Netanyahu cabinet votes in favour of firing Shin Bet security chief

As we previously reported, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a cabinet meeting on Thursday night in order to vote on the dismissal of Ronen Bar, the chief of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency.

Israel’s prime minister’s office has now confirmed that his cabinet has approved Bar’s sacking, with his final day slated for April 10. At the meeting, Netanyahu said he had “lost faith” in Bar since the Shin Bet had failed to prevent the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and accused Bar of being “soft” on captive negotiations, according to his office.

The vote represents the first time in Israel’s history that a government has fired Shin Bet’s chief.

Bar alleges the move stems from his refusal to meet Netanyahu’s demands for “personal loyalty”.

His removal has caused an uproar among Israel’s opposition, with Avigdor Liberman, the leader of the Yisrael Beytenu party, slamming Netanyahu for “doing exactly what our enemies dream of – fighting the Shin Bet head”.

Protesters opposing Bar’s sacking also clashed with police in front of Netanyahu’s office on Thursday.

First time in Israel’s history that head of Shin Bet intelligence service fired

This is an incredibly unprecedented move in Israel. It is the first time that a government has voted to dismiss the head of its domestic, internal security services.

What we know is that the Israeli cabinet convened very late in the evening – around 11pm local time (21:00 GMT) – and the vote was unanimous.

However, Ronen Bar was not present in this meeting and instead submitted a quite scathing letter to ministers within the government noting that his presence in the meeting would not be because he didn’t actually find these provisions legal, and saying his dismissal from his post needed to happen in some sort of orderly structure with a lot of other people, who needed to be involved given just how senior his position is.

He also noted that the Israeli prime minister is trying to evade a lot of different things, which means Netanyahu is trying to evade an internal investigation into the security failures that Israel had on October 7 and he has also tried to push forward his own political agenda.

Ronen Bar said that Netanyahu wanted him to negotiate with mediators on a ceasefire deal in Gaza but without coming to any sort of deal. And he was side-lined from those talks about a month ago and, instead, replaced with one of Netanyahu’s confidants so that the Israeli prime minister could get his agenda on the negotiating table.

This is surely an unprecedented step in Israeli history. It’s getting a lot of backlash from the opposition.

Shin Bet chief levels ‘explosive’ accusation against PM Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accused by the opposition of dismantling government institutions and of going after any senior official who challenges him. Netanyahu has systematically either fired or pushed to resign those in positions of power on October 7, 2023.

Netanyahu has so far refused to allow an independent commission of inquiry to investigate what happened on October 7 and all the failures since then.

Additionally, the fired chief of internal security – who will step down on April 10 – sent a letter saying Netanyahu, even during the war, was undermining police and the intelligence community.

Ronen Bar said not allowing him to attend the negotiations for a ceasefire was essentially motivated by Netanyahu wanting to negotiate but not reach a deal, which is an explosive accusation that is sure to inflame emotions even further in Israel.

Trump and Netanyahu, same tactics.


Israel’s Supreme Court freezes decision to sack intelligence chief

Israel’s Supreme Court has suspended the move by Netanyahu’s government to fire the domestic intelligence agency chief while the court reviews appeals filed against the dismissal.

“It is hereby ordered that a provisional measure be taken to stay the effect of the decision subject to the appeals until another decision is made,” the court said.

The freeze will remain in place until the appeals are presented to the court before April 8.

The Supreme Court’s decision came hours after Netanyahu’s cabinet unanimously approved his request to fire the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, Ronen Bar.

‘Very worried our country is becoming a dictatorship’

Over the past three days, demonstrators against the move to sack Shin Bet boss Ronen Bar have joined forces with protesters angry at the decision to resume fighting in Gaza.

Israel’s decision broke a two-month ceasefire while 59 Israeli captives remain in the war-battered Palestinian enclave.

“We’re very, very worried that our country is becoming a dictatorship,” Rinat Hadashi, 59, said in West Jerusalem. “They’re abandoning our hostages, they’re neglecting all the important things for this country.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to resume the bombardment of Gaza has triggered protests in Israel with a coalition of victims’ families and Netanyahu critics regrouping and accusing him of using the Gaza war for political ends.

_{Protesters hold a banner that reads ‘History is made by the people’ during a demonstration in West Jerusalem}

Israel government to hold no-confidence vote on attorney general

Israel’s government will meet on Sunday for a no confidence vote on the attorney general, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, marking the start of a lengthy dismissal process.

“We resolve to express our lack of confidence in the government’s legal adviser, Gali Baharav-Miara, due to her inappropriate behaviour and due to significant and prolonged differences between the government and the government’s legal adviser,” said a cabinet meeting agenda.

The message was posted on the website of the prime minister’s office, hours after the government sacked Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency.

Civil war? Netanyahu has split the Jewish community in Israel

Israel is accused of not being a state for all its citizens, as 20 percent of the population of Indigenous Palestinians face systematic discrimination.

But what is happening now is that Netanyahu and his coalition have managed to split the Jewish citizens of Israel between the loyalists and the opposition, who feel their institutions that have worked so far to protect the Zionist ideal are under threat.

The former head of the Supreme Court in Israel has accused Netanyahu and his allies of pushing Israel into civil war. This is a man who attended the International Court of Justice on behalf of Israel as a judge during the hearings where Israel was accused of genocide.

He is someone who has fiercely defended Israel. He is extremely worried what is happening is polarising the state so much that clashes are possible.

Idea of ‘Greater Israel’ ‘very deeply rooted in Israeli politics’

Mohamad Elmasry from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies says Israel’s resumption of the war on Gaza confirms “its intent on driving the population out altogether, or at least as many as possible”.

US President Donald Trump has also backed the plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza, he noted.

“Interestingly, there was a poll by the Jewish People Policy Institute that showed 85 percent of Israeli-Jews supported Trump’s plan as well. So the idea that this a far-right notion I think is a myth,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera.

“This idea of ‘Greater Israel’ – this is very deeply rooted in Israeli politics. And my sense is the Israeli government sees this as a great opportunity with Donald Trump in the White House to try to execute this.

“On the face of it, this doesn’t make any sense. It’s just destruction for the sake of destruction.”

Defence minister says Israel to seize Gaza land until captives released

Defense Minister Israel Katz says Israel will seize Gaza land until Hamas agrees to release all captives still held in the Strip.

“The more Hamas persists in its refusal to release the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed to Israel,” Katz was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as saying.

“If the hostages are not released, Israel will continue to take more and more territory in the Strip for permanent control.”

Katz says Israel to use ‘pressure’ on Hamas, including implementing Trump’s plan

The defence minister said Israel will “intensify” its campaign against Hamas and 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”.

Katz instructed the army “to seize additional areas in Gaza, evacuate the population, and expand security zones around Gaza to protect Israeli communities and soldiers”, local media quoted him as saying.


Doesn't need to be said but of course 97% of the people in Gaza are not a member of Hamas nor its civil government.

Most people also never voted for Hamas:

How George W. Bush Helped Hamas Come to Power
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/10/was-hamas-elected-to-govern-gaza-george-w-bush-2006-palestinian-election.html

It was in January 2006 that the Palestinian territories held what turned out to be their last parliamentary elections. Hamas won a bare plurality of votes (44 percent to the more moderate Fatah party’s 41 percent) but, given the electoral system, a strong majority of seats (74 to 45). Neither party was keen on sharing power. Fighting broke out between the two. When a unity government was finally formed in June 2007, Hamas broke the deal, started murdering Fatah members, and, in the end, took total control of the Gaza Strip. Those who weren’t killed fled to the West Bank, and the territories have remained split ever since.

In other words, Hamas’ absolute rule of Gaza is not what the Palestinians voted for back in 2006. In fact, since the median age of Gazans is 18, half of Hamas’ subjects weren’t even born when the election took place. Since they have known no alternative, have absorbed little information but Hamas propaganda, and have witnessed periodic outbursts of violent conflict with Israel throughout their lives, it is impossible to know what they really think about their rulers.

But we need to ask another question: Why did the 2006 elections take place? The explanation lies in the political ideals—or, more correctly, the naïveté—of President George W. Bush. (Much of this comes from the reporting for my 2008 book, Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power.)

It always leads back to the US...

Israeli aid blockade ‘appalling and unacceptable’: UK

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told parliament Israel’s barrage of missiles that killed hundreds of Palestinians – the majority women and children – is “an appalling loss of life and we mourn the loss of every civilian”.

A UN compound in Gaza was hit in the attacks and he confirmed “a British national was amongst the wounded.

“Gaza has been the most dangerous place in the world to be an aid worker,” he noted. “I share the outrage of UN Secretary-General Guterres at this incident.

“For weeks now, supplies of basic goods and electricity have been blocked, leaving over half a million civilians once again cut off from clean drinking water and sparking a 200 percent surge in the price of some basic foodstuffs – a boon to those criminals who use violence to control supplies.”

In West Bank refugee camps, Israel wants to ‘get rid of the Palestinians’ – Analysis

Israel has not formally declared war on the occupied West Bank but has dramatically increased military operations against the populations of Palestinian towns, villages and refugees camps since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

Amjad Abu El Ezz, of the Arab American University in Ramallah – in the occupied West Bank – said the Israeli plan to “get rid of Palestinians” is obvious and has been articulated by senior Israeli government ministers.

“So the dream of the far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s government is to solve the West Bank problem simply by getting rid of the Palestinians. Mainly in the refugee camps. We are talking about more than 20 refugee camps. Half a million Palestinians live in these refugee camps,” Abu El Ezz said.

UN Security Council meets on Israel’s West Bank attacks

The UN Security Council will meet for a second straight day on Palestine, this time focusing on Israel’s months-long assault on the occupied West Bank.

Thursday’s council meeting tackled the grim situation in war-battered Gaza. Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky criticised Israel’s leaders for not moving to phase two of the ceasefire deal, which calls for the release of all captives and a permanent end to the fighting.

He said it’s difficult to discuss the future when Israel’s military and political leaders appear to have made the choice in favour of war.

Britain’s deputy ambassador, James Kariuki, condemned Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s “warning of the total destruction of Gaza”.

Britain calls for the rapid resurgence of aid to Gaza, an investigation into allegations of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces, and an urgent return to the ceasefire deal, he said.

Israeli forces conduct attacks on ‘all areas’ in the Gaza Strip

The night sky was lit up earlier by explosions that took place in the eastern areas of Gaza along the boundary with Israel.

We had received confirmation from witnesses that the Israeli military has struck the city of Beit Lahiya extensively during the past hour. People woke up to the sound of explosions and Israeli tanks moving closer to residential areas.

We have got more reports coming from the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, suggesting that the Israeli forces are operating in the Shaboura neighbourhood.

Israeli forces have also advanced to the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, which is on the western side of Rafah city.

The population in Rafah had recently started to flee the area, going to al-Mawasi, which is only a few kilometres away from the city.

We understand that night attacks have taken place in all areas in the Gaza Strip, overwhelming capacity in the morgues.

More than 200 children killed since Tuesday in Gaza: UNICEF

At least 200 children have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed its war on the enclave this week, UNICEF spokesperson in Gaza Rosalia Paulin says.

Medical authorities said more than 590 Palestinians have been killed so far and the death toll continues to rise as Israeli air attacks and ground assaults intensify.

Israel wants to ‘lock the people of Gaza up into smaller cells, then move in’

Andreas Krieg, associate professor of security studies at King’s College London, says Israel has used the two-month ceasefire to gather intelligence on the whereabouts of “Hamas cells” as well as potential locations of the captives.

“I think what they’re trying to do now is further degrade Hamas and potentially kill some of its leaders, which they’ve done over the past couple of days, and apart from that, seize more territory,” Krieg told Al Jazeera.

The plan is part of what the far-right Israeli government wants to achieve, including expelling all the Palestinians from Gaza as outlined by President Trump’s “bizarre vision of the Riviera of the Middle East“, he added.

“It wants to seize territory and potentially never return it. It wants to lock the people of Gaza up into smaller cells and then move in.”

Build up of waste in Gaza threatens health of Palestinians


_{Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip has decimated infrastructure and waste management systems}

_{A waste heap caused in part by the forced displacement of Palestinians to Gaza City}

Israel strikes only hospital delivering cancer care in Gaza

The Israeli army has hit the Turkish Friendship Hospital for Cancer Patients in central Gaza, the only medical facility delivering cancer care in the Strip.

The facility had already been severely damaged by Israeli airstrikes in October 2023.

Israeli officials react to suspension of Shin Bet chief’s dismissal

Israeli government officials have reacted to the Supreme Court’s decision to suspend a move by Netanyahu’s government to fire the domestic intelligence agency chief while appeals are filed.

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel said in a post on X: “The Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu will not violate court decisions.”

Other ministers issued statements that suggested they would oppose the temporary injunction.

“Supreme Court judges will not run the war or determine its leaders,” far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X.

Israel’s newly reappointed far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, wrote on X: “It’s time for judicial reform!”



This is what Netanyahu has been trying to do before the current war started, Sept 2023:

Israel judicial reform explained: What is the crisis about?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65086871

The crisis in Israel reaches a significant moment on Tuesday, with an attempt at the Supreme Court to overturn a controversial law passed by the government. It follows months of turmoil over the government's plans to change the way the judicial system works. Here is a brief guide to what is going on.

Since the start of the year, huge weekly protests have been held by people opposed to the government's reform plans. The scale of the protests has escalated, with tens of thousands of people packing the streets in towns and cities across the country.

Undeterred, the government (which has a comfortable majority in parliament) passed into law in July the first planned change - a so-called "reasonableness" bill. This removed the power of the Supreme Court (and lower courts) to cancel government decisions deemed "extremely unreasonable".

Protesters have called for all the planned reforms to be scrapped and for the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to resign. They are supported by Mr Netanyahu's political rivals, as well as former top officials in Israel's military, intelligence and security services, former chief justices, and prominent legal figures and business leaders amongst others.

The Attorney general Negtanyahu is currently trying to get rid of.
(Israel’s government will meet on Sunday for a no confidence vote on the attorney general, marking the start of a lengthy dismissal process)



Trump is trying to do the same in the USA, following Netanyahu's road to dictatorship.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/03/18/trump-deportation-venezuela-el-salvador-defy-judge/82498769007/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-deportation-court-ruling
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-administrations-standoff-with-federal-court-over-deportation-order-continues

Gaza’s hospital for cancer care destroyed

The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital for cancer patients has been destroyed by the Israeli military as part of its attack on the Gaza Strip.

The hospital, located in the Netzarim Corridor close to Salah al-Din Street, was being used as a command centre by Israeli forces during their previous military assault in central and northern Gaza.

Today it was blown up completely after having been rebuilt with a Turkish donation of $34m in 2017.

The facility used to provide cancer treatment to 10,000 patients annually.

This comes after Israel said it was expanding the Netzarim Corridor and blocked all movement on Salah al-Din Street. People wanting to travel between the north and the south of Gaza must use al-Rashid Street, which is becoming more and more dangerous because of Israeli attacks.

MSF says 10th staff member killed in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, has issued a statement saying it’s mourning its 10th staff member killed since Israel’s war started in Gaza.

“MSF is shocked and saddened by the killing of our colleague Alaa Abd-Elsalam Ali Okal by an Israeli air strike on his apartment building in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza,” it said. “Along with hundreds of others across the Gaza Strip, Alaa Abd-Elsalam Ali Okal was killed in the early morning of 18 March following the resumption of Israeli attacks.”

The 29-year-old was a laundry worker with the organisation and “played an important role in supporting people in need of medical care at MSF’s field hospital in Deir el-Balah”. “We condemn the killing of our colleague and call yet again for the respect and protection of civilians.”

Hospital, university hit in Israeli air raids across Gaza

Our correspondents are reporting several Israeli attacks since the morning across Gaza:

Israeli army issues ‘final warning’ to northern Gaza residents, carries out more strikes

The army’s Arabic language spokesperson Avichay Adraee says on X that the residents of the “al-Salateen, al-Karama and al-Awda” areas along northern Gaza’s Mediterranean coast must leave their homes immediately.

“This is a final and prior warning before the airstrike!” Adraee wrote, claiming the area is being used by Hamas for rocket launches at Israeli territory.

Meanwhile, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic reported that the Israeli army has bombed a house in Beit Lahiya, also in the northern Gaza Strip. In addition, two Palestinians were wounded by an Israeli drone strike on the Tal as-Sultan area of Rafah, in Gaza’s south.

Harrowing video shows bombing of residential area in Jabalia

Palestinian activists have shared the footage of the moment when Israeli forces struck a residential block in Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza. The footage shows the moment of the explosion with flames and smoke rising after the bombing.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHdyKtts-Pq

Israeli army says two projectiles fired from Gaza intercepted

Israel’s military says it has intercepted two projectiles fired from northern Gaza after air raid sirens sounded in the southern city of Ashkelon.

“Following the sirens that sounded at 4:30pm (14:30 GMT) in Ashkelon, two projectiles that were fired from northern Gaza were intercepted by the [air force],” a military statement said.

Israeli military says it intercepted missile fired from Yemen

The army says it shot down the missile before it crossed into the country’s territory, adding that the hostile aircraft alerts were activated in parts of Israel during the incident.

The statement comes one day after Israel also shot down two projectiles launched by the Houthi rebels.

Israel strikes two bases in Syria: Military

The Israeli army has struck two bases in Syria, the military has said.

It said the bases hosted “military strategic capabilities”, identifying the bases as Tadmur and T4 in a statement.

Israel has repeatedly struck military targets in Syria, including earlier this week when an Israeli air strike in the Deraa province killed two people and wounded 19 others.