Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar announces resignation date, Katz threatens to attack Iran

Alon Ohel, held captive by Hamas since October 7, 2023, is suffering from serious injuries to his head and has shrapnel injuries, his family told Israeli media, speaking from Tel Aviv's Hostage Square on Monday.

The family revealed previously unknown information about Ohel's status, according to Ynet, sharing information they learned a number of days ago from a freed captive held with him.

"Alon is injured, he lost sight in one eye, and we know that his other eye can be saved," his father, Kobi Ohel, said.

A designated Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) draft day was held on Monday at Tel Hashomer recruiting office in order to draft two companies to the IDF's Hashmonaim Brigade.

One of the companies will be for regular service IDF soldiers, and the other will be made up of reservists.

The military commented that this enlistment is intended to support haredim on various combat and combat support tracks that are open to them and to allow them to maintain their haredi lifestyle while performing a meaningful military service.

In a hearing today at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, representatives from 40 countries will testify on Israel's decision to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA). 

The hearings, which will take place throughout this week, will focus on the question of whether Israel - a signatory to the UN Charter - acted against its commitments in banning UNRWA in November.

Israel also blocked aid into Gaza in March, increasing the case’s relevance.

After opening remarks at the World Court, representatives for Palestine will speak. As Palestine is a non-member observer state of the United Nations, it is not party to the Statute of the ICJ. However, in May, it signed a declaration accepting the court’s jurisdiction, opening the doors to the case. 

The Foreign Ministry is set to hold its own separate press conference on the matter, and will not participate in the hearings.

Displaced Palestinians wait to receive United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) aid, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 7, 2024. (credit: MOHAMMED SALEM/REUTERS)

In December, the UN's top court was tasked to form an advisory opinion on Israel's obligations to facilitate aid to Palestinians that is delivered by states and international groups, including the United Nations. Israel said it would not allow the entry of goods and supplies into Gaza until Hamas releases all 59 remaining hostages.

The resolution adopted in December by 137 of the 193 nations in the UN's General Assembly called on Israel to comply with its obligations towards the Palestinian population, as it expressed "grave concern" about the dire humanitarian situation.

Israel, the United States and 10 other countries voted against the resolution, while 22 countries abstained.

Trump pushes Netanyahu on Gaza aid

US President Donald Trump on Friday said he had pushed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow food and medicine into the enclave. The US will state its opinion on Wednesday. 

UNRWA supplies medical services, food and education to two million Palestinians in Gaza. The organization was created following the Palestinian refugee crisis after the War of Independence in 1948. There are close to 6 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East today. 

Israel has consistently questioned UNRWA’s authenticity, due to findings, dating years back, that violent sentiments against Israel presented as “resistance” have been found in textbooks taught by UNRWA’s teachers. Over the course of the war, IDF troops in Gaza repeatedly found tunnels and weapons in UNRWA schools. 

South Africa brought the larger case against Israel for alleged Genocide Convention violations in December, and hearings took place at the court in January. The hearings this week will focus specifically on the claim of starvation and the state of aid into the enclave.

South Africa argued that Israel violated the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and PUnishment of the Crime of Genocide, or the Genocide Convention, by failing to stop it or prosecute public incitement against it, and engaged in it in its acts in Gaza.

Israel has denied these claims, insisting that it sticks to international law and is not using starvation as a method of warfare to enable genocide against the Palestinian people, but rather is fighting Hamas, a terrorist organization deeply embedded in civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. 

The hearings this week will focus specifically on alleged starvation claims: Is Israel doing enough to facilitate humanitarian aid? 

Israel is a Geneva Conventions signatory, not Rome Statute

When Israel testified in January, it did so because it is a signatory of the Geneva Conventions, which include the laws of war, and in it, laws against starvation as a method of warfare. 

Israel did not sign the Rome Statute, along with the US, the founding document of the International Court of Justice. The ICC investigates and tries individual leaders for war crimes - it is the body that issued the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. 

The ICJ handles disputes between nations. 

In February, the United States, under President Donald Trump, cut financial assistance to South Africa because of the genocide case.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The third round of US-Iran nuclear talks are progressing well, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday from New Jersey.

"We're in pretty good shape. I think we'll make a deal. I'm pretty sure it's going to happen very soon, without us having to drop bombs all over the place," Trump told the press in reference to the talks.

Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa expressed his interest in joining the Abraham Accords, as reported by The Jerusalem Post.

During meetings with Republican US congressmen Marlin Stutzman and Cory Mills, the new Syrian chief implied his openness to normalizing ties with Israel, and, most notably, chose not to mention the Golan Heights, which the US recognized as part of Israel during President Trump’s past tenure.

The US military said on Sunday it will not reveal specific details about its military strikes in Yemen, citing what it called the need "to preserve operational security" while also saying the strikes had "lethal effects" on Houthi rebels.

President Donald Trump ordered the intensification of US strikes on Yemen last month, with his administration saying it will continue assaulting Iran-backed Houthi rebels until they stop attacking Red Sea shipping.

Recent US strikes have killed dozens, including 74 at an oil terminal in mid-April in what was the deadliest strike in Yemen under Trump so far, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.

Rights advocates have raised concerns about civilian killings, and three Democratic senators, including Senator Chris Van Hollen, wrote to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Thursday, demanding an accounting for the loss of civilian lives. Hegseth has also come under fire for using the unclassified messaging system Signal to discuss Yemen attack plans.

"To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations. We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we've done or what we will do," the US Central Command said in a statement.

Smoke rises from a fire following an Israeli air strike in Hodeidah, Yemen in this handout photo released on July 20, 2024. (credit: HOUTHI MEDIA CENTRE/Handout via REUTERS)

The military said it has struck over 800 targets since mid-March that it says killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders as well as destroyed the militant group's facilities.

The military statement said the strikes "have destroyed multiple command-and-control facilities, air defense systems, advanced weapons manufacturing facilities, and advanced weapons storage locations."

US wants to reduce Houthi military, economic capabilities without civilian harm

Washington says the strikes aim to cut off Houthi military and economic capabilities while minimizing civilian harm.

It said on Thursday that an April 20 blast near a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Yemen's capital Sanaa was caused by a Houthi missile and not an American airstrike. The Houthis said a dozen people were killed in that incident and dismissed the US denial.

The Houthis have taken control of swathes of Yemen over the past decade.

Since November 2023, they have launched attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday repeated calls for Iran's entire nuclear infrastructure to be dismantled, as Washington and Tehran engage in talks for a nuclear accord.

The United States and Iran have so far held three rounds of indirect talks, mediated by Gulf state Oman, aimed at sealing a deal that would block Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon but also lift crippling economic sanctions imposed by Washington.

Following Mossad Director David Barnea’s visit to Qatar, an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that, at present – with emphasis on at present – he sees no chance of bridging the gaps between Israel and Hamas to reach a hostage deal.

“If the positions of Israel and Hamas remain as they are now, then the gaps are unbridgeable for reaching an agreement,” the official stated.

Hamas is insisting that any deal must include a complete cessation of the war – with guarantees.

The IDF struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the terror organization’s stronghold of Dahiyeh in southern Beirut, as the materials posed a significant threat to Israel, Defense Minister Israel Katz’s office confirmed on Sunday.

“Israel will not allow Hezbollah to build up its capabilities and pose any threat anywhere in Lebanon,” the ministry said. “The Lebanese government bears direct responsibility for preventing these threats.”

It also said Israel will insist on achieving its war objective of safely returning the residents of the North to their homes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a pointed and fiery sworn affidavit in response to Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar on Sunday, claiming mainly that the intelligence chief did not alert him properly to Hamas’s October 7 attack and did not embrace the dangers beforehand.

The affidavit, the deadline for which was extended from Thursday, addresses some of Bar’s underlying tones and his points, but also ignores some.