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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 563

Michael Bachner

Michael Bachner

Michael Bachner is a news editor at The Times of Israel
Hamas operatives seen as aid trucks arrive in Rafah, Gaza Strip, January 21, 2025. (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)
April 17, 2025, 2:49 am
April 17: State Department spox avoids saying whether Israel should resume allowing Gaza aid
Hamas’s Gaza leader says terror group ready to negotiate deal that ends war, releases all captives * Trump: I wouldn’t say I waved off Israeli plan to attack Iran, but I’m not in rush to do it
By Michael Horovitz, Michael Bachner and ToI Staff
A boy inspects the auditorium in the heavily damaged Islamic University campus where Palestinian families took refuge, in Gaza City on April 16, 2025. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP)
April 16, 2025, 4:55 am
April 16: Israeli security officials said to believe food, aid in Gaza will last only another month
Shin Bet head Bar reportedly included in phone consultation despite feud with premier * Government urges High Court to nix order delaying Bar’s firing, argues it endangers security
By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff
Protesters demand the release of the hostages held captive by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, March 25, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 25, 2025, 3:14 am
March 25: Dermer and Netanyahu not speaking to hostage’s family, says mother
Freed captive in Berlin: Red Cross must visit those in captivity * Detained Oscar-winning Palestinian director is released * US intel: Iran isn’t building a nuclear weapon
By Michael Bachner, ToI Staff and Michael Horovitz
Troops of the Gaza Division operate in the southern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued by the military on March 19, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
March 19, 2025, 4:19 am
March 19: Coalition defeats bill seeking to form state inquiry into Oct. 7 failures
Amid widening ‘Qatargate’ probe of his aides, Netanyahu rails against ‘Deep State’ in Israel and US; Lapid: He has ‘gone off the rails’ * 2 suspects in case grilled by police
By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff
Israelis attend a rally against government moves to fire Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, at Habima Square, March 18, 2025. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
March 18, 2025, 6:20 am
March 18: Tens of thousands in Tel Aviv protest government bids to oust AG, Shin Bet chief
Foreign minister says he compared attorney general to kamikaze pilot in scathing missive * Cabinet votes to bring Ben Gvir back into government * IDF strikes reported in Syria’s Homs
By Michael Bachner and Jacob Magid
US President Donald Trump meets with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 12, 2025. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
March 12, 2025, 1:10 am
March 12: Hamas official welcomes Trump’s assertion that Palestinians won’t be expelled
Ultra-Orthodox students from state-funded yeshiva filmed singing against enlistment in ‘infidel’ army * Judge extends ban on Columbia anti-Israel activist’s deportation from US
By Jacob Magid and Michael Bachner
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, right, greets Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during the emergency Arab summit at Egypt's New Administrative Capital, just outside Cairo, March 4, 2025. (Egyptian Presidency Media Office via AP)
March 4, 2025, 2:09 am
March 4: PA’s Abbas welcomes Egyptian plan to rebuild Gaza, urges Trump to back it
Shin Bet probe on Oct. 7 acknowledges agency’s failures in run-up to onslaught, but largely point blame outwards; PM’s office: Ronen Bar ‘completely failed’ to warn of Hamas attack
By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff
A Red Cross vehicle in Gaza ahead of the release by Hamas of four slain hostages and by Israel of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, February 26, 2025. (Screenshot: X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
February 26, 2025, 4:24 am
Feb. 26: He was ‘sacrificed on a political altar,’ says brother of slain hostage Itzik Elgarat
Trump: ‘Vicious’ Hamas thinks ‘they’re doing us a favor by sending us bodies’ * Freed captive Liri Albag: Hamas tried to prevent us from celebrating Jewish festivals; we did anyway
By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff
The six hostages released on February 22, 2025 reunite with their families. Top row from left: Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, Avera Mengistu. Bottom row from left: Hisham al-Sayed, Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham. (IDF)
February 22, 2025, 11:34 pm
Hostages were chained, starved, kept in pitch black; some return almost unresponsive
Hamas made 2 hostages not going free watch release ceremony from a vehicle near the stage; Omer Shem Tov, abducted from Nova festival, was held alone in a tunnel for some 450 days
By Emanuel Fabian, Lazar Berman, Michael Bachner, Charlie Summers, Leon Kraiem and ToI Staff
Israeli hostages, from left to right, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem and Omer Wenkert, are told to show Hamas issued certificates by before being handed over to the Red Cross in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, February 22, 2025. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)
February 22, 2025, 5:02 am
Feb. 22: Netanyahu delays planned prisoner release until Hamas ends ‘demeaning ceremonies’
PM alleges terror group violating deal, demands guarantees after caskets of murdered Bibas kids put on display in Gaza, captives forced to watch others go free for propaganda
By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff
The shell of a bus after it was blown up by an explosive device in a Bat Yam bus parking lot, February 20, 2025. (Israel Fire and Rescue Authority)
February 20, 2025, 3:51 am
Feb. 20: IDF to step up counterterror op in some West Bank areas after attempted bus bombings
None hurt as 3 bombs explode on empty buses in Tel Aviv area, 2 others disabled * Israel: PIJ murdered Oded Lifshitz in captivity; ID ongoing for purported bodies of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas
By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff
Protesters urging the release of hostages block Namir Road in Tel Aviv on the 500th day of the war sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 invasion and massacre, with signs that read, 'President Trump, leave no hostage behind - 500 days in hell,' February 17, 2025. (Dana Reany/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
February 17, 2025, 5:19 am
Feb. 17: Shin Bet chief said to reveal that he’s no longer part of hostage negotiating team
Court accepts Netanyahu’s request to cancel Tuesday hearing due to diplomatic matters * Smotrich says he’ll demand cabinet vote to implement Trump Gaza takeover plan
By Jacob Magid and Michael Bachner
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, left, greets US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Ben Gurion Airport, February 15, 2025. (Rafi Ben Hakun/GPO)
February 15, 2025, 4:12 am
Feb. 15: Rubio arrives in Israel for first visit to the Middle East as US secretary of state
‘Hamas cannot be allowed to survive’: US national security adviser hails release of US-Israeli hostage * At protest for hostages, Lapid demands Gaza truce go to second stage
By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff
A rocket launched from central Gaza is about to land inside the Strip's Bureij camp, February 13, 2025. (Screenshot: X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
February 13, 2025, 2:25 am
Feb. 13: Palestinians say Gaza rocket landed in center of Strip, killing 14-year-old boy
IDF strikes launcher * US signals backing for Israeli forces staying in 5 southern Lebanon posts after Feb. 18 * Hamas set to free 3 hostages Saturday
By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One as he travels from West Palm Beach, Florida, to New Orleans, February 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
February 10, 2025, 4:09 am
Trump: Patience with Hamas running out, freed hostages ‘looked like Holocaust survivors’
US president says emaciated captives freed on Saturday ‘look like they’ve aged 25 years’ and ‘have been treated brutally,’ adding: ‘I don’t know how much longer we can take that’
By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff
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