Defence Minister Katz said the government approved a budget exceeding NIS1 billion (about $330m) to build Jewish settlements in the West Bank and new roads near the Negev. The Defence Ministry said the plan is part of a government push to expand West Bank settlements and will be implemented in phases from 2026 to 2029. The settlement issue remains a major obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace, dating to Israel’s 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank.

July 16 — Demingli shares hit the daily limit-down for a second straight session. The company said Q2 QoQ net profit fell mainly due to higher costs: increased R&D spending, capacity expansion-related charges and higher share-based compensation. Management said it is building inventory strategically to support rapid business expansion and has raised customer-acquisition and certification-related spending as enterprise storage, embedded storage and memory businesses accelerate. Those products have long certification and testing cycles and require large upfront R&D and sales investment, which depresses near-term earnings but are described as long-term strategic investments that began to yield positive contributions in Q2 and should support future performance.

International Grains Council cuts 2026/27 global corn production forecast by 4 mln tonnes to 1.306 bln tonnes.