Live updates (closed)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s events as they happened.
US Air Force says it conducted successful hypersonic weapon test
The US Air Force said on Tuesday it had conducted a successful test of an air-launched hypersonic weapon in the Pacific Ocean.
The test was conducted on Sunday after a B-52 bomber left the island of Guam carrying an Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), the Air Force said in a statement.
Though the US Air Force called the test a success, it did not disclose the speed the weapon flew. In past tests, the ARRW has flown at least five times the speed of sound.
The US is not alone in developing hypersonic weapons, whose speed and maneuverability make them difficult to track and intercept.
Russia has fired hypersonic missiles at targets in Ukraine, and China has tested hypersonic weapons, US military officials have said. China’s foreign ministry denied in October that it had conducted a weapons test.
Not one. Not two. But three – in a row!
This latest successful flight test proves the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW)’s design and demonstrates its capability at hypersonic speeds. pic.twitter.com/mpmRWX8S4S
— Lockheed Martin (@LockheedMartin) December 12, 2022
Hamas says 15 people killed in strike on building in central Gaza
A wounded Palestinian man gestures as he is carried into the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah on March 19, 2024, following an alleged Israeli strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. (AFP)
At least 15 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike targeting a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, officials in the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry say.
Medics say rescue operations are still underway as some victims are believed to be trapped under the rubble of the three-floor building.
The casualties figures can not be confirmed and there are no immediate details on the target of the strike.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
Schumer says he considered calling on Netanyahu to step down, worries Israel will become a pariah under his leadership
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat-New York, speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, February 13, 2024. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he considered calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down in a speech last week, in which he argued for early elections in Israel to replace the premier but ultimately decided against it so as not to be seen as lecturing Israel.
“I wrestled with myself — maybe I should say Bibi should step down,” Schumer tells The New York Times in an interview, explaining why he decided against the move. “That is telling Israel what to do, and it’s in the middle of a war.”
He ended up being accused by Netanyahu and Republican rivals of interfering in Israeli politics anyway.
Schumer clarifies that while he didn’t want to overstep, focusing on policy disagreements instead of calling out Netanyahu, who he termed “the fount of the problems,” would be insufficient.
In the Senate floor speech last week, Schumer branded Netanyahu as one of four obstacles to peace along with Hamas, the Israeli far-right and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
“I said to myself, ‘This may hurt me politically; this may help me politically.’ I couldn’t look myself in the mirror if I didn’t do it,” Schumer recalls.
He says the main purpose of the speech “was to say you can still love Israel and feel strongly about Israel and totally disagree with Bibi Netanyahu and the policies of Israel.”
“Bibi could prevent any election until 2026,” he says.
“I worry under his leadership, Israel would become such a pariah in the world and even in the United States, because I look at the numbers and they’re rapidly decreasing. I had to speak out before it erodes,” Schumer continues, adding that Israel’s “future could well be over” without US support.
Schumer reveals that he spent two months and ten drafts preparing for the speech and updated the White House a day in advance in order to ensure that it would not interfere with negotiations to free the hostages in Gaza.
US approves $2.2 billion sale of battle tanks to Bahrain
A soldier walks past a line of M1 Abrams tanks, November 29, 2016, at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)
The United States approves a $2.2 billion sale of advanced battle tanks to Bahrain, a Gulf Arab ally once under an arms embargo over a crackdown on Shiite dissent.
The State Department says it had notified Congress it is ready to sell 50 M1A2 Abrams tanks, generally used for ground warfare, to the small island nation which has tense relations with nearby Iran.
“The proposed sale will improve Bahrain’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing a credible force that can deter adversaries and provide the capability to participate in regional operations with the United States and other US partner nations,” a State Department statement says.
Congress can still block the sale, although most military deals go through.
Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and is classified as a major non-NATO ally, giving it privileged defense cooperation with the United States.
Unique among Arab nations, Bahrain has signed on as a member of the coalition led by the US and Britain that has struck Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi rebels over attacks on shipping carried out in professed solidarity with the Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Bahrain came under criticism in 2011, when, backed by fellow Sunni kingdom Saudi Arabia, it crushed an uprising led by the Shiite community that demanded a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister.
Then US president Barack Obama imposed an arms embargo for four years. Bahrain returned to the US’s good graces under former US president Donald Trump, who hailed Bahrain’s recognition of Israel.
Last year, Biden’s administration signed a new agreement with Bahrain to enhance defense and economic ties, including through greater intelligence-sharing.
Canada to stop arms exports to Israel; FM Katz: History will judge you harshly
Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau reacts during a joint press conference with Poland's prime minister in Warsaw on February 26, 2024. (Sergei Gapon/AFP)
Ottawa will stop future arms exports to Israel, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly tells the Toronto Star, a day after Canada’s parliament passed a non-binding motion on the issue.
“It is a real thing,” says Joly, indicating that the move will not just be symbolic.
The motion was part of a larger vote calling on the international community to work toward a two-state solution to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, in line with Canadian government policy.
The original motion was drawn up by the minority left-leaning New Democrats (NDP), who are helping keep Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party in power and are unhappy with what they see as his failure to do enough to protect civilians in Gaza.
Last week, Canada said it had paused non-lethal military exports to Israel since January. Trudeau, while asserting Israel’s right to defend itself, has taken an increasingly critical stance over the Israeli military campaign in Gaza after the terror group’s attack on Israel on October 7.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz slammed Canada for the decision.
“I am sorry that the government of Canada is taking this step that undermines Israel’s right to self-defense in the face of Hamas murderers who carried out terrible crimes against humanity and against innocent Israelis, including the elderly, women and children,” he says in a statement.
“History will judge the current acts of Canada harshly,” he says.
Reuters contributed to this post.
Hamas leader accuses Israel of sabotaging hostage talks with hospital raid
Qatar-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh delivers a recorded speech, March 10, 2024. (Screenshot, X; Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Hamas’s Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh accuses Israel of sabotaging truce talks after its raid on Gaza’s largest hospital, which Israel said targeted senior terrorists who had returned to use the medical facility as a headquarters.
The IDF said dozens of terrorists were killed and arrested during a raid on Gaza City’s Shifa, a complex crowded with patients and displaced people.
“The actions of the Zionist occupation forces at Shifa Medical Complex confirm their intent to obstruct the recovery of life in Gaza and dismantle essential aspects of human existence,” Haniyeh says.
“The deliberate targeting of police officers and government officials in Gaza illustrates their efforts to sow chaos and perpetuate violence among our resilient people. This also reveals the occupation leaders’ endeavor to sabotage ongoing negotiations in Doha,” he adds.
Negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release were underway in Doha and a counter-proposal could soon be presented to Hamas, Qatar said.
Mossad head David Barnea had flown in for talks with the Qatari prime minister and Egyptian officials on Monday, the first since mediators failed to secure a truce before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began last week.
Trump files US Supreme Court brief arguing for immunity from prosecution
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump salutes at a campaign rally March 16, 2024, in Vandalia, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)
Former US president Donald Trump files a Supreme Court brief in his bid for immunity from prosecution for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, with the case due to be argued before the justices next month.
Trump is appealing a lower court’s rejection of his request to be shielded from the criminal case being pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith because he was president when he took actions aimed at reversing US President Joe Biden’s election victory over him.
The filing makes arguments similar to ones Trump’s lawyers previously made seeking to shield him from prosecution, and echoes statements Trump has made on the campaign trail.
“The president cannot function, and the presidency itself cannot retain its vital independence, if the president faces criminal prosecution for official acts once he leaves office,” the filing said.
Trump, the first former US president to be criminally prosecuted, is the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 US election.
In first, IDF confirms Houthi cruise missile hit open area near Eilat
The IDF says a “suspicious aerial target” from the direction of the Red Sea that struck an open area near Eilat early Monday morning was a cruise missile.
Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack.
No damage or injuries were caused.
According to the IDF, the missile was tracked by the Air Force throughout the incident.
The IDF says it is further investigating the incident.
It marks the first time a Houthi projectile hit Israeli territory. In previous attacks, missiles and drones launched from Yemen struck neighboring countries or were intercepted by air defenses.
אחרי שפירסמנו הערב את הסירטון הזה מאילת: טיל שיוט ששוגר מתימן ונפל בשטח פתוח בעיר, ותהינו למה דובר צהל לא הוציא הודעה מסודרת לתושבים, יוצאת הערב ההודעה שאמורה הייתה לצאת ביום שני:
דובר צה"ל:
בהמשך למטרה האווירית שנפלה צפונית לעיר אילת שלשום בלילה (א׳), טיל שיוט שהגיע מכיוון ים… pic.twitter.com/VufQuJiB7S— almog boker (@bokeralmog) March 19, 2024
English-language spokesman Eylon Levy said suspended after angering the UK
Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy, November 2023. (Avner Hofstein)
Prominent English-language government spokesman Eylon Levy has been suspended from his post after complaints from the UK government, Channel 12 reports.
London reportedly raised concerns with the Foreign Ministry after Levy responded to a March 8 post on X by UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron saying, “We continue to urge Israel to allow more trucks into Gaza as the fastest way to get aid to those who need it.”
People in Gaza are in desperate humanitarian need.
Alongside the US, the UK and partners have announced we will open a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly to Gaza.
We continue to urge Israel to allow more trucks into Gaza as the fastest way to get aid to those who need…
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) March 8, 2024
Levy reportedly responded to the post saying there were no problems with the capacity of aid trucks entering Gaza.
Following his tweet, the British Foreign Office asked if the tweet, seen as attacking Cameron, was Israel’s official position, Channel 12 reports.
Levy was since suspended and has been at home for more than a week, the report says, noting that he was unlikely to return.
News of his suspension comes on the same day that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bemoaned the fact that Israel had a dearth of spokespeople who could “string two words together” in English.
It also comes following reports earlier in the year that the prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, was reportedly seeking to have Levy fired over past criticism of the premier, as well as over his participation in protests against the judicial overhaul over the course of last year.
Levy, who entered the role in the wake of the October 7 Hamas massacre after working as a journalist as well as an adviser to President Isaac Herzog, has become a familiar face on many US and UK TV networks presenting an erudite defense of the Jewish state and Israeli activity over the past several months.
Gallant said working on visit to US next week, his first since start of war
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)
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is working to set up a visit to the US next week, the Ynet news site reports, in what would be his first trip since the outbreak of the war.
Gallant’s visit would be in addition to the team of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Advisor Tzahi Hanegbi, who are traveling to Washington to discuss Israel’s planned Rafah ground offensive.
Ynet says that Gallant has tentative approval from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the visit.
Netanyahu was vociferously opposed to a similar visit earlier this month to Washington and London by war cabinet minister Benny Gantz and ordered the embassies there not to cooperate with him, viewing the trip as an attempt to undermine the prime minister’s authority.
Incoming Palestinian Authority prime minister lays out plans for reform
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) with Prime Minister-designate Mohammad Mustafa in Ramallah on March 14, 2024. (Wafa)
The incoming Palestinian Authority prime minister says that he will appoint a technocratic government and establish an independent trust fund to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction.
In a mission statement acquired by The Associated Press, Mohammad Mustafa lays out wide-ranging plans for the kind of revitalized Palestinian Authority called for by the United States as part of its postwar vision for resolving the conflict.
But the PA has no power in Gaza, from which Hamas drove its forces in 2007, and only limited authority in the parts of the West Bank it controls.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any return of the PA to Gaza and his government is staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas designated Mustafa as prime minister last week. The US-educated economist and longtime adviser to Abbas is an independent with no political base.
In the mission statement, Mustafa says he would appoint a “non-partisan, technocratic government that can gain both the trust of our people and the support of the international community.” He promises wide-ranging reforms of PA institutions and a “zero tolerance” policy toward corruption.
He says he would seek to reunify the territories and create an “independent, competent and transparent agency for Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction, and an internationally managed trust fund to raise, manage and disburse the required funds.”
The vision statement makes no mention of Hamas, which won a landslide victory the last time Palestinians held national elections, in 2006, and which polls indicate still has significant support.
The 88-year-old Abbas, who is in overall control of the PA, has remained in power since his own mandate expired in 2009 and has refused to hold elections, citing Israeli restrictions. Polls consistently find that a large majority of Palestinians want him to resign.
Mustafa says the PA aims to hold presidential and parliamentary elections, but he did not give a timetable and said it would depend on “realities on the ground” in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war that the Palestinians want for their future state.
In 2021, Abbas blamed Israeli restrictions in annexed east Jerusalem for his decision to indefinitely delay elections in which his secular Fatah party was expected to suffer major losses.
Mossad chief briefing war cabinet on Qatar talks, officials said pessimistic
File - Israel's Mossad Director David Barnea speaks during the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) World Summit in the central coastal city of Herzliya on September 10, 2023. (Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP)
Mossad chief David Barnea is briefing the war cabinet on the start of talks to reach a truce and hostage deal with Hamas, Hebrew media reports.
Barnea returned this morning from Doha where talks, mediated by Qatar, the US and Egypt, started last night.
A senior Israeli official tells Channel 12 that there is pessimism that a deal will be reached, saying that while the gaps in positions could be bridged, it was not clear if Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Simwar really wants a deal or is just playing for time.
Schumer defends call for Israel to replace Netanyahu in meet with US Jewish leaders
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer convened a meeting earlier today with executives from major American Jewish organizations to defend the much-talked-about speech he gave last week calling for early elections in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the community leaders on the call tells The Times of Israel
“There was a fundamental question of whether he would backpedal or defend himself, and he very clearly defended himself,” says the executive on the call Schumer held with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Schumer stressed that most of his 45-minute speech focused on criticizing Hamas and lamented that the reporting has focused almost solely on his call for early elections, the executive says, speaking on condition of anonymity to share details from the private meeting.
Still, the Senate majority leader reaffirmed his belief that Netanyahu is a danger to Israel, particularly for empowering far-right leaders like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, the executive at the virtual meeting recalls.
Schumer clarified that he wasn’t telling Israelis who to vote for and that he was only pushing for elections when the war in Gaza begins winding down.
He stressed what he views as his “hawkish” pro-Israel bonafides, recalling how he was one of four Democrats in the Senate to vote against the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by then-US president Barack Obama in 2015, the executive says.
Schumer recognized that some in the Jewish community didn’t like his speech, but he maintained that he had an obligation to give it given his position. He recognized that domestic politics were a factor, but insisted that wasn’t the driving influence behind his speech.
In that speech, the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress in US history said Netanyahu was one of four obstacles to peace along with Hamas, the Israeli far-right and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
While fielding questions from members of the Conference, Schumer pushed back on the notion that he was equating Netanyahu with Hamas.
IDF says more than 300 terror suspects detained in Shifa hospital
The IDF says some 300 terror suspects have been detained during the ongoing operation at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.
According to the IDF, among the detainees are “dozens of prominent terrorists” in the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups.
The captured operatives are allegedly involved in directing terror attacks in the West Bank, and include members of Hamas’s propaganda unit and members of Islamic Jihad’s rocket unit, the IDF says.
Suspects detained by the IDF at Shifa are questioned by field interrogators of the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504, before being taken to Israel for further investigation.
The IDF also releases footage showing weapons found by troops in an office adjacent to the Shifa director’s office.
According to the IDF, dozens of gunmen have been killed in the raid so far.
Kahana urges municipal heads to appoint local rabbis while they still have the chance
Minister of Religious Affairs Matan Kahana speaks during a plenary session in the Knesset plenum, June 28, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Following the postponement of a controversial coalition bill reducing local governments’ influence over the appointment of municipal rabbis, former Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana (National Unity) urges cities without a rabbi to “hurry up” and appoint one while they still retain control over the process.
You still “have the opportunity to appoint a rabbi under the existing regulations” who is “suitable for your city,” but “if you delay, it is very possible that the political alliance between [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich and the ultra-Orthodox parties will bring back the law they tried to pass today, and then they will decide for you who will be your rabbi, over your heads,” Kahana says in a video message to the heads of nearly 40 local authorities posted social media.
The bill would have created hundreds of publicly funded jobs for Orthodox rabbis, while giving the Chief Rabbinate of Israel considerable say in the appointment of all new municipal rabbis, reversing changes instituted by Kahana in 2022.
Netanyahu sending top officials Dermer and Hanegbi to Washington to discuss Rafah operation
From left to right: Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Council chairman Tzachi Hanegbi at the State Department in Washington on March 7, 2023. (Antony Blinken/Twitter)
The Prime Minister’s Office announces that Benjamin Netanyahu will be sending two of his most trusted aides, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, to Washington to discuss the continuation of the war on Hamas with the Biden Administration.
A representative from COGAT, the IDF unit responsible for coordinating aid in the Gaza Strip, will also be making the trip.
“The Prime Minister stressed that he is determined to operate in Rafah in order to eliminate for good the remaining Hamas battalions, while offering humanitarian solutions to the civilian population,” the statement says.
The move comes amid mounting US opposition to an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, where more than one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, and after US President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu in a phone conversation yesterday to send a team to Washington to discuss alternatives to a full-scale offensive.
It’s unclear whether Dermer, Hanegbi and a COGAT representative are who Biden had in mind for Israel to send. Biden asked Netanyahu to send a “senior inter-agency team composed of military, intelligence and humanitarian officials,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said yesterday.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre says the meeting will likely take place early next week, but that it could take place as soon as the end of this week.
South Africa says Israel ignoring and undermining World Court on Gaza
South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor delivers her closing remarks following a meeting with Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen (not seen) in Pretoria on March 5, 2024. (Phill Magakoe/AFP)
South Africa’s top diplomat on Tuesday accused Israel of setting a precedent for leaders to defy the top UN court, as she again alleged a campaign of “starvation” in Gaza.
South Africa has hauled Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to allege genocide in the war triggered by the October 7 Hamas attack, infuriating Israel and drawing US criticism.
Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s foreign minister, says that Israel had defied a January ruling by the ICJ that it should take action to prevent acts of genocide as it fights Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“The provisional measures have been entirely ignored by Israel,” Pandor says at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace during a visit to US capital Washington.
“We’re seeing mass starvation now and famine before our very eyes,” she says. “I think we, as humanity, need to look at ourselves in horror and dismay and to be really worried that we have set an example.”
Pandor adds that Israel’s actions may mean other nations believe that “there’s license — I can do what I want and I will not be stopped.”
Military rebuffs international claims of potential famine in 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)
After warnings from the US, UN and other aid agencies about the potential for a famine in Gaza, a spokesman for the IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories tell The Times of Israel that “we don’t believe that there is starvation in the Gaza Strip.”
“That’s not to say that there aren’t difficulties in some areas, but that we are doing everything we can to facilitate large amounts of aid,” the spokesman continues.
He also says that Israel has placed “absolutely no limit on the amount of aid” that goes into Gaza.
The real problem, says the spokesman, is distribution.
Israel is trying to diversify the ways aid gets into Gaza, opening up a sea corridor from Cyprus, allowing more aid drops, and sending two convoys through a crossing near Beeri, close to the northern Gaza Strip.
Israel is able to check 44 trucks an hour at Kerem Shalom and Nitzana, says the COGAT spokesman. “That is a lot more than what can be picked up on the other side.”
“We can inspect as fast as possible,” he says, adding that when necessary “we’re more than willing to create improvements.”
“We’ve added manpower and scanning equipment and working hours. So at the moment, Kerem Shalom can inspect more than can be distributed.”
The spokesman adds that there is an IDF team that meets daily with the UN and other aid organizations to understand what is needed on the ground in Gaza.
“Based on that understanding, we prioritize what humanitarian aid needs to go in. But if there is a certain organization or country that would like to see additional aid go in, then we’re more than happy to facilitate it.”
US rejects UN claim that Gaza aid restrictions amount to a war crime
Aid boat carrying supplies from World Central Kitchen approaches Gaza on March 15, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The United States rejects the assessment made by the United Nations human rights chief that Israeli restrictions on aid entering Gaza may amount to a war crime.
“That is not something that we’ve observed or witnessed,” US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel says during a press briefing.
“We’re seeing aid and food… enter Gaza,” Patel says, while clarifying that the amount of aid is still insufficient, not entering fast enough and not getting to all the places it needs to go.
Earlier today, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said, “The extent of Israel’s continued restrictions on entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime.”
Patel reiterates that the US is “deeply concerned” by a UN-backed report yesterday saying famine is likely by May without an end to fighting in the more than five-month war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people.
Asked about UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini’s claim that Israel blocked his entry into Gaza yesterday, Patel declines to comment on the specific allegation, but says that the US as a general policy urges Israel to allow UN officials to work in Gaza.
Two soldiers wounded in Hezbollah rocket attack
Smoke rises during an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese border village of Marwahin on March 17, 2024. (AFP)
Two soldiers were wounded in a Hezbollah rocket attack earlier today against the Menara area, close to the Lebanon border, the IDF says.
The pair are listed in light and moderate condition, and were taken to a hospital for treatment.
The IDF says projectiles were fired at other areas along the border today, and a “suspicious aerial target” was downed over the border area by air defenses.
In response to the attacks, the IDF says fighter jets struck buildings used by Hezbollah in Ayta ash-Shab, Mays al-Jabal and Odaisseh.
Additional infrastructure was hit in Naquora and Kafr Kila, the IDF adds.
Report: Biden told Netanyahu he’s not trying to push him out
US President Joe Biden, left, meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, to discuss the the war between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 18, 2023. (Miriam Alster/Pool Photo via AP)
US President Joe Biden reassured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call yesterday that he is not trying to push him out, the Axios news site reports.
The report, citing two people with knowledge of the conversation, says that Netanyahu complained about repeated attacks against him by US politicians, singling out US Sen. Chuck Schumer, who last week called on Israel to hold new elections, saying he believed Netanyahu had “lost his way” and was an obstacle to peace in the region.
During the call with Biden, Netanyahu complained about Schumer’s speech and Biden’s endorsement of it, Axios said, adding that he claimed the attacks against him in the US are interference in Israel’s internal politics.
Axios quotes the sources as saying that Biden pushed back and told Netanyahu he is not trying to undermine him and has no intention to intervene in Israeli domestic politics.
The report says the conversation helped clear the air between the two amid an increasing rift.
Shin Bet says two men wounded in West Bank shooting were agents
The two victims of the shooting attack in the West Bank earlier are Shin Bet officers, the security agency says.
The pair returned fire at the gunman, who is identified by the Shin Bet as Ziad Hamran, 30, from Jenin.
The attack took place during routine operations at the Gush Etzion junction area, the agency says.
NYU urges dismissal of antisemitism lawsuit, says it acted ‘decisively’
An antisemitic sign at a pro-Palestinian protest of NYU students and others in Manhattan's Washington Square Park on October 25, 2023. (Screen capture/X)
New York University says it has moved “decisively” to root out antisemitism on its campus, and that a lawsuit by Jewish students claiming they have been mistreated should be dismissed.
In a Monday night filing in Manhattan federal court, NYU says reports of antisemitism have declined significantly, sometimes to near zero, following a surge immediately after the October 7, 2023 outbreak of war in Gaza.
The university also says student victims of antisemitism lack legal standing to demand sweeping changes.
It says it has taken “far more” steps than the law requires to address their concerns, including the adoption of a “10 Point Plan” that boosts on-campus security and disciplines on people who violate its anti-discrimination policies.
“NYU recognizes that the past few months have been profoundly challenging for many members of its community, including its Jewish and Israeli students, but plaintiffs allegations do not state a claim,” it says. “There is no need for this court’s intervention now, and likely never will be.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Armed Palestinian clans and factions increasingly being used to guard Gaza aid convoys
Masked and armed members of the "People's Protection Committees," which were formed by Hamas and other terror groups, patrol the streets of Gaza's southern city of Rafah on March 6, 2024. (Said Khatib/AFP)
Armed and masked men from an array of clans and factions have started providing security for aid convoys in Gaza as Hamas tries to maintain its clout in the enclave, Palestinian officials and sources in the terror group say.
Video footage obtained by Reuters showed a convoy of trucks entering Gaza City with foreign aid overnight, watched by several men armed with AK-47 assault rifles and others wielding sticks.
With Israeli forces sworn to eliminating Hamas since its deadly Oct. 7 raid on Israel, it has become highly risky for anyone linked to the terror group to emerge into the open to provide security for aid deliveries to desperate civilians.
So numerous clans, civil society groups and factions — including Hamas’s secular political rival Fatah — have stepped in to help provide security for the aid convoys, according to the Palestinian officials and Hamas sources.
They did not identify the clans and factions but said Hamas’s ability to rally such groups behind it over security showed it retains influence, and that efforts by Israel to build its own administrative system to keep order in Gaza were being resisted.
“Israel’s plan to find some clans to collaborate with its pilot projects of finding an alternative to Hamas didn’t succeed but it also showed that Palestinian resistance factions are the only ones who can run the show, in one way or another,” says a Palestinian official who asked not to be named.
An Israeli military spokesperson declines comment, saying specific rules of engagement in an active war zone could not be publicly discussed.
Hospital says shooting attack wounded being treated, one in serious condition
Illustrative: An ambulance at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem on June 20, 2023. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)
Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem says the two members of Israel’s security forces injured in the West Bank shooting attack earlier were admitted to the hospital.
One is listed in serious but stable condition, while the second is lightly hurt, the hospital says.
Meloni says Italy opposes Israeli operation in Rafah
This handout picture released by the Egyptian Presidency on March 17, 2024 shows Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) meeting with Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as part of a larger EU delegation visit, in Cairo. - (Photo by Egyptian Presidency / AFP)
Italy is opposed to a ground incursion by Israeli forces into the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says.
“We will reiterate our opposition to military action on the ground by Israel in Rafah that could have even more catastrophic consequences for the civilians crowded in that area,” Meloni tells lawmakers in the Senate.
She added that the opening of new land routes and a maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave, was a priority.
Picture of Likud minister in Athens tavern during war sparks condemnation
Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem is photographed at a tavern in Athens this week, sparking social media criticism over his foreign travel during wartime.
A photograph of the senior Likud politician shows him sitting and chatting at an outdoor table as people drink and smoke around him.
“Female soldiers are being abused in the tunnels, soldiers are being killed at the front, the refugees… are stuck without a home [and] the minister is celebrating at a tavern in Athens,” tweets Haaretz journalist Amir Tibon, a resident of Gaza border Kibbutz Nahal Oz. “Dudi Amsalem is the face of the October 7 government.”
Last December, Amsalem made headlines when he reportedly complained that IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi was absent from a government meeting.
A spokesman for Amsalem said it was a personal trip and not a vacation.
בזמן המלחמה: ח״כ דודי אמסלם תועד מבלה בטברנה יוונית באתונה pic.twitter.com/0sUUkgJn8c
— ישראל היום (@IsraelHayomHeb) March 19, 2024
IDF forms new ‘mountain’ brigade on border with Syria and Lebanon
Israeli soldiers patrol in the snow in Mount Hermon, near the Israeli border with Lebanon, northern Israel, November 20, 2023. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
The IDF announces the formation of a new regional brigade on Israel’s border with Syria and Lebanon.
The “HeHarim,” or Mountains, Brigade, will be tasked with the Mount Hermon and Mount Dov regions, under the 210th “Bashan” Division, replacing the existing 810th “Hermon” Regional Brigade.
The IDF says the new brigade is formed “as part of the operational response to the situation on the northern border and in accordance with the situational assessment.”
“The brigade will specialize in combat in difficult terrain and warfare in mountainous areas,” the IDF says.
It says that the Mountains Regional Brigade will begin its activity in the coming weeks and that Col. Liron Appleman will be appointed its first commander.
Two members of security forces wounded in West Bank shooting, attacker ‘neutralized’
Two members of Israel’s security forces are wounded in a shooting attack in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank, the military says.
The attack takes place between the settlement of Migdal Oz and the Gush Etzion Junction.
The IDF says the two victims are conscious and are being taken to hospitals for treatment.
The assailant was “neutralized,” the IDF adds.
NGO accuses government of ‘criminal neglect’ on environmental policies
People row in an inflatable dinghy through flooded streets in central Israel, February 17, 2024 (Video screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Reacting to the State Comptroller’s damning report published today on the state’s failure to act on the climate crisis, Amit Bracha, who heads the environmental advocacy organization Adam Teva V’Din, accuses the government of “criminal neglect” of the issue.
This is an “existential war” for Israel, he says.
Referring to extreme climate events such as heatwaves and floods expected to worsen as a result of global warming, he adds, “the fact that there’s no legislation, no policy, and no preparation is leading Israel to become a third world country with a high morbidity rate, poverty and death.”
Second aid barge expected to leave Cyprus soon for Gaza
The ship Open Arms belonging to the Spanish aid group by the same name, arrives in Larnaca port after delivering 200 tons of aid to Gaza, March 17, 2024 (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
A second shipment of food aid is due to depart Cyprus for Gaza in the coming days, Cypriot authorities say, as the first delivery was being distributed.
“Within the next few days, the second ship is expected to depart for Gaza,” government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis tells reporters in Cyprus.
Its departure had been delayed due to stormy weather.
“The cargo has already been loaded onto the second ship, necessary checks have been carried out,” the spokesman adds.
World Central Kitchen (WCK), the charity behind the operation, said the first shipment included almost 200 tons of food, which was delivered to northern Gaza with a World Food Program (WFP) convoy.
The shipment, which contained pallets of canned goods and bulk product, has begun to be distributed, World Central Kitchen tells AFP.
Court extends detention of man who ran over Haredi protester blocking road
Israeli policemen try to forcibly remove ultra-Orthodox protesters demonstrating against against their planned conscription into the Israeli armed forces, in Jerusalem on March 18, 2024 (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court extends the detention of a suspect who hit an ultra-Orthodox man with his car during an anti-draft protest by three days, following his arrest for reckless driving, negligence following an accident, and other offenses.
According to the Israel Police, the 47-year-old suspect, identified by public broadcaster Kan as Shai Levy, was arrested after driving into a crowd blocking the highway at the entrance to Jerusalem and hitting the demonstrator.
The victim sustained minor injuries.
Declaring that they would rather die than enlist in the IDF, a crowd of ultra-Orthodox men blocked the tracks of the Jerusalem light rail on Jaffa Street yesterday before making their way to the entrance of the city near the Chords Bridge and blocking the road.
תיעוד דרמטי מירושלים: נהג דרס מפגין שניסה לחסום אותו בהפגנת הפלג הירושלמי בנושא חוק הגיוס
https://t.co/9bPvNU1TtV pic.twitter.com/0r2RWGyvor
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) March 18, 2024
The demonstrators, who belonged to the Jerusalem Faction, an extremist Haredi group numbering some 60,000 members, were protesting efforts to end their community’s longtime exemption from military service.
The police dispersed the rioters with force after they disobeyed law enforcement officers’ instructions, the police stated.
Netanyahu complains Israel’s PR suffers because he’s surrounded by people ‘who can’t put two words together’ in English
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, attends a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on March 19, 2024 (Screenshot/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told a high-level Knesset meeting that Israel’s international PR suffers because of a lack of personnel who can speak English clearly.
According to quotes from Channel 12 from a closed-door meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Netanyahu was asked if Israel’s international hasbara problem was due to a lack of funding.
“It’s not just a lack of money. There simply are no people, you are surrounded by people who can’t put two words together [in English]. We need to find them,” he said.
In response to the reports, Netanyahu’s office says that he “deeply values the work of his team and of the Public Diplomacy Directorate that operates under him, and he said this to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.”
PM: I made it clear to Biden there’s no way to destroy Hamas without Rafah ground op
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset on March 13, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells a powerful Knesset committee that the IDF will go into Rafah in a ground operation, and that he told US President Joe Biden as much in their phone call yesterday.
“We have a disagreement with the Americans about the need to enter Rafah,” Netanyahu tells the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “Not about the need to eliminate Hamas — the need to enter Rafah. We do not see a way to eliminate Hamas militarily without destroying these remaining battalions. We are determined to do it. ”
“I made it clear to the president in our conversation, in the clearest way, that we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah,” says Netanyahu. “There is no way to do it, except by going in on the ground.”
Netanyahu adds that the two leaders agreed on a mechanism for the Americans to share their ideas on humanitarian aid and the evacuation of civilians, a concern that Israel shares.
“We need to complete the military elimination of Hamas,” he explains. “There is no substitute for that, you can’t go around it, you can’t say ‘we’ll destroy 80% of Hamas, we’ll [leave] 20%,’ because that 20% will reorganize and retake the Strip, and of course they will pose a renewed threat to Israel, and of course it will also be a victory for the broader axis that threatens us — the Iranian axis.”
Netanyahu also acknowledges that Israel is locked in a diplomatic struggle alongside the military struggle, in which pressure on Israel is growing.
Faith leaders in Haifa pledge to promote coexistence despite ‘current challenges’
Faith leaders from Muslim, Christian, Druze and Jewish communities in the Haifa area sign a letter declaring their commitment to peaceful coexistence and respect.
“Our dialogue, tolerance and mutual respect are rooted in the tradition and sacred scriptures of each and every one of us,” states the letter, published following a joint drafting effort by 16 cosignatories.
Born out of the initiative of the University of Haifa’s Laboratory for Religious Studies and the Interior Ministry, the letter features quotes from Rabbinic Jewish tradition, Muslim scripture and the Hebrew Bible. The effort, facilitated by the nonprofit Search for Common Ground, is to “promote an active leadership that will work together to safeguard a shared civic society and prevent violence,” states the letter. It notes “the current challenges,” referencing Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza and conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The signatories include Rashad Abu al-Hijaa, the imam of al-Jarina Mosque in Haifa; William Abu Shkara, a priest of the Catholic Church and head of the Archbishop’s bureau in Haifa; and Sheikh Tawfik Halabi, an imam and member of the Druze religious committee in Daliyat al-Karmel.
The Jewish cosignatories include Rabbi Ben-Zion Gagula of the Chabad House in Haifa’s German Colony neighborhood and Rabbi Ne’ama Dafni-Keln of the Or Hadash Reform congregation.
Haifa, where approximately 285,000 people live, has an Arab minority of about 35,000 Arabs, who are split roughly evenly between the Muslim and Christian faiths. The city is widely considered a model of interfaith coexistence.
IDF says it carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon
The IDF says it struck a Hezbollah operative who was spotted at an observation post in southern Lebanon’s Marwahin.
The operative was identified by a surveillance soldier of the 869th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit, and within a short while an airstrike was carried out against the site, the IDF says.
Earlier, an airstrike was carried out on a building in Odaisseh where Hezbollah members were gathered, the IDF says.
Another site belonging to the terror group in Ayta ash-Shab was struck last night, the IDF adds.
לפני זמן קצר, זיהתה תצפיתנית מיחידה 869 פעיל של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בתוך עמדת תצפית השייכת לארגון במרחב מרווחין. תוך זמן קצר, בשילוב גורמי אש ואוויר, מטוסי קרב תקפו את המבנה בו שהה הפעיל>> pic.twitter.com/MPYUCzmUfB
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 19, 2024
IDF says it wrapped up operation against Hamas in Hamad Town residential complex in Khan Younis
IDF troops operate in the Hamad Town residential complex in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, in a handout image published March 19, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF says it has wrapped up its operation against Hamas in the Hamad Town residential complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
The raid, which began earlier this month, was carried out by the Maglan and Egoz commando units, along with other forces.
The commandos had raided the multistory buildings in the Qatari-funded neighborhood, where the IDF said there was Hamas infrastructure.
In one building, used by the deputy commander of a Hamas battalion in Khan Younis, the IDF says the troops captured a cache of weapons.
More than 100 gunmen were killed in the operation, and buildings used by Hamas, including some that were booby-trapped, were destroyed, according to the IDF.
The IDF releases footage showing troops of the Egoz unit operating in Hamad amid the raid.
Houthis say they fired missiles at Eilat, targeted a tanker in the Red Sea
Yemen’s Houthis say they targeted a tanker, the Mado, in the Red Sea with naval missiles and the Eilat region with winged missiles.
The claim is made by military spokesman Yahya Saree.
Yesterday, the IDF said a “suspicious aerial target” entered Israeli airspace from the direction of the Red Sea and impacted an open area north of Eilat, causing no damage or injuries.
According to the IDF, the target was tracked by the Air Force throughout the incident.
It is unclear if the Houthis are referring to the same incident.
Knesset advances bill extending legal recognition to those engaged to fallen servicemembers
Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee hearing on a bill extending legal recognition to the fiancees and fiances of fallen servicemembers, March 19, 2024 (Noam Moskowitz/Knesset)
The Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee approves a bill extending legal recognition to the fiancees and fiances of fallen servicemembers for its second and third readings in the Knesset plenum.
The legislation grants those engaged to fallen servicemembers the same benefits as spouses for a period of five years, including monthly compensation and therapy.
It will also apply to those engaged to police officers, prison guards, members of the Shin Bet, Mossad and civil defense organizations as well as victims of hostilities.
While couples who have already submitted applications for marriage registration will be automatically recognized, those who have not will be required to present proof of their intention to marry such as the purchase of a wedding ring or social media documentation of an engagement party.
The bill is expected to be brought to the Knesset plenum for final approval on Wednesday.
Speaking with the committee, Noa Rubin, whose fiancee Ariel Reich was killed in Gaza, asks, “How can you continue to live? At the moment of engagement, you make an everlasting covenant. How could it be that in the moment of truth my country is not behind me because I don’t have a wedding ring on my finger? How can it be that they let us deal with this burden alone?”
“I can’t carry everything on my shoulders alone,” she says.
“It is inconceivable that a young woman who was supposed to wear a wedding dress in a week and stand under the chuppah is here today,” responds Yesh Atid MK Meirav Cohen. “She lost the love of her life… Now is the time to lend a hand to this group.”
Lauding the bill, chairman Yisrael Eichler (UTJ) states that it will “put an end to discrimination and help brides in their difficult time.”
Families of hostages Noa Argamani, Mohammed Alatrash meet with Singapore’s foreign minister
Relatives of hostages Noa Argamani and Mohammad Alatrash meet with Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan at the Foreign Ministry on March 19, 2024 (Noga Malsa/GPO)
The parents of Hamas hostage Noa Argamani tell Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan that Liora, Noa’s mother, has brain cancer, and that her only wish is to see her daughter one more time.
The meeting takes place at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, along with Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
The 26-year-old Argamani was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7. A video of her reaching out from the motorcycle of her captors toward her boyfriend Avinatan Or is one of the images of the Hamas attacks that led coverage of the atrocities around the world.
“Noa is our only daughter. She was kidnapped when she went to a festival to sing, dance and be happy,” said Argamani’s father Yaakov, according to the Foreign Ministry. “Unfortunately, Liora has cancer, brain cancer. She is being treated by one of the best medical teams in the world, but unfortunately there is not much to do, and she doesn’t have much time left. My wife’s wish is to see Noa just one more time before it’s too late – I’m asking you to help us fulfill my wife’s wish.”
Liora Argamani grew up in China, as did Balakrishan’s mother. The Singaporean foreign minister speaks some Mandarin.
Salem Alatrash, whose brother Mohammed — a father of 13 from the Bedouin village of Sawa in the Negev — is also being held by Hamas, attends the meeting as well.
“Mohammed has 13 children who ask every night, ‘When is daddy coming back?'” he says. “Our family is going through difficult times. Five months we wake up every morning to a life that isn’t a life. People aren’t supposed to live like this.”
Gantz: ‘Everyone in national leadership before Oct.7 bears responsibility for the disaster’
Minister Benny Gantz speaks at a conference in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, March 19, 2024 (Liron Moldovan/Flash90)
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz faults the political leadership for last year’s devastating Hamas attack on Israel, declaring during a speech in Sderot that “all of us, everyone who was in the national leadership before October 7, bears responsibility for the disaster.”
“The government that I joined in light of the state of emergency has a broad, binding and tremendous responsibility for the past, but also for the present and the future that will be derived from it,” he says, calling the release of the hostages a “moral imperative” as well as a “strategic necessity.”
“The State of Israel has a responsibility to its citizens. This covenant must not be broken, even at painful costs. As with the last time we negotiated, if there is a real opportunity to bring them back, we will take it,” he pledges.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced criticism for his refusal to take responsibility for October 7, while virtually all other military and civilian leaders who had a hand in events have done so.
Appearing to contradict the premier, who has said that postwar civil affairs in Gaza will be run by “local officials” who have “administrative experience, Gantz asserts that “establishing a regional international administration for Gaza is now an operational necessity.”
He also appears to take a veiled jab at the prime minister on the issue of ultra-Orthodox military enlistment, declaring that “the thought that it is possible to give up the ‘people’s army’ collapsed on October 7.”
“The time has come for the majority of the Haredim to enlist in the military,” he declares, adding, “If we give up now on a new Israeli service outline… we will harm the security of the state, and we will miss an opportunity to solve an issue that is tearing Israeli society apart.”
“Our desire is to reach agreements [to the issue of Haredi military service] but the agreements must bring a solution to the security, social and national challenge. Not just a solution to a political challenge. They must promote a solution for recruitment, not an exemption from recruitment,” he says.
Incoming PA prime minister lays out plans for technocratic government, Gaza reconstruction
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) with Prime Minister-designate Mohammad Mustafa in Ramallah on March 14, 2024. (Wafa)
The incoming Palestinian Authority prime minister says that he will appoint a technocratic government and establish an independent trust fund to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction.
In a mission statement acquired by The Associated Press, Mohammad Mustafa lays out wide-ranging plans for the kind of revitalized Palestinian Authority called for by the United States as part of its postwar vision for resolving the conflict.
But the PA has no power in Gaza, from which the Hamas terror group drove its forces in 2007, and only limited authority in parts of the West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any return of the PA to Gaza and his government is staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas designated Mustafa as prime minister last week. The US-educated economist and longtime adviser to Abbas is an independent with no political base.
In the mission statement, Mustafa says he will appoint a “nonpartisan, technocratic government that can gain both the trust of our people and the support of the international community.” He promises wide-ranging reforms of PA institutions and a “zero tolerance” policy toward corruption.
He says he will seek to reunify the West Bank and Gaza, and create an “independent, competent and transparent agency for Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction and an internationally managed trust fund to raise, manage and disburse the required funds.”
The vision statement makes no mention of Hamas, which won a landslide victory the last time Palestinians held national elections, in 2006, and which polls indicate still has significant support.
The 88-year-old Abbas, who is in overall control of the PA, has remained in power since his own mandate expired in 2009 and has refused to hold elections, claiming Israeli restrictions. Polls consistently find that a large majority of Palestinians want him to resign.
Mustafa says the PA aims to hold presidential and parliamentary elections, but he does not give a timetable and says it would depend on “realities on the ground” in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Report: PM tells lawmakers Israel will go into Rafah despite US request
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset on March 13, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
After a new demand from the White House to avoid a major operation in Rafah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in a closed meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel will enter the southern Gaza city.
“The Americans asked that we not do an operation in Rafah,” he says, according to Arutz Sheva, “but there is no other choice. We need control over the Philadelphi Route,” he continues, referring to the border route running along the Egypt-Gaza border.
On humanitarian aid, Netanyahu says they are looking into outside organizations to distribute food, as well as “private companies.”
Netanyahu tells the powerful parliamentary body that “from Israel’s standpoint, there is nothing preventing Gazans from leaving, but there aren’t countries in the world that are ready to receive them.”
He adds that Israel is building a new border crossing at Kerem Shalom “to replace the Rafah Crossing” into Egypt and that Israel will have control over it.
Over 450 Jewish Hollywood professionals denounce Glazer’s Oscar speech
Jonathan Glazer poses with the award for best international feature film for "The Zone of Interest," in the press room at the Oscars on March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Over 450 actors, producers, and photographers have signed a “Statement from Jewish Hollywood Professionals” castigating “Zone of Interest” filmmaker Jonathan Glazer over his recent Oscar acceptance speech, in which the director of the Holocaust film claimed Israel has “hijacked” Judaism with its conduct toward the Palestinians, Variety reports.
“We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination,” reads the statement, echoing Glazer’s own language at the awards ceremony.
“The use of words like ‘occupation’ to describe an indigenous Jewish people defending a homeland that dates back thousands of years, and has been recognized as a state by the United Nations, distorts history. It gives credence to the modern blood libel that fuels a growing anti-Jewish hatred around the world, in the United States, and in Hollywood,” the statement continues, adding that “[t]he current climate of growing antisemitism only underscores the need for the Jewish State.”
According to Variety, the signatories include Debra Messing (“Will and Grace’), Brett Gelman (“Stranger Things,” “Fleabag”), and Julianna Margulies (“The Good Wife”).
The outlet says Glazer declined to comment on the open letter.
At the March 10 Oscar awards ceremony, Glazer said in his acceptance speech for best international feature that “our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present.
“Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza,” he added to applause and cheers.
Glazer’s speech caused a furor. “I just fundamentally disagree with Jonathan on this,” said “Zone of Interest” producer Danny Cohen, a former TV executive at the British Broadcasting Corporation, when interviewed on a podcast two days later.
The film, which won two Oscars, focuses on fictionalized versions of the Nazi Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his family, who carry on their normal lives while living next door to the death camps.
UN: Israel’s ‘continued restrictions’ on Gaza aid ‘may amount to starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime’
A man carries a bag of flour after humanitarian aid was distributed in Gaza City on March 17, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Israel’s “continued restrictions” on humanitarian aid for Gaza may amount to a starvation tactic that could be a war crime, the United Nations human rights chief says.
The comments follow a UN-backed report yesterday saying famine is likely by May without an end to fighting in the more than five-month war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people.
“The extent of Israel’s continued restrictions on entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime,” says UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
While aid agencies say Israel is not allowing enough aid into the enclave, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government says it is facilitating aid and that the United Nations and relief groups are at fault for issues over the quantity and pace of delivery.
Aid organizations say the Strip must be flooded with food to address the issue.
“Israel, as the occupying power, has the obligation to ensure the provision of food and medical care to the population commensurate with their needs and to facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations to deliver that assistance,” Turk says via spokesperson Jeremy Laurence.
The delivery of aid to Gaza has been a point of contention in Israel’s war against the Hamas regime there, triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, when thousands of terrorists rampaged through southern Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.
Knesset panel advances amendment that requires graphic showing smoking’s harm on all smoking products
MK David Bitan chairs the Knesset Economics Affairs discussion on a proposed law requiring graphic labeling on smoking products, March 19, 2024. (Noam Moshkovitz/Knesset Spokesperson’s Office)
The Knesset Economic Affairs Committee chaired by MK David Bitan votes unanimously to approve a second and third reading in Knesset of an amendment to the law outlawing advertising and limiting the marketing of tobacco products.
The new amendment would require graphics showing the health damage caused by smoking on all smoking products.
In the committee discussion, importers of tobacco, cigarettes, and other smoking products argued against the change, claiming that the move would only increase illegal commerce by 20 percent. Importers and sellers of e-cigarettes and vaping products pointed out that other countries do not require graphic warnings on these products.
Representatives of anti-smoking groups hit back by saying that the graphic warnings should not only be on individual cigarette packs but also on cartons, which usually contain multiple packs.
The amendment, originally introduced by Likud MK Osher Shekalim, will go to the Knesset plenary for a second and third vote. Should it pass, the health minister will be responsible for implementing its requirements.
IDF: Troops killed over 50 Hamas gunmen so far in ongoing raid at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital
IDF troops operate at Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, in a handout image published by the military on March 19, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF says troops have so far killed more than 50 Hamas gunmen during its ongoing raid at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.
The operation, which began early Monday morning, is being carried out by the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit, the 401st Armored Brigade, and the Shin Bet security agency.
The IDF says that some 180 suspects have been captured so far in the raid. Yesterday, the IDF reported 200 suspects had been detained, indicating some had been released.
Meanwhile in central Gaza, the IDF says the Nahal Brigade killed several Hamas operatives over the past day. In one incident, the Nahal troops spotted a gunman opening fire at them, and directed a tank to shell the operative, killing him.
In the Khan Younis suburb al-Qarara, in southern Gaza, the IDF says the 7th Armored Brigade and Air Force carried out strikes on several Hamas sites over the past day, including an anti-tank launching position used in a recent attack which did not cause any injuries.
The IDF also releases footage showing several recent strikes in the Gaza Strip.
Canada parliament passes vote calling for international community to work toward 2-state solution
File - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of talks with his Polish counterpart in Warsaw, on February 26, 2024. (Sergei Gapon/AFP)
Canada’s parliament passes a non-binding motion calling on the international community to work toward a two-state solution to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, in line with government policy.
The vote had been delayed by last-minute wrangling over wording supporting Palestinian statehood, an idea that looked set to deepen splits inside the ruling Liberal Party.
The original motion was drawn up by the minority left-leaning New Democrats (NDP), who are helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party in power and are unhappy with what they see as his failure to do enough to protect civilians in Gaza.
Qatar says Mossad chief has left Doha but teams are continuing to meet
File: Head of Mossad David Barnea attends a state ceremony marking 50 years since the Yom Kippur War, held at the military cemetery at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl, on September 26, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Israel’s spy chief has left Doha but talks over a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release are continuing in the Qatari capital, a senior Qatari official says.
Mossad chief David Barnea “has left Doha,” Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari tells a regular briefing, adding that “technical teams are meeting as we speak.”
An official in the Prime Minister’s Office later confirms the departure of Barnea, adding that “senior working teams remain in Qatar to continue the talks and negotiations.”
The departure was expected. A senior Israeli official cited by Hebrew media outlets said Monday Barnea was due to hold meetings into the night and would likely return to Israel on Tuesday, while a negotiating team made up of intelligence officials remains in the Qatari capital to continue the talks.
An Israeli official estimated the negotiations in Doha could take at least two weeks, citing difficulties that Hamas’s foreign delegates may have in communicating with terror leaders in Gaza.
Talks had been on hold since last week, when Israel rejected a Hamas response to its latest offer for a six-week truce that would see 40 hostages released, with later stages possible to extend the break in fighting and allow more hostages to be freed. The terror group is reportedly seeking a deal for the release of hundreds of high-level Palestinian prisoners and an Israeli commitment to end fighting permanently and pull troops out of Gaza, with residents of north Gaza allowed to return home.
Israel has adamantly ruled out a permanent ceasefire and insists it will resume its declared goal of destroying Hamas once any hostage-truce deal is carried out.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Coalition reportedly mulls raising Haredi exemption age to 35-40; Lapid: ‘Another fraudulent attempt’
Ultra-Orthodox Jews outside an army recruitment office in Jerusalem, March 4, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
In what appears to be a trial balloon by the government as it struggles to formulate a new legal framework regulating ultra-Orthodox military enlistment, coalition lawmakers are working on legislation to raise the exemption age for yeshiva students to 35-40, Israel Hayom reports.
Ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, men of military age have been able to avoid the draft for decades by enrolling for study in yeshivas and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption at 26.
However, according to Israel Hayom, the security establishment is now recommending increasing Talmud students’ period of exemption, arguing that requiring young Haredi men to stay in yeshiva for decades instead of entering the workforce in their twenties could deter them from signing up for a lifetime of study, and instead encourage their enlistment.
Haredi lawmakers have expressed initial support for the idea, the outlet reports.
A law authorizing the current exemption expired in June 2023, and a temporary regulation to extend it is set to expire at the end of March, after which the military will not be authorized to exempt Haredi young men from the draft and will need to start enlisting them.
In response, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid tweeted that raising the exemption age is “another fraudulent attempt that will cause Haredi youth to neither enlist nor work.”
IDF announces soldier killed in north Gaza fighting, taking ground offensive toll to 251
Warrant Officer (res.) Sebastian Haion, 51, killed in the northern Gaza Strip on March 19, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF announces the death of a soldier killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today.
He is named as Warrant Officer (res.) Sebastian Haion, 51, a commander in the 401st Armored Brigade chief’s forward command team, from Rosh Ha’ayin.
Haion was killed during the IDF’s ongoing operation against Hamas at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.
His death brings the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas to 251.
Israel Prize for heroism to go to 2 civilians who rescued dozens at Kibbutz Be’eri
Illustrative: Houses destroyed during Hamas's brutal October 7 onslaught in Kibbutz Be'eri, December 20, 2023. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)
The Israel Prize for civilian heroism will be awarded to Menachem Kalmanson and Itiel Zohar for their bravery in fighting at Kibbutz Be’eri, Education Minister Yoav Kisch announces.
On October 7, Kalmanson and his brother Elhanan Kalmanson left their homes in the West Bank settlement Otniel and traveled to Kibbutz Be’eri, along with Zohar, their nephew.
“Despite being told that they were not needed, they arrived at Kibbutz Be’eri and repeatedly entered the besieged kibbutz over the course of a number of hours, and in doing so, saved dozens of the residents of the kibbutz,” Kisch says in a statement.
In the last house they entered, in the early hours of October 8, a terrorist shot and killed Elhanan. The three have become known as “Team Elhanan.”
שמח לעדכן על זוכי פרס ישראל לתקומה וגבורה אזרחית- "צוות אלחנן".
מנחם, אחיו אלחנן הי"ד, ואחיינם איתיאל זוהר יצאו מביתם בעתניאל, בשמחת תורה, להציל חיים של תושבי הישובים בעוטף עזה. על אף שאמרו להם שהם לא נצרכים, הם הגיעו לקיבוץ בארי ונכנסו פעם אחר פעם אחר פעם במשך שעות ארוכות לתוך… pic.twitter.com/PcoNJbSGJH
— יואב קיש Yoav Kisch (@YoavKisch) March 19, 2024
The Israel Prize this year is mired in controversy.
In the middle of February, the government announced that the categories for the Israel Prize, the country’s highest civilian honor, would be canceled for 2024, and two new categories related to the ongoing war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza would be awarded instead — “Societal Responsibility” for civil efforts and volunteering, and “Citizen Heroism” for civilian acts of bravery.
The prize will be awarded to six individuals whose actions “inspired unity and kindness, demonstrated extraordinary bravery, inspired enormous hope in Israel and contributed to the recovery after the terrible upheaval we experienced on October 7,” the statement said at the time.
But a report by the Maariv news outlet at the end of February alleged that Kisch 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.
Waldman himself, whose daughter Danielle was murdered by Hamas terrorists in the Supernova massacre of October 7, alleged during a Knesset Science Committee hearing earlier this month that Kisch and close associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had pressured the relevant Israel Prize selection committee to change its decision to award him the honor.
Last Thursday, the High Court of Justice gave Kisch and the government one week to respond to petitions demanding the reversal of the decision to drastically pare down the Israel Prize for 2024.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
Hamas-run health ministry says Gaza death toll passed 31,800
People search the rubble and debris of a building that was hit by Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip, March 19, 2024 (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)
At least 31,819 Palestinians have been killed and 73,934 have been wounded in Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave 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.
Bond role offered to Jewish actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson – British media reports
Actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson attends the Giorgio Armani women's Fall-Winter 2024-25 collection presented in Milan, Italy, Feb. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Jewish actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been offered the role of James Bond in the spy movie franchise, according to British media reports.
There have been numerous reports in the past linking various actors to the role of the fictional agent.
“Bond is Aaron’s job, should he wish to accept it. The formal offer is on the table and they are waiting to hear back,” a source tells The Sun.
“As far as Eon [Productions] is concerned, Aaron is going to sign his contract in the coming days and they can start preparing for the big announcement,” the source says of the Avengers star.
In 2015, Taylor-Johnson told The Guardian he was pleased when someone told him he looked like a fashionable Hasidic Jew.
“That was nice because I have really curly hair and also I’m Jewish,” he said.
Labor petitions High Court to order Ben Gvir to revoke improperly approved gun licenses
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir leads an Otzma Yehudit faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on March 18, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The Labor party files a petition to the High Court of Justice requesting that it order National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to revoke gun licenses issued in recent months that were approved in violation of regulations governing the process.
In December, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon told the Knesset National Security Committee that some 14,000 gun licenses had been improperly approved since October 7 following a high-profile campaign by Ben Gvir and the National Security Ministry to increase gun ownership in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 atrocities.
Labor’s petition points out that unauthorized personnel such as young women performing national service, Knesset employees, and Ben Gvir’s political appointees were involved in the approval of gun licenses, and that some licenses were approved without the applicant having the requisite training.
It also notes that over half of applicants received their license without having had a personal interview, and that some were legally barred from owning a gun due to a history of violence, both of which violate gun licensing regulations.
“Ben Gvir’s decisions have brought about a massive expansion of people bearing guns in the country, which violates fundamental rights. This is a most dangerous step for the safety of the public, violates the law, and harms basic democratic values,” says Labor leader MK Merav Michaeli following submission of the petition.
Prominent doctor gets life sentence for murdering his wife in 2019
Esti Ahronovitz, whose husband is suspected of her murder on November 3, 2019 (Facebook)
Prominent doctor Giora Praff gets a life sentence for the 2019 murder of his wife Esti Ahronovitz.
Praff (also known as Perry) is also ordered to pay her family NIS 258,000 (approximately $70,500), the maximum amount of compensation that can be granted by law in such a case.
Praff, who has a history of domestic abuse, shot his wife five times, including two shots to the back of her head as she lay on the floor.
According to the Ynet news site, the judges at the Beersheba District Court determined that there were no mitigating circumstances for Praff’s actions and that therefore a life sentence was appropriate.
Praff is a well-known humanitarian doctor who took part in several international aid missions and was the first Israeli member of the Red Cross.
He was well regarded in Israel, the US, and other countries, but has confessed to domestic violence, and has been accused of stalking, assault, and harassment.
According to the indictment, Ahronovitz began taking legal action against Praff as part of a financial dispute over household expenses. Praff went on a trip overseas for the 10 days before the murder, during which time Ahronovitz began to move his belongings into a separate room in their home, and also hid his gun.
When Praff returned home, Ahronovitz informed him that she would only return the gun to him after he moved out.
On the day of the murder, Praff took possession of the gun and shot his wife five times. He left her bleeding on the floor and fled in his car.
Dr. Giora Praff during a 2012 interview with Channel 1. (Screenshot: YouTube)
UK deputy PM defends Israel’s right to self-defense, urges immediate humanitarian ceasefire
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron (L) and Britain's Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden leave Westminster Abbey in London, on March 11, 2024 (Daniel LEAL / AFP)
Britain’s deputy prime minister defends Israel’s right to protect itself amid growing tension between the Middle Eastern country and its biggest backers, but calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza on humanitarian grounds.
Oliver Dowden says the British government is “continuously” urging Israel to abide by international humanitarian law and had also raised concerns about getting aid into Gaza, where a humanitarian crisis is raging after six months of fighting in a war sparked by the devastating attack by the Hamas terror group on October 7.
“That’s why we are calling for an immediate ceasefire to allow that aid in, and crucially, the hostages to come out,” he tells Reuters in an interview in Seoul, where he is attending a US-backed Summit for Democracy.
Dowden’s comments came in response to a query about tension between Israel and the United States over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war, particularly an expected military push into Rafah, the Hamas terror group’s last remaining stronghold, where about a million Gazans evacuated from elsewhere in the Strip are sheltering.
Blinken: 100% of Gaza population experiencing ‘severe levels of acute food insecurity’
Palestinians line up to receive free meals at Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Essa)
The entire population of Gaza is experiencing “severe levels of acute food insecurity,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says, underscoring the urgency of increasing the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
“According to the most respected measure of these things, 100 percent of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. That’s the first time an entire population has been so classified,” Blinken tells a press conference in the Philippines where he is on an official visit.
Blinken’s remarks come on the eve of his return to the Middle East — this time to Saudi Arabia and Egypt — to discuss efforts to secure a hostage deal and temporary truce in Gaza, and ramp up aid deliveries.
This will be Blinken’s sixth trip to the Middle East since war erupted in Gaza on October 7, sparked by Hamas’s brutal onslaught.
The United Nations has warned for weeks that a famine is looming in Gaza, with aid agencies reporting huge difficulties gaining access to the territory, particularly the north.
Donors have turned to deliveries by air or sea, but these are not viable alternatives to land deliveries, UN agencies say.
Gantz welcomes decision to freeze municipal rabbis bill that ‘sows discord’
Head of the National Unity party Benny Gantz holds a press conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 13, 2024.(Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Minister Benny Gantz welcomes the decision to freeze contentious legislation that would dramatically increase the number of municipal rabbis and change the manner in which they are picked.
The bill, set to be advanced today, had enflamed tensions within the coalition.
“While our good sons and daughters are fighting valiantly in Gaza, with 134 hostages in Hamas captivity, we must be united around the goals of the war, and not engage in controversial legislation that sows discord among the people and the leadership,” Gantz says in a statement.
Bill swelling ranks of municipal rabbis is frozen amid growing coalition tensions
Shas leader Aryeh Deri, left, walks by Ze'ev Elkin, right, in the Knesset plenum on December 25, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
The relaunch of a contentious bill potentially creating hundreds of new publicly funded rabbinical posts is frozen amid tensions within the coalition.
This is “a time for unity, not controversial legislation,” Coalition Whip Ofir Katz says in a statement, according to Hebrew-language media reports.
Katz says he spoke with the heads of coalition parties, including Shas leader Aryeh Deri.
The decision comes after National Unity leader Benny Gantz and New Hope head Gideon Sa’ar were expected to boycott the legislation, which means that pushing it forward would violate a clause in the emergency wartime coalition agreement that states all legislation must be pre-approved by all coalition parties.
A number of lawmakers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party also called for the bill to be yanked from the agenda.
The law would give the religious services minister the authority to appoint a salaried rabbi to any neighborhood of at least 50,000 residents, potentially creating hundreds of new positions, of which there are only 70 currently.
In addition, the bill proposes giving the Chief Rabbinate considerable say in the appointment of those rabbis by giving it more seats on the nomination panels, in place of the seats currently held by representatives of the municipalities.
The new bill also seeks to remove restrictions on appointing municipal rabbis in the immediate leadup to municipal or parliamentary elections – a stipulation meant to ensure that rabbinical appointments do not become currency in political trading.
It also lowers the minimum number of women on the rabbinical appointment boards from 40 percent to one-third.
The legislation additionally does away with a requirement for cities to extend municipal rabbis’ terms every 10 years or giving them the option of convening election assemblies to appoint a new rabbi. Instead, city rabbis would essentially hold their jobs until they turn 75, after which they would need to have the city that employs them extend their terms.
The bill, whose cost to taxpayers is estimated at tens of millions of shekels annually, was put on ice following the outbreak of war with Hamas on October 7 but was recently re-floated.
Team to examine reports of digging sounds by residents of town near West Bank – report
A team has been formed to investigate reports of digging sounds from residents of Bat Hefer, an Israeli town situated hundreds of meters from the West Bank city Tulkarem and the village of Shuweika, the Ynet news site reports.
So far at least five sets of checks have been carried out without finding any tunnels.
According to Ynet, the team will be set up under the Israel Defense Force’s Central Command and will be made up of both military and civilian experts who will conduct situation assessments subject to emerging intelligence information or reports of the suspected presence of a tunnel.
The Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups have in the past dug attack tunnels into Israel across the Gaza and Lebanon borders, respectively.
Egyptian officials convinced Hamas not to pull out of Doha talks after Shifa Hospital raid – report
Demonstrators calling for the for the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip, outside Hakirya Base in Tel Aviv, March 18, 2024 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Egyptian officials had to convince Hamas not to suspend its participation in talks for a hostages-for-truce deal after Israel launched a new raid on Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, a Qatari newspaper reports.
An unnamed Egyptian source with knowledge of the matter tells the London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that officials intervened yesterday morning to ensure the continued participation of the terror group.
However, the source says it appeared unlikely that the discussions would result in a permanent ceasefire — Israel has adamantly ruled out a permanent ceasefire and insists it will resume its declared goal of destroying Hamas once any deal is carried out.
“Despite the mediators’ keen interest in making the current round of negotiations a success, their ambitions do not amount to reaching a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip,” the source says.
Israeli troops entered the hospital complex yesterday amid intelligence that senior Hamas officials were in the area and using the medical center to plan and carry out terror activity.
During the operation troops killed some 40 gunman and a senior Hamas commander, according to the IDF. One Israeli soldier was also killed amid a gun battle with terror operatives in the area of the hospital.
The latest round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas kicked off Monday evening in Qatar, after an Israeli delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea arrived in Doha.
An Israeli official estimated the negotiations in Doha could take at least two weeks, citing difficulties that Hamas’s foreign delegates may have in communicating with terror leaders in Gaza after more than five months of war.
US announces Blinken to visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt to discuss Gaza truce deal
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the media as he tours Amkor Technology in Manila on March 19, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week to discuss efforts to secure a hostages-for-ceasefire deal in Gaza and increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory, a State Department spokesperson says.
Blinken will hold talks with Saudi leaders in Jeddah on Wednesday before travelling to Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian authorities, spokesman Matthew Miller says from the Philippines, where Blinken is touring.
This will be Blinken’s sixth trip to the Middle East since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
“The Secretary will discuss efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire agreement that secures the release of all remaining hostages, intensified international efforts to increase humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and coordination on post-conflict planning for Gaza, including ensuring Hamas can no longer govern or repeat the attacks of October 7,” Miller says in a statement.
Blinken will also discuss “a political path for the Palestinian people with security assurances with Israel, and an architecture for lasting peace and security in the region.”
And he will raise the imperative issue of ending attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial ships, to restore stability and security in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, Miller adds.
Ex-PM Olmert hails Schumer’s ‘courage’ for urging elections to replace Netanyahu
In this Feb. 11, 2020, photo, former prime minister Ehud Olmert takes questions from reporters after a news conference in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Former premier Ehud Olmert has sent a letter to US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, hailing his speech calling for Israel to hold early elections to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Calling Schumer “a great friend of Israel,” Olmert praises the New York Democrat “for the courage that you have showed in saying so many of us Jews across the world and traditional supporters of Israel feel today.”
“Indeed, the prime minister of Israel is not worthy of the responsibilities bestowed upon him,” adds Olmert, who has long been a vocal critic of Netanyahu.
While opposing major Rafah op, Biden says he told Netanyahu ‘Israel has a right to go after Hamas’
US President Joe Biden speaks during a Women's History Month reception in the East Room of the White House, March 18, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
US President Joe Biden puts out a statement on X regarding his phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I continued to affirm that Israel has a right to go after Hamas, a group of terrorists responsible for the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Biden says. “And I reiterated the need for an immediate ceasefire as part of a deal to free hostages, lasting several weeks, so we can get hostages home and surge aid to civilians in Gaza.”
Biden says he also asked Netanyahu “to send a team to Washington to discuss ways to target Hamas without a major ground operation in Rafah.
Today, I spoke again with Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding the latest developments in Israel and Gaza.
I continued to affirm that Israel has a right to go after Hamas, a group of terrorists responsible for the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
And I… pic.twitter.com/pRf9b0VE91
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 19, 2024
US says it destroyed Houthi anti-ship missiles, drones and weapons storage containers
The US military says it destroyed seven anti-ship missiles, three drones and three weapons storage containers 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 US military’s Central Command says in a statement on the social media site X.
Syria reports Israeli strikes in Damascus countryside resulting in ‘material losses’
Citing a military source, Syria’s state news agency says Israel struck a number of targets in the Damascus countryside.
The SANA report claims that Syrian air defenses intercepted a number of Israeli missiles and that the strikes resulted in only “material losses.”
Schumer hits back at Trump, says ‘working in a bipartisan way to ensure’ enduring US-Israel ties
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to reporters after the weekly Senate Democrats caucus policy luncheon, at the US Capitol on March 12, 2024, in Washington. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/AFP)
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hits back at former president Donald Trump, after the presumptive Republican nominee accused the New York Democrat of turning on Israel and claimed American Jews who vote Democratic “hate their religion” and “hate everything about Israel.”
“To make Israel a partisan issue only hurts Israel and the US-Israeli relationship,” Schumer writes on X. “Trump is making highly partisan and hateful rants.”
“I am working in a bipartisan way to ensure the US-Israeli relationship sustains for generations to come, buoyed by peace in the Middle East.”
Explosions in Damascus area reported by pro-Iranian TV station
Pro-Iranian Lebanese Mayadeen television station says explosions were heard in the vicinity of the Syrian capital Damascus.
It gives no further details, but the Syrian army said on Sunday that Israel had hit areas in southern parts of the country.
Trump: Jews who vote for Democrats ‘hate their religion, hate everything about Israel’
Former US president 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 presidential nominee Donald Trump says, “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves.”
The remarks on a podcast interview with his former far-right adviser Sebastian Gorka come a day after Trump criticized Israel for trying to maintain ties with the Democratic party, which is “very bad for Israel.”
Trump is again asked about Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s speech last week in which he called for early elections in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump says, reiterating his belief that Schumer used to be pro-Israel and has turned on Jerusalem in pursuit of votes.
He claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the US “crying [and] begging” then-president Barack Obama not to sign a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015. Trump boasts having pulled out of the deal three years later but laments that “they didn’t do anything with the ending of it.” The Biden administration has blasted Trump for withdrawing from the accord, arguing that it left no curbs on Iran’s nuclear production which has accelerated significantly since.
“They’re very close to getting a nuclear weapon right now, and once they have that it becomes a… much more difficult negotiation,” Trump warns.
While he has criticized Schumer for his speech, Trump himself has made some highly critical remarks about Netanyahu. Recalling how the Israeli premier congratulated Biden for winning the 2020 election, Trump told an Israeli reporter, “f**k him,” in reference to Netanyahu. He has also blasted the prime minister in campaign events for allegedly pulling out of commitments to help the US assassinate top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
Part 3 of Donald Trump's Interview on #AMERICAFirst
Why Do Democrats Hate Israel? pic.twitter.com/IL80KVfh7m
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) March 18, 2024
Gantz speaks with Trudeau, warns against Canadian recognition of Palestinian state
File - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of talks with his Polish counterpart in Warsaw, on February 26, 2024. (Sergei Gapon/AFP)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed concern around Israel’s planned offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in a call with war cabinet member Benny Gantz, Trudeau’s office says in a statement.
“The Prime Minister shared his concern around Israel’s planned offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and the severe humanitarian implications for all civilians taking refuge in the area,” Trudeau’s office says in a statement.
“He underscored the need to increase the volume of life-saving humanitarian aid for civilians and to ensure aid reaches all those in need, safely and without delay.”
In comments on X, formerly Twitter, Gantz says he thanked Trudeau “for his personal commitment to Israel’s security”
“In light of the upcoming vote in Canada’s parliament calling for the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, I expressed that unilateral recognition, particularly following the 7th of October, is counter-productive to the mutual goal of long-term regional security and stability, and would ultimately reward terrorism,” Gantz says.
He adds that he stressed to Trudeau “that for the sake of the region, any unilateral actions should be avoided.”
read more: