide a single authoritative figure. Video obtained by Reuters on Friday showed seven settlers outside one affected home. Forces dismantled part of the encampment Wednesday, but settlers remained or returned after troops withdrew. Another tent erected Friday was also removed, again without conclusively ending the confrontation.

Footage from earlier in the week also showed several Israeli men in green military clothing joining settlers in morning prayers at the tent. The publicly available footage did not conclusively establish whether all of those shown were active-duty soldiers, reservists or personnel from another security unit. The IDF referred to “security personnel” and said disciplinary measures would be taken against those involved. Their participation drew scrutiny because uniformed personnel deployed to enforce security and separate the parties appeared to be participating alongside one side of an active confrontation, raising questions about impartial enforcement.

The division of responsibility between military and police authorities has since become part of a broader policy debate. On Friday, August 14, Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the IDF to formulate a plan to transfer civilian enforcement and public-order responsibilities concerning Israelis in the West Bank to Israel Police. Katz said the military should concentrate on counterterrorism, border defense, and protecting communities, while police should assume responsibility for civilian law enforcement.

No transfer has yet taken place, and Katz’s instruction begins a planning process rather than completing an institutional change. If implemented, the proposal would place broader enforcement against Israeli civilians under police authority while leaving the IDF responsible for the wider security environment. Police would not gain independent authority to operate in Areas A and B, where they currently require IDF accompaniment.

The proposal is contested. Haaretz reported that Israeli security officials consider it unworkable, while human rights lawyer Michael Sfard told The Guardian that a formal transfer could become a major step toward annexation. Sfard also said Israel could expand police powers within the existing military framework, making the proposal’s legal effect dependent on details that Katz has not released.

The dispute over conditions at the Palestinian homes has itself become part of the confrontation. Nidal Foqaha, a Palestinian political analyst, said Palestinian residents increasingly distrust assurances from Israeli authorities.

Palestinians refute IDF Central Command chief on access to utilities 

The Palestinian family involved has refuted the claim from the head of the IDF Central Command that it had access to electricity and water.

“Such contradictions, combined with the absence of effective protection and enforcement, further undermine confidence in Israeli claims that the situation is being addressed,” Foqaha told The Media Line.

The IDF statement addressed the military’s deployment and the condition of one home but did not answer every allegation concerning the other properties or individual security personnel. Reuters said Israel Police and the military did not respond Saturday to requests for comment about residents’ allegations of earlier attacks in Kusra.

Kusra is also emerging against the backdrop of the deadly July 24 confrontation in Tell, a Palestinian town about 3 miles southwest of Nablus. Four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed after a confrontation involving armed Israeli civilians, Palestinians, and security forces. Palestinian authorities said settlers had come to attack residents. The Israeli military initially described the Israelis as hikers but later acknowledged that some were armed and said gunfire had come from both sides before troops intervened. Video reviewed by Reuters appeared to show Israelis pushing Palestinians with rifles before a Palestinian seized a weapon and was then apparently shot, although Reuters said it could not independently authenticate the footage.

The aftermath included large-scale Israeli raids and questioning in Tell. The IDF said 80 people were questioned and 11 arrested, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a broader security response and his office said settlement construction in the area would be accelerated.

For Foqaha, the events in Tell and Kusra form part of the same deteriorating security environment.

“Escalation around Kusra and across the Nablus area cannot be separated from the deadly events in Tell two weeks ago, or from the broader pattern of settler violence and terrorism against Palestinian villages also in the Ramallah area or Southern Hebron,” he said.

“Continued attacks on residents, and the seizure of privately owned land and attempts to take control of Palestinian homes are creating an unbearably dangerous situation,” he added.

Foqaha blamed what he called the Israeli military’s failure to protect Palestinians, remove illegal outposts, and hold attackers accountable.

The assessment that the problem is becoming one of governance is not confined to Palestinian analysts.

Israel will face consequences by avoiding making difficult decision

Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, delivered a stark criticism of Israeli authorities’ handling of violence by settlers, arguing that failure to confront violent factions among them could ultimately damage both Israel’s international position and the wider settlement enterprise.

“The State of Israel has willingly, and with its eyes open, lost governance in the West Bank. The price will be high – not only vis-à-vis the international community, but mainly regarding the legal and consensual settlement project, and then vis-à-vis the US administration,” Michael told The Media Line.

Using an Israeli expression about suffering the consequences of avoiding a difficult decision, Michael added: “We will eat the smelly fish and be thrown out of the city. We will have to suppress this growing radical and violent gang, dismiss reserve soldiers who cooperate with them, dismantle illegal outposts and farms, and pay the price. This is what I mean by ‘eating the smelly fish.’”

The diplomatic cost Michael referred to has become increasingly visible.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, whose positions on Israeli settlements have historically put him closer to the Israeli right than many of his predecessors, issued an unusually severe denunciation of the events in Kusra. He called the siege a “horrific act of terror” and said US officials had asked Israeli authorities to remove those responsible. Reuters quoted him describing their actions as “criminal” and referring to those responsible as “Israeli terrorists.”

US and Israeli officials also told Reuters that Washington wanted Netanyahu to condemn the siege publicly.

The reaction comes against a broader rise in documented violence and displacement. In an August 11 statement to the UN Security Council, the United Kingdom cited Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reporting of more than 1,300 settler-related incidents affecting more than 250 Palestinian communities. It separately noted that around 900 Palestinians had been injured and more than 3,200 displaced in the West Bank during 2026, while at least three Israelis had been killed and 24 injured.

The displacement total includes Palestinians forced from their homes by settler attacks and related access restrictions, along with those displaced by demolitions carried out for lack of Israeli-issued building permits. A separate UN briefing delivered August 11 placed the broader 2026 displacement total at about 3,800 Palestinians, nearly half of them children. The UN said settler attacks and related access restrictions had become the leading driver within those categories during 2026.

London welcomed recent Israeli arrests and indictments connected to attacks by settlers but said substantially more was required to prevent attacks and prosecute those responsible.

European governments have increasingly treated developments in Gaza and the West Bank as interconnected elements of the same diplomatic crisis. At their July meeting, EU foreign ministers expressed deep concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza and called for safe and unhindered humanitarian access. During the same discussion, they reiterated opposition to settlement expansion and attacks by settlers in the West Bank.

The measures under discussion are intended to increase economic pressure on settlement activity rather than target trade with Israel as a whole. EU officials have considered a full or partial ban on imports originating in settlements, stricter export-licensing requirements and possible tariffs on settlement products. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the measures were directed at settlements and activities viewed by the EU as undermining the two-state solution, not against Israel generally.

The result is a widening diplomatic problem for Netanyahu’s government: Disagreements with Washington now extend from the future of Gaza to the conduct of Israeli settlers and the effectiveness of Israeli law enforcement in the West Bank.

“If Netanyahu does not change the policy and the reality on the ground, he will be dragged into a very problematic situation vis-à-vis the American administration, including President Trump, and that might even damage him in the election,” Michael said.

Foqaha argued that Palestinian perceptions of the events go beyond individual settler attacks and increasingly concern the future political geography of the West Bank.

“For Palestinians, these are not isolated incidents. They consider such incidents as only serving the agenda of extremist political forces in Israel and as the implementation on the ground of Smotrich’s plan to consolidate Israeli control over the West Bank, displace Palestinian communities, replace them with settlers and foreclose the possibility of a viable Palestinian state based on the two-state solution principle,” he said.

Continued confrontations in West Bank could bring broader clash, analyst warns

Foqaha warned that continued confrontations over homes and agricultural land could transform localized violence into a wider clash.

“If settler attacks and attempts to seize Palestinian homes and land continue, the situation could unfortunately develop into an open and much wider confrontation between Palestinian villagers and settlers. The Israeli army must act urgently to prevent this outcome, not by imposing further restrictions on Palestinian communities, but by preventing settler terrorism, protecting Palestinian villages and holding the perpetrators accountable.”

One immediate challenge will come with the approaching olive harvest, when Palestinian farmers must reach agricultural land that in many areas lies close to Israeli settlements and outposts.

“This is traditionally a sensitive period, when Palestinian farmers need access to their own land located near settlements and outposts and are frequently exposed to violent attacks. Without credible preventive measures, effective protection for farmers and unrestricted access to their groves, the situation could deteriorate rapidly,” Foqaha said.

The IDF, for its part, said in its August 12 statement that its response in Kusra was intended to prevent precisely such a recurrence.

“The security forces will continue to operate firmly and responsibly to improve the situation in the area, uphold law and order, and prevent the recurrence of such incidents,” it concluded.

Whether the measures taken in Kusra – and Katz’s proposal to shift civilian enforcement more clearly toward the police – produce a sustained change will carry consequences beyond the village itself. The violence around Nablus is increasingly straining relations between Palestinian communities and Israeli security forces, sharpening divisions inside Israel over settlement policy and law enforcement, and putting further pressure on Washington’s relationship with Netanyahu’s government.

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Ship crossings via the Strait of Hormuz were still in single digits on Monday, despite rising slightly from the weekend, according to preliminary shipping data on Tuesday, amid a stalemate in US and Iranian peace talks.

Six commodity ships transited the strait on Monday, of which three were exiting the Gulf and three were entering, Kpler shiptracking data showed, compared with the 10-day average of 11 ships. Three ships transited on Saturday while two moved through the waterway on Sunday.

There were no very large crude carriers or tankers carrying liquefied natural gas passing through.

Some vessels could be passing through the strait with their transponders switched off and they are not considered in the tally.

The very large gas carrier (VLGC) Xavia entered the strait via the Iranian route under ballast, meaning empty of a cargo, according to the data. VLGCs are typically used to ship liquefied petroleum gases such as propane and butane.

A medium-range fuel tanker and an intermediate-range tanker also entered the Gulf, the data showed, while a medium-sized LPG carrier, a Panamax bulk carrier and a Panamax-sized fuel tanker exited the Gulf.

Traffic slowed after weekend strikes on UAE vessels

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz slowed over the weekend, data showed on Monday, following attacks on tankers, while US-Iran talks to resolve the Middle East conflict stalled.

Five commodity vessels transited the strait on Saturday, with none registered for Sunday, shiptracking data from Kpler showed, versus 31 in the prior weekend.

Ships entering the strait on Saturday included an empty Very Large Crude Carrier with its Automatic Identification System switched off and an Indian-flagged Very Large Gas Carrier that used the Iranian route, Kpler data showed.
 
A small tanker laden with Iranian fuel oil exited, it showed.

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Two students were killed in a shooting at a high school in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, one of them the gunman, and the situation was now under control, officials said, in the second such incident in the country in less than two months.

The shooting took place at a school attached to the privately-run Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the city of Zamboanga, where the gunman brought a pistol and a rifle onto the school campus and fired at students inside the classroom, according to a preliminary police report.

The gunman, a grade 9 student, killed himself. The victim was a male student a grade above him, police said.

The university’s president Ernald Andal confirmed there was no longer an active shooting and there were no additional fatalities or reported injuries.

“We do not want any of these things to happen. We wish to prioritise the safety of all our students,” Andal said.

Previous shooting at a high school in Philippines

The shooting followed an attack in June at a public high school in Tacloban City in which at least three students were killed and about 20 others injured when two of their schoolmates opened fire on campus.

School ​shootings are rare in the Philippines, which has relatively strict gun ownership regulations, including background ‌checks ⁠and psychological evaluation requirements, although illegal firearms remain in circulation.

News channel ANC showed footage of students and parents gathering outside the school gates with some armed police and soldiers present. Crime scene investigators were seen arriving at the school.

The school is a five-storey building on an 8-hectare (19.8 acre) site that houses the university’s grade school and junior high school students, according to its website.

The incident came less than 10 days after a high-profile incident in Thailand, where a student went on a shooting rampage at a school on the outskirts of the capital Bangkok.

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A high-level American delegation met Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on Sunday as the Trump administration tried to move its Gaza plan forward and narrow the gaps over Hamas’s disarmament, Israel’s withdrawal and the future governance of the territory.

Leading the American side was Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and one of the architects of his Middle East policy. Kushner helped broker the Abraham Accords during Trump’s first term and has returned to a central role in the administration’s Gaza diplomacy, working closely with US envoy Steve Witkoff on some of Washington’s most sensitive negotiations.

Kushner was joined by senior figures involved in planning Gaza’s postwar future, including former British prime minister Tony Blair and Board of Peace Director-General Nickolay Mladenov. According to Axios, Kushner told Hamas that statements about demilitarization were no longer enough and that Washington expected concrete, verifiable steps.

Hamas left the meeting saying it remained committed to the American framework while demanding that Israel fulfill its side of the agreement. Eight Arab and Muslim countries later criticized Israel over its rejection of the latest road map. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains that Hamas must be fully disarmed and that Israel cannot withdraw while the terrorist organization retains the ability to rebuild its military power.

What stands out now is how routine the meeting itself has become.

In March 2025, the disclosure that US hostage envoy Adam Boehler had met Hamas officials directly caused an uproar in Jerusalem. Israel made clear to Washington that it objected. Ron Dermer, then one of Netanyahu’s closest ministers, reportedly confronted Boehler over the talks.

Boehler defended the contacts publicly. “We’re the United States. We’re not an agent of Israel,” he told CNN, arguing that Washington had interests of its own and that direct contact could help secure the hostages.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio soon described the initiative as a “one-off situation.”

Sharm el-Sheikh October meeting had clear purpose, result, bringing hostages home, establishing ceasefire

It didn’t stay that way. Last October, Kushner and Witkoff met Hamas leaders directly in Sharm el-Sheikh during the negotiations that produced the ceasefire and the release of the remaining living hostages. That meeting had a clear purpose and a clear result. The hostages came home, and some of those freed later thanked Kushner and Witkoff for their role.

Sunday’s meeting went further.

Kushner was discussing the terms under which Gaza will be rebuilt and governed, when Israel will withdraw, and how Hamas will disarm. Those are questions about Gaza’s political future, and Hamas now has a direct seat in those conversations with Washington.

The Israeli response has changed as well. There has been no public explosion comparable to the reaction to Boehler’s meetings. Jerusalem’s dispute with Washington now centers largely on the content and sequencing of the plan: whether Hamas will really disarm, how that will be verified, and when Israel will be expected to pull back.

Direct US-Hamas talks have become part of the process.

There are good reasons to use that channel if it delivers results. Israel should care about whether Hamas gives up its weapons, dismantles its military infrastructure, and relinquishes control of Gaza. The October talks showed that direct contact can help produce outcomes Israel wants.

Political effect of talks is important

The political effect is important. Hamas murdered 1,200 people on October 7 and dragged 251 hostages into Gaza. Israel went to war with the declared aim of destroying its military and governing capabilities. Yet Hayya is now sitting across the table from the people shaping Gaza’s future.

Hamas understands what that gives it. It can tell Palestinians and the wider Arab world that Washington still needs to hear its demands and still needs its agreement.

Kushner should keep the channel open as long as it produces concrete results. Those results should be easy to identify: weapons surrendered, tunnels destroyed, armed formations dismantled, and governing authority transferred to a body in which Hamas has no role.

This should be simple. If these meetings help remove Hamas from Gaza’s military and political future, they will have served a purpose. If Hamas emerges from the war weakened on the battlefield while securing a permanent place at Washington’s negotiating table, the process will have preserved something Israel went to war to eliminate.

This post was originally published on here. 

Vandals broke into a Reform synagogue in Jerusalem over the weekend, damaging the building and artwork and tearing down Pride flags displayed by the congregation.

Shortly after midnight a group of youths entered the grounds of Kol HaNeshamah in Jerusalem’s Baka neighborhood, smashed a window and made their way into the prayer hall. 

Security footage released by the Reform movement shows at least three people at the site. No congregants were present at the time.

“This past weekend we experienced a serious incident at our synagogue, when unknown individuals broke into the compound, damaged the building, vandalized a work of art and tore down the Pride flags that represent the community’s values of inclusion and acceptance,” Debi Shoua Haim, a rabbi at Kol HaNeshamah, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 

“Precisely during the month of mercy and forgiveness, it is painful to see displays of hatred and violence that have no place in a properly functioning society,” Shoua Haim said, referring to the Hebrew month of Elul, traditionally a period of repentance leading up to the Jewish High Holidays.

Synagogue faced previous attacks over LGBTQ+ support

The congregation turned over security footage from the incident to police, who opened an investigation through Jerusalem’s Moriah station, Shoua Haim said. Police also sent a detective to the synagogue on Saturday to examine the footage and collect fingerprints, according to Shoua Haim. 

Kol HaNeshamah is one of Israel’s best-known Reform congregations and has previously been targeted in attacks involving its support for the LGBTQ community. In 2018, a large rock was hurled into its courtyard while more than 200 people were taking part in Simchat Torah celebrations, prompting the congregation to file a police complaint. No one was injured. 

In June 2023, the synagogue reported two break-ins within a matter of weeks in which Pride flags displayed for Pride Month were torn down. During one of those incidents, intruders also entered the sanctuary, although nothing was stolen.

Security footage from the 2023 incidents showed two youths entering the synagogue. Rabbi Oded Mazor, another rabbi at Kol HaNeshamah, said at the time that the intruders had entered through a kitchen window before moving through the building, kicking objects and pulling down the flag. Police complaints were filed after both attacks. 

The latest attack drew condemnation from Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi and lawmaker from Israel’s Democrats party who previously headed the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism.

Kariv called those responsible “incited hooligans” and accused the Israeli government of contributing to hostility toward Reform and other liberal Jewish denominations. 

“This is a government that specializes in spreading hatred for free and in delegitimizing the liberal Jewish streams,” he wrote on X/Twitter. 

Kariv also called on Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion to visit Kol HaNeshamah and publicly stand with the congregation. Reform and Conservative communities in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel face similar attacks “on a weekly basis,” he said.

No suspects, motive announced in break-in

Lion has not yet publicly commented on the incident but Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yossi Havilio described it as part of a “wave of hate crimes against the LGBTQ community in Jerusalem,” saying the Pride flag had been taken from the synagogue and urged police not to dismiss the vandalism as a prank. 

“A hate crime is not a ‘prank,’” Havilio wrote on social media. 

The incident also came within hours of an attack at Central Synagogue, a major Reform congregation in Manhattan, where an assailant disrupted a Friday night Shabbat service and attacked a congregant and a security guard. There has been no indication that the two incidents were connected.

Kol HaNeshamah was founded in Jerusalem in 1984 and has become a prominent center of Reform Judaism in the city, combining egalitarian religious practice with support for religious pluralism and LGBTQ inclusion. Its presence in Jerusalem has also periodically made it a target of opposition from critics of non-Orthodox Judaism.

Police have not publicly identified the perpetrators or declared a motive for Saturday’s break-in, and there have been no arrests announced in the case.

Shoua Haim said the congregation would not change course in response to the attack.

“To all those who are trying to extinguish our light, the Kol HaNeshamah community will continue to be an open, embracing and accepting house of prayer,” she said. “Hatred will not defeat our values, and we will continue to work for togetherness, love and tolerance.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Five years after the Taliban seized power on August 15, 2021, Afghan women and girls remain trapped at the center of a deepening human rights crisis, stripped of many of the rights, freedoms and opportunities that once shaped their lives.

Since the collapse of Ashraf Ghani’s government, Taliban authorities have systematically pushed women and girls out of public life, dismantling their access to education, employment, movement, and civic participation.

The United Nations says Afghan women and girls are entering their fifth year of near-total exclusion from public life, while girls remain barred from education beyond the sixth grade.

What began as a series of restrictions has evolved into an increasingly entrenched system of control. Women face sweeping limits on employment, movement, and access to public spaces, while Taliban rules impose strict dress requirements and, in many circumstances, require women to be accompanied by a male guardian.

UN human rights monitors warn against legitimizing the Taliban regime, saying its five-year rule has intensified oppression with no evidence of impending moderation.

Girl reportedly committed suicide after denied education

In a statement marking the anniversary, UN experts urged governments to refrain from normalizing relations with the Taliban until there is demonstrated, measurable, and independently verified progress on human rights, particularly the rights of women and girls.

The statement was endorsed by more than two dozen UN-appointed independent experts, including Afghanistan rapporteur Richard Bennett and specialists on women’s rights, education, food, torture, freedom of expression, and enforced disappearances.

Meanwhile, a new UN Women report says Afghan women face mounting restrictions on movement, education, and public life, while many report deteriorating mental health and little control over their futures.

In a tragic incident reported in the last days of July 2026, a 16-year-old Afghan girl, identified by her family as Fariba, reportedly died by suicide after being denied the opportunity to continue her education under the Taliban’s ban on girls’ secondary schooling. According to reports, she left a note saying it was “too hard to be a girl in Afghanistan.”

Fariba’s reported death is more than an individual tragedy; it highlights the devastating human cost of denying girls their fundamental rights and opportunities. Every girl deserves the chance to learn, pursue her dreams, and shape her own future.

Working and highly educated women, along with their families, have faced severe harassment and pressure, forcing many to flee Afghanistan.

Islamabad’s forced repatriation campaign has worsened the situation for those who fled to Pakistan alone.

The Media Line spoke with Afghan women who fled their homeland alone, leaving behind families and futures as they sought safety from Taliban persecution. At their request, their identities and locations have been withheld for safety reasons.

Marzia Imamzadeh, a Hazara Shia refugee, told The Media Line that she dreamed of becoming a lawyer after earning top academic honors at Kabul University.

Recalling the loss of both parents in a suicide bombing, she described how her life was shattered. Following the Taliban takeover and restrictions on girls’ higher education, Imamzadeh recounted fleeing toward Pakistan and surviving an attack on her convoy by the Islamic State Khorasan Province that left her alone upon reaching a refugee camp.

She says that her mental health has severely deteriorated amid profound insecurity and the constant fear of forced deportation.

Speaking anonymously to The Media Line, a former Afghan women’s volleyball coach shared her painful reality as a refugee in Pakistan.

Separated from her children and unable to afford food or medical care, she described a severe mental health crisis driven by pervasive insecurity, all while receiving no help from relevant authorities to halt her potential deportation.

Zala Ahmadi, an Afghan woman living in the diaspora, told The Media Line that she was one semester short of a computer science degree at Kabul University when the Taliban takeover ended her plans to launch a software startup.

A vocal critic of Taliban policies toward women and girls, Ahmadi said she sold her family’s remaining gold jewelry to pay smugglers to cross into Pakistan after being barred from education and employment.

She now lives as an undocumented refugee in a crowded apartment, unable to work legally and fearing deportation, while watching her younger sisters lose access to education.

News presenter continues to report from abroad after Taliban takeover

The Afghan women who spoke to The Media Line said that words could hardly capture the hardships they have endured in exile, while their loved ones continue to face difficult conditions back home.

The Media Line exclusively spoke with Tahmina Usmani, an Afghan journalist and former presenter with TOLOnews and Afghan International, who became TOLOnews’ first female news presenter and the first woman to return to television after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. She has relocated to Paris.

Usmani continued to deliver news with courage, clarity, and professionalism, keeping vital issues such as women’s rights and freedom of expression in the public spotlight.

In a video statement to The Media Line, she detailed the problems that arose once the Taliban assumed control and why she fled her homeland.

By sharing her experience, she emphasized that Afghan women continue to inform, lead, and shape their country’s future despite extraordinary restrictions.

Marwa Ali, a social activist and former Afghan national athlete living in Paris, told The Media Line that she grew up during a period when women’s and girls’ rights and freedoms were gradually improving.

However, she said, the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 abruptly reversed those gains, stripping women of their autonomy, restricting their freedom of movement, and banning them from participating in sports. She added that women and girls who violate the restrictions reportedly face violence and are branded anti-Islamic.

Tahmina Safi, a former judge of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court and co-founder of the Afghanistan Impact Network, told The Media Line that “five years after the Taliban takeover, restrictions on women have become a deeply entrenched system of gender-based exclusion affecting half of Afghanistan’s population.”

In reply to The Media Line’s question, Safi underlined that the international community must keep Afghan women’s rights, dignity, and voices at the center of its Afghanistan policy, warning that humanitarian aid should not replace political pressure or normalize Taliban rule.

Turning to foreign governments, she pointed to a clear policy contradiction: they condemn the Taliban’s systematic restrictions on women while continuing political and humanitarian engagement, arguing that such engagement does not constitute recognition.

Safi emphasized that Afghanistan needs a legitimate, democratic political system in which all Afghans can freely choose their government, regardless of gender or ethnicity. True stability, she maintained, means not merely the absence of war, but dignity, education, healthcare, economic freedom, and a voice in the country’s future.

Paul Farley, a US-based former Senior Intelligence Service officer and an advisor and consultant on geopolitical risk and international relations, told The Media Line that “the trajectory of women’s rights in Afghanistan remains firmly negative, with little indication of significant improvement.”

Farley said the Taliban has rejected calls from fellow Muslim countries to ease restrictions on women. While pragmatists in Kabul recognize the need for international legitimacy, he said ultimate authority rests with Kandahar’s hardline clerical leadership, which considers the restrictions theologically non-negotiable.

Farley warned that the long-term consequences could be severe, creating social misery for women, marginalizing an entire generation of girls, and depriving Afghanistan of professionals, particularly doctors and nurses.

Combined with restrictions on female health workers, he said, the policies could produce a severe shortage of female doctors and midwives in Afghanistan’s strictly gender-segregated health system, potentially driving up maternal mortality.

Without direct international leverage linking diplomatic recognition to human rights standards, Farley warned, the oppressive status quo could become deeply entrenched, undermining Afghanistan’s future development.

Fariba Akbari, an Afghan women’s rights activist in exile, told The Media Line that Afghan women’s day-to-day struggle for survival and their severe mental health crisis remain critically underreported.

She said women excluded from education, employment, and public life are facing severe poverty, food insecurity, forced marriage, and pervasive trauma, which she said are manifesting in alarming rates of depression, anxiety, and profound despair.

Akbari said an entire generation of Afghan women had seen its aspirations systematically erased, while international media and public discourse increasingly treat the ongoing humanitarian crisis as a normalized status quo.

She described the combination of poverty, security threats, domestic abuse, and forced deportations as a “brutal cycle” pushing Afghan women and children to the brink.

“This is no longer just a political stalemate; it is a full-scale humanitarian crisis,” she said. “As conditions worsen, the international community faces a critical choice: intervene or allow the quiet destruction of millions of lives to become the new normal.”

This post was originally published on here. 

It’s hard to imagine any screening of The Sixteenth Sheep: The Reunion, the documentary by acclaimed director Ran Tal, that doesn’t turn into a singalong, and that’s what happened at the DocuText Festival at the National Library of Israel on Sunday night, which opened with the premiere screening of the film.

Although the audience didn’t sing all the way through every song, it is hard to listen to these beautiful songs without joining in, just as the audiences filmed in this documentary do.

The movie tells the behind-the-scenes story of the reunion of the Sixteenth Sheep group – David Broza, Gidi Gov, Yehudit Ravitz, and Yoni Rechter, each of them among the greatest Israeli musicians of all time on their own, but together, a true supergroup.

The four agreed to participate in revival concerts for The Sixteenth Sheep album, based on a 1978 book of poems by the late Yehonatan Geffen and which features music composed by Rechter. It has become a classic that continues to delight three generations, from toddlers to their grandparents.

Israelis love The Sixteenth Sheep songs, which are told and sung from the point of view of a child, as he counts sheep and tries to fall asleep. Unlike many children’s songs, which are cliché and derivative, the quality of the music and lyrics is as high as anything ever written here, and the songs don’t condescend to children or idealize childhood.

Film will debut in Yes and Hot later in the year

They deal with the fears and anxieties of a child, as well as showcasing children’s humor and delight in the world. The classic tunes, such as “The Prettiest Girl in Kindergarten,” “Closed Kindergarten,” “Whoever Looks,” and “How a Song is Born,” can still be heard every day on the radio – nearly 50 years after their release.

When it was announced that the four would do a handful of revival concerts in late 2024, well into the war, it seemed like the best idea ever, a soothing reminder of one of the most enduring achievements in Israeli culture, and the concerts sold out in minutes.

Soon, more dates were announced, and the musicians have continued to perform together on and off over the past two years, with some backup musicians and a video appearance by Geffen, whose distinctive voice narrated many of the songs on the album.

Devotees of The Sixteenth Sheep will not want to miss this film when it is shown later in the year on Yes and Hot. And at the DocuText screening, Ravitz and Rechter were in the audience. Even though they did not come up on stage, it was a thrill just knowing they were there.

The documentary, first and foremost, is a record of this reunion tour, and much of it is footage of the group performing the songs. It will bring back wonderful memories for those who saw the concerts and will give those who couldn’t make it a chance to see them.

There are interviews with audience members who are superfans of the group and the songs and shows the community and intense enjoyment the concerts gave them.

But it’s also a portrait of each of the artists, and of Geffen, who the others speculate would have been far more overtly political during wartime than they were. There are many clips from their initial Sixteenth Sheep concerts back in the 1970s, and time has been extremely kind to these four artists, who are all in their 70s now, but who still sing beautifully.

Rechter admitted that in the beginning, he thought he would need to invite some new singers in to perform, but the others resisted, and rightly so. We also get a glimpse of the dynamics of the group members, all of whom have healthy egos and sometimes clash artistically.

It’s also interesting to hear them speak about what it was like for them to revisit these hits from nearly 50 years ago, and how they feel about getting older.

Songs featured have deeper meanings than other children’s classics

Rechter and Broza speak of their relationship with Geffen, who was a kind of mentor to them, and Geffen can be seen talking in interviews from years ago about how writing helped heal some of the scars from his troubled childhood, particularly his mother’s suicide. Knowing that will only enhance your appreciation for the songs.

The songs effortlessly evoke what children think about, sweets, seashells, their kindergarten being closed, curiosity about passersby they see in the city, and confusion about adult life.

“The Prettiest Girl in the Kindergarten” teaches an unforgettable lesson about empathy, how can such a pretty girl ever feel sad?, which is far more meaningful than so many preachy kids’ songs.

These concerts also featured songs from each artist’s solo career, including songs that Geffen wrote, such as Broza’s “Things Will Be Better,” and many of these are shown in the film.

Tal also situates the concerts squarely during wartime, showing the demonstrations in nearby Hostages Square, which sometimes passed by the theater. Ravitz said that at first she had an impulse to wait with the reunion until the war ended but realized that the war was not close to ending.

I was lucky enough to attend one of the shows, and it was like being given some kind of magical potion that let me forget the reality outside the theater for a little while, and many people said that they felt something akin to this in the film.

If I have one quibble with the documentary, it’s that it does not give a full sense of the album, that the songs are a journey through the mind of a child who can’t fall asleep.

At the concert I attended, Gov said, “The real reason we reunited and that we are here is that for over a year now, the people of Israel have not slept at night.” It was a beautiful moment, and it illuminated why 2024-2025 was the perfect time for the group to come together again.

As I noted in the review I wrote of that performance, it was as if the Houthi terrorists from Yemen, who had been bombing Tel Aviv pretty regularly in early 2025, wanted to give the city a rest so people could enjoy The Sixteenth Sheep.

But as shown in the documentary, songs such as “Lightning and Thunder,” for which Broza wrote the music, about how some thunder is scary and some isn’t, took on a new meaning during the period of those concerts, and it’s wonderful that this phenomenon was captured in a documentary.

This post was originally published on here. 

Dean Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, the founders of Israeli AI startup Decart are in the final stages of signing a huge deal with Anthropic, the US AI company behind Claude.

The deal is expected to not only bring one of the world’s most successful language model developers to Israel but also create at least two new billionaires on a scale not much different from that created by the huge exit of Wiz.

According to industry estimates, Leitersdorf and his team managed to retain control of Decart and a combined shareholding of about 64% of the company’s shares, a control that gives them a combined value on paper of about $4 billion.

After Leitersdorf’s brother, Orian, joined the company’s founding team as its chief scientist last year, each of the three founders is expected to receive an estimated $1 billion to $1.5 billion, slightly less than what Wiz founders Assaf Rapaport, Yinon Kostika, Ami Luttwak and Roy Reznik pocketed, who are believed to have received just under $2 billion each.

However, while Wiz’s founders received full compensation for their stake in the company in cash from Google last March, Decart’s founders preferred to take a lower offer in terms of overall size, but one that included shares of a company that is on its way to being listed on the NYSE.

The big winners in the deal include founders, tax agency

Leitersdorf and his team received an acquisition offer from Nvidia, which was higher than Anthropic’s and was estimated to be $7-8 billion. Anthropic, however, agreed to give an upper limit of $6 billion, but mostly in shares, and according to estimates, the company spent only a few hundred million dollars from its coffers in cash and the rest will be given to Decart shareholders in Anthropic shares.

Decart’s shareholders believe they can produce a higher return from shares of a company like Anthropic, which is planning to launch the largest IPO in history, at a company valuation of $2 trillion, with annual revenues expected to reach $100-120 billion by the end of the year, according to Fortune.

As with the Wiz deal, the vast majority of investors in the company are not Israelis, with the exception of the Aleph fund of Michael Eisenberg, an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which holds a very small stake in the company. The majority of the investor shares are owned by major US funds such as Benchmark, Sequoia, Radical Ventures and Zeev Ventures, a US fund managed by serial investor Oren Zeev. The main investors are expected to share more than $2 billion.

The bulk of the state’s revenues from the deal will come, according to industry estimates, from the shares of the three founders. Assuming that the Israeli founders exercise their shares at their current value, about NIS 12 billion, this represents a potential income of around NIS 4.2 billion, including a maximum capital gains tax of 30% and a maximum surtax of 5%.

“Receiving shares in lieu of cash is subject to tax, even though the founders receive an illiquid asset,” says Adv. (CPA) Racheli Guz-Lavi, Managing Partner and Head of the Tax Department at Amit Pollak Matalon (APM) law firm.

“However, if certain conditions are met, the tax event can be postponed until the shares are exercised in the future, in accordance with the provisions of the structural changes in the Income Tax Ordinance and subject to the fulfillment of the legal conditions and approvals required of the shareholders. If part of the proceeds are exercised as part of a secondary transaction, in which shares are sold for cash, then tax will be paid on this portion at the time of sale.”

As Guz-Lavie explains, taxation of exit funds given in the buyer’s shares is a more complex event:

“If Anthropic is issued in the future and the value of its shares increases, the state may ultimately collect tax on a larger profit. On the other hand, if the value of the shares decreases, the future tax may also be lower. Therefore, in such a deal, the question is not only how many billions the founders are worth ‘on paper’, but when the shares will become liquid, at what value they will be realized, and how much tax the state will see today and how much only in the future.”

Expanding operations

If Anthropic completes the acquisition, it will be the AI giant’s first activity in Israel, having previously operated here only through Israeli salespeople stationed in Ireland.

However, Decart is expected to continue to be a R&D center for Anthropic products, with an emphasis on improving the efficiency of running Anthropic’s models on various types of chips such as Nvidia’s graphics processors, Google’s TPU processors and Amazon’s “Infernasia” processors.

Decart could become Anthropic’s second R&D center outside the US, with 89 employees in Israel and another 17 in the US. Anthropic is currently expanding its development activities in London, where it is building a 15,000 square meter center that employs 200 people.

Competitor OpenAI is also expanding its activities, as part of the race for a Wall Street IPO alongside Anthropic. As “Globes” reported last month, the company has hired a team of senior salespeople from Amazon’s AWS cloud operations in the US and Europe, with the aim of recruiting many new corporate customers.

However, sources close to the company have made it clear that it has no intention of opening operations in Israel or hiring a representative here to manage local operations.

This post was originally published on here. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan was received at Khalifa Haftar’s family compound in Benghazi on Aug. 12, becoming the first Turkish diplomat of his rank to be welcomed in eastern Libya in more than a decade and giving Ankara diplomatic access to both halves of the divided country.

The visit drew scrutiny from Israeli officials and commentators tracking Turkey’s Eastern Mediterranean expansion, put pressure on a Trump administration plan that depends on Egypt and Turkey coordinating rather than competing in Libya, and elicited celebration from Turkish pro-government commentators who cast the shuttle as evidence of Ankara’s growing regional reach.

Libya has remained divided since the collapse of Moammar Gadhafi’s government in 2011. Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s internationally recognized Government of National Unity controls Tripoli and much of western Libya with Turkish military support, while Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army and allied institutions dominate the east and much of the south.

Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia have backed Haftar. A 2020 ceasefire ended his forces’ failed campaign to capture Tripoli but did not reunify the country’s political, military or economic institutions.

Fidan arrived in Benghazi after meetings in Tripoli, where he met Dbeibah. The following day, he continued to El Alamein on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast for talks with Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty. “Turkey does not consider Libya’s peace and stability separately from its own stability,” he told reporters.

Turkey’s intelligence head secretly traveled to Benghazi in 2023

“Egyptian-American agreement on the Libyan file is a strategic necessity for both sides,” Hany El-Aasar, executive director of the Cairo-based National Center for Studies, told The Media Line. Egypt spent 2019 arming Haftar’s forces against a Tripoli government that Turkish drones and troops were defending, while Egypt and Turkey kept diplomatic relations downgraded for a decade. Their coordination now on the American-brokered political framework represents a reversal Cairo does not want to see undone.

Kaan Devecioğlu of the Ankara-based Center for Middle Eastern Studies wrote in an analysis published this week that Fidan’s shuttle should be read “not as Turkey abandoning its former Libya policy, but as transforming the strategic gains established around Tripoli in 2019 into a broader architecture of influence extending across Libya.” Normalization with Egypt was, he wrote, “one of the most important regional changes making the Turkey-Haftar rapprochement possible.”

Ankara’s intelligence chief İbrahim Kalın traveled quietly to Benghazi in 2023 without passing through Tripoli, a move Rome’s Institute of International Affairs described as the “true novelty” that shifted Turkey from exclusive Tripoli partner to interlocutor with both halves of the country.

Hebrew-language Israeli commentary has been sharper. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak of Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center, writing in Israel Hayom, described the 2019 Turkey-Libya maritime agreement as a border “that lacks geographic logic but serves Ankara as a strategic tool to control shipping routes and infrastructure on which the economies and security of Israel and the entire region depend,” warning that any Turkish assertion of authority “could turn into harassment of Israeli ships.”

The Reichman University-affiliated International Institute for Counter-Terrorism described Turkey’s Libya-to-Horn-of-Africa footprint as a “crawling encirclement” that “quietly completes a move that threatens not only Israel’s security but also the arteries of its economy.”

In Turkish pro-government media, the tone has been triumphalist. The daily Takvim described Fidan’s tour as a “diplomatic landing” in Libya and headlined that the Saudi Arabia-Turkey-Pakistan defense pact signed in Mecca on Aug. 7 had triggered “panic in Athens and Tel Aviv.” In Cairo the following day, Fidan told reporters that if Israel did not advance to the second phase of the Gaza agreement, “there will be radical steps that we, Turkey, Qatar and Egypt, must take.”

During Fidan’s Tripoli meeting with Dbeibah, a map showing “Palestine from the River to the Sea,” a formulation that Israel treats as erasing its territory, appeared on a wall behind the two officials. Israel’s Foreign Ministry responded on X/Twitter that Fidan “can save himself the trouble of giving lectures and issuing threats,” accusing Turkey of being “a headquarters for Hamas movement, hosting its leaders.”

Fidan’s Benghazi meetings included Aguila Saleh, speaker of the eastern-based House of Representatives, and Belqasim Haftar, who runs the Libya Development and Reconstruction Fund, engagement with the political, security and economic hierarchy the Haftar family has built in eastern Libya.

The US, Greece, Cyprus and Israel established the Eastern Mediterranean Energy Center at Rice University in Houston in June to promote energy development, infrastructure security and regional cooperation. The partnership strengthens an alignment that Athens, Nicosia and Jerusalem have built since 2019 as they challenge Turkish maritime claims.

Those claims rest partly on the 2019 Turkey-Libya maritime delimitation agreement, which Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel reject as disregarding their maritime rights. Ankara’s outreach to eastern Libya could make opposition there to the agreement less certain.

Dr. Eldad Ben Aharon, senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt and author of the recently published Israeli–Turkish Relations at the End of the Cold War, cautioned against overstating Fidan’s success.

“I would be cautious about describing the visit as a strategic breakthrough,” Ben Aharon told The Media Line. “It is certainly a notable diplomatic achievement for Ankara, but from an Israeli perspective it does not fundamentally alter the regional balance. Libya neither borders Israel nor poses a direct security challenge in the way that Turkish involvement in Syria or Gaza does.”

The shuttle should be understood, he said, less as a policy reversal than as Ankara adapting its diplomacy to a changed regional environment while pursuing largely consistent long-term objectives. Egypt, Turkey and the United States continue to differ on a range of regional issues, but “all currently have incentives to preserve a minimum degree of coordination in Libya because stability has become a higher-order strategic objective.”

Should Turkey consolidate its ties with both Libyan authorities while preserving the 2019 maritime memorandum, Ben Aharon said, “Israeli policymakers will increasingly have to factor Ankara’s Libya policy into their long-term energy and maritime planning.”

Washington’s Bet, Under Fire

The American initiative Fidan’s shuttle is helping to consolidate is Massad Boulos’ reported three-track framework: security integration, political cooperation and unified economic management. It reportedly proposes reunifying Libya’s rival governments in exchange for American oil investment and the release of Libyan state assets frozen abroad, with elections deferred rather than made a precondition.

Boulos, President Trump’s senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, laid out the framework in Washington in April, projecting Libyan oil production of 1.6 million barrels a day in the short term and 2 million to 3 million by the end of the decade. Chevron won a Sirte Basin contract in February, the largest American oil move in Libya in decades. Exxon Mobil followed with an agreement covering four offshore blocks.

Before the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, more than 20 million barrels a day of crude and refined products transited the Strait of Hormuz. Second-quarter 2026 flows averaged 4.9 million barrels a day as the war disrupted traffic through the waterway. Libyan crude has become one of Washington’s few near-term alternatives.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have also become involved in the diplomatic push. Together with Egypt and Turkey, they consult through the Regional Four, or R4, an emerging grouping formed to coordinate responses to regional crises. Pakistan has separately agreed to sell more than $4 billion in military equipment to Haftar’s forces and has begun mediating between Libya’s rival power centers with US and Saudi backing.

Two days before Fidan’s Benghazi visit, Fawzi al-Mansouri, chief of military intelligence for Gen. Haftar’s Libyan National Army, was killed by a car bomb in Benghazi. In the same week, six drone strikes hit facilities at the Zawiya oil complex, including a strike that destroyed a gasoline tank containing 4.5 million liters belonging to state fuel distributor Brega Petroleum.

General Electric withdrew its engineers from the adjacent 1,300-megawatt power plant, more than 700 megawatts of which was already offline. A drone hit the South Zawiya electrical substation on Aug. 12. An explosion at the same substation cascaded through multiple stations overnight into Sunday, blacking out Tripoli, Zawiya, Sabratha, Surman and Gharyan twice during the night, according to Libya’s General Electricity Company and Turkish state news agency Anadolu.

The National Oil Corporation has warned that it may declare force majeure, allowing it to suspend contractual obligations, if the attacks continue.

“We cannot deal with the drone strikes and the assassination as separate incidents, nor can we jump to the conclusion that a single plot lies behind them,” El-Aasar said. Libya’s security and energy institutions had come under pressure, he told The Media Line, at the moment Washington was trying to bind them together.

A Libyan security source with detailed knowledge of the western Libyan militia network told The Media Line that the drones used in the Zawiya attacks were stolen from the warehouses of Abdel Ghani al-Kikli, the Tripoli militia commander known as Gheniwa who was killed in the May 12, 2025, clashes.

The drones were taken, the source said, by a figure known as “Amo Mohammed al-Dabbashi,” who was himself killed months later. Control of the inventory then passed to al-Dabbashi’s cousin.

The Petroleum Facilities Guard, a nominally state security body responsible for protecting Libya’s oil fields, pipelines, refineries and export terminals, has said its initial forensic investigation points to first-person-view drones launched from inside Libya. Such drones transmit live video to their operators, who fly them from the aircraft’s perspective.

Some were controlled through fiber-optic cables rather than radio signals, making them highly resistant to conventional electronic jamming. The guard is divided into regional commands operating within Libya’s fragmented security system rather than functioning as a fully unified national force.

Abdul Salam al-Zoubi, deputy defense minister in Dbeibah’s Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, met Boulos and other senior US officials in Washington in June, four days before Saddam Haftar met Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Saddam Haftar, who is being groomed as his father’s political successor and already commands eastern security forces, would head a new presidential council under the reported arrangement, while Dbeibah or his nephew Ibrahim would retain the premiership. National elections would be deferred to a later, unspecified stage.

The Egypt-Turkey rapprochement is the bright spot in Washington’s Libya calculation. Their coordination on the Boulos framework suggests that neither country currently plans to make a countermove against the other’s Libyan allies. The United Arab Emirates, which backed Haftar for a decade, has not publicly commented on the Zawiya strikes.

“For many in Libya, Boulos’ proposal lacks popular support because of its vagueness and lack of a clear vision for taking Libya toward stability and safety,” said Omar Khattaly, a Libyan-American analyst and business consultant who advises on the country’s political economy and visited Tripoli in late July. “To Libyans, it is a repeat of the same failed plans that ultimately contributed to the current chaos.”

On the ground, Khattaly said, Libyans see Boulos “as a broker seeking financial benefits from possible future oil contracts and would rather see more direct involvement from the US secretary of state and the State Department.”

This post was originally published on here. 

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham communicated with somebody who was posing as a close adviser to US President Donald Trump, sources with knowledge of the situation told Politico on Monday.

Burnham communicated with someone pretending to be White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, exchanging a “few messages of no signficance” before realizing that the contact was illegitimates, Politico reported.

The sources said that the British embassy in Washington raised the incident with the White House out of concern that Wiles’ phone had been hacked again. The White House told Politico that the incident “had nothing to do with the chief of staff’s devices being hacked.”

Last year an FBI investigation was launched after Wiles’ personal phone was hacked, giving an impersonator access to private phone numbers of senators, governors, top US business executives and other figures.

Politico reported that Downing Street declined to comment on the incident. The contents and timing of the messages with the Wiles imposter remain unknown.

Phone numbers of UK cabinet ministers have been leaked since the incident

Since the incident the personal phone numbers of at least three UK cabinet ministers have been published online, The Guardian reported on Monday evening.

The names and numbers of UK Defense Secretary Wes Streeting, Justice Secretary Alex Norris, and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant were made available online, according to the report.

Streeting’s phone number has been removed, a source told the Guardian, with Downing Street officials working to take down the others.

The source added that Streeting does all his government business on his official government phone. Downing Street declined to comment on whether measures had been put it place to prevent another breach.

This post was originally published on here. 

Moldova’s foreign ministry condemned the violation of the country’s airspace by an unidentified aerial object that later exploded on Monday, it said in a statement on social media.

Moldova shares a border with Ukraine and supports that country in Russia’s war in Ukraine. It has dealt with numerous incidents of drones flying over its territory and debris near the border.

The aerial object entered Moldovan airspace at 1737 local time (1437 GMT) and exploded shortly after, near the settlement of Talmaza, close to the border with Ukraine, Moldovan authorities said. The explosion set grass on fire but there were no casualties, they said. They did not identify the origin of the object.

“This incident constitutes a serious violation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova and poses a direct risk to the safety of our citizens. Such incidents are unacceptable,” the foreign ministry said in its statement.

In separate incident, Russian drone shot down over Romania 

An F-18 fighter on a NATO air policing mission shot down a drone that illegally breached Romanian national airspace, the fourth unmanned aircraft shot down over the country this year, Romania’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

A spokesperson for NATO’s military headquarters, US Army Colonel Martin O’Donnell, said the alliance is constantly on watch and prepared to defend itself from any threat. 

“Additional details regarding Sunday’s incident remain under investigation, but the drone appears to be Russian,” he said.

This post was originally published on here. 

Three out of four Jewish adults in the US say they incorporate Judaism into their daily lives on a regular basis, a new report from Sense Worldwide and released by the Jim Joseph Foundation revealed this month.

Dubbed Project Prism, this study examined how young Jewish-American adults live, especially of those who don’t participate in Jewish communal life, as well as the experiences, factors, and key drivers that shape their decisions.

The study involved more than 2,000 Jews between the ages of 22 and 30, across a spectrum of backgrounds, religious identities, and life experiences.

Though 75% of respondents said they had some Jewish element in their life, often with family or friends, 45% said their only participation in Jewish experiences. 

These experiences, the report said, include informal participation activities such as celebrating holidays, enjoying Jewish food, or talking about Jewish topics. It also found that informal Jewish participation is a stronger predictor of feelings of connection and purpose than participation in Jewish organizations.

Just participation in activities linked to positive outcomes

Project Prism identified three key factors that hinder young adults from participating more in Jewish life. First, a lack of existing connection can make Jewish life feel distant from their lives and priorities.

Second, young adults said Jewish activities need to be more flexible, manageable and easy to participate in.

Finally, they want spaces where they can engage with complexity and differing perspectives without facing social pressure or penalty.

Moreover, the report found that socially immersive experiences lead to more success in creating a sense of belonging. These experiences involve summer camps, Israel travel programs, youth groups, and Jewish schools. Just attending an event was found to be more conducive to later positive outcomes than whether participants felt a sense of belonging at the event.

“The research gives us a much fuller and accurate understanding of where, how, and why Jewish young adults seek out and experience Jewish life,” said Stacie Cherner, Director of Research and Learning at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

“Now, importantly, we can begin to translate these insights to action. As we continue to support longstanding organizations whose work is affirmed by this data, we’re also learning alongside partners in the field about potential new opportunities the research uncovered.”

“The breadth and depth of this data is fascinating and actionable,” said Yonah Schiller, Chief R&D Office at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

“It affirms much of our early R&D research and points towards new needed areas of exploring impact and designing for a new generation in a quickly changing world. A critical mass of Jewish young adults are not engaging in Jewish communal life, yet are also Jewishly activated within family life and trusted and integrated social networks.”

“The possibilities for novel and resonant expressions of Jewish life are unlimited. This is an exciting and an inherently creative moment for the future of Jewish life in the US. Creating and supporting new interventions, frameworks, and infrastructures to meet this moment has never felt more critical and urgent.”

This post was originally published on here. 

IDF soldiers detained two terrorists and raided more than 100 houses near Jenin in the West Bank during a Monday operation, the military said.

Duvdevan undercover counterterror commandos, with intelligence guidance from the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) operated to detain the terrorists in the area of Kabatiya, near the city of Jenin, the military stated.

The two terrorists are suspected of planning and promoting terrorist plots to harm the citizens of the State of Israel and the IDF, the military said.

Additionally, almost 100 sites were raided by IDF troops from the Menashe Regional Brigade, with additional suspects detained or interrogated during the operation.

IDF increases its presence in West Bank

This comes a month after The Jerusalem Post learned that the IDF increased its deployment across the West Bank to 26 battalions, adding two battalions amid a sharp escalation marked by Palestinian terrorist attacks and attacks from settlers.

The figure represents the number of battalions operating across the West Bank, not a disclosed number of soldiers. The deployment is not static, with forces routinely moved between areas according to operational assessments and changing security needs.

It is unclear whether the additional deployment will remain in place throughout the summer and ahead of the High Holy Days, as the military continues to reassess a rapidly shifting situation.

Sarah Ben-Nun contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

A New York state judge on Monday effectively postponed Luigi Mangione’s trial on murder and weapons charges over the 2024 killing of a health insurance CEO, Reuters reported.

The trial had been scheduled to begin on September 8. Mangione, who pleaded guilty last week to separate federal charges, has pleaded not guilty to the state charges.

Mangione’s lawyers asked New York state Justice Gregory Carro on Friday to dismiss the charges, arguing that Mangione should not be punished twice for the same conduct under New York’s double jeopardy law. Carro gave prosecutors until October 9 to respond to the motion and scheduled Mangione’s next state court appearance for December 10, meaning the trial will not proceed as scheduled next month.

This is a developing story.

This post was originally published on here. 

Fearing possible fraud during Monday’s Likud primaries, Economy and Industry Minister Nir Barkat hired a team of undercover private investigators to ensure that the counting process would be conducted properly, sources familiar with the matter told Walla.

The team consists of field personnel placed in many polling stations across the country, with special emphasis on the counting center, where the voting data is fed, the sources revealed.

They also revealed that some of the team members are equipped with recording devices in order to collect evidence in real time in the event that suspicions of fraud, bias, or irregularities in the vote count arise.

Barkat was accused of attempting a coup against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after October 7 and was “marked” as someone Netanyahu and his associates do not want to visit.

People close to Barkat believe Netanyahu-affiliated figures inside the Likud decided to “ensure that his political career ended” after the primaries, pushing the minister to hire the investigation team.

‘Correct wrongdoing, bring culprits to justice’

Barkat’s team also said that if the team finds any wrongdoing, the plan is to correct it, pass the findings to the authorized bodies, and take those responsible to justice.

“Anyone who thinks it’s possible to play with votes, the count, or the results should know that this time there is someone watching, recording, and checking,” said a source involved in the matter.

“If wrongdoing is discovered, the goal will be not only to correct the result but also to ensure that those responsible for it are brought to justice,” they added.

This post was originally published on here. 

The Likud Party closed its polling stations for its internal primaries on Monday evening after approximately 140,000 registered members were eligible to vote for candidates seeking spots on the party’s Knesset slate ahead of the October 27 elections.

The primaries came amid fierce internal tensions over changes that have expanded chairman Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s control over the party’s Knesset slate, which have made the primaries more competitive than in past years.

The voter turnout reached 53.5%, with 76,068 party members voting in the primaries, up about ten percentage points from the primaries held four years ago, taking into account the difference in voting hours, the Likud stated.

The results are expected to be announced late on Monday night.

Candidates who receive realistic slots on the list could hold significant roles in the government if Netanyahu is to be elected as prime minister in the October 27 election.

The polling began at 10 a.m. and continued until 9 p.m. at stations throughout the country.

The over 100 candidates seeking to secure a slot on the party’s list continued to campaign throughout the morning. Many posted pictures of themselves with Netanyahu, such as Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who is expected to receive a high slot on the list.

מירי רגב עם השיר pic.twitter.com/KrhGdgEZYh

— עמיאל ירחי (@amiel_y) August 17, 2026

Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem posted a photo of himself voting, calling on registered members to join.

“I believe in Likud members, in their wisdom, their hearts, and in our path. We did our part with great love. Now I call on everyone who has not yet voted: Get out of the house, go to the polls, and make your voice heard,” he stated.

הצבעתי. עכשיו תורכם. 💙
הגעתי היום לבנייני האומה בירושלים ומימשתי את הזכות הגדולה שלנו לבחור ולהשפיע על הדרך של הליכוד.
פגשתי שם אתכם – החברים, הפעילים והמתפקדים. האהבה, החיבוקים והמילים הטובות שלכם מרגשים אותי בכל פעם מחדש.
אני מאמין בחברי הליכוד. בחוכמה שלהם, בלב שלהם ובדרך… pic.twitter.com/QsUZ6Dqo55

— דודי אמסלם 🇮🇱 (@dudiamsalem) August 17, 2026

Likud ministers and members of Knesset running in the primaries also continued throughout the day to photograph themselves casting their ballots at the various voting stations throughout the country.

Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem posted a photo of himself voting, calling on registered members to join.

“I believe in Likud members, in their wisdom, their hearts, and in our path. We did our part with great love. Now I call on everyone who has not yet voted: Get out of the house, go to the polls, and make your voice heard,” he stated.

Parties not required to hold primaries, Likud holds votes

Netanyahu showed up at the Jerusalem polling station at the International Convention Center (ICC) to vote in the afternoon.

He stated on Sunday ahead of the primaries that he would join the voting and cast his ballot “for a winning slate.”

“I trust you, Likud members, to choose your representatives correctly, according to your own judgment. I am not interfering in the national list, and I wish everyone success,” Netanyahu added.

Agriculture and Food Security Minister Avi Dichter told The Jerusalem Post, while at the ICC in Jerusalem to cast his vote, that this year’s primaries had generated a different level of enthusiasm, with turnout among members appearing “higher and stronger,” and voters arriving with “a wide smile on their face.”

Giving backing to the premier amid the tensions over the reserved slots, Dicter added that “we need to build a good team beside and behind Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

It was later reported by Israeli media that haredi (ultra-Orthodox) activists had registered to the party ahead of the primaries to vote in favor of preferred candidates, despite not having a previous connection to the party.

Likud has for years prided itself on conducting primaries in which its registered members are eligible to vote for the Knesset list. Parties are not required to hold primaries in Israel, and only a few do so.

Netanyahu pushed to change the system in recent weeks ahead of the primaries, leading to an especially competitive race with even fewer slots available than usual.

זהו.
רגע האמת.
אני פונה אליכן ואליכם מתפקדי הליכוד:

יותר מעשור אתם מכירים אותי, בשלל תפקידים כחבר הכנסת, כשר בממשלה וכיו״ר הכנסת הראשונה מאז שנות השמונים הממלאת את ימיה.

אני מביא איתי את כל מה שאני. נלחמתי עבורכם בשלל זירות, כדי להשמיע את קולכם, קולו של רוב העם.

נאבקתי במוקדי… pic.twitter.com/Ugr8vXVhdS

— Amir Ohana – אמיר אוחנה (@AmirOhana) August 17, 2026

Netanyahu was granted the authority to determine eight slots within the first 30 spots on the party list last month following a vote on the controversial decision by the Likud Central Committee.

There were reports that Netanyahu had threatened to leave Likud if the proposed changes were not advanced.

Those within the party who oppose changing the primaries have argued that it will cause those who would otherwise score highly in the primaries to fall further down the list.

מתפקדי ליכוד יקרים,
דילים אין לי יש לי אתכם,
צאו להצביע לנבחרת מנצחת,
139 בקלפי ❤️🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/T9LL7VoUrG

— עמיחי שיקלי – Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) August 17, 2026

The Likud primaries are further competitive because the party currently has around 40 ministers and MKs serving in the government and Knesset, but recent polls project the party winning only about 22 seats, leaving many at risk of losing their places on the party’s Knesset list.

Further tensions surrounding the slots also come after the Tel Aviv District Court last week rejected Likud MK Afif Abed’s attempt to restore a narrowly approved change allowing current and former MKs, ministers and deputy ministers to run in the party’s district primaries, leaving the restrictions in place ahead of the vote.

Likud had announced last week that one of Netanyahu’s first reserved slots would go to entrepreneur and businessman Oren Dobronsky.

Additional reserved slots were later granted by Netanyahu to three ministers: Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and Likud Central Committee Chairman Haim Katz, who also holds multiple ministerial portfolios.

The party said its internal court ruled that the defense minister should receive a reserved slot in order to “allow him to focus on security needs rather than engage in politics at this time.”

Sa’ar to receive reserved slot as part of party merger

Likud also stated that Sa’ar would receive a reserved slot as part of the merger agreement between his party and Likud and that the Likud Central Committee chairperson would receive a slot due to his senior position in the party.

Sa’ar had announced in 2025 that his New Hope-United Right would be merging with Likud, and would be returning to the party. He previously resigned from Likud in 2020,  heavily criticizing Netanyahu at the time.

The changes to the party’s primaries that have expanded Netanyahu’s control over the Knesset list have led to fierce internal tensions, with some party members in favor and others strongly against.

A fierce critic of changing the system has been MK Tally Gotliv, who is viewed as a candidate who would receive broad support from registered party members.

בוחרי הליכוד היקרים החכמים והנבונים! אתם ורק אתם קובעים מי יהיו חברי הכנסת של הליכוד. תודה לתמיכתכם ואמונכם בי! מי יתן ובע״ה אהיה ראויה להם pic.twitter.com/Tbl9vDjz79

— טלי גוטליב (@TallyGotliv) August 17, 2026

She claimed during the voting that there were polling stations with fake ballots that did not include her name.

“Stay alert. Likud activists and vote contractors are in a panic over the power of independent votes,” she stated.

“Update me directly. A polling station with a fake ballot will be disqualified,” she added.

Gotliv has sharply criticized the Tuesday decision to reserve the slots for the three ministers, condemning the defense minister.

She called the decision to grant the defense minister a reserved slot “a disgraceful move that mocks Likud voters.”

Likud MK Amit Halevi, who has expressed support for allowing the premier to reserve slots, told the Post on Sunday that the primaries “will be a democratic celebration in the Likud.”

“I wish more parties conducted themselves democratically like the Likud. Some 140,000 members, active, engaged citizens who make their voices heard and have an influence, will go to the polls tomorrow,” he added.

The primaries determine the Likud’s Knesset slate, with the party chairman placed first. Registered members then vote for candidates on the national list, while members from geographic districts vote for candidates from their respective districts.

Candidates chosen on the national list are combined with district representatives and places that guarantee representation for groups including women, immigrants, young members, and minorities. The regulations also reserve certain positions for candidates chosen by the party chairman.

The precise locations of those different categories are determined before each election through the party’s temporary election regulations. That is why the current fight has centered not only on whether primaries will take place, but on how much of the resulting slate the members will actually control.

Other party leaders from Netanyahu’s coalition expressed support for the primaries.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads the far-Right Otzma Yehudit Party, voiced his support for various Likud candidates, including Gotliv and Women’s Advancement Minister May Golan.

The Religious Zionist Party, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also expressed support.

“Good luck to all the candidates, and, God willing, success to all of us together in the upcoming elections,” the party stated.

“The national camp must continue to lead Israel toward continued growth and prosperity,” it added.

Democrats Party leader Yair Golan, from the oppostion bloc seeking to replace Netanyahu in the upcoming elections. sharply criticized the primaries.

“Never have so many people vied for a place on the deck of the Titanic,” he stated.

Sam Halpern and Sarah Ben-Nun contributed to this report.
 

This post was originally published on here. 

Likud ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government backed the premier’s eight reserved slots in the party’s list that he would fill at the Likud primaries on Monday, while also characterizing the event as a celebration of the party’s democratic nature.

“We need to build a good team beside and behind Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Agriculture and Food Security Minister Avi Dichter told The Jerusalem Post at the International Convention Center polling station in Jerusalem.

The reserved spots have created tensions in recent weeks as they represent a significant proportion of the 22 seats the Likud is projected to win in the October election.

Should that projection hold, it would mean that only 14 seats on the Likud’s list in the Knesset would be filled by members elected by registered Likud voters.

Even that, though, would be unique in Israeli politics, as the Likud is one of only a handful of parties to hold primaries, and the only party to allow all its registered members to cast a vote.

Ministers defend Netanyahu’s reserved slots

Dichter and other ministers in the party spoke to the Post at the ICC as they headed to cast their ballots. Approximately 140,000 registered Likud members around Israel were eligible to cast votes for candidates at polling stations around the country.

Dichter stated that this year’s primaries had generated a different level of enthusiasm, with turnout among members appearing “higher and stronger,” and voters arriving with “a wide smile on their face.”

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi also defended Netanyahu’s reserved slots, stating they “are nothing new. They existed last time as well.”

 “There are a few more now,” he said, “but they allow the prime minister, who has to coordinate the entire system, including alliances between parties and preserving the bloc, to continue leading Likud to victory.”

Additionally, Karhi argued that the primaries were still democratic, noting that “beyond the reserved slots, which are something the prime minister needs to be given the ability to use, everyone else competes in the primaries.”

 “It’s a celebration of democracy,” he added.

Likud ministers call primaries a celebration of democracy 

Transportation Minister Miri Regev also defended the democratic nature of the primaries, echoing Karhi’s characterization of the event.

While also calling it a “celebration of democracy,” she indicated that Netanyahu’s reserved slots were less democratic.

 “There’s no doubt that with the reserved slots, half of the list is democratic, and half of the list consists of reserved slots.”
Culture Minister Miki Zohar told the Post that he supported Netanyahu “all the way” and was not bothered by the reserved slots that were up to the prime minister’s discretion to fill.

He also said, regarding lower recent polling that shows the Likud receiving approximately 22 seats rather than the 32 seats that the party currently has, that he  believed “by the elections, the results will be different.”

 “We’ll grow stronger. The polls never flatter us, but when the real results come in, we always deliver a strong result, and that’s what will happen this time as well.”

This post was originally published on here. 

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and Israeli security forces evacuated an illegal settler outpost near Susya, in the southern Hebron hills, on Monday, according to Army Radio.

The outpost, known as Givat Or Yehuda, was reportedly the site of a violent incident three months earlier, which Army Radio cited as the reason for Monday’s evacuation.

In May, when Israeli security forces arrived at the outpost to confiscate stolen and illegally held vehicles, extremist settler residents threw stones at police officers and blocked roads to prevent them from moving.

The evacuation comes on the heels of a string of violent settler attacks on the Palestinian village of Kusra near Nablus, over 100km north of Susya, which resulted in the IDF declaring the area a closed military zone.

However, some 15 extremist settlers entered Kusra again on Saturday, though the IDF had declared the area a closed military zone, Army Radio reported.

IDF troops arrived at the area where the Jewish extremists were gathered and read the closed military area order to the settlers, who then left the area, Army Radio reported later.

Military to conduct probe into Kusra incident, settler leaders condemn violent acts in the village 

A military spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post earlier in August that the IDF would be conducting a probe into the incident.

The probe will cover why it took the IDF 48 hours to evacuate the illegal outpost set up by Jewish extremists, as well as why the military did not remove the outpost for a second time after the settlers returned.

Palestinian residents who remain in the area told Israel’s public broadcaster KAN News that they still feel threatened by Jewish extremists.

The recent events in Kusra drew international attention and prompted condemnations of settler violence from figures who otherwise strongly support Israeli settlement in the West Bank, including several settlement officials and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Ben-Gvir told KAN News that while he admires the extremist settlers building outposts, “there are some among them who really need to be stopped.”

Corinne Baum, Shir Perets, Jerusalem Post Staff, and Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

A genetic test conducted privately at a laboratory abroad has raised concerns that the sperm donor whose donation was used to conceive a woman’s children may not be a genetic match, the Health Ministry announced on Monday.

The ministry began reviewing the case after receiving a report from Assuta Medical Center in Tel Aviv regarding the test.

The review includes an examination of the test itself and the laboratory where it was conducted. Professionals are also reviewing the case in coordination with Assuta Medical Center.

Assuta pledges to conduct thorough investigation into incident in coordination with Health Ministry

Assuta said it had recently received an inquiry from the patient raising questions about the origin of the sperm donation.

“A short time ago, we received an inquiry from a patient who raised doubts regarding the source of the sperm donation she had selected and from which her child was born,” Assuta said in a statement.

“Upon receiving the inquiry, Assuta immediately reported the matter to the Health Ministry, as is standard practice, and opened an in-depth investigation into the case.”

Further testing will be required before any conclusions can be reached, the statement added.

“At this early stage, it is not yet possible to reach conclusions, and additional tests are required. Assuta is in direct contact with the patient and will conduct the review process transparently and in full coordination with the Health Ministry,” Assuta added.

This post was originally published on here.