Netanyahu says he is ‘willing’ to reach deal to free Gaza hostages

Prime minister says military pressure is working, as he rejects claims that Israel is not serious about negotiations

Rejecting claims from Hamas and Israeli protesters that his government is not engaged in serious negotiations aimed at securing the release of those held captive in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he was committed to reaching an agreement to free the hostages and military pressure had been effective.

“We are willing,” Israel’s prime minister told a cabinet meeting. “We are negotiating under fire” and “can see cracks beginning to appear” in what Hamas has demanded in its negotiations, he said.

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Hamas reportedly agrees to release five living Israeli hostages for ceasefire

Militants release video of Israeli captive Elkana Bohbot pleading for freedom as they seek a 50-day halt to conflict

Hamas has allegedly agreed to free five living Israeli hostages in exchange for a 50-day ceasefire, as the militant group released a video of a hostage making an appeal for his freedom.

Hamas’s chief, Khalil al-Hayya, reportedly said on Saturday that the militant group expressed willingness to release the five hostages over the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, which begins on Sunday, after a proposal it received two days ago from Egypt and Qatar, Reuters has reported.

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Israel admits firing at ambulances in Gaza after Palestinians say rescuers missing in Rafah

Body of team leader found almost a week after six rescuers went missing, Gaza’s civil defence agency says

Israel’s military admitted on Saturday it had fired on ambulances in the Gaza Strip after identifying them as “suspicious vehicles”, with Hamas condemning it as a “war crime” that killed at least one person.

The incident took place last Sunday in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood in the southern city of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.

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Friday briefing: How Gaza is becoming the deadliest conflict zone for journalists

In today’s newsletter: Media workers in Gaza and the West Bank have faced relentless danger, and attacks on press freedom on the rise across the world

Good morning.

More than 170 journalists have been killed in Gaza since 2023, with some estimates putting the toll as high as 206. It is the deadliest conflict for media workers in recent history. In a sobering report, Thaslima Begum gathered some of their stories. And attacks on journalists worldwide are on the rise, with deaths occurring everywhere from the Middle East to Europe.

UK economy | Lower-income households are on track to become £500 a year poorer by the end of the decade as a result of the UK chancellor’s spring statement, according to analysis by the Resolution Foundation.

Monarchy | King Charles required hospital observation on Thursday after experiencing “temporary side-effects” as part of his medical treatment for cancer, Buckingham Palace said.

Canada | Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, has said the era of deep ties with the US “is over” as governments from Tokyo to Berlin and Paris sharply criticised Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on car imports, with some threatening retaliatory action.

Asia-Pacific | Japan has for the first time released plans to evacuate more than 100,000 civilians from some of its remote islands near Taiwan in the event of conflict amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Taipei.

Environment | Supporters of the climate group Just Stop Oil have announced that after three years of disruptive protests they are ending their campaign of civil resistance. Hannah Hunt, whose speech on Valentine’s Day 2022 marked the beginning of the campaign, made the announcement outside Downing Street in London on Thursday.

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No Other Land co-director condemns Academy’s letter to members after Hamdan Ballal attack

Yuval Abraham criticised the Academy’s statement defending its silence after Israeli settlers attacked his co-director Hamdan Ballal

The Israeli director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land has condemned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its response to a violent attack on his Palestinian co-director Hamdan Ballal, who was beaten by Israeli settlers and detained by Israeli forces in the West Bank on Monday.

Earlier this week, Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham criticised the Academy for failing to publicly speak out in support of Ballal. Now he has criticised a statement issued by the Academy to its members on Wednesday, in which it appeared to defend its silence.

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Israel parliament defies protests to pass law tightening grip over judges

Opposition parties say political control of appointments will make judges subject to politicians and undermine democracy

Israel’s parliament has passed a law expanding elected officials’ power to appoint judges, in defiance of a years-long protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to drive through judicial changes.

The approval of the bill, which opposition parties say will make judges subject to the will of politicians, comes as Netanyahu’s government is locked in a standoff with the supreme court over its attempts to dismiss the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara and Ronen Bar, the head of the internal security agency.

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Netanyahu repeats threat to seize territory in Gaza as anti-Hamas protests continue

Israeli PM warns of seizure of territories and ‘other measures’ if Hamas refuses to release remaining hostages

Benjamin Netanyahu has repeated Israeli threats to seize territory in Gaza if Hamas refuses to release the remaining Israeli hostages, as, for the second consecutive day, hundreds of Palestinians joined protests against the militant group and demanding the end of the war.

The Israeli prime minister’s warning came a week after Israel resumed its military operation in the territory, shattering the relative calm of a January ceasefire with Hamas.

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‘It was revenge for our movie’: Oscar winner says soldiers helped settlers attack him in West Bank

Hamdan Ballal says Israeli soldiers beat him with their rifle butts and threatened to kill him

The Oscar-winning Palestinian film director Hamdan Ballal has said that Israeli settlers who attacked him were aided by two Israeli soldiers, who beat him with the butt of their rifles outside his home and threatened to kill him.

In an interview with the Guardian, Ballal, one of the four directors of the film No Other Land, which documents the destruction of villages in the West Bank and won best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards, recounted how on Monday two Israeli soldiers first encircled him while a settler was assaulting him, before violently striking him on the head and threatening to shoot him.

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Hamdan Ballal: Oscar-winning Palestinian director attacked by Israeli settlers and arrested

Director of No Other Land attacked by armed settlers in West Bank and handed to Israeli military, witnesses say

A Palestinian director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land has been arrested by the Israeli army after masked settlers attacked his house.

According to five Jewish American activists who witnessed the attack, Hamdan Ballal, one of the four directors of the the film that documented the destruction of villages in the West Bank, was surrounded and attacked by a group of about 15 armed settlers in Susya in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron.

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Gaza medics issue malnutrition alert as total Israeli blockade enters fourth week

Israel continues to batter territory in renewed offensive as death toll from nearly 18 months of war passes 50,000

Malnutrition is spreading in Gaza, medics and aid workers in the devastated Palestinian territory are warning, as a total Israeli blockade of all supplies enters its fourth week.

There has been no sign that Israel will open entry points to allow essential aid to flow or ease its new offensive in Gaza, which started on Tuesday with a wave of airstrikes that killed 400 people, mostly civilians, ending two months of relative calm. On Sunday, Palestinian officials said the total death toll from nearly 18 months of conflict had passed 50,000.

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Israel strikes southern Lebanon and Gaza amid calls for halt to ‘endless war’

One killed and seven wounded in attack as freed hostages and families of those still held in Gaza urge end to fighting

Israel carried out a strike in Tyre, south Lebanon, on Saturday, killing one and wounding seven people and endangering the shaky truce that ended a year-long conflict against Hezbollah, as 40 survivors of Hamas captivity called on the Israeli government to halt the “endless war”.

The strike on a building came after Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes in Lebanon on Saturday, its most intense aerial assault on the country in four months. In total, six people were killed, including a child, and 28 injured, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

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Netanyahu claims decision to fire Shin Bet chief not connected to Qatar inquiry

Israeli PM says Ronen Bar sacked over 7 October report, rather than investigation into his office’s alleged links to Qataris

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in a Saturday speech that the decision to fire the country’s domestic security chief Ronen Bar was made before the announcement that Bar was investigating the prime ministry for alleged ties to the Qatari government.

Netanyahu said that he had decided to fire Bar, the director of Shin Bet, after the agency’s report on the 7 October 2023 attack, rather than after it opened its investigation.

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Israel to ‘seize more ground’ and warns Hamas it will annex parts of Gaza

Defence minister issues threat as IDF intensifies offensive with ‘non-stop’ overnight attacks across territory

Israel’s defence minister said he had instructed the military to “seize more ground” in Gaza and threatened to annex part of the territory unless Hamas released 59 Israeli hostages still held in the devastated territory.

Israel Katz’s warning on Friday came as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intensified the new offensive launched on Tuesday, when a wave of airstrikes shattered the truce that had brought a fragile and relative calm since mid-January.

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Netanyahu disputes court order freezing decision to fire Shin Bet chief

PM says government will decide who heads domestic spy agency as protests against Ronen Bar dismissal continue

Benjamin Netanyahu is locked in a fierce battle with Israel’s judicial system after the supreme court blocked his attempt to fire the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency.

Amid protests against ministers’ vote to sack Ronen Bar, the top court on Friday froze the decision, with the order remaining in place until the court can hear petitions filed by the opposition and an NGO against the dismissal of the chief of the Shin Bet.

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Who is Ronen Bar, the sacked chief of Israel’s Shin Bet security service?

Former special forces soldier made enemies after disagreements with far-right factions in Netanyahu government

Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s powerful internal security service, the Shin Bet, may seem an unlikely rebel.

A former special forces soldier who holds degrees from Tel Aviv and Harvard universities, Bar has devoted three decades of his working life to the service of the state. His frame is lean, greying hair close shaved, features gaunt, manner reserved and speech moderate.

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Thousands protest in Israel over ‘attack on democracy’ by Netanyahu

Protesters accuse PM of continuing Gaza war for political reasons and ignoring plight of hostages still held by Hamas

Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to call for a new ceasefire in Gaza and to protest against what they say is an attack on the country’s democracy by the rightwing governing coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Key highways have been blocked and police have made at least 12 arrests amid heated scenes in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. More protests were expected in the coming days as the campaign “gathers momentum and energy”, campaigners said.

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Australian government agencies could be customers of Israeli spyware, research suggests

While it is unknown if any Australians have been targeted, the military-grade program from Paragon Solutions provides full access to encrypted messaging apps

Australian government agencies could be customers of military-grade spyware from Israeli firm Paragon Solutions, a new report suggests.

In January, Meta revealed more than 90 people, including journalists, had their WhatsApp compromised by the software, although it is unknown if any Australians were targeted.

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Israeli strikes on Gaza add to soaring child death toll

Hospitals say high proportion of women and children among dead in latest strikes

At least 91 Palestinians have been killed and many more injured in a third day of Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to medical officials in the strip, who said a high proportion of the dead were women and children.

The timing of the strikes in the new Israeli offensive appears to have increased the proportion of women and children among the victims, with many sleeping when the missiles struck overnight or very early in the morning. Among those pulled alive from rubble on Thursday was a month-old baby girl, but her parents and brother were killed.

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Ontario’s police force using ‘growing ecosystem’ of Israeli spyware – report

Findings raise questions about extent and scope of Canadian authorities’ use of cyberweapons

Researchers have uncovered “possible links” between Ontario’s provincial police force and an Israel-based military-grade spyware maker called Paragon Solutions, raising questions about the extent and scope of Canadian authorities’ use of cyberweapons.

The new findings were published by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, which tracks and identifies digital threats against civil society, and come three years after a parliamentary committee in Canada called for Ottawa to update the country’s privacy laws in the wake of press reports that the national police force had been using spyware to hack mobile phone devices. No laws were ever passed to address the controversy.

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Israel launches ‘limited ground operation’ to retake Netzarim corridor in Gaza

UN calls for investigation after staff member among 20 people reportedly killed in renewed airstrikes

Israeli forces have launched a “limited ground operation” to retake the Netzarim corridor, a newly widened road protected by fortified bunkers that divides Gaza and is seen as essential to controlling the devastated Palestinian territory.

The move is a significant escalation of Israel’s new offensive in Gaza and came less than 36 hours after a massive wave of airstrikes that killed more than 400, including 183 children and 94 women, the health ministry there said.

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