HEADLINES
Black Sea tanker strike threatens regional shipping
Israel kills Hamas funds network chief Khrizim
Etihad to launch Ben-Gurion Tel Aviv hub

The time is now 4:01 AM in New York, I'm Noa Levi and this is the latest Israel Today: Ongoing War Report.

In Regional Impacts, drone attacks were reported on three tankers in the Black Sea on Thursday near Turkey's northern coast, the shipping agency Tribeca said. The James II, a Palau-flagged vessel in ballast, was about 50 miles north of the Turkeli area at the time of the incident. The Altura and Velora, Sierra Leone-flagged and also in ballast, were attacked in a nearby area while performing a ship-to-ship operation. Coastal safety boats were dispatched to assist, and all crew members were reported to be in good condition. Moscow and Kyiv have frequently targeted each other's ports and tankers since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, though neither side claimed responsibility for the latest attack. The Turkish transport ministry was not immediately available for comment due to the Eid holiday. Separately, Washington is distracted: Iran war has complicated plans for an international force in Gaza. None of the five countries that pledged to send troops for the International Stabilization Force for Gaza proposed by President Trump’s Board of Peace have contributed significant troops or funding.

In the Conflict with Iran and its Regional Proxies, the IDF said it killed Ihab Khrizim, a leader of a central Hamas funds transfer network, in a strike on Khan Yunis. Khrizim oversaw the transfer of millions of dollars to Hamas's military wing and continued to violate the ceasefire in recent months, enabling attacks against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians, according to the military. The strike also killed Hamas unit commander Muhammad al-Habash, who participated in manufacturing weapons for the group. The IDF and Shin Bet had earlier confirmed the Tuesday night assassination in Gaza City of Hamas’s newly named military chief, Mohammed Ouda, with other senior Hamas commanders—northern Gaza brigade commander Ezz al-Din Beik and Gaza City deputy brigade commander Imad Aslim—reported as killed in separate operations, though final confirmation remained pending. In southern Lebanon, footage and reporting described Israeli Air Force strikes hitting targets in Tyre and surrounding areas, described by some observers as a hard blow for Hezbollah.

In Israeli Domestic Politics, the Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara asked the High Court of Justice to intervene in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appointment of Major-General Roman Gofman as the next Mossad chief, arguing that renewed approval by the senior appointments committee cannot be relied upon and that key documents and testimony from the Ori Elmakayes affair were not properly addressed. The case centers on claims that Elmakayes, then a minor, was used in 2022 by IDF Division 210 as part of an influence effort; Elmakayes was later arrested, indicted, and released to house arrest, with the indictment canceled in 2023 after claims he had been operated on by the division, a point the attorney-general says was later proven correct. The High Court had previously issued orders related to the matter, complicating the appointment process. Five people were arrested in West Bank counterterrorism operations conducted by IDF with Shin Bet intelligence, in Jenin, Zeita, and the Kalandiya–El-Bireh area; the arrests included a would-be attacker in Jenin, a Hamas-affiliated operative in Zeita, and three detainees in Kalandiya–El-Bireh, including an armed inciter and an individual involved in assembling explosives. In political moves, Netanyahu allies were reported to be pursuing disqualification of the United Arab List, Ra’am, and its chair Mansour Abbas from future elections, in a legal effort to designate the Southern Faction of the Islamic Movement in Israel as a terrorist organization, a move that would effectively bar Ra’am from running. Separately, a Netanyahu adviser faced indictment over a classified leak in the Bild affair, with the attorney-general accusing him of disclosing and possessing classified information and destroying evidence, including intent to harm state security.

In Israeli Economy and Business, Airis Labs, an Israeli AI defense-tech company, emerged from stealth with 60 million dollars in total funding, including a 31 million dollar Series B led by PSG Equity, with participation from TLV Partners, Stepstone Group, Redseed Ventures and angel investors including Eyal Waldman, Jeff Horing, Yasmin Lukatz and David Chinn. Airis Labs turns unstructured visual data from smartphones, social media, digital forensics, security and body cameras, and drones into machine-readable intelligence, defining a new category called User-Generated Field Intelligence, designed to ingest all visual sources—unstructured and user-generated content—into a single intelligence stream used by government organizations worldwide. Etihad Airways announced plans to launch a new hub at Ben-Gurion as UAE flag carrier schedules 42 weekly flights on its Tel Aviv route, expanding to six daily services between Ben-Gurion and Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport. The TLV–AUH route is set to become the most frequently traveled in Etihad’s network, with over 100,000 passengers between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi in the first three months, about a 30 percent year-over-year increase, and roughly 70 percent of passengers using Abu Dhabi as a stopover to Asia. Etihad also outlined sample prices for high-demand routes, with Bangkok round trips starting around 974 dollars without a checked bag and around 1,014 dollars with a bag.

Thank you for tuning in to this Israel Today: Ongoing War Report update.
I'm Noa Levi. Stay safe and informed.
Keep in mind that this AI-generated report may contain occasional inaccuracies, so consult multiple sources for a comprehensive view. Find the code and more details in the podcast description.

SOURCES
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