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Turkey’s Support to Hamas Hinders Improvement of Relations with Israel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Reuters)
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Turkey’s Support to Hamas Hinders Improvement of Relations with Israel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Reuters)

The Israeli government has not positively responded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s initiative to improve political relations between their countries, revealed political sources in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

“Turkey’s relations with Hamas challenges the improvement of political relations between both countries, even though economic relations between them are flourishing and security ties are good,” a high-ranking Israeli minister said.

Political relations between their governments are bad, he added on condition of anonymity.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Erdogan said: “We would like to bring our ties to a better point.”

However, he insisted that the Palestine policy remains a red line. “It is impossible for us to accept Israel’s Palestine policies. Their merciless acts there are unacceptable,” he stressed.

Officially, Israel has not responded to Erdogan’s statements.

However, the high-ranking minister said the situation with Turkey was completely unlike the four Arab countries that recently signed peace agreements with Israel, because of Turkey's support for Hamas.

The situation with Turkey is completely different from the four Arab countries that recently signed peace agreements with Israel, because of Ankara’s support for Hamas.

"The fact that Hamas' headquarters is located in Turkey is very problematic. It severely impedes everything," the minister said. As long as Turkey's approach to Hamas doesn't change, relations will not improve, he stressed.

In the past weeks, Azerbaijan has offered to mediate between Israel and Turkey with an aim to help improve diplomatic relations between them.

Last week, Turkey appointed Ufuk Ulutas, 40, as a new ambassador to Israel after a two-year absence.

Meanwhile, Pini Avivi, an Israeli who is keenly familiar with the Turkish president and is a former ambassador to Turkey between 2003-2007, told Israel Hayom on Sunday: "I wasn't surprised by Erdogan's desire for better relations with Israel, but by the fact that he said it out loud, which is incredibly significant."

Avivi continued: "In Erdogan's constellation of considerations, he is led by two central tenets – the first is 'neo-Ottomanism' and defending all Muslims. The second is to continue maintaining with Israel, to the greatest extent possible, not the past security relationship and joint military exercises of the past, but at least the whole matter of economic relations, which have grown in scope from $1 billion to $5.5 billion."

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World

Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo Now Deadliest in Country's History

People in protective gear lower into a grave the coffin containing the remains of Jacques Lobo Dhena, who died of Ebola, during a burial service in Bunia, Ituri province, eastern Congo, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Dieudonne Dirole)
People in protective gear lower into a grave the coffin containing the remains of Jacques Lobo Dhena, who died of Ebola, during a burial service in Bunia, Ituri province, eastern Congo, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Dieudonne Dirole)
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Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo Now Deadliest in Country's History

People in protective gear lower into a grave the coffin containing the remains of Jacques Lobo Dhena, who died of Ebola, during a burial service in Bunia, Ituri province, eastern Congo, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Dieudonne Dirole)
People in protective gear lower into a grave the coffin containing the remains of Jacques Lobo Dhena, who died of Ebola, during a burial service in Bunia, Ituri province, eastern Congo, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Dieudonne Dirole)

The Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 2,325 people, government data showed on Sunday, surpassing the toll from the 2018-2020 outbreak to become the deadliest in the country's history.

Congo's public health institute said in its latest report that confirmed cases had risen to 4,945, including 101 new cases detected in the previous 24 hours, according to Reuters.

The outbreak, Congo's 17th, was already the biggest in the country's history in terms of number of cases - a milestone reached in late July.

The latest government data shows that the total number of deaths has surpassed the 2,299 deaths recorded in Congo's 2018-2020 outbreak, which was previously the country's worst on record.

There are now 4,945 confirmed cases, the data showed.

Three months after it was formally announced, the outbreak is now dwarfed only by ⁠West Africa's 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in which 28,616 cases and 11,310 deaths were recorded across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.

It took nearly five months from the declaration of that outbreak to hit 1,000 deaths, whereas Congo's current outbreak hit 2,000 deaths in less than three months.

No Treatments Available for Rare Ebola Species

The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which has no approved vaccines or treatments. The outbreak has gained momentum since it was declared on May 15, as weak health infrastructure, community resistance and instability hinder the effort to identify and respond to cases.

The proportion of people dying from the outbreak after a confirmed infection, known as the case fatality ratio, has risen from about 20% in ⁠early June to 46%, according to government data, meaning nearly one in every two confirmed cases is now fatal.

Experts say the trend does not indicate the virus has become more lethal. Instead, it points to persistent shortcomings in surveillance, case detection and access to care.

“Normally, as an outbreak progresses, the case fatality ratio should fall as contact tracing improves and patients are identified and treated earlier,” said Thomas Parisch, a ⁠public health specialist recently deployed to Democratic Republic of Congo with Medecins Sans Frontieres.

“Instead, we're still seeing many cases detected very late, when treatment is less likely to succeed, with many identified only after they die in the community,” he added.

A small number of experimental vaccines and therapies are ⁠being evaluated, while global health authorities assess whether existing Ebola treatments could offer protection. Evidence so far is limited to animal studies.

The outbreak earlier spread to neighboring Uganda, but authorities there managed to limit deaths to two and confirmed cases to ⁠20 before declaring an end to the outbreak in that country last month. Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, living or dead. It can cause fever, vomiting, diarrhea and, in severe cases, internal and external bleeding.

World

Trump Orders Pentagon to Cut Back Military Exercises with South Korea

US President Donald Trump listens as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump listens as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks (Reuters)
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Trump Orders Pentagon to Cut Back Military Exercises with South Korea

US President Donald Trump listens as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump listens as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump on Sunday instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” 10 days of joint military exercises with South Korea as they were about to get underway, citing the cost of the drills and Seoul's refusal to take part in actions against Iran.

Hours before exercises were scheduled to begin, Trump said on his Truth Social site that although it was too late to cancel the drills entirely, he was “not happy” that the US had previously agreed to participate and highlighted his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to Reuters.

“These exercises are not only costly... but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” Trump wrote.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff told Reuters that the drills started on Monday as scheduled, but declined comment on Trump's comments. The country's presidential office and defense and foreign ministries did not immediately respond on a public holiday in Seoul.

The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises are scheduled to run from August 17 to 27, with about 18,000 South Korean military ⁠personnel participating. The drills are expected to include operations to counter drones, disrupt GPS signals and cyberattacks to adapt to North Korea's evolving capabilities, officials said last week.

Trump also pointed to South Korea's stance on the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.

“While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, 'No thanks!’” Trump wrote.

A Pentagon spokesperson referred questions on the matter to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for more information on next steps for the drills.

Pyongyang routinely denounces the US-South Korean exercises as preparations for an invasion. North Korea last Wednesday fired a ballistic missile from its eastern coast towards the Sea of Japan, the South Korean and Japanese militaries said, six days after a similar North Korean short-range ballistic missile launch on August 6.

US military officials have said that North Korean troops, who have fought alongside Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, have gained experience from the conflict, including the growing use of unmanned systems, electronic warfare and cyber operations.

Ukraine said last week that North Korean-made missiles were used in a Russian ballistic missile attack on a steel plant in ⁠Zaporizhzhia that killed seven workers and forced a production halt, with Russia's Zircon hypersonic missiles also used in the attack.

A high-ranking US Northern Command official, Lieutenant General Joseph Jarrard, last week warned that North Korea had successfully tested intercontinental ballistic missiles with “enough boost to deliver a nuclear payload anywhere in North America,” complicating US homeland defense efforts.

World

Iran Offers $30,000 Bounty for Killing, Capturing US Soldiers

A man waves an Iranian flag before a political billboard at Valiasr Square in central Tehran on August 8, 2026. (AFP)
A man waves an Iranian flag before a political billboard at Valiasr Square in central Tehran on August 8, 2026. (AFP)
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Iran Offers $30,000 Bounty for Killing, Capturing US Soldiers

A man waves an Iranian flag before a political billboard at Valiasr Square in central Tehran on August 8, 2026. (AFP)
A man waves an Iranian flag before a political billboard at Valiasr Square in central Tehran on August 8, 2026. (AFP)

Iran's military announced on Sunday that it was offering a bounty equivalent to $30,000 for killing or capturing US soldiers, with the reward doubled if carried out by a woman.

Army chief Amir Hatami said the plan had been drawn up following "the large number of requests" to participate in the financial support, according to the IRNA state news agency.

There has been no known deployment of US ground forces in Iran during the Middle East war, with the exception of a rescue mission in April for a downed American pilot.

Hatami did not provide any details on where or when the killing or capturing of US soldiers was expected to take place.

"Anyone who kills or captures and hands over an invading American military personnel will receive a reward equivalent to $30,000 or 5 billion tomans from Iran's Army," Hatami said, using an informal unit equivalent to 10,000 Iranian rials.

"Courageous Iranian women who carry out such an action will receive double the reward," he added.

The war between Tehran and Washington began on February 28 after the United States, joined by Israel, attacked Iran. It was followed by an April ceasefire after nearly 40 days of fighting, and a June framework for peace talks that later collapsed.

Iran and the United States have since traded fire sporadically, with fighting mainly centered in southern Iran and around the Strait of Hormuz.