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A photo shared by Israel’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Yossi Shelley, caused an uproar after he posted a picture of himself donning tefillin on Friday. The ambassador later removed the post following sharp criticism from Israeli security officials who said the photo constituted a serious breach of security protocol.

In the image, Shelley was seen wrapped in a white tallis and wearing tefillin. He had written: “Today in Abu Dhabi, I have the privilege of praying for the safe return of all the hostages, for the well-being of our brave soldiers, and for peace and security across the entire region.”

Security experts, however, immediately raised alarms, warning that the background details of the picture could potentially expose the exact location of the Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi. Such information, they noted, could place the mission at risk, especially amid growing threats from Iranian-backed terror groups, including the possibility of drone attacks.

Kan 11 reported that Israeli security sources called the ambassador’s actions a “serious violation” of security procedures. The report added that officials in the United Arab Emirates themselves were angered by the posting of the photo.

In response to demands from Israel’s security establishment, Shelley quickly deleted the picture from his account.

{Matzav.com Israel}

An Israeli defense official said the Israeli Navy struck a power plant south of Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa, this morning, with local media reporting large explosions that knocked several generators out of service.

Channel 14 media personality Yinon Magal on Sunday slammed the conduct of the police and the police commissioner towards the left-wing protests across Israel and called it a “disgrace.” “The conduct of the police is, of course, a disgrace,” Magal wrote on his X account. “Because when Chareidi people block a road, the police step on them as if they were cockroaches and break their bones.” He added in a direct accusation against the police commissioner: “Except that with Police Commissioner Danny Levy, there are those who are allowed to block a road and those who are not allowed to. Shameful.” Despite the police announcement on Sunday morning that thousands of police officers would be deployed across the country beginning at 6:00 a.m., in practice a handful of demonstrators at each junction managed to block central traffic arteries with relative ease. The police refrained from clearing the protesters in the first hours of the protest and only began to arrest rioters toward noon, allowing highways to be blocked for several hours. (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The controversy over National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit to the prison cell of terrorist Marwan Barghouti continues to generate heated reactions in Israel and abroad. Responding to the backlash, Ben Gvir doubled down last night, declaring: “The days of leisure in Israeli prisons are over. There is a master of the house, and he’s no pushover.”

Ben Gvir’s remarks came after strong criticism from Arab media outlets, Palestinian officials, and even members of the Knesset. In his statement, the minister lashed out at his opponents, saying: “I hear the left’s whining — ‘this angers Hamas’ — about pictures of Barghouti, the vile murderer they want as the next ‘Palestinian’ leader. I want to remind them: for years you sold us illusions, that if we just appeased Hamas, avoided upsetting them, gave them money, workers, and free passage of goods, they would somehow turn sweet and harmless, and the world would love us. Those days are over. In the Middle East, deterrence is what brings results, not fantasies.”

Reports in Haaretz quoted Barghouti’s relatives as saying they were “shocked at the change in Marwan’s appearance, his exhaustion, and the hunger he is enduring.” According to Ynet, family members expressed fear “that Marwan will be executed inside his cell on Ben Gvir’s orders.” Barghouti’s son Qassam claimed: “There is a direct threat from Ben Gvir on my father’s life. We fear for him. He has been assaulted by prison guards several times since October 7.”

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Authority condemned the visit as a “direct threat” to Barghouti’s safety. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry described it as “a dangerous escalation and a blatant violation of international conventions,” urging urgent international intervention. PLO Executive Committee Deputy Chairman Hussein al-Sheikh wrote on X: “Ben Gvir’s threat to leader Marwan Barghouti in his cell is the peak of psychological, moral, and physical terror against the prisoners, and a severe violation of humanitarian and international conventions. This represents an unprecedented deterioration in the occupation’s policies toward Palestinian prisoners, which requires immediate intervention from international institutions to protect them.”

Inside the Knesset, Arab lawmakers joined the chorus of condemnation. MK Ayman Odeh wrote: “Every time I see the vile behavior of the fascists, I see both weakness and stupidity. They are weak and stupid, very weak and even more stupid.” He continued: “When the world watches this footage, they will see another face of the ugliness of the occupation: Itamar Ben Gvir as a terrorist in a tie, tormenting Marwan Barghouti in solitary confinement under even harsher conditions.”

Odeh added: “But one fact is certain: evil, by nature, is weak against a people fighting for its freedom. The Palestinian people will defeat the occupation and every one of the Ben Gvirs.”

His party colleague, MK Ofer Cassif, went further, predicting a reversal of roles: “The day is not far off when the pathetic, hollow Kahanist will be behind bars, and Barghouti will be leading the independent Palestinian state. Very soon.”

{Matzav.com Israel}

Recordings broadcast by Israel’s Channel 12 revealed former Military Intelligence Directorate head Aharon Haliva insisting that the catastrophic failures of October 7 require nothing less than a sweeping reorganization of Israel’s defense system.

The tapes captured Haliva making controversial remarks about the large number of Palestinian deaths, chastising new cabinet members for their lack of experience, and reviewing discussions about prewar efforts to eliminate senior Hamas figures Yahya Sinwar and Muhammad Deif.

Reflecting on the broader conflict, Haliva said, “We are the best army in the world, we are the best country in the world,” as he spoke about the fighting across multiple arenas and Israel’s overall state.

Responding to accusations that the “beepers” system was his creation, Haliva dismissed the charge, saying, “Nothing is because of me. It is not about me, it is not even about people. It is something much deeper, over many years.” During the war, the term “beepers” became a nickname for the urgent paging alerts that summoned personnel and units.

Haliva, who previously commanded the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate (AMAN), said the Hamas assault of October 7 “demands a much deeper correction. It is not a matter of changing one person. Can we replace the chief of staff and everything will be fine? I oppose the view that this was an accident. What happened requires dismantling and reassembly.”

Addressing one of the central intelligence shortcomings, Haliva admitted, “One of the hardest problems before October 7 was the belief that intelligence was omnipotent. It is not just arrogance, it is deeper.”

He added, “When I was asked at 50th anniversary events for the Yom Kippur War whether this could happen again, I said yes. I know what happened at Pearl Harbor, I know what happened on 9/11, and I know what happened in 1973. I am telling you today, it can happen again.”

According to him, his objective in the aftermath of the war was to ensure that such disasters would occur “once every fifty years to once every hundred years.”

Haliva pushed back against arguments that warnings on the night of October 6 should have triggered full-scale mobilization, saying the entrenched belief that intelligence would always provide clear alerts made it unrealistic to react to every signal. “Keeping 300,000 reservists on duty every day” was not feasible, he explained, describing intelligence gathering as “a crazy puzzle” with constant, disconnected pieces. Reservists, he stressed, are Israel’s backbone, and their mass call-up comes at enormous social and economic cost—one that is justified only when an attack is considered imminent.

The recordings also indicated that prior to October 7, the Shin Bet had already been working with his directorate on plans to eliminate Hamas’s top leaders.

“I was told, on the last slide of my visit, that after the holidays we were opening a joint reorganization with Shin Bet to collect intelligence on Deif and Sinwar in order to kill them, because every time we prepared a plan they moved, and you have to re-collect on them,” Haliva said, naming Muhammad Deif, the Qassam Brigades’ longtime military chief, and Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s head in Gaza.

Perhaps the most inflammatory remarks came when Haliva stated, “The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations. For everything that happened on October 7, for every person on October 7, 50 Palestinians need to die. It does not matter now if they are children. I am not speaking from revenge. I am speaking to future generations. They need a Nakba from time to time to feel the price. There is no choice in this crazy neighborhood.” The Arabic word Nakba, meaning “catastrophe,” is the Palestinian term for the 1948 war and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Haliva also described the hours immediately before the attack. He said that overnight, his aide contacted him once about “an unusual development” being handled by Southern Command and its operations officer, and assured him he would be woken again if necessary. “There are Shin Bet documents from that night that say, ‘In our assessment, the quiet will be maintained.’ Everything is documented,” Haliva said, while arguing that the real issue was the larger strategic concept, not one missed signal.

He portrayed IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi as hyper-cautious, saying, “not a negligent person, he is paranoid, God help us.” Haliva explained that calling an 8:30 a.m. assessment on October 7 reflected that “everyone feeding him intelligence gave him the sense there was an unusual development, not something immediate.”

Haliva lashed out at some of the less experienced figures in Israel’s current cabinet. He criticized National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, remarking, “What do you expect such a person to do? Learn. This is a serious profession. Start learning intelligence, operational plans, capabilities, munitions, and other relevant topics. Smotrich did not know what ‘Nukhba’ was,” he said, referencing Hamas’s elite fighters. “Today, they explained they did not know there was starvation of hostages. How much intelligence do they read? How many briefings do they receive? How many deep security discussions on Gaza did they hold? Check.”

When asked whether Israel’s policy rested on his own claim that Hamas had been deterred, Haliva rejected the suggestion. “This prime minister is very attentive, the most attentive person in the world. He listens, he reads. You can also say he is very timid, so he would be alarmed by other things. He does not rush to wars; he does not rush to strike. He had doubts. All of that is fine. But in the end, in the test of results, everything failed.” While he did not explicitly name Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the leaked excerpts, Israeli media linked the remarks to him.

The recordings sparked fury among bereaved families. Sheli Mashal-Yogev, whose daughter Libi Cohen-Meguri was killed at the Nova music festival near Re’im on October 7, voiced outrage in an interview with Kan News.

“Since when did taking responsibility become a fig leaf? What is taking responsibility? Take blame,” she said. “He showed not a drop of anguish. We are the ones in anguish.” Mashal-Yogev said she replayed the report twice and could not sleep: “He says the Shin Bet failed, the government failed, the army failed. Where are you? Thousands were murdered. Libi is buried, and I am tormented. He says, ‘I took responsibility,’ and goes out with a fat pension?”

She continued, “Do not claim responsibility and a minute later fly abroad. Sit humbled in my living room and explain yourself,” adding, “The word ‘responsibility’ does not absolve you. You are guilty that my Libi is buried. Take the blame upon yourself. You say ‘the IDF erred in a years-long concept.’ You are the concept.” She emphasized that accountability extends beyond Haliva alone: “We are not absolving the government, the Shin Bet, the police, or the chief of staff. They are all guilty. No one has moved.”

{Matzav.com}

Israel’s Health Ministry reported the country’s second death of a young child from measles. The victim, a one-and-a-half-year-old boy, fell ill at home for several days before being brought to the emergency department of a hospital in Yerushalayim. He had not been immunized with the measles vaccine, which is part of the standard childhood vaccination plan.

Medical personnel attempted to resuscitate him, performing CPR during the ambulance transfer and continuing efforts once he arrived at the hospital. Despite their attempts, the boy could not be saved and his passing was confirmed.

Officials explained that this comes just days after another toddler, also unvaccinated, succumbed to complications of the virus. That child had been dependent on an ECMO machine for weeks before ultimately dying earlier this week.

Since measles began spreading in Israel around April, health authorities say that by Thursday, August 14, 2025, there have been 526 confirmed cases, of which 209 remain active. Yet, the ratio of hospitalizations and fatalities compared to total reported infections suggests that the actual scale of the outbreak is larger than official numbers indicate. Typically, in developed countries, about nine people per 1,000 measles cases require hospitalization, and one per 1,000 dies.

The greatest concentration of patients is in Yerushalayim and Beit Shemesh, with most severe cases involving children who have not received vaccinations.

As of Thursday, 19 children under six years old remain hospitalized, two of them in intensive care. One of those is still attached to an ECMO machine. On Wednesday, doctors were unable to save another unvaccinated two-year-old, who died after battling the disease.

Measles, a highly infectious virus, generally begins with fever, exhaustion, runny nose, and rash, but it can quickly escalate into dangerous and sometimes fatal complications.

The Health Ministry’s regular vaccination program calls for two shots—one administered at the age of one and the second given in first grade. Because of the outbreak, the ministry has instructed clinics in high-risk regions to move up the timing of the second dose. Additionally, in outbreak centers such as Yerushalayim, Beit Shemesh, and Bnei Brak, an extra early dose is being recommended for babies between six and twelve months old.

The Ministry appealed to the public, stating: “If you feel unwell, avoid attending crowded events. In case of need, coordinate your arrival at a clinic or emergency room and inform the medical staff. Vaccination saves lives.”

Parents can book appointments for the measles vaccine through the Health Ministry’s *5400 hotline or by contacting their local health fund.

{Matzav.com}

Three people were killed and eight others wounded when multiple gunmen opened fire inside a Brooklyn restaurant early Sunday morning. The incident occurred just before 3:30AM at Taste of the City Lounge, located at 903 Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said officers rushed to the scene after receiving reports of shots fired inside the establishment. The victims who were killed were identified as men ages 27, 35, and another whose age has not yet been confirmed. Eight additional victims were transported to nearby hospitals; their conditions have not yet been released. No arrests have been made, and police say the suspects remain at large. An investigation is ongoing.

Mahmoud Khalil, the well-known agitator with a long record of anti-Israel activity, surfaced once again in New York City this past Shabbos. Speaking outside the New York Public Library during a major demonstration, he quoted an Al Jazeera reporter who was also tied to Hamas and addressed the crowd gathered for the anti-Israel event.

Several thousand demonstrators filled the area, raising placards that carried messages such as “Stop starving Gaza,” “Stop killing journalists,” and “Defeat imperialist/Zionist genocidal war-makers.”

Khalil, age 30, positioned himself prominently on the steps of the library and delivered remarks lasting about seven minutes. His speech revolved around Anas al-Sharif, who was killed last week by an Israeli strike in Gaza. Israeli officials have stated that al-Sharif led a Hamas terror cell, a claim rejected both by him during his life and by Al Jazeera.

In his address, Khalil referred to what he described as al-Sharif’s final statement and proclaimed to the roughly 2,000 people present—among them at least one participant wearing the green headband of Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades—“The time is now, the bridges towards liberation start with us.”

Following the speeches, the activists left the library and marched uptown toward Columbus Circle, chanting their slogans as they moved through the heart of Manhattan.

Khalil, who once studied at Columbia University and gained attention there for organizing anti-Israel protests, has a history of attracting controversy. Earlier this year, in March, he was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on claims that he posed a national security risk. He was freed in late June when a judge decided that his detention had violated constitutional protections.

The activist has also been harshly criticized for his public comments defending the atrocities of October 7, 2023, the attack that triggered the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. In an interview with the New York Times on August 6, he characterized the massacre as a “desperate attempt” by Hamas to “just break the cycle” of Palestinian suffering. He would not call it a “mistake,” though he conceded that “targeting civilians is wrong.”

Not long after his release, Khalil resurfaced at another protest in June. Video circulated on social media captured him among the crowd, which shouted chants such as “Palestine will live forever” and “from the river to the sea.”

{Matzav.com}

Hundreds of chassidim from various kehillos, including Vizhnitz, Boyan, Gerrer, and others, held a protest outside the Beit Lid military prison on Motzei Shabbos to protest the continued detention of bnei yeshivos, including three avreichim and four bochurim. At the height of the protest, in a surprising move, Meir Yonah, the yeshivah bochur who was arrested on Erev Shabbos by the traffic police and transferred to military prison, was released. He was received with wild dancing by the crowd. The Chassidim dressed him in a shtreimel, and the Zidichover Rebbe danced with Yonah in the center of the circle. Afterward, Yonah described his arrest and the conditions in the military prison: “After I showed the officer my identification, he told me, ‘You’re a draft dodger from the army; you’re going to prison.'” “I responded, ‘Why prison?’ I’m a yeshivah bochur.’ The military police arrived, handcuffed me, and put me in prison without air conditioning, without water. You can’t breathe there; it was very difficult. I suffered, but I’ll stay strong.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group on Friday vowed not to disarm, saying last week’s decision by the national government to remove the Iran-backed group’s weapons by the end of the year serves Israel’s interests. Naim Kassem said the government’s decision to remove “the defensive weapons of the resistance, its people and Lebanon during an aggression” facilitates the killing of “resistance fighters and their families and evict them from their land and homes.” He said the government should have instead “spread its authority and evicted Israel from Lebanon.” Speaking in a televised speech to mark a Shiite religious event, he added “the government is serving the Israeli project.” Kassem added if the ongoing crisis leads to an internal conflict, the government is to blame. He noted that Hezbollah and its Shiite ally, the Amal movement, did not ask their supporters to protest in the streets to give way for more discussions. The Amal movement was one of the main armed groups in Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and is now a powerful political party led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. But, he said if a decision is taken to protest in the streets, protesters “will be all over Lebanon and head to the U.S. embassy.” He did not elaborate. Hezbollah’s weapons have been a major dividing point in Lebanon with some groups that are opposed to Hezbollah saying only the state should be allowed to have arms. The Lebanese government voted last week for a U.S.-backed plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year and implement a ceasefire with Israel. The small Mediterranean country has been under international pressure to get Hezbollah to lay down its arms since the 14-month war with Israel that ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November. However, the Hezbollah leader said his group will only discuss a national defense strategy over its weapons once Israel withdraws from Lebanon and stops its almost daily airstrikes that have killed scores of Hezbollah terrorists since the war’s end. “The resistance will not hand over its weapons as the aggression continues and occupation remains,” Kassem said, adding that the group will fight a long battle if needed. The Israel-Hezbollah war weakened the Iran-backed group and left much of its military and political leadership dead. The war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, displaced over 1 million and caused destruction that the World Bank said will cost $11 billion in reconstruction. After the war ended, Israeli forces stayed in five locations in Lebanon that provide vantage points or are located across from communities in northern Israel, where about 60,000 Israelis were displaced during the war. (AP)

Israeli leftists launched a general strike across the country early Sunday morning against the government’s plan to continue to fight Hamas in Gaza and not capitulate to the terror group’s demands to continue ruling Gaza and its plan to carry out another October 7-style massacre in Israel. In moves very similar to the pre-October 7 protests against the Netanyahu government and the judicial reform plan, protesters gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv and later blocked major roads, including the Ayalon, Highway 1, Highway 6, and Highway 4. A number of relatives of hostages and bereaved families have spoken out against the protest, which was organized by left-wing groups, including the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum. Many politicians also slammed the protest as playing into enemy hands. Finance Bezalel Smotrich published a post on X in which he wrote, “The people of Israel are waking up this morning to a harmful campaign that plays into the hands of Hamas, buries the hostages in the tunnels, and tries to get the State of Israel to surrender to its enemies.” Finance Committee chairman Chanoch Milvitzky (Likud) wrote, “Pro-Hamas riots have begun. Jews, Israelis who are burning the country in an attempt to prevent the destruction of Hamas. There have already been such people in our nation throughout history—we overcame them, and so it will be this time as well.” Like the pre-October 7 protests, many groups, institutions, and businesses joined the strike, including the Medical Association, local authorities, universities, the high-tech headquarters, and the Manufacturers Association. Protests are scheduled to take place at junctions throughout the country. During the day, the main protest is taking place at Hostages Square until 8 p.m., when a mass protest is scheduled outside the Kirya IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The Israeli Navy carried out an attack on a power station in Sanaa early Sunday morning, causing power outages in several areas of the Houthi-controlled capital. Yemeni media reported that there was “an attack in the area of the Haziz power station in the south of the city.” Shortly after reports of the attack, Israeli security officials confirmed that Israel was behind the attack. The Israeli Navy carried out an attack on the Houthi-controlled Hodeida port in Yemen in June.     (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

ICE officers arrest Guatemalan national Erick Garcia-Monroy shortly after he leaves his home in Norwalk, Connecticut.

According to Politico, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and/or NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte may accompany Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Washington on Monday for his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, amid European concerns that Trump might not extend Zelensky the same “hospitality” he showed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

Explosions were reported early Sunday morning in Yemen near Sanaa’s main power station, with the cause still unknown.

WATCH: ICE conducts a raid at a Anaheim, California car wash.

Thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators flooded Midtown Manhattan today, calling to “globalize the intifada” – an open incitement to violence against Jews worldwide.

Today’s GHF Operational Update: Nearly 125 million meals have been distributed to date, with over 1.5 million meals delivered today alone.

Three states are sending National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. under JTF-DC and President Trump’s D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force: West Virginia 300–400, South Carolina 200, and Ohio 150, joining 800 already deployed by the D.C. National Guard at the Department of Defense’s request.

A family of 12—parents and 10 children—has left the Lev Tahor cult in Guatemala and arrived in Israel, Ynet reported Thursday. They received support from social services and government agencies, were first housed in Guatemalan welfare facilities, and, upon arriving in Israel, were transferred to an absorption center.