Israel Update 8.7.26

TURKISH THREAT

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said last week that Israel has become a “burden that humanity can no longer bear” and called on the international community to impose sanctions on Jerusalem.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called on “the civilized world and Turkey’s NATO allies” to “unequivocally condemn this explicit call for the erasure of Israel.”Report here

The US administration has formally notified Congress of its intention to sell dozens of jet ‌engines worth more than $700 million to Turkey for its home-grown KAAN fighter jets, despite objections from some lawmakers. Asked on Wednesday about the jet engines, the F-35 programme and his plans for the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump said: “I’m going to probably do something that will make them very happy.” Trump gave a strong indication that he may soon try to reverse his own ban on Turkey buying F-35 fighter jets from the US. Turkey was ejected from the F-35 programme in 2019 after purchasing Russia’s S-400 missile system. Washington said the two systems were incompatible — the S-400’s radar could learn to track the F-35’s stealth signature. Reports herehere& here

And see Comment & Opinion articles below for the implications for Israel.

VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKE UPDATE

Members of the Israeli disaster relief mission met Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez overnight, in a rare high-level encounter that could signal a thaw in relations after years of diplomatic hostility. The meeting included Home Front Command representatives, who attended in IDF uniforms. The Israeli delegation was scheduled to leave on Sunday, but Rodríguez asked its members to extend their stay. During the meeting, the delegation presented a long-term national reconstruction plan for devastated areas of Caracas and its surroundings.Report here

Despite the absence of diplomatic relations between Israel and Venezuela since 2009, interim President Rodriguez had previously publicly thanked Israel for dispatching the team of disaster specialists, praising their professionalism. Report here

On Monday, the IDF team, led by IDF Brig. Gen. Elad Edri, started mapping out and categorizing buildings as either due to be demolished or potentially salvageable. The soldiers have worn their IDF uniforms and have received a warm welcome. Report here

 

 

IRAN

 

President Trump said Wednesday that he felt that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Iran was nullified following overnight strikes between the US and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. “To me, I think it’s over,” he said at the NATO summit adding that he felt the US had “wasted a lot of time” negotiating with Iran, and he did not wish to continue talks. Report here

 

Context

 

Iran’s IRGC fired missiles at two commercial ships near the Strait of Hormuz early Tuesday. One vessel appeared to be the Al Rekayyat, a liquefied natural gas tanker.

Reportedly Iran was responsible for launching at least five drones and missiles at three ships in the strait over the past day. Three tankers have reported being struck by unknown projectiles in and near the Strait of Hormuz in recent days.Report here (paywall)Report here

 

On Tuesday night, US forces began “a series of powerful strikes against Iran to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway,” according to US Central Command (CENTCOM). NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday “When you have a ceasefire and Iran is basically violating the ceasefire, I think it is totally crucial that the US forcefully react”.Report here

 

On Tuesday, the US revoked a general license that authorized the sale of Iranian oil, as a US official warned that Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz were “wholly unacceptable.”

Two Iranian military bases were struck by the US on Wednesday morning,

Iran’s IRGC claimed they targeted 85 US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait, “in response to US ceasefire violations,” Report here

 

 

Last week a U.S. official confirmed that “no frozen funds have been released and no frozen funds will be released unless Iran meets the requirements outlined in the MoU” and that when the funds are released, “the United States must approve how the funds are used.””If Iranian assets are released, they will be used to purchase American agricultural products from American farmers to feed the Iranian people.” Report here

 

 

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told the UNSC last  Thursday: “Three months ago…this Council stood with our friends in the Gulf, as their hospitals, as their airports, energy infrastructure, resorts were under blistering fire from Iranian drones and missiles….I visited some of the locations that the Iranians have hit….It was deliberate, it was well planned, it was malicious.”
“I visited the Bahraini Petroleum Company, where I saw where Iran very precisely targeted the fire suppression lines first. They then targeted first responders, so that they could not respond. They targeted a site literally in the middle of a neighbourhood. Fortunately, the drone didn’t explode. It would have potentially killed two to three thousand families in a massive, massive explosion.”
“Meanwhile, they’ve stopped every ship from transiting the Straits of Hormuz, and it didn’t matter if the ship was carrying fertilizers to farmers in Africa, aid to Sudan, fuel to Japan, whether they were involved in this conflict or not….Iran sought to punish the world, all of us, all of you…. Iran cannot and we cannot allow it to hold the world’s economy hostage….Iran still hasn’t shown the world a basic level of decency and respect.” Report here

 

 

 

LEBANON

 

Rabeea Abu Saleh, father of Ameer Abu Saleh, one of the 12 Druze children killed by a Hezbollah rocket while playing football in Majdal Shams, Israel, addressed the UN Human Rights Council during the debate on Lebanon. Moving 2 minute video View here

 

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun defended the framework agreement with Israel on Sunday.
“I am telling you that I am not in love with Israel, but give me another solution, whatever it may be… I am telling those who oppose this framework that I am waiting for any solution or agreement that will get us out of wars.”  Report here

 

 

GAZA

 

Officials within the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza are taking bribes to place healthy people on medical evacuation lists, the families of ill and injured Gazans have claimed. Healthy people are said to have acquired forged medical papers by saying they require evacuation on medical grounds.  Report here (paywall)

 

 

According to Israeli security officials Hamas is continuing to grow stronger and rebuild itself for a confrontation with Israel, both through money reaching it from outside Gaza and thanks to the “humanitarian” aid that continues to enter Gaza unchecked, about 600 trucks a day, while the real need is only about 200-250 trucks a day.
Inter alia, Hamas directly taxes the incoming trucks, collecting a tax of 15-30% from merchants.  Defence establishment sources said, “The money Hamas receives…enables it to rehabilitate military infrastructure and recruit new and young operatives who cannot find other work.” Report here

 

 

The Board of Peace will launch a pilot programme in the coming weeks to manage humanitarian shelters in areas of Gaza that are not under Hamas control.Medical aid and food will be sent into the humanitarian shelters in an effort to loosen Hamas’s hold on the population, piece by piece.  Currently, the U.S. is preventing Israel from resuming fighting in Gaza, even though Hamas refuses to disarm in accordance with the Trump plan. However, within the existing constraints, the IDF is continuing targeted eliminations inside Gaza and striking Hamas’s efforts to reestablish itself. Report here

 

 

Israeli forces at a West Bank border crossing near Kiryat Gat seized a Gaza-bound “private sector humanitarian aid” truck transporting hundreds of Costa Rican pineapples that were hollowed out to store thousands of illegal cigarettes.Report here

 

 

 

DEFENCE

 

 

Israeli companies Innoviz Technologies and Cogniteam have teamed up to develop a new counter-drone detection (C-UAS) system aimed at improving the detection, classification, and tracking for security systems. Report here

 

 

Footnote:

President Macron recently flew to Syria in a plane fitted with Israeli firm Elbit’s DIRCM system which protects aircraft from infrared missile threats. In recent years, France has restricted Israeli defence firms. Report here

 

 

FORMER HOSTAGES UPDATE

 

Hamas captivity survivor musician Alon Ohel performed aboard the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in New York as part of the 250th Fourth of July celebrations.

A video shared by John Ondrasik, who goes by the stage name Five for Fighting, showed the US singer-songwriter singing his post-9/11 hit “Superman” accompanied on the piano by Ohel. Report here

 

 

 

Former hostages Sasha Troufanov and Sapir Cohen were recently married, some 17 months following his release.

Both were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz while visiting family there.  Cohen was freed during the November 2023 ceasefire, but Troufanov’s release was in February 2025, after more than 400 days in captivity. He had to undergo extensive medical treatments upon his return, due to untreated injuries to his legs, where he was shot by the terrorists. Troufanov’s mother Yelena and grandmother Irena Tati were also kidnapped and released. His father Vitaly was murdered during the onslaught. The wedding was attended by President Isaac Herzog, and First Lady Michal Herzog; also in attendance were several former hostages.Report here

 

 

 

 

 

SPORT

 

 

After last year’s Maccabiah Games were postponed due to Israel’s June 2025 war with Iran, the opening ceremony of the two-week competition featured around 5,000 athletes representing more than 30 countries, marching through Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium before a ceremonial torch lighting ceremony and performances by some of Israel’s leading entertainers. The events are being held at sites around Israel until July 13.  Report here

 

ENTERTAINMENT

British singer Engelbert Humperdinck will return to Israel for two concerts in January 2027 as part of his global farewell tour.

The performances, part of The Last Waltz – Farewell Tour, are scheduled for Jan. 25 and 26 at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv. Report here

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

Turkey

 

JPost Editorial: The F-35 is a strategic platform. It would give Turkey stealth, reach, intelligence-gathering capacity, and a place inside a military ecosystem built on trust. That trust was broken when Ankara chose the Russian S-400. It was broken again by Erdogan’s embrace of Hamas, his threats against Israel, and his use of anti-Israel incitement as a pillar of his regional identity.
Erdogan has repeatedly taken what the West offers and used it to expand his room for manoeuvre. He trades with Moscow, pressures NATO allies, threatens Greece and Cyprus, courts Islamist movements, and then asks Washington for another prize. Rewarding this pattern would be a serious mistake.
For Israel, the issue is existential. Israeli air superiority is not a luxury. It is how a small country surrounded by threats prevents wider war. It allows Israel to strike Iranian weapons convoys, deter Hizbullah, monitor Syria, defend its skies, and keep hostile armies from believing they can change the map by force. Weakening that edge by arming Turkey would invite dangerous regional aggression. Editorial here

 

 

David M. Weinberg criticises American and European leaders for appeasing Turkish President Erdogan at the Ankara NATO meeting, highlighting recent U.S. moves to supply $700 million worth of fighter jet engines to Turkey and to consider reinstating the country into the F-35 programme.

Erdogan is a direct adversary to Western and Israeli interests:

He openly attacks the U.S. as a “declining hegemon” and an “imperialist sponsor of terrorism,” aligns closely with Russia, China, and Iran, and occupies territory in Cyprus.

Erdogan  hosts Hamas operations, coordinates militarily against Israel, and publicly calls for Israel’s destruction. Just this week, he repeated the wild claim that the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey was organized by “the genocidal, occupying, and expansionist ideology called Zionism.”

Western leaders are failing to recognize these dangers. Article here

 

 

THE US/Iran Memorandum of Understanding

 

Tom Tugendhat : While Tehran views the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as an ideological victory to project regional power, sceptical observers warn it will inject unprecedented funding into Iranian terror groups. Critics point to past sanctions relief under the Obama administration to argue that newly available funds will inevitably be weaponized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to finance proxy militias and conduct lethal international plots. Ultimately a wealthier Iranian regime will become more violent, forcing global national security services to require more resources to counter escalated hostile state activities and threats.Article here (paywall)

 

 

Catherine Perez-Shakdam: The U.S.-Iran memorandum fundamentally fails by excluding the Iranian people, who should be at the very centre of any serious diplomatic agreement. Instead of holding Tehran accountable, the deal overlooks a regime that operates on systemic coercion and fear, routinely jailing journalists, crushing protests with live fire, and executing political opponents. Ultimately, a diplomatic document that reduces citizenship to obedience and renders the suffering of everyday human beings invisible cannot be considered a triumph of statecraft. Article here

 

 

Framework Agreement between Israel & Lebanon

 

Lt.-Col. (ret.) Orna Mizrahi: The implementation of the framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon faces significant obstacles because a weakened but capable Hizbullah refuses to disarm and Iran is willing to disrupt the ceasefire to preserve its influence. Enforcing the deal will require major reforms and a stronger strategic posture from the Lebanese Armed Forces, who have historically avoided confronting or violently clashing with Hizbullah. For Israel, however, the agreement provides crucial formal recognition by the Lebanese government and strategically offsets the negative implications of a separate U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding. Article here

 

 

 

The US & Hamas

 

Khaled Abu Toameh: The Trump Administration is making a big mistake by engaging in negotiations with Hamas – as well as Iran. These negotiations legitimize them as political actors and, for Hamas, only strengthen their standing among Palestinians. Reports that senior U.S. officials have been holding direct meetings with Hamas representatives come only days after Hamas successfully crushed anti-Hamas demonstrations in Gaza on June 26.
Instead of debating whether Hamas should disarm, negotiators now appear to be debating how much of its military capability it should be allowed to keep. That is exactly how terrorist organizations manipulate diplomacy. The latest Hamas delegation to Cairo arrived not to announce its surrender but to present new demands. In short, Hamas, while remaining fully armed, continues to dictate conditions. It is the behaviour of a movement convinced that time is on its side.
Instead of legitimizing terrorist groups that openly seek Israel’s and America’s destruction, the U.S. should insist on the full implementation of its own peace plans – each with a firm deadline – beginning with Hamas’s unconditional disarmament and removal from power. Article here

 

Israel’s Defence

 

U.S. Army Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Ernest C. Audino: The Logic of Forward Defence after Oct 7.

Strategic depth provides adequate reaction time between sensing a threat and acting on it. And it provides sufficient land area to deploy and array friendly forces before committing them to combat.
Without the high ground of Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights, Israel is incredibly narrow – too narrow to permit the swift internal deployment of overwhelming combat power against any compelling external threat.
(With) the technological developments of the past half-century, once-adequate strategic depth is no longer adequate.
The Israeli border is less than 30 km. from the Litani River in Lebanon. In the 23 years between the Israeli withdrawal from the southern Lebanon security zone and the Oct. 7 war, the area south of the river became saturated with Hizbullah missiles, artillery, mortars, anti-tank guided missiles, rockets, and drones. Every weapon was emplaced for one purpose: to kill Israeli civilians.
Re-securing this area as a buffer is therefore imperative. The same logic applies on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Article here

 

 

Amb. Alan Baker: Every territorial withdrawal Israel has undertaken – whether in the Sinai following the 1956 Suez crisis, and pursuant to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, in Syria in the 1974 Israel-Syria Disengagement Agreement, in southern Lebanon in the late 1980s, and in Gaza in 2005 – has been accompanied by security and demilitarization arrangements, monitored and supervised in order to prevent hostile forces from embedding themselves along Israel’s borders.
Yet these various security and demilitarization arrangements, dependent on foreign forces and UN approval, proved to be totally inadequate to prevent violations of the demilitarization requirements.
As long as a real and immediate danger continues to exist along Israel’s borders, and as long as Israel’s security continues to face ongoing threats from neighbouring territory, Israel is fully justified in insisting on security zones and demilitarized areas under its monitoring and supervision.
Insistence by Israel on such ongoing presence and supervision is a prerequisite for any hope of regional stabilization and an essential requirement to ensure Israel’s justified and proven right to ensure its security in accordance with its internationally acknowledged rights to defend itself and its people. Article here

 

 

 

Wall St journal Editorial:  An effort by Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) to strip a provision on U.S.-Israel co-operation from the 2027 National Defence Authorization Act was recently ruled out of order.
It would expand U.S.-Israel cooperation in missile and drone defence, anti-tunnelling, cyber warfare and AI.
“We need to compete with China,” says Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies.
“That requires learning from beleaguered democracies like Ukraine, Taiwan and also Israel, which is the best in the world in some areas of defence tech.”
Israel excels at going from concept to fully funded combat capability – a U.S. weakness. Bowman rues the seven years the Pentagon took to adopt Israel’s Trophy system to defend U.S. tanks.  The rising anti-Israel obsession is a gift to U.S. adversaries. Editorial here (paywall)

 

 

BDS Hypocrisy

 

Loay Alshareef: I am an Arab. I am a Muslim. And I have spent years trying to understand the movement that calls itself BDS, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel. I still don’t.

I understand grievances. I understand the pain of a conflict that has cost lives on every side and broken too many families. What I do not understand is a movement that insists it advances justice by demanding that human beings reject the very things that heal them, feed them, protect them and connect them. Here is the uncomfortable truth that BDS will never print on a placard. If you truly boycotted everything Israel has given the world, you would have to dismantle a large part of modern life.  Article here