March 25: Dermer and Netanyahu not speaking to hostage’s family, says mother

Freed hostage in Berlin: Red Cross must visit those in captivity

While in Germany as part of efforts to lobby for the release of hostages in Gaza, freed hostage Ohad Ben Ami calls on the Red Cross to visit and assist those still in captivity, Channel 12 reports.

After being personally named by hostages Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana in a Hamas propaganda video yesterday, Ben Ami has vowed to help bring the captives home.

“I left behind five friends who are the same age as my daughters,” says Ben Ami at a discussion in Berlin, referring to fellow hostages he was held with, according to Channel 12.

“I feel that I left behind my children,” he continues.

Ben Ami wrote yesterday after the release of the propaganda video that hostages “are lacking all hope and as we speak the conditions of their captivity are being worsened and their food is being reduced since we returned to fighting [in Gaza].”

Senior Biden and Obama aide Ilan Goldenberg joins J Street

Harris Campaign Jewish liaison Ilan Goldenberg speaks at an event on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention on August 21, 2024. (Jacob Magid/Times of Israel)

Ilan Goldenberg, a former senior aide in the Biden and Obama administrations, announces that he will be joining the dovish, pro-Israel lobby J Street as its senior vice president and chief policy officer.

Goldenberg most recently served as director for Jewish outreach on former US vice president Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign.

“J Street is already uniquely positioned with its reach both into Jewish and progressive circles. But I hope to help build on that by helping grow coalitions that can fight to bring all the hostages home and end the war in Gaza; prevent annexation and reverse the negative trends of settlements and violence in the West Bank; support progress toward a regional peace that leads to Israel’s integration into the Middle East and the creation of a Palestinian state; prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon while avoiding an unnecessary military conflict; counter antisemitism; and fight for American and Israeli democracy,” Goldenberg writes in a Substack post announcing the move.

Dozens in Khan Younis call for Hamas’s downfall, as protests appear to spread

Dozens of residents in west Khan Younis rally and chant “Hamas out,” the third incident of that kind in hours in the Gaza Strip.

In the last few hours, there have been demonstrations in the Beit Lahiya and Jabalia refugee camps in northern Gaza against Hamas and the ongoing war.

وصل طوفان إسقاط حكم ميليشيا حما$ إلى مدينتي خانيونس، وأعلنها أهلها من بين الخيام: “حما$ إرهـ ـابية.”

يجب أن يمتد هذا الطوفان ليصل إلى كل حارة، وكل خيمة فلسطينية نازحة، على امتداد 365 كيلومترًا في غزة. pic.twitter.com/wUKSkt58Ms

— مصطفـ????ـى عصفــور (@ustafa_ad) March 25, 2025

Knesset set to hold final votes on bill to take political control of judicial appointments

Justice Minister Yariv Levin (4th from L) at a meeting of the Judicial Selection Committee in Jerusalem on December 12, 2024. (Michal Dimenshtein/ GPO)

The coalition is set to bring highly controversial legislation for its final votes in Knesset tomorrow that would greatly increase political control over the judicial appointments process in Israel, and dramatically reduce the influence of the judiciary over appointments to the Supreme Court.

Approving the bill will likely take all night and into the early hours of Thursday morning due to the unprecedented 71,023 objections the opposition filed against the legislation.

The legislation would increase the number of political representatives on the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee.

It would also give political representatives from the coalition, opposition and judiciary on the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee vetoes over lower court appointments, as opposed to the current system where no side has a veto.

And the bill would remove all influence of the three judges on the committee over appointments to the Supreme Court while granting the coalition and opposition vetoes.

The attorney general, three former Supreme Court presidents and opposition parties have argued that the changes will politicize the judicial appointments process and the judiciary itself.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who has advanced the bill, argues it is necessary to redress what he says is a system tilted against the right-wing in the judicial appointments process.

The law, if passed, would only take effect at the beginning of the next Knesset term, meaning after the next general election, and it will almost certainly be challenged in the High Court of Justice.

Dermer and Netanyahu not speaking to hostage’s family, says mother

Elkana Bohbot, missing since October 7, 2023 when he was taken captive by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova desert rave. (Courtesy)

The mother of hostage Elkana Bohbot says that her family hasn’t received any communication from Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, the new leader of the hostage negotiating team, or the Prime Minister’s Office.

“No one is speaking with us,” says Ruhama Bohbot when asked by Channel 12 if any government officials, including Dermer and Prime Minister Netanyahu, have contacted family.

She adds that “the only people speaking with us are our officers,” likely referring to IDF liaison officers assigned to support the families of hostages.

Hamas published a propaganda video yesterday evening showing Israeli hostages Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana, who were both kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7 and are still being held in Gaza by the terror group.

Ruhama says she was shocked by Elkana’s depleted state in the video and that his family is especially concerned for his health as he suffers from asthma.

“This isn’t Elkana,” says Ruhama, describing her response to seeing him for the first time in nearly a year and a half. “This isn’t the son I know.”

Huckabee hoping to arrive in country by Passover; Trump: He’s going to do ‘wonders for Israel’

Illustrative: A road sign shows the way toward the US embassy in Jerusalem on April 19, 2024. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP)

Speaking at a White House meeting for US President Donald Trump’s ambassador nominees, Mike Huckabee says he is hoping to arrive in Israel by Passover, which starts on April 12.

“Mike is going to do wonders for Israel. He actually probably gets along with both sides. That’ll be interesting to see. The world is watching you, Mike, so good luck,” Trump says in response.

Report: 120 terrorists were set to attack Beersheba on Oct. 7, were halted by security forces

Palestinian terrorists head toward the border with Israel from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. (Said Khatib/AFP)

Some 120 Hamas terrorists were tasked with assaulting the southern city of Beersheba on October 7, 2023, around 40 kilometers from Gaza, but were stopped by security forces, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

The terrorists who failed to arrive at the southern city did not return to Gaza but joined the massacres in other communities closer to the border, according to recordings of Col. Elad Shushan, the IDF officer in charge of investigating the day’s events at Kibbutz Nirim.

The information came from documents recovered in Gaza during the early months of the military’s ground offensive, Kan reports.

The report says that the dispersal of forces who failed to attack targets farther from the border contributed to the fact that some southern communities were attacked by hundreds of terrorists, and not 30 each as originally planned by Hamas.

Sister of Yarden Bibas says ‘military pressure kills the hostages,’ urges PM to reach deal

The sister of freed hostage Yarden Bibas speaks to protesters near the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, cautioning that continued fighting in Gaza endangers the hostages’ lives.

“Yarden returned alive, [but] Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir were returned dead in a coffin, I can’t run away from these words, from this reality,” says Ofri Bibas Levy.

“Military pressure kills the hostages, military pressure raises the casualties,” she continues.

Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, she says: “Don’t offer condolences, bring forth a deal,” adding that the only way to do so is to end the war in Gaza.

Hundreds of protesters are now marching to Netanyahu’s private residence following the speeches.

‘The State of Israel has to save them’: Thousands rally outside PM’s office for hostage deal

Protesters rally for a hostage deal outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on March 25, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Thousands of protesters are rallying outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, demanding an immediate hostage deal.

Speaking from the main stage in front of the government building, released hostage Nili Margalit speaks to the rallygoers.

Kibbutz Nir Oz resident Margalit was released in November 2023, after 54 days in captivity, during a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas.

During their brutal October 7 attack on Nir Oz, Hamas terrorists murdered Margalit’s father, Eliyahu, and kidnapped his body to Gaza.

A nurse by trade, Margalit recalls helping treat elderly kibbutz members held with her in Gaza.

She adds that soon after she was released from Hamas captivity, Israel returned to fighting “very much like now” and many hostages who were members of the kibbutz were since killed in the Strip.

“It was possible to save them,” she says. “I want to shout from here, ‘enough!’ They need to get out, and they have no way to do it alone… the State of Israel has to save them.”

She appeals to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling a hostage deal “the most important job, more than any budget or law.”

Israel’s US embassy hosts 70 Muslims, Christians and Jews for interfaith Ramadan iftar dinner

Israel's Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter (center) and US President Donald Trump's Middle East adviser Massad Boulos (right) at an iftar dinner at Israel's embassy, in Washington, DC, March 24, 2025. (Israel Embassy in the United States)

Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter hosted an interfaith iftar dinner last night, says Israel’s embassy in Washington.

Some 70 Muslims, Christians, and Jews joined Leiter for the meal to break the Ramadan fast. Israel’s ambassadors in DC have a long-standing tradition of hosting representatives of Washington’s Muslim community and other local leaders for an iftar dinner.

US President Donald Trump’s Middle East adviser Massad Boulos and Arizona Congressman Abraham Hamadeh joined, as did the Azerbaijani and Uzbekistani ambassadors, officials from the Defense and State Departments, and Muslim clerics.

This year’s iftar dinner included a joint prayer, breaking the fast with dates and sweet drinks, a festive meal, and greetings from distinguished guests.

According to Israel’s embassy, Muslim leaders stressed the importance of peace among the children of Abraham and denounced Hamas, Iran, and the Muslim Brotherhood.

“When we sit together – Jews, Muslims, Christians, and people of all faiths – we embody the hope that despite the difficulties, peace is not only possible but necessary,” said Leiter.

Attendees also offered a joint prayer for the speedy return of hostages held by Hamas, says the embassy.

Notably, though, there did not appear to be representatives from any of the Abraham Accords countries, as Israel’s public ties with its Arab neighbors have cooled amid the ongoing Gaza war.

EU decries settler attack on West Bank village, arrest of Oscar-winning director

Hamdan Ballal at the 97th Annual Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 2, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Al Seib/The Academy via Getty Images/AFP)

The European Union blasts yesterday’s settler attack on the Palestinian village of Susya in the southern West Bank and the subsequent arrest of Oscar-winning director Hamdan Ballal by Israeli authorities.

“This alarming incident is part of a growing pattern of pressure on artists, threatening freedom of expression,” says the EU’s office to the Palestinians in Jerusalem.

“It also highlights the ongoing issue of settler violence in the West Bank, where perpetrators are consistently not held accountable by Israeli authorities,” the statement adds.

Report: Israeli intel warned Netanyahu twice that Hamas’s Deif was taking millions of Qatar’s Gaza aid

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warned twice that Hamas military chief Muhammad Deif was appropriating funds provided by Qatar, Channel 12 reports, citing three security sources.

The first warning came in 2019 when then-Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman warned that Deif was taking millions from the funds entering Gaza, a year after the monthly payments began being transferred, the report says.

Then, in 2020, Military Intelligence warned Netanyahu again that $4 million was being taken by Deif each month, the report says.

Deif was slain in an airstrike last year amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The Prime Minister’s Office denies that Netanyahu ever received such warnings. It says it was warned that Hamas’s military wing was siphoning $4 million from its public funds, which came from “other sources,” and not the Qatari aid, the PMO says.

From 2018, Qatar provided hundreds millions of dollars in cash to pay for fuel for the Strip’s power plant, to pay Hamas’s civil servants and to provide aid to tens of thousands of impoverished families. The payments were publicly encouraged by Netanyahu.

The payments came under renewed scrutiny following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, as their apparent goal of keeping Israel’s southern border quiet by improving the economic situation in Gaza dramatically backfired.

Jacob Magid contributed to this report.

Haredi minister warns Gantz conscription of Yeshiva students will lead to civil war

Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush in the Knesset plenum, April 15, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The conscription of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students will lead to a civil war, warns Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush, a member of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism.

Responding to a letter by National Unity chairman Benny Gantz appealing to him to block the final Knesset vote of a bill altering the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee, Porush rails against last year’s High Court ruling ending service exemptions for Haredim and subsequent efforts by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to advance their enlistment into the military.

In his letter, Gantz calls on Porush to block the controversial judicial overhaul legislation, asserting that he and other members of the government were “dragging us into a civil war.”

Writing back to Gantz, Porush says that he regrets the use of such rhetoric but “since this has already become an issue in Israeli discourse, I can only agree with you and warn you that the continuation of the current conduct of the legal system will, God forbid, lead to civil war.”

“The serious conduct, which began with the High Court ruling to revoke the status of yeshiva students and continues with the orchestrated attack by the attorney general against Torah learners, yeshiva students, and kollel members, may inevitably drag us into a war of brother against brother,” he counters.

“You are mistaken in thinking that about a million people in Israel, for whom studying Torah is dearest of all, will sit in equanimity in the face of the campaign waged by the legal system in Israel against the Torah world,” Porush continues — calling on Gantz to “prevent a fratricidal war.”

“Remember, I warned you,” he adds.

At a faction meeting in December, Porush announced the establishment of a helpline that a recent Times of Israel investigation found was counseling callers to “just ignore” summonses to the IDF’s recruitment bureau. Under Israeli law, someone inciting others to evade service during wartime is liable to a prison term of 15 years.

Footage shows second anti-war, anti-Hamas demonstration in Gaza within hours

Gazan anti-war and anti-Hamas protests in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, March 25, 2025. (X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Footage from Gaza shows a protest by dozens of residents in Jabalia refugee camps, in the western part of Gaza City, burning tires and calling for an end to the war and the end of Hamas rule in the Strip, in light of the harsh conditions in Gaza.

“We want to eat,” they chant.

The protest is the second of the day.

Earlier today, footage from Gaza showed around 100 residents of Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, holding a protest calling for an end to the war and the overthrow of Hamas.

بدناش حماس

جباليا الآن

الكل انتفض pic.twitter.com/k2pCtP75QT

— المنخل (@almonkhol) March 25, 2025

Police forcibly carry anti-government protesters away from outside the Knesset

Police carry an anti-government protester outside the Knesset, Jerusalem, March 25, 2024. (Reuven G.Sz/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Police forcibly remove anti-government protesters from outside the Knesset.

Images and footage show police officers dragging demonstrators one by one.

Protesters have been demonstrating throughout the day in the government quarter against the 2025 state budget, which was passed earlier, as well as in favor of a deal to release remaining hostages in Gaza.

Defense minister, IDF chief meet, say they are ‘working together’ after public row

Defense Minister Israel Katz meets with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir at the Defense Ministry, March 25, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

After their public row, Defense Minister Israel Katz met with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir this evening.

“We are working together in full cooperation for Israel’s security, as it was and as it will always be,” Katz says in a statement.

According to Katz’s office, the pair discussed “ways to return the hostages, increasing the military pressure in Gaza against the Hamas terror organization, and IDF activity on other fronts.”

At sit-in, hostage relatives express anguish over lack of government efforts to free loved ones

Varda Ben Baruch, left and Viki Cohen, right, at Shift 101 sit-in on March 25, 2025 outside the Knesset (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)

Varda Ben Baruch, grandmother of hostage Edan Alexander, and Viki Cohen, mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, sit next to each other at Shift 101 on Tuesday afternoon, the mostly silent, white-wearing sit-in for the hostages.

Ben Baruch tells The Times of Israel about Friday, March 14, when the family read in the Hebrew media about a possible deal with Hamas to release Edan Alexander, the only remaining living American-Israeli hostage, along with the bodies of four other hostages.

“We were in shock,” says Ben Baruch. “We were only hearing from the media, we didn’t know what to do, maybe Edan was coming home.”

Ben Baruch says they heard nothing else, and on Sunday night, in the middle of the night, as she was sleeping, her body began vibrating, “I said, ‘Varda, what’s going on, Edan is coming, Edan is coming!'”

She turned on the television and heard that there were IDF strikes in Gaza and that the war had begun again.

“No one speaks to us,” she said. “Our country is not making any efforts for the hostages. Where is Phase 2? Where is Phase 2? They forgot it; Bibi forgot about it.”

Viki Cohen says she is exhausted and anguished.

“There is a prime minister who refuses to deal with the issue; there are other more important issues for him,” she says.

She and her husband, Yehuda Cohen, were supposed to meet with the defense minister today, says Cohen, but he canceled the meeting.

She speaks about the latest sign of life of Nimrod, spotted in a Hamas video released March 1, identified by his brother, Yotam, who first saw the video on the Telegram channel, and spotted Nimrod’s tattoo, an image of a crow that he got three days before October 7, 2023, when he was taken hostage.

“It’s the first time we’re seeing his body, it’s crazy, I wouldn’t have identified him by his body, but it’s a good thing he got that tattoo,” she says.

With them are Shaul Levy, grandfather of released hostage Naama Levy, and Jucha Engel, grandfather of released hostage Ofir Engel.

Levy says that Naama is okay, he describes her as a little thin and wan but has returned to her family with great joy. He says the family can’t fully rehabilitate when they know the hostages were abandoned for months and that there are still hostages in Gaza.

“This nation can’t have a resurrection until all the hostages are back,” he says, to the applause of the crowd. “Everyone talks about solidarity, but we’re not a nation without everyone back home.”

Engel, a regular feature at many rallies and protests, talks about the family’s process of obtaining Dutch citizenship for Ofir when he was still a hostage because of Jucha Engel’s mother, who was Dutch. He mentions the steady support the family received from the Dutch government throughout Ofir’s 50 days of captivity and for the other hostages, as compared to the Israeli government, which has never contacted the family to see how they are, until now.

“Now we’re trying all the time to convince the government, the decision-makers,” says Engel. “God almighty, it can’t be that after 536 days there are still 59 Israelis held captive there, it doesn’t make sense. It’s not Jewish, it’s not Israeli, it’s a great danger for the future of our society.”

In video with Smotrich, Netanyahu says Israel’s enemies hoped budget wouldn’t pass

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) in a video with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich after passing the 2025 state budget, March 25, 2025. (Screenshot/GPO)

In a video with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich after passing the 2025 budget, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel’s enemies were hoping that the budget wouldn’t pass, leading to the fall of the government.

Netanyahu says that Iran, Hamas, and others were hoping this would prevent Israel “from achieving the great victory, on the edge of which we are truly standing.”

Netanyahu boasts that the government passed a budget “with a larger and more stable coalition than we had at the outset of the war.”

Smotrich says that the budget “responds to all the needs of the war, at the front and home, until victory.” He notes that the budget includes NIS 10 billion for reservists and their families and provides for the rehabilitation of the Gaza and Lebanon borders.

US has given Syria a list of demands for sanction relief, sources say

A handout picture released by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry shows Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (center left) being received by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani) (center right) in Damascus on December 23, 2024. (Jordanian Foreign Ministry / AFP)

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT — The United States has handed Syria a list of conditions that it wants Damascus to fulfill in exchange for partial sanctions relief, six people familiar with the matter tell Reuters, including ensuring foreigners are not in senior governing roles.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Levant and Syria Natasha Franceschi gave the list of demands to Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shibani at an in-person meeting on the sidelines of a Syria donor conference in Brussels on March 18, according to two of the people — a US official and a Syrian source familiar with the matter.

Reuters is first to report both the list and the in-person meeting, the first high-level direct contact between Damascus and Washington since US President Donald Trump took office on January 20, has been previously reported.

Reuters spoke to six sources for this story, including two US officials, a Syrian source, a regional diplomat, and two sources in Washington familiar with the matter. They all requested anonymity to discuss the high-level diplomacy.

Among the conditions placed by the United States are Syria’s destruction of any remaining chemical weapons stores and cooperation on counter-terrorism, the two US officials, the Syrian source, and both sources in Washington say.

Another demand was making sure foreign fighters are not installed in senior roles in Syria’s governing structure, the US officials and one of the sources in Washington say.

Syria has already appointed some foreign ex-rebels, including Uyghurs, a Jordanian, and a Turk, to its defense ministry — a move that alarmed foreign governments.

Washington also asked Syria to appoint a liaison to assist US efforts to find Austin Tice, the US journalist who went missing in Syria over a decade ago, according to two US officials and both sources in Washington.

In return for fulfilling all the demands, Washington would provide some sanctions relief, all six sources say. One specific action would be a two-year extension of an existing exemption for transactions with Syrian governing institutions and possibly the issuance of another exemption.

The US would also issue a statement supporting Syria’s territorial integrity, the source says.

Washington did not provide a specific timeline for the conditions to be fulfilled.

Syria’s foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comments. A spokesperson for the State Department says the agency does not “discuss our private diplomatic conversations publicly.” Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce last week said Washington was monitoring the actions of the interim rulers.

At meeting with Herzog, Omer Shem Tov says internal divisions ‘strengthen’ Hamas

President Isaac Herzog (second right), his wife Michal (right) meet with freed hostage Omer Shem Tov (second left) and his mother Shelly, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, March 25, 2025. (Haim Zach/GPO)

President Isaac Herzog meets with freed hostage Omer Shem Tov at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, where the two appeal for national unity and the return of remaining captives held in Gaza.

“The times we were shown television in captivity, they showed us the division among the people, and they showed it in the most extreme way,” Shem Tov tells Herzog, according to quotes released by the president’s office.

“It significantly strengthens them [Hamas]. They speak about how Israel will be destroyed from within itself, and that is what gives them strength,” he says.

Herzog says the internal divisions are “exceptionally dangerous.”

Massive public diplomacy budget boost approved for Foreign Ministry

View of the Foreign Ministry's Jerusalem headquarters, July 10, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Following the passing of the 2025 state budget, the Foreign Ministry is approved to receive an unprecedented budget increase of NIS 545 million ($149 million) to improve Israel’s public diplomacy abroad, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s office announces.

The funds will be used for international campaigns, foreign media efforts, social media, and more, serving on “another front in the battle Israel is waging to ensure its survival and future,” says Sa’ar.

“Public opinion in democratic countries influences elected officials. Therefore, we must wage both a diplomatic campaign aimed at leaders, foreign ministers, and policymakers – and a cognitive campaign targeting global public opinion.”

Earlier this month, the Foreign Ministry also opened a media war room powered by artificial intelligence to monitor global news online and enable rapid, effective responses to media crises.

IDF says large drills to take place on Lebanon border and north coast tomorrow morning

The military says it will be carrying out a pre-planned wide-scale drill along the Lebanon border and near the northern coast starting tomorrow morning.

The exercise, which will simulate various defensive scenarios and responses to threats, will last until Thursday, the IDF says.

There will be an increased presence of aircraft, Navy vessels, and forces in the area, the military adds.

Three simultaneous anti-government, hostage rallies taking place in government quarter

Anti-government demonstrators outside the Knesset, in Jerusalem on March 25, 2025. (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)

The protests in Jerusalem are currently divided into three areas near the government compound.

Several hundred anti-government protesters mill around outside the Knesset, some yelling into bullhorns about the prime minister being a dishrag and a traitor to Israeli values.

The mostly silent sit-in participants of Shift 101 include hostage family members and their supporters, sitting on the asphalt at the intersection between the National Library and the Israel Museum.

Family members speak every so often, talking about their utter despair and the lack of contact with any members of the government.

Down the road, a growing number of demonstrators join the crowds outside the Joint or Jewish distribution committee building, where the evening protest is planned with other hostage family members and members of Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Russia, Ukraine, agree to truce in Black Sea, in first step toward potential peace

Two man stand looking towards the damaged nineteen-story hotel "Odessa," in the port city of Odessa, on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine on March 19, 2025. (Oleksandr GIMANOV / AFP)

WASHINGTON — Russia and Ukraine agree to halt military strikes in the Black Sea, achieving a tentative first step toward peace in talks with the United States held in Saudi Arabia.

With President Donald Trump pushing for a rapid end to the war that has killed tens of thousands of people, US negotiators met separately over three days in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with delegations from Kyiv and Russia.

In parallel statements, the White House says that each country “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”

The United States reiterates Trump’s “imperative that the killing on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict must stop, as the necessary step toward achieving an enduring peace settlement,” it says.

“To that end, the United States will continue facilitating negotiations between both sides to achieve a peaceful resolution, in line with the agreements made in Riyadh.”

In the most concrete incentive offered to Russia since the West imposed sweeping sanctions over the 2022 invasion, the United States says it would “help restore access to the world market” for Russian agricultural and fertilizer exports.

The United States never directly put sanctions on Russian agriculture but had restricted access to payment systems used for international transactions.

The issue became a major talking point for Russia, which told countries in the developing world that US policies — not the war itself — were contributing to higher prices.

Netanyahu to start interviews for next Shin Bet head tomorrow, spokesperson says

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will start interviewing candidates for the post of Shin Bet director tomorrow, his spokesman says.

The interviews come after the High Court ruled today that Netanyahu could start talking to potential replacements for Ronen Bar, whom the cabinet voted to dismiss last week.

However, the court upheld a freeze on his firing.

IDF estimates 150 terror operatives killed in renewed Gaza op

Boys standing next to tent shelters watch as a smoke cloud erupts from a building that was hit by Israeli bombardment after prior warning in the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on March 25, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

The Israeli military estimates that it has killed over 150 Hamas operatives and members of other terror groups since it resumed its offensive in the Gaza Strip a week ago.

Hamas has claimed that over 700 Palestinians have been killed in that time. The figure has not been verified and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Over 420 targets have been hit by the Israeli Air Force, Navy, and ground troops in the offensive so far, according to the IDF.

The IDF has so far named 10 senior Hamas political officials and mid-level military commanders who have been killed in the strikes. Other Hamas commanders were targeted, and the IDF is still working to confirm they were killed.

Ground troops are currently operating in Rafah’s Tel Sultan and Shaboura neighborhoods in southern Gaza and several areas in the Strip’s north. The IDF also pushed into the Netzarim Corridor and captured about half of it.

Footage from Gaza: About 100 residents protest, calling for an end to the war and denouncing Hamas

Footage from Gaza shows that in the last hour, about 100 residents of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, held a protest calling for an end to the war.

The demonstrators carried signs reading “Stop the war” and “Children in Palestine want to live.”

Additionally, video clips captured residents chanting, “Yes to peace, no to the ongoing war,” and “Hamas out.”

أهالي مدينة بيت لاهيا شمال غزة يخرجون بمظاهرة شعبية عفوية مطالبين حركة حماس لوقف الحرب pic.twitter.com/GJ7M839q9X

— Mahmoud Saud ???????? (@mahmoud_saudk) March 25, 2025

???? مظاهرة ضخمة في بيت لاهيا تطالب حـ0ـاس بإيقاف الحرب

شبيحة حـ0ـاس اعتدوا على المظاهرة بالقوة وفرقوا الناس pic.twitter.com/5JB5DcLqfH

— المرصد العسكري ⧨ (@Military_OSTX) March 25, 2025

High Court extends freeze on Shin Bet chief’s sacking, but allows Netanyahu to interview replacements

Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet security services, attends a ceremony on May 5, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The High Court of Justice extends a court-ordered freeze on the firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar while allowing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to interview potential replacements.

The ruling rejects Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s request to prevent the government from interviewing candidates.

Earlier today, the government emphasized in a submission to the court that beginning the process is urgently critical to national security.

The government fired Bar on Thursday night at the recommendation of Netanyahu, who said he had lost faith in the Shin Bet chief’s ability to do his job.

Four opposition parties, along with a number of NGOs, petitioned the High Court against the move, arguing that Netanyahu and the government had a severe conflict of interest in firing Bar due to the Shin Bet’s ongoing investigation into allegedly unlawful ties between Netanyahu’s aides and Qatar.

The High Court issued a temporary injunction against Bar’s dismissal and ordered the prime minister and the government to respond to the request for an interim injunction by Monday.

Following the court’s decision to freeze Bar’s dismissal, Baharav-Miara — against whom the government has also initiated a removal process — told the government it was legally prohibited from appointing a new head of the Shin Bet, or even conducting interviews for the job, including an interim head.

Syria condemns new Israeli ‘attacks’ on its territory

Syria condemns what it claims are the latest Israeli attacks on its territory and calls on Syrians to reject any attempts to displace them or enforce any new realities on the ground.

The Syrian foreign ministry’s statement comes after the IDF said troops came under fire from gunmen in southern Syria and returned fire toward them. Syria has said six people were killed.

Trump says he won’t fire Mike Waltz for adding journalist to secret war chat: ‘The only glitch in 2 months’

White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, left, listens as US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, March 7, 2025. (Pool via AP)

US President Donald Trump tells NBC News that he will not fire his National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, after the senior aide added a journalist to a sensitive chat on a messaging app in which information on US military operations was shared.

“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” says Trump.

The president also blames one of Waltz’s staffers for adding The Atlantic chief editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group chat about US plan for strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.

The group, on the Signal messaging app, included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and 12 other officials.

Waltz has been a firm and outspoken backer of Israel throughout his career. He is seen as an Iran hawk, and represents a traditional, muscular Republican foreign policy approach, as opposed to an emerging isolationist wing in the current administration.

Trump also tells NBC that the slip-up had “no impact at all” on military operations against the Houthis. He says he has confidence in his team, with this being “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”

Trump and Waltz spoke yesterday, when Goldberg published the story, two officials tell NBC.

Israel envoy nominee Huckabee downplays his pro-settler views during US Senate hearing

US nominee to serve as ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 25, 2025. (Screen capture)

US President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, urges lawmakers at his confirmation hearing not to judge him based on his past views, but on his ability to represent the administration.

The remarks appear to be an effort to pivot from his staunch support for the Israeli settlement movement, Israeli annexation of the West Bank and opposition to Palestinian statehood, which have drawn the ire of Democrats.

With Republicans making up the majority on the committee, though, the support of Democrats is not needed for Huckabee to be confirmed.

“The Founders recognized that Senate approval was not necessarily Senate agreement with the president, his policies or even with those he selected to represent him; but the Senate affirms that those nominated be thoroughly examined to determine moral and legal fitness to serve,” Huckabee says.

“I’m aware that not everyone on this committee will agree with the president’s policies or his personal choices in his administration,” the former Arkansas governor says. “I’m not here to articulate or even defend my own views or policies, but rather to present myself as one who will respect and represent the overwhelmingly elected president.”

“President Trump’s historic first-term success with the Abraham Accords gives us real hope of what will happen over the next four years,” Huckabee says.

Huckabee shares his personal story growing up poor in the city of Hope, Arkansas. “Not one in my entire family lineage had ever graduated from high school, [so] the very notion that I would one day be governor of my state or be nominated to serve as an ambassador would have been laughable in my childhood.”

“I stand here today grateful to God for His grace and goodness; and it is the only explanation for my being here,” he continues. “I would say the same for the nation that I’ve been nominated to deploy to.”

He recalls that the Senate in a bipartisan manner swiftly confirmed the previous nominee to serve as US ambassador to Israel — Jack Lew — shortly after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

“That sense of urgency has not ended. That war continues, and for that reason, I respectfully ask your thoughtful consideration for confirmation to become our nation’s ambassador to the State of Israel,” Huckabee says.

As Huckabee speaks, he is three times interrupted by screeching far-left, anti-Israel protesters who are quickly removed from the Senate chambers and arrested.

Ousted senior IDF reserves officer publicly slams his commander as ‘immature and unreliable’

Brig. Gen. (res.) Oren Solomon speaks in an interview with Channel 12 news, on an unknown date. (Screenshot: Channel 12 news)

A senior reserves officer, who was booted from the military and is under investigation for alleged “severe” security violations, accuses his commander of being an “immature and unreliable” person, in a letter published by Channel 12 news.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Oren Solomon, a member of the hawkish HaBithonistim group and who was involved in the Gaza Division’s probe into its failures related to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, has claimed that he was dismissed from reserve duty because the probe found fault in the higher echelons of the military.

The IDF has rejected the claim and said that his investigation is related to “severe operational security violations” by Solomon and not related to the October 7 investigation he was involved in.

In a letter published by the network, dated March 10 and addressed to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Solomon accuses the current Gaza Division chief, Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, of being a person “without values, immature and unreliable. He works to promote his name and glorify it, and does not understand the magnitude of the hour.”

Hiram was not the commander of the Gaza Division on or before October 7, though he was involved in the fighting that day as the commander of the 99th Division. Hiram came under criticism for his actions on October 7, and they were investigated in other IDF probes.

Solomon says that Hiram “is acting in a manner that lacks values, is unprofessional, and lacks courage and leadership. This is to cover for his inability to accept professional and operational criticism, and to cover up serious errors on October 7 and afterward in the division.”

US intel report: Iran isn’t building nuclear weapon; Russia developing satellite that can carry bomb

A US intelligence report assesses that Iran isn’t currently building a nuclear weapon, according to Reuters.

It also finds that Russia is developing a new satellite meant to carry a nuclear weapon, which could have “devastating consequences” for the US and the world.

Oscar-winning Palestinian arrested yesterday in West Bank is released

Hamdan Ballal at the 97th Annual Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 2, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Al Seib/The Academy via Getty Images/AFP)

Hamdan Ballal, one of the creators of the Oscar-winning film “No Other land,” has been released from detention.

Ballal was arrested yesterday by the IDF and was later interrogated by the police along with two other Palestinians from the village of Susya in the southern West Bank after a violent incident there.

They said that they were attacked with stones and beaten by settlers and soldiers before their arrest. The IDF stated that they were arrested on suspicion of throwing rocks at IDF soldiers. Today, the police informed them that they are suspected of rock-throwing, assaulting an Israeli, and damaging a vehicle.

The three have been released on bail and taken to a Palestinian hospital for treatment.

Ex-hostage says terrorists sexually assaulted her during her abduction, she woke up half-naked in Gaza

Released hostage Ilana Gritzewsky poses for a portrait in her apartment in Kiryat Gat, December 15, 2024, near photos of her boyfriend, Matan Zangauker, who is being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky tells The New York Times that she was sexually assaulted during her abduction to Gaza by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, and that her first memory from the Strip was waking up half-naked, surrounded by gunmen.

Gritzewsky recounts how she and her boyfriend Matan Zangauker — who is still held hostage — jumped out the window of the safe room of their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz after Palestinian terrorists shot at their door that morning, and ran in separate directions. She says gunmen seized her and put her between two men on a motorcycle while her head and face were covered.

One of the terrorists groped her from behind, touching her breast under her shirt as well as her leg. Her leg was pressed onto the exhaust pipe, causing burns, and she lost consciousness before they crossed into Gaza.

When she woke up, she was on the floor with seven gunmen standing over her, her shirt pulled up to bare her breasts and her pants pulled down, Gritzewsky says, adding that she doesn’t know what they did to her until that point. She then told them she had her period, which she believes likely saved her from worse.

“They hit me and lifted me up. I felt they were disappointed. I don’t think I have ever been so thankful for my period,” she says.

NYT reports that Gritzewsky said that “one of her captors hugged her and told her, while pointing his pistol at her, that even if there was a deal, she would not be released because he wanted to marry her and have her children.”

She adds that her captors stole jewelry from her, and that after her release in a hostage deal on November 30, 2023, she found out she had a broken hip.

Her captors confirmed to her that Zangauker was also a hostage, but she didn’t see him during her captivity. She and Matan’s mother, Einav, have become central figures in anti-government protests seeking the return of the remaining hostages.

“I’m not really available for my own rehabilitation, not for the body and not least for the soul,” she says in the interview.

“I live with the question of why me and not them. I have no answer. But if I am out, it’s a sign that God wanted me to raise my voice to help those who are alive gain their freedom and bring back the dead for a proper burial.”

In first, court freezes some Israeli funds to PA in support of lawsuit by terror victim’s family

The Dee family, Rabbi Leo and Lucy in the center, Rina (L) and Maia top row. Lucy, Rina and Maia were killed in a terrorist attack in the West Bank on April 7, 2023. (Courtesy)

The Jerusalem District Court issues a first-of-its-kind order to freeze NIS 50 million ($13.7 million) worth of Palestinian Authority funds, the Ynet news site reports.

The move comes after Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife and two daughters were murdered by Palestinian terrorists in April 2023, initiated a lawsuit against the PA’s Prisoners Club and Martyrs Fund over stipends known as the “pay for slay” policy, which provides monthly payments to the families of Palestinian assailants killed or imprisoned for attacking Israelis.

“PA resources should not support terrorism,” Rabbi Dee says. “I urge other terror victims in Israel to pursue similar action. Together, we can strip the enemy of their assets.”

The order aims to compensate the families of terror victims by withholding funds diverted to terror salaries, the plaintiff’s legal team says, according to Ynet.

In February, PA President Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree canceling legislation.

Dee’s legal action follows the Knesset’s approval last year of the Compensation of Victims of Terrorism Bill, which enabled victims of terrorism and their families to file damages-seeking lawsuits against parties offering financial support or compensation for committing acts of terrorism.

2 men killed in shooting in north as crime wave in Arab community persists

Two men in their 30s have died of injuries sustained in a shooting in the Western Galilee earlier today.

Victims Alaa and Bahaa Atallah were residents of the northern Druze town of Yarka, east of Acre.

Police say they are investigating the incident and suspect the motivation is criminal rather than terror-related.

Since the start of the year, 58 Arab Israelis have been killed in violent incidents in a surging crime wave that community leaders attribute to police negligence, citing the agency’s low rate of solving Arab sector murder cases.

Katz, Zamir to meet to ‘settle differences’ after public row

Defense Minister Israel Katz (right) and new IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir (left) meet with the IDF General Staff Forum, March 5, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni/ Defense Ministry)

Following their public row, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir is set to meet with Defense Minister Israel Katz this evening.

The meeting is set for 6 p.m. and is intended to “settle the differences,” Channel 12 news cites sources with knowledge of the matter as saying.

Lawyer says Palestinian co-director of ‘No Other Land’ to be released

Basel Adra, Palestinian co-director of the Oscar winner documentary "No Other Land", looks at the damaged car of the Palestinian co-director Hamdan Ballal, who was wounded in clashes with settlers before being detained by the army in theWest Bank village of Susiya on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

The lawyer for an Oscar-winning Palestinian director who was detained yesterday by Israeli forces after clashes between Palestinians and settlers in the southern West Bank village of Susya, says he will be released.

Palestinian reports and eyewitnesses said dozens of settlers attacked the village, throwing stones at residents, cars and houses. According to the police, Palestinians responded by throwing stones back.

Lea Tsemel, the attorney for Hamdan Ballal, says that he and two other Palestinians spent the night on the floor of a military base while suffering from serious injuries sustained in the attack.

Palestinian reports and eyewitnesses said dozens of settlers attacked the village, throwing stones at residents, cars and houses. According to the police, Palestinians responded by throwing stones back.

Footage that emerged today shows Palestinians behind barricades made of tires throwing stones at the settlers.

בציוץ של יובל אברהם שזכה לעשרות אלפי תגובות ולייקים, מהתקרית בהר חברון, הושמט משום מה התיעוד הבא של עשרות פורעים פלשתינים שיידו אבנים לעבר נער, רועה צאן ישראלי.

בטוח שמדובר בטעות, לא? pic.twitter.com/9L2GgFAlO3

— חנן גרינווד (@hanan_green) March 24, 2025

The Israel Defense Forces said the violence began “after a number of terrorists threw rocks toward Israeli citizens and struck their cars” near Susya.

Footage from the village showed a masked individual throwing stones and attacking Palestinians, and hitting the car of activists who had come to assist the residents.

“No Other Land” chronicles Israel’s demolition of Masafer Yatta, a Palestinian West Bank village in a designated IDF live-fire training zone.

White House says ‘no classified material’ sent in Yemen chat

This grab from footage shared by the US Central Command on March 15, 2025 shows a US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet taking off from the US Navy's USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, reportedly amidst operations launched against Houthis in Yemen (DVIDS / AFP)

The White House insists that no classified material was sent on a chat between senior officials about strikes on Yemen that was accidentally shared with a journalist.

US President Donald Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says in a post on X that “no ‘war plans’ were discussed” and “no classified material was sent to the thread.”

Protesters demand police do more to find Ethiopian-origin girl, 9, missing for more than a year

Caption Protesters demonstrate outside the Knesset accusing police of negligence in investigating the disappearance of 9-year-old Haymanut Kasau on March 25, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Around a hundred protesters are demonstrating outside the Knesset in Jerusalem demanding the police intensify their investigation into the disappearance of 9-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli girl Haymanut Kasau.

Kasau went missing over a year ago from an absorption center for new immigrants in the northern city of Safed.

“Where is Haymanut? Haymanut was kidnapped!” protesters chant as they march to the Knesset, converging with a crowd of anti-government protesters in the same area.

“Where is the government? Where are the police?” the chants continue.

Protesters wear yellow t-shirts in what organizer Avi Yitzhak describes as a mark of solidarity with the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

The group accuses the police and Shin Bet of ignoring Kasau’s case due to her Ethiopian origin.

“Haymanut wasn’t the right [skin] color,” Yitzhak shouts through a megaphone, demanding the police recategorize her case as a kidnapping.

“If she had just disappeared, they would have found her within a week or two,” he continues.

Meanwhile, protesters railing against the 2025 budget have mixed responses to the crowd, with anti-government organizers attempting to steer the chants.

“One bloc — together we will win!” shouts activist Moshe Radman through his own megaphone, but the chant quickly dies out.

Palestinian shot after attempted car ramming in West Bank — Police

Police say a Palestinian man was shot after attempting to ram his car into an officer near the Wet Bank Settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.

Police say the man attempted to flee in his vehicle and was shot at a nearby roadblock.

His condition was not immediately clear.

The police officers were not hurt.

In major victory for government, Knesset passes 2025 state budget

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in the Knesset plenum ahead of the final vote on the 2025 state budget, March 25, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The 2025 state budget passes its third and final reading necessary to become law. Lawmakers in the plenum vote 66-52 in favor of the controversial NIS 755 billion ($205 billion) budget.

The votes come ahead of a March 31 deadline that would have seen the government fall if not passed.

“The budget has everything we need to win on the front and on the home front. We all approached this budget with a great sense of mission and responsibility,” says Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

“We promoted measures that will support growth and allow the Israeli economy to maintain its strength and continue to prosper. This is a war budget and, God willing, it will also be the victory budget.”

However, the opposition slams the bill.

“All prices have increased. VAT has increased, National Insurance payments have increased, water, electricity and property taxes have increased – everything has increased…but they haven’t cut a single penny in coalition funds,” says Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman.

“This budget will be felt by all citizens of Israel all year long and you will ultimately pay the bill. Your detachment and arrogance will come back to you with interest,” says National Unity chairman Benny Gantz.

IDF says elite troops raided several weapons stores in south Syria

Soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade operate in southern Syria, in a handout photo published on March 25, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Over the past few weeks, the IDF says the Paratroopers Brigade and the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit carried out several raids in southern Syria, following intelligence on weapons storage sites.

The troops seized and destroyed numerous weapons in the raids, including explosive devices, ammunition, mortars and other military equipment, the IDF adds.

The IDF has described its presence in southern Syria’s buffer zone as a temporary and defensive measure, though Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that troops will remain deployed to nine army posts in the area “indefinitely.”

Katz approves plans for further Gaza ops

Defense Minister Israel Katz (left) meets with Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor (center) and Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai at the Gaza Division base near Re'im, March 25, 2025. (Shira Keinan/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Israel Katz says he approved the Gaza Division’s plans for continued operations against Hamas in the Strip, while issuing new threats against Hamas.

“Our main goal now is to return all the hostages home. If Hamas continues its refusal, it will pay increasingly heavy prices, in land that will be taken, operatives who will be eliminated, and infrastructure, until it is completely defeated,” Katz says in remarks provided by his office.

Katz approved the IDF’s battle plans following a meeting with Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor, Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, Gaza Division commander Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, and 252nd Division commander Brig. Gen. Yehuda Vach.

Waze co-founder says government endangering Israel’s future as a tech hub

Waze co-founder and former CEO Noam Bardin speaks at the annual Cybertech conference in Tel Aviv. (Courtesy/Gilad Kavalerchik)

Waze co-founder and former CEO Noam Bardin warns that the country’s internal rifts and government attempts to undermine democracy are endangering Israel’s ecosystem as a technological hub.

“When I look at the progress of the Israeli ecosystem, I don’t see risks regarding technological advancement — it will continue to grow and succeed — the only thing that can stop us is ourselves,” says Bardin. “The judicial reform taking place these days is putting our democracy under attack.”

“The only risk is that we become a non-democratic and non-liberal society,” he cautions.

Reflecting on the sale of the navigation app to US tech giant Google in 2013, Bardin says Waze was a testament that Israel can build world-class products, while Google’s most recent $32 billion deal to buy cyber unicorn Wiz shows that local entrepreneurs can build industry-defining businesses based in Israel.

“This is the moment when we are transitioning from a nation that nurtures startups to one that grows strong and successful global tech companies,” Barden notes. “This must not stop.”

Troops foil attempt to smuggle 50 kg of drugs by drone over Egypt border

IDF troops stand with a drone that was used in an attempted drug smuggling on the Egyptian border, March 25, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says it foiled an attempt to smuggle 50 kilograms of drugs into Israel from Egypt earlier today, using a drone.

The drone had been identified crossing the border from Egypt into Israel by troops of the Home Front Command’s 991st Reserve Battalion, before it was downed.

The drugs and the drone were handed over to police for further investigation.

In recent months there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egypt border using drones. There have also been attempts to smuggle similar contraband from Israel into Gaza using drones.

Opposition holds up signs for hostages during Knesset budget vote

Opposition lawmakers stand up and hold up signs bearing the number 59, a reference to the number of Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza, as the Knesset votes on reservations to the 2025 state budget.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana continues to lead the session, without pausing, as the MKs scream and wave their signs.

Opposition lawmakers stand up and hold up signs bearing the number 59, a reference to the number of Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza, as the Knesset votes on reservations to the 2025 state budget pic.twitter.com/gwvRxtMdRc

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) March 25, 2025

UN cutting international staff in Gaza by a third due to safety concerns

A UN staff member stands outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after transporting casualties from UN staff members, including foreigners, to the medical facility in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on March 19, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

The United Nations is cutting its international staff in Gaza by around a third, a UN spokesperson said on Tuesday, citing safety concerns.

“We are trying to reduce the number of international staff by about one-third and this is really because the Secretary-General (Antonio Guterres) doesn’t have the power of guaranteeing the safety of UN staff,” UN spokesperson Alessandra Vellucci tells a Geneva press briefing, saying that this meant around 30 of 100 international staff.

The agencies affected included the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and the UN children’s agency, she adds.

Golan slams Knesset speaker’s call to prosecute protesters, tells him to ‘look in the mirror’

Police clash with demonstrators during a protest against the government outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 25, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Responding to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana’s call to prosecute six protesters who blocked the entrance to the Knesset, The Democrats chief Yair Golan tweets that if the Likud politician “is looking to arrest and prosecute those who harm the democratic process, let him look in the mirror.”

“It is not the protesters in favor of the rule of law who are harming democracy, but this government that is looting the state treasury and transferring budget funds only to evaders, the corrupt and loyalists,” he writes.

“Democracy is not seizing power by force. Democracy is not turning the budget into a tool in the hands of a jealous and disconnected group. Democracy is responsibility, equality and respect for human life,” Golan continues — arguing that “this government lost its mandate a long time ago.”

“If Amir Ohana is truly concerned about the democratic process, let him resign. Let him return the mandate to the people [which will] choose its leaders and a better future.”

IDF says drone strike in Lebanon killed Hezbollah anti-tank commander

An Israeli drone strike last night in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh killed a Hezbollah commander, the military says.

The IDF says it targeted and killed Hassan Kamal Halawi, chief of Hezbollah’s anti-tank missile unit in southern Lebanon.

“During the war, Halawi was responsible for numerous terror attacks against the State of Israel. He facilitated the movement of operatives and the supply of weapons into southern Lebanon. In recent months, Halawi continued to engage in terrorist activity against Israeli civilians,” the army says in statement.

The IDF adds that he was targeted because he posed a threat to Israel.

Knesset speaker calls on police to crack down on anti-government protesters

Police clash with demonstrators during a protest against the government outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 25, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Following the arrest of six protesters during an anti-government demonstration near the Knesset building ahead of the final votes on the 2025 state budget, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud) denounces their actions.

“This morning there were violent attempts to block the democratic process in the Knesset and not allow Knesset members to enter the Knesset to vote,” he tells the plenum.

“I call on the enforcement authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice and not be satisfied with arrests and towing vehicles, but rather with prosecution. There is freedom of expression in the State of Israel, but no one is free to block the democratic process in the Knesset by force. This is outside the rules of the game,” he says.

Demonstrators accuse police of using excessive force.

At budget debate, Gafni rails against anti-Haredi ‘incitement’

Finance Bezalel Smotrich and MK Moshe Gafni attend a Knesset vote on the 2025 state budget, December 16, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)

Addressing the Knesset ahead of the final votes on numerous opposition reservations on the 2025 state budget, Knesset Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni (UTJ) rails against what he describes as “incitement” against the ultra-Orthodox community during the budget debate.

“Public discourse is full of accusations and incitement. Once again, arrows are being aimed at the ultra-Orthodox public. Do we really want to live in a country where a Jew incites against a Jew,” he asks.

“Where they try to wipe out an entire public just because they choose to live a different way? Over and over again we hear the same tune that the ultra-Orthodox take all the money and receive inflated budgets. Not only are these statements untrue, they are part of a dangerous incitement aimed at creating hatred within our people.”

Trump said poised to fire NSA Mike Waltz for including journalist in top secret war chat

US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz speaks with the media following meetings with a Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, March 11, 2025. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP)

US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz could be pushed out of his position after he added a journalist to a private chat on a messaging app about US strikes on the Houthis, Politico reports.

White House officials tell the outlet that US President Donald Trump will make a decision in the next day or two.

“Half of them are saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive,” a senior administration official tells Politico, referring to multiple text threads among staffers discussing Waltz’s fate. Two senior aides have brought up the idea of Waltz stepping down to avoid putting Trump in a “bad position,” says the report.

“Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a fucking idiot,” says one person close to the White House.

The incident was made public on Monday, in an Atlantic article by Jeffrey Goldberg, who was included in the chat. The US National Security Council confirmed the messages appeared to be authentic, and said it was investigating how Goldberg was inadvertently added.

The group, on the Signal messaging app, included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and 12 other officials.

Waltz has been a firm and outspoken backer of Israel throughout his career. He is seen as an Iran hawk, and represents a traditional muscular Republican foreign policy approach, as opposed to an emerging isolationist wing in the current administration.

“As President Trump said, the attacks on the Houthis have been highly successful and effective. President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including national security adviser Mike Waltz,” says White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

House Speaker Mike Johnson tells Politico that Waltz shouldn’t resign. “He’s exceptionally qualified for the job. He is trusted — trustworthy,” Johnson says. “He was made for that job, and I have full confidence in him.”

Two officials say that Trump could also turn his ire on Vice President J.D. Vance for arguing against White House policy on Yemen in the leaked chat, or on Defense Secretary Pete Hesgeth for sharing classified details of the impending strikes.

Six arrested at protests outside Knesset amid scuffles with police

Police clash with demonstrators during a protest against the government outside the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, March 25, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Police arrest six protesters during an anti-government demonstration near the Knesset building in Jerusalem earlier today.

Demonstrators blocking roads near government buildings were dragged off the sidewalk by police officers.

The demonstrators are protesting the 2025 state budget, which is being voted on inside the Knesset, and calling for the government to reach a deal to bring back the hostages from Gaza.

A law enforcement spokesman says that some demonstrators attempted to block traffic by parking their cars in the middle of the road, and adds that cops attempting to tow the vehicles were met with resistance from the protesters.

“So far, the police have arrested six suspects for disturbing public order and they were taken for questioning at the police station,” the spokesman says.

A lawyers’ network representing detained anti-government protesters accuses police of using excessive force to carry out arrests, saying they tore demonstrators’ clothing unnecessarily.

Smotrich hails ‘victory budget’ at Knesset vote

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich addresses the Knesset ahead of a vote on the state budget on March 25, 2025.(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Addressing the Knesset plenum ahead of the final votes on the 2025 state budget, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich praises the legislation as “responsible and balanced,” telling lawmakers that it “will support growth and allow the Israeli economy to maintain its strength and continue to prosper.”

“This is a war budget. And with God’s help, it will also be the victory budget,” he says, arguing that the government “arrived at this budget out of a great sense of mission and responsibility” and “with the backing of Israeli society.”

Unlike Opposition Leader Yair Lapid — who cited a story of a man who lost his brother and was told he would have to give up a government entitlement for psychological counseling if he wanted to join a gardening workshop — Smotrich recounts the stories of several reservists and displaced families who received tens of thousands of shekels in government money to help them through this difficult period.

“The upcoming budget – the war and reservist budget – has everything it needs to win on the front and in the home front,” including billions of shekels in additional funding for the defense establishment, grants for IDF reservists and their families, subsidies for businesses harmed by the war and “funding for summer camps and days off for families,” Smotrich insists.

“This budget is the story of beautiful Israel. Israel that is mobilizing all its forces – and unfortunately, was also required to pay with the best of its sons and daughters – for the security of the country. And we are here to support, help and cherish them.”

Lapid calls budget ‘greatest robbery in the history of the country’

Opposition leader Yair Lapid addresses the Knesset ahead of a vote on the state budget on March 25, 2025.(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is contemptuous of the middle class, declares Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, reiterating his previous assertion that the budget bill constitutes “the greatest robbery in the history of the country.”

“Your rulers are rogues and cronies of thieves, everyone avid for presents and greedy for gifts,” Lapid declares, citing the book of Isaiah. The rest of the verse goes on to say that said leaders “do not judge the case of the orphan, and the widow’s cause never reaches them.”

The government, he continues, is “stealing the money and the future of the Israeli middle class, the productive public, who works, pays taxes, enlists in the army, whose children enlist in the army.”

“In a normal country, during a war, during an economic crisis, the government does not have two ministers in the Ministry of Education, two ministers in the Ministry of Finance, two ministers in the Ministry of Defense,” he continues.

“A normal budget does not take 1.3 billion shekels in convalescence benefits from working people, including people who earn minimum wage, including people who have done 200 days of reserve duty this year, and transfer it directly into the pockets of people who do not work and do not enlist,” Lapid rails.

“A normal budget, during a war, does not add another 5 billion shekels of coalition funds to the 8 billion you transferred last year. Because people are being killed and injured here because the middle class is collapsing because you have lost all shame.”

Lapid insists that “the government doesn’t care about” the citizens but rather “despises your values, it openly belittles your efforts, it doesn’t work for you, it just takes advantage of you.”

“What the Israeli middle class needs is a government that works for them,” he concludes, calling on lawmakers “to vote against this terrible budget.”

Ahead of budget vote, Gantz slams ‘shameless’ government priorities

National Unity party head MK Benny Gantz leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, March 24, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The 2025 state budget is a “symbol of the disconnection and shamelessness” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz declares in the Knesset plenum, ahead of the final vote on the controversial legislation.

While the government believes that passing the budget will ensure its survival until the next election in 2026, its “arrogance” and sectorialism will only feed discontent by the public, he says — arguing that the legislation abandons reservists, hostage families, residents of the north and “young families who pay more VAT and whose children will receive a worse education.”

“This budget will be felt by all citizens of Israel all year long, and you will ultimately pay the bill. Your arrogance, smugness and detachment will come back to you with interest,” he says.

“Along with the crooked and sectoral priorities and the lack of national fairness in the budget – there is a historic miss here. A budget without growth engines, without incentives for social change, without vision and without taking advantage of the tremendous achievements of the defense establishment in the war,” Gantz continues.

Instead of making “changes that are needed for decades to come, you are taking the wind out of the sails of the Israeli economy” by not laying the groundwork for the future development of the western Negev and the growth of the domestic defense industry.

“But Israeli society is strong, the State of Israel is strong, the economic base of Israel is strong, the people of Israel are stronger than ever – and we will fix it. Members of the coalition, it won’t take as long as you think,” Gantz asserts.

IDF says troops attacked in southern Syria, returned fire; local officials say 5 dead

The IDF says that troops operating in southern Syria identified several armed men that opened fire on the Israeli forces.

In a short statement, the military says troops returned fire and a drone carried out a strike.

The military says that it identified hitting the targets.

Syrian officials report that at least five people were killed in the incident that took place in Kuwaya village near Daraa in south Syria.

Cyber officials say Iranian, Hezbollah attacks against Israel tripled since Oct. 7

Deputy head of Israel National Cyber Directorate Nitzan Amar speaks at the annual Cybertech conference in Tel Aviv, March 25, 2025. (Courtesy/Gilad Kavalerchik)

Deputy cyber defense chief Nitzan Amar says that the intensity of cyberattacks against Israel has tripled since the outbreak of the Hamas war on October 7, 2023, as Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, joined hacking efforts.

“The last year was not a normal year, but a challenging and unique one,” says Amar speaking at the global Cybertech 2025 conference in Tel Aviv. “Ever since the war broke out, we have observed a major amplification in the scope of Iran and Hezbollah malicious activity targeting Israeli entities.”

“Despite our enemies’ efforts, not a single attack targeting an Israeli entity was able to harm neither our national infrastructure, nor the IDF operational freedom to fulfill its missions since October 7,” Amar remarks.

Amar cautions that Israel experienced a 300 percent increase in phishing attacks, the highest ever, seeking to “exploit information, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and disrupt the daily life of Israeli civilians.”

He listed various types of cyberattacks, including rapid exploitation of newly discovered security vulnerabilities, such as “unprecedented-scale DDoS attacks, and cyber intrusions via Managed Service Providers (MSPs).”

“During the war, we began implementing the ‘Cyber Dome’ program to bolster national cyber defense,” says Amar. “We deployed advanced defensive technologies that played a crucial role in mitigating these threats.”

Herzog says country has lost focus on the hostages

President Isaac Herzog speaks at a conference on rehabilitating war wounded on March 25, 2025. (Haim Zach/GPO)

The country has lost focus on the hostages in Gaza, laments President Isaac Herzog, speaking at the Defense Ministry Rehabilitation Department’s first international conference.

“I am quite shocked how suddenly the issue of the hostages is no longer at the top of the priority list and at the top of the news — how can this be?” he says. “We must, throughout this entire time, not lose eye contact, as a nation and of course as a governing system, with everything related to bringing the hostages home, down to the last one.”

Herzog also argues that the law currently does not provide adequate support for freed hostages and their families.

Iran’s currency drops to a record low

A man walks past a currency exchange shop in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran on March 3, 2025. (Atta KENARE / AFP)

Iran’s currency drops to a record low of 1,039,000 rial to the US dollar today, according to Iranian currency tracking website Bonbast.com, losing more than half its value since President Masoud Pezeshkian took office in August.

5 reported killed in Israeli strike in south Syria

Media in Syria reported that at least five people were killed in an IDF strike in Kuwaya village near Daraa in south Syria.

There are also reports that ground forces are operating in the area.

There is no immediate response from the military.

IDF confirms killing Al Jazeera reporter who was also a Hamas sniper

An IDF release showing Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat, who was also a Hamas sniper. Shabat was killed in an IDF strike on March 24, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF confirms that it killed an Al Jazeera reporter in an air strike yesterday. The military has long charged that Hossam Shabat was an active member of Hamas.

In October, the IDF published information on six journalists in Gaza who were also members of terror groups, including Shabat. The IDF said it had uncovered documents in the Gaza Strip that showed that Shabat was a sniper in Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion.

“During the war, Shabat carried out attacks and participated in terrorist activities against IDF forces and citizens of the State of Israel. This is further proof of the employment of Hamas terrorists by the Al Jazeera media network,” the IDF says.

Sara Netanyahu says she paid for Miami sojourn from personal money

Sara Netanyahu, wife of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives for a court hearing at the Magistrate Court in Jerusalem on March 25, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Sara Netanyahu, wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says she paid for her recent stay in Miami from private funds.

Netanyahu makes the statement as she enters Jerusalem District Court, where she is requesting a restraining order against an anti-government activist.

She refuses to answer any other questions from reporters.

The prime minister’s wife spent more than two months in Miami, recently visiting her eldest son Yair.

Opposition party MKs have raised questions in the Knesset about whether taxpayers funded her stay and the continued costs of providing security to Yair.

The Netanyahus have been dogged by accusations over the years that they have misused state funds for private purposes.

Troops kill 3 in Qalqilya raid, including suspect said planning imminent attack

A home-made machine gun recovered from a suspect in a raid on the West Bank city of Qalqilya on March 25, 2025 (Israel Police)

Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Qalqilya overnight, killing a wanted terrorist who had been planning an imminent attack and two other operatives, the IDF, Shin Bet and police say in a joint statement.

A combined IDF and police special forces team went into the city, acting upon information from the Shin Bet after receiving information that the “terrorist planned to carry out a terror attack against Israeli citizens in within in an immediate timeframe,” the statement says.

The suspect opened fire on the troops who responded with live fire, shoulder-launched rockets and an explosive drone, killing him and two others.

Troops found a home-made machine gun.

There are no injuries to the Israeli forces.

Katz deepens feud with new IDF chief, says he can give him orders any way he wants to

Defense Minister Israel Katz meets with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Operations Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, and other top officials during an assessment, March 20, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Israel Katz doubles down after IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir last night told him, in a public statement, that he doesn’t receive instructions through the media.

Katz claims he can give orders to Zamir “in any way he deems appropriate” and the chief of staff’s response was “unnecessary and inappropriate.”

The row began after Brig. Gen. (res.) Oren Solomon, an officer who was responsible for the Gaza Division’s probe into its failures related to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, was booted from reserve duty and put under investigation by the Military Police for alleged “severe” operational security violations. Solomon, a member of the hawkish HaBithonistim group, told associates that he believes he was removed from reserve duty because he found fault in the IDF’s top command in the probe. He also sent a letter to Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming the IDF was trying to cover up his investigation.

Katz then in statement last night said he wanted to meet with Solomon, and called on Zamir to examine the conduct of the Military Advocate General. Zamir responded by saying that he doesn’t receive instructions via the media, and that he backs the investigation, which is unrelated to Solomon’s October 7 probe.

“The instruction to the chief of staff to examine the circumstances that led to the investigation and the allegations presented in the letter that Brig. Gen. Solomon wrote to the prime minister and the defense minister regarding the IDF’s behavior toward him in light of the critical investigation he conducted, was given directly before the announcement was issued to the media due to the public aspect, and this without any intention of harming the investigation itself, which is being conducted by the Military Advocate General,” Katz says this morning.

Katz adds, in his public statement to the media, that “the media discourse surrounding the issue must now be stopped, which will be handled in other ways later.”

Northern mayor and deputy arrested for suspected electoral fraud, bribery

Police have arrested the mayor of a northern city and the deputy mayor on suspicion of electoral fraud and bribery.

A police statement says they will be questioned later today. It does not name them.

IDF says it struck ‘remaining military capabilities’ at pair of Syrian airbases

The Israel Defense Forces announces that it just struck “remaining military capabilities” at the Palmyra and T-4 airbases in Syria, several days after similarly targeting both airfields.

“The IDF will continue to act to remove any threat to Israeli citizens,” says a statement from the military.

NY high school student sues district for painting over her watermelon keffiyeh parking spot design

NEW YORK — A New York student is suing after high school officials painted over a parking spot that she had decorated with a watermelon slice — a symbol of support for Palestinians.

The lawsuit was filed this month in Brooklyn federal court and argues that the Half Hollow Hills Central School District violated the student’s free speech rights and inflicted emotional trauma on her when it painted over her design in September, just days into the new school year.

The student, who is identified in the suit by the pseudonym Jane Khan, had joined other classmates in decorating her parking spot — an annual tradition at Half Hollow Hills High School West — located on Long Island.

The senior painted a watermelon slice featuring a keffiyeh scarf-like pattern, followed by the phrase “Peace Be Upon You” and her name written in Arabic. The student is described as a Muslim American of Pakistani descent.

“Ms. Khan’s inclusion of the watermelon with a keffiyeh design was an expression of her solidarity with Palestinians — something she feels arises in part from her Muslim identity and Pakistani heritage,” the suit explains.

Houthis claim responsibility for ballistic missile attack

The Houthis put out a statement claiming Monday evening’s ballistic missile attack, which the Yemeni rebel group says targeted Ben Gurion Airport.

2 other Palestinians arrested alongside Oscar-winning activist for alleged rock-throwing

Hamdan Ballal at the 97th Annual Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 2, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Al Seib/The Academy via Getty Images/AFP)

After arresting Oscar-winning activist Hamdan Ballal during a reported settler attack on Susya, the military says the violence began “after a number of terrorists threw rocks toward Israeli citizens and struck their cars” near the southern West Bank village.

“Afterwards, a violent confrontation developed that included mutual stone-throwing between Palestinians and Israelis,” the Israel Defense Forces says in a statement.

According to the IDF, when troops arrived at the scene “to disperse the conflict, a number of terrorists began throwing stones toward the security forces.” Soldiers then arrested three Palestinians, inclufing Ballal, on suspicion of throwing stones at soldiers, as well as an Israeli suspected of taking part in the violence.

The statement adds that an Israeli citizen who was wounded has been taken for medical treatment, while denying any of the Palestinians were arrested in an ambulance.

Lebanon reports 1 killed by Israeli drone strike in southern village

Lebanon’s health ministry says an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon has killed one person.

State-run Lebanon News Agency quotes a health ministry statement as saying that the Monday night drone strike took place in the village of Qaaqaaiyet el-Jisr. It is not immediately clear who the target was.

Israel has killed several Hezbollah members over the past weeks in drones strike on southern Lebanon