The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday’s events as they unfold.
Four injured, including one seriously, by grenade launched at Ashdod home
Four women were injured earlier tonight when a grenade was thrown at a home in Ashdod, sparking a fire.
Among those injured is a 16-year-old girl, who is said to have been seriously injured.
The other three, ages 17, 21, and 23, were moderately injured.
They are undergoing medical treatment at Ashdod’s Assuta Medical Center.
Police have opened an investigation into the incident, which is not believed to be terrorism.
Trump nominates State Dept. spokeswoman Bruce as US deputy representative to UN
US President Donald Trump says he is nominating State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce as the next US deputy representative to the United Nations.
Bruce has been the State Department spokesperson since Trump took office in January.
In a post on social media in which Trump announced her nomination, the president says she did a “fantastic job” as State Department spokesperson.
She has defended the Trump administration’s foreign policy decisions ranging from immigration crackdown and visa revocations to US responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza, including defending a widely condemned armed private aid operation in the Palestinian enclave.
Bruce was a political contributor and commentator on Fox News for over 20 years.
She has also authored books like “Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda” that offer criticism of liberals and left-leaning viewpoints.
Hundreds rally outside military prison to protest Haredi draft-evaders’ detention
Hundreds of members of the Gur and Boyan Hasidic groups, as well as from the extremist Jerusalem Faction, are protesting outside the Beit Lid military prison to decry the detention of ultra-Orthodox draft-dodgers arrested and held there.
According to Army Radio, the demonstrators are chanting against the “heretic” State of Israel, holding prayers, and calling the names of those arrested.
Some Jerusalem Faction members are reportedly trying to persuade the demonstrators to try to break into the prison, but no such action is taken.
האדמו"ר משבט הלוי בתפילה משותפת עם חסידי גור לשחרור העצורים החרדים, בהפגנה מול כלא 10 pic.twitter.com/hKGxzbqMYQ
— דניאל גרובייס daniel grovais (@daniel_grovais) August 9, 2025
"אברהם יצחקוב, כולנו איתך" | המפגינים מהפלג הירושלמי מלמדים את המפגינים חסידי גור איך להפגין וקוראים בשמם של העצורים החרדים בכלא pic.twitter.com/y1fretQFWU
— דניאל גרובייס daniel grovais (@daniel_grovais) August 9, 2025
On Thursday, prominent Haredi leader Rabbi Dov Lando visited the prison to offer support to yeshiva students arrested for draft evasion, telling them that the entire Haredi community stands behind them.
For the past year, the Haredi leadership, including Lando, has rejected any attempt to find a compromise to draft at least some of the ultra-Orthodox youth to the military, after last year the High Court ruled that the decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to the Haredi community were illegal.
Lando, who serves as the spiritual leader for the United Torah Judaism party’s Degel HaTorah faction and is one of the most prominent figures in the non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox community, has repeatedly told yeshiva students to ignore draft orders.
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
Hamas-run authorities claim 37 killed from IDF fire Saturday, mostly aid seekers
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency claims at least 37 people were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday, including 30 civilians who were waiting to collect aid.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal tells AFP that 12 people were killed and nearly 200 wounded when Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on them as they gathered near a border crossing in northern Gaza that has been used for aid deliveries.
Six more people were killed and 30 wounded after Israeli troops allegedly targeted civilians assembling near an aid point in central Gaza, he asserts.
Strikes in central Gaza also resulted in multiple casualties, according to Bassal, while a drone attack near the southern city of Khan Younis killed at least three people and wounded several others.
They reportedly include two nephews of senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya.
The IDF has denied targeting aid seekers, saying it has fired warning shots toward people viewed as a threat after they veered off approved routes. It says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Families of hostages, fallen soldiers to push for general strike, though main labor union won’t back it
Groups representing families of hostages and of fallen soldiers are leading a push for a general strike of Israel’s economy over the government’s plan to escalate the war and take over Gaza City, though the national labor union indicates it won’t declare one.
The families intend to announce the demand and further steps at a press conference tomorrow in Tel Aviv, according to Hebrew media reports.
They will push private companies, organizations, trade unions and ordinary citizens to participate in the strike, under the slogan: “Silence kills — the country grinds to a halt to save the hostages and the soldiers.”
Many remarks by relatives of hostages today have amplified the call for a nationwide strike, including in anti-government, pro-hostage deal rallies this evening.
However, Hebrew media cites the national Histadrut labor federation as saying a strike “is not expected” in the near future, though its head Arnon Bar-David plans to meet representatives of the families this coming week.
The option of a Histadrut-backed strike is reportedly off the table after Tel Aviv’s labor court last year ruled that a labor action aimed at pressuring the government to seal a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza following the murder of six hostages was illegal because it was political and not related to workers’ rights.