Here are Thursday's latest updates from the U.S.-Iran cease-fire and Israel's war with Hezbollah:
■ The Israeli military launched a wave of strikes on the city of Tyre in Lebanon, after ordering its 200,000 residents to evacuate north of the Zahrani River two hours earlier.
■ An indictment was filed on Thursday against Yonatan Urich, an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the "Bibileaks" affair; Urich is accused of providing secret information with the intent to harm state security.
■ Tehran condemned the U.S. attack on areas in Iran's Bandar Abbas, the country's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement on Thursday.
■ At least ten people were killed and 18 wounded in an Israeli strike that targeted an apartment in a building in Gaza City on Wednesday evening, Al-Arabi reported.
■ Following an Israeli evacuation order on Wednesday night, heavy airstrikes were reported across southern Lebanon, including Nabatieh, Sidon and Tyre; at least eight people have been killed, including children.
■ Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called to "destroy 10 buildings in Beirut's suburb for every drone. For every drone that harms one of our soldiers, destroy a hundred buildings," in a post on X memorializing Sergeant Rotem Yanai, 20, who was killed by an exploding drone in northern Israel on Wednesday, the IDF announced.
■ The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, an agency that forces international shippers to comply with Iranian regulations in the Strait of Hormuz, CNN reported.
■ The United Nations added Israel to the blacklist of countries that commit sexual violence in conflict zones, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations announced.
The IDF's Civil Administration announced that its forces removed an Israeli citizen from Ramallah who entered the city center in the West Bank.
An initial investigation into the incident indicates that the civilian entered the Palestinian city in her private car for recreational purposes, together with a resident of the West Bank Palestinian city of Qalqilya.
It was said that local residents who recognized the car with the Israeli license plate reported it, and that officers from the Binyamin Coordination and Liaison Command handed it over to the security forces. According to the announcement, further handling of the incident was transferred to the police's Judea and Samaria District unit.
Tehran condemns the U.S. attack on areas in Iran's Bandar Abbas, the country's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement on Thursday.
Iran also expresses solidarity with Oman after "U.S. officials' threats", Baghaei added, following President Donald Trump's threat to blow up Oman if it did not "behave just like everybody else" in regards to the control of the Strait of Hormuz.
An indictment was filed on Thursday against Yonatan Urich, an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the "Bibileaks" affair; Urich is accused of providing secret information with the intent to harm state security. This is an offense in the field of severe espionage, carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Urich, who served as a strategic adviser and creative director at Likud's campaign headquarters, was allegedly involved in leaking a classified document to the German newspaper Bild after the military censor had blocked its publication. The document was presented in a falsified way, as if it indicated that Hamas was uninterested in a deal for ending the war and releasing Israeli hostages. This was done in an attempt to rebuff criticism directed at Netanyahu.
Urich is accused of working with Eli Feldstein, the prime minister's former spokesman, to extract raw classified information from IDF databases. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said in July that "this is information classified at the highest level of secrecy which was obtained through a secret intelligence, meaning that Urich was endangering the security of the state and human life." She added, "The extraction of the classified information by Urich and Feldstein was intended, among other things, to influence public perception regarding the prime minister and to skew the discourse at that time concerning the murder of six hostages in August 2024."
Yonatan Urich at the court in Rishon Letzion, this year.Credit: Tomer AppelbaumYonatan Urich at the court in Rishon Letzion, this year.Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
Urich's defense attorneys, Amit Hadad and Noa Milstein, said the indictment is "disconnected from evidence that negates the prosecutor's thesis and shatters the claims against Urich." According to them, "The Honorable Judge President Menachem Mizrahi, who is familiar with all the investigation materials in the case, determined that there is no shred of evidence that Urich was involved in the leak."
"Instead of closing a case that has no basis, as was appropriate, the prosecution is holding on to a flawed and unnecessary case," they added. "Yonatan Urich acted lawfully, and his only sin – his work for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."
The IDF announced that it killed Ihab Khrizim, the head of a central Hamas funds transfer network, in a strike in Khan Yunis on Tuesday.
The IDF added that the attack also killed Mohammed al-Habash, a unit commander in Hamas' production headquarters, who took part in weapons manufacturing.
Israeli strikes killed at least seven Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday including five in a refugee camp and two in a car, health officials said.
Following an Israeli evacuation order on Wednesday night, heavy airstrikes were reported across southern Lebanon, including Nabatieh, Sidon and Tyre; at least eight people have been killed, including children.
On Wednesday, the IDF launched a wave of strikes on what it said are "Hezbollah command centers in the area of Tyre," two hours after issuing an evacuation order for the Lebanese coastal city's 200,000 residents.
So far, the Lebanese National News Agency has reported that two people were killed in a drone strike on a motorcycle in Tyre and six people were killed, including children, in the Nabi Sari area south of Sidon. In the Qaya'a neighborhood of Sidon, an IDF strike targeted a multi-story building inhabited by a displaced family from the south, located across from the Medical Relief Association, NNA reported.
