Netanyahu and Trump meet at White House, speak in Oval Office

US President Donald Trump said that the US may not decrease tariffs on Israel. 

“Well, we’re talking about a whole new trade — maybe not, maybe not. Now, don’t forget we help Israel a lot. You know, we give Israel $4 billion a year. That’s a lot. Congratulations, by the way. That’s pretty good. But we give Israel billions of dollars a year. Billions. It’s one of the highest of any … we give a lot of countries money,” Trump told reporters on Monday. 

 President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran would be in "great danger" if ongoing direct talks between the US and the Middle East country fail.

"I think if the talks aren't successful with Iran, I think Iran's going to be in great danger," Trump said. "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks aren't successful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran."

President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States' "controlling and owning" the Gaza Strip would be a good thing, again floating a proposal that he put forward multiple times during the opening weeks of his administration.

"Having a force like the United States there, controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing," Trump told reporters at the White House, after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Palestinian-American billionaire Bashar Masri has been accused of using United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and international-funded Gazan infrastructure projects to facilitate Hamas tunnel systems, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday on behalf of American October 7 massacre victims.

The lawsuit – filed by law firms Osen LLC, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner LLP, and Motley Rice LLC – alleged that following the 2021 conflict, Masri had rebuilt the Gaza Industrial Estate (GIE), which had been established in 1997 with support from USAID, turning it into a hub of Hamas operation.

While GIE housed legitimate businesses, the lawsuit alleged that it also hosted a terrorist tunnel network, including a passage under the border to allow Hamas to attack Israelis.

A constitutional crisis, for many, is an abstract idea—something taught in high school civics, long forgotten, vague, and hard to wrap one’s head around.

Well, here’s a real-time example that makes it easy to understand.

On Tuesday, three Supreme Court judges—Court President Isaac Amit, Daphne Barak-Erez, and Deputy Court President Noam Solberg—will hear petitions against the government’s decision to dismiss Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar. Amit and Barak-Erez are considered liberal; Solberg is conservative. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived at the White House to meet with US President Donald Trump.

The two are expected to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza, the hostages, the Iranian threat, and tariffs.

The IDF struck Hassan Abdel Fattah Mohammed Eslaih, a member of Hamas's Khan Yunis Brigade, in a strike in Khan Yunis, the military said on Monday. 

Eslaih, who was previously employed by both CNN and the Associated Press (AP) and owned a media company, took part in the October 7 massacre, infiltrating into southern Israel and sharing footage from the massacre to social media, the IDF noted.

Iran's Mehr news agency previously referred to Eslaiah as “Israel’s nightmare,” saying that he was targeted for “tirelessly covering the events of Gaza and reflecting them on social media platforms.”

A report from Reuters on April 7 indicates that the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq could disarm due to their fear of the Trump administration. This is a significant development. However, it is crucial to examine this issue more closely to fully understand it.

The Iranian-backed militias in Iraq are called the Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces. These consist of up to thirty different militias, many of them linked to Iran. Some of the militias have deep roots in Iraq and are very close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. For instance, the Badr Organization, which has a number of militias within the PMF, was once a proxy force of the Iranians back in the 1980s. Kataib Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy as well. These represent Iran’s attempt to replicate what it did with Hezbollah in Lebanon, except doing the same thing in Iraq.

In the 1980s, Iraq was run by the Saddam regime, so the groups that became militias lived in exile. Men like Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who came to lead Kataib Hezbollah, were known terrorists working for the Iranians in the 1980s. These were young Shi’ite men at the time, from Iraq, and they lived in exile in places like Iran, working to promote Tehran’s “revolution.” Some of them went to Lebanon and became close with Hezbollah.

Security forces arrested 15 wanted persons during an overnight operation in the West Bank, the military said on Monday. 

Three battalions carried out operations, arresting suspects and confiscating terror funds.