The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they happened.

The IDF says it struck several Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon a short while ago.

The targets included weapon depots and a rocket launcher, according to the military.

The presence of the Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon was a violation of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon, the IDF adds.

צה״ל תקף לפני זמן קצר תשתית טרור, מחסני אמצעי לחימה ומשגר של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון.

הימצאותם של מחסני אמצעי לחימה, תשתית הטרור והמשגר שהותקפו היוו הפרה של ההבנות בין ישראל ללבנון.

צה״ל ימשיך לפעול על מנת להסיר כל איום על מדינת ישראל pic.twitter.com/MlMOqwwT32

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 20, 2025

Likud MK Tally Gotliv fully stands by her conduct yesterday, when she berated a court guard who was ejecting her from a courtroom at the instruction of a judge as an “animal” and a “Judenrat,” referring to Nazi-installed Jewish administrations tasked with implementing Nazi policies during World War II.

Despite being roundly condemned by Likud ministers, including Justice Minister Yariv Levin, and by many other politicians and officials, the firebrand lawmaker posts a video of the incident, claiming the guard was “blatantly violent” toward her and that the order to eject her was “given without authority.”

After it became clear that the guard has served hundreds of days in reserve duty since the current war began, Gotliv accuses him of “whining in the press.”

“I heard you’re very offended because I called you an ‘animal.’ Such a poor guy, after you treated me and my body like an animal. What you did isn’t at all different from average gaslighting,” she claims.

Texas cannot require public schools in Houston, Austin and other select districts to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, a judge says Wednesday in a temporary ruling against the state’s new requirement.

Texas is the third state where courts have blocked recent laws about putting the Ten Commandments in schools.

A group of families from the school districts sought a preliminary injunction against the law, which goes into effect on Sept. 1. They say the requirement violates the First Amendment’s protections for the separation of church and state and the right to free religious exercise.

The ruling prohibits the 11 districts and their affiliates from posting the displays required under state law. The law is being challenged by a group of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist, and nonreligious families, including clergy, who have children in the public schools.

Texas is the largest state to attempt such a requirement, and US District Judge Fred Biery’s ruling from San Antonio is the latest in a widening legal fight that’s expected to eventually go before the US Supreme Court.

“Even though the Ten Commandments would not be affirmatively taught, the captive audience of students likely would have questions, which teachers would feel compelled to answer. That is what they do,” Biery, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, writes in the ruling that begins by quoting the First Amendment and ends with “Amen.”

Biery’s ruling includes extensive historical references, quotes that range from the Founding Fathers to evangelist Billy Graham, and even a Rembrandt painting of Moses holding the stone tablets alongside an image of actor Charlton Heston in the film “The Ten Commandments.”

A broader lawsuit that names three Dallas-area districts as well as the state education agency and commissioner is pending in federal court. And although Friday’s ruling marks a major win for civil liberties groups, the legal battle is likely far from over.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he plans to appeal the ruling, calling it “flawed.”

“The Ten Commandments are a cornerstone of our moral and legal heritage, and their presence in classrooms serves as a reminder of the values that guide responsible citizenship,” the Republican says in a statement, echoing sentiments from religious groups and conservatives who support the law.

Texas has a Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds and won a 2005 Supreme Court case that upheld the monument.

A video released from Gaza City on Monday — and circulating on social media in the past few hours — by a group in Gaza calling itself “Ahrar Bayt al-Maqdis” claims it has received humanitarian aid in the form of food through donations from Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

The group is not known, but its name suggests it may be a Muslim Salafi group operating in Gaza.

It isn’t clear if the claim is true and how the Yemeni goods would have been snuck into the Strip.

#غزة | مجموعة أحرار بيت المقدس عبّرت عن تقديرها البالغ وشكرها العميق لجماعة أنصار الشريعة في #اليمن (#AQAP) (#القاعدة في شبه الجزيرة العربية) على المساعدات التي قدّمتها إلى مدينة غزة، كما ترحّمت في الوقت ذاته على مؤسس #تنظيم_القاعدة #أسامة_بن_لادن.#غزه_تموت_جوعاً #حميد_القوسي pic.twitter.com/aIurAnEFL0

— حميد القوسي (@Hamid_alqawsi) August 19, 2025

Wealthy American members of the Satmar Hasidic movement are donating $7 million to Haredi institutions in Israel that pledge not to receive funds from the government, Channel 13 reports.

The Satmar, a large Hasidic movement based in New York, is anti-Zionist. The donations come as Haredi leaders are closing ranks against IDF arrests of ultra-Orthodox men who are evading the draft.

Earlier today, Haredi protesters blocked major highways in central Israel in protest of the draft actions.

Health care executive Joel Landau, also known as Yoeli, is one of some 20 Hasidic donors who has pledged the funds, Channel 13 reports. The outlet also notes that he supports the protest movement and has reportedly urged Haredi institutions in the past to stop taking Israeli government money.

Channel 13 reports that the donors have already donated $5 million to such institutions and were due to donate $2 million more tonight.

A man detained at a Tel Aviv-area police station was found dead in his cell earlier today.

Hebrew media reports indicate the man took his own life and was later found by officers at the Glilot station in Herzliya.

Tel Aviv District police chief Haim Sargarof has ordered an investigation into the circumstances of the detainee’s death, police announce. His body was transferred to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for further examination.

Police have arrested a 36-year-old man suspected of making threats on the life of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, after he allegedly asked former chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef for halachic approval to kill her.

According to Hebrew media reports, Yosef told Religious Affairs Ministry director-general Yehuda Avidan that a man had approached him with a request to issue a din rodef against Baharav-Miara — a religious decree applied to grave offenders giving people an okay to stop them, even if this requires killing them.

Avidan contacted the Jerusalem District police regarding the incident.

Earlier today, police launched an investigation after being made aware of a letter “containing an explicit threat to harm a public figure.”

Within hours, investigators located the suspect at his home in southern Jerusalem and arrested him on the spot, police say.

Officers plan to bring him tomorrow to court to request an extension on his remand, allowing them to continue their investigation into the letter.

Someone branded as a “rodef” is thought to be plotting to or in the process of murdering someone, which in traditional Jewish law gives bystanders the go-ahead to kill them.

The label became infamous in Israeli political history after Yigal Amir, the assassin of then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, cited it as a religious justification for his actions.

Baharav-Miara has come under fire from the current government, which voted earlier this month to dismiss her from her post, though the High Court immediately froze the move.

The legal official has also infuriated ultra-Orthodox leaders by ordering an end to subsidized daycare funding for families of draft dodgers, requiring the military to send thousands of enlistment orders to yeshiva students and pushing for the arrests of those who don’t comply.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says its observers and Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers located a Hezbollah tunnel near the southern Lebanese town of Qoussair.

UNIFIL says in a statement that the tunnel was “approximately 50 meters” (164 feet) long, and that “several unexploded ordnances” were also found in the area.

“In line with resolution 1701, the findings were handed over to the LAF,” the observer force says, referring to a UN-backed ceasefire resolution between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group.

“UNIFIL continues to patrol, monitor and work with the LAF to help bring back stability and security to the area of operations,” it adds.

Benny Gantz, chair of the centrist Blue and White-National Unity party, is considering rejoining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to shore up votes for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal with Hamas, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

Gantz’s party joined Netanyahu’s right-wing government following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and he was one of three voting members of a newly formed war cabinet. But his party left the government in mid-2024 due to differences with the prime minister.

Now, National Unity may rejoin as Netanyahu decides whether to accept a 60-day truce that would reportedly free 10 living hostages. Hamas has agreed to the deal but Netanyahu’s cabinet has yet to meet to discuss it.

Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, vehemently oppose a ceasefire and support the government’s decision earlier this month to conquer Gaza City.

Ben Gvir resigned when Israel agreed to a ceasefire in January, later returning to the government when it resumed the war. Smotrich recently told relatives of hostages that he would resign if Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire, Channel 12 reports.

Gantz’s faction has undergone a string of defections and now controls seven seats in the Knesset while still coordinating with an eighth member who recently left the party.

The party’s numbers would not replace the 13 MKs controlled by Smotrich and Ben Gvir, and would not give Netanyahu a majority in the 120-member body.

A poll by Kan found that 54 percent of Israelis support a deal to free the hostages, see the IDF retreat, end the war and free Palestinian prisoners, while 28% support the conquest of Gaza City.

Israel has “work” to do in winning over young people in the West as polls show collapsing support, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admits to a UK-based podcast in an interview.

Asking Benjamin Netanyahu The Tough Questions

Watch the full episode with @netanyahu, right here on X. pic.twitter.com/R4J13j0uny

— TRIGGERnometry (@triggerpod) August 20, 2025

Protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza have become increasingly common in capitals across the West, attracting large numbers of young people.

A recent Gallup poll has also shown that only 6% of Americans aged 18-34 have a favorable opinion of Netanyahu and just 9% approve of Israel’s military action in Gaza.

On the “Triggernometry” podcast, Netanyahu is asked whether Israel could lose the backing of Western governments once “Gen Z” — those born between around 1997 and 2012 — assumes power.

“If you’re telling me that there’s work to be done on Gen Z and across the West, yes,” he responds.

But he says opposition to Israel among Gen Z stems from a wider campaign against the West and claims there is an orchestrated plot against Israel and the West, without saying who is behind it.

Netanyahu tells the podcast, which bills itself as promoting free speech with “open, fact-based discussion of important and controversial issues,” that US President Donald Trump, who has offered Israel ironclad support since returning to the White House in January, “has proven an exceptional, exceptional friend of Israel, an exceptional leader.”

“I think we’ve been very fortunate to have a leader in the United States who doesn’t act like the European leaders, who doesn’t succumb to this stuff,” he adds, referring to countries including France and the UK that have vowed to recognize a Palestinian state.

The International Criminal Court denounces new US sanctions against two more of its judges and two prosecutors, calling them a “flagrant attack” on its independence.

The four include Judge Nicolas Guillou of France, who is presiding over a case in which an arrest warrant was issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Canadian judge Kimberly Prost and deputy prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal were also hit. Prost was involved in a case that authorized an investigation into alleged crimes committed during the war in Afghanistan, including by US forces.

“These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution,” the court says in a statement.

The ICC says it stands “firmly behind its personnel and victims of unimaginable atrocities.”

It says it will “continue fulfilling its mandates, undeterred” and “without regard to any restriction, pressure or threat.”

Four other judges and the court’s prosecutor had already been placed under sanctions.

France expresses dismay at a US decision to impose sanctions on four more International Criminal Court judges or prosecutors, including one from France, over actions against Israeli leaders and US citizens.

A foreign ministry spokesman says the sanctions, including against French judge Nicolas Guillou, are “in contradiction to the principle of an independent judiciary.”

British foreign minister David Lammy says a widely condemned Israeli settlement plan would, if implemented, constitute a breach of international law and risk dividing a future Palestinian state.

The E1 project, which would bisect the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, received the final go-ahead today from a defense ministry planning commission.

“If implemented, it would divide a Palestinian state in two, mark a flagrant breach of international law and critically undermine the two-state solution,” Lammy says in a post on X, calling on the Israeli government to reverse the decision.

Police are considering summoning senior politicians to give testimony in the so-called Qatargate probe that has ensnared several advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Channel 13 news reports.

The report, which doesn’t cite sources, says the unnamed politicians spoke to people involved in the affair and gave them information about Qatar and the war, without knowing their words were being used for allegedly illicit purposes.

Summoning the politicians would require the approval of the State Prosecutor’s Office and the attorney general.

Additionally, the report says police are preparing for the option of no questioning ever being conducted of pro-Qatari American lobbyist Jay Footlik, who is suspected of directly financing Qatargate suspect Jonatan Urich’s alleged activities.

Urich, along with Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein, allegedly spearheaded a pro-Qatari public relations campaign to cast the Gulf state in a positive light ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, hosted in Doha, and reportedly continued his PR work for Qatar well after the October 7 attack sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, despite the Gulf nation’s strong ties to the terror group.

Urich, Feldstein and a third adviser to Netanyahu, Yisrael Einhorn, are suspected of multiple offenses tied to their alleged pro-Qatar lobbying, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, all while working for the prime minister.

A German court says that a Nazi concentration camp memorial has the right to refuse entry to those wearing keffiyehs.

The higher administrative court in the eastern state of Thuringia rejected a request from a woman to be allowed entry to the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial while wearing the scarf.

According to local media reports, the woman was turned away when she attempted to attend a commemorative event marking the 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation in April while wearing a keffiyeh.

She then petitioned the courts to allow her to return to the memorial for another commemorative event this week while wearing a keffiyeh.

The court found that the memorial was within its rights to deny her entry, pointing to the woman’s declared aim of “sending a political message against what she saw as the (memorial’s) one-sided support for the policies of the Israeli government.”

“It is unquestionable that this would endanger the sense of security of many Jews, especially at this site,” the court said.

The court said the woman’s right to freedom of expression was outweighed in this case by the memorial’s “interest in upholding the purpose of the institution.”

The Buchenwald memorial faced criticism last month when an internal document was leaked, which described the keffiyeh as “closely associated with efforts to destroy the state of Israel.”

The director of the memorial, Jens-Christian Wagner, said subsequently that the document contained “mistakes” and would have to be reworked.

On the question of the keffiyeh, he told the NDR broadcaster last month that it was not per se “a forbidden symbol” at the memorial.

“However, when it is used together with other symbols… to relativize Nazi crimes, then we would ask people to remove those symbols,” he said.

Around 340,000 inmates, including Jews, Roma, homosexuals and Soviet prisoners of war, passed through Buchenwald and its annex, Mittelbau-Dora, both located near the German city of Weimar.

Around 56,000 people were killed at Buchenwald — some executed, others starved or worked to death — and a further 20,000 killed in Mittelbau-Dora, where inmates worked on the Nazis’ V1 and V2 rockets.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told families of Israeli hostages that he would resign from the government if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approves a ceasefire deal with Hamas, Channel 12 reports.

“If the Prime Minister goes through with the deal, I will make difficult decisions and resign from the government. I told the prime minister that,” the far-right leader reportedly said.

Meanwhile, Channel 12 reports that a senior member of Israel’s negotiation team told the families that officials are seeking to leverage Hamas’s weakened position to reach a more comprehensive agreement, without giving up the possibility of securing the narrower deal Hamas has already accepted.

Pressed by a relative on whether such an outcome is realistic, the official replied that it “also depends on Hamas.”

When asked about the danger to the hostages amid Israel’s military operations in Gaza, the negotiator acknowledged the risks: “We are careful, but there is a risk to the hostages — [their safety] is not guaranteed.”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum has expressed frustration that Netanyahu has yet to convene the security cabinet to discuss the matter, after Hamas agreed earlier this week to a partial hostage release deal. Channel 12 reports that for now, the prime minister has decided not to respond to Hamas’s agreement to the deal.

Ultra-Orthodox demonstrators affiliated with the so-called Jerusalem Faction clashed earlier with motorists while blocking several highway intersections in central Israel.

Footage posted on social media shows protesters and commuters throwing water at each other. In an incident near the military prison at Beit Lid, Haredim yell “shiksa” (a derogatory Yiddish moniker for a non-Jewish woman) and pour water on a woman who kicks a protester.

תיעוד מבית ליד: המפגינים החרדים קראו לעברה של נהגת "שיקסע" ושפכו עליה מים, היא יצאה מרכבה ובעטה באחד מהם @daniel_elazar pic.twitter.com/i4defREWpa

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) August 20, 2025

Earlier this week, the group called on its adherents to take to the streets today as part of a “day of rage” in protest of the increasingly frequent arrests of Haredi draft evaders.

A hardline ultra-Orthodox group numbering some 60,000 members, the Jerusalem Faction is considered among the most conservative of Haredi factions and regularly demonstrates raucously against the enlistment of yeshiva students.

Another video from the scene shows Haredim surrounding a car trying to get through their blockade. It manages to pass, but one protester climbs onto the roof and rides the car down the highway.

תיעוד די מטורף של צלמנו עידו ארז: מפגין עולה על גג רכב שחוצה את המפגינים, ומתיישב עליו תוך כדי נסיעה. pic.twitter.com/GRA3u16ROV

— שילה פריד???????? (@shilofreid) August 20, 2025

The mainstream ultra-Orthodox leadership has called for an international day of prayer against conscription tomorrow. Prayer rallies are expected across Israel, with mass gatherings in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem slated to take place.

However, according to Hebrew-language press reports, mainstream leaders of the so-called Lithuanian branch of non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodoxy have backed away from issuing a public call for protest, going back on commitments to their Hasidic counterparts.

The Bnei Brak religious council, a taxpayer-funded government body, has been listed as one of the backers of an anti-enlistment event tomorrow morning.

The event, set to take place at the central city’s Yeshua L’yehuda yeshiva, will consist of ideological encouragement for “the holy and mighty yeshiva and kollel students in the face of the conscription decrees,” a promotion for the event states, using Biblical language to reference soldiers and other fighting men.

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer met yesterday in Paris with a delegation of senior Qatari officials to discuss the ongoing hostage-release and ceasefire negotiations, an Arab diplomat tells The Times of Israel.

During the meeting, Dermer reiterated the Israeli stance that it is only interested in a comprehensive deal in which Hamas releases all of the hostages at once and agrees to Jerusalem’s terms for its surrender from power, the Arab diplomat says, confirming a Channel 12 report.

The network also says that Israel for the time being has decided to avoid responding at all to the phased hostage release deal proposal approved on Monday by Hamas.

No security cabinet meeting has been scheduled to even discuss the proposal, which is nearly identical to the one crafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and approved by Israel last month.

Instead, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed the IDF to speed up plans to take over Gaza City.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement, says he has instructed the army to “shorten the timelines for seizing the last terror strongholds and for the defeat of Hamas,” referring to the IDF’s upcoming offensive in Gaza City.

“The prime minister expresses his deep appreciation to the reserve fighters who were mobilized and to their families, and to all IDF soldiers,” his office adds.

The IDF’s plans for the capture of Gaza City are set to be presented to Netanyahu tomorrow, according to military officials.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stresses the importance of Israel responding to the Arab mediators’ ceasefire proposal accepted by Hamas on Monday during a phone call with US special envoy Steve Witkoff earlier today, according to an Egyptian readout.

Israel has yet to respond to the phased hostage release proposal, which is nearly identical to the one crafted by Witkoff in May, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hasn’t even announced the convening of a security cabinet meeting to discuss it as Jerusalem appears intent on advancing plan to take over Gaza, asserting that it will only agree to end the war if Hamas releases all of the hostages at once and agrees to Israel’s surrender terms.

In his call with Witkoff, Abdelatty updated the US envoy on the latest developments in the ceasefire talks, stressing the need to “seize the current opportunity” to bring about an end to the war, the Egyptian readout says.

Police say routes 2, 4, 6 and 57 have reopened to traffic after hardline Haredi anti-draft protesters blocked major central Israel highways.

There is still heavy traffic in the areas, police say, advising drivers against nearing them.

Hamas is a “battered and bruised guerrilla organization” following the IDF’s latest offensive in the Gaza Strip, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin says in a press conference.

The remarks come as the IDF calls up tens of thousands of reservists for a planned major offensive in Gaza City,

“We will deepen the blows to Hamas in Gaza City, a terror stronghold… We will deepen the blows to the terror infrastructure above and below ground, and disconnect the reliance of the population on Hamas,” he says.

Defrin says the IDF “is not waiting” and has already begun preliminary operations in Gaza City, ahead of the offensive aimed at capturing the city.

“IDF troops are already taking control of the outskirts of Gaza City,” he says.

Since resuming fighting in the Gaza Strip in March, the IDF says it has eliminated over 2,100 terror operatives, including many senior Hamas commanders and other leaders in the terror group.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says 10,576 Palestinians have been killed in that time, without differentiating between combatants and civilians. Neither figure can be independently verified.

Over 10,000 terror targets were struck by Israeli Air Force fighter jets, helicopters and drones, as well as Navy vessels, since March 18, the military says.

The IDF says it has “operational control” over 75% of the Strip’s territory, which was achieved during the army’s latest offensive.

“The operational control in the area enabled the IDF to significantly expand its activity, thereby causing blows to the capabilities and terror infrastructure of the Hamas terror organization and disrupting its chain of command,” the military says.

The most significant strike carried out since March was the elimination of Mohammed Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza and brother of the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, whom Israel killed last year; Muhammad Shabana, commander of the terror group’s Rafah Brigade; and Mahdi Quara, commander of the South Khan Younis Battalion.

The three, along with other operatives, were killed on May 13 while hiding in a tunnel under the European Hospital in Khan Younis.

The IDF says it has also killed several Hamas government leaders, internal security officers, six top commanders in the terror group’s naval commando forces, and dozens of terrorists who invaded Israel during its October 7, 2023, onslaught.

According to the IDF, its offensive against Hamas in recent months “led to a blow to the combat and command capabilities of the terror organizations in the Gaza Strip” and “created favorable operational conditions for intensifying the pressure on the Hamas terror organization and causing blows to its remaining capabilities.”

“These achievements constitute the basis for the next moves of the IDF in the Gaza Strip,” the military says, referring to the upcoming offensive in Gaza City.

The IDF releases new footage showing Hamas’s attack on an army encampment........

© The Times of Israel