March 17: Biden says there is ‘urgent need’ for aid to Gaza, deal for truce and hostage release

Biden: There is ‘urgent need’ for aid to Gaza, deal for truce and hostage release

US President Joe Biden, left, and Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar arrive at a St. Patrick's Day brunch with Catholic leaders in the East Room of the White House, Sunday, March 17, 2024. (AP/Stephanie Scarbrough)

US President Joe Biden says there is “an urgent need to increase the scope of humanitarian aid to Gaza” and secure an agreement that will halt the fighting and release the hostages taken from Israel on October 7.

Biden spoke before a St. Patrick’s Day brunch at the White House’s East Room on Sunday, in the presence of Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, and his partner, Matthew Barrett, as well as Catholic leaders. The room was decked out for the holiday, with an Irish flag, shamrocks and green and gold tablecloths. Guest seating cards were written in Celtic-looking green lettering.

Biden, a devout Catholic who is exceedingly proud of his Irish heritage, said he was grateful to Varadkar for spending time with him on the holiday, and he thanked the Catholic leaders for their humanitarian work.

He says an agreement to pause the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre, would “lead us towards a two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “This is the only path to peace and security,” says Biden.

Ireland has been among the most critical in Europe of Israel’s conduct in war against Hamas in Gaza, which was launched after Hamas terrorists rampaged through southern communities on October 7, slaughtering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Palestinian terrorists also abducted 253 people, of which around 130 are still inside Gaza, although Israel says about 30 of them are presumed dead.

Cousin of Hamas captive Shiri Bibas says TikTok deleted video calling for family’s release

Israelis hold photographs of the Bibas family at a press conference calling for the release of then-10-month-old Kfir, 4-year-old Ariel, and their parents, Shiri and Yarden, at 'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv, November 28, 2023. (Miriam Alster/ Flash90)

A cousin of Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped with her husband and two young children on October 7, says a video calling for the family’s release was removed from TikTok.

The world is now familiar with the Hamas video that captured Shiri’s look of sheer terror as she gripped her two redheaded boys, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, then-9 months, close to her chest as they were captive from their Kibbutz Nir Oz home on October 7. Her husband, Yarden Bibas, 34, was taken hostage separately.

In a post on social media, Yifat Zailer says the video was shared on the official Hostage and Missing Families Forum profile and removed as “political.”

“Saying ‘bring the Bibas family back’ is political. I am shocked by the one-sidedness of their position. I am shocked that the struggle to bring home a one-year-old boy, a four-year-old boy and their parents from the captivity of a terrorist organization is a political struggle and not a crime against humanity for them. I’m finished with TikTok,” she writes.

The Walla news site quotes a response from TikTok that says the issue was a “technical fault” and that it would be fixed “as soon as possible.”

Smotrich draws storm of criticism after blaming IDF chief for October 7 failures

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

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich draws a storm of criticism after he blames IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi for the country’s failure to prevent Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

“This IDF chief of staff brought us one of the greatest disasters in the history of the country,” Smotrich said in an interview with Channel 12 earlier today.

National Unity MK Chili Tropper attacks Smotrich’s “insolent” comments in a post on Facebook. “Smotrich talks about the need for trust in the army chiefs and claims that trust has been lost.”

“Well, according to all indicators, the army actually enjoys the highest level of trust in Israeli society, while Smotrich and the Netanyahu government are suffering from a tremendous crisis of trust from the point of view of the Israeli public,” he writes, apparently referring to survey results released earlier this week that showed public support for the IDF at record highs.

MK Matan Kahana, also from National Unity, says of Smotrich, “A senior minister in the worst and most terrible government we’ve ever seen, the government that is responsible for the most terrible tragedy that has befallen the Jewish people since the Holocaust, does not even begin to understand the meaning of ‘responsibility.'”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid calls for the finance minister’s resignation. “First, accept responsibility for your failure as a government and resign. Only then will you have the right to talk about others,” Lapid writes on X, formerly Twitter.

Lapid calls on world to ‘put pressure on Hamas’, close hostage deal ASAP

Opposition leader Yair Lapid calls on the international community to put pressure on Hamas to come to an agreement to free hostages held in Gaza since October 7.

After meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, currently on his third visit to Israel since October 7, Lapid says, “The citizens of Israel are united around the need to act quickly to free the hostages. Israel’s opposition will support any moves that advance a hostage deal.”

“The international community must put pressure on Hamas and promote a deal quickly,” Lapid writes on X, formerly Twitter.

נפגשתי לפני זמן קצר עם קנצלר גרמניה אולף שולץ. אזרחי ישראל מאוחדים סביב הצורך לפעול מהר להשבת החטופים. האופוזיציה בישראל תיתן כל גיבוי למהלכים לקידום עסקת החטופים. על הקהילה הבינלאומית להפעיל לחצים על חמאס ולקדם עסקה במהירות. pic.twitter.com/n3nzh8vdaW

— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) March 17, 2024

Hamas fears Israel will extract Marwan Issa’s body from Gaza to use as bargaining chip – report

Left: Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’s military wing, circled in a photo circulated on social media in 2015. The photo or its source could not be immediately verified. Right: An IDF strike early March 10 on a tunnel where Issa was believed to be hiding. (Social media; Israel Defense Forces)

Hamas believes the body of Marwan Issa, deputy commander of the terror group’s military wing, is buried in the rubble of a destroyed tunnel in the Gaza Strip and that Israel will try to extract it to use as a bargaining chip, according to a Hebrew media report citing Palestinian sources.

Issa was targeted and believed killed in an Israel Defense Forces strike on central Gaza’s Nuseirat last week.

The Kan broadcaster also quotes the sources as saying the body of a Hamas brigade commander is also buried in the rubble and that his body could also be extracted.

Hamas is hesitant to extract the bodies in case the rescue team is attacked by the IDF, the report adds.

Issa serves as the deputy of Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Together with Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, they are believed to have masterminded the group’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war.

UK security firm reports hijacked Yemeni fishing vessel in Gulf of Aden

The British security firm Ambrey says it has received a report that a Yemeni fishing vessel was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden.

“Crew on board the fishing vessel were off-boarded in Bosaso, Somalia. One crew member was shot,” Ambrey says, in an advisory note.

Early this morning, an explosive detonated near a ship in the Gulf of Aden in a suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, potentially marking their latest assault on shipping through the crucial waterway leading to the Red Sea.

War cabinet meeting on hostage deal reportedly ends, security cabinet set to meet

Protesters call for the government to secure a deal to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, March 17, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The three-member war cabinet has completed its meeting to discuss Israel’s position in talks in Doha to secure a hostage release deal, according to Hebrew media reports.

The security cabinet is now expected to meet to decide the issue in the broader forum.

An Israeli delegation is expected to travel to Doha tomorrow for further talks on the proposed deal and to cover the remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, including the number of Palestinian prisoners who could potentially be released in exchange for the remaining Israeli hostages, as well as humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The war began on October 7 with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel in which terrorists rampaged through the south, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 253.

It is believed that 130 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 11 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.

Herzog to Scholz: ‘Prime objective’ of war in Gaza is to free hostages

President Isaac Herzog (L) meets German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Jerusalem, March 17, 2024. (Maayan Toaf/ GPO)

The “prime objective” of the war in Gaza is to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas since October 7, President Isaac Herzog tells German Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz in Jerusalem.

“This is a supreme humanitarian challenge. We have people from 1-year-old all the way up to 85 years-old, including Holocaust survivors. We have people who are in dire physical situations. We have young soldiers and young women, and we are extremely worried about each and every one of them, every moment of the day,” Herzog says in a statement head of the meeting.

The president also accuses Tehran of being behind the conflict, which he calls “a war waged by the proxies of Iran in our region.”

“It affects all households in the world because of the Houthis disturbance to the high-seas and the transportation of goods and services in the Red Sea and the Middle East. Of course it has to do with our situation, vis-à-vis Lebanon and predominantly, it’s a war that was waged by the coalition of Iran. And that is why the coalition that objects to Iran must support Israel in achieving full victory,” he says.

The German chancellor says he hopes that talks in Qatar to secure a temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal will bear fruit.

“I also would like to underline that getting the hostages released is the first and most important question, so hopefully we will get some progress with the talks going on in Qatar, and that this is a chance, the hostages have to be released. Too many have suffered there for a long time — a very, very difficult life and we have to do all we can to help them to get out of there,” he says.

Scholz also mentions “the need for humanitarian aid in Gaza, which I think is improving, but there is still a lot of things to do, because we need more aid, more humanitarian aid getting there.”

“Israel is a state that has to be safe, and we will support Israel living in peace and will work for the safety of Israel as much as we can,” he adds.

IDF announces death of Cpt. Daniel Perez, 22, who was killed, abducted on October 7

Daniel Perez was killed and taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, from near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF announces the death of Cpt. Daniel Perez, 22, who was killed and abducted by Hamas on October 7.

Perez, from Yad Binyamin, served as a platoon commander in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion, and his body was taken from the Gaza border, following a battle with terrorists during the Hamas onslaught.

His death was recently declared by the Military Rabbinate based on findings and new intelligence information.

The findings allow Perez to be buried according to Jewish law, but his body remains in Gaza.

UNICEF: Over 13,000 children killed in Gaza war, many more suffering severe malnutrition

The UN children’s agency says over 13,000 children have been killed since war erupted in Gaza on October 7, adding many kids were suffering from severe malnutrition and did not “even have the energy to cry.”

“Thousands more have been injured or we can’t even determine where they are. They may be stuck under rubble… We haven’t seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell tells CBS News’ “Face the Nation” program on Sunday.

Children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza will be stunted for life, "if they survive," @unicefchief says. "It's a painful, painful death for children."

In maternity wards, "babies don't even have the energy to cry. It's a devastating thing to see," she says. pic.twitter.com/A9PYnacHPc

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 17, 2024

“I’ve been in wards of children who are suffering from severe anemia malnutrition, the whole ward is absolutely quiet. Because the children, the babies… don’t even have the energy to cry.”

Russell says there were “very great bureaucratic challenges” moving trucks into Gaza for aid and assistance.

The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacres, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians, many during horrific acts of brutality and sexual assault.

Sen. Cardin: ‘It’s up to the Israelis to determine their own leaders’

Democratic Senator Ben Cardin responds to US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s call for elections in Israel, saying, “It’s up to the Israelis to determine their own leaders.”

Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, the Jewish senator from Maryland says there were issues with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership before war erupted on October 7 with Hamas’s surprise onslaught.

“There’s unity now because of the war — let’s see what happens the day after war,” he says.

“Once there is security in Gaza and there is security for the Palestinians and the Israelis, the Israelis need to focus on who they want their leader to be.”

Sen. Cardin says ‘it’s up to’ Israelis to determine if Netanyahu is right leader: Full interview https://t.co/ybgmq4ycPq

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 17, 2024

Jerusalem: Protesters march from PMO to Knesset demanding hostage deal

Protesters marching to Knesset in support of a hostage deal on March 17, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Dozens of protesters demanding the government reach a hostage deal in upcoming negotiations are marching down Ruppin Street in Jerusalem from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to the Knesset building.

Police are currently refraining from intervening in the march as protesters partially block the road, chanting that the hostages’ time has run out.

The demonstrators are being led by family members of the hostages, including Ayala Metzger, the daughter-in-law of 80-year-old Yoram Metzger, who has been held in Gaza along with 129 others since October 7.

Metzger’s mother-in-law Tamar was released from captivity as part of a partial hostage deal between Israel and Hamas during November’s ceasefire.

Earlier during the demonstration, protesters attempted to block cars escorting Likud ministers Avi Dichter and Miri Regev from entering the premises of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Russian elections: Putin at 88%, with quarter of polling stations counted

A woman takes a photograph with her mobile telephone of a screen with preliminary voting results in the Russian presidential election at the Central Election Commission in Moscow on March 17, 2024. (STRINGER / AFP)

Vladimir Putin has secured 88 percent of the first votes counted in Russia’s presidential election, the head of Russia’s election commission says.

The early results are based on counting votes from 24.4% of polling stations, Russia’s elections chief Ella Pamfilova says, in a briefing on state TV.

Protesters block roads in Tel Aviv calling for hostage deal as security cabinet meets

Dozens of protesters calling for a deal to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7 are blocking Tel Aviv’s Begin Street.

The protest comes as the security cabinet is set to meet to approve Israel’s position in the negotiations, along with concurrent protests in Jerusalem.

לקראת ישיבת הקבינט: בני משפחות חטופים מפגינים בת"א סמוך לקריה ובירושלים סמוך למקום ישיבת הקבינט@eli_hirschmann pic.twitter.com/9XG8Rn2Irg

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) March 17, 2024

An Israeli delegation is expected to travel to Doha for additional talks on the widely reported proposal tomorrow.

Halevi: IDF has to discipline commanders who break protocols

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says the military has to discipline commanders who have acted contrary to protocols, in an apparent reference to Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus who addressed politicians in a press conference without prior approval, and Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram who ordered the demolition of a university used by Hamas in Gaza without getting approval from his superiors.

“The IDF commanders, junior ones, and those more senior are commanding a difficult and complex war, in several arenas at the same time, for over five months, bringing about increasing achievements,” he says.

“In war, it is very important to allow the commanders on the battlefield the freedom required to carry out their missions, I trust them and appreciate them very much. In the same breath, I say the obvious: It is impossible to fight when the discipline and rules are not clear and not strict,” Halevi continues.

“The balance between them is the key to success. A commander cannot override an order without authorization if there is no operational, clear, and urgent need or reason for this,” he says.

“Commanders who violated the rules will be investigated and dealt with as soon as possible. This is our duty,” Halevi says.

He says the IDF has “very high-quality commanders who fight bravely” but “in places where they made a mistake or deviated from the orders, there was learning. There were also disciplinary and command measures amid the fighting.”

“Our achievements on the battlefield are the result of the unity of our ranks, alongside the ability to act together subject to IDF values and IDF orders,” Halevi says.

IDF chief says Hamas trying to hide fate of Marwan Issa

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks to the press from an army base in central Israel, March 17, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi in a press statement says Hamas is trying to hide the fate of Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of the terror group’s military wing who was targeted in an Israeli strike last week, while stating that the military is readying itself to operate in southern Gaza’s Rafah.

“We are fighting a just, multi-front, and complex war, with many achievements, which are expanding. We still have a long way to go until the goals of the war are achieved,” he says, adding that “in the Gaza Strip, we are surprising the enemy, initiating, and further deepening the achievements.”

He says that in northern Gaza, the IDF is “returning and raiding areas where we operated, with new intelligence, using different methods, expanding the damage to Hamas, killing operatives and destroying infrastructure in a targeted and high-quality manner.”

In Khan Younis, Halevi says the IDF is continuing to dismantle Hamas’s brigade in the city in southern Gaza. “We killed many terrorists and arrested many senior terrorists for interrogation. Those who remain alive, are hiding, have difficulty functioning, we will reach them too,” he vows.

Speaking on last week’s airstrike on Issa and other operatives in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, Halevi says the IDF “attacked senior Hamas commanders… whose fate Hamas tries very hard to hide.”

“We embarked on this operation after many days of complex planning, creating the operational conditions, and gathering sufficient intelligence. This is a very important achievement for the IDF. A capability we have built over the years together with the Shin Bet, a combination of high-quality intelligence and precise fire from the Air Force, which enables the elimination of senior officials underground,” he says.

“This attack is an expression of the IDF’s ability to reach the most complex places, at the right time, and with high precision. We will continue the effort to eliminate the senior officials. This is a major goal in the war,” Halevi says.

Amid the ongoing fighting, he says the IDF continues to plan operations in “areas where we have not yet operated,” referring to southern Gaza’s Rafah and some areas in central Gaza.

“The IDF is preparing for offenses in the additional areas and together with the political echelon we will decide on the timing and the appropriate conditions,” Halevi says.

“As soon as it is decided, the IDF will act with full force and determination. We are determined to act wherever Hamas is building its strength. It is wrong to leave Hamas brigades and Hamas battalions functioning,” he continues.

He says “Hamas can lay down its weapons and surrender, otherwise, we will continue with great force, until the complete dissolution of Hamas, until the hostages are returned to their homes. The return of the hostages is one of the goals of the war, and the IDF will do everything to realize it.”

Halevi refuses to comment on the hostage negotiation talks, saying that “we are working with determination in every way to bring about the release of the hostages.”

“One thing is certain, the IDF will implement any decision that is made and will know how to continue fighting at every stage,” he says.

Regarding Ramadan, Halevi says that Hamas “has chosen to escalate during Ramadan,” while the IDF is “more alert, strong and prepared, everywhere, all the time, non-stop.”

“Every development in one arena affects the other arenas of war. We work first of all to maintain security, thwart and prevent terror attacks, alongside the desire to facilitate Ramadan,” he adds.

On the northern front, Halevi says the military continues to damage Hezbollah’s capabilities and kill its operatives.

“Hezbollah started with strikes, and is paying a heavy, ever-increasing price,” he says.

Halevi says he is aware of the “great difficulty of the residents of the north, who have been evacuated from their homes for a very long time.”

“We will return the residents only with full security. To that end, we will go through any means necessary. The IDF and its commanders are determined, ready for this, this is our duty,” he says.

Trump says he’d tell Netanyahu to ‘quickly’ end war, return to peacemaking

Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP)

Former US president and presumptive Republican frontrunner Donald Trump says he would tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to finish the war against Hamas in Gaza “quickly and get back to the world of peace.”

Netanyahu insists that Israel is not far from completing the war and would be weeks away from doing so once it completes its still-yet-to-be-launched operation to dismantle the terror group’s remaining battalions in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Trump does not go so far as to call for a ceasefire, but his remarks in an interview with Fox News are the second time this month that the former president has hinted at discomfort with Israel’s war against Hamas.

Asked what his message to Netanyahu would be, Trump says, “I think you have to finish it up, and do it quickly and get back to the world of peace.”

Trump says if he were re-elected in November, he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine, even before being sworn in on January 20, 2025, and he would also bring “peace in the Middle East,” recalling his success in brokering the Abraham Accords, which saw the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan agree to normalize ties with Israel.

Trump and Netanyahu have had a checkered relationship, with the former oftentimes indicating that he has never forgiven the Israeli premier for congratulating Joe Biden after he defeated Trump in 2020.

In a March 5 Fox interview, Trump said Hamas’s October 7 “attack on Israel, and likewise, Israel’s counterattack… would never have happened if I was president.”

While the remark indicated questionable feelings regarding Israel’s prosecution of the war, he added that Israel must “finish the problem.”

Protesters gather outside PMO in Jerusalem calling for immediate hostage deal

Protesters in support of a hostage deal block road in Jerusalem outside Prime Minister's Office on March 17, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Dozens of protesters are gathered outside of the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem demanding an immediate deal to free the hostages who remain in Hamas captivity.

The protest is being held during a cabinet meeting discussing how to proceed with the deal before the Israeli delegation returns to negotiations with Hamas in Qatar.

Jon Polin, the father of of Hirsch Goldberg-Polin, is urging ministers from the street to “give the mandate” to Mossad chief David Barnea, who will take part in negotiations, to accept a deal.

“There is no other way but to bring a deal to the table,” he says.

Between chants, relatives of the hostages are calling the spouses of cabinet members, urging them to attempt to sway their partners into reaching a hostage deal.

The demonstration is taking place concurrently with a similar protest in Tel Aviv.

Protesters led by the hostage family members are now blocking traffic, sitting on the road outside the Prime Minister’s Office and counting the number of days that the hostages have been in Hamas captivity.

Police are demanding that protesters return to the sidewalks; however, they have not begun to disperse the demonstration.

Gallant hints at successful hit on Hamas number 3, Marwan Issa, last week

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks to a soldier at the Bilu Camp army base in central Israel, March 17, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant hints that the targeting of Hamas’s deputy military wing commander Marwan Issa last week was successful.

“Thanks to the ground operation, we reached information that led to [eliminations] and successes. This is true for northern Gaza, the central camps in Nuseirat, and Rafah,” he says after visiting troops of the 98th Division at an army base in central Israel.

Issa was targeted while hiding in a tunnel in Nuseirat last week, although neither Israel nor Hamas have yet officially confirmed his death.

Trump: Israel ‘loyal to a fault’ by sticking with Democrats who are ‘bad for Israel’

Former US president and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump is asked to weigh in on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s call this week for elections in Israel to replace Netanyahu.

“The Democrats are very bad for Israel. Israel sticks with them. I guess Israel’s loyal — maybe to a fault — because they stick with these guys,” Trump says, criticizing Jerusalem for seeking to maintain relations with the Democratic Party.

“If [Biden] were a supporter of Israel, the Iran nuclear deal would have never been signed, and Israel would have never been attacked,” Trump says, referring to the accord that was signed in 2015 when Biden was vice president.

Returning to Schumer’s remarks, Trump recalls that Israel “lost a lot of people on October 7. People have to remember that.”

The former president suggests Schumer is aware of this, but is more interested in securing more voters.

“He’s seeing the Palestinians and he’s seeing the marches and they are big. Then he says, I want to go that way instead of Israel,” Trump says. “[He] sees a lot of people protesting out there and they happen to be Palestinians or… from the Middle East. He was probably shocked to see it, and, all of a sudden, he dumped Israel.”

“He just said essentially that Bibi Netanyahu should take a walk,” Trump adds.

Report: US border patrol nabbed Hezbollah man headed to New York ‘hoping to make a bomb’

A Lebanese man arrested by US border patrol near the Mexico border on March 9 admitted to being a member of the Hezbollah terror group, The New York Post reports.

According to the report, the man was caught trying to sneak over the border and said that he was heading to New York and “hoped to make a bomb.”

The post cites internal US immigration documents that showed that the man, named as 22-year-old Basel Bassel Ebbadi, said in an interview that he had “trained with Hezbollah for seven years and served as an active member guarding weapons locations for another four years.”

Illegal migrant from Lebanon told border authorities he’s a Hezbollah terrorist and hoped ‘to make a bomb’ in US https://t.co/ADuy2s0D7n pic.twitter.com/ICqSaUlOsM

— New York Post (@nypost) March 17, 2024

Smotrich: Hostage talks are only ‘making the gaps wider’

With the war cabinet set to meet to approve Israel’s position in ongoing talks on a deal to bring home the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says negotiations “only make the gaps wider.”

Speaking to Channel 12, the finance minister insists that “cutting contacts” and increasing military pressure on the terror group is the best way to bring back over 100 hostages held since October 7.

He also voices support for launching an Israeli operation in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where over half the coastal enclave’s 2.3 million people are sheltering during the ongoing war.

Sisi: Egypt, European leaders agree to reject Rafah operation

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi says that Egypt and European leaders have agreed to reject a planned Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

An operation “would double the humanitarian catastrophe that civilians in the Gaza Strip are suffering from, in addition to the effects of that operation on liquidating the Palestinian cause, which Egypt outright rejects,” Sisi says during a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Cairo.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said last week that he had approved military operational plans for an offensive in Rafah — a stick Jerusalem continues to hold over the terror group in efforts to reach a hostage release.

EU president says Gaza ‘facing famine,’ calls for ‘rapid’ ceasefire

This handout picture provided by the Cypriot government's Press and Information Office (PIO) shows European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (2nd-R) and Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi (R) presenting signed declarations after their summit with the leaders of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, and Italy, in Cairo on March 17, 2024. (Stavros Ioannides / PIO / AFP)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says Gaza is facing famine and calls for a rapid ceasefire agreement in the war between Israel and Hamas.

“Gaza is facing famine and we cannot accept this,” von der Leyen tells reporters, speaking in Cairo, after signing a strategic agreement with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

“It is critical to achieve an agreement on a ceasefire rapidly now that frees the hostages and allows more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.”

War erupted in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacres, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians, many during horrific acts of brutality and sexual assault.

German chancellor calls for hostage deal with ‘longer-lasting ceasefire’

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, greets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, before a press conference in Jerusalem, March 17, 2024. (GPO)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz calls for a deal to free hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza since October 7 accompanied by a “longer-lasting ceasefire.”

“We need a hostage deal with a longer-lasting ceasefire… We understand the hostage families who say after more than five months, ‘The time has come for a comprehensive hostage deal for saving those who are still captive,'” Scholz says at a joint press appearance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

PM to German chancellor: If Hamas remains in Gaza it’ll ‘regroup and reconquer’

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, shakes hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a press conference in Jerusalem, March 17, 2024. (GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Jerusalem, in which he says the two leaders had a”very serious conversation, an important conversation among friends.”

“We also agreed that Hamas has to be eliminated,” Netanyahu says, noting that if the terror group is allowed to stay in Gaza it will “regroup and reconquer and, as they vowed, repeat the [October 7] massacre again and again and again.”

During the meeting, Netanyahu says his German counterpart asked him to do more to protect civilians in Gaza amid the ongoing war and to allow more humanitarian aid for Palestinians enter the Strip.

Netanyahu notes Israel’s efforts to protect civilians while Hamas uses them as human shields, as well as the challenges of distributing aid within the Strip amid urban warfare.

On his third trip to Israel since war erupted with Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the German chancellor says the hostages held by terror groups for over 160 days are in his country’s “thoughts and prayers.”

“In these dark hours my country stands with the people of Israel. From day one our message has been clear,” he says, stressing Israel’s right to self defense. “By fighting Hamas terrorists Israel is fighting a legitimate goal.”

However, he says that the Palestinian death toll is “extremely high, many would argue, much too high.”

War erupted in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid horrific acts of brutality and sexual assault.

Schumer hails ‘serious discussion’ on Israel’s future as Netanyahu fumes

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer responds to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s CNN interview released earlier today, saying: “It’s a good thing that a serious discussion has now begun about how to ensure Israel’s future security and prosperity once Hamas has been defeated.”

Netanyahu had said the Democrat’s controversial speech last week, in which Schumer urged new elections in Israel, was “totally inappropriate.”

“It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there,” Netanyahu said in the CNN interview.

French paper: Former MK Azmi Bishara ‘strongly influenced’ Paris outline

File - Former Balad MK Azmi Bishara talks to reporters at a press conference in Cairo, 22 April 2007, after he resigned at the Israeli embassy in Cairo and told Al-Jazeera satellite channel he would not return to Israel where he is under investigation. (Khaled Desouki/AFP)

French daily Le Figaro reports that former Balad MK Azmi Bishara played a role in talks between the US, Qatar, Israel and Hamas in Paris in February to build an outline for a potential hostage deal with Hamas.

A source quoted by the French paper says Bishara “strongly influenced the drafting” of the outline, which would see a temporary pause in fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas since October 7 in exchange for the release of Palestinian security prisoners and provisions for the entry of humanitarian aid to the Strip.

The report adds that Bishara serves as an adviser to Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Once a Knesset black sheep over his pro-Palestinian stance, Bishara left Israel in 2007, accused of spying for Hezbollah, a charge he denied. He is now a major personality in Qatari media and has a following of more than 1.7 million on social media platform X.

The Paris proposal is still in the midst of negotiations, with Israel expected to send a delegation to Qatar tomorrow.

Agencies contributed to this report.

Rocket alert sirens sound in northern town of Hanita

Rocket alert sirens are sounding in the northern town of Hanita, near the Lebanon border.

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

Rocket Alerts [17:15:30] – 1 Alert:

• Confrontation Line — Hanita#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/TKlIoU5qXc

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) March 17, 2024

Family of 86-year-old hostage ask public to eat ice cream for his birthday

Marking hostage Shlomo Mansour's 86th birthday in captivity (Courtesy)

Hostage Shlomo Mansour, the eldest of over 100 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, is marking his 86th birthday today in captivity.

The Iraqi-born Mansour was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kissufim on October 7 by Hamas terrorists, who took him in a car to Gaza.

Mazal, Mansour’s wife of 60 years, was miraculously able to escape.

Mansour managed the kibbutz chicken coop for many years.

Mansour’s family is marking his birthday by asking the public to eat ice cream in honor of the grandfather of 12 and lover of ice cream, and take a picture and post it on social media with the caption Bring.Shlomo.Home.

On Saturday night, during the weekly rally at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, an association that provides refreshments for the families prepared a birthday cake decorated with Mansour’s age, cookies and his favorite ice cream flavor, pistachio.

Hezbollah said to claim 3 rockets fired at north from Lebanon

Three projectiles fired from Lebanon a short while ago have landed in open areas in the Upper Galilee, according to Hebrew media reports.

There are no reports of injury or damage and no rocket alert sirens sound in the area.

Ynet news says Hezbollah took responsibility for the attacks.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

London venue cancels Eurovision screening over Israel’s participation

The Rio Cinema in London has canceled what Variety magazine says is the city’s “biggest screening party” for next month’s Eurovision Song Contest, in protest of Israel being allowed to take part in the competition.

“We firmly believe that the Eurovision Song Conest has the power to bring people together across the world, and when its core values of inclusivity, equality and universality are upheld, it can be a genuine force for good,” the venue writes in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

It also notes that it will continue working with pro-Palestinian nonprofits.

pic.twitter.com/63QJGwtOOF

— Rio Cinema (@riocinema) March 16, 2024

Earlier this month, Eurovision organizers approved Israel’s revised song entry for this year’s contest after it disqualified an earlier version, securing the country’s spot in the competition amid a wave of boycott calls.

Cabinet unanimously approves national day of remembrance for October 7 attack, Gaza war

The cabinet unanimously approves the observance of a national day of remembrance to commemorate the October 7 attack and subsequent Gaza war, to be held every year on the 24th of the Hebrew month of Tishrei.

The annual memorial will be marked by two state ceremonies honoring the memory of the servicemen and women who fell in the ongoing war against Hamas and the civilians murdered during Hamas’s initial attack. It will be held separately from Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s memorial day, which is held on 4 Iyar.

Since 24 Tishrei falls on Shabbat this year, the first anniversary of the attack will be held instead on its Gregorian date of October 7.

The unprecedented October 7 Hamas terror onslaught saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians slaughtered amid brutal atrocities, and seizing 253 hostages of all ages.

Lawmakers are currently working on legislation to criminalize the denial, minimization or celebration of the attack.

Netanyahu assails Schumer: It’s wrong to try to replace elected leaders of a sister democracy, especially during war

File: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, poses for a picture with then Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

In an interview on the “Fox & Friends” morning show, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that US Senator Chuck Schumer’s calls for the Israeli premier to be replaced “are wholly inappropriate,” repeating a sentiment he expressed minutes before on CNN.

“It shouldn’t have been said, it’s wrong,” he says.

He also emphasizes that the Israeli people will decide when elections in Israel are held, and it won’t be “foisted on us.”

“It’s wrong to try to replace the elected leaders of a sister democracy, a staunch American ally, at any time, but especially during a time of war,” says Netanyahu.

Netanyahu praises both US President Joe Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump for their support.

Netanyahu slams Schumer’s ‘inappropriate speech,’ says elections are ‘for the Israeli people to decide’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a CNN interview, March 17, 2024 (CNN screenshot)

In an interview on CNN, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly declines to commit to elections after the war on Hamas, saying that it’s ridiculous to talk about.

“That’s for the Israeli people to decide,” he says.

He also says that elections during the war would be a victory for Hamas, as they would freeze the war for six months.

Netanyahu on CNN on new elections in Israel: "We'll see when we win the war … I think that's something for the Israeli people to decide." pic.twitter.com/m7K4jpZmR5

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2024

He also responds to Senator Chuck Schumer’s call for his replacement last week, saying that the Jewish legislator is not “opposing me, he’s opposing the people of Israel.”

Netanyahu calls Schumer’s speech “totally inappropriate.”

“You don’t do that to a sister democracy,” says Netanyahu. Netanyahu insists that Israel is doing everything it can to allow aid into Gaza, but the “problem is that once trucks get in, they’re looted by Hamas and gangs.”

Appearing on CNN after Netanyahu, past Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi says Netanyahu’s response “proves the necessity” of Schumer’s speech. She says that speech was an “act of courage, an act of love.”

Netanyahu to conduct live TV interviews with US networks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will conduct a live interview on CNN shortly.

He will be then be interviewed on Fox News, as he has done almost weekly of late, at 3:30 p.m. Israel time.

IDF says it destroyed part of one of the longest Hamas tunnel networks in north Gaza

This image from a video released by the IDF on March 17, 2024, shows the inside of a Hamas tunnel in northern Gaza. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF recently destroyed what it says is part of one of the longest Hamas tunnel networks in the northern Gaza Strip.

Combat engineers of the 162nd Division, along with the elite Yahalom unit, demolished around 2.5 kilometers of the tunnel network, according to the IDF.

The IDF says the tunnels connect between various Hamas battalions and brigades in northern and southern Gaza.

High Court grants government 3 more days to file response to Haredi military draft petition

Ultra-Orthodox Jews outside an army recruitment office in Jerusalem, March 4, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The High Court of Justice grants the government’s request for an extra three days to formulate its response to petitions demanding that the state begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men of military age.

After the law regulating their military service exemptions expired last year, the government passed a resolution instructed state institutions not to enforce the draft for Haredi men while new legislation is formulated. That regulation expires on March 31.

In February the government said it would file its response by March 24 detailing how it proposes to resolve the highly charged political and societal conundrum of ultra-Orthodox military service.

The government now has now until March 27 to file its response.

High Court Acting President Uzi Vogelman and Justices Isaac Amit and Noam Sohlberg indicate their growing impatience with the government on the issue, however, by telling the state that if it does not file it response by March 27 the court will rule on the petitions on the basis of the information it has.

The court’s agreement to allow the government a further three days comes amid a brewing political crisis within the coalition over passing new legislation that would satisfy both the demands of the Haredi political parties that men from their community not be legally obligated to enlist, and the demands of a 2017 High Court ruling requiring legislation that increases ultra-Orthodox enlistment.

PM scraps vote on head for key civil service panel amid coalition opposition – report

Then-Supreme Court judge Uri Shoham at the Supreme Court Hall in Jerusalem on August 2, 2018. (Marc Israel Sellem/Flash90/pool)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly decided that the cabinet will not vote on the appointment of a retired Supreme Court justice as chairman of a commission that vets candidates for some of the country’s key civil service positions, amid opposition from within the coalition.

Ministers from the far-right Religious Zionism party and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party have said they will vote against the appointment of Uri Shoham as chairman of the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee. The position comes with an eight-year term.

The Kan public broadcaster reports that the vote has been delayed until an “unknown date.”

Religious Zionism is reportedly unhappy with the entire framework in which the committee can block a government appointment, while Shas has gripes against Shoham over his past efforts to oust Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.

Labor MKs Lazimi, Kariv endorse Golan for party leadership ahead of primaries

Labor MK Naama Lazimi, former Meretz MK Yair Golan and Labor MK Gilad Kariv in a video released March 17, 2024 (Screen grab)

Labor MKs Gilad Kariv and Naama Lazimi endorse former Meretz MK Yair Golan ahead of the Labor party’s upcoming May 28 primary election.

“Together we will build the common home of the Zionist left,” Kariv, who was widely considered a candidate for leadership of the party, says in a joint video address with Golan and Lazimi.

“The responsibility for change and hope is on us,” says Lazimi, declaring “this is our time, join us.”

Thanking the two Labor lawmakers, Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff who served as deputy economy minister during the short-lived, multi-party coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, pledges “to create a large and wide movement.”

Over the past several months, Golan has been widely lauded as a national hero for his efforts to rescue partygoers fleeing the Hamas-led massacre at the Supernova Music Festival on October 7.

Announcing his candidacy late last month, Golan stated that he intended to unify the country’s left-wing groups.

Labor leader Merav Michaeli’s decision not to join forces with Meretz ahead of the last election contributed to the latter party’s failure to enter the Knesset, to the detriment of the bloc of parties opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Once a dominant force in Israeli politics, Labor currently only has four seats in the Knesset and several recent polls show the party failing to cross the electoral threshold.

However, none of the polls ran the scenario of a combined Labor-Meretz slate, which could potentially win more seats than Meretz’s projected four if the party were to run alone.

Scholz: Potential Rafah assault casualty rate would make regional peace ‘very difficult’

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks to the media at a press conference in Berlin, March 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The large number of civilian casualties that would result from an Israeli assault on the Gazan city Rafah would make regional peace “very difficult,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says after talks with Jordanian King Abdullah.

He says this is one of the main arguments he will bring to talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later today during his whirlwind trip to the region.

The hastily arranged talks come after Netanyahu said Friday he had approved a plan for an offensive on the southern Gaza city.

“Right now, it is about ensuring we come to a long-lasting ceasefire,” Scholz says after talks with Abdullah at the monarch’s private residence in the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba.

“That would enable us to prevent such a ground offensive from taking place.”

Asked if he was prepared to exert pressure on Netanyahu to stop such an assault, Scholz says it is “very clear we must do everything so the situation does not get worse than it already is.”

“Israel has every right to protect itself. .. At the same time, it cannot be that those in Gaza who fled to Rafah are directly threatened by whatever military actions and operations are undertaken there.”

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

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

Scholz did not directly answer a question about whether Germany would react to a large-scale Rafah offensive, for example by restricting German weapons exports to Israel.

Germany has been one of Israel’s staunchest allies alongside the United States, consistently supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, underscoring Germany’s duty to stand by the country’s side in atonement for its perpetration of the Nazi Holocaust in which six million Jews died.

PM blasts international community amid pressure over war: ‘Did you already forget Oct. 7?’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, March 17, 2024 (Screen grab/GPO)

Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasts those “in the international community who are trying to stop the war now, before all its goals are achieved.”

Netanyahu’s Hebrew-language comments are likely a reference to calls last week for elections in Israel from US Senator Chuck Schumer, and growing criticism from the Biden White House over Netanyahu’s conduct of the war.

The prime minister says that those who wants to stop the war do so “by making false accusations against the IDF, against the Israeli government and against the prime minister of Israel. They do this by trying to bring about elections now, in the midst of the war.”

Turning to Israel’s “friends in the international community,” Netanyahu asks pointedly: “Is your memory so short? Did you forget so quickly October 7, the most terrible massacre committed against Jews since the Holocaust? Are you so quickly ready to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the monsters of Hamas? Did you lose your moral conscience so quickly?”

He calls for international pressure to be put on Hamas and Iran, rather than Israel.

“No amount of international pressure will stop us from realizing all the goals of the war: eliminating Hamas, releasing all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat against Israel,” insists Netanyahu.

“We must not give in to these pressures, and we will not give in to them,” Netanyahu stresses.

He also promises that the IDF will operate in Rafah, “carefully.”

“It will take a few weeks, and it will happen,” he says.

“Those who say that the operation in Rafah will not happen are the same ones who said that we will not enter Gaza, that we will not operate in Shifa, that we will not operate in Khan Younis and that we will not resume fighting after the [weeklong November] ceasefire,” Netanyahu says.

IDF says fighter jets hit Hezbollah targets in four areas of south Lebanon

The IDF says fighter jets carried out strikes on Hezbollah sites in four different areas of southern Lebanon.

The targets included infrastructure and an observation post in Aitaroun, a building used by the terror group in Aalma ash-Shab, and observation posts in Ayta ash-Shab and Marwahin, according to the IDF.

The IDF releases footage showing the strikes.

Cabinet approves Akunis as next consul-general in New York

Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, on January 29, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The cabinet approves the appointment of Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis as the next consul-general in New York.

The Likud lawmaker will be replaced by Gila Gamliel, whose Intelligence Ministry was recently shuttered.

The position of New York consul-general has remained unfilled since Asaf Zamir announced his resignation last March over the government’s contentious judicial overhaul.

Gallant: Israel is committed to bringing all the hostages home from Gaza

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at a memorial ceremony for Israel's fallen soldiers whose final resting place is unknown, at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem on March 17, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Speaking at a memorial ceremony for Israel’s fallen soldiers whose final resting place is unknown, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Israel is committed to bringing the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip back home.

“This commitment, to leave no one behind, is true for the war we are fighting today and will be true for all of Israel’s wars,” Gallant says.

“Along with 112 living hostages who were returned in agreements and operational activities, IDF troops and Shin Bet personnel also returned 11 slain [hostages] to be buried in Israel,” he says.

“As we operated throughout the war, the defense establishment under my leadership… is obligated to exhaust every possibility and are ready to take advantage of every opportunity, including the current one, to return the hostages to their families,” Gallant adds.

Universities against proposed law granting automatic pass grades to some reserve soldiers

The heads of Israel’s leading universities send a letter to the Knesset Education Committee, urging them to change the wording of a proposed law intended to help reservists returning to their studies because, they say, it violates the universities’ academic independence.

According to the proposed law, universities would be obliged to grant a certain number of passing grades on exams and courses, as well as a stipulated number of automatic academic credits, to returning reserve soldiers. The specific benefits, which also include financial grants, depend on the duration and type of reserve duty, with more benefits going to those who served the longest in combat units.

The law, which has passed its first reading in the education committee, is to be debated again on Tuesday.

If enacted as is, the law “would trample on the authority of higher education institutions… the meaning of its passage would be that the Knesset, and not the universities, would determine what a student needs to study in order to receive an academic degree,” the Association of University Heads says in the letter.

“Even if many of the organizations and Knesset members who support the law’s enactment are motivated by a sincere concern for the reservist’s future, the legislation will achieve the opposite. If the law is passed, every student who receives an academic degree granted by the Knesset’s blessing, without meeting the academic standards determined by universities, will find themselves at a disadvantage,” the letter stresses.

The proposal is “a violation of autonomy” for Israel’s universities that could cause “fatal damage to the system’s quality…Therefore, we declare that research universities will continue to operate independently, responsibly,” the university heads write, indicating that even if such a law is passed, they will not comply.

As the university heads point out in their letter, the institutions have all set up various initiatives designed to help returning student-soldiers, including grants, personal tutoring, mental health support, eased exam schedules and more. These measures have been implemented independently, often by drawing on alumni networks for fundraising.

Dossier shows British MPs face ‘litany of menace’ from pro-Palestinian activists – report

A Palestinian flag flaps in the air by a message reading 'Stop bombs' projected on The Elizabeth Tower, at the Palace of Westminster, in London on February 21, 2024. (Henry Nicholls/AFP)

British lawmakers and local councillors have been targeted on almost 40 occasions in a “litany of menace” by pro-Palestinian activists, The Telegraph reports.

The dossier of 38 incidents, which was compiled by a counter-extremism analyst granted anonymity by the newspaper, records the incidents across England between January 1 and March 15.

The report says that the majority of protests targeted officials from the opposition Labour Party, and that a number of incidents involved the Palestine Solidarity Campaign or local affiliate organizations.

Lord Walney, the government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, tells the newspaper: “This litany of menace highlights a clear pattern of intimidation of elected representatives by pro-Palestine activists.

“Storming council chambers and haranguing MPs has nothing to do with changing people’s minds. It’s about trying to bully and threaten them into submission.”

A Home Office spokesman tells The Telegraph: “It is totally unacceptable that a tiny minority seek to intimidate democratically elected representatives and impose their views.”

Report: Hamas leaders didn’t communicate between themselves for 72 hours after Issa strike

Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’s military wing, circled in a photo circulated on social media in 2015. The photo or its source could not be immediately verified.

As Israeli officials are said to increasingly believe that Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in a strike last week, The Guardian reports that all communications between senior leaders in the terror group went silent for over 72 hours after the strike.

The British newspaper says radio silence has been introduced on a number of occasions after Hamas leaders were killed in the past.

The report notes that the Hamas leaders rely on encrypted apps and couriers to communicate between themselves.

In addition, the report highlights that if Israel knew Issa’s location, it implies that it is getting intelligence from someone high up in the terror group.

Issa serves as the deputy of Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Together with Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, they are believed to have masterminded the group’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war.

Gazan sources told a Saudi newspaper today that Issa was “hit but his fate is unclear.”

Rocket sirens sound in towns close to Lebanon border

Sirens sound in a number of communities close to the Lebanon border, warning of incoming rocket fire.

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

Hamas-run health ministry says Gaza death toll reached 31,645

Palestinians search the rubble of a family home following an Israeli strike west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 16, 2024 (AFP)

At least 31,645 Palestinians have been killed and 73,676 have been wounded in Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says.

The terror group’s figures are unverified, don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, and list all the fatalities as caused by Israel — even those believed to have been caused by hundreds of misfired rockets or otherwise by Palestinian fire.

Israel has said it killed some 13,000 Hamas members in Gaza fighting, in addition to some 1,000 killed inside Israel in the aftermath of the terror group’s October 7 invasion and onslaught.

Hostage families slam posters calling for release of jailed settler activist in imitation of their campaign

Ariel Danino. (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The families of hostages held in Gaza express outrage over posters calling for the release of an allegedly violent settler held in administrative detention that imitate the style of the campaign for calling for the release of those held by terrorists in the Strip.

The posters calling for the release of prominent activist Ariel Danino were hung on major freeways.

“Bring Danino home, now!” read the posters, in the same distinctive style as the campaign calling for the release of the hostages.

In a statement to Channel 12 news, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum says: “We strongly reject the manipulative use of the families of the hostages. Shame on whoever did this!”

ראיתי הבוקר את השלטים הנוראיים האלה בכביש 6.
להשוות בין מחבלים יהודים לאזרחים חפים מפשע שנחטפו ע״י ארגון טרור?

מי שאחראי על זה צריך להתבייש. pic.twitter.com/7esQAxOTPP

— אור שנייברג (@OrSzneiberg) March 17, 2024

According to Haaretz, Danino’s initial arrest in October was explained by security figures as due to his alleged involvement in violent incidents against West Bank Palestinians. Last month, more information came to light indicating he is still thought to be promoting violence, the unsourced report said.

Last month, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant extended his administrative detention by three months.

The measure is typically used when authorities have intelligence tying a suspect to a crime but do not have enough evidence for charges to stand up in a court of law. The vast majority of those held in administrative detention are Palestinian.

There has been an uptick in settler violence against West Bank Palestinians following the devastating October 7 attack in which Hamas terrorists killed some 1,200 people in Israel. The assault opened a still-ongoing war with Israel, which has vowed to destroy the terror group, topple its regime in Gaza, and free the 253 hostages who were abducted during the assault.

IDF says fighting ongoing in central Gaza Strip, Khan Younis

Troops operating in the Gaza Strip in an undated photo released by the military for publication on March 17, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says the Nahal Brigade killed some 18 Hamas operatives in the central Gaza Strip over the past day.

The gunmen were killed with sniper fire and by the troops calling in tank shelling and airstrikes.

In southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, the IDF says troops of the Givati Brigade spotted two Hamas operatives loading a motorbike with military gear, and called in an airstrike. Another two gunmen approaching the troops were also killed in an airstrike, the IDF says.

Also in Khan Younis, the 7th Armored Brigade killed several more Hamas operatives and seized weapons, the IDF says.

In one incident, the IDF says the troops shelled a building from which anti-tank missiles were fired. The missile attack had caused no injuries.

Deri told cabinet that negotiating team shouldn’t fly to Doha on Shabbat for hostage talks – report

Shas chair Aryeh Deri speaks during a campaign event ahead of the municipal elections in Jerusalem, February 19, 2024 (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

Shas leader Aryeh Deri reportedly told Friday’s cabinet meeting that a delegation should not fly to Doha on the Jewish Sabbath for talks on a potential hostage and truce deal as it was not a case of pikuah nefesh, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

Pikuah nefesh is the rabbinic principle that the preservation of life takes precedence over nearly everything, including the strictures governing Shabbat.

According to the report, Deri said that the delegation should only depart once the security cabinet has met on Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied reports that he sought to push off making a decision on the negotiating team’s mandate for the Doha talks, and refused to hold a meeting on Saturday on the matter, thereby apparently delaying the departure of the team led by Mossad chief David Barnea.

Deri is not an official member of the war cabinet, but attends as an observer at the invitation of Netanyahu. The Shas leader’s appointments as minister of health and the interior were shot down last year by the High Court, which it ruled that appointing a man with multiple criminal convictions for financial offenses as a minister was “unreasonable in the extreme.”

When asked for comment by the outlet on his reported comments on the Doha delegation’s departure, Deri’s office said that “as a general rule, we will not address any issue from the cabinet meetings.”

The Kan report was not the first in recent days revealing that pikuah nefesh was apparently not deemed relevant by politicians in the case of a potential hostage deal.

Cabinet talks on a potential agreement were reportedly wrapped up Friday afternoon because the Jewish Sabbath was approaching, leading Opposition Leader Yair Lapid to question on social media: “If this isn’t pikuah nefesh, what is?”

Palestinian sources to Saudi newspaper: Hamas number 3 Issa ‘hit but fate unclear’ after IDF strike

Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’s military wing, circled in a photo circulated on social media in 2015. The photo or its source could not be immediately verified.

Palestinian sources tell a UK-based Saudi newspaper that Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing and the terror group’s third most senior official in Gaza, was at the location targeted in an Israeli strike last week.

According to Asharq Al-Awsat, cited by the Ynet news site, Issa “was hit, but his fate is unclear.”

It’s apparently the first time that Gaza-based “informed sources” have admitted that Issa was at the location, Channel 12 reports.

Issa serves as the deputy of Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Together with Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, they are believed to have masterminded the group’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war.

Security officials reportedly told ministers at Friday’s security cabinet meeting that all signs indicate Issa was killed in the strike. However, the army warned that the matter had not yet been fully verified while Hamas still refrained from confirming or denying Issa is dead.

IDF: Soldier seriously injured in central Gaza fighting

A soldier from the 601st Battalion was seriously injured on Friday in fighting in the central Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces says.

The soldier was taken to the hospital for medical treatment, and his family has been informed.

Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses November US election

Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP)

Donald Trump tells a rally in Ohio that November’s presidential election will be the “most important date” in US history, painting his campaign for the White House as a turning point for the country.

Days after securing his position as the presumptive Republican nominee, the former president also warns of a “bloodbath” if he is not elected — though it was not clear what he was referring to, with the remark coming in the middle of comments about threats to the US auto industry.

“The date — remember this, November 5 — I believe it’s going to be the most important date in the history of our country,” the 77-year-old tells rally-goers in Vandalia, Ohio, repeating well-worn criticisms that his rival, US President Joe Biden, is the “worst” president.

Criticizing what he said were Chinese plans to build cars in Mexico and sell them to Americans, he states: “They’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected.

“Now if I don’t get elected it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole, that’s going to be the least of it, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars.”

As Trump’s comment gained traction on social media, Biden’s campaign releases a statement calling the Republican a “loser” at the ballot box in 2020 who then “doubles down on his threats of political violence.”

“He wants another January 6 but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge,” the campaign says, referring to the deadly attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters in 2021.

Biden roasts Trump at Washington press dinner

US President Joe Biden joked about Donald Trump and his own age at an annual media dinner on Saturday — before unloading deadly serious criticisms of his rival in November’s election.

“One candidate’s too old and mentally unfit to be president,” the 81-year-old Democrat quipped at the Gridiron Club in Washington. “The other guy’s me.”

Democrat Biden was making his first speech as president at the annual white tie gala for the US media and political elite, an event that Republican former president Trump addressed in 2018.

Biden is trailing in a number of polls and faces voters concerns about his age, which he has tried to address by highlighting 77-year-old Trump’s recent verbal slip-ups.

In his remarks, Biden took a swipe at Republicans in Congress who have launched an impeachment inquiry into his son’s business dealings, saying they would “rather fail at impeachment than succeed at anything else.”

He added that Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, sitting at the head table with Biden on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day “took one look at Congress and he asked for another Guinness.”

Varadkar and Biden both pushed during a meeting at the White House on Friday for Republicans in Congress to stop blocking military aid for Ukraine to fight Russia’s invasion.

But Biden then returned to Trump, saying that the Democrats’ election campaign would show how they rebuilt the US economy after the Covid-19 pandemic “without encouraging the American people to inject bleach.”

He was referring to an incident when Trump, as president, asked a top medical advisor whether virus victims could be injected with disinfectant to cure them.

“Look, I wish these were jokes, but they’re not,” added Biden.

“Democracy and freedom are literally under attack. Putin’s on the march in Europe. My predecessor bows down to him and says, ‘Do whatever the hell you want.'”

Noting that Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, a strong critic of Russia, was also at his table, he added “We will not bow down, they will not bow down and I will not bow down.”

Biden added that Trump’s false claims to have won the 2020 election, and the January 6 2021 Capitol assault by pro-Trump rioters, showed there was “poison coursing through the veins of our democracy.”

He also backed journalists whom Trump has repeatedly attacked, adding: “You are not the enemy of the people. You are a pillar of any free society.”

Suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthis targeted ship in Gulf of Aden

A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels saw an explosive detonate near a ship early Sunday in the Gulf of Aden, potentially marking their latest assault on shipping through the crucial waterway leading to the Red Sea.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center says the vessel’s crew saw the blast as it passed off the coast of Aden, the port city in southern Yemen home to the country’s exiled government.

“No damage to the vessel has been reported and the crew are reported safe,” UKMTO says

The Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile attacks in the same area, disrupting energy and cargo shipments through the Gulf of Aden.

The group did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack, though it typically takes the Houthis several hours before acknowledging their assaults.

Separately, the US military’s Central Command said earlier it carried out a series of strikes targeting the Houthis. It said it destroyed five drone boats and one drone before takeoff from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen on Saturday. It was an unusually high number of drone boats to be destroyed.

Separately, the US military shot down one Houthi drone over the Red Sea, while another was “presumed to have crashed.”

“There were no reports of damage or injuries from ships in the vicinity,” Central Command said.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

War monitor says alleged Israel strikes in Syria overnight hit weapons depot

A war monitor said Israeli strikes on Syria early Sunday targeted at least two sites in Damascus province including a weapons depot, while state media said a soldier was wounded in the attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says “Israeli missiles” targeted a weapons depot belonging to the Syrian military and used by Hezbollah in Damascus province’s Qalamun mountains.

Video and photos of strikes by #Israel near Damascus, #Syria tonight. Comes after a projectile was launched from Syria at Israel. Also today #Syria's defense minister was visiting #Iran. pic.twitter.com/HJiBwzA5K2

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) March 16, 2024

Another site near an army battalion in the same area was also targeted, added the Britain-based Observatory, reporting a fire at one of the sites.

The organization, run by a single person, has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false and inaccurate reporting.

State news agency SANA, carrying a statement from a military source, said earlier that “the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack… targeting a number of points in the southern region,” without specifying where.

It said a soldier was wounded in the attack and reported “material losses”, adding that air defense systems shot down some of the missiles.

Since the Gaza war erupted, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacres, Israel has stepped up a years-long campaign of airstrikes aimed at rolling back Iran’s presence in Syria, attacking both Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, which has been exchanging fire with Israel across the Lebanese-Israeli border since October 8.

Israel rarely comments on its attacks in Syria.

Presumed Israeli strikes in Syria in the past have killed high-ranking figures with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and allied groups.

US military says it destroyed Houthi drone over Red Sea

The US military says it destroyed a drone fired by the Yemeni Houthis earlier Saturday, with another presumed to have crashed into the Red Sea.

There were no reports of damage or injuries from ships in the vicinity, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) says in a statement.

CETNCOM also said it destroyed five unmanned surface vessels and one UAV in self-defense, in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

“It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region,” the statement reads.

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

The US and Britain have carried out strikes against Houthi targets in response to the attacks on shipping.

Suspicious aerial target intercepted over Acre area in northern Israel, says IDF

The Israel Defense Forces says a “suspicious aerial target” was intercepted a short time ago over the maritime space in the area of the coastal northern city of Acre.

No warning sirens or alerts were activated, the military says in a statement.

Syrian army says soldier injured in alleged Israeli strike

Israeli missiles launched from the Golan Heights towards Syria in the early hours of Sunday wounded a Syrian soldier, the Syrian army says.

The state-controlled SANA news agency says Syria’s air defenses “countered an Israeli aggression” in the southern region.

According to Hebrew media reports, the attack occurred in the Damascus area.

A Syrian defense official tells SANA the attack “resulted in military injuries and some material losses.”

PA’s Abbas thanks Qatar for support of Palestinian people in call with Qatari emir

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke with Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani by phone today, thanking the Qatari leader for the Gulf country’s support for the Palestinian people.

Qatar hosts leaders of Islamist Palestinian terror group Hamas, backs Palestinian causes in the international sphere, and bankrolls Palestinian projects and programs.

Abbas thanked the emir for Qatar’s “unswerving support for the Palestinian cause on global platforms,” according to a readout carried by Palestinian news agency Wafa tonight.

The two also discussed the measures needed for an end to the war in Gaza against Hamas, triggered by the terror group’s October 7 massacre, and for an increase in humanitarian aid, the readout says.