March 14: Thousands in TA rally for hostage deal, new elections in separate protests

At least 11 killed while waiting for aid, Hamas claims

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says at least 11 people have been killed in an alleged Israeli attack on a group of people waiting for humanitarian aid at Gaza City’s Kuwaiti roundabout.

At least 11 bodies and 100 wounded people arrived at Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, the ministry says.

Graphic video posted online appears to show several dead people on rubble-strewn ground.

Neither the video nor death toll can be independently verified.

Al Jazeera report claims dozens killed by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid in Gaza

Al Jazeera reports dozens of casualties by alleged Israeli gunfire from a helicopter against Palestinians waiting for aid in Gaza City.

The Qatari-owned network airs footage purportedly showing the bodies of those hit in the incident.

The IDF does not have an immediate comment on the report.

US finalizes Security Council resolution calling for Gaza ceasefire through hostage deal

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

The US has finalized its draft UN Security Council resolution on the Israel-Hamas war, traditionally the final step before asking for a vote on the text that would back international efforts to broker an immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage release deal.

The final draft, seen by Reuters “unequivocally supports international diplomatic efforts to establish an immediate and sustained ceasefire as part of a deal that releases the hostages, and that allows the basis for a more durable peace to alleviate humanitarian suffering.”

It is not immediately clear when or if the US would ask the 15-member council to vote on the text negotiated over the past month. To pass, a resolution needs at least nine votes and no vetoes by the US, France, Britain, Russia or China.

The US can still make further changes to the draft.

The US has wanted any Security Council support for a ceasefire to be linked to the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

The US-drafted council resolution condemns the October 7 Hamas attacks and emphasizes concern that an Israeli ground offensive into Rafah in southern Gaza “would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement including potentially into neighboring countries.”

Washington had been averse to the word ceasefire.

During the five-month-long war, it has vetoed three draft resolutions, two which would have demanded an immediate ceasefire. Most recently, the US justified its veto by saying such council action could jeopardize efforts by the US, Egypt and Qatar to broker a pause in the war and the release of hostages.

The US traditionally shields Israel at the UN, but it has also abstained twice, allowing the council to adopt resolutions that aimed to boost aid to Gaza and called for extended pauses in fighting.

Centrist pro-Israel groups offer tepid responses to Schumer’s call for elections to replace Netanyahu

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 12, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

A pair of centrist, pro-Israel organizations have offered tepid responses to a speech Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gave in which he called for elections in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The American Jewish Committee says it “appreciates… Schumer’s continual and passionate defense of Israel and the Jewish people, but we do not believe it is appropriate for US officials to try to dictate the electoral future of any ally.”

“Israel is a sovereign democracy in the midst of a war of self-defense against a terrorist organization bent on massacring Jews and destroying Israel. The Israeli people will decide their own political path,” AJC adds. “We commend Leader Schumer for clearly putting Israel’s security and the plight of the hostages front and center, underscoring the need for new Palestinian leadership, and emphasizing Hamas’s horrific brutality and disregard for the wellbeing of the Palestinian people.”

Democratic Majority for Israel President and CEO Mark Mellman says, “While we do not agree with everything in Leader Schumer’s speech, we thank him for reminding the country, and the world, that Israel is a democracy and has a right to defend itself.”

“He spoke clearly about Hamas’s unspeakable evil, of their responsibility for civilian casualties in Gaza, and of the need to dismantle Hamas so they no longer play any role in Gaza,” Mellman continues. “Leader Schumer reiterated that ‘a permanent ceasefire, effective immediately, would only allow Hamas to regroup and launch further attacks on Israeli civilians.”

“He criticized the media and protestors who ‘ignore Hamas’s role in the conflict’ and their responsibility for civilian casualties, labeling them ‘unfair, one-sided and deliberately manipulative.”

“The Majority Leader also spoke plainly about the need to get more aid to Gaza’s civilians and do as much as possible to preserve civilian lives, while reiterating his support for a two-state solution,” the DMFI CEO adds.

Pro-Palestinian protesters assault man entering Chicago screening of film on Nova festival massacre

Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate outside of a screening of a documentary about the Hamas massacre of the Nova music festival in Chicago on March 11, 2024. (Screen capture/ABC 7)

A group of pro-Palestinian protesters assaulted a man holding a small Israeli flag as he walked into the Logan Square Theater in Chicago where a screening was being held earlier this week of a documentary on Hamas’s October 7 massacre of the Nova music festival in which 364 people were killed.

The suspects were among dozens protesting in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, trying to block attendees from entering the building.

The protesters shouted “shame on you” at attendees of the event sponsored by several Jewish organizations.

“I did not say anything to anyone, as we walked up I did not look at anyone, I did not give anyone the finger, I simply walked up holding an Israeli flag,” the assault victim tells ABC 7. “A group of them was swinging me around and threw me into a parked car. I was completely surrounded by maybe six or seven that started punching me in the head.”

The man, in his 50s, was not seriously injured in the attack, but local police have opened an investigation into the attack.

“Each step of the way, it’s gotten worse and worse all in the same continuum, an attempt to push Jews aside physically and rhetorically and that is where we are right now,” Dan Goldwin tells ABC. Goldwin is the public affairs executive director for the Jewish United Fund, the Jewish federation body in Chicago.

‘A deal can be reached’: Hamas reportedly offers positive response to hostage deal framework

Demonstrators hold placards during a protest calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Tel Aviv on March 14, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Qatari mediators have transferred to the Israeli negotiating team an official Hamas response to the latest hostage deal framework, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

The response includes a list of demands that a source familiar with the matter says are “reasonable” and indicate “positive” progress in the talks.

“An agreement can be reached,” the source tells Kan.

The Walla news site cites a senior Israeli official who says that Hamas’s response for the first time included the number of Palestinian security prisoners it wants to be released in exchange for each of the three categories of hostages slated to be released in the six-week first stage of the deal. This phase is supposed to see the release of female, elderly and wounded hostages.

The official says the number of prisoners Hamas is demanding is still too high, but “there is something to work with.”

Hamas issued its own statement declaring that it presented to mediators a comprehensive vision of a truce deal that is based on stopping the Israeli “aggression” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, providing relief and aid, the return of displaced Gazans to their houses and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Strip.

The vision also includes the terror group’s stance on the prisoners-hostages exchange deal, Hamas adds in the statement but does not elaborate.

Hamas is still “bunkering down in ridiculous demands” for a hostage deal, the Prime Minister’s Office says in its own statement.

An update will be brought to the Security Cabinet tomorrow, says the PMO.

Earlier this week, a senior Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel that Qatari and Egyptian mediators believe they managed to break through an extended logjam in talks to secure a truce and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.

Progress was made after Doha placed significant pressure on Hamas, warning the terror group that its leaders residing in Qatar could be kicked out of the country if they didn’t adapt their approach in the negotiations, the diplomat said.

Thousands protest for hostages release, conscription of ultra-Orthodox

Activists block a road and light flares while holding photos depicting the faces of Israeli women who are being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, during a protest demanding their release from Hamas captivity, in Tel Aviv on March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Thousands in Israel have taken to the streets in two separate protests, one demanding an immediate release of hostages from Gaza and another calling for drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the military.

The protests are public displays of growing divisions in Israeli society and politics five months into the Gaza war.

Protesters calling for the release of hostages march from a Tel Aviv square carrying enlarged images of women held in Gaza, briefly blocking the highway at one point.

“Bringing them back as soon as possible will be the only image of victory from this damned war,” one woman says into a megaphone. Others chanted: “Deal, now!”

In another rally, Israelis protested against Netanyahu’s coalition government, demanding an end to the exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from compulsory military service.

Some 10,000 people participated in the demonstration, also held in Tel Aviv.

The Supreme Court in 2018 voided a law waiving the draft for ultra-Orthodox men, citing a need for the burden of military service to be shared across Israeli society.

The Knesset failed to come up with a new arrangement, and a government-issued stay on mandatory conscription of ultra-Orthodox expires in March.

Houthis: We’ll prevent Israel-linked ships from even passing through Indian Ocean toward Cape of Good Hope

Abdul Malik al-Houthi gives a video statement on January 11, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

The leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis says in a televised speech that Houthis’ operations targeting vessels will prevent Israel-linked ships from even passing through the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope.

Around 34 Houthi members have been killed since the militia began to attack shipping lanes in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza war, the Houthis’ leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, adds.

“Our main battle is to prevent ships linked to the Israeli enemy from passing through not only the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, but also the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope. This is a major step and we have begun to implement our operations related to it,” al-Houthi says;

The Iran-aligned group has 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 with Hamas in Gaza.

Around 34 Houthi members have been killed since the group began the attacks, al-Houthi says.

Non-commissioned IDF officer Uri Moyal succumbs to wounds sustained in stabbing attack

Chief Warrant Officer Uri Moyal, killed in a terror attack on March 14, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

The victim of the terrorist attack at the Beit Kama junction in southern Israel, a non-commissioned officer in the IDF, succumbed to his wounds earlier today.

He is named as Chief Warrant Officer Uri Moyal, 51, a senior technology and maintenance NCO at the Nahal Brigade’s training base, from Dimona.

Canada pauses non-lethal military exports to Israel — government source

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during the leaders talk at the ASEAN-Indo-Pacific Forum (AIPF) on the sidelines of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, September 6, 2023. (Adek Berry/Pool Photo via AP)

Canada has paused non-lethal military exports to Israel since January because of the rapidly evolving situation on the ground, a Canadian government source said on Thursday.

The source, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, did not give more details. The freeze was first reported by The Toronto Star.

EU’s Borrell says Gaza humanitarian crisis is a ‘man-made’ disaster

The European Union's foreign minister, Josep Borrell, talks during a press conference after a meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels, on March 5, 2024. (John Thys/AFP)

European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says after meetings in Washington that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza was not a natural disaster but a “man-made” one.

Borrell, in a briefing with reporters at the EU’s offices in Washington, says that world leaders needed to put more pressure on Israel to open borders for humanitarian access to Gaza.

US renews 120-day waiver allowing Iraq to pay Iran for electricity

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right) meets Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid (center) and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in Tehran, Iran, April 29, 2023. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

The United States has renewed a 120-day waiver allowing Iraq to pay Iran for electricity, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a briefing on Thursday.

Washington started issuing the waivers last year, stressing the money could only be used for “non-sanctionable transactions,” such as buying humanitarian goods like food and agricultural products.

Italy arms exports to Israel continued despite block, minister says

Illustrative: A Palestinian flag is waved in front of the Colosseum, during a rally in support of the Palestinians in Rome, January 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Italy has continued to export arms to Israel, the Italian defense minister says, despite assurances last year that the government was blocking such sales following Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip.

However, Guido Crosetto tells parliament that only previously signed orders were being honored after checks had been made to ensure the weaponry would not be used against Gaza civilians.

Under Italian law, arms exports are banned to countries that are waging war and those deemed to be violating international human rights.

Crosetto announced last year following the explosion of violence in Gaza that the Italian authority that oversees the sale of military goods, known as Uama, had blocked authorization of the transfer of arms to Israel.

However, picking apart data from statistics agency ISTAT, independent media outlet Altreconomia this week reported that Italy had exported 2.1 million euros ($2.3 million) in arms and munitions to Israel in the last three months of 2023.

In December alone, Italy exported 1.3 million euros ($1.4 million) worth of arms, three times the level of the same month in 2022.

Crosetto tells parliament these were outstanding contracts. “Uama checked them on a case-by-case basis and they did not concern materials that could be used against civilians in Gaza,” he says.

Francesco Vignarca, head of a national pacifist network for disarmament, says there was little clarity surrounding arms sales and criticized recent moves to reform the export law.

“With the [proposed] changes, decisions [on exports] will be more political and transparency will be reduced,” he says, adding that all outstanding arms contracts to Israel needed to be suspended.

Italy’s conservative government offered immediate support to Israel in the wake of the Hamas terror onslaught on October 7, but has since criticized the Israeli invasion of Gaza, saying far too many civilians were dying and urging an immediate ceasefire.

Czech envoy says she hasn’t seen any Israeli limits to aid going into Gaza

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip pass through the inspection area at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Israel, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The Czech ambassador to Israel says she hasn’t seen “any limits on what [humanitarian aid] Israel lets into Gaza.”

“I see limits in the logistics working in Gaza,” Veronika Kuchyňová Šmigolová tells The Times of Israel. “Hamas rules parts of Gaza… and parts of Gaza are lawless.”

The Czech Republic is a member state of the European Union, whose foreign policy chief accused Israel yesterday of using starvation as a tool of war.

“The problem is distribution within Gaza,” says Šmigolová. “The problem is not the delivery of aid to Gaza as such.”

She adds that the fledgling maritime corridor from Cyprus “might solve the situation in the north. It might help to weaken remaining Hamas structures.”

Pro-Israel Democrat Fetterman: I agree with 99% of what Schumer said

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., holds a small Israel flag as he heads to the chamber for a vote, at the Capitol in Washington, January 25, 2024. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. John Fetterman, who has far-and-away been the most vocally pro-Israel Democrat in the Senate since October 7, says he agrees with 99 percent of what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech earlier today calling for elections in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I agree with 99% of what was in there… I respect everything he said this morning and it’s not necessary for me to agree with 100% of what he says,” Fetterman says, according to Jewish Insider.

Major Gaza clan says it considers all Hamas members legitimate targets after leader assassinated

Masked Hamas fighters parade with a drone on the back of a truck through the streets of town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, May 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)

The Doghmosh Family — a major clan in Gaza — has issued a statement declaring that all Hamas members are legitimate targets after its leader was assassinated by members of the terror group along with ten other relatives allegedly for stealing humanitarian aid and being in contact with Israel.

The statement pledges retribution against all responsible and warns Hamas fighters not to test the clan’s patience.

Abbas appoints economist, ally Mohammad Mustafa as next PA premier

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) with Prime Minister-desigate Mohammad Mustafa in Ramallah on March 14, 2024. (Wafa)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed economist and former senior government official Mohammad Mustafa as the next prime minister of the PA, his office announces.

The move is part of an effort by Abbas to reform the PA, creating a technocratic government in the West Bank, which will be better prepared to eventually return to governing Gaza as well after Israel’s war against Hamas concludes.

Mustafa will have several weeks to assemble a cabinet, during which outgoing PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh will remain at the helm, a Palestinian official, a senior European diplomat and a US official told The Times of Israel earlier this week.

Mustafa, 69, has been holding consultations with prospective cabinet members in recent weeks and members are expected to be a group of technocrats unaffiliated with Abbas’s Fatah party — many of whom were educated in the West — the officials say.

Mustafa is respected by many international stakeholders, holding a doctorate in economics from George Washington University and having worked for 15 years at the World Bank.

A longtime Abbas confidant, he has served as deputy prime minister, economy minister and as Abbas’s economic adviser. Mustafa has also sat on the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee since 2022 and has served as the chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund since 2005.

Ben Gvir says US settler sanctions further proof that Biden doesn’t know who real enemy is

National Security Itamar Ben Gvir leads an Otzma Yehudit faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 4, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir says the latest round of US sanctions against violent Israeli settlers and outposts “is further proof that the [Biden] administration does not understand the difference between the enemy and [its friend].”

“The [settlers] are the best of our sons who build, settle and bring security to the country, they deserve a salute not a knife in the back,” Ben Gvir tweets.

Schumer is a friend of Israel but he made a mistake in calling for elections, Gantz says

Benny Gantz, left, a key member of Israel's War Cabinet is welcomed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, for a private meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

War cabinet minister Benny Gantz calls Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a “friend of Israel who helps us a lot, including recently, but he made a mistake in his speech” calling for elections in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Israel is a strong democracy, and only its citizens will determine its leadership and future. Any external intervention in the matter is incorrect and unacceptable,” Gantz tweets.

Egypt calls on Israel to open more land crossings for Gaza aid

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip pass through the inspection area at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Israel, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Egypt’s foreign minister called on Israel to open additional land crossings to let more aid into the Gaza Strip and said Egypt was continuing efforts for a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and a hostage-prisoner exchange.

Humanitarian relief has so far mainly been channeled through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza and the nearby, Israeli-controlled crossing of Kerem Shalom, but aid officials say the quantity delivered is far less than needed.

Egypt’s military has recently taken part in air drops of aid into Gaza as the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave has deteriorated.

Aid officials, however, say land transport is the only effective way of scaling up deliveries to meet needs quickly. Much of the aid provided by international donors has been stockpiled at Al Arish in the north of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

“Israel controls six other crossings that it should open,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told a press conference during a visit by his Spanish counterpart to Cairo.

“There is a long line of trucks waiting to enter, but are subject to the procedures of vetting that must be complied to so that the trucks can enter safely, that the drivers are not targeted, that they are received on the other side,” Shoukry says.

“We have the capacity to increase the number of trucks, but the authorization has to come,” he adds.

Egypt, which fears the displacement of Palestinians crowded near its border with Gaza, has previously said Israel was blocking aid. Aid officials say their inability to distribute aid within Gaza because of Israel’s military campaign is a major impediment.

Israel denies obstructing aid deliveries into Gaza. It has blamed failures by aid agencies for delays and has accused the Islamist group Hamas of diverting aid. Hamas denies this and says Israel uses hunger as a weapon in its military offensive.

EU humanitarian chief claims no evidence from Israel to back UNRWA accusations

European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic speaks during a press conference at the EU headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, March 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

The European Union’s top humanitarian aid official claims he has seen no evidence from Israel to back its accusations against staff from the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), which should continue playing a “critical” role in Gaza.

It’s unclear what he’s talking about, given that the evidence Israel provided regarding the one dozen employees who participated in the October 7 onslaught was enough to convince UNRWA to immediately fire those staffer.

The allegations prompted UNRWA’s biggest donor, the United States, and some others to pause funding, putting the agency’s future in doubt.

The head of UNRWA earlier this month expressed cautious optimism that some donors would soon return, though US officials said Washington’s pause in funding might become permanent due to opposition in Congress.

The EU’s executive Commission is a leading UNRWA donor after the US. It said on March 1 it would pay 50 million euros ($54.4 million) to the agency, but hold back 32 million euros ($34.8 million) while it deals with the Israeli allegations.

Janez Lenarcic, the head of humanitarian aid and crisis management at the European Commission, says that neither he nor – according to his knowledge – anybody else at the EU executive, or any other UNRWA donor, had been presented with evidence by Israel.

“Even if those allegations, at the end of the day, prove to be true, that doesn’t mean that UNRWA is the perpetrator,” he tells journalists.

In that case, Lenarcic says individual accountability would be in order rather than summary justice – and the “irreplaceable” agency would be asked to clean up and carry on.

“UNRWA has reacted properly, immediately, effectively. It took several measures. There is an investigation. There is a review. We are satisfied so far with all this,” says Lenarcic.

“UNRWA has of course a critical role to play here because it has unmatched infrastructure, warehouses, shelters, logistical capacities.”

Gaza’s displaced break their Ramadan fast with canned food in the rubble

Palestinians pray in front of a mosque destroyed by the Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Friday, March 8, 2024, ahead of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

As the evening prayer sounded across Gaza’s rubble, the Abu Rizek family broke their day’s fast with a shared meal in the wreckage of their home, sadly recalling all they had lost in Israel’s military campaign against Hamas since last year’s Muslim holy month.

While the family has managed to scrape together enough food for iftar, the sunset breakfast after a day without eating or drinking, many other people are far less fortunate in the stricken Palestinian enclave where famine looms.

“Last Ramadan was great, but this year it’s not. A lot of things are not there anymore. My sisters, my family. Our house was destroyed. There are still people under the rubble not pulled out,” says Um Mahmoud Abu Rizek.

She sits cross legged between tumbled walls of concrete cooking over a fire.

“We only eat soup and canned food. A can of beans. We’re so tired of canned food and we get sick of it. My son keeps saying his stomach hurts,” she says, recalling the plentiful meals of past Ramadans.

Most years, families gather with friends and neighbors to sit up at night, eating, praying and celebrating together.

“This year, there are no neighbors or loved ones. They’re not here any more. It’s only us and the children left, sitting here. I don’t know what will become of us,” she says.

With nearly all commercial food imports stopped, most Gaza residents are now entirely dependent on food aid. Many eat only at communal soup kitchens, including for their Ramadan iftar meal.

At one such kitchen in Rafah, people crowded round, holding up plastic bowls for a ladle of food.

“Every day, we have 35 pots of food, but 35 pots is not enough. I swear even 70 pots is not enough,” says volunteer Adnan Sheikh al-Eid, hoping to be able to feed more of the desperate, displaced people standing in line.

Like Abu Rizek, Eid could only remember the joy of previous Ramadans. “There used to be decorations, food and drinks. This year, there is sadness and despair,” he says.

“I am 60 years old and I have never had a Ramadan like this,” he adds.

Democratic Jewish group CEO: Schumer said what majority of American Jews are thinking

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, speaks at AIPAC's 2017 Policy Conference at the Washington Convention Center on March 28, 2017. (Screen capture)

Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer says Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer “did something big” when he called for elections in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“He said what the overwhelming majority of American Jews are thinking as it relates to our deep commitment to Israel and concern about its future as a secure, Jewish and democratic state,” Soifer tweets. “Yasher koach to him for demonstrating such moral clarity, conviction and leadership.”

AIPAC on Schumer speech: Israel an independent democracy that decides itself when to hold elections

Illustrative: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, prepares to speak at the 2019 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference, at Washington Convention Center, in Washington, March 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

“Israel is an independent democracy that decides for itself when elections are held and chooses its own leaders,” AIPAC says in response to Schumer’s speech calling for elections in Israel to replace Netanyahu.

“America must continue to stand with our ally Israel and ensure it has the time and resources it needs to win this war.”

“Hamas bears sole responsibility for this conflict. The hope for a brighter future for the Middle East begins with Israel’s decisive defeat of Hamas,” AIPAC adds, echoing comments by Netanyahu.

‘Israel isn’t a banana republic’: Netanyahu’s Likud lays into Schumer for pushing elections to replace PM

US Senator Chuck Schumer speaks at the Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York City, December 12, 2022. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party lays into US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after he called for Israeli elections to replace Netanyahu.

“Israel is an independent and proud democracy that elected Prime Minister Netanyahu, not a banana republic,” the party says in a statement.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu leads a determined policy that is supported by a huge majority of the people.”

“Contrary to Schumer’s words, the Israeli public supports a complete victory over Hamas, rejects any international dictates to establish a Palestinian terrorist state, and opposes the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza,” Netanyahu’s party claims without providing proof.

“It is expected of Senator Schumer to respect Israel’s elected government and not undermine it. This is always true, but even more so during wartime.”

US has seen reports on IDF plan to move civilians, but says no such plan has been formally presented

Palestinians walk at a makeshift market next to building rubble during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 12, 2024 group Hamas. (AFP)

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says the US has seen media reports about an imminent Israeli plan to evacuate Palestinians in Rafah to “humanitarian islands” further north, but he insists that no plan has formally been presented to the Biden administration.

Kirby in a press briefing reiterates that the US will not support an operation in Rafah unless Israel presents a credible plan beforehand for how it will protect the over one million Palestinians sheltering in the southern Gaza city.

Netanyahu tells hostage families ‘pressure on Qatar starting to work’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting with relatives of hostages held in Gaza, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on January 22, 2024. (Prime Minister's Office)

In a meeting with representatives of families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says “the pressure on Qatar is starting to work.”

He says during the Tel Aviv meeting that Israeli pressure on Qatar has caused the Gulf country for “the first time” to push Hamas to agree to a hostage deal.

“Every trip and appearance you make abroad, at the United Nations, in Washington, and in the various capitals has an effect,” says Netanyahu, according to his office. “The pressure on Qatar is starting to work. Qatar started telling them: ‘We will expel you. We will withhold money from you.’ These are things that were said, we made sure that they were indeed said. This is a change, it is a positive thing.”

At the same time, Netanyahu laments that “no real answer has come from Hamas.”

“They still have unacceptable demands,” he says. “They are reluctant to move forward, they also want to set the area on fire in Ramadan.”

A family member tells cameras after the meeting that they asked “pointed questions,” and that “there was a real attempt to answer the question.”

GOP Jewish group accuses Schumer of ‘knifing’ Israel after he calls for PM’s ouster

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, A New York Democrat, arrives at Capitol Hill, Washington, December 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

“As Israel continues to righteously fight to defend itself from barbaric terrorists, the most powerful Democrat in Congress knifed the Jewish state in the back,” the Republican Jewish Coalition says in a statement responding to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s speech on Capitol Hill in which he called for elections in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

RJC says Schumer “took a page from the 2015 Obama playbook… delivered a speech in which he demanded that Israel’s democratically-elected government be evicted from power and replaced by one more to his liking.”

“Senator Schumer crossed a real red line. It is outrageous and unacceptable to meddle in Israel’s domestic politics by demanding that a democratic ally hold elections on our timetable, particularly when the Jewish state is fighting for its very survival.”

“Senator Schumer has frequently described himself as the so-called ‘Shomer,’ or guardian, of the Jewish people – let there be no doubt that his remarks today were a ‘Shanda,’ a disgrace.”

US urges probe into deadly Israeli strike on UN facility in Gaza

A Palestinian boy sits among rubble in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on March 13, 2024. (AFP)

The White House calls for a swift investigation into an Israeli airstrike on a UN food distribution facility in Gaza yesterday.

Israel said the strike killed a Hamas commander whom it targeted, but the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry health says it killed four more people including a UN worker.

White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby tells reporters the United States is very concerned about the strike and calls for a swift investigation by the Israelis as to exactly what happened.

Lapid: Schumer’s speech proof that PM losing Israel’s best supporters ‘one by one’

Opposition Leader Yair lapid argues against the 2024 amended budget during a debate in the Knesset, March 13, 2024. (Noam Moskowitz, Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)

Opposition chair Yair Lapid says Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s call for elections in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “proof that one by one [the premier] is losing Israel’s biggest supporters in the US.”

“What’s worse – he’s doing it on purpose,” Lapid says, albeit without any proof.

“Netanyahu is causing significant damage to the national effort to win the war and maintain Israel’s security.”

Biden administration appears to distance from Schumer call to replace Netanyahu

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat-New York, speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, February 13, 2024. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

The White House appears to distance itself from Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s call for Israeli elections to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We know Leader Schumer feels strongly about this,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby tells reporters in a briefing, saying the White House will “let him speak to his comments.”

“We’re going to stay focused on making sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself,” Kirby adds.

Kirby said Schumer’s office gave the White House a heads-up ahead of the majority leader’s speech.

U.S. Congress is an independent branch of the government and Schumer’s call for new elections in Israel are his comments and not those of the Biden administration, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller later said.

When asked if there was no frustration in the administration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Miller said: “There are a number of things we wanted to see Israel do differently,” he says.

Israeli envoy pans Schumer for ‘counterproductively’ weighing in on Jerusalem’s domestic politics

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer arrives at the Capitol in Washington, February 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog criticizes US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after he said in a speech on the Senate floor that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unfit to lead and called for snap elections in Israel.

“Israel is a sovereign democracy. It is unhelpful — all the more so as Israel is at war against the genocidal terror organization Hamas — to comment on the domestic political scene of a democratic ally. It is counterproductive to our common goals,” Herzog says in a statement.

IDF releases footage showing targeting of four gunmen in Khan Younis

IDF footage showing the identification and targeting of four gunmen in the Hamad Town residential complex in southern Gaza's Khan Younis on March 14, 2024. (Screen capture)

The IDF releases footage showing the identification and targeting of four gunmen in the Hamad Town residential complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

Troops of the Maglan commando unit spotted the cell on the fifth floor of a building in Hamad, the IDF says.

According to the IDF, the commandos breached into the floor from one story below, opened fire, and used Rafael SPIKE FireFly loitering munitions, or suicide drones, against the gunmen.

The Hamas operatives also fired RPGs at the troops amid the exchange of fire, the IDF says.

The IDF says two of the gunmen were killed in the battle with the commandos, while the other two were killed in an airstrike against the building shortly after.

Smotrich: US sanctions aim at eliminating settler movement and establishing Palestinian state

Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich holds a press conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 13, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and head of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party, strongly criticizes the new US sanctions on settlement outposts and violent settlers, saying the government will continue to support the settlement project.

“These decisions are a capitulation by the Biden administration to the BDS campaign which is designed to tarnish the entire State of Israel and bring about the elimination of the settlement movement and the establishment of a Palestinian terror state,” says the hardline minister.

“The government of Israel stands by the side of the settlements, and these steps are totally unacceptable and we will fight to have them abolished.”

IDF says fighter jets struck Hezbollah compounds in south Lebanon after projectiles fired at Israel

Footage of IDF fighter jets striking Hezbollah compounds in southern Lebanon's Naqoura on March 14, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

The IDF says fighter jets struck Hezbollah compounds in southern Lebanon’s Naqoura a short while ago.

Another site belonging to the terror group in Yaroun was also struck.

Troops also shelled the Hamoul area with artillery to “remove a threat,” the IDF says.

The strikes come after three projectiles were fired from Lebanon at the Malkia area. There were no reports of injuries in the attacks.

מטוסי קרב תקפו לפני זמן קצר מבנים צבאיים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב א-נקורה. כמו כן, צה"ל תקף בארטילריה במרחב ואדי חמול להסרת איום.

תשתית טרור נוספת של הארגון הותקפה במרחב הכפר יארון.

בשעות האחרונות זוהו שלושה שיגורים משטח לבנון לשטח ישראל במרחב מלכיה pic.twitter.com/orFmBGRPWR

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 14, 2024

Settler lobby group blasts Biden over sanctions; Peace Now welcomes them with caveat

Illustrative: Screenshot from a video of settlers firing at the West Bank village of Umm Safa on June 24, 2023. (Twitter video screenshot: Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The Yesha umbrella organization for West Bank settlement authorities slams the US decision to sanction two settlement outposts and three Israeli settlers as “outrageous” and alleges that the step is part of US President Joe Biden’s election campaign.

“Instead of fighting the roots of Palestinian terrorism, the US is choosing to give backing to terrorists and anarchists to continue to come and attack settlements around Judea and Samaria,” says Yesha chairman Shlomo Neeman, in reference to civil rights campaigners and pro-Palestinian activists who document settler violence in the West Bank.

The Peace Now organization, which campaigns against the settlement movement, welcomes the sanctions, however, saying, “The time has come for the criminals of the illegal outposts to pay for their violence and systematic criminal activity.”

The organization says that “violence against and displacement of Palestinians” has emanated from illegal West Bank outposts for years, and said that the Israeli government should now take action and begin to dismantle the dozens of illegal outposts around the territory.

And the Combatants for Peace organization, which campaigns against Israeli rule in the West Bank, says that the Israeli government and its citizens must soon chose “between continued control of another people through suppression in exchange for diplomatic and economic disaster, or giving up this control in exchange for peace and growth,” adding that “only a political agreement will bring about a solution.”

Senior US Democratic senator Schumer urges elections in Israel, saying Netanyahu unfit to serve

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks on the Senate floor on March 14, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urges Israel to hold snap elections, arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “no longer fit” to serve as premier, as gaps between the US and Israel continue to grow over the latter’s prosecution of its war in Gaza against Hamas.

“The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7. The world has changed – radically – since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past,” says Schumer.

Netanyahu has “lost his way, putting himself in coalition with far-right extremists like [Finance Minister] Bezalel Smotrich and [National Security Minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir.”

“Extremist Palestinians and extremist Israelis seek the same goal: from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, they aim to push the other from the land,” Schumer adds.

“If Prime Minister Netanyahu’s current coalition remains in power after the war begins to wind down, and continues to pursue dangerous and inflammatory policies that test existing US standards for assistance, then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course,” Schumer says in a speech on the Senate floor.

Schumer is a longtime pro-Israel stalwart in the Democratic Party, though he has become more critical of Jerusalem’s policies as the country has moved rightward and as he has risen to the leadership of a party that has moved to the left.

He is the highest-ranking elected Jewish official in US history.

“As a democracy, Israel has the right to choose its own leaders, and we should let the chips fall where they may. But the important thing is that Israelis are given a choice. There needs to be a fresh debate about the future of Israel after October 7,” Schumer says.

“In my opinion, that is best accomplished by holding an election,” he says.

“Nobody expects Prime Minister Netanyahu to do the things that must be done to break the cycle of violence, to preserve his credibility on the world stage, to work to a two-state solution,” he continued. “Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”

Schumer also calls for the ouster of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, lumping him together with Netanyahu, the premier’s extremist allies and Hamas as obstacles to peace.

“For there to be any hope of peace in the future, Abbas must step down and be replaced by a new generation of Palestinian leaders who will work towards attaining peace with a Jewish state.”

“I also feel very keenly my responsibility as Shomer Yisroel — a guardian of the People of Israel,” he says.

Schumer says that if Israel tightens its control over Gaza and the West Bank and creates a “de facto single state,” then there should be no reasonable expectation that Hamas and their allies will lay down arms. It could mean constant war.

Today, I’m giving a major address from the Senate floor on a pathway to peace and achieving a two-state solution.

Watch live: https://t.co/cuUUWbM1xF

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 14, 2024

Israel’s Gynica starts clinical trial for endometriosis cure

Israeli biotech startup Gynica announces it has launched a clinical trial for a treatment for endometriosis, raising hopes for a cure for the disease, which afflicts one in 10 women and girls of reproductive age around the world.

Chief executive Yotam Hod says Gynica had been doing pre-clinical research and development for the past four years towards “this enormous unmet need.”

Endometriosis, which has no known cure, affects about 190 million females of reproductive age globally, according to the World Health Organization.

The disease causes tissue similar to the uterus lining to grow outside it, potentially causing severe pain in the pelvis or making it harder to get pregnant.

“This trial represents a significant step forward in our mission to revolutionize care and provide a better quality of life for the millions of women worldwide suffering from endometriosis,” Hod says.

The first-of-its-kind clinical study would evaluate the safety, tolerability, and interaction of its intra-vaginal drug delivery platform and two proprietary drug candidates, S-301 and S-302, the company says. It will be conducted at Careggi University Hospital in Florence, Italy.

Pending positive Phase 1 results, the company says it would start Phase 2 efficacy trials promptly.

Gynica aims to register its novel solutions with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Settlers sanctioned by US behind repeated attacks on Palestinians, expelling many from their lands

Illustrative: Israeli settlers hurl stones at Palestinians near the Israeli settlement of Yitzhar in the West Bank on October 7, 2020. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90/File)

The US State Department offers information explaining the decision to sanction two Israeli illegal outposts in the West Bank and three extremist settlers.

The two sanctioned outposts are Moshe’s Farm, also known as Tirza Valley outpost, which was established in January 2021; and Zvi’s Farm, near the Halamish settlement.

The three settlers sanctioned are Moshe Sharvit, who runs the former outpost, Zvi Bar Yosef, who runs the latter outpost, and Neriya Ben Pazi, from the Rimonim Farm in the West Bank.

Bar Yosef “engaged in repeated violence and attempts to engage in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank,” the State Department says. Bar Yosef “uses the outpost as a base from which he perpetrates violence against Palestinians and prevents local Palestinian farmers from accessing and using their lands.”

Sharvit “repeatedly harassed, threatened, and attacked Palestinian civilians and Israeli human rights defenders in the vicinity of Moshe’s Farm,” according to the State Department.

“In October 2023, Sharvit issued a threat against the residents of the Palestinian village of Ein Shibli, and while armed, ordered them to leave their homes. This threat resulted in up to 100 Palestinian civilians fleeing their village in fear for their lives.”

Sharvit has been using Moshe’s Farm “as a base from which he perpetrates violence against Palestinians,” the State Department says.

Ben Pazi “has expelled Palestinian shepherds from hundreds of acres of land. In August 2023, he and other settlers attacked Palestinians near the village of Wadi as-Seeq.”

Gantz’s party to boycott meeting on draft with Netanyahu, Deri

File: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Waer Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz at a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Oct. 28, 2023. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)

Minister Benny Gantz will boycott a Thursday evening meeting on the draft with Prime Minister Netanyahu over the government’s refusal to seriously discuss his party’s enlistment proposal.

The planned meeting between the prime minister, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Shas leader Aryeh Deri comes a day after another meeting on the issue during which Netanyahu decided to ask the High Court to allow the government to delay submitting an explanation as to why it should not begin drafting yeshiva students.

Gantz’s National Unity party will participate in any substantive discussion of the issue but “will not be a partner to exercises and tricks at the expense of the state’s security needs,” it says in a statement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has refused to take steps to discuss war cabinet ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot’s proposed military enlistment outline or other solutions to the draft crisis, the party claims.

Gantz and Eisenkot’s outline — which calls for gradual annual increases in Haredi military service, but does not detail specific quotas — is the only plan publicly presented by members of Netanyahu’s coalition thus far.

The two former IDF chief of staffs’ plan has been “presented to the representatives of the various factions,” the party’s statement says. But “so far no agreement or willingness to hold a professional discussion has been expressed in order to promote the outline and no alternative has been presented either.”

The statement notes that Gantz asked Netanyahu yesterday to convene a meeting on the plan but the invitation had not been accepted.

An unsourced report by Channel 12 earlier this week claimed that the prime minister had conveyed to the Haredi parties that “he would be sure to compensate them retroactively” if the High Court finds 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 in breach of the law, and they and the institutions where they study would be denied state funds.

Israel Hayom recently reported that the cabinet is expected to instruct Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to postpone the enlistment of members of the ultra-Orthodox community until the beginning of July, while it formulates a new conscription law.

US targets 2 Israeli outposts, 3 settlers in second round of sanctions, Treasury website shows

An image of the illegal West Bank outpost of Tzon Kedar Farms / Mitzpe Yehuda from 2020 which was legalized by the government in February 2023. (Screen capture/Facebook; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The United States has imposed sanctions on three Israeli settlers and two illegal outposts implicated in West Bank violence, the US Treasury Department’s website shows.

This is the second round of penalties, after four Israeli extremists were sanctioned last month.

The two sanctioned outposts are Moshe’s Farm, also known as Tirza Valley outpost, which was established in January 2021; and Zvi’s Farm, near the Halamish settlement.

The three settlers sanctioned are Moshe Sharvit, who runs the former outpost, Zvi Bar Yosef, who runs the latter outpost, and Neriya Ben Pazi, from the Rimonim Farm in the West Bank.

The Treasury update does not include information regarding the violence they’ve been implicated in, which are likely be revealed in a subsequent statement from the State Department.

Suspect in stabbing attack identified as Israeli citizen who grew up in Gaza

Medics and security forces at the scene of a terror stabbing attack at Beit Kama junction in southern Israel, March 14, 2024. (Magen David Adom)

The terrorist who carried out the stabbing attack at the Beit Kama junction is identified by the Shin Bet as Fadi Abu Altayef, 22, an Israeli citizen residing in Rahat who is originally from the Gaza Strip.

Abu Altayef’s mother is from the Bedouin city of Rahat, and his father is from the Gaza Strip. They currently both reside in Gaza.

Abu Altayef grew up in the Gaza Strip until the age of 18, according to police. He was given Israeli citizenship in 2019 after getting married.

SpaceX launches test of Starship megarocket

SpaceX attempts another launch of Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket that is vital to NASA’s plans for landing astronauts on the Moon later this decade — and Elon Musk’s hopes of eventually colonizing Mars.

Two previous attempts have ended in spectacular explosions, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing: The company has adopted a rapid trial-and-error approach in order to accelerate development, and the strategy has brought success in the past.

Blastoff from the company’s launch site in southeast Texas was planned for 8:10 local time (1310 GMT) with weather 70 percent favorable, SpaceX says.

SpaceX is running a webcast on its website.

When the two stages of Starship are combined, the rocket stands 397 feet (121 meters) tall — beating the Statue of Liberty by a comfortable 90 feet.

Its Super Heavy Booster produces 16.7 million pounds (74.3 Meganewtons) of thrust, almost double that of the world’s second most powerful rocket, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) — though the latter is now certified, while Starship is still a prototype.

Watch Starship’s third flight test → https://t.co/bJFjLCiTbK https://t.co/1u46r769Vp

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2024

Palestinian health officials: 6 killed by IDF fire while waiting for aid trucks

Officials in the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza say six Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire yesterday as crowds of residents awaited aid trucks in Gaza City.

The report could not be independently verified.

Residents and health officials say Palestinians were rushing to get aid supplies at the Kuwait Roundabout in northern Gaza City late last night when Israeli forces opened fire.

The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.

‘Pockets of famine’: EU humanitarian chief urges Israel to boost land access to Gaza

Displaced Palestinians carry a box of food rations provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) at a makeshift street market in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 14, 2024(Mohammed Abed/AFP)

The European Union’s top humanitarian aid official says airdrops and a maritime corridor won’t be enough to make up for supplies transported by trucks into Gaza.

Janez Lenarcic, the EU’s humanitarian aid and crisis management chief, says land routes are the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to get supplies into Gaza.

“There is a risk of famine,” Lenarcic tells reporters. “We already have a very strong and credible indication that there are pockets of famine already in the Gaza Strip.”

The United Nations estimates more than half a million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are on the brink of starvation. UN agencies said earlier this month that child malnutrition levels were “particularly extreme” in the northern part of the enclave, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

Man his 50s in critical condition in terror stabbing in south; police scouring for additional suspects

Medics and security forces at the scene of a terror stabbing attack at Beit Kama junction in southern Israel, March 14, 2024. (Magen David Adom)

A man in his 50s who was seriously wounded in a terror stabbing attack at an Aroma branch at a gas station at the Beit Kama junction is being taken by medics to Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center in critical condition.

A 65-year-old man who was lightly wounded in the attack is being treated by medics at the scene, according to Channel 12.

Police say they are searching for possible additional suspects in the area. One suspect was “neutralized.”

Suspected terror stabbing attack in south: One seriously hurt, terrorist ‘neutralized’

Medics and security forces are responding to reports of a suspected terror stabbing attack at Beit Kama junction in southern Israel.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service says medics are treating one person in serious condition.

Police say the terrorist who carried out the stabbing was “neutralized.”

פיגוע דקירה בצומת בית קמה: פצוע קשה במקום – המחבל נוטרלhttps://t.co/FYaSE0S7WV pic.twitter.com/eDoazZpraZ

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) March 14, 2024

IDF: Troops find rocket launcher next to school, rockets under bed in southern Gaza

Troops of the elite LOTAR counter-terrorism unit located a multiple rocket launcher adjacent to a school and rockets under a bed in the home of a Hamas operative in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, the IDF says.

The IDF says the troops have been raiding Hamas hideout apartments and other sites in various neighborhoods of Khan Younis.

The IDF releases footage of the troops discovering the rocket launcher, which had already been used, as well as the cache of weapons in the home of the Hamas operative.

In Khan Yunis, the @IDF located a rocket launcher and missiles right by a school.

This is a clear example of Hamas' complete disregard towards the people of Gaza, systemically operating from within civilian areas. pic.twitter.com/DiCBLBSi3q

— COGAT (@cogatonline) March 14, 2024

Jewish Agency offers NIS 100,000 reward for info leading to missing 9-year-old girl

Haymanut Kasau, 9, who went missing on February 25, 2024, from a Jewish Agency absorption center in Safed, northern Israel. (Courtesy)

The Jewish Agency has offered a NIS 100,000 ($27,500) reward for information that leads authorities to the whereabouts of a 9-year-old girl who has been missing from the northern city of Safed for over two weeks, according to Hebrew media reports.

Police are continuing the search for Haymanut Kasau, though there are currently no reports of leads in the hunt.

The girl was last seen in security footage at 7:45 p.m. on February 25 handing out municipal election leaflets outside the Jewish Agency absorption center, where she has lived for the past three years since immigrating with her family from Ethiopia.

She is 1.20 meters (3’11”) tall and is slim with dark hair and dark eyes.

She was wearing pink pants, a black skirt, and a white shirt at the time of her disappearance.

Arab media reports: Hamas ‘executed’ local clan member in Gaza City

Hamas has killed the leader of the powerful Doghmush clan in Gaza City, for allegedly stealing humanitarian aid and being in contact with Israel, according to unconfirmed Arab media reports.

The reports said that the clan leader, who was not named, was “executed” in the family compound along with two others.

Earlier this week, a Hamas-linked website warned Palestinian individuals or groups against cooperating with Israel to provide security for aid convoys amid the spiraling humanitarian crisis as war rages in Gaza, sparked by the terror group’s October 7 attack.

IDF hits Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in response to thwarted attack on north

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

The strikes come after air defenses intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon.

The IDF says it struck Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon's Kounine a short while ago. pic.twitter.com/XZxdOuqY0f

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 14, 2024

Charity: Second ship with Gaza aid being loaded in Cyprus

A member of the World Central Kitchen walks by the humanitarian aid loaded onto pallets for transport to the port of Larnaca from where it's going to be shipped to Gaza, at a warehouse near Larnaca, Cyprus, March 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

NICOSIA – A second ship with food aid to Gaza is being loaded in Cyprus, a charity arranging the mission says, as the first ship in a pilot trial of maritime deliveries nears the Strip.

World Central Kitchen (WCK) says it is loading a vessel at Larnaca port with 300 tons of food aid – including legumes, canned tuna, vegetables, rice and flour.

“Our pallets should be screened and loaded by the end of the day Cyprus time,” WCK says in a statement, without specifying when the vessel would set sail.

Cyprus is screening aid cargos on the island in a process including Israel to eliminate security checks at offloading destinations, officials say.

A ship towing a barge carrying almost 200 tons of food aid for Gaza left Cyprus on Tuesday, charting a new route to deliver emergency supplies to a population humanitarian agencies say is at risk of starvation after more than five months of war.

UK redefines extremism to include promoting ‘violence, hatred or intolerance,’ negating rights

The UK government unveils a new definition of extremism that will determine which organizations get public funds and meetings with officials, prompting criticism from various civic, political and religious groups.

The change comes weeks after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned of a “shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality” that risked the country tipping into “mob rule.”

Sunak’s comments follow months of controversial pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests in British cities protesting the war in Gaza that erupted after Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre.

The new wording brands extremism “the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance” that aims to “negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.”

Police arrest East Jerusalem man in possession of illegal firearms, ammo

Weapons seized by police in East Jerusalem in a photo released on March 14, 2024. (Israel Police)

Jerusalem police have detained a 28-year-old East Jerusalem resident after he was found to be in possession of two illegal firearms and ammunition, police say in a statement.

One of the guns was found hidden in a closet among colorful children’s birthday candles, the statement says, adding that officers searched the suspect’s home and barbershop as part of the investigation.

Police say they were able to connect the suspect with the seized weapons using photos on his cellphone.

The suspect was apprehended “as part of the ongoing police fight against gun crimes” in the Arab Israeli community, the statement says.

The suspect’s remand is extended until Sunday and he is expected to be indicted in the coming days.

Senior IDF intelligence officer resigns over illicit relationship with subordinate

The intelligence officer of the IDF Southern Command will immediately quit his role for having an illicit, but consensual, relationship with a subordinate officer.

The relationship began after the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip, and ended a short while later.

The officer, who holds the rank of colonel, told his superiors that he took responsibility for his actions and wished to resign.

He will be replaced in the coming days.

The IDF says in response to the incident: “The officer will end his position immediately after he behaved in a manner that is not in accordance with the norms of commanders and the values ​​of the IDF.”

IDF preparing for arrival of first humanitarian aid shipment from Cyprus to Gaza

A ship belonging to the Open Arms aid group with aid on a platform ferrying some 200 tons of rice and flour to Gaza, departs from the port from southern city of Larnaca, Cyprus, March 12, 2024 (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

The IDF says it is preparing for the arrival of a ship from Cyprus bringing almost 200 tons of food to the Gaza Strip, in what will be the first humanitarian aid delivery by sea.

The charity ship Open Arms set sail on Tuesday out of Larnaca port, towing a barge containing a load of flour, rice, and protein from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) organization, funded by the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus.

The IDF says the aid delivery is being “carried out in coordination with Israeli security and civilian authorities, in accordance with the directive of the government of Israel and at the request of the US government.”

The ship will be inspected by the Israeli Navy at sea once it gets to around 20 nautical miles from the Gaza coast, according to information seen by The Times of Israel. From there, the aid ship will be escorted by the Navy and Air Force toward Gaza’s coast. At a certain stage, an Israeli vessel will tow the aid to a makeshift temporary pier built by WCK in the central Gaza Strip.

The distribution of the aid itself, however, will not be carried out by the IDF. An Israeli official previously told The Times of Israel that WCK is responsible for getting the food to Gazan civilians.

At the coast, the IDF will secure the aid at a distance from the air and sea, similar to how it has secured convoys on the ground.

The first delivery by sea will serve as a trial run for the IDF for future and potentially larger convoys of humanitarian aid to the Strip’s coast. The IDF is also carrying out trials of delivering aid directly to northern Gaza using a new military road. Various nations also are still carrying out airdrops.

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un unveils and ‘drives’ new battle tank amid drill

This picture taken on March 13, 2024 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 14 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) pictured in the driver's position of a new main battle tank after a training competition between the combined forces of the Korean People's Army tank crews at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un drove a “new-type main battle tank” while overseeing military training exercises, state media says, as Seoul and Washington wrap joint drills to improve deterrence.

Wearing a black leather jacket, Kim saluted ranks of camouflage-uniformed troops, and watched live-fire “training march” exercises from a field command post, flanked by top generals, images published by state media show.

After he reviewed the tank crews, Kim “mounted a new-type main battle tank, seized the control lever and drove the tank himself,” the official Korean Central News Agency reports.

The KCNA report comes as Seoul and Washington hold the final day of their annual Freedom Shield exercises — involving missile interception drills and air assault, among others.

The nuclear-armed North has long condemned joint US-South Korea military drills, calling them rehearsals for an invasion. It has carried out weapons tests in the past as a response to previous joint exercises of this nature.

IDF says ‘suspicious aerial target’ from Lebanon intercepted near border

The IDF says a “suspicious aerial target” that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon, near the northern community of Ma’ayan Baruch, was successfully intercepted by air defenses.

The incident set off sirens in the nearby community of Kfar Blum.

Rocket Alerts [10:11:50] – 1 Alert:

• Confrontation Line — Kfar Blum#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/p3ONn9x4Go

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) March 14, 2024

IDF chief summons general for ‘clarification’ after off-script remarks

The commander of the 98th Division, Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus, speaks to the press from the Gaza border, March 13, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

The commander of the 98th Division, Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus, has been summoned for a “clarification conversation” with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi tomorrow over his off-script remarks in a press conference yesterday.

Goldfus addressed Israel’s political leadership after a prepared and approved statement, telling them they must “be worthy of us,” that the military would “not run away from responsibility,” and that they must reject extremism.

The IDF has said these remarks had not been authorized by Goldfus’s superiors and were added in after the speech had been approved.

Hamas says Gaza death toll at least 31,341

A Palestinian boy sits among rubble in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on March 13, 2024. (AFP)

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says the Palestinian death toll in the Strip has reached at least 31,341.

A ministry statement adds that 73,134 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war began on October 7, sparked by Hamas’s brutal massacre in southern Israel.

The figures issued by the Hamas-run health ministry cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires.

The IDF says it has killed over 13,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

IDF orders cancellation of religious event on Mount Meron over fears of Hezbollah attack

Rockets launched from Lebanon strike the Mount Meron area, March 10, 2024. (Screenshot: X)

The IDF Home Front Command has ordered the cancellation of a planned memorial event next week on Mount Meron, due to fears of Hezbollah rocket and missile attacks.

Some 30,000 people had been expected to participate in the event on Sunday and Monday, commemorating the anniversary of the birth and death of the biblical prophet Moses.

The military says the event is canceled “per the assessment of the situation in the IDF, and in coordination with the other relevant bodies.”

Hezbollah has attacked Mount Meron, which is located some eight kilometers (5 miles) from the Lebanon border, several times amid the ongoing war, launching large barrages of rockets at the mountain, as well as missiles at a military base that sits atop it.

The commander of the Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, requests that police enforce the ban and prevent crowds from reaching the site.

Survey: Public trust in IDF higher than ever, ‘noticeable decline’ in faith in government

The Israel Defense Forces and local authorities have received the highest trust ratings of any public institution among Jewish Israelis in the 2023 Israeli Democracy Index survey, while Arab Israeli faith in public institutions was seen to be on the rise.

The survey, usually taken annually, was conducted in June 2023 and then repeated at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 to gauge public sentiment following the outbreak of the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

Among Jewish Israelis, the IDF has the highest trust rating among state institutions (86 percent on average), followed by municipalities/local authorities (55% in June, 64% in December) and President Isaac Herzog (54% in June, 61% in December).

On the other end of the spectrum, the survey finds a “noticeable decline in trust in the government and the Knesset” (from 28% to 23% for the government, and from 24% to 19% for the Knesset).

Among Arab Israelis, where trust in state institutions is generally lower than among Jewish Israelis, the survey finds a sharp rise in trust since October 7. Trust in the IDF rose among Arab Israelis from 21% in June to 44% in December, according to the index, and the Supreme Court led the trust rankings (26% in June and 53% in December).

“The rupture that we experienced following the events of October 7th is reflected in the findings of this year’s Israeli Democracy Index: the public places great trust in the IDF and its commanders, who set a personal example, take responsibility, and act with courage and conviction in every aspect of the war,” IDI president Yohanan Plesner says in a statement.

High Court orders education minister to respond to Israel Prize petitions next week

The High Court of Justice orders Education Minister Yoav Kisch and the government to respond within one week to petitions demanding that he reverse his decision to drastically pare down the Israel Prize for 2024.

Shahar Ben Meir and the Bashaar academic association filed petitions to the court against Kisch’s decision after it emerged that the education minister had shrunk the annual Israel Prize awards to just two war-related categories this year. It was alleged that he had done so to avoid bestowing the Entrepreneurship Award on the leading candidate, tech entrepreneur Eyal Waldman, a prominent critic of the government’s judicial overhaul agenda.

The High Court says it is setting a short timeline for the case since Independence Day, when the Israel Prize ceremony is held, is just two months away, and orders Kisch and the state to file their responses by March 21.

The petitioners have until March 26 to submit their substantive arguments to the court.

The court accedes to a request made by judges on one of the Israel Prize selection committees to bar the publication of the names of the committee members and their reasoning regarding the awardee.

China: US House vote on TikTok ownership goes against fair competition

A US House of Representatives vote that would force TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent company or be banned in the United States was contrary to fair competition, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman says.

“The bill passed by the United States House of Representatives puts the United States on the opposite side of the principles of fair competition and international economic and trade rules,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin says.

The US bill, passed yesterday by a vote of 352-65, now goes to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear.

TikTok, which has more than 150 million American users, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd.

IAEA chief discussed Iran’s nuclear program with Putin last week – Russian state media

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Director General Alexey Likhachev, centre, and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, right, attend a meeting in Sochi, Russia, March 6, 2024. (Ramil Sitdikov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi says he has discussed Iran’s nuclear program with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reports.

The agency says Gross met with Putin during his visit to Russia last week.

US urges Panama to stop Iranian ships from flying its flag to evade sanctions

Illustrative - In this photo released by Suez Canal Authority, the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship, is accompanied by Suez Canal tugboats as it moves in the Suez Canal, Egypt, Monday, March 29, 2021. (Suez Canal Authority via AP)

A United States special envoy has urged Panama to stop Iranian ships from flying its flag, which allows Tehran to evade sanctions imposed by Washington.

The small Central American nation is the world leader in offering flags of convenience, which allow shipping companies to register their vessels in countries to which they have no link — for a fee and freedom from oversight.

“Iran and actors related to Iran are trying to evade sanctions here in Panama. They’re trying to abuse Panama’s flag registry,” says Abram Paley, US deputy special envoy for Iran.

Paley was visiting the country yesterday “to ensure Panama’s shipping registry and jurisdiction is not abused by entities attempting to evade our sanctions on Iran.”

According to the Panama Maritime Authority, the country has registered 8,540 ships, about 16 percent of the global fleet.

Washington suspects that some of them are used by Iran to transport oil or its derivatives, to bypass sanctions.

The US government accuses Iran of financing Yemen’s Houthi rebels and other terror groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas with the revenue it receives from oil sales.

Bennett to CNN: ‘We have to take Rafah if we want Hamas to go away’

In an interview with CNN, former prime minister Naftali Bennett reiterates Israel’s position that a military operation in Rafah is necessary to eliminate the Hamas terror group.

“Almost every Israeli understands that we have to take Rafah if we want Hamas to go away,” Bennett says. “If we don’t destroy them fully they’ll reconstitute themselves.”

He says that the one million civilians sheltering in the southern city can be moved to “the area north of Khan Younis.”

“Look, it’s not a five-star hotel. It’s not pleasant there. Nothing here is something that we wanted to do,” he says.

Asked about reports that the White House is trying to push Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out, he says, “Israel is a vibrant democracy and it’s no secret that there’s massive unrest in Israel vis-a-vis the political situation… but by the same token the overwhelming majority of Israelis support the goal, and the goal is to destroy Hamas – because we really don’t have any other choice.

Bennett posts on X, formerly Twitter, that he is continuing a “hasbara [advocacy] marathon” of interviews on foreign media, after he also spoke to Fox News yesterday.

״שוגה מי שלוחץ על ישראל לעצור עכשיו, לפני טיפול ברפיח.
אסור לתת לחמאס להתאושש ולהשתקם.״
– ראיון שלי ברשת CNN.

ממשיך במרתון ההסברה. pic.twitter.com/Wg6kQnVJxR

— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) March 13, 2024

IDF spots, eliminates terror squad launching mortar at Israel from central Gaza

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip, in a photo cleared for publication on March 14, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says that yesterday it spotted and struck a group of terror operatives launching a mortar from central Gaza at Israeli border communities.

The mortar had fallen short and impacted inside the Strip, and within five minutes the cell was located and killed in an airstrike, the IDF says.

Also in central Gaza, the IDF says the Nahal Brigade killed several Hamas gunmen over the past day, including by calling in airstrikes and tank shelling.

In southern Gaza, the 98th Division continues to battle Hamas in the Khan Younis area.

The IDF says the Givati Brigade raided buildings in Khan Younis’s Hamad Town residential complex, locating a rocket launcher in one of them.

Givati troops also called in an airstrike on two Hamas operatives spotted in their area, the IDF says.

In the Bani Suheila area, the 7th Armored Brigade spotted and called in tank shelling against three operatives who were approaching them, and also called in an airstrike on two operatives near a Hamas weapons depot, the IDF says.

Report: Houthis successfully test hypersonic missile, plan to begin production

Houthi supporters attend a rally against the US airstrikes on Yemen and the war in Gaza, in Sanaa, Yemen, March 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have successfully tested a hypersonic rocket in Yemen, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports, citing a military source.

According to the report, the Houthis are planning to begin manufacturing the missiles for use against targets in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as well as Israel.

The Yemen-based terror group has said that it would escalate attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in solidarity with Palestinians amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Months of Houthi Red Sea attacks have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to reroute to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa, and stoking fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to destabilize the wider Middle East.

Protesters block Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway calling for deal to free 19 women held by Hamas

Protesters demanding the immediate release of 130 hostages held by terror groups in Gaza since October 7 are blocking morning traffic on Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway.

In videos on social media, the crowd of protesters can be heard chanting, “Deal now!” calling for a hostage release agreement with the Hamas terror group, and holding photos of 19 women still held captive, after 105 civilians — mostly women and children — were released during a weeklong truce in late November.

עכשיו באיילון: כחלק ממחאת הנשים קרובי חטופים ומפגינים למען שחרורם חוסמים כעת את איילון דרום וקוראים "עסקה עכשיו". @N12News pic.twitter.com/f1cBWu8VsD

— אור רביד | Or Ravid (@OrRavid) March 14, 2024

The tactic of blocking roads has been used repeatedly in recent months as the hostages’ families have pledged to intensify measures to disrupt public order in order to secure the return of their loved ones.

Netanyahu, Gallant spar over humanitarian aid to Gaza; PM: ‘I’m not willing to hear about the PA’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant got into a spat over the issue of aid to Palestinians amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip in a closed-door discussion earlier this week, according to a Hebrew media report.

Channel 12 reports that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer brought up the issue, which he says “is critical these days.”

“You’re telling me?” Gallant retorts, according to the reported leaks from senior officials privy to the conversation. “You’ve only just started talking about [humanitarian aid]. The problem is not bringing the supplies in, but with who distributes it. Someone has to take control and it won’t be Sweden. It has to be the Palestinian Authority.”

“You can talk about [PA intel chief] Majed Faraj or [former PA security head Mohammad] Dahlan, it doesn’t matter,” the defense minister says, referring to efforts to reform the PA government to better position it to eventually retake control over Gaza.

“You’re making political considerations,” the defense minister charges, to which Netanyahu reportedly retorts: “I’m not willing to hear about the Palestinian Authority.”

Gallant responds, “No matter what we call it, these are people who are aligned with Fatah.”

US expected to impose new sanctions on 2 West Bank outposts, 3 settlers — report

The Biden administration is expected to impose new sanctions on two illegal outposts in the West Bank that were used as a base for attacks by “extremist” Israeli settlers against Palestinians, Axios reports, citing three US officials.

The sanctions, expected to be imposed as soon as Thursday, are intended to send a message that the US is not only targeting individuals but also entities involved in providing logistical and financial support to attacks against Palestinians, Axios says citing one US official.

New sanctions will also be imposed on three Israeli settlers, the US officials told Axios.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Axios report.

Released American hostage says nurses in Gaza hospital ‘cheered’ at sight of abductees

Released hostage Judith Raanan speaks to News Nation in a TV interview aired March 13, 2024. (Screenshot/News Nation used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Released American hostage Judith Raanan, who was taken together with her teenaged Natalie Raanan by Hamas on October 7, says nurses at a hospital where they were brought after being abducted cheered at the sight of the Israeli “prey.”

The mother and her then 17-year-old daughter from Chicago were traveling in Israel to celebrate a relative’s 85th birthday and the Jewish holiday season when Hamas launched its October 7 killing spree. They had been celebrating Simchat Torah, a festive Jewish holiday that marks the conclusion of the annual reading of the Torah, in Nahal Oz, a kibbutz about a mile (1.61 kilometers) from the Gaza border that Saturday morning and were taken along with 251 other hostages to Gaza.

The pair were released on October 20, among the first and only hostages to be released unilaterally by Gazan terrorists.

Natalie Raanan, 2nd left, Judith Raanan, right, are seen upon arrival in Israel after being released from Hamas captivity as government hostage envoy Gal Hirsch, center, holds their hands, October 20, 2023. (Courtesy)

In her first TV interview since the release, Raanan, 59, told NewsNation in a segment that aired Wednesday that the nurses at the hospital ululated and “were all so happy that they came back with prey, with Israeli, Jewish prey.”

“The minute we came in, all the nurses were standing there and going like this [cheering],” she says.

Raanan recalls a “leader nurse” who led the celebrations and others “were afraid of her.”

“I really don’t think all of them were happy to see us, they were very much terrified,” she says.

Raanan says once in Gaza, she also interacted with someone she believed to be a “very high-ranked” Hamas leader who spoke “brilliant Hebrew.”

Wearing a “free the hostages” tag, a Star of David necklace, and a yellow pin, she says a deal must be reached to free the remaining hostages in Gaza.

“We have hostages that are going through mental, physical, emotional hardship and need to be released,” she says.

Delta to resume flights to Israel starting June 7

Delta Air Lines says it will resume flights to Israel starting June 7, becoming the second major US carrier to do so following the Octover 7 Hamas terror onslaught on southern Israel.

Delta says it will begin daily flights between New York-JFK and Tel Aviv on an Airbus A330-900neo following an extensive security risk assessment by the airline.

United Airlines resumed flights to Israel earlier this month from Newark but does not plan to restart flights from other US cities until at least this fall.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Holocaust memorial vandalized in Paris suburb of Drancy

A Holocaust memorial in the Paris suburb of Drancy was vandalized this week, with officials and authorities denouncing the act as antisemitic.

“During the night of Tuesday, March 12 to Wednesday, March 13, damage was caused to the façade of the Shoah [Holocaust] Memorial. An impact from a pellet shot on a window…cracked the glass,” Jacques Witkowski, who represents the state in the administrative division, also known as department, of Seine-Saint-Denis, tells AFP. The incident falls under the department’s jurisdiction.

Witkowski says he condemns “firmly the damage committed” expressing outrage “at this antisemitic act that targets a place of memory.”

Le #Crif condamne fermement les dégradations commises sur la façade du @Shoah_Memorial à Drancy, dans la nuit de mardi à mercredi.

Viser le Mémorial de Drancy, un lieu dédié à la transmission de la mémoire de la Shoah, c'est vouloir effacer à la fois la Mémoire des victimes et… pic.twitter.com/ffiWk52Buo

— CRIF (@Le_CRIF) March 13, 2024

The Drancy Holocaust memorial was inaugurated in 2012. It commemorates the victims of the Vel d’Hiv round-up in July 1942.

Over the course of two terrifying days, police herded 13,152 Jewish people — including 4,115 children — into the Winter Velodrome of Paris, known as the Vel d’Hiv, before they were sent on to Nazi camps. It was the biggest such roundup in western Europe.

The raids were among the most shameful acts undertaken by France during World War II, and among the darkest moments in its history.

Drancy held a transit center that was central to French Jews’ deadly journey to Nazi camps. Some 63,000 people were held over the course of the war.

Jacques Fredj, director of the Shoah Memorial in Paris, says “the climate of unprecedented rise in antisemitism in France shows to what extent the educational work carried out by the memorial in Drancy and throughout France is more necessary than ever.”

The institution filed a complaint against the attack Wednesday morning

In 2023, mainly after the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, the number of antisemitic acts increased fourfold in one year in France, which has the largest Jewish community in Europe.

Stéphane Troussel, the president of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, said he was “deeply revolted by this antisemitic act,” which he called “an attack on the memory of the Jewish community, but also on our collective memory.”

US military says it destroyed 4 unmanned aerial systems in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen

The US military says it destroyed four unmanned aerial systems and one surface-to-air missile in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

US Central Command says on the social media site X that the strikes came after Houthi militants fired an anti-ship ballistic missile into the Gulf of Aden. No injuries or damage were reported

Yemen’s Houthis fired missile in Gulf of Aden, no damage reported, US says

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) says the Iranian-backed Houthis fired one anti-ship ballistic missile from Yemen into the Gulf of Aden, but it caused no damage to any vessels.

UK unveils new extremism definition amid rise in hate crimes against Jews, Muslims

A pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activist shouts through a loudspeaker on a march through London, during a National Day of Action for Palestine on March 9, 2024. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)

Britain unveiled a new definition of extremism on Thursday in response to an eruption of hate crimes against Jews and Muslims since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, although critics said the change risked infringing on freedom of speech.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned that Britain’s multi-ethnic democracy was being deliberately undermined by both Islamist and far-right extremists, and more needed to be done to tackle the problem.

Antisemitic incidents rose by 147% in 2023 to record levels, fueled by Hamas’s October 7 attacks, according to Community Security Trust, a Jewish safety watchdog. Tell Mama, a group that monitors anti-Muslim incidents, said last month that anti-Muslim hate crimes also had grown by 335% since the attack.

“Today’s measures will ensure that government does not inadvertently provide a platform to those setting out to subvert democracy and deny other people’s fundamental rights,” says Michael Gove, the communities minister who heads the department that produced the new extremism definition.

“This is the first in a series of measures to tackle extremism and protect our democracy,” Gove says

The new definition states that extremism “is the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance,” that aims to destroy fundamental rights and freedoms; or undermine or replace the UK’s liberal parliamentary democracy; or intentionally create an environment for others to achieve those results.

Britain already bans groups that it says are involved in terrorism, and supporting or being a member of these organizations is a criminal offence. The Palestinian terror group Hamas is among the 80 international organizations that are banned.

Groups that will be identified as extremist following a “robust” assessment over the next few weeks will not be subject to any action under criminal laws and will still be permitted to hold demonstrations.

But the government will not provide them with any funding or any other form of engagement. Currently, no groups have been officially defined as extremist using the former definition which has been in place since 2011.

Even before the new definition was announced, critics warned it could be counter-productive.

Gove says in an interview on Sunday that some recent large-scale pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel marches in central London had been organized by “extremist organizations,” and people might choose not to support such protests if they knew they were giving credence to those groups.

Last week, the United Kingdom’s counterterrorism commissioner warned that the streets of central London have become “a no-go zone for Jews every weekend” because of massive weekly anti-Israel demonstrations held by pro-Palestinian protesters. The protests have featured anti-Israel chants and a number of arrests.

In an opinion piece published Thursday by The Telegraph, Robin Simcox described the atmosphere in Britain since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, which has led to “skyrocketing” antisemitism in the UK.

“Inflammatory and borderline criminal rhetoric widely shared on social media. A sense that the terrorism threat is rising,” Simcox wrote.

“Protests becoming ever more vociferous, with ‘from the river to the sea’ beamed onto the side of Big Ben during a vote on Gaza. MPs more fearful for their safety than ever,” he wrote, referring to a slogan that critics say is a genocidal call for Israel’s destruction.

Ex-rideshare driver accused in California antisemitic attack charged with federal hate crime

Federal prosecutors charged a former rideshare driver in connection with an antisemitic attack on a passenger at San Francisco International Airport in 2023 that occurred weeks after the Hamas-led shock incursion into Israel on October 7 that sparked the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

The 39-year-old man was arrested today and was in court for his initial appearance. He is charged with committing a federal hate crime and faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The alleged attack occurred on Oct. 26, 2023, when federal prosecutors say the defendant approached the victim at a pickup spot and asked if they were Jewish or Israeli, saying he would not transport a Jewish or Israeli person. He then punched the victim in the face, prosecutors allege.

The indictment did not mention whether the victim was actually Jewish or Israeli, only that the defendant perceived them to be.

The defendant’s federal public defender did not immediately return a request for comment.

US would support limited IDF operation in Rafah to go after high-value Hamas targets — report

US officials have relayed to Israeli counterparts that the Biden administration would support a limited operation in Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah, that would prioritize “high-value” Hamas targets in and underneath the city and forgo a large-scale offensive, Politico reports, citing four US officials.

The US has opposed an Israeli offensive in Rafah — believed to be Hamas’s last stronghold and home to its last four battalions — without a plan to protect over a million displaced Gazans who have found refuge in the city from fighting in the northern and central parts of the Palestinian enclave. Other countries have also warned Israel against an invasion of Rafah.

But unnamed officials tell Politico that in private meetings, top administration officials have told the Israelis that the US would back a strategy for “counterterrorism operations” in Rafah rather than full-scale war, like elsewhere in Gaza.

An Israeli official tells the publication that some kind of offensive or operation in Gaza is inevitable.

“At the end of the day, we cannot win this war without defeating Hamas’ battalions in Rafah,” the official says.

Earlier today, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant hinted that Israel will soon launch a ground operation in Rafah in southern Gaza while on a visit to Gaza City.

“There is no safe place in Gaza for terrorists…Those who think that we are delaying will soon see that we will reach everyone,” he says. “We will bring to justice anyone who was involved in October 7 — either we will eliminate them or bring them to trial in Israel. There is no safe place, not here, not outside of Gaza, not anywhere across the Middle East — we will bring everyone to their place.”

A Defense Department official tells Politico that the US has not picked up that an offensive on Rafah is imminent.

“They’d have to do some repositioning of forces, and that has not happened,” says the official. “It’s not imminent.”

“Israel is going to do what Israel decides to do. It’s kind of like trying to predict the weather,” the official adds. “But has the message sent been heard? Yes.”

Blinken: US coordinating multinational effort to get maritime aid corridor into Gaza up and running

Washington is working to coordinate a multinational effort to set up a maritime aid corridor into Gaza, says US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, part of a US strategy of “flooding the zone” with humanitarian assistance.

Blinken held a video conference earlier with officials from Cyprus, Britain, the UAE, Qatar, the European Union and the United Nations to discuss getting the new route up and running.

The US was also working with Israel on the corridor, also supported by Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Canada, but it would take time to establish the corridor, Blinken tells reporters at the State Department.

“I want to emphasize it is a complement to, not a substitute for, other ways of getting humanitarian assistance into Gaza, and in particular overland routes remain the most critical way to get assistance in and then to people who need it,” Blinken says.

Blinken says Israel needs to open as many land crossings into Gaza as possible, noting that shipments into northern Gaza began this week through a crossing known as the 96th gate. The US military has also dropped meals into the strip from aircraft.

“Overland routes remain the most critical way to get assistance in and then to people who need it, but this will help close the gap,” he says

But Blinken took a distance from EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, whom he met earlier in the day and who said Tuesday at the United Nations that Israel was using food as a “war arm.”

“Of course the Israelis have been not only allowing food in, they have been working to make sure that it gets in and gets to people who need it,” Blinken says.

“The bottom line is we need to see… flooding the zone when it comes to humanitarian assistance for Gaza,” Blinken says, adding that Washington continues to push for a deal that would see a temporary pause in fighting and the release of remaining hostages held in Gaza.

Blinken says there is a “strong proposal on the table right now for a [temporary] ceasefire and the question is whether Hamas will take it.” Washington, he says is “intensely engaged every single day, every single hour to achieve a ceasefire.”

He also says the US is committed “to make sure that Israel has the means to defend itself.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.