The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they unfold.

Police extract bound IDF soldier from West Bank town in suspected criminal incident

Police say they extracted an IDF soldier from the southern West Bank Palestinian town of Tarkumiya, where he was found bound in an incident that investigators believe is crime-related and not terror.

The suspect, a conscript from the south, was brought to a police station for questioning and is expected to be probed by Military Police.

Current round of US-led talks between Israel and Lebanon the least productive yet, sources tell ToI

WASHINGTON — This week’s round of talks between Israel and Lebanon have been the least productive to date, amid mutual frustration with the Trump administration’s decision to make a ceasefire in Lebanon part of the memorandum of understanding it inked last week with Iran, a government official and a second source familiar with the matter tell The Times of Israel.

Both Israel and Lebanon were opposed to the idea, arguing that it undermines the purpose of the channel between their two countries that Washington established in April specifically to prevent Iran from maintaining its influence over Hezbollah and Lebanon, the two sources say.

The Israeli anger at Washington has led it to be less inclined to accept US requests that it begin pulling back some of its troops from southern Lebanon, the government official says.

Lebanon meanwhile feels that it must take a harder line in negotiations with Israel to counter the notion that Iran wields greater influence over affairs in Lebanese territory than it does, the source........

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