Join our Community

Support ToI and remove all ads

Learn more

English
Français
עברית

Get The Daily Edition
Account
Sign In
- Sign in
- Join our Community

Open Search form

Israel & the Region
Jewish Times
Israel Inside
Tech Israel
Real Estate Israel
The Blogs
Podcasts
Video
Newsletters
Partners

Input search

English
Français
עברית

Latest Articles
Latest Alerts
Israel & the Region
Jewish Times
Israel Inside
Tech Israel
Real Estate Israel
The Blogs
Podcasts
Video
Newsletters
Partners
Community
- Join our community
- Sign in
- About The Times of Israel
- Advertise on The Times of Israel
- Contact us
- Download our App
  - For IOS users
  - For Android users
- Get the Daily Edition
- Follow us
- © 2026 The Times of Israel , All Rights Reserved
  
  Terms and conditions Privacy policy Your Privacy Rights

Input search

The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Friday, March 20, 2026

Facebook
Twitter

View previous edition

View next edition

This undated image released by US Navy shows an aerial view of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. (US Navy via AP)

Live updates (closed)

March 20: US reportedly draws up plans for ground op in Iran, detention of its forces

By Joshua Davidovich and ToI Staff

Iran launches 9 missile attacks at Israel on Friday, continues firing into Saturday * Hamas given proposal for gradual weapon handover in months-long process — officials

12:50 am

Former top US counterterrorism official denies improper sharing of classified intel
12:47 am

US has drawn up plans for ground op in Iran, CBS reports
12:38 am

Rocket sirens blare in Kiryat Shmona, nearby northern communities

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on March 19, 2026. (Photo by Ronen Zvulun / POOL / AFP) /

PM: Israel seeing cracks in 'rotten wood' of Iranian regime

On 20th day of war, Netanyahu says Iran can no longer enrich uranium, build missiles

By Lazar Berman and Stav Levaton

PM says ‘model ally’ Israel is ‘holding off’ further strikes on energy sites at Trump’s request, war will go on ‘as long as is necessary’ but be over ‘faster than people think’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on March 19, 2026. (Photo by Ronen Zvulun / POOL / AFP) /

Full textNetanyahu transcript: ‘We have to be more powerful than the barbarians, or they will crash our gates, destroy our societies’

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on March 19, 2026 (Mandel NGAN / AFP)

Hegseth calls IDF strike on gas field a ‘warning,’ as Trump says he told Netanyahu: ‘Don’t do that’

By Nava Freiberg, Emanuel Fabian, Diana Bletter and Agencies

IDF reveals it killed Basij intel chief

Fragment of downed Iranian missile impacts in Jerusalem’s Old City; Rehovot homes damaged

By Emanuel Fabian, Diana Bletter, Agencies and ToI Staff

Three missiles fired Friday had cluster warheads, causing mostly light injuries; IRGC spokesman denies PM’s claim on destroyed missile production capacity, is killed by the time he gets quoted

Israeli security personnel at the scene where a fragment from an intercepted Iranian ballistic missile impacted in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City on March 20, 2026, damaging a road and a wall. (IDF Spokesman)

Then-Mossad head David Barnea attends a ceremony held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, as Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day. April 23, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Mossad chief told PM before war that he thought Iran’s regime could be toppled – report

From Our SponsorMidtown Jerusalem

World-Class Living in the Heart of Jerusalem

Discover Midtown Jerusalem: Striking towers featuring fully furnished designer apartments, world-class amenities, and leisure areas. Experience luxury in the world’s most iconic city.

Despite IDF strikes, Iran’s feared Basij security forces still patrol Tehran’s streets

By Sarah El Deeb

Regime-loyal volunteers for highly decentralized force man dozens of checkpoints; over 100 Iranians arrested for alleged ties to enemy states, some for holding Starlink internet dishes

A poster of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the successor to his late father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supreme leader is placed on an anti-riot police car as policemen stand on top of the car, during a rally to support him in Tehran, Iran, March 9, 2026 (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman shops for flowers ahead of the Persian New Year, or Nowruz, in northern Tehran, Iran, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

‘Hope and fear’: Iranians celebrate new year darkened by losses of war, regime crackdown

By Susannah Walden

Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, dressed in an IRGC uniform, chairs a session in Tehran, Iran, on February 1, 2026. (Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA)/AFP)

After Larijani’s death, Iran’s hardline parliament speaker appears to be leading war effort

By Stuart Williams

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud attends the consultative ministrial meeting in Riyadh, on March 19, 2026 (Fayez Nureldine / AFP)

Saudi Arabia reserves right to take military action against Iran, foreign minister says

By AFP

Prince Faisal bin Farhan says Tehran’s targeting of Riyadh as Arab foreign ministers were meeting ‘is the clearest signal of how Iran feels about diplomacy’

Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, and French President Emmanuel Macron walk together as they arrive for the EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

European leaders call to cease all strikes on energy, water facilities in Middle East

By Sam McNeil and LORNE COOK

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Democrat-Washington, speaks during an event and memorial display calling for an end of the war in Iran, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 18, 2026. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Trump’s plan to seek $200 billion for Iran war faces stiff opposition in Congress

By Patricia Zengerle and Steve Holland

Excess gas is burned at the Bazan oil refinery in Israel's northern city of Haifa late on March 19, 2026 (Odd Andersen / AFP)

Haifa refinery says more missile attack damage found near site, but most production online

Facility will take ‘few days’ to restore after Thursday Iran strike; Haifa’s deputy mayor urges government to close refineries as soon as possible: ‘Playing Russian roulette with residents’ lives’

Security and rescue forces at the impact site of a rocket from Lebanon that hit a home in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, March 19, 2026. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

4 hurt as Hezbollah rocket hits Kiryat Shmona; Iran missile fragment hits Haifa oil refinery

By Emanuel Fabian, Sue Surkes and ToI Staff

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanon coastal city of Tyre's Al Hosh neighborhood, on March 19, 2026. (KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)

IDF strike injures journalists at Lebanon’s Litani, after army warning it would hit area

By Nurit Yohanan, Emanuel Fabian, ToI Staff and Agencies

Illustrative: An Iron Dome anti-missile system near the border with Lebanon, in northern Israel, April 7, 2023. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

Iron Dome reservist soldier indicted for spying for Iran

By Jeremy Sharon

Jerusalem resident Raz Cohen allegedly provided info on workings of interception system, locations of batteries and IAF bases to Iranian handler in return for $1,000 in crypto

Israeli security and rescue forces inspect the damage at the scene where a missile with cluster bombs fired from Iran at Israel killed two people and caused damage in Ramat Gan, central Israel, March 18, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

To conserve interceptors, IAF choosing not to shoot down some Iranian cluster bomblets

By Emanuel Fabian

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets community leaders as he is heckled by some in the crowd at Lakemba Mosque in western Sydney on March 20, 2026 (Screen grab/Sydney Morning Herald)

At Australia’s biggest mosque, Albanese heckled as ‘putrid dog, genocide supporter’ for Israel stance

By Reuters and ToI Staff

PM hails event as ‘incredibly positive,’ says some of the anger from worshipers stemmed from designation of Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terror group

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's international advisor Caroline Glick (courtesy)

Lazar Focus podcast

Caroline Glick: Why we went back to war in Iran

By Lazar Berman and Caroline Glick

In a special wartime episode, PM Netanyahu’s international adviser explains why the US and Israel decided to launch another campaign against Tehran, and what they aim to achieve

Avidan Freedman

A heartbreaking visit to Humsa

I am ashamed. My coreligionists perpetrated acts of violence too extreme to speak of against our Arab neighbors and we haven’t taken to the streets in protest

Before AI, there was the study hall

As algorithms dumb down the needs of scholarship, traditional Jewish textual analysis and argumentation may offer a way back. The Passover seder is a good model

A Vanguard-class submarine undergoes maintenance at HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane, north-west of Glasgow, Scotland, April 28, 2023. (Andy Buchanan / AFP)

UK cops arrest suspected Iranian spies for trying to enter nuclear submarine base

Arrests at base housing Britain’s nuclear-armed submarine fleet come amid rising Iran-linked threats in Britain, three weeks into the US-Israel war against the Islamic Republic

Inside story

As NYC Oct. 7 hate crime offenders get sentenced, a victim wonders what justice looks like

Assailants are set to have their records cleared, while a Jewish woman who was clawed just after start of the Hamas onslaught grapples with ongoing trauma

Illustrative: Police separate pro- and anti-Israel protesters in New York City, June 16, 2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

Rabbi Matt Cutler speaks with WNYT on March 12, 2026. (Courtesy Matt Cutler/ JTA)

Threatening messages, and an arrest, bring antisemitism close to home for a New York rabbi

By Grace Gilson

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks to reporters about the city's finances during a news conference in New York, February 17, 2026. (AP/Seth Wenig)

Mamdani announces pared-down NYC community safety office that will combat hate crimes

A photo of Temple Israel in Michigan shows the heavy damage inflicted on the synagogue in an attack carried out on March 12, 2026. (Emily Elconin/Temple Israel via Facebook)

A week later, Michigan synagogue targeted in attack releases photos of interior devastation

By AP and Luke Tress

Images show uneaten snacks laid out in early childhood education room, left untouched amid the scenes of destruction; scorched ceilings and walls across the rest of the synagogue

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, right, and his wife Rama Duwaji wave at members of media after a news conference at Gracie Mansion, January 12, 2026, in New York. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)

Mamdani’s wife backed Palestinian terrorism in old social media posts, report says

Board of Peace envoy: Gaza mediators have ‘framework’ to rebuild, but Hamas must disarm

By Jacob Magid and ToI Staff

Mladenov says reconstruction requires ‘full decommissioning by Hamas’; terror group says won’t respond to proposal until it sees outcome of Israeli-US war on Iranian regime

Nickolay Mladenov, high representative for the Board of Peace, speaks at the board's meeting during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 22, 2026. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

Inside story

As Iran war diverts attention from Gaza, Hamas police openly tighten grip on Strip

Footage shows the terror group’s civil force patrolling in the open and no longer hiding their faces, as they operate to control food prices amid shortages and allegedly stamp out critics

Hamas police officers in the streets of the Gaza Strip, as seen in footage published by the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. March 2026. (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Settlers drove an entire village into exile. Palestinians say the state is keeping them away

By Jeremy Sharon

After Jewish extremists attacked Khallet a-Sidra in January, all the residents fled. Now the IDF is barring them from returning, while their tormenters begin assaulting town next door

Youssef Zawahreh and his wife in their home in the Palestinian Bedouin hamlet of Khallet a-Sidra, allegedly burned down by extremist settlers on January 17, 2026. (Faiz Abu Rmeleh, B’Tselem)

Screen captures from a video of Iyad Arar, 60, collapsing during an alleged confrontation with extremist settlers in the central West Bank, March 19, 2026. (X. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Palestinian dies of heart attack during clash with settlers, as West Bank attacks persist

By Nurit Yohanan and ToI Staff

Mayor of Netu’a Yoav Cohen (left) poses with a worker at the moshav’s central chicken farm. (Theia Chatelle/ JTA)

'This time, there is no question, we will be staying'

Traumatized by their last evacuation, many in Israel’s north are staying put despite renewed danger

By Theia Chatelle

Residents ‘don’t have it in them to leave again,’ says one regional official, as fatigue from 16 months of displacement and economic turmoil supersedes concern over renewed Hezbollah fire

More Headlines

Airplanes depart from the Ben Gurion International Airport during the US-Israel war with Iran, March 16, 2026. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

In blow to Passover travel, Israeli airlines slash wartime flight availability

By Sharon Wrobel

Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot visits Kibbutz Yiftah near the Israeli border with Lebanon amid the ongoing war with Iran and Hezbollah, March 9, 2026. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

In first, poll shows Eisenkot’s party overtaking Bennett’s as potential leader of anti-Netanyahu bloc

By Tal Schneider and Ariela Karmel

Illustrative: An Iranian propaganda website displayed on a mobile phone, March 18, 2026. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Authorities warn Israelis of phishing attempt in fake Home Front Command messages

ToI diaspora reporter Zev Stub at Israel's Knesset, February 25, 2026 (Courtesy)

Times of Israel reporter among winners of award for Jewish Diaspora coverage

Rabbi Gesa Ederberg is installed as the president of the Rabbinical Assembly at Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck, New Jersey, March 11, 2026. (Courtesy RA via JTA)

Berlin rabbi makes history as first European to head Conservative rabbis’ association

By Toby Axelrod

Iran's forward Sardar Azmoun celebrates after scoring his team's first goal during the Qatar 2023 AFC Asian Cup semi-final football match between Iran and Qatar at al-Thumama Stadium in Doha on February 7, 2024 (Karim Jaafar / AFP)

Iranian soccer star Azmoun kicked off national team for perceived disloyalty – reports

The Israeli Premier League match between Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Jerusalem at the Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem on December 8, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

FIFA fines Israeli soccer for fans’ racism, but lets teams from settlements compete

Members of Iran's women's soccer team exit Turkey's Igdir airport, on March 18, 2026. (Ali IHSAN OZTURK / AFP)

Most of Iranian women’s soccer team arrives home to fanfare after asylum battle

By AFP

Joe Kent (l) sits for an interview with Tucker Carlson a day after resigning as director of President Trump's National Counterterrorism Center, March 18, 2026. (Screenshot via YouTube/ via JTA)

Joe Kent hints to Tucker Carlson that Israel may have killed Charlie Kirk to stoke Iran war

By Andrew Lapin

A repatriated dog after arriving at Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos on March 18, 2026, after being evacuated from Abu Dhabi amid the escalating US-Israeli conflict with Iran. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Fur-st classSpecial Greek flight airlifts pets and their owners from war-hit Mideast

By SRDJAN NEDELJKOVIC and Elena Becatoros

View Edition by Date

February	March 2026					April
Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa	Su
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31

The Times of Israel

Daily Edition

Free to Your Inbox

The email is either missing or invalid.

By signing up, you agree to our terms You hereby accept The Times of Israel Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, and you agree to receive the latest news & offers from The Times of Israel and its partners or ad sponsors.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Israel & the Region
Jewish Times
Israel Inside
Tech Israel
Real Estate Israel
The Blogs
podcasts
video

terms and conditions
privacy policy
Your Privacy Rights
about us
advertise with us
Jobs at The Times of Israel
contact us

Community

Join our community
Sign in

Get the Daily Edition

Enter your email address

Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Whatsapp Follow us on X Follow us on Youtube Follow us on Telegram Follow us on Threads Follow us on Bluesky

© 2026 The Times of Israel, all rights reserved

Concept, design & development by

Developed by

Powered by

Never miss breaking news on Israel

Get notifications to stay updated

You're subscribed

Register for free
and continue reading

Registering allows you to manage your newsletters and alerts and helps us improve your experience. It takes just a few seconds.
Already registered? Enter your email to sign in.

Email address

Please use the following structure: example@domain.com

Or Continue with

By registering you agree to the terms and conditions. Once registered, you’ll receive our Daily Edition email for free.

Send me The Times of Israel Daily Edition

Register to continue

Email address

Or Continue with

Log in to continue

Email address

Something went wrong.
Please try again in a few minutes..

Sign in or Register

Email address * Password *

Incorrect password. Please try again or choose an option below.

I forgot my password / Send me a sign in link

Or Continue with

check your email

Check your email

We sent an email to you at .

It has a link that will sign you in.

Click the link in that email to complete your registration.