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The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they happened.
US tells embassy personnel in Israel to restrict travel amid Iranian threats
US Embassy in Jerusalem, October 27, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The United States says it has restricted its employees in Israel and their family members from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beersheba areas amid Iran’s threats to retaliate against its regional adversary.
“Out of an abundance of caution, US government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv (including Herzliya, Netanya and Even Yehuda), Jerusalem, and Beersheba areas until further notice,” the US embassy says in a security alert posted on its website today. “US government personnel are authorized to transit between these three areas for personal travel.”
Washington has a policy of informing all American citizens via such warnings when it updates security measures for its personnel in a country.
UK’s Cameron says he warned Iranian counterpart against ‘further violence’
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron reacts as he leaves Westminster Abbey in London, at the end of the annual Commonwealth Day service ceremony, on March 11, 2024. (Daniel Leal/AFP)
British Foreign Minister David Cameron says he made it clear to his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, that Iran should not draw the Middle East into a wider conflict, following threats made by Iran toward Israel.
“Today I made clear to Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian that Iran must not draw the Middle East into a wider conflict,” Cameron writes on X.
“I am deeply concerned about the potential for miscalculation leading to further violence. Iran should instead work to de-escalate and prevent further attacks,” he adds.
Report: Iran told US its response to Damascus strike will be limited
A banner displaying pictures of Israeli army officials with their faces encircled by a red crosshair icon, hangs in Tehran on April 2, 2024, following a suspected Israeli strike in Damascus that killed the top IRGC officer in Syria. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
Iran has signaled to Washington that it will respond to Israel’s purported attack on its Syrian embassy in a way that aims to avoid major escalation and it will not act hastily, Iranian sources say.
Iran’s message to Washington was conveyed by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian during a visit on Sunday to the Gulf Arab state of Oman, which has often acted as an intermediary between Tehran and Washington, the sources say.
A source familiar with US intelligence was not aware of the message conveyed via Oman, but says Iran has “been very clear” that its response to the attack on its Damascus embassy compound would be “controlled” and “non-escalatory” and planned “to use regional proxies to launch a number of attacks on Israel.”
Date for beginning civilian evacuation of Rafah still not set, says Israeli official
Displaced Palestinians buy fish from a vendor on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on April 10, 2024. (Mohammed Abed/AFP)
The date for the beginning of the evacuation of civilians from Rafah is still not set, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
The official indicates that it will happen, however.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said recently that a date has been chosen for the start of the operation in Gaza’s southernmost city, but Defense Minister Yoav Gallant contradicted that assertion in a call with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, according to a source familiar with the matter.
White House says ‘good progress’ being made on Gaza aid, but ‘it’s still not enough’
Humanitarian aid waits on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, in this handout photo from April 11, 2024. (COGAT)
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre opens today’s press conference by noting that more than 1,000 trucks of humanitarian aid have gone into Gaza over the past several days.
“That’s good progress, but it’s still not enough, and we hope to see the progress continue and accelerate,” she says, noting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still has to implement pledges to open the Ashdod port for maritime aid deliveries, open another crossing into northern Gaza and expand the amount of aid for Gaza from Jordan.
Despite the progress she describes, Jean-Pierre is peppered with questions from unimpressed reporters, demanding to know why US President Joe Biden is not doing more to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, with the topic again taking up the overwhelming majority of foreign policy questions.
Gallant tells US counterpart: Direct Iranian attack on Israel would demand fitting response
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meets with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Washington, March 26, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tells his US counterpart Lloyd Austin that any direct Iranian strike on Israel will engender a commensurate Israeli response.
According to Gallant’s office, he spoke this evening with Austin, as Israel remains on high alert for an Iranian attack, which Tehran has threatened as revenge for a strike that killed an Iranian general in Damascus last week that it has blamed on Israel.
Gallant “emphasized that Israel will not accept an Iranian attack on Israeli territory,” according to his office.
“Gallant told Secretary Austin that he is committed to the security of the citizens of Israel, and therefore a direct Iranian attack on Israeli territory will require an appropriate Israeli response against Iran,” the Israeli readout says.
Likud and Haredi parties reportedly debating enlistment plan with quotas and economic sanctions
File - Ultra-Orthodox men protest against the IDF draft in Jerusalem, April 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Negotiators representing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and the ultra-Orthodox factions are currently discussing an enlistment outline calling for quotas and sanctions, according to Hebrew-language news reports.
Citing reporting by Kikar HaShabbat journalist Yishai Cohen, Channel 12 reports that a plan currently under discussion would set annual recruitment quotas — starting at 25 percent of the annual ultra-Orthodox enlistment cohort or some 3,000 people — which would gradually increase as time passes.
The proposal also includes economic sanctions if the targets are not met and closer supervision of yeshiva students by the government in order to catch those who claim to be learning in yeshiva full-time even when they are not.
“Anyone who wants to learn Torah — will be able to learn quietly and safely, we need to protect them,” a senior ultra-Orthodox official was quoted as saying by Channel 12. While some ultra-Orthodox politicians have indicated that they support the recruitment of those outside of the yeshivas, they have said that the enlistment of full-time students is a red line that would push them to leave the coalition.
Responding to the news, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel calls the proposal “another blatant attempt to grab the public’s attention, without any real intention to solve the issue of inequality in the burden.”
“This proposal lacks significant criminal sanctions and is once again based on quotas and exemptions. The real purpose in this proposal is just to get more time and bypass the Supreme Court,” the watchdog group asserts.
Israel expects US ships coming to construct Gaza dock to arrive April 28
US Army Vessel General Frank S. Besson prepares to depart Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, March 9, 2024, en route to the Eastern Mediterranean. (US Central Command via AP)
Israel anticipates the arrival of the US JLOTS ships, slated to build a pier off the coast of Gaza, to arrive on April 28, according to assessments seen today by The Times of Israel.
Jerusalem also expects the Turkish flotilla from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition to set out to Gaza on April 15, and to arrive off the coast three days later, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
One of the 12 organizations involved in the coalition is the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), which organized the 2010 flotilla in which a deadly fight broke out on the Mavi Marmara between IHH members and IDF commandos.
The FFC, which has nowhere to dock in Gaza even if the Israeli Navy were to allow it through, said it will be bringing on board “hundreds of international human rights observers to challenge the ongoing illegal Israeli blockade.”
Blinken asks China, Turkey, Saudis to dissuade Iran from attacking Israel
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron (not pictured) at the State Department in Washington, on April 9, 2024. (Mandel Ngan/AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked China’s foreign minister and other counterparts to use their influence to dissuade Iran from striking Israel, the State Department says.
Blinken spoke by telephone to his Chinese, Turkish, Saudi and European counterparts “to make clear that escalation is not in anyone’s interest and that countries should urge Iran not to escalate,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller tells reporters.
The White House also says that the US has communicated to Iran that it was not involved in an airstrike against a top Iranian military commander in Damascus.
“We communicated to Iran that the US had no involvement in the strike that happened in Damascus and we have warned Iran not to use this attack as a pretext to escalate further in the region or to attack US facilities or personnel,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tells reporters.
Report: NIS 50 million project to bolster Sderot’s defenses against attack approved
Workers set up a concrete wall in an area in front of a kindergarten, located in the proximity of the Israeli-Gaza border in Sderot, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A NIS 50 million ($13.3 million) project aimed to better protect Sderot against attack from Gaza was approved today by the IDF, Channel 12 reports.
Parts of Sderot are less than 2 kilometers from the Gaza border. Invading Israel on October 7, Hamas terrorists massacred at least 50 civilians and 20 police officers in the city.
The project includes the construction of a five-kilometer barrier along Road 34, west of Sderot. The TV report says vaguely that this is intended to “delay” terrorist infiltrators. A similar barrier was announced in January 2023, when it was presented as aiming to obscure potential targets in the city from anti-tank missiles fired by Gaza terror groups.
The newly approved Sderot project provides for barriers and gates at the city’s entrances and exits. It also envisages bolstering the city’s civil defense squad from a 20-strong force to one numbering 108 members.
Hamas official says it can’t locate hostages in Gaza without a ceasefire
Photos of Kibbutz Nir Oz hostages placed on chairs and tables during a pre-Passover event in the kibbutz dining hall on April 11, 2024. (Liron Moldovan/Flash90)
A senior Hamas official says that only a ceasefire can provide “enough time and safety” to locate Israeli hostages being held across the Gaza Strip and ascertain their fate.
Negotiations for a ceasefire have been underway in Cairo since Sunday, but so far there has been no breakthrough on a proposal presented by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
“Part of ]the] negotiations is to reach a ceasefire agreement to have enough time and safety to collect final and more precise data about the captured Israelis,” Hamas official Bassem Naim says in a statement. This is “because they are [held] in different places by different groups, some of them are under the rubble killed with our own people, and we negotiate to get heavy equipments for this purpose.”
Israel believes that of the 129 hostages kidnapped from Israel on October 7 who are still being held in Gaza, at least 34 are confirmed to be dead, although US and Israeli officials have hinted in recent days that the number could be much higher.
13 men plead not guilty for scuffle over illegal Brooklyn Chabad tunnel
Hasidic Jewish students observe as law enforcement establishes a perimeter around a breached wall in the synagogue that led to a tunnel dug by students at Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters, January 8, 2024, in New York. (Bruce Schaff via AP)
Thirteen members of the Hasidic Jewish community plead not guilty this week to charges stemming from their alleged role in a dispute over an illegal tunnel built beneath a historic Brooklyn synagogue.
The defendants, some of them international students from Israel, appeared in Brooklyn court yesterday on charges of reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and obstruction of governmental administration. They were issued a limited protection order that bars them from making any excavations or alterations to the building.
Prosecutors say the defendants — who ranged in age from 19 to 26 — were involved in a January 8 melee in the basement of the global headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch. The dispute erupted after the discovery of an underground passage connecting four buildings within the famed Jewish complex.
When Chabad leaders moved to seal the tunnel, characterizing it as a rogue act of vandalism, a group of young men fought back, ripping the wooden siding off the synagogue and refusing to leave the dusty passage. Their protest escalated as police arrived, leading to a chaotic scuffle and more than $1,500 in property damage, according to court papers.
TV report: Jerusalem thinks Sinwar delaying hostage deal response in hopes of Iranian attack on Israel
Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's Gaza Strip chief, waves to supporters in Gaza City, on April 14, 2023. (Mohammed Abed/AFP)
Israel believes Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar is delaying a response to the current hostage-truce proposal in the hope that Iran will attack Israel and help spark the wider conflict he sought to trigger on October 7, according to unnamed sources in Jerusalem quoted by Channel 12 news.
“Sinwar has not given up on his ambition to see a regional war, and he is pinning his hopes on an Iranian attack and an Israeli response, which could bring about a ‘unification of the [various] fronts’ [against Israel],” the TV report quotes the sources saying.
A proposed deal said to be broadly accepted by Israel reportedly provides for the release of 40 living hostages in a “humanitarian category” — women, children, elderly and ill — in return for some 900 Palestinian security prisoners during a 42-day truce.
Hamas officials have publicly said the terms are unacceptable and reiterated demands for an Israeli commitment to end the war and to allow northern Gazans to return home, but have not issued a definitive rejection.
COGAT says Kerem Shalom Crossing blocked by 600 trucks of aid waiting on Gaza side
Humanitarian aid waits on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, in this handout photo from April 11, 2024. (COGAT)
The Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) says it is unable to transfer additional aid to the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, because the contents of some 600 trucks are waiting on the Palestinian side for pickup.
“We extended crossing hours and scaled up our capacities. Do your job. The bottlenecks are not on the Israeli side,” the hybrid civil-military unit says on X, tagging the United Nations.
The IDF and COGAT have significantly increased the amount of aid going into Gaza in recent days.
COGAT accuses the UN of having a “slow” rate of pickup and distribution, due to its “lack of logistical capabilities, along with gaps in personnel, which led, among other things, to the accumulation of the contents of hundreds of trucks this week, which led to the flooding of the Palestinian side of the crossing, which prevents Israel from transferring additional humanitarian aid to the Strip.”
The UN has said that Israel sends half-full trucks into Gaza and they have to repack them after they have crossed into the Strip, as the two groups have disputed the amount of aid being sent.
Yesterday, the US envoy for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, David Satterfield, said the biggest obstacle to delivering humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza following the major influx is the lack of trucks available in the Strip to deliver the assistance.
Dueling rallies in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem call for hostage deal, continuation of war
Protesters call for the release of hostages held in Gaza during a rally in Tel Aviv, April 11, 2024. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)
Separate, opposing rallies are being held in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem tonight calling for opposing goals in the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
In Tel Aviv, hundreds protest near the Kirya military headquarters ahead of a war cabinet meeting, demanding that a truce deal be reached to release the hostages still being held in the Strip.
In Jerusalem, near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence, hundreds take part in a protest calling for the war to continue until Hamas is destroyed, and opposing any ceasefire deal with the terror group.
Haniyeh says Israeli airstrike killing his 3 sons does not rule out possibility of deal
Ismail Haniyeh, the Doha-based political bureau chief of the Palestinian terror group Hamas, speaks on a televised speech on the occasion of Quds (Jerusalem) Day on April 3, 2024. (Hamas Media Office/AFP)
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh says that reaching a truce and hostage release deal with Israel is still possible even following an airstrike in Gaza which killed three of his sons.
Haniyeh also denies to Reuters that his sons were operatives in the terror group, which Israel said yesterday following the strike.
“The interests of the Palestinian people are placed ahead of everything,” he says, when asked if their killing would impact talks.
“We are seeking to reach a deal, but the occupation is still procrastinating and evading a response to the demands,” he tells Reuters.
Israel on high alert for Iranian attack, but prepared for any scenario, says IDF spokesman
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari delivers an English-language video statement, March 24, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stresses that there is no change to instructions for civilians as Israel remains on high alert for a potential attack from Iran.
“I will address the reports and talk about the preparations for an attack from Iran. First of all, there is no change to the Home Front Command instructions,” Hagari says in an evening press conference.
“We are on alert and are highly prepared for various scenarios, and are constantly assessing the situation. We are ready for attack and defense using a variety of capabilities that the IDF has, and also ready with our strategic partners,” he says.
Hagari says the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), Gen. Michael Kurilla, arrived in Israel this morning to hold an assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi on “the security challenges in the region.”
“Our strategic relationship with the US armed forces is strong and tight,” he says.
“An attack from Iranian territory would be clear proof of Iranian intentions to escalate the situation in the Middle East, and to stop hiding behind the proxies,” Hagari continues.
He says that in recent months, the IDF has “upgraded and improved” its attack capabilities, and “will know to operate wherever is needed.”
“We have a multi-layered [air] defense capability that has proven itself amid the war, with thousands of successful interceptions,” Hagari says. “But the defense is never going to be hermetic,” he says, adding that civilians should continue to follow the existing and unchanged Home Front Command guidelines, and remain vigilant.
“If there is a change, we will update [the public] immediately,” Hagari adds.
Asked whether the citizens of Israel should be braced tonight for an Iranian attack, and whether the IDF will hit back if Iran attacks Israel from its territory, Hagari says that “the State of Israel is attacked [by forces armed] with Iranian capabilities from Yemen, Iraq and Syria, almost every week, if not almost every day — and our defenses intercept those threats.”
“Nonetheless, we are braced and ready, on high alert, defensively and offensively. We’ll know to update the public and to deal with every threat,” he says.
IDF says it struck three buildings used by Hezbollah in south Lebanon
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, April 10, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
The IDF says it struck three buildings used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Mays al-Jabal, Yarine and Khiam a short while ago.
Another Hezbollah observation post was struck in Marwahin, the IDF says.
Troops also shelled areas near Abou Chach with artillery to “remove threats,” the IDF adds.
Sunak says UK fully backs Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’ against Iranian threats
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak addresses the media at Downing Street in London, March 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says that the UK fully backs Israel’s right to defend itself against Iranian threats.
Sunak says threats by Iran to carry out a missile strike on Israel are “unacceptable,” adding that “we, like the Americans, fully support Israel’s right to defend itself against that.”
Sunak adds that Britain has already “highlighted Iran as a significant risk to regional security,” including to the UK.
Moroccan asylum seeker in UK says he stabbed stranger to death due to Gaza war
Illustrative: UK police on patrol September 17, 2017. (AP/Frank Augstein, File)
A Moroccan asylum seeker accused of stabbing a stranger to death told British police he carried out the attack because Israel had “killed children” in Gaza, prosecutors say during his trial today.
Ahmed Alid, 45, also allegedly attacked his housemate, a Christian convert, and assaulted two police officers, during the incidents in Hartlepool, northeast England, last October.
Prosecutors said he murdered 70-year-old Terence Carney after a chance meeting in the street when he was carrying two knives. He stabbed housemate, Javed Nouri, as he slept in bed. Alid shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he repeatedly wounded the sleeping Nouri in the chest, Teesside Crown Court hears at the start of the trial.
The 31-year-old survived the assault, but Carney died after being stabbed six times in the chest, abdomen and back. Police arrested Alid nearby with a bloody knife in his waistband, and he later told officers that he had acted because of the Gaza war, the court hears.
“He said he had wanted to kill them because of the conflict in Gaza and to further his desire that Palestine would be free from the Zionists, by which he meant Israel,” prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford says. “The defendant said he would have killed more people if he had been able to do so.”
Attorney general said to tell government there’s ‘no legal basis’ not to draft Haredim
Ultra-Orthodox men clash with police during a protest against the Haredi draft, Jerusalem, April 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara reportedly tells the government that there is “no legal basis” for continuing to exempt members of the ultra-Orthodox community from being drafted into the IDF.
Baharav-Miara’s comments come after the government lodged a request for separate representation before the High Court on the controversial issue. The attorney general reportedly responds that this option could only be examined after the state informs the High Court what steps it is taking to draft the Haredi community, which it has been ordered to do by the end of April.
Writing to Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, the attorney general reiterates her position that the IDF must begin drafting Haredi conscripts, saying that the government’s plan to continue the status quo, and not draft members of the ultra-Orthodox community, “is not anchored in any legal basis.”
Cyprus says it is continuing to accumulate Gaza aid despite pause in shipments
A member of the World Central Kitchen walks by the humanitarian aid loaded onto pallets for transport to the port of Larnaca from where it's going to be shipped to Gaza, at a warehouse near Larnaca, Cyprus, March 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Cyprus’ foreign minister says additional quantities of humanitarian aid continue to arrive in the east Mediterranean island nation for eventual transfer by ship to Gaza, despite the suspension of shipborne aid deliveries to the Palestinian territory.
Constantinos Kombos tells reporters that Cypriot authorities — in cooperation with US military officials — continue preparations for a resumption of aid shipments. They will resume once the sea corridor to Gaza is reactivated after a US-built floating dock designed to receive 1,500 tons or more of aid weekly is completed around May 1.
He says shipments will resume once security protocols are revised in Gaza to ensure the safe distribution of aid in the wake of the April 1 Israeli airstrikes that killed seven workers with the World Central Kitchen.
Iran says it wouldn’t need to retaliate if UN had condemned strike on Damascus
Billboard in Tehran displaying a portrait of Quds Force commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was killed in Damascus airstrike, with a slogan in Hebrew saying, 'You will be punished,' on April 3, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
The “imperative for Iran” to retaliate for the attack on its embassy compound in Damascus might have been avoided had the UN Security Council condemned the strike, Tehran’s mission to the United Nations says.
“Had the UN Security Council condemned the Zionist regime’s reprehensible act of aggression on our diplomatic premises in Damascus and subsequently brought to justice its perpetrators, the imperative for Iran to punish this rogue regime might have been obviated,” the mission writes on X.
Israel has not publicly commented on the strike.
UN Security Council acknowledges Israel’s steps to boost Gaza aid, asks for ‘more’
Displaced Palestinians wait to offer a special morning prayer to start the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, outside a destroyed mosque in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on April 10, 2024. (AFP)
The UN Security Council acknowledges Israel’s pledge to open more entry points to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, but says “more should be done” to help civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory.
In a statement, council members “took note of the announcement by Israel to open the Erez (border) crossing and allow the use of the Ashdod port for aid deliveries into Gaza, but stressed that more should be done to bring the required relief given the scale of needs in Gaza.”
O.J. Simpson dies of cancer at 76, says family
Former NFL football star OJ Simpson enters for his parole hearing at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nevada, July 20, 2017. (Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP)
O.J. Simpson, the former National Football League star who was acquitted of the murder of his wife and her friend in a case that captivated the country, has died at age 76 after battling cancer, according to a statement by his family on his X account.
The post says that he died yesterday, surrounded by his children and grandchildren.
Thousands of Haredi Jews protest in Jerusalem against being drafted to army
File - Ultra-Orthodox men protest against the IDF draft in Jerusalem, April 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews are protesting outside an IDF enlistment office in Jerusalem against a recent High Court ruling which is poised to lead to drafting Haredim into the army.
Holding signs reading “The Israeli authorities are persecuting Torah scholars”; “To prison and not to the army” and saying that they would choose death over enlisting, the gathering includes speeches from officials in the extremist Jerusalem Faction.
According to reports, some of the protesters are clashing with police officers securing the event.
Government promises northern town heads NIS 6.5 billion plan to rehabilitate
Yossi Shelley, director of the PMO (standing), meets with northern mayors in Nof Hagalil on April 11, 2024. (Eran Yardeni/GPO)
An official with the Prime Minister’s Office meets with the heads of towns close to the northern border and promises a NIS 6.5 billion ($1.7 billion) investment in rehabilitating areas affected by missile attacks from Lebanon amid the war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
Yossi Shelley, the director of the PMO, holds a meeting in Nof Hagalil (formerly Nazareth Illit) and unveils a program called “Tzafona” (“northward”), which he says is a “strategic, wide-ranging plan for the benefit of the rehabilitation and development of communities along the line of conflict in the north.”
Tens of thousands of Israelis in towns and cities near the northern border with Lebanon and Syria have been evacuated for the past six months due to rocket attacks, and some of the affected areas have suffered heavy damage from regular missiles.
The PMO says it is working on securing a budget of NIS 6.5 billion ($1.7 billion) for the years 2024-2028 to rehabilitate and invest in the area, including for security and social needs, agriculture, economy, strengthening municipal authorities. The plan also includes a promise to construct a university in the city of Kiryat Shmona next to the border, as well as investing in agro-food tech business and other fields in that part of the country.
Israeli official says Hamas keeps ‘walking away’ from talks
IDF soldiers operate in the central Gaza Strip in an undated handout photo published April 10, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Hamas keeps “walking away” from a deal that would secure a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages, the Prime Minister’s Office says, as negotiations once again appear to be at a standstill.
“There is a very reasonable offer on the table and Hamas keeps walking away,” spokesman David Mencer tells reporters, adding that international pressure on Israel is only “helping Hamas.”
Dutch prosecutors drop charges against suspect in rabbi’s alleged beating
Prosecutors in the Netherlands do not intend to prosecute a man who is said to have beaten a rabbi at a department store, they say, prompting the rabbi to mull filing an appeal.
Herman Loonstein, the lawyer of Rabbi Aryeh Leib Heintz, announces the former suspect’s release and Heintz’s “dismay.” The RTV broadcaster reports that the prosecutors had no evidence against the man, who turned himself in on March 31 after news of the alleged assault broke.
“The antisemitic motive [of the suspect] is very clear,” Loonstein writes in a statement. The ex-suspect, aged 40, has been free since April 2, when police released him following his detention over the alleged assault of Heintz in Utrecht on March 29.
Heintz’s complaint to police alleges that the ex-suspect told the rabbi he had no business being at the shopping center “while being dressed like a Jew” before allegedly beating the rabbi on his head.
The prosecutors’ decision not to prosecute the man follows news that antisemitic incidents reached an all-time record in 2023 due to a 245% increase over the previous record year, which was 2022.
Bas Belder, a European Parliament lawmaker form the Netherlands, condemns the decision as “unacceptable” and a case of “ignoring Jew-hatred,” he writes on X.
The Utrecht prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Times of Israel.
High Court gives state 5 extra days to respond to petitions over Gaza humanitarian crisis
Illustrative: Trucks lined up at the entrance to Ashdod Port during a protest against humanitarian aid deliveries entering the Gaza Strip, February 1, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
The High Court of Justice grants the state’s request for a five-day extension to provide additional information to the court about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the government’s efforts to alleviate a potential famine there.
The court requested the information following a hearing last week on a petition filed by the Gisha organization asking the court to order the government to provide unhindered access to Gaza for humanitarian supplies and accusing the government of obstructing relief efforts.
The court says it is granting the extension in light of the government’s decision last week to increase the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including by opening up Ashdod Port for humanitarian deliveries and opening new goods crossings into the territory. Both these measures were requested by Gisha in its petition.
The state is given until Monday at 2 p.m. to file the requested supplementary information, and the court tells it specifically to include details about the supply of drinking water to northern Gaza, where the humanitarian crisis is most acute.
Gisha says it is “saddened” that the High Court allowed the state to merely make “declarations about future plans instead of taking immediate action to change the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Strip,” adding that “every minute which passes increases the danger to life and deepens the harm to the lives of civilians.”
Senior IDF generals meet with Red Cross, USAID and UN aid groups to discuss Gaza aid
Chief of the IDF Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman (right), and the head of COGAT, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, meet with representatives of humanitarian aid organizations at the Southern Command HQ in Beersheba, April 10, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The chief of the IDF Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, and the head of COGAT, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, met yesterday with representatives of humanitarian aid organizations operating in Gaza, the military announces.
The IDF says the meeting with members of UN bodies, the Red Cross, USAID, IMC, and the American humanitarian coordinator was part of “increasing coordination and cooperation” between the IDF and organizations operating in Gaza.
During the meeting at the Southern Command headquarters in Beersheba, Finkelman presented an overview of the situation in Gaza, and Alian showed the aid representatives the IDF’s humanitarian activities and steps to increase the rate of aid entering the Strip, the military says.
Probe of far-right MK Fogel on charges of incitement closed by prosecutors
Knesset National Security Committee head MK Zvika Fogel leads a meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on January 1, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
Government prosecutors have closed an investigation into a far-right lawmaker accused of incitement after he appeared to back extremist settlers who torched Palestinian homes and vehicles in the West Bank.
Otzma Yehudit MK Zvika Fogel was informed of the development today, more than a year after police opened a probe into his statement that he wanted to see a “closed, burnt Huwara.” He made his statement after rioters rampaged through the town in response to the killing of two Israeli brothers in a terror attack there.
“That’s the only way to achieve deterrence. After a murder like yesterday’s, we need burning villages when the IDF doesn’t act,” Fogel told Galey Israel Radio at the time, later claiming that his words were “distorted” and that he was calling on the military to act, not private citizens.
In response, Fogel tweets that “after 14 months of an unnecessary and baseless investigation, they closed the Huwara investigation of me. The investigation of October 7 I won’t close for you!”
Far-right National Security Minister and Otzma Yehudit chief Itamar Ben Gvir welcomes the news, calling it a “political investigation for all intents and purposes and an attempt to hold him by the throat and threaten him.”
While the investigation into Fogel is now closed, a probe into fellow Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Almog Cohen, who is accused of using violence against a civilian during his service in the Israel Police, is still ongoing.
Troops kill Hamas gunmen, destroy sites in ‘pinpoint’ Shejaiya operation, says IDF
IDF troops operate in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighborhood, in a handout image published April 11, 2024. (IDF)
The IDF says it carried out a pinpoint operation in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood over the past few days.
During the raid carried out by the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, troops killed numerous gunmen and destroyed sites belonging to Hamas, according to the IDF.
One of the sites raided by the troops was a Hamas training base. The IDF says that after the raid, the Hamas outpost was destroyed in an airstrike.
German police offer 5,000 euro award for info on synagogue attack last week
Traces of fire can be seen on a synagogue entrance door damaged by an incendiary device in Oldenburg, Germany, April 5, 2024. (Hauke-Christian Dittrich/dpa via AP)
German police offer a reward and ask possible witnesses to come forward with information regarding an arson attack on a synagogue in the northern city of Oldenburg last week.
Police are offering 5,000 euros ($5,364) and have called on the public to submit possible witness accounts through an online portal.
An unknown person threw an explosive device at the synagogue, causing minor damage. No events were taking place there at the time, and no one was injured. The perpetrator fled.
“The heinous act last Friday has caused nationwide bewilderment, but also great solidarity with the Jewish community,” Oldenburg Police chief Andreas Sagehorn says in a statement. “We are now relying on the cooperation of the public to help us solve the case.”
“Every hint counts,” Sagehorn says. “Anyone can be the person who makes a difference.”
Hamas moneyman killed in airstrike on Rafah, say IDF and Shin Bet
Injured men walk with crutches past children sitting atop the rubble of a collapsed building along a street in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 9, 2024. (AFP)
The IDF and Shin Bet say a Hamas operative involved in the funding of the military wing of the terror group was killed in a recent strike in southern Gaza’s Rafah.
Nasser Yaqub Jaber Nasser, according to the IDF and Shin Bet, was responsible for funding a “significant part” of Hamas’s military activity in Rafah.
In December, Nasser aided in the transfer of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the terror group, the IDF says.
German FM urges Iranian counterpart to exercise ‘maximum restraint’
German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock attends a meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh (not pictured) in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023. (Ammar Awad /Pool Photo via AP)
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock discusses the tense situation in the Middle East with her Iranian counterpart and urges all sides to act responsibly and exercise restraint, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin says.
“Avoiding further regional escalation must be in everyone’s interest. We urge all actors in the region to act responsibly and exercise maximum restraint,” the ministry writes on X.
IDF says it struck building used by Hezbollah in south Lebanon
Smoke billows from the area of an Israeli air strike on the southern Lebanese village of Khiam near the border with Israel on April 8, 2024. (Rabih Daher / AFP)
The IDF says fighter jets carried out a strike earlier today on a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Dhayra, where an operative was spotted.
Tanks also shelled an area near Tayr Harfa to “remove a threat,” the IDF adds.
Report: US officials fear most of the hostages held by Hamas could be dead
Photos of Kibbutz Nir Oz hostages placed on chairs and tables during a pre-Passover event in the kibbutz dining hall on April 11, 2024. (Liron Moldovan/Flash90)
US officials tell the Wall Street Journal that there are fears that most of the Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity could be dead.
The report comes amid talks to secure a hostage release deal and a truce, with some Hamas sources indicating that they are unable to provide 40 living hostages from the elderly, women and female soldiers that Israel is demanding.
It is believed that 129 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 34 of those still held by Hamas, citing intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
However, the WSJ report says that “Israeli and American officials estimate privately that the number of deaths could be much higher.”
Some US estimates indicate that most of the hostages are already dead, US officials familiar with the intelligence tell the paper.
They stress, however, that US information on the hostages is limited and depends, in part, on Israeli intelligence.
The report quotes US officials as saying that some were likely killed during Israeli strikes on Gaza, while others have died from health issues, including injuries suffered during their initial capture.
Hamas terrorists took 253 hostages during the October 7 assault in which they also killed some 1,200 people.
A hundred and five hostages were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 12 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Shas distances itself from minister’s call for some Haredi youth to join IDF
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men protest against the drafting of Haredi Jews to the Israeli army, in Jerusalem, April 10, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The ultra-Orthodox Shas party appears to distance itself from one of its ministers after he endorses the idea of enlisting some members of the Haredi community.
“The subject of the conscription law and the status of yeshiva students is entrusted exclusively to the rabbis of the Council of Torah Sages and is managed by the movement’s chairman Rabbi Aryeh Deri and his representative to the negotiations Rabbi Ariel Atias,” the party says in a statement.
“The movement’s representatives were instructed not to comment on the issue at all,” the statement continues, adding that its official position will be communicated “exclusively” via official party channels.
The party’s apparent repudiation of Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of Shas comes after he said during a podcast that ultra-Orthodox leaders needed to show “courage” and declare that “those whose status has been revoked and who are eligible for conscription must be part of those bearing the burden.”
According to national broadcaster Kan, Arbel was referring to yeshiva students who were denied the status of full-time Torah students by the Vaad HaYeshivot (Yeshiva Committee), a body that coordinates between ultra-Orthodox yeshivas and the Defense Ministry in matters of service deferments
Arbel’s comments echoed those of his fellow Shas Minister Ya’akov Margi, who told the Kikar Hashabbat website in February that members of the Haredi community not engaged in full-time Torah study should be drafted “by force.”
However, both ministers’ rhetoric stands at odds with that of Rabbi Moshe Maya, a senior member of Shas’s leading Council of Torah Sages — the body that directs the party — who recently stated that even those who do not learn full-time in yeshiva should not serve in the IDF.
IDF reports surge in female draftees joining combat units in latest intake
Illustrative: Female soldiers train in the Negev desert. (Gili Yaari / Flash90)
The IDF says it has recently seen a massive spike in women joining combat units, releasing data from the first week of the military’s March-April draft.
According to data from the IDF, the draft turnout for female troops in combat units was 157 percent, meaning 57% more than it had initially planned for. For comparison, during the same period last year, the turnout was 102%.
The IDF says that the Border Defense Corps’ light infantry units saw a 158% draft turnout, and the corps’ Combat Intelligence Collection units — where surveillance soldiers serve — saw a 210% turnout.
The Artillery Corps saw a 195% draft turnout; the Air Force’s air defense array saw 114%; the Home Front Command’s Search and Rescue units saw 170%; and the Border Police saw 139%.
Similarly, among male conscripts, there has been a rise in soldiers drafting to combat units.
According to the data, the Combat Engineering Corps saw a 122% draft turnout, and the Artillery Corps saw 109%.
The IDF does not release the turnout data for the Armored Corps, but says it is a rise of 130% compared to March 2023’s draft.
Israeli scientist Avi Wigderson wins prestigious AM Turing Award
Prof. Avi Wigderson (left) with the President of the Technion, Prof. Uri Sivan. (Rami Shelush, Technion Spokesperson’s Office)
Israeli computer scientist Avi Wigderson is awarded the prestigious AM Turing award.
Wigderson is hailed by the Association of Computing Machinery, the organization that oversees the prize, for “reshaping our understanding of the role of randomness in computation, and for decades of intellectual leadership in theoretical computer science.”
Wigderson “has been a leading figure in areas including computational complexity theory, algorithms and optimization, randomness and cryptography, parallel and distributed computation, combinatorics, and graph theory, as well as connections between theoretical computer science and mathematics and science,” the ACM noted.
The Turing Prize recipients receive a $1 million grant, funded by Google.
Haifa’s Technion also lauds Wigderson, an alumnus of the university.
After doing his undergrad at the Technion, Wigderson went on to do his MA and PhD at Princeton and is now a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
He has long maintained ties with the Technion and in June of 2023 was awarded an honorary doctorate there for “his significant contribution and leadership in the fields of computer science theory and discrete mathematics… and in gratitude for his long-standing relationship with the Technion, beginning with his undergraduate studies,” the Technion says.
Wigderson, born in Haifa in 1956, has had a prolific and varied career in the field of computer science, with hundreds of peer-reviewed articles to his credit and numerous other publications.
The Turing Award, also called “The Nobel Prize of Computing,” is named after Alan Turing, the British cryptographer and mathematician who famously cracked the Nazi Enigma cipher during World War II.
ADL grades US campuses’ efforts to combat antisemitism, says many schools failing
Anti-Israel protesters gather in Harvard Yard at a rally in Cambridge, Massechusetts, October 14, 2023. (Joseph Prezioso / AFP)
The Anti-Defamation League issues its first Campus Antisemitism Report Card, an assessment of efforts taken by US universities to combat antisemitism, and finds many leading schools are failing.
According to the ADL, the “Report Card reviewed 85 schools and assigned grades from A through F, to give campus leadership, parents, students, alumni and stakeholders a mechanism to evaluate the state of antisemitism on campus and how schools across the country are responding.”
Two schools received an A, 17 schools received a B, 29 schools received a C, 24 schools received a D, and 13 schools received an F grade.
The two schools with the best record were Brandeis University and Elon University.
Among the leading schools given a failing grade were The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Tufts University and University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
“Every campus should get an A – that’s not grade inflation, that’s the minimum that every group on every campus expects. Like all students, Jewish students deserve to feel safe and supported on campus. They deserve a learning environment free from antisemitism and hate. But that hasn’t been the experience with antisemitism running rampant on campus since even before October 7,” says Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO.
“At a time when antisemitic incidents on campus are at historic levels, administrators need to adopt new policies to address this scourge and have the willingness to enforce existing codes of conduct to ensure all students are safe,” he says.
At F-15 base, Netanyahu says country ready for attacks from other fronts, will hit anyone who harms Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits an Air Force F-15 base on April 11, 2024. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
Visiting an F-15 base, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issues an apparent threat to Iran that Israel will strike if attacked.
“We are in challenging times. We are in the midst of a war in Gaza that is continuing with full force. In addition, we are continuing with ceaseless efforts to return our hostages, but we are also preparing for challenges from other fronts,” Netanyahu tells pilots at an F-15 base.
Israel’s F-15 fleet is the Air Force’s primary weapon for long-range strikes.
“We set a simple principle: Anyone who hits us, we hit them,” Netanyahu says in apparent reference to Iranian threats to carry out strikes against Israel. “We are ready to fulfill our responsibilities to Israel’s security, in defense and attack.”
“I, and the whole of Israel, trust you,” he says to the pilots, wishing them “much success.”
The warning comes amid preparation for an Iranian strike in response to the alleged Israeli strike on April 1 that hit an Iranian consulate building in Damascus that killed two generals among several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers.
Yesterday, Bloomberg reported Iran could launch strikes involving high-precision missiles and drones targeting military and government sites in Israel after Iran reiterated its vow to retaliate.
Tel Aviv University students protest lecturer who lauded terrorist
Students at Tel Aviv University demand the resignation of lecturer Dr. Anat Matar, after Matar eulogized terrorist Walid Daqqa as 'a source of inspiration.' April 11, 2024. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
A group of students at Tel Aviv University held a demonstration on campus today, calling for the firing of Dr. Anat Matar, a senior lecturer in the philosophy department after she lauded the convicted Palestinian terrorist Walid Daqqa, who died this week in prison of cancer.
The demonstration, which attracted dozens of participants waving Israeli flags, was quickly organized via social media. At the event, the students called for Matar to be fired, and some suggested that the university should be “shut down” until she was dismissed, Walla News reported.
“Anat Matar must be fired immediately. There is no place for supporters of terrorism on campus,” student Orit Eliyahu of the right-wing Im Tirtzu organization said at the demonstration.
According to Hebrew media reports yesterday, the Tel Aviv University administration is considering opening an investigation into Matar. In a post on Facebook this week, Matar called Daqqa a “dear and beloved friend” and “an endless source of inspiration.”
Daqqa had been serving a life sentence for killing and mutilating an IDF soldier.
IDF says it’s beginning a ‘next phase’ of humanitarian assistance to Gaza
IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari issues an English-language statement on increased aid to the Gaza Strip on April 11, 2024 (Screen capture X used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in an English-language video statement says the military is beginning a “next phase” of humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip, opening a new land crossing for trucks to directly reach the northern part of the enclave.
“We have worked together with countries and international organizations from around the world to develop new and improved measures to increase the flow of aid to Gazan civilians, by land, sea, and air,” Hagari says.
He confirms that the IDF is “constructing the Northern Crossing, a new land crossing from Israel into northern Gaza.” Yesterday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told foreign press that a new land crossing was being built, with one of his aides saying it was to be located near Kibbutz Zikim.
Hagari says the new crossing is “to enable more aid to flow directly to civilians in the areas that have been challenging for trucks to access.”
At the start of the war, trucks only entered Gaza from Egypt’s Rafah crossing, with the IDF later opening the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to the south of the Strip. More recently, the IDF has allowed aid trucks to use a military road in central Gaza and enter via a crossing known as Gate 96.
He says that the new Northern Crossing is expected to handle at least 50 aid trucks per day.
“These new measures enable us to bring more aid and trucks destined for Gaza from overseas, including via the land crossing with Jordan” and Ashdod port, Hagari says.
He estimates that the new measures will “gradually” bring the average number of aid trucks entering the Strip per day to 500.
According to the IDF, since the beginning of the war, Israel has coordinated the entry of 22,205 trucks carrying 417,231 tons of humanitarian aid.
Hagari also notes plans by the US to build a floating pier in central Gaza to bring in more aid, and the ongoing airdrops by various nations.
The IDF says that it has coordinated 64 airdrop missions, with a total of 3,962 packages of food in Gaza.
Hagari says coordinating aid into Gaza is “complicated” and is “complicated further by Hamas’s ongoing fire, including toward aid convoys.”
“We are working together with international organizations to solve the challenges of the destruction of aid inside Gaza, and we are implementing the lessons learned from the tragic incident with the WCK organization, in order to maximize protection of aid workers,” Hagari continues, referring to a mistaken strike that killed seven aid workers.
Palestinian vehicle torched, home vandalized in suspected West Bank settler attack
A slogan saying 'revenge' in Hebrew and graffiti bearing Stars of David are pictured on the wall of a Palestinian house after a reported attack by Israeli settlers in the village of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, south of Nablus in the West Bank, on April 11, 2024. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
In what appears to be an attack by extremist Israelis, a vehicle is set ablaze last night in the Palestinian village of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya in the central West Bank and the word “Revenge” in Hebrew spray-painted on the wall of a Palestinian home alongside a Star of David.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that another vehicle was set on fire last night in the village of Mughayyir a short distance from Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Police.
Both Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya and Mughayyir have been the subject of settler violence.
In June last year, 34 people were injured and 140 cars were burned in Al-Lubban by settler vigilantes after a deadly terror attack near Eli in 2023.
A Palestinian man checks a burnt vehicle after a reported attack by Israeli settlers in the village of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, south of nablus in the West Bank, on April 11, 2024. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
US Centcom chief arrives in Israel amid fears of Iran strike
File: US CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla (L) meets Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Israel in a photo released March 4, 2024 (Defense Ministry/Shachar Yurman)
Gen. Michael Kurilla, head of the US Central Command, lands in Israel.
Kurilla is expected to hold consultations with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other officials to discuss the threat of an Iranian attack.
The report added that US and Israeli officials across various agencies have been in contact over the last few days, as the countries prepare for a possible response by Tehran to the alleged Israeli strike on April 1 that hit an Iranian consulate building in Damascus that killed two generals among several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers.
Yesterday, Bloomberg reported Iran could launch strikes involving high-precision missiles and drones targeting military and government sites in Israel after Iran reiterated its vow to retaliate.
One of the people quoted in the report said it was a matter of when — not if — Tehran will attack Israel.
Dutch Christians pick 13 tons of Jaffa oranges to sell at cost in the Netherlands
Dutch Christian volunteers pick oranges in Israel in March 2024. (Christians for Israel)
Pro-Israel Christians pick Jaffa oranges in southern Israel, which their organization then buys from farmers to sell without profit in the Netherlands.
The action in recent weeks in southern Israel lands more than 13 tons of premium oranges bearing the iconic Jaffa brand in the warehouse of the Israel Product Center, which is the commercial arm of the Christians for Israel group, spokesperson Sara van Oordt tells The Times of Israel.
The oranges are preordered and sold out even before their arrival, and stay very briefly at the warehouse of the Israel Products Center inside the three-story headquarters of the Christians for Israel group in Nijkerek near Utrecht. Members and supporters of the group from across the kingdom pick up their Jaffa orders in Nijkerk, van Oordt says.
Each kilogram (2 lbs) costs 2 euros ($2.15), which is significantly cheaper than the standard price of oranges of comparable premium brands at non-discount supermarket chains.
“It’s as Israeli as any product can be, symbolizing Zionism and the establishment of statehood,” van Oordt says.
The 13 tons in Nijkerek are a fraction of what Christians for Israel volunteers picked last month in a concentrated action to support Israeli agriculture, she adds. The fact the Jaffas are sold out “shows many Christians in the Netherlands stand squarely behind Israel, in prayer, in action — and also in enjoying the best Israel has to offer.”
There’s also a Dutch connection, she notes. “Orange is the Netherlands’ national color. It’s only appropriate they are on offer here.”
Nir Oz survivors return to kibbutz for Passover Seder, set places for hostages
Osnat Peri, wife of hostage Chaim Peri, in the Kibbutz Nir Oz dining hall at a pre-Passover event on April 11, 2024 (Screen Shot)
Survivors and loved ones of those killed and kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz gather in the kibbutz’s dining hall, where one long table is set for the Nir Oz hostages, with packages of matzah, bottles of grape juice and Haggadah pamphlets next to each plate.
There are seats for preschooler Ariel Bibas, his baby brother, Kfir and their parents Shiri and Yarden, for murdered hostages Tamir Adar and Maya Goren, for Chaim Peri and all the other members who are missing.
The kibbutz is missing a quarter of its members — 51 killed on October 7 and 36 who are still held hostage.
Osnat Peri, wife of Chaim Peri, who saved his wife by confronting the terrorists in order to protect her, speaks first.
“When times were normal, we used to celebrate the Seder here, with decorated tables and walls,” says Osnat Peri. She recalls how the kibbutz would begin the Seder by reciting “Shibolim,” a poem written by another kibbutz member taken hostage, Amiram Cooper.
“This dining hall will be empty this year. No one will talk freedom because no one feels that way this year,” she says.
“We want to feel we have a country, a kibbutz, a life,” adds Peri. “Bring them home, bring them home for the holiday.”
IDF says it launched a ‘targeted operation’ against Hamas in Gaza’s Nuseirat
The IDF says it launched a “targeted operation” against Hamas in the central Gaza Strip overnight, on the outskirts of Nuseirat, an area where ground troops have not yet operated during the ongoing war.
Before troops of the 162nd Division’s 401st Armored Brigade, Nahal Infantry Brigade, and other units maneuvered into the area, the Israeli Air Force and 215th Artillery Regiment carried out strikes against dozens of Hamas targets, including tunnel infrastructure, the IDF says.
The IDF says the operation is being carried out following intelligence indicating “the presence of terror infrastructure and many terrorists in the area.”
Amid operations overnight, the IDF says Nahal troops spotted a gunman coming out of a tunnel and heading toward them. The operative was then struck by a fighter jet, the IDF says.
Meanwhile, troops of the 401st Brigade located several rocket launchers in the area, the IDF says.
Also amid the operation, the Navy carried out strikes along the Strip’s coast in what the IDF says is part of support for the ground troops.
Apple accused of antisemitism as typing Jerusalem prompts Palestinian flag emoji
Apple has been accused of antisemitism after its iPhones started prompting a Palestinian flag emoji when users typed Jerusalem in a text message.
The prompt was first noted by prominent UK Jewish TV presenter Rachel Riley.
In a post on X, Riley says this had started happening after the latest software update. She also notes that other countries had the correct flag appear when typing their capital cities.
“Showing double standards with respect to Israel is a form of antisemitism, which is itself a form of racism against Jewish people,” Riley writes. “Please explain whether this is an intentional act by your company, or whether you have no control over rogue programmers.”
In a statement to the BBC, Apple says that the change was not intentional and would be remedied in a future software update. It did not say when that would happen.
Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. However, many countries do not recognize this, saying the fate of the holy city needs to be settled in a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, who also claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
Lufthansa extends flight cancellations from Frankfurt to Tehran on security concerns
A Lufthansa Airbus A380 lands in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. (AP/Michael Probst)
German airline Lufthansa has extended the cancellation of daily flights from Frankfurt to Tehran due to security concerns until April 13, a spokesperson says.
The decision was made last weekend to avoid a situation where the airline’s crew had to stay overnight in Tehran, the spokesperson adds.
Russia warns citizens against traveling to Mideast, especially Israel, Palestinian areas and Lebanon
In this photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks to the media during his and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's joint news conference following the talks in Beijing, China. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)
Russia’s foreign ministry tells citizens that they should refrain from traveling to the Middle East, especially to Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
The United States and its allies believe major missile or drone strikes by Iran or its proxies against military and government targets in Israel are imminent, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing US and Israeli security sources.
War cabinet to meet as Hamas dithers with response to hostage deal proposal
The war cabinet will meet tonight at 7:30 p.m.
The meeting comes as Israel waits for an official Hamas response to a proposal for a hostage deal and truce put forward by the US, together with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
The meeting also comes amid soaring tensions with Iran as Israel anticipates retaliation from Tehran for the killing of a top Revolutionary Guard general in a strike in Damascus blamed on Israel.
Israel slams new Irish PM for ignoring hostages as he addressed Gaza in inaugural speech
The new Prime Minister of Ireland Simon Harris waves at the media and the crowd following his election outside Leinster House in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Harris was selected after the previous Prime Minister Leo Varadkar resigned. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
The Foreign Ministry slams new Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris for not mentioning the hostages held by Hamas as he addressed the Gaza war in his inaugural speech, saying it continues Ireland’s anti-Israel and pro-Hamas policies.
“Simon Harris, the new Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland, chose to refer to the war in Gaza in his inaugural address but ‘forgot’ to mention the 133 Israeli hostages who have been rotting in Hamas tunnels for the past six months,” the ministry statement says.
Of the hostages abducted during the Hamas massacre on October 7, 129 remain in captivity in Gaza. In addition, two civilians and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers have been held for nearly a decade.
Harris was elected Ireland’s prime minister by a vote in parliament Tuesday, becoming at 37 the country’s youngest-ever leader.
Harris takes over as head of Ireland’s three-party coalition government from Leo Varadkar, who announced his surprise resignation last month. Harris, who served as higher education minister in Varadkar’s government, was the only candidate to replace him as head of the center-right Fine Gael party.
“The Taoiseach joined Micheál Martin, his Minister for Foreign Affairs, in planning to award additional prizes to terrorism, in the form of an ICJ declaration of intervention on the side of South Africa, the legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organization, and the possible recognition of a Palestinian state in the future,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry adds.
“After the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and even after the war crimes, the crimes against humanity and the sexual crimes that were committed, and are still being committed, by Hamas terrorists against Israeli women and men, there are those in Ireland who persist on being on the wrong side of history,” the statement says, vowing that Israel will continue to do all it can to protect its citizens and bring home the hostages.
AP contributed to this report
Israel said to carry out a series of strikes in Gaza’s Nuseirat
Palestinian media outlets report a series of Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling in central Gaza’s Nuseirat.
The strikes began late last night, according to the reports.
In one incident, at least two people were killed in a strike on a residential tower in the area, the reports say.
The IDF has not yet commented on the events.
More than 100 draftees said refusing to serve as surveillance soldiers after Oct. 7 deaths
Soldiers are seen monitoring surveillance cameras at a command center at the IDF's Re'im camp in southern Israel, November 5, 2023 (Israel Defense Forces)
More than 100 female soldiers in the latest draft are refusing to serve as surveillance soldiers, the Ynet news site reports.
The soldiers are refusing to get on board buses that will take them from the draft center to their training base.
According to Ynet, 126 out of the 326 who were drafted this week were refusing to go.
The mass refusal comes after 15 IDF surveillance soldiers were killed and six more were taken hostage during the Hamas attack on the Nahal Oz base as part of the October 7 assault that saw some 1,200 people killed in southern Israel, mostly civilians, and 253 taken hostage.
Ynet says that this is the third draft since October 7 that has seen significant numbers refusing to serve in the unit.
The soldiers of the unit are tasked with monitoring surveillance cameras along the Gaza border and dispatching forces to potential incidents. The unit has multiple command centers in various army positions along the border. The vast majority of those serving in the unit are female soldiers.
Members of the unit were among those who warned, in the months before the Hamas massacres, of unusual activity by Hamas at the border fence. However, in many cases, their warnings were largely ignored.
Report: Indonesia to normalize ties with Israel in exchange for Jerusalem supporting its entry into OECD
A Muslim woman holds up a poster during a rally against Israel outside the US Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Israel and Indonesia have been holding talks on normalizing ties between the two nations over the past three months, the Ynet news site reports.
The unsourced report says that in exchange for establishing relations with Israel, Jerusalem will stop blocking Indonesia from joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD,) the economic organization that currently includes the world’s 38 leading economies.
The report says the OECD has also been involved in the talks.
An Israeli official later confirmed the report to the Times of Israel.
Israel had been reportedly working to normalize ties with Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation, alongside Saudi Arabia and other countries before the war with Hamas broke out on October 7, largely putting the moves on ice.
However, on Tuesday an Indonesian aircraft took part in an airdrop of aid to Gaza, apparently marking the first time an Indonesian aircraft has flown through Israeli airspace.
US military says it engaged 3 UAVS launched from Houthi-ruled areas of Yemen
CAIRO — The US Central Command (CENTCOM) says in a statement that its forces have successfully engaged three unmanned aerial vehicles launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen over the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea.
There were no injuries or damage reported by US, coalition, or commercial ships, the statement adds.
US forces also destroyed eight UAVs in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen later on April 10, the statement says.
UK police arrest 5 for spraying red paint on defense ministry, in protest against Israel
People walk past the UK Ministry of Defence Building in central London, hours after members of Youth Demand and Palestine Action spayed red paint onto the brickwork to demand that the political parties in the UK impose a two-way arms embargo on Israel and end the development and production of fossil fuels in the UK, on April 10, 2024. (Henry Nicholls/AFP)
LONDON — British police have arrested five people suspected of criminal damage after the UK Ministry of Defence’s London headquarters was sprayed with red paint in protest at arms sales to Israel.
The arrests came just hours after police charged three people with public order offenses for staging a pro-Palestinian protest outside the London home of opposition leader Keir Starmer.
The incidents come amid debate in Britain over the acceptable limits of public demonstrations, with fears for lawmakers’ safety increasing since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas terror group’s October 7 attack.
Protest groups Palestine Action and Youth Demand say their activists had spray-painted the ministry’s facade.
“We no longer accept the continuation of this death project as the UK allows the funding of arms to Israel,” Youth Demand posts on social media, alongside video of the stunt.
Transport police officers assigned to a central London protest made the five arrests after spotting “a group of people spraying paint on a building along the Embankment,” London’s Metropolitan Police say.
“We will never tolerate people causing criminal damage to buildings under the guise of protest,” the force says on X, formerly Twitter.
Earlier, the Met said two women and a man had been charged under section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 over the protest Tuesday outside Labour leader Starmer’s home.
“This power stops the harassment of a person at their home address if an officer suspects it is causing alarm or distress to the occupant,” it added.
The accused, all in their 20s, were arrested outside Starmer’s Kentish Town house in north London.
They had hung a banner outside the house reading: “Starmer stop the killing,” surrounded by red handprints.
Blinken tells Gallant that US will stand with Israel against Iranian threats
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (right) meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Kirya military HQ in Tel Aviv, January 9, 2024. (Elad Malka/ Defense Ministry)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a call with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, made clear that the United States will stand with Israel against any threats by Iran, the State Department says.
Blinken and Gallant also discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of all hostages through an agreement for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the State Department says.
“Secretary Blinken welcomed Israel’s recent announcements of urgent steps to facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza and to improve humanitarian deconfliction and coordination, reiterating that incidents such as the strike on World Central Kitchen workers must never reoccur,” the US readout says. “The secretary emphasized that the United States expects Israel to quickly implement its commitments on humanitarian assistance and deconfliction and that those commitments must be sustained over time.”
There is no immediate statement from Gallant’s office on the call.
Biden envoy: ‘International workers have never seen sanitation situations as in Rafah’
Displaced Palestinians wait to offer a special morning prayer to start the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, outside a destroyed mosque in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on April 10, 2024. (AFP)
The southern Gaza city of Rafah where roughly 1.4 million Palestinians are currently sheltering “is a miserable place to be from any health related, shelter related standpoint,” the Biden administration’s Gaza humanitarian envoy says.
“The ability to provide basic sanitation is non-existent. International workers have never seen sanitation situations as in Rafah,” David Satterfield says.
“The ability to do more than survival-level feeding — simply averting starvation… is extraordinarily limited. Just because we are averting famine by the collective aid efforts moving in doesn’t mean we’re preventing other problems malnutrition… and mortality among infants and young children,” he adds.
As the effective controlling power in Gaza, the US envoy says Israel has an obligation under international humanitarian law to ensure that civilians in the Strip are cared for.
“The horrific dehumanization of Israelis that took place on October 7 and the ongoing dehumanization of the Israeli hostages every day they’re held cannot be matched by the dehumanization of innocent Palestinian civilians,” Satterfield says.
The US envoy is pressed on Hamas’s historic diversion of aid money for military use and asked whether Gaza will always be reliant on outside aid.
Satterfield suggests the policies that Israel has taken in Gaza have led to the current reality.
“When [then-prime minister] Arik Sharon took his decision on unilateral withdrawal, our council at the time was you’re not going to have a happy result unless you do the opposite of what you’re proposing,” claims the envoy, who was then an official at the State Department, which at the time of the 2005 pullout publicly hailed the move.
“What he proposed was a siege and isolation of Gaza. We said that [what] you need to do is open Gaza to the maximum extent possible to tie it into international, regional and Israeli economic society — provide an alternative vision, provide something other than what comes with desperation,” he says, appearing to reference arguments made at the time in favor of handing over Gaza as part of a bilateral agreement with the Palestinian Authority, the more moderate foil to Hamas. Proponents of this strategy argue this would’ve empowered the PA, rather than Hamas, which ended up being seen as the deliverer of the Israeli withdrawal and ejected the Palestinian Authority from Gaza in a bloody coup two years later.
US envoy says maritime corridor will bring in 100 more trucks daily, admits Hamas has stolen aid
In addition to an insufficient number of trucks, there has also been a decrease in the number of aid organizations willing to distribute aid throughout Gaza following last week’s deadly IDF strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy. US Envoy David Satterfield says the WCK and the United Arab Emirates are conditioning their return to Gaza on Israel showing “in a concrete, demonstrable fashion that lessons have been learned, not just from the WCK tragedy, but from the period of time before that” when the US alleges roughly 200 aid workers were killed amid its repeated calls for Israel to improve its deconfliction mechanisms.
Israel established a new deconfliction hub between the IDF and aid groups days after the WCK strike, but international organizations are ostensibly looking for improvements to be demonstrated over a long period of time in addition to better assurances from Israel that aid workers will be protected.
The US is also working to have a maritime corridor up and running in the coming weeks, which will be able to bring in at least 100 trucks a day, Satterfield says. We’re going to get well over 500 trucks a day of commercial and humanitarian assistance. But we’ll still have to be able to distribute it efficiently.”
Asked whether Hamas has been siphoning off the aid coming into Gaza, Satterfield says the vast majority of assistance being distributed by the UN has reached civilians. He acknowledges that some of the aid may have reached Hamas. However, “Gaza’s population of 2.2 million are not… starving today because the bulk of the assistance delivered has gone to them, not to Hamas; and that’s the fundamental fact.”
Satterfield goes on to hail the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories for the work that the quasi-military body has done in facilitating aid into Gaza. “We could not do what we have been able to and could not have achieved the progress that we’ve seen without the engagement of COGAT… They took this on because they had to, and they have done an exceptional job under extremely challenging and difficult circumstances.”
The praise indicates that Washington’s frustration with Israel regarding aid is directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s political leadership.
US envoy says increased aid flow to Gaza ‘doesn’t make up for’ past 5 months
File: David Satterfield at Rice University in Houston, Texas, October 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
The Biden administration’s Gaza humanitarian envoy David Satterfield clarifies that the aid increase over the past several days “doesn’t make up for five months of something very, very different.”
“The five months that preceded did not show an adequate ability by Israel to facilitate and implement the operational steps necessary to get aid in,” Satterfield contends.
The number of trucks entering each day barely crossed 100 through January, after which shipments effectively stopped completely due to protests by far-right activists at Israeli inspection points near the Gaza border, the US envoy said. In February, the IDF began conducting airstrikes against the Hamas-linked police, leading the force to stop protecting aid convoys, which Satterfield says “shut down assistance moves and spurred intensely violent criminal behavior.”
“We’ve come back from that, but… it’s got to continue,” Satterfield says.
Iran news agency deletes report on shuttered airspace over Tehran, claims not to have published it
Iran’s Mehr news agency removes a report from its official channel on X that had said Iran was closing its airspace over the capital Tehran and denies in a new post that it had published any such news.
In the original report posted on X, the semi-official news agency cited the Iranian defense minister as saying that all air traffic had been suspended over Tehran “due to military drills.”
US envoy: Not enough trucks in Gaza to distribute recent influx of aid
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid make their way along a street in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 10, 2024. (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)
The biggest obstacle to delivering humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza following a major influx over the past several days is the lack of trucks available in the Strip in order to deliver the assistance, the Biden administration’s Gaza humanitarian envoy reveals.
US Ambassador David Satterfield says the UN and international agencies had enough trucks in Gaza when aid was at much lower levels throughout the first six months of the war. But with an average of roughly 400 trucks entering Gaza each day this week, more trucks will be needed in order to distribute the aid.
He says the UN and international community are responsible — in cooperation with Israel — for securing more trucks. A significant number of trucks have recently been purchased and are ready to enter Gaza along with others that are in the final stages of being bought, Satterfield says, adding that the US is also urging countries to donate additional trucks in order to meet the demand.
The US humanitarian envoy for Gaza notes the major increase in aid trucks entering Gaza since the weekend, but says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committed to US President Joe Biden last week to ensure that 100 trucks of aid would reach the northern Strip each day. Israel is about half-way to meeting that mark, but is not there yet, Satterfield says.
Iran reportedly suspends all air traffic over Tehran due to ‘military drills’
Iran has suspended all air traffic over the capital Tehran from midnight local time due to “military drills,” the semi-official Mehr news agency quotes the defense minister as saying.
Former Cornell student pleads guilty for making threats to kill and rape Jews
FILE - A woman walks by a Cornell University sign on the Ivy League school's campus in Ithaca, New York, on Jan. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
WASHINGTON — A former Cornell University student has pleaded guilty to posting online threats, including of death and violence, against Jewish students on campus, the US Justice Department says.
Patrick Dai, 21, was charged late last year for making online threats against Jewish students at the Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York.
As part of his guilty plea, Dai admits that on October 28 and October 29, he threatened to bomb, stab and rape Jews on the Cornell section of an online discussion forum.
The Justice Department says Dai’s threats “caused widespread panic and fear” in Cornell’s Jewish community.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for August. 12. Dai faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, restitution to victims and a maximum of three years of supervised release, according to the Justice Department. A contact for Dai cannot immediately be reached.
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