[IMPORTANT] Hamas launches foot assault against settlements.

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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed his determination to launch an offensive in Rafah, defying international criticism.

The comments come as the German chancellor, on a Middle East trip, restated his opposition to the plan.

But Mr Netanyahu said "no international pressure will stop Israel" from achieving all of its war aims.

"If we stop the war now before achieving all of its goals, the meaning is that Israel had lost the war and we will not allow this," Mr Netanyahu told a meeting of his cabinet.

He said Israel must be able to continue its war, with the aims of "eliminating Hamas, releasing all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat against Israel".

"To do this, we will also operate in Rafah."

Mr Netanyahu said the offensive in city at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip "will happen" and will take "several weeks".

He also lashed out at at his critics for, as he put it, forgetting the Hamas attack of 7 October.

The Israeli leader is due to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz later on Sunday, who is expected to repeat his warning against such an offensive.

Speaking to reporters in Jordan, Mr Scholz said a "large number of casualties in such an offensive" could destroy any hope for peace.

Anti-government protesters blocked major roads and scuffled with police in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Saturday evening during weekly protests demanding new elections and an immediate hostage deal.

Interrupting traffic has become routine for anti-government demonstrators in Tel Aviv over the past few weeks. But Saturday marked the first time since October 7 that protesters in Jerusalem blocked the intersection at Paris Square, after speeches from family members of hostages held in Gaza.

Police quickly responded with force in both cities, dispersing the dozens of demonstrators blocking roads with horses, water cannons and physical removal, though they made only a few arrests.

In Jerusalem, protests began as usual outside the President’s Residence, where hundreds of demonstrators, activists and speakers with the protest group Safeguarding our Shared Home demanded new elections.

Tovah Sheleg, one of the protest organizers, criticized the government and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies of fomenting chaos in every corner of Israeli life.

Wherever you look, there is chaos. This is a result of policy. In fact, the chaos is the policy,” she said, demanding that the government “return its mandate to the people.”

In a loud bellow, screenwriter and reservist Beni Barbash warned against choosing the “path of Netanyahu and his government,” which he said will “lead to an abyss of corruption, degeneration and destruction.”

“I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse; choose life so that you and your offspring will live,” he said, citing Jewish scripture. “The choice, as always in Judaism, is in our hands. Elections now because of the war. Elections now, despite the war.”

The demonstrators in Jerusalem also heard from ultra-Orthodox rabbi Bezalel Cohen, founder of the Chachmei Lev Yeshiva, who called for Haredi leaders to begin encouraging their communities to enlist to “defend the people and the country, out of a sense of partnership and brotherhood”.

After speeches ended, a group of protesters endeavored to block the junction adjacent to Paris Square in the capital, sitting in the middle of the road while chanting: “There is no routine until there is a hostage deal.”

Before confronting the protesters sitting on the ground, police went to a group of reporters and photographers standing across from the demonstration and shoved them onto the sidewalk.

Roni Green Shaulov, a reporter for Ynet, tweeted that despite showing his press ID to “every officer that crossed his path,” he was still met with violence.

Only after clearing the road of reporters did law enforcement begin to haul protesters off the road one by one, at times flinging them to the ground.

Mounted policemen at the scene in Jerusalem refrained from getting involved in dispersing the protesters blocking the road. Two protesters were arrested, according to a police spokesperson.

Converging on Begin Street
In Tel Aviv, the two separate weekly rallies — one calling for a hostage deal, one for new elections — converged on Begin Street where some protesters blocked off the northern part of the road, lighting bonfires, deploying smoke grenades, and blowing horns, which eventually led to clashes with police.

Demonstrators chanted: “He who abandoned them, must return them,” referring to Netanyahu, and “all of them, now!” — a call for the release of the 134 hostages in Hamas captivity.

Police soon began to disperse the demonstration with a water cannon while attempting to keep it from moving southward on the highway.

For the first time in two weeks, officers brought horses to assist them in dispersing the protest.

Just one protester was arrested at the Tel Aviv demonstration, according to the Israel Police.

Israel's security establishment is continuing to monitor the developments in the North closely. Meanwhile, in the coalition, threats against Hezbollah are becoming more frequent.

After Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that "the hourglass is about to reverse course," ex-MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) said in a conversation with Gadi Ness on his show on Radio North 104.5FM that "Lebanon may be destroyed in the next war."

In the midst of this, former National Security Council (NSC) chief Uzi Dayan warned in an interview with Ness that "we need to be prepared for a rocket attack from Hezbollah that will hit half of the State of Israel."

Will Hezbollah rockets hit half of Israel?
Dayan referred at the beginning of his conversation with Ness to the rocket fire towards border towns and said: "This damages Israeli deterrence over time. Hezbollah understands that up to a certain extent, they can do things, but that they need to avoid firing at populated areas."

He explained, "In the North, our sovereignty is being violated on a daily basis. Residents are not returning to their communities. What needed to be done a month ago was an operation on both fronts, in the North and in the South. But now, Gaza takes precedence. Beirut will have to come after Gaza. We cannot just sit and get attacked and do nothing in response."

Dayan said, "A harsh response in Lebanon means damaging its national infrastructure and energy sources."

"We need to attack Lebanon in general and Hezbollah specifically more harshly, and this should come in addition to having the army form a barrier, a death trap, along the settlements up North," he stressed.

However, Dayan emphasized, "We need to wait until we complete the mission in Rafah. It is important to notice that the settlements that were not evacuated are not actually being attacked. I'm not sure that the decision to evacuate was correct. The only security to be had now is the deployment of the IDF between the settlements and Hezbollah all the way to the Litani River to gradually form a death strip until such time that we have an outcome in terms of Gaza. We should be prepared for a rocket attack by Hezbollah that will spread across half of Israel."

Knesset member Moshe Passal (Likud) said in this context that "if there are tactical considerations that in another week or two we could be in a better situation, we should consider them. In the strategic picture, Israel cannot accept this situation.

"We need to consider that the war in the North will not be easy, and Lebanon may be destroyed, but there will also be significant damage in Israel in terms of lives and property. There will be no choice but to change the situation. If, maybe in three weeks, there will be an end to an experiment with a special laser beam or various things that will change the situation dramatically, then we need to bite our tongues and wait for a little bit longer. I don't think anyone is saying we need to wait and maybe avoid confrontation or accept the current situation. Clearly, we will not endure the situation for much longer. I will ask the chief of staff whether preparations will take two weeks or four. There will be no choice but to act in the North. Economically, in the war in the North, Israel will suffer damages close to a trillion shekels," he stated.

Yemen’s Houthi terrorist group has obtained a new hypersonic missile and upgraded its current arsenal with warheads, Russian state media RIA reported on Thursday.

Citing an unnamed Houthi official, the terrorist group told RIA that they had tested a hypersonic missile “with high lethality” and are planning to add it to their arsenal.

“The group’s missile forces have successfully tested a missile that is capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 8,” the official said, adding that the weapon runs on solid fuel; Yemen intends to begin manufacturing it for use during attacks in Krasnoye. Arabian Seas and the Gulf of Aden, as well as against targets in Israel.”

Mach 8 is the equivalent of 9878.4 per hour. The US-based Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance categorizes a hypersonic missile as a missile that can “travel faster than Mach 5 [3800mph] and have the capability to maneuver during the entire flight.”

The unnamed official also reportedly claimed that the group had been upgrading their northern-based stock of missiles and drones, modifying them to have explosive warheads.

he Houthis did not provide evidence to back their claims, according to the Associated Press.

Houthi leader expands area of threat
Last week, Houthi leader Abdel Malik al-Houthi reportedly said, "Our enemies, friends, and our people will see a level of achievement of strategic importance that will put our country in the ranks of few countries in its capabilities in this world," according to RIA.

Al-Houthi went on to threaten that the group would extend their attacks to ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope in Africa's southern tip, according to the Associated Press. This would indicate the Houthis are eyeing a greater range of attacks, as the group has focused on ships traveling into the Red Sea.

The Israeli military says it has taken control of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City in what it called an operation to "thwart terrorist activity".

It said troops came under fire from hospital buildings and that 80 people had been detained and others killed, including "Hamas terrorists".

Witnesses described heavy exchanges of fire around the site, where thousands of displaced people are sheltering.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said Israel was committing a war crime.
The Israeli military said there was no obligation for medical staff or patients to leave, and that the hospital could continue its important functions.

But several medical staff inside the hospital told the BBC that the electricity had been cut and that they had been instructed by the Israeli military not to move, prohibiting them from properly treating patients.

"We are trapped where we are inside the department," said Dr Amer Jedbeh, a 31-year-old surgical resident.

"A shell hit our building on the first floor, injuring several people. One man died - we could not save him. We are working only with first aid, essentially, we cannot operate because there is no electricity or water."

Dr Jedbeh said two patients on life support at the intensive care unit in the same building had died because the electricity supply was cut ahead of the raid. "All the machinery is off," he added.

"Colleagues from the main building say there are many injured there who need surgery but we cannot get to them and they cannot bring the patients to us."

Eyewitnesses to the latest raid on al-Shifa described a state of panic inside the hospital - Gaza's biggest medical facility - as Israeli troops launched the rapid and unexpected raid in the early hours of Monday morning.

"Tanks are surrounding us. We are hiding inside the tent. We hear tank fire in the vicinity of the compound," Mahmoud al-Saudi said in a recorded call with his brother, which was posted on a WhatsApp group.

Another man inside the hospital, Mohammed al-Sayyid, said in a voice message sent to journalists: "The soldiers here inside the complex, there are dead and wounded, and the soldiers arrested some young men."

The deputy director of the emergency department at al-Shifa told the BBC that there were about 20 doctors and 60 nurses inside the hospital, as well as hundreds of patients.
Dr Amjad Eliwah - who is just outside the hospital grounds but is in contact with his staff inside - described the situation as "very critical".

He also said the Israeli troops raided two schools next to the hospital that were being used as shelters by displaced people.

They arrested all the men inside and told the women to leave through a designated exit and head south towards the town of Deir al-Balah, he added.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari announced overnight that troops were conducting a "high-precision operation in limited areas of al-Shifa hospital following concrete intelligence that demanded immediate action".

"We know that senior Hamas terrorists have regrouped inside al-Shifa hospital and are using it to command attacks against Israel," he said.

He added: "We call upon all Hamas terrorists hiding in hospitals to surrender immediately. Medical facilities should never be exploited for terror. Hamas must be held accountable."
Hamas and health officials have repeatedly denied the accusation that Hamas fighters have operated inside or underneath al-Shifa and other hospitals.

Later on Monday, the IDF said in a statement that troops had "identified terrorist fire toward them from a number of hospital buildings", adding: "The forces engaged the terrorists and identified several hits."

It also released grainy night-time video footage from drones and an armoured vehicle that it said showed troops coming under fire from within the compound and the detonation of an explosive device.

The Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement that Israeli forces had "invaded" al-Shifa Hospital for the fourth time since start of the war and was using "fabricated narratives" to justify its actions.

It accused the troops of "directly shooting the specialised surgeries building with bullets and targeting it with missiles", and said a number of people had been killed and wounded.

"The presence of Israeli vehicles in the courtyards of the complex in a real tragedy and an attack on health institutions against all international laws and norms," it added.

Hamas also denounced what it called a "new crime" by Israeli forces.

The CEO of the British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) that she was "gravely concerned about the safety of patients and medics".

"This is part of a pattern of systematically dismantling the health system in Gaza," Melanie Ward told the BBC. "There's only now a quarter of primary healthcare facilities functioning in Gaza. There's no longer a single fully functioning hospital”.

Famine is imminent and likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July, a UN-backed report said on Monday, after more than five months of war, which have shattered the Palestinian territory and cut off supplies.

Malnutrition and food insecurity have probably exceeded famine levels in Gaza's north, and hunger-linked death rates were likely to do so soon, the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said.

The assessment by the UN-backed initiative — a scale used by UN agencies, regional bodies and aid groups — comes amid global pressure on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclave of 2.3 million people.

Some 300,000 are cut off by fighting in the north.

The European Union accused Israel on Monday of provoking famine and using starvation as a weapon of war — claims that Israel rejects, saying it does not target civilians and is only interested in eliminating the militant Islamist movement Hamas.

The IPC uses a complex set of technical criteria. Its most extreme warning is Phase 5, which has two levels, catastrophe and famine.

Famine is assessed as at least 20 per cent of the population suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.

In northern Gaza, "the upward trend in non-trauma mortality is also expected to accelerate, resulting in all famine thresholds likely to be passed imminently," the IPC said.

"The window is shutting, and it is shutting very, very fast," Arif Husain, chief economist of the World Food Programme, told Reuters.

The study said the number of people projected to experience "catastrophic hunger" across the besieged enclave between now and mid-July had nearly doubled to more than 1.1 million, or about half the population, since the IPC last reported in December, when there was already record hunger.

Under a worst-case scenario, central and southern Gaza also face a risk of famine by July, the IPC said.

Lack of data complicates assessment
Famine has been declared just twice in the past 13 years: in parts of Somalia in 2011 and in parts of South Sudan in 2017.

Some humanitarians voice frustration with the criteria, since assessing famine thresholds can be particularly difficult in a war zone due to a lack of access and reliable data.

Gaza health authorities have reported children dying of malnutrition or dehydration, but UN officials say the health system has basically collapsed and the situation is hard to monitor.

"It's impossible to find the data to meet their criteria in northern Gaza as people aren't dying in hospital so it's unrecorded," said one aid worker who asked not to be named.

The IPC said that because of a lack of aid, almost all households were skipping meals every day and adults were reducing their meals so children could eat.

In northern Gaza, in nearly two thirds of households, people went entire days and nights without eating at least 10 times in the last 30 days, it added. In southern areas, that applied to one-third of the households.

The IPC analysis said famine could still be avoided if Israel and Hamas stop fighting and aid organizations gain increased access.

"We must act and we must act now," said Husain. "When famine happens, people have already starved, children are already wasted, and many, many, many lives are already lost."

Israel angered by EU chief accusation
In pointed remarks on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that Israel is provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war.

"In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people," Borrell said at the opening of a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels.

"This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine."

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz in a response urged Borrell to "stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defence against Hamas's crimes."

Katz in a post on X said Israel allowed "extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss with Biden administration officials a prospective Rafah operation as each side is looking to make “clear to the other its perspective,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

The agreement to hold talks about Rafah came as Biden and Netanyahu spoke Monday, their first interaction in more than a month, as the divide has grown between allies over the food crisis in Gaza and Israel’s conduct during the war, according to the White House. Sullivan said the talks will happen in the coming days and are expected to involve military, intelligence and humanitarian experts.

Sullivan said Biden in the call once again urged Netanyahu not to carry out a Rafah operation. At the coming talks, he said U.S. officials will lay out “an alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion.

“The president has rejected, and did again today, the straw man that raising questions about Rafah is the same as raising questions about defeating Hamas,” Sullivan said. “That’s just nonsense. Our position is that Hamas should not be allowed a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else, but a major ground operation there would be a mistake. It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally.”

You seem to be ignoring all those objectively real friends Israel has subsidizing them and their military.

Is it really shocking that the Palestinian people with a GDP consisting of pocket lint and three olive pits struggle to militarily dominate Israel, a wealthy nation who are also receiving massive foreign investment and military aid from many of the wealthiest nations on earth?

Your framing of the situation is terribly ignorant.

It's not a nation the size of New Jersey holding the world at bay, it's a nation the size of New Jersey with practically unlimited resources behind it failing to defeat a broke, fractured nation that's barely bigger than a Walmart parking lot, despite that nation's corrupt and deeply divided leadership.

Israel has massive funds and resources available for military action.
The Palestinians have whatever they can siphon from the little bit of aid they receive.

The better funded, better equipped force winning is the assumed outcome but you try to act frame it like it's a miracle. I can't be certain whether it's ignorance or dishonesty, but it really undermines the credibility you'd like to have.

It's blind faith in God. You can call it ignorance if you like, I won't be offended.

Israel has lost plenty of times throughout history when they pissed off God. Been defeated, been disinherited, driven from their land, etc... It just so happens that this is their 'time,' only it isn't for their sake, it's for God's name sake.

What does Israel have to offer us? Is it really that amazing that we fund them endlessly, forever? I doubt they have anything we or any other country can't live without. So, how are they able to wield such influence? I'll tell you a secret... they aren't able to.

The entire population of Gaza is experiencing “severe levels of acute food insecurity,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, underscoring the urgency of increasing the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.

“According to the most respected measure of these things, 100 percent of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. That’s the first time an entire population has been so classified,” Blinken told a press conference in the Philippines, where he is on an official visit.

Blinken’s remarks came on the eve of a trip to the Middle East, this time to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to discuss efforts to secure a temporary ceasefire in Gaza and ramp up aid deliveries.

Citing UN data, Blinken said 100 percent of the population in Gaza needed humanitarian assistance, compared with 80 percent in Sudan and 70 percent in Afghanistan.

“This only underscores both the urgency, the imperative, of making this the priority,” Blinken said of aid deliveries. “We need more, we need it to be sustained, and we need it to be a priority if we’re going to effectively address the needs of people.”

A senior Israeli official says the United States has begun slow-walking some military aid to Israel -- an assertion senior U.S. officials denied was the case, in what's perhaps more evidence that the relationship between the two allies is growing increasingly strained.

According to a senior Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the U.S. military aid shipments at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war "were coming very fast," but "we are now finding that it's very slow,” which has put pressure on Israel as it attempts to destroy the terrorist Hamas organization in Gaza.

The official said he was not sure what the cause was, but that Israel was fully aware of the United States' frustration with the war, and that Israel needed to do more to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.

When asked about the allegation, several U.S. officials said there was no change in U.S. policy or any deliberate delay in delivering previously promised aid or weapons sales to Israel.

Under a 10-year agreement negotiated by then-President Barack Obama, the U.S. provides about $3.8 billion in military and missile defense systems every year.

U.S. officials say there have been discussions on what kind of leverage the U.S. might have with Israel to pressure Netanyahu to do more to protect civilians, particularly as it considers expanding its military operations by invading Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city. But the U.S. officials also noted that no decisions have been made on whether to use any leverage and said it's possible additional aid -- not less -- would be offered as an incentive.

When asked about a potential slow walk in weapons aid or sales, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the U.S. is continuing to provide Israel with what it needs.

"I'm not gonna get into the timeline for every individual system that's being provided," he told ABC News. "We continue to support Israel with their self-defense needs. That's not going to change, and we have been very, very direct about that."

Also on Thursday, the U.S. government announced sanctions against three Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank and two settlements for violence they allegedly committed against Palestinians, including the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and land.

According to the senior Israeli official, in increasingly short supply are 155 mm artillery shells and 120 mm tank shells. The U.S. had been supplying similar munitions to Ukraine, which also reports specifically running low on 155 mm artillery shells.

The senior Israeli official said some sensitive guidance equipment was also needed, but declined to elaborate. The person said any delays are particularly worrisome because European states are also now reluctant to sell arms to Israel.

The official added that Israel "might lose this war" because in order to win, Israel needs ammunition and legitimacy, and both are starting to run out, he said.

War cabinet minister Benny Gantz faults the political leadership for last year’s devastating Hamas attack on Israel, declaring during a speech in Sderot that “all of us, everyone who was in the national leadership before October 7, bears responsibility for the disaster.”

“The government that I joined in light of the state of emergency has a broad, binding and tremendous responsibility for the past, but also for the present and the future that will be derived from it,” he says, calling the release of the hostages a “moral imperative” as well as a “strategic necessity.”

“The State of Israel has a responsibility to its citizens. This covenant must not be broken, even at painful costs. As with the last time we negotiated, if there is a real opportunity to bring them back, we will take it,” he pledges.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced criticism for his refusal to take responsibility for October 7, while virtually all other military and civilian leaders who had a hand in events have done so.

Appearing to contradict the premier, who has said that postwar civil affairs in Gaza will be run by “local officials” who have “administrative experience, Gantz asserts that “establishing a regional international administration for Gaza is now an operational necessity.”

He also appears to take a veiled jab at the prime minister on the issue of ultra-Orthodox military enlistment, declaring that “the thought that it is possible to give up the ‘people’s army’ collapsed on October 7.”

“The time has come for the majority of the Haredim to enlist in the military,” he declares, adding, “If we give up now on a new Israeli service outline… we will harm the security of the state, and we will miss an opportunity to solve an issue that is tearing Israeli society apart.”

Canada will halt future arms sales to Israel following a non-binding vote in the house of commons. The foreign affairs minister, Mélanie Joly, told the Toronto Star her government would halt future arms shipments. “It is a real thing,” she said on Tuesday.

The decision follows a parliamentary motion, introduced by the New Democratic party (NDP), that called on the governing Liberals to halt future arms exports to Israel. The New Democrats, who are supporting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government, have expressed frustration with what they see as his failure to do enough to protect civilians in Gaza.

The motion – which passed 204-117 with the support of Liberals, Bloc Québécois and the Green party – also called on Canada to work “towards the establishment of the state of Palestine”.

A tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the Israeli offensive in Rafah, Gaza, on Tuesday, 27 February 2024.
‘Our families are dying’: outrage as program fails to bring Palestinians to Canada
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The successful vote late on Monday followed a last-minute deal between the Liberals and the NDP, which had previously called on the government to “recognize the state of Palestine”.

The vote does not appear to change Canada’s position that Palestinian statehood should come as the result of a negotiated settlement with Israel.

Canada previously said that while it had paused issuing military export permits to Israel, it was still assessing applications on “on a case-by-case basis”.

While Trudeau has asserted a belief in Israel’s right to defend itself, he has become increasingly critical of Israel’s current assault on Gaza, which was launched after Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October

A new poll released by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research finds declining levels of support for Hamas in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank, though the percentage who believe the terror group’s October 7 onslaught was “correct” is virtually unchanged.

According to the survey, 71% of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank back the October 7 massacres in which in terrorists killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 253 others, versus 72% who said so when the organization’s previous poll was published in December.

While the overall figure remained steady, support for atrocities increased from 57% to 71% in Gaza the past three months and dipped from 82% to 71% in the West Bank.

Along with Islamist group itself, respondents gave high marks to the Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar over his conduct in the war, with 61% approving, though this was down some from 69% in December.

Among the other questions in the survey are who Palestinians would vote for if new parliament elections were held today. A plurality — 30% — say Hamas, followed by 14% for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, which was just below the 15% for none of the above. Six percent of respondents say they’ll back third parties while 36% won’t vote.

Dozens of protesters chained themselves together outside the entrance to the Knesset in Jerusalem on Tuesday, while calling for the country to hold early elections.

The protest, dubbed “Day of Dismissal,” was organized by Changing Direction, a climate protest group originally founded as an offshoot of the global Extinction Rebellion movement, which has shifted its focus in recent months to include action against the government in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terror assault and subsequent war in Gaza.

In videos posted online by the group, protesters could be seen sitting in front of police barricades, chanting “You are in charge, you are to blame” at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Many of the protesters chained themselves together before the barricades while others used bicycle locks to attach themselves to parked cars.

“We are blocking the street entrances to the Knesset so that MKs cannot come in or out, and we’re calling for immediate elections,” one protester said in a recorded statement while sitting attached to a car with a bicycle lock around her neck. “This government is a disgrace, it is the most dangerous and terrible government in the country’s history. They have destroyed every reasonable mechanism that was left here, they brought us to war… they don’t care about the public.”

After the protest was declared unlawful by police, members of the Yasam riot police unit were deployed to disperse the demonstration. At least four protesters were said by the group to have been arrested in clashes with police as they attempted to bypass the barricades and enter the government complex.

Earlier on Tuesday, protesters handed out “dismissal letters” to coalition lawmakers at the Knesset.

These include Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who told the uncle of a terror victim to “get out of my sight” while walking down a Knesset hallway.

Israel has secured a trove of intelligence on Hamas during its military offensive in Gaza, giving it a detailed picture of the internal workings of the militant organization, according to an administration official, an intelligence official, a congressional source, an Israeli official and a former U.S. official.

The intelligence has been gleaned from hard drives, cellphones, laptops, maps and other material seized during Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, as well as electronic eavesdropping conducted by the U.S., the sources said.

The information obtained by the Israel Defense Forces includes extremely detailed information about Hamas’ leadership, command and control, and communications, an intelligence official said.

“They have more understanding and intelligence on Hamas than they ever had before,” said Matthew Levitt, a former senior official in the Treasury and State departments and now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“They have the HR [human resources] files and more. So their understanding of what Hamas was able to do is much, much more granular,” said Levitt, who recently traveled to the region.

The intelligence successes most likely enabled Israel to locate and kill Hamas’ No. 3 official, Marwan Issa, in an airstrike last week in Gaza, current and former officials said.

“They have put a lot of pressure on Hamas’ leadership and capabilities, and they absolutely have taken advantage and are exploiting materials for additional intelligence and information,” a senior Biden administration official said.

As it tries to track Hamas’ leaders and weapons stockpiles, Israel is also receiving assistance from U.S. intelligence agencies.

“The rest of the top [Hamas] leaders are in hiding, likely deep in the Hamas tunnel network, and justice will come for them, too,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Monday. “We are helping to ensure that.”

Since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, U.S. spy agencies have shifted resources and stepped up intelligence gathering in Gaza to help Israel in its fight against Hamas, including providing signals intelligence — information gleaned from electronic eavesdropping on communications — according to current and former officials.

Israel’s military forces are now focused on hunting down Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, and Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’ military wing.

The IDF offensive has also targeted Hamas’ weapons production sites and resupply routes out of Gaza.

The Israeli operation also appears to have severely curtailed Hamas’ capacity to secure weapons shipments into Gaza from Iranian and other sources.

Israel will take control of Rafah even if it causes a rift with the United States, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday, describing the Gazan city packed with evacuees as a final Hamas bastion harboring a quarter of the terror group’s fighters.

We’re quite confident that we can do this in a way that would be effective — not only militarily, but also on the humanitarian side. And they have less confidence that we can do it,” one of those Israeli envoys, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, told the podcast “Call Me Back with Dan Senor.”

Dermer, a former ambassador to the United States, said Israel would hear out American ideas for Rafah, but that the city on Gaza’s border with Egypt would be taken whether or not the allies reach agreement:

“It will happen even if Israel is forced to fight alone. Even if the entire world turns on Israel, including the United States, we’re going to fight until the battle’s won.”

As fighting raged in northern Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Cairo for talks with Arab officials about a proposed temporary ceasefire. Israel is open to a truce that will allow the release of hostages, but has ruled out ending the war with Hamas still in power.

Dermer said leaving the Iran-backed Islamists standing would invite open-ended attacks against Israel from across the region: “And that’s why the determination to take them out is so strong, even if it leads to a potential breach with the United States.”

He and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi are expected to fly to Washington in the coming days to discuss the continuation of the war on Hamas with Biden administration officials.

Dermer said there were four intact Hamas battalions in Rafah, bolstered by gunmen who had retreated from other parts of Gaza, amounting to 25% of the group’s prewar strength.

“We’re not going to leave a quarter of them in place,” he said. “We’re going into Rafah because we have to… And I think what people don’t understand is that October 7 is an existential moment for Israel.”

The United States will ask the U.N. Security Council on Friday to back a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an Israel-Hamas hostage deal, increasing pressure on its ally Israel to allow more humanitarian aid and better protect civilians.

Nate Evans, spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said on Thursday that the resolution resulted from "many rounds of consultations" with members of the 15-seat Security Council.

The resolution marks a further toughening of Washington's stance toward Israel. Earlier in the five-month-long war, the U.S. was averse to the word ceasefire and vetoed measures that included calls for an immediate ceasefire.

The draft resolution, seen by Reuters, says an "immediate and sustained ceasefire" lasting roughly six weeks would protect civilians and allow for the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

The text backs talks brokered by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar over a ceasefire and emphasizes support for using the period of a truce to intensify efforts in pursuit of "lasting peace."

To pass in the Security Council, a resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no veto by the U.S., France, Britain, Russia or China.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday he believed talks in Qatar, which are focused on a six-week truce and the release of 40 Israeli hostages and hundreds of jailed Palestinians, could still reach a agreement.

The main sticking point has been that Hamas says it will release hostages only as part of a deal that would end the war, while Israel says it will discuss only a temporary pause.

The U.S. has wanted any Security Council support for a ceasefire to be linked to the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The resolution is also intended to deliver a surge in humanitarian aid to Gaza, where severe hunger is worsening.
During the war, Washington has vetoed three draft resolutions, two which would have demanded an immediate ceasefire. Most recently, the U.S. justified its veto by saying such council action could jeopardize ceasefire talks.

The U.S. traditionally shields Israel at the U.N. But it has also abstained twice, allowing the council to adopt resolutions on increasing aid and calling for extended pauses in fighting.

The United Nations Security Council on Friday failed to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal after Russia and China vetoed the measure proposed by the United States.

China’s representative, Zhang Jun, said the draft “dodged the most central issue, that of a ceasefire” through its “ambiguous” language.

“Nor does it even provide an answer to the question of realizing a ceasefire in the short term,” he said.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, also speaking before the vote, called on members not to vote in favor of the resolution.

He said the resolution was “exceedingly politicized” and contained an effective green light for Israel to mount a military operation in Rafah, a city on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip where more than half of its 2.3 million residents have been sheltering in makeshift tents to escape the Israeli assault farther north.

“This would free the hands of Israel and it would result in all of Gaza and its entire population having to face destruction, devastation or expulsion,” Nebenzia told the meeting

A series of documents obtained by The Times of Israel reveal how top Israeli officials sought and expressed their appreciation for the financial support provided by Qatar to stabilize the humanitarian situation in Gaza in the years and months prior to Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.

“This aid has undoubtedly played a fundamental role in achieving the continued improvement of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and ensuring stability and security in the region,” then Mossad chief Yossi Cohen wrote in a 2020 letter to Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, expressing his “thanks and appreciation for the humanitarian aid provided by the State of Qatar during recent years” to the enclave.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu long sought to avoid talking publicly about the funds his successive governments secured from Qatar for Gaza over the past decade. But the hundreds of millions of dollars in payments came under renewed scrutiny following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, as their apparent goal of keeping Israel’s southern border quiet by improving the economic situation in Gaza dramatically backfired. Nonetheless, Netanyahu has since defended the assistance as necessary for preventing a “humanitarian disaster” in the Strip.

The premier insists this wasn’t his goal, but critics have argued that the Qatari aid helped strengthen Hamas at the expense of the more moderate Palestinian Authority, which seeks a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — a framework Netanyahu opposes.

The Arabic and English letters obtained by The Times of Israel indicate that Israel did seek to ensure that the funds wouldn’t be directly diverted to Hamas. However, with Doha funding humanitarian projects in the Strip, Hamas, the Gaza-ruling terror group that avowedly seeks to destroy Israel, was absolved of having to provide such services to Palestinians themselves, freeing up its own cash for military projects.

Since 2018 Qatar has periodically provided millions of dollars in cash to pay for fuel for the Strip’s power plant, to pay Hamas’s civil servants and to provide aid to tens of thousands of impoverished families.

In a second letter from 2021, Ronen Levy — who at the time headed the NSC’s Middle East, Africa and Special Liaisons Directorate — acknowledged Doha’s financial support through the Qatari Gaza Reconstruction Committee to advance “civilian and infrastructure projects in electricity, residential areas, medicine and support for the population”.

“We reiterate the importance of continuing to transfer the Qatari humanitarian financial assistance through the existing mechanism, i.e. the ambassador [Mohammad] al-Emadi [head of] the Qatar Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, in order to maintain the aforementioned… achievements,” Levy wrote to Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.

In a third letter sent just four months before the October 7 attacks, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories COGAT Ghassan Alian updated Qatari envoy Mohammad al-Emadi on Israel’s approval of the “Gas for Gaza” project, which aims to replace the diesel fuel currently powering Gaza’s electrical plant with Israeli gas.

“We are at your disposal and will continue accompanying the implementation of this project,” Alian wrote, appearing to elicit Qatar’s assistance in continuing to fund the project.

A senior Israeli official confirmed the authenticity of the letters, as did a second source familiar with the matter.

Israel’s assessment that Hamas was more interested in securing economic aid and maintaining quiet in Gaza is believed largely responsible for Jerusalem being lulled into a sense of complacency that allowed the terror group to launch the devastating October 7 attack, when thousands of gunmen burst across the border, overrunning military bases and communities and killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians in their homes and at a music festival. Another 253 were taken hostage.

Another Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity stressed that the relationship with Qatar was managed strictly by Mossad and COGAT and that any letter sent by the NSC was done at the request of one of those agencies.

“Qatar’s support for Gaza was made in accordance with the decisions of the political echelon with approval from the cabinet,” the Israeli official added. “The aid was defined as being for humanitarian purposes only.”

Doha won accolades from one of Netanyahu’s top aides after it succeeded in securing the release of four Israeli hostages in October. It brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas the next month that freed over 100 hostages. But the stalemate in ensuing talks has since led Jerusalem to sour on Qatar, with Netanyahu accusing Doha of failing to apply sufficient pressure on Hamas.

Last week, though, two officials told The Times of Israel that Qatar’s emir proposed expelling Hamas’s leaders from Doha during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken days after October 7.

Al Thani was effectively rebuffed by the top US diplomat who said it would be better for Qatar to use its contacts with Hamas — through the office it allowed the terror group to establish in Doha in 2012 at Washington’s behest — to mediate between the Gaza war parties to secure a hostage deal, the officials recalled.

IDF Maj.-Gen. (res.) Israel Ziv, former head of the IDF's Operations Directorate, recently spoke with Udi Segal and Anat Davidov on 103FM radio, discussing important topics such as the conduct of the war in Gaza, the debate with America about the operation in Rafah, and the activity at Shifa Hospital.

Ziv explained the actions at Shifa Hospital "means that in practice, Hamas remains in control of the area and that this situation in Shifa is probably similar in other hospitals. There are other hospitals in northern Gaza. Hamas's military capabilities have indeed been damaged, undoubtedly eliminated by the IDF, but they still have thousands of terrorists. The territory in terms of civilian control remains in the hands of Hamas; the organization is alive and is still kicking."

To the question of whether it was right to withdraw most of the IDF troops from Gaza, Ziv replied: "In the absence of a policy, what is the IDF supposed to do? We are over five months into this war without any predictable political goal. Let's say we stayed until now. What is next? Even if we stayed and declared that we were occupying, we would become the new government in Gaza. Israel would need to establish civil, police, and security systems and take care of the various services. What happened to us is not just the Hamas situation. The lack of decision-making on our part is the most serious thing."

Ziv later commented on Canada's decision to stop arms shipments to Israel, "Israel is in the middle of a very serious international crisis. I don't remember one like this before. It is a result not only of the lack of advocacy but also that Israel is in a deep crisis as a result of the lack of policy. Everything points to the fact that the government does not make policy decisions, and not only do we not know what the best decision is, but the world does not know either.

"The world does not show the photos of Channel 12 showing how the IDF does one heroic action or another in Shifa; they only show photos of the humanitarian crisis, the demolition, and the destruction. Because of this, the public opinion in the world is against us. The point here is that in the end, the US will not be there for us either because there is a limit to what they are willing to contain."

Israel's dependence on America during the current war
He further stated, "If Israel is going to return to being a nation on its own, maybe we can last a few months. Without the backing from our allies, we will not be able to continue and defeat Hezbollah in the North, and militarily, we will be hurt. I think we are already in a very serious situation, and Israel must make a decision. A continuation of this streak is national irresponsibility from a security point of view and in general."

"If we don't solve the problem in the South, the situation in the North won't be able to be solved politically either, and the US won't push for it. America doesn't work for Israel. They have worked with Israel until now, but America doesn't agree with Israel's policy, so why would America go to all kinds of effort? It will not happen. So Israel will remain rooted in its own troubles, and if we are such great heroes - let's see," Ziv continued.

Towards the end of his remarks, Ziv was asked if Israel plans to convince America of the necessity of the action in Rafah, and he replied: "No. We ourselves are not convinced. If Rafah is so important, why didn't we enter already? The main military problem was in Gaza, by the way. After what happened on October 7, we proceeded cautiously and with an excess of force, we did not act with exceptional sophistication and we did not create control."

Ziv concluded, "It is impossible to conduct a war like this, and it is being conducted from within itself. The IDF knows what to do, but the war is being lost. It has no goals, no direction.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris appears to not rule out consequences for Israel if it moves forward with a major ground offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah where over a million Palestinians are sheltering.

Upon first being pressed on ABC’s “This Week” whether there would be consequences from the US if Israel moves into Rafah, Harris responds, “We’re going to take it one step at a time.”

But after the question was raised a second time, she says, “I am ruling out nothing.”

“We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,” Harris explains.

“I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go. We’re looking at about a million and a half people in Rafah who are there because they were told to go there… so we’ve been very clear that it would be a mistake to move into Rafah with any type of military operation,” the vice president adds.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said Sunday in Cairo that delivering the necessary aid to famine-threatened Gaza “requires Israel removing the remaining obstacles and chokepoints to relief.”

Guterres repeated his call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” to alleviate “the plight of Palestinian children, women and men struggling to survive the nightmare in Gaza,” during a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

Guterres, who also met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, called the Rafah border crossing and Egypt’s El-Arish airport where assistance is sent “essential arteries for life-saving aid into Gaza.”

The only effective and efficient way to deliver heavy goods to meet Gaza’s humanitarian needs is by road and includes an exponential increase in commercial deliveries, he asserted.

“But those arteries are clogged,” Guterres said, with massive lines of trucks piled up on the Egyptian side, only trickling in as the humanitarian situation worsens. Calls have mounted for Israel to ease its restrictions on aid and open more crossings into Gaza.

“Palestinians in Gaza desperately need what has been promised — a flood of aid. Not trickles. Not drops,” Guterres said. “The daily assault on the human dignity of Palestinians is creating a crisis of credibility for the international community.”

“Looking at Gaza, it almost appears that the four horsemen of war, famine, conquest, and death are galloping across it,” the UN chief said. “The whole world recognizes that it’s past time to silence the guns and ensure an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” he continued.

And in the Ramadan spirit of compassion, I also urge the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” Guterres said.