Knesset votes to extend mandatory army service to 32 months, though IDF had sought 36

Live Now

Mandatory period currently stands at 30 months for men after it was previously shortened * Herzog tells Saudi TV: It is my dream to see peace with Riyadh

17 July 2026, 12:30 am

Edit

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

IEA chief: World should be worried about energy security if US-Iran fighting continues

The head of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol says that if the US and Iran do not come together to improve flows of oil through the Strait of Hormuz soon, the world should be worried about energy security.

“Oil security is still a critical issue,” Birol tells a Council on Foreign Relations event. “We should be worried, and I am worried if the situation does not improve in the next few weeks.”

ICC staffer recounts sex abuse allegations against Karim Khan in CNN interview

A junior lawyer at the International Criminal Court repeats her allegations that prosecutor Karim Khan had non-consensual sexual contact with her, in a CNN interview that is her first public media appearance.

Khan, 56, denies any wrongdoing. His lawyer, Sareta Ashraph, tells CNN he denies “any form of sexual contact, relationship, consensual or non-consensual” with the alleged victim.

The woman, identified only as Sarah, does not comment on the ICC’s investigations into Khan, but tells CNN he showed escalating behavior of touching and groping her, recounting a time she said he touched her intimately while she was pretending to be asleep.

“There is no way for something to be consensual when you have such a power disparity,” Sarah tells CNN.

Diplomats running the ICC’s oversight body ​have decided Khan did have an inappropriate sexual relationship with a junior staff ​member and should be fired, according to documents seen by Reuters. The court’s 125 member states are set to vote on July 24 on a proposal to dismiss him for alleged sexual misconduct.

Khan’s supporters claim he has become a political target for seeking arrest warrants in 2024 ​for Israeli officials over the war in Gaza.

In the interview, Sarah denies rumors she worked for the Mossad spy agency, saying she underwent extensive security checks in order to be able to work closely with Khan and his predecessor.

“If ever there was even a hint of suspicion that I was a state agent of any kind, I would have been dismissed,” she says.

US military says Marines board a vessel in the Gulf of Oman for ‘verification’

US Marines boarded a vessel in the Gulf of Oman for “verification,” US Central Command says in a post on X.

The military adds that the US has also redirected three commercial vessels trying to run its US blockade of Iranian ports and disabled another to ensure compliance with the blockade.

Add ToI as a preferred source on Google

US strikes on Iran hit bridges and an airport, reports state media

US strikes overnight hit an airport and two bridges in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media reports.

“Three explosions were heard around the airport and at least one American enemy projectile hit Iranshahr airport,” in the southeast, state television IRIB says on Telegram.

Another report speaks of airstrikes on two bridges near the village of Kohourestan and the Shor River in Bandar Khamir County.

Herzog to Saudi TV: It is my dream to see peace with Riyadh; I respect Trump, Vance; ‘heart aches’ for every innocent Palestinian civilian killed

President Isaac Herzog sits down in his Jerusalem office with the Saudi Al Arabiya TV station, telling the outlet that is his dream to see peace between the two countries.

“I have great respect for Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman,” says Herzog of the Saudi leader. “The thing that we want most in Israel is to see rapprochement between the nations.”

He says he hopes to “meet the Saudi Arabian leadership officially in due course.”

Herzog says he is “not surprised” that the US-Iran MOU broke down, given Iran’s behavior in the past.

At the same time, he says he trusts US President Donald Trump fully, and believes in a diplomatic solution to the conflict, but “we had legitimate concerns, we raised them, and now you see it in front of your eyes with the Iranian behavior.”

“I respect President Donald Trump, and I respect Vice President JD Vance,” Herzog stresses, after Vance blamed Israel for trying to undermine talks with Iran.

He says he is “happy that the US reaction is firm and clear.”

Herzog also says that his “heart aches” for every innocent Palestinian civilian who is killed, and says that the people of Gaza deserve a good life.

IDF says siren heard in Kiryat Shmona was a false alert that sounded in Lebanon

A siren that was heard in the northern border city of Kiryat Shmona a short while ago was a “false alert” activated in an area of southern Lebanon where Israeli troops are operating, the military says.

There was no actual attack on Israeli forces.

Knesset votes 43-12 to extend mandatory IDF service for males to 32 months

The Knesset has approved a bill extending the mandatory service period for male soldiers to 32 months.

Forty-three lawmakers support the bill, while 12 oppose it and one abstains.

The bill was advanced over the objections of the IDF, which repeatedly urged the government to extend the mandatory service period for men back to 36 months, from the current 30.

Mandatory service for male soldiers was once 36 months, before being slashed to 32 months in 2015. It was shortened again to 30 months in 2020, before being extended back to 32 months a year later, with the planned reduction to 30 months postponed by three years.

In August 2024, amid the war, the mandatory service period was automatically shortened again to 30 months.

The first cohort enlisted under this shorter service period was supposed to be discharged in January 2027, which would have exacerbated the military’s manpower shortages.

Under the legislation, the mandatory service time will be shortened to 30 months in June 2029.

The IDF has repeatedly said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits — including 7,000 combat troops — due to the strain on its standing and reserve forces caused by the yearslong multifront war.

If the 30-month service period had remained in place until January 2027, the IDF says it would have found itself short thousands more soldiers.

Iranian media signals US strikes hit several southern areas near Gulf

Iranian media reports indicate that the latest American round of strikes hit targets in Bandar Abbas, Ahvaz and Bushehr in the country’s south, near the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf.

Also reportedly among the targets are a bridge in Bandar Khamir — near Bandar Abbas — and the Iranshahr airport further north.