News Digest — 9/28/26
IDF Strikes Hezbollah After Drone Attack On Troops
The Israel Defense Forces struck Hezbollah targets in several areas of southern Lebanon in response to an explosive drone launched at IDF soldiers in the security zone overnight,the military said on Sunday morning (27th).
No injuries were reported in the drone attack.
The targets struck by the IDF included sites the Iranian-backed terrorist group used to launch explosive drones and anti-tank missiles at IDF troops.
“The IDF will continue to operate to remove immediate threats,“ the military said.
“Any use of force” from Lebanese territory against Israeli civilians or soldiers will be met with a “decisive response.” the statement warned.
“The IDF remains committed to the agreement between Israel and Lebanon,” it added.
On Saturday (26th) the IDF carried out a strike on a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the Sejoud area of Southern Lebanon, the military said.
The weapons stored in the facility, located in a mountain village some 6 miles from Beaufort Castle, were used to target IDF soldiers operating in the security zone, the IDF said.
Israeli forces remain deployed in the security zone that runs a few miles north of the Lebanese border from the Mediterranean Sea to the Mount Hermon area, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement with the Lebanese government.
Jerusalem and Beirut signed a US-brokered framework agreement on June 26, aimed at disarming nongovernmental armed forces across Lebanon, as a path toward lasting peace between the two nations. Ongoing talks have focused on the technical steps to achieve this purpose, with pilot zones designated for deployment of the Lebanese army, to test its capacity to battle Hezbollah and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.
Last week, two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded when their engineering vehicle drove over an explosive device belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The soldiers were evacuated for medical treatment, and their families were notified.
In response, the IDF struck Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas of Southern Lebanon, including observation posts and other sites used by the Iranian-backed terrorist group to plan and carry out attacks on Israeli soldiers.
(jns.org)
Netanyahu Makes Secret UAE Visit For Talks With President Bin Zayed
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a secret trip to Abu Dhabi on Sunday (27th) for talks with United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed that focused on the Iranian threat, Channel 12 reported.
Two sources confirmed that Netanyahu flew to Abu Dhabi on a private plane Sunday morning (27th) and returned to Israel that evening. Members of his delegation traveled aboard several private aircraft, according to Channel 12.
Much of the discussion between Netanyahu and bin Zayed took place one-on-one.
The Prime Minister’s Office declined to disclose further details about the meeting.
The visit took place about a month before Israel’s election and two days after Netanyahu returned from the UN General Assembly in New York.
The conversation reportedly lasted 45 minutes. No UAE official has formally denied that it occurred, while other officials have confirmed it, according to the report.
Netanyahu also secretly visited the UAE in May during Operation Roaring Lion.
The Prime Minister’s Office later discussed that trip saying, “This visit brought about a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.”
Channel 12 reported that the disclosure of the May visit was made against the UAE’s wishes and caused tensions with Abu Dhabi.
Dozens Of Israelis Trapped In Nepali Mountain Village Due To Landslides, Floods
Dozens of Israelis have been trapped since Saturday night (26th) in the Nepali mountain village of Samagaun, as extreme weather triggered avalanches, floods and mudslides across Nepal and northern India, killing at least 70 people, with dozens more missing.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday (27th) that it was working to extract the stranded Israelis, but Hebrew media reports said that due to prevailing conditions, a rescue mission was currently impossible.
According to the Israeli tourists trapped in the village, there is no electricity in the area, which is in the Himalayas at an altitude of more than some 11,500 feet.
“Every few hours we hear a huge boom, as if the ground is totally collapsing,” one Israeli tourist told the Kan public broadcaster, adding that no Israelis have been injured thus far.
“Our lives were saved by a miracle,” another told Ynet. “We have no way to go back or move forward because bridges have collapsed and roads are blocked. There is real danger to our lives, since any additional landslide could cause flooding and destroy the village.”
The Passport card travel insurance company said that it was working to assist dozens of Israeli tourists currently trapped in Nepal.
The Foreign Ministry said that Israel’s embassy in Nepal “is in contact with tour companies and local guides, and is working to locate Israelis who have not yet been reached, as well as to provide assistance insofar as possible, in efforts to move them to safe areas.
Saturday’s (26th) extreme weather events came just over a month after a devastating tsunami-like flood struck Nepal due to collapsing glaciers, which killed more than 1,400 people and left over 6,000 missing.
Nepal, which is still reeling from last month’s disaster, warned Sunday (27th) of possible additional flash floods in 49 of the country’s 77 districts, with more than half facing high flood or flash-flood risks as water levels in major rivers and tributaries continued to rise.
BBC Reviewing Inclusion of 53 Terrorists On List Of Journalists Killed In Gaza During War – Report
The BBC is reviewing the inclusion of 53 terrorists on a list published by BBC Arabic of “journalists” killed in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war, according to a Saturday report (26th) from the Telegraph.
According to the Telegraph, the 53 alleged journalists have been claimed by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations as martyrs after they were killed.
When war broke out after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, BBC Arabic published and continually updated a list of alleged journalists who were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza. The list, which was most recently updated in August 2025, consists of over 180 Palestinian journalists, including the 53 terrorists.
Ten of the terrorists were described as journalists by both BBC Arabic and English-language BBC, and the other 43 only appeared on the BBC Arabic list.
12 of them have been removed from the casualty list of the US-based organization of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) which defends the rights of journalists in combat zones.
A review conducted by the CPJ found that multiple individuals on the list belonged to terror groups and some had participated in the October 7 massacre.
Abdullah Darwish, described by BBC Arabic as a cameraman for Al-Aqsa TV, was removed from the CPJ list after photos emerged of Darwish in Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigade uniform and it was revealed that he had participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, the Telegraph wrote.
Yaqoub Al-Barsh, described by BBC Arabic as executive director of Namaa radio, was removed from the CPJ list after he too was discovered to have been a member of Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which lists him as a “martyr” online, according to the report.
An additional 20 out of the 53 alleged journalists were found to have obituaries published by terrorist organizations, including Mohammed Al-Zaq, whose obituary was written by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad; Mustafa Bakir, described by Hamas as a field commander; and Abdullah Iyad Baris, described by Hamas as a “knight” in its Khan Yunis Brigade among others, the Telegraph wrote.
The remaining 21 names listed as journalists appeared in pictures online carrying weapons and wearing military uniforms, including Ahmed Samir Muhammad Washah, who appeared in a post being trained to use a grenade launcher, and Amir Abu Odeh, who was hailed as a hero of the Al-Qassam Brigades, according to the Telegraph.
A whistleblower report from November revealed that BBC Arabic chose to “minimize Israeli suffering” in its reporting of the war against Hamas in order to present it as the aggressor.
The whistleblower claimed that BBC Arabic gave a platform to journalists who made antisemitic comments and provided multiple examples, including one man who said Jews should be burned “as Hitler did,” who appeared as a guest on BBC Arabic 244 times in a year and a half. Another, who said Jews are “devils,” appeared 522 times during the same time period.
It’s hard to conclude anything other than that BBC Arabic’s story treatment was designed to minimize Israeli suffering and paint Israel as the aggressor,” the reporter said, according to the Telegraph.
Terrorist From Abduction Of Noa Argamani, Avinatan Or on Oct. 7 Killed In Strike – IDF
A Palestinian who took part in abducting Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or during the October 7, 2023, onslaught was killed in an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip, the military and Shin Bet announced Sunday (27th).
Video of the abduction from the Nova music festival of Argamani and Or,, became one of the most widely circulated pieces of footage from the massacre. Footage showed Saher Nidal Saqr taking Argamani on a motorcycle to the Strip, as she desperately reached out to Or, who was being marched into captivity.
A strike the day before, (Saturday, 26th) in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, targeted Saher Nidal Saqr, who the IDF said was affiliated with “global jihadist organizations” and invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.
Saqr was involved in supplying weapons to Hamas during the war, and recently, he was advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians, “in cooperation with terrorist operatives from the military wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations, in systematic violation of the ceasefire agreement,” the military said.
In the Hamas led invasion of southern Israel, the attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, including 360 at the Nova music festival.
Last month, the IDF and Shin Bet acknowledged that a special operation has been established with a dedicated unit to hunt down and kill every single terrorist involved in the October 23, 2023, invasion and massacre.
How Turkey Is Forging A New Ring Of Fire Around Israel – Dr. Hay Eytan
On Aug. 18, the Israel Air Force (IAF) struck the Abu al-Duhur air base in northwestern Syria to prevent the deployment of Turkish air-defense systems on Syrian territory that could detect future Israeli airstrikes against Iran, allowing Tehran to be alerted to intercept the Israeli aircraft. The IAF was careful to conduct the strike before Turkish forces could establish a presence at the base and only acted after its message urging Syria not to allow Turkey to deploy its forces at the base went unheeded.
Behind the strike on Abu al-Duhur is a profound shift in Israeli perceptions of Turkey, due to Turkey’s increasingly antagonistic posture and its support for Hamas. Following the Turkish parliament’s closed-door “Israel session” in Oct. 2024, reports indicated that Ankara had come to regard Israel as a “national threat” to Turkey.
This shift in Ankara’s threat perception prompted significant changes in Israel’s own strategic thinking. In Jan. 2025, a commission headed by former National Security Council chief Jacob Nagel placed Turkey in the category of a “rival state with the potential to become an enemy state.”
On Oct. 7, 2023, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement that avoided any explicit condemnation of Hamas. Ankara expressed concern over the “violence” and “tension” and strongly condemned the resulting “civilian casualties,” without specifically referring to the Israeli civilians who had been targeted. The statement was issued while Israeli forces were still fighting to repel Hamas militants who had infiltrated Israeli territory.
On Oct. 25, 2023, Turkish President Erdogan declared that Hamas was not a terrorist organization, but rather a group of “freedom fighters.” Senior Turkish officials have since held frequent meetings with Hamas leaders, receiving them with a level of ceremony and public visibility normally granted to official delegations from foreign countries. On Oct. 28, 2023, at the “Great Palestine Rally” in Istanbul, which pro-government media claimed drew 1.5 million participants, Erdogan appeared wearing a scarf bearing the Turkish and Palestine Liberation Organization flags and threatened to declare Israel a war criminal.
A few weeks later, Erdogan suggested that Israel’s military operations in Gaza could eventually reach Turkey’s borders. He contended that Israeli policy was motivated by a religious belief that the biblical “promised land” encompasses parts of Turkey. Soon, Turkish media began echoing the president’s demonization of the Jewish state. Israel was repeatedly described as a “terrorist state,” “rogue state,” and “virus.”
The writer, born and raised in Turkey, is a Turkey expert at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University (Mosaic)
