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The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they unfolded.
North Korea confirms for first time that it sent troops to assist Russia in its war against Ukraine
North Korea confirms for the first time that it sent troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.
US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence officials have said North Korea dispatched about 10,000-12,000 troops to Russia last fall. But North Korea hadn’t confirmed or denied its reported troop deployments to Russia until today.
Leader Kim Jong Un decided to send combat troops to Russia under a mutual defense treaty, the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party says in a statement.
It cites Kim as saying the deployment was meant to “annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces.”
“They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honor of the motherland,” Kim said, according to the statement sent to state media.
In March, South Korea’s military said North Korea sent about 3,000 additional troops to Russia earlier this year, after its soldiers deployed on the Russian-Ukraine fronts suffered heavy casualties. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs assessed that around 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier put the number of killed or wounded North Koreans at 4,000, though US estimates were lower at around 1,200.
Netanyahu says Israel stopped Iranian aircraft from reaching Syria in the days leading up to fall of Assad
Israeli warplanes last year intercepted Iranian aircraft headed toward Syria, preventing them from delivering troops meant to assist the country’s embattled president at the time, Bashar al-Assad, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says.
The remarks in a speech give a new glimpse into Israel’s thinking in the final days in power for Assad, a longtime enemy who was overthrown by Islamist-led insurgents last December.
Speaking to a conference hosted by the Jewish News Syndicate, Netanyahu claims that arch-rival Iran wanted to save Assad after watching the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in neighboring Lebanon suffer heavy losses in fighting with Israel.
“They had to rescue Assad,” Netanyahu says, claiming that Iran wanted to send “one or two airborne divisions” to help the Syrian leader.
“We stopped that. We sent some F-16s to some Iranian planes that were making some routes to Damascus,” he says. “They turned back.”
He gives no further details.
Trump says he expects Iran talks will yield a deal: ‘We will have something without having to start dropping bombs’
US President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he steps off Air Force upon arrival at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey on April 26, 2025. (Mandel NGAN / AFP)
US President Donald Trump tells reporters that his administration’s ongoing nuclear talks with Iran are going “very well” and that “a deal is going to be made there.”
“We’ll have something without having to start dropping bombs all over the place,” Trump says.
US says more than 800 targets in Yemen hit since mid-March, hundreds of Houthi fighters killed
This image grab from an AFPTV footage shows smoke plumes rising above buildings following bombardment on Yemen's Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on March 19, 2025. (AFP)
The United States has hit more than 800 targets in Yemen since mid-March, killing hundreds of Houthi rebel fighters, including members of the group’s leadership, the US military says.
Washington’s forces have hammered the Iran-backed Houthi rebels with near-daily air strikes since March 15 in an operation dubbed “Rough Rider,” seeking to end the threat they pose to vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and reestablish US regional “deterrence.”
“Since the start of Operation Rough Rider, USCENTCOM has struck over 800 targets. These strikes have killed hundreds of Huthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders,” the military command responsible for the Middle East says in a statement.
“The strikes have destroyed multiple command-and-control facilities, air defense systems, advanced weapons manufacturing facilities, and advanced weapons storage locations,” CENTCOM says.
Despite the strikes, the Houthis — who control large swaths of Yemen and have been at war with a Saudi-led coalition backing the internationally recognized government since 2015 — have continued to claim attacks against both US vessels and Israel.
CENTCOM says that “while the Houthis have continued to attack our vessels, our operations have degraded the pace and effectiveness of their attacks. Ballistic missile launches have dropped by 69 percent. Additionally, attacks from one-way attack drones have decreased by 55 percent.”
“Iran undoubtedly continues to provide support to the Houthis. The Houthis can only continue to attack our forces with the backing of the Iranian regime,” the military command says.
“We will continue to ratchet up the pressure until the objective is met, which remains the restoration of freedom of navigation and American deterrence in the region,” it adds.
Houthi media reports eight killed in US strikes on Yemeni capital
The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah television network reports that US strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa have killed at least eight people and wounded others.
“Eight martyrs, including children and women… as a preliminary toll of the American aggression on the Thaqban area in Bani Al-Har Directorate” in the north of Sanaa, the station reports.
Libyan general shot dead in attack on his Tripoli home
Unidentified gunmen shoot dead a Libyan general in an attack on his home in the capital, drawing condemnation from the Tripoli-based government.
Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, head of the UN-recognized Government of National Unity, condemns the killing of General Ali Ramadan al-Rayani.
“It is with deep sadness that I mourn Brigadier General Ali Ramadan al-Rayani, who was martyred today while defending his home against a group of criminals,” Dbeibah says in a statement.
Authorities have yet to comment on the motive of the attack that occurred in al-Khalla district on the southern outskirts of the capital.
Dbeibah says he ordered the military prosecutor’s office to launch an “urgent and comprehensive investigation” to establish the facts and identify those responsible.
According to the Libyan news outlet Al-Wasat, witnesses reported that Rayani killed three of his attackers before he was shot dead.
Father of slain hostage Ori Danino: ‘With unity we will bring them home’
A prayer rally at Safra Square in Jerusalem,
for the release of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip, April 27, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)
Alon Gat, the younger brother of Carmel Gat, one of the “beautiful six” hostages killed in captivity, speaks at an event in Jerusalem about being taken captive from Kibbutz Be’eri with his young daughter on October 7 and ultimately escaping, while his wife, Yarden Roman-Gat, was taken hostage, his mother, Kinneret, was killed, and his sister was taken hostage.
His wife was released in November 2023, but his sister Carmel was murdered in Gaza in August 2024, and “could have been saved,” says Gat.
“The difference between life and death is very fine,” he says. “Let’s save lives.”
Yitzhak Danino, the brother of fellow slain captive Ori Danino, recites a prayer at the event, and says that all six in that tunnel were from different backgrounds.
“They were together, and only together can we bring them all back,” he says.
A prayer rally for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, at Safra Square in Jerusalem, April 27, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Michal Lobanov, the widow of Alex Lobanov, speaks about her younger son, Kai, now 1, who will never know his father.
“We can’t forget that there are children still waiting to see their fathers,” she says. “Let’s make sure they get to reunite with them.”
The evening ends with Lobanov’s brother reciting the names of the remaining 59 hostages.
At the conclusion of the event, Elhanan Danino, Ori’s father, brings all the family members of the six murdered hostages — Ori, Carmel, Alex, Almog Sarusi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Eden Yerushalmi — onstage to sing Hatikvah together.
“God Almighty, look at this nation, at this city, at these fans, fans of Beitar, fans of Hapoel, from all sides,” he says.
Danino says there are 6,000 people at the event in the capital’s Safra Square, 6,000 people for the six families.
“Call your mayors and each city should go sing and pray, because with unity, we will bring them home,” says Danino, his voice thick with tears. “Bring thousands and start bringing back Israeli unity.”
State comptroller sending out draft reports on individual IDF generals’ Oct. 7 failures
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman attends a Knesset Finance Committee meeting in Jerusalem, January 6, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman’s investigation into the failures of October 7 reportedly includes personal conclusions about the actions of a number of IDF generals.
According to a report in the Kan public broadcaster, Englman has already sent drafts of his audits to a number of active IDF generals and will send them out to more moving forward, detailing their failures before and during the Hamas massacre.
Kan says that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir will have to decide how to move forward after Englman publishes his findings about their operational behaviors.
The State Comptroller’s Office stresses that its investigation includes both the military and the political echelon, and that there will likely be personal conclusions made about political figures as well.
Netanyahu says any deal with Iran must see all its nuclear infrastructure ‘dismantled’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the JNS conference in Jerusalem, April 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
A nuclear deal with Iran must remove its ability to enrich uranium, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Jewish News Syndicate policy conference in Jerusalem, as the US engages in direct nuclear talks with Tehran.
“A real deal that works is one that removes Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons,” he says.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that Washington seeks a deal that would prevent Iran from enriching any uranium, while his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi called the issue of enrichment “non-negotiable.”
“Dismantle all the infrastructure of Iran’s nuclear program,” says Netanyahu. “That is a deal we can live with.”
If the two sides agree on more lenient deal, says Netanyahu, Iran will simply run out the clock and wait for the end of Donald Trump’s term.
He also says that Iran’s ballistic missile production must be part of the talks as well.
“The question of defense capacities and the country’s missiles is not [on the agenda] and has not been raised in the indirect talks,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said after the latest round of talks on Saturday.
Netanyahu says he has stressed this position to Trump, and that he is in close contact with the US.
“A bad deal is worse than no deal,” he argues, repeating his position that the “only good deal” would be one modeled on the deal that Libya agreed to in 2003.
The prime minister claims that Israeli covert action over the years has set Iran’s nuclear program back a decade.
Turning to the war in Gaza, Netanyahu says that at the end of the fighting, “Hamas will not be there. And were not going to put the Palestinian Authority there.”
“Why replace one regime that is sworn to our destruction with another regime that is sworn to our destruction?” he asks.
Expanding on his position that the PA is no better than Hamas, Netanyahu argues that “Hamas says we will destroy Israel by terror and military conquest right away, and the PA says, ‘No, you destroy it politically and driving it through propaganda and lawfare to the ’67 boundaries, and then you can do the military thrust because you’re a few kilometers from the sea.'”
The idea of creating a Palestinian state to foster peace is “folly,” he says.
Netanyahu indicates that he did not trust the Biden administration with Israeli military secrets.
He says he refused to tell Washington ahead of the September 2024 beeper operation against Hezbollah: “I don’t read the New York Times that often, but why give them the advance? It would be on the net.”
He reveals that Israel bombed the scanning machine that Iran sent to Lebanon once Hezbollah suspected that its beepers were booby-trapped. However, once three pagers were sent to Iran to be checked, he decided to act.
He also says that Israel stopped Iranian airborne troops from reaching Syria to protect Bashar al-Assad in December as rebels captured Damascus.
In addition to Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, Israel is also fighting another front, he says – the “deep state.” He says the entrenched left-wing bureaucrats threaten Israel’s democracy, a line Netanyahu has used repeatedly since Trump, who has made similar claims about the US, returned to office.
Ronen Bar says Netanyahu’s affidavit is ‘full of inaccuracies, biased quotes and half-truths’
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar attends a ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem on April 23, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar doubles down on his allegations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressured him into acting unlawfully for personal and political considerations, and lambastes the premier for failing to take responsibility for the policy of allowing Qatari funds to flow to Hamas in Gaza.
In a statement to the press following Netanyahu’s rejection of these allegations in an affidavit to the High Court of Justice, Bar insists that all of his allegations are “absolutely true” and supported by documentation he provided to the court.
“The things the prime minister wrote in his affidavit are full of inaccuracies, biased quotes and half-truths aimed at taking things out of context and changing reality,” says Bar.
“Senior security officials have taken responsibility for the intelligence failure [on October 7]. But the prime minister never took responsibility for the quiet policy of funding Hamas, which was dictated directly by the prime minister,” adds Bar.
“This historic failure of mistaken policy built-up Hamas, eroded deterrence and contributed to fears of miscalculation in the decision-making of senior security officials, that night.”
Iran’s Khamenei orders officials to ‘thoroughly investigate’ deadly port blast
A handout picture provided by the Iranian Red Crescent (RCS) on April 27, 2025, shows rescuers carrying a victim away from the scene of an explosion that took place a day earlier at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan. (Iranian Red Crescent / AFP)
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei orders a thorough investigation to find the causes of a major blast at a key southern port that killed at least 40 people.
“Security and judicial officials are obliged to thoroughly investigate, uncover any negligence or intent, and follow up in accordance with regulations,” Khamenei says in a message carried by state television.
Father of slain hostage Almog Sarusi asks Israeli nation to end their divisions
Yigal Sarusi, center, mourns during the funeral of his son, slain hostage Almog Sarusi, who was killed in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, at a cemetery in Ra'anana, September 1, 2024. (AP/Ariel Schalit)
Yigal Sarusi, the father of slain hostage Almog Sarusi, says the disaster that happened to them, beginning on October 7, 2023, has been his family’s second Holocaust.
Speaking at an event in Jerusalem for the “beautiful six” murdered hostages, who were killed in Gaza in August 2024 and their bodies recovered days later, Sarusi says that the families of those murdered by Hamas experience the loss day after day, while Israel as a nation has returned to being divided.
Sarusi says that his son was the kind of kid that got along with everyone else, and in his name, he asks the nation of Israel to return and connect to one another.
Almog’s surviving two siblings, along with the father of hostage Matan Angrest, a soldier still held in captivity, together recite the prayer for the soldiers and a prayer for the injured.
Angrest recites the prayer for the return of the hostages.
Talia Dancyg, a young musician whose grandfather, Alex Dancyg, a Holocaust educator who was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz and killed in captivity, sings an Arik Einstein song about finding solace under one’s wings, the words by national poet Hayim Nachman Bialik, followed by Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” joined by the crowd.
“It’s very emotional what’s happening here,” says Dancyg, looking out at the gathering of hundreds. “If only they could hear us.”
France to increase security at mosques after Muslim worshiper’s killing
People stand outside the mosque Khadija in La Grand-Combe, southern France, on April 27, 2025, following the murder of Aboubakar, a worshiper killed inside the mosque on April 25. (Miguel MEDINA / AFP)
France will increase security measures around mosques after the brutal stabbing to death of a Muslim worshiper inside a mosque in the south of the country, the interior minister says.
Speaking to broadcaster BFMTV, Bruno Retailleau says that he had sent a telegram to the country’s prefects “for all the mosques in France to be better protected than they are.”
Meeting UN envoys from around the world, PM urges support for Israel’s ‘just struggle’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) meets in Jerusalem with a delegation of United Nations ambassadors in Israel alongside Israeli envoy to the UN Danny Danon, April 27, 2025. (Courtesy, Danny Danon’s office)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets in Jerusalem with a delegation of dozens of United Nations ambassadors led by Israel’s envoy to the UN Danny Danon.
“I thank the countries that support us in our just struggle,” the premier tells the delegation, who arrived at the meeting after visiting several locations in southern Israel where the Hamas terror group attacked on October 7, 2023, including Kibbutz Kfar Aza, the Nova music festival site, and the city of Sderot, according to Danon’s office.
The ambassadors “heard an extensive briefing from the prime minister about Israel’s just struggle in the international arena, the conduct of the war in Gaza, and the efforts to secure the hostages’ release, and the fight against antisemitism,” says a readout from the the Prime Minister’s Office.
Netanyahu “answered the ambassadors’ questions, welcomed the members of the delegation to Israel, and called on them to convey to their governments and to the public in their countries the truth and justice about Israel,” according to the PMO.
Danon calls the visit of the envoys “another stage in the battle for global consciousness. We will continue to expose Hamas’s crimes on every platform and will not rest until all the hostages are brought home.”
Members of a delegation of UN ambassadors visit a memorial for the victims of the Nova music festival attack near Kibbutz Reim in southern Israel, April 27, 2025. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)
Czech Ambassador to the UN Jakub Kulhanek writes on X that it was “heart-wrenching to revisit the sites of Hamas’s 7 October terror rampage.” He adds that there is “no justification for such heinous atrocities. I reiterate [the Czech Republic’s] call for the immediate release of all hostages.”
Before arriving in Israel, the group of more than 30 UN ambassadors flew to Poland last week to take part in Thursday’s annual March of the Living ceremony, commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
The delegation includes ambassadors from European Union member states, Latin America, the Pacific Islands, and sub-Saharan Africa — including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Argentina, Panama, Nigeria, and Ethiopia.
Jerusalemites hold evening of prayer, song in memory of ‘beautiful six’ slain captives
Israelis gather in a memorial for the 'beautiful six' slain captives at Jerusalem’s Safra Square on April 27, 2025. (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion speaks at the start of an evening of song and prayer organized by the families of the “beautiful six,” Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Almog Sarusi, Eden Yerushalmi, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Ori Danino, hostages who were killed by their Hamas captors in August 2024.
“We won’t be united or complete if all the hostages aren’t returned home,” says Lion to the applause of the crowd.
“These families paid the highest price,” says Lion, naming all six of the slain captives, whose bodies were recovered by the IDF just days after they were slain in Gaza.
“These hostages are the painful proof that we don’t have time to wait. How much longer can Rom Braslavski, a resident of this city, keep surviving?” Lion asks of another captive.
This combination of six undated photos shows hostages, from top left, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi; from bottom left, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat. They were murdered by their Hamas captors in Gaza in August 2024. (The Hostages Families Forum via AP)
Ziv Braslavski, around 13, speaks at the event about how he misses his oldest brother and going to Beitar soccer games with him.
“I don’t miss any soccer game but Ram has missed many, I miss him so,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what team you root for, Beitar or Hapoel, we’re all brothers, we’re all people. This week, we mark Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut but in our house, we can’t mark independence as long as Rom isn’t home. Rom, I miss you and I promise you’ll be home soon, stay strong.”
Jon Polin, the father of Hersh, thanks the crowd of hundreds for all the support now and always.
“Let us be together in song, prayer and hope for the hostages,” he says.
“Come, our family, come, our city, come, our country, our nation, our hostages, let’s sing and pray all of us together, come,” says Rachel Goldberg-Polin.
In affidavit, PM cites assertions by Bar that Hamas was acting with ‘restraint’ before Oct. 7
Left: Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar (Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90); Right: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Dudu Bachar/POOL)
In his affidavit to the High Court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quotes from several security assessments made by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar during the course of 2023 in which Bar said that Hamas and its then leader Yahya Sinwar had adopted a policy of “restraint” inside Gaza and did not want to risk what they had built inside the territory.
Netanyahu does so to refute Bar’s claims that he warned the prime minister before October 7 that the government’s judicial overhaul agenda was destabilizing Israel’s security.
“In the Strip, the Hamas leadership has in internal discussions validated the strategy of restraint in the Strip, and inflaming [the situation] in the West Bank,” quotes the prime minister from a background briefing Bar sent Netanyahu on April 4, 2023.
In a meeting on July 2, 2023 to evaluate Hamas’s control of Gaza, Netanyahu said Hamas was likely holding discussions over the societal divisions in Israel surrounding the government’s judicial overhaul agenda, and asked how Hamas was viewing the situation.
“The product [of Hamas’s discussions] is to look at the West Bank,” stated one intelligence official, who Netanyahu cites from minutes of the meeting.
“But not to endanger the Gazan project, and this is a very delicate balance,” said Bar, according to Netanyahu’s affidavit.
Netanyahu also quotes from a security document Bar sent him on October 3, 2023, in which the Shin Bet chief said that “looking forward, renewing understandings between Hamas and Israel on the familiar basis of ‘security quiet in exchange for relief’ has the potential for preserving stability in the strip (possibly even in the long-run), especially if Israel and the rest of the players stand by the promise of creating a positive economic horizon.”
Fresh demonstrations against Hamas rule reported in northern Gaza
Palestinians protest against Hamas and for an end to the war in northern Gaza's Beit Lahiya, April 16, 2025. (Screenshot: X; @hamza198708)
Media outlets in Gaza report that dozens of protesters in Beit Lahiya, in the northern part of the Strip, are calling for an end to the war.
Children hold signs reading “We want to live” and “Stop the war,” and are also filmed chanting “Hamas out.”
In recent weeks, sporadic demonstrations have taken place in Beit Lahiya against Hamas and in favor of ending the war.
بيت لاهيا تنتفض
.#اوقفوا_الحرب pic.twitter.com/7eMKmlpG4z— الناشط حمزة المصري (@hamza198708) April 27, 2025
Syria rejects Kurds’ call for creation of decentralized state
Children who fled the ongoing battles between Turkish-backed groups and Syrian Kurdish forces in Tal Rifaat and other areas of the northern Aleppo province, gather in the yard of a school in the northeastern city of Hasakeh where they took refuge, on January 5, 2025. (Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)
The Syrian presidency rejects a Kurdish call for a decentralized state, warning against attempts at separatism or federalism by the minority group.
“We reject clearly any attempt to impose a separatist reality or to create separate entities under the cover of federalism… without a national consensus,” the presidency says in a statement in which it also condemns “the recent activities and declarations” of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that “call for federalism.”
Death toll from blast at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port rises to 40 as fires still blaze
A handout picture provided by the Iranian Red Crescent (RCS) on April 27, 2025, shows the devastation at the scene of an explosion that took place a day earlier at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan. (Iranian Red Crescent / AFP)
The death toll from a powerful explosion at Iran’s biggest port of Bandar Abbas has risen to at least 40, with more than 1,200 people injured, state media reports, as firefighters work to fully extinguish the fire.
Yesterday’s blast took place in the Shahid Rajaee section of the port, Iran’s biggest container hub, shattering windows for several kilometers around, tearing metal strips off shipping containers and badly damaging goods inside, state media says.
The incident occurred as Iran held a third round of nuclear talks with the United States in Oman.
Fires continue to break out in different parts of the affected area as of this evening, according to state media, with helicopters and fire fighters continuing efforts to extinguish them.
Netanyahu: Bar bears ‘massive and direct responsibility’ for failing to prevent Oct. 7 massacre
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar (left) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Kobi Gideon/ GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar of bearing “massive and direct responsibility” for failing to prevent the October 7 invasion and massacres by Hamas, in an affidavit to the High Court of Justice in response to Bar’s affidavit filed last week.
Bar said in his own submission that he took steps to alert the IDF and the security agencies of a heightened possibility of a Hamas attack and updated the prime minister’s military secretary at 5:15 a.m. on the morning of October 7.
But Netanyahu, in a filing to the court in the petitions against his firing of Bar, says the Shin Bet chief failed to alert him or the defense minister, and that his evaluation of the developing security situation was deficient in the extreme.
Quoting from the 5:15 a.m. evaluation which Bar sent, Netanyahu points out that Bar said that the readiness for an attack should be “medium, secret readiness in order not to create a miscalculation,” and “to avoid broad actions by us in order to avoid miscalculation given the fact that this is not a leading assumption.”
Wrote Netanyahu: “He was clinging to his erroneous perspective and prevented the carrying out of necessary actions, just out of a concern that Hamas would interpret it as readiness for war on Israel’s part, and open up a war against us,” adding that Bar had prevented Israeli defensive actions “at a time when Hamas had already opened up a war.”
The prime minister also accuses Bar of concealing this evaluation from the High Court in the affidavit he submitted last week.
“If Bar would have called on the IDF to prepare at high readiness and not ‘medium, secret,’ to send all ground and air forces to the Gaza border region, and if he would have determined not to ‘avoid broad actions,’ but rather the opposite, instruct the IDF to initiate it immediately, the massacre would have been avoided,” claims Netanyahu.
“As such, Bar bears massive and direct responsibility for failing to prevent the massacre,” alleges the prime minister.
Strike on Beirut targeted a Hezbollah precision missile warehouse, says Israel
Lebanese rescuers extinguish a fire at a site hit in Israeli strikes following evacuation orders in Beirut's southern suburb on April 27, 2025. (AFP)
Israel attacked a Hezbollah precision missile warehouse in Beirut earlier today, say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz in a joint statement, adding that the missiles “posed a significant threat to Israel.”
“Israel will not allow Hezbollah to grow stronger and pose any threat to it — anywhere in Lebanon,” the two say.
They stress that Israel will not Beirut’s Dahiyya suburb to serve as a sanctuary for Hezbollah.
“The Lebanese government bears direct responsibility for preventing these threats,” they warn.
The IDF also says the airstrike targeted a facility where Hezbollah stored precision missiles.
“The storage of missiles in this infrastructure site constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and poses a threat to the State of Israel and its civilians,” the military says.
Before the strike carried out by fighter jets, the IDF issued a warning to civilians in the area.
Lebanese president condemns Israeli strike on Beirut, calls on US and France to intervene
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, April 27, 2025. (AP/Bilal Hussein)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemns the Israeli strike in Beirut in a statement issued on his behalf.
He calls on “the United States and France, as guarantors of the ceasefire agreement, to assume their responsibilities and compel Israel to halt its attacks immediately.” He also says that Israel’s continued destabilization will intensify tensions in the region.
Netanyahu says there’s no record he told Bar to obey him over High Court, but doesn’t deny saying so
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, on April 4, 2023. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
In his affidavit to the High Court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tries to dispel Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar’s allegation that he ordered him to obey the premier over the Supreme Court in the possibility of a constitutional crisis, but he does not outright deny it.
Netanyahu writes in his submission to the court in response to petitions against his firing of Bar, that the accusation “was different from the claim in [Bar’s] confidential affidavit,” and that there is no record of such comments in the meeting in which Bar alleged they were made.
“It should be pointed out that from the minutes of the meeting from that date, there is no mention of a conversation on [that] topic, for sure there are no quotes which he included in his confidential affidavit,” writes Netanyahu.
The prime minister does not, however, claim explicitly that he never made such comments to Bar.
In Bar’s own affidavit to the court last week, he claimed that in conversation with Netanyahu, “it was made clear to me that in the event of a constitutional crisis, I would be expected to obey the prime minister and not the High Court of Justice. Full details of this matter are included in the classified affidavit.”
IDF carries out strike on structure in southern Beirut after warning
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, April 27, 2025. (AP/Bilal Hussein)
Following a warning by the IDF, the Israeli Air Force struck and destroyed a structure in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The military said it would target a Hezbollah asset in the area, warning civilians to evacuate at least 300 meters from the site.
According to Lebanese media, several small warning strikes were carried out in the area before fighter jets dropped heavier munitions to destroy the structure.
It marks only the third time the IDF has carried out strikes in Beirut since the ceasefire with Lebanon went into effect in November.
غارة إسرائيلية عنيفة تستهدف المبنى المهدد في الضاحية الجنوبية لبيروت pic.twitter.com/CwzNBzC4Gd
— Lebanon Debate (@lebanondebate) April 27, 2025
Netanyahu: Claim I asked Shin Bet to act against innocent citizens ‘total falsehood’
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar (left) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Kobi Gideon/ GPO)
In his affidavit to the High Court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists he never asked Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to use the resources and authorities of the domestic security agency against peaceful anti-government activists, and cites a transcript of a meeting with Bar on June 6, 2023, where Netanyahu asked for input from the attorney general as to what could be considered legitimate protest and what was illegal.
Bar alleged in his own affidavit to the High Court of Justice last week that Netanyahu asked him on several occasions to act against Israeli citizens involved in peaceful protest activity against the government.
Bar was referring to activists who followed government ministers around and protested against them wherever they appeared in public, as part of the protest movement against the government’s judicial overhaul agenda in the first half of 2023.
“I want to bring in the attorney general because I want to understand what the limits of the law are,” Netanyahu cites himself as saying from the formal transcript of the June 6 meeting with Bar in the affidavit he submitted today.
“It isn’t clear to me what the limits are of harassment and persecution,” continued Netanyahu, asking the Shin Bet chief if such activity was legal.
“I don’t know to tell you,” replied Bar.
Writes Netanyahu: “I demanded from the head of the Shin Bet to act in accordance with the law to eradicate these dire activities, while Bar claims that I asked to violate the law.”
Bar alleged in his affidavit that Netanyahu made his requests to act against legitimate protest after the end of the meeting when the stenographer had left the room, so that it would not be documented.
Netanyahu counters by saying that in the majority of cases when the two spoke without a stenographer, it was in accordance with Bar’s request.
Illegal Bnei Brak synagogues to be retroactively legalized, announces Shas
Illustrative: Hasidic Jews in a synagogue in Bnei Brak, March 24, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Following a meeting with the Real Estate Enforcement Authority in the Bnei Brak municipality, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party announces a deal intended to retroactively legitimize synagogues built on public open spaces — land designated for communal use and often either left undeveloped or developed as public parks or plazas — in the central Israel ultra-Orthodox city.
According to Shas, under the arrangement “the municipality will promote a plan to change the designation of the land for public needs, enforcement will be suspended and the authority will supervise the implementation of the agreements in cooperation with the municipality.”
The deal is limited to Bnei Brak.
The meeting was held in Interior Minister Moshe Arbel’s (Shas) office, with Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri and Haim Biton (Shas), a minister within the Education Ministry, also present. Shas presents the plan as Deri’s initiative.
In affidavit to High Court, PM calls Bar’s claims he tried to avoid testifying ‘totally false’
Left: Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar (Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90); Right: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Dudu Bachar/POOL)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects Shin Bet head Ronen Bar’s allegation that he tried to get the security chief to fraudulently help him postpone his testimony in his criminal trial, calling it “totally false.”
Writing in an affidavit to the High Court of Justice in response to Bar’s own affidavit last week, Netanyahu provides formal transcripts of his conversations with Bar in official meetings the two held in which Netanyahu said he wanted the Shin Bet chief to provide solutions to enable him to testify in a secure location.
Bar alleged that Netanyahu asked him to tell the Jerusalem District Court that the prime minister was unable to appear in a public location on a regular basis due to security concerns that he might be subject to an attack.
The Jerusalem District Court has no bombproof spaces, and Netanyahu’s hearings were ultimately relocated to a bombproof room in the Tel Aviv District Court.
“In my opinion there are solutions, even relatively simple solutions, but [you] need to give these solutions so that I can on the one hand carry out my testimony, and on the other hand [for me] not to die, and so that the legal teams, the judges etc, don’t die together with me,” quotes Netanyahu from the stenographer’s transcript of a meeting the two men had on the topic on November 13, 2024.
In another meeting on November 17 where they discussed the issue again, Netanyahu writes in his affidavit that Bar had not yet offered alternatives to the Jerusalem District Court.
“Nothing needs to be done to delay the trial,” Netanyahu cites himself as telling Bar in that second meeting.
“At no point did I ask Bar to invent a position paper establishing that my testimony could not be held. This claim is totally false. The opposite is true, I said to him explicitly that I want to testify and that the trial should not be delayed by even one day,” writes the prime minister.
Israel shoots down drone launched from Yemen, no sirens sound
A drone launched at Israel “from the east” was shot down by the Israeli Air Force a short while ago, the military says.
No sirens sounded “according to protocol,” the IDF adds.
The drone was apparently launched from Yemen.
Netanyahu submits affidavit to High Court in case over firing of Ronen Bar
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 24, 2025. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu submits a 13-page affidavit to the High Court of Justice regarding the petitions against the firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
Further details from the document will follow.
Bar submitted his own affidavit to the court last week, claiming that he had been fired due to expectations from Netanyahu that he be personally loyal to the premier.
After Bank of Israel rejects his plan, Sa’ar asks PM for urgent meeting on ‘economic war on Hamas’
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar speaks at the Israeli embassy after his meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, April 3, 2025, in Paris. (AP/Nicolas Garriga)
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar asks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene an urgent meeting on his proposal to have the Bank of Israel cancel the NIS 200 note in order to deprive Hamas of much of its funds.
“There is an urgent need for an economic war on Hamas,” says Sa’ar in a letter to Netanyahu. “As long as the Bank of Israel persists in its refusal to cooperate with the move, I will propose to examine its advancement through a government decision and legislation, if necessary.”
Sa’ar said last week that a volunteer team of experts estimates that 80% of the Hamas treasury — a stockpile of billions of shekels in cash — consists of NIS 200 notes, with which it pays its members and which it recoups as “taxes” on merchants.
The Bank of Israel summarily dismissed his call, saying there was no “sufficiently well-founded professional justification” for such a move.
In his letter, Sa’ar proposes the participation of Defense Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron, and representatives of the National Security Council, the Tax Authority, and the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority.
IDF issues evacuation warning for area of southern Beirut
The IDF issues an evacuation warning for a building and the surrounding area in Beirut’s southern suburbs, ahead of an airstrike against a Hezbollah asset in the Lebanese capital.
In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, publishes a map showing the location of the building.
#عاجل ‼️ انذار عاجل للمتواجدين في الضاحية الجنوبية في بيروت وخاصة في حي الحدث
????لكل من يتواجد في المبنى المحدد بالأحمر وفق ما يُعرض في الخارطة المرفقة والمباني المجاورة له: أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت تابعة لحزب الله
????من أجل سلامتكم وسلامة أبناء عائلاتكم أنتم مضطرون لإخلاء… pic.twitter.com/UphnmwwKTY— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) April 27, 2025
“To everyone present in the building marked in red as shown on the map and the buildings adjacent to it: You are present near facilities belonging to Hezbollah,” he says.
The statement calls on civilians to evacuate at least 300 meters from the building for their safety.
It marks only the second time that the IDF has issued warnings ahead of strikes in Beirut since the start of the ceasefire with Lebanon.
Arab source: Israeli officials leaking false claim Qatar sabotaging talks to deflect blame for impasse from PM
A rally calling for the release of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, April 26, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
An Arab official denies Hebrew media reports claiming that Qatar urged Hamas to reject a recent Egyptian ceasefire proposal.
The source — who is familiar with the negotiations and is not from Qatar — tells The Times of Israel that the reports are being “manufactured” by Israeli officials who are seeking to further harm the negotiations and deflect blame for the failure of the talks away from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose demands have made an agreement all but impossible..
Over the weekend, several Hebrew media outlets published reports that either cited only Israeli officials or no sources at all, claiming that Qatar encouraged Hamas to reject a recent Egyptian proposal for a hostage deal, arguing that Doha could secure a better agreement in the form of a long-term truce.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar to pay Syria’s outstanding World Bank debt of $15 million
Security forces loyal to the interim Syrian government ride in the back of a vehicle moving along a road in Syria's western city of Latakia on March 9, 2025. (OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
Saudi Arabia and Qatar announce that they will pay Syria’s debt to the World Bank totaling roughly $15 million, according to a statement published by the Saudi Press Agency.
“The ministries of finance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the state of Qatar jointly announce their commitment to settle Syria’s outstanding arrears to the World Bank Group, totaling around $15 million,” the statement says.
Firefighters battle flames in Judean Desert east of Jerusalem
Paramedics and police at the scene of a fire that broke out in the Ein Prat Nature Reserve on April 27, 2025. (Magen David Adom)
Firefighters are currently trying to extinguish a brush fire spreading along the Ein Prat stream, in a nature reserve just east of Jerusalem.
At around the same time, a fire broke out near the safari in Ramat Gan, but it was quickly extinguished by five firefighting crews. No one was injured in the incident.
A Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson says planes were dispatched to the scene of the fire in Ein Prat, a popular hiking spot in the West Bank’s Judean Desert.
Fire in Nahal Prat from the Kfar Adumim settlement, April 27, 2025. (Ronel Ben-Nevat)
Meanwhile, firefighters are attempting to rescue hikers in the area, and several ambulances departed to the reserve from Jerusalem.
A police spokesman says that the fires do not currently pose a danger to hikers or residents in the area.
West Bank District Commander Moshe Pinchi is at the scene of the fire conducting a situational assessment.
A large fire blazed last week for 20 hours near Beit Shemesh, ultimately burning 10,000 dunams of land, with a number of firefighters wounded.
Qatari PM says Israeli ‘Qatargate’ scandal is ‘journalistic propaganda for political purposes’
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in conversation at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2025. (Markus Schreiber/AP)
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani says his country signed contracts with a United States media company to confront an Israeli public relations campaign he says is targeting Doha.
“There is a public relations campaign being waged against the State of Qatar in Israel,” says the prime minister in a press conference alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
“Qatar’s contracts with an American communications firm were intended to counter a public relations campaign against us in Israel. What is being called ‘Qatargate’ is journalistic propaganda for political purposes that has no basis in truth. Fringe politicians in Israel are leveling accusations against Doha while forgetting its role in the release of the hostages,” he continues.
In the so-called Qatargate affair, two of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides are suspected of multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corruption charges involving lobbyists and businessmen.
IDF says Hezbollah operative killed in south Lebanon drone strike
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli strike in Ghazieh, near Sidon, on April 18, 2025. (Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP)
The IDF says it killed a Hezbollah operative in a drone strike in southern Lebanon’s Halta earlier today.
The operative was involved in Hezbollah’s attempts to regroup and rearm, the military says.
It publishes footage of the strike.
כלי טיס תקף וחיסל מוקדם יותר היום במרחב חלתא שבדרום לבנון, מחבל בארגון הטרור חיזבאללה שקידם נסיונות שיקום של ארגון הטרור במרחב חלתא pic.twitter.com/boxkAdiYz8
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 27, 2025
Attacker who killed man in French mosque still at large, say police
A man suspected of killing a Muslim worshiper in a mosque in the south of France is still on the run today, authorities say, in an incident described by Prime Minister Francois Bayrou as “Islamophobic.”
Both men were alone in the mosque in the former mining town of La Grand Combe on Friday when the victim was fatally stabbed. The assailant reportedly recorded the attack on his phone, and security camera footage showed him shouting insults at “Allah,” which means God in Arabic, local media said.
The Grand Mosque of Paris condemned the attack in a statement and said the victim had just finished cleaning the mosque when he was killed.
It called on authorities to quickly shed light on the reasons behind the attack, asking judicial authorities to say whether it is being treated as a “terrorist” act and to note its “scale and seriousness… for the safety of all.”
Bayrou denounced the act of “Islamophobic ignominy displayed on video.”
Eden Golan to present Israel’s jury points at Eurovision
Eden Golan of Israel enters the arena during the flag parade before the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, May 11, 2024. (AP/Martin Meissner)
Eden Golan, last year’s Israeli Eurovision contestant, will return to the competition this year to present Israel’s jury points during the live broadcast of the final on May 17.
Golan, who competed with her song “Hurricane,” finished in 5th place overall and 2nd in the televote at the 2024 contest, though she faced protests and booing in the audience during her performances.
Last year, the jury points from Israel were presented by TV host Maya Alkulumbre, who also faced loud boos from some members of the studio audience in Malmo, Sweden.
Israel will be represented this year by Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the October 7 Nova music festival massacre, who will sing “New Day Will Rise” at the competition in Basel, Switzerland.
Edelstein says he won’t accept ultimatums or commit to date on Haredi enlistment bill
An ultra-Orthodox Jew protesting against the drafting of Haredim to the Israeli army holds a sign reading, 'We won't draft to an enemy army,' outside the IDF Recruitment Center at Tel Hashomer, in central Israel, September 2, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Likud MK Yuli Edelstein says that while he will not “not accept ultimatums from any side” regarding completing work on a bill regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment, within the next two weeks the committee’s “professional legal team” will be able to begin to “formulate a draft” of the controversial legislation.
However, “I cannot commit to a date and I am not willing to commit to a date” because a strict timeline could lead to a bad legislative outcome, he adds.
Edelstein’s comments come only days after a previous declaration in which he announced that the committee will continue hearing testimony and background data for several more sessions before drafting a final version of the bill. That earlier declaration in turn came after the publication of a recording of an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that the government plans on passing the bill “with or without” Edelstein.
Addressing the committee, Yaakov (Kobi) Blitstein, deputy director general of the Defense Ministry, says that “the goal of this law is to reach a kind of agreement with the rabbis and the Haredi leadership, whose representatives are here in the Knesset.”
Qatari PM notes progress in hostage talks; Turkish FM says terror group open to lasting peace deal
DOHA, Qatar — Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani says that he noticed some progress in Thursday’s Gaza ceasefire-hostage release talks.
Leaders of the Hamas terror group recently met mediators in Cairo for ceasefire talks.
“We have seen on Thursday a bit of progress compared to other meetings, yet we need to find an answer for the ultimate question: how to end this war. That’s the key point of the entire negotiations,” says Al Thani. “When you don’t have a common objective, a common goal between the parties, I believe the opportunities [to end the war] become very thin.”
Speaking alongside him, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says that talks with Hamas in recent days had shown the terror group would be more open to an agreement that goes beyond a ceasefire in Gaza and aims for a lasting solution to the crisis with Israel.
On April 19, Fidan and Turkey’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, held talks with Hamas officials in Ankara to discuss the latest efforts for a ceasefire and the situation in Gaza.
Fidan says those talks showed Hamas would be more willing to sign a deal that also addresses the issue of Palestinian territories and other issues, adding that the crisis could be turned into an opportunity to implement the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Russia to send planes to help Iran put out port fire
MOSCOW, Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered several emergency planes to be sent to Iran to help extinguish a fire in the port of Bandar Abbas, Russian state-run news agency TASS reports.
Iranian state media have reported that a huge blast probably caused by the explosion of chemical materials killed at least 25 people and injured more than 700 on Saturday at Bandar Abbas, Iran’s biggest port.
Police confirm nine killed at Vancouver festival car-ramming
Vancouver Police investigate a crime scene after a man drove into pedestrians at the annual Lapu Lapu festival celebrating Filipino culture, at East 43rd Avenue and Fraser, in the south of Vancouver, Canada, on April 26, 2025. (Don MacKinnon / AFP)
VANCOUVER, Canada — Nine people were killed when a driver plowed into a crowd at a Filipino cultural celebration in Vancouver, police in the Canadian city say.
“As of now, we can confirm nine people have died after a man drove through a crowd at last night’s Lapu Lapu Festival,” the police say on X.
Hamas-run civil defense agency says eight killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza
Palestinian children walk amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli strike at the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on April 27, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)
The Hamas-controlled Gaza civil defense agency says Israeli strikes killed at least eight people, including a 17-year-old who died in an attack on a southern town.
The figures cannot be independently verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal tells AFP that “at least eight people have been killed and dozens injured in Israeli airstrikes since dawn.”
Bassal says three people were killed when a group of civilians was struck in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood, and three more in a strike that hit a residential building in the central Bureij refugee camp.
Two people died in the southern Khan Younis area, Bassal says, including a 17-year-old boy in a strike on the town of Khuzaa, and another person killed when Israeli forces hit fishing boats off the coast.
In a separate incident near Khan Younis, a strike wounded at least 12 people, most of them children, in Al-Mawasi, the civil defense spokesman adds.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Iran port blast death toll rises to 28; Tehran denies military-grade material present at site
A handout picture provided by the Iranian Red Crescent (RCS) on April 27, 2025, shows rescuers carrying a victim away from the scene of an explosion that took place a day earlier at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan. (Iranian Red Crescent / AFP)
The death toll from a massive explosion at Iran’s largest commercial port has risen to 28, Red Crescent chief Pirhossein Koolivand says, updating earlier figures reported by state media.
“Unfortunately, 28 people have so far died,” Koolivand says in a video published on the Iranian government’s official website, adding that some of the more than 1,000 injured in the Shahid Rajaee Port blast on Saturday had been transferred to the capital, Tehran, for treatment.
No military-grade material was present at the blast-hit port, a defense ministry spokesperson tells state TV, denying media reports that Saturday’s explosion may be linked to the mishandling of solid fuel used for missiles.
Saudi report: Egypt demands ‘full file’ from Hamas on hostages’ condition by early May
A rally calling for the release of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, April 26, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
The Saudi Al-Arabiya channel reports that as part of negotiations for a hostage release deal and a ceasefire, Egypt is demanding a “full file” from Hamas regarding the condition of the hostages in Gaza by early May.
The report doesn’t specify what such a file will include.
The channel also reports that the mediators are considering the possibility of a short-term ceasefire, but Israel is refusing and insisting on the disarmament of Hamas.
The Hamas delegation in Cairo, which arrived in Egypt on Saturday morning and included all five senior officials who currently make up the organization’s leadership council, left Cairo last night after less than 24 hours in the country.
Shin Bet official says agency not probing politicians; Ben Gvir asserts it is spying on ministers
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar attends a ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem on April 23, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Addressing the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, a representative of the Shin Bet states that the security agency has not ordered a leak investigation into the state’s political leadership.
The official says that employees of his agency leaking material would cause it damage and says that such behavior is a matter of concern.
In response, committee chairman Simcha Rothman says that their concern must stem from the fact that the Shin Bet has ordered an investigation into the state’s political echelon, an assertion the official denies.
“There is no Shin Bet investigation now against the political echelon for a leak,” the official states, prompting pushback from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
In a statement, Ben Gvir claims that Shin Bet chief “Ronen Bar’s culture of lying, politicization, and the fabrication of cases is destroying the General Security Service and endangering the State of Israel.”
“Contrary to denials, the Shin Bet spied on ministers, on MKs, on the police commissioner, on the Israel Prison Service commissioner, and also — as revealed in the recordings — fabricated a case against an outstanding police officer who refused to cooperate in illegal activity,” Ben Gvir states.
“All of this with the active cooperation of the attorney general, who recruited the intelligence service for the purpose of fabricating criminal cases, in selective and corrupt ‘investigations,'” he continues, adding that “there are quite a few Shin Bet members who despise this conduct, but those who are persecuting are a real danger to democracy and the rule of law.”
Vancouver Police don’t suspect car-ramming was act of terror
VANCOUVER, Canada — Vancouver Police say they did not suspect “an act of terrorism” after a driver plowed into a street party on Saturday in the Canadian city, killing a number of people.
“At this time, we are confident that this incident was not an act of terrorism,” police say in an X post early Sunday morning.
#BREAKING: Mass-casualty event after an SUV plowed into a street festival in Vancouver. pic.twitter.com/hW2fDtzRYL
— Insider Wire (@InsiderWire) April 27, 2025
UTJ official says High Court pushing clash between Haredi public and government
A nine-justice panel hears petitions demanding the immediate conscription of ultra-Orthodox young men to the Israel Defense Forces at the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem, June 2, 2024. (Amit Shabi / pool)
The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party accuses the High Court of “pushing for an unnecessary clash between the Haredi public and the government” after it issues a provisional order instructing the government to explain why it has failed to issue enough conscription orders to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to meet the needs of the IDF and to enforce those orders that have been sent.
“The High Court is forcibly pushing for an unnecessary clash between the Haredi public and the government. Instead of acting responsibly and seeking unifying solutions, it chooses to coerce and provoke,” an unnamed senior UTJ official tells the Ynet news site.
“This is not a concern for equality, but a forceful coercion that endangers the delicate social fabric,” the official asserts, accusing the court of “insisting on inflaming the situation.”
According to the ultra-Orthodox Kikar HaShabbat website, last week senior rabbinic leaders UTJ and fellow ultra-Orthodox party Shas met and agreed to continue advocating for a policy of not showing up for draft summonses.
The army has stated that it is facing a manpower shortage and currently needs some 12,000 new soldiers — 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.
After the High Court ruled last year that there was no longer any legal framework for blanket military service exemptions for Haredi yeshiva students, the IDF sent out 18,915 initial draft orders to eligible ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students in several waves between July 2024 and March 2025.
Only two percent of those who received the orders actually enlisted, while there are some 70,000 Haredi yeshiva students who are eligible for the draft but who do not serve.
Following the ruling, Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman declares that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “October 7 government continues to harm Israel’s security, promoting the draft evasion law, while regular and reserve soldiers sacrifice their lives.”
“Everyone must enlist. Not enlisting? Not voting,” he tweets.
In a statement, the Israel Hofsheet religious freedom advocacy group welcomes the ruling, which came in response to its petition to the court, calling it a “yellow card for the state.”
Houthis say 2 killed in overnight US strikes on Yemen
SANAA, Yemen — Houthi media says that overnight strikes on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, attributed to the United States, had killed two people and wounded several others.
“Two people were killed and another injured after the American enemy targeted a house” in a neighborhood in south Sanaa, the Iran-backed rebels’ official Saba news agency says.
“Nine others were injured, including two women and three children, in the American aggression on a residential area in the west of Al-Rawda,” another district of the Yemeni capital, according to the same source.
Opposition MKs pan ‘cynical debate on selective enforcement’ after being ejected from committee
Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman chairs a Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting, in Jerusalem, on April 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
After she and other opposition lawmakers are removed from the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee by chairman Simcha Rothman, National Unity MK Pnina Tamano-Shata protests what she describes as the “violation of the right of MKs to express themselves, silencing and mass expulsion of MKs from the opposition.”
In a statement, Tamano-Shata says that this is a low for Rothman, coming as it does “in the midst of an already cynical debate on selective enforcement.”
“Rothman is harming not only MKs but the public’s right to be heard through its elected officials,” she alleges amid a flood of criticism from opposition lawmakers.
Multiple opposition MKs were removed during the debate, including Yesh Atid’s Elazar Stern, who yelled “shame” at Rothman as he was led out of the room.
In a tweet, Yesh Atid MK Shelly Tal Meron slams the debate, which was convened by Rothman (Religious Zionism) to discuss “concerns about selective enforcement in the area of leaks, violation of press freedom and the right to consult with a lawyer by investigative officials and the Shin Bet,” stating that it was “embarrassing and unnecessary” and constituted “persecution of the gatekeepers of Israeli democracy” and is intended to cover up “the criminal ties between the Prime Minister’s Office and the Qatari government.”
During the meeting, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara denied that there is any selective enforcement when it comes to dealing with cases of leaking of sensitive information.
In response, Likud MK Tally Gotliv declares that Baharav-Miara “knows nothing about criminal matters anyway,” while fellow Likud lawmaker MK Moshe Saada states that she will “not escape” being investigated.
Lebanon says one killed in drone strike on border with Israel
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli drone strike on a border town killed one person, the latest attack despite a November ceasefire that ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah terrorists.
The Lebanese Health Ministry reports in a statement, “one martyr” from “the drone strike launched by the Israeli enemy on the town of Halta,” in southern Lebanon.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
High Court orders government to explain shortfall of conscription orders to Haredi yeshiva students
Ultra-Orthodox protesters hold up a sign reading 'We will die rather than enlist,' while blocking a road during a protest against the military draft, in Bnei Brak, November 17, 2024. (Erik Marmor/ Flash90)
The High Court of Justice issues a provisional order against the government’s failure to issue enough conscription orders to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to meet the needs of the IDF, and its failure to enforce the orders it has issued.
The court order instructs the government to explain these failures to the court in a written statement by June 24. Provisional orders switch the burden of proof from the petitioners to the respondent — in this case, the defense minister and the government — and generally indicate that the court believes there to be some merit in the petition.
After the High Court ruled last year that there was no longer any legal framework for blanket military service exemptions for Haredi yeshiva students, the IDF sent out 18,915 initial draft orders to eligible ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students in several waves between July 2024 and March 2025.
Only two percent of those who received the orders actually enlisted, while there are some 70,000 haredi yeshiva students who are eligible for the draft but who do not serve.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which petitioned the court over the state’s failure to draft Haredi yeshiva students, calls the provisional order “a significant step that obligates the state to explain why it is not implementing the rulings of the High Court, and the instructions of the law regarding the conscription of [ultra-Orthodox] yeshiva students.”
The army has stated that it is facing a manpower shortage and currently needs some 12,000 new soldiers — 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.
Military aircraft drill over Jerusalem for Memorial Day flyby
The military aircraft Jerusalemites are hearing flying thunderously today above the capital are part of drills for a Memorial Day flyby later this week.
The IDF said in a statement last night that Israeli Air Force jets and helicopters will be training between Sunday and Tuesday for the flyby, and that this is not connected to any security-related incident.
The military asks the public to avoid flying drones over Mount Herzl, Har Tayyasim, and the President’s Residence “for safety reasons, and in order not to interfere with the training.”
Key ingredient in missile fuel was chemical that exploded at Iran port — report
Heavily damaged cars lie along a devastated boulevard following an explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan on April 26, 2025. (MOHAMMAD RASOLE MORADI / IRNA / AFP)
The New York Times quotes a person with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, saying that sodium perchlorate — a major ingredient in solid fuel for missiles — was the chemical that exploded yesterday in Bandar Abbas.
At least 25 people were killed and over 800 people were injured in the explosion at Iran’s largest commercial port.
Death toll from Iran port blast rises to 25
TEHRAN, Iran — The death toll from a massive blast at Iran’s largest commercial port has risen to 25, local media reports.
“The total number of people killed is at least 25,” according to the Tasnim news agency, which cited Hormozgan province’s head of the judiciary, Mojtaba Ghahremani.
At Knesset hearing, AG dismisses accusation of selective enforcement in leak cases
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara attends the swearing-in ceremony of Justice Isaac Amit as president of the Supreme Court, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, February 13, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara denies that there is any selective enforcement when it comes to dealing with cases of leaks of sensitive information, telling lawmakers that “as opposed to the title of the hearing, there is no selective enforcement.”
Addressing a hearing of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee called to discuss “concerns about selective enforcement in the area of leaks, violation of press freedom and the right to consult with a lawyer by investigative officials and the Shin Bet,” Baharav-Miara says that “there is no selective enforcement.”
Baharav-Miara calls the discussion “an opportunity for us to explain in an orderly manner the guiding principles in the investigation of offenses related to the disclosure of information by a public servant,” which she says is “of great importance due to the importance of freedom of the press in a democratic society.”
“The law enforcement system operates in a consistent, professional, and matter-of-fact manner, according to fixed standards that are applied in each case according to its circumstances,” she says.
Following February’s announcement that the Shin Bet had begun probing reports of alleged ties between advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatar, Netanyahu and his supporters have accused the security service of selective enforcement by not probing the premier’s political rivals.
The focus of investigations is usually “on those who released the information in an unauthorized manner, and not on the journalist” who published it, Baharav-Miara tells lawmakers.
The right has also criticized the April arrest and interrogation of Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Zvika Klein in relation to the affair.
Netanyahu aide Eli Feldstein, one of the main suspects in the Qatargate probe, was also charged in November in a separate case involving the theft and leaking of material from a classified IDF document to the German daily Bild to sway public opinion toward Netanyahu.
It is not only allies of the prime minister who have been probed regarding leaks, however.
Earlier this month, police questioned opposition Labor party MK Gilad Kariv regarding allegations that he leaked classified information from a closed-door hearing of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Police find four rare parrots stolen from Israeli zoo in West Bank city
A parrot that was recovered by police on April 26, 2025, after being stolen and smuggled to the West Bank by animal traffickers three weeks prior. (Israel Police)
Police yesterday recovered four rare parrots that had been stolen from a petting zoo in northern Israel and smuggled to the West Bank around three weeks ago.
They are four of seven valuable birds that were poached by animal traffickers during a break-in to Jungle Fun Zoo in Kibbutz Beit Zera, police say.
The recovery comes after police on Friday tracked down 36 other birds that had been stolen the day before, from the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. Police found the birds in Hableh, a West Bank Palestinian village adjacent to the Green Line.
The four birds rescued yesterday were found in Tulkarem, a spokesman says today. Officers believe that the same gang of traffickers is to blame for the burglaries.
The birds are all various breeds of macaw, and collectively worth NIS 250,000 ($69,000). They were transferred to the Nature and Parks Authority for examination and treatment before being passed back to the zoo.
Houthis say overnight missile launch targeted Nevatim base
The Houthi rebels in Yemen claim responsibility for launching a missile at a base in the Negev.
The Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, announces that the rebel group fired a missile last night toward the Nevatim air base in the Negev.
The IDF announced overnight that one missile from Yemen was intercepted before it crossed into Israeli territory and after it triggered sirens in the Arava region and the Dead Sea area.
Multiple people killed after driver rams into street festival in Vancouver
Vancouver police say that a number of people were killed and multiple others were injured after a driver drove into a crowd at a street festival in the western Canadian city.
The driver has been taken into custody, police say in a post on social media platform X.
A number of people have been killed and multiple others are injured after a driver drove into a crowd at a street festival at E. 41st Avenue and Fraser shortly after 8 p.m. tonight. The driver is in custody. We will provide more information as the investigation unfolds. pic.twitter.com/Iqh5AK5Au3
— Vancouver Police (@VancouverPD) April 27, 2025
Trump demands free passage for US ships through Panama and Suez canals
In this photo released by Suez Canal Authority, the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship is accompanied by Suez Canal tugboats as it moves in the Suez Canal, Egypt, Monday, March 29, 2021. (Suez Canal Authority via AP)
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump urges free transit for American commercial and military ships through the Panama and Suez canals, tasking his secretary of state with making progress “immediately.”
Trump has for months been calling for the United States to take control of the Panama Canal, but his social media post also shifted focus onto the vital Suez route.
“American Ships, both Military and Commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez Canals!” he writes on his Truth Social platform.
He claims both routes would “not exist” without the United States and says he had asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “immediately take care of” the situation.
Houthi missile triggers alarms near Dead Sea, is intercepted — IDF
A Houthi missile fired from Yemen has been fired toward Israel and was intercepted before reaching Israeli territory, the military says.
The missile triggered sirens in the Dead Sea and Arava areas.
Man killed in Rahat, reportedly the 80th Arab Israeli homicide victim this year
A young man has been shot dead in the Bedouin city of Rahat in the northern Negev region, reportedly becoming the 80th Arab homicide victim in Israel this year.
Anan Abu Eid, 19, was shot by assailants who then fled the scene, police say, adding that they have launched an investigation and believe the motive was a criminal feud.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says medics found the man unconscious, with no vital signs and with multiple stab wounds, and pronounced him dead at the scene.
Another man, reportedly Abu Eid’s brother, was moderately injured in the same incident.
Hebrew media says 80 people have now been killed in violent incidents within the Arab community since the start of 2025, continuing an unprecedented crime epidemic that has gripped the community in recent years.
Houthis say 8 hurt in US strikes in Yemen
SANAA, Yemen — Iran-backed Houthi rebels say that a series of US strikes on territory under their control, including the Yemeni capital Sanaa, have wounded at least eight people.
“Eight citizens, including two children, were wounded when the American enemy targeted a residential district” west of Al-Rawda in Sanaa, the Houthi-run Saba news agency says.
It cites the Houthi administration’s health ministry as the source for what it said was a provisional toll.
An AFP correspondent in Sanaa reported earlier Saturday having heard explosions.
The Houthis, who control large parts of the war-torn country, also report strikes in other parts of the country, including their stronghold, Saada, in the north.
They say the fuel port of Ras Issa in the western Hodeida region — where they say 80 people were killed in strikes just over a week ago — has also been hit.
Netanyahu shares condemnation of display of severed heads with his face at anti-government rally
A display of masks bearing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's face surrounding a protester wearing faux-bloody bandages at an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv, April 26, 2025. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemns a display of masks bearing his face surrounding a protester wearing faux-bloody bandages at an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv this evening.
“This needs to be said in a clear voice. The severed heads, as well as the protests today, have nothing to do with the hostages. On the contrary, these are people who decided to sacrifice the hostages in an attempt to overthrow the government,” the conservative Tikva Forum writes in a post shared by Netanyahu’s official Twitter account.
“In a civilized country, there would already be dozens of people arrested for inciting murder. It is unclear where the Shin Bet is when it comes to these clear and dangerous representations of murder,” the group writes, adding that it hopes tensions between Netanyahu and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar “do not affect the Shin Bet’s positions on everything related to the prime minister’s security.”
In a separate statement, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s Likud party calls the protest display “madness,” asserting that it “represents incitement to murder the prime minister and behead him.”
“Where is the enforcement of the attorney general and Ronen Bar?” the spokesman asks, attaching a photo of the scene, in which a shirtless man wearing bloodied bandages on his chest and head can be seen lying still on the street clutching an Israeli flag.
Surrounding the man’s head are several masks of Netanyahu, each with a sticker bearing a slogan such as “guilty” or “danger.”
Netanyahu and his political allies have long complained about incitement against him and his family, pointing fingers at the justice system, law enforcement, and the attorney general for what they say is unchecked violent speech by members of the public.
The prime minister’s March 21 decision to fire Bar, which came in the middle of a Shin Bet investigation into the dealings of the prime minister’s close aides in the Qatargate scandal, prompted opposition parties and government watchdog groups to file petitions to the High Court of Justice seeking to halt the termination.
They accused Netanyahu of trying to stymie the probe and of firing Bar for political reasons, and requested that the court reverse the decision since, they argue, it was made with a conflict of interest and out of ulterior motives.
During a press conference last Sunday, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid called on Netanyahu to halt incitement against Bar before it leads to “political murder.”
Former PM Bennett: Netanyahu preventing victory over Hamas by preventing Haredi enlistment
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett donates blood in memory of Sgt. First Class Yona Brief, March 27, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/ FLASH90)
By “preventing the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is keeping Israel from achieving victory over Hamas in Gaza, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declares.
In a lengthy tweet, Bennett says that Israel’s continued military “stumbling in Gaza stems directly from government policy that deprives the IDF of the main tool required for victory: fighters.”
Bennett slams “bombastic declarations from ministers [most of whom have never held a gun]” calling for the full conquest of Gaza while “these same ministers are literally depriving the IDF of the soldiers needed to carry out the same mission” — adding that “the IDF has been stretched beyond the limit” since October 7.
Claiming that the IDF “is short 20,000 soldiers,” Bennett argues that repeated emergency call-ups of reservists cannot substitute for a wider recruitment base.
The army has stated that it is facing a manpower shortage and currently needs some 12,000 new soldiers — 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.
The “solution,” Bennett asserts, is to call up one-fifth of eligible Haredim, a move which would “free up our reservists to breathe so that when we really need them for a large-scale operation, they would be fit.”
An ultra-Orthodox man is seen in front of a sign for an IDF recruitment office during a protest against conscripting Haredi men to the military, in Jerusalem, May 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
However, no real action has been taken, and “the orders being sent are a bluff,” Bennett continues, accusing Netanyahu and Finance Minister Smotrich of “putting politics above the good of the country.”
Currently, approximately 70,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service and have not enlisted. The IDF has sent out 18,915 initial draft orders to members of the Haredi community in several waves since July 2024, but according to the IDF, only 232 of those who have received orders have enlisted — 57 of them in combat roles.
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last Wednesday, Lt. Col. Avigdor Dickstein, head of the Haredi branch of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, indicated that despite the army aiming to recruit 4,800 Haredi men during the 2024-2025 draft cycle, only 1,721 have enlisted thus far.
“We set ourselves a target of 4,800 and we will not reach that. There is an upward trend here, but it is not sufficient and does not correspond to the very large operational need,” he said.
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