Cohen Says No Deal Halts Gaza Strikes; the Board of Peace Says Israel Was Briefed Extensively

A member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet went on Army Radio on Sunday to say there had been no cabinet discussion of the Gaza plan in 72 hours. A Board of Peace official told Times of Israel the opposite.

Energy Minister Eli Cohen, who sits in the security cabinet, told Army Radio on Sunday 2 August that there is no agreement to stop Israeli attacks in Gaza, that “there has not been a cabinet discussion [on the Gaza plan] in the past 72 hours,” and that “any armed actor who operates, threatens, that is involved with terrorism, we will eliminate him.” He added that Israel would “of course give the opportunity” for the plan to work, and told NBC News he was “very skeptical” Hamas would disarm. Cohen also said Israel already controls 70 percent of the Strip and should take full control — a figure that is his claim, carried by Reuters in his voice, not an independently established one. The strikes continued through Saturday and Sunday, three days after Hamas signed the US-backed disarmament plan on Thursday 30 July.

The toll moved through Sunday: Reuters, reported by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Steven Scheer, had at least nine killed; Times of Israel later said 17, with its own URL still reading “9”; NBC News settled on 13. NBC put the cumulative figure at at least 1,230 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since the October ceasefire, citing Gaza health authorities who do not separate combatants from civilians; Hamas does not publish its losses. The IDF said an apartment strike in Deir al-Balah targeted two Nukhba commanders and that strikes in Gaza City and Jabalia hit “military operatives,” with the military still reviewing. Reuters separately reports Mohammed Dahlan saying Jared Kushner told him Israel would halt its strikes — one Palestinian interlocutor’s account of a private conversation, contradicted on the record by Cohen the same day.

Assessment: The dispute is institutional, not rhetorical. A Board of Peace official told Times of Israel Israel had been briefed “extensively” as the disarmament deal came together, while Nickolay Mladenov said the team is “working around the clock to de-escalate” and another official conceded “we’re in a tense moment.” Both claims can be literally true — officials can be briefed while the cabinet never convenes — and that gap is precisely where Israeli ministers are operating. Distrust the rolling casualty figure as a correction; it is a live count from three newsrooms working different hours. Distrust Dahlan’s account most of all: he has an interest in a halt existing.

Israel’s “Left in the Dark” Story Rests on Unnamed Officials and an Unidentified Israeli Outlet

Times of Israel carried the claim that Jerusalem learned of Trump’s cancelled Iran strike from the Truth Social post itself, attributing it to “the Israeli outlet” without naming which. The testable number in the file is 60 days.

Two Times of Israel liveblog entries carry the Israeli side of Saturday’s cancellation: that Israel had planned to join the US in striking Iranian energy sites and was left in the dark when Trump called it off after Qatari mediators reported Tehran had agreed to open the strait; and that Israel found out from the Truth Social post — the same post asserting that “the Country of Israel joins me in this commitment” — with US Central Command also not told in advance. That second entry is attributed to “the Israeli outlet,” unnamed in the material available to this desk. ToI’s live index adds an unattributed official line: “We were left in the dark on nixed Iran attack; we don’t know what Trump’s endgame is.” ToI also notes Iran denies both asking Trump to hold off and agreeing to divide control of Hormuz.

The number worth tracking sits in a ToI report filed Sunday 22:03 by Lazar Berman with staff and agencies: a deal said to be in the works to revive the US–Iran memorandum and open Hormuz for 60 days without fees. Trump, on Air Force One on Sunday, said he acted at the request of Gulf allies, called a deal “imminent,” and said negotiations begin Monday 3 August. CNN’s 1 August live file named Qatar and Pakistan among mediators in contact with Steve Witkoff, with an Iran–Oman arrangement to restart commercial traffic as the immediate objective, attributed to three people familiar; the same outlet had reported planned strikes “as soon as this weekend” citing two officials, and Trump at Friday’s cabinet meeting saying “we will be hitting them very hard.”

Inside the Israeli press, the sourcing question surfaced explicitly. In its 1 August liveblog, Times of Israel flagged that a claim Israel was on “highest alert” carried no sourcing, and that Haaretz, citing CBS, also reported “high alert” — while noting the IDF had issued no such information. The same liveblog records an Israeli assessment that Iran would fire ballistic missiles at Israel even if the IDF did not initially take part in a renewed American offensive. Haaretz’s own newsfeed entries, timestamped 2 August at 01:47 and 01:53, had negotiations starting Monday and a Hormuz-plus-denuclearisation deal “imminent,” and Trump calling off the attack after Tehran sought more time.

Assessment: An Israeli outlet publicly marking another Israeli outlet’s war-alert claim as unconfirmed by the military is the more durable item here. Alert levels in the fifth month of a war are being sourced to an American broadcaster rather than to the IDF, and ToI said so in public. On the cancellation itself, hold the line between the post, which is documented, and how Jerusalem learned of it, which rests on one unidentified outlet and unnamed officials. The 60-day fee-free opening is the only claim in the file that will be falsified or confirmed by shipping data rather than by briefers.

Haaretz’s Political Correspondent Says Netanyahu Staged the Leak of His Own Conscription Promise

Yossi Verter argues quotes from a “closed meeting” were engineered to look like a break with the ultra-Orthodox, and that the cancelled Iran strike is why the meeting happened at all.

Yossi Verter’s column, filed at 03:51 IDT on Monday 3 August under the headline “Netanyahu Creates Alternative Reality to Lure Back Voters,” reads the leaked quotes from a closed Netanyahu meeting — including a promise of “a comprehensive conscription law that will pass immediately” once he forms his next government — as staged to manufacture the appearance of a rift with the Haredi parties. Verter’s opening ties it to the Iran file: had Trump not called off the war, Netanyahu would not have needed the meeting. This is signed opinion by Haaretz’s chief political correspondent, not reporting on what was said; this desk could not establish when the meeting took place, who leaked it, or which outlet published the quotes first. Israelis vote for the 26th Knesset on 27 October 2026.

The polling backdrop has not moved in the last 48 hours — no survey was published in that window. Steptoe’s 29 May assessment placed the Bennett-led opposition bloc at 58 to 60 seats and Netanyahu’s coalition at 50 to 52, neither at 61. JNS in mid-July had the coalition in the low-to-mid 50s and the opposition in the mid-to-high 50s, with one exception: Channel 14, whose polls have shown the coalition crossing 60 and reaching as many as 65. Elsewhere on the opposition side, Times of Israel reported on 1 August that Naftali Bennett, in an interview, called Qatar a more dangerous enemy than Iran and again vowed to declare Doha an enemy state — three days before Trump credited Qatari mediation with stopping the strike on Iran.

Assessment: Two things to watch. A partisan broadcaster’s polling running 10 to 13 seats from the field is not noise; it is a parallel electoral reality that will be cited as evidence of momentum regardless of what Midgam or Camil Fuchs publish next. And Bennett’s Qatar position, formed when Doha was a Hamas financier in Israeli political shorthand, now has to survive Doha’s role as the channel that produced a Hormuz offer Washington accepted. Verter’s thesis is unfalsifiable by design — a staged leak and a real rift look identical from outside the room — which is why it should be read as evidence of how Netanyahu’s critics are pricing him, not as reporting.