The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
Qatar said urging Iran to carefully weigh attack on Israel, citing progress in talks
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani spoke with Iranian leaders after Thursday’s hostage-ceasefire negotiations in Qatar to put to update them about progress in the talks, the Ynet news site reports.
Quoting a senior source from one of “the mediating countries” — Qatar, Egypt and the United States — the report says al-Thani was effectively telling his Iranian interlocutors that “you need to thoroughly consider if it’s advisable, for you or Hezbollah, to attack Israel right when there’s progress like this.”
The report says the phone call appeared to have an impact, asserting that officials from one of the mediating nations learned that Hezbollah has for now pushed off acting on a previous decision to attack Israel.
The news site’s correspondent Ronen Bergman says that in another positive sign, the Israeli team accepted al-Thani’s offer to remain in Doha until the talks resume Friday despite security concerns about staying in the Qatari capital overnight.
Trump says he hasn’t spoken to PM since they met, urges Israel ‘to get it over with fast’ in Gaza
Former US president Donald Trump says he hasn’t spoken to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since they met last month at his Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida.
“I expect I might be talking to him, but I haven’t since then,” Trump says during a press conference at another of his golf resorts in New Jersey.
Axios reported that the two spoke yesterday about the hostage deal being negotiated between Israel and Hamas, but the premier’s office subsequently issued a statement denying the call took place.
Asked if he encouraged Netanyahu not to take a ceasefire deal, Trump says he did not.
“I did encourage him to get this over with. You want to get it over with fast. Have victory, get your victory, and get it over with. It has to stop, the killing has to stop,” Trump says.
IDF says it tried to intercept ‘false target’ that set off sirens in Golan
The IDF says it fired an intercepter at “a suspicious aerial target that turned out to be false,” in a statement released shortly after warning sirens were activated in several northern Golan Heights communities.
Ben Gvir claims IDF chief and Gallant to blame for deadly settler riot, says he condemns vigilantism
In his first public remarks on the deadly settler violence this evening, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir lashes out at IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, claiming they’re to blame for the rampage in Jit.
“I told the chief of staff this evening that not backing soldiers in shooting any terrorist who throws rocks leads to the type of incidents like tonight,” Ben Gvir, who heads the ultranationalist Otzma Yehidut party, says in a statement.
“Despite this, it’s unequivocally forbidden to take the law into your own hands,” he continues, without explicitly denouncing the rioters. “It’s the IDF that needs to deal with terror and deterrence, including toward the terrorists from Jit. The time has come for the defense minister to leave this conception and do it.”
Gallant denounces ‘extremist rioting’ as troops ‘fight on various fronts to defend Israel’
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant joins condemnations of the deadly settler violence in Jet, denouncing the “handful of extremists” for rampaging in the Palestinian town “while our soldiers are fighting on various fronts to defend the State of Israel.”
“I firmly condemn any type of violence and give my full backing to the IDF, the Shin Bet and Israel Police to perform their roles and deal with matter severely,” Gallant writes in Hebrew on X. “The extremist rioting goes against all moral commandments of the State of Israel.”
He also publishes an English-language version of the tweet.
At a time when our troops are fighting on the frontlines, defending the State of Israel, a group of radical individuals have launched a riot, and attacked innocent people. They do not represent the values of the communities living in Samaria.
I strongly condemn any form of…
— יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) August 15, 2024
Suspected drone triggers air raid sirens in northern Golan communities
Warning sirens are being activated in several towns in the northern Golan Heights due to what the IDF’s Home Front Command says is a suspected hostile aircraft.
Likud hardliners send letter to Netanyahu detailing their 4 ‘red lines’ for hostage deal
As potentially fateful talks for a hostage and ceasefire deal are underway in Qatar, 10 hardliners from the ruling Likud party issue a public letter addressed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, detailing four “red lines as members of the Likud movement and as members of the coalition” that must not be compromised on.
One minister and nine lawmakers write that they back the premier in insisting on the four “red lines that must not be crossed.”
The first demand is that Israeli troops physically remain at the Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah Crossing at the Gaza-Egypt border, as well as at the Netzarim Corridor currently bisecting the Strip into two, and that they not be replaced by technological means or non-Israeli forces.
The second is that “the enemy” not be allowed to return to northern Gaza, even if terror operatives pose as civilians.
The third red line is that any deal return all of the hostages.
Their final condition is a “total rejection of any withdrawal” from the border with Lebanon.