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The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they unfolded.
Rocket sirens activate in northern Israel’s Meron area
Incoming rocket sirens are sounding in the Meron area in northern Israel, following an apparent rocket attack from Lebanon.
Footage posted to social media appears to show several rockets striking Mount Meron.
There are no immediate reports of injuries.
Hezbollah has attacked Mount Meron, which is located some eight kilometers (5 miles) from the Lebanon border, several times amid the ongoing war, launching large barrages of rockets at the mountain, as well as guided missiles at the base that sits atop it.
Chief Sephardic rabbi says yeshiva students saved Israelis in war, not security forces
File: Sephardic chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef at an inauguration ceremony for a new ritual bath for women, in the northern town of Safed, August 17, 2023. (David Cohen/FLASH90)
Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef says that Israel survived attacks by terror groups throughout the ongoing war because of yeshiva students and not the work of the security forces.
“Thirteen thousand missiles were lobbed at our country; thank God for the miracles and wonders we had. Thanks to what? Thanks to the IDF Chief of Staff? Thanks to whom? Thanks to the Torah students and yeshiva students, who sit and learn the Torah,” he says.
He goes on to say that Israelis were saved from attacks in the north, south, and by Hamas terrorists, “only thanks to the members of the yeshivas and their students. They protect all the soldiers and all the nation of Israel,” he adds.
Last month, Yosef sparked a major public backlash when he said that ultra-Orthodox Jews will leave Israel en masse if the government ends the exemptions from mandatory military enlistment enjoyed by the Haredi community.
Senior Israeli official says country open to ending war against Hamas
Israel is willing to entertain an effective end to the war in Gaza, a senior Israeli official tells the Hebrew language Walla news outlet.
“We hope that what we offered is enough to bring Hamas into serious negotiations,” the official says. “We hope they will understand that we are serious about a deal — and we are serious. They need to understand that if the first stage is implemented, we will be able to advance to subsequent stages, and reach the end of the war.”
Earlier, Walla reported that Israel is ready to discuss “restoring extended quiet” to the Strip and allowing Gazans to return to their homes.
A senior Israeli official said this evening that Israel had “not agreed to an end to the war” and that reports to the contrary were false.
Some US officials tell Blinken Israel’s use of American arms may not follow int’l law; others back Israeli assurances
Smoke billows following an Israeli bombardment north of Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on April 27, 2024. (AFP)
WASHINGTON — Some senior US officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters.
Other officials uphold support for Israel’s representation.
A joint submission from four bureaus – Democracy Human Rights & Labor; Population, Refugees and Migration; Global Criminal Justice and International Organization Affairs – raises “serious concern over non-compliance” with international humanitarian law during Israel’s prosecution of the Gaza war.
There were no indications that the recommendation would be decisive, and the State Department’s human rights bureau is often known to be more critical of Israel while remaining less involved in the administration’s decision-making.
Under a National Security Memorandum (NSM) issued by US President Joe Biden in February, Blinken must report to Congress by May 8 whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons does not violate US or international law.
By March 24, at least seven State Department bureaus had sent in their contributions to an initial “options memo” to Blinken. Parts of the memo, which has not been previously reported, were classified.
The submissions to the memo provide the most extensive picture to date of the divisions inside the State Department over whether Israel might be violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.
Illustrative: An F-35 at Hatzerim Air Base in the Negev desert, June 29, 2023. (Ofer Zidon/Flash90)
“Some components in the department favored accepting Israel’s assurances, some favored rejecting them and some took no position,” a US official says.
The assessment from the four bureaus says Israel’s assurances were “neither credible nor reliable.” It cites eight examples of Israeli military actions that the officials say raise “serious questions” about potential violations of international humanitarian law.
These include repeatedly striking protected sites and civilian infrastructure; “unconscionably high levels of civilian harm to military advantage”; taking little action to investigate violations or to hold to account those responsible for significant civilian harm and “killing humanitarian workers and journalists at an unprecedented rate.”
Israel faces a difficult task limiting civilian casualties in its mission to eliminate the Hamas terror group. It has repeatedly said and provided evidence that the terror group is using civilians as human shields, embedding itself in civilian infrastructure, including by locating operations bases under hospitals.
The assessment from the four bureaus also cites 11 instances of Israeli military actions the officials said “arbitrarily restrict humanitarian aid,” including rejecting entire trucks of aid due to a single “dual-use” item, “artificial” limitations on inspections as well as repeated attacks on humanitarian sites that should not be hit.
Another submission to the memo reviewed by Reuters, from the Bureau of Political and Military Affairs, which deals with US military assistance and arms transfers, warns Blinken that suspending US weapons would limit Israel’s ability to meet potential threats outside its airspace and require Washington to re-evaluate “all ongoing and future sales to other countries in the region.”
Any suspension of US arms sales would invite “provocations” by Iran and aligned militias, the bureau says in its submission, illustrating the push-and-pull inside the department as it prepares to report to Congress.
The submission does not directly address Israel’s assurances.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the US Embassy in Beijing, China, April 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
Inputs to the memo from the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism and US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew say they assessed Israel’s assurances as credible and reliable, a second US official tells Reuters.
The State Department’s legal bureau, known as the Office of the Legal Adviser, “did not take a substantive position” on the credibility of Israel’s assurances, a source familiar with the matter says.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says the agency doesn’t comment on leaked documents.
“On complex issues, the Secretary often hears a diverse range of views from within the Department, and he takes all of those views into consideration,” Miller says.
When asked about the memo, an Israeli official says: “Israel is fully committed to its commitments and their implementation, among them the assurances given to the US government.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Biden administration officials repeatedly have said they have not found Israel in violation of international law.
Blinken has seen all of the bureau assessments about Israel’s pledges, the second US official says.
Police say 7 suspects detained for rioting at Tel Aviv rallies
Police say they arrested seven suspects for rioting and scuffling with officers at anti-government protests tonight in Tel Aviv.
Police say that while most of the protesters dispersed peacefully at the rally, several began disrupting the peace, along Begin Street while trying to descend to the Ayalon Highway and block it.
Brother of hostage Dror Or: Hostages asking us to ‘save them from this hell’
Elad Or, the brother of Dror Or who was taken captive by Hamas on October 7, speaks to a crowd of protesters in Jerusalem on April 27, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Elad Or, the brother of Dror Or who was taken captive by Hamas from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, is demanding the government reach a hostage deal, in his address to a large crowd of protesters in Jerusalem’s city center.
Or speaks about the propaganda videos that Hamas released this week depicting three hostages who remain alive — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Keith Siegel, and Omri Miran.
“People are alive,” he says. “They are looking at us, alive, and requesting we save them from this hell.”
Or invokes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the rest of his government, to which the crowd boos and cries “Shame!”
“We won’t give you peace and we won’t let you lose yet another opportunity and continue with this deadly foot-dragging of the past few months,” he says. “We [the hostage families] have no holidays, or happiness or respite.”
Organizers read off the names of the hostages who remain in Hamas captivity, to which the crowd chants, “Back home, now!”
The demonstrators are now dispersing without any clashes with police.
Protesters calling for hostage deal briefly block Ayalon Highway
Families of hostages and their supporters block the Ayalon Highway on April 27, 2024, as they demand a deal to release their loved ones. The Hebrew letter spells out the word "Enough. (Amir Goldstein: Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Pursued by police, protesters calling for the release of hostages briefly block the northbound Ayalon Highway.
Police caught up to the demonstrators marching down Begin Street, and skirmishes broke out. An officer declares that the protest is illegal and calls on demonstrators to return to Kaplan Street.
Hostages’ families address protesters before Tel Aviv march; relative briefly detained, torch taken by police
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage in Gaza, addresses protesters on Begin Street, Tel Aviv, April 27, 2024. (Paulina Patimer/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)
Protesters gather on Begin Street to call for a deal to release hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, with family members of hostages speaking one after the other on Azrieli Bridge, above the demonstrators.
Meirav Svirsky, the sister of Itay Svirsky, a hostage who was killed while in captivity, calls on the government to not send forces into Rafah to prevent the deaths of more hostages.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of the hostage Matan Zangauker, says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “sacrificing” her son and the rest of the hostages.
She also calls against an invasion of Rafah, which she says would hurt the hostages, and adds that US President Joe Biden cares more about the hostages than Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, protesters chant against the government and call for a deal to be made immediately. Some demonstrators make use of pyrotechnics.
The Times of Israel witnesses a skirmish between police and protesters leading to Ayala Metzger, the daughter-in-law of hostage Yoram Metzger, being briefly detained.
According to eyewitnesses, the incident occurred while the families marched their way from Hostages Square to join the demonstration, and Metzger had a torch she was carrying confiscated by police.
After rallying there, protesters begin marching south down Begin Street.
‘Their time has run out, deal on the table’: Thousands march for hostage deal in Jerusalem
Banners depicting Hamas-held captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin are carried at the front of a mass march in support of a hostage deal in Jerusalem's city center on April 27, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Thousands of protesters calling for a hostage deal are marching down King George Street in Jerusalem.
The march was organized jointly by anti-government protest groups and the Jerusalem branch of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and replaces weekly rallies typically held separately by the respective groups each Saturday night.
“Their time has run out, deal on the table” protesters chant as they approach the intersection with Ben Yehuda Street.
The protest comes in the wake of Hamas’s publication of proof-of-life videos of multiple Israeli hostages, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose family resides in Jerusalem.
At the front of the protest are large banners depicting the 23-year-old hostage that read: “Free Hersh!” and “Survive!”
IDF: Fighter jets strike Hezbollah positions in south Lebanon
Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon’s Markaba, alongside another site in Srebbine, the IDF says.
The strike comes hours after a “suspicious aerial target” was intercepted in the north, and after several anti-tank missiles were fired from Lebanon.
At rally hours after Hamas released video of his son, Dani Miran pleads for a deal, urges Sinwar to ‘show some humanity’
File: Dani Miran speaks to visitors at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, on November 27, 2023. (Canaan Lidor/Times of Israel)
Addressing thousands at Hostages Square, Dani Miran describes how he felt seeing a filmed message from his son in Gaza that Hamas released today.
“As I had expected, he had a beard. Because he has nothing to shave with,” says Dani of his son Omri, whom Hamas terrorists abducted on October 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz. “I saw another thing — I scrutinized every millimeter in the image — I saw he’s not brushing his teeth, either.”
Dani, who has himself grown a beard since his son was abducted, vows to shave it off with his son when he returns.
In the edited three-minute-long video of Miran and another hostage, Keith Siegel, they identify themselves, speak to their families, and say they are hoping for a hostage deal that would see them and other hostages returned home.
Hostages Keith Siegel (right) and Omri Miran are seen in a Hamas propaganda video aired April 27, 2024. (Screenshot: Telegram)
Dani Miran tells the crowds in Hostages Square: “I hope a deal will really happen now.”
He calls on Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, to “Take a small step and spare bloodshed for both peoples.” Addressing Sinwar, he continues: “Show some humanity, and [Israel’s] cabinet will reciprocate, I am sure of it.”
To Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war cabinet, Miran says, “Approve any deal, but any deal, that’s feasible. I implore you, one request: Make the decision now.”
25-year-old man shot dead in Lod, marking 64th killing in Arab crime wave this year
A man was shot dead near a mourning tent in the central city of Lod, police and medics say.
The anti-violence advocacy group Abraham Initiative names the victim as Mahmoud Elassiwi, 25.
Paramedics called to the scene found the man unconscious and without signs of life, according to a Magen David Ambulance service statement.
The medics say they began to treat him and took him to hospital where he was later declared dead.
An additional 46-year-old man was seriously injured and taken to hospital by medics, MDA says.
Police say they have opened an investigation into the shooting.
The Abraham Initiatives say the death brought the number of Arab Israelis who have been killed in violent crime since the start of 2024 to a record 64, of which 56 were shot dead.
During the same period in 2023, 60 Arab Israelis had been killed. That year saw 244 violent deaths in the Arab community, nearly double the previous record set in 2021.
Government critic at Tel Aviv protest: Oct. 7 did not change minds of judicial overhaul architects
Anti-government protesters calling for elections and a deal to release hostages held by Hamas hold placards and wave national flags in Tel Aviv on April 27, 2024. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)
Speakers at the demonstration against the government in Tel Aviv are calling for early elections to be held.
Yaniv Roznai, a constitutional scholar who is a critic of the government’s proposed judicial overhaul says that “October 7 did not make the architects of the judicial overhaul rethink what they’re doing.”
He lists a series of policies initiated by the government that he says show the judicial overhaul is still being, particularly noting Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s refusal to hold hearings for judicial candidates he doesn’t consider “nationalist” enough.
After Roznai, Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is a hostage, speaks.
“Netanyahu and Smotrich are planning on building villas in Gaza on top of the bodies of the murdered and the hostages,” Zangauker says. “They want to build on top of my Matan, but this won’t happen.”
The protest ends and demonstrators walk down the streets to join the hostage demonstration on Begin Street.
Senior official: Israel has not agreed to end war, withdraw from Gaza; Katz: We’ll delay Rafah op if there’s a deal
After Channel 12 reported that the terms Israel agreed to — and which are being conveyed to Hamas — would include a second stage that would examine an end to the war in exchange for the release of additional hostages beyond the initial 33, a senior Israeli official says that “Israel did not agree to an end of the war, to a withdrawal from the Strip, or other demands that Hamas presented.”
“Israel did not accept the Egyptian demands, and presented its own conditions for a deal,” says the official, without expanding on those terms.
The Egyptian delegation is still in Israel, according to Kan news, and is holding intensive conversations with senior Israeli defense officials.
Hamas is expected to provide the number of living hostages it is willing to release, according to the outlet, as Israel awaits a broader answer on the terror organization’s response to the latest Israeli offer.
As intensive Egypt-mediated talks over a potential deal continue, Foreign Minister Israel Katz tells Channel 12 news that if a deal is reached, “We will delay an operation in Rafah.”
Israel has reportedly indicated that it will move ahead with an invasion of the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza if the organization delays its response or rejects the latest offer.
TV report says Hamas answer on Israel’s latest hostage deal terms expected in 48 hours
Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza call for a deal for the release of the hostages, at 'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv, April 27, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Israel anticipates an answer from Hamas in the next 48 hours to its latest proposals for a hostage-truce deal, Channel 12 news reports.
It says the terms are being conveyed to Hamas in Gaza today via the Egyptian delegation, led by intel chief Abbas Kamel, that held five hours of talks with Israeli negotiators on Friday.
It restates reports from Friday that Israel expects Hamas to release 33 living hostages who meet the so-called humanitarian designation — that is, women, children, men aged over 50 and the sick — while Hamas claims to hold only 20 hostages who meet this designation.
It adds, without citing a source and without elaborating, that an accompanying truce in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza would last one more day for each extra hostage released. It is not clear how this would relate to reports in recent weeks that the first phase of a deal would provide for a 42-day truce.
The TV report also says the terms being conveyed would provide for a subsequent phase of negotiations, in which an end to the war and the release of all further hostages would be discussed. It stresses that Israel would not have to commit to ending the war as a condition for the initial release of the 33 “humanitarian” hostages.
Hamas has since the November deal conditioned the release of any further hostages on Israel ending the war — a demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected as delusional.
The report also claims, without citing a source, that Israel has received a green light from the United States regarding its plan for evacuating civilians from Rafah. It stresses that Israel has not received American approval for a ground operation in the city. And it says the Israeli political echelon has not told the IDF to begin any evacuation effort.
It says the issue of Rafah, where the Hamas leadership is believed to be hiding underground, along with many hostages, was also discussed in yesterday’s talks with the Egyptians.
Citing people familiar with Netanyahu’s thinking, the TV report says the prime minister does not want to agree to end the war. It says he opposes Hamas and other gunmen being allowed to return to northern Gaza in a deal. It says he feels Israel has been showing increasing flexibility on the terms of a deal, while Hamas has not shifted from its core demand to end the war as a condition for any hostage releases.
Netanyahu, it says, is also deeply concerned by the prospect of the International Criminal Court in The Hague issuing arrest warrants against Israel’s political and military leaders for alleged war crimes in Gaza. The prime minister, the report says, has asked US President Joe Biden to intervene to try to prevent this. Otherwise, he is said to warn, such a move “could bring everything down.”
Netanyahu further believes that Hamas’s release tonight and earlier in the week of propaganda videos showing three hostages underlines that Hamas is extremely anxious to prevent the IDF entering Rafah, since that would likely mean the end of its rule in Gaza.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for his part, is said to believe that “Rafah can wait” and that the priority must be the release of the hostages.
As it did on Friday, Channel 12 quotes unnamed defense sources saying Netanyahu must be “pushed” into a deal now, and that the “problem” preventing this is his fear of the far-right parties bringing down his coalition. These unnamed defense sources, it says, note the possible existence of a path to an end to the war and achieve normalization for Israel with Saudi Arabia.
A second report, by the TV station’s political analyst Amit Segal, says that Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich has “more than hinted” that a deal on the terms currently offered by Israel would mean an end to the coalition. Smotrich, the finance minister, is said to consider the terms to constitute “capitulation to the Nazi enemy.”
Fellow far-right party leader Itamar Ben Gvir, who has been in hospital since he was injured in a car crash yesterday, also opposes the terms, Segal notes.
Anti-government protesters demonstrate in Haifa, Caesarea and more at weekly rallies
Hundreds of protesters chant: “What are they doing there in Gaza? He’s abandoning them in Gaza” near the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea.
The chant, a recent addition to the repertoire in the weekly protests near Netanyahu’s private residence, refers to dozens of hostages believed to be held captive in Gaza. It is followed by, “He who abandoned, must retrieve.”
In Tel Aviv, a far larger crowd assembles on Kaplan Street for the weekly protests featuring similar calls, including demands that Netanyahu resign and calls for an early election.
In Haifa, hundreds of protesters march from the Carmel Center neighborhood to Horev Center for a weekly rally. In Pardes Hannah-Karkur near Hadera, several dozen protesters throng Highway 4 holding signs calling for an early election.
Mother of hostage Matan Zangauker: End war if it brings hostages home
The mother of an Israeli hostage in Gaza calls on the cabinet to end the fighting in Gaza in order to retrieve him and others in a deal with Hamas.
“Declare an end to the fighting if it leads to the retrieval of the hostages,” Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is in Gaza, says on Saturday at the weekly demonstration on Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
The call to end the fighting is a recent development at Hostages Square rallies, where speakers had generally stopped short of calling for this specific outcome, which many Israelis oppose because they want to see Hamas’ rule dismantled in Gaza.
“No [parliamentary] seat in the world is worth my son’s life, or the lives of 132 hostages in Gaza,” Zangauker says in a speech to thousands of people on the square. “Stop clinging to your seat,” she says, addressing Netanyahu.
Zangauker, a former Likud voter from the city of Ofakim, which is one of the party’s bastions and where Hamas terrorists killed dozens of residents on October 7, also criticizes Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot of the National Unity, a former opposition party that joined Likud’s wartime coalition.
“You did not achieve the goals of the fighting and you let Netanyahu kill deals for the hostages’ retrieval. You whitewashed Netanyahu’s crimes against the hostages,” Zangauker says, addressing the two former opposition politicians.
Ben Gvir disturbed by ‘hatred and death wishes’ against him after running red light
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s office releases an update on the lawmaker’s health after his car accident on Friday and says the minister was disturbed by so-called “hatred and death wishes” voiced over news media and social media after the crash.
Video from the scene showed his car running a red light, which the statement does not mention.
“In studios and among the people on the extreme left there were probably quite a few people who would have celebrated if God forbid the result had been worse,” the statement reads.
The statement says Ben Gvir is recovering and will return from Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center tonight “to take care of the national security of all of Israel.”
Israeli Judoka Raz Hershko wins first European championship gold medal
Israel's Raz Hershko reacts after winning against France's Julia Tolofua (unseen) during the women +78 kg individual final bout of the Judo European Championships Seniors at the Arena Zagreb, in Zagreb, Croatia, on April 27, 2024. (Damir Sencar/AFP)
Israeli Judoka Raz Hershko wins her first gold medal at the European championships in Zagreb, beating her French competitor Julia Tolofua.
It is Hershko’s third gold medal overall competing in the +78 kg class. In the past two years, she won the silver medal at the European competition.
Israel publishes video of Gaza aid pier under construction
Construction work is seen on the coast of central Gaza, part of a US-led project to bring aid into the Strip, via a floating pier, in a handout image published April 27, 2024. (Defense Ministry Department of Engineering and Construction)
The Israeli military and Defense Ministry release footage from construction work on the coast of the central Gaza Strip, part of a US-led project to bring aid into the Palestinian enclave, via a floating pier.
With US planning and cooperation, the Defense Ministry’s engineering department, IDF Southern Command, COGAT, and IDF Technological and Logistics Directorate built an area on the shore that will be used to receive the aid for the Joint Logistics Over The Shore project, known as JLOTS.
The site, which spans 0.27 square kilometers, will be used “for the operation and the passage of goods,” the military says.
The IDF says a remote-controlled hydraulic gate system was constructed at the site which will allow “operational and logistical flexibility.” The military says “extensive” electrical work is also being carried out to support the facility.
The Israeli Navy will secure the floating pier until the end of the JLOTS mission, the IDF says. The military also deployed a reservist brigade to secure the site from the ground.
Anti-government protesters gather in Tel Aviv to call for early elections, hostage deal
Protesters gather in Tel Aviv to call for the ouster of the government and the release of hostages held by Hamas, April 27, 2024. (Iddo Schejter/Times of Israel)
Demonstrators are congregating at Democracy Square in Tel Aviv to protest against the government and call for early elections and a deal to release hostages held by Hamas.
The protest is being organized by Change Generation, a movement founded in the wake of October 7, demanding the release of hostages and a change in Israeli leadership.
Police have barricaded off chunks of Begin Street and Kaplan Street to contain the demonstration, as well as nearby exits to the Ayalon Freeway to prevent protesters from blocking traffic, as they often do.
After the demonstration’s official portion consisting of speakers ends, protesters will join the hostage families’ protest down the street on Begin.
Tonight’s speakers include Prof. Yaniv Roznai, a constitutional scholar who has been a critic of the government’s judicial overhaul efforts prior to the war; Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan has been held hostage in Gaza since October; and Avner Yarkoni, a lawyer and former IAF pilot.
Dutch Jews and non-Jews wear orange kippa to protest antisemitism
Ronny Naftaniel wears an orange kippa at King's Day celebrations in the Netherlands on April 27, 2024. (Courtesy of Naftaniel)
Wearing a bright orange kippa, Ronny Naftaniel, a former leader of Dutch Jews, examines items at a junkyard sale in a village in the east of the Netherlands.
The eye-catching kippa is part of an initiative co-launched by two prominent non-Jewish Dutch actors, Huub Stapel and Hans Teeuwen, to protest antisemitism on King’s Day on Saturday. On that national holiday, Dutchmen wear their national color of orange in honor of their royal house, and many attend junkyard sales across the kingdom.
Baruch Van Riel, a Jewish wine importer from Baarle-Nassau, a small town near the border with Belgium, writes on Facebook that he wore an orange kippa to synagogue on Saturday.
Stapel tells the Hart van Nederland news site that the hundreds of orange kippot that he and Teeuwen ordered for King’s Day are in demand. The team’s call for mayors to wear the kippot in solidarity with Dutch Jews has failed to enlist any of the mayors of the Netherlands’ large cities, he says
“I think it’s a little lame,” Stapel tells the Hart van Nederland website about the absence of a response by mayors amid reports that the number of antisemitic incidents in 2023 reached an all-time record of 379 cases, most of them after October 7. “It’s no political statement, it’s an attempt at connecting people so the country doesn’t fall apart,” Stapel tells Hart van Nederland.
Hostages’ families set up Passover table in Tel Aviv, demanding deal
In a photo released by anti-government activists, relatives of hostages show red hands representing symbolizing the blood on the government's hands for so far not securing a deal to release the captives held by Hamas in Gaza, at Hostages Square, in Tel Aviv, April 27, 2024. (Paulina Patimer)
Relatives of hostages held by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip set up a Passover table at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, as weekly protests against the government begin.
Families raise bloody hands at the table, symbolizing the blood on the hands of the government, which they accuse of not doing enough to secure a deal to bring their loved ones home.
Senior Hamas official says low chance latest Israeli truce proposal will be accepted
A senior Hamas official tells the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese al-Mayadeen news station that the terror group sees a low chance of accepting a recent Israeli offer for a hostage release deal without “fundamental amendments.”
“The Israeli proposal that was presented does not reflect a fundamental change in the Israeli position. It does not give clear answers to the issue of the withdrawal [from Gaza] and a full ceasefire,” the official says, without providing details on the proposal.
It is believed that 129 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive. Hamas has also been holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Protests gather nationwide for weekly rallies calling for ‘elections now’
In an image released by anti-government activists, protesters demand 'elections now' in at a march in Haifa, on April 27, 2024. (Eilat Markovitch)
Anti-government protesters are demonstrating in cities, towns and junctions nationwide, calling for “elections now.”
Footage shows a large crowd of protesters in Haifa marching, calling for immediate elections and chanting anti-government slogans.
At the northern Karkur Junction, protesters wave Israeli flags and call for an immediate deal to release hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as well as immediate elections.
After video of two captives released, families say government must choose: Hostages or war
After Hamas released a video of two hostages in the Gaza Strip, families of captives say the government has a choice between hostages or war.
In a statement to the media, a group of families — separate from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum — charge that military pressure, which the government has said would bring their loved ones home, has failed.
“The State of Israel must choose: hostages or war. Entering Rafah will bring more murdered hostages in captivity, or their deaths in the war. Entering Rafah will be another way for the abductees to die. Israel must choose to return the hostages,” the statement says.
The families also call on war cabinet minister Benny Gantz and observer Gadi Eisenkot to work to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, since their efforts to influence the government to reach a deal have so far failed.
Hamas releases propaganda video showing hostages Keith Siegel and Omri Miran alive
Hostages Keith Siegel (right) and Omri Miran are seen in a Hamas propaganda video aired April 27, 2024. (Screenshot: Telegram)
The Hamas terror group has published a new propaganda video showing signs of life from hostages Keith Siegel, 64, and Omri Miran, 46.
The families of Siegel and Miran approve the video for publication.
In the edited three-minute-long video, Siegel and Miran identify themselves, speak to their families, and say they are hoping for a hostage deal that would see them and other hostages returned home.
The video is not dated, but Miran says he has been held captive for 202 days and Siegel mentions the Passover holiday, indicating the clips were filmed recently.
Siegel, a dual US citizen, was taken captive with his wife from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7. His wife Aviva Siegel was later released in the November deal. Miran was taken captive by Hamas terrorists from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the onslaught.
Hamas has previously issued several similar videos of hostages it is holding, in what Israel says is deplorable psychological warfare.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum says that the sign of life is proof of the need for the government “to do everything to approve a deal to return the hostages before Independence Day, for the living to be rehabilitated, and the murdered to be buried with dignity.”
Houthis say they downed US Reaper drone, posts footage with evidence
AP — Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to shoot down another of the US military’s MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft.
The Houthis say they shot down the Predator with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Officials at the Pentagon, US Central Command and the US Air Force did not immediately return requests for comment Saturday over the Houthi footage. However, CBS News quotes an anonymous US military official acknowledging a drone had crashed in Yemen.
The Houthis describe the downing as happening Thursday over their stronghold in the country’s Saada province.
Footage released by the Houthis includes what they describe as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthis’ slogan after it was hit: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”
The footage includes several close-ups of parts of the drone including the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company.
‘Suspicious aerial target’ intercepted over Manara; IDF strikes Hezbollah in south Lebanon
A “suspicious aerial target” heading into Israeli airspace from Lebanon, in the Manara area, was downed by the Iron Dome, the IDF says.
The incident set off sirens in the Kiryat Shmona area.
Several anti-tank missiles were also fired from Lebanon at the same area, and the IDF says it shelled the launch site with artillery.
Fighter jets also hit a Hezbollah site in southern Lebanon’s Qouzah, the IDF adds.
Gaza flotilla blocked in Turkey after Guinea-Bissau withdraws its ship
A ship of Freedom Flotilla Coalition anchors at Tuzla seaport in Istanbul, Turkey, April 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
ISTANBUL, Turkey — A “Freedom Flotilla” aimed at delivering aid to Gaza is blocked in Turkey after being denied use of two of its ships, which organizers blame on Israeli pressure.
The coalition of NGOs and other associations says it was unable to set sail after the West African country of Guinea-Bissau withdrew its flagged vessels.
“Sadly, Guinea-Bissau has allowed itself to become complicit in Israel’s deliberate starvation, illegal siege, and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition says.
“The Guinea-Bissau International Ships Registry (GBISR), in a blatantly political move, informed the Freedom Flotilla Coalition that it had withdrawn the Guinea Bissau flag from two of the Freedom Flotilla’s ships, one of which is our cargo ship, already loaded with over 5,000 tons of life-saving aid,” their statement says.
The group says the Guinea-Bissau authorities made several “extraordinary” requests for information including destinations, potential additional port calls, cargo manifest, and estimated arrival dates and times.
“Normally, national flagging authorities concern themselves only with safety and related standards on vessels bearing their flag,” it says, equating it to being asked about destinations when registering a car.
At an Istanbul press conference, about 280 volunteers — activists, lawyers and doctors — who had hoped to join the ships shout slogans including “Flag the flotilla,” “We will sail” and “Free Palestine.”
Three of the flotilla’s ships have been docked for a week at the port of Tuzla, south of Istanbul. They had planned to set sail on Friday.
Turkish authorities and state media, who are generally keen to boast about the aid they have provided to Palestinian civilians in Gaza having organized 13 humanitarian flights and nine boats, have been silent about the flotilla.
In 2010, a previous “Freedom Flotilla” set off from the southern Turkish city of Antalya, leading to a deadly episode that soured relations between Turkey and Israel after Israeli military forces intercepted one of the ships, the Mavi Marmara, leaving 10 dead and 28 wounded aboard.
Drone infiltration alerts sound in Galilee Panhandle
Sirens warning of a hostile drone infiltration are activated in communities in the Galilee Panhandle.
Alerts sound in Kiryat Shmona, Manara and Margaliot.
Senior military official to WSJ: The way to reach calm in north is ‘to escalate’
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Tayr Harfa near the border on April 26, 2024. (Kawnat Haju/AFP)
A senior Israeli military official tells The Wall Street Journal that intensifying Israeli operations is the only way to end clashes with Hezbollah on the northern border with Lebanon.
“There is a way out and it’s to escalate,” the official says. “Israel cannot stop right now. It’s dangerous for the whole region.”
The comments come on the same day as Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem warned that a war with the terror group would lead to Israelis being pushed from the north “once and for all.”
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in nine civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 11 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 289 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 56 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 60 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.
Israel has threatened to go to war to force Hezbollah away from the border if it does not retreat and continues to threaten northern communities, from where some 70,000 people were evacuated to avoid the fighting.
Biden vows he won’t rest until all hostages freed: ‘They have my word’
Posting an image of his meeting with freed hostage Avigail Idan, US President Joe Biden promises to “not rest until every hostage, like Abigail, ripped from their families and held by Hamas is back in the arms of their loved ones.”
“They have my word. Their families have my word,” he writes on X.
Biden met the freed captive at the White House on Wednesday, and later described Idan as “remarkable and recovering from unspeakable trauma.”
Avigail, who turned four during her time in captivity, was released weeks later as part of a hostages-for-truce deal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US, which also included the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Police clear Boston campus of anti-Israel protesters, school says some called to ‘Kill the Jews’
Police clear a pro-Palestinian, anti-Isrsel tent encampment on the Northeastern University campus in Boston, early Saturday, April 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)
NEW YORK — Police in riot gear clear an anti-Israel encampment on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston. Several dozen students shout and boo at them from a distance, but the scene is otherwise nonconfrontational.
The school says that the demonstration, which began two days ago, had become “infiltrated by professional organizers” with no affiliation to the school.
Antisemitic slurs, including “Kill the Jews,” were used, the school says in a statement.
“We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus,” says the statement, which was posted on the social media platform X.
The decisions to call in law enforcement, leading to hundreds of arrests nationwide, have prompted school faculty members at universities in California, Georgia and Texas to initiate or pass votes of no confidence in their leadership. They are largely symbolic rebukes, without the power to remove their presidents.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Hezbollah deputy chief says full scale war will end Israeli presence in north ‘once and for all’
Sheik Naim Qassem, Hezbollah's deputy leader addresses a speech during a protest to show their solidarity with the Palestinians, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, October 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem warns that full-scale war will not bring residents of northern Israel home, but rather, end their presence there “once and for all.”
“[Defense Minister Yoav] Gallant threatens us that if we don’t stop the attacks, he will attack Lebanon to return the residents of the north to their homes,” he says, in a statement quoted in Hebrew media.
“I say to Gallant that this war will not only cause the Zionists to not return to their homes but is likely to end their presence in the northern occupied territories once and for all,” he adds, referring to areas in northern Israel claimed by Lebanon.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in nine civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 11 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 289 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 56 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 60 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.
US intelligence believes Putin probably didn’t order Navalny’s killing, but doesn’t absolve him of responsibility – report
A person holds a picture of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during a vigil in front of the Russian embassy in Lisbon, Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
US intelligence agencies have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably didn’t order opposition politician Alexei Navalny killed at an Arctic prison camp in February, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Navalny, 47 when he died, was Putin’s fiercest domestic critic. His allies, branded extremists by the authorities, accused Putin of having him murdered and have said they will provide proof to back their allegation.
The Kremlin has denied any state involvement. Last month, Putin called Navalny’s demise “sad” and said he had been ready to hand the jailed politician over to the West in a prisoner exchange provided Navalny never return to Russia. Navalny’s allies said such talks had been underway.
The Journal, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, says that US intelligence agencies concluded that Putin probably didn’t order Navalny to be killed in February.
It says Washington has not absolved the Russian leader of overall responsibility for Navalny’s death, however, given the opposition politician had been targeted by Russian authorities for years, jailed on charges the West said were politically motivated, and had been poisoned in 2020 with a nerve agent.
The Kremlin denies state involvement in the 2020 poisoning.
Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr expresses support for pro-Palestinian encampments at US universities
Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, makes a speech from his house in Najaf, Iraq, Aug. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
Iraqi religious leader Moqtada Sadr expresses his support for pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel encampments at universities in the United States and calls for an end to police action against them.
“We call for a halt to the crackdown on voices advocating for peace and freedom,” Sadr says in a statement.
“The voice of American universities demanding an end to Zionist terrorism is our voice.”
Sadr once led a militia fighting American forces following the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.
He retains a devoted following of millions among the country’s majority Shiite Muslim population, and wields great influence over Iraqi politics.
Police release footage of Friday stabbing attack in Ramle
Police at the scene after a stabbing terror attack in Ramle where a 19-year old woman was seriously wounded and the assailant shot dead, April 26, 2024. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)
Police release footage of yesterday’s stabbing attack in the central city of Ramle, during which a young woman was seriously wounded.
The clip shows the assailant, armed with a knife, chasing after a woman.
He was shot dead by an armed civilian a short while later.
Police say that contrary to some reports, the assailant acted alone. The circumstances of the attack are still under investigation.
Abbas and Blinken to hold Gaza talks in Riyadh with officials from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meet in the West Bank town of Ramallah, February 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and several international officials will be in Riyadh this week for talks aimed at pushing for a “reconciliation and peace” in Gaza to be held on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting, the WEF’s president says.
“We do have the key players now in Riyadh and hopefully the discussions can lead into a process towards reconciliation and peace,” Børge Brende says at a news conference in Riyadh, adding that Gaza’s humanitarian crisis will be on the agenda.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will attend the meetings alongside regional leaders including Qatar’s prime minister, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Oman’s crown prince and Bahraini officials, Brende says.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Brende says, will be there to update officials on a round of talks Egyptian negotiators held in Israel on Friday in an effort to restart stalled efforts for a truce in the war in Gaza and to secure the release of the 133 hostages.
“There is now a bit of momentum for negotiations on the hostages and also a possible ceasefire,” Brende says.
Hamas-run health ministry says Gaza death toll reached 34,388
People check the damage in a house destroyed by overnight Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 27, 2024. (AFP)
At least 34,388 Palestinians have been killed and 77,437 injured in Gaza since the start of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the Hamas-run health ministry in the Strip says.
The figures cannot be independently verified and include some 13,000 Hamas gunmen Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
A total of 261 IDF soldiers have been killed in the army’s Gaza ground operation.
UK ship sets sail from Cyprus to house hundreds of US troops building Gaza pier
Illustrative: Britain's RFA Cardigan Bay landing ship sails in the Gulf waters off Bahrain on November 5, 2019. (Karim Sahib/AFP)
A UK ship to house hundreds of US army personnel building a jetty to speed up aid delivery to Gaza has set sail from Cyprus, a UK defense source says.
Royal Navy support ship “Cardigan Bay” will help support the international effort to construct the temporary floating pier, which is set to be completed early May, according to the Pentagon.
The pier will initially facilitate the delivery of 90 truckloads of international aid a day into Gaza, rising to up to 150 truckloads once fully operational, according to US estimates.
The aid will be pre-screened in Cyprus and delivered directly to Gaza via the pier off the coast or via Ashdod Port, which Israel has said it will open.
“It is critical we establish more routes for vital humanitarian aid to reach the people of Gaza and the UK continues to take a leading role in the delivery of support,” UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps says.
The UN insists that an increase in the flow of humanitarian aid by land is needed to help a starving population facing shortages of medical supplies.
IDF releases footage of strikes on Hezbollah members, targets in south Lebanon
Footage released by the IDF shows an airstrike carried out against a building in southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila, where it says two Hezbollah operatives were gathered yesterday.
The IDF says that one operative was already at the building, when a second armed Hezbollah member was identified by the 869th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit as arriving at the site, as seen in the video.
The troops then called in an airstrike.
Separate strikes overnight targeted buildings used by Hezbollah in Rihan and Kfarchouba, and other infrastructure in Chebaa, the IDF says.
Troops also shelled areas near Aalma ash-Shab with artillery to “remove threats,” the military adds.
Iran says crew members of Israel-linked ship seized by IRGC are expected to be freed
This image grab taken from a UGC video posted on social media on April 13, 2024, shows Iran's Revolutionary Guards rappelling down onto a container ship, MSC Aries, near the Strait of Hormuz. (Video screenshot)
Iran’s foreign minister says the crew of a seized Portuguese-flagged ship linked to Israel have been granted consular access and are expected to be freed, Iranian media reports.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized the container vessel MSC Aries with a crew of 25 in the Strait of Hormuz on April 13, days after Tehran vowed to retaliate for an alleged Israeli strike on what it says was its consulate in Damascus. Iran had said it could close the crucial shipping route and days later fired an unprecedented barrage of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel.
Recent attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, claiming solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas, have affected global shipping.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian tells his Portuguese counterpart Paulo Rangel in a telephone call that the “humanitarian issue of the release of the ship’s crew is of serious concern to us,” Iranian media says.
He is quoted as saying the crew will be turned over to their ambassadors in Tehran. The reports do not say when this will occur.
Iran’s foreign ministry has said the Aries was seized for “violating maritime laws” and that there was no doubt it was linked to Israel.
MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, which is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.
Olympics chief says Palestinian athletes to compete in Paris, even if they fail to qualify
IOC President Thomas Bach speaks during an interview with AFP ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne on April 26, 2024. (GABRIEL MONNET / AFP)
Between six and eight Palestinian athletes are expected to compete at the Paris Olympics, with some set to be invited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) even if they fail to qualify, its head Thomas Bach says.
Bach says that qualification events for the Paris Games, which start on July 26, were ongoing for a number of sports.
“But we have made the clear commitment that even if no (Palestinian) athlete would qualify on the field of play … then the NOC (National Olympic Committee) of Palestine would benefit from invitations, like other national Olympic Committees who do not have a qualified athlete,” he says in an interview at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
He says he expects the Palestinian delegation to number “six to eight.”
Bach says that the International Olympic Committee “from day one of the conflict” in Gaza had “supported in many different ways the athletes to allow them to take part in qualifications and to continue their training.”
Bach dismisses suggestions the IOC has treated Russia differently over its invasion of Ukraine compared with Israel and its war against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the October 7 onslaught by terrorists on southern Israel.
“The situation between Israel and Palestine is completely different,” Bach says.
He says he has been even-handed in his public statements on Ukraine, the Hamas attack on Israel and the “horrifying consequences” of the war in Gaza.
“From day one, we expressed how horrified we were, first on the seventh of October and then about the war and its horrifying consequences,” Bach says.
“We have always been very clear as we have been with the Russian invasion in Ukraine.”
IDF: Aircraft carried out strikes on some 25 targets in Gaza over past day
Troops operate in the Gaza Strip in an undated photo released by the military for publication on April 27, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)
Israeli aircraft carried out strikes against some 25 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, the military says.
One drone strike hit a rocket launching position that the IDF says was used in previous attacks on the southern city of Ashdod.
Another rocket launching site was hit overnight in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, which the IDF says was used in attacks on troops inside Gaza.
In central Gaza, the IDF says reservists of the Yiftah Brigade spotted a cell of gunmen preparing to open fire at troops from a building, before calling in a fighter jet airstrike, killing the operatives.
Another airstrike directed by troops in central Gaza struck a vehicle with eight Hamas operatives in it, the military says.
The IDF says additional airstrikes targeted buildings used by terror groups, weapon depots, underground sites, and other infrastructure.
2 Palestinian gunmen open fire at West Bank checkpoint, are shot dead by troops
Weapons the military says were seized from two Palestinian gunmen who opened fire at a West Bank checkpoint, April 27, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)
Overnight, two Palestinian gunmen who opened fire at the northern West Bank’s Salem checkpoint were shot dead by troops, the military says.
Troops of the Border Defense Corps’ 636th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit had been ready in an ambush following a number of recent similar attacks at the same location, when the gunman arrived by vehicle at the checkpoint area.
As the gunmen began shooting at the checkpoint, the soldiers returned fire at the pair, killing both and seizing their assault rifles, the IDF says.
No troops were hurt in the incident.
Shipment of Gaza aid donated by UAE leaves Larnaca port, source says
Aid shipments to Gaza from Cyprus resumed late yesterday, a Cypriot source says, with a ship loaded with aid donated by the United Arab Emirates making its way to the Strip.
A small cargo vessel left the port of Larnaca with humanitarian aid donated by the UAE, a Cypriot source says.
The World Central Kitchen NGO paused its aid shipments from Cyprus to review its activity in Gaza after an Israeli strike earlier this month killed seven workers during a mission coordinated with the IDF. The military has dismissed two officers and formally reprimanded senior commanders over the bombing, which it called a tragic mistake.
US troops have begun constructing a maritime pier off the coast of Gaza with the aim of speeding up the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave when it becomes operational in May.
US President Joe Biden announced the construction of the pier in March as aid officials implored Israel to ease access for relief supplies into Gaza’s overland routes. Whether the pier will ultimately succeed in boosting humanitarian aid is unclear, as international officials warn of a risk of famine in northern Gaza.
Rocket sirens sound in Shomera near northern border with Lebanon
Sirens sound in the northern border town Shomera, warning of incoming rocket fire.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces in Lebanon have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war raging there since Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
London police: 450 arrested since start of pro-Palestinian protests, 193 of them for antisemitic offenses
Pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists and supporters wave flags as they gather for a protest in Trafalgar Square in central London on March 30, 2024, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel/Hamas conflict. (BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP)
With tens of thousands expected to attend a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel march in London later today, the Metropolitan Police says the cost of policing the protests has now reached approximately £38.5 million (approximately $48 million).
The London police force has struggled to manage tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, with Jewish residents saying they feel threatened by repeated pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel marches through the streets of the UK capital.
In addition, the police force says 450 arrests have been made since the marches began, with 193 of them detained for antisemitic offenses.
The majority of those offenses involved placards, chanting or expressions of hate speech, police say.
Met Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist tells British media that the force aims to police the events “without fear or favor,” and notes that they “been a particular cause of fear and uncertainty in Jewish communities.”
However the senior officer says the protests have not reached the threshold where they would be determined to carry a risk of “serious public disorder.”
At the same time as today’s pro-Palestinian march, a separate demonstration arranged by the pro-Israel Enough is Enough group will take place nearby. The Campaign Against Antisemitism said that it cancelled its planned walk at the same time amid safety concerns.
Though the pro-Palestinian marches have been largely peaceful, a British counterterrorism official said last month the protests have made the streets of London “a no-go zone for Jews every weekend.”
Demonstrations have also featured people glorifying Hamas, and antisemitic incidents and chants.
British Jews say they have been subject to verbal abuse by some pro-Palestinian supporters since October 7, and there have been recorded incidents of physical violence as well.
Ship attacked by missiles off Yemen coast
A ship was damaged when it was targeted twice with multiple missiles off Yemen’s coast, in the latest attack on international shipping in the Red Sea to be claimed by Houthi rebels.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations security agency says the attack took place southwest of the Yemeni port of Mokha.
In the first attack, the ship “experienced an explosion in close proximity to the vessel which was felt by the crew on board,” UKMTO says on social media platform X.
“The second attack on the vessel consisted of what is believed to be two missiles, which resulted in damage.”
Hours earlier, the British maritime security firm Ambrey also reported an attack off the port of Mokha.
Airstrikes reported in south Gaza; exchanges of fire in north West Bank
There are reports tonight of airstrikes in southern Gaza, particularly in the Khan Younis and Rafah areas. Palestinians report people killed and wounded.
In the West Bank, there are reports of military raids in the Jenin and Tulkarem areas, with exchanges of fire between IDF troops and gunmen.
Hamas says it has received, will study Israel’s latest response in truce negotiations
Khalil al-Hayya speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Istanbul, Turkey, April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Hamas has received Israel’s official response to its latest truce proposal and will study it before submitting its reply, the group’s deputy Gaza chief says in a statement.
“Hamas has received today the official response of the Zionist occupation to the proposal presented to the Egyptian and the Qatari mediators on April 13,” Khalil Al-Hayya, who is currently based in Qatar, says in a statement published by the group.
After more than six months of war with Israel in Gaza, the negotiations remain deadlocked, with Hamas sticking to its demands that any agreement must end the war.
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