HIGH ALERT
Israel went on high alert after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei threatened to avenge a suspected Israeli bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1 that killed seven top officers, headed by IRGC commander Brig.-Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi.. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was ready for “any scenario that may develop vis-à-vis Iran.” On April 8, an IAF strike killed Ali Ahmed Hassin, commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces in southern Lebanon, the IDF said. On March 29, Israeli strikes on Aleppo killed 42 people, including a top Hezbollah figure, Reuters reported. On March 27, Zaher Bashara, 38, from a Druze village, was killed when Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets at Kiryat Shmona.
GAZA WAR
On April 7, the IDF announced that 604 soldiers and more than 12,000 terrorists had been killed since October 7. The last casualties before the IDF withdrew all forces from the southern Gaza Strip were Capt. Ido Baruch, 21; Sgt. Amitai Even Shoshan, 20; Sgt. Reef Harush, 20; and Sgt. Ilai Zair, 20, all of whom were members of the Oz Brigade killed in combat in Khan Yunis. Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi said that despite the troop withdrawal, “the war in Gaza continues, and we are far from stopping.” A week before, Halevi issued an apology for an Israeli strike on an international aid convoy in Gaza on April 2, saying it had been the result of a “misidentification.” The IDF dismissed two top officers over the tragic incident in which three cars from a World Central Kitchen convoy were hit by drone-fired missiles, leaving seven humanitarian workers dead.
TERROR ATTACKS
Benjamin Achimeir, a 14-year-old Jewish shepherd, was murdered near the outpost of Malachei Shalom on April 12, the IDF said. As a search was launched for the terrorists, settlers went on the rampage in several Palestinian towns, and a Palestinian man was killed in clashes with the IDF. Lidor Levy, 34, who had a pregnant wife and year-old daughter, died at Ichilov Hospital on April 4 of wounds he sustained in a terrorist stabbing in Gan Yavne four days earlier. The assailant, a 19-year-old Palestinian from Dura, was shot dead by security officers. On April 7, a female soldier sustained serious wounds in a terrorist shooting in the West Bank. On April 3, four policemen were wounded in a car ramming in Kochav Yair. Security forces killed the terrorist, a 26-year-old from Tira.
GANTZ’S CALL
War Cabinet minister Benny Gantz (National Unity) called on April 3 for national elections in September, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government faced pressure at home and abroad over the continuing war against Hamas in Gaza. “We must agree on a date for elections in September, about a year since the war [began],” Gantz said in a televised address. “Setting such a date will allow us to continue the military effort while signaling to the citizens of Israel that we will soon renew their trust in us..”
HAREDI DRAFT
On March 28, Israel’s High Court of Justice issued a landmark decision endorsing a universal draft, including the haredi sector, starting April 1 as a matter of principle, while in practice deferring enforcement until August 9. The ruling accepted the recommendation of Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, invoking a legal universal draft immediately but providing transition time for the institutions to adjust to the new reality. The upcoming months also give the government an extension to pass a new law on drafting haredim.
AL JAZEERA
Before it went on its annual spring recess, the Knesset on April 2 approved the so-called Al Jazeera Law 71-10, giving the government temporary powers to prevent foreign news networks from operating in Israel if they are deemed by security services to be harming national security. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi announced immediately after the vote that the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera news channel would be closed down “in the coming days,” adding: “There won’t be freedom of expression for Hamas mouthpieces in Israel.”
NOBEL LAUREATE
Daniel Kahneman, an Israeli-American psychologist who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his research integrating psychology and economics, died on March 27 at the age of 90. In 2013, US president Barack Obama awarded Kahneman the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.
RESPECTED SENATOR
Joseph Lieberman, a longtime senator from Connecticut (1989 to 2013) who as Al Gore’s running mate in 2000 became the first Jewish candidate for vice president, died on March 27 at the age of 82. Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent, was known for his bipartisan attempts to build bridges across the political aisle. Israel’s Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog called Lieberman “a true American patriot, proud of his Jewish identity and an ironclad supporter of the State of Israel and the US-Israel alliance.”