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The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they happened.
After PM talks to GOP, Kirby says it’s important that US support for Israel remains bipartisan
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks on a video statement released on March 20, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO)
Asked to weigh in on Netanyahu’s talk earlier today with Republicans, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says, “The prime minister can decide for himself where he wants to talk… But I do think it’s important to remember that support for Israel… has been a long-standing bipartisan issue in this country.”
“It’s indicative of the broad support that the Israeli people know they can count on from the American people, and it’s important that that support stay bipartisan,” Kirby adds in a press briefing with reporters.
Dozens of former US officials urge Biden to take harder line with Israel
US President Joe Biden at a campaign event at Strath Haven Middle School on March 8, 2024, in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti)
Nearly 70 former US officials, diplomats and military officers are urging President Joe Biden to warn Israel of serious consequences if it denies civil rights and basic necessities to Palestinians and expands settlement activity in the West Bank.
“The United States must be willing to take concrete action to oppose” such practices, the group says in an open letter to Biden, “including restrictions on the provision of (US) assistance (to Israel) consistent with US law and policy.”
Among the signatories are more than a dozen former ambassadors, as well as other retired State Department officials and former Pentagon, intelligence and White House officials, including Anthony Lake, a national security adviser to former President Bill Clinton.
In its letter, the group says that an Israeli military operation against Hamas was “necessary and justified.”
But Israel’s operations “have been marked by repeated violations” of international law banning indiscriminate killing and the use of weapons that do not permit discrimination between combatants and civilians, the group says.
“Tens of thousands of Gazan civilians have been killed, the majority of whom are women and children,” the group says. “Civilian killings of this nature and magnitude cannot be justified.”
Israel denies that its operations breach international law.
The group says that it strongly backs Biden’s call for an immediate truce of at least six weeks, the establishment of a reliable humanitarian aid delivery system, and the release of hostages.
The signatories also call on the Israeli military to implement rules of engagement consistent with international law.
In talk to GOP, PM estimates 28,000 have been killed in Gaza — 4,000 fewer than Hamas claims
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)
Speaking virtually to a gathering of Senate Republicans earlier today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is mindful of the civilian death toll in Gaza, Sen. Josh Hawley tells The New York Times.
“He was very mindful of it, he talked about it at some length,” says Hawley, adding that Netanyahu insisted that Israel was making every effort to minimize civilian casualties.
Hawley recalls that Netanyahu estimated the total death toll in Gaza to be at roughly 28,000. The New York Times report does not indicate whether Netanyahu broke down that number into Hamas and other gunmen, civilians killed by the IDF and civilians killed by Hamas and other terror groups. The latest death toll from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza is just under 32,000. The Hamas toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, and is believed to include victims of terror groups’ own sniper fire and rocket misfires. Israel says the IDF has killed at least 13,000 gunmen in battle in Gaza from Hamas and other terror groups, as well as 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on or soon after October 7.
The Republican senator adds that Netanyahu told the lawmakers that he wasn’t asking for US ground troops to fight Israel’s war. However, the premier did request financial assistance from Washington, urging the senators to support any bill that includes security assistance for Jerusalem. Such legislation has been held up for months by House Republicans over disagreements with Democrats regarding immigration and Ukraine.
IDF says day’s second airstrike part of hours-long raid in West Bank refugee camp
The IDF says it has launched a brigade-level raid in the West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp, which is expected to last several hours.
The army confirms an airstrike was carried out against two gunmen who were a threat to troops.
Israeli airstrike reported as IDF raids West Bank’s Nur Shams camp
Palestinian media report an Israeli army raid in the West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp, close Tulkarem.
An airstrike was also carried out in the area, the reports claim.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
تغطية صحفية: "جانب من اقتحام قوات الاحتلال لمدينة طولكرم ومخيم نور شمس". pic.twitter.com/awuTck7IJC
— القسطل الإخباري (@AlQastalps) March 20, 2024
Netanyahu addresses Senate GOP luncheon as he and chamber’s Democrats tussle
WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Republican senators today that Israel will continue its efforts to defeat the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, senators tell reporters after he addressed a party lunch.
“He’s going to do what he said he’s going to do. He’s going to finish it,” Senator Jim Risch of Idaho says.
The Israeli leader spoke to Republicans via video link nearly a week after the Senate’s Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, gave a Senate speech branding Netanyahu an obstacle to peace and urging new elections in Israel.
“We asked…him for an update and we got it on the war, on the release of the hostages and in the efforts to defeat Hamas. We told him Israel has every right to defend themselves and he said that’s exactly what they continue to do,” Senator John Barrasso says.
Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says Netanyahu addressed civilian casualties and the need to get more aid into Gaza. He says Netanyahu is “very supportive” of plans to build a temporary pier and bring in aid by sea.
“He’s very sensitive to the fact that every civilian casualty is a very unfortunate event,” Risch says.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says Netanyahu made a presentation and then took questions from senators.
“I made it clear to him, that it’s not the business of the United States to be giving a democratic ally advice about when to have an election or what kind of military campaign they may be conducting,” McConnell tells reporters.
US sanctions procurement networks backing Iran’s missile, nuclear and defense programs
WASHINGTON — The United States has imposed new sanctions on three procurement networks that are supporting Iran’s ballistic missile, nuclear and defense programs, the Treasury Department says in a statement.
It says the networks — based in Iran, Turkey, Oman and Germany — have procured carbon fiber, epoxy resins and other missile-applicable goods.
“Through complex covert procurement networks, Iran seeks to supply rogue actors around the world with weapons systems that fuel conflict and risk countless civilian lives,” says Brian Nelson, under-secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Last month, the Treasury announced punitive measures targeting Iran’s ballistic missile and drone procurement programs as Washington looks to increase pressure on Tehran, whose proxies in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and the Gaza Strip have attacked US and Israeli targets.
US-sanctioned Hezbollah member visits UAE to open ‘new page’ in ties
BEIRUT — A senior official from the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has made a landmark trip to the United Arab Emirates to facilitate the release of more than a dozen Lebanese nationals detained there, four sources close to Hezbollah tells Reuters.
The visit at the invitation of the UAE could signal a significant shift away from the hostility that has long defined relations between Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah and the Sunni Muslim UAE, a strategic ally of the United States, analysts said.
There is no immediate response from the UAE foreign ministry to Reuters’ requests for comments.
One of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, describes Wafiq Safa’s visit as a “new page” in ties between the UAE and Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist group by the United States and its Gulf Arab allies.
Safa traveled to the UAE yesterday, the sources say. He runs Hezbollah’s Liaison and Coordination Unit, responsible for coordinating with Lebanese security agencies, and is sanctioned by the United States.
The four sources familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking say that the UAE made contact with Hezbollah with a message that they were seeking to release the Lebanese detainees, several of whom were serving life sentences.
The sources say the detainees were arrested on charges including providing support and finance for Hezbollah, describing these as politically motivated charges.
All four sources say the detainees will be released in the coming days and will accompany Safa back to Lebanon.
Two of the sources say the UAE asked Hezbollah’s ally Syrian President Bashar Assad to pass on the message before the start of the Gaza war, during which Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border.
There is no immediate response from Syria’s information ministry to a Reuters request for comment.
One of the sources says the visit suggests an effort to alleviate “some of the regional tensions,” without elaborating.
IDF says over $3 million in cash seized at Shifa, 300 terror suspects captured
The IDF says it has seized $3 million worth of cash, in US dollars and Jordanian dinars, at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, which was allegedly intended to be used by Hamas and other terror groups.
Also during the operation at Shifa, some 3,700 Palestinian civilians were evacuated from the medical center and headed to southern Gaza, the IDF says.
The IDF says that during the evacuation, some 300 terror suspects, including senior commanders in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, were captured.
Last night, the IDF says it also delivered 1,800 liters of water, 3.8 tons of food and a truck of fuel to Shifa.
צוות הקרב של חטיבה 401 יחד עם שייטת 13, לוחמי יחידת דובדבן וכוחות שב״כ בפיקוד אוגדה 162 ממשיכים בפשיטה בבית החולים שיפאא׳. במסגרת הסריקות בבית החולים הכוחות איתרו 11 מיליון שקלים בדולרים ודינר ירדני אשר יועדו לטרור >> pic.twitter.com/ZYox2zFiiK
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 20, 2024
Canada says no new arms export permits approved for Israel since early January
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly speaks about hostage diplomacy at the Wilson Center in Washington, February 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
OTTAWA — Canada has not approved new arms export permits to Israel since January 8 and the freeze will continue until Ottawa can ensure the weapons are used in accordance with Canadian law, the government says.
Export permits that were approved before January 8 remain in effect, the office of Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly says in an emailed statement.
The political survival of Canada’s minority Liberal government depends on support from the left-leaning New Democrats, who are calling for a tougher line with Israel over the Gaza conflict.
“Canada has one of the most rigorous export permit regimes in the world. There are no open permits for exports of lethal goods to Israel,” the statement says. “Since January 8, the government has not approved new arms export permits to Israel and this will continue until we can ensure full compliance with our export regime.”
Canadian law bars the export of weapons if they could be used in “a serious violation of international humanitarian law” or “serious acts of violence against women and children.” Ottawa must also consider whether the arms “would contribute to peace and security or undermine it.”
Prominent Jews among progressive donors warning Biden against ‘unconditional’ support for Israel
WASHINGTON — A number of prominent Jewish donors are included in a letter from more than 100 Democratic funders calling on US President Joe Biden to pull back his “unconditional” support for Israel’s war effort, and warning that it may harm his reelection prospects.
“Because of the disillusionment of a critical portion of the Democratic coalition, the Gaza war is increasing the chances of a Trump victory,” says the letter, which was sent Monday and first reported by The New York Times.
The letter comes amid growing pressure on Biden over Gaza from a swell of progressive voters, who have voted “uncommitted” in significant numbers in several primaries. The protest votes raise the prospect that progressive voters may stay home or decline to vote for the president in November, potentially facilitating a victory for former president Donald Trump.
“As donors and activists, we have committed much time and treasure in helping increase the turnout of likely Biden voters, particularly among young voters and voters of color.” the letter says. “Many of these voters are now questioning whether the Democratic Party shares their values.”
Among the signers are George and Liana Krupp, the father and daughter who steer the Krupp Family Foundation, which funds progressive Jewish organizations as well as the Council of American Jewish Museums. George Krupp, who has given $600,000 to Democrats this cycle, according to the Times, told the Times he remains committed to electing Biden to office.
Other prominent Jewish names include Barbara Dobkin, a philanthropist who has given to Jewish and Israeli feminist causes; Carol Winograd, who has funded progressive Jewish groups including J Street and Bend the Arc; Tamara Abrams, a Bay area climate activist who has served on the board of the East Bay Jewish Community Center; Margery Goldman, a philanthropist who has funded Israeli-Palestinian peace groups; and Marsha Rosenbaum, who has been at the forefront of advocating for drug reforms.
The letter says Israel has the right to defend itself from Hamas after the terror group’s October 7 attack on Israel, which it said included war crimes.
“We cannot imagine the pain that the hostages and their families endure every day,” the letter says. “We also acknowledge that Israel has the right, as does every country, to defend its citizens, and we sympathize with the stated joint goals of eliminating Hamas and freeing the hostages.
But the letter goes on to charge Israel with “indiscriminate” bombing and “systematically” destroying “nearly all civil structures in Gaza.” It calls for conditions on US defense assistance to Israel and adds, “Regrettably President Biden has provided what appears to be unconditional support for the Israeli operation.” It says Biden’s pressure on Israel to minimize civilian casualties has been ineffective.
“We are asking the Biden administration immediately to change course,” it says. “Conditions need to be placed and monitored on any further military, financial or diplomatic aid. All indiscriminate bombing and demolition must stop.”
Mike Johnson confirms: House GOP considering asking Netanyahu to give speech to Congress
US House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
US House Speaker Mike Johnson confirms the legislative chamber’s Republican caucus is considering inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress, amid a deepening divide between the premier and Democrats over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“It’s one of the things that we have in mind, and we may try to arrange for that,” Johnson tells reporters. “I think it’s very important for us to show solidarity and support for Israel right now in their time of great struggle, and we certainly stand for that position and we’ll try to advance that in every way that we can.”
Johnson says he had a “lengthy conversation” with Netanyahu this morning “and reiterated to him the House Republicans’ strong support for Israel.”
Netanyahu addressed Congress in March 2015, in an appearance arranged behind the back of then-US president Barack Obama.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks before a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 3, 2015 (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
He used the speech to warn that the nuclear deal then taking shape between Iran and Western powers “paves the path for Iran” to a nuclear arsenal, rather than blocking it, and urged American leaders to walk away from what he called “a very bad deal.”
US President Barack Obama makes a statement to the press after a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, soon after Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, March 3, 2015. (AFP/Brendan Smialowski)
Obama dismissed the speech as “nothing new.”
Knesset passes law allowing military burials for firefighters and prison guards
The Knesset enacts a law allowing firefighters and prison guards to be buried in military cemeteries, passing the bill through its final readings on Wednesday.
The legislation, which is approved 7-0 in the Knesset plenum, states that prison guards will be entitled to burial in a military cemetery even if they did not die as a result of their service, while firefighters will be granted to the same right if they die in the line of duty.
“The prison guards are also on the front line against those who seek to harm the security of the state and its citizens and work under conditions of severe stress,” the bill’s explanatory note says, equating prison guards to the country’s other security forces.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir welcomes the bill, stating that whoever saves lives deserves the state’s backing and pledges to “continue to work so that they get what they deserve.”
Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben Ari, one of the initiators of the bill, says now that the legislation has passed into law, she intends to work to “turn the fire and rescue service into a security body, part of the security system of the State of Israel.”
“We sent them to save lives and we will take care of them not only when they die but throughout their lives as firefighters,” she says.
Germany summons Iranian envoy over 2022 synagogue attack plot
BERLIN — Germany says it has summoned the Iranian ambassador over an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in 2022 that Berlin believes was planned with the help of Tehran.
A German-Iranian national was in December sentenced to two years and nine months in prison over the plot to attack a synagogue in the western German city of Bochum.
The 36-year-old, identified only as Babak J., had planned to target the synagogue but ended up throwing an incendiary device at an adjacent school building. No one was injured.
In handing down the verdict, the Duesseldorf court said the attack had been planned with the help of “Iranian state agencies.”
The foreign ministry says in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it has summoned the Iranian envoy after receiving a written justification of the judgement.
“We will now immediately share the judgement with our European partners and the EU institutions and examine further steps,” the ministry says.
Germany had already in December summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires over the plot.
Germany has grown increasingly alarmed in recent years about rising anti-Jewish sentiment eight decades after the end of the Holocaust.
Gallant to reportedly discuss arrival of US arms shipments during visit to Washington
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (L) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant give a joint press conference in Tel Aviv on December 18, 2023. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP)
While in Washington next week, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is expected to hold discussions on the arrival of American weapons shipments to Israel, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
The report says security officials have warned Israeli political leaders that the military needs the unspecified armaments to be ready for combat in Rafah and along the northern border.
IDF says it struck buildings in south Lebanon used by Hezbollah, observations posts
The IDF says it struck a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Houla, and observation posts in Kafr Kila and Yaroun.
Earlier today, another two buildings in Ghandouriyeh, including one where a Hezbollah operatives was spotted, were struck, the IDF says.
Hezbollah fired projectiles today at the Yir’on, Mount Dov, Misgav Am and Margaliot areas, with the IDF saying it shelled the launch sites.
The IDF says it struck a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon's Houla, and observation posts in Kafr Kila and Yaroun.
Earlier today, another two buildings in Ghandouriyeh, including one where a Hezbollah operatives was spotted, were struck, the IDF says.
Hezbollah… pic.twitter.com/zLTqiDR8cD
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 20, 2024
Blinken to meet with Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Thursday
CAIRO — The foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan, the UAE’s international cooperation minister and a top Palestinian official will meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Cairo on Thursday, according to an Egyptian foreign ministry note.
IDF chief says Shifa op damaging Hamas leadership, adding pressure in hostage talks
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, March 20, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi visited troops at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital earlier today, telling them that the operation is causing damage to Hamas’s leadership and is putting pressure on the terror group with regard to a potential hostage deal.
“So far the results are good, but look we’re aiming for the senior officials,” Halevi says.
“Marwan Issa, the arrest of senior officials, this is very, very important to put pressure on Hamas, it is very important to put pressure on the negotiations as well,” he says.
He says the IDF is “[causing] severe damage to Hamas, dismantling Hamas, killing the military leadership, damage to the civilian leadership, damage to the operatives.”
“We came here to arrest many operatives, with an emphasis on senior officials, and kill those who fight. We prefer detainees, they are important cards, [for] investigations,” Halevi says.
Schumer said to decline Netanyahu’s request to address Senate Democrats
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (left), a New York Democrat, meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Feb. 23, 2021. (Amos Ben-Gershom/Israel Government Press Office)
WASHINGTON — US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declined a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to the Senate Democratic Caucus, Punchbowl News reports.
Punchbowl reports that Schumer said these conversations should not happen “in a partisan manner.”
Meanwhile, Axios reports that House Republicans are considering inviting Netanyahu to address Congress, saying the idea was floated during a conference meeting.
IDF says Jenin strike targeted Islamic Jihad terrorist who killed Israeli last year
An undated photo of Meir Tamari, who was killed in a West Bank shooting attack on May 30, 2023. (Courtesy)
The IDF and Shin Bet confirm eliminating Ahmed Barakat, a Palestinian terrorist behind a deadly shooting attack in the West Bank last year, in the drone strike in Jenin earlier.
Barakat, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative, was accused of carrying out the shooting attack near the settlement of Hermesh in May 2023, killing Meir Tamari.
Alongside Barakat in the vehicle was Muhammad Hawashin, a commander of a local PIJ wing in Jenin, and two more operatives, the IDF says.
Barakat and Hawashin were behind an attempt to send a suicide bomber into Israel on March 11, and had directed a bombing and shooting attack against troops near the Homesh outpost on March 8, the IDF says.
The IDF also releases footage of the strike.
RFK Jr. says any other nation would ‘level’ Gaza if attacked like Israel on Oct. 7
FILE - US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks during a campaign event at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, October 12, 2023, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
LOS ANGELES — Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr offers staunch support for Israel in a Reuters interview, calling it a “moral nation” that was justly responding to Hamas provocations with its attacks on Gaza and questioning the need for a six-week ceasefire backed by President Joe Biden.
Biden has also been a vocal defender of Israel since the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, but he has recently pressured it to stem the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and accelerate a six-week ceasefire for hostage releases and aid delivery.
Asked if he supports a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, Kennedy tells Reuters: “I don’t even know what that means right now.”
Kennedy says that each previous ceasefire “has been used by Hamas to rearm, to rebuild and then launch another surprise attack. So what would be different this time?” he says
Speaking from an office crammed with bookshelves, taxidermied animals and insect specimens, Kennedy tells Reuters he sees wars as either moral crusades that should be pursued or wars of choice that should be avoided.
“World War I was an immoral war. It was a war of choice. We should have never gone,” he says.
Israel did not choose this war, he says, comparing it to US involvement in World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Kennedy says Hamas is to blame for Gaza’s destruction for failing to embrace a two-state solution and for firing thousands of missiles into Israeli cities like Tel Aviv.
“Any other nation that was adjacent to a neighboring nation that was bombing it with rockets, sending commandos over to murder its citizens, pledging itself to murder every person in that nation and annihilate it, would go and level it with aerial bombardment,” Kennedy says.
“But Israel is a moral nation. So it didn’t do that. Instead, it built an Iron Dome to protect itself so it would not have to go into Gaza.”
He says Hamas gave Israeli leaders no choice after Palestinian terrorists stormed into Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages.
Kennedy adds that he thinks a US president should be contacting leaders from Russia, Turkey and Egypt to put an end to Hamas.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Yesh Atid and National Unity endorse Liberman’s call to scrap upcoming Knesset recess
The Yesh Atid and National Unity parties join Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman’s initiative to cancel this spring’s Knesset recess, arguing that it is wrong to halt legislative activities during wartime.
National Unity MK Pnina Tamano-Shata informs coalition whip Ofir Katz that her party intends to support the initiative, provided that the Knesset only deal with war-related and consensus matters.
In a statement, Yesh Atid says that it has started collecting lawmakers’ signatures as part of an effort to cancel the recess, which runs from April 7 to May 19.
“Israel is at war” and “especially during these difficult days elected officials must help as much as possible in all areas of the Knesset’s work,” a letter currently being circulated among MKs by the party states. This includes “providing answers to problems coming from citizens who bring their concerns to us.”
Following both parties’ announcements, MK Oded Forer releases a statement on behalf of Yisrael Beytenu welcoming their support, declaring that “it is clear to everyone that while our soldiers are fighting on the northern and southern fronts, the Knesset cannot go into recess. This should also be clear to the coalition.”
“I expect [Prime Minister] Netanyahu will also join the Lieberman initiative and instruct the chairman of the coalition and the chairman of the Knesset committee to take action to cancel the recess immediately,” he says.
Speaking at his party’s faction meeting in the Knesset on Monday, Liberman argued that it was “unacceptable” for the Knesset to go on recess during the current national security crisis.
Taking a vacation while 134 Israelis are held hostage in Gaza, Hezbollah rockets fall on the north and the issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment remains unresolved “is neither reasonable nor logical,” he said.
Russia accuses Olympics chief of ‘neo-Nazism’ over ban from 2024 Games in Paris
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova attends Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on January 18, 2024. (Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
MOSCOW — Russia launches a furious tirade at the International Olympic Committee, arguing the IOC’s restrictions on Russian athletes and its criticism of the Moscow-organized Friendship Games amount to “neo-Nazism.”
The IOC yesterday both barred Russian athletes from taking part in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 26 and criticized the Kremlin for planning to hold its own “Friendship Games” to rival those held in the French capital.
“These decisions demonstrate how far the IOC has moved away from its stated principles and slipped into racism and neo-Nazism,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says in a briefing.
The IOC suspended Russia from the 2024 Games last year, but gave the green light for its athletes to compete as neutrals as long as they did not actively support the Kremlin’s assault on Ukraine.
This neutral status forces Russian athletes to “renounce any association with their homeland, with their citizenship, with their history, culture and people,” Zakharova argues.
“The IOC’s decisions are wrongful, unjust and unacceptable,” she says.
“We are outraged by the unprecedented discriminatory conditions imposed by the International Olympic Committee on Russian athletes.”
Bar association head warns of legal action if Levin won’t appoint new Supreme Court chief
Amit Bechar, head of the Israel Bar Association, attends a meeting of the Constitution Law and Justice Committee at the Knesset on March 18, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Head of the Israel Bar Association, Amit Becher, calls on Justice Minister Yariv Levin to schedule a vote for a new Supreme Court president and threatens legal action if he continues refusing to do so.
Although the Judicial Selection Committee, which chooses the Supreme Court president, has met on several occasions since November and appointed judges to magistrate and district courts, Levin has refused to schedule a vote on a new chief justice since he opposes the seniority system which has been used until now to make the key appointment.
“I call again from this platform on the justice minister to fulfill his legal and public duty, and put on the committee’s agenda the selection of a permanent Supreme Court president,” says Becher at a ceremony for investing new attorneys into the bar.
“If this issue isn’t addressed soon we will act through legal means,” he adds.
The Supreme Court has been headed by acting president Justice Uzi Vogelman since former president Esther Hayut retired in October. The court has never been without a permanent president for such an extended period of time.
Becher also alludes to tensions on the Judicial Selection Committee between the liberal majority and the government representatives. He praises the efforts of the bar association’s two representatives on the committee, who he says “have unfortunately been forced to stymie efforts to thwart the advancement of judges whose rulings have not found favor with political officials.”
Reports emerged in February that committee member, Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party, objected to the appointment of Judge Tal Tadmor Zamir to the Haifa District Court because Strock deemed her sentencing of rioters in the domestic unrest that accompanied the 2021 Gaza war to be too moderate.
Surveillance video shows IDF strike in Jenin; PA says 3 killed
The Palestinian Authority health ministry says three people are killed in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
The IDF said it targeted a group of terror operatives.
The trio are named in social media posts as Ahmed Barakat, Muhammad Fayed and Mahmoud Rahhal.
Images show them armed with firearms, indicating their affiliation with terror groups in Jenin.
هَنيئَاً لِمَن اصطَفاهُم اللهُ لِقُربِه فِي جِنانِه في هـٰذه السَاعَات المُبارَك..
مدينة جنين تزف ثلةً من قادة كتيبة جنين في شهر رمضان المبارك
1 – الشهيد محمد الفايد
2 – الشهيد أحمد بركات
3 – الشهيد محمود رحالهَنيئَاً لِأهل جِنين pic.twitter.com/6ptib3XpdV
— dana ???? ???????????????????????????? (@dana1Palestine) March 20, 2024
Surveillance camera footage circulated online shows the moment of the strike.
لحظة قصف السيارة في جنين قبيل الافطار والذي إسفر عن 3 شهداء وإصابة خطيرة. pic.twitter.com/cDE58en2nt
— شجاعية (@shejae3a) March 20, 2024
Review panel: UNRWA has ‘mechanisms’ to ensure neutrality, ‘critical areas’ that need addressing
UN workers are pictured at a UNRWA warehouse/distribution centre in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, which was allegedly partially hit by a strike on March 13, 2024(Mohammed Abed/AFP)
An interim report from the UN’s independent review into allegations against UNRWA has found that the relief agency for Palestinian refugees has mechanisms in place to ensure its neutrality, in addition to deficiencies that must be addressed.
The review group submitted the interim report with these conclusions to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres yesterday.
Next, the panel will develop its final report with recommendations for how UNRWA will address neutrality concerns going forward. The report will be publicized on April 20.
The review group was established following allegations in late January that 12 of UNRWA’s employees actively participated in Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught. Those staffers have already been fired by the agency, though Israel argues that Hamas’s infiltration into the agency runs far deeper.
The panel’s interim report found “that UNRWA has in place a significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the Humanitarian Principle of neutrality, and the group has also identified critical areas that still need to be addressed,” reads a statement from Guterres’s spokesman.
“The review group will now develop concrete and realistic recommendations on how to address these critical areas to strengthen and improve UNRWA,” the statement adds.
The review group is led by former French foreign affairs minister Catherine Colonna, and the panel worked with three research institutes — Sweden’s Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Norway’s Chr. Michelsen Institute and Denmark’s Institute for Human Rights.
At Shifa, IDF spokesman says detained terror suspects include Islamic Jihad battalion chiefs
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari speaks outside Gaza City's Shifa Hospital on March 20, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
In a video statement from Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says troops have detained between 250 and 300 terror operatives at the medical center during the ongoing operation against Hamas there.
He says another 300 suspects are also being questioned.
“We are talking about many [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] operatives, including battalion commanders, Hamas operatives, including political officials,” Hagari says.
“We will reach all the terrorists in this area. Our goal is to arrest the senior officials alive and bring them in for interrogation. Whoever fights against us will be killed,” he says.
Hagari says the IDF is providing food and water to the civilians sheltering at the hospital, and brought in generators for Shifa’s ER.
He says the operation will likely last several more days.
The IDF also releases a video showing weapons recovered by troops at Shifa, and clips of the elite Duvdevan commando unit operating on the hospital’s premises.
In farewell speech, outgoing Beit Shemesh mayor stresses compromise on religious issues
Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch speaks at a conference in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (Canaan Lidor/Times of Israel)
In one of her last speeches in office, outgoing Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch, speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, urges dozens of city council members from across the country to compromise with political rivals on religious matters, despite their commitment to hardline constituents.
“All statements that violate agreements that had already been reached are destructive, and uncaring in a way,” Bloch says during the Religion and the City 2024 conference at the Shalom Hartman Institute.
“Your political rival has a worldview that annoys you no end, but you need to remember it’s legitimate,” adds Bloch, an observant religious woman who since 2018 has served as the mayor of a predominantly Haredi city.
People on opposite sides of the debate on the role of religion in society “are not enemies, and the October 7 onslaught of Hamas reminded us of this,” adds Bloch, who is viewed by many Haredi and secular constituents as a moderate and a facilitator of successful coexistence.
Hod Hasharon Mayor Amir Kochavi disagrees with her appeal for compromise. “Sorry, but, unlike Aliza, I regard whoever tries to impose their beliefs on me as an enemy,” says Kochavi, who was elected on a platform of opposing perceived religious coercion.
Bloch, who last month lost her reelection bid to a Haredi candidate, Shmuel Greenberg, acknowledges that translating this vision into politics at the city council can be difficult. “Your base expects you to take things to the extreme. But resist, be true to your conscience,” says Bloch. “Our own self-destructive capacity is far more dangerous than any Iranian nuclear project.”
Another round of rocket alerts activated in northern border communities
Rocket sirens are again activated in Kiryat Shmona and a number of other Israeli towns near Lebanon, as the cross-border skirmishes continue between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group.
IDF says airstrike in Jenin targeted terror operatives
The IDF confirms carrying out an airstrike in Jenin.
In a short statement, the IDF says it targeted a number of terror operatives.
The IDF says it will provide further details shortly.
According to Palestinian media reports, at least two people were killed in the strike.
US says Blinken to discuss need to defeat Hamas, ‘including in Rafah,’ during Israel visit
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks as he arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, March 20, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein, Pool Photo via AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will discuss the need to ensure Hamas’s defeat, “including in Rafah,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says, confirming the top American diplomat’s Friday visit to Israel.
The US came out against Israel’s plan to launch a major ground invasion in Rafah this week and is instead pushing alternative initiatives that will advance Israel’s goals without another offensive that would come at a high humanitarian cost for Palestinians who, the UN says, are facing imminent famine after over five months of war.
The Biden administration is pushing for a more limited operation in Rafah and other parts of Gaza targeting Hamas’s military leaders; the securing of the Egypt-Gaza border to prevent continued smuggling; a surge of humanitarian aid through new access points into the enclave; and the promotion of a viable, Palestinian Authority-linked alternative to Hamas rule, US officials told The Times of Israel yesterday.
Washington aims to discuss these alternative plans when an Israeli delegation comes to town early next week, but they will ostensibly be on Blinken’s agenda when he arrives in Tel Aviv on Friday.
“Blinken will [also] discuss… the ongoing negotiations to secure the release of all hostages,” Miller says in a statement.
“He will discuss the need to ensure the defeat of Hamas, including in Rafah, in a way that protects the civilian population, does not hinder the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and advances Israel’s overall security.
“The Secretary will discuss US and international efforts to dramatically increase and sustain the delivery of humanitarian assistance to civilians who are suffering from a lack of adequate food supplies.”
Palestinian media reports Israeli airstrike on car in Jenin
Palestinian media outlets report an Israeli airstrike against a vehicle in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Footage from the scene shows a car on fire after the reported strike.
No further details are immediately available.
???? متابعة صفا| أنباء عن قصف طائرات الاحتلال مركبة في مدينة جنين pic.twitter.com/9tCg6VvakU
— وكالة صفا (@SafaPs) March 20, 2024
Saudi Arabia announces $40 million donation to UNRWA as Blinken visits
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia announces it will donate $40 million to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which has faced funding cuts and calls for its abolition spearheaded by Israel.
The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre says the funds will support UNRWA’s “humanitarian relief efforts in the Gaza Strip,” where the Israel-Hamas war has raged for more than five months, by providing “food for more than 250,000 people and tents for 20,000 families.”
The Saudi announcement comes shortly after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the kingdom for talks on Gaza. The US was among countries that froze donations to UNRWA over allegations some of its employees took part in the October 7 onslaught that triggered the war and have links to Palestinian terror groups in Gaza.
At Gaza hospital, troops nab Hamas operative involved in 2014 murder of Israeli teens
Illustrative: 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)
Mahmoud Qawasmeh, a senior Hamas operative involved in the planning of the 2014 kidnapping and murder of Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaer, and Naftali Fraenkel, was detained by troops at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the Shin Bet announces.
In a statement, the security agency says Qawasmeh was nabbed earlier today by IDF troops at the medical center, and brought to Israel for further interrogation.
Qawasmeh was “one of the planners and financiers of the infrastructure that carried out the kidnapping and murder attack” in 2014, the Shin Bet says.
The Shin Bet says he had been exiled to the Gaza Strip as part of the 2011 Shalit deal, where he continued to work on attacks in the West Bank, including shooting attacks in recent years carried out by Hamas cells.
From left to right: Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel (Courtesy)
Senior Hamas figure says Israeli response to terror group’s truce proposal ‘generally negative’
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan speaks during a rally organized by Lebanon's Hezbollah terror group to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, May 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
BEIRUT — A senior Lebanon-based Hamas official says that Israel’s response to the latest proposal from the Palestinian terror group for a six-week truce in Gaza was “generally negative.”
Osama Hamdan tells a news conference in Beirut that mediators had conveyed the Israeli position a day earlier, but it was “generally negative… and constitutes a step backwards” as talks continue in Qatar.
Rocket sirens sound in Kiryat Shmona, other towns near Lebanon border
Incoming rocket sirens are activated in several northern communities near the Lebanon border, including the city of Kiryat Shmona.
Protesters demand new elections chain themselves together outside Knesset
Israelis protesting against the government block a road near the Knesset in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Dozens of protesters block entrances to the Knesset, chaining themselves together while calling for early elections.
Members of the Yasam riot police unit are deployed as protesters unsuccessfully attempt to storm the back gates of the compound.
כמה שוטרים ראשונים הגיעו לנקודת החסימה, חלק מהמפגינים קשרו עצמם בשרשרת ברזל עבה pic.twitter.com/wMBybl3NeG
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) March 20, 2024
Inside the Knesset, protesters hand out “dismissal letters” to coalition lawmakers, including Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, who tells the uncle of a terror victim to “get out of my sight” after being handed one of the letters. Relatives of the hostages also handed out traditional Purim food baskets known as mishloah manot to lawmakers. However, instead of holiday treats they contain moldy pita bread and olives to emulate the food provided to the hostages by their Hamas captors in Gaza.
משפחות חטופים ניסו לתת לחברי הכנסת משלוח מנות עם חצי פיתה עבשה ושני זיתים אבל לא כולם הסכימו להתייחס ולקחת. בין המסרבים – דיכטר, דנון וביטן. pic.twitter.com/97EKYz3sC5
— דפנה ליאל (@DaphnaLiel) March 20, 2024
Netanyahu says ‘will take some time’ until IDF launches offensive in Rafah
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks on a video statement released on March 20, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO)
Two days after his phone call with US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releases a video statement saying that he will “soon approve the plan to evacuate the civilian population from the war zone.”
He says he appreciates Biden’s support, and that the president asked to present US proposals on humanitarian assistance and other aspects of the war.
Netanyahu is sending top aides to Washington on Sunday.
The operational plan, says Netanyahu, has already been approved.
“While we are preparing to enter Rafah, which will take some time, we continue to operate with all our might,” says Netanyahu. “We continue to operate in Khan Younis, in the central camps, for the elimination and capture of senior Hamas officials as we just did in Shifa Hospital, while eliminating hundreds of terrorists.”
“As I promised you time and time again — we are determined to achieve absolute victory, and we will achieve it.”
Over 1,200 Hollywood Jews have signed statement rejecting Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech
English director Jonathan Glazer poses in the press room with the Oscar for Best International Feature Film for 'The Zone of Interest' during the 96th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 10, 2024. Robyn BECK / AFP)
More than 1,200 Jewish Hollywood creatives have now signed onto a statement rejecting the speech criticizing Israel by “The Zone of Interest” director Jonathan Glazer at this month’s Academy Awards.
The signatories include “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” writer Amy Sherman-Palladino, horror director Eli Roth and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, as well as several show business figures — Debra Messing, Brett Gelman, Michael Rappaport and others — who have been prominent defenders of Israel during its war against Hamas.
In the speech, Glazer said he and the others accepting the Oscar for best international feature for their Holocaust film “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.”
The comments have drawn fierce criticism, both over his phrasing that caused some to believe he had rejected his Jewish identity and over his apparently intended meaning, that Israel’s war in Gaza is characterized by the same kind of “dehumanization” that made the Holocaust possible.
Now, a statement organized by United Jewish Writers, a coalition that formed shortly after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel as the Hollywood unions were divided over whether and how to issue statements condemning the attack and supporting Israel, aims to demonstrate the scope of dissent within Hollywood.
“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,” the statement says.
The statement laments the death of Palestinian civilians but lays the blame with Hamas, not Israel. It also interprets Glazer’s mention of “occupation” to apply to the entire State of Israel.
FM Katz calls for ‘unified global advocacy front’ to fight antisemitism and ‘Israel vilification’
Foreign Minister Israel Katz tours the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum in Jerusalem, February 19, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Foreign Minister Israel Katz sends a missive to Jewish communities around the world calling for a “unified global advocacy front” in the wake of the October 7 attacks and the subsequent war.
“We cannot stand idle and rely on others to combat for us,” says Katz, after noting the rise in antisemitism around the world.
“This coalition will combat antisemitism and the vilification of Israel and Jews worldwide across all media fronts, enlisting Israeli citizens, our government, the Diaspora, friends of Israel and the Jewish world and international allies,” he says, without going into further detail about what the effort would look like and who would manage it.
Israel’s embassies around the world will send the letter to local Jewish communities.
Day before court deadline, education minister reinstates regular Israel Prize categories
Education Minister Yoav Kisch attends a hearing of the Knesset Education, Culture, and Sports Committee, January 30, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The Israel Prize ceremony will be held as usual on Independence Day, with the traditional award categories alongside two new categories created after the October 7 attack, Education Minister Yoav Kisch announces.
The notice comes a day before a deadline given by the High Court of Justice for Kisch and the government to respond to petitions demanding the reversal of the earlier decision to drastically pare down the Israel Prize for 2024. It also comes a day after Kisch announced that the 2024 Israel Prize for “Civilian Heroism” would be awarded to Menachem Kalmanson and Itiel Zohar, of the West Bank settlement of Otniel, for their bravery in battle outside the Gaza Strip on October 7.
In a statement, Kisch says that after talking with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who “unfortunately could not defend my position at the High Court… I chose to change the previous decision and give the Israel Prize in the various categories” alongside the new awards.
The award ceremony will be held “in a different format” in light of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, the minister notes.
In mid-February, the government announced that the traditional categories for the prize, the country’s highest civilian honor, would be canceled for 2024, and two new categories related to the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza would be awarded instead: “Societal Responsibility” for civic efforts and volunteering, and “Citizen Heroism” for civilian acts of bravery.
The Maariv news outlet later reported that Kisch had made the change to avoid bestowing the Entrepreneurship Award on the leading candidate, businessman Eyal Waldman, a prominent critic of the government’s judicial overhaul agenda whose daughter was murdered in the Supernova massacre on October 7.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Blinken lands in Saudi Arabia for talks on Gaza truce deal
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has landed in Saudi Arabia to discuss efforts to secure a ceasefire-for-hostages deal in Gaza and ramp up aid deliveries to the Palestinian territory amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The US top diplomat touched down in Jeddah where he was to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, says an AFP journalist on board, the first stop on Blinken’s sixth Middle East tour since the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7.
Quebec news site publishes cartoon depicting Netanyahu as vampire
A Canadian senator slams an online news site in Quebec for a cartoon portraying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire.
The cartoon published by La Presse superimposed Netanyahu’s face on an image of the vampire Nosferatu from the eponymous 1920s film, along with the text, “Nosfenyahu: On the Route to Rafah.”
“I’m appalled by the cartoon,” Conservative Senator Leo Housakos writes on X, formerly Twitter. “While Mr. Netanyahu, as with any politician, is not above criticism, this kind of antisemitic trope is reminiscent of the 1930s.”
“I’m saddened for Jews across Canada for the level of hate to which we, as Canadians, have co-signed,” he adds.
I’m appalled by the cartoon in today’s @LP_LaPresse. While Mr. Netanyahu, as with any politician, is not above criticism, this kind of antisemitic trope is reminiscent of the 1930s. I’m saddened for Jews across ???????? for the level of hate to which we, as Canadians, have co-signed. pic.twitter.com/D7w3G4q3sp
— Senator Leo Housakos (@SenatorHousakos) March 20, 2024
Group calls on Jews to join Thursday fast and dedicate it to the hostages
As the holiday of Purim approaches, preceded by Taanit Esther, the fast day that commemorates the three-day fast undertaken by the Persian Jewish community in the Book of Esther as they pleaded for divine salvation, a network of Israeli Jewish learning communities known as Mabua calls for a global day of fasting for all Jews, for the sake of the 134 hostages.
In the accompanying video, men and women talk about their intention to fast for those held in Gaza, a “fast of deep concern and worry for the fate of our brothers and sisters,” they say.
“I’m choosing to fast this year, not as a political act, and not as a religious act, but as a Jewish act,” state the video participants.
They encourage others to fast tomorrow from dawn to nightfall, to experience some of the hunger the captives are experiencing.
Hostage’s mother asks Diaspora Jews to press government to make prisoner swap
Rachel Goldberg speaks at a conference in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (Canaan Lidor/Times of Israel)
At a conference on Jewish peoplehood in wartime, the mother of a hostage urges Diaspora Jews to pressure Israeli leaders to make a deal for retrieving the 134 Israelis who are held captive by Hamas.
“Now is the time for the Diaspora to tell [this to] the leaders of this country, who are not thinking straight because they are still speaking from a place of continual, unending, throbbing, sharp, ongoing guilt-ridden trauma,” Rachel Goldberg, mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, tells hundreds of people at the World Zionist Organization’s Heschel Conference on Jewish Peoplehood.
“Now is the time to save 134 innocent souls for no other reason except that it is holy, and it is the most Jewish response to October 7th that can possibly be done,” adds Goldberg, whose family immigrated to Israel from the United States in 2008.
Of the hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, 130 remain in Gaza, not all of them alive. The terror group also holds, for nearly the past decade, two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers.
הדברים של רייצ׳ל גולדברג-פולין, אימו של הירש החטוף בעזה, בספריה הלאומית הבוקר, לא יוצאים מהראש, ומהלב ומהבטן. קחו 7 דקות לצפות באישה המרשימה הכואבת והחכמה הזו, ולקריאה שלה לכולנו בסיום הדברים:
“Now go out my friends, and be holy״(מתוך כנס השל לעמיות יהודית ויחסי ישראל-תפוצות… pic.twitter.com/FCux7uX7fw
— Tamar Ish Shalom תמר (@tamarishshalom) March 20, 2024
Hamas representatives and Israeli officials are negotiating the terms of a second prisoner swap but substantial gaps are said to remain in the indirect talks in Qatar.
The main panel of the conference at the National Library in Jerusalem, which is taking place for the second time following its inaugural event in 2022, centers on the relationship of the Jewish population of Israel and that of North America.
One of the panelists, Yossi Beilin, a former justice minister and a founder of Taglit-Birthright, calls for the establishment of a regular forum for cooperation between Israeli delegates and representatives of North American Jewry over issues such as the definition of who is a Jew.
Blinken adds Israel stop to Mideast tour, will visit Friday
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has added a stop in Israel to his sixth Mideast tour since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, a US official tells The Times of Jsrael.
Blinken will visit Israel on Friday after spending Wednesday in Saudi Arabia and Thursday in Egypt.
In each stop, he will discuss talks to secure a ceasefire of at least six weeks through a hostage deal as well as efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, the US official says.
Netanyahu to address US Republican senators, after Democrat Schumer’s critical speech
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset on March 13, 2024 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address US Republican senators via video linkup to their weekly policy lunch, a source familiar with the plan says, days after the Senate’s Democratic leader gave a speech harshly criticizing him as an obstacle to peace.
The plan underscores the politicization of Washington’s Israel policy, in which the Israeli leader has been aligned with Republicans.
In his speech last week, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, long a supporter of Israel and the highest-ranking Jewish US elected official, told the Senate that Netanyahu’s government “no longer fits the needs of Israel” five months into a war that began with a shock attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7. Schumer urged new elections.
Republicans in turn harshly criticized Schumer.
Netanyahu told CNN on Sunday that Schumer’s speech was inappropriate.
Netanyahu’s plan to address the weekly Republican policy lunch was first reported by the political news outlet Punchbowl.
Irish Prime Minister Varadkar to step down in surprise move
File: Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar speaks at the EPP Congress in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, March 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar says he will step down as leader of the country as soon as a successor is chosen.
Varadkar announces he is quitting immediately as head of Fine Gael party, part of Ireland’s coalition government. He’ll be replaced as prime minister after a party leadership contest.
He said his reasons were “both personal and political.”
Varadkar, 45, has had two spells as taoiseach, or prime minister — between 2017 and 2020, and again since December 2022.
He was the country’s youngest-ever leader when first elected, as well as Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister. Varadkar, whose mother is Irish and father is Indian, was also Ireland’s first biracial taoiseach.
“I’m proud that we have made the country a more equal and more modern place,” he says in a resignation statement in Dublin.
IDF says airstrike in Rafah killed 3 senior officers in Hamas’s emergency committee
An IDF handout from March 20, 2024, identifying senior Hamas operatives in in an airstrike in Rafah in the Gaza Strip (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF and Shin Bet say an airstrike in southern Gaza’s Rafah earlier this week killed senior officers in Hamas’s so-called emergency committee.
In the strike carried out by fighter jets on Monday, Sayyid Qutb Hashash, Osama Hamad Dhahir, and Hadi Abu al-Rous were killed, and Muhammad Awad al-Malalhi was apparently wounded, according to the IDF.
Hashash, Dhahir, and al-Malalhi are the heads of Hamas’s emergency committee in north and east Rafah areas, and al-Rous was the operations officer of the emergency committee, the IDF says.
The emergency committee is a Hamas body tasked with maintaining public order and civil control in the Strip’s municipalities.
The IDF says the officers were “responsible for organizing terror activity and communication with Hamas operatives on the ground” as well as aiding “the military wing of the terror organization establish continued control.”
“The senior officers were the emissaries of the Hamas leadership in Rafah, worked for the concentration of Hamas’s activity in humanitarian areas and were responsible for all the activities of the group and the communication with the group’s operatives on the ground,” the IDF says in a statement.
The strikes come after the IDF targeted Nidal al-Eid, the head of the emergency committee in Rafah last week, the military adds.
Trump suggests he’d support a US national ban on abortions around 15 weeks of pregnancy
Republican presidential candidate former US president Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump leave after voting in the Florida primary election in Palm Beach, Florida, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Donald Trump suggests that he’d support a US national ban on abortions around 15 weeks of pregnancy, voicing for the first time support for a specific limit on the procedure.
The Republican former president has taken credit for striking down a federally guaranteed right to abortion by appointing three US Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. As he runs for president a third time, Trump has refrained from embracing any specific limit on the procedure, warning it could backfire politically and instead suggesting he would “negotiate” a policy on abortion that would include exceptions for cases of rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother.
But in a radio interview Tuesday, Trump criticizes Democrats for not endorsing a ban that would limit abortions in states that still allow the procedure.
“We’re going to come up with a time — and maybe we could bring the country together on that issue,” Trump says while calling into the “Sid & Friends in the Morning” show on WABC.
Trump went on to say: “The number of weeks now, people are agreeing on 15. And I’m thinking in terms of that. And it’ll come out to something that’s very reasonable. But people are really, even hardliners are agreeing, seems to be, 15 weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at.”
At the same time, Trump seems to suggest a reluctance for a federal ban.
“Everybody agrees — you’ve heard this for years — all the legal scholars on both sides agree: It’s a state issue. It shouldn’t be a federal issue, it’s a state issue,” he said.
In first, High Court approves demolition of home of terrorist who carried out non-fatal attack
Supreme Court judge David Mintz. December 25, 2017. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
In a two-to-one decision, the High Court of Justice upholds a decision by the defense minister and the IDF to destroy the home of the parents of a Palestinian terrorist who shot and severely wounded a police officer on October 12 last year.
The ruling means that for the first time, a house demolition will be carried out over an incident in which the victim of a Palestinian terror attack was not killed.
Attorneys for the terrorist’s family argued that house demolitions constitute collective punishment and violate human dignity; that house demolitions should not be carried out where there was no fatality from the terror attack; and that the terrorist’s family was completely uninvolved in the attack.
Writing for the majority, Justice David Mintz, a strict conservative, says that given the severity of the terror attack and the grievous injuries sustained by the police officer, he saw no reason for the court to overrule the decision to destroy the family home just because “by way of a miracle this shooting did not bring about the death [of the police officer].”
The hardline conservative B’Tzalmo legal campaign group welcomes the ruling, saying, “The High Court finally understands the importance of the fight against terrorism even in incidents in which terrorists ‘only’ do severe injury and harm a person and their family for the rest of their lives.”
The Hamoked organization, which provides legal aid to Palestinians, denounces the decision, describing house demolitions as “blatant collective punishment” and calling into question their deterrent effect.
“In today’s ruling, the High Court has further expanded this shameful practice, in contrast to its previous rulings… what is clear is that this is an immoral and illegal practice,” says Hamoked.
Likud MK tells family member of Oct. 7 victim to ‘get out of my sight’ during Knesset protest
Yuli Edelstein attends a Foreign Affairs and Defense committee in the Knesset on February 26, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)
Senior Likud lawmaker Yuli Edelstein tells the uncle of a terror victim to “get out of my sight” after being handed a “dismissal letter” while walking down a Knesset hallway.
“Today is the day of dismissals. This entire coalition is dismissed,” Roni Neumann, whose niece Rotem Neumann was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7, tells Edelstein at the entrance to the parliament’s committee wing.
“This is the October 7 government,” he continues, after being brushed aside by Edelstein. “The chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee failed on security and he says get out of my sight.”
Edelstein is the chairman of the Knesset panel exercising oversight on security and diplomatic affairs.
“You are dismissed,” Neumann yells as the lawmaker walks away.
"עוף לי מהעיניים": תגובתו של ח"כ יולי אדלשטיין לדודה של רותם ניימן שנרצחה בנובה, לאחר שהגיש לו "מכתב פיטורים"@yaara_shapira pic.twitter.com/6oJVoFB3uI
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 20, 2024
Herzog to honor 3 escaped hostages mistakenly killed by IDF
(From L-R) Hostages Yotam Haim, Samar Talalka and Alon Lulu Shamriz, who were killed mistakenly by IDF troops in Gaza on December 15, 2023. (Courtesy)
President Isaac Herzog will conduct a ceremony to honor the bravery of three hostages who escaped from their Hamas captors only to be mistakenly killed by the IDF.
Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samar Talalka went to great lengths after their escape to signal their identities to the IDF. Ultimately, they approached a group of soldiers in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, but the soldiers fired as they came near, killing all three.
“In light of the extraordinary circumstances of the event, the president decided to honor the determination, fortitude and special bravery they demonstrated and to award their families a unique certificate of appreciation in the name of the State of Israel,” Herzog says in a statement.
The ceremony will be held at Herzog’s residence at a later date, the statement adds.
Livni testifies at Netanyahu corruption trial she was surprised by PM’s sudden change of view on newspaper law
Tzipi Livni arrives for a court hearing in the trial against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the District Court in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Former cabinet minister Tzipi Livni says during testimony in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial that she was surprised back in 2014 when the premier allowed ministers to vote as they saw fit on the so-called Israel Hayom law, which would have harmed the interests of the ardently pro-Netanyahu free newspaper.
Livni was testifying in Case 2000, in which Netanyahu is charged with having discussed a quid pro quo deal with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Noni Mozes in the form of getting positive media coverage of himself and his family, and negative coverage of his political opponents, in Yedioth in return for advancing a law that would serve to reduce the large circulation of rival daily Israel Hayom.
“It was clear to me that like in the past, the prime minister would strongly oppose this law, he would enforce coalition discipline [in the key Ministerial Committee for Legislation], the law wouldn’t pass, and the whole thing would end,” says Livni.
Livni, who chaired the committee at the time, said that just before the bill was to be brought for a vote she was called to Netanyahu’s office and said that an agreement had been reached within the coalition for freedom of the vote on the bill.
“From my point of view that was a surprise. The upshot of freedom of the vote was that he was freeing the bill to [go to] the Knesset and that he would no longer be able to influence it,” says the former foreign and justice minister.
Western Wall prayer service to be held Thursday for the hostages
Jews pray for the army's success in the war against Hamas and the return of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on January 10, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
A special prayer event will be held at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Thursday for the hostages held in Gaza.
The Aish HaTorah organization, which is organizing the event, hopes to have Jews from around the world join in and recite the Shema Yisrael prayer for the welfare of the hostages.
The event will be broadcast at 4:30 p.m. local time.
Eilat Port to lay off half of workers amid Red Sea shipping crisis, Houthi attacks
The Eilat port seen on January 3, 2024. (Yehuda Ben Itach/Flash90)
Half the workers at Eilat Port are on the verge of losing their jobs after the seaport took a major financial hit due to the crisis in Red Sea shipping lanes, Israel’s main labor federation says.
Eilat sits on a northern tip of the Red Sea and was one of the first ports to be affected as shipping firms rerouted vessels to avoid attacks by the Houthis in Yemen.
The Histadrut labor federation, the umbrella organization for hundreds of thousands of public sector workers, says port management has announced it intends to fire half of the 120 employees. The dock workers will hold a protest later today, it says.
Officials at the port did not immediately respond for comment.
Eilat, which primarily handles car imports and potash exports coming from the Dead Sea, pales in size compared to Israel’s Mediterranean ports in Haifa and Ashdod, which handle nearly all the country’s trade.
But Eilat, which sits adjacent to Jordan’s only coastal access point at Aqaba, offers Israel a gateway to the East without the need to navigate the Suez Canal.
In December, Eilat Port’s chief executive told Reuters that an 85% drop in activity had been seen since Iran-backed Houthis began their attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
IDF publishes video of strike on Hezbollah arms depot, where ‘chemical substances’ stored, in civilian neighborhood
The IDF releases footage of a recent airstrike against what it says is a Hezbollah weapons depot “in the heart of a civilian neighborhood deep in Lebanon.”
The large and lengthy secondary explosions seen in the video are “further proof of Hezbollah’s modus operandi, in which it stores explosives and dangerous chemical substances in civilian villages,” the IDF says in a statement.
The IDF says that Hezbollah “places its [weapons] production infrastructure in the heart of civilian populations in southern Lebanon, in the Beqaa [Valley] and in Beirut, and uses the Lebanese people as a human shield.”
Since the beginning of the ongoing skirmishes on the Lebanon border, amid the war in Gaza, the IDF says it has been working against Hezbollah’s force build-up, striking weapon deliveries to the terror group and its infrastructure used to manufacture weapons.
Global index: Israel falls out of liberal democracy category for first time in over 50 years
Protesters rally against the coalition's judicial overhaul legislation, in Tel Aviv, September 2, 2023. (Gitai Palti)
In an annual report published by V-Dem, a leading global democracy index, Israel falls out of the liberal democracy category for the first time in over 50 years.
The index attributes the decline, with Israel now classed as an electoral democracy, to the government’s efforts to pass the contentious judicial overhaul last year.
“Notably, Israel lost its long-time status as a liberal democracy in 2023. It is now classified as an electoral democracy – for the first time in over 50 years. This is primarily due to substantial declines in the indicators measuring the transparency and predictability of the law, and government attacks on the judiciary,” the report says.
“Among other things, Israel’s Knesset passed a bill in 2023 stripping
the Supreme Court of the power to invalidate laws, thus undermining checks on executive power. Indicators that are in substantive decline also include freedom from torture,” the report finds.
The government has largely suspended efforts to pass the overhaul, which sparked widespread public protests, in the wake of the war with Hamas that erupted on October 7.
‘War is always a defeat’: Pope calls for peace through negotiations in Gaza, Ukraine
Pope Francis holds his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis issues a fresh call for peace through negotiation as he deplores the bloody conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, once again limiting his public speaking at his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square due to lingering health issues.
“We should never forget that war is always a defeat, we cannot continue in war, we should make all efforts to mediate, to negotiate an end to the war, let’s pray for this,” the pontiff says in brief remarks at the end of the audience, citing “martyred” Ukraine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The 87-year-old Francis, who has mobility problems and has been suffering in recent weeks from colds and bouts of bronchitis, once again skipped reading most of his pre-prepared texts for the audience.
He delegated the task to an aide, telling the faithful he was still forced to limit his public speaking.
Earlier this month, Francis caused controversy by suggesting in an interview with Swiss broadcaster RSI that Ukraine should “show the courage of the white flag” and open talks with Russia. His deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, later clarified that Russia should first halt its aggression.
Hamas says 104 Palestinians killed in Gaza in last 24 hours, taking toll to 31,923
An injured Palestinian woman walks at the emergency area in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah on March 19, 2024, following an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip (Photo by AFP)
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says 104 Palestinians have been killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll since October 7 to 31,923.
These figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 13,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Likud MK Gotliv screams at bereaved brother for criticizing Netanyahu during Knesset debate
MK Tally Gotliv speaks in the Knesset in Jerusalem, February 19, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Likud lawmaker Tally Gotliv berates a representative of a bereaved family at a hearing on Haredi enlistment, screaming at him for criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“You don’t talk like that about the prime minister,” Gotliv shouts at Amit Segev, whose sister’s family was killed on October 7, after he declares that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his friends are a “group of corrupt people and criminals.”
Her comments spark a shouting match with opposition lawmakers. MK Gilad Kariv yells that she is “insolent” and should “bow your head in front of the families.”
In response, Gotliv shouts that the Labor lawmaker is posturing ahead of his party’s upcoming primary — in which he is not running — and that she is “not impressed by your screaming.”
The firebrand MK is known for unbridled outbursts. During a recent Likud faction meeting, she accused Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem of drinking on the job after he told her to “stop disturbing people. You aren’t letting anyone speak.”
"חצופה, תרכיני את הראש שלך בפני המשפחות" – ח"כ גלעד קריב תקף את ח"כ טלי גוטליב, לאחר שקטעה בן משפחה שכולה שכינה את רה"מ נתניהו 'מושחת ועבריין'. ח"כ גוטליב פנתה לח"כ קריב: "אתה נמצא בפריימריז – לא מרשים אותי הצרחות שלך"@KarivGilad @TallyGotliv@netanyahu @HavodaParty… pic.twitter.com/feq8bAJaFV
— ערוץ כנסת (@KnessetT) March 20, 2024
IDF says it has killed some 90 terrorists so far in Shifa hospital raid
IDF soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip in a picture released on March 20, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF says troops have so far killed more than 90 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 other forces.
“Over the past day, the troops have eliminated terrorists and located weapons in the hospital area, while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment,” the military says in a statement.
The IDF says that more than 300 terror suspects have been questioned at the hospital complex by field interrogators of the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 and the Shin Bet security agency.
More than 160 of them have been taken to Israel for further interrogation, the IDF says.
Troops raided the hospital after intelligence indicated that Hamas operatives, including commanders, had returned to the complex to use it as a command center for planning attacks against Israel and troops in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the IDF says it struck a Hamas tunnel shaft in northern Gaza which was identified after a rocket was fired toward Sderot yesterday. The rocket had fallen short in Gaza.
Also in northern Gaza, the IDF says it struck a six-man Hamas cell in the Jabaliya area.
In central Gaza, the Nahal Brigade has continued to battle Hamas operatives over the past day, the IDF says.
In southern Gaza, the 98th Division is battling Hamas in the Khan Younis suburb of al-Qarara.
Tzipi Livni arrives in court to testify in Netanyahu corruption trial
Tzipi Livni arrives for a court hearing in the trial against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the District Court in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Veteran politician Tzipi Livni arrives at a Jerusalem court to testify in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
Livni is testifying in Case 2000, in which Netanyahu is suspected of an illicit quid pro quo deal with Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes that would have seen the prime minister weaken a rival daily, the Sheldon Adelson-backed freebie Israel Hayom, in return for more favorable coverage from Yedioth.
Livni, who was justice minister at the time, was reportedly briefed on planned legislation to curb the circulation of Israel Hayom.
Livni, who retired from politics in 2019, is not a suspect.
Netanyahu is charged with fraud, and breach of trust in three cases, along with bribery in one of them. He denies any wrongdoing.
Bernie Sanders hails Canada decision to halt arms sales to Israel, urges US to follow
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., talks to the media as he walks to the House chamber before US President Joe Biden's State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol, March 7, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
US Senator Bernie Sanders, a far-left independent from Vermont, hails Canada’s decision to halt weapons sales to Israel and calls on the US to end military aid to Jerusalem.
“Canada’s parliament has voted to stop arms sales to Israel. They are absolutely right to do so,” Sanders posts on X.
“Given the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, including widespread and growing starvation, the US should not provide another nickel for Netanyahu’s war machine,” he says.
Protesters block Tel Aviv highway with call for hostage deal
Family members of the hostages and supporters block the main Tel Aviv highway to call on the government to reach a deal to free the captives being held by Hamas in Gaza.
“The demonstrators unfurl a sign with pictures of members of the war cabinet reading: “It’s on you, don’t come back from Qatar without a deal.”
The protesters blocked the northbound route of the Ayalon Highway near the LaGuardia Interchange for some 15 minutes before dispersing.
פעילי מחאת הנשים לשחרור החטופים וכמה בני משפחות חוסמים עכשיו את איילון צפון סמוך ללה גרדיה בתל אביב pic.twitter.com/KpewXYfxFh
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) March 20, 2024
UK’s Cameron says Gaza truce crucial but ‘a whole lot of conditions’ to meet
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron says a pause in fighting between Israel and terror group Hamas is vital to enable the release of hostages in Gaza, but a lot of conditions first needed to be met for a lasting ceasefire.
“Crucially what we must try to do is to turn that pause into a permanent sustainable ceasefire,” Cameron tells Reuters in an interview during a visit to Thailand.
“We will only do that if a whole lot of conditions are fulfilled… we’ve got to get Hamas leaders out of Gaza, we have to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure,” he says.
UK says 2,000-ton food aid package has entered Gaza
More than 2,000 tons of British food aid has crossed into Gaza via Jordan and is being distributed by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to families in need, Britain’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Aid agencies have reported widespread shortages of food, medicines and clean water in Gaza, with a UN-backed report projecting famine and about half the population across the whole of the Gaza Strip facing “catastrophic hunger.”
“We need sustained humanitarian access by road to get more aid in,” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron says in a statement.
“We continue to push Israel to allow more crossings to open and for longer, and for healthcare, water and sanitation to be restored,” he says.
Britain’s Foreign Office says its food parcels would be distributed by the WFP and feed over 275,000 people in Gaza.
In addition to the 2,000 ton of food aid delivered, it said 150 ton of UK-funded aid assistance, including tents and blankets, sent on March 13 would be distributed by UNICEF.
US Congress deal bars US funds to UNRWA until March 2025, sources say
An agreement reached by US congressional leaders and the White House on a massive bill funding military, State Department and a range of other government programs will continue a ban on US funding for UNRWA, the main UN agency for Palestinians, until March 2025, two sources say.
US President Joe Biden’s administration said in January it was temporarily pausing new funding to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after Israel accused over a dozen of the agency’s staff of directly participating in the Oct. 7 Hamas killing spree, and said hundreds more were tied to terrorists.
The US Senate passed legislation last month cutting off funding for the agency, part of a $95 billion bill providing aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan that has stalled in the House of Representatives.
Backers of the aid have been trying to get it restored, calling on Washington to support the relief body as aid groups work to ward off humanitarian crisis and possible famine in Gaza.
The two sources familiar with the agreement say the funding would be blocked for a year, and that details of alternative efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza would be discussed after the legislation is made public.
The White House and congressional leaders declined comment on details of the agreement until texts of the spending bills are released.
The UN has launched an investigation into the allegations against the UNRWA staff, and the agency fired some staff after Israel provided it with information.
The US, UNRWA’s largest donor, providing $300 million to $400 million annually, said it wants to see the results of that inquiry and corrective measures taken before it will consider resuming funding.
Pentagon chief Austin to host Israeli defense minister Gallant next week — official
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will host Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant next week for a bilateral meeting at the US Defense Department, says an American defense official.
The meeting comes after Austin recently invited Gallant for a visit and is separate from Monday’s announcement that followed a call between US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who agreed to send a team of senior officials to Washington to discuss developments regarding the war in Gaza, the official adds.
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