Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 200?

The US Senate on Tuesday voted to advance a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan toward possible passage later on Tuesday or on Wednesday, which would send it to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law.

As voting continued, the vote was 65 to 12 in favor of advancing the package of foreign aid legislation to a vote on final passage, with more than 60 needed.

Essa Al-Nassr, a member of the Qatari legislative Shura council, spoke on Monday at an Arab League session, expressing antisemitic remarks and inciting to violence and terrorism.

"There will be no peace nor negotiations with the Zionist entity for one reason: because their mentality does not recognize negotiations, but rather only… breaking promises and lying… They only recognize one thing, which is killings; since they are killers of prophets.”

The accusation of Jews as ‘killers of prophets’ is a well-known antisemitic trope made in several Islamic texts, which is understood by many, including Al-Nassr himself, as a charge against the entire Jewish people valid for eternity.

Major General (Res.) Salem Al-Kharishat, 42 years old, from Abu Rubiyeh, was killed in battle in the northern Gaza Strip, the army announced on Tuesday.

I went to the beach north of Haifa on Passover, expecting a nice day with the family near the sea. The water is warming up as spring waits for summer to come. The bay of Haifa is a pretty windswept beach that borders Kiryat Yam and stretches from Haifa to Acre.

The large maritime port of Haifa is visible, with its cranes and loading docks and piers where container ships can disgorge cargo. Many of those ships are anchored off the coast.

Last Passover, in 2023, terrorists in Lebanon launched a barrage of rockets at the northern border of Shlomi. Therefore, I expected escalation this Passover because Israel is in a six month war in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon feels impunity to rain down rockets on northern Israel.

Many of the workers who were sent on unpaid leave since the outbreak of the war are at risk of losing their unemployment benefits. Many others have already lost them and are left without a source of income. For now, the state isn't offering them solutions.

Meirav Ben-Zaken, the marketing manager of "Fish on the Dan", and a member of the "Shield of the Lebanon Border" forum for the protection of towns that were not evacuated, shared that she is in a state of uncertainty, which is felt by many others in the north. 

"We are neither evacuated nor relieved; we are simply people who woke up one morning and the state closed our workplaces. We want to go to work, but due to the security situation, we are not allowed. Now all of us need to cope with the psychological, physical, and economic consequences," said Ben-Zaken.

"They need to understand us; we have no holiday. Our children aren't enjoying their time with us because it's not safe here," said Ben-Zaken, who lives in Kibbutz Kfar Blum in the Galilee, a town that wasn't evacuated by the Defense Ministry. 

"Everyone knows Kfar Blum as the place where missile sirens are heard from Lebanon, but it's beyond that; people live here," she chuckled. "We are at the bottom of the government's priority list. In a few days, my unemployment benefits will end, and I won't be able to look for another job. I don't know what will happen to me tomorrow. We have no organization, and every government office just throws us around."

A view of the site where a rocket landed after it was fired from Lebanon, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near the entrance to a hospital in Safed, northern Israel February 14, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon)

Ben-Zaken added that, like her colleagues, she's celebrating Passover alone out of fear of escalated security tensions. "They love our holidays," she said, referring sarcastically to the Hezbollah terror organization. 

The IDF killed Hassin Ali Ezkol, a terrorist and central member of Hezbollah's aerial defense unit during a targeted strike on a vehicle he was riding in, the IDF confirmed on Tuesday.

According to the announcement, another unnamed senior Hezbollah terrorist was killed in the strike as well.

Additionally, fighter jets attacked a Hezbollah military building along other terrorist infrastructure in the Yaroun area in south Lebanon at the time of the targeted strike.

A separate threat in the Yaroun area was struck by IDF troops as well.

Israel Air Force fighter jets destroyed ready-to-launch Hamas rocket launchers in the southern Gaza Strip, while soldiers from the Nahal Brigade killed multiple terrorists in the central part of the strip over the last day, the IDF announced on Tuesday.

Fighter jets completed several airstrikes overnight on Hamas launch posts located in southern Gaza based on IDF intelligence and operational identifications . ‏The launch posts were loaded, but were struck before any launches were carried out toward Israeli territory.

Meanwhile, soldiers from the Nahal Brigade continued their counterterrorism activity in the central Gaza Strip's corridor. During one of the activities, the troops killed a number of Hamas terrorists using sniper fire. Additionally, an IAF aircraft struck several terrorists who hid adjacent to a civilian shelter in the area of Bureij. The strike was carried out in a targeted and precise manner.

IDF soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, April 23, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Aircrafts strike additional targets

The same day Iran launched its first ever direct attack on Israel it embarked on a less-noticed confrontation at home, ordering police in several cities to take to the streets to arrest women accused of flouting its strict Islamic dress code.

Iranian authorities insist that their so-called Nour (Light) campaign targets businesses and individuals who defy the hijab law, aiming to respond to demands from devout citizens who are angry about the growing number of unveiled women in public.

But activists and some politicians say the campaign appears aimed not only at enforcing mandatory hijab-wearing, but also at discouraging any wider dissent at a vulnerable moment for the clerical rulers.

Under Iran's sharia, or Islamic law, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes. Offenders face public rebuke, fines or arrest.

The laws have become a political flashpoint since protests over the death of a young woman in the custody of the country's "morality police" in 2022 spiraled into the worst political turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

An Iranian police force stands on a street during the revival of morality police in Tehran, Iran, July 16, 2023. (credit: VIA REUTERS)

In a show of civil disobedience, unveiled women have frequently appeared in public since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Security forces violently put down the subsequent revolt, which called for the government's downfall.

Talking to reporters after an Earth Day event in Triangle, Virginia, President Joe Biden said he condemned the antisemitic protests occurring on college campuses, according to White House press pool reports. 

"That's why I've set up a program to deal with that," Biden said. 

Biden was interrupted before finishing his next sentence. 

"I also condemn those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians and their - how they're being..." Biden said before getting cut off. 

Biden would not say if Columbia University president Minouche Shafik should resign. 

"I'll have to find out more about it," Biden said. 

Hamas has "moved the goal post" and changed its demands in the hostage negotiations with Israel mediated by Egypt and Qatar, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

Speaking at a daily press briefing, Miller said the United States would continue to push for an agreement that would see hostages taken on October 7 released and a pause in fighting in Gaza.

Separately, Miller said the United States had received a report by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna into the UN aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, and is reviewing it.