March 11: FM Katz demands UN Security Council declare Hamas a terror organization

Reports: Several casualties in Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s Baalbek

The Hezbollah-linked al-Manar news website reports that there are several casualties in an alleged Israeli attack in the Baalbek region of Lebanon, a Hezbollah bastion bordering Syria.

Two security sources and the Baalbek governor, Bashir Khader, tell Reuters that at least one civilian was killed and several others injure.

One of the strikes hit the southern entrance to the city of Baalbek, at least two kilometers from Roman ruins, the security sources say.

The three other strikes hit near the city of Taraya, 20 kilometers west of Baalbek, they add.

A security source tells AFP that the alleged Israeli strike deep inside Lebanon “targeted a former Hezbollah building near Dar Al Amal Hospital.”

The source adds that Israel “conducted another raid on a warehouse west of Baalbek.”

Another security official confirms the strikes. There is no comment from the Israel Defense Forces.

Katz demands Security Council blacklist Hamas

Foreign Minister Israel Katz attends a United Nations Security Council meeting about the conflict in the Middle East at UN headquarters in New York on March 11, 2024. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)

Addressing the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Israel Katz asks the 15 members to declare Hamas a terrorist organization and to pressure the group to release all hostages.

“Hamas must be declared a terrorist organization and face the most heavy sanctions possible,” Katz says.

He demands that the UNSC “put as much pressure as possible on the Hamas organization to release immediately and unconditionally all the kidnapped hostages.”

“Please try your utmost to stop this living hell on earth,” Katz implores, adding that the countries on the council have the opportunity to save 134 innocent people.

Israel has told the families of the hostages, some of whom have joined Katz in New York, that 31 of the hostages are dead.

Katz calls out the UN for being “silent on Hamas actions.”

“During the last five months and 41 sessions the UN convened since October 7th, the UN never condemned nor disapproved these Hamas brutal crimes,” he says.

Blessing Muslims with “Ramadan Kareem” at the start of Ramadan, Katz says that “Hamas is not speaking on behalf of the Muslim world, and we are asking you to condemn the sexual violence crimes these barbarians committed in the name of the Muslim religion.”

Katz also thanks the US, France, and the UK for calling the emergency session, and to Japan, Security Council president, for allowing the meeting.

At UN, Palestinian ambassador castigates Israel, denounces sexual violence

Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour repeatedly castigates Israel throughout his speech at a Security Council session on sexual violence perpetrated on and after October 7. However, he condemns sexual violence against civilians in general.

“We once again reiterate that nothing can justify violence targeting civilians, including sexual violence — one of the most abhorrent forms of violence,” Mansour says.

He also bemoans the fact that the UN has never held a similar session on allegations of Israeli sexual violence against Palestinians.

US-UK coalition strikes targets in Yemen, Houthis say

Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah and other western coastal areas have been hit by at least 17 airstrikes attributed to a US-British coalition defending ships in the Red Sea, according to Al Masirah, the main Houthi-run television news outlet.

Al Masirah does not specify which targets, if any, are hit, but says four of the strikes had been on the port of Ras Issa.

Despite reprisals from the US-British coalition and other navies, the Houthis have escalated their campaign of attacks on commercial vessels in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, which they say is in solidarity with the Palestinians under attack in Gaza in Israel’s war with Hamas.

US envoy: Don’t conflate Israeli abuse of detainees and Oct. 7 sexual violence

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield addresses the Security Council on March 11, 2024. (Screen capture)

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield says the UN report now being discussed by the Security Council “confirms what we have known for months: On October 7th, Hamas carried out horrific acts of conflict-related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape.”

“And yet, so many people around the world — including members of this very council — have been silent in the face of these atrocities,” Thomas-Greenfield states. “Worse — some openly viewed these atrocities with suspicion and skepticism. It is unforgivable, and it is a gross affront to all survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.”

While just about all members have individually condemned the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas-led terrorists, some members have blocked the Security Council from issuing a joint statement condemning the phenomenon. The US envoy urges the body to take this step.

Thomas-Greenfield also quotes the report’s findings regarding “‘the detention of Palestinian men and women has been compounded by alleged instances of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including increased instances of various forms of sexual violence.'”

“All parties to this conflict must uphold their obligations under international law with regard to the treatment of detained individuals, and we urge and expect Israel to end these abuses,” the US envoy adds.

However, she cautions members against “drawing a false equivalency between these actions and hostage-taking by a foreign terrorist organization. These two things are not the same.”

Thomas-Greenfield calls for the implementation of a six-week ceasefire currently on the table, adding that Israel has accepted the framework and that it is up to Hamas to do the same.

Alleged Israeli strike reported deep inside Lebanon

Lebanese media outlets are reporting an alleged Israeli airstrike in northeastern Lebanon’s Baalbek, some 100 kilometers (some 62 miles) from Israel’s border.

The reports say the strike takes place close to Dar al-Amal Hospital, in Baalbek’s suburbs.

Images posted to social media appear to show smoke rising from the targeted site.

غارة معا دية في بعلبك pic.twitter.com/Mo5mbhOtX7

— مصدر مسؤول (@fouadkhreiss) March 11, 2024

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

The IDF previously struck in Baalbek last month, after Hezbollah downed a military drone over Lebanon. At the time, it marked the deepest confirmed Israeli strikes in Lebanon in years.

Russia at UN tries to poke holes in report on Hamas-led sexual violence

Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Maria Zabolotskaya addresses the Security Council on March 11, 2024. (Screen capture)

Russia attempts to cast doubt on a UN report confirming allegations of sexual violence committed by Hamas-led terrorists on and after October 7.

Addressing a Security Council session on the report, Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Maria Zabolotskaya says, “We are being presented with only partial information from the context of a specific mandate and being asked to respond to it.”

The Russian envoy also seeks to delegitimize the UN envoy who compiled the report over her alleged history of “using fakes” — a reference to Pramila Patten’s work exposing war crimes perpetrated by Russia against Ukraine.

“At the same time, the information in the report on rapes as well as the mission’s conclusions as to the likelihood of further sexual violence against the hostages is shocking. Sexual violence against Israelis has no justification. Those guilty must be held accountable,” Zabolotskaya says.

The Russian diplomat also highlights the UN envoy’s declaration in her report that she was unable to confirm Israeli press reports of brutal sexual violence in Kibbutz Be’eri and in the Nahal Oz military base.

Zabolotskaya blasts Israel over sections of the report highlighting sexual violence perpetrated by Israeli security forces against Palestinians in the form of threats of rape, strip searches, and beating of the genitals, which the UN and human rights groups say have been systematic for decades.

US threat assessment says Hamas not going away, but Netanyahu might be

(L-R) Defense Intelligence Agency Director Jeffrey Kruse, FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director William Burns, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, US Air Force Lieutenant General Timothy Haugh and Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research Brett Holmgren testify before the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on March 11, 2024. (SAUL LOEB / AFP)

An annual threat assessment published by Washington compiling US intelligence says Israel will be challenged by Hamas for years to come and warns continuing Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping and on Israel “create a real risk of broader escalation.”

“Israel probably will face lingering armed resistance from Hamas for years to come, and the military will struggle to neutralize Hamas’s underground infrastructure, which allows insurgents to hide, regain strength, and surprise Israeli forces,” the assessment reads.

The report, published as intelligence chiefs testify to the Senate about it, notes that the US believes “that Iranian leaders did not orchestrate nor had foreknowledge of the Hamas attack against Israel” on October 7, and finds that both Israel and Iran are attempting to avoid all out war, though conflict against Hezbollah could escalate.

“Hezbollah is calibrating this pressure on Israel from the north while trying to avoid a broader war that would devastate Hezbollah and Lebanon. Hezbollah’s leadership, though, probably will consider a range of retaliatory options depending on Israel’s actions in Lebanon during the upcoming year,” the report reads.

It also highlights domestic pressures faced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, predicting that his government’s viability “may be in jeopardy.”

“Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections. A different, more moderate government is a possibility,” the assessment reads.

Al-Qaeda, ISIS inspired by Hamas to target Israelis and Americans, US intel czar testifies

US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines says terror groups al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are targeting Israelis, galvanized by Hamas and Israel’s war on the Gazan terror organization.

“While it is too early to tell, both al-Qaeda and ISIS, inspired by Hamas, have directed supporters to conduct attacks against Israeli and US interests,” Haines testifies to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. “And we have seen how it is inspiring individuals to conduct acts of antisemitism and Islamophobic terror worldwide.”

She says that “it is likely that the Gaza conflict will have a generational impact on terrorism.”

“The crisis in Gaza is a stark example of how regional developments have the potential of broader and even global implications,” Haines says.

Israel will have security control over sea route into Gaza, won’t cap aid, official says

Aid packages are seen at left, on a platform near a docked ship belonging to the Open Arms aid group, center front, as it prepares to ferry some 200 tons of rice and flour directly to Gaza, at the port in Larnaca, Cyprus, March 11, 2024. (AP/ Petros Karadjias)

Israel has been working on bringing in aid to Gaza from Cyprus by ship for three months, a senior Israeli official tells The Times of Israel, as a vessel meant to inaugurate the sea route waits to set sail from Larnaca.

The official says that Israel understood that it needs international legitimacy to prosecute the campaign against Hamas, and that “international legitimacy is mainly the humanitarian issue.”

Sea routes were an attractive option, because it allows aid to be delivered to Gaza without requiring land crossings from Israel, severing links to the Strip.

“There was one condition – that everything is inspected, supervised, that we control it,” says the official. “That we can say from a security perspective, all sorts of things that we don’t want are not coming in.”

Representatives from the Foreign Ministry and COGAT flew to Larnaca to examine the port and work out with Cyprus how exactly the shipments would be secured.

“We were in touch with several countries that wanted to do this, in our neighborhood, the US, also Gulf states,” says the official.

The cargo will be examined by the Shin Bet and Israeli customs officials in Larnaca, then will sail for Gaza. For now, the ships will dock at a temporary pier being built south of Gaza City by the World Central Kitchen.

The WCK will unload the cargo, place it in temporary storage facilities it is building, and then will send it to Gazan civilians.

The IDF will have troops at a remove from the WKC facility, to ensure there are no attacks on the aid workers, or looting of the goods.

The aid convoys will initially go to northern Gaza to make sure the mechanism works, then will also reach the south as the operation begins running more smoothly.

Most aid currently gets in the south via land crossings at Kerem Shalom and the Rafah gateway into Egypt, but the official says use of those crossings will be constricted once fighting begins in Rafah. That means Israel will need to open crossings directly into the northern Gaza Strip, says the official.

Egyptian trucks carrying humanitarian aid undergo security checks at the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing before entering the southern Gaza Strip, on January 22, 2024. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

The IDF is not organizing its own convoys, the official stressed, because it needs to use troops for combat missions.

“We want to do the maximum possible, with minimum manpower, to allow maximum humanitarian aid,” the official explains.

The official adds that there will be no limits imposed by Israel on the amount of food, medicine, and water that comes in.

Israel is confident that once the sea lane begins working properly, the chances of a melee around shipments like a deadly incident last month will decline dramatically.

“The more the population sees that there is a system, a mechanism, they will understand, then people won’t loot and fight over the aid,” says the official.

As for the US-built pier announced by President Joe Biden during the State of the Union address last week, the details are still being worked out, says the official.

“There is an IDF-slash-Centcom group examining how exactly it will work,” the official says.

UN envoy on sexual violence bemoans hostage crisis, ‘horrified’ by deaths in Gaza

The UN’s envoy on sexual violence in conflict urges Security Council members to put themselves in the shoes of the hostages and their families.

“156 days have passed since the abduction of their loved ones, with no less than 16 women among the hostages,” Pramila Patten says during a session on her report about the Hamas-led sexual violence on October 7 and afterward. Israel believes 19 women remain hostage.

“On the one hand, nothing can justify the deliberate violence perpetrated by Hamas and other armed groups on the seventh of October against Israel,” Patten says. “On the other hand, nothing can also justify the collective punishment of the people in Gaza, which has left tens of thousands of Palestinians killed and injured.”

“I must also state that I’m horrified by the injustice of women and children being killed in Gaza by countless bombs and gunfire, and I’m also outraged by the level of deaths and pain of entire families, often generations wiped out,” she adds.

UN envoy rejects Israeli claim that Guterres tried to suppress report about rape on and after Oct. 7

Pramila Patten, the UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, addresses the UN Security Council on March 11, 2024. (Screen capture)

The UN’s special envoy for conflict sexual violence flatly rejects the Israeli claim that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sought to suppress her report confirming allegations of sexual violence by Hamas-led terrorists on and after October 7.

“I must be clear and categorical: There has been no attempt by the secretary-general to silence my report or suppress its findings. On the contrary, I received his full support, politically, logistically, and financially; and he also gave clear instructions for the public release of my report, and its immediate transmission to the Security Council,” says Pramila Patten in her testimony to the Security Council on her report.

WATCH: UN Security Council meets on October 7 sexual violence

Protesters hold placards during a demonstration denouncing the South African government's silence on abuse of hostages held by Hamas, in Johannesburg on March 8, 2024. (OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP)

A UN Security Council meeting on sexual violence by Hamas-led terrorists has begun, with the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, recounting the study’s findings.

Patten notes that the finding that sexual violence may be ongoing against those still held hostage “does not in any way legitimize further hostilities, in fact it creates a moral imperative for a humanitarian ceasefire.”

“Continuation of hostilities can in no way protect them,” she says.

IDF says fighter jets struck infrastructure used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon

The IDF says fighter jets struck buildings and infrastructure used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Ayta ash-Shab and Naqoura earlier today.

It also says troops shelled areas near Ayta ash-Shab with artillery, presumably to foil planned Hezbollah attacks.

The IDF says fighter jets struck buildings and infrastructure used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon's Ayta ash-Shab and Naqoura earlier today.

It also says troops shelled areas near Ayta ash-Shab with artillery, presumably to foil planned Hezbollah attacks. pic.twitter.com/NOZbsV9INV

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 11, 2024

IDF spokesman confirms Israel targeted Hamas military wing deputy commander in airstrike

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in a press conference confirms that the military targeted the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing, in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza early Sunday morning.

Hagari does not say if Marwan Issa was killed in the strike. He says the IDF is still looking into the the aftermath of the bombing.

“When we know for certain, we will update the public,” he says.

The IDF releases footage of the strike against the underground Hamas site in Nuseirat where Issa was believed to be.

Other Hamas commanders were together with Issa in the tunnel, Hagari says, adding that, according to the IDF’s intelligence, no hostages were held in the area.

Transfer of US-sent flour shipment to Gaza begins after two month delay caused by Israel

The process of transferring a massive shipment of flour sent by the US to Gaza has started after it was held up by Israel for nearly two months, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says.

Miller does not specify when trucks carrying this flour capable of feeding 1.5 million Gazans for five months began entering Gaza, but says during a briefing that Israel recently agreed to release flour from its Ashdod port and was “mak[ing] its way into Gaza — something we’ve been support for some time.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu privately informed the Biden administration that Israel approved the shipment in early January. The White House announced the development on January 19.

The shipment arrived at the port in Ashdod, but Smotrich blocked its transfer to UNRWA, which came under fire in January over allegations that 12 of its staffers participated in the October 7 terror onslaught.

On February 22, a US official told The Times of Israel that the new arrangement, with Israel’s agreement, will allow for the flour shipment to move forward, after Smotrich blocked its transfer for over a month.

The flour is to be ferried into Gaza by the World Food Program, rather than via the UNRWA relief agency for Palestinian refugees, the official said.

The delay has angered the Biden administration, which has repeatedly noted in recent weeks that Israel is violating the commitments it made to the president.

Miller says the release of the flour was one of several modest improvements seen in the Gaza humanitarian operation over the past several days.

He also says trucks carrying aid have been able to move around southern Gaza more freely than they were in recent weeks. There have also been convoys that successfully reached northern Gaza, where aid access has been particularly limited, Miller adds.

Gaza aid distribution ground to a halt last month, in the wake of a breakdown of law and order. After dozens of Palestinians were killed while trying to collect aid in northern Gaza on February 29, the Biden administration began airdropping aid into Gaza and announced the establishment of a marine corridor, which it aims to have up and running in two months.

IDF says West Bank terror suspect killed ‘on way to carry out attack in Israel’

The IDF and Shin Bet say a Palestinian who was heading to carry out an imminent terror attack was killed by troops of the elite Duvdevan unit a short while ago in the West Bank.

Muhammad Jaber, a resident of the West Bank city of Jenin, was killed by Duvdevan commandos in the town of Zeita, close to the West Bank security barrier.

Jaber was killed while “en route to Israeli territory to carry out a suicide attack in the immediate time-frame,” the IDF and Shin Bet say.

Officials say Jaber was armed with a firearm and a primed explosive device.

Biden budget proposal excludes UNRWA funds, renews $14 billion request for Israel

US President Joe Biden speaks at the National League of Cities at the Marriott Marquis, March 11, 2024, in Washington. (AP/ Andrew Harnik)

US President Joe Biden has submitted a likely dead-on-arrival 2025 budget proposal, which renews his request for $14 billion in funding for Israel and $100 million in humanitarian support for Palestinian civilians, which has been blocked by Republican congressional leaders for months.

Those funding requests were first made in October as part of a national security supplemental request, which passed in the Senate, but has since been held up by Republicans in the House who oppose funding for Ukraine and are under pressure from former president Donald Trump not to cooperate with his successor in an initiative aiming to also settle the ongoing southern border crisis.

Notably, the new budget proposal does not include funding for the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, which is currently being investigated after 12 of its members allegedly participated in Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.

UNRWA funding was already dropped from Biden’s national security supplemental request, with the White House seeking to divert that spending to other agencies that support Palestinian civilians.

Asked about the lack of UNRWA funding during a State Department briefing, a senior budget official in the agency says, “We have a pause on our funding to UNRWA until the investigation is complete. That doesn’t mean we are not providing funding for humanitarian needs in Gaza and the West Bank. [This budget includes] a significant commitment [to Palestinians living there]. But until that particular investigation concludes itself, we’re going to look to other organizations such as the World Food Program, UNICEF, and other outlets.”

Funding for UNRWA does not necessarily have to be specified in the budget proposal, and the agency can receive funds from the $3.3 billion earmarked for migration and refugee assistance. The 2024 fiscal year budget request did specify funding for UNRWA, but the agency was not as politically toxic then as it is now.

Given the stalemate between Republicans and Democrats over the current budget — which has yet to be fully adopted — Congress is highly unlikely to pass anything resembling Biden’s proposal by the end of the current fiscal year on September 30.

As a consequence, today’s budget proposal reads as more of a wish list of progressive policy proposals for the campaign trail than a serious plan for funding the US government.

AFP contributed to this report

Katz berates UN chief Guterres ahead of Security Council meet on sexual violence

Foreign Minister Israel Katz is continuing to bash UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ahead of a UN Security Council session called to discuss a report by the world body detailing Hamas’s use of sexual violence on and after October 7.

Katz charges that Guterres’s response to the report has been milquetoast, signaling “a distressing bias,” and maintains that, had the victims not been Jews or Israelis, his office “would have responded in a much more vigorous way.”

“The indifference displayed toward the report on Hamas’ sexual violence — crafted with bravery — is deplorable,” he writes, accusing the UN chief of trying to push off discussion on the report until April.

“Your tenure at the UN is set to be remembered for diminishing the organization’s stature to an all-time low, allowing it to become an epicenter of antisemitism and anti-Israel incitement,” he writes.

The council is set to meet at 3 p.m. local time (9 p.m. in Israel) to discuss the report, after the US, UK, France, and Japan requested an emergency session.

Present at the meeting will be Katz, families of hostages, and diplomats involved in talks for a hostage deal.

Israeli hardliners fume, as army moves Gazan orphans from Rafah to Bethlehem

Illustrative. Palestinian children receive cooked food rations as part of a volunteer youth initiative in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 5, 2024. (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

The army is facing criticism after a report carried by Channel 12 news that some 70 Gazan orphans were moved to the West Bank over the last day, in a move coordinated by the Defense Ministry and the National Security Council, but which did not receive explicit permission from the government’s security cabinet.

According to the report, children were moved from the SOS Children’s Village in Gaza to a facility in Bethlehem at the request of the German embassy, via the Taba crossing near Eilat. The report claims the orphanage had stopped functioning, necessitating the extraordinary rescue.

According to information available online as of late January, SOS administered an orphanage in Rafah where 76 children and young people sheltered, some of whom had lost their parents in the war. SOS said at the time that its residents were safe, with food, water, and fuel being stockpiled.

Israel has sought to evacuate Gazan civilians from Rafah ahead of a planned offensive in the city, a move not backed by the international community, which has opposed evacuating Gazans out of the enclave for fear Israel will seek to take over the territory.

Protests against the operation, however, are lodged not by Palestinians but by settler leaders, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who calls it “an ethical failure,” and demands answers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The station quotes an unnamed source in the security cabinet calling the evacuation “ridiculous and immoral behavior toward the hostages in Gaza and their families.”

Shlomo Ne’eman, the outgoing head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council in the West Bank, which borders Bethlehem, urges residents to protest on a road used for the transfer.

“We provide more and more gestures and make sure that aid is transferred to a group of murderers, when innocent citizens including women, children, the elderly, and the sick are being held by these evil people,” he says in a statement.

Shas head tells families of hostages deal hopes still alive

Speaking with families of hostages during his Shas party’s weekly faction meeting, chairman Aryeh Deri says that Israel is “not giving up” on securing their loved ones’ return, despite the failure of recent negotiations.

“It is important that you know that the issue of the abductees is the main issue that comes up in the cabinet discussions. We are not giving up on the matter. Unfortunately, now we are mainly speaking with the mediators, but I really hope that there will be agreement from the other side as well and we can move forward with the deal,” he says, according to a statement sent out by the party.

Noting that any deal would involve paying a difficult prince, Deri says that “if the security cabinet brings a deal that it agrees with, we will bring the matter before the rabbis, as we brought it last time, with a recommendation to support it. All those sitting here are students of our master Rabbi Ovadia Yosef who ruled on the importance of the mitzvah of redeeming captives.”

There is no mention in the statement of a recent threat from the party’s spiritual adviser Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak that ultra-Orthodox Jews will all leave Israel if forced to serve in the military.

In possible nod at Issa strike, Gallant says army has had ‘successes in recent days’

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant appears to hint at an Israeli strike on Hamas’s third-highest-ranking leader in Gaza, Marwan Issa, in remarks released by the Defense Ministry following a meeting with IDF Chief Herzi Halevi and the army’s general staff.

“There have been successes, including in recent days, and there will be more successes, the operations are persistent and headed in the right direction,” he says. “Alongside that, we need to take into account that we may have more challenges in front of us, primarily in the north, with all its significance.”

Hamas has yet to acknowledge whether Issa was among five people reportedly killed in a strike on an area where the terror leader was said to be hiding.

The Defense Minister also aims not-so-veiled criticism at instances of squabbling within his own government, calling for “the political system to take an example” from the army’s ability to work together under harsh conditions.

At AIPAC, Lapid aligns with White House push to distinguish between Israel and Netanyahu

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government of picking a fight with US President Joe Biden’s administration for domestic political gain, advising pro-Israel activists attending the AIPAC conference in Washington to “not defend the government, defend the country.”

“The fight between our governments is unnecessary. It is meant for domestic politics,” he says via video conference. “We have people here, at the highest levels, who mistakenly think that it will help them with their political base. That is stupid, and you are allowed to say so out loud. It is also not what Israel feels.”

The comments appear to echo criticism coming out of the White House in recent days claiming that Netanyahu’s policies do not reflect most Israelis’ stances. Netanyahu has pushed back against the allegation.

“It is hard to defend a policy when you are not sure you understand it. When you are not sure there is one,” Lapid tells the participants in a speech largely focused on decrying resurgent antisemitism and pushing Israel’s right to defend itself.

At the same time, he largely avoids commenting on many areas where the US and Netanyahu’s government split, such as a threatened offensive in Rafah and the two-state solution.

Still, Lapid praises the US for “pushing forward the debate about the ‘day after’” fighting ends in Gaza. “It is essential,” he says, without elaborating.

Man shot to death in Lod, as ongoing bloodletting claims 7th victim in days

A 50 year old man has been shot to death in Lod, medics and the Abraham Initiatives organization say, marking the seventh slaying in the Arab community since Saturday.

In the southern community of Segev Shalom, a 30-year-old man has been rushed to a hospital in serious condition after being shot, the Magen David Adom rescue service says.

According to the Abraham Initiatives, 39 members of the Arab community have been killed in violent circumstances so far this year. At this point in 2023, which saw violent deaths among Arabs skyrocket to record levels, there had been 30 killings.

Report: Senior Hamas terrorist was hiding underground when targeted, hostages were likely not around

Army Radio reports that an Israeli strike in the central Gaza Strip that may have killed Hamas’s third in command Marwan Issa targeted an underground complex in the Nuseirat refugee camp where he was suspected of hiding.

According to the vaguely sourced report, Israeli intelligence does not think hostages were being held at the site, with a source quoted as saying that had they been present “the strike would not have gone ahead.”

House speaker Johnson, Senate leaders Schumer, McConnell to address AIPAC confab

Top congressional leaders will address an AIPAC gathering currently taking place in Washington as ties between the Biden administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government appear to have hit a new low as the war in Gaza drags into its sixth month.

The over 1,600 AIPAC activists estimated in attendance will hear from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Charles Chuck Schumer and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell during the conference, which began yesterday.

Participants will also be lobbying for AIPAC-backed legislation on Capitol Hill, including the emergency funding proposal for Israel included in the supplemental, annual security assistance funding for Israel, the Iran Sanctions Enforcement Act and the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) Act.

“The priority lobbying message will be to House Republicans to urge their leadership to urgently pass a bipartisan emergency funding bill for Israel without conditions and that can be signed into law by the president,” says an AIPAC spokesperson. GOP lawmakers have blocked the legislation due to disagreements regarding Ukraine and immigration reform.

Complaint filed against chief rabbi over alleged politicization of role

File: Sephardic chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef at an inauguration ceremony for a new women's mikve, in the northern town of Safed, August 17, 2023. (David Cohen/FLASH90)

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel files a complaint against Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef with the ombudsman of the Israeli judiciary, calling for his removal from the Great Rabbinical Court of Appeals over his alleged politicization of his judicial role.

In a letter to the ombudsman, former Supreme Court justice Uri Shoham, the watchdog group asserts that the rabbi’s recent comments encouraging draft evasion constituted “a flagrant violation of the rules of ethics for judges.”

On Saturday evening, Yosef warned that ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, Jews will leave Israel en masse if the government ends the exemptions of mandatory military enlistment enjoyed by the community.

“If they force us to go to the army, we’ll all move abroad,” Yosef said during a weekly lecture. “We’ll buy a ticket… We’ll go there.”

“The [biblical] tribe of Levi was exempted from the army,” he noted by way of comparison, referring to the biblical tribe from which the priesthood was drawn in Temple times.

“Rabbi Yosef misused his authority and position as a judge to intervene in a controversial political matter, with the aim of influencing the evasion of ultra-Orthodox conscription during wartime,” and his behavior stands “in blatant violation of the rules of ethics for judges that prohibit political activity and interference in matters of public controversy,” the Movement for Quality Government writes to Shoham.

In addition, because his comments came as the High Court of Justice is debating the legality of a government resolution passed in June 2023 instructing the IDF not to draft Haredi yeshiva students, they constitute “intervention in a pending legal proceeding,” the group says.

“The movement asks the ombudsman for the judges to investigate the complaint urgently. If he finds it justified, it urges him to act to end Rabbi Yosef’s tenure as a judge in the Great Rabbinical Court.”

On November 21, Shoham recommended the potential removal of Yosef from the Great Rabbinical Court after he organized a Rabbinate conference against government reforms intended to break up the Haredi monopoly on kosher certification and conversions to Judaism.

Authorities demolish illegal West Bank outpost, evacuate settlers

Police and Civil Administration personnel demolish the illegal West Bank outpost of Or Ahuvia close to the settlement of Ofra and evacuate the settlers who had taken up residence in the early hours of the morning.

A rudimentary home was torn down and various equipment at the site was confiscated, settlement activists say. The Civil Administration says the outpost had been established on private Palestinian land.

Or Ahuvia was established in recent months by a group of young female settlement activists in memory of Ahuvia Sandak, who died in a car crash while fleeing from police in December 2020, allegedly after throwing rocks at Palestinians.

Activists say that they had planned for Or Ahuvia to be part of a “Jewish territorial contiguity” area along with Or Meir and two other illegal outposts.

Gallant to troops: Iran smuggling arms into West Bank, gird for Ramadan terror

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks to Duvdevan troops at the unit's base, March 11, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Iran is seeking to promote major terror attacks by smuggling weapons into the West Bank.

“We must prepare for an increase in terror during Ramadan,” Gallant says to troops of the elite Duvdevan unit.

“Iran is working to up the severity of attacks by smuggling in many weapons,” he says, describing the arms as “high-quality.”

Israel has previously announced that it had foiled attempts to smuggle Iranian-made explosives into Israel and the West Bank from Jordan.

IDF says dozens of Hamas gunmen killed as troops move through Hamad complex

The Egoz commando unit is continuing to search for fighters and weapons at the Hamad Town residential complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, where the IDF says troops have killed dozens of Hamas gunmen recently.

The IDF says the commandos have captured several more Hamas operatives who surrendered to troops.

In one engagement, the IDF says, soldiers came under fire while searching a building. The troops deployed a drone to locate the gunman and launched a shoulder-fired missile at an apartment where the gunman was hiding, killing him. The army publishes graphic footage showing the engagement.

The incident occurred while a mother and two children were in an adjacent room, the IDF says. They were extracted from the building and treated by army medics.

Two more gunmen were killed and another was captured in the incident.

Troops have been methodically fighting through the expansive Qatar-funded residential complex since March 3.

Smotrich bashes IDF chief for promoting officers during wartime

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticizes the IDF chief of staff over a recent round of senior appointments, arguing that Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has not been tasked with overhauling the military during wartime.

Speaking to the press at the opening of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting, Smotrich asserts that the IDF leadership’s mandate in the wake of “failure” of October 7 was “to conduct the war and that’s it.”

“There is no mandate to design the new and reformed IDF. I call on the chief of staff to stop the round of appointments. It is not the time,” he says, adding that such a project could only be undertaken by a new military high command “appointed after the victory.”

“To be clear, now is a war and I fully support the IDF at all levels and in all ranks even when I do not agree with you on everything,” he continues, adding that the IDF cannot “take advantage” of this backing to determine Israel’s future security strategy.

Last week, Halevi announced the first list of senior appointments in the military since the October 7 onslaught, including three new brigadier generals and 11 new colonels, as well as 26 colonels who are moving positions but staying at the same rank.

Smotrich’s comments came after the IDF announced that Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, the commander of the Israeli military’s 99th Division, was formally censured for the demolition of a university in the Gaza Strip earlier this year without the necessary authorization.

Smotrich also calls on the Haredi parties to work with other coalition parties to find a solution to the draft exemption issue.

Declaring that “now is the time for change,” Smotrich says that a solution can only be found through “respect” and not through the “contempt and hatred” of opposition politicians like Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, who is pushing a bill requiring the enlistment of full-time yeshiva students.

At this “crucial” hour “we need mobilization in Haredi society,” he says.

IDF seeking to force UNRWA dissolution in Gaza, to be replaced by alternative

This picture taken during a media tour organized by the Israeli army on February 8, 2024, shows Israeli soldiers inside an evacuated compound of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City. (Jack Guez/AFP)

The IDF has decided it will work to dismantle the UN agency for Palestinians refugees in the Gaza Strip and replace it with an alternative, The Times of Israel has learned.

Israel has long argued that UNRWA should be disbanded, a position that has been strengthened amid the ongoing war against Hamas, but had previously acknowledged the agency’s key role in distributing essential relief to Gazans under the strain of a massive humanitarian crisis.

As part of its plans to find alternatives, Israel has begun to work with other groups in Gaza, such as the UN World Food Programme, to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians instead of UNRWA. Officials from the UN, US and elsewhere say that too little aid is getting into the Strip and have urged Israel to ramp up approvals for deliveries of relief, while also pushing ahead with alternative methods, such as airdrops and a soon to be opened sea corridor.

The IDF says it has deployed a campaign seeking to discredit the agency in a bid to weaken UNRWA’s status in the Gaza Strip and potentially cause it to disband.

As part of that campaign, defense officials recently presented evidence showing that at least 14 UNRWA staff members participated in the October 7 onslaught. The IDF has also accused UNRWA of employing some 450 terror operatives in Gaza, mostly Hamas members.

The revelations caused several donor countries to announce funding freezes, though some have since resumed.

UNRWA argues that it fills an essential role in providing relief for Gazans, especially during the current war on Hamas, underlined by recent struggles to deliver aid to parts of the Strip, which has led to ratcheted-up criticism of Israel.

UN head says Gaza deaths ‘unprecedented,’ Rafah offensive would mean ‘deeper hell’

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says an Israeli military “assault” on the southern Gaza city of Rafah “could plummet the people of Gaza into an even deeper circle of hell.”

Guterres urges Israel and Hamas to honor the spirit of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by “silencing the guns” in the Gaza Strip.

He also calls for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the removal of “all obstacles to ensure the delivery of lifesaving aid at the speed and massive scale required” to Gaza, where the UN has warned that a quarter of the population are on the brink of famine. Aid is only trickling in, he charges.

In Gaza, “the killing, bombing and bloodshed continue,” he says, with civilian killings and destruction in the territory “at a level that is unprecedented” in his more than seven years as secretary-general.

“The eyes of the world are watching. The eyes of history are watching. We cannot look away,” says the UN chief, who has been calling for a humanitarian ceasefire for months. “We must act to avoid more preventable deaths… Desperate civilians need action – immediate action.”

Lapid says Haredim can’t shirk military service

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid at a faction meeting in the Knesset on March 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel cannot continue to fight on multiple fronts without ultra-Orthodox troops, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares, asserting that “the IDF is stretched to the limit.”

Speaking with reporters at the opening of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting, Lapid states that “if there is a flare-up in the north, there are not enough soldiers to manage it” and calls the debate over the conscription law “no longer just an ideological debate” but an “existential” one.

“Today there are 66,000 ultra-Orthodox youth of conscription age. That’s 105 battalions that don’t enlist,” he says, arguing that “if the State of Israel does not recruit the Haredi young people, it has no right to send more and more reserve orders to people who have already done 70, 90 and 120 days of reserve duty this year.”

Complaining that the Ministerial Committee for Legislation rejected his party’s universal enlistment bill, Lapid accuses the government of being more concerned with the “security of the coalition” than with that of the state.

Netanyahu’s government will “try to come up with an outline that looks like a solution, but is not a solution,” he adds.

Minister Benny Gantz’s proposed enlistment plan, which calls for gradual annual increases in Haredi service but does not detail specific quotas, is “an outline in which no Haredi would enlist,” he says. “It will not work. We cannot continue to deceive ourselves.”

Lapid heaps criticism on Netanyahu, referencing an unsourced Channel 12 report that said Netanyahu conveyed a message to the Haredi parties that “he will be sure to compensate them retroactively” if judges find that the current government policy exempting Haredim from military and national service is illegal, at which point Haredim who do not serve would be considered to be breaching the law, and they and the institutions where they study would be denied state funds.

Turning to Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef’s declaration that Haredim would “go abroad” if forcibly enlisted in the military, Lapid says that “no one wants them to go abroad, but it’s no longer a theoretical debate. If they don’t enlist, they won’t get money.”

“Saying they need to enlist isn’t [an attack] against him or the world of Torah. Soldiers are dying every day and we don’t have enough of them,” he adds.

Eilat siren was false alarm, army says

Rocket sirens that sounded in Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat a short while ago were false alarms, according to the IDF.

Unconfirmed reports indicate at least one rocket was intercepted in northern Israel.

Rocket sirens sound across north, and in faraway Eilat

Rocket sirens are sounding in several towns in northern Israel, including Maalot Tarhisha and surrounding areas, as far south as Hosen, some 8 kilometers from the Lebanon border.

Sirens sound a short time later in Kiryat Shmona and other areas of the northeastern Galilee panhandle.

At the same time, rocket sirens sound in the far southern city of Eilat.

Liberman accuses Netanyahu of allowing Israeli deterrence to fall apart

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman says Israeli military deterrence has collapsed under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of adhering to outmoded strategic conceptions which brought about the October 7 massacre.

“Everything that is happening in the north is, in one word, a disgrace. It is impossible to count how many launches there were in the last day in the north of the country,” Liberman tells reporters at his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, referring to dozens of rocket attacks on northern Israel a day earlier.

“The Houthis are shooting at us, from Lebanon they are shooting at us, from Syria they are shooting and the Gaza Strip continues to launch rockets toward the Gaza border region every day,” he continues. “There is an erosion of Israeli deterrence here.”

Turning to Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef’s declaration that Haredim would “go abroad” if forcibly enlisted in the military, Liberman reiterates his earlier criticism, declaring that Yosef’s comments stood “in complete contradiction to Jewish law” and noting that “all the great men of [ancient] Israel were warriors.”

“I don’t understand the attitude of the Haredi [power brokers], who only care about power, honor and money. For the chief rabbi in the midst of a war to say that they will leave the country if they are drafted is clearly irresponsible and unreasonable,” he says.

Netanyahu: ‘We killed Hamas’s number 4. Three, two, and one are on the way’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a video statement on March 11, 2024 (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video statement says Israel has killed Hamas’s “number four,” apparently referring to the terror group’s deputy political leader Saleh al-Arouri, while vowing that the military will soon reach the other top commanders.

The remarks come as Israel is investigating the fate of Hamas’s number three, Marwan Issa, the deputy head of the terror group’s military wing, who was reportedly targeted in an airstrike early Sunday.

“We are on the way to total victory. On the way to this victory, we already eliminated number four in Hamas. Three, two, and one are on the way,” Netanyahu says.

“They are all dead men, we will reach them all,” he adds.

Al-Arouri was killed in an airstrike on Beirut in early January, although Israel never officially took responsibility for the attack.

Netanyahu to Fox News: Perceived disagreement between US and Israel doesn’t help war effort

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is interviewed on Fox News on March 11, 2024 (Screen grab)

In an interview with Fox News, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that perceived disagreements between the US and Israel make it harder to defeat Hamas.

“To the extent that Hamas believes that there’s daylight between us, that doesn’t help,” says Netanyahu, after intensified criticism from US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris over the weekend.

Agreement, on the hand, “helps the war effort, and it helps our efforts to achieve victory and obviously the release of the hostages.”

Netanyahu says that attempts to force a Palestinian state on Israel run against the wishes of the vast majority of the Israeli public: “You don’t have an issue with me. You have an issue with the entire people of Israel. They’re really united as never before, united to destroy Hamas, and ensure that we don’t have another Palestinian terror state like the one that we had in Gaza that could threaten the State of Israel.”

At the same time Netanyahu argues that there has been broad agreement between himself and Biden.

He says that they both agree that civilians need to be evacuated from Rafah before an IDF operation.

“The president and I have agreed that we have to destroy Hamas. We can’t leave a quarter of the Hamas terror army in place there in Rafah,” he says. “We have agreements on the basic goals, but we also have disagreements. Ultimately, it’s Israel that has to decide.”

Hitting back at Biden’s comment that going into Rafah is a “red line” for him, Netanyahu says leaving Hamas forces there intact is “a red line. We can’t let Hamas survive.”

“We are not getting off the gas” in the war on Hamas, Netanyahu insists.

In a possible signal to Biden, who is seen as pressuring Israel in order to appeal to progressive voters ahead of the November election, Netanyahu points at polling that shows that “82% of American support Israel against Hamas.”

Asked about Biden’s hot mic comment at the State of the Union that he and Netanyahu need to have a “come to Jesus” conversation, Netanyahu says he is “not familiar with that term, even though Jesus was born not that far from here.”

“If it means a heart-to-heart conversation, we had that plenty of times of the 40 years I’ve known Joe Biden, and over the 12 or 13 conversations we’ve had over the course of the war,” says Netanyahu.

Netanyahu says Israel is “very close to victory,” and that victory “will come sooner the more united we are.”

“One way or the other, we’re going to do it,” Netanyahu pledges.

Sirens warn of incoming rocket fire toward northern border town

Sirens warning of rocket fire sound in Shtula, close to the northern border.

Earlier today, Hezbollah terrorists launched a number of drones toward Israel. The Israel Defense Forces says two of them struck open areas.

Censured IDF commander interviewed by Netanyahu for military secretary position – report

Commander of the 99th Division, Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram in southern Israel on October 11, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently interviewed Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram to potentially become his military secretary, Channel 12 news reports.

The outlet says that while sources close to the premier confirm that the interview was held in recent days, Hiram is unlikely to be appointed to the position.

Earlier today, it was announced that Hiram, the commander of the 99th Division, has been formally censured for the demolition of a university in the Gaza Strip earlier this year without prior approval.

Controversy also surrounds Hiram over his order to fire a tank shell at a home in the southern community of Kibbutz Be’eri amid a hostage situation during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, possibly killing some of the captives.

Before the war, Hiram was tapped to be the next commander of the Gaza Division.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.

Italy mulls extradition request from Israel for Palestinian arrested on suspicion of terror

Italian police say that one of the three Palestinian men they arrested on suspicion of terror is wanted by Israel, and an Italian court is examining an extradition request for him.

Police say the three men living in l’Aquila, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of Rome, had set up a cell linked to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a Palestinian terror group.

In a separate statement, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi hails the arrest of “three dangerous terrorists” and says Italy is always on high alert against extremism and radicalization.

Netanyahu to give live interview to US network

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will conduct a live interview on Fox News today at 2:30 p.m. Israel time, his office announces.

The premier has taken on US President Joe Biden in recent interviews, as criticism from Washington grows over Israel’s prosecution of the war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

IDF says it hit Hezbollah compounds in south Lebanon

The IDF says it struck a Hezbollah compound in southern Lebanon’s Jebbayn a short while ago.

Last night, another compound belonging to the terror group was targeted in Taybeh, the IDF says.

מטוסי קרב תקפו לפני זמן קצר אתר צבאי של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב אל ג'בין. במהלך הלילה הותקף אתר צבאי נוסף של הארגון במרחב א – טייבה.

בהמשך להתרעה על חדירת כלי טיס עוין בצפון הגולן, זוהו שתי מטרות אוויריות שחצו משטח לבנון לשטח ישראל ונפלו בשטחים פתוחים בצפון הגולן pic.twitter.com/yop9byHmgg

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 11, 2024

Hezbollah, meanwhile, announces the death of a member killed in a recent Israeli strike, bringing the terror group’s toll amid the war to 242.

Italian police say 3 Palestinians arrested on suspicion of planning terror attacks ‘on foreign soil’

Italian police say they arrested three Palestinians on suspicion of planning to carry out terrorist attacks — including suicide attacks — against civilians and military targets “on foreign soil.”

According to Italian law enforcement, the suspects are connected to an offshoot of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the West Bank city of Tulkarm.

IDF says 3 officers lightly hurt in helicopter ground collision

Three IDF officers were lightly injured in a helicopter ground collision at the Nevatim Airbase in southern Israel earlier today.

The IDF says the UH-60 Black Hawk was damaged in the incident, which will be further investigated.

Jordan: Temple Mount access restrictions push situation toward ‘explosion’

People at the compound of the Al-Aqsa mosque ahead of the start of Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan, in the Old City of Jerusalem on March 10, 2024. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi says restrictions imposed by Israel on Muslim worshipers’ access to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound during Ramadan were pushing the situation toward an “explosion.”

In remarks on state media, Safadi says his country rejects Israel’s announced move to impose some limitations on access to the holy site during Ramadan.

Israel said last week it will not reduce the number of worshipers allowed to pray on the Temple Mount in the first week of Ramadan from the levels in previous years, amid serious concerns over efforts by Hamas and its backer Iran to stir up violence at the flashpoint site and in Jerusalem in general during the Muslim holy month.

However, police were accused of denying some Arab Israelis entry to the site last night, in apparent violation of a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office that Muslim citizens will have free access.

Footage on social media showed Israeli Border Police officers assailing some worshipers with batons at the entrance to the compound. In response to the video, Israel Police said it was working to “enable freedom of worship on the Temple Mount while at the same time ensuring safety and security, in accordance with instructions given by the political leadership.”

The Temple Mount is the holiest place in Judaism, where two biblical Temples once stood, and Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third-holiest shrine in Islam, making the site a central flashpoint of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Gallant in Ramadan message: ‘Anyone who is thinking of trying us – we are ready, don’t make mistakes’

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant holds a press conference in Jerusalem, on December 26, 2023 (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)

In a message to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warns Israel’s enemies that the country is ready for any threat.

Gallant begins in Arabic with a traditional greeting and message about the importance of the month.

The minister then switches to Hebrew.

“The month of Ramadan is an important month in which the Quran was revealed and in which there is an opportunity to improve neighborly relations and strengthen family ties,” Gallant says.

“We are aware that the month of Ramadan may be a month of jihad. We tell everyone who is thinking of trying us – we are ready, don’t make mistakes,” he says. He adds a traditional greeting for the holy month, and declares that Israel “respects freedom of worship at Al-Aqsa and all the holy places.”

UK maritime security firm says it’s aware of missile-related incident off Yemen coast

British maritime security firm Ambrey says it is aware of a missile-related incident west of Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November in what they say is a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Woman found dead in Afula; her partner and his brother reportedly arrested

The body of a 48-year-old woman was found yesterday in the home of her partner in Afula, Hebrew-language media reports.

According to the Haaretz daily, there were signs of violence to the woman’s body. She was not immediately publicly named.

Police are said to be investigating the death as murder, and have reportedly arrested the woman’s partner and his brother.

Last week, the Israel Women’s Network said in a statement that 2024 had seen a 75 percent increase in the number of women murdered compared to the same time period in 2023.

IDF says two drones launched from Lebanon struck open areas

Two suspected drones entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon a short while ago, setting off sirens in the northern Golan Heights.

The IDF says the “suspicious aerial targets” apparently struck open areas. There are no reports of damage or injuries.

Hezbollah in a statement claimed to have launched four explosive-laden drones at an IDF base in the area.

Former French FM Colonna, heading UNRWA probe, meets officials during Israel visit

Catherine Colonna (R) meets with Foreign Ministry Director General Kobi Blitstein, March 11, 2024. (Yafit Ilyaguyev, Foreign Ministry)

France’s former foreign minister Catherine Colonna, who is heading the independent review of UNRWA, begins her visit to Israel.

She meets with Foreign Ministry Director General Kobi Blitstein, and will be presented with intelligence on Hamas tunnels in and around UNRWA facilities, terrorist attacks by UNRWA employees, and the use of UNRWA sites to launch rockets at Israel, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz says that Israel is cooperating fully with the investigation.

Israel will also present evidence that the UN body responsible for Palestinian refugees incites against the Jewish state in its schools.

In January, UNRWA announced that it had commissioned an independent review “to assess whether the Agency is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches when they are made.”

Colonna is working with three organizations on the review – the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

She is expected to submit an interim report in late March, and a final report a month later.

In February, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ordered the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services to investigate allegations that 12 UNRWA staffers took part in Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught in southern Israel.

Hamas-linked website warns Palestinians against cooperating with Israel to secure aid convoys

Vehicles transporting humanitarian aid drive along the Salaheddin road in the Zeitoun district on the southern outskirts of Gaza City on November 26, 2023. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)

A Hamas-linked website warns Palestinian individuals or groups against cooperating with Israel to provide security for aid convoys amid the spiraling humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Those who do will be treated as collaborators and be handled with an iron fist, the Hamas Al-Majd security website says, quoting a security official in Palestinian terror forces.

The warning comes in response to reports that Israel is considering arming some Palestinian individuals or clans in Gaza to provide security protection for aid convoys into the enclave as part of wider planning for humanitarian supplies after the fighting ends.

“The occupation’s attempt to communicate with the leaders and clans of some families to operate within the Gaza Strip is considered direct collaboration with the occupation and is a betrayal of the nation that we will not tolerate,” the Hamas-linked website says, quoting the official.

“The occupation’s (Israel) efforts to establish bodies to manage Gaza are a ‘failed conspiracy’ that will not materialize.”

Freed hostage Mia Schem attends Elton John’s Oscars party

Freed hostage Mia Schem attends Elton John AIDS Foundation's 32nd Annual Academy Awards Viewing Party on March 10, 2024 in West Hollywood, California (Anna Webber / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Freed hostage Mia Schem, kidnapped on October 7 from the Supernova desert rave, attended Elton John’s party for the Oscars in Los Angeles.

Schem wore a white gown decorated with an oversized yellow rhinestone ribbon pin to raise awareness of the hostages still in Gaza, as she attended the annual 32nd Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party.

Schem, a tattoo artist, is still wearing a cast, having been shot in arm during the devastating Hamas attack on October 7. She underwent surgery while being held in Gaza, and was freed during a weeklong truce in November.

Schem and her family are in the US to speak about the remaining hostages, visiting New York, Toronto, and Washington, DC, where she attended US President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.

Mia Schem (L) attends the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s 32nd Annual Academy Awards Viewing Party on March 10, 2024 in West Hollywood, California (Monica Schipper / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

IDF says troops found tunnels, weapons manufacturing equipment in Khan Younis residential complex

Troops of the 7th Armored Brigade operate in the Hamad Town residential complex in Khan Younis, in a handout image published March 11, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says troops of the 7th Armored Brigade located Hamas tunnels in the Hamad Town residential complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

It says one of the tunnel shafts led to an underground route where food and weapons were found.

Another tunnel shaft contained weapons manufacturing equipment and concrete production machinery used by Hamas to build tunnels, the IDF says.

The IDF says the tunnels were destroyed in an airstrike.

The IDF says the brigade raided several more Hamas sites in the Hamad area, seizing sniper rifles, explosive devices, military equipment, and intelligence documents.

Alongside the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 and Shin Bet, dozens of terror operatives attempting to flee with evacuating civilians from the Hamad area have been captured by troops, and hundreds more suspects have been taken for questioning, the IDF adds.

Sirens in towns close to northern border warn of suspected drone attack

Sirens sound in a number of communities close to the northern border, warning of a suspected drone attack.

Hezbollah-led forces have been launching daily attacks on Israeli communities and military posts along the border with Lebanon since October 8.

Reports: Hamas checking if Marwan Issa, terror group’s number 3 in Gaza, killed in IDF airstrike

The Israeli military reportedly attempted to assassinate Marwan Issa, the deputy head of the of Hamas’s military wing, in a recent airstrike in the central Gaza Strip.

According to Hebrew-language media reports, Issa was hiding in the Nuseirat camp. Overnight between Saturday and Sunday, the IDF carried out an airstrike on a building where he was believed to be.

Reports say five Palestinians were killed in the strike, although it is unknown if Issa is among them.

According to the reports, Hamas is still checking if Issa was killed in the strike.

Issa is considered to be number three in the terror organization in Gaza.

IDF sees slight decrease in complaints of alleged abuse, incompetence by commanders toward subordinates

In this handout image published March 11, 2024, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant receives the annual military ombudsman report from Rachel Tevet-Wiesel. (Defense Ministry)

Israel’s military ombudswoman publishes an annual report on complaints of alleged abuse, negligence, and incompetence by commanders toward their subordinates.

The report by Brig. Gen. (res.) Rachel Tevet-Wiesel, known formally as the chief complaints officer, who works out of the Defense Ministry, includes thousands of complaints from conscripts, career soldiers, and reservists. The number of complaints has remained relatively stable in recent years.

The 189-page report is presented to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and to the Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, as well as senior officers in the IDF.

Over the course of 2023, the ombudswoman’s office received 5,749 complaints from Israeli troops or their parents, a five percent decrease from the previous year. Tevet-Wiesel’s office reviewed each of the cases, finding that the majority of them — 54% — were legitimate, with the rest dismissed as false or trivial.

Reservists made up 712 of the complaints, an increase of 30% over last year, mostly due to the ongoing war as nearly 300,000 reservists were called up for duty.

The ombudswoman found that most of the 1,316 complaints during the first three months of the war (October-December) were reservists seeking to return to duty after receiving exemptions, asking to be moved to a combat unit, and complaints about compensation, R&R, and being dismissed from roles.

In the first month of the war, reservists’ complaints were mostly regarding lack of equipment, living conditions issues, and assistance for the partners of soldiers who were killed, the ombudswoman’s office finds.

As they do every year, the complaints also deal with cases of physical and verbal abuse, soldiers failing to receive proper medical care, bureaucratic inefficiencies and poor conditions.

Responding to the report, the military thanks the ombudswoman and says it will help the IDF improve on the issues it highlights.

Morocco to begin humanitarian airdrops into north Gaza – report

This picture taken from Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip shows humanitarian aid being airdropped over the Palestinian territory on March 10, 2024. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

Morocco will start airdrops of aid into north Gaza today, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

The outlet says six Hercules transport aircraft from the Royal Moroccan Air Force are en route to Israel, and will land at Ben Gurion Airport to refuel before they take off to drop humanitarian supplies into the north of the Strip.

Kan says that the airdrop was coordinated with Israel, and that it will mark the first day of the Muslim holy month Ramadan.

The United States and Jordan are among the countries to have carried out airdrops in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people are facing dire conditions after more than five months of war. Difficulties in distributing aid by ground routes led the nations to turn to airdropping assistance in addition to planning for maritime deliveries.

Agencies contributed to this report.

IDF says raid ongoing at Hamad Town residential complex in Khan Younis

Israeli troops operating in the Gaza Strip in an undated photo released by the military for publication on March 11, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says the Nahal Brigade killed some 15 gunmen in the central Gaza Strip over the past day, with sniper fire, close-quarters combat, and by calling in airstrikes.

Also over the past day, the Commando Brigade continued its raid on the Hamad Town residential complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

The IDF says the commandos raided apartments used by Hamas, captured operatives, and seized weapons.

Troops of the Givati Brigade came under anti-tank missile fire amid operations in Hamad. The IDF says the soldiers spotted and tracked the operative behind the attack, and he was killed by Maglan commandos.

In the Khan Younis suburb of al-Qarara, the Bislamach Brigade killed several Hamas operatives with sniper fire and by calling in airstrikes and tank shelling, the IDF says.

Meanwhile in northern Gaza, the IDF says, the Navy directed an attack helicopter to strike a vessel used by a Gaza-based terror group.

IDF commander censured over demolition of Gaza university without proper approval

Before and after photos of Israa University in Gaza that was blown up by the IDF on January 17, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

The commander of the 99th Division, Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, has been formally censured for the demolition of a university in the Gaza Strip earlier this year without the proper approval, the IDF says.

The IDF in response to a query says the demolition of Israa University in January and the approval process of the controlled explosion was “thoroughly investigated” by the head of the Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, and presented to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.

“The investigation revealed that the Hamas terror organization used the building and its surroundings for military activity against our forces, but the process of collapsing the building was done without the required approvals,” the IDF says.

جيش الاحتلال يقوم بتفجير جامعة فلسطين في غزة بواسطة 315 لغم pic.twitter.com/aemM8Ezh5C

— Hisham Abu Shaqrah | هشام أبو شقرة (@HShaqrah) January 17, 2024

Hiram did not ask permission from the head of the Southern Command to demolish the building, as he would have been required for sensitive sites such as universities.

The IDF says Finkelman rebuked the division commander over the incident.

The IDF also says the incident will continue to be examined by the General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism, an independent military body responsible for investigating unusual incidents amid the war.

Unrelated controversy currently surrounds Hiram over his order to fire a tank shell at a home in the southern community of Be’eri amid a hostage situation during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, possibly killing some of the captives.

Before the war, Hiram was tapped to be the next commander of the Gaza Division.

Commander of the 99th Division, Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram in southern Israel on October 11, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

Al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch says leader Khalid al-Batarfi is dead

This photo provided by Rewards for Justice, US Department of State, shows Khalid al-Batarf (Rewards For Justice, US Department of State, via AP)

The leader of Yemen’s branch of al-Qaeda is dead, the terror group announces, without giving details.

Khalid al-Batarfi had a $5 million bounty on his head from the US government over leading the group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula over years that saw him imprisoned, freed in a jailbreak and governing forces in Yemen amid that country’s grinding war.

Though believed to be weakened in recent years due to infighting and suspected US drone strikes killing its leaders, the group known by the acronym AQAP has long been considered the most dangerous branch of the group still operating after the killing of founder Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaida released a video showing al-Batarfi wrapped in a white funeral shroud and al-Qaeda’s black-and-white flag.

There was no clear sign of trauma visible on his face. Al-Batarfi was believed to be in his early 40s.

“Allah took his soul while he patiently sought his reward and stood firm, immigrated, garrisoned, and waged jihad for His sake,” the terror group says in the video, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

The group made the announcement on the eve of Ramadan, the Muslim holy fasting month that Yemen will begin Monday.

In the announcement, the group says Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki will take over as its leader. The US has a $6 million bounty on him, saying al-Awlaki “has publicly called for attacks against the United States and its allies.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Biden administration not expecting Rafah operation to begin in near future – report

People sit by the fire at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on the eve of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan on March 10, 2024 (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

Two US officials tell CNN that the Biden administration is not expecting Israel to expand the Gaza ground operation to Rafah in the near future.

The comments by the unnamed officials come at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In comments published by Politico yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to defy international warnings against invading the southern Gazan city.

Israel has vowed to move into Rafah to eliminate the last Hamas stronghold there. It also believes that some of the hostages and Hamas leaders are in Rafah. Earlier this month, special forces rescued two Israeli hostages from captivity in an apartment in the city.

However, in a hard-hitting interview published by MSNBC Saturday, US President Joe Biden highlighted deep US concerns over civilian deaths in Gaza and called the planned IDF operation in southern Gaza’s Rafah a “red line.”

Over half of the Gaza Strip’s population has fled to Rafah during the war sparked by Hamas’s devastating attack on October 7. The offensive in Gaza has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people and led to critical shortages of food, water and medicine.

News outlets pull photo of Princess of Wales amid image manipulation concerns

Major news agencies say they retract the first official photo of Catherine, the Princess of Wales since her abdominal surgery nearly two months ago, because it appears to have been manipulated, fueling more conjecture.

The photo, issued to mark Mother’s Day in Britain, shows the smiling Princess of Wales sitting on a garden chair, dressed in jeans, a sweater and a dark jacket, surrounded by her three laughing children, George, Charlotte and Louis.

But close examination shows that Princess Charlotte’s left hand is misaligned with the sleeve of her cardigan, casting doubt on the authenticity of the image.

After publishing the photo provided by the palace, the Associated Press, Reuters and AFP decide to withdraw it.

The Kensington Palace media office is not open on weekends and a voicemail left for a spokesperson was not immediately returned.

The release of the photo followed weeks of gossip on social media about what had happened to the princess since she left a hospital Jan. 29 after a nearly two-week stay following planned surgery. She hadn’t been seen publicly since Christmas Day.

The royal family has been under more scrutiny than usual in recent weeks, because both Catherine and King Charles III can’t carry out their usual public duties due to health problems.

Royal officials say Charles is undergoing treatment for an unspecified form of cancer, which was discovered during treatment for an enlarged prostate. The monarch has canceled all his public engagements while he receives treatment, though he has been photographed walking to church and meeting privately with government officials and dignitaries.

Catherine, 42, underwent surgery Jan. 16 and her condition and the reason for the surgery have not been revealed, though Kensington Palace, Prince William and her office said it was not cancer-related.

Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months.

Wishing everyone a Happy Mother's Day. C

???? The Prince of Wales, 2024 pic.twitter.com/6DywGBpLLQ

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 10, 2024

Hostages’ families, FM Katz head to NY for UNSC session on Oct. 7 sexual violence report

A number of hostages’ families as well as Foreign Minister Israel Katz are en route to New York to attend an upcoming United Nations Security Council session on the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 killing spree and against hostages held in Gaza.

The Security Council will hold an emergency session later Monday to discuss the report issued last week by the UN’s envoy on sex crimes, Pramila Patten, detailing the sexual violence.

Requests for the session were made by Security Council members — the US, the UK and France.

The 24-page report, based on more than two weeks of meetings on the ground, states that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Hamas committed rape and sexual abuse during its murderous rampage on October 7, and that there is an even higher standard of evidence to indicate that hostages kidnapped by Hamas that day were subject to rape in captivity.

Israel in response accused the UN of playing down the report and dragging its feet on looking into the allegations, while trying to silence the accusations — something the UN secretary general swiftly denied.

Presenting the report at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York last week Patten said there was “clear and convincing information that sexual violence including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” was committed against hostages being held in captivity in the Strip by Hamas.

In addition, she said, there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that such violence is still ongoing against those hostages still in captivity in Gaza.

Patten said that based on her evidence-gathering, there are reasonable grounds to believe that “rape and gang rape” occurred during the October 7 attacks in at least three locations: the Supernova music festival site, Kibbutz Re’im, and along the nearby Route 232.

In most such instances, she said, evidence shows that victims were “first subjected to rape and then killed,” noting as well “two incidents” pointing to the rape of women’s corpses.

The music festival grounds, Patten said, was the site of “brutal mass murders,” noting that many bodies were found extensively burned or disfigured, and that there was also a “recurring pattern of victims found fully or partially undressed, bound and shot.”

Suffering of Palestinian people is ‘front of mind,’ Biden says in Ramadan message

US President Joe Biden issued a message for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, saying that as Muslims gather around the world for the fasting month, “the suffering of the Palestinian people will be front of mind for many.”

“It is front of mind for me,” he adds.

“The sacred month is a time for reflection and renewal. This year, it comes at a moment of immense pain. The war in Gaza has inflicted terrible suffering on the Palestinian people,” says the president. “Nearly two million Palestinians have been displaced by the war; many are in urgent need of food, water, medicine, and shelter.”

The US, he says, will continue to “lead international efforts to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza and “continue working non-stop to establish an immediate and sustained ceasefire for at least six weeks as part of a deal that releases hostages.”

Washington will also “continue building toward a long-term future of stability, security, and peace” that includes “a two-state solution to ensure Palestinians and Israelis share equal measures of freedom, dignity, security, and prosperity.”

“That is the only path toward an enduring peace,” he says.

UK government pledges extra cash for Muslims’ security

The British government on Monday pledged 117 million pounds ($150 million) towards protecting Muslim communities amid a rise in Islamophobia as it promises more action to tackle extremism.

The new funding, announced just over a week after extra cash was promised to enhance security for Jewish communities amid soaring antisemitism, will be used to protect mosques, Muslim faith schools and other community centers, the government says.

In February, the Community Security Trust said Britain recorded thousands of antisemitic incidents after the outbreak of war between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas in October, making 2023 the worst year for UK antisemitism since its records began in 1984.

The government had already given the CST, which advises Britain’s estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, 18 million pounds (some $23 million) for 2024-25, taking the total funding up to 2028 to 70 million pounds ($88.6 million).

Tell Mama, a group that monitors anti-Muslim incidents, said last month there had been a 335% increase in cases since the October 7 Hamas massacre.

“Anti-Muslim hatred has absolutely no place in our society. We will not let events in the Middle East be used as an excuse to justify abuse against British Muslims,” Home Secretary (interior minister) James Cleverly says.

Shmuel Greenberg wins Beit Shemesh mayoral race, Haifa’s ex-longtime mayor Yona Yahav makes comeback

Beit Shemesh mayoral candidate Shmuel Greenberg casts his ballot in the second round of municipal elections, March 10, 2024. (Yaakov Lederman/Flash90)

Beit Shemesh’s incumbent Aliza Bloch lost the mayoral race tonight to Degel Hatorah candidate Shmuel Greenberg, and Haifa’s former longtime mayor Yona Yahav made a comeback to lead the city, according to initial municipal election results tonight.

Beit Shemesh’s ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, population had launched a concerted push to retake the city, with Greenberg winning almost 60% of the votes, according to the results.

Yahav, 79, defeated David Etzioni for the position to lead the northern, mixed Israeli-Arab city of Haifa with over 60% of the votes.

Candidates were competing in run-off elections in 35 cities and villages across the country today after none managed to secure the 40% of ballots necessary to win in the first round of municipal elections two weeks ago.

In Rehovot, Matan Dil won the mayoral race, defeating Zohar Blum and incumbent Mayor Rahamim Malul.

In the West Bank city of Ariel, a political comeback for former Likud MK Oren Hazan was not in the cards. Yair Chetboun won that mayoral race with over 60% of the votes.

And in Efrat, long-time head of the regional council and incumbent Oded Revivi lost his mayoral bid to Dovi Shefler.

Today’s municipal vote was not a legal holiday, unlike the first round at the end of last month, and voting was restricted to between the hours of 1-10 p.m.

Israeli animated short film ‘Letter to a Pig’ loses Oscar bid

The Israeli animated short film “Letter to a Pig,” which was nominated for an Academy Award in the animated film category, did not win the award tonight at the event.

The Oscar in that category went to “War is Over,” an 11-minute animated film inspired by the music of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and co-produced by their son Sean Taro Ono Lennon.

“Letter to a Pig” deals with collective trauma from the Holocaust and remembrance. The 17-minute short, released in 2022 and directed by Tal Kantor, won best short film at the Israeli Film Academy Awards as well as a number of other accolades including “Best Narrative Short” at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Some Oscar nominees wear red pins to call for Gaza ceasefire; protests snarl traffic outside event

Billie Eilish arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles wearing an 'Artists for Ceasefire' pin demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Stars are arriving at the 96th Academy Awards, where protests over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza are snarling traffic near the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Several attendees, including Billie Eilish and Finneas, best song nominees for “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” wear “Artists for Ceasefire” pins.

The pins were handed out by Artists4Ceasefire, a group of actors, celebrities, and entertainment industry members who have signed an open letter urging US President Biden to call for “an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel.”

Some 400 artists have signed the letter, including Mandy Patinkin, Jennifer Lopez, Richard Gere, and Susan Sarandon.

Other celebrities who are wearing the pins tonight include actor and comedian Ramy Youssef who stars in the film “Poor Things,” which is nominated for several awards.

“We’re all calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. We’re calling for the safety of everyone involved. We really want lasting justice and peace for the Palestinian people,” Youssef said earlier on the red carpet, as cited by the Guardian.

The pins were also worn at previous entertainment industry events this year including at the Directors Guild of America Awards and the Grammys.

Meanwhile, scattered pro-Palestinian demonstrations are being held in the vicinity around the Oscars tonight.

Protesters have shut down the flow of traffic to the #Oscars red carpet, causing many attendees to get out of their cars and walk to the Dolby Theatre

????: Scott Feinberg pic.twitter.com/QBgWoFUbBG

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 10, 2024

Los Angeles police, which had expected protests, beefed up their already extensive presence. The Dolby Theatre and the red carpet leading into it are cordoned off for several blocks in every direction, though protesters disrupted traffic near security checkpoints on Sunset Blvd.