Israelis believe gov’t should focus on freeing captives over defeating Hamas: Survey

A new poll has found that 68 percent of Israelis surveyed believe the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should prioritise bringing home all the captives from Gaza rather than trying to remove Hamas entirely from the enclave.

According to the survey by the Israel Democracy Institute, 25 percent said defeating Hamas was more important than returning the captives. When the same questions were asked in January 2024, 36 percent of the interviewees believed defeating Hamas was more important than returning the captives.

The poll, which involved 598 Jewish and 150 Arab participants, also found that 49 percent of respondents believed or were certain that it would be impossible to defeat Hamas and free the captives simultaneously, while 46 percent believed it was possible.

Hundreds of Israeli reservists join Air Force call to end war

Hundreds of retired and current reserve officers from Israel’s Intelligence Unit 8200 are joining their colleagues at the Air Force, calling on the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority has reported.

The report comes a day after the Israeli military, supported by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said it had decided to discharge active-duty reservists who signed a letter asking the government to end the conflict that, they said, serves political rather than security interests.

“We identify with the serious and worrying assertion that at this time the war mainly serves political and personal interests and not security interests,” read an extract of the letter composed by the Intelligence Unit’s petitioners. “Continuing the war does not contribute to achieving any of its declared goals and will lead to the deaths of the abductees and soldiers,” it added.

Echoing similar concerns, about 2,000 faculty members at higher education institutions joined Air Force personnel and signed the petition, Channel 12 reported.

Israel’s political leaders steering ceasefire talks frustrate mediators

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/10/middleeast/israels-political-leaders-steering-ceasefire-talks-frustrate-mediators/index.html

When discussions began over releasing Israeli hostages shortly after the October 7 attack by Hamas, the negotiators tasked to strike a deal were mostly intelligence and security professionals. But in February, Israel made an important change that those now involved say has had a profound slowing effect on the discussions to resurrect the broken ceasefire: The file was taken over by the prime minister’s closest political aide, Ron Dermer.

With Dermer, says a source involved in the negotiations, there’s a “significant difference in momentum,” from when Israel’s team was led by intelligence chiefs David Barnea and Ronen Bar.

“There is a clear shift in [Israeli] priorities,” the source said. “Negotiations are seemingly being politicized from the Israeli team.”

Now, Barnea, who directs the Mossad, has been sidelined and Bar, who ran the internal security service Shin Bet, has been fired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, causing an uproar in Israel.

The decision to push aside career national security professionals in favor of Netanyahu’s closest adviser was intended to give Netanyahu more control over the negotiation process, an Israeli source familiar with the negotiations said.

“The political considerations of the Israeli team led by Dermer is not having a positive impact,” says an American who advocates for the families of Israeli hostages. “The families understand that Dermer is a big problem to getting their loved ones.”

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Israel, Egypt exchange draft proposals aimed at securing truce: Report

Israel and Egypt have reportedly exchanged draft documents on a ceasefire-for-captives deal, according to a report from Israel’s Kan public broadcaster.

The new proposals are aimed at bridging the gap between a ceasefire extension tabled by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, and a counter one tabled by Egypt and Qatar in late March, according to the report.

Witkoff’s proposal, tabled last month, called for the release of five Israeli captives in exchange for a two-month ceasefire and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

Egypt’s proposal calls for Hamas to release eight living captives and eight deceased captives in exchange for a truce lasting between 40 and 70 days, as well as Israel releasing a large number of Palestinians from prisons.

Main events on April 11th

Most of those killed in Gaza are women and children as Israel targeting residential homes

At least 500 Palestinian children killed since Israel broke ceasefire agreement in March

According to Mahmoud Basal, the Gaza Civil Defence spokesperson, since the war resumed on March 18, at least 500 children have been killed.

Earlier this morning, a newborn baby called Sham was targeted along with her family. She was in a very critical condition where her arm was amputated and she died a couple of hours later because her injury was very critical and doctors were unable to help her situation.

It’s not only the continuous air strikes, it’s the mass evacuation orders. Earlier today, two evacuation orders have been issued. The first was in Shujayea. The second one was in Khan Younis. Palestinians do not know where to go.

Killing, injuring of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers and settlers continues in the occupied territory: UN

Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including two children, and injured at least another 130 people in the occupied West Bank between March 25 and April 7, the latest UN situation report on the occupied territory reveals.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a 10th victim of the Israeli military was shot and killed on April 8 – a Palestinian woman who Israeli soldiers alleged had thrown stones. The UN report also reveals that 34 children were among the 130 injured by the Israeli military during the reporting period up to April 7.

On top of the military violence, Israeli settlers carried out 44 attacks on Palestinians that resulted in the injury of 25, including five children, and property damage across 35 communities.

Israeli authorities also demolished 105 Palestinian-owned structures across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem during the same period, leaving 122 Palestinians displaced, including 64 children.

More than 200 Palestinians were also affected as the demolitions targeted livelihood structures, as well as sanitation facilities and family homes.

📌#WestBank

⚠️Almost half of the settler attacks are in Bedouin/herding communities; these brothers are among those injured.

⚠️Recurrent displacement in the Jordan Valley.

⚠️Six #UN schools ordered to close.

More: https://t.co/QMglB6Yc6k pic.twitter.com/ytT8vCxwyO

— OCHA OPT (Palestine) (@ochaopt) April 11, 2025

Israel behind ‘mass censorship operation’ on Meta’s Facebook, Instagram: Report

Facebook’s parent company Meta has carried out a “sweeping crackdown” on Facebook and Instagram posts critical of Israel or vaguely supportive of Palestinians since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, according to the Drop Site online news outlet.

Citing internal company data and whistleblowers, Drop Site reports that Meta complied with 94 percent of all takedown requests submitted by the Israeli government and removed more than 90,000 posts to comply with Israel’s takedown request within 30 seconds, on average.

Meta’s automated takedowns also resulted in “an estimated 38.8 million additional posts being ‘actioned upon’ across Facebook and Instagram since late 2023”, Drop Site said.

“The leaked documents reveal that Israel’s takedown requests have overwhelmingly targeted users from Arab and Muslim-majority nations,” the news site said.

“Israel is the biggest originator of takedown requests globally by far, and Meta has followed suit – widening the net of posts it automatically removes, and creating what can be called the largest mass censorship operation in modern history,” it said.

US rights advocates file lawsuit challenging Trump’s ICC sanctions

Two human rights advocates represented by the American Civil Liberties Union have filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s imposition of sanctions against International Criminal Court (ICC) staff, including chief prosecutor Karim Khan.

In February, Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on ICC staff and barring US citizens from providing services benefitting them over the court’s pursuit of legal cases against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

In a lawsuit filed on Friday in federal court in Bangor, Maine, Fortify Rights co-founder Matthew Smith and international human rights lawyer Akila Radhakrishnan argued the order unconstitutionally curtails their speech by preventing them from speaking with Khan.

The pair said the order bars them from providing legal advice and evidence to the ICC chief prosecutor, violating their rights under the First Amendment.

Smith and Radhakrishnan said they had been forced to cease their work with the ICC’s prosecutor’s office, in which they had been seeking justice for victims of atrocities worldwide.

“This executive order doesn’t just disrupt our work – it actively undermines international justice efforts and obstructs the path to accountability for communities facing unthinkable horrors,” Smith said.

Dissent growing in Israeli army as hundreds back air force reservists facing dismissal

Dissent within the Israeli military is seemingly growing, with more than a thousand special forces reservists now signing a letter in support of air force reservists set to be dismissed from active duty after calling for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.

The letter’s authors said 1,552 current and former special forces members have signed so far, with about 16 percent of them active reservists, the Haaretz newspaper reports.

The signatories signalled their intention to keep serving but stated they are “determined to exercise their civil rights and to warn against the continuation of the long fighting that endangers the lives of the hostages, the lives of soldiers and civilians, and that also seems to be continuing for political reasons”.

Separately, about 250 reservists and retirees from Israel’s elite Unit 8200 have penned their own letter stating that the war on Gaza “is currently mainly serving political and personal interests and not security interests”.

“The continuation of the war doesn’t contribute to any of the declared objectives, and will lead to the death of hostages, [Israeli] soldiers, and of innocents,” the letter said.

“We join the call of the air crews to all Israeli citizens to take action and demand, everywhere and in any way, the return of the hostages now and the cessation of the fighting,” it added.

Iran and US return to Oman as nuclear deal revival talks begin

The world’s media crowded outside a luxury hotel in the Austrian capital, Vienna, in the summer of 2015 to catch a glimpse of diplomats – negotiating the final and most difficult stages of a complex nuclear agreement.

But the deal that was signed by Iran – and six international powers: the US, China, Russia, UK, France and Germany, together with the European Union, actually had its origins in secret talks more than two years earlier in the Gulf state of Oman.

And, it is to here that US and Iranian negotiators will return – to try to remake a deal – after that first one was torn up by President Trump in 2018.

Trump says the talks will be direct – the two sides meeting face to face. But that was denied by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi who told Iranian TV: We have no plans to make the talks direct.

It is Mr Araghchi who will represent Iran in Oman. He has huge experience in the nuclear file, was previously his country’s chief negotiator, and attended some of those early secret talks in the Omani capital, Muscat, 12 years ago.

Contrast that with Steve Witkoff – who will lead the US team. A property developer friend of Trump. He was put in charge of the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, then asked to deal with Ukraine and Russia. And has now had the complex issue of Iran’s nuclear programme added to his plate.

Observers caution not to expect too much from this first meeting in Oman. The important thing is that the talks don’t completely collapse, and that a process can be started.

_{Palestinians in the Nuseirat region, who are struggling with hunger due to Israeli attacks on Gaza and the closed borders, wait to receive hot meals distributed by charitable organisations in Deir el-Balah, Gaza, on April 12}


Medicine stocks in Gaza hospitals ‘dangerous, unprecedented’

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said hospitals and medics are experiencing a severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies, which have not been replenished for some 40 days due to Israel’s complete blockade of the Strip.

Israel has destroyed 34 of the 38 hospitals in the Gaza Strip so far, leaving only four hospitals operating at limited capacity despite their severe damage, according to the latest statistics from the Government Media Office.


Gaza City official: Israel prevents water pipeline repair

A spokesperson for the Gaza City municipality says Israel’s continued disruption of the Mekorot pipeline is exacerbating the Strip’s water crisis.

The military halted the flow of water from Israeli company Mekorot to the Gaza Strip in early April, cutting off 70 percent of the Palestinian enclave’s water supply.

The spokesperson said Israeli forces are denying access to repair crews seeking to fix damaged water infrastructure, and that repairs could be made, bringing desperately needed water to parts of the city, in only 24 hours.

Gaza media office says Israel has turned water into ‘tool of genocide’

The office says that Israel “deliberately disrupted the two Mekorot water pipelines east of Gaza City and in the central governorate, and also shut down the electricity line supplying the desalination plant in the Deir el-Balah area, leading to a complete halt in the production of desalinated water”.

These claims are supported by recent information provided by the UN, which decried the shutdown of the desalination plant. Here are some more key points in the Gaza Government Media Office statement:

Israel continues to escalate its attacks across the Gaza Strip

Israeli forces have just bombed a house in Khan Younis. Injuries have been reported, and ambulances are heading to that area. But let me remind you that it’s very hard for ambulances to reach that house because of the destroyed roads and all the rubble on the streets.

An Israeli quadcopter has also targeted a Palestinian in Nuseirat. Overnight, Israeli forces bombed a house in Gaza City’s Shujayea where two Palestinians were killed. There have been evacuation orders for Shujayea and Khan Younis yesterday.

There has been ongoing artillery shelling in different areas across the Gaza Strip, in the north, in the central area, and also in the South, in Rafah and Khan Younis. Palestinians are still trapped under the rubble, and most of those injured and killed are women and children.

It’s not only the ongoing air strikes that are making the situation so dire across the Gaza Strip. It’s also the mass displacement and the mass starvation. Not a single truck carrying aid, food, cooking gas, or fuel has entered the Strip for almost six weeks.

The Israeli military is shooting anyone who moves in Shujayea

The situation in Gaza City’s Shujayea has become very intense and very dangerous, as the Israeli military has advanced after forced evacuation orders were issued yesterday. Palestinians in that area, especially those who did not evacuate, are now trapped.

The Israeli tanks are surrounding the area, and they have been stationed in a very strategic point that overlooks the entire neighborhood. Palestinians in that area are saying that whoever is moving or tries to move from one place to another is being shot by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli forces have also been targeting different areas in Khan Younis. The last one was an air strike on a group of people, where a Palestinian was killed.

Israeli forces have also announced that they have completed the Morag Corridor, which they have been working on since they started their invasion in Rafah. According to Israeli officials, this is another Philadelphi Corridor, but this one splits Khan Younis and Rafah.

It’s important to know that most agricultural lands are in Rafah, specifically near the Morag Corridor.

Israel takes rocket fire from Gaza

The Israeli military says on X that it detected the launch of three rockets from the Gaza Strip. It said that its air force intercepted the rockets, and that they caused no casualties.

Despite nearly a year and a half of Israeli assault by ground and air, Hamas retains some of its offensive rocket capabilities.

Hamas claims rocket attack on Israel

On Telegram, the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, has claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement. It said it targeted the “Nir Yitzhak” settlement with the “Rajum” short-range 114mm rocket system.