The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday’s events as they unfold.
Man killed in Rahat, reportedly the 80th Arab Israeli homicide victim this year
A young man has been shot dead in the Bedouin city of Rahat in the northern Negev region, reportedly becoming the 80th Arab homicide victim in Israel this year.
Anan Abu Eid, 19, was shot by assailants who then fled the scene, police say, adding that they have launched an investigation and believe the motive was a criminal feud.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says medics found the man unconscious, with no vital signs and with multiple stab wounds, and pronounced him dead at the scene.
Another man, reportedly Abu Eid’s brother, was moderately injured in the same incident.
Hebrew media says 80 people have now been killed in violent incidents within the Arab community since the start of 2025, continuing an unprecedented crime epidemic that has gripped the community in recent years.
Houthis say 8 hurt in US strikes in Yemen
SANAA, Yemen — Iran-backed Houthi rebels say that a series of US strikes on territory under their control, including the Yemeni capital Sanaa, have wounded at least eight people.
“Eight citizens, including two children, were wounded when the American enemy targeted a residential district” west of Al-Rawda in Sanaa, the Houthi-run Saba news agency says.
It cites the Houthi administration’s health ministry as the source for what it said was a provisional toll.
An AFP correspondent in Sanaa reported earlier Saturday having heard explosions.
The Houthis, who control large parts of the war-torn country, also report strikes in other parts of the country, including their stronghold, Saada, in the north.
They say the fuel port of Ras Issa in the western Hodeida region — where they say 80 people were killed in strikes just over a week ago — has also been hit.
Netanyahu shares condemnation of display of severed heads with his face at anti-government rally
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemns a display of masks bearing his face surrounding a protester wearing faux-bloody bandages at an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv this evening.
“This needs to be said in a clear voice. The severed heads, as well as the protests today, have nothing to do with the hostages. On the contrary, these are people who decided to sacrifice the hostages in an attempt to overthrow the government,” the conservative Tikva Forum writes in a post shared by Netanyahu’s official Twitter account.
“In a civilized country, there would already be dozens of people arrested for inciting murder. It is unclear where the Shin Bet is when it comes to these clear and dangerous representations of murder,” the group writes, adding that it hopes tensions between Netanyahu and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar “do not affect the Shin Bet’s positions on everything related to the prime minister’s security.”
In a separate statement, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s Likud party calls the protest display “madness,” asserting that it “represents incitement to murder the prime minister and behead him.”
“Where is the enforcement of the attorney general and Ronen Bar?” the spokesman asks, attaching a photo of the scene, in which a shirtless man wearing bloodied bandages on his chest and head can be seen lying still on the street clutching an Israeli flag.
Surrounding the man’s head are several masks of Netanyahu, each with a sticker bearing a slogan such as “guilty” or “danger.”
Netanyahu and his political allies have long complained about incitement against him and his family, pointing fingers at the justice system, law enforcement, and the attorney general for what they say is unchecked violent speech by members of the public.
The prime minister’s March 21 decision to fire Bar, which came in the middle of a Shin Bet investigation into the dealings of the prime minister’s close aides in the Qatargate scandal, prompted opposition parties and government watchdog groups to file petitions to the High Court of Justice seeking to halt the termination.
They accused Netanyahu of trying to stymie the probe and of firing Bar for political reasons, and requested that the court reverse the decision since, they argue, it was made with a conflict of interest and out of ulterior motives.
During a press conference last Sunday, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid called on Netanyahu to halt incitement against Bar before it leads to “political murder.”
Former PM Bennett: Netanyahu preventing victory over Hamas by preventing Haredi enlistment
By “preventing the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is keeping Israel from achieving victory over Hamas in Gaza, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declares.
In a lengthy tweet, Bennett says that Israel’s continued military “stumbling in Gaza stems directly from government policy that deprives the IDF of the main tool required for victory: fighters.”
Bennett slams “bombastic declarations from ministers [most of whom have never held a gun]” calling for the full conquest of Gaza while “these same ministers are literally depriving the IDF of the soldiers needed to carry out the same mission” — adding that “the IDF has been stretched beyond the limit” since October 7.
Claiming that the IDF “is short 20,000 soldiers,” Bennett argues that repeated emergency call-ups of reservists cannot substitute for a wider recruitment base.
The army has stated that it is facing a manpower shortage and currently needs some 12,000 new soldiers — 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.
The “solution,” Bennett asserts, is to call up one-fifth of eligible Haredim, a move which would “free up our reservists to breathe so that when we really need them for a large-scale operation, they would be fit.”
However, no real action has been taken, and “the orders being sent are a bluff,” Bennett continues, accusing Netanyahu and Finance Minister Smotrich of “putting politics above the good of the country.”
Currently, approximately 70,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service and have not enlisted. The IDF has sent out 18,915 initial draft orders to members of the Haredi community in several waves since July 2024, but according to the IDF, only 232 of those who have received orders have enlisted — 57 of them in combat roles.
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last Wednesday, Lt. Col. Avigdor Dickstein, head of the Haredi branch of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, indicated that despite the army aiming to recruit 4,800 Haredi men during the 2024-2025 draft cycle, only 1,721 have enlisted thus far.
“We set ourselves a target of 4,800 and we will not reach that. There is an upward trend here, but it is not sufficient and does not correspond to the very large operational need,” he said.