In an interview with Yisrael Hayom, which will be published in full tomorrow, Minister for Community Advancement Orly Levy-Abekasis responds to criticism from left-wing voters who are disappointed with her party, Gesher. Polls show Gesher attracting virtually no support in a future election."After the first round of elections in which Gesher did not pass the electoral threshold, I wanted to leave the race," she said. "But Amir Peretz did not give up and started chasing after me to make an electoral pact with him. In the end I agreed, In the condition that Gesher remained independent in every way. But I didn't want the association with Meretz. That happened behind my back. Amir Peretz didn't want it either, but there was a lot of pressure from people within Labor and Meretz - probably with the aim of ousting Peretz. In the end, I stayed because Peretz appealed to me to do so, saying he needed me in order to remain in his position" as Labor party leader.

Today: Clear to partially cloudy, with temperatures increasing mainly inland and In higher ground, to above the seasonal average and even verging In heatwave conditions.Tomorrow: Temperatures will continue to rise.Shabbat: Temperatures will remain unseasonably high. Possibility of local rain showers in the evening in most parts of the country, together with thunderstorms. There may be flash floods in riverbeds in the South and East of the country.Sunday: Continued likelihood of thunderstorms and rain showers as well as flash flooding. Temperatures will drop.

Defense establishment determines that tunnel which penetrated into Israeli territory near Khan Yunis was intended for use by Hamas.

A demonstration was held In Tuesday outside the offices of the Gaza "ministry of infrastructure and development of refugee camps" in protest of the intention to reduce the services provided by UNRWA to Palestinians defined as "refugees".The demonstration was organized by the National and Islamic Forces, the highest coordinating body of Palestinian Arab organizations, and the People's Refugee Committees in northern Gaza.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, interviewed In Reshet Bet, insisted that the Finance Minister's demand to allow most businesses to reopen is unwise, and noted that the results of the first stage of easing the lockdown will Inly be known in 12 days' time."We're waiting to see the impact of the first stage of the easing of restrictions," he said. "That was Inly this Sunday, so we have to wait another 12 days for that before we move In to stage two. What I would want to see is more appropriate compensation for businesses that have been harmed by the lockdown, not their hasty reopening."Edelstein added that, "According to our timetable, we can start reopening elementary classes in another ten days, as long as the data support such a move. There's a difficult debate going In right now, because we don't want to see things reopening Inly to have to shut them down again. What we must avoid doing is repeating the mistakes we made after the first wave of the virus, when schools resumed studies too swiftly."

The head of the Association of Imams in France, Sheikh Hassan Shalgumi, told Kan News that the French authorities should be taking stronger action against Islamic extremism. His words were spoken in the aftermath of the beheading of a French teacher in Paris last week. The Islamic terrorist responsible was shot dead."The French government must take firm decisions to act against Islamic extremists," he said. "Why are madrassas in France allowed to transform French youth into terrorists? We have to take a much firmer stance, and condemn them."

Speaking to reporters last night outside the White House, US President Donald Trump said the decision to mute the microphone of Ine speaker while his opponent is speaking at the coming presidential debate is "totally wrong."He added that he didn't think that the debate's moderator, from NBC, would be impartial.

Iran's spokesperson at the United Nations, Alireza Miryousefi, has denied accusations from the heads of US intelligence agencies that Iran is attempting to intervene in the results of the upcoming US presidential election."Unlike the United States, Iran does not conduct itself in such a manner and does not intervene in the internal elections of other countries," he wrote in his Twitter account.