May 9: Israeli envoy to US says weapons holdup sends ‘wrong message,’ puts Israel ‘in a corner’

Israel’s Eden Golan advances to the Eurovision grand final on Saturday

Eden Golan of Israel, center, celebrates gaining a place in the final during the second semi-final at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Israel’s Eden Golan advances to the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest along with representatives of nine other countries after tonight’s semifinal.

Golan will now perform “Hurricane” again on Saturday evening, as the 26 remaining countries vie for the title.

עדן בביצוע בלתי נשכח pic.twitter.com/KabXoC1oHo

— כאן (@kann) May 9, 2024

A large anti-Israel protest was staged earlier today in Malmo, and another one is expected on Saturday.

Israeli ambassador to US: Withholding weapons from Israel sends ‘wrong message’

The Israeli ambassador to the United States says US President Joe Biden’s decision to withhold weapons from Israel over its planned operation in Rafah sends the “wrong message” to the Hamas militant group and the country’s foes.

“This is very unfortunate,” Ambassador Michael Herzog tells a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace webinar. “It sends the wrong message to Hamas and to our enemies in the region.”

“It puts us in a corner because we have to deal with Rafah one way or the other,” Herzog adds.

He also says that “nobody presented to me or to us a strategy of defeating Hamas without dealing with Rafah.”

Hillary Clinton slams anti-Israel protests on college campuses, says students have been fed propaganda

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton tears into the pro-Palestinian protest movement that has swept across American colleges, calling them ignorant and lamenting that they’re being misinformed by propaganda on social media and in the classroom.

“I have had many conversations with a lot of young people over the last many months. They don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East or frankly about history in many areas of the world, including in our own country,” Clinton tells MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

“With respect to the Middle East, they don’t know that under the bringing together of the Israelis and the Palestinians by my husband — then-Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, the then-head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Yasser Arafat — an offer was made to the Palestinians for a state on 96% of the existing territory occupied by the Palestinians with 4% of Israel to be given to reach 100% of the amount of territory that was hoped for.”

“This offer was made and if Yasser Arafat had accepted it there would have been a Palestinian state now for about 24 years. It’s one of the great tragedies of history that he was unable to say, ‘yes,'” Clinton laments.

“My husband has a book coming out later this year in which he talks about how Arafat kept saying that he intended to agree, he wanted to agree, but he was pretty sure he’d be killed because Sadat was killed by extremists when he made peace with Israel. Our dear, dear friend, Yitzhak Rabin was killed by a radical Israeli when he was pursuing the two-state solution.”

“This is a very important piece of history to understand if you’re going to take any kind of position regarding what’s going on right now,” the former US secretary of state says.

Turning to how these far-left college students have been misinformed, Clinton says they are being fed “propaganda” instead of receiving an education.

“Anybody who is teaching in a university or anyone who is putting content on social media should be held responsible for what they include and what they exclude. So much of what we’re seeing, particularly on TikTok, about what’s going on in the Middle East is willfully false, but it’s also incredibly slanted, pro-Hamas, anti-Israel.”

“It is not any place where anyone should go to get information about complex matters like what is going on there… People are on social media oftentimes to press an ideological, religious, financial or partisan political agenda. You don’t get the facts, you don’t get any kind of context.”

“We have to do a better job… with young people in trying to help them understand how to filter and interpret the information they’re getting.”

“We also need to do a better job in our classrooms, particularly at the college or university level, not to fall into easy absolutes — you’re either for or against. Life is too complicated, history certainly is.”

WATCH: Eden Golan performs ‘Hurricane’ at the live Eurovision semifinal

Eden Golan of Israel performs the song 'Hurricane' during the second semifinal at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Eden Golan, representing Israel, performs “Hurricane” at the live Eurovision second semifinal in Malmo, Sweden.

“Thank you so much!” she exclaims at the end of her performance, which goes off without a hitch.

עדן בביצוע בלתי נשכח pic.twitter.com/KabXoC1oHo

— כאן (@kann) May 9, 2024

In dress rehearsals, loud booing from some could be heard in the audience, but the EBU has technology to ensure that such sounds are not noticeable in the live broadcast.

Fans in any country taking part in tonight’s semifinal, or any non-Eurovision country, can cast their vote online at www.esc.vote.

According to a reporter from Ynet, a man waved a Palestinian flag in the audience during Golan’s performance, and was escorted out of the arena. Only flags from countries participating in the competition are allowed — a longstanding rule.

במהלך הביצוע של עדן גולן – אדם הניף דגל פלסטין, והוצא מהאולם pic.twitter.com/dKT7rW39y7

— Ran Boker רן בוקר (@ranboker) May 9, 2024

IDF cancels Lag B’Omer celebrations on Mount Meron in light of Hezbollah attacks

Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Rabbi Shlomo Amar at a bonfire during the celebrations of the Jewish holiday of Lag B'Omer at Mount Meron in northern Israel on May 11, 2020. (David Cohen/Flash90)

The IDF Home Front Command has canceled Lag B’Omer celebrations at Mount Meron later this month, following a new assessment.

Hezbollah has attacked Mount Meron, which is located some eight kilometers (5 miles) from the Lebanon border, several times amid the ongoing war, launching large barrages of rockets at the mountain, as well as guided missiles at the Israeli air traffic control base that sits atop it.

Police have been requested by the military to enforce preventing worshippers from reaching the mountain between May 24 and 27, when an annual pilgrimage takes place.

Normally, tens of thousands of observant Jews visit the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on the mountain during Lag B’Omer.

There are no other changes to instructions for civilians in the area, the IDF says.

Finnish Eurovision performer disavows video of him dancing with Eden Golan

Jere Poyhonen AKA Kaarija of Finland performs during dress rehearsals for the grand final at the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, England, May 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Former Finnish Eurovision competitor Käärijä filmed a video with Israeli contestant Eden Golan earlier today, and now disavows the clip after it circulated online.

Käärijä, who came in second in last year’s contest for Finland with “Cha Cha Cha,” and who is returning this year as an interval act, can be seen dancing jokingly with Golan in the clip that was posted on her own social media as well as that of Kan.

Last year's Eurovision second-place finisher, Finland's Käärijä (aka the "Cha Cha Cha" guy), filmed a dance video clip earlier today with Eden Golan, and then publicly apologized for doing so and said it was not an endorsement. pic.twitter.com/iLDq0zBf0M

— Amy Spiro (@AmySpiro) May 9, 2024

Not long afterward, Käärijä posts on Instagram that he “happened to meet Israel’s Eurovision representative today and a video was filmed of us.” He writes that the video was posted “without my permission” and that he requested it be removed. “I would like to clarify and emphasize that the video is not a political statement or an endorsement of any kind,” he writes.

A spokesperson for Kan says that the video was removed from Golan’s social media and will also be removed from Kan’s page after the request.

UNRWA chief temporarily shuts East Jerusalem HQ after extremists set fire to perimeter

In this photo taken from a video, a fire lit by extremists can be seen on the grounds of the UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem, May 9, 2024. (Screenshot, Twitter; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

UNRWA says it is temporarily shuttering its East Jerusalem headquarters after “Israeli extremists” set fire to the perimeter following weeks of protests and attacks.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini says on X, formerly Twitter, that while there were no casualties among the staff, the fire caused “extensive damage to outdoor areas.”

“Our director with the help of other staff had to put out the fire themselves as it took the Israeli fire extinguishers and police a while before they turned up,” he says.

This evening, Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.

This took place while UNRWA and other UN Agencies’ staff were on the compound.
While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage… pic.twitter.com/ZqHFDNkiWC

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) May 9, 2024

In an attached video Lazzarini says was taken from “Israeli media,” a crowd can be heard chanting “Burn down the United Nations” in Hebrew.

Calling the arson “an outrageous development,” Lazzarini says he has “taken the decision to close down our compound until proper security is restored.”

“I call on all those who have influence to put an end to these attacks and hold all those responsible accountable,” he adds. “The perpetrators of these attacks must be investigated and those responsible must be held accountable. Anything less will set a new dangerous standard.”

IDF tank battalion commander suspended for 30 days over sexual harassment allegations

A tank battalion commander, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, has been suspended for 30 days by the chief of the IDF Northern Command over sexual harassment allegations.

The move by Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin to suspend the officer comes at the recommendation of the Military Advocate General, the IDF says.

Earlier today, Army Radio reported that the alleged incidents took place in 2022 and in 2023, before the war.

According to the report, the officer allegedly sexually harassed two subordinate female officers.

The officer was summoned by Gordin to present his response to the allegations, before being suspended.

The Military Police is continuing to investigate.

Meanwhile, the officer’s deputy, with the rank of major, will serve in his place.

The officer’s identity was not permitted for publication at this stage.

WATCH: Eurovision Song Contest second semifinal (livestream not available everywhere)

The second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest is starting, with Israel’s Eden Golan taking part.

The official livestream below is not available in all parts of the world.

Netanyahu congratulates Eden Golan for competing in Eurovision amid ‘ugly wave of antisemitism’

Eden Golan of Israel performs the song 'Hurricane' during the dress rehearsal for the second semi-final at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sends a message wishing Eden Golan good luck ahead of her performance tonight in the second Eurovision semifinal.

“You’re competing not just in the Eurovision in a proud and very impressive manner, but you are competing successfully in the face of an ugly wave of antisemitism — and you are standing up to it and representing the State of Israel with huge honor,” says Netanyahu in a video message.

The prime minister tells Golan that “when they ‘boo’ you, we are shouting ‘hooray’ for you,” referencing the booing the Israeli singer has faced from audiences during the dress rehearsals this week.

US-Israeli media mogul Haim Saban asks Biden to reverse decision on weapons freeze

Israeli-American media mogul Haim Saban sends a letter to US President Joe Biden asking him to reverse his decision to stop providing weapons to Israel if it launches an operation in the populated parts of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.

The US government’s decision “to stop sending munitions to Israel” as it fights Hamas sends “a terrible message to our allies in the region and beyond,” Saban — who is a longtime donor to the Democratic Party — says in the letter, a copy of which was circulated online.

The decision, he writes, shows that the Biden administration can “flip from doing the right thing to bending to political pressure.”

Calling it a “bad… bad… bad… decision, on all levels,” Saban asks Biden to reconsider, saying that “there are more Jewish voters who care about Israel, than Muslim voters that care about Hamas.”

🚨 Breaking: Billionaire Haim Saban, one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party and to Biden personally, blasts Biden over his betrayal of Israel in a letter to White House 👇

“There are more Jewish voters who care about Israel, than Muslim voters that care about Hamas”
_ pic.twitter.com/TGds8DZapZ

— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) May 9, 2024

Israel’s public diplomacy chief quitting after only eight months in the job – TV report

Moshik Aviv. (Wikimedia CC-BY-SA)

Moshik Aviv, the head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate in the Prime Minister’s Office, has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he is leaving his job, Channel 12 news reports.

He was appointed only eight months ago.

He and Netanyahu agreed that he would wait for a successor to be appointed before stepping down.

Aviv’s post is the key position overseeing Israel’s public diplomacy efforts. It was Aviv who told English-language spokesman Eylon Levy that he was suspended “until further notice” in early March, prompting Levy’s departure from the directorate.

The official reason for Aviv’s departure is personal and health-related, the TV report says. It quotes sources in the Prime Minister’s Office saying, however, that there are other reasons for his departure, and noting that he is “a very statesmanlike person.” The report says that the political “intrigues” in the PMO would likely have been hard for him.

Public Diplomacy Minister Galit Distel Atbaryan quit her job five days after the October 7 Hamas invasion and massacre in southern Israel.

The TV report says spokesman Topaz Luk, the PMO’s CEO Yossi Shelley and Netanyahu’s chief of staff Tzachi Braverman are all also set to depart the PMO soon. Luk will move over to working for Netanyahu’s Likud party, Shelley is hoping to be appointed ambassador to Portugal and Braverman is also hoping for a prestigious new appointment, the report says.

US reiterates call for Israel to reopen Rafah Crossing for humanitarian aid

IDF troops and tanks on the Gazan side of the Rafah border crossing on May 7, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The US reiterates its call for Israel to allow for the Rafah Crossing to be reopened for the delivery of fuel and other humanitarian aid.

The White House said Israel had agreed to allow the Egypt-Gaza crossing to reopen earlier this week for fuel deliveries but those have not taken place yet, as the IDF is in the midst of an operation to take over the Palestinian side of the crossing. Israel has not put a timeline for when the crossing will reopen.

However, Israel reopened its nearby Kerem Shalom Crossing yesterday and continues sending in aid through its Erez Crossing into northern Gaza.

Israel has published footage of aid going through Kerem Shalom, but White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says there have been “conflicting reports” as to whether that gate has actually been operational.

“We want to see all humanitarian assistance continue to go through Rafah and all other crossings as soon as possible,” Kirby says in a briefing with reporters.

Hagari: IDF has the weapons it needs for upcoming missions, including in Rafah

Responding to a question at a press conference, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the military has enough munitions for the missions it has planned, after US President Joe Biden threatened that some arms shipments would be frozen if Israel launches a planned offensive in southern Gaza’s Rafah.

“The IDF has armaments for the missions it is planning, and also for the missions in Rafah. We have what we need,” he says.

The IDF’s operation in Rafah has been limited to just the eastern outskirts of the city, and not the entire city where more than one million Palestinians are sheltering.

“The US has so far provided security assistance to the State of Israel and the IDF in an unprecedented manner during the war,” Hagari says.

Highlighting the coordination between the militaries, he says IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks with US CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla every day.

“Even when there are disagreements between us, we resolve them behind closed doors,” Hagari says.

“Israel has security interests, but we are also aware of the interests of the US, and that’s how we will continue to act,” he adds.

Under heavy police presence, Malmo’s Jews show support for Israel ahead of Eurovision semifinal

Jews gather in Malmo to show support for Israel ahead of Eurovision semifinal, May 9, 2024. (Lars Avner Aqurette)

MALMO — Overshadowed by the much larger rally against Israel, a group of mostly local Jews gather in Malmö to show support for Israel ahead of the second Eurovision semifinal. In a small square in the city center, surrounded entirely by heavily armed police, about 150 people listen to the song “Hurricane” by Eden Golan — which she will perform tonight — while waving Swedish and Israeli flags.

Before the event began, smaller groups of pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to break through the police lines, but were successfully held back by Swedish police, who were reinforced by colleagues from Denmark. Some pro-Israel protesters who had planned to attend were not able to do so due to the security presence, which caused some irritation.

If Golan advances tonight to the grand final, a second mass demonstration against Israel is planned for Saturday evening in the southern Swedish city.

Israel gives document to mediators specifying its objections to Hamas hostage deal terms; Cairo talks over

The sister of hostage Shiri Bibas seen at a protest calling for the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip outside Hakirya Base in Tel Aviv, May 6, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Before leaving the indirect hostage-truce talks in Cairo earlier today, Israel’s negotiators put in writing their specific objections to the document issued by Hamas on Monday night that purportedly accepted a ceasefire. The Israeli document has been conveyed to the mediators, Israeli sources say.

Hamas representatives have also now left Cairo, Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reports.

Israel’s Channel 12 says that CIA director Bill Burns has also departed the area and headed back to the US.

According to an Egyptian source quoted by Al-Qahera, efforts by Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators “are ongoing to bring the two sides’ points of view closer.”

However, Channel 12 reports that the current round of efforts, at least, is over. It says that in their talks with Burns yesterday, Israeli leaders criticized the CIA chief for continuing the Cairo contacts in the wake of what they have called Hamas’s unacceptable terms, saying his presence risked creating the incorrect impression that the Hamas document could serve as a basis for progress.

Netanyahu: Israel won the War of Independence despite arms embargo; we’ll fight with our fingernails if needed

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, May 9, 2024 (GPO screenshot)

Ahead of Israel’s Independence Day next week and after the US threatened to withhold certain weapons from Israel if it widens its ground offensive in Rafah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows once again that if Israel “has to stand alone, we will stand alone.”

“During the War of Independence 76 years ago, we were few against many,” he says. “We had no weapons, there was an arms embargo on Israel, but with the strength of the soul, the bravery and the unity within us — we won.”

“Today we are much stronger,” Netanyahu continues. “We are determined and we are united to defeat our enemy and those who seek to destroy us.

“If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. I’ve already said, if we need to, we will fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than fingernails.”

Gantz: Irresponsible ministers showing ‘ingratitude’ to US do so for political gain

War cabinet minister Benny Gantz criticizes attacks on the US by Israeli government ministers following a post from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on X in which he quipped that “Hamas [loves] Biden,” complete with a heart emoji.

The United States stood by Israel’s side during its darkest hour, and the verbal attacks aimed at the US made by some ministers are both irresponsible and distasteful, and serve internal political considerations,” Gantz says in a statement that doesn’t mention Ben Gvir by name.

Ben Gvir’s slight against the US president came after Biden said he would freeze the transfer of certain weapons to Israel should the military advance into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.

Commenting on Biden’s ultimatum, Gantz says he believes the vital arm shipments will continue.

“Beyond the security necessity, there is an important international political message behind the continued American position in support of Israel,” Gantz adds.

“Israel has a moral and security obligation to continue to defend itself to ensure the return of the hostages and remove the threat Hamas poses to Southern Israel, while the US has the moral and strategic obligation to supply Israel with the necessary tools to complete its mission.”

US able to threaten to withhold aid because Hamas is significantly depleted – Kirby

The White House indicates that it has taken the far-reaching step of threatening to withhold aid from Israel at this stage in the war because it feels that Hamas has been significantly depleted.

“We believe that [Israel has] put an enormous amount of pressure on Hamas and that there are better ways to go after what is left of Hamas in Rafah than a major ground operation,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says in a briefing with reporters.

“Early on in the conflict, Hamas didn’t feel and hadn’t suffered the kinds of pressure and the kinds of casualties that they have suffered now,” he says.

“[Israel has] eliminated a lot of the leaders through the fighting that they have conducted over the last several months. They have decimated the ranks of many of their units. The picture of Hamas today is not what it was six months ago,” Kirby continues.

The White House spokesperson adds that the decision by US President Joe Biden to issue the threat also had to do with the “preps for a major operation in Rafah and certainly rhetoric around that” coming out of Israel.

An Israeli offensive in Rafah would embolden Hamas in hostage talks – US

National security communications advisor John Kirby speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby rejects arguments that US President Joe Biden’s public break with Israel regarding Rafah will embolden Hamas to reject compromises in the ongoing hostage negotiations.

“Any kind of major Rafah ground operation would actually strengthen Hamas’s hands at the negotiating table, not Israel’s. That’s our view,” Kirby says in a briefing with reporters.

“If I’m Mr. Sinwar, and I’m sitting down in my tunnel… and I’m seeing innocent people falling victim to major significant combat operations in Rafah, then I have less of an incentive to want to come to the negotiating table,” the White House spokesperson argues.

Kirby says that CIA chief Bill Burns is departing the region after arriving over the weekend to try and secure a breakthrough in the hostage talks. “Interlocutors from other delegations are still in discussions in Cairo. Those talks are still going on,” Kirby says. Israel’s delegation left Egypt earlier today.

White House: Notion that Biden is abandoning Israel ‘flies in the face of the facts’

The White House rejects the notion that US President Joe Biden is abandoning Israel after he threatened to withhold offensive weapons if the IDF launches a major military offensive in Rafah.

“The argument that somehow we’re walking away from Israel flies in the face of the facts,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says in a briefing.

“This is a president who visited Israel within days of the October 7 attacks. This is a president who rushed additional military aircrafts to Israel and provided expertise from our own military to go over there to help them as they thought through their planning and their operation… This is a president who put American fighter pilots in the sky to help shoot down more than 300 missiles and drones fired by Iran in mid-April.”

“So the argument that somehow we’re walking away from Israel, we’re not willing to help them defeat Hamas just doesn’t doesn’t comport with the facts,” Kirby asserts.

“Everybody keeps talking about pausing weapons shipments. Weapons shipments are still going to Israel. They’re still getting that the vast, vast majority of everything that they need to defend themselves,” he adds, reiterating that the entirety of the $14 billion in Israel aid passed by Congress last month will be spent.

Kirby: US won’t provide certain weapons for major Rafah offensive; ‘smashing into’ city won’t defeat Hamas

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Thursday, April 4, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

If Israel launches a major ground offensive in Rafah, the US “will not provide certain categories of weapons to support such an operation,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says, honing in on the threat made by US President Joe Biden yesterday.

“He does not want certain categories of American weapons used in a particular type of operation in a particular place,” Kirby says.

The White House spokesperson says “smashing into Rafah” — as it fears Israel wants to do — “will not advance the objective” of “a sustainable, enduring defeat of Hamas,” which both Israel and the US share.

Accordingly, the US will continue working with Israel to develop alternative approaches to a major military offensive in Rafah, Kirby says.

These alternatives include bolstering the border between Egypt and Gaza so that it cannot be used for smuggling weapons to Hamas, he continues.

The operation that Israel launched earlier this week to take over the Palestinian side of the Rafah Crossing is the type of alternative that US officials have been proposing to their Israeli counterparts in recent months, Kirby says, while clarifying that Washington is still monitoring the operation to ensure that it remains limited to the crossing.

Another alternative to a major Rafah offensive would be more targeted operations against Hamas’s leadership, which the White House spokesperson claims that the US has been helping Israel conduct to date.

The US is also encouraging Israel to advance an “alternative governance structure to Hamas” so that the terror group does not remain in control of Gaza after the war, Kirby says.

Finally, the US is working with Israel to create “safe spaces with shelter, sanitation, food, water, medical facilities, medical supplies and medical personnel [where] the people who are currently in Rafah can go,” Kirby says.

Hamas demands end to ‘ineffective’ aid airdrops over Gaza after two killed by parachute malfunction

Humanitarian aid packages are dropped on the Gaza Strip on May 9, 2024. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

Hamas calls for an end to airdrops of aid over Gaza after two Palestinians were killed in northern Gaza earlier this week when an aid pallet crashed into a warehouse after its parachute failed to open.

Several countries, including the United States, Britain and France, have resorted to regular aid airdrops in northern Gaza, where humanitarian agencies have warned of a looming famine.

On Tuesday, two people died when an aid parachute fell on the roof of a warehouse where residents had gathered to collect relief supplies.

“We reiterate that airdrops pose a real danger to the lives of citizens and do not provide a real solution to alleviate the food crisis plaguing northern Gaza,” Salama Marouf, the head of the Hamas media office in Gaza, says in a statement.

“We call for an immediate halt to the delivery of aid in this ineffective and erroneous manner, and we call for the full activation of the land crossings to deliver humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.”

Hamas has long been accused of seizing humanitarian aid that enters Gaza by land. Earlier this month, the US State Department said the terror group briefly seized the first shipment to enter Gaza through the Erez Crossing since the October 7 terror assault. The accusation followed Israel’s long-standing contention that Hamas stockpiles supplies and keeps them from increasingly desperate civilians.

The Kerem Shalom Crossing, which has been used to bring humanitarian aid into southern Gaza, was closed for several days earlier this week after a deadly Hamas rocket attack killed four and wounded 10.

The Rafah Crossing from Egypt to Gaza has remained closed, however, as Israeli forces operate in the area.

The crossing has been a vital conduit for entry of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies for Gaza’s population of 2.3 million since the start of the war and is the only place where people can enter and exit, while Kerem Shalom is Gaza’s main cargo terminal.

IDF: Three soldiers moderately wounded in booby-trapped tunnel shaft in southern Gaza

Three IDF soldiers were moderately wounded as a result of a blast in a booby-trapped tunnel shaft earlier today in the Rafah area in southern Gaza, the military says.

The troops were taken to a hospital for treatment.

Rockets fired from Lebanon sparked fire in border community of Shlomi, IDF says

Several rockets were fired from Lebanon at different areas in northern Israel in the last hour, sparking a fire in one strike in the border community of Shlomi, the IDF says.

Firefighters are at the scene working to extinguish the blaze.

Meanwhile, two drones that were heading toward Israel from Lebanon were downed by Israeli fighter jets over Lebanese airspace, the military says.

The IDF says fighter jets also struck a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Ayta ash-Shab a short while ago.

שלומי במטח בורקאן 17:09. כמה עשרות מטרים משכונת מגורים. אין נפגעים. יש נזקי הדף לבתים @WallaNews pic.twitter.com/uONSnmT9Zs

— יואב איתיאל מדווח כי (@yoavetiel) May 9, 2024

IDF says some 50 gunmen killed by troops in eastern Rafah; 150,000 civilians evacuated

Amid the IDF’s ongoing operation in the eastern part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, some 50 gunmen have been killed by troops, according to the latest estimates by the military.

Another 10 tunnel shafts have been found, and they are being prepared for demolition.

The operation was launched late Monday, following an IDF evacuation order of the area.

The military estimates that around 150,000 Palestinians have evacuated from the eastern Rafah area so far.

The IDF currently does not plan to expand the evacuation order to other areas of Rafah, as the ongoing operation remains relatively limited in scope amid hostage negotiations with Hamas.

Additionally, the Rafah Crossing with Egypt remains closed due to the IDF operations there, and it is still unclear what will subsequently happen with it.

Protesters march across Malmo in first of two anti-Israel rallies this weekend

Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate against Israel's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, May 9, 2024. (Lars Avner Aqurette)

MALMO — Thousands gather in Malmo, Sweden, to protest Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, hours before Eden Golan is set to appear on stage in the second semifinal tonight.

The protesters amass in a public square in the city, and begin marching toward a park about an hour away by foot. Organizers predict the march will end around 6 p.m., which is when a pro-Israel rally is set to take place in a square only blocks from the pro-Palestinian gathering.

The event marks the first of two large rallies against Israel organized by Stop Israel, a loosely built network of about 60 political groups on the far left, including the Left Party, which holds seats in the Swedish Parliament, as well as Fridays for Future, the Swedish climate movement spearheaded by activist Greta Thunberg. Both Stop Israel and Fridays for Future declined interview requests from The Times of Israel.

On its website, Stop Israel published a number of anti-Israel slogans officially allowed at today’s rally, including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” as well as calls for revolution, intifada, and the Palestinians’ right to evict Jews from the Holy Land.

A slogan not permitted by the organizers, but heard at one segment of the march, was “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud!” a saying popularized during the first intifada referencing a centuries-old Muslim conquest of a Jewish area.

Slovenia initiates procedure to recognize Palestinian state by mid-June

Slovenia's Prime Minister Robert Golob arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos)

The Slovenian government on Thursday initiated the procedure for the recognition of a Palestinian state as a form of leverage to end the war between Israel and the Hamas terror group in Gaza, a move it announced in March, Prime Minister Robert Golob says.

“The horrors we see every day in Gaza are inadmissible and must stop,” Golob is quoted as saying on the government X platform. “I call on Israel to put an immediate end to its attacks on Gaza and to use the negotiating table.”

Golob says he would like his country´s recognition to be “an incentive for these negotiations to proceed more quickly” and speed up the dialogue in the United Nations on an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and the security and existence of Israel through a two-state solution.

The announcement came as Ireland, Spain and a number of other European Union member states are reportedly considering recognizing a Palestinian state on May 21, according to a report by Ireland’s national broadcaster.

The ruling coalition agreed unanimously on this decision, Golob says, expressing hope that the recognition would inspire other countries to follow in Slovenia´s steps.

Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia said in March they had agreed to take the first steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state. The countries reportedly have been waiting for a vote by the United Nations General Assembly on May 10 which could lead to the recognition of the Palestinians as qualified for full UN membership.

Since 1988, 139 out of 193 UN member states have recognized Palestinian statehood.

Israel has said that the four countries’ plan constituted a “prize for terrorism” that would reduce the chances of a negotiated resolution to the Gaza conflict.

Trump: Jews who voted for Biden should be ashamed of themselves

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP)

Former US president and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump says, “If any Jewish person voted for Joe Biden, they should be ashamed of themselves,” in his latest response to his predecessor Joe Biden threatening to withhold aid to Israel if it launches a major military offensive in Rafah.

“What Biden is doing with respect to Israel is disgraceful. He’s totally abandoned Israel. I guess he feels good about it because he did it as a political decision. You have to do the right decision, not the political decision,” Trump says outside the New York chambers of his hush-money trial for allegedly paying a porn actor to keep quiet about a sexual encounter they had during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

Netanyahu won’t agree to hostage deal unless Rafah operation allowed to proceed alongside – NBC report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not agree to a hostage deal with Hamas unless the agreement allows him to proceed with an operation in Rafah, NBC reports, citing four current and one former US official.

Netanyahu wants the operation to be “walled off” from a potential deal, meaning that there will be no limits on Israel’s ability to operate in the southern Gaza city, says the report.

An Israeli official denies that characterization of Israel’s position.

Thousands gather for anti-Israel protest in Malmo, Sweden, ahead of Eurovision semifinal tonight

People carry banners and Palestinian flags during an anti-Israel demonstration against Israel's participation in Eurovision ahead of the second semifinal at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Thousands of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters are gathered in Malmo, Sweden, hours before the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest is due to take place in the city.

Israel’s contestant, Eden Golan, will perform her song “Hurricane” in this evening’s semifinal.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to join the anti-Israel protest, Reuters reports, and a smaller pro-Israel demonstration is scheduled to take place later in the afternoon.

Swedish authorities have heightened security and are bracing for possible over the weekend. Police officers have been seen patrolling the streets of Malmo and, from water scooters, the city’s canals.

“There are sometimes more police than people in sequins, but overall great fun, we’re having a great time,” United Kingdom supporter Francesca Gaffey said ahead of the first semifinal on Tuesday.

Metal barricades and large concrete blocks have been put up around Malmo Arena, which is hosting the competition, with police guarding the venue and checking visitors’ bags.

Visitors have to pass through metal detectors before entering the arena and are only allowed to bring small purses into the venue.

Protesters holding a banner reading “Welcome to Genocide Song Contest” get ready for a Pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel demonstration against Israel’s participation in Eurovision ahead of the second semi-final at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Israeli delegation departs Cairo hostage deal talks, no set date for their return

The Israeli negotiating team is on its way back from Cairo, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.

The return is not connected to US President Joe Biden’s decision to halt some weapons sales to Israel, says the official.

There is no date set for its return.

War, security cabinets to meet this evening on response to US munitions holdup

The war cabinet is slated to meet this evening at 6:30 p.m., followed by the national security cabinet at 8:30 p.m.

The forums will determine Israel’s reaction to US President Joe Biden’s decision to withhold munitions that could be used in a major Israeli offensive in Rafah, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.

Broadly speaking, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position is what he told Biden in their Monday phone call — “We will fight with our fingernails if we have to,” says the official.

Channel 12 reports that this quote was from a cabinet meeting, not Netanyahu’s call with Biden.

According to Kan, Biden warned Netanyahu during the call that the US would hold up weapons shipments if Israel goes into Rafah.

Israel has already begun working through a number of channels to push Biden to change course, adds the official.

Iran freed 7 crew members on Portuguese-flagged ship it seized in April – Portugal

Iran has freed seven of the 25 crew on a Portuguese-flagged ship that was seized in the Gulf on April 13, Portugal’s foreign ministry says.

Five Indians, a Filipino and an Estonian from the MSC Aries were released, the ministry says in a statement. Iran claimed the container ship had Israeli links when it was seized.

Following the release of the seven crew members, and the earlier release of one other, 17 crew members still remain aboard, the statement adds.

It adds that the Iranian government is required to immediately release the remaining crew members as well as the ship itself, which Iran said last week it was still holding in its possession.

“Portugal will continue to make every effort to ensure that these international obligations are fully complied with,” Portugal’s foreign ministry adds.

GOP senator calls for Biden’s impeachment over holdup on arms shipments to Israel

Republican Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas calls on X for the impeachment of US President Joe Biden over withholding arms from Israel “to help with reelection.”

He points to the Democrat-led impeachment of former president Donald Trump in 2019, in which Trump is accused of withholding aid to Ukraine to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to cooperate with his campaign against Biden.

“Only with Biden, it’s true,” writes Cotton.

The House has no choice but to impeach Biden based on the Trump-Ukraine precedent of withholding foreign aid to help with reelection. Only with Biden, it’s true.

— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 9, 2024

Foreign Ministry political strategy chief meets with Azerbaijani foreign minister in Baku

The head of the Foreign Ministry Political Strategic Division Aliza Bin-Noun meets with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Baku, Azerbaijan, May 9, 2024. (Foreign Ministry of Israel)

Aliza Bin-Noun, the head of the Foreign Ministry Political Strategic Division, met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Baku on Wednesday to discuss “regional cooperation, deepening the ties between the countries and the peoples, and strengthening economic ties,” according to a ministry readout.

The two were joined by senior Azerbaijani diplomats.

Bin-Noun also visited the World War II memorial in Baku, on the eve of Victory Day over Nazi Germany.

Azerbaijan is a close ally of Turkey, which suspended economic ties with Israel amid bitter criticism over the war in Gaza.

“Israel and Azerbaijan have deep and longstanding strategic relations which gained momentum with the opening of Azerbaijan’s embassy in Israel last year,” says Bin-Noun, adding that this year they are focusing on the COP29 climate conference that will be hosted in Baku later this year.

Hamas accuses Israel of obstructing ceasefire negotiations with Rafah operation

A Hamas official accuses Israel of carrying out incursions in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah in order to block talks seeking a truce in the seven-month war between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel’s military operations in Rafah and its border crossing “aim to obstruct the efforts of the mediators,” Izzat al-Rishq says in a statement, adding that Hamas had sent a delegation to the talks in Cairo and that it was still committed to accepting a ceasefire proposal — the terms of which differ in many key aspects from a deal previously approved by Israel.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of attempting to torpedo Israel’s operation in Rafah by announcing its acceptance of the heavily altered proposal for a truce and hostage release deal.

Turkish trade minister dismisses Katz’s ‘absolutely fictional’ claim of Ankara easing trade ban

Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat says that Israeli claims of Ankara easing its trade ban with Israel are “absolutely fictional and have nothing to do with reality.”

Turkey’s trade ban with Israel will remain in place until a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and humanitarian aid flow to the region is secured, the minister says in a post on X.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said earlier today that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had retreated from his earlier position and lifted many of the trade restrictions he imposed on Israel.

Outgoing state ombudsman for judges criticizes justice minister’s failure to appoint replacement

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

Outgoing State Ombudsman for Judges Uri Shoham is sharply critical of the failure to appoint a replacement for him in a thinly veiled attack on Justice Minister Yariv Levin.

Levin has refused to appoint a retired Supreme Court justice to replace Shoham, with Levin ally and fellow judicial overhaul architect MK Simcha Rothman describing such an appointment as a “conflict of interest.”

In a parting letter to his office, Shoham, a former Supreme Court justice himself, writes that this will be the first time in over two decades since the department was established that there will be no serving state ombudsman for judges.

“Since a new ombudsman has not been appointed, the Ombudsman’s Office cannot complete its handling of complaints for which a decision has not yet been made; [cannot] deal with new complaints submitted to it; and [cannot] handle the financial declarations that rabbinical judges and sharia judges are obliged to submit, according to the law,” writes Shoham.

He notes pointedly that it has been customary for “justice ministers and presidents of the Supreme Court” to appoint a retired Supreme Court justice ever since the Ombudsman’s Office was created.

“I see there to be a severe injury to the rule of law and public trust in the judicial system by the fact that a new ombudsman for public complaints for judges has not been appointed,” concludes Shoham.

The Kan public broadcaster reports that Levin had agreed to appoint former Tel Aviv District Court judge David Rozen, who convicted Ehud Olmert in the Holyland affair, but that Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman has strongly opposed Rozen’s appointment.

In first, Border Police says it has drafted 30 ultra-Orthodox men

Ultra-Orthodox draftees to Border Police meet with the force's commander Deputy Commissioner Brik Yitzhak, at the Tel Hashomer base, May 9, 2024. (Israel Police)

Border Police says that for the first time in its history, some 30 ultra-Orthodox men have been drafted into the force for their mandatory military service.

“This is a precedent-setting event,” police say, adding that it will allow ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi conscripts to serve in Border Police for their mandatory service “in such a way that they can serve as combat soldiers while taking into account their unique needs.”

Draftees are at times given a choice to serve in the police or other Israeli defense bodies instead of the army, but only the military has so far had special units and draft routes for Haredi men.

The 30 Haredi men, aged 18 to 20, received their uniforms this morning at the IDF’s Tel Hashomer induction center, where they also met with the commander of Border Police, Deputy Commissioner Brik Yitzhak.

Turkish source admits exports to Israel continuing temporarily, but rules out walkback of ban

Relaxing Turkey’s ban on exports to Israel is “out of the question,” though companies have three months to fulfill existing orders via third countries, a Turkish trade ministry source says, confirming Israeli media reports that exports are continuing in a temporary capacity.

In a document seen by Reuters, the Trade Ministry outlines the three-month reprieve for companies exporting to Israel. Ankara introduced the trade ban with Israel last week.

In message to ‘enemies and best friends,’ Gallant says Israel will achieve its goals in Gaza

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks at a Memorial Day ceremony, May 9, 2024. (Shachar Yurman/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vows that Israel “will achieve [its] goals in the north and south,” in a message to both the country’s “enemies and best friends.”

The comments come after US President Joe Biden threatened that some arms shipments would be frozen if Israel launches a planned full-on offensive in southern Gaza’s Rafah.

“I say from here to Israel’s enemies and its best friends: The State of Israel cannot be subdued — not the IDF, not the Defense Ministry, not the defense establishment, not the State of Israel. We will stand, we will achieve our goals, we will hit Hamas, we will destroy Hezbollah, and we will bring security,” Gallant says during a ceremony ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day.

“Whatever the cost, we will ensure the existence of the State of Israel and remember well the directive we signed just a week ago during the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony, the words ‘Never Again.’ For me, it’s not just a directive, it’s a work plan. This is how the defense establishment will work and this is how the IDF will work,” he adds.

FM Katz mocks Erdogan’s ‘backtrack’ after Turkey reportedly allows some exports to Israel

Foreign Minister Israel Katz fetes Turkey’s reported decision to partially walk back its ban on trade with Israel, mocking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on X.

“Erdogan backtracked and canceled many of the trade restrictions, and the lesson is clear: We must not surrender to the threats of a dictator, and we must create alternatives and not depend on the Muslim Brotherhood guy who can stop it all at any moment.”

In implicit response to Biden, Netanyahu reposts days-old speech rejecting external pressure

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day for the six million Jews killed during World War II, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on May 5, 2024. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)

In what appears to be a response to US President Joe Biden’s decision to suspend key weapons shipments to Israel and his threat that more will follow, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posts on X footage of his speech at Yad Vashem earlier this week, in which he said that Israel will stand alone against Hamas if it must.

“Today, we again confront enemies bent on our destruction,” says Netanyahu in the clip from a Holocaust Remembrance Day event in Jerusalem. “I say to the leaders of the world — no amount of pressure, no decision from any international forum, will stop Israel from defending itself.”

“If Israel is forced to stand alone,” he pledges, “Israel will stand alone.”

He adds that “countless decent people around the world support our just cause.”

“We will defeat our genocidal enemies,” he continues. “Never again is now.”

pic.twitter.com/N3Mv1OF6e9

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 9, 2024

Asked if UK could freeze arms to Israel, Cameron says issue fundamentally different from US

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron describes Britain’s system and scale of arms exports to Israel as completely different from those of the United States, saying the sales it licenses are relatively small and policed by strict procedures.

Responding to a question on whether Britain will follow the US after the latter warned that it would withhold weapons from Israel in case of a major offensive in Rafah, Cameron says: “There’s a very fundamental difference between the US situation and the UK situation.”

“The US is a massive state supplier of weapons to Israel… We do not have a UK Government supply of weapons to Israel, we have a number of licenses, and I think our defense exports to Israel are responsible for significantly less than 1% of their total.”

Budget deficit jumps to 7% of GDP in April, above 2024 target

Israel’s fiscal deficit swelled to 7% of gross domestic product (GDP), or NIS 11.7 billion ($3.1 billion), in April over the prior 12 months, as the government pours billions of shekels into funding the ongoing war with the Hamas terror group, according to preliminary figures released by the Finance Ministry.

Israel, which posted a budget deficit of 4.2% in 2023, has set a deficit target of 6.6% of national output for 2024.

The April deficit widened from 6.2% of GDP in March, 5.6% in February, and 4.8% in January amid increased military and civilian spending and a decline in tax revenues.

Due to the Passover holiday, tax payments of an estimated NIS 4.8 billion were delayed from April to May, the ministry says. After taking into account the delayed tax payments, the April deficit rose to an estimated 6.7%, or NIS 6.9 billion of GDP.

In April, government expenditure amounted to NIS 48.2 billion, taking spending since the start of the year to NIS 195.3 billion, an increase of 36% compared with the same period in 2023. Military costs since the outbreak of the fighting with Hamas have ballooned to NIS 59.6 billion.

Government said set to decide today how to deal with new White House approach to war

This combination photo shows US President Joe Biden, left, on March 8, 2024, in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, October 28, 2023. (AP Photo)

The course of the continued fighting in Gaza and Lebanon, in the wake of the White House decision to halt some weapons shipments, will be determined during “fateful” war cabinet and security cabinet meetings this evening, the Israel Hayom daily reports, citing an unnamed Israeli official.

The official says that during a Sunday phone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden, the premier said Israel would “fight tooth and nail if it has to.”

“And he meant it,” stresses the official.

UNRWA: 80,000 have fled Rafah since Israel stepped up operations there

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants says that about 80,000 people have fled Rafah in the three days since Israel intensified military operations in the south Gaza city.

“Since Israeli forces military operation intensified on 6 May, around 80,000 people have fled Rafah, seeking refuge elsewhere,” UNRWA says on X, formerly Twitter, warning that “the toll on these families is unbearable. Nowhere is safe.”

Ahead of its 76th Independence Day, Israel’s population stands at 9.9 million

A fighter jet flies over the beach in Tel Aviv during Israel's 75th Independence Day celebrations, April 26, 2023. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)

Days ahead of its 76th Independence Day, Israel’s population stands at 9.9 million people, some 189,000 (1.9%) more than last year, according to a report by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

The CBS estimates that the population will hit the 10-million mark by the end of 2024.

The report says 7.247 million, or 73.2%, are Jews, 2.089 million (21.1%) are Arabs and the remaining 564,000 (5.7%) are categorized as “other.” Some 80% of Jewish Israelis are “sabras” — meaning they were born in Israel

Over the past year, about 196,000 babies have been born in the country, 37,000 people immigrated to it, and some 60,000 people have died, the report says, adding that additional factors affecting the population number are family unifications and Israelis staying abroad for over a year.

The report says 28% of Israelis are aged 0-14, while 12% are 65 and over.

Minister says Al Jazeera offices in Nazareth raided, equipment seized

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi tweets that he has ordered ministry inspectors to raid the Nazareth offices of Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera, in accordance with the recent government decision to halt the channel’s operation in the country.

Karhi says the inspectors along with police officers are seizing equipment.

“We won’t allow Hamas’s loudsspeaker to broadcast from Israel,” he says.

היום, הוריתי לפשוט על אולפני אלגזירה בנצרת. פקחי משרד התקשורת יחד עם החטיבה הטקטית של המחוז הצפוני במשטרה מחרימים שם ציוד כעת. לא נאפשר לשופר של החמאס לשדר מישראל.
תודה למשטרת ישראל ולצוותי המקצוע הנחושים במשרד התקשורת בראשות המנכ״לית. pic.twitter.com/HFqcEDTWmJ

— 🇮🇱שלמה קרעי – Shlomo Karhi (@shlomo_karhi) May 9, 2024

Despite Turkey’s Israel trade ban, Ankara has authorized some exports — reports

Despite Turkey’s decision announced last week to halt all exports and imports to Israel over the war against Hamas in Gaza, Ankara has temporarily authorized the renewed supply of construction materials to the Jewish state, the Globes business news site reports.

Citing unnamed Israeli and Turkish officials familiar with the matter, the report says Turkey’s Trade Ministry has sent letters announcing the decision to local factories that had worked with Israel before the export ban.

Other outlets later report similar details, with Channel 12 saying the renewed exports are for a period of three months.

The renewed permits are temporary and have only been granted to factories that previously worked with Israel, the report says, adding that senior Turkish trade officials met Trade Ministry officials yesterday and complained about the export ban.

Globes also says, without citing a source, that the Foreign Ministry and the Economy Ministry are working to end Israel’s dependence on Turkish imports in the long term, and that efforts are being made to strengthen ties with Greek and Cypriot suppliers.

Herzog pans Ben Gvir’s ‘insulting’ tweet, hails Biden as ‘a great friend of Israel’

File: President Isaac Herzog attends a ceremony in which Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron's tenure is extended for another five-year term, at the President's Residence, in Jerusalem, December 18, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/ FLASH90)

Repudiating National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s “irresponsible and insulting” criticism of US President Joe Biden, President Isaac Herzog calls the American leader “a great friend of the State of Israel.”

Speaking at a state ceremony commemorating the Allies’ victory over Nazi Germany, Herzog says that the event constitutes “a notable opportunity to thank the State of Israel’s allies also today, and especially our greatest ally the United States of America. I would like to say thank you to President Biden who is a great friend of the State of Israel, and who has proved as much from the first day of the war.”

In a swipe at Ben Gvir, Herzog says that “in the context of this morning’s news, it is important for me to say that even when there are disagreements and moments of disappointment between friends and allies, the disputes should be resolved in a certain way, and it is beholden upon all of us to avoid baseless, irresponsible and insulting statements and tweets that harm the national security and the interests of the State of Israel.”

Responding to the US president’s threat to withhold arms in the event of a full-on Rafah incursion, Ben Gvir had tweeted that “Hamas loves Biden.”

Victory Day, marked in Russia on May 9, is the country’s most important secular holiday, commemorating the Soviet Red Army’s determination and losses in World War II.

Israel also holds events on that day for immigrants from Russia and former Soviet countries, military veterans among them. The UK, the US, France and other countries hold Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) on May 8, when Germany officially surrendered to the Allied forces.

Israel decries EU official who falsely claimed ‘Hamas accepted, Israel rejected’ truce deal

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell attends a meeting with European and Arab foreign ministers held in Riyadh on April 29, 2024. (Fayez Nureldine / AFP)

Israel calls remarks on Tuesday from EU foreign policy Josep Borrell blaming Israel for “rejecting” Hamas’s ceasefire proposal “a dangerous mix of ignorance, hostility and legitimization of terrorism.”

“In the midst of the negotiations for the release of the 132 hostages and to achieve humanitarian relief, Hamas chose to launch rocket fire towards the Kerem Shalom humanitarian crossing area, killing four Israeli soldiers,” writes Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein on X. “The rocket fire that killed the four Israelis was launched from Rafah.

“The organization that fires at the humanitarian crossing in attempts to kill the deal for the release of the hostages and humanitarian relief is the Hamas terrorist organization,” he continues.

Ahead of a meeting in Brussels of EU foreign ministers, Borrell told reporters that “Hamas accepted, Israel rejected and the land offensive against Rafah has started again, in spite of all the requests of the international community – the United States, the EU member states, everybody asking Netanyahu not to attack Rafah.”

Marmorstein says that “accepting Hamas’s media manipulations encourages terrorism,” and pledges that Israel will continue working to secure the release of the hostages and to destroy Hamas.

While Hamas claimed to have “accepted” a deal outline, the US and others have admitted since that it was essentially a counter-proposal, with crucial changes from the Israeli offer it was responding to.

Military aircraft take to Jerusalem’s skies to prepare for Memorial Day flyby

The military aircraft Jerusalemites are hearing flying thunderously today above the capital are part of drills for a Memorial Day flyby next week.

The IDF said in a statement last night that jets and helicopters will be training throughout the day, and that this is not connected to any security-related incident.

Sunak urges end to ‘harassment and antisemitic abuse’ in UK campus encampments

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaves 10 Downing Street to go to the House of Commons for his weekly Prime Minister's Questions in London, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is calling for an end to “antisemitic abuse” at UK universities as anti-Israel protests against the war on Hamas in Gaza expand and the government tries to head off the type of unrest seen on American campuses in recent weeks.

The comments come as Sunak and his education secretary prepare to meet with university leaders today at the prime minister’s offices in Downing Street.

“A vocal minority on our campuses are disrupting the lives and studies of their fellow students and, in some cases, propagating outright harassment and antisemitic abuse,” Sunak says in a statement. “This has to stop.”

Anti-Israel protesters have begun building encampments at universities around the UK over the past two weeks as students and academics call on the institutions to cut ties with Israel over its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

About a dozen encampments have been built at universities including Oxford and Cambridge in recent days.

The number of antisemitic incidents on UK university campuses tripled last year as tensions rose over the war, according to the Communities Security Trust, which works to combat antisemitism in Britain.

Hiker, 29, dies after falling from height in Ramon Crater

A 29-year-old woman has been found dead at the Ramon Crater, likely after falling from a height, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

It says medics responding to a report this morning found the hiker with no vital signs and pronounced her dead.

Teachers Union announces brief strike for next week, threatens further measures

Secondary School Teachers’ Association chair Ran Erez speaks during a State Control Committee meeting at the Knesset, August 15, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The High School Teachers Union announces a two-hour strike, to take place from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. next Wednesday, May 15.

In a statement, union head Ran Erez says the action is in response to a push by the Knesset Finance Committee to initiate individual contracts for teachers for next year, instead of a collective salary agreement.

This move is an effort to “transform teachers into contractor employees… the first step in the privatization of the education system,” Erez claims in a Facebook post on the union’s page.

In a separate statement, the union says that if the matter is not resolved, it will continue “low-key” strikes until the end of the school year, in order to not disrupt graduations and other activities, but will prepare to “not start the school year” in the fall, a threat of a full walk-out.

Israeli broadcaster complains to Eurovision organizers, urges end to political displays

Israel's contestant Eden Golan performs the song 'Hurricane' during the dress rehearsal for the second semifinal at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, May 8, 2024. (Martin Meissner/AP)

The Kan public broadcaster, which organizes Israel’s participation in the Eurovision, says that it has complained to the European Broadcasting Union and the Swedish public broadcaster about the boos heard during Eden Golan’s dress rehearsal performance yesterday, as well as the pro-Palestinian messages included in the first semifinal on Tuesday night.

Kan “requested that EBU and SVT work to prevent a repeat of instances like this, and demanded that they allow Israel to compete fairly in tonight’s semifinal.”

At yesterday’s semifinal dress rehearsal, loud boos were heard in the audience when Golan took the stage and when she switched into Hebrew for the final lines of her song, “Hurricane,” though they were also accompanied by cheers for the Israeli contestant. Anti-Israel activists have been rallying unsuccessfully for months to have the Jewish state banned from the competition.

In the first semifinal, opening act Eric Saade wore a keffiyeh around his wrist as a form of protest, which was later condemned by the EBU; Irish entry Bambie Thug says they were forced by the EBU to remove pro-Palestinian writing from their face and leg; and Australian musician Fred Leone says he wore body paint resembling a watermelon as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. Political symbols are barred from the contest.

The second semifinal will begin at 9 p.m. Swedish time (10 p.m. Israel time) this evening. Voters in non-Eurovision participating countries can already cast their votes at www.esc.vote.

Israeli strike in Lebanon kills four Hezbollah members — security sources

An Israeli airstrike on a car in southern Lebanon has killed four people, according to Lebanon’s civil defense, with security sources saying those killed were members of terror group Hezbollah.

Israel has used artillery, drones and warplanes against targets in southern Lebanon, including to strike fighters from Hezbollah and other armed groups. Fighters in Lebanon have launched rockets and their own drones into northern Israel.

The Israeli military does not immediately reply to a request for comment on today’s strikes.

Lebanon’s civil defense rescue force says it has pulled four bodies out of a car that had been scorched by an Israeli strike. Two security sources tell Reuters the four killed are members of Hezbollah.

Activists for hostages continue to block Gaza aid trucks near Eilat, Mitzpe Ramon

Activists from the Tzav 9 group say they have continued to attempt to block humanitarian aid trucks on their way to the Gaza Strip overnight and this morning.

The activists say that Hamas must release the 132 hostages it is holding before any aid enters the enclave. Its actions have drawn international anger, from the United States and Jordan.

Overnight, the group said some 500 people, including relatives of hostages, blocked trucks near Eilat and delayed them for a few hours.

In the morning, activists blocked trucks near Mitzpe Ramon.

לאחר שחסמו במהלך הלילה משאיות באילת: מפגינים חוסמים את תנועת משאיות הסיוע ההומניטרי לרצועת עזה במצפה רמון @Itsik_zuarets pic.twitter.com/EiAJPRiDhv

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 9, 2024

“We’re shifting gear. We want the hostages home. No aid passes until the last hostage returns,” says the group.

Authorities — facing intense international pressure to facilitate aid — have been dispersing the crowds and ensuring that the shipments eventually reach their destination.

Labor chief: Netanyahu government continuously harming Israel’s strategic standing

Labor party leader MK Merav Michaeli leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on January 29, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Outgoing Labor party chief Merav Michaeli slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hard-right coalition following US President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold arms in the event of a full-on Rafah incursion.

“Netanyahu and his government continue to make Israel’s strategic situation worse and take us closer and closer to existential danger,” she tweets.

“This is what Netanyahu has done throughout his time in office. Now it is out in the open for all to see, and his sidekick is an embarrassing hilltop youth who only knows how to shout ‘I’m the boss around here,'” she writes, referring to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s tweet that “Hamas loves Biden.”

“Netanyahu is dangerous to Israel,” Michaeli adds.

Following Ben Gvir’s post, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declared that “if Netanyahu does not fire Ben Gvir today, he is endangering every soldier in the IDF and every citizen in the State of Israel.”

Senior Israeli official says US arms holdup may force change in Gaza plans

The US decision to withhold weapons from Israel over its Rafah attack plans could force Israel to alter its operational plans, the Kan public broadcaster quotes an unnamed senior Israeli official as saying.

The official adds that Israel may be compelled to lead “armament economics,” meaning to conserve ammunition to ensure it does not run out.

Smotrich urges takeover of Rafah in face of intense international pressure to ‘surrender’

Finance Minister and Head of the Religious Zionism party Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, April 30, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Decrying what he describes as international pressure on Israel to “surrender,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls for the complete conquest of Rafah despite strong American opposition.

“On the eve of our 76th Independence Day, we are reminded that our War of Independence is not yet over,” he says in a statement responding to US President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold arms in the event of a full-on incursion into Hamas’s last remaining major stronghold in the Gaza Strip.

“We had to make the very declaration of the establishment of the state despite the determined opposition of [George] Marshall, the secretary of state of the Truman administration, and despite the arms embargo imposed by the US on the newly formed state, and we must continue this war until victory, despite — and to a certain extent precisely because of — the opposition of the Biden administration and the stopping of arms shipments. We simply have no other choice that does not endanger our existence and security.”

It is now critical to “continue the war in Gaza until the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages. This involves fully conquering Rafah here and now,” Smotrich continues, adding that it is necessary “to maintain our unity at all costs.”

“Only together can we stand against our enemies and against the great international pressures that are being exerted on us to surrender,” the far-right minister states.

Right-wing MKs continue torrent of furious reactions to Biden’s remarks

Rank-and file-lawmakers on the right react furiously to US President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold arms in the event of a full-on Rafah incursion.

Religious Zionism MK Ohad Tal blasts the “gap between the beautiful words that President Biden said just this week about not forgetting the horrors of October 7, and [his] actions,” accusing him of “failing to make the right choice” between “absolute evil and good.”

In his Holocaust Remembrance Day speech on Tuesday, Biden said that “just seven and a half months later, and people are already forgetting, they’re already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror, that it was Hamas that brutalized Israelis, that it was Hamas that took and continues to hold hostages.”

According to the Associated Press, the president delayed announcing his new policy on arming Israel until after his speech.

“President Biden’s stance on Rafah and conditional weapons sales not only jeopardizes Israel but the entire free world,” says freshman Likud lawmaker Dan Illouz.

“Since October 7, Israel has valiantly led the global fight for freedom. His policy risks undermining our vital battle against the horrific terrorist organization Hamas, thereby threatening global security and emboldening terrorism worldwide.”

Netanyahu, Gantz, Lapid sign pledge to keep political rifts out of Memorial Day events

IDF soldiers place Israeli flags on graves of soldiers during a flag-laying ceremony at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, ahead of Memorial Day, May 8, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other national leaders have signed a public pledge to “preserve the sanctity” of Memorial Day for the country’s fallen soldiers and terror victims.

“The last few months have been some of the most difficult that the State of Israel has known since its establishment 76 years ago,” says the letter, composed by Yad Labanim chairman Eli Ben-Shem.

“Many families have joined the bereavement family and this is their first Memorial Day. God forbid we add to the pain during these difficult days.”

“For their sake, so that we may be worthy of their heroism, their sacrifice and their memory, we call on you to leave the disputes outside the military cemeteries and avoid arguments over the graves of the young women and men.”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid signed the letter on Tuesday, followed by Netanyahu, war cabinet minister Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Israel Hayom reports.

Some politicians and family members of victims of the October 7 Hamas massacre have asked government ministers and lawmakers to refrain from speaking at the various ceremonies on May 12-13, citing concerns that the day will be tainted by the presence of politicians, whom many blame for the failures surrounding the unprecedented Hamas terror assault.

Lapid calls on PM to fire Ben Gvir over ‘Hamas loves Biden’ tweet

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir after he tweeted “Hamas loves Biden.”

“If Netanyahu does not fire Ben Gvir today, he is endangering every soldier in the IDF and every citizen in the State of Israel,” Lapid declares in a statement.

Ben Gvir was responding to US President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold arms in the event of a full-on Rafah incursion.

FM Katz: Israel to keep fighting until Hamas eliminated; Ben Gvir: Hamas loves Biden

Foreign Minister Israel Katz in Jerusalem, February 19, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Foreign Minister Israel Katz writes on X that “Israel will continue to fight Hamas until its destruction” after US President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold arms in the event of a full-on Rafah incursion.

“There is no war more just than this,” Katz adds.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir simply tweets: “Hamas loves Biden.”

Hamas ❤️Biden

— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) May 9, 2024

Yemen’s Houthis say they targeted ships in Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have targeted two ships, the MSC DEGO and the MSC GINA, in the Gulf of Aden using a number of ballistic missiles and drones, the group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree says in a televised speech.

Saree says the group has also targeted the MSC VITTORIA in the Indian Ocean and again in the Gulf of Aden.

Trump: Biden siding with Hamas, leading world ‘straight into World War III’

Former US president Donald Trump, followed by his attorney Todd Blanche, walks to speak to reporters following the day's proceedings in his trial, May 7, 2024, in New York. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)

Former US president and current GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump lambastes President Joe Biden for his conditioning of American arms and support on Israel refraining from a full incursion into Rafah, alleging that Biden is taking Hamas’s side in the conflict and “leading the world straight into World War III.”

In a post on his Truth Social network, Trump claims “Crooked Joe is taking the side of these terrorists” — referring to Hamas — “just like he has sided with the Radical Mobs taking over our college campuses, because his donors are funding them.

“Biden is weak, corrupt, and leading the world straight into World War III,” he says, claiming once again that the Israel-Hamas war wouldn’t have been started had he been president.

Lebanese media reports alleged Israeli strike on vehicle

Lebanese media reports an alleged Israeli strike on a vehicle in the southern Lebanon village of Bafliyeh.

No further details are immediately available.

استهداف سيارة في بافليه pic.twitter.com/qOuD25PHyH

— bintjbeil.org (@bintjbeilnews) May 9, 2024

IDF confirms it launched new raid in Gaza City’s Zeitoun to clear it of Hamas infrastructure

The Israeli military confirms it launched a new pinpoint raid in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood overnight, which it says is aimed at “the continued dismantling of terror infrastructure and eliminating terrorists in the area.”

Ahead of the raid carried out by the 99th Division, the Israeli Air Force struck some 25 sites in the area, including buildings used by terror groups, attack tunnels, observation posts, sniper positions and other infrastructure, the IDF says.

The military says troops of the Nahal Brigade, Yiftah Brigade and Carmeli Brigade then entered the neighborhood and are working to clear it of Hamas infrastructure.

The IDF first operated in Zeitoun at the start of Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza last year. It launched another two-week-long raid in the Gaza City neighborhood in late February.

לוחמי צה"ל ושב"כ פתחו במבצע בהובלת אוגדה 99, במרחב זיתון שבמרכז הרצועה, להמשך פירוק תשתיות טרור וחיסול מחבלים במרחב>> pic.twitter.com/mmIVPrMwWA

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 9, 2024

Far-right minister likens Biden’s threat to Britain’s Munich pact with Nazi Germany

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu attends the funeral of Israeli soldier Moshe Yedidia Leiter, at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem on November 12, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party reacts to US President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold relevant arms if Israel assaults Rafah, likening it to former UK prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 Munich Agreement with Nazi Germany.

“Joe Biden can be [Winston] Churchill but he is choosing to be Chamberlain, he chooses dishonour and will get both dishonour and war,” Eliyahu tweets, quoting Churchill’s famous critique of Chamberlain.

Meanwhile, Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman reposts Mitt Romney’s statement that “Biden’s dithering on Israel weapons is bad policy and a terrible message to Israel, our allies, and the world.”

Adviser to Khamenei: Iran will build a nuclear bomb if its existence is ‘threatened’

Iran will have to “change” its nuclear doctrine if its existence is threatened by Israel, says an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Kamal Kharrazi, raising renewed concerns about an Iranian nuclear program that Israel and others say has been focused for decades on producing an atomic weapon anyway.

“We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Kharrazi says, as reported by Iran’s Student News Network, adding that Tehran has already signaled it has the potential to build such weapons.

“In the case of an attack on our nuclear facilities by the Zionist regime, our deterrence will change,” Kharrazi adds.

In April, Iran and Israel reached their highest level of tensions, with Tehran directly launching about 300 missiles and drones against Israel as retaliation for a suspected deadly Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Damascus.

Iran has for many years been threatening to destroy Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities, and it has been enriching uranium to levels that have no civilian use.

Lapid blames Netanyahu’s ‘failed management’ for Biden’s new stance

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid leads Yesh Atid faction meeting at the Knesset on April 15, 2024. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid claims that US President Joe Biden’s threat to halt weapons transfers if Israel assaults Gaza’s Rafah is a result of “the failed management of the government of Israel.”

Speaking to Radio 103FM, Lapid argues that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “moved the arguments to the public sphere,” adding: “The failure of this becoming a public disagreement during wartime is entirely on the government.”

“It wasn’t supposed to come to this,” he says. “The prime minister, one minute after the Americans give us $14 billion, stands at Yad Vashem on Holocaust Remembrance Day and says that ‘If Israel has to stand alone, it will stand alone.’ The Americans were offended by this.”

Syrian state media reports Israeli strike in Damascus, acknowledges ‘material losses’

Syrian media says Israeli fighter jets struck a building in southern Syria, on the outskirts of Damascus, early this morning.

The state-run SANA broadcaster, citing a military source, claims some of the Israeli missiles were downed by Syrian air defenses, and the attack caused “some material losses.”

Biden’s remark ‘very disappointing,’ Jews now ‘hesitant’ to vote Democrat — Israel’s UN envoy

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East at UN headquarters in New York City on April 18, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP)

In perhaps the first reaction by an Israeli official to US President Joe Biden’s dramatic statement that Jerusalem must choose between US arms and a full Rafah offensive, UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan says it’s a “difficult and very disappointing remark.”

Speaking to Kan public radio, Erdan says: “Of course any pressure on Israel is interpreted by our enemies as something that gives them hope. There are many Jewish Americans who voted for the president and for the Democratic Party, and now they are hesitant.”

Palestinian media reports IDF tanks advancing into Gaza City neighborhood amid strikes

Palestinian media report a series of airstrikes and the advancement of tanks into Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood overnight.

The reports come after the IDF issued a rare announcement saying it was carrying strikes against Hamas positions in the central Gaza Strip.

Pro-Israel Democrats slam Biden’s threat to stop arms transfers if Israel enters Rafah

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., holds a small Israeli flag as he heads to the chamber for a vote, at the Capitol in Washington, January 25, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Prominent pro-Israel Democrats criticize US President Joe Biden for threatening to halt the transfer of offensive weaponry to Israel if the IDF carries out an offensive in Rafah.

“Hard disagree and deeply disappointing,” says US Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

Representative Ritchie Torres of New York told Axios he suspects Biden is “pandering to the far left.”

“It looks like election year politics was driving it. That’s my impression,” he adds. “I’d like the president to do right by Israel and recognize that the far left is not representative of the rest of the country.”

Torres also put out a statement on X slamming the move, saying the administration’s “mixed messaging makes a mockery of our credibility as an ally.”

“No one will take our word seriously,” he writes, noting the US president’s previous pledges of “ironclad” support for Israeli security.

IDF announces soldier was killed in Hezbollah attack on army post in north

Staff Sgt. Haim Sabach, who was killed in a Hezbollah attack on an army post near the northern community of Malkia on May 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

An Israeli soldier was killed in a Hezbollah mortar and missile attack on an army position near the northern community of Malkia yesterday, the military announces.

The slain soldier is named as Staff Sgt. Haim Sabach, 20, of the Border Defense Corps’ 869th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit, from Holon.

Another soldier was lightly hurt in the attack, the IDF adds.

32 arrested after protesters clash with Dutch police in latest unrest at U of Amsterdam

Dutch Police officers try to stop demonstrators on the Rokin, who support pro-Palestinian students occupying the University of Amsterdam, as they continue their protest calling for the university to sever all ties with Israel because of war against Hamas in Gaza, on May 8, 2024. (Ramon van Flymen/AFP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dutch riot police clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters as officers moved in to clear barricades at the University of Amsterdam, scene of upheaval since Monday.

Police say they arrested 32 people for “violence, destruction, assault and incitement” at the university and on a major thoroughfare in the center of the Dutch capital.

Local television images show dozens of police dressed in riot gear exchanging blows with a group of protesters as officers clear out an area in front of the Binnengasthuis building in Amsterdam’s city center.

Police said the protesters then blocked a major local road called the Rokin where violence also broke out, adding demonstrators “threw ammonia at riot police.”

Students are demanding that the University of Amsterdam (UvA) sever ties with Israel over the war against Hamas in Gaza and are inspired by ongoing demonstrations at US campuses.

A little before midnight, Amsterdam police said on X that the situation was “calm” and most of the protesters had left the area.

They had previously said the clearance “operation has been authorized by the mayor” after the UvA laid charges including disturbing the peace and destruction of property.

Police say the protesters were not just students, but also included people “who were not affiliated to the university and were deliberately seeking conflict with the police.”

The protests started at the university on Monday. At least 169 people have been arrested.

The Amsterdam city council is due to have an emergency debate about the ongoing demonstrations on Friday.

Protesters were also gathering elsewhere in the Netherlands, including at the Utrecht University campus, reports say.

Top GOP lawmakers: Bomb shipment holdup ‘calls into question’ Biden’s commitment to Israeli security

US President Joe Biden (L) and House Speaker Mike Johnson hold images of Holocaust victims during the annual Days of Remembrance ceremony for Holocaust survivors at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on May 7, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP)

US House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell slam US President Joe Biden’s decision last week to hold up the transfer of bombs to Israel, saying the move “flies in the face of assurances provided regarding the timely delivery of security assistance to Israel.”

In a joint letter sent to Biden, the top Republican lawmakers note the move will not impact the billions in military aid to Israel recently passed by Congress, but say “security assistance to Israel is an urgent priority that must not be delayed.”

“These recent press reports and pauses in critical weapons shipments call into question your pledge that your commitment to Israel’s security will remain ironclad,” the two write.

Johnson and McConnell say they only learned of the holdup from media reports and call for the US public to be looped in about “the nature, timing, and scope of these reviews.” They also say the State Department and Pentagon have not supplied them with “pertinent information… regarding the ongoing review.”

“Israel faces an existential and multi-front threat as recently demonstrated by the direct attack by Iran and Iranian-backed terrorists, and daylight between the United States and Israel at this dangerous time risks emboldening Israel’s enemies and undermining the trust that other allies and partners have in the United States,” they add. “We believe security assistance to Israel, Ukraine, and vulnerable partners in the Indo-Pacific should be expedited to the fullest extent possible.”

I joined @LeaderMcConnell today in calling on the Biden Administration to immediately expedite security assistance to Israel: pic.twitter.com/uXKlSkeMld

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) May 8, 2024

‘We’ll help you get Sinwar,’ Biden recalls telling Netanyahu shortly after October 7

US President Joe Biden says he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after October 7, “We’ll help you get Sinwar.”

“We will help you focus on getting the bad guys,” Biden recalls having told Netanyahu during his visit to Israel less than two-weeks after Hamas’s terror onslaught.

Biden then repeats the rest of the message he gave to Israeli leaders, which he shared publicly several times in the months since.

“When I went over [to Israel] immediately after that happened, I said to Bibi, ‘Don’t make the same mistake we made in America [after 9/11],” Biden tells CNN.

He says it “made sense” for the US to go into Afghanistan to pursue Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, but “it made no sense to try to unify Afghanistan.”

“It made no sense in my view to engage in thinking that in Iraq they had a nuclear weapon,” adds Biden, who voted in favor of the 2003 invasion before later turning against the war.

Biden calls for Netanyahu to outline plans for post-war governance in Gaza

US President Joe Biden (right) is greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion International Airport, October 18, 2023. (Evan Vucci/AP)

US President Joe Biden urges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to plan for who will govern Gaza after the war, highlighting a bitter point of contention between the US and the premier, who has refused to hold substantive cabinet discussions on the matter due to concerns they could collapse his coalition.

Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have called for Israel to permanently occupy Gaza and re-establish settlements in the Palestinian territory. The premier has signaled his opposition to these steps, but has been criticized for blocking clear alternatives to Hamas’s rule, such as a reformed Palestinian Authority, leaving US officials concerned that Gaza will either remain in Hamas’s hands or will be governed by anarchy.

“We’ve got to think through what is happening after this is over [in Gaza]. Who is going to occupy Gaza?” Biden says in a CNN interview.

He then speaks of the US post-war vision, saying he has the support of five Arab but declines to name  them”because I don’t want to get them in trouble.” Biden appears to be referring to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar, whose leaders have held several summits along with representatives from the Palestinian Authority aimed at crafting a regional peace plan that can be implemented after the war. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has held several joint meetings with his counterparts in those five countries.

Biden reveals that the leaders of those five Arab countries “are prepared to help rebuild Gaza, prepared to help transition to a two-state solution… to maintain the security and peace while they’re working out a Palestinian Authority that’s real and not corrupt.”

The countries have all clarified that any financial or military assistance that they’ll provide to help revive Gaza after the war will be conditioned on Israel agreeing to create a pathway for an eventual two-state solution — something that Netanyahu has rejected out of hand.

Biden says he ‘absolutely’ hears anti-Israel student protests but no place for antisemitism

US President Joe Biden is asked in the CNN interview whether he hears the message being shouted against his Israel policy at campus protests across the country.

“Absolutely,” he responds before reiterating the point he’s made twice this month. “There’s a legitimate right to free speech and protest… There’s not a legitimate right to use hate speech; there’s not a legitimate right to threaten Jewish students; there’s not a legitimate right to block people’s access to class. That’s against the law.”

Biden then appears to begin an argument that the anti-Israel campus protests are not as representative as some have portrayed.

“If you look at the data, these demonstrations are real, but they’re not nearly…” Biden says before shifting his response to reference the speech he gave earlier this week condemning the antisemitic undertones of the campus protests.

“I made a speech on Holocaust Day and pointed out that it took seven decades to get to the place where after the Holocaust occurred, and there’s still antisemitism. Look what’s happened in seven [months]… Everybody’s sort of forgotten about what happened in Israel. Those 1,200 young kids murdered. I saw pictures… [of] a mother and her daughter being roped together and then kerosene poured and burned to death. Nothing like this has happened to the Jewish community since the Holocaust,” he says.

Biden says Israel has ‘not yet’ crossed his red line in Gaza

US President Joe Biden clarifies that while he is “not walking away from Israel’s security. We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in [populated] areas.”

Asked in a CNN interview if Israel has crossed his red line regarding its conduct in Gaza, Biden says “not yet,” but notes that last week he held up the transfer of thousands of 2,000 and 500-pound bombs to Israel due to concerns they could be used in Rafah.

IDF announces overnight strikes on Hamas targets in central Gaza

In an overnight announcement, the Israel Defense Forces says it’s currently striking Hamas targets in the central Gaza Strip.

A statement from the military says more details will be released soon.

Biden threatens to halt transfer of offensive weapons to Israel if IDF enters Rafah

US President Joe Biden meets with campaign volunteers at the Dr. John Bryant Community Center, May 8, 2024, in Racine, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

US President Joe Biden says his administration will not support Israel or provide it with offensive weapons if it launches an offensive against Hamas in populated parts of Rafah.

“I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support if they go [into] these population centers,” Biden tells CNN in an interview.

The interview marks Biden’s toughest public comments yet about the potential Israeli military operation in Rafah, amid concerns in Washington that Israel is not planning to heed its warnings against an offensive that the administration says fails to take into account the over one million Palestinians sheltering in Gaza’s southernmost city.

The remarks also appear to be a threat by Biden to make permanent the hold his administration placed last week on a transfer of heavy bombs, citing concerns that they could be used by Israel in densely populated areas of Rafah like they have in other parts of Gaza.

“I made it clear that if they go into – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — [then] I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem,” Biden says, arguing that the operation launched by the IDF earlier this week was limited to the Rafah border crossing, even though “it’s causing problems with Egypt… which I’ve worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help.”

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which [Israel] goes after population centers,” Biden says, referencing the 2,000-pound bombs that his administration held up last week.

Biden clarifies that the US will continue supplying Israel with Iron Dome missile interceptors and other defensive weapons to ensure that Jerusalem can respond to attacks from adversaries across the region, such as last month’s massive missile and drone barrage from Iran.

“But it’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells,” Biden asserts.

Senior Hamas figure says terror group sticking to its terms for truce deal

Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq (photo credit: PressTV, YouTube screen capture)

Hamas has remained steadfast to its position toward a hostages-for-truce proposal and sticks to its approval of it, a member of the terror group’s political bureau, Izzat al-Rishq, says in a statement.

Reshiq’s comments came as Cairo hosted new talks attended by delegations from Hamas, Israel, the United States and Qatar in an attempt to conclude a deal.

The terms that Hamas said Monday it had accepted differ in key aspects from a proposal that Israel approved, with officials in the terror group claiming the deal would yield an end to the war. Israel however has said repeatedly that it will not accept a deal that involves ending the war and that it fully intends to resume its campaign to destroy Hamas once any deal has been carried out.

Ohio AG warns masked students protesting against Israel could be charged under anti-KKK law

FILE - Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost speaks during an election night watch party, November 8, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete, File)

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s top lawyer has advised the state’s public universities that a law written to deter Ku Klux Klan demonstrations could be used to impose felony charges on students who wear face coverings while protesting against Israel amid its war with Hamas in Gaza.

In a letter sent after weeks of pro-Palestinian campus protests around the country, Republican Attorney General Dave Yost advises the presidents of Ohio’s 34 public, four-year universities — which his office represents — to forewarn students about the 1953 law.

“In our society, there are few more significant career-wreckers than a felony charge,” the letter says. “I write to you today to inform your student bodies of an Ohio law that, in the context of some behavior during the recent pro-Palestinian protests, could have that effect.”

The law is contained in a single sentence: “No person shall unite with two or more others to commit a misdemeanor while wearing white caps, masks, or other disguise.” Violating this “anti-disguise” law is punishable by a fourth-degree felony charge, up to $5,000 in fines and five years on community control, Yost writes.

Protesters around the US and the world have increasingly taken steps to remain anonymous by wearing a combination of head and face coverings. Some are religious hijabs or medical masks used to prevent exposure to COVID-19 and other viruses.

Yost, a fourth-term state official who is considering a run for governor in 2026, writes that students should protest “within the bounds of the law,” not commit crimes, not use the First Amendment as “a sword against fellow students,” and “own their advocacy and avoid wearing masks.”

Bethany McCorkle, a spokesperson for Yost’s office, says the letter regarding the “disguise law” is not a response to any specific request for legal advice by the universities.

“The letter was proactive guidance to universities that he is counsel for to make sure no one becomes an unintentional felon,” she says in a text message.

Students at Irish college end anti-Israel encampment, say school agreed to divestment demands

Illustrative: People walk around the grounds of Trinity College Dublin on March 12, 2020. (Paul Faith/AFP)

DUBLIN — Students at Ireland’s prestigious Trinity College Dublin (TCD) on Wednesday end a five-day-long protest against Israel’s actions in Gaza amid the war against the Hamas terror group, as they say their demands were met by the university leadership.

In a statement posted on its website, the university says that “an agreement was reached” after “successful talks between the university’s senior management and the protestors.”

Laszlo Molnarfi, president of the institution’s student union, says TCD’s statement is a “testament to grassroots student-staff power.”

The camp would be brought to an end Wednesday evening, he tells public broadcaster RTE.

TCD says that the university “will complete a divestment from investments in Israeli companies that have activities in the occupied Palestinian Territory and appear on the UN blacklist in this regard.”

Student activists began the protest on Friday as a “solidarity encampment with Palestine” echoing similar protests on US campuses.

Molnarfi on Saturday said that the protest would continue until the university severs any relationships it has with Israel.

Dozens of students pitched tents on one of the main squares at the university, and piled benches to block the entrance to a library that houses the world-famous ninth century gospel manuscript Book of Kells, one of Dublin’s most popular tourist attractions.

Security staff closed the campus gates — which are usually open to the public — during the protest.

“With the encampment and blockade of the Book of Kells removed, plans are being put in place to return to normal university business for staff, students, and members of the public,” TCD says.

Last week the union was fined 214,000 euros ($230,000) by the university for loss of tourist revenue after disruptive protests this year over student fees, rent and the war in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian protests against Israel have rocked US campuses for weeks, spreading to countries including France and Australia.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.