March 31: Gantz blasts PM for saying aides ‘held hostage,’ while 59 captives still in Gaza

Trump: David Friedman, 30 others have expressed interest in UN envoy vacancy

Then-Republican presidential candidate, US President Donald Trump, right, greets David Friedman, who served as his ambassador to Israel, at the National Religious Broadcasters convention at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center on February 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

US President Donald Trump says his former ambassador to Israel David Friedman has expressed interest in becoming the next US ambassador to the United Nations after Elise Stefanik pulled her nomination in order to maintain her seat in the House where Republicans have a narrow majority.

“We have a lot of people that have asked about it, and would like to do it — David Friedman, Ric Grenell and maybe 30 other people,” Trump tells reporters after signing executive orders in the Oval Office.

Friedman waged considerable influence from Jerusalem during the previous Trump administration and was said to have vied for a top spot in the second administration. However, Trump has held off on appointing the former envoy, who criticized the president after he dined with antisemite Kanye West in 2022.

Friedman went on to endorse Trump’s re-election and has been one of his most vocal advocates.

“Everyone loves that position. That’s a star-making position, and so we’ll see what happens. But we have a lot of people that are interested in going to the United Nations, as you can imagine,” Trump says.

Trump says he plans to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and ‘possibly other countries’

Kid Rock holds a signed executive order regarding ticket scalping after US President Donald Trump signed it in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, March 31, 2025. (Pool via AP)

US President Donald Trump confirms that he plans to make his first foreign visit to Saudi Arabia, adding that he’ll also likely make stops in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

He doesn’t mention Israel in these comments to reporters after signing executive orders in the Oval Office but he does say that the Mideast itinerary may include “a couple of other countries.”

Asked if the trip will take place in May as reported, Trump responds, “It could be next month, maybe a little bit later.”

Trump reiterates that he decides to make Saudi Arabia his first foreign destination after Riyadh pledged to invest nearly $1 trillion in US companies.

Iran complains to UN about Trump’s ‘reckless, belligerent’ remarks

Iran has complained to the United Nations Security Council about “reckless and belligerent” remarks by US President Donald Trump, describing them as “a flagrant violation of international law” and the founding United Nations Charter.

Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.

In a letter, seen by Reuters, Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani writes that Tehran “strongly warns against any military adventurism and will respond swiftly and decisively to any act of aggression or attack by the United States or its proxy, the Israeli regime, against its sovereignty, territorial integrity, or national interests.”

Israeli students still stranded in Turkey after 12 hours as rescue plane also found to be unsafe

A group of  Israeli 12th graders stranded at an airport in Turkey are still there 12 hours later, after a plane sent to rescue them was also found to have technical issues, the the Education Ministry says.

The plane carrying 12th-grade students from five schools to Poland was forced to make an emergency landing in Turkey, due to engine issues.

According to reports, the students were taken to a secure area in the airport in Antalya as they await a replacement aircraft.

But the replacement plane was also found to be unsafe and now a third plane will be sent in the coming hours, the ministry says.

The students are on an organized trip to visit concentration camps and learn about the Holocaust. The Poland trips are seen as a learning experience about the Holocaust, the subsequent necessity of the Jewish state, and the values of volunteerism and social cohesion.

Khamenei adviser says Iran will have ‘no choice’ but to get nuclear weapon if attacked

A handout picture provided by the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office on March 21, 2025, shows him addressing the crowd during his annual Nowruz speech, in Tehran, Iran. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader says the country would have no alternative but to acquire a nuclear weapon if attacked, following a threat by US President Donald Trump.

“We are not moving towards (nuclear) weapons, but if you do something wrong in the Iranian nuclear issue, you will force Iran to move towards that because it has to defend itself,” Ali Larijani, adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says in an interview with state TV.

Court allows Netanyahu to postpone testimony until Wednesday

Amit Hadad (L), the lawyer for Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top aide Jonatan Urich outside the Lahav 433 police unit headquarters, in the city of Lod on March 31, 2025. (Jonathan Shaul/ Flash90)

The court allows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay his testimony in his corruption trial from Tuesday until the following day.

The request comes because Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad also represents two of Netanyahu’s aides, Jonatan Urich and Elie Feldstein, who were arrested as part of the Qatargate scandal and are due in court tomorrow to have their remand extended.

After being roughed up by security forces, MK Lazimi says police helping government suppress democracy

Israeli police push back people protesting against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/ Ohad Zwigenberg)

After being attacked by law enforcement during an anti-government protest outside the Knesset, MK Naama Lazimi (The Democrats) accuses the police of helping the government suppress democracy.

The police are working “for the coup government, a Kahanist criminal and a prime minister suspected of serious security incidents,” she says.

“History will remember who stood up for the state, the democratic regime and its citizens and who served the people of disaster and destruction,” the liberal lawmaker tweets. “We will not give up and will only fight harder and more determined — until Israel wins. Hope will prevail.”

In a separate tweet, fellow The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv writes that Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana’s “continued silence in the face of police violence directed against Knesset members is a disgrace” that proves that he has turned the legislature into a “scapegoat of the prime minister and his poison machine.”

Smotrich briefly resigns as minister in political maneuver to push rival party member out of Knesset

Finance Minister, and head of the Religious Zionist Party, Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, March 17, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announces his resignation as a cabinet minister and his resumption of his seat as a member of Knesset for his far right Religious Zionism party, before being reappointed to his ministerial roles.

By reclaiming his status as an MK, Smotrich would push Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer out of parliament. When Amichai Eliyahu became heritage minister in 2023, Kroizer became an MK under the so-called Norwegian Law, which allows ministers and deputy ministers from large factions to resign from the Knesset, with their seats filled by members of their parties.

In a statement, Religious Zionism says that the move comes in response to Otzma Yehudit chief and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s “violation of the agreements” between him, Smotrich, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

When Otzma Yehudit quit the coalition in January, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu’s resignation from the cabinet forced the resignation of then-Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot, who held a lower spot on the two parties’ joint electoral list in the 2022 legislative election, rather than Kroizer.

Speaking with The Times of Israel earlier this month, an Otzma Yehudit source said that following the party’s return to the government, neither Eliyahu nor Yitzhak Wasserlauf, who is the Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience Minister, would be able to resign from the Knesset under the Norwegian Law. Eliyahu had already resigned once and is barred from doing so again, and Wasserlauf represents a one-man faction within the party that would no longer have Knesset representation were he to do so.

Then-Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot protests against the detention of Israeli reserve soldiers suspected of assaulting a Hamas terrorist, at the Sde Teiman military base near Beersheba, July 29, 2024. (Dudu Greenspan/ Flash90)

This left only Ben Gvir. As such, the party was pressuring rebel MK Almog Cohen to accept a deputy ministerial position in order to get him out of the Knesset, something he rejected outright. Subsequently, the Kan public broadcaster reported that the coalition was considering adding Otzma Yehudit MK Zvika Fogel to the cabinet.

However, thus far, no steps have been taken to bring Sukkot back into the Knesset, prompting a Religious Zionism source to call Otzma Yehudit’s conduct “incomprehensible.”

“It is a shame that they are not fulfilling their commitment to return MK Sukkot to the Knesset, even though, at Otzma Yehudit’s request, the coalition left MK Kroizer in the Knesset at the time of their party’s resignation,” the source states.

“Sukkot and Kroizer are excellent national parliamentarians, Ben-Gvir’s refusal to fulfill his commitment and the removal of these two players from the coalition is unnecessary and unworthy.”

In a tweet, Sukkot calls on Otzma Yehudit to allow him back into the legislature. “There is no reason in the world that during a time of war and cuts, they would appoint a new minister to the government just to bring me back to the Knesset,” Sukkot writes.

“I expect my dear friends in Otzma Yehudit to uphold their agreements and commitments and find someone who will resign through the Norwegian Law so that we can continue working together.”

Footage shows police manhandling opposition MK at Jerusalem anti-government protest

MK Naama Lazimi speaks at an anti-government protest near the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 31, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Security forces are filmed manhandling MK Naama Lazimi of The Democrats party during a protest outside the Knesset.

Despite people screaming that she is a  member of Knesset, officers grab, pull, and shove the opposition lawmaker as she screams in fear.

מליציית בן גביר תוקפת את חברת הכנסת נעמה לזימי.
הדמוקרטיה נפלה.
אם לא נתייצב כגוף אחד מולם, איש מאיתנו לא מוגן.
גם לא מי שמחפשים אחדות.
ואפילו לא מי שתומכים בנתניהו.

ותודה לאישה האמיצה הזאת שמגנה בגופה על הדמוקרטיה. או מה שנותר ממנה. .@naamalazimi @guypch2news… pic.twitter.com/vl744p6cMk

— Rotem Sivan (@DrRotemSivan) March 31, 2025

Responding to the footage, The Democrats’ chair Yair Golan says that the incident proves that “incitement has seeped in, and restraint has disappeared.”

“I know Naama well. She is a brave fighter who will not shy away from pressure or arrests. And like Naama, the hundreds of thousands of citizens on the streets will not be deterred. Anyone who thinks they can be broken is making a historical mistake,” he tweets.

“I already told Commissioner Danny Levy and I am announcing it again: Any police officer who thinks he will build his career on violence against civilians — let him think again. We will ensure that the police officers responsible are brought to justice.”

Several thousand people protested in Jerusalem against the government and for a deal to bring back the hostages in Gaza.

Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, calling for a deal to free the hostages near the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 31, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

UN says 15 Palestinian medics killed by IDF in Gaza found buried in mass grave; IDF says it targeted terror operatives

Mourners gather around the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah in the Gaza Strip, on March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/ Abdel Kareem Hana)

After 15 medics were allegedly killed by the Israeli military in southern Gaza’s Rafah last week, the IDF issues yet another response to the incident, although it does not comment on allegations made by the UN that those killed were buried in a “mass grave.”

Earlier today, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it recovered the bodies of 15 rescuers killed a week ago when Israeli forces targeted ambulances in the Gaza Strip.

The IDF acknowledged Friday that it had fired on ambulances and fire engines, saying it had identified them as “suspicious vehicles.”

Footage released by the UN shows workers from PRCS and the Hamas-run Civil Defense, wearing masks and bright orange vests, digging through hills of dirt that appeared to have been piled up by Israeli bulldozers.

The footage shows them digging out multiple bodies wearing orange emergency vests. Some of the bodies are found piled on top of each other. At one point, they pull out a body in a Civil Defense vest out of the dirt, and it is revealed to be a torso with no legs. Several ambulances and a UN vehicle, all heavily damaged or torn apart, are also buried in the dirt.

“Their bodies were gathered and buried in this mass grave,” says Jonathan Whittall, with the UN humanitarian office OCHA, speaking at the site in the video. “We’re digging them out in their uniforms, with their gloves on. They were here to save lives.”

In a post on X this evening, the IDF’s international media spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani says the military “did not randomly attack an ambulance on March 23.”

“Last Sunday, several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then opened fire at the suspected vehicles. Earlier that day, cars that did not belong to terrorists were coordinated and passed safely on the same route,” he says.

“Following an initial assessment, it was determined that the forces had eliminated a Hamas military operative, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took part in the October 7 massacre, along with eight other terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad,” claims Shoshani.

“After coordination between the IDF and international organizations, the evacuation of bodies was carried out,” he says, adding that “it’s truly not surprising that terrorists are once again exploiting medical facilities and equipment for their activities.”

IDF punishes soldiers who vandalized Palestinian property during raid

The IDF has handed down punishments to several officers and troops for vandalizing Palestinian property, during an unwarranted search of a village in the southern West Bank over the weekend.

According to the IDF’s investigation of the incident, soldiers set out on the night between Friday and Saturday to search the Palestinian village of Jinba for weapons.

As part of the operation, the troops carried out searches inside “sensitive sites,” including a school and a medical clinic, without receiving the authorization to do so.

“During the activity, the forces vandalized and damaged equipment there, against orders and procedures, and in a way that does not match what is expected of IDF soldiers during operational activity, and against the IDF values,” the military says in a statement.

The troops did not report to their superiors on the unapproved search, and it was only revealed later from footage posted to social media.

During the night, occupation soldiers invaded the village of Jinba/ Masafer Yatta. They destroyed the school’s furniture, windows, the solar panels that supply the school with electricity, and the cameras that had documented the pogrome carried out by settlers the yesterday. pic.twitter.com/Vz52mTR0I6

— Basel Adra (@basel_adra) March 29, 2025

The investigation found that the battalion involved in the incident did not adequately prepare for the operation, and the regional brigade did not properly track the activities of the battalion.

The chief of the Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, describes the incident as “grave,” and “contrary to the level of professionalism and values expected of IDF soldiers during operational activities.”

The commander of the Judea Regional Brigade, Col. Shahar Barkai, was reprimanded over the incident; the battalion commander was censured and it will go on his permanent record; a company commander was dismissed from his role and jailed for a week; another company commander will be forced to stay on base for an extended period of time; and two soldiers involved in the vandalizing were jailed for a week.

Kan news reports this evening that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir went to Jinba himself to investigate the incident.

Trump says ‘real pain is yet to come’ for Houthis, Iran if attacks on ships continue

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)

US President Donald Trump warns Yemen’s Houthi rebels to halt attacks on shipping, or else they and their Iranian backers would face “real pain” from fresh air strikes.

“Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran,” Trump says on Truth Social.

Trump's latest message to the Houthis: pic.twitter.com/K9N3g3S9aG

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) March 31, 2025

New York Black-Jewish coalition launches ad blitz in support of anti-masking legislation

UnMaskHateNY, a coalition of Black and Jewish advocacy groups, announces a six-figure advertisement campaign in support of New York State legislation that would add penalties to crimes committed by masked offenders.

The ad aims to push back against “misinformation” surrounding the legislation. Critics of the legislation have called it a “mask ban,” but the bill would only stiffen penalties for crimes committed while wearing a mask.

“With all the confusion in the debate about regulating the conduct of people wearing masks, we thought it would be helpful to set the record straight,” the ad says. “People can wear masks to their heart’s content, but they can’t wear masks and engage in intimidating, harassing or threatening activity.”

The campaign, called “Fine, not fine,” shows images of masking that is allowed, such as masks for sports, medical purposes, or religion, and face coverings that are “not fine,” such as for concealment during violent protests and vandalism.

“The text only prohibits the wearing of a mask in situations in which they’re used to hide the identity of a person engaging in intimidating, threatening or harassing activity. Nothing less, nothing more,” the ad says.

The 30-second ad will be shown this week on cable TV and digital platforms.

The campaign comes as New York Governor Kathy Hochul attempts to pass the legislation with the state budget.

The New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union put out a statement this month that called the legislation a “mask ban” and claimed it would “open the floodgates to disproportionate enforcement.”

The legislation is not actually a ban, however. The text of the bill aims to establish the offense of “masked harassment,” which would stiffen penalties for crimes committed while covering the face “for the primary purpose of menacing or threatening violence” or “placing another person or group of persons in reasonable fear for their physical safety.”

Masked harassment would function similar to hate crimes legislation, which increases penalties for crimes that are motivated by discrimination. Masking in the absence of criminal activity would not be affected.

UnMaskHateNY launched last summer and is a collaborative effort between Black and Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the National Urban League. Jewish groups support the legislation as a way to push back against harassment by masked anti-Israel activists, and Black groups say similar legislation has long been used against hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.

New York had anti-masking legislation for more than 100 years until it was repealed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Knesset passes bill to bar municipal candidates who deny State of Israel

Lawmakers vote 22-0 to approve the first reading of a bill to disqualify a candidate or list of candidates from running in municipal elections on the grounds that they have denied the existence of the State of Israel as Jewish and democratic or expressed support for terrorism or armed struggle against the State of Israel.

The legislation seeks to bring the Local Authorities Bill in line with an existing law barring individuals who support terror and racism from running for the Knesset.

“We are putting an end to the terrible absurdity in which terror supporters can be elected to local government,” says Likud MK Dan Illouz (Likud), the initiator of the legislation.

“My bill passed its first reading today – another step in restoring logic to governance. Those who support the murderers of Jews belong not in councils, but in prison. Public officials should serve the state – not collaborate with those who seek to destroy it.”

Lawmakers also vote 23-2 to approve the first reading of a bill to replace the term West Bank with Judea and Samaria, the biblical term for the region, in all Knesset legislation.

The legislation, by Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman, stipulates that no other term or designation other than “Judea and Samaria” will be used in legislation and that it will replace any other terminology used in existing legislation.

Fitch keeps Israel’s A credit rating, but maintains a negative outlook

A sign for Fitch Ratings, in New York, October 9, 2011. (Henny Ray Abrams/AP)

Fitch Ratings affirms Israel’s A credit rating, but maintains a negative outlook, warning that the country faces “rising public debt, domestic political, and governance challenges, and uncertain prospects for the conflict in Gaza.”

“The renewed hostilities could involve intense air and ground operations, and could last several months, but we believe fewer reserves will be mobilized than in 2023, reducing the impact on the labor force, the economy and public finances,” Fitch says. “We expect Israel will remain heavily involved in Gaza over the medium term.”

Both Fitch and rating agency Moody’s last year lowered Israel’s credit score and kept a negative outlook, warning that the country could be facing further downgrades.

Fitch assesses that the “weakening of Iranian proxies across the Middle East has strengthened Israel’s position and reduced associated risks to its credit profile…although sporadic flare-ups are possible and tensions with Iran will continue.”

“Israeli military action in Iran in 2024 brought some strategic gains and highlighted an understanding of Iran’s deterrence capabilities,” the rating agency adds.

Commenting on the country’s “fractious domestic politics,” Fitch notes that the “end of the ceasefire in Gaza enabled the reestablishment of the coalition formed after the November 2022 elections, alleviating immediate political risks by allowing the passing of 2025 budget before the March 31 deadline.”

“The next elections are due in October 2026, but the current coalition could fall earlier, with some key issues remaining contentious, including the conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews,” Fitch cautions.

‘Simply disconnected’: Gantz slams Netanyahu for comparing detained aides to hostages

Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, calling for a deal to free the hostages near the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 31, 2025.(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

National Unity chairman Benny Gantz slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that two of his senior aides being held by police in the Qatargate scandal “are being held hostage.”

“While you free up your time for interrogations, 59 hostages are counting the seconds,” Gantz posts on X.

In a video statement, Netanyahu said that when police told him that he needed to give testimony in the case against his aides, he immediately cleared time for it.

“Our hostages, who were kidnapped on your watch — they are not those who worked with Qatar during the war and were detained for one day for interrogation, but people who have been languishing with the enemy in the tunnels for 542 days,” Gantz writes.

“Prime Minister — You are simply disconnected. This people deserve a leader who will clear his entire schedule, call the members of the negotiating team, and give them one task: a deal to return all the kidnapped,” he adds — calling for a comprehensive deal which would bring all of the hostages home.

Israel participating in joint air force drills in Greece with 11 other countries, including Qatar

Hellenic Air Force Rafale jets fly over the Parthenon and the Acropolis during the military parade marking Greece's Independence Day in Athens on March 25, 2025. (Theophile Bloudanis / AFP)

The Israeli Air Force is participating in an annual aerial exercise hosted by Greece, which this year includes the participation of Qatar.

Eleven other countries are joining Greece in its Iniochos exercise this year: the United States, France, India, Israel, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Qatar, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates.

Cyprus is participating with supporting personnel, and Slovakia and Bahrain have sent observers.

The IAF has only sent a Gulfstream G550 spy plane for the drill, according to the Hellenic Air Force. In previous years, the IAF has sent several fighter jet squadrons and refuelers, in addition to spy planes.

The deployment phase of the exercise began on March 24. The aerial drills began today and are scheduled to last through April 11.

The Hellenic Air Force says the drill is meant to simulate a variety of scenarios, including evading attacks, strikes, and search and rescue.

The Israeli military has not commented on the drill.

Columbia University anti-Israel protest group booted from Instagram, again

Anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in support of activist Mahmoud Khalil, outside of Columbia University on March 24, 2025, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/ Getty Images/ AFP)

Columbia University’s coalition of anti-Israel protest groups says it has been banned from Instagram for the second time.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an alliance of dozens of student groups, says on the Telegram messaging app that it was banned “because we dared to speak up for Palestine.”

“This is part of a long and concerted imperial effort to censor and erase the Palestinian people,” the group says.

The group shares a screenshot of a message from Instagram saying its account was disabled because it “doesn’t follow our Community Standards.”

The message says that the group’s account is no longer visible, accessible to its managers, and that all of its information will be permanently deleted.

“You cannot request another review of this decision,” the message says.

The account’s page says it is no longer available.

The account was suspended from Instagram in December 2024, after posting threatening rhetoric, but reinstated days later. At the time, it had more than 40,000 followers.

Unlike the previous ban, the latest suspension appeared to be permanent.

It was not clear what the group posted to cause the ban this week.

Instagram last year also banned Within Our Lifetime, the leading anti-Israel protest group in New York City, which often collaborates with the Columbia activists.

IDF strikes in Syria and Lebanon were a message to regional powers

Screen capture from video purporting to show explosions in the Syrian port city of Latakia, March 27, 2025. (X: Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The IAF airstrikes earlier this month on the T-4 airbase near Palmyra were designed to warn foreign powers against building up a military presence in Syrian air bases, The Times of Israel has learned.

Last week, a Turkish Defense Ministry source told Sky News Arabia that the country is looking into establishing a base in Syria to train the new Syrian army.

A senior IDF official told The War Zone last week that “any significant Turkish military presence, especially in strategic locations like Palmyra, could be perceived as a threat to Israeli security interests.”

In addition, the airstrikes Israel carried out in Beirut over the weekend were meant as a message to Lebanon’s government.

Israel wants the new government headed by Joseph Aoun to understand that it will be held responsible for rocket fire into Israel.

Two rockets were fired at northern Israel from Lebanon last Friday.

Israel also believes that Hezbollah recognizes that it cannot avoid pulling back fully north of the Litani River.

In the meantime, Israel remains in five points inside of Lebanon, and will stay there for the foreseeable future.

Netanyahu says Qatargate probe ‘political hunt,’ 2 detained aides ‘being held hostage’ by police

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in a video message after giving testimony to police in the Qatargate scandal on March 31, 2025. (Screencapture/ Telegram)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releases a video after he is questioned by police in the Qatargate scandal and dismisses the investigations as politically motivated, adding that two of his top aides who were arrested “are being held hostage.”

In the video released on Telegram, Netanyahu says that when police told him that he needed to give testimony in the case, he immediately cleared time for it.

“The police said they needed four hours, but after an hour, they ran out of questions,” Netanyahu says.

The prime minister says he asked police to provide him with evidence. “I said ‘Show me something,’ and they did not have anything,” Netanyahu says.

“I understood that this was a political investigation, but I did not know how much, and that they are holding [Jonatan] Urich and [Elie] Feldstein as hostages,” Netanyahu says, referring to his two aides who were detained this morning and are being held overnight in custody.

Netnayahu’s comments appear remarkably tone deaf comparing the two men held by the Israel Police to the plight of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

“This is a political hunt that is intended to foil the firing of the head of the Shin Bet and to bring down a prime minister from the right,” he claims.

Knesset approves new National Authority to Combat Poverty

A homeless person in the streets of Jerusalem. December 18, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ FLASH90)

Lawmakers vote 39-0 to approve the third and final reading of a law mandating the establishment of a National Authority to Combat Poverty.

Sponsored by lawmakers belonging to the Arab Hadash-Ta’al party, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, and the left wing The Democrats party, the law calls for the foundation of an agency under the aegis of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs tasked with coordinating government-wide efforts in reducing poverty over the long term — including by preventing families on the verge from falling into poverty in the first place.

The new authority will, among other things, formulate a multi-year national plan and annual plans to combat poverty and prevent poverty and and oversee their implementation and a establish National Center for Information and Research in the field of poverty and its management. It will also be empowered to assist families under the poverty line which have not yet received help through traditional welfare channels.

Under the law, the Social Affairs Minister, currently Shas’s Yaakov Margi, will appoint a 29-member council, made up of representatives of the public and various government agencies, to outline the authority’s policies.

The passage of the law is celebrated as a “historic day of good news for the State of Israel” by Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, who says that the new authority will deal with issues ranging from early childhood poverty to employment and welfare and “will lead long-term programs to improve the situation of the weaker sectors” of Israeli society.

“There is a public in the State of Israel today that wakes up this morning and does not ask itself who the new head of the Shin Bet is or who was appointed to this or that position,” he says, referring both to the effects of poverty and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial effort to replace the head of the Shin Bet security agency while it investigates his senior aides.

The law is also welcomed by Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee chairman Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism), who said it would “prevent many families from falling into poverty,” and by Hadash-Ta’al MK and co-sponsor Aida Touma-Suleiman, who described her legislation’s passage as “a significant achievement in the struggle for social justice.”

“While the government is cutting welfare budgets and deepening disparities by funding a destructive war, we have succeeded in passing a law that rightly stands on the side of the poor and the disadvantaged – not as those in need of mercy, but as those with the right to live with dignity,” Touma-Suleiman states.

Some critics have expressed concern that the bill would help circumvent financial sanctions on members of the ultra-Orthodox community who evade the draft.

Netanyahu ends Qatargate testimony; 2 aides being held in custody

(L) Yonatan Urich, adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel Aviv on October 3, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90/ File) and (R) Eli Feldstein arrives for a court hearing at the Tel Aviv District Court on March 11, 2025 (Yehoshua Yosef/ Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ends his testimony to police after two hours of questioning, as part of an ongoing probe into the so-called Qatargate scandal.

Meanwhile, two of Netanyahu’s aides, Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, will remain in custody, after they were detained this morning and interrogated through the day.

Urich and Feldstein will be brought tomorrow to the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, where police will request to extend their detentions, Israel’s Channel 13 reports.

Netanyahu’s open testimony to police investigators regarding the alleged unlawful financial ties between his staffers and Qatar came after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered police to summon him for questioning today.

Officers have questioned Urich and Feldstein in the past regarding the affair and suspect both of contacting a foreign agent, fraud, money laundering, and bribery.

Israel to begin building new $1.4 billion border barrier with Jordan

The border between Israel and Jordan on the Route 90 highway in the Jordan Valley, July 6, 2017. (Hadas Parush/ Flash90/ File)

Israel will begin building a long-promised new fence along the border with Jordan in June, the Times of Israel has learned. The work is expected to take three years.

The fence will run from Hamat Gader at the southern edge of the Golan Heights to the Ramon International Airport north of Eilat. A 30-kilometer (18-mile) portion of the border with Jordan, from Eilat to Ramon Airport, was already upgraded in a similar fashion to Israel’s border barriers with Egypt and the Gaza Strip in the 2010s.

The new fence will cost NIS 5.2 billion ($1.4 billion).

Israel will aim to build the fence as close as possible to the actual border with Jordan, keeping in mind security and topographical considerations. The current fence leaves some 170 square kilometers between it and the border.

It also has plans to develop new towns along the border.

There is an aging chain link fence equipped with sensors along some of the border that Jordan shares with Israel and the West Bank. Other sections are only equipped with barbed wire.

The border’s porousness has made it a site of frequent gun- and drug-running. Officials say that weapons that have made it over the border — likely tens of thousands over the past decade — have fueled a surge in violence in the Arab community in Israel, and have been used by Palestinian terrorists.

Russian authorities move to lift the terrorist designation for the Taliban

Acting Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani speaks during the funeral prayers of Khalil Haqqani, the minister for refugees and repatriation, during his funeral procession in eastern Paktia province, Afghanistan, December 12, 2024. (AP Photo/ Saifullah Zahir, File)

Russia’s Supreme Court says it received a petition from the prosecutor general’s office to lift a ban on Afghanistan’s Taliban, who were outlawed two decades ago as a terrorist group.

The court says in a statement it would hold a hearing on the petition, submitted by Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, on April 17. Russia last year adopted a law stipulating that the official terrorist designation of an organization could be suspended by a court.

The Taliban were put on Russia’s list of terrorist organizations in 2003. Any contact with such groups is punishable under Russian law.

At the same time, Taliban delegations have attended various forums hosted by Moscow. Russian officials have shrugged off questions about the seeming contradiction by emphasizing the need to engage the Taliban to help stabilize Afghanistan, which the group rules.

The former Soviet Union fought a 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended with Moscow withdrawing its troops in 1989. Since then, Moscow has made a diplomatic comeback as a power broker, hosting talks on Afghanistan involving senior representatives of the Taliban and neighboring nations.

There is a deepening divide in the international community on how to deal with the Taliban, who have been in power for three years and face no real opposition. Afghanistan’s rulers have pursued bilateral ties with major regional powers.

In recent years, the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have removed the Taliban from their lists of terror groups.

There are UN sanctions on the Taliban.

S&P 500 falls into correction as Trump tariff fears rattle stock markets

A person works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Global stock markets were a sea of red Monday, with the S&P 500 falling into correction territory, ahead of a wave of US tariffs this week that have fueled recession fears.

Tokyo plunged more than four percent, leading losses across global stock markets as uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcements due on his “Liberation Day” on Wednesday eroded sentiment.

“There is an air of capitulation in financial markets ahead of the April 2nd reciprocal tariff announcement from the US,” says  Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.

The S&P 500 fell into correction territory — a drop of at least 10% from a recent peak. The S&P 500 set a record high just last month as investors still viewed Trump tariff threats as a negotiating tactic.

But as it has become clear Trump intends to go through with imposing massive tariffs on major US trading partners, concerns about their inflationary impact and the possibility they may trigger a recession have mounted.

Adding to fears, Trump said Sunday that tariffs would apply to “all countries,” not just those with the largest trade imbalances with the United States.

Report says Netanyahu using supposed Trump ire as pretext to walk back Shin Bet chief appointment

Former US president Donald Trump hosts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Florida, July 26, 2024. (Prime Minister's Office)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office is said to have falsely told reporters that the reason the premier is rethinking his decision to appoint Eli Sharvit to head the Shin Bet is because of concern in Donald Trump’s inner circle with a a recent op-ed penned by the former Navy chief criticizing the US president’s environmental policy.

Channel 12 says Netanyahu’s office needed to “invent” a reason to walk away from Sharvit, so that it wouldn’t look like it was doing so due to anger from Netanyahu’s family and right-wing base over the former Navy chief’s participation in a 2023 rally against the government’s efforts to overhaul the judiciary.

Sharvit’s appointment was announced at around midnight in the US and by the time it became morning in Washington, Netanyahu’s office had already leaked to reporters that the move was being reconsidered, making it unlikely that Trump officials were aware of the op-ed Sharvit had penned against the president’s environmental policy.

The network suggests that it was Netanyahu’s aides who reached out to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s office, urging him to tweet against Sharvit’s appointment to bolster the premier’s claim that he is rethinking due to opposition from the Trump administration.

IDF reorganizes units responsible for Iran planning

Armed Israeli Air Force planes depart from an unknown location to attack Iran, October 26, 2024. (Israeli Army via AP)

The IDF’s Strategy and Third-Circle Directorate, tasked with the military’s Iran file, is being shuttered today and its units are being returned to the Planning and Force Design Directorate, the military announces.

New IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, upon entering the role earlier this month, ruled that the Iran unit, established only in 2020 by former chief of staff Aviv Kohavi, would be closed.

The Planning Directorate, headed by Vice Adm. Eyal Harel, will now be responsible for the Planning Division; the international cooperation unit, known as the Tevel Division; and the Strategic Division.

The Combat Methods and Innovation Division and Iran Headquarters unit are also being placed under the Planning Directorate for now, though they may be moved to another directorate at a later stage, the IDF says.

In 2020, the IDF established the Iran directorate by removing the Tevel and Strategic divisions from the Planning Directorate, rebranding it as the Planning and Force Design Directorate, and opening a new Iran Headquarters unit. The three units were then placed under the Strategy and Third-Circle Directorate.

The current commander of the Iran directorate, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano announced his intention to resign from the military in December.

Seven protesters detained at anti-government, hostage protests in Jerusalem

Israelis block the Begin Highway in Jerusalem, during a protest calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza, March 31, 2025.(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Police detain seven protesters this evening during several anti-government and pro-hostage deal demonstrations taking place throughout Jerusalem.

Officers arrested the demonstrators in three locations — including outside the Knesset and on the Begin Highway — and are taking the group to the Moriah police station, says a spokesperson for a lawyers’ network that represents detained protesters.

Among those arrested is the cousin of freed hostage Arbel Yehud, who bystanders say was violently detained after cursing a police officer for allowing a counter-protester within the barricades bounding the demonstration.

המשטרה עיכבה באלימות את בן דוד של ארבל יהוד מחוץ לכנסת pic.twitter.com/WTxaDXJFzP

— אורי סלע Uri Sela (@uri_sela) March 31, 2025

Two other protesters were detained while blocking Begin Highway to traffic alongside around a dozen others, holding a large banner that read: “What about the hostages?”

It is presently unclear where and on what grounds the remaining four demonstrators were arrested.

Lindsey Graham tells Netanyahu to rethink Shin Bet chief pick over Trump comments

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) meets with Senator Lindsey Graham in Tel Aviv, February 17, 2025 (Maayan Taof / GPO)

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should rethink his pick for Shin Bet chief and “do better vetting.”

Netanyahu announced this morning that he had picked former Navy chief Eli Sharvit as the next head of the Shin Bet security service.

But the appointment drew fire from Netanyahu’s political allies and now also from Graham, a prominent pro-Israel Republican seen as close to US President Donald Trump.

Sharvit has participated in anti-government rallies and penned an opinion piece criticizing Trump for his climate policies.

“While it is undeniably true that America has no better friend than Israel, the appointment of Eli Sharvit to be the new leader of the Shin Bet is beyond problematic,” Graham posts on X.

“There has never been a better supporter for the State of Israel than President Trump. The statements made by Eli Sharvit about President Trump and his polices will create unnecessary stress at a critical time,” Graham says.

“My advice to my Israeli friends is change course and do better vetting,” he says.

While it is undeniably true that America has no better friend than Israel, the appointment of Eli Sharvit to be the new leader of the Shin Bet is beyond problematic.

There has never been a better supporter for the State of Israel than President Trump. The statements made by Eli… https://t.co/26bgwO9yfO

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 31, 2025

Netanyahu begins testimony to police in Qatargate investigation

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Distrcit Court in Tel Aviv, before the start of his testimony in the trial against him, March 31, 2025.(Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently giving testimony to police investigators regarding the Qatargate scandal, concerning alleged unlawful financial ties between his senior staffers and Qatar.

The premier’s convoy arrived in Jerusalem earlier this afternoon, where he is now being questioned at his office by investigators from the police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit. He left the Tel Aviv District Court for the capital, cutting short his criminal trial on corruption charges.

Netanyahu has not yet been named as a suspect in the ongoing probe surrounding his close circle of staffers, and the decision to question him under caution will be made only after he finishes giving his testimony.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara instructed police to summon the prime minister for questioning earlier today, shortly after officers arrested his aides Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, who are suspected of contacting a foreign agent, fraud, money laundering, and bribery in the case.

נתניהו הגיע למשרד רה"מ לתת עדות פתוחה בפרשת קטרגייט | תיעוד@HGoldich pic.twitter.com/ZiE1afa34g

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 31, 2025

IDF drone crashes in Gaza border community

An IDF drone crashed earlier today in the Gaza border community of Kibbutz Nirim, the military says.

According to the IDF, the drone crashed due to a technical malfunction.

The incident is under further investigation by the military.

UAE confirms sentencing killers of Chabad rabbi to death

Zvi Kogan, a Chabad rabbi who was murdered in the UAE in November 2024. (Screenshot: @DUDIKEPLER via Reuters)

The United Arab Emirates confirms that three people have been sentenced to death for the murder of Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was killed in November in the Gulf country, state news agency WAM reported.

A fourth defendant was sentenced to life in prison in connection with the killing of  Kogan.

Israeli sources in the Gulf state told Hebrew-language media yesterday that the sentences had been handed out to Uzbek nationals.

Kogan, a 28-year-old UAE-based rabbi with Israeli and Moldovan citizenship, went missing in Dubai in November 2024. His body was found a few days later in the Emirati city of Al Ain, which borders Oman.

Police confirm officer being investigated for sexually assaulting protester

The Department of Internal Police Investigations confirms to The Times of Israel that it is investigating a police officer for sexually assaulting a female protester during an anti-government demonstration.

The incident, which occurred a few weeks ago, was caught on film and circulated widely on social media. The officer can be seen grabbing the protester’s chest and pushing her as police clear the road of demonstrators.

טוב, שימו לב. אפרופו הדיון על החשד להטרדה מינית של פעיל "לוחמי כיפור" אייל יפה שוטרת מג"ב. צפיתי בסרטונים. הערוך והלא ערוכים. לא מצליח לגבש דעה מוצקה. סומך על בית המשפט (לא על המשטרה). לעומת זאת, כאן יש לכם סרטון בו נראה בבירור שוטר במשטרת ישראל חופן במרץ את החזה של מפגינה.… pic.twitter.com/Yw33X0l0fC

— Ben Caspit בן כספית (@BenCaspit) March 31, 2025

Channel 12 reports that DIPI investigators are currently trying to locate both the police officer and protester.

The investigation is announced against the backdrop of brewing controversy surrounding sexual harassment at protest events, following the arrest of a prominent anti-government activist on suspicion he pressed up against a female border cop during a Jerusalem demonstration.

Footage of the incident earlier this month, posted to Instagram by right-wing rapper Yoav Eliasi, showed the suspect, Eyal Yaffe, appearing to cling to the officer from behind as she and other cops bent down to disperse demonstrators blocking a road in Jerusalem. The officer and another female colleague pushed him away.

Yaffe denies any wrongdoing, calling the video “completely fabricated” in an interview with Channel 12 last Tuesday.

Myanmar quake death toll rises to 2,065, state media says

Indian and Myanmar rescuers at U Hla Thein Buddhist monastery that collapsed in Friday's earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo)

The death toll in Friday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar has reached 2,065 with more than 3,900 injured and over 270 missing, the country’s state television channel MRTV says.

Democratic Majority for Israel condemns WaPo for ‘antisemitic’ story on right-wing Betar

The nonprofit Democratic Majority for Israel condemns the Washington Post for an article on the right-wing Jewish group Betar.

The front page article focuses on Betar’s support for the deportation of foreign activists by the Trump administration. Betar has backed the deportations on social media and shared lists of activists it wants ejected from the country, but there is no evidence the group has influenced the Trump administration.

Democratic Majority for Israel says “Betar does not speak for us,” but condemns the article for linking Betar to the deportations, despite the lack of evidence.

“We are also taken aback that, at a time of rising antisemitism, the Washington Post would echo antisemitic tropes by publishing a front page story suggesting a small, extremist group is responsible for Donald Trump’s deportation policy,” DMFI director Mark Mellman says in a statement.

“The decision is especially troubling when the Post admits, in the story’s fifth paragraph, that it ‘couldn’t determine whether the group played a role in the Trump administration’s decision to target deportees,” Mellman says.

Centuries-old antisemitic myths claim that cadres of Jews pull the strings of political power from the shadows.

The Department of Homeland Security also denies a connection between Betar and the deportations, telling the Washington Post that immigration enforcement “is not working with or received any tips through the ICE Tip Line from the group identified as Betar.”

The article also notes that, “there’s no direct evidence that Betar influenced the government’s decision to pursue” activists.

Five Israelis acquitted of raping British tourist in Cyprus — lawyer

File - The police van carrying the five Israelis who are accused of raping a British woman, arrives at the Famagusta District Courthouse in Paralimni, Cyprus, on September 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A Cyprus court acquits five Israelis who were accused of raping a British tourist in 2023, an attorney for the defendants tells Hebrew media.

“The court has accepted our claims that the accuser was unreliable, no appeal will be filed by the state,” Attorney Nir Yaslovitzh tells Channel 12.

“It is a brave decision that completely rejected the complainant’s version and completely accepted the clients’ version,” he tells Ynet.

The district court ordered the release of the five, who have been in custody ever since their arrest at the time, although the full court decision was not immediately reported.

The five, all aged 19-20 from the northern Israeli town of Majd al-Krum, were arrested after a 20-year-old British tourist told police she was taken “by force” from the pool area of a hotel during a party and then raped by several men in a room.

They were charged with crimes including rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment and abduction.

“I can’t describe how I feel,” one of the defendants tells Ynet. “I was a year and a half in prison, but now they let me out — I forget it all. I want to go home to Israel, and I am a happy man.”

Trump says he’s considering ways to serve a third term as president

US President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

US President Donald Trump says that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.

“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump says in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club.

He elaborates later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.” Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden.

Still, Trump adds: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go.”

Coalition members urge Netanyahu to rethink appointment of next Shin Bet head

MK Tally Gotliv attends a State Control committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem, on January 6, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Multiple members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition condemn his choice of former Navy commander Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit as the next commander of the Shin Bet security service due to his participation in demonstrations against the government’s judicial overhaul agenda.

“Replacing a person with a Kaplanist worldview with another person with a similar worldview does not solve the problem, but only perpetuates it in a different framework,” argues Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit), referring to anti-government protests held on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv.

“If we want to strengthen the democratic system, we must ensure that those at the head of strategic organizations like the Shin Bet are committed to a concept that respects the will of the people as expressed in democratic election processes,” Eliyahu tweets.

Sharvit is “not suitable to head the Shin Bet,” tweets Likud lawmaker Tally Gotliv, who predicts that the appointment will not be carried out in the end. Gotliv says that there are right-wing figures who “are very worthy and highly qualified” and “are very suitable for the position of head of the Shin Bet.”

“If he protests, he will not be the head of the Shin Bet. Let him continue to protest,” Likud MK Nissim Vaturi tells the Knesset Channel.

Sources say Netanyahu is reconsidering the appointment, and it is growing increasingly unlikely that Sharvit will end up replacing current Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

IDF says it demolished a kilometer-long tunnel in northern Gaza

The IDF says it demolished a kilometer-long tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip amid ongoing operations in the area.

Troops of the 252nd Division have been operating in the Strip’s far north and in the Netzarim Corridor area, which the military says is aimed at expanding Israel’s buffer zone with Gaza.

Amid the division’s operations in north and central Gaza, the IDF says troops have killed over 50 terror operatives.

In the Beit Lahiya area, a Hamas tunnel which was at least a kilometer long was destroyed by the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, the military says.

In a separate operation, the troops found a rocket manufacturing site and several launchers, the IDF added.

Since resuming operations in the Gaza Strip on March 18, the IDF has said it is targeting senior Hamas political officials and mid-level military commanders, along with the terror group’s infrastructure, including weapon depots and rocket launchers. Members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups have also been targeted.

The IDF has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and accuses Hamas of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure.

Gantz slams Netanyahu for pushing ahead with effort to oust Shin Bet chief

Leader of the National Unity Party MK Benny Gantz leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on March 31, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Praising former Navy commander Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit as “an experienced, courageous commander with a calibrated value compass” who is fully capable of leading the Shin Bet, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz laments his nomination to head the security agency as a move “aimed at tarnishing the legal system and security organizations.”

“The more the investigation into ‘Qatargate’ progresses, the greater [Prime Minister Benjamn] Netanyahu’s determination in the fight against the systems that believe in the investigation increases,” he states, speaking at a meeting of his faction in the Knesset.

Gantz insists that the prime minister “should have waited for the High Court hearing, but instead he is behaving irresponsibly and perhaps unfairly with all the candidates and, God forbid, is approaching a constitutional crisis.”

Netanyahu is believed to be reconsidering Sharvit’s appointment

Current Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar has not been formally relieved from his post, with a temporary injunction imposed on his dismissal by the High Court of Justice. While the court froze Bar’s firing, it allowed Netanyahu to interview candidates to replace him.

“This is a serious and unforgivable thing. The order of things must be clear: first the High Court, then a decision on an appointment,” he states.

“This whole process is transparent, dangerous and hypocritical. If Netanyahu claims that the Shin Bet underwent a shakeup on October 7 and that the head of the organization should be replaced, then it is worth reminding him that the entire country was shaken and is still shaking, that trust is shattered, and if it is possible to replace heads of security organizations, then it is time to return the mandate to the public and go to elections.”

Turning to the war in Gaza, Gantz says that it has been months since the agreement on the hostage deal and “Hamas is organizing and rehabilitating itself, and for over a month, no hostages have returned. Hamas is re-recruiting fighters – and our loved ones are deep in the tunnels.”

Calling on Netanyahu to “a comprehensive deal which will bring everyone home,” Gantz says that the current situation is “good for Hamas – and bad for the hostages.” What is clear, he insists, is that “we will continue to fight Hamas until its military capabilities are destroyed, and we will not allow it to control the Gaza Strip. We have been fighting it for over a year and a half, and we will continue to fight for years to come. The hostages do not have the time.”

When National Unity joined the coalition it had been agreed that no legislation unrelated to the war would be advanced and “since we left the government, it seems that the coalition has decided to take the outburst of solidarity among the people and turn it into an outburst of anti-democratic and disconnected legislation – in order to survive in power,” he continues.

“Instead of establishing a state commission of inquiry, they are enacting a law that will grant immunity to Knesset members” and are continuing with the judicial “coup,” he argues.

Netanyahu considering canceling selection of ex-Navy chief Eli Sharvit as new Shin Bet head

Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit arrives on board the Israeli Navy Ship Atzmaut in the Mediterranean Sea, September 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s selection of former Navy commander Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit as the next head of the Shin Bet security service will likely be recalled, an Israeli source tells The Times of Israel.

Netanyahu has not made a final decision on the matter, according to the source.

Sharvit would replace Ronen Bar, who was formally fired by the cabinet earlier this month but who remains in his post.

The Prime Minister’s Office refuses to comment.

Earlier reports said Netanyahu is weighing choosing an alternative candidate due to Sharvit’s reported participation in protests against the government’s contentious judicial overhaul plans and a recent op-ed blasting US President Donald Trump for his climate policies, amid pressure from coalition members.

Qatargate probe: Police question journalist under caution on suspicion of contact with foreign agent

Police are investigating a journalist as a suspect in the ongoing so-called Qatargate probe concerning illicit ties between the Gulf state and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior aides.

The unnamed journalist, who is reported to be close to former Netanyahu spokesman Eli Feldstein, was reportedly questioned earlier today under caution on suspicion of contact with a foreign agent. The police did not issue a statement on the questioning of the journalist.

A police source tells Haaretz that law enforcement obtained the necessary clearance from the State Attorney’s Office to question the suspect, as required for interrogating reporters.

The source adds that an additional reporter who “echoed Qatar’s messages on Feldstein’s behalf” will be summoned for questioning in the coming days.

State prosecutors indicted Feldstein in November on the grave charge of harming state security by leaking classified information to the press.

Feldstein and Netanyahu aide Jonatan Urich are currently in police detention after being arrested earlier this morning, while the premier himself is slated to give testimony later today to investigators from the police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit at his Jerusalem office.

Palestinian media reports 3 dead in airstrike on outskirts of Khan Younis

Palestinians salvage items from the rubble of a house that was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 31, 2025 (Eyad BABA / AFP)

Palestinian media reports three dead in an Israeli airstrike in the Abasan area, on the outskirts of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF on the strike.

Liberman: PM’s ‘wave of spin’ amid Qatargate, firing of Bar is designed to distract Israelis

Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on February 3, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The “wave of spin” surrounding the so-called Qatargate scandal and the replacement of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar “is designed to obscure the true priorities of the State of Israel,” Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman tells reporters ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

Calling the latest developments in the scandal “a media earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter scale,” Liberman says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spin is meant to distract Israelis from three main national priorities: the return of the hostages, the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into October 7 and the passage of a universal conscription law.

“We must not forget what the priorities are,” Liberman says. “These three issues are critical to the security of the state and our civil resilience. And unfortunately, they are being pushed out of the public discourse. I call on my friends in the opposition not to forget the correct priorities. The Knesset is going into recess, but these three issues are still on the table – unresolved and unanswered. I hope that members of the coalition will also come to their senses and understand: Beyond the spins and headlines, there is a complex reality.”

Responding to Likud, Lapid says PM’s party isn’t denying aides received money from Doha

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on March 31, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Responding to the Likud’s statement accusing the Shin Bet and Attorney General’s Office of investing “fabricated investigations” against the prime minister and his associates, Opposition leader Yair Lapid notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party did not deny that those close to the premier had received money from Doha.

“The sentence that does not appear in the Likud statement and that should be noted: ‘No one from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office received money from Qatar,'” Lapid declares in the Knesset plenum.

“The reason this sentence does not appear there is that people in Benjamin Netanyahu’s office received money from a hostile country during wartime. He is being investigated for this now, and they should all be investigated for this,” Lapid states.

“Of all the criminal security scandals in the Prime Minister’s Office, this is not only the most serious, it is also the most disturbing and dangerous.”

Netanyahu’s Likud claims arrest of PM’s aide over Qatargate is ‘fabricated probe’ by AG and Shin Bet

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives for a hearing in his corruption trial at the Tel Aviv District Court, March 31, 2025 (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Following the arrest of two of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top aides and with the premier reportedly en route to testify to police, his ruling Likud party rails against “fabricated investigations,” alleging without evidence that the Attorney General’s Office and Shin Bet security service are working to “carry out a coup d’état through arrest warrants.”

The Shin Bet and police are currently investigating members of Netanyahu’s inner circle over alleged ties between them and Doha as part of the so-called Qatargate probe.

“The thuggish arrest of Yonatan Urich is a new low in the political hunt to overthrow a right-wing prime minister and to prevent the dismissal of the failed Shin Bet chief,” Likud says in a statement, referring to one of the aides arrested this morning.

“After the fabricated investigations initiated by the Attorney General’s Office and the Shin Bet chief into the falsification of minutes in the Prime Minister’s Office and the blackmailing of an officer in the Prime Minister’s Military Secretariat blew up in their faces, they invented another new fabricated affair about a Qatari, which will also explode very quickly.”

After a court lifted a gag order on the matter last November, it was reported that Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, was suspected of forgery and fraud over the illegal altering of records in the Prime Minister’s Office. He was also suspected of blackmailing an IDF officer to allegedly alter minutes from wartime meetings by threatening him with a sensitive video recording.

“The attempt to terrorize Jonatan Urich in order to extract from him false testimony against the prime minister through blackmail with threats and a false arrest is another criminal act of a frightened legal clique,” the Likud statement continues — accusing the Attorney General’s Office and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar of “conducting futile investigations in the dark under a gag order, in an attempt to prevent the dismissal of the Shin Bet chief, using Urich and others as cannon fodder.”

“Their goal is to carry out a coup d’état through arrest warrants. This is not an investigation. This is not law enforcement. This is an attempted assassination of democracy and an attempt to replace the will of the people with the rule of bureaucrats,” the party adds.

Earlier this month, the cabinet voted to fire Bar in a move that was frozen by the High Court. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who the government is also working to dismiss, warned that the ouster faced legal difficulties, in part due to the ongoing Shin Bet probe of Qatargate.

Democrats head Golan calls for Netanyahu to be investigated, after 2 of PM’s aides arrested over Qatargate

The Democrats party leader Yair Golan speaks to the media outside the Knesset, March 24, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Following the arrest of two of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top aides in connection with the so-called Qatargate scandal, The Democrats chairman Yair Golan calls for an investigation of the prime minister himself.

The Shin Bet is currently investigating members of Netanyahu’s circle over alleged ties between them and Doha. This morning, police arrested Netanyahu aides Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein. Netanyahu is en route to testify to police as part of the investigation, but is not a suspect at this stage.

“What we see today is a destabilized prime minister who is trying to sabotage and disrupt the investigation into the Qatari money affair,” Golan tweets.

“Netanyahu not only failed on security, he must be investigated on the serious suspicion that he sold security for money — the same money that financed Hamas and the October massacre that reached the top of his office and perhaps even him. Netanyahu will do everything to prevent the truth from coming to light, so the attorney general did the right thing by immediately ordering Netanyahu to be summoned for questioning.”

French far-right leader Le Pen gets 4 year prison term, 5 year ban on running for office in embezzlement case

President of the parliamentary group of the French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, Marine Le Pen (R), walks followed by co-defendant French member of European Parliament Catherine Griset (L) as they exit a courtroom while leaving the Tribunal de Paris courthouse during the reading of sentencing in their trial verdict on suspicion of embezzlement of European public funds, in Paris, on March 31, 2025 (ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)

A French court sentences far-right leader Marine Le Pen to a five-year ban on running for office with immediate effect, throwing into doubt her bid to stand for president in 2027.

The judge also gives her a four-year prison term, which is to be served with an electronic tag, drawing immediate criticism from her party and other far-right leaders.

Including 56-year-old Le Pen, nine figures from her National Rally (RN) party are convicted over a scheme where they took advantage of European Parliament expenses to employ assistants who were actually working for the party.

Twelve assistants are also convicted of concealing a crime, with the court estimating the scheme was worth 2.9 million euros.

All the RN officials including Le Pen are banned from running for office, with the judge specifying that the sanction should come into force with immediate effect even if an appeal is lodged.

Three-time presidential candidate Le Pen, who sees her best-ever chance of winning the French presidency in 2027, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

She left the courtroom after her conviction and sanction were announced but before the judge announced rulings on a potential prison sentence and fine.

The leader of her National Rally (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, says on X that she was the victim of an “unjust” verdict and added that French democracy was being “executed.”

Knesset passes law providing for extensive rehabilitation of Gaza border communities

Israeli soldiers take position at the southern Israeli town of Ofakim on Oct.8, 2023 (AP Photo/Ilan Assayag)

Lawmakers vote 37-0 to approve the third and final reading of law providing for the extensive rehabilitation of all communities within seven kilometers (4.3 miles) of the Gaza border, defining the region as an area of special focus for activities aimed at the “rapid” return to normal life for the localities affected by the October 7, 2023 attack.

According to the law, over the next seven years, the government will be obligated “to act for the extensive rehabilitation of the [region] in an accelerated manner” and legally establish the role and authority of the Takuma Directorate — a government body established after October 7 and tasked with the region’s rehabilitation.

According to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s spokesman, the directorate’s powers are being expanded “beyond reconstruction” and will now encompass “extensive regional development,” with local authorities set to receive NIS 5 billion ($1.3 billion) for economic, infrastructure and social development — including NIS 1 billion for cities outside the immediate border area, like Ofakim, Netivot and Ashkelon which were affected by the attack.

“From the very first moment I took office as the minister responsible for the Takuma Directorate, I set the promotion of the Reconstruction Law and its approval in the Knesset as a top priority,” says New Hope MK Ze’ev Elkin, who serves as a minister in the Finance Ministry.

“It was clear to me that the delay in promoting the law for many months due to the various disputes in the government prevented the release of critical budgets for the development of the Reconstruction Area, and we must move forward immediately,” he says.

“Along with the reconstruction comes development. The true picture of our victory is not only in restoring the Tekuma Region to its former glory, but also in its development, prosperity and doubling in the number of residents and in regional growth engines,” says Smotrich.

“We look ahead, out of national responsibility, to ensure a strong, prosperous and secure future for the residents of the south,” he continues, calling the passage of the law “the righting of a historical injustice.”

Knesset passes bill to revoke benefits for those convicted of serious terror, treason offenses

A mainly empty plenum session at the assembly hall of the Knesset, in Jerusalem on March 31, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

In a final legislative blitz prior to end of the current Knesset winter session, lawmakers vote 38-1 to pass a law permanently revoking national insurance benefits from people convicted of a “serious terrorist offense,” murder or attempted murder for terrorist purposes, or who engaged in treason or serious espionage and were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

“It’s over – terrorists will not see another shekel from the State of Israel,” says the bill’s sponsor, Likud MK Ofir Katz.

“Today we are correcting a huge absurdity. This law comes to put an end to one of the moral failures in the State of Israel. Terrorists receive money from us – from the State of Israel,” Katz declares.

“These people made a conscious decision to murder Jews. They harmed the State of Israel. When you are an enemy – you will not receive a budget from the country that you are trying to destroy. In what other country would you hear such a thing? This is outrageous, it is absurd, and today it ends.”

Upon the deaths of those subject to the law, their dependents would be ineligible for survivor benefits. However, exceptions for child benefits would be made for children receiving child allowances under certain circumstances.

Last November, the Knesset passed two other bills cutting national insurance benefits for terror convicts.

The first law cut child allowances paid to parents of minors imprisoned for security or stone-throwing offenses while the second revoked National Insurance Institute benefits paid to anyone living abroad who “has been convicted of an offense pronounced by the court to be an act of terrorism.”

MKs vote 16-0 to pass 1st reading of bill to establish annual day in honor of war wounded

IDF troops evacuate soldiers wounded by a Hezbollah missile attack against the the Ramim Ridge area, near the border with Lebanon, September 19, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

Lawmakers vote 16-0 to approve the first reading of a bill establishing an annual day of appreciation for those wounded in Israeli military operations and wars.

The bill states that the annual commemoration, which will be held on the 17th of the Hebrew month of Kislev, will be marked with a special Knesset debate and a ceremony held by the Defense Ministry with the participation of the president and representatives of the IDF, police and prison service — as well as by educational programs, at the discretion of the education minister.

There are 120 lawmakers who hold seats in the Knesset.

PM reportedly en route to testify to police on Qatargate after 2 of his aides arrested

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to the courtroom at the Tel Aviv District Court to testify in his criminal trial, March 17, 2025. (Tomer Appelbaum/POOL)

In a dramatic development, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly on his way to testify to the officers from the police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit in the framework of the investigation into the so-called Qatargate scandal regarding the alleged unlawful ties between his close aides and Doha.

Netanyahu was giving testimony in the Tel Aviv District Court during a hearing of his criminal trial on corruption charges, but the hearing was cut short, seemingly to enable the prime minister to give testimony to the police.

Earlier today, it emerged that the attorney general had instructed the police to swiftly summon Netanyahu to give testimony in the Qatargate investigation, although not as a suspect.

According to reports, Netanyahu will testify at his office in Jerusalem. A spokesperson for the prime minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During the course of the morning in court, Netanyahu’s attorney Amit Hadad left the court to attend to one of his other clients, Yonatan Urich, one of two of the prime minister’s aides, along with Eli Feldstein, who are suspects in the Qatargate scandal and who were arrested by police earlier today.

MKs pass 1st reading of bill obligating every government to formulate national security strategy

Lawmakers vote 34-0 to approve the first reading of a bill obligating every Israeli government to formulate a national security strategy.

The bipartisan bill — sponsored by former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) — would require the National Security Council to formulate a national security strategy in consultation with the ministries of foreign affairs and defense, intelligence agencies and other relevant government bureaus.

Edelstein currently serves as the chairman of the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Eisenkot is a former IDF chief of staff who previously served as a non-voting observer in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s now-defunct war cabinet.

In its explanatory notes, Edelstein and Eisenkot assert that a lack of an explicit security doctrine in favor of unwritten rules has damaged the country’s preparations and readiness in the face of threats, paving the way for the events of October 7, 2023.

The proposed strategy document — which would have to be approved by the government within 150 days of its formulation and be updated regularly — would identify Israel’s national security challenges and establish its strategic goals, and provide a “critical assessment” of the country’s existing national security strategy.

PM said to be reconsidering Sharvit as next Shin Bet chief amid pressure from political allies

Then-commander of the Israeli Navy, Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit speaks at a graduating ceremony for new Israel Navy Officers in Haifa Naval Base, Northern Israel on September 4, 2019. (Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently reconsidering the appointment of former Navy commander Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit as the next head of the Shin Bet security service, Hebrew-language media reports.

In announcing his choice of Sharvit, Netanyahu’s office said that the prime minister was “convinced that Sharvit is the right person to lead the Shin Bet on a path that will continue the organization’s glorious tradition.”

However, Netanyahu is now said to be weighing choosing another candidate due to Sharvit’s reported participation in protests against the government’s contentious judicial overhaul plans amid pressure from coalition members.

Per the Israel Hayom daily, Netanyahu was initially aware of but discounted Sharvit’s political views.

However, following his announcement, objections began to be raised within his circle, leading the prime minister to begin rethinking the appointment.

According to a report by Ynet in March 2023, Sharvit joined a protest on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street alongside other former military officers. He did not issue a call to refuse to show up for duty, as other reservists did, but only expressed concern for the planned legislation, according to the report.

Lapid: PM’s naming of next Shin Bet chief is designed to halt Qatargate probes

Opposition Leader and head of the Yesh Atid party MK Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on March 24, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid charges that while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s choice of former Navy commander Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit is an “outstanding officer,” the decision has been made in an attempt to halt criminal probes into the premier’s aides.

“The discussion is not about Major General Sharvit, but about the hasty, panicked, irresponsible procedure designed for only one thing: to stop the Qatargate investigation,” Lapid tells reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

The Shin Bet is currently investigating members of Netanyahu’s circle over alleged ties between them and Doha. This morning, police arrested top Netanyahu aides Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein in connection with the case.

“The announcement of the selection of the new Shin Bet chief is being published on the morning that two of Netanyahu’s closest confidants were arrested. This is an open attempt by Netanyahu to distract us from what is important. This attempt will not succeed,” Lapid states, calling on Sharvit to announce that he will not take office until the investigation is concluded and “as long as the court order blocking the appointment is in effect.”

Current Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar has not been formally relieved from his post, with a temporary injunction imposed on his dismissal by the High Court of Justice. While the court froze Bar’s firing, it allowed Netanyahu to interview candidates to replace him.

While Sharvit is “an outstanding officer” and “a decent man,” Lapid says that “his appointment cannot disrupt a security and criminal investigation dealing with the infiltration of Netanyahu’s office by a hostile state, and with payments of large sums of money to the people closest to Netanyahu.”

Despite the vote of confidence from the premier, Sharvit previously participated in protests against his government’s judicial overhaul plans.

Report: AG instructs police to summon Netanyahu to testify in Qatargate investigation

Left: Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara at her welcome ceremony in Jerusalem on February 8, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); Right: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, on January 11, 2023. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara instructs the police to summon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give testimony in the ongoing investigation into his aides over their allegedly unlawful ties to Qatar, Channel 12 reports.

Netanyahu’s testimony would be given as someone with knowledge of the affair and not as a suspect at this stage.

According to Channel 12’s report, a decision as to whether to subsequently question Netanyahu under caution, meaning as a suspect in the case, would be taken after giving open testimony first.

The Attorney General’s Office does not immediately respond to a request for the report’s verification.

Senior Hamas leader: ‘Anyone who can bear arms’ worldwide must fight Trump’s Gaza plan

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. (AP/Hatem Moussa)

A senior Hamas leader calls on supporters of the terror group worldwide to pick up weapons and fight US President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate more than two million Gazans to neighboring countries such as Egypt and Jordan.

“In the face of this sinister plan — one that combines massacres with starvation — anyone who can bear arms, anywhere in the world, must take action,” Sami Abu Zuhri says in a statement. “Do not withhold an explosive, a bullet, a knife or a stone. Let everyone break their silence.”

Last month, Trump announced his plan for the United States to take over Gaza and relocate the entire population of two million people before leading reconstruction efforts to turn the war-torn Strip into a Mediterranean resort.

He has since softened the half-baked proposal, clarifying that no Palestinians will be forcibly evicted and denying that the relocation plan would amount to ethnic cleansing.

According to the Axios news site, the US has not been actively working to advance Trump’s plan, with Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff focused instead on restoring the ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.

Israel has tried to fill the vacuum, holding talks with the conflict-plagued East African countries of Somalia and South Sudan, along with Indonesia and other countries, about them taking in Palestinians, Axios reported, citing two Israeli officials and a former US official. Those talks have yet to bear fruit.

Hostage’s mom Einav Zangauker passes letter to PM during his trial: ‘You systematically refuse to meet with me’

Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, stands outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, after she was banned from entering to the building, on January 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage in Gaza, brings a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a break in a hearing at his ongoing criminal trial.

Zangauker says she is writing to the premier because “you consistently and systematically refuse to meet with me in private, despite numerous official requests, as is customary in your dealings with all the families of the hostages.”

“The deal being negotiated is a selektzia deal,” she says, using a Holocaust-era term used to describe Germany’s distinction between Jews deemed fit for hard labor and those sent straight to the slaughter.

“I ask you to take care of getting Matan out of hell, and I demand that the prime minister brings a comprehensive agreement that will provide a solution for all 59 hostages, living and dead, and to ensure an end to the war, because we know that this is the only condition that Hamas is not willing to bend on,” she says.

“This is an unnecessary war, no more hostages must pay for this with their lives. If my Matan managed to survive to this day, I demand that the prime minister bring him and everyone else home. And not risk a single hair on a soldier’s head in an attempt to rescue hostages,” she says.

The letter is taken by Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad.

Matan Zangauker, who was abducted from his Nir Oz home on October 7, 2023, as part of Hamas’s attack on Israel, has been held captive in Gaza for 542 days. His mother is a prominent leader in the protests to secure the release of all those held by terrorists in Gaza.

עינב צנגאוקר מסרה לנתניהו מכתב בזמן עדותו – רגע אחרי שסנגורו של רה"מ ביקש הפסקה | תיעוד @AnnaPines_ @almog_tamar pic.twitter.com/8sJxRQ2iFk

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 31, 2025

French far-right leader Le Pen found guilty in embezzlement trial

President of the parliamentary group of the French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, Marine Le Pen arrives at the Paris courthouse for her trial verdict on suspicion of embezzlement of European public funds, in Paris, on March 31, 2025 (Alain JOCARD / AFP)

A French court convicts far-right leader Marine Le Pen on charges of embezzlement of public funds over a fake jobs scam at the EU parliament, a ruling which could derail her 2027 presidential hopes.

The judge has yet to issue a sentence, after prosecutors last year asked the court to impose against Le Pen a five-year jail term and a five-year ban on holding public office.

Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.

Plane carrying students to Poland from 5 Israeli high schools makes emergency landing in Turkey

People from all over the world participating in the March of the Living at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp site in Poland, as Israel marks annual Holocaust Memorial Day, on April 24, 2017. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

The Education Ministry says a plane carrying 12th-grade students from five schools to Poland was forced to make an emergency landing in Turkey due to engine issues.

According to reports, the students were taken to a secure area in the airport in Antalya as they await a replacement aircraft.

The Education Ministry says all the teens are safe and well.

It is expected that the flight will leave for Krakow this afternoon.

The students are on an organized trip to visit concentration camps and learn about the Holocaust. The Poland trips are seen as a learning experience about the Holocaust, the subsequent necessity of the Jewish state, and the values of volunteerism and social cohesion.

Shin Bet says it foiled West Bank shooting, bombing attack directed by Hamas from Turkey

Materials said to be for a bombing and shooting attack in the West Bank in an image released on March 31, 2025 (Shin Bet)

An attempt by Hamas to carry out a shooting and bombing attack in the West Bank, directed by members of the terror group in Turkey, was recently foiled, the Shin Bet announces.

In January and February, six members of the Hamas cell, residents of Nablus, were detained by Israeli forces. The six were interrogated by the Shin Bet and Israel Police on suspicion that they were planning attacks.

The investigation found that the cell was being directed and funded by Hamas in Turkey. The cell received tens of thousands of dollars to carry out attacks on security forces and other targets in the West Bank, the Shin Bet and police say in a joint statement.

An assault rifle and $40,000 in cash were seized during the arrest of three of the suspects on January 29, and another $20,000 was captured during the arrest of another suspect that day, the statement says.

The other suspects were arrested on later dates.

Following the interrogation of one of the suspects, the Shin Bet says troops located a bomb that had been planted by the cell near the Gitai Avisar Junction in the West Bank. The explosive device was successfully neutralized.

The suspects aren’t named by police and the Shin Bet says indictments are expected to be filed against the six in the coming weeks.

Top Netanyahu aides Urich and Feldstein arrested in ‘Qatargate’ investigation

(L) Yonatan Urich, adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel Aviv on October 3, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90/ File) and (R) Eli Feldstein arrives for a court hearing at the Tel Aviv District Court on March 11, 2025 (Yehoshua Yosef/ Flash90)

The police announce the arrest of two suspects in the so-called Qatargate scandal.

They are named by Hebrew-language media named as Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, top aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a very brief statement to the press, the police state that the two suspects were arrested earlier today within the framework of the investigation into suspected unlawful ties between senior aides to Netanyahu and Qatar.

The investigation is being conducted by the police’s Lahav 433 national crimes unit and the Shin Bet.

No further details are made available for publication due to a court-imposed gag order on the case.

The investigation was launched following revelations that Netanyahu’s former spokesman Feldstein — who has been charged with harming national security in a case involving the theft and leaking of classified IDF documents — worked for Qatar via an international firm contracted by Doha to feed Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories, while he was employed in the PMO.

Last November, it was also reported that top Netanyahu aides Urich and Yisrael Einhorn did public relations work for Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup there.

Police arrest man accused of spraying swastikas onto Israeli flag logo on ambulances in Haredi neighborhood

A swastika spray-painted onto a Magen David Adom emergency service vehicle in Jerusalem on March 9, 2025. (Magen David Adom)

Police say they arrested a resident of Bnei Brak yesterday, suspected of spray-painting swastikas over Israeli flags depicted on two Magen David Adom emergency service vans earlier this month.

Officers arrested the suspect, a Haredi man in his 20s, in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood, as he was participating in a procession to mark the new Hebrew month. He had been holding a sign which read: “We have no part or inheritance in the Zionist state.”

The suspect is thought to have painted swastikas over the Israeli flag logo on MDA vehicles while paramedics tended to a patient in Mea Shearim on March 9, at around 3 a.m.

According to a spokesman for law enforcement, the suspect had already been identified by police investigators and the court had previously issued a warrant for his arrest.

The young man was detained for questioning on suspicion of intentionally causing property damage, committing offenses motivated by racism or hostility towards the public, and interfering with a police officer, the police spokesperson says.

The suspect was detained after his interrogation and police intend to request to extend his detention during a hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court later this morning.

IDF calls on Gazans in Rafah to evacuate: ‘Returning to fight with great force in these areas’

The IDF issues an evacuation warning for Palestinians in the entire Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip, saying the military is “returning to fight with great force to eliminate the capabilities of terror organizations in these areas.”

In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, publishes a map of the area that is to be evacuated, telling Gazans to move to the al-Mawasi area on the southern Strip’s coast.

It marks the largest evacuation order issued by the IDF since the resumption of the offensive against Hamas earlier this month.

It covers a large area between Rafah and Khan Younis, where the IDF has so far not operated in with ground forces.

#عاجل ‼️ إلى جميع سكان قطاع غزة المتواجدين في مناطق رفح، بلديات النصر والشوكة والمناطق الاقليمية الشرقية والغربية وأحياء السلام، المنارة وقيزان النجار

⭕️يعود جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي للقتال بقوة شديدة للقضاء على قدرات المنظمات الإرهابية في هذه المناطق.

⭕️من أجل سلامتكم عليكم… pic.twitter.com/Ps1JvDoJRY

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) March 31, 2025

On Saturday, the military said it had expanded its operations in south Gaza, with troops pushing into Rafah as part of efforts to expand a buffer zone along the borders of the Strip and to eliminate terror group infrastructure.

Responding to Trump’s threats, Iran’s Khamenei warns of ‘strong’ response if US attacks

A handout picture provided by the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office on March 21, 2025, shows him addressing the crowd during his annual Nowruz speech, in Tehran, Iran. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the US will receive a “strong” blow if it acts on US President Donald Trump’s threat of “bombing” if Tehran does not reach a new nuclear deal with Washington.

“They threaten to do mischief,” Khamenei says during a live speech, referring to threats from the United States, adding that “if it is carried out, they will definitely receive a strong counterattack.”

Trump threatened Iran yesterday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.

In Trump’s first remarks since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washington last week, the US president said that US and Iranian officials were talking, but did not elaborate.

“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC news. “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

Trump’s language represented a sharpening of his comment a few days earlier that if Tehran refused to negotiate a new nuclear agreement, “bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran.”

It was not clear whether Trump was threatening bombing by US planes alone or perhaps in an operation coordinated with Israel.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Opposition leaders: PM’s Shin Bet pick an ‘excellent commander,’ but must prove loyalty to state rather than PM

Commander of the Israeli Navy, Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit, speaks at a graduating ceremony for new Israel Navy Officers in Haifa Naval Base on March 6, 2019 (Meir Vaknin/Flash90)

Opposition leaders respond to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s naming of Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit as the next Shin Bet chief, saying that while the former Navy chief was an excellent commander, he will need to prove he is loyal to the law and the state rather than to the premier.

Sharvit was named earlier this morning as Netanyahu’s pick to replace Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, whom the cabinet voted to formally dismiss earlier this month. Bar remains in his post, with a temporary injunction imposed on his dismissal by the High Court of Justice.

National Unity leader Benny Gantz says that Sharvit has “values and experience” but that he should not be appointed to head the Shin Bet until the High Court has ruled on Netanyahu’s firing of incumbent Bar.

“Sharvit is an excellent man and commander, with values ​​and experience. An independent man who has always been guided by the interests of Israel’s security, and I have no doubt that this will continue to be the case in the future,” Gantz says in a statement.

“However, what is clear is that the prime minister decided this morning to continue his campaign against the judicial system and lead the State of Israel toward a dangerous constitutional crisis. The appointment of the head of the Shin Bet must be made only after a High Court decision,” Gantz says.

Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman tells the Kan public broadcaster that while Sharvit was an “excellent” commander, his appointment “raises many questions.”

“I know Sharvit, he was an excellent navy commander,” Liberman says. “[However] He has no intelligence background, he has no training in that, no relevant knowledge, so the considerations that led to his appointment raise many questions.”

The Democrats chief Yair Golan says Sharvit will need to prove he is loyal to the law and the state, rather than to Netanyahu.

“Sharvit is a worthy and decent man. His appointment as head of the Shin Bet will be subject to approval by the High Court of Justice,” Golan writes on X.

“However, his appointment by a prime minister who has launched an attack on the rule of law and democratic Israel poses a huge challenge to him,” Golan writes.

“This is not a normal time period, and this is not a normal appointment. Every Shin Bet chief faces pressure, but they have never been required to face a prime minister who is determined to dismantle the institutions of democracy to escape the threat of justice,” Golan says.

“The public expects [the Shin Bet chief] to be fully independent, to continue investigating the Qatari money, including investigating the prime minister’s own involvement, and to stand firmly on the side of democracy, the law, and the truth,” Golan writes, referring to the ongoing Shin Bet probe of alleged ties between Netanyahu’s top aides and Qatar, which backs Hamas.

“It’s a difficult, almost impossible task, but it’s his duty. He will have to prove that his loyalty is solely to the law and the state, and not to whoever appointed him,” Golan concludes.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, whom the government is also trying to fire, has warned that the ousting of Bar faces legal difficulties, in part due to the ongoing Shin Bet probe of alleged ties between the Prime Minister’s Office and Qatar.

Bar vowed to stay on as Shin Bet chief until the return of all hostages from Gaza and the formation of a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas onslaught, which the government opposes.

The court has scheduled an April 8 hearing on the petitions against his firing.

PM’s pick for Shin Bet chief reportedly protested against judicial overhaul, doesn’t know Arabic

Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit arrives on board the Israeli Navy Ship Atzmaut in the Mediterranean Sea, September 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit, who has been named by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the next Shin Bet chief, previously participated in protests against the government’s judicial overhaul plans.

According to a report by Ynet in March 2023, Sharvit joined a protest on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street, alongside other former military officers. He did not issue a call to refuse to show up for duty, like other reservists did, but only expressed concern for the planned legislation, according to the report.

Sharvit also reportedly does not know Arabic and has never been involved in Palestinian affairs. Though this would not be unprecedented for a Shin Bet head.

He began his service in the Navy in 1985, becoming an officer. Over the years, he commanded several missile boats and held other prominent roles.

In 2006, Sharvit was the deputy commander of the Navy’s missile boat fleet, and amid the Second Lebanon War that year he commanded one of its squadrons.

Between 2007 and 2009, he served as a department head in the IDF Operations Directorate, the only role that he held outside of the Navy.

Sharvit then returned to command the missile boat fleet until 2011. Afterward, he was appointed to command the Haifa naval base, where he served until 2014.

Between 2014 and 2016, he served as chief of staff in the Navy before being promoted to the rank of vice admiral and becoming the commander of the Navy.

Sharvit commanded the Navy until 2021, including amid the May 2021 conflict with Hamas.

Since being released from the military, he has served in several top roles in civilian companies.

Earlier this month, Sharvit was appointed by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir to be a member of a panel of former officers who are to examine and evaluate the military’s October 7 investigations.

Sharvit would not be the first Shin Bet head who comes from outside the organization and is unfamiliar with its workings, Arabic and Palestinian affairs. In 1996, Ami Ayalon, also a former commander of the Navy, was appointed to head the Shin Bet following the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

French court to rule in trial of far-right leader Le Pen; verdict could scupper her chances of running in next election

President of Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen attends a session of questions to the Government at the French National Assembly, French Parliament lower house, in Paris on March 4, 2025. (Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

A French court will rule in the trial of far-right leader Marine Le Pen over an alleged fake jobs scam at the EU parliament, a verdict which could ruin her chances of standing in the next presidential elections in two years.

Three-time presidential candidate Le Pen, who scents her best-ever chance to win the French presidency in 2027, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

But prosecutors in the case, which also targets other top National Rally (RN) officials, have asked the court to issue Le Pen with both a jail sentence and a ban from holding public office.

The latter should come into force immediately even if she appeals, according to the demand made by prosecutors last year, essentially disqualifying her from the presidential polls in two years if the court follows the request.

With her RN emerging as the single largest party in parliament after the 2024 legislative elections, Le Pen believes she has the momentum to finally take the Elysee in 2027 on the back of public concern over immigration and the cost of living.

Polls currently predict she would easily top the first round of voting and make the run-off.

If successful in 2027, she could join a growing number of hard- and far-right leaders around the world ranging from Giorgia Meloni in Italy to Hungary’s Viktor Orban.

Should she be condemned, waiting in the wings is her protege and RN party leader Jordan Bardella, 29, who is not under investigation in the case.

Bardella last week became the first RN party leader to visit Israel, invited by the government to address a conference on the fight against antisemitism in a confab boycotted by Jewish leaders and denounced by opponents as hypocrisy.

France’s National Rally leader Jordan Bardella (right) and Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli at the international conference on combating antisemitism in Jerusalem, March 27, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Houthis report fresh suspected US airstrikes around Sanaa; at least one killed

Smoke rises from a location reportedly struck by US airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo)

The Iranian-backed Houthis say at least one person was killed in suspected US airstrikes struck around Yemen’s rebel-held capital overnight.

The full extent of the damage and possible casualties isn’t immediately clear.

The strikes around Sanaa, Yemen’s capital held by the Houthis since 2014, also wounded four others, the rebels say.

Their al-Masirah satellite news channel airs footage of broken glass littering homes after the concussive blast of the bombs, but continues not to show the targets of the attacks — suggesting the sites had a military or intelligence function.

Netanyahu decides to appoint former Navy commander Eli Sharvit to be next head of Shin Bet

Commander of the Israeli Navy, Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit, speaks at a graduating ceremony for new Israel Navy Officers in Haifa Naval Base on March 6, 2019 (Meir Vaknin/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides to appoint former Navy commander Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit as the next head of the Shin Bet, the Prime Minister’s Office announces.

Sharvit is named to replace Ronen Bar, whom the cabinet voted to formally dismiss earlier this month.

Bar remains in his post, with a temporary injunction imposed on his dismissal by the High Court of Justice. While the court froze Bar’s firing, it allowed Netanyahu to interview candidates to replace him.

Netanyahu interviewed seven candidates, says the PMO. Sharvit’s candidacy will now be reviewed by the vetting committee before the decision reaches the cabinet.

The PMO statement about Sharvit’s appointment notes that he led the design of naval capabilities to defend Israel’s territorial waters, and that he oversaw complex operations against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

“The Shin Bet is an organization with much credit to its name,” says the PMO, “which underwent a severe trauma on October 7.”

Netanyahu, says his office, “is convinced that Sharvit is the right person to lead the Shin Bet on a path that will continue the organization’s glorious tradition.”

Earlier this year Sharvit, as CEO of Elgry Eco Energy, penned an op-ed blasting US President Donald Trump for his climate policies and for promoting fossil fuels. “Trump’s shortsightedness sends a shocking message to the world of disregard for scientific reality, the well-being of humanity, and responsibility to future generations,” he wrote.

The last time a navy chief became head of the Shin Bet was Ami Ayalon, who was appointed after the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The government voted earlier this month to fire Bar amid mass protests against the move.

Netanyahu said he had lost faith in the Shin Bet chief following the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who the government is also working to dismiss, warned that the ouster faced legal difficulties, in part due to an ongoing Shin Bet probe of alleged ties between Netanyahu’s top aides and Qatar, which backs Hamas.

Bar vowed to stay on as Shin Bet chief until the return of all hostages from Gaza and the formation of a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas onslaught, which the government opposes.

The court has scheduled an April 8 hearing on the petitions against his firing.

Mother and two young daughters killed in Brooklyn traffic accident to be buried in Israel

The bodies of a mother and her two young daughters who were run over by a car in Brooklyn are being flown to Israel for burial.

The three will be laid to rest in Jerusalem’s Har HaMenuchot.

They have been named as Natasha Saada, 35, and her daughters Diana, 7, and Debra, 5.

The collision took place at around 1 p.m. on Saturday, during Shabbat, on Ocean Parkway in the Midwood neighborhood of south Brooklyn, an area with a large Jewish population. Police said that a silver Toyota Camry was attempting to make a turn when it was hit in the rear bumper by an Audi sedan. The Camry was pushed aside and the Audi jetted forward, hitting four pedestrians.

The driver of the Audi was Miriam Yarimi, 32. She was driving despite her license having been suspended, and according to the New York Post, she had accumulated 93 traffic violations.

Yarimi had to be extricated from her vehicle by the fire department and was hospitalized in stable condition. Five passengers in the Camry suffered minor injuries, police said.

Yarimi has been charged with crimes including three counts of manslaughter, three counts of criminally negligent homicide, assault, reckless driving and other traffic violations.

???????????? MOTHER AND TWO DAUGHTERS KILLED IN BROOKLYN CRASH—DRIVER HAD SUSPENDED LICENSE

A quiet walk home from synagogue ended in tragedy.

An Audi, driven by someone with a suspended license, slammed into an Uber before barreling through a crosswalk filled with pedestrians.

The… pic.twitter.com/I6XQnFhm8f

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 30, 2025

’60 Minutes’ shows reunion between former hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel with Agam Berger

Left to right: Leslie Stahl, former hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel and Agam Berger on CBS's '60 Minutes' on March 30, 2025 (CBS/60 Minutes)

CBS’s “60 Minutes” shows a reunion between former hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel with released captive Agam Berger.

The three of them were held together in a Hamas tunnel. They were seven in total when they were together in a small, cramped tunnel. Aviva was released after 50 days in November 2023, at which point Keith and Agam were also separated.

“You couldn’t stand up. [There was] no room to walk around. Only if we needed to use the toilet, we were allowed to get out of this niche,” Keith recalls.

“The first day they were with us for a few hours, and then they left us. We said, ‘If we need help, what do we do?’ And they said, ‘Come to the stairs and shout for us and we’ll come.'”

Keith says he was relieved when Aviva was released in November 2023, but later saw how she was mobbed by hostile Gazans during her transfer. “I wasn’t sure Aviva made it home alive… This was very stressful.”

When he was finally released in February, Keith says he was told by his captors that he needed to wave and thank Hamas during his release ceremony.

“I waved to the audience. I did not say, ‘Thank you,'” he recalls, adding that he had felt anxious that something would go awry at the last minute and that he would not be released.

Discussing the strong bond he formed with the other hostages he was with, Keith says they all looked after each other physically and emotionally.

Embracing Berger, Aviva says she kept smiling throughout their captivity and that it gave all of them a great deal of strength. She recalls how she and Berger used to hold hands and look into each other’s eyes in order to try and mitigate the joint fear.

Aviva also shares how Berger and fellow hostage Liri Albag cheered Keith up during one particularly dark time of their captivity.

“Most of the time Keith cheered us up,” Berger notes.

“When it was tough for one of us, all the others helped,” Keith says.

“There was a very, very intense bombing. Agam was especially afraid. [I asked her] if it was okay if I were to hold her hand. I held her hand,” he recalls. “She helped me, and I helped her.”

Keith uses the interview to call on the Trump administration, the Israeli government and the mediating parties to get back to the negotiation table in order to renew the ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

“It’s urgent, and every day that this goes on is just more and more suffering and more and more possible death and psychological devastation,” he says.

Released hostage Tal Shoham says fellow captives discussed suicide

Caption: Released hostage Tal Shoham, 1st right, is interviewed on CBS's '60 Minutes' with the parents of hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David on March 30, 2025. (CBS/60 Minutes)

Recently released hostage Tal Shoham recalls how Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David — hostages with whom he was held in captivity and who are still held in Gaza — openly discussed taking their own lives because of the inhumane conditions under which they have been held.

“One of the toughest things that I heard from them — they told me more than once, ‘Why stay alive?'” Shoham tells CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

“Why not just take their own life with their own hands and finish it… to get released from this.”

Shoham is interviewed alongside the parents of Gilboa-Dalal and David.

“They will do it together if they decide to do it,” says David’s mother Galia.

Shoham, 40, shares how he turned into a father-like figure to the 23-year-old Gilboa-Dalal and David. “They are not children, but from time to time, I felt like a father,” Shoham recalls before choking up.

“They are children,” Gilboa-Dalal’s father Ilan chimes in.

“I really, really fear that they are now alone,” says Shoham.

Gilboa-Dalal and David’s Hamas captors drove them to a hostage release ceremony last month and forced the pair to watch.

“Then they moved them back to the tunnels [to] devastate them,” Gilboa-Dalal’s father says.

CBS’s Lesley Stahl says she doesn’t know how anyone could watch the video that Hamas produced from that day, but David’s mother Galia responds, “It was a sign of life.”

Shoham shares details of his captivity with Gilboa-Dalal and David to their parents during the joint interview.

“It’s important for us to know exactly what’s going on with our children,” says Gilboa-Dalal’s father.

Shoham shares how Gilboa-Dalal cried for five or six days straight after being taken captive. He recalls how they lived in very narrow tunnels and were only given minute amounts of pita, rice and water.

“Sometimes the water tastes like blood, sometimes like iron. Sometimes it was so salty that you could not drink it, but you don’t have anything else,” he says.

One of their captors told them that they were being given the bare minimum amount of food to be able to survive for years. “You won’t die, but you will have the worst time,” Shoham recalls being told.

In order to get additional food, Shoham says he and the other hostages would give back rubs to their captors every day.

“It’s worse than how they treat animals,” Gilboa-Dalal’s father says.

Asked how she can listen to such difficult details, David’s mother responds, “I want everyone to listen because this is the reality. Maybe someone will hear it, and it will save our sons.”

Keith Siegel says he was forced to watch sexual assault of female hostages while in captivity

Keith Siegel is interviewed on CBS's 60 Minutes, March 30, 2025 (CBS/60 Minutes)

Recently released hostage Keith Siegel says he was forced to watch fellow female captives be sexually assaulted by their Hamas captors while he was held in Gaza.

“I witnessed a young woman who was being tortured by the terrorist. I mean literal torture — not just in a figurative sense,” Siegel tells CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

Siegel, who was released from captivity in February after 484 days, says he was forced to watch the abuse. “I saw sexual assault with female hostages.”

Recalling the day he was kidnapped by Hamas, the 65-year-old dual American-Israeli national says he and his wife Aviva were “driven into Gaza and then taken into a tunnel — feeling in danger, feeling life threatened, terrorists around us with weapons.”

They lived underground in Hamas-dug tunnels where “we were gasping for our breath.”

He says his treatment got significantly worse after the end of the first brief ceasefire and hostage deal in November 2023, during which his wife was released.

“The terrorists became very mean and very cruel and violent. Much more so. They were beating me and starving me,” Siegel says. “They would often eat in front of me and not offer any food.

Once a month, the hostages were allowed to shower with a bucket of cold water and a small cup.

His captors shaved his head and private parts. “Maybe it amused them… I felt humiliated,” Siegel says.

His captors managed to completely break his spirit.

“I felt that I was completely dependent on the terrorists, that my life relied on them — whether they were going to give me food, bring me water, protect me from the mobs that would lynch me,” Siegel says.

“I was left alone several times, and I was very, very scared that maybe they won’t come back and I’ll be left there. And what do I do then?” he recounts. “Maybe that was a way for them to torture me in a psychological way, make me think, ‘Should I escape? Should I not escape? Should I try to escape?'”

“But I’m pretty sure they knew I wouldn’t dare to do that because I needed them,” Siegel says.

He says that even after his release, he spends most of his day worrying about those hostages still in Gaza — 24 of whom are believed to still be alive.

The camera stays on Siegel as he breaks down, crying bitterly, folding his head into his hands and then onto the table in front of him.

Gaza’s bakeries could shut down within a week under blockade of food and supplies — UN

Displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Gaza’s bakeries will run out of flour for bread within a week, the UN says. Agencies have cut food distributions to families in half. Markets are empty of most vegetables. Many aid workers cannot move around because of Israeli strikes targeting terror sites.

For four weeks, Israel has shut off all sources of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies for the Gaza Strip’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians, citing Hamas’s refusal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire deal and release more hostages. Israeli officials insist they allowed enough aid in during the two-month ceasefire to last Gaza for several months, while accusing Hamas of hoarding supplies for itself.

It’s the longest blockade yet of Israel’s 17-month-old campaign against Hamas, with no sign of it ending. Many are reportedly going hungry during the normally festive Eid al-Fitr, a major Muslim holiday.

Aid workers are stretching out the supplies they have but warn of a catastrophic surge in severe hunger and malnutrition. Eventually, food will run out completely if the flow of aid is not restored, because the war has destroyed almost all local food production in Gaza.

The World Food Program said Thursday that its flour for bakeries is only enough to keep producing bread for 800,000 people a day until Tuesday and that its overall food supplies will last a maximum of two weeks. As a “last resort” once all other food is exhausted, it has emergency stocks of fortified nutritional biscuits for 415,000 people.

Fuel and medicine will last weeks longer before hitting zero. Hospitals are rationing antibiotics and painkillers. Aid groups are shifting limited fuel supplies between multiple needs, all indispensable — trucks to move aid, bakeries to make bread, wells and desalination plants to produce water, hospitals to keep machines running.

Yarden Bibas: Only Trump can convince Netanyahu, Hamas to renew ceasefire-hostage deal

Yarden Bibas is interviewed on CBS's 60 Minutes, March 30, 2025 (CBS/60 Minutes)

Yarden Bibas says only Donald Trump is capable of bringing back the hostages and ending the war in Gaza, adding that he believes that the US president can convince both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas to reach a deal.

“I think he’s the only one who can stop this war again,” Bibas tells CBS’s 60 Minutes, in his first interview since being released from captivity earlier this year, and after the bodies of his murdered wife and young children were returned several weeks later.

“He has to convince Netanyahu, he has to convince Hamas. I think he can do it,” Bibas says, indicating that both the Israeli premier and the terror group need to be pressured.

Netanyahu broke with most of the hostages’ families — and much of the public — by ordering a resumption of the war on March 18, amid an impasse in negotiations with Hamas.

After the first phase of the deal — which brought about the Bibas’s return — concluded on March 1, Hamas sought to transition to the second phase of the deal, which envisioned the release of the remaining living hostages in exchange for the full withdrawal of Israeli forces and a permanent end to the war.

Netanyahu argued that those latter two conditions would have allowed Hamas to remain in power. He largely refused to hold talks regarding phase two of the deal for a month, before seeking to rework the terms of the deal so that the first phase’s temporary ceasefire could be extended and more hostages could be freed. Hamas refused, leading Netanyahu to resume intensive military operations throughout Gaza, arguing that additional military pressure will lead the terror group to ease its demands.

Asked whether he thinks the strategy will work, Bibas responds emphatically: “No. No.”

Describing the captivity conditions while the war is ongoing, Bibas says, “It’s scary. You don’t know when [Israeli strikes will occur]. And when it happens, you’re afraid for your life.”

“The whole earth would move — like an earthquake, but [I was] underground, so everything could collapse any moment,” he says.

Speaking of the murder of his wife Shiri, four-year-old son Ariel and nine-month-old Kfir, Yarden says, “They were murdered in cold blood — bare hands.”

He says his Hamas captors used to tell him, “‘Oh, it doesn’t matter. You get a new wife, new kids. Better wife, better kids.’ They said that many times.”

Bibas uses the opportunity to highlight the plight of his childhood friends David and Ariel Cunio, who are among the 59 hostages still in Gaza captivity after being kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

“They’re both still in captivity, and I don’t know if they have enough food, enough water, especially now when the war is back on,” Bibas says.

“We did everything together,” he says of himself and David Cunio. “He was with me in every big thing in my life. He was in my wedding.”

“Now I’m having probably the hardest thing… [in] my life, and David is not with me,” Bibas laments.

“I lost my wife and kids. Sharon [Cunio] must not lose her husband,” Bibas asserts.

Report: Trump to fly to Saudi Arabia in May in first trip abroad this term; no word on Israel visit

US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 20, 2017. (AP/Evan Vucci)

US President Donald Trump will visit Saudi Arabia in May on the first foreign visit of his second term, Axios reports, citing two US officials with knowledge on the matter.

At the same time, the report notes that plans for Israeli-Saudi normalization are currently “on the back burner” due to Riyadh’s insistence that such a plan must include Palestinian statehood, a non-starter for Israel.

The report cites Israeli officials saying the White House has not to date discussed including a stop in Israel on the May trip.

Trump is expected to advance economic cooperation between the countries, including hundreds of billions of dollars of Saudi investment in American companies.