The Times of Israel liveblogged Friday’s events as they happened.
Two Syrian defense personnel were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the Palmyra military airport in central Syria, according to local media.
The IDF has not commented on the reported strike.
Gunmen riding a motorbike fired eight shots at the facade of the Iraqi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul earlier today, the Iraqi foreign ministry says, in an incident that Turkey says caused no casualties
“In the evening hours today, individuals on motorcycles have opened fire on Iraq’s Consulate in Istanbul. There was no loss of life or material in the incident,” Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Oncu Keceli says in a statement.
“The necessary investigation is being carried out diligently by our security units and identification efforts are underway. The perpetrators will be brought to justice.”
Iraq’s foreign ministry says the gunmen used AK-47 assault rifles before fleeing. The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.
“Iraq appreciates the swift response of the Turkish authorities and the security measures they have taken, emphasizing the importance of strengthening the necessary measures to protect diplomatic missions in accordance with international agreements,” the ministry adds in a statement.
Israeli airstrikes targeted the military airport near Palmyra in central Syria, a war monitor says, reporting the latest Israeli attack in the country since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
“Israeli warplanes targeted the Palmyra military airport,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says
SOHR, run by a single person, has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false reporting and inflating casualty numbers as well as inventing them wholesale.
President Donald Trump says that Elon Musk should not be allowed to see top secret US plans for any war with China, in a rare admission that his billionaire ally’s business links raised potential conflicts of interest.
Trump strongly denies media reports that the world’s richest man, who is now leading the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), will receive a classified Pentagon briefing on its war strategy.
Tesla and Space X boss Musk has major business interests in China but also has huge US defense contracts, while his status as an unelected advisor to Trump has raised concerns about his influence.
“I don’t want to show it to anybody. You’re talking about a potential war with China,” Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office.
“Certainly you wouldn’t show it to a businessman who is helping us so much… Elon has businesses in China and he would be susceptible perhaps to that.”
Trump, who was unveiling a contract for Boeing to build the next-generation F-47 fighter jet, described Musk as a “patriot” and hailed his efforts to slash back the US federal government, including the Defense Department.
Musk was at the Pentagon today, but Trump attacked reports, first published in the New York Times, about the visit.
“They really are the enemy of the people,” Trump says of the Times, which reported Musk was to receive a briefing in a secure room dubbed “The Tank” on maritime tactics and targeting plans.
The paper said the briefing was called off after it was publicized.
A ballistic missile launched at Israel by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen was successfully intercepted by air defenses, the military says.
There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage in the attack. The IDF says the missile was shot down before crossing the country’s borders.
Sirens had sounded across central Israel, in Jerusalem and numerous surrounding towns, and several West Bank settlements.
It marks the fourth Houthi attack on Israel since Tuesday.
A ballistic missile has been launched from Yemen at Israel.
Sirens are sounding across central Israel and the Jerusalem area.
The IDF is looking into the details.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce is asked repeatedly what the Trump administration’s position is on Defense Minister Israel Katz’s threat earlier today that Israel would annex areas of the Gaza Strip if Hamas refuses to release the remaining hostages.
“There’s the talk about annexing things… [but] for those of you who care about these issues, it is a distraction to move past the nature of what’s going on now [which has] one cause — Hamas’s attitude and actions,” says an irked Bruce after being asked the question a third time.
The decision to avoid commenting on Katz’s remarks amounts to a departure from the policy of the previous administration, which repeatedly spoke out against any potential Israeli annexation of Gaza territory.
Bruce blames Hamas for the renewed Israeli operations in Gaza, saying the terror group should have agreed to the US proposal to extend phase one.
Hamas has insisted on sticking to the original terms of the deal, which envisioned the commencement of phase two at the beginning of the month. Israel has refused to enter phase two, which would see the release of the remaining hostages since it also requires the full withdrawal of troops from Gaza and the permanent end to the war.
Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities have been dismantled, and the Trump administration appears to back the stance, pushing instead to extend phase one, rather than continuing with phase two.
The United States is monitoring the actions of Syria’s leaders as Washington determines future policy and continues to call for an inclusive, civilian-led government in Syria, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce says.
“We are monitoring the Syrian interim authorities’ actions in general, across a number of issues, as we determine and think about the future US policy for Syria,” she tells a daily briefing for reporters.
George Glezmann, an American detained in Afghanistan for more than two years before being released by the Taliban, has arrived in the United States, where he reunites with his wife and is greeted by a welcoming party that included his former cellmate.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce says Ryan Corbett, another former prisoner of the Taliban who had been held in the same cell as Glezmann, was at Joint Base Andrews, outside Washington, to greet Glezmann.
“After a brief ceremony, George and [his wife] Aleksandra flew to another location in the United States to rest and recover,” Bruce tells a regular State Department news briefing.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement on Thursday confirming the release of Glezmann, who was detained in 2022 while visiting Kabul as a tourist.
A source tells Reuters he left Afghanistan aboard a Qatari aircraft on Thursday evening bound for Qatar, following direct talks between US hostage envoy Adam Boehler and Taliban officials in Kabul.
Bruce says the US is grateful for the support of the government of Qatar in bringing Glezmann home. She says the United Arab Emirates also played a role in facilitating the initial discussions.
In a statement, the Taliban calls Glezmann’s release a “goodwill gesture” reflecting its willingness to engage with the United States “on the basis of mutual respect and interests.”
Bruce says the United States remains “deeply concerned” about the well-being of Mahmood Habibi and other Americans still believed to be in custody in Afghanistan.
Thursday’s meeting in Kabul marked the highest-level direct US-Taliban talks since President Donald Trump came to power in January.
Boehler met with the Taliban administration’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Afghan foreign ministry says in a statement.
Asked for comment on the Israeli government’s decision last night to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, a State Department spokesperson tells The Times of Israel, “This is an internal matter for the government of Israel, so we refer you to them for more information.”
The spokesperson adds that US special envoy Steve Witkoff “will continue working tirelessly alongside our partners, toward a ceasefire and the release of the hostages, especially American-Israeli Edan Alexander.”
The IDF says it struck a rocket launcher in the northern Gaza Strip used to fire two projectiles at Ashkelon earlier today.
According to the military, the launcher was placed next to a humanitarian shelter in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.
The IDF says it made efforts to mitigate harm to civilians in the strike, including by using precision munition and aerial surveillance.
The two rockets fired at Ashkelon were intercepted by air defenses.
An Israeli source familiar with the hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas tells Channel 12 that the approach led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff has failed.
The pair sought to advance an extension to phase one, amid Israel’s refusal to begin implementing phase two. Hamas refused to accept this, leading Israel to resume fighting this week with the Trump administration’s backing.
The military pressure over the past year led Hamas to agree to a hostage deal in January but Israel’s approach since then has led to the erosion of those military achievements, the source tells Channel 12.
The source says Dermer is not keeping up with the speed at which the previous Israeli negotiating chiefs worked and is instead flying to Washington next week with National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi to discuss other issues.
Things are again being dragged, the source laments. “If there is no agreement very soon, we will slide into a full return to war. Instead of dedicating time to intensive negotiations and reaching agreements, [Israel] is stringing the talks along aimlessly.”
Forty survivors of Hamas captivity and 250 family members of hostages in Gaza have signed onto a letter calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to halt Israel’s renewed military activities and return to the negotiating table with Hamas to secure the release of the remaining 59 hostages.
“This letter was written in blood and tears. It was drafted by our friends and families whose loved ones were killed and murdered in captivity and who are crying out: ‘Stop the fighting. Return to the negotiating table and fully complete an agreement that will return all of the hostages, even at the cost of ending the war. The military pressure is endangering them and there is nothing more urgent than returning all hostages,'” the letter states.
“Military pressure kills hostages and disappears bodies. This is not a slogan, this is reality. 41 kidnapped people paid for it with their lives, we, their families, paid. They could have returned to embrace and rehabilitate, and they will not return.
“The Israeli government is choosing an endless war over rescuing and returning hostages, thereby sacrificing them to their deaths. This policy is criminal. You have no mandate to sacrifice 59 hostages.”
“We, families who have reluctantly and against our will paid the heaviest price of all, raise a red flag and warn: returning to fighting will cost additional hostages their lives and increase the risk of additional Ron Arads,” the families writes, referring to the former IDF airman who was captured in 1986 in Syria, never returned and whose fate remains a mystery.
“We must stop the fighting and immediately return to the negotiating table to reach a comprehensive agreement for the hostages’ return: All of the hostages in exchange for ending the war and finding a solution for the day after. If you do not do this, the blood of the next hostage and the fate of all the hostages will be on your hands,” the letter adds.
Signatories include former hostages Gadi Mozes, Keith Siegel, Ofer Calderon, Eliya Cohen, Liri Elbag, Sagi Dekel-Chen, Agam Berger, Karina Ariev, Ohad Ben Ami, Raz Ben Ami, Arbel Yehud, Ada Sagi, Shani Goren, Nili Margalit, Gabriela Leimberg, Yaffa Adar, Ditza Heiman, Ofir Engel, Amit Soussana, Keren Munder, Ruti Munder, Liam Or, Adina Moshe, Hannah Perry, Raaya Rotem, Liat Beinin Atzili, Noga Weiss, Shiri Weiss, Margalit Mozes, Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav, Sharon Alony Cunio, Danielle Aloni, Ilana Gritzewsky, Karina Engelbert, Noralin Babadilla, Meirav Tal, Jimmy Pacheco, Amit Shani, Agam Goldstein, Sahar Calderon, Erez Calderon, Shoshan Haran, Fernando Marman, Ofelia Roitman, Clara Marman and Raz Ben Ami.
Netanyahu ordered the resumption of fighting in Gaza overnight Monday-Tuesday, saying talks moving forward would be held under fire after Hamas rejected proposals to extend phase one of the ceasefire.
Hamas has insisted on sticking to the terms of the deal signed by Netanyahu in January, which required the sides to begin holding talks on phase two in early February. Israel largely refused to do so.
Phase two envisions the release of all remaining living hostages in exchange for a permanent end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Netanyahu signed on to a framework that included these stipulations but has also insisted that Israel will not leave Gaza until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities have been dismantled.
Israeli authorities have approved the publication of the names of the two suspects who work for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who were detained on Wednesday for questioning in the ongoing police-Shin Bet investigation into the premier’s office’s ties to Qatar.
The suspects are named as Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein.
The investigation was launched following revelations that Netanyahu’s former spokesman Feldstein — who has been charged with harming national security in a case involving the theft and leaking of classified IDF documents — worked for Qatar via an international firm contracted by Doha to feed Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories, while he was employed in the PMO.
Last November, it was also reported that top Netanyahu aides Urich and Yisrael Einhorn did public relations work for Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup there.
The majority of Israelis fear for the future of the country’s democracy, according to a new poll from Channel 12 aired a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government voted to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
Sixty-three percent of respondents said they fear for the future of the country’s democracy, compared to just 33% who are not concerned and 4% who are unsure.
Even among coalition voters, 37% of respondents said they’re concerned about the future of Israel’s democracy, compared to 60% who said they were not.
The Istanbul Bar Association’s executive board was dismissed on Friday on grounds of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” and “publicly spreading false information,” a lawyers’ association says.
Prosecutors had filed suit against the bar association on January 15 after it demanded an investigation into the deaths of two journalists from Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast who were killed in northern Syria.
A report by Israeli settlement watchdogs says settlers have used grazing to seize control of 14 percent of the West Bank through the establishment of shepherding outposts in recent years.
In their report, “The Bad Samaritan,” Israeli NGOs Peace Now and Kerem Navot said that in the past three years, 70 percent of all land seized by settlers was “taken under the guise of grazing activities.”
Settlers in the West Bank use herding to establish a presence on agricultural lands used by Palestinian communities and gradually deny them access to these areas, according to the report.
To force Palestinians out, settlers resort to harassment, intimidation and violence, “with the backing of the Israeli government and military,” the watchdogs says.
“Israeli authorities make living conditions very difficult, but settler violence is really the main trigger why people leave lately — they have nothing to protect themselves,” says Allegra Pacheco, director of the West Bank Protection Consortium, a group of international NGOs.
“People get very worried about their families and their safety,” and have no recourse when settlers start occupying their lands, she tells AFP.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that “Israeli settlers injured 23 Palestinians in one week, mainly in Bedouin and herding communities.”
That same week, between March 11 and 17, “two Palestinian families were displaced, and at least two houses, eight vehicles, and 180 Palestinian-owned trees and saplings were vandalized” in incidents involving settlers.
More than 60 entire Palestinian shepherding communities throughout the West Bank have been expelled using such methods since 2022, the report adds.
These communities are overwhelmingly in the West Bank’s Area C, which under the Oslo Accords signed in the 1990s falls under full Israeli control.
“The systematic and violent displacement of Palestinians from hundreds of thousands of dunam of land in recent years has undoubtedly laid the groundwork to facilitate such ambitions,” the new report said of annexation, using a traditional measure of land area equivalent to 1,000 square meters.
The chief of Hamas’s military intelligence in the southern Gaza Strip was killed in an Israeli airstrike yesterday, the IDF and Shin Bet announce.
Osama Tabash, according to the IDF, also served as the head of Hamas’s surveillance and targets unit, in addition to heading the southern Gaza intelligence unit.
Tabash was a veteran member of Hamas and considered a “significant source of knowledge” in the terror group, serving in many key roles, including a battalion commander in Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, the joint IDF and Shin Bet statement says.
Images from November 2018 show Osama Tabash presenting then-Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh with the pistol of Lt. Col. Mahmoud Kheir el-Din, an Israeli commando who was killed in a botched intelligence-gathering operation in Khan Younis.
Tabash was the Hamas… https://t.co/MYVpFLiFcT pic.twitter.com/RuWUeRZurZ
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 21, 2025
“Over the years, he was involved in terror activities and directing attacks, including a suicide bombing carried out in 2005 at the Gush Katif junction in the Gaza Strip, in which Shin Bet coordinator Oded Sharon was killed,” the statement says.
The IDF and Shin Bet say that as part of his role as intelligence chief in southern Gaza, Tabash was responsible for “formulating Hamas’s combat strategy on the ground, coordinating Hamas’s intelligence in southern Gaza, and managing their activities in the area.”
“Additionally, over the past year, he was involved in Hamas’s force build-up efforts, and worked to rebuild its military capabilities following the harm it sustained during the war,” the statement says.
The military says that the surveillance and targets unit which Tabash also headed is responsible for collecting visual intelligence to create targets for Hamas, both in Israel and in the Gaza Strip.
As such, he was “responsible for planning and coordinating targets and infiltration objectives” during the October 7 onslaught.
During the war, Tabash’s unit was involved in gathering intelligence monitoring IDF operations in Gaza, and directing attacks on troops, the military says.
The IDF says his killing is a blow to Hamas’s “intelligence-gathering capabilities and its attempts to harm IDF troops operating in the area.”
Ankara condemns what it says was a “deliberate” attack by Israel on a Turkish-built hospital in the Gaza Strip.
“We strongly condemn the destruction by Israel of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital,” says a foreign ministry statement.
Israel says the hospital was no longer in service and was being used by Hamas for terror activity.
At least 10,000 protesters are marching toward Istanbul city hall in a third night of rallies in support of arrested opposition Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, defying Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s warnings, AFP journalists say.
The main opposition CHP party called the protest despite Erdogan calling the protests “a dead end,” saying he would not “surrender to street terror.”
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency says Israeli strikes killed 11 people today, as the military pressed its offensive in the Strip for a fourth day.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal tells AFP three people were killed in pre-dawn strikes. Eight more were killed during the daytime, six of them in Gaza City and two in Abassan in the south.
The figures are not verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
US President Donald Trump announces the award to Boeing of a major contract for the Air Force’s high-tech next-generation F-47 fighter plane.
“After a rigorous and thorough competition between some of America’s top aerospace companies, the Air Force is going to be awarding the contract for the Next Generation Air Dominance platform to Boeing,” Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office.
Over 40 mayors across the country have signed on to a letter calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to comply with today’s High Court injunction freezing the government’s firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar amid repeated dismissals from ministers, indicating that they might ignore the ruling.
The mayors “call on the prime minister to immediately announce that the government of Israel will comply with the High Court ruling,” the letter states.
Signatories include the mayors of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Herzliya, Hod Hasharon, Kfar Saba, Ramat Hasharon, Givataiym and Emek Hefer.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair writes, “The madness of Ronen Bar and the Deep State shows that they have a lot to hide about October 7.”
“That’s why they are demanding a “state” cover-up committee headed by their friends on the Supreme Court,” Yair Netanyahu writes in a Facebook post, dismissively referring to the state commission of inquiry that Bar has demanded be launched into Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
The overwhelming majority of the public supports such an inquiry, but the premier and members of his government have pushed back against the call, as state commissions are headed by former Supreme Court justices. Netanyahu and his son have callously referred to Israel’s judiciary as being part of the “deep state.”
The rhetoric employed by the younger Netanyahu highlights how much has been adopted by his father who earlier this week posted a video blasting the “leftist deep state.”
Following the rocket fire from the northern Gaza Strip on Ashkelon a short while ago, the IDF issues an evacuation warning for Palestinians in the area of the launch.
In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, publishes a map of the area that is to be evacuated, saying that it is a “final warning” before the IDF carries out strikes there.
#عاجل ‼️ إلى جميع سكان قطاع غزة المتواجدين في المنطقة المحددة في منطقة السلاطين والكرامة والعودة – هذا انذار مسبق وأخير قبل الغارة!
⭕️تعود المنظمات الإرهابية وتطلق قذائفها الصاروخية من بين المدنيين.
⭕️لقد حذرنا هذه المنطقة مرات عديدة.
⭕️من أجل سلامتكم عليكم الانتقال بشكل فوري… pic.twitter.com/dQrAHjqn1H— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) March 21, 2025
Jon Polin, the father of slain former hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin expresses his gratitude to Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar after ministers voted to fire him last night, saying that the security chief was one of the individuals who pushed to widen the mandate of Israel’s hostage negotiating team amid pushback from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
“I hope the true story of the failed negotiations to release the hostages will one day be revealed,” Polin writes on Facebook.
“I continue to believe that the government never gave a sufficiently broad and serious mandate to the Israeli negotiating team.”
“Some of the Israeli negotiating team pushed hard, but unsuccessfully, for a broader mandate. Thank you Ronen Bar for being one of the ones who pushed,” he writes.
Polin also praised Bar earlier this week after Netanyahu announced his intention to fire him.
“We have met many people in positions of power in the past 528 terrible days. One of those people who has shown the highest level of personal accountability, integrity, decency and humanity is Ronen Bar,” he wrote in a Monday Facebook post.
“While admitting his responsibility for the failure of October 7th and saying he will step down, Ronen has been committed to bringing home all hostages, returning the security of the State of Israel, strengthening national unity, and most recently, to establishing a national commission of inquiry that will examine everything and everyone, including himself.”
“There is a nobility in how Ronen Bar has conducted himself in these 528 black days,” Polin added.
A new poll from Reichman University’s Institute for Liberty & Responsibility reveals that public trust in the Supreme Court is more than twice as high as the public’s trust in the government.
The poll finds that the institution with the highest amount of public trust is the IDF at 65 percent, followed by the Supreme Court at 44%, the attorney general at 43%, the president at 42%, the state prosecutor at 32%, the police at 27%, the government at 17% and the Knesset at 11%.
The poll is released as ministers of the government lash out at the High Court of Justice for issuing an injunction freezing its firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
????אמון הציבור במוסדות – נתונים חדשים של @LibResInst לחודש מרץ!
⬆️צה"ל: 65% (3+)
⬆️בית המשפט העליון: 44% (1+)
⬆️היועמשית: 43% (2+)
⬆️נשיא המדינה: 42% (1+)
⬆️פרקליטות המדינה: 32% (2+)
⬆️המשטרה: 27% (3+)
⬇️הממשלה: 17% (1-)
⬇️הכנסת: 11% (2-)עוד תזכורת לכך שהאנשים עם האמון הציבורי… pic.twitter.com/xco1vYpLvK
— Gil Feldman (@feldman_gil) March 21, 2025
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweets, “There will be no civil war!” hours after Israel’s most revered jurist, former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak, expressed his fear that the country is heading in that direction due to the government’s recent efforts to fire the head of the Shin Bet security agency and the attorney general.
“The State of Israel is a country of law and according to the law, the Israeli government decides who will be the head of the Shin Bet,” Netanyahu tweets, before adding, “Shabbat Shalom.”
Critics have argued that the government in charge during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught should not be the one replacing Bar. Moreover, they fear that Netanyahu will appoint a loyalist to head the agency, as the premier intensifies his conspiratorial criticism of the “leftist deep state” in Israel.
Histadrut labor union chief Arnon Bar-David warns that he won’t sit idly by if the government doesn’t abide by High Court rulings after ministers dismissed an injunction issued by the top legal body freezing the cabinet’s decision last night to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
Bar-David doesn’t explicitly say that he’ll launch a labor strike if the government ignores the High Court, but that appears to be the implication of his statement.
“I expect the Israeli government to uphold and respect every decision of the court, just as the government expects from its citizens, the Histadrut, and other organizations. The State of Israel is a country of law and the government is not above the law,” Bar-David says in a statement.
“We are on the verge of anarchy under the auspices of the government, and I will not give in to the destruction of Israeli society. It is unacceptable that the Israeli government intends to disregard a ruling.”
“I am following what is happening with concern, and I hope that the government and its leader will come to their senses. Failure to uphold a ruling is definitely a final red line that must not be crossed, and I do not intend to sit idly by while the State of Israel is being dismantled,” he adds.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara informs Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he is prohibited from appointing a new head of the Shin Bet, or even conducting interviews for the job, following the High Court of Justice injunction earlier today suspending the government’s decision to dismiss the security chief.
Baharav-Miara, who the government is also seeking to fire, says in a letter to Netanyahu that her instructions even include a bar on appointing a temporary head of the service. Her instructions will likely remain in effect until the High Court makes a final ruling on the issue, although she does not stipulate a timeframe in her letter.
The letter comes as Netanyahu critics fear that the premier will ignore the court injunction and proceed with appointing a replacement for Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who the government voted to fire last night.
The court in its injunction stated that a hearing on petitions against the decision to fire the Shin Bet head will be set for no later than April 8.
The attorney general adds that in the meantime, the question of whether Netanyahu can involve himself in the process of appointing a new Shin Bet chief will be examined, “due to the concern of a conflict of interest.”
The Shin Bet is currently conducting a criminal investigation into allegedly unlawful ties between senior aides to Netanyahu and Qatar. The attorney general has suggested Netanyahu may have a conflict of interest in hiring and firing the head of the Shin Bet due to the so-called Qatar-gate investigation.
Netanyahu also signed a conflict of interest agreement in 2020 prohibiting him from involvement in the appointment of judges and senior law enforcement officials due to his ongoing criminal trial on corruption charges. The head of the Shin Bet would appear to be among those officials included in that agreement.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s Office announces that it has requested permission from the attorney general’s office to hire a private attorney to represent the government in the High Court hearings on petitions against its dismissal of Bar.
Two rockets were launched from the northern Gaza Strip at the southern coastal city of Ashkelon a short while ago.
According to the IDF, both rockets were intercepted by air defenses.
There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
It marks the second day in a row of Hamas rocket attacks on Israel after the IDF resumed military operations in the Strip earlier this week.
The ultra-Orthodox Shas party issues a statement saying it stands by the decision to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar after one of its ministers, Moshe Arbel, issued a statement earlier this afternoon saying that the government would respect the injunction issued by the High Court of Justice freezing the move until petitions against it are adjudicated.
“The Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not violate the court’s decision,” Arbel had said in a statement that broke from other ministers who characterized the High Court injunction as an over-reach. Arbel has long arguably been the most moderate minister in the government.
Appearing to distance itself from Arbel, Shas says all of its ministers at last night’s cabinet meeting voted in favor of firing Bar.
“Any other statement does not represent the party’s position,” Shas says.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expresses “concern” over a fresh Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip and says Moscow was ready to help “de-escalate” the situation.
In a readout of a phone call between Putin and the Emir of Qatar, the Kremlin says, “Concern was expressed over the resumption of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, and the readiness of both countries to promote de-escalation and long-term normalization in the region was stressed.”
A magnitude 5 earthquake struck the Natanz area in central Iran where a key nuclear site is located, but the country’s nuclear energy body says the facility was not affected, state media reported.
“The Natanz nuclear facility is designed in such a way that it is not affected by even much stronger earthquakes,” Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization spokesperson Behrouz Kamalvandi tells state media.
Media reports say there were no casualties from the quake, but that a historic caravanserai, or caravan inn, in the old bazaar of Natanz was flattened and some older buildings were damaged.
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will convene an extraordinary party congress on April 6, chairman Ozgur Ozel tells reporters, as his party faces a broader legal crackdown.
The move comes amid an investigation launched by an Ankara prosecutor into the party’s latest congress held in 2023 over irregularities.
Ozel says it will hold the congress to prevent the appointment of a trustee to the party. The move comes after the CHP’s Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the main rival of President Tayyip Erdogan, was detained this week facing an array of charges.
Meanwhile, an Istanbul court has ordered prominent Turkish journalist Ismail Saymaz to be placed under house arrest in an investigation connected to nationwide protests in 2013, opposition television channel Halk TV reports.
Saymaz, who works for Halk TV, was initially taken into custody on Wednesday over the charge of assisting an attempt to overthrow the government during the 2013 protests.
In 2013, small demonstrations against plans to build a shopping mall in Gezi Park, in Istanbul’s central Taksim Square, swelled into hundreds of thousands of people protesting against the government nationwide – and prompted a harsh crackdown.
Halk TV reports that the prosecutor questioned Saymaz’s social media posts as well as phone calls and messages with the Gezi Park trial defendants, including businessman Osman Kavala, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in April 2022.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Turkey will not tolerate any threats to public order and he vowed to stand firm against vandalism and street violence, amid growing protests against the detention of Istanbul’s mayor.
“We will not allow public order to be damaged. We will not give in to vandalism or street terrorism,” Erdogan says in a speech.
The United Arab Emirates has committed to a 10-year, $1.4 trillion investment framework in the United States after top UAE officials met President Donald Trump this week, a White House official says.
The new framework will “substantially increase the UAE’s existing investments in the US economy” in AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy, and American manufacturing, the official tells Reuters.
Hamas claims it is reviewing US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff’s bridge proposal to extend phase one of the ceasefire.
The proposal would extend the truce through Passover and see the release of five hostages in exchange for a large number of Palestinian security prisoners.
Witkoff said Sunday that Hamas’s response to date has been a non-starter.
Hamas in a new statement says it is still debating Witkoff’s proposal and other ideas.
The statement is largely a denial of a Hebrew media report claiming Hamas had blown up the hostage negotiations following Israel’s return to fighting in Gaza.
Breaking from several of his fellow ministers, Interior Minister Moshe Arbel says that the government will respect the injunction issued by the High Court of Justice.
“The Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not violate the court’s decision,” he says.
His comment contradicts those issued by several other ministers, including Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who earlier claimed that the High Court had “no legal authority to interfere” in the government’s dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
The IDF confirms it blew up the former Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in the central Gaza Strip earlier today, saying that it was being used by Hamas operatives.
In response to a query, the IDF says it carried out an airstrike on a group of Hamas operatives who were residing at the hospital, which the terror group turned into “terror infrastructure.”
“We emphasize that the targeted building has not been used as an active hospital for over a year,” the IDF adds.
Footage circulating online appears to show a controlled demolition of the hospital, rather than an airstrike.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir responds to the High Court’s temporary injunction against the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar with a post on X reading: “Judicial reform now!”
Ben Gvir was reinstated to his post earlier this week when his Otzma Yehudit party returned to the government following Israel’s resumed offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The Israel Business Forum, which represents most private sector workers from 200 of the country’s largest companies, warns that it will “shut down the Israeli economy” if the government does not respect the High Court of Justice’s temporary injunction against Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar’s dismissal.
“If the Israeli government does not honor the order and leads Israel into a constitutional crisis, we will call on the entire Israeli public to stop respecting the government’s decisions… and we will shut down the Israeli economy,” it says.
Earlier this week, the forum urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to walk back his “destructive” decision to dismiss Bar, warning that the “last thing” Israel needed was more internal division.
The Egyptian State Information Service announces that Cairo categorically and completely denies allegations that it is prepared to temporarily transfer half a million Palestinians from Gaza to a city in the northern Sinai as part of reconstruction efforts in the Strip.
“Egypt’s position is firm in its absolute and final rejection of any attempt to displace Palestinians,” it says.
Democrats chair Yair Golan welcomes the High Court of Justice’s temporary injunction against the government’s decision to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
“The High Court’s injunction is an important achievement,” he declares. “The mobilization of the masses is having an impact — the unfaltering civilian struggle is succeeding.”
He says that Bar “demonstrated courage when he stood up to a bad and dangerous government,” and vows that protesters will “continue the campaign for Israeli democracy.”
“We will fight, and we will win,” he adds, appearing to borrow the government’s oft-uttered slogan for the war in Gaza — “Together we will fight, and together we will win.”
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi claims that the High Court of Justice has no right to interfere in the government’s decision to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar after it issued a temporary injunction against the move.
“Ronen Bar will end his tenure on April 10 or earlier, with the appointment of a permanent head of the Shin Bet,” declares Karhi, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.
“You have no legal authority to interfere in this. This is the government’s authority,” he adds. “Your order is void.”
The High Court of Justice has issued a temporary injunction preventing the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
The order will remain in place until the court can hear the petitions that have been filed against his dismissal.
It says it will hear the petitions no later than April 8.
The government voted overnight to remove Bar from his position by April 10 at the latest.
Prosecutors in the Northern District Attorney’s Office have indicted a 26-year-old Palestinian from Jenin for attacking an Israeli with a hoe last month.
The victim, a man in his 60s, had gone out onto his balcony with a cup of coffee when the assailant ambushed him at the door and began to beat him with a hoe. He managed to push him away and cry for help, upon which the attacker fled the scene, police say.
The next morning, police caught the culprit hiding in horse stables in the nearby town of Muqeible and arrested him. The victim sustained light wounds, according to paramedics.
Spokespeople for the Israel Police and Shin Bet say in a joint statement that investigators were able to determine that the incident was a terror attack and that the assailant harbored nationalist motives.
Gan Ner, which is not in the West Bank, is located near the territory’s northern security barrier — close to Jenin, where the IDF in January launched a counterterrorism operation dubbed “Iron Wall.” The operation has since been expanded to other areas of the West Bank.
The assailant will be indicted on charges of terror-motivated aggravated assault and entering Israel illegally.
The Israeli military demolished the so-called Turkish hospital in the central Gaza Strip, footage circulating on social media shows.
When the IDF was previously deployed to the Netzarim Corridor of central Gaza, it used the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital as a base of operations, according to a report by the Washington Post.
Last year, the IDF published that it had uncovered a Hamas tunnel network that passed under the hospital.
The military does not immediately comment on the destruction of the hospital, but the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) confirms the IDF worked to “dismantle” Hamas infrastructure there.
“Another hospital can be added to the list — in recent months, Hamas terrorists exploited a site in northern Gaza which previously served as the ‘Turkish’ hospital as a command and control center, from which they directed and carried out terrorist attacks against IDF troops and Israel,” COGAT says.
“The IDF operated in response to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure,” it adds.
הריסת בית החולים הטורקי בעזה
☆יאיר אלטמן – הערוץ הרשמי☆ יחד ננצח???????? pic.twitter.com/89nHyhfzYA
— Gera. Belik (@gershon27) March 21, 2025
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is said to have suggested during last night’s cabinet meeting on the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar that the responsibility of “preserving democracy” should be removed from the security agency’s purview.
“We should exclude the job of preserving democracy from the Shin Bet’s statute,” he is quoted by the Kan public broadcaster as saying.
The far-right Religious Zionism leader also claimed during the meeting that “the entire Shin Bet command thinks that Ronen Bar should go,” and said that the Supreme Court did not have the right to “force” Netanyahu to work with him, Kan reports.
Fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip have rendered more than half of Palestinian Red Crescent emergency vehicles in the enclave inoperative, the Red Cross says.
Of 53 vehicles in total, 23 remain operational after aid supplies into Gaza, including fuel, were halted in early March, Tommaso Della Longa from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies tells reporters in Geneva.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and soon-to-be-replaced Shin Bet head Ronen Bar are holding a security assessment at the IDF Southern Command, the military says.
Members of the IDF General Staff Forum are participating in the meeting.
The assessment comes as the military continues operations in the Gaza Strip, and the morning after the Israeli government voted to dismiss Bar.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet will debate a motion of no confidence against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Sunday.
The confirmation of the government’s intent to remove Baharav-Miara from her post comes just hours after the cabinet voted to dismiss Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
An 86-page document compiled by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and distributed to government ministers ahead of the cabinet meeting provides a summary of Baharav-Miara’s alleged transgressions.
A copy is published online by the Kan public broadcaster.
The attorney general, the document asserts, has been acting “as the long arm of the government’s opponents, and does not hesitate to use any means to thwart the will of the voters.”
It further claims that Baharav-Miara has taken advantage of the political division in Israel to create “two legal systems — one for the government’s opponents and one for its supporters.”
Levin also charges that under her leadership, the Attorney General’s Office has become “a tyrannical political authority.”
Levin began the process of removing Baharav-Miara from her post on March 5, accusing her of politicizing her office and repeatedly thwarting the will of the government.
The no-confidence motion is the first of several that the government must take to remove the attorney general from office, and the process is expected to last several months.
After the motion is passed, the government must convene the five-member public committee responsible for appointing, and to a large extent, dismissing, the attorney general.
As two spots on the committee are currently open, they must first be filled before it can convene.
The committee will give the attorney general a hearing to allow her to present her position, after which it will issue a recommendation on whether or not she should be fired.
While the government isn’t required to follow the recommendation, it must also give Baharav Miara a hearing.
Finally, the High Court of Justice will hear petitions filed against the dismissal of the attorney general before the final decision is made.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
Defense Minister Israel Katz threatens to annex areas of the Gaza Strip to Israel if Hamas refuses to release the hostages it is still holding.
Katz says he has instructed the IDF to seize additional areas of the Gaza Strip while issuing evacuation orders for Palestinian civilians in those areas.
In a statement, Katz says: “If the Hamas terror organization continues to refuse to release the hostages, I instructed the IDF to capture additional areas, evacuate the population, and expand the security zone around Gaza for the protection of Israeli communities and IDF soldiers, through a permanent hold of the area by Israel.”
“As long as Hamas continues its refusal, it will lose more and more land that will be added to Israel,” Katz says.
Katz says Israel will “intensify” its military campaign against Hamas, including “through the expansion of the ground maneuver until the hostages are released and Hamas is defeated.”
He adds that Israel will use “all military and civilian pressure, including evacuation of the Gaza population south and implementing US President Trump’s voluntary migration plan for Gaza residents.”
People rally near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Azza Street residence in Jerusalem for the fourth consecutive day of protests against the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and the government’s renewed efforts to revive its highly controversial judicial overhaul legislation.
The demonstration is also bolstered by protesters opposed to the renewed fighting in the Gaza Strip and the collapse of the ceasefire-hostage deal, which has left the fate of the remaining 59 captives in Gaza uncertain.
Undeterred by the rainy weather, a group marching toward Azza Street holds a banner declaring: “History is made by the people.”
“Left, right, left, right, left!” the group chants. “Everyone together, until [Netanyahu] falls!”
Others march past the President’s Residence on their way to Azza Street, waving Israeli flags alongside the yellow flags that have come to represent the plight of the hostages.
Israeli-founded cybersecurity company Wiz, which was acquired earlier this week by Google’s parent company Alphabet for $32 billion, has sponsored a large billboard on the side of the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv calling for the return of the hostages.
The text on the digital billboard alternates between: “Only one deal is actually important,” in Hebrew and “Bring them home now!” in English.
במקום שאין הנהגה. יש אנשים
חבל שאסף רפפורט, ינון קוסטיקה, עמי לוטבק ורועי רזניק, מייסדי וויז לא מנהלים את המדינה, במקום חדלי האישים שמנהלים אותה היום.
אור גדול של אנושיות וחמלה , באפילה גמורה ????️אמש על מגדלי עזריאלי. מול המאהל של משפחות החטופים בהנהגת עינב צנגאוקר????️????️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Fs7HmWDTrP
— ????️????????חגית קלימן – Hagit Klaiman????????????️???? (@klaiman14) March 21, 2025
An IDF reserve soldier was seriously wounded after coming under fire during an overnight operation in the West Bank city of Nablus, the military says.
According to the IDF, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on the forces amid the operation, and the soldiers returned fire at the source of the shooting. It is unclear if the gunman was hit.
The wounded reservist was taken to hospital for treatment.
Former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen says that during his tenure as the head of the security agency, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked him more than once to carry out “illegitimate acts,” and voices concern that the next head of the security agency will not stand up to him in the face of such demands.
In an interview with Channel 12, Cohen says that the Shin Bet’s ability to do its job as expected will depend on who is selected to replace Ronen Bar, now that Netanyahu’s cabinet has voted in favor of his dismissal.
“If he [Bar] finishes his tenure, and one of the two current deputy chiefs or a past deputy is appointed, all three of whom are worthy people, then I think we can rest assured that people will do their job,” says Cohen.
But, he warns, if someone other than the three current or former deputies is selected, “it could lead to a situation where someone comes in who feels ‘obligated’ to the prime minister. He will enter the position deterred from doing the job.”
“The prime minister, due to many things that await us in the future, could make illegitimate demands of him. The prime minister makes illegitimate demands of the Shin Bet chief,” Cohen says.
Asked whether he is making such assertions due to personal experience, Cohen says that Netanyahu had, on more than one occasion, asked him for things that were “illegitimate and questionably legal.” He says Netanyahu asked the same of his successor, Nadav Argaman, and of Bar.
He says that Israel could find itself with a Shin Bet chief who “does things out of non-state loyalty,” and who takes action against opponents of the prime minister for “political subversion.”
Cohen previously alleged that in 2011, Netanyahu asked him to wiretap the government’s top defense officials to ensure that they were not leaking information from a particularly sensitive security meeting.
During the interview with Channel 12, Cohen also lambasts government ministers for going along with Netanyahu’s decision to fire Bar.
“These incidents of the Shin Bet chief’s dismissal, as well as the imminent dismissal of [Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara], will inevitably lead to difficult fights within society, and to greater rifts and divisions,” he says. “Unfortunately, this will lead to violence within Israeli society and it won’t just be Prime Minster Netanyahu’s problem, but the entire government’s problem.”
“They know where this is going, and they are acting like sheep, silent and unquestioning,” the ex-Shin Bet chief charges. “They are clinging to their seats because of governmental, political, economic, and financial interests.”
Israeli opposition parties Yesh Atid, National Unity, Yisrael Beytenu, and the Democrats have petitioned the High Court of Justice to intervene in the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
In a post on X, Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid says that the petition argues that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of Bar is a conflict of interest, as the security agency is currently probing several members of staff in the Prime Minister’s Office for alleged improper ties with Qatar.
The petition also charges that the move to fire Bar only took place after a Shin Bet investigation into the failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror onslaught “clearly pointed to the political echelon’s responsibility for the catastrophe.”
Earlier today, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel also filed a petition against Bar’s dismissal.
Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu tells Al-Jazeera that indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a renewed ceasefire have not stopped, and efforts to reach a point that would allow the deal to be put back into effect are ongoing.
According to al-Nunu, Hamas has shown sufficient flexibility to resume the agreement, but Israel has refused these attempts.
Israel resumed fighting in Gaza earlier this week after talks for a temporary extension to the first phase of a multi-stage ceasefire and hostage release deal failed, with Hamas insisting it would not deviate from the agreed-upon second phase of the truce.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has since declared that any further negotiations with Hamas will only take place “under fire.”
An El Al flight from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport to London Heathrow has been canceled after a large blaze at an electrical substation wiped out power at the UK’s busiest international hub.
The flight had been scheduled to depart midday.
The online flight board at Ben Gurion Airport shows that El Al was operating the flight as a codeshare flight, serving passengers who booked through Delta Airlines, Aero Mexico, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and Scandinavia’s SAS Airlines.
Heathrow Airport is set to remain closed all of Friday, as more than 70 firefighters tackle the blaze in west London.
According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, at least 120 inbound flights to Heathrow have so far had to divert to other airports, while 1,351 flights had been due to land and take off at Heathrow on Friday.
Two purported mobsters have been convicted of plotting to assassinate Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad at her home in New York City in a murder-for-hire scheme that prosecutors say was financed by Iran’s government.
The verdict was returned at a federal court in New York yesterday, ending a two-week trial that featured dramatic testimony from a hired gunman and Alinejad, an author, activist and contributor to Voice of America.
Alinejad, who was not in court, tells The Associated Press she cried when she learned of the verdict.
“I am relieved that after nearly three years, the men who plotted to kill me have been found guilty. But make no mistake, the real masterminds of this crime are still in power in Iran,” she says. “Right now I am bombarded with emotions. I have cried. I have laughed. I have even danced.”
Alinejad calls the verdict “a powerful gift from the American government” to the people of Iran because it shows that justice is beginning to be served.
Acting US Attorney Matthew Podolsky says in a statement that the verdicts send a message that “if you target US citizens, we will find you, no matter where you are, and bring you to justice.”
Leslie R. Backschies, who heads the FBI’s New York office, says the verdicts show that the “Iranian government’s shameless conduct and attempt to violate our laws and assassinate a critic of their human rights atrocities will not be tolerated.”
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reports that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi informed other Arab leaders that he is willing to temporarily relocate half a million residents from Gaza to a designated city in the northern Sinai as part of the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
This step would require opening the border crossings between Sinai and Gaza for those who wish to leave.
According to the report, these statements were made during meetings held by Arab leaders in recent weeks in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
There is no confirmation of this report from any other source.
A federal judge has ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration not to deport Badar Khan Suri, an Indian man studying at Washington’s Georgetown University whose lawyer says the United States is seeking to remove him after it accused him of harming American foreign policy.
According to the three-paragraph order by US District Judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, the order will remain in effect until lifted by the court.
The Department of Homeland Security has accused Badar Khan Suri of ties to the Palestinian terror group Hamas and said he had spread Hamas propaganda and antisemitism on social media. On March 15, Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined Suri could be deported for those activities, according to DHS.
Suri is living in the US on a student visa, married to an American citizen, and has been detained in Alexandria, Louisiana, according to his lawyer. He is awaiting a court date in immigration court, his lawyer says.
Federal agents arrested him outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, on Monday night. The lawyer welcomes Thursday’s ruling and calls it “the first bit of due process Dr. Khan Suri has received since he was snatched from his family Monday night.”
DHS doesn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s court order.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel says it has filed a High Court petition against the government’s dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
WASHINGTON — US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz tweets his support for Israel’s renewed military campaign against Hamas amid mounting opposition from the international community.
“Israel has every right to defend its people from Hamas terrorists,” Waltz writes.
“The ceasefire would have been extended if Hamas released all remaining hostages. Instead, they chose war,” the top Trump aide adds.
The Trump administration has quickly gotten behind Israel’s refusal to advance phase two of the hostage deal, backing the decision to resume fighting on Monday night after Hamas refused a US offer to extend phase one.
Opposition Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman tears into the government for voting to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar “amid a war against all our enemies.”
“The prime minister of October 7 [Benjamin Netanyahu] is doing exactly what our enemies dream of — fighting the Shin Bet head,” Liberman says. “[Netanyahu] needed to take responsibility after the disaster, resign first and demand all those to blame for the failure join him.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says the government is dismissing Bar “for one reason alone: To stop the Qatargate investigation.
“Opposition parties will together appeal this reckless step that is meant to whitewash a hostile state’s penetration into the prime minister’s office,” Lapid charges.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet unanimously votes in favor of dismissing Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, the premier’s office announces.
Bar’s final day will be April 10, with the government moving up his dismissal after initially scheduling it for April 20, though Netanyahu’s office says Bar could be gone before then if ministers approve a permanent replacement.
The vote marks the first time in Israel’s history that a government has fired the Shin Bet’s leader.
The meeting to approve his dismissal lasted some three-and-a-half hours.
Bar did not attend, but sent a letter saying that firing him was “entirely tainted by conflicts of interest,” and constituted a “fundamentally invalid” attempt to undermine the Shin Bet as it probes Qatar’s influence at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, who was present, again expressed her opposition to the move. Her office had told Netanyahu earlier in the day that the government must obtain a recommendation from an advisory committee before weighing Bar’s dismissal.
Speaking in the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar is “soft” and “not the right person to rehabilitate the organization,” according to his office.
He says that his determination was made on the night of October 7, 2023, and during the negotiations for the release of hostages that followed.
“I have been managing diplomatic negotiations for many years,” says Netanyahu. “He had a soft approach and not aggressive enough.”
He claims that since replacing Bar with another senior Shin Bet official, “the leaks have decreased dramatically, and through very successful negotiations we have managed to return the hostages.”
The ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas was signed in January, weeks before Netanyahu removed Bar from the negotiating team.
Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter of Likud, a former head of the Shin Bet, explains his vote to dismiss Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar by pointing at the importance of trust between the prime minister and his counterterrorism chief.
“Unlike an institution that has operational aspects, the Shin Bet also has personal aspects related to the prime minister,” says Dichter, “the Shin Bet chief is responsible for the prime minister’s personal security.”
“In a situation of lack of confidence, there are two options: either the Shin Bet chief resigns, or he is fired. And if he does not resign, then he is fired.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir meanwhile claims Bar is a “direct threat to democracy,” according to Hebrew-language media reports.
Fifty-one percent of Israelis oppose the firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, compared to 32% who back his dismissal, a Channel 12 opinion poll finds.
Forty-six percent say they trust Bar more than they trust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while 32% trust Netanyahu more than Bar.
Some 45% say they believe Bar is being fired over the “Qatargate” investigation, and 31% do not.
Fifty percent do not believe that Bar opened the “Qatargate” probe to avoid being fired, as Netanyahu has charged, while 18% do.
As the cabinet deliberates the dismissal of Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, an “Israeli official” accuses the spy chief of doing nothing to stop the Hamas October 7, 2023, attack even though, the official claims, Bar knew it was going to happen beforehand.
“Ronen Bar preferred not to attend the government meeting [tonight] dealing with his case, simply because he was afraid of giving answers,” says the official, whom Channel 12 identifies as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, “and especially of answering one question: Why, after you knew about the Hamas attack many hours before it happened, did you do nothing and did not call the prime minister – something that would have prevented the disaster?”
“If Ronen Bar carried out his role like he is now clinging on to his job, we would not have reached October 7,” the official charges.
Netanyahu has sought to place the responsibility for the colossal failure on the shoulders of the security establishment, arguing he was not woken up when signs of an impending attack were being picked up by Israel’s intelligence services in the hours before Hamas’s invasion and slaughter.
The unfounded allegation of advance knowledge of the Hamas attack has been peddled online, including by pro-Netanyahu conspiracy theorists, against Israel’s security chiefs since soon after October 7, but not directly advanced by the prime minister.
The official also accuses Bar of “clinging to his seat while cynically exploiting the families of the hostages and using his position politically to fabricate futile, unfounded investigations.”
The fiery statement comes after Bar, in a letter earlier tonight, accused Netanyahu of harming Israel’s security and getting in the way of negotiations to reach a hostage release deal.
