April 1: Former IDF Southern Command chief Sami Turgeman said to be in running to lead Shin Bet

Two Iranians charged with procuring US parts to build IRGC attack drones

Two Iranian businessmen have been indicted for allegedly conspiring to procure US parts to build military attack drones, the Justice Department says.

Hossein Akbari, 63, and Reza Amidi, 62, are charged with money laundering and providing material support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which the United States designates as a foreign terrorist organization.

According to court documents, Akbari is the chief executive of a company called Rah Roshd while Amidi is the commercial manager.

The Justice Department says Akbari and Amidi, who previously worked at Qods Aviation Industries (QAI), an Iranian state-owned aerospace company, are both at large.

“The defendants conspired to obtain US-origin parts needed to manufacture drones for military use in Iran and send those parts to Iran in violation of export control laws,” US Attorney John Durham says in a statement.

“The IRGC and QAI have been core players in the Iranian military regime’s production of drones, which threaten the lives of civilians, US personnel and our country’s allies.”

According to the Justice Department, Akbari and Amidi have evaded US sanctions since 2020 to procure US parts for use in Iranian-made drones, including the Mohajer-6.

A Mohajer-6 drone used by the Russian military was shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force in September 2022 and found to have parts manufactured by several US-based companies, it says.

‘You find yourself begging, and they enjoy it’: Ex-hostage Eliya Cohen says captors intentionally starved him

Released hostage Eliya Cohen speaks to Channel 12 in the first interview he has given since his release from Hamas captivity in February, on April 1, 2025. (Screen capture, Channel 12)

Former hostage Eliya Cohen, who was snatched by Hamas terrorists from the Nova music festival and held captive for 505 days, tells Channel 12 that his captors drastically increased the amount of food he was given during his last weeks in captivity after the gaunt appearance of hostages released before him sparked international outrage.

Cohen was held captive with Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, who were returned to Israel on February 8, dangerously emaciated. The three were also held together with Alon Ohel, who has yet to be released.

He tells Channel 12 that for the majority of his time in captivity, he received very little food.

“You can deal with being humiliated, you can deal with being cursed at, you can deal with your legs being in chains,” he says. “Hunger is a daily struggle because, beyond being hungry, you are also fighting for your life. Every night, you go to sleep thinking, ‘what am I going to do tomorrow to get that piece of pita bread?'”

He says that most days, their captors would give each of the four men a piece of pita, and one or two spoonfuls of beans or peas, but on other days, “I would beg God for that to be the case. For it to be a dry pita with two spoons of beans.”

He says sometimes the terrorists would bring them three pitas instead of four, and ordered the men to share, claiming they would give them another one later in the day.

“You find yourself begging — and they enjoy it,” he says. “They know they are starving you.”

Cohen says that occasionally, he and the other hostages would try and make a personal appeal for their captors to provide them with more food, and were successful.

“I can’t describe that feeling when you suddenly manage to pull on his heartstrings and they quietly enter the room and bring you some pita, or chocolate bar or peanut butter bar,” he tells Channel 12. “It’s the best thing that has ever happened to you in your life at that moment, because you survived another day.”

Although he had no access to the outside world for the duration of his captivity, Cohen says he realized that a ceasefire deal must have been signed when, in late January, his captors started appearing “very, very happy.”

“Suddenly more food started coming in,” he says. “A month before we went home, a [Hamas] commander arrived. He saw us in terrible condition and ordered us to be unchained because essentially, ‘the fighting is over.'”

He says that their terrorist captors started “stuffing us with a lot of food, in particular after Eli and Or were released. It made a stir.”

Left to right: Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami seen on a stage set up by Hamas in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, before the terror group handed them over to the Red Cross, February 8, 2025 (Eyad Baba / AFP)

Despite having been severely malnourished up until that point, Cohen says he didn’t struggle to adjust to the larger quantities of food.

“You are so insecure from the lack of certainty of nutrition and food that you want to put anything in your mouth,” he says.

Trump’s adviser on Arab and Mideast affairs also appointed senior adviser for Africa

The US State Department announces that President Donald Trump’s senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs Massad Boulos has also been appointed its senior adviser for Africa.

As part of the new role, Boulos will travel later this week to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda to meet with government officials and business leaders in addition to “advancing efforts for durable peace in the eastern DRC and to promote US private sector investment in the region,” the State Department says.

PM to depart for Budapest on Wing of Zion on Wednesday night, will return Sunday

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take off from Ben Gurion International Airport for Budapest on Wing of Zion at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday night.

He is slated to meet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Tamás Sulyok on Thursday.

As he usually does, Netanyahu will remain abroad over Shabbat at taxpayer expense and will return to Israel on Sunday afternoon.

Former IDF Southern Command chief Sami Turgeman said to be in running to lead Shin Bet

Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman speaks at an event for Israeli reserve soldiers at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya on May 8, 2016. (Flash90)

Maj. Gen. (res.) Sami Turgeman, former head of the IDF’s Southern Command, is in the running to become the next Shin Bet chief, according to multiple Hebrew media reports.

An official in the Prime Minister’s Office denies the reports, telling The Times of Israel that “Turgeman is not a candidate for the head of the Shin Bet.”

Turgeman was in charge of the Southern Command during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in office.

Current IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir was Netanyahu’s military secretary at the time and replaced Turgeman in 2015.

Turgeman is CEO of Noga, an independent company that manages Israel’s electric system.

Last month, Zamir appointed Turgeman to head an external panel of former senior officers to evaluate the military’s probes into Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught and oversee the implementation of the findings.

Earlier today, Netanyahu announced that he was backtracking on his decision to appoint Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit as the next head of the Shin Bet following a whirlwind day of criticism of the nomination both in Israel and abroad.

Netanyahu is looking to replace Ronen Bar, who was formally fired by the cabinet earlier this month but who remains in his post thanks to a temporary injunction imposed on his dismissal by the High Court of Justice, which is hearing petitions against the firing. Though the court froze Bar’s firing, it allowed Netanyahu to interview candidates to replace him.

Ex-hostage Amit Soussana receives US State Department’s International Woman of Courage Award

Amit Soussana (C), attorney and Israeli hostage survivor of the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, is honored by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) and First Lady Melania Trump (L) during the International Women of Courage Awards Ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2025. (Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

Accepting the US State Department’s 2025 International Woman of Courage Award, former Hamas hostage and sexual assault survivor Amit Soussana calls for global action to secure the immediate release of the remaining captives in Gaza.

“It is an incredible honor to stand before you today, but it is also a deeply painful moment,” says Soussana, who is one of eight women from around the world presented with the award at a State Department ceremony in Washington, but the only one given a personal shout-out by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the only one asked to give keynote remarks to those in attendance.

Soussana is presented with the award by Rubio and First Lady Melania Trump.

“While I am here, my friends remain in the darkness. Five hundred and forty-three long days and nights. They are still suffering, still waiting, still hoping. Their voices remain unheard. So I will speak for them. We cannot move forward until they are free,” Soussana says in her remarks.

Soussana was taken captive during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and released as part of the first hostage release and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in November 2023.

Since her release, she has advocated around the world on behalf of those still held in Gaza and became the first former hostage to speak about the sexual violence she endured while in captivity.

“In captivity, I had no control over my body, no control over my life. I resisted as best as I could, but it was not enough to stop what happened to me,” she says.

“The darkness was suffocating. Yet even in the darkness, there was one thing they could not have taken from me, the strength my mother instilled in me. The belief that we must always stand for what is right, no matter the cost.”

“I vowed that if I would survive, I would never be silent. I would speak — not just for myself, but for every woman who had been silenced,” Soussana says. “When I first told my story, I only wanted to raise awareness about the horrors of captivity and the terror of October 7, but my story became part of a much bigger conversation — one about sexual violence, about war and about the unimaginable strength of women in the face of brutality.”

“In Israel, we’re about to celebrate Passover — the story of liberation, of breaking free from bondage. But this will be the second Passover that the hostages remain in captivity,” she laments.

“I accept this award, not for myself, but in the name of all the brave women of Israel, the women who endure, who led, who refused to break. Women are stronger. We are the stronger gender, not because we do not feel pain, but because we rise from it, because we fight — not just for ourselves, but for those who cannot fight for themselves.”

“This award comes at a critical moment. The hostages cannot wait. Every single day that passes is another day of unimaginable suffering. With every passing moment, their pain deepens, their hope fades and their chances of survival diminish,” she says.

“I call on the world to act to bring them home now, not tomorrow, not next week. Now.”

Democrats chair Golan: Settler violence in Duma not a ‘glitch,’ but government policy

The Democrats chair Yair Golan blasts the government for “unleashing violence in the West Bank,” after dozens of masked settlers descended on the Palestinian village of Duma earlier today and set fire to several homes.

“The pogrom in Duma is not a glitch — it is the result of a deliberate policy,” Golan writes on X. “The government is empowering rioters and unleashing violence in the West Bank, creating a permanent security emergency in order to survive politically.”

“The head of the government is a man who is being closed in on by a ring of investigations, a man who has lost his judgment and the public’s trust,” the left-wing politician fumes. “To stay in office, he is pushing for escalation in Judea and Samaria (the Biblical name for the West Bank) — even at the price of the lives of soldiers and civilians.”

Israel “must not abandon security to a dangerous government that is fueled by fear,” Golan adds. “Israel needs leadership that understands security, in order to rehabilitate, and bring back security and hope.”

Trump’s pick for ambassador to London says he will push UK to restore all arms exports to Israel

US President Donald Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to London says he will ask Britain to reverse a partial suspension of arms exports to Israel, a decision taken over rights concerns.

Warren Stephens, an Arkansas-based investment banker and political donor to Trump named for the coveted diplomatic posting, says he is “a little perplexed” by the decision of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“What I’ve read about that, with the UK halting some of their shipments to Israel, is certainly concerning,” Stephens says at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“I would do my part to encourage them to reinstate those permits and to try to get them, you know, what they need to continue the fight,” he says.

His comments come in response to a question from Republican Senator Rick Scott, who said Starmer’s Labour Party “treats Israel as a problem and not a solution” and called on Stephens to “try to educate” Britain on Israel.

Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, announced in September that Britain would suspend 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to Israel out of fear the weapons could be used in breach of humanitarian law amid the war in Gaza, sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel.

Starmer said at the time that the UK still supported “Israel’s right to self-defense” but was “committed to the international rule of law.”

Jonatan Urich’s attorney claims police tried to blackmail him during Qatargate questioning

The defense attorney for Jonatan Urich — one of the central suspects in the so-called Qatargate scandal — claims during a hearing in the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court that police investigators attempted to blackmail his client into testifying as a state witness, Hebrew news outlets report.

Urich was detained for questioning by police yesterday alongside his colleague Eli Feldstein, a former spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, regarding the pair’s alleged illicit ties to Qatar.

The two were brought before the court earlier today as police requested to extend their detention by nine days. Judges granted an extension lasting only until Thursday.

According to Urich’s attorney, Amit Hadad, who also represents Netanyahu, the suspect was threatened by police investigators during questioning yesterday. They supposedly pressured Urich into testifying against other suspects in the case, telling him to “think long and hard if he wants to see his baby” that night.

Hadad continues, claiming that investigators told Urich: “You know how to deduce one thing from another,” in effect telling him to become a state witness.

The investigator in the courtroom denies the accusations and says that “not a word was uttered about [Urich] being a state witness.” She further claims that it was Urich himself who brought up seeing his child that night, rather than police interrogators.

Urich and Feldstein are suspected of having been paid to spread pro-Qatar messaging to reporters in order to boost the Gulf state’s image as a mediator in indirect hostage talks between Israel and Hamas, all while in the employ of Netanyahu.

Key Qatargate suspect has same lawyer as PM, causing police concern about obstruction of justice

Attorney Amit Hadad arrives for a court hearing of his client Jonatan Urich, who along with Eli Feldstein was arrested in the Qatargate investigation, at the Magistrate's Court in Rishon Lezion, April 1, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

A senior police official in the Lahav 433 serious crimes unit told the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court that the police are concerned over the possibility of obstruction of justice in the Qatargate investigation due to the fact that attorney Amit Hadad, who is representing Jonatan Urich, one of the central suspects in the scandal, is also Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyer.

Netanyahu gave testimony as a person with knowledge of the affair on Monday, although it has yet to be decided if he will be questioned by the police under caution, as a suspect.

“There is a problem here in that attorney Amit Hadad represents the prime minister, and is also the attorney of one of the suspects here,” says Superintendent Gili Rachlin.

“Attorney Hadad was with the prime minister yesterday after we finished the questioning. He knows what he [Netanyahu] said in his testimony. What he was asked. There is, therefore, a significant concern for obstruction of justice,” he continues.

Rachlin made his comments following demands by Hadad for the investigators to demonstrate why they were investigating Urich on suspicion of bribery, among other alleged violations of the law. A more junior investigator had been reticent to divulge such evidence in court because Hadad represents both men.

Hadad vehemently objected to Rachlin’s concerns and threatened to file a complaint against him, asserting that the claims were baseless.

After dozens of settlers attack Palestinian village of Duma, IDF says it dispersed ‘violent confrontation’

After a group of some 50 Israeli settlers entered the Palestinian West Bank village of Duma earlier this evening, setting fire to property and attacking residents, the military says troops and police officers worked to disperse a “violent confrontation” between Israelis and Palestinians.

In a statement, the IDF says it received reports that dozens of Israelis entered Duma and set fire to property.

“Afterward, a violent confrontation developed between Israeli civilians and Palestinians in the area, and additional report was received regarding several Palestinians who were injured in the incident,” the IDF says.

It says troops and police officers reached the scene and worked to “disperse the violent confrontation.”

“The IDF condemns incidents of this type and will continue to act with determination to maintain security and order in the region,” the military adds.

There are no reports of arrests in the incident. Five suspects were briefly caught by police, but defense sources say they managed to escape.

#عاجل| مستوطنون يضرمون النار في بيوت المواطنين ببلدة دوما جنوب نابلس pic.twitter.com/XcK0XsG5C1

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) April 1, 2025

Netanyahu said to tell police he did not know of any connection between his two detained aides and Qatar

From left: Jonatan Urich, Eli Feldstein, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90, Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90, Tomer Appelbaum/Pool, Yehoshua Yossef/Flash90)

In his testimony to police investigators probing the Qatargate case yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he did not know of any connection between his advisers and either Qatar or any representatives of Qatar, Channel 12 reports.

Rishon LeZion Magistrate’s Court Judge Menahem Mizrahi, when lifting a gag order on the case earlier today and summing up key allegations, said both Feldstein and Urich allegedly had such connections.

The prime minister is not a suspect in the case, and was not questioned under caution.

In a video statement after giving his testimony yesterday, Netanyahu said investigators had no actual evidence against Urich and Feldstein, and claimed they were being “held hostage” in a political witch hunt.

Israeli farmers lambast Finance Ministry for scrapping duties on US imports to avoid Trump’s tariffs

The Israel Farmers’ Federation lambasts the Finance Ministry’s decision to immediately scrap remaining tariffs on US goods, mainly in agriculture, against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s plans to slap trade partners with tit for tat duties.

Amit Yifrach, who chairs the federation and serves as Secretary General of the Moshav Movement, and Uri Dorman, the federation’s secretary general, say in a joint statement, “This is a step that will bring disaster to local agriculture.”

They say that “particularly today, after October 7 [2023],” when Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, “we must internalize the importance of agriculture to the last furrow and strengthen the farmers who live near the [Gaza] border.”

They add, “There is no doubt that trade relations with the US are important and appropriate, but we must ensure that we do not throw the baby out with the bathwater, harming food security and national security.”

Trump will visit Saudi Arabia in May, White House clarifies

After US President Donald Trump said yesterday — March 31 — that he plans to visit Saudi Arabia and other Mideastern countries “next month,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt clarifies that he was referring to the month of May.

“The president will be heading to Saudi Arabia in May. As for specific dates and details, we will be reading those out to you as soon as we possibly can,” Leavitt says during a press briefing.

Asked whether ceasefires in Ukraine and Gaza will be a prerequisite for his trip, Leavitt says the US continues to work for a ceasefire in Ukraine. She doesn’t say the same thing about Gaza, instead stressing that the US backs Israel.

Gazan clan executes alleged Hamas operative who killed one of their relatives

Members of the Abu Samra clan in the Gaza city of Deir al-Balah have executed an individual who they say is a Hamas operative responsible for the deadly shooting of one of their relatives earlier today.

The Hamas operative allegedly shot Abdulrahman Sha’aban Abu Samra while he was waiting in line for flour in Deir al-Balah.

🔴 فيديو : التحفظ على القـ ـا تل الحمـ،،،ـساوي قبل اعد|مه حيث انه قـ ـتـ ـل قبلها بلحظات الشاب عبد الرحمن شعبان أبو سمرة " أبو عبيد " في دير البلح pic.twitter.com/qjMBXym3wG

— ابو الحسن 🇵🇸 (@_G4Z4_) April 1, 2025

Members of the Abu Samra family say they managed to track down the Hamas operative responsible and brought him in front of the entrance of Deir al-Balah where several relatives opened fire.

الشهيد المغدور عبد الرحمن ابو سمره .. نم قرير العين يا عبود ..
الرجال أخذو بثارك pic.twitter.com/ixkMkHKsFd

— المنخل (@almonkhol) April 1, 2025

Footage of the execution is being shared widely on Palestinian social media and appears to highlight growing fury with Hamas among Gaza civilians.

Protests against Hamas have been held across the Strip for the past week, with thousands participating cumulatively. Participants have come under threat from Hamas and other Gaza terror groups, who have warned that they will be treated as collaborators with Israel.

Jerusalem Post Editor Zvika Klein named as journalist questioned under caution in Qatargate probe

Jerusalem Post Editor Zvika Klein (via X)

Police are investigating Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Zvika Klein on suspicion of contact with a foreign agent, as part of their ongoing probe into alleged unlawful ties between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior aides and Qatar.

The journalist’s name is cleared for publication by his legal counsel after police questioned him under caution yesterday, in addition to Netanyahu aides Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein. The latter pair are suspected of having been paid to spread pro-Qatari messaging to reporters in order to boost the Gulf state’s image as a mediator in indirect hostage talks between Israel and Hamas, all while in Netanyahu’s employ.

Klein was summoned to give testimony yesterday, and subsequently questioned under caution. A police source told Haaretz that law enforcement obtained the necessary clearance from the State Attorney’s Office to question Klein, as required for questioning journalists.

Channel 13 reported in February that while on the premier’s payroll, former Netanyahu spokesman Feldstein arranged a visit to Qatar for Klein, who published an account of his three-day visit in April 2024, in which he met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and other officials.

Klein posted on X, in response to the TV report, that he visited Qatar at the direct invitation of the Qatari government. He said he had never met Feldstein and only spoke to Feldstein, in Feldstein’s capacity as a public relations person, for the first time after his return from Qatar, to coordinate TV interviews about the visit on Channels 12 and 13. Klein did not specify how he came into contact with Feldstein, or whether he knew Feldstein worked for Netanyahu.

Masked Israelis attack, set fire to homes in Palestinian village of Duma

Masked Israeli men, likely settlers, have carried out attacks in the Palestinian village of Duma in the northern West Bank. An IDF force has been dispatched to the town to deal with the violence.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa says “dozens” of settlers descended on the village, attacking civilian homes and setting fire to some of them.

The Kan public broadcaster reports that five settlers have been detained by the Israel Defense Forces.

In 2015, Duma was the site of an attack by extremist settler Amiram Ben-Uliel, who firebombed the home of the Dawabsha family. Ali Dawabsha, an 18-month-old baby, was burned alive in the attack, while his parents died of their injuries later in the hospital.

🚨 BREAKING: Dozens of Israeli settlers carried out a pogrom in the village of Duma, near Nablus in the West Bank, setting Palestinian homes and vehicles on fire. Two people were reported injured after their house was set ablaze. pic.twitter.com/ZqOqRjstQE

— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) April 1, 2025

‘Bennett 2026’: Former PM Naftali Bennett registers new political party ahead of expected comeback

Naftali Bennett attends a commemoration ceremony for a slain Israeli soldier at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, December 25, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who is widely believed to be preparing to run in the next national election, registers a new political party under the interim name “Bennett 2026.”

In a statement quoted by Channel 12, Bennett says that “if and when I decide to actually run for the elections, an announcement will be made on the matter.”

Bennett’s apparent return to politics is welcomed by Opposition Leader and former ally Yair Lapid, who posts, “Congratulations to Naftali Bennett on the establishment of his new party. Israel needs a good government.”

Reports about Bennett’s return to politics have been circulating since last year, with Channel 12 reporting in September 2024 that the national-religious politician had started making preparations for the formation of a new party, contacting more than 100 former activists.

Bennett, who led the now-defunct Yamina party, has been out of office since the 2022 collapse of his diverse coalition government, which in 2021 ousted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the premiership after 12 consecutive years, during which Israel underwent unprecedented political turmoil, including four national elections in three years.

Bennett has also been meeting with various opposition figures. New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar, then a member of the opposition, told The Times of Israel last summer that he had met with Bennett and understood he intended to make a comeback.

The former prime minister has also been photographed meeting with Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, who told The Times of Israel last October that the two still “speak from time to time” but that no final decisions had been made about a rumored joint run.

“To replace this government, we need more seats. If we see in the polls that running together will bring more seats, we will run together,” Liberman said at the time.

Bennett himself hinted at his return last June, expressing hope in a post on X that it would be possible to rebuild a wide unity coalition similar to the one he established with now-Opposition Leader Yair Lapid in 2021.

More recently, he told a private audience of US students in March that should he lead a government again in the future, it would not include Arab parties, as his previous government did, because this time around, the government “must be Zionists.”

According to a recent Channel 12 poll, Bennett is the only politician polled who performs better than Netanyahu in a head-to-head matchup.

When asked who is better suited to serve as prime minister, 38% said Bennett, compared to 31% who said Netanyahu.

Trump says he held call with Egypt’s Sissi on Houthis, future of Gaza

US President Donald Trump says he spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and discussed topics including military progress against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis and possible solutions in the Gaza Strip.

Trump says the call went very well.

Egypt is a key US ally in the region and was the only country besides Israel to receive an exemption from Trump’s foreign aid freeze back in January, although the two leaders have been at odds with one another over their visions for the war-torn Gaza Strip.

After Trump suggested earlier this year that the US take over the Strip, relocate its roughly 2 million residents, and develop it as a real estate project, Sissi presented a counterproposal to rebuild the Strip without displacing its population.

Despite their disagreements, Sissi has previously said he believes “Trump’s leadership could usher in a golden age of Middle East peace.”

US sanctions entities in Iran, China, UAE, for assisting Tehran with weapons procurement

The US imposes new sanctions on entities and individuals in Iran, the United Arab Emirates and China whom it accuses of being part of an Iranian weapons procurement network, as US President Donald Trump seeks to ramp up pressure on Tehran.

The US Treasury Department announces sanctions on six entities and two individuals in action taken in coordination with the Department of Justice, accusing them of responsibility for procurement of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) components on behalf of a leading manufacturer for Iran’s drone program.

“Iran’s proliferation of UAVs and missiles – both to its terrorist proxies in the region and to Russia for its use against Ukraine – continues to threaten civilians, US personnel, and our allies and partners,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says in a statement.

“Treasury will continue to disrupt Iran’s military-industrial complex and its proliferation of UAVs, missiles and conventional weapons that often end up in the hands of destabilizing actors, including terrorist proxies.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York does not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The action targets one Iranian-based entity and two people based in Iran, one entity based in China and four UAE-based entities, according to the Treasury statement.

The Treasury says it is the second round of sanctions targeting “Iranian weapons proliferators” since Trump restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, which includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero to help prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

UN food agency closes all bakeries in Gaza, citing lack of supplies after month-long blockade

Palestinians queue to purchase bread outside a bakery in Gaza City, February 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The UN World Food Programme says it is immediately closing all of its bakeries in Gaza as Israel’s ban on the entry of all food, fuel, medicine, and other supplies into the Gaza Strip reaches the one-month mark.

In an internal memo circulated among aid groups yesterday, the UN agency said that due to the lack of humanitarian aid, supplies are running out, and there isn’t enough wheat flour to make bread.

The agency says it has distributed all available food rations, and there are unfortunately, no more stocks.

Israel rejects the reports that aid organizations are running out of food, however, saying earlier today that enough food entered Gaza during a recent six-week ceasefire to sustain the Strip’s 2.3 million residents for “a long period of time.”

According to COGAT, the Defense Ministry body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza and the West Bank, more than 25,000 trucks entered Gaza during the ceasefire, carrying nearly 450,000 tons of aid.

“There is enough food for a long period of time, if Hamas lets the civilians have it,” it says.

Chair of GOP Israel branch owns firm registered as lobbyist for pro-Kremlin Bosnian entity — report

Marc Zell, the head of Republicans Overseas Israel, at an event in Jerusalem, October 26, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A firm run by the chairman of the US Republicans Overseas Israel, Marc Zell, is registered in January as a lobbyist for Republika Srpska, one of two semiautonomous entities comprising the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Haaretz reports.

Bosnia’s Serbs took up arms after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s to create a state to join with neighboring Serbia. Since the end of the 1992-1995 war, Bosnia has been split into two semi-autonomous halves — the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both have their own governments and parliaments and share weak central institutions.

According to Haaretz, Zell was hired, in part, to work toward lifting US sanctions against Republika Srpska’s president, Milorad Dodik. Dodik is a Kremlin ally who has threatened to secede the Serb entity from Bosnia, and barred central police and judicial officials from working there — an order that was suspended by the constitutional court.

He will reportedly be paid $840,000 for his lobbying efforts.

In response to the report, Zell tells Haaretz that the information is “incomplete, inaccurate and therefore misleading. Beyond that, I do not wish to comment.”

Last Thursday, Bosnia issued an international arrest warrant for Dodik while the Bosnian Serb leader was visiting Israel to attend an international conference on combating antisemitism. Dodik is currently in Moscow.

Agencies contributed to this report.

Haredi minister condemns Bnei Brak youth filmed cursing at IDF soldiers visiting the ultra-Orthodox city

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, the chairman of the United Torah Judaism party, condemns members of the Haredi community who were filmed cursing at soldiers during a tour of the largely ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak earlier today.

In a video of the event shared on social media, young Haredi men can be heard yelling at the soldiers as they walk down the street. Not everybody was against the servicemen, however, with one young Haredi man seen approaching the group and shaking a soldier’s hand while others yelled.

“I strongly condemn the criminal behavior of fringe youths who attacked IDF soldiers in the city of Bnei Brak today,” Goldknopf writes on X. “This is not the path of Torah. We owe gratitude to IDF soldiers, who risk their lives to protect the people and the country.”

The incident is also condemned by the Bnei Brak municipality.

בני ברק: קבוצת נערים בקללות וגידופים נגד חיילים שעשו סיור בעיר pic.twitter.com/XWjPg40o3L

— שילה פריד🇮🇱 (@shilofreid) April 1, 2025

Goldknopf recently backed down on a threat to bring down the coalition over his demand for the quick passage of legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service. He also sparked calls for his resignation over a video showing him dancing to an anti-Zionist, anti-enlistment song at his nephew’s wedding.

In the widely distributed clip, Goldknopf could be seen in the middle of a circle of young Haredi men singing that they “don’t believe in the government of infidels” and “won’t show up at their [army] recruitment offices.”

Tel Aviv court extends detention of personal trainer suspected of raping client

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court extends the detention of a well-known personal trainer by three days, after he was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of having drugged and raped a client.

A sweeping gag order has been imposed on the case, and the trainer’s identity has not been permitted for publication.

His detention was extended earlier today in a closed court hearing.

The complainant filed a police report against the personal trainer over the weekend, in which she alleged that she had been drugged and raped in her own home.

While the trainer has maintained his innocence, Ynet reports that he was found to have lied on several questions during a polygraph test, including one about sexual assault.

The complainant’s attorney, Efrat Nachmani-Bar, says the polygraph test proves it is no longer “a case of her word against his word.”

Nachmani-Bar also urges the media to respect the gag order and keep her client’s identity private, saying, “She has been through enough.”

Qatargate actors suspected of portraying Egypt’s role in hostage talks negatively, boosting Qatar’s image, in exchange for money — judge

(L) Yonatan Urich, adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel Aviv on October 3, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90/ File) and (R) Eli Feldstein arrives for a court hearing at the Tel Aviv District Court on March 11, 2025. (Yehoshua Yosef/ Flash90)

Judge Menahem Mizrahi of the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court issues a brief summary of investigators’ suspicions in the so-called Qatargate scandal, saying there is a “reasonable suspicion” that the factual situation he describes is well-founded.

The judge details the suspicions against Jonatan Urich, a close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Eli Feldstein, who served as a spokesman for the premier, whom the police and Shin Bet are investigating.

The suspicions deal with the allegedly unlawful ties between those aides and Qatar, as well as suspicions of financial crimes, including money laundering.

Mizrahi writes that in the period under investigation, an American lobbying company called The Third Circle, owned by lobbyist Jay Footlik, formed a direct connection with Jonatan Urich in order to put a positive spin on Doha’s role as a facilitator in the hostage deal negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

The judge adds that Qatar also wanted Urich to spread negative messaging about Egypt’s role in the negotiations as part of efforts to improve Qatar’s image on the issue.

“For this purpose, a business,[and] economic connection was created between this company through the mediation of suspect number one [Urich] in return for monetary payments which were passed to suspect two [Feldstein], through [Gulf-based Israeli businessman] Gil Birger,” Mizrahi writes.

The judge says that the suspicion is that these three actors worked to disseminate messaging to journalists to file stories sympathetic to Qatar while minimizing Egypt’s role as a fair broker in the negotiating process and while “dictating the media agenda.”

Mizrahi writes that he issued the summary because the gag order on the case, which he has now lifted, was repeatedly violated and thus was harming the “proper conduct of the investigation.”

IDF says it uncovered bomb-making lab in West Bank’s Tulkarem

Pipe bombs found by IDF troops at an explosives lab in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, April 1, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says troops of the Kfir Brigade operating in the West Bank city of Tulkarem located a bomb-making lab.

The lab was being used to build makeshift roadside explosive devices as well as pipe bombs, according to the military.

In a separate operation, the IDF says troops of the Commando Brigade and Nahal Brigade and Shin Bet agents detained 12 wanted Palestinians in the towns of Qabatiya and Tammun.

A further 15 wanted Palestinians were detained elsewhere in the West Bank overnight, the IDF adds.

In April 1 ‘joke,’ judicial overhaul architect Rothman touts bill for ‘memorial day for Israeli democracy’

Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman, head of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, introduces the law to remake Israel's Judicial Selection Committee, in the Knesset on March 26, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

In an April Fools Day “joke,” Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman Simcha Rothman tweets a mock bill to “commemorate democracy in the State of Israel” with an “annual memorial day.”

“I am happy to announce that after hard work, we were able to place on the Knesset table one of the laws that I am most proud of,” tweets the Religious Zionism party lawmaker, one of the chief architects of the government’s judicial overhaul agenda, which critics say deeply undermines Israeli democracy.

“Immediately after the recess, I intend to present the proposal to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and ensure that no one in the country forgets where we came from and where we are going.”

The text of the ersatz bill calls for an annual memorial day for Israeli democracy on which citizens will mark how the country’s democratic system “ended on the day when the law was passed that changed the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee, with delayed applicability, in such a way that the opposition was given the opportunity to influence the selection of judges in Israel.”

It adds that the Knesset will hold an annual meeting to discuss the topic, which will be opened by Ronen Bar, “the eternal head of the Shin Bet.”

שמח לבשר שאחרי עבודה מאומצת, הצלחנו להניח על שולחן הכנסת את אחד החוקים שאני יותר גאה בהם.

אני רוצה להודות לצוות המסור שלי ולמשפחתי שתמיד עמדה מאחוריי.

מיד אחרי הפגרה בכוונתי להעלות את ההצעה לוועדת השרים לחקיקה ולוודא שאיש במדינה לא ישכח מאין באנו ולאן אנחנו הולכים. pic.twitter.com/B97F0B6Zgo

— שמחה רוטמן – Simcha Rothman (@rothmar) April 1, 2025

Rothman’s tweet is reminiscent of a satirical campaign video released by the New Right party in 2019 featuring then-justice minister Ayelet Shaked hawking a perfume called “Fascism” which made fun of critics of her own judicial reform agenda.

Court lifts gag order on Qatargate case

The Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court decides that the gag order on the Qatargate investigation should be lifted immediately, regardless of the police’s intention to appeal the decision.

Judge Menahem Mizrahi earlier said he was lifting the gag order since it has not been enforced and has, he said, been repeatedly broken through “massive leaks,” Channel 13 reports.

The request to remove the gag order was made by Amit Hadad, who is representing Jonatan Urich, one of the central suspects in the case and a close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hadad said he wanted to “expose the injustice being done, which screams out to the heavens,” and that the allegations had no evidence behind them and were merely “hot air designed for media purposes.”

Court extends remand of Qatargate suspects Urich and Feldstein until Thursday

Attorney Amit Hadad arrives for a court hearing of his client Jonatan Urich, who along with Eli Feldstein was arrested in the Qatargate investigation, at the Magistrate's Court in Rishon Lezion, April 1, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The Rishon Letzion Magistrates Court extends the remand of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides Joantan Urich and Elie Feldstein until Thursday.

Police had asked the court to keep them in custody for nine more days.

Police grilled Urich and Feldstein as suspects in the Qatargate case yesterday morning and later took them into custody.

The joint police and Shin Bet probe was launched following revelations that Netanyahu’s former spokesman, Feldstein — who has been charged with harming national security in a separate case involving the theft and leaking of classified IDF documents — worked for an international firm contracted by Qatar to feed Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories all while employed in the Prime Minister’s Office.

For his part, Urich is suspected of having a role in a convoluted chain of business figures and other officials involved in transferring payments from Doha to cover up their origin.

Netanyahu was also asked to give testimony yesterday, though he is not a suspect in the case at this time.

Katz, Smotrich tour West Bank, vow to crack down on illegal Palestinian construction

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (left) and Defense Minister Israel Katz (center) tour West Bank settlements alongside senior IDF officials, April 1, 2025. (Elad Malka/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tour the West Bank, reaffirming their commitment to Jewish settlements and cracking down on illegal Palestinian construction, according to a statement from Katz’s office.

“We will not abandon the security of settlers or allow [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to use illegal construction as a tool to create a strategic threat against the settlements,” the statement says.

Accompanied by senior officials from the IDF, the Civil Administration and the Defense Ministry, Katz and Smotrich visited newly recognized communities like Kerem Reim and Sde Ephraim, according to the statement.

“The West Bank is the heart of Israel, and we will protect it with every means necessary,” Katz declares.

“Since 1967, there has not been such a transformation in the West Bank,” Smotrich says, adding that “the government has recognized 28 new communities and is enforcing regulations in areas that were previously ignored.”

“Settlers are not second-class citizens,” Smotrich affirms. “They deserve the same security as all Israelis. Judea and Samaria are our ancestral homeland, and we are here to stay,” he says, referring to the West Bank by its biblical names.

Likud minister Dichter, an ex-Shin Bet head: People in Prime Minister’s Office should not be in dealings with Qatar

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter attends an Economic Committee meeting in the Knesset, March 26, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Discussing the Qatargate probe, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet, tells Kan Radio that people in the Prime Minister’s Office should not be working for Qatar.

“The fact that we’re really talking about people so close to our ‘cockpit’ is certainly very interesting, a troubling issue, a worrying issue,” he says, apparently referring to Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, arrested aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The dilemma is really whether we’re talking about an intelligence operation or a commercial operation” regarding the aides’ alleged employment and payment by Qatar or Qatari intermediaries.

Asked how problematic the allegations are, Dichter, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, says: “People in the Prime Minister’s Office should not be in dealings with a country like Qatar.”

Police believe Qatargate suspect Urich sent pro-Qatar messages to media claiming they were from a source in Netanyahu’s office

Photographers take pictures of a box of evidence presented at a court hearing for Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein who were arrested in the Qatargate investigation, at the Magistrate's Court in Rishon Lezion, April 1, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Police suspect that Jonatan Urich, an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, passed along messages to reporters on behalf of Qatar, under the pretense that the messages were coming from senior Israeli political and security officials in the Prime Minister’s Office, Rishon LeZion Magistrate’s Court is told.

The suspicion is raised during a hearing this morning at the court, where police are requesting to extend the detention of Urich and his colleague Eli Feldstein, a former spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as part of an ongoing probe into the so-called Qatargate affair.

The two were detained for questioning by police yesterday and later taken into custody, and are suspected of having maintained illicit ties with Qatar while working in the Prime Minister’s Office.

During the hearing today, a police investigator claims that “Urich relayed messages to the media on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Office. The messages were conveyed [to Urich] by an entity that maintains ties to and is funded by the state of Qatar, and they were presented as messages originating from a political or security entity.”

Jonatan Urich, adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is seen before a press conference in Tel Aviv on October 4, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

At the hearing, Urich’s lawyer asks a police representative whether the “foreign agent” with whom Urich and Feldstein are alleged to have been in contact is lobbyist Jay Footlik. “Footlik and the state of Qatar,” the police representative replies.

Hearing proceedings also reveal that both Urich and Netanyahu had been asked during their interrogations yesterday whether the former had leaked confidential information from the cabinet, according to a report from the Kan public broadcaster.

Tomorrow, the gag order over the investigation will be lifted, after the court ruled on its cancellation following a request from Urich and Netanyahu’s attorney, Amit Hadad.

Lebanese officials say toll in Israeli strike in Beirut rises to 4

Damaged apartments building are seen after being struck earlier by an Israeli targeted attack in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

At least four people were killed and seven other people were wounded in the early morning Israeli airstrike on the apartment of a top Hezbollah official, according to the terror group and Lebanese health ministry.

An additional seven people were wounded, the ministry says.

Among those killed in the airstrike were Hezbollah official Hassan Bdair and his son, Ali, according to a Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to speak publicly to the media. The official said that the two other people killed were their neighbors: two siblings, a young man and a woman.

Israel says Bdair was also a member of Iran’s Quds Force and was working with Hamas to plan imminent attacks against Israelis.

Planners approve new outline plan for flood control

Israeli firefighters search for people at a parking lot that was flooded following heavy rainfall in Ness Ziona, November 21, 2020. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

The National Planning and Building Council approves a new national outline plan to better prepare the country for flooding, a key consequence of climate change.

Initiated by the Agriculture Ministry and the Planning Administration, it defines Israel’s hydrological infrastructure for the first time.

The aim is to regulate and protect “sponge” areas that can help with flood control, and establish a mechanism to preserve river floodplains, which absorb overflow rainwater.

The outline will help planning and development bodies in Israel and will be submitted for comment to the district planning committees.

Amid Knesset maneuvers, Otzma Yehudit official calls on party chief Ben Gvir to resign as an MK

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir reacts during a 40 signatures debate in the Knesset plenum, on March 26, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A source within the far-right Otzma Yehudit party calls on chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to resign under the so-called Norwegian Law — which allows ministers and deputy ministers from large factions to resign from the Knesset with their seats filled by members of their parties — to prevent the ouster of party MK Yitzhak Kroizer.

On Monday evening, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced his resignation as a cabinet minister and his resumption of his seat as a member of Knesset for his far-right Religious Zionism party. He is expected to be reappointed tomorrow.

By reclaiming his status as an MK, Smotrich would push Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer out of parliament. When Amichai Eliyahu became heritage minister in 2023, Kroizer became an MK under the Norwegian Law.

In a statement, Religious Zionism said that the move came in response to Ben Gvir’s “violation of the agreements” between him, Smotrich and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

When Otzma Yehudit quit the coalition in January, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu’s resignation from the cabinet forced the resignation of then-Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot, who held a lower spot on the two parties’ joint electoral list in the 2022 legislative election, rather than Kroizer.

Since returning to the coalition, however, no steps have been taken to bring Sukkot back into the Knesset.

Both Sukkot and Kroizer are excellent politicians and “it is important to uphold the agreements,” the Otzma Yehudit source tells The Times of Israel.

Ben Gvir himself could resign to keep Kroizer in the Knesset, he adds, calling the lawmaker “truly excellent and an amazing man.”

Contacted by The Times of Israel, figures within the Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionism and United Torah Judaism parties deny a Channel 12 report that Otzma Yehudit and UTJ will oppose Smotrich’s reappointment as finance minister.

According to the report, the ultra-Orthodox intend to use the vote as leverage to get the coalition to advance legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service.

“I don’t know if there is any opposition to [Smotrich’s reappointment],” a spokesman for UTJ chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf states.

“It seems to me to be complete nonsense,” Religious Zionism MK Ohad Tal tells The Times of Israel. “I don’t see a scenario where the Haredim wouldn’t support it. They have no real leverage to shake up the coalition like this and lead to elections.”

Asked if there was any truth to the Channel 12 report that her party would oppose Smotrich’s reappointment to his temporarily vacated positions, Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech replies “we still haven’t decided.”

Russia warns strikes on Iranian nuclear sites would have ‘catastrophic” consequences’ for region

This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows Iran's Natanz nuclear site, on April 14, 2023. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov is quoted as warning that strikes against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure would have “catastrophic” consequences for the broader region.

US President Donald Trump threatened on Sunday to bomb Iran and impose secondary tariffs on the country if it fails to come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.

Ryabkov, in a magazine interview quoted by Russian state media, condemns what he called Trump’s “ultimatums” to Iran.

“We consider such methods inappropriate, we condemn them,” he says.

After Beirut strike, Sa’ar says Lebanese government must prevent attacks on Israel

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar at a press conference for foreign media in Jerusalem, April 1, 2025. (Mordechai Gordon/Foreign Ministry)

Israel calls on Lebanon to crack down on terrorist groups in their country and prevent future attacks against Israel, says Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, after an IDF strike killed a top Hezbollah operative overnight, who Israel says was plotting an imminent attack against Israeli civilians.

“We expect Lebanon to take action to uproot terrorist organizations acting within its borders against Israel,” the minister says at a press conference for foreign media.

“What we saw here is cooperation between Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas on the soil of Lebanon in order to initiate terrorist attacks against Israelis,” says Sa’ar.

The IDF, Shin Bet and Mossad said in a joint statement that the attack targeted Hassan Bdair a member of Hezbollah and the Iranian IRGC Quds Force, who was recently operating in coordination with Hamas and directing members of the Palestinian terror group to carry out a “significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians.”

“Israel will continue to remove any threat to our citizens,” says the foreign minister.

He comments on Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, saying that “Hamas continues to push for the renewal of the war, refusing to release our hostages, refusing to disarm,” and that “Hamas ignores the will and the rage of the citizens of Gaza.”

Sa’ar says he will visit Paris tomorrow to meet with his French counterpart and other officials, to discuss “the challenges and threats of the radical axis in this region to all of us, mainly Iran.”

He adds that yesterday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “once again…declared his will to eliminate the State of Israel,” likely referring to statements the ruler published on X.

Thank you for making yourself clear again. https://t.co/udLuWgxLSc

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) April 1, 2025

Under pressure in Gaza, Hamas looking to attack Jews, Israelis abroad, warns NSC

Illustrative: Passengers at Ben Gurion International Airport on October 31, 2024. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Hamas is expected to ramp up its efforts to attack Jewish and Israeli targets abroad, the National Security Council says in a new threat assessment and travel warning issued ahead of the Passover holiday.

“The group’s deteriorating situation in Gaza and the resumption of fighting are expected to further increase its attempts to conduct attacks,” says the NSC.

In December 2023, Hamas cells in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands were arrested on suspicion of plotting to attack Jewish targets in Europe. The following April, Bulgarian police uncovered a stash of weapons linked to four suspected Hamas members arrested in Germany and the Netherlands.

The NSC points to Iran as the main backer of global terrorism targeting Jews and Israelis.

In October, the Swedish intelligence agency Sapo said that Iran may have been involved in recent explosions and gunfire around Israeli embassies in Sweden and Denmark.

In May of last year, Sapo said that Iran was recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden — a claim Iran denied.

“Additionally, Iranian terror operatives have continued attempts to lure Israeli citizens — both domestically and abroad — through deceptive business offers or impersonation, aiming to harm or abduct them,” says the NSC.

ISIS and global jihadist organizations are increasing their operations in Europe, says the NSC, raising the risk of lone wolf attacks. The warning also notes arson attacks and an attempted car bombing in Australia, and a rash of Molotov cocktail and shooting attacks at Jewish institutions in Canada.

“The climate of hate against Israelis and Jews due to the ongoing war continues to fuel terrorist efforts, both from organized cells and individual attackers,” according to the NSC.

“The potential expansion of war zones” — a possible reference to the growing IDF operation in Gaza — could further increase the motivation of terrorists and others to attack Israelis abroad, says the assessment.

The NSC warns that the Sinai Peninsula, a popular tourism destination for Israelis, remains a “high-risk area,” and that Israelis should not visit.

The warning urges Israelis to exercise caution when traveling abroad and to check NSC travel recommendations before flying.

Images show slain Hezbollah operative with top Iran IRGC general

Slain Hezbollah operative Hassan Bdair (L) is seen sitting next to Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (C) and Iranian IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani (R) in an undated photo. Both al-Muandis and Soleimani were killed in a US airstrike in 2020 (X/ used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Images on social media show a Hezbollah operative who was killed overnight in an Israeli strike on a flight with a top Iranian general.

The photo shows Hassan Bdair sitting alongside Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

Both Soleimani and al-Muhandis were killed in a US airstrike in Iraq in January 2020.

Soleimani was seen as the architect of Iran’s regional military activities and is hailed as a national icon among supporters of Iran’s theocracy.

Israel says that Bdair was a member of Hezbollah’s Unit 3900 and the Quds Force and was directing Hamas terror attacks.

Court lifts gag order on Qatargate scandal, but puts 24-hour hold on move

People protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court rules that the gag order over the so-called Qatar-gate investigation be lifted, while leveling criticism at the police for failing to enforce it.

The gag order will, however, remain in place for at least one more day to allow the police to file an appeal against the decision, Hebrew media reports.

“The issue is not being enforced. Yesterday, the investigation became public when the suspects were arrested; there is no reason to leave it in place, the i24 news outlet quotes the judge as saying.

The request to cancel the gag order was made by attorney Amit Hadad, who is representing Jonatan Urich, one of the central suspects in the case and a close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel says it killed Hezbollah and Iranian IRGC Quds Force operative in overnight Beirut strike

The scene of an Israeli strike on south Beirut on April 1, 2025 (Photo by Ibrahim AMRO / AFP)

The Israeli military, Shin Bet and Mossad in a joint statement say that the target of the overnight strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut was a member of Hezbollah and the Iranian IRGC Quds Force.

Hassan Bdair, who was a member of Hezbollah’s Unit 3900 and the Quds Force, was killed in the strike carried out by fighter jets, according to the IDF.

The joint statement, including a rare public comment from the Mossad, says that Bdair was recently operating in coordination with Hamas and directing members of the Palestinian terror group to carry out a “significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians.”

The strike was carried out because the attack Bdair was planning was considered to be imminent, the military says.

Lapid asks Knesset Speaker to take action after police rough up MKs, protesters

MK Naama Lazimi is pulled by police officers during a protest outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, on March 31, 2025. (Photo by Menahem Kahana / AFP)

Following last night’s anti-government protests, during which police were filmed manhandling MK Naama Lazimi of The Democrats party, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid appeals to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud) to demand that police protect both demonstrators and lawmakers.

“In recent weeks, the Israeli government has lost all restraint, and is carrying out a relentless attack on the character of the country and its values,” Lapid writes to Ohana in a letter shared by his spokesman.

“Hundreds of thousands of Israeli patriots are taking to the streets to defend the country they love. Unfortunately, we are witnessing cases of police violence against protesters and MKs. Just last night, MK Naama Lazimi was attacked by police, as have other cases in the past in which MKs Gilad Kariv, Naor Shiri and Vladimir Beliak were attacked, along with many citizens,” he continues.

Accusing Ohana of remaining silent “in the face of violence by law enforcement,” Lapid demands that he “work with Police Commissioner Danny Levy to regulate the treatment of protesters and MKs during demonstrations and demand that he protect them.”

Despite people screaming that she was a member of Knesset, law enforcement officers on Monday evening grabbed, pulled and shoved MK Lazimi as she screamed in fear.

Following the attack, Lazimi accused the police of helping the government suppress democracy.

The police are working “for the coup government, a Kahanist criminal and a prime minister suspected of serious security incidents,” she tweeted at the time.

Urich lawyer to ask court lift gag order on Qatargate, saying it will expose absurd allegations

Amit Hadad (L), the lawyer for Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top aide Jonatan Urich outside the Lahav 433 police unit headquarters, in the city of Lod on March 31, 2025. (Jonathan Shaul/ Flash90)

Amit Hadad, the lawyer for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aide Jonatan Urich, says he will ask the court to lift the gag order on details of the Qatargate scandal in order to expose “the absurd allegations.”

Police have asked the court to extend the remand of Urich and fellow suspect Elie Feldstein.

Hadad, who also represents Netanyahu in his corruption trial, says: “I will ask the court to lift the gag order on the case in order to expose the absurdity of the unfounded suspicions against him, and the injustice done to him that cries out to the heavens.”

“This case has no evidence, just hot air manufactured for media purposes,” Hadad charges.

“We can’t let law enforcement hide and blur the truth with gag orders when we are talking about such serious accusations against the good name of a person and his basic rights,” Hadad says.

Netanyahu aide Urich suspected of passing secret information to Qatari lobbyist

Jonatan Urich, adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is seen before a press conference in Tel Aviv on October 4, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Police tell the Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s court that Jonatan Urich, an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is suspected of passing secret information to a foreign agent.

Police are requesting that the court extend the remand of Urich and fellow Netanyahu aide Elie Feldstein by nine days in the Qatargate probe.

Police have already accused the two of suspicion of contacting a foreign agent, fraud, money laundering and bribery.

The Ynet news site says that Urich passed on the unspecified information to Qatari lobbyist Jay Footlik.

Myanmar quake deaths reach 2,719, likely to exceed 3,000, junta chief says

A man walks past a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 1, 2025, a few days after the deadly Myanmar earthquake. (Sai Aung MAIN / AFP)

The death toll from a major earthquake last week in Myanmar is at 2,719, the chief of the ruling junta says, with the figure expected to exceed 3,000.

In a speech carried on state television, Min Aung Hlaing says also said there were 4,521 people injured and 441 missing after Friday’s 7.7 magnitude quake.

Hezbollah lawmaker calls on Lebanon to react after Israeli strike on Beirut

Damaged apartment buildings are seen after being struck earlier by an Israeli attack in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim Musawi calls on the Lebanese state to act, after a deadly Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, the second in days, despite a Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire.

Musawi tells journalists near the strike site that Lebanese authorities must “act with the highest level of effectiveness, make the international community bear its responsibility, and take the highest level of measures to guarantee the safety of the Lebanese.” He adds, “What happened was a very big attack.”

Israel says it targeted a Hezbollah operative who was directing Hamas terrorists to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians.

IDF orders evacuation from northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun after rocket fire at Israel

Following the rocket fire from the northern Gaza Strip on Sderot this morning, the IDF issues an evacuation warning for Palestinians in the Beit Hanoun area.

In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, publishes a map of the area that is to be evacuated, saying that it is a “final warning” before the IDF carries out strikes there.

The map also shows the IDF’s expanded buffer zone along the border with the Strip.

The rocket launched at Sderot was intercepted by air defenses, and there were no reports of injuries.

#عاجل ‼️ إلى جميع سكان قطاع غزة المتواجدين في مناطق بيت حانون، مشروع بيت لاهيا، الشيخ زايد وأحياء المنشية وتل الزعتر
🔴هذا انذار مسبق وأخير قبل الغارة!🔴
⭕️تعود المنظمات الإرهابية وتطلق قذائفها الصاروخية من بين المدنيين.
⭕️لقد حذرنا هذه المنطقة مرات عديدة.
⭕️من أجل سلامتكم عليكم… pic.twitter.com/RMx3LKCz68

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) April 1, 2025

Knesset passes bill ensuring support for families of released hostages

Families of Israelis held hostage in Gaza and supporters hold a press statement outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 18, 2025. (Yonatan SIndel/Flash90)

The Knesset has approved a bill ensuring continued psychological and medical care, as well as financial support, for families of hostages who return from captivity, according to a joint statement from the Defense Ministry, the National Insurance Institute, and the Hostages, Missing Persons and Returnees Directorate of the Prime Minister’s Office.

According to the statement, the approved legislation grants families an adjustment grant of up to NIS 30,000 ($8,000). It also ensures that the families will maintain certain benefits that they received while their loved one was in captivity, including rehabilitation assistance and psychosocial support.

“This measure recognizes that the family of a returned hostage plays an integral and central role in their recovery process while also requiring rehabilitation support themselves,” the statement explains.

According to the statement, families can also appeal to a special exceptions committee if additional support is needed due to the challenges they face.

Knesset to meet tomorrow to confirm reappointment of Smotrich as finance minister

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich addresses the Knesset ahead of a vote on the state budget on March 25, 2025.(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Knesset will convene tomorrow evening to confirm the reappointment of Bezalel Smotrich as finance minister.

Smotrich resigned yesterday as part of a maneuver to return to the Knesset as an MK and force out an MK from rival fellow far-right party Otzma Yehudit, as part of an ongoing dispute between the parties.

Police ask to extend remand of Netanyahu aides Urich and Feldstein for 9 days in Qatargate probe

(L) Yonatan Urich, adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel Aviv on October 3, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90/ File) and (R) Eli Feldstein arrives for a court hearing at the Tel Aviv District Court on March 11, 2025. (Yehoshua Yosef/ Flash90)

Police ask the Rishon Lezion Magistrates Court to extend the remand of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides, Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, by nine days.

Police grilled Urich and Feldstein as suspects in the Qatargate case yesterday  morning and later took them into custody.

The joint police and Shin Bet probe was launched following revelations that Netanyahu’s former spokesman, Feldstein — who has been charged with harming national security in a separate case involving the theft and leaking of classified IDF documents — worked for an international firm contracted by Qatar to feed Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories all while employed in the Prime Minister’s Office. For his part, Urich is suspected of having a role in a convoluted chain of business figures and other officials involved in transferring payments from Doha to cover up their origin.

Netanyahu was also asked to give testimony yesterday, though he is not a suspect in the case at this time.

Source close to Hezbollah says Israel strike targeted operative in charge of liaising with Palestinians

Damaged apartment buildings are seen after being struck earlier by an Israeli attack in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A source close to Hezbollah says an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs targeted an operative overseeing Palestinian affairs in the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group.

The strike “targeted Hassan Bdair, Hezbollah’s deputy head for the Palestinian file,” who was at home with his family at the time, the source tells AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

Israel says the target was coordinating attacks against Israeli civilians with Hamas.

Lebanon PM says Israeli strike in Beirut a ‘clear breach’ of ceasefire deal

Residents inspect debris that fell onto cars parked at the site where an apartment building was struck by an Israeli strike in the Dahiyeh suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, Lebanon, early April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said an Israeli strike on south Beirut was a “clear breach” of a ceasefire that largely ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

In a statement issued by his office, Salam condemns the strike as “a clear breach of the arrangements of the cessation of hostilities” and a “flagrant violation of United Nations Resolution 1701,” a Security Council decision that ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and served as the foundation of the November truce.

Israel says it targeted a Hezbollah operative who was directing Hamas terrorists and who posed an immediate threat to Israeli civilians.

IDF intercepts rocket launched from Gaza, no injuries

One rocket launched from the northern Gaza Strip was successfully intercepted by air defenses, the military says.

Sirens had sounded in Sderot and nearby communities.

There are no reports of injuries or damage.

Rocket warning sirens sound near Gaza

Rocket warning sirens are sounding in Sderot and other communities near the Gaza border.

The IDF says it is checking the incident.

Lebanon president slams Israeli strike, calls for support for country’s sovereignty

Lebanese army soldiers cordon the area of an Israeli targeted strike on an apartment building in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemns an Israeli strike on a building in Beirut’s southern suburbs, calling on international allies to support the country’s right to full territorial sovereignty.

“Israel’s persistence in its aggression requires more effort from us in addressing Lebanon’s friends around the world and rallying them in support of our right to full sovereignty over our land,” Aoun says in a statement released by the presidency, calling the strike “a dangerous warning” of intentions against Lebanon.

Israel says it targeted a Hezbollah operative who was directing Hamas terrorists and who posed an immediate threat to Israeli civilians.

Netanyahu cancels appointment of new Shin Bet head amid opposition from allies

Former naval chief Vice-Admiral (res.) Eli Sharvit at his home in central Israel, January 19, 2024, (Israel Hadari/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that he is backtracking on his decision to appoint Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit as the next head of the Shin Bet, some 24 hours after making the surprise announcement.

Netanyahu met Sharvit last night to tell him that he would not be the next head of the Shin Bet security service, Netanyahu’s office says.

“The Prime Minister thanked Vice Adm. Sharvit for his willingness to be serve,” says the PMO in a statement, “but informed him that after further thought, he intends to interview other candidates.”

Netanyahu announced Sharvit on Monday morning as his choice to replace Ronen Bar at the head of the agency, in a move that raised eyebrows, given the reserves vice admiral’s reported participation in anti-government protests and ongoing questions surrounding Bar’s dismissal during a criminal probe into associates of the prime minister.

Netanyahu was facing pressure from political allies to scratch Sharvit’s nomination, due to his apparent participation in massive protests that erupted in 2023, against the government’s plans to overhaul the judiciary.

“I was asked by the Prime Minister to take on the role of head of the Shin Bet and to continue serving Israel at this difficult time – and so I did,” says Sharvit in a statement circulated by the PMO. “This comes from full confidence in the ability of the Shin Bet to meet the complex challenges that have arisen in this period, and a humble belief in my abilities to lead it toward this end.”

Sharvit also spoke publicly in favor of a 2022 territorial water agreement with Lebanon, which Netanyahu — then the opposition leader — had opposed, and earlier this year, Sharvit penned an opinion piece criticizing US President Donald Trump for his climate policies.

Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her as a teen, injured in ‘serious’ accident

Virginia Giuffre, center, at a news conference outside a Manhattan court in New York, Aug. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

Virginia Giuffre, a sex trafficking victim of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been injured in a “serious accident”, her agent says.

Giuffre — who accused the UK’s Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was 17 — “is receiving medical care in the hospital”, her agent Dini von Mueffling says in a statement to AFP.

“She greatly appreciates the support and well wishes people are sending.”

Giuffre, a US and Australian citizen, has reportedly been living in Perth, Western Australia, but it was unclear where or when she was injured.

An Instagram post signed in her name yesterday included a photo of her apparently lying in a hospital bed with bruises and grazing around her left eye, forehead and nose.

“I think it important to note that when a school bus driver comes at you driving 110km as we were slowing for a turn that no matter what your car is made of it might as well be a tin can,” it said.

“I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist hospital in urology. I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time.”

Western Australia police said they had located one crash involving a bus in the past week — a minor incident north of Perth on March 24 — but that it did not result in any reported injuries.

Giuffre’s father Sky Roberts told the Daily Mail he was “sick to his stomach” about his daughter’s injuries, saying she was in a crash in Australia a “couple of days ago.”

Giuffre accused the late American billionaire Epstein of using her as a “sex slave.”

Prince Andrew denied her accusation of sexual assault and avoided trial by paying a multimillion-dollar settlement.

Israeli students reach Poland after being stranded at Turkey airport for more than 12 hours

A plane carrying Israeli high school students lands in Poland after they spent more than 12 hours stranded in a Turkish airport where they had been forced to make an emergency landing, Education Minister Yoav Kisch says.

Kisch posts on X that the delegation landed safely and was on its way to their hotel.

The plane carrying 12th-grade students from five schools to Poland was forced to make an emergency landing in Turkey, due to engine issues.

However, the wait at the airport was extended after a second plane dispatched to take the students was also found to have technical problems.

Some parents had raised fears for the safety of the children given Turkey’s hostile attitude to Israel amid the war in Gaza.

The students are on an organized trip to visit concentration camps and learn about the Holocaust. The Poland trips are seen as a learning experience about the Holocaust, the subsequent necessity of the Jewish state, and the values of volunteerism and social cohesion.

Anti-Israel Cornell student slated for deportation says he’s leaving the US

Protesters gather in Foley Square, outside the Manhattan federal court, in support of Mahmoud Khalil, Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

A Cornell University student who participated in pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests and was asked to surrender by US immigration officials says he was leaving the United States, citing fear of detention and threats to his personal safety.

Momodou Taal, a doctoral candidate in Africana Studies and dual citizen of the UK and The Gambia, has participated in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war in Gaza following an October 2023 Hamas attack. His attorneys said last month that he was asked to turn himself in and that his student visa was being revoked.

US President Donald Trump has pledged to deport foreign protesters accused them of supporting Hamas, being antisemitic and taking part in violent or destructive campus demonstrations.

Last year, Taal was in a group of activists who disrupted a career fair on campus that featured weapons manufacturers and the university thereafter ordered him to study remotely. He previously posted online that “colonized peoples have the right to resist by any means necessary.”

Taal filed a lawsuit in mid-March to block deportations of protesters, a bid that was denied by a judge last week.

“Given what we have seen across the United States, I have lost faith that a favorable ruling from the courts would guarantee my personal safety and ability to express my beliefs,” Taal says on X.

Israeli strike on Beirut suburb kills 3 — Lebanese health ministry

An Israeli strike on a southern suburb of Beirut has killed at least three people and wounded seven more, the Lebanese health ministry says.

“The Israeli enemy raid on the southern suburbs left, according to a new report, three martyrs and seven wounded,” the ministry says.

The IDF said earlier that it targeted a Hezbollah operative who posed an immediate threat to Israeli civilians.

IDF chief Zamir makes new round of senior appointments

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir made a new round of senior appointments in the military.

The list announced by Zamir last night includes four new brigadier generals and 17 new colonels, as well as three brigadier generals and 10 colonels who are moving to new positions at the same rank.

Among those being promoted is Col. Gil Elia, the current commander of the Marom Brigade, who will be the next military secretary to President Isaac Herzog.

Zamir also picked a new commander for the Paratroopers Brigade, Col. Roy Zweig, after the previous pick for the role, Col. Ephraim Avni, by former IDF chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, was not approved by Defense Minister Israel Katz. Avni, who was operations chief at the Southern Command ahead of the October 7 onslaught, has his promotion on hold until his role in the failures is evaluated.

Zweig was reprimanded in 2022 while he commanded the Samaria Regional Brigade for participating in a settler event without approval and saying the military and the settlement movement are “one and the same.”

Zamir also promoted a female officer to a senior role in the IDF Computer Service Directorate: Brig. Gen. Yael Chaya Grossman, who will serve as chief of staff, a role akin to deputy head of the directorate.

Hezbollah-linked network: At least 3 killed in Israeli strike on Beirut

The Hezbollah-linked Al Mayadeen network reports that at least three people have been killed in the overnight Israeli airstrike in Beirut.

The IDF said earlier that it had targeted a Hezbollah operative posing an immediate threat to Israeli civilians.

ערוץ "אל-מיאדין" הלבנוני: שלושה הרוגים לפחות בתקיפת הבניין בדאחייה@OmerShahar123 pic.twitter.com/QnT91w6jvW

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 1, 2025

IDF says it targeted Hezbollah operative posing ‘immediate threat’ in Beirut strike

The IDF says it carried out a strike on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital of Beirut targeting a Hezbollah operative, the second such strike since a November ceasefire.

“The strike targeted a Hezbollah terrorist who had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them in planning a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians,” the Israeli military says in a joint statement with the domestic Shin Bet security agency.

“The terrorist posed a real and immediate threat,” the statement adds.

‼️ An Israeli strike on the southern suburb of Beirut : pic.twitter.com/Bbut8BChFb

— Hiba Nasr (@HibaNasr) April 1, 2025

On Thursday, the IDF targeted the southern Beirut Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh for the first time since a ceasefire went into place in late November between Israel and Hezbollah. Last week’s IDF strike came in response to the firing of several projectiles at northern Israel from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah claimed it wasn’t responsible for the launches.

The US backed last week’s Israeli strikes and called on the Lebanese government to do a better job enforcing the ceasefire by ensuring the disarmament of all terror groups in Lebanon.

For its part, Beirut has taken issue with what it says is Israel’s own violation of the ceasefire, which required the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Israel has kept troops in key strategic positions in southern Lebanon, arguing that the Lebanese government hasn’t sufficiently cracked down on Hezbollah and other armed groups. The Trump administration has backed this Israeli move as well.

Trump: David Friedman, 30 others have expressed interest in UN envoy vacancy

Then-Republican presidential candidate, US President Donald Trump, right, greets David Friedman, who served as his ambassador to Israel, at the National Religious Broadcasters convention at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center on February 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

US President Donald Trump says his former ambassador to Israel David Friedman has expressed interest in becoming the next US ambassador to the United Nations after Elise Stefanik pulled her nomination in order to maintain her seat in the House where Republicans have a narrow majority.

“We have a lot of people that have asked about it, and would like to do it — David Friedman, Ric Grenell and maybe 30 other people,” Trump tells reporters after signing executive orders in the Oval Office.

Friedman waged considerable influence from Jerusalem during the previous Trump administration and was said to have vied for a top spot in the second administration. However, Trump has held off on appointing the former envoy, who criticized the president after he dined with antisemite Kanye West in 2022.

Friedman went on to endorse Trump’s re-election and has been one of his most vocal advocates.

“Everyone loves that position. That’s a star-making position, and so we’ll see what happens. But we have a lot of people that are interested in going to the United Nations, as you can imagine,” Trump says.

Trump says he plans to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and ‘possibly other countries’

Kid Rock holds a signed executive order regarding ticket scalping after US President Donald Trump signed it in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, March 31, 2025. (Pool via AP)

US President Donald Trump confirms that he plans to make his first foreign visit to Saudi Arabia, adding that he’ll also likely make stops in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

He doesn’t mention Israel in these comments to reporters after signing executive orders in the Oval Office but he does say that the Mideast itinerary may include “a couple of other countries.”

Asked if the trip will take place in May as reported, Trump responds, “It could be next month, maybe a little bit later.”

Trump reiterates that he decides to make Saudi Arabia his first foreign destination after Riyadh pledged to invest nearly $1 trillion in US companies.

Iran complains to UN about Trump’s ‘reckless, belligerent’ remarks

Iran has complained to the United Nations Security Council about “reckless and belligerent” remarks by US President Donald Trump, describing them as “a flagrant violation of international law” and the founding United Nations Charter.

Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.

In a letter, seen by Reuters, Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani writes that Tehran “strongly warns against any military adventurism and will respond swiftly and decisively to any act of aggression or attack by the United States or its proxy, the Israeli regime, against its sovereignty, territorial integrity, or national interests.”

Israeli students still stranded in Turkey after 12 hours as rescue plane also found to be unsafe

A group of  Israeli 12th graders stranded at an airport in Turkey are still there 12 hours later, after a plane sent to rescue them was also found to have technical issues, the the Education Ministry says.

The plane carrying 12th-grade students from five schools to Poland was forced to make an emergency landing in Turkey, due to engine issues.

According to reports, the students were taken to a secure area in the airport in Antalya as they await a replacement aircraft.

But the replacement plane was also found to be unsafe and now a third plane will be sent in the coming hours, the ministry says.

The students are on an organized trip to visit concentration camps and learn about the Holocaust. The Poland trips are seen as a learning experience about the Holocaust, the subsequent necessity of the Jewish state, and the values of volunteerism and social cohesion.

Khamenei adviser says Iran will have ‘no choice’ but to get nuclear weapon if attacked

A handout picture provided by the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office on March 21, 2025, shows him addressing the crowd during his annual Nowruz speech, in Tehran, Iran. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader says the country would have no alternative but to acquire a nuclear weapon if attacked, following a threat by US President Donald Trump.

“We are not moving towards (nuclear) weapons, but if you do something wrong in the Iranian nuclear issue, you will force Iran to move towards that because it has to defend itself,” Ali Larijani, adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says in an interview with state TV.