TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s parliament dissolved early Friday after passing a marathon of bills in the last moments of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
The Knesset, which was scheduled to break for its summer recess on Friday, will not reconvene before the elections scheduled on Oct. 27.
The expected dissolution comes as Netanyahu is struggling to hold onto power ahead of the next elections as Israel grinds toward the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack that sparked nearly three years of war. Israeli polls are showing a groundswell of support for opposition parties, led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and a popular centrist former military chief.
Over the past week, the Knesset passed several controversial laws in marathon sessions as Netanyahu attempted to ram through several of his pet projects.
Earlier this week, the Knesset passed two bills that effectively halt the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men in the military in an attempt to ensure ultra-Orthodox parties join Netanyahu’s coalition in the next government.
The Knesset also recently passed several bills connected with Netanyahu’s attempts to overhaul the judiciary, including increasing government control over broadcast media and weakening the role of the attorney general. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has opposed the overhaul, and been a frequent target of Netanyahu and the Israeli right.
“We are completing a four-year term, we passed nine budgets and hundreds of bills, I thank you for the trust you placed in me, through which together we succeeded in maintaining a four-year term,” Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said as he announced the dissolution.
Completing a full, four-year term is a rare occurrence throughout Israeli history.
The last time Israel’s government fulfilled a full term without breaking for early elections was in 1988. Israel has no term limits, and Netanyahu has served more terms than any other prime minister in Israel’s history, but it is rare even for him to finish a full, four-year term.
Between 2019 and 2022, Israelis went to the polls five times. Israel holds elections on average every 2.4 years, making it second-lowest ranked country in the OECD for periods between elections, a marker of political instability, according to the Israel Democracy Institute.
Israeli lawmakers attend a parliamentary session in Jerusalem for a vote on a bill that would change the authority and responsibilities of the attorney general Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 17, 2026--
Sudanese filmmaker Saif Eldin Hamza and Egyptian creative producer Omar El Naggar have won the PixVerse Special Prize at the UN AI for Good Film Festival 2026 for Another Day, a deeply personal AI-generated film about Alzheimer's, memory, trauma, and care.
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The award was presented in Geneva on July 9, 2026, during the UN AI for Good Global Summit. The festival received thousands of submissions from around the world, with 10 films shortlisted for the final competition before Another Day was selected for the PixVerse Special Prize.
For Hamza, the film began with lived experience. Four years ago, his grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The woman who had raised him and remained a constant presence throughout his life slowly began to change, reshaping the lives of everyone around her.
"I witnessed how the disease slowly changed her and changed all of our lives as a family," Hamza said. "I made this film for her and for everyone who has a loved one living with Alzheimer's, because it is a difficult disease that requires patience, compassion, and constant care. This film is my tribute to her."
A Personal Story Told Through AI
Another Day follows Souad, a woman living with Alzheimer's who experiences the present through the unresolved wounds of the past. As her sense of time and identity dissolves, ordinary objects such as a ticking clock, a cup of tea, and a piece of gold become emotional triggers, pulling her between memory and reality.
What begins as confusion gradually becomes a painful confrontation between mother and daughter, revealing how Alzheimer's can affect not only memory, but identity, family relationships, and the emotional world of caregiving.
"I hope audiences leave the film with a deeper understanding that Alzheimer's is far more than memory loss," Hamza says. "It is a devastating disease that slowly changes a person's identity and affects everyone around them. Those living with Alzheimer's need our patience, our love, and our understanding more than anything else. They are not choosing to forget, and they should never be made to feel like a burden."
Building a Cinematic World With AI
Directed by Hamza, a copywriter and AI director, and co-directed by El Naggar, a multidisciplinary creative producer and visual storyteller, Another Day was created entirely using AI video tools.
For the filmmakers, AI was not used as a shortcut, but as a new production framework. They approached the process with the same principles used in traditional filmmaking, including performance, lighting, camera language, production design, and emotional continuity, then rebuilt those elements through AI-generated workflows.
"AI completely changed the way we think about filmmaking," Hamza says. "The biggest challenge is not generating beautiful images but maintaining a consistent cinematic world where the characters, lighting, materials, performances, and emotional reactions all remain coherent from one scene to another. That process pushed us to discover new workflows, creative solutions, and production techniques that are still largely unexplored."
The PixVerse Special Prize
The AI for Good Film Festival 2026 drew submissions from creators around the world, with ten films selected for competition from Egypt, Japan, Italy, China, Thailand, Brazil, South Korea, Belgium, and Spain.
"All the works in competition were exceptional, and this was a genuinely difficult decision," said Jaden Xie, Co-Founder of PixVerse. "We chose Another Day because of the cinematic detail and skill involved, and because it tells a deeply human story about the emotional and caregiving challenges faced by families living with Alzheimer's. We hope it brings more attention to this issue, and we look forward to supporting Saif and Omar's upcoming projects."
The PixVerse Special Prize includes a 12-month premium PixVerse membership, 50,000 platform credits, global media coverage, and full travel support for the winning filmmakers, who attended the awards ceremony in Geneva on July 9, 2026.
"For both Omar and me, this recognition is a moment of genuine gratitude and pride," Hamza said. "We share the same vision of proving that AI films can carry powerful human stories and meaningful emotions, just like any traditional film."
PixVerse at the UN AI for Good Global Summit
The PixVerse Special Prize formed part of PixVerse's broader presence at the Summit, held in Geneva from July 7–10, 2026. Returning for the second consecutive year, PixVerse hosted a workshop on the latest developments in AI video generation and supported the AI for Good Film Festival, building on a partnership that began in 2025.
PixVerse's participation in Geneva reflects its mission to make professional video creation accessible to anyone with a story to tell. Since its founding in 2023, the platform has grown to more than 150 million users across 177 countries and regions, supporting creators ranging from first-time video makers to professional filmmakers and storytellers from communities rarely represented in mainstream media.
About PixVerse
PixVerse is a global AI video generation platform trusted by over 150 million creators and enterprises across 177 countries. Founded in 2023, with teams distributed across Asia and the US, PixVerse achieved unicorn status in 2026 and is committed to making video the universal language of human expression. Its latest model, V6, advances camera control, character performance, and multi-shot native audiovisual generation across creative and commercial use cases. In January 2026, PixVerse launched R1, the world’s first real-time world model, transforming video into an infinite, continuous, and interactive stream. Following its July 2026 Series C extension, PixVerse is expanding into games, interactive worlds, and real-time entertainment.
Jaden Xie, Co-Founder and President of PixVerse, giving the opening speech at the UN AI for Good Film Festival. PixVerse's participation in Geneva reflects its mission to make professional video creation accessible to anyone with a story to tell.
The film, Another Day, was a deeply personal AI-generated film about Alzheimer's. It was directed by Saif Eldin Hamza, a copywriter and AI director, and co-directed by Omar El Naggar, a multidisciplinary creative producer and visual storyteller.
Jaden Xie, Co-Founder and President of PixVerse, and Saif Eldin Hamza, co-director of Another Day, at the award ceremony for the PixVerse Special Prize at the UN AI for Good Film Festival held in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 9, 2026.
