What happened on day 549 of the war?

The High Court of Justice will hear petitions on Tuesday morning against the government’s dismissal of Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, in a case that has the potential to plunge the country into a constitutional crisis. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on Monday that he and the Trump administration were working on securing a new hostage deal. 

“The hostages are in agony. We want to get them all out. Steve Witkoff is President Trump’s very able representative. (He) helped us get a deal that got 25 out,” Netanyahu said after his meeting with US President Donald Trump.

“We’re working now on another deal, that we hope will succeed.”

Trump added that the United States and Iran were beginning direct talks on Tehran's nuclear program, a surprise announcement after Iranian officials had appeared to rebuff US calls for such negotiations.

Iran had pushed back against Trump's demands that it directly negotiate over its nuclear program or be bombed, though it had initially left the door open to indirect discussions.

President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, Apr. 7, 2025 https://t.co/V4Ut70MGse

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 7, 2025

Iran and the United States will meet in Oman on April 12 for indirect high-level talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday.

"It is as much an opportunity as it is a test. The ball is in America's court," Araghchi said in a post on X.

US 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."

Should the talks proceed, they would mark the first face-to-face interaction between American and Iranian officials since Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal seven years ago.

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 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“If you take the people, the Palestinians, and move them around to different countries — and you have plenty of countries that will do that — and you really have a freedom zone. You call it the freedom zone, a free zone, a zone where people aren’t going to be killed every day,” Trump told reporters on Monday, as reported by CNN. 

He added that he was confused as to “why Israel ever gave (Gaza) up.”

“That’s a hell of a place,” Trump said. “You know what I call it — a great location that nobody wants to live in.”

The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUSM) has released a sweeping fatwa calling for waging “armed Jihad” against Israel and religiously banning normalization of ties. This pronouncement, which appeared on the organization's official website and the official X/Twitter account of its president, Sheikh Ali Al-Qaradaghi, represents a striking theological stance promoted by an international Islamist organization during the current Gaza conflict.

Headquartered in Doha with additional presence in Istanbul and claiming to represent tens of thousands of religious scholars from across the globe, the IUSM was established in 2004 by Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradawi, a notorious and revered cleric who led the Muslim Brotherhood axis and was made known for his endorsement and promotion of Hamas’s suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

لجنة الاجتهاد والفتوى بالاتحاد العالمي لعلماء المسلمين تصدر فتوى في نازلة استمرار العدوان على غزة ونقض الهدنة، أهم ما تضمنته ما يلي:

1️⃣ وجوب الجهاد بالسلاح ضد الاحتلال في فلسطين على كل مسلم مستطيع في العالم الإسلامي.

2️⃣ وجوب التدخل العسكري الفوري من الدول العربية والإسلامية.…

— د. علي القره داغي (@Ali_AlQaradaghi) April 4, 2025

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A BBC investigation published this week has detailed allegations from several Palestinian Gazans recently released from Israeli prisons, who claim they were subjected to abuse during their detention.

The individuals were arrested in Gaza in the months following the October 7 attacks and later freed as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

The five former prisoners, interviewed by the BBC, said they were held under Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows for the indefinite detention of individuals deemed to pose a security threat without formal charges. According to the report, the men denied involvement in the October 7 massacre and said they had not been charged with crimes prior to their release.

The former prisoners described alleged mistreatment that included beatings, use of electric shocks, denial of medical care, threats, and sexual abuse. One man, Mohammad Abu Tawileh, claimed that he was burned with chemicals and beaten while blindfolded and restrained. He also claimed that he was later cuffed naked to a hospital bed during treatment in Israel.

Other testimonies cited in the report alleged prolonged exposure to cold, food and water deprivation, intimidation with dogs, and instances of medical negligence, according to the BBC. Some detainees claimed they witnessed the deaths of fellow prisoners in the prisons.

The US continued its airstrikes in Hodeidah, Marib, and the capital city of Sana'a in Yemen, Houthi-linked media outlets reported on Monday night.

The Houthi movement claimed that its senior intelligence leader, Abdul Nasser Al-Kamali, died in the strike, Al Hadath reported.