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Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, held a phone call on Friday with Khalil al-Hayya, who was recently elected head of the terrorist organization’s political bureau.

According to the Qatari Foreign Ministry’s statement, during the call, Sheikh Mohammed congratulated al-Hayya on his new role and wished him success “in serving the interests of the brotherly Palestinian people.”

Mohammed also welcomed Hamas’s reported acceptance of a roadmap to complete the second phase of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, expressing hope it would help end civilian suffering and advance “security and stability.” U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the Board of Peace, which he chairs, reached an agreement with Hamas for the complete disarmament ‌of the terrorist groups that rule and control the Gaza Strip.

“In this context, His Excellency stressed the need for the international community to assume its responsibilities and pressure Israel to fulfill its obligations under the agreement and cease its ongoing violations of the rights of the Palestinian people, thus ensuring the completion of the roadmap and achieving peace and stability in the Gaza Strip,” the Qatari leader said.

The Israel Defense Forces told JNS on Sunday that it was “not aware of any IDF strikes” that wounded Lebanese Armed Forces troops in the Bint Jbeil area.

The LAF had claimed five soldiers sustained minor injuries in the town of Kafra, in what it described as an “Israeli enemy attack.”

In a subsequent statement, the LAF said an inspection by a “specialized unit” found that the explosion had been caused by a “suspicious object,” rather than an IDF strike. It said the incident remained under investigation.

A New South Wales appeals court on Friday ruled that a video of two former Sydney nurses accused of making menacing remarks about Israelis can be used as evidence at trial, overturning a lower court decision, Australia’s ABC News reported.

The defendants, Sarah Abu Lebdeh and Ahmad Rashad Nadir, both formerly of Bankstown Hospital, have pleaded not guilty to charges of using a carriage service to menace and harass over a 2025 video chat with an Israeli influencer. Abu Lebdeh has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of threatening violence against a group.

Defense lawyers had successfully argued in the district court that the video was improperly obtained and breached privacy laws, rendering it inadmissible. Prosecutors appealed, and the Court of Appeal on Friday reversed the ruling, allowing the unedited recording to be presented to a jury.

The court said detailed reasons for the judgment would be subject to potential suppression or non-publication orders ahead of trial. The pair, who were dismissed following the incident, are scheduled to stand trial at the end of August.

In the video chat with Israeli blogger Max Veifer recorded and published in February of last year, Abu Lebdeh said of Israelis: “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.” Nadir, who initially falsely self-identified as a physician, told Veifer, “You have no idea how many Israeli dog[s] came to this hospital, and I send them to jahannam,” Arabic for hell.

Israel’s Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, will hear arguments Monday on a petition challenging laws that restrict the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Jewish state.

The petition, filed by 10 Palestinian residents alongside two nongovernmental organizations, seeks to overturn legislation passed by the Knesset in 2024, arguing it harms access to education, healthcare and aid services.

The state opposes the petition, saying alternative arrangements exist.

UNRWA has been under fire for years, with Israeli officials demanding the agency be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded amid revelations that agency staff participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Despite Israeli, U.S. and some European opposition, the U.N. General Assembly in December voted to extend UNRWA’s mandate for three more years.

Iranian state media on Sunday denied U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that a new interim agreement had been reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“There has been no change in Iran’s policy regarding this strategic waterway,” Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, cited a member of Tehran’s negotiating team as saying.

Meanwhile, Mehr News Agency, an official outlet affiliated with the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization that is overseen by the office of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, quoted military officials as dismissing Trump’s claim as “simply a new lie.”

The officials said the regime’s armed forces were “on high alert and ready for any eventuality.”

Israel reached the second spot in The Economist’s Big Mac Index for 2026, preceded only by Switzerland.

The index, started 40 years ago by the U.K.-based news weekly, compares the relative price worldwide of McDonald’s flagship hamburger.

Although informal and somewhat humorous, the aim of the index is to simplify the implication of market exchange rates and their effect on the prices of similar goods.

Israel’s sharp climb to second place in the index’s list is largely due to the appreciation of the shekel over the past year.

Border Police officers on Sunday arrested a Palestinian who attempted to sneak into Israel hidden inside a loudspeaker in a car trunk, at one of the checkpoints around Jerusalem, the Israel Police said.

“During an inspection of the vehicle and its loudspeaker, whose casing was concealed behind a baby seated in a designated car seat, officers discovered a suspect hidden inside the speaker,” the police said.

The forces detained the vehicle’s driver as well, on suspicion of attempting to smuggle the Palestinian illegally into Israel. The police did not specify whether the driver was an Israeli citizen.

The Israel Defense Forces’ July-August 2026 recruitment cycle, in which thousands of recruits will join the ranks of the IDF, opened against the backdrop of the security reality in the various sectors, such as in Lebanon and Gaza, and ahead of the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre.

August is one of three times a year that the IDF has a major call up of inductees, specifically for its combat units, along with March and November/December.

The August draft is the largest and includes the bulk of recruits assigned to combat units, including infantry, armored, combat engineering, artillery and certain combat intelligence units.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday that soldiers from its 401st “Iron Tracks” Armored Brigade had completed an eight-month mission in Southern Lebanon, during which they destroyed more than 1,200 Hezbollah sites, seized over 600 weapons and killed more than 60 terrorists.

The brigade, operating under the 91st “Galilee” Division, conducted “defensive operations along the border and operations in the security zone in Southern Lebanon to remove threats to the State of Israel,” the military said.

The troops also dismantled terror tunnels stretching hundreds of meters with the assistance of the Yahalom combat engineering unit, the IDF said.

“Our mission was clear: to prevent and push back the threat to Israeli civilians. This was the objective we repeated to ourselves every morning and every evening,” the brigade’s commander, Col. Yoav Schneider, said in the statement. “The brigade’s achievements in Lebanon came at a heavy cost—we will always remember the brigade’s fallen, and they will remain in our hearts forever,” he added.

The Islamic Republic views every threat as “real and credible,” even if it is made as part of psychological warfare, Iran’s acting Defense Minister Majid Ibn al-Reza, who previously served as a deputy defense minister and is a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said on Sunday.

“Recent enemy statements, though framed as psychological operations and computational warfare, are treated by us as real and credible threats,” Ibn al-Reza said, according to Iran’s semi-official ISNA outlet.

“We will neither be surprised nor passive. We will use threats as a basis to increase our readiness, strengthen our deterrence, and enhance our power,” he added.

His comments came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had canceled a planned attack on Iran after, he said, Tehran agreed in principle to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and negotiate an end to its nuclear program. However, Trump warned the U.S. military remained “locked and loaded” and prepared to strike Iran with force “not seen since World War II.”

The Israel Defense Forces will “continue to strike places in Gaza that threaten the security of soldiers and Israeli citizens,” Likud Party Knesset member Nissim Vaturi told JNS on Sunday.

“The terrorists will not stop being terrorists,” Vaturi said.

“It is forbidden to reach any agreement with terrorists,” he said. “We must eliminate them. We see how these agreements turn out, even with Iran. We reach a deal, and then the war starts again. That way doesn’t work.

“Terrorists don’t understand the language of agreements. Hamas and the rest of the terrorists say agreements are made to be broken. We don’t need to play into their hands,” he said.

Omri Gvili, whose younger brother Israel Police officer Master Sgt. Ran Gvili died defending Kibbutz Alumim on Oct. 7, 2023, completed his police commander training last week.

“Putting on Rani’s uniform is an incredibly powerful full-circle moment for me,” Omri was quoted as saying by Channel 12. His mother, Talik Gvili, posted images on July 27 from her son’s ceremony on Facebook, writing, “Inspector Gvili. Omri. There is no one prouder than I.”

The Israeli embassy in Washington hailed Omri Gvili’s accomplishment, saying he is continuing Ran Gvili’s “legacy of courage and service.”

Canadian Opposition Leader and Conservative Party head Pierre Poilievre on Saturday called for stronger action against antisemitism, saying the Liberal Party government has tolerated hatred against Jews.

His statement followed a suspected arson attack that extensively damaged Nöam, a kosher restaurant in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood, over the weekend.

The incident is being investigated as a possible hate crime, the Montreal Gazette reported on Saturday, citing Raphaël Bergeron, a spokesman for the SPVM (Service de police de la Ville de Montréal).

“Another day. Another attack against Canada’s Jewish people,” Poilievre wrote on X. “No more talk. We need real action to protect Jews and other Canadians from the hate crimes the government tolerates on our streets.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by telephone with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss “developments in the region and their regional and international repercussions,” Riyadh’s official news agency reported on Sunday.

The report came hours after Trump announced he had shelved plans for a major attack on Iran, at the request of Tehran “and other Middle Eastern countries.” Trump reportedly decided to cancel the strikes at the urging of Prince Mohammed.

According to the Saudi Press Agency, Mohammed during the call with Trump stressed the need to prioritize dialogue to reduce tensions. He said every effort should be made to achieve de-escalation, SPA reported.

The prince was said to have warned against a broader conflict that could threaten regional and global stability. The two leaders also discussed existing areas of cooperation between Riyadh and Washington and discussed ways to strengthen bilateral ties, SPA said.

Likud Party legislator Moshe Passal told JNS on Sunday that as long as the Islamic regime remains in power in Iran, it will continue to pose a significant threat to the world.

“As long as confronting the problem is postponed, the price we pay will only grow. When the world faced Hitler, there were those who said, ‘Let’s reach an agreement,’” Passal said.

“In the end, there was no choice—the world had to defeat him, and that came at a cost. People in Britain, the United States, Europe and around the world paid the price. I don’t believe any agreement can be reached with this regime.”

Likud Party Knesset member Amit Halevi told JNS on Sunday that the Iranian regime poses the greatest threat to the free world and would ultimately have to be defeated militarily.

“I think that in the last century, had the West not taken the initiative, Washington would still be locked in a major struggle against Hitler, Japan and others today. We are facing a barbaric, totalitarian and racist enemy, and we need to treat it accordingly,” Halevi said.

Sooner or later, U.S. President Donald Trump “and whoever occupies the White House after him will have to enter this battle, because it’s here, and it’s not going anywhere,” he added.

British authorities are seeking the extradition of a London man arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of surveilling Royal Air Force Akrotiri on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Metropolitan Police said on Friday.

Rashad Sultanov, 44, a British-Azerbaijani national, allegedly monitored the British military base and shared information with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. British prosecutors authorized charges under the National Security Act following an investigation into incidents at the base in May and June 2025.

Michael Giladi/Flash90

Israel’s heat wave was expected to peak on Sunday, with temperatures climbing to unusually high levels for the season and heavy to extreme heat stress forecast across the country.

The hottest conditions are expected in the Jordan Valley, where temperatures could reach 46.5 degrees Celsius (115.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Around the Sea of Galilee, temperatures are forecast to approach 45°C (113°F), while Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are expected to reach 35°C (95°F) and 33°C (91°F), respectively. At the Dead Sea, temperatures are expected to top 41°C (106°F).

Although temperatures along the Mediterranean coast will remain somewhat lower, high humidity will create oppressive conditions and significantly increase the heat index. The Israeli Health Ministry urged the public—especially the elderly, children, pregnant women and people with chronic illnesses—to avoid prolonged sun exposure, strenuous activity and dehydration.

Weapons and military authority must be held exclusively by the state and the Lebanese Armed Forces, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Saturday

“There is no legitimacy for any weapon outside the legitimacy of the state,” Aoun said in a message marking Lebanese Army Day.

Aoun also called for the full deployment of Lebanese forces along the country’s southern border as Israeli troops redeploy under the June 26 framework agreement with Jerusalem, which calls for the removal of Iranian-backed Hezbollah from the area.

Iran no longer has its “conventional shield” of drones and missiles, which is why it is now willing to reach an agreement over denuclearization, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News on Sunday.

“This case is pretty straightforward: Iran wants a nuclear weapon, and they were building a conventional missile shield they were going to hide behind. In essence they wanted to be in a position, a year and a half from now, to be able to say, ‘We have so many drones and so many missiles, you can’t possibly defend against them,’” he said.

Tehran still has drones and missiles, which can inflict damage, but degrading its military capabilities has allowed the United States to approach the Iranian regime “from a position of strength, not from a position of weakness,” the secretary of state said.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday that it had killed a Hamas commander who infiltrated Kibbutz Nir Oz during the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

Salem Jamal Abd al-Rahman Abu Labad, identified by the IDF as a Nukhba Force cell commander, was killed in an airstrike in southern Gaza on Saturday, the military said.

In a separate strike in central Gaza on Friday, the IDF killed Muhammad Abd al-Nasser Muhammad Khatib, a commander in Hamas’s al-Maghazi Battalion, a unit of the terrorist group’s Central Brigade responsible for the al-Maghazi camp and surrounding areas in central Gaza, according to the statement.

“The terrorists posed a threat to the troops and were eliminated in precise aerial strikes in order to remove the threat,” the IDF said.

Britain’s Supreme Court will hear an appeal against a ruling that approved the government’s decision to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, Reuters reported on Thursday.

On June 15, London’s Court of Appeal overturned an earlier High Court ruling that banning Palestine Action was unlawful due to its interference with freedom of expression. Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr said the organization’s behavior was not that of a nonviolent protest group and that proscription was justified and proportionate, Reuters reported at the time.

The Supreme Court’s website showed that Huda Ammori, a co-founder of the anti-Israel group, was granted permission to appeal against that ruling, according to Reuters.

“We will continue to fight this proscription all the way to the Supreme Court and, if necessary, to the European Court of Human ‌Rights ⁠to overturn what has become one of the most extreme attacks on free speech and the right to protest in modern British history,” the report cited Ammori as saying.

Mohammad Yousef Hasna, of Istanbul, was arrested in the United Kingdom on Friday and charged with funneling money and supplies to Hamas under the guise of humanitarian aid, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to prosecutors, Hasna, 45, also known as Orhan Korkmaz and Abu al-Baraa, used his position as global director of a U.K.-registered charity to coordinate with senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, a member of the terrorist group’s politburo.

Federal prosecutors allege that Hasna arranged cash deliveries to Hamad, procured supplies and organized their transportation into Gaza. He also allegedly directed goods to warehouses and recipients selected by Hamad.

The Israel Defense Forces, directed by intelligence from the Israeli Security Agency, destroyed five Hamas weapons depots across the Gaza Strip in overnight strikes, the military said on Saturday.

The sites contained Kalashnikov rifles, explosive devices, anti-tank missile launchers, ammunition and other military equipment.

One of the depots, located adjacent to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the Deir al-Balah area of central Gaza, also served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists, according to the IDF. The military said the weapons were intended for attacks on troops operating near the ceasefire line, and on Israeli civilians.

It added that advance warnings, precision munitions and aerial surveillance were used to reduce the risk of harm to noncombatants.

AARON SCHWARTZ/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he had canceled a planned attack on Iran after Tehran had agreed in principle to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and negotiate an end to its nuclear program.

Trump said Iran and other regional countries had asked Washington to hold off because “the perimeters of a deal” had been agreed. He said the proposed terms would include the “immediate, complete, and total” reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and “an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.”

“Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the world and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a deal,” the president wrote.

Trump in the post said that Israel “joins me in this commitment.”