ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 535
The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they happened.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party lashes out at Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s decision to order the opening of an investigation into suspicions of illicit ties between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides and Qatar.
The Likud statement says those behind the decision are targeting Netanyahu’s staff after realizing that their criminal corruption cases against the premier are falling apart.
“As the trumped-up cases against Prime Minister Netanyahu crumble in court, new and false cases are being manufactured against his people due to the personal interests of those leading the investigation. We see you,” the statement says.
Egypt says negotiations between Israel and Hamas on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal have begun in Cairo.
Officials from Israel, Qatar and the US have started “intensive discussions” on the second phase of the ceasefire, Egypt’s state information service said in a statement.
It’s unclear whether there are any US representatives actually present, though, as Washington’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff is not due in the region until next week, at the earliest.
“The mediators are also discussing ways to enhance the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, as part of efforts to alleviate the suffering of the population and support stability in the region,” the Egyptian statement says.
The Jerusalem District Court agrees to a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reduce the number of times he must testify in his criminal trial from three times a week, to twice a week, saying it was making its decision based on the information presented to it regarding “the timetable and constraints related to the job of defendant number 1.”
Netanyahu will now testify every Monday and Wednesday.
The court orders that another defense witness will testify every Tuesday instead of Netanyahu to mitigate the delay to the trial, which has now been going for five years.
Earlier on Thursday, a freshly published transcript of a closed-door hearing two weeks ago with Netanyahu and the judges revealed that the prime minister told them it was not possible for him to run the country while spending three days in court every week.
“With all due respect, Basic Law: The Government enables the prime minister to stand trial and to run the country, and the right balance needs to be made… It’s not possible,” Netanyahu told the judges.
During another closed-door session last week in which Netanyahu again requested to reduce the number of hearings per week to two, the prime minister said Israel was in the midst of a “historic turning point” and that changing security circumstances were having implications for the country’s very future.
This, he said, necessitated reducing the number of hearings to twice a week.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara orders a criminal investigation be opened into the ties of officials working in the Prime Minister’s Office and Qatar.
The Attorney General’s Office makes the announcement in the wake of revelations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein, who has been charged with harming national security in a case involving the theft and leaking of classified IDF documents, worked for Qatar via an international firm contracted by Doha to feed top Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories.
The Attorney General’s Office says the decision was made following a meeting between Baharav-Miara, State Attorney Amit Aisman, the head of the police’s investigations and intelligence department, and professional officials in the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service.
In that meeting, “information was presented as to the connection between elements working in the Prime Minister’s Office and elements connected to the state of Qatar,” the Attorney General’s Office states.
The investigation will be carried out by the Shin Bet and the police.
Likud lawmaker Dan Illouz is set to submit a bill incorporating parts of the West Bank surrounding the capital into a greater Jerusalem metropolitan area, establishing Israeli sovereignty over the territories.
Under Illouz’s bill, the settlements of Mitzpe Jericho, Beitar Illit, Givat Ze’ev, Maale Adumim and Efrat, as well as the Gush Etzion Regional Council, would be incorporated into the new “Jerusalem Metropolis” in which the “law, jurisdiction and administration of the state will apply.”
A number of other municipalities would be included within the new entity, not all of them in the West Bank, such as Beit Zayit and Mevaseret Zion.
The bill, which is explicitly aimed at changing the demographics of the capital and surrounding areas, would require the government to boost residential construction and industry in the greater Jerusalem metropolitan area and encourage young Israelis to live therein.
“The Jerusalem Metropolitan Bill is a vital step for strengthening Israel’s capital, improving infrastructure, and ensuring more effective governance for the surrounding communities,” Illouz told The Times of Israel.
“But beyond the practical benefits, it reflects a core principle: Israel must act based on what is right, not out of fear. Our sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Land of Israel is historically, legally, and morally justified. When I led the effort to shut down UNRWA, we faced heavy international pressure— but we stood firm, the law passed, and the threats amounted to nothing. The lesson is clear: When Israel stands strong, it wins. The same must happen with sovereignty over Judea and Samaria—this is our moment to act.”
Last month, an opposition bill that would apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley — part of the West Bank — failed 32-56 in a preliminary reading due to opposition by members of the government.
A bill to annex the West Bank brought by Yisrael Beytenu in March 2023 was also defeated by the government.
Likud MK Nissim Vaturi calls for the expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza and from the West Bank during an ultranationalist rally in Jerusalem.
“We want to remove all the Arabs from Gaza. They should not be in Judea and Samaria either,” says Vaturi.
“Transfer is not an illegitimate word. First of all, we need to transfer the Arabs of Gaza and also begin in Judea and Samaria, begin in Area C,” continues the MK.
Israel has full security and civilian control of Area C of the West Bank, which comprises some 60 percent of the territory and includes all the Israeli settlements, but is also home to some 180,000 – 300,000 Palestinians, according to the left-wing B’Tselem organization.
“We need to wake up. We need to expel the Arabs from here. We need to expel everyone now. Send them to countries who want them so badly. We should not be afraid because God is with us,” concludes Vaturi.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Keith Siegel, who was released from Hamas captivity on February 1, and his wife Aviva, who was also released in the first hostage deal in November 2023.
“As far as I’m concerned, the story is not over,” Keith Siegel says, according to the Prime Minister’s Office. “Although I returned, it is my and your responsibility to return everyone. Our friends are there and it is difficult for me to return, knowing that they are still there. I know that you are doing a lot and continue to show courage and leadership.”
“I am constantly working for the release of the remaining hostages,” says Netanyahu. “I do not intend to give up on anyone.”
The Siegel’s daughter Shir and Netanyahu’s wife Sara participate in the meeting as well.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says he takes full responsibility for the military’s failures during the lead-up to the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, and on the day itself.
“My responsibility is mine, I was the military commander on October 7. I have my responsibility and I also have all of your responsibility,” Halevi said to senior officers on Monday, during a presentation of the IDF’s probes into the attack.
“An organization, and a person, incapable of standing up and looking failure in the eye, will have a very, very difficult time putting it right.”
He says he faces up to that failure every day and tells the officers: “Don’t try to forget. Don’t try to look away — not out of weakness; with a great deal of strength — because that’s how we will be stronger.”
Earlier this evening, the investigations were released to the public.
Halevi is resigning from the IDF on March 5.
Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered in central Jerusalem for a rally supporting the forcible expulsion of the Palestinian population of Gaza and the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in the territory.
Titled “Occupation, expulsion and settlement,” the demonstration is being organized by the Nachala settlement group and other right-wing organizations.
MK Limor Son Har-Melech of the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party says that Gaza and the West Bank belong by right to the Jewish people.
“The Land of Israel is for the People of Israel. Gaza is for Jews, Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] is for Jews. They are ours in the merit of our fathers and the merit of our deeds,” says Son Har-Melech
“The expulsion of our enemies needs to be forever. We are here not only to expel but to inherit, to establish flourishing settlements full of life. Victory will be that all of Gaza returns to our hands, where Jews establish new generations of courageous settlers.”
Massi Carmel from the Haifa area, who is participating in the demonstration, says she fully supports the forcible removal of the Palestinians from Gaza.
“I support anything that needs to be done to remove these people from there and bring in the people of Israel to the Land of Israel,” Carmel says, including forcible expulsion.
Asked if it was moral to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza against their will, Carmel counters, “Is it moral to remove Jews from their homes” in reference to the Gaza Disengagement where some 8,500 Israeli settlers left or were forcibly removed by the government in 2005.
“Is it moral to murder, to rape, to burn?” she continues, saying that “everyone there was involved” in the atrocities of October 7 and that there are no innocent people in Gaza.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) condemns a disruptive anti-Israel protest on New York’s Barnard College campus last night.
FIRE says that actions carried out by the protesters, including assault, disrupting classes, and blocking other students from class, are not covered by free speech protections.
“What happened at Barnard last night was, by all accounts, not peaceful protest. Campuses need to draw a hard line: full support for peaceful student protest on even the most divisive political issues, and zero tolerance for misconduct, violence, or criminality,” says FIRE’s vice president, Alex Morey. “The buck stops with administrators. Barnard needs to educate students on these basic distinctions and be clear-eyed when it’s time to enforce rules that keep speakers safe on campus.”
Holding administrators hostage is not free speech.
Assault is not free speech.
Disrupting classes is not free speech.
Barring students from getting to class is not free speech.
Any @BarnardCollege agitators who chose force over peaceful protest must be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/5PycHswu1h
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) February 27, 2025
The organization says that college administrators negotiating with the protesters over amnesty for activists is “deeply concerning.”
The statement is a harsh rebuke from FIRE, a leading free speech advocacy group that is staunchly nonpartisan, including on issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Barnard, an affiliate of Columbia University, has the highest level of self-censorship due to fear of speaking out among the 250 colleges FIRE ranks for free speech.
The number of people injured in the ramming attack earlier now stands at 13.
The International Criminal Court will urgently continue its investigation into crimes committed in the Palestinian territories, or by Palestinians, the prosecutor’s office says, despite the withdrawal of an arrest warrant for a Hamas leader.
The ICC said yesterday that judges had withdrawn an arrest warrant for Ibrahim al-Masri, also known as Muhammad Deif, following credible reports of his death. Deif had been wanted for atrocities committed during Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israeli communities that triggered the war in Gaza. He had been accused by prosecutors of mass killing, rape and hostage-taking.
He was killed in an Israeli airstrike last year, but Hamas only confirmed his death in late January.
Today, the prosecutor’s office says the probe continues, and it will not hesitate to seek arrest warrants for other suspects “if and when it considers that the threshold of a realistic prospect of conviction has been met.
“Addressing the situation as an urgent priority, the office is conducting an active investigation, and advances multiple and interconnected additional lines of inquiry,” it says.
In November, judges at the ICC also issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza. Israel and the US have strongly rejected the allegations and lambasted the court for the move.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will meet his US counterpart, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in Washington DC, next Wednesday, his spokesman says.
Smotrich had long been boycotted by the previous administration due to his far-right views.
The IDF says it carried out a drone strike against a Hezbollah observation post in southern Lebanon’s Aynata after identifying activity there.
“This observation post is a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the military adds.
A French member of the European Parliament whose entry into Israel was denied in recent days has courted outrage in France by arguing that the Bibas family were not murdered by their captors and justifying Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
Israeli forensic officials have said Shiri Bibas and her two young children were brutally murdered by their captors in November 2023.
According to Le Journal du Dimanche and other media outlets, Rima Hassan told Sud Radio today, when asked if Shiri Bibas and her children were murdered, “No.”
“The Bibas family itself asked the Israeli authorities to stop commenting on the circumstances of the death of their loved ones,” she said, arguing they have not received “official and clear information on the reports communicated by the Israeli army.”
This is a twisting of the Bibas family’s comments. The family has acknowledged that the autopsy shows that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were murdered, and has asked that no more details be given to the media, for privacy reasons. In expressing anger that more explicit details of the deaths have leaked, they have noted that they have not yet been given the full details themselves. At no point have they questioned forensic experts’ assertion that the three were murdered by their guards.
While Hassan acknowledged that the Bibas children “would not have died if they had not been kidnapped,” she said that “the 18,000 Palestinian children would not have died if we did not have a regime of occupation and colonization imposed by Israel.
“Would there have been Hamas, and the attacks of October 7, if there was no illegal occupation and an illegal blockade imposed for decades?” she asked.
She argued that Hamas had engaged in “legitimate action.”
Cannes Mayor David Lisnard says he is reporting Hassan to France’s Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“Rima Hassan no longer even bothers to play with the law to act as Hamas’s spokesperson. Today she literally legitimizes Hamas’s actions,” he says.
Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi says the European MP “should be prosecuted for condoning terrorism.”
Arabic media publishes a photo of Jamil Zayoud, 53, identified as the terrorist behind the car-ramming attack at Karkur Junction.
Originally from the Jenin area, he had been living illegally in Ma’ale Iron with his Arab Israeli wife.
The number of wounded in the ramming attack has risen to 12, medical officials say.
The critically injured person is a 17-year-old female, they say.
The girl is currently unconscious, sedated and breathing with the help of a ventilator at Hillel Yaffe Hospital, having sustained serious damage to her head and limbs.
A 60-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman are in serious condition, also with head injuries. The former is sedated and breathing with the help of a ventilator, while the latter is fully conscious.
A young woman, 18, is moderately injured, while six others sustained light injuries, paramedics add.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recent closed-door session of his criminal trial that it was not possible to run the country while spending three days a week in court, a transcript of the hearing has revealed.
Netanyahu was addressing the judges of the Jerusalem District Court two weeks ago during a closed-door session he’d asked for to request that the number of hearings for his testimony in the trial be reduced from three to two a week.
“With all due respect, Basic Law: The Government enables the prime minister to stand trial and to run the country, and the right balance needs to be made… It’s not possible,” Netanyahu told the judges.
Basic Law: The Government does not require the prime minister to step down if he is indicted and put on trial, but it does not stipulate that the court trying him needs to accommodate his leadership responsibilities and timetable either.
Netanyahu previously insisted that his trial would not harm his ability to carry out his functions as prime minister.
Lawyers for the State Attorney’s Office told the judges they opposed Netanyahu’s request, saying that even though they understood the demands on his time, “this is a criminal trial taking place in accordance with the decision of the court.”
During another closed-door session last week, in which Netanyahu again requested to reduce the number of hearings per week, Netanyahu said Israel was in the midst of a “historic turning point” and that changing security circumstances had implications for the country’s very future.
The court has yet to make a decision on his request.
A police spokesman, in a statement, confirms the terrorist who carried out the car-ramming attack near Karkur Junction was killed.
The statement identifies the perpetrator as a 53-year-old Palestinian from Jenin, who had been residing in Israel without a permit while married to an Israeli citizen.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff has sent a letter to the Defense Ministry demanding that the findings of an IDF investigation into the October 7 attacks be shared with his boss.
“The investigations were shared with the defense minister, the IDF senior command, and journalists who were briefed,” writes Tzachi Braverman. “Amazingly, one official has yet to receive the investigations — the prime minister.”
“Proper procedure requires that these investigations also be shared with the prime minister without having to ask for it,” he writes.
An embargo on details of the investigation is set to be lifted this evening.
Israel will consider “any Palestinian who denounced terrorism and incitement” for future governance of the Gaza Strip, but will not allow any leadership with terror links to take power, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says.
At a joint press conference with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky in Jerusalem, Sa’ar says, “We don’t care about who [will rule Gaza,] we care about what will happen there, and will not repeat mistakes of the past.”
Whether Israel will withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza is undetermined, according to Sa’ar. He says, “There is no agreement on the second phase” of the ceasefire and that Israel will not leave “unconditionally.”
The foreign minister declines to speculate on the likelihood or nature of a resumption of the war in Gaza.
Sa’ar confirms that Israel is open to extending the temporary ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for more hostages if “common ground” is found during an upcoming trip by an Israeli delegation to Cairo.
As the Iranian nuclear threat grows, Sa’ar backs US President Donald Trump’s maximum pressure strategy, calling it “very important.”
Concerning Israel’s decision to vote with the US on Monday against a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sa’ar clarifies that while Israel opposes Russia’s actions, “at the same time we think a chance should be given to President Trump’s initiative to try and end this war… with peacefulness.”
Freed hostage Tal Shoham, 39, has been discharged from Beilinson Medical Center a week after his release, the hospital says.
Shoham was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7 from Kibbutz Be’eri and spent 505 days in Hamas captivity. He was released on February 22 as part of phase one of a mediated hostage release-ceasefire deal.
He was kidnapped with his wife, Adi Shoham, his daughter, Yahel, 3, and son, Naveh, 8, as well as his mother-in-law Shoshan Haran, his wife’s aunt Sharon Avigdori, and her daughter Noam, 12. They were all released on November 25, 2023.
Channel 12 now reports that contrary to previous reports, the Shin Bet now believes the attacker was a Palestinian from the northern West Bank, who was married to an Arab Israeli woman and lived in Israel for a period of time.
A suspect in Brooklyn is charged with allegedly providing material support to the ISIS terrorist group.
The US Department of Justice says Mansuri Manuchekhri, 33, facilitated more than $50,000 in payments to ISIS affiliates in Turkey and Syria.
Manuchekhri praised ISIS attacks in the US, collected jihadist propaganda videos, and illegally possessed firearms, the Justice Department says.
Manuchekhri allegedly moved to the US from Tajikistan in 2016 on a tourist visa. He remained in the US after the visa expired and paid a US citizen to hold a “sham marriage” with him to obtain legal status, but failed to get citizenship, a statement says.
He trained at shooting ranges, although he was not legally allowed to do so due to his status as an illegal alien. In 2022, he filmed himself firing an assault rifle at a New Jersey shooting range and sent the video to an ISIS member in Turkey, saying, “Praise God, I am ready, brother.”
Manuchekhri faces a maximum penalty of 45 years in prison if convicted. He is a resident of Sheepshead Bay, a neighborhood in South Brooklyn.
Police say the terrorist in the ramming attack was killed.
Medical officials now report that of the 10 victims, one person is critically hurt, while two others are seriously injured.
הפיגוע בצומת כרכור: המחבל דרס בתחנת האוטובוס, נסע עוד כמה מאות מטרים, פגע בניידת עם שוטר וחוסל https://t.co/xS3yKvGt0X pic.twitter.com/zab50FUXoN
— יענקי ניוז | Yanki News (@yankicoen) February 27, 2025
Channel 12 reports that the suspected terrorist is a 24-year-old Arab Israeli from the community of Ma’ale Iron, near Haifa.
He has no previous criminal or security record.
The number of wounded in the ramming attack has risen to 10, medics say.
A police spokesman tells Channel 12 news: “The terrorist is in police hands. He has been neutralized.”
“The car accelerated and hit a group of people at Karkur Junction. It hit a bus stop,” he says.
“From there, he tried to continue on with the car. He accelerated toward a nearby police car and hit it. The officers chased him, caught him and neutralized him.”
Eight people have been injured in a car-ramming attack at Karkur Junction, near Pardes Hanna, police say.
Five women and three women are wounded. At least one person is in critical condition, while four or five are designated as being in a moderate-to-serious state. All we rushed to a local hospital.
Police say they caught a suspect in his car shortly after the incident occurred. A police spokesman says he was “neutralized.”
Police chief Daniel Levy is en route to the site of the attack, a law enforcement spokesman says.
Australia’s 39 universities have endorsed a definition of antisemitism to be enforced on campuses, using a formulation closely aligned with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition.
The decision follows the findings of the Senate that Jewish students feel threatened by “brazen antisemitism” on the country’s campuses. Establishing a uniform definition of antisemitism “will help universities in their efforts to combat this scourge,” says Universities Australia, which represents the schools.
The IHRA definition has been adopted by hundreds of countries, universities, and other entities around the world as a tool to fight antisemitism.
Pro-Palestinian groups are protesting the decision, with the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) saying the definition “silences dissent, shields Israeli war crimes, and criminalizes Palestinian voices.”
The Universities Australia definition of antisemitism reads:
“Antisemitism is discrimination, prejudice, harassment, exclusion, vilification, intimidation or violence that impedes Jews’ ability to participate as equals in educational, political, religious, cultural, economic or social life. It can manifest in a range of ways including negative, dehumanizing, or stereotypical narratives about Jews. Further, it includes hate speech, epithets, caricatures, stereotypes, tropes, Holocaust denial, and antisemitic symbols. Targeting Jews based on their Jewish identities alone is discriminatory and antisemitic.
“Criticism of the policies and practices of the Israeli government or state is not in and of itself antisemitic. However, criticism of Israel can be antisemitic when it is grounded in harmful tropes, stereotypes or assumptions and when it calls for the elimination of the State of Israel or all Jews, or when it holds Jewish individuals or communities responsible for Israel’s actions. It can be antisemitic to make assumptions about what Jewish individuals think based only on the fact that they are Jewish.
“All peoples, including Jews, have the right to self-determination. For most, but not all Jewish Australians, Zionism is a core part of their Jewish identity. Substituting the word ‘Zionist’ for ‘Jew’ does not eliminate the possibility of speech being antisemitic.”
Two Afghan men linked to the Islamic State group have been jailed in Germany for planning an attack on the Swedish parliament in retaliation for Quran burnings by protesters.
The two suspects, identified as Ibrahim M. G. and Ramin N., allegedly tried but failed to buy guns for the plot.
They were found guilty of plotting to “kill members of parliament… in response to the burning of Qurans in Sweden,” the higher regional court in Thuringia says in a statement.
Ibrahim M. G., 30, was sentenced to five years and six months in jail, and Ramin N., 24, received a sentence of four years and two months.
The defendants, who arrived in Germany in 2015 and 2016, respectively, were Islamic State sympathizers who “shared the IS worldview and endorsed [its] violent approach,” the court says.
Police have arrested a man from Bat Yam on suspicion of setting his partner and their infant child on fire earlier today.
Paramedics say the suspect’s partner is in critical condition with severe burns, while the child sustained light injuries. They evacuated both victims to Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan.
Police say they are investigating the incident.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to draw out the first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza out of “political interest,” National Unity chairman Benny Gantz alleges, arguing that “extending the deal strengthens Hamas.”
In a video message recorded during a tour of the north, the former member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet insists that it is in Israel’s national interest “to get as many hostages as possible, as quickly as possible” and not in “trickles.”
This is both because the hostages remaining in Gaza are in danger and because “time is working in favor of Hamas, which is arming itself and rehabilitating itself militarily and politically,” he says, appealing to Netanyahu to “stop dragging it out.”
“Bringing everyone home will allow us to deal with Hamas without our hands tied,” he asserts.
According to Hebrew media reports, the prime minister wants to extend the current first phase of the deal beyond the designated 42 days, which is set to end on March 1, and secure the freedom of more hostages as part of phase one, including more hostages Israel now knows are in poor health.
In response to a question from The Times of Israel on whether the delegation heading to Cairo will discuss moving to a second phase, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says that “our delegation will go to Cairo and see whether we have common ground to negotiate.”
“We said we are ready to extend the framework [of phase one] in return for the release of more hostages,” Sa’ar says at a press conference in Jerusalem after meeting with his Czech counterpart Jan Lipavsky. “If it is possible, we’ll do that. It will be better to speak at length about it after the return of the delegation from Cairo.”
According to Channel 12, the decision to send the delegation comes after two meetings today with senior security officials, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Foreign Minister Sa’ar and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri.
In his speech to regional council heads, Defense Minister Israel Katz says that “even during the ceasefire, we’ve received intelligence that Hamas is plotting attacks on soldiers and communities. That’s Hamas.”
Hamas, in response, rejects the allegation, saying it is “untrue” and was made “to evade the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.”
It adds that Israel’s statement that the Philadelphi Corridor will not be evacuated “is a clear violation of the agreement.”
Katz also says that West Bank settlements are “the protective wall of most of the population in the State of Israel; we need to ensure that we also protect the protector.”
He adds, “For me, Judea and Samaria and the seamline settlements are the same — because we discovered that Hamas planned to attack before October 7, both in the Samaria settlements and in the seamline area, and I am talking about documents that were seized on this matter. We consider this a serious threat.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sending a negotiating team to Cairo “for continued talks,” the Prime Minister’s Office says.
The PMO does not indicate if they will be discussing the second phase of a hostage deal with Hamas.
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Environmental Protection Ministry eulogize Ohad Yahalomi, an employee of the former, after his body was identified as one of four slain hostages released overnight by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
Yahalomi, 50 at the time of his death, supervised the Judean Desert for the nature authority from 2006 to 2013, going on to additional positions until he joined the Green Patrol as director of the Southern Region in 2019. The patrol enforces environmental laws.
Flags of the Nature and Parks Authority have been lowered at all sites in memory of Yahalomi.
“The pain is deep,” a statement from the INPA says, “but Ohad will not be forgotten. His legacy will live on through the paths and landscapes where he worked, through everyone who knew him and learned from him.”
The organization says Yahalomi was “a role model for us; a man who dedicated his energy and experience to preserving nature in Israel,” who was much loved by the authority’s staff and the wider community.
It says the Yahalomi family is “part of the Nature and Parks Authority” and pledges that the authority will continue to help and support it.
A statement from the environmental protection minister, ministry director-general and staff says, “His legacy will continue to accompany us all, and we will continue to work for the country he loved so much.”
In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issues condolences to the families of the four slain Israeli hostages whose bodies were returned to Israel overnight.
“All of Israel embraces you and shares your sorrow,” he says.
Netanyahu pledges that “we will continue to work tirelessly until we bring everyone back.”
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman expresses sharp criticism of outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and head of the Shin Bet Ronen Bar for what he says are their ongoing efforts to block his investigation into the “core failure” before and during the October 7 Hamas invasion and atrocities.
“For many months now, our offices have been conducting reviews of the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Security Council, the military secretariat,” Englman says during a speech at a conference of the Association of Treasurers.
“Defense ministers have also cooperated,” he adds, referring to former minister Yoav Gallant and current minister Israel Katz. “Having said that, without the full cooperation of the IDF and the Shin Bet it will not be possible to carry out a full review.”
He alleged that “the [IDF] chief of staff and the head of the Shin Bet have been blocking a review of the core failure for a year and a half now.” He calls on the attorney general to order “all parties” to cooperate with his investigation “in accordance with Basic Law: The State Comptroller.”
Englman has repeatedly criticized the army and the Shin Bet for failing to cooperate with his investigation. In January this year, he accused the military of “intimidating” senior officers into giving testimony to his staff, which he said was part of the IDF’s efforts to stop “the truth from being disclosed.”
Defense officials have previously argued that the comptroller’s investigation should wait until the conflict ends, as it would divert the attention of commanders and top officials away from the fighting and thus harm the war effort.
Critics of the government, including members of the opposition and several government watchdog groups, have expressed concern that the probe by Englman, who has no legal background and was appointed to his position under a Netanyahu-led government, could seek to minimize political responsibility for the devastating October 7 onslaught.
Defense Minister Israel Katz says phase one of the ceasefire “is complete” and that Israel seeks to bring back more hostages from Gaza.
“We have returned 25 hostages alive, including female soldiers. This was not the case in earlier negotiations, where the numbers discussed were 10 or 12. We also brought back eight deceased people. We aim to bring them all back,” he says at a conference of regional council heads.
He asserts that “the most effective way to ensure this is for Hamas to know that the IDF is ready to return to war. That is the truth.” Katz says Israel did not agree to a ceasefire in Gaza because of a shortage of ammunition or soldier fatigue. We agreed to a ceasefire for one reason only — to bring back the hostages, both alive and deceased. That is our top priority, our moral obligation, and our mutual responsibility, and we will continue to act accordingly.”
But he stresses that Hamas “will not remain in control of Gaza, neither civilly nor militarily. This will not happen because it cannot happen.”
He adds that if Trump’s plan to encourage Palestinian emigration materializes, “I am rapidly advancing the establishment of a voluntary immigration administration to allow those who wish to leave Gaza to do so via Ashdod Port or Ramon Airport.”
After the body of his brother, hostage Itzik Elgarat was returned to Israel early Thursday morning, Danny Elgarat talks about his deep sense of anger and frustration toward the government and the public.
In a statement published in the Haaretz daily, Elgarat calls for a public awakening, for real civil resistance, and not just symbolic protests
He says the public could have saved lives had they acted earlier, criticizing citizens for emerging to the streets to pay their respects to those murdered, as witnessed on Wednesday, ahead of the Bibas funeral, instead of engaging in an ongoing struggle for change.
Itzik Elgarat, 69, who was murdered in captivity, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he lived next door to the Bibas family.
Another hostage family member, Yishai Lavi-Miran, whose husband Omri Miran is still held hostage, says that he was taken on October 7, 2023 with their neighbor, Tsahi Idan, whose body was returned to Israel early Thursday morning.
“I so hoped for a different ending,” she says. “An ending where both families would sit together again, with Tsahi and Omri, talking. We know Omri is alive, I can feel it, but everything is fragile.”
Lavi-Miran says that [most] of the four hostages whose bodies were returned Thursday could have been rescued if a deal had been made in time.
Omri Miran, 48, is now the oldest living hostage still held by Hamas and with two young daughters at home, ages 2 and 3, says Lavi-Miran.
“The only picture I see in my mind is Omri blowing out the candles with Alma on his birthday,” which falls in April, says Lavi-Miran, adding that she senses no movement toward phase 2 of the hostage deal. “We cannot have another birthday without a father. We must not stop. There are still 24 hostages alive, and there are fallen ones who must also be brought back.”
She adds, “I truly, truly hope that in the coming days, we will receive news that the releases are continuing, that phase 2 is moving forward, that everyone is coming home, and that we will know exactly when the last hostage is returning. For us, for our children, for the future generation of Israel—so that our children can rebuild what our generation has destroyed.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid denounces Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for engaging in “shameful politics” over a report that the pair had offered the coalition’s Haredi parties concessions on the 2025 state budget in order to secure their agreement for the postponement of the passage of a law exempting yeshiva students from military service.
“Now Netanyahu and Smotrich have a new offer for the Haredim: Agree to postpone the evasion law and you will receive money, lots of money, under the table. How much money? Billions,” Lapid tweets, citing a report by the ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Hai.
According to the report, Netanyahu and Smotrich offered the Haredi parties a 15 percent increase in the budgets of ultra-Orthodox school networks, as well as funding for kindergarten teachers, under the government’s Ofek Hadash (New Horizon) plan.
The Haredim have long sought to become part of the program, which funds work in small groups between teachers and pupils and bumps up teacher salaries, among other initiatives. However, the program is currently restricted to state schools and not does not apply to independent Haredi schools, which do not teach secular subjects.
“Quite a few of the kindergartens are owned by the Goldknopf family,” Lapid tweets. “There is no limit to the corruption. They will be showered with the exact same money that could have been used to lower taxes for the middle class [whose members] serve and work.”
On Wednesday, United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf was quoted in the Haredi daily Hamodia as saying that “either they put off the conscription bill and we go to summer elections, or they insist on the conscription bill before the budget and the government completes its term.”
The Kremlin rules out any negotiation over the status of five Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed, despite not fully controlling four of them.
“The territories which have become subjects of the Russian Federation, which are inscribed in our country’s constitution, are an inseparable part of our country. This is undeniable and non-negotiable,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tells reporters.
Cyprus failed in its legal duty to investigate a British woman’s allegation in 2019 that she had been gang-raped by Israeli tourists on the holiday island, the European Court of Human Rights said on Thursday.
The woman, who was 18 at the time and is identified in court documents as “X,” reported being raped by Israeli youths in July 2019 in the resort of Ayia Napa.
However, after hours of police interrogation without legal representation, she retracted her statement — which she later said she had done under duress. She was charged with “public mischief” and handed a suspended jail sentence.
In its ruling, the ECHR agreed with “X” that Cyprus had breached its obligations to effectively investigate and prosecute her allegations.
After her retraction, the youths were released from detention and returned home without facing further legal action. Some said they had had consensual sex with “X,” and all denied rape.
In January 2022, Cyprus’s Supreme Court overturned the woman’s conviction, upholding her assertion that she had retracted her allegation under pressure, casting a harsh light on Cypriot practices in investigating sexual abuse.
Despite that ruling, Cyprus’s attorney general declined to reopen an investigation into her original complaint, her lawyers said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says that he wants to “do a deal” with US President Donald Trump to resolve a dispute over his country’s land policy and genocide case against Israel at the World Court.
Trump cut US financial assistance to South Africa in an executive order this month, citing disapproval of its approach to land reform and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against Washington’s close ally.
Ramaphosa tells a conference organized by US bank Goldman Sachs in Johannesburg that he wanted the “dust to settle” after the executive order, but that the longer-term goal was to go to Washington to mend relations.
“We don’t want to go and explain ourselves. We want to go and do a meaningful deal with the United States on a whole range of issues,” Ramaphosa says. “I’m very positively inclined to promote a good relationship with President Trump.”
Ramaphosa does not say what the deal could involve, only that it could touch on trade, diplomatic, and political matters.
South Africa is not hugely dependent on US aid, but some fear that its preferential trade status under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) could be under threat with Trump in the White House.
The country tries to project itself as non-aligned in geopolitical conflicts, not tying its interests too closely to those of rival powers the United States, China, and Russia.
But Trump has cited the ICJ case as an example of South Africa taking positions against Washington and its allies.
The ultra-Orthodox draft crisis could escalate to the point where Haredim face a “struggle for existence” in Israel, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) says, in a recording aired by Radio Kol Hai.
“We have never been in such a difficult situation here in Israel,” Porush states, arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are being prevented by the High Court of Justice from “accepting the right law” on yeshiva students’ exemptions from military service.
“I did not come to speak badly about the land of Israel or about those who are at the head of the state. I’m telling you this because we don’t know where it will develop, but I think it could also develop into a real struggle for our existence here in Israel. Something like that could happen. If we reach a point where, God forbid, they want to arrest young men who are sitting and studying, removing them from their homes, removing them from the yeshivas,” he continues.
And while international travel restrictions on draft dodgers can be tolerated, arrests will lead to “a struggle for existence,” he emphasizes. “I don’t want to use a harsher term than struggle.”
Kol Hai broadcast Porush’s comments only a day after United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf was quoted in the Hamodia daily as saying that “either they put off the conscription bill and we go to summer elections, or they insist on the conscription bill before the budget and the government completes its term.”
Earlier this month, The Times of Israel reported that a hotline established by Porush was advising Haredim who had received enlistment orders not to report to the IDF.
חשיפה במהדורת סופ"ש ב-@newskolhai
הקלטה של השר מאיר פרוש באמירה חריפה על חוק הגיוס: "אנחנו הולכים למאבק על הקיום שלנו פה בארץ. ייעצרו בחורים מהבתים, מהישיבות" pic.twitter.com/R9dxu7d7vk
— מרדכי הלפרין (@MHlpryn) February 27, 2025
Last night, the IDF informed the families of Ohad Yahalomi, Tzahi Idan, Shlomo Mantzur, and Itzik Elgarat that their loved ones had been murdered, and that their remains were returned to Israel, says the Prime Minister’s Office.
The forensic identification process was carried out by the Health Ministry’s National Forensic Medicine Center, along with the police.
Yahalomi, Idan, and Elgarat were murdered while hostages in Gaza, says the PMO, and Mantzur was killed on October 7, 2023, with his body taken and held in Gaza, according to the PMO.
An Israeli official has sent a statement to Israeli reporters on condition of anonymity stating that Jerusalem will not withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, despite the hostage-ceasefire deal’s requirement for the IDF to depart the Egypt-Gaza border stretch at the end of the first phase.
“We will not leave the Philadelphi Corridor. We will not allow the Hamas murderers to again roam our borders with pickup trucks and guns, and we will not allow them to rearm through smuggling,” the Israeli official says, maintaining that Hamas had been using the route to sneak weapons into Gaza.
In July, when Israel’s hostage negotiating team believed that it was on the verge of a hostage deal with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added new conditions aimed at maintaining Israel’s presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, thereby scuttling the talks, Israeli and Arab officials have told The Times of Israel.
Ultimately, though, the deal Netanyahu accepted six months later still requires Israel to begin completing its withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor on the 42nd day of phase one — this coming Saturday — and to finish that pull-out by the 50th day of the ceasefire (March 9).
The Israeli official’s announcement comes shortly after Israeli authorities finished identifying the last four bodies of hostages released in phase one.
Yet another Israeli citizen was arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran, say police and Shin Bet spokespeople in a joint statement today.
Prosecutors plan to indict Petah Tikvah resident Daniel Kitov this morning in the Lod District Court on the charge of contacting a foreign agent.
Security forces arrested the 26-year-old earlier this month for allegedly spray-painting several areas in Petah Tikvah and Rosh HaAyin at the behest of an Iranian handler. Police say Kitov carried out these acts of vandalism for money.
The Iranian agent also asked Kitov to photograph military bases and the home of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, however he never acted on these suggestions. Kitov himself offered to photograph the home of MK Benny Gantz, but did not follow through with this either.
Police note that Iranian agents have ramped up their efforts on social media platforms to recruit ordinary Israeli citizens as spies, promising them money to carry out missions. In most of these cases, the suspects began by carrying out small, innocuous tasks, which gradually grew into more serious offenses, like intelligence gathering and assassination plots.
Last December, the police arrested nearly 30 Israelis, mostly Jewish citizens, for espionage activities on behalf of Iran.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to a special EU meeting on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and European security on March 6, European Council President Antonio Costa says.
Saying there was a “new momentum which should lead to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine, Costa said the meeting would discuss possible European security guarantees for any accord.
Meanwhile, Russian and US officials have begun talks in Istanbul on resolving diplomatic issues as the two countries aim to restore ties, Russian news agencies reported.
The talks are being held at the US consul general’s residence in Istanbul and come after this month’s first high-level meeting between the two powers since the start of Russia’s Ukraine offensive.
Shas MK Avraham Betzalel appears to dismiss threats by fellow ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism to bring down the government in the event that a bill largely exempting yeshiva students from military service is not passed before the 2025 state budget.
“There is no holy date for the conscription law. On the other hand, if the budget is not passed by the end of March, there will be no government. I think that a budget and a conscription law should be passed, without tying them together,” Betzalel tells Radio Kol Hai.
Betzalel’s comments came a day after UTJ chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf was quoted in the Haredi daily Hamodia as saying that “either they put off the conscription bill and we go to summer elections, or they insist on the conscription bill before the budget and the government completes its term.”
Asked if Shas would agree to wait until after the budget is passed next month to pass the exemption legislation, Betzalel replies that within his party, “we don’t see this as a ‘postponement,’ even though it was agreed upon in the coalition agreements as the first thing. I believe that a law will be drafted in the near future.”
“We don’t think that if the budget is passed before conscription, it is [terrible],” he adds.
In January, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri warned Netanyahu that he had two months to resolve the status of yeshiva students or “we’ll go to elections.” However, the following day, a party spokesman told Channel 12 that his party would “not topple the right-wing government” and that there was “no threat and no ultimatum.”
Appearing to openly break with his party’s official stance earlier this week, Interior Minister Moshe Arbel declared that Haredi Jews should serve in the Israeli armed forces.
Addressing a conference organized by the right-wing Israel National News outlet on Monday, Arbel said that “it is possible and necessary to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, to remain Haredi even after the conclusion of service. This is the mission of the IDF and this is the mission of the State of Israel.”
President Isaac Herzog says that the hearts of Israelis ache “upon receiving the bitter news of the identification of Ohad Yahalomi, Tsachi Idan, Itzik Elgarat, and Shlomo Mantzur.”
He writes on X that there is “some solace” knowing they will be buried with dignity in Israel.
He says the return of the slain hostages “underscores our moral obligation to do everything in our power to bring back all the hostages.”
“They are all humanitarian cases, and they must all be returned,” he writes.
With the identification of all four hostages’ bodies, Israel has received all 33 hostages that were to be handed over in the first phase of the ceasefire deal. Twenty-five returned alive, while eight were deceased.
Any future hostage releases will depend on reaching further understandings with Hamas, upon either entering a second phase or extending the current one.
Tsahi Idan’s family now says he too has been identified, as the fourth body returned from Gaza.
Idan, 49 at the time of his kidnapping, was taken captive by Hamas terrorists from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, after his oldest daughter, Maayan, 18, was shot and killed through the safe room door.
The terrorists held Tsahi, wife, Gali, and their two other children hostage in the house for some time before grabbing Tsahi and dragging him to Gaza.
The attack on the family’s home was filmed by the terrorists using Gali’s phone and livestreamed by them to her Facebook account, as the weeping children were seen asking about their dead sister and whether they too would be killed.
Gali and the two children survived.
“The unbearable journey of our family to bring back our beloved and precious Tsahi from the hell of Gaza has come to an end,” the family says.
“Tsahi was abducted while on his feet, and we received several signs of life from him,” it says. “As of the November 2023 deal, he was still alive and was expected to be released.”
“Tsahi will be laid to rest alongside his beloved daughter, Maayan, who was murdered on October 7 while trying to help her father protect the shelter door.”
After the identification of the body of Franco-Israeli hostage Ohad Yahalomi, French President Emmanuel Macron says in a post on X that “the barbaric acts of Hamas must end.”
“I share the immense pain of his family and loved ones,” he writes. “France lost 50 of its children in the infamy of October 7.”
Le décès de notre compatriote Ohad Yahalomi vient d’être confirmé. Je partage la douleur immense de sa famille et de ses proches.
La France a perdu cinquante de ses enfants dans l’infamie du 7 octobre. La barbarie du Hamas doit prendre fin. pic.twitter.com/shMmwNh0Zh
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 27, 2025
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum says Shlomo Mantzur’s body has been identified following its return from Gaza overnight.
Mantzur, 85, was abducted from Kibbutz Kissufim on October 7, 2023.
“Shlomo is brought home after 510 days,” it says.
“Shlomo was born in 1938, and survived the Farhud pogrom in Iraq. He immigrated to Israel in 1951 and was one of the founders of Kibbutz Kissufim.”
The Forum says Mantzur “was an energetic and cheerful man dedicated to giving, a polymath with a strong work ethic.”
It “bows its head in sorrow over the murder of Shlomo and shares in the profound grief of the Mantzur family. There are no words to express the depth of this pain.”
Kibbutz Nir Oz is now announcing that hostage Ohad Yahalomi was murdered in captivity, after his body was returned from Gaza overnight.
“Ohad, who was 50 at the time of his death, was a devoted and loving family man. He was a passionate sportsman and an avid traveler, intimately familiar with every trail and path in the desert he so dearly loved,” it says.
“For years, he worked at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, dedicating his life to the preservation of nature. Out of his deep love for the desert, he co-authored a scorpion field guide with partners and was involved in educational initiatives within the Bedouin community.
Ohad is survived by his wife and three young children.
“We will always remember him as a man of values, filled with compassion, a lover of people and the land. May his memory be a blessing.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters who pushed their way into Barnard College’s Milbank Hall, which houses the offices of the dean, and assaulted a school employee, have departed, according to the school.
The protesters left Milbank Hall in the night “without further incident,” Barnard President Laura Rosenbury says in a statement.
“But let us be clear: Their disregard for the safety of our community remains completely unacceptable,” she says.
The school had warned that if the students were not gone by 9:30 p.m. officials could be forced to take “additional, necessary measures to protect our campus.”
The student group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine said on the social platform X that protesters dispersed after the administration agreed to meet with them this afternoon.
The demonstrators demanded amnesty for all students disciplined for pro-Palestine action; a meeting with Rosenbury and Dean Leslie Grinage; and reversal of the expulsion of two students, according to the group.
“WE WILL NOT STOP UNTIL OUR DEMANDS ARE MET. FREE PALESTINE,” it posted on X earlier in the day.
After the transfer of four hostages’ bodies to Israel from Gaza, Kibbutz Nir Oz announces that Itzik Elgarat was murdered in captivity, apparently based on information from the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.
The kibbutz expresses “deep pain and sorrow.” It says Elgarat, who was abducted at 68, “came to Nir Oz following his brother and became a beloved figure in the community. For years, he served the kibbutz with dedication as a groundskeeper and was responsible for plumbing, gas, and steam maintenance.
“He was an integral part of the social fabric, loved spending time at the local pub, hosting friends, and connecting different generations. His great love for soccer and backgammon was well known, and he shone in local games, always with a smile and a warm spirit.”
He is survived by two children, a brother and two sisters.
“We will remember him for his laughter, his big heart, and his willingness to always be there for anyone in need.”
Hamas says in a statement that the only way the remaining hostages will be freed is through commitment to the ceasefire deal.
The terror group abides by the Gaza ceasefire agreement and is ready to start talks on a second phase, the statement adds.
“We imposed the synchronization of the process of handing over the bodies of the enemy prisoners with the release of our heroic prisoners,” the statement posted to Telegram continues, adding: “It [Israel] has no choice but to start negotiations for the second phase.”
Ninety-seven Palestinian prisoners have been handed over to Egypt, a Hamas source and Egyptian media say early Thursday.
Egypt will be their first destination until some other countries may welcome them.
Palestinian medics quoted by Reuters say that Israel has sent the body of an unidentified Gazan woman that Hamas handed over in place of slain hostage Shiri Bibas to a hospital in the Gaza Strip, following the return of Bibas’s remains over the weekend.
Police announce they are escorting the bodies of what Hamas says are four slain Israeli hostages to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, where their identifies will be confirmed after undergoing initial forensic examinations at the Kerem Shalom Crossing.
Earlier, groups of demonstrators gathered at a pair of junctions near the Gaza Strip to pay their respects to the slain hostages.
The IDF has received from the Red Cross the coffins of what Hamas has said are the bodies of four slain Israeli hostages, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The bodies were handed over at the Kerem Shalom Crossing with “Egyptian mediation,” says the PMO.
Israel is now carrying out its initial forensic investigation.
The families of the four hostages are being updated constantly and will receive official notifications once identifications are made.
Anti-Israel protesters at Barnard College, an affiliate of New York’s Columbia University, invade a campus building to protest the expulsion of two students who disrupted an Israeli professor’s class at the start of the semester.
The protesters share footage showing dozens of activists, mostly masked by keffiyehs, chanting and beating a drum in a hallway beneath several Palestinian flags.
The demonstrators chant, “Every fascist state must fall,” and “Palestine is Arab,” according to the footage.
BREAKING: 50+ COLUMBIA STUDENTS FLOOD ADMIN OFFICE OF BARNARD COLLEGE DEMANDING
1. Immediate reversal of the two Barnard students’ expulsions.
2. Amnesty for all students disciplined for pro-Palestine action or thought. Drop all the charges now!
3. A public meeting with Dean… pic.twitter.com/QKSBQ6jIUg— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) February 26, 2025
The students say they are outside the college dean’s office.
The campus coalition Columbia University Apartheid Divest, led by Columbia’s branches of Students for Justice in Palestine and the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace, says in a statement that students are staging an “emergency sit-in” outside the dean’s office.
The group demands that the university reverse the expulsions, give amnesty to all students disciplined for anti-Israel protests, grant the activists a meeting with Barnard leadership, and abolish the college’s disciplinary system.
“When two students are expelled, hundreds more rise up,” the statement said. “The repression cannot stand! We will not rest until full amnesty.”
The protest group tells participants to wear a mask and avoid swiping their university ID.
Unity of Fields, an off-campus activist group, posts footage of activists shoving their way into a building and chanting “intifada revolution” and “free Palestine.”
BREAKING 🔻LONG LIVE HIND’S HALL! EVERY FASCIST STATE WILL FALL!
Students at Columbia University storm a building and sit-in to demand that the expulsions of the two Barnard Students are reversed. They’re calling for amnesty for all students disciplined during the Student… pic.twitter.com/bPThRuYsuI
— Unity of Fields (@unityoffields) February 26, 2025
Jewish students post online that they have been blocked from entering the building and attending classes.
The Columbia says in a statement that “the disruption of academic activities is not acceptable conduct.”
“Barnard College is a separate institution from Columbia University, although it is affiliated. Columbia is not responsible for security on Barnard’s campus. The disruption that is taking place at Barnard’s Milbank Hall is not on Columbia’s campus, and Barnard’s leadership and security team are addressing the current situation,” the statement says.
Anti-Israel protesters forcibly occupied a building on the Columbia campus last year, leading to a police raid to clear them out and dozens of arrests.
Freed Palestinian prisoners being released into the West Bank are greeted by masses of celebrants upon their arrival at Ramallah Cultural Palace.
Dressed in keffiyehs and jackets to conceal their prison uniforms, the ex-detainees are carried by the crowd once they exit the bus.
Arabic outlets report that a total of 37 Palestinians were freed into the West Bank, while five returned to their homes in East Jerusalem.
Of the 151 security prisoners to be freed tonight, 97 are slated for deportation, while another 12 will be released into Gaza, according to lists distributed by Palestinian prisoners’ organizations.
Another 467 Palestinians detained after October 7 will also return to Gaza, including 23 minors and one woman.
A Red Cross bus escorting Palestinian security prisoners leaves Ofer Prison and heads towards Beitunia checkpoint near Ramallah, where they will be released.
Hundreds of Palestinians are gathering at the Ramallah Cultural Palace to receive the freed prisoners.
Arabic media outlets report that prisoners slated for release into Jerusalem are being escorted to their homes in the city, from the Russian Compound detention center.
The four slain hostages have been transferred to the Red Cross, says an Israeli security official, citing information received from the humanitarian organization.
The coffins are on their way to Israeli forces at the Kerem Shalon crossing, says the official.
Israel is expected to carry out its forensic identification of the bodies near the border to determine whether Hamas has returned the hostages it is required to, a prerequisite for Israel releasing over 600 Palestinian prisoners.
Red Cross personnel in Gaza are preparing to receive hundreds of Palestinian prisoners slated to be released overnight into the enclave, in exchange for the bodies of four Israeli hostages, Arabic outlets report.
Over 400 prisoners are expected to be released into the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas’s prisoners’ media office, most of whom were detained post-October 7.
Meanwhile in the West Bank, Israeli security forces are attempting to suppress celebrations surrounding the release near Ofer Prison, where 151 security prisoners are expected to go free.
Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reports that security forces project a message reading “Our eyes are on you” onto one of the buildings overlooking the prison. Army vehicles accompanied by a bulldozer are stationed on the perimeter of the facility.
המסר שהוקרן על אחד הבניינים שמשקיפים על כלא עופר: "העיניים שלנו צופות בכם" | תיעוד@OmerShahar123
צילום: מתוך שידור חי של AP pic.twitter.com/JxpK1ZmjEd— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 26, 2025
