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“According to the Jewish tradition, a perfectly red heifer cow is required for purification before the Third Temple can be built. The temple’s construction is desired by radical Jewish groups, awaiting the messiah.

Palestinian factions noticed the red heifers’ arrival. In a recent speech marking Gaza’s 100th genocide day, Hamas spokesperson accused Jews of bringing red cows, linking them to the ongoing conflict.”

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/isra ... ird-temple


It will be Moodle East.

The IDF announced on Thursday it had decided to temporarily halt leave for combat units, moments before the head of the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate, Aharon Haliva, warned Israel is facing "complex days" ahead amid increasing threats of strikes by Iran.

Speaking after, it was revealed that IDF Intelligence Analysis Chief Brig. Gen. Amit Saar would resign from his role due to a cancer diagnosis. Haliva also warned that he was "not sure that the worst is behind us."

"In accordance with the assessment of the situation in the IDF, it has been decided to temporarily stop leave of combat units," the military said in a statement

On Wednesday, the IDF announced it would call up reservists to bolster its Air Force's air defense array.

New developments come amid Iranian threats
The decisions come amid heightened tensions in Israel and increasing threats by Iran in the wake of the alleged Israeli strike in Syria, which killed senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi.

On Thursday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi spoke of the “heavy price” Israel would pay for the attack.
Later on Thursday, IDF Spokesperson R.-Amd. Daniel Hagari wrote a calming message on X. "The Home Front Command's directives remain unchanged. There is no need to buy generators, store food, and withdraw money from ATMs."

The Israeli military’s reported use of an untested and undisclosed artificial intelligence-powered database to identify targets for its bombing campaign in Gaza has alarmed human rights and technology experts who said it could amount to “war crimes”.

The Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language media outlet Local Call reported recently that the Israeli army was isolating and identifying thousands of Palestinians as potential bombing targets using an AI-assisted targeting system called Lavender.

“That database is responsible for drawing up kill lists of as many as 37,000 targets,” Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said on Thursday.

The unnamed Israeli intelligence officials who spoke to the media outlets said Lavender had an error rate of about 10 percent. “But that didn’t stop the Israelis from using it to fast-track the identification of often low-level Hamas operatives in Gaza and bombing them,” Challands said.

It is becoming clear the Israeli army is “deploying untested AI systems … to help make decisions about the life and death of civilians”, Marc Owen Jones, an assistant professor in Middle East Studies and digital humanities at Hamid Bin Khalifa University, told Al Jazeera.

“Let’s be clear: This is an AI-assisted genocide, and going forward, there needs to be a call for a moratorium on the use of AI in the war,” he added.

The Israeli publications reported that this method led to many of the thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza.

A culture has percolated in some corners of the IDF in which soldiers are “shooting first [in Gaza] and asking questions later,” a senior Israeli official said Wednesday, as anger over the killing of seven aid workers in an airstrike earlier this week simmered in capitals around the world, further straining Jerusalem’s diplomatic ties.

The admission came as Israel said an internal probe was continuing into what led soldiers to carry out multiple strikes on a World Central Kitchen convoy driving within what was supposed to be a de-conflicted humanitarian corridor late Monday, killing six foreign-based staffers, as well as a Palestinian staffer.

The senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to both the killing of the WCK staffers, who had been transporting aid sent to Gaza via ship, and a December incident in which troops opened fire on and killed three Israeli hostages who managed to escape captivity and were waving a white flag.

Both that incident and the one on Monday represented violations of the IDF’s rules of engagement, the senior official told The Times of Israel.

“Soldiers are operating under immense pressure in very difficult conditions in which Hamas embeds itself within the civilian population, but the rules of engagement are designed to help deal with such conditions, and they’re too often being ignored,” said the senior Israeli official.

Six months into Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being accused of dragging out the conflict to stay in power and for obstructing a deal with Hamas to bring Israeli captives back from Gaza.

Tens of thousands of protesters are calling for early elections as they and some Israeli officials lose patience with the prime minister’s performance, experts and critics told Al Jazeera. Israeli security forces have been using greater force to disperse protesters, as was seen on Wednesday outside the prime minister’s residence.

The growing demonstrations in Israel reflect the latest poll by the Israeli Democracy Institute, which suggested that 57 percent of the Israeli public rates Netanyahu’s performance since the start of the war as “poor” or “very poor”.

“There is a general public sentiment that Netanyahu is not fit to lead and he is being driven by his own political interests for survival,” said Mairav Zonszein, an expert on Israel and Palestine with International Crisis Group, a non-profit dedicated to resolving conflicts worldwide.

“Families of hostages – but also former security officials – all want the government to be replaced. They all want elections.”

‘Unrealistic Demands’
But while most people want Netanyahu gone, few support ending the war on Gaza, experts said.

Since an October 7 attack on Israeli communities and military outposts by Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, in which 1,139 people were killed and about 250 taken captive, most of the Israeli public has seen the group as an existential threat to Israel.

“I think Hamas is terrible, but that Netanyahu is also not doing the best he can to [finish] them,” said Natan Gershoni, a 74-year-old Israeli former army officer who fought in the 1967 war.

“Right now, I want the hostages back at any price, and then we can finish off the problem in Gaza.”

“The fundamental issue is for Netanyahu to make sure the focus stays on the war. The minute there is a ceasefire, then there is more room for prolonging it and for focusing on investigations and elections,” she told Al Jazeera.

Netanyahu may also be hobbled by his far-right coalition, particularly Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Ben Gvir, both of whom have reportedly threatened to pull out of Netanyah’s coalition if Israel strikes a deal with Hamas they deem unfavourable.

Israel’s war cabinet has more diverse views. Former military chief Gadi Eizenkot, whose son was killed fighting in Gaza, is advocating on behalf of Israeli captives and their families in the war cabinet. He stressed that freeing the Israeli captives through a deal should take priority over killing senior Hamas leaders.

But Eizenkot’s leverage is limited because neither he nor Benny Gantz, another former army chief who appears sympathetic to Israeli captives, hold a majority in parliament, they would not be able to force an election by pulling out of the war cabinet.

Only Smotrich or Gvir could do that by leaving Netanyahu’s coalition, which would require Israel to hold an election in three months, even as Netanyahu’s popularity remains abysmally low, according to recent polls.

Despite that pressure, Netanyahu reportedly recently granted greater flexibility to his delegation negotiating with Hamas in Cairo, Egypt. Israeli officials are now open to allowing Palestinians in Gaza to return to the north of the enclave as part of a deal that would release the remaining Israeli captives.

But, ultimately, Netanyahu wants to continue the war on Gaza, Oren Ziv, an Israeli commentator and a journalist for progressive Israeli news outlet 972 Magazine, told Al Jazeera.

He added that Netanyahu has even claimed that calling for a swift deal to retrieve Israeli captives from Gaza undermines the “war effort”.

“Netanyahu’s [rhetoric] has pushed the vast majority of [captives’ families] to unite with the antigovernment protests,” Ziv said.

‘No choice’
While most still claim to support the fighting in Gaza, Israelis are fatigued from the war, according to Ori Goldberg, an Israeli political commentator.

He told Al Jazeera it remains politically and socially unacceptable to oppose the war in Israel, but that Israelis would accept a ceasefire if they could claim it was their “only choice” to retrieve the captives.

“Israel’s policies are presented to Israelis – or spoken to Israelis – as reflections of Israel’s existential lack of choice,” he said.

“They are generally for the war, but if they are told that they have no choice because the world twisted their arm or because the prime minister finally relented to return the hostages, then Israelis will be fine with that.”

He believed many Israeli protesters would rationalise another ceasefire by claiming that they pressured Netanyahu to commit to a captive deal.

A deal could also prompt Benny Gantz – the main rival to Netanyahu – to exit the war cabinet once Israeli captives are returned and a ceasefire is in motion, triggering an early election, which he is favoured to win.

But Zonszein, from ICG, said a lot of Israeli protesters may demand an election sooner if they conclude that Netanyahu is unable – or unwilling – to bring the remaining captives home.

“I think a lot of Israelis just believe that Netanyahu won’t deliver on what they want. That’s why they just want elections to replace him because they believe Gantz will be able to clinch a hostage deal and de-escalate the situation on some level,” she told Al Jazeera.

“A large number of Israelis just want Netanyahu out.”

President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that Israel's strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers earlier this week and the overall humanitarian situation were "unacceptable" and issued a warning about the U.S. changing its policy toward Israel.

Biden "made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers," the White House said in a readout of the call.

Notably, Biden also "made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps."

According to two U.S. officials, Biden strongly implied to Netanyahu that he could condition U.S. military aid to Israel on what it does to address humanitarian concerns in Gaza and get to a ceasefire as soon as possible.

“That was the message,” one of the officials said.

Asked to elaborate on what that could amount to, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the press briefing that he wouldn't preview specific steps that the U.S. might take.

"What we are looking to see and hope to see here in the coming hours and days is a dramatic increase in the humanitarian assistance getting [into Gaza], additional crossings opened up and a reduction in the violence against civilians and certainly aid workers," Kirby said, adding that they want to see Israel "take practical immediate steps to protect aid workers on the ground and to demonstrate that they have that civilian harm mitigation in place."

Kirby was pressed repeatedly about whether the U.S. could withhold military aid to Israel and said he wouldn't get ahead of any decisions.

"There are too many civilians being killed," Kirby said. "The risk to aid workers is unacceptable. Now we have certain aid organizations that are reconsidering whether they’re even going to be able to continue operations in Gaza, while famine looms, so there has to be tangible steps. Let’s see what they announce, let’s see what they direct, let’s see what they do."

Two U.S. officials said Biden told Netanyahu to immediately begin letting more trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza and to be less stringent about what materials are on them.

Biden also shifted his stance on a ceasefire in Gaza during the call, telling the prime minister he must agree to one, and that the easiest way to achieve that is a deal that would implement a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages by Hamas, the officials said. If Netanyahu does not agree to a ceasefire, the president made clear that U.S. relations with Israel would significantly change, the officials said.

The White House readout said the president told Netanyahu that “an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians.” Biden told Netanyahu to “empower” his negotiators to reach a deal that would include a return of the hostages being held in Gaza.

"The two leaders also discussed public Iranian threats against Israel and the Israeli people," the White House added. "President Biden made clear that the United States strongly supports Israel in the face of those threats."

This moment, after Israel’s killing of seven aid workers for World Central Kitchen, one of the U.S. officials said, “is an inflection point in this war.”

The call lasted for about 30 minutes, according to a senior Biden administration official.

The call between the leaders was arranged after the strike occurred, a separate U.S. official said, describing Biden as being "very angry" about the incident.

The president's anger is "indicative of the broader problem of how the Israelis are conducting their operations,” for “either not passing on to their military the deconfliction details from World Central Kitchen, or they’re being received and ignored,” the official said.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was traveling to North Carolina on Thursday, also listened to the call.

“According to the Jewish tradition, a perfectly red heifer cow is required for purification before the Third Temple can be built. The temple’s construction is desired by radical Jewish groups, awaiting the messiah.

Palestinian factions noticed the red heifers’ arrival. In a recent speech marking Gaza’s 100th genocide day, Hamas spokesperson accused Jews of bringing red cows, linking them to the ongoing conflict.”

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/isra ... ird-temple


It will be Moodle East.

Now that they have a red heifer...they CAN demolish it!

There was no point in doing it before they got their miracle red heifer.

So...bye bye...Al Aqsa Mosque.

And hello World War Three!! ! ! !

Israel has had a number of wars without starting a World War. Why should this be any different?

The Israeli military has dismissed two senior officers from their positions and said that a probe found serious errors and violations of protocol led its forces to repeatedly hit a World Central Kitchen convoy and kill seven aid workers it says its forces believed were Hamas gunmen. Leading calls for an independent probe into the incident, the charity said that "the IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza."

The U.S. has cautiously welcomed Israel's commitment to open additional aid routes into Gaza, including via its border with the north of the Palestinian enclave where hundreds of thousands of people are thought to be on the brink of starvation. The news followed a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which President Joe Biden warned of a potential shift in U.S. policy.

Tehran has held funerals for the military commanders killed in an airstrike on its consulate in Syria. Israel has been bracing for a retaliatory attack, halting leave for combat units and boosting aerial defenses.

Israeli military releases findings from probe into aid convoy strikes
The Israel Defense Forces has released the findings from its own investigation into the strikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza earlier this week.

The findings were presented yesterday to the IDF chief of general staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi. The IDF has dismissed two officers from their positions, reprimanded two commanders and reprimanded the senior commander responsible, it said in a statement this morning.

"The investigation’s findings indicate that the incident should not have occurred. Those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives and not WCK employees. The strike on the aid vehicles is a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures," it said.

The IDF said that the investigation "found that the forces identified a gunman on one of the aid trucks, following which they identified an additional gunman. After the vehicles left the warehouse where the aid had been unloaded, one of the commanders mistakenly assumed that the gunmen were located inside the accompanying vehicles and that these were Hamas terrorists."

The statement added: "The forces did not identify the vehicles in question as being associated with WCK. Following a misidentification by the forces, the forces targeted the three WCK vehicles based on the misclassification of the event and misidentification of the vehicles as having Hamas operatives inside them."

World Central Kitchen demands independent commission, says IDF 'cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza'
World Central Kitchen has responded to the findings of the IDF probe into the killing of seven of its aid workers, saying that Israel's military had taken "important steps forward" but that its apologies will be "cold comfort" for the victims' families.

The charity said that it is demanding "the creation of an independent commission to investigate the killings of our WCK colleagues," adding that "The IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza."

The disaster relief group's founder, José Andrés, said: “It’s not enough to simply try to avoid further humanitarian deaths, which have now approached close to 200." He added: “All civilians need to be protected, and all innocent people in Gaza need to be fed and safe. And all hostages must be released.”

“Their apologies for the outrageous killing of our colleagues represent cold comfort,” the charity's CEO Erin Gore said. “It’s cold comfort for the victims’ families and WCK’s global family.”

Kirby: U.S. 'will have to make meaningful changes' in Gaza policy if Israel doesn't
Israel has "got to be more precise" and "more careful" in its operations in Gaza to retain U.S. backing, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said this morning.

The way U.S. weapons are being used by its ally "absolutely matters," he told “TODAY” after what he said was a "frank" phone call between Biden and Netanyahu.

“If we don’t see meaningful changes in their policy, we will have to make meaningful changes in our policy,” Kirby said, adding that Washington would continue to support Israel generally, especially in light of the threat from Iran.

He said that the administration would have to “reserve judgment” until it can take a look at the findings from the IDF probe into the aid convoy strikes and weigh whether an independent investigation might be warranted.

Kirby said that hostage negotiations will be restarting this weekend in Cairo and that Biden had urged Netanyahu to send a delegation to join those talks in the Egyptian capital.

U.N. human rights body calls for halt to weapons shipments to Israel
The U.N.’s top human rights body has called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel in a resolution that aims to help prevent rights violations against Palestinians amid Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

The 47-member-country Human Rights Council voted 28-6 in favor of the resolution, with 13 abstentions.

Western countries were divided. The U.S. and Germany opposed the resolution, France and Japan abstained, while Belgium, Finland and Luxembourg voted in favor.

Blinken welcomes new aid routes but says 'real test is results'
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the U.S. welcomes Israel's decision to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, but cautioned that true success would be an improvement in the situation on the ground.

“These are positive developments but the real test is results. And that’s what we’re looking to see in the coming days. And in the coming weeks,” Blinken said, speaking alongside European Union leaders in Belgium.

Is the aid effectively reaching people who needed throughout Gaza? Are the bottlenecks and other delays at crossings being resolved? Do we have a much better system for deconfliction and coordination so that the humanitarian workers, the folks who are delivering the aid can do it safely and securely?" he said.

Blinken added that these aims would be measured by clear metrics “like the number of trucks that are actually getting in on a sustained basis,” and the quantity of aid making to those in need in Gaza, “including critically northern Gaza" where he said "almost 100% of the population is acutely food insecure" and there are "10 indicators of potential famine."

Israel has 'no more excuses' on Gaza aid, Germany says
Israel has "no more excuses" and must quickly implement its announcements on increasing the flow of aid into Gaza, Germany has said today.

In a post on X, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said: "The people of #Gaza need every aid package now. That is why we have worked hard to open the #Erez border crossing & the port of #Ashdod for aid deliveries. We expect the Israeli government to implement its announcements quickly. No more excuses."

Hamas rejected Israel's latest proposal to cease fighting and release hostages, according to a Friday CNN report.

According to an unnamed diplomat cited by CNN, “They refused and asserted it doesn’t include any reply to their asks.”

According to the diplomat, Hamas believed the “Israeli proposal includes nothing new, so they see no need to change their proposal,” the official added.

Negotiations were supposed to lead to a lasting ceasefire, per the UN Security Council resolution passed last month, and mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and the US have worked to try and broach a deal since the conflict broke out in October.

Negotiators were hoping to achieve a six-week ceasefire and a three-phase framework to secure the release of sick, elderly, and wounded hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and increased humanitarian aid.

his round had looked more promising but ultimately came to naught, with Hamas refusing to keep negotiating unless Israel agreed to two major demands.

Hamas demanded that there be unrestricted return of Gazans to the north and that IDF troops would withdraw.

Continued negotiations?
CIA Director William Burns, Mossad Director David Barnea, and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director Ronen Bar were expected to meet in Egypt this weekend to continue ceasefire talks.

However, the latest rejection by Hamas has led Israeli officials to publically wonder whether there is any point in continuing negotiations, according to a report by public broadcaster KAN11.

The trio met last month in Doha for talks with mediators, but no clear breakthrough was reached.

Israel is reportedly pushing both Egypt and Qatar to put pressure on Hamas, with threats to pull out of the Cairo negotiations fully.

The cabinet also approved on Friday evening the arrival of Jordanian army trucks carrying humanitarian aid to come through Israeli territory directly to the Gaza Strip.

The plan is for the trucks to enter through the Allenby crossing in a convoy to Kerem Shalom, where they will be inspected. From there, they will continue on to Gaza.

Iran on Saturday again threatened retaliation for the deaths of seven Revolutionary Guards in a strike on Damascus, with the army chief saying his country’s enemies will “regret” the killings and threatening to exact “maximum damage.”

Tehran has vowed to avenge Monday’s air strike on the Syrian capital it blamed on Israel, which has not commented.

The attack leveled the Iranian embassy’s consular annex in Damascus, killing seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members including two generals.

Iran’s response “will be carried out at the right time, with the necessary precision and planning, and with maximum damage to the enemy so that they regret their action,” Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri said on Saturday.

He was speaking at a ceremony in the central city of Isfahan to commemorate Mohammad Reza Zahedi, one of the two dead brigadier generals from the Quds Force, the IRGC’s foreign operations arm.

Zahedi, 63, was believed to be the Quds Force commander for the Palestinian Territories, Syria and Lebanon.

28 Israeli embassies and consulates have been temporarily closed because of threats on behalf of Iran and its proxies - an Israeli source told The Jerusalem Post on Friday.

According to the source, a "significant number" of embassies and consulates remain closed, and the decision to do so "varies by country and based on the level of risk."

Contrary to reports in Israeli media, "Rather than evacuating these diplomatic facilities, they have not been reopened." This has become a periodic occurrence over the past few months, triggered by security alerts. A number of Israeli embassies have already been shut down after October 7, such as Jordan, among others.

According to Israeli media, diplomats serving abroad have expressed their concern that their embassies will be the target of Iranian retaliation.

Earlier, Israel denied reports that claimed it withdrew its ambassadors and evacuated its embassies in multiple locations around the world.

According to initial reports, this decision denied by Israel was made in agreement between the Foreign Ministry and Israel's Shin Bet.

Marking six months since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, demonstrators turned out Saturday night for weekly rallies across Israel to protest against the current government, demand elections and an immediate hostage deal.

Tel Aviv’s massive anti-government rally, which was attended by tens of thousands of protesters, saw some demonstrators skirmish with police, with at least five arrests.

There was also a car-ramming in the city that injured five demonstrators, an incident that drew broad condemnations and concerns over deepening societal tensions as the war launched in response to the Hamas attack grinds on.

The higher turnout in Tel Aviv this week prompted organizers to hold the protest at Democracy Square, the intersection of Begin and Kaplan Streets, which last year became iconic for its role as the backdrop to the anti-judicial overhaul protests each Saturday night prior to October 7.

According to an estimate by Channel 13 news , some 45,000 people protested in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, while organizers claimed 100,000 were in attendance. Thousands more joined the call for new elections in Jerusalem, Haifa and some dozens of other cities and towns across the country, including Caesarea, where protesters rallied outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home.

In Tel Aviv, swaths of protesters carrying Israeli flags and signs against the current government chanted “Elad, we’re sorry,” mourning slain hostage Elad Katzir, whose body was recovered in an operation announced by the IDF earlier in the day. The army said Katzir was murdered in mid-January by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“Elad, we’re sorry we didn’t push harder, that we stayed at home, that we didn’t turn the world upside down,” the protester leading the chant cried.

Among the speakers addressing the protesters demanding early elections at Democracy Square were survivors and witnesses of the Hamas-led October 7 atrocities, in which Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza, not all of them alive.

Anat Gilor, a founding member of Kibbutz Holit in the Negev, told the crowd that on October 7, she received no assistance from the government as she hid in her home’s safe room from terrorists who rampaged through her community, killing 15 people.

After the speeches ended in Democracy Square, masses of protesters marched to Begin Street, where skirmishes broke out between police and some demonstrators. During the clashes, The Times of Israel witnessed one protester being forcefully arrested.

One officer had her nose broken by a protester who was shoved by another officer, falling backwards and accidentally hitting her face with his elbow.

Law enforcement released a statement charging the protester had punched her in the face, but later retracted claim, acknowledging the demonstrator did not act with “malicious intent” after a video of the incident was shared widely online.

As a group of protesters proceeded northward on Begin Street, they marched toward the headquarters of the powerful Histadrut labor federation on Arlozorov Street instead of attempting to block Ayalon Highway, as is typical on Saturday nights.

Outside the union building, demonstrators lit a bonfire and chanted “Strike now!” demanding that chairman Arnon Bar-David declare a large-scale strike to pressure the government into agreeing to a deal for the release of the hostages. The union chief declared a day-long strike last year in opposition to the government’s judicial overhaul efforts, a move joined by airport workers at Ben Gurion Airport and numerous other labor organizations.

At around 10 p.m, a driver briefly got out of his car to curse the protesters before being waved on by police. He then suddenly tore through the crowd with his car, hitting five people, including a 50-year-old woman who was moderately injured and taken to Ichilov Hospital.

The four others endured minor injuries.

According to police, law enforcement managed to stop and arrest the driver soon after he accelerated his vehicle into the crowd. He was later identified as a former soccer player and coach.

The incident was denounced by numerous Israeli leaders, who warned against a return to the political and societal tensions that roiled the country before the October 7 atrocities.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi of Netanyahu’s Likud party said Israel’s civil discourse has deteriorated, which he blamed on “leftist leaders, inside and outside the coalition.”

“Don’t run over protesters. Period. Don’t attack police officers, period. Don’t throw burning torches at the prime minister’s house. Period,” wrote Karhi on X in reference to protests in Jerusalem which have turned rowdy.

“Even if the reality of allowing disturbances and blocking the roads is intolerable, one must exercise restraint and be very careful,” he continued. “This deterioration to October 6, let by leftist leaders, inside and outside the coalition, does not help anyone and tears us apart in the middle of a war.”

In Haifa, Carmit Palty Katzir, the sister of slain hostage Elad Katzir, gave a speech in which she blamed the government for the death of her brother. The People’s Protest, a Haifa group behind the march, published her statement on Facebook just ahead of the demonstration.

“The prime minister, members of the War Cabinet, and members of the coalition, look at yourselves in the mirror, and ask yourselves whether it was not your hand that spilled that blood. You still have 133 hostages to redeem — worlds to save,” she wrote.

At the hostages’ families protest in Jerusalem, which numbered around 2,000 people, organizer Tom Barkai quoted Palty-Katzir in her opening speech outside the Prime Minister’s Residence.

“We have seen that our hostages will come back to us through agreements and not through combat,” she said.

After Barkai, reservist and Labor party activist Yaya Fink spoke to the crowd, requesting forgiveness from the family members of hostages still held by Hamas for “returning home after 142 days of reserve duty without succeeding to return your loved ones home.”

He then led the crowd in singing “Ein Li Eretz Acheret — I Have No Other Country,” as demonstrators waved their phone flashlights to the melody.

On Sunday, April 7, many demonstrators were expected to gather once again in Jerusalem for a protest in front of the Knesset building under the slogan: “National victory = the return of the hostages.” Ahead of the event, organizers were arranging rides to Jerusalem from across the country.

The IDF on Sunday announced that it had concluded the active invasion stage of the war for now while leaving open the possibility of a future new invasion of Rafah in deep southern Gaza.

In terms of IDF forces, this means that the IDF has withdrawn all of Division 98 from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza while maintaining one plus brigades - the Nahal brigade and portions of Brigade 401 – in northern and central Gaza.

Although a top IDF official said that this change had nothing to do with US pressure, the timing was unmistakable in coming right after the IDF’s disastrous mistaken killing of seven humanitarian aid workers last week.

The decision also came less than two days after Israel opened the Erez Crossing and Ashdod port to transfer humanitarian aid, decisions made under threat by the US of potentially losing weapons support after Jerusalem had refused these requests from Washington for months.

Critically, this means that Palestinians can, on one hand, move freely within southern Gaza and Khan Yunis and that there is a complete vacuum for preventing a return of Hamas governance, but the IDF is keeping northern and central Gaza cut off from the south.

This means Palestinians cannot move from south to north and that over two million Palestinians, more than half of whom are northern Gaza residents, remain separated from their communities, with somewhere between 150,000-300,000 Palestinians remaining in northern Gaza, who never left.

At one point, the IDF had five divisions, between 30,000 and 40,000 ground forces, deep into Gaza, as well as even larger forces circling the Strip.

Those forces were reduced significantly in mid-January when the IDF declared it had achieved operational control of northern Gaza and released Division 63 to return to Fits standard northern border duties facing off against Hezbollah.

But from December until now, Division 98 was destroying Hamas’s forces in and around Khan Yunis, at one point with around seven brigades.

By early February, Division 98 had achieved most of its mission, but it continued more minor operations in areas such as the Hamed neighborhoods of Khan Yunis.

It had been accepted conventional wisdom from top Israeli officials that a major reason for keeping Division 98 in Khan Yunis was to achieve concessions from Hamas in the hostage exchange negotiations.

Hamas immediately declared the IDF withdrawal, even partial, a victory for sticking to its position of demanding IDF withdrawals, including of troops in northern Gaza.

The world’s attention will likely now shift to whether the IDF will invade Rafah first, whether Hamas will cut a deal for the hostages to avoid such an invasion, or whether Israel will concede further to Hamas’s demands for returning more Palestinians to northern Gaza.

An IDF official tried to frame the withdrawal from Khan Yunis as opening up Rafah as a stronger possibility because now hundreds of thousands of Palestinians may return there.

The official said that if more Palestinians leave Rafah, evacuating the remaining civilians will be easier without needing to take active, aggressive measures to move them.

In addition, the IDF said that its operation taking over Shifa Hospital a second time shows that it can quickly penetrate and take down Hamas if it tries to reform military units.

Politicians and Hostage families react to the news
United Right Party leader Gideon Sa’ar commented on the move in a post on X. "Regardless of what happens later in the war, the continuous decrease in the size of the forces and the intensity of the military pressure over the past months - has kept us far away from achieving the war goals."

"This is directly connected to our moving away from arriving at a new hostage deal," he added.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum released the following statement to the press:

In light of the news regarding the withdrawal of the maneuvering forces from Gaza, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum reminds us that the IDF entered Gaza after October 7 to bring about a complete victory for the State of Israel

The government's decision to withdraw the maneuvering forces from Gaza and switch to ongoing defense proves that the IDF was able to bring Israel many achievements and victories in the military arena and undermine Hamas' capabilities.

The Prime Minister and the War Cabinet - it's time to bring the State of Israel to absolute victory! The departure of the maneuvering forces should be the first step in the deal. Now, the hostages in Gaza must not be left behind!

The shit-Axis alliance (Russia, China, NK, Iran and its proxy sub-states) really should stop call the Westeneres hypocrites while themselves are the most hypocrite nations in Earth's history.

IDF ends active ground invasion, completely withdraws from southern Gaza

Opinion=mine:
This is a concession that Israel's war goal of the destruction of Hamas will not be met. The talk of how we can invade Rafah later is face-saving. In other words, Israel has lost big time, and Iran's strategy is working.

We have been calling this the Isreal-Hamas war or genocide. That is looking at only part of what this has always been about. This is about Iran using its proxies with the strategy of surviving "shock and awe" while knowing that Western powers will grow tired and quit. The reason that waiting out has worked is two-fold. This proves yet again that in this era "winning" militarily is not the same as winning a war. It is about winning the battle of imagery and messaging and in this realm Israel has been humiliated. It is the messaging and imagery that turned the self-described Zionist Biden to threaten to withhold aid. BDS has been rescued from the dead.

Also, exploited was Israel's willingness to do almost anything to secure the release of hostages. Before 10/7 Israel was in disarray over domestic issues. After 10/7 there was a true "rally around the flag" unity. It was agreed that internal divisions would be put aside for the war. Like in America after 9/11 that unity would only hold on for so long until the war exposed fissures. While Israeli streets are full of protesters, outside of Netanyahu is. bad, the message is incoherent. Do they want a hostage deal than finish off the Palestinians? Permanent ceasefire which guarantees Hamas survives? End Heredi exemptions from service? It probably depends on who you ask. Either way, combined with threats of being cut off is enough to put a halt to the goal of eliminating Hamas.

The Abraham Accords and the unofficial Saudi-Israel alliance are not based on the love of Jews. It was an acknowledgment that before 10/7 due to its tech industry, Israel was a lucrative business partner and seemed to be a reliable stable partner to check Iran. Israel's response was as much about restoring deterrence as revenge. That is all shredded at this point. None of these countries has publically broken with Israel yet but I don't see how that lasts.

Iran until now has taken Israeli cyberattacks, assassinations, and bombings for years without responding until 10/7. The U.S. assassination of key general Qasem Soleimani was met with no more response than lobbing a bunch of missiles. The attack on the Iranian embassy was apparently a bridge too far. Iran has publically said too much not to respond. As Israel's disunity provided an opportune time for 10/7 the combination of Israili disunity and worldwide outrage at them portends a much more robust response than the assassination of Soleimani.

After 10/7 the logic was if any form of Hamas is an existential threat what does that make Hezbollah? Already that goal has been reduced to pushing back Hezbollah. That still puts all of Israel within the Hezbollah missile range. Unlike Gaza, the civilian population of Southern Lebanon near the border has been evacuated. For the "PR war" that does not matter. All it takes is one or two incidents to continue to "prove" Israel are genocidal settler colonialists. In Gaza the rate of Palestinian deaths has dropped a lot since the carpet bombing stage of the war. All it took was two "incidents" involving aid distribution to create a tipping point. I don't see why Southern Lebanon would be any different. Israel reputation is such that for at least a generation it won't matter what they do.

That leads us to the pro-Palestinian/anti-Zionist movement and concurrent antisemitism in the West. What they have been doing has been working, there is no reason to stop, and maybe the reason to escalate. The "victory" of 10/7 provided a spark for massive escalation. Why would continued evidence of Israel on the defensive if not more be any different? Until now the protests have been mostly limited to civil disobedience and intimidation by mobbing. It would seem to portend an inevitable escalation to riots and terrorism. Maybe not, so far unlike their "woke" inspiration they have stayed disciplined. The blocking of transportation ended after proving unpopular. For the most part, targets have had some connection to Israel or Zionism.

Israel's fate was doomed when they allowed 10/7 to happen in the first place. Once it happened no matter what they did it would have ended the same way. Shoot a few missiles in response the backlash in the West would have been less but they would have lost their deterrence faster. Do a "moderate" response they would have gotten the worst of both worlds. They did what they did and are getting what they are getting.

There is a popular argument that if Jews did not come in the first place none of this would have happened. This would have not happened but what would have or not happened to Jews in the permanent diaspora is for me a question for another day. Same if Israel did things differently at any point since then. Be that as it may, before 10/7 Israel was by far in the best geo-political position in their history and pissed it away.