The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they happen.
Australian nurse indicted for threatening to kill Israeli patients
SYDNEY — An Australian nurse filmed in an online video chat saying she would kill Israeli patients has been charged with threatening violence, police say.
Footage released by Israeli influencer Max Veifer on social media this month showed him in a video chat with a male and a female nurse at a Sydney hospital.
Asked how they would treat Israeli patients in their Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in southwest Sydney, the female nurse told Veifer: “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.”
Detectives charged the 26-year-old woman — named in Australian media as Sarah Abu Lebdeh — with threatening violence to a group; using a carriage service to threaten to kill; and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, police said in a statement.
Police had acted “swiftly under enormous pressure and public expectation,” New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb says.
The woman is scheduled to face court in Sydney on March 19.
Trump says he may have handled Hamas threat not to free hostages ‘differently’ than Netanyahu
US President Donald Trump says he might have responded differently to Hamas’s threat not to release a batch of hostages earlier this month than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did.
After Hamas made the threat, citing Israeli violations of the ongoing ceasefire deal, Trump set a Saturday noon deadline for all remaining hostages to be released or there would be all hell to pay.
Mediators subsequently brokered an agreement for Hamas to release the three hostages as slated so Israel would not resume the war, which Trump appeared to be green-lighting.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump reiterates his belief that Hamas backed down from its threat because of his Saturday ultimatum.
“The rest is really up to [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu],” Trump says. “I may have done it differently than him… I may have taken a different stance.”
IDF says strikes in southern Syria hit military targets, including weapon storage sites
The IDF confirms that it struck “military targets” in southern Syria, including weapon storage sites.
“The presence of military assets and forces in the southern part of Syria constitutes a threat to the citizens of the State of Israel,” the military says. “The IDF will continue to act to remove any threat to the citizens of the State of Israel.”
Katz confirms Israeli strikes in southern Syria: ‘We will not allow it to become southern Lebanon’
Defense Minister Israel Katz confirms that Israel is carrying out airstrikes in southern Syria after blasts were reported in several areas south of Damascus, and warns Israel “will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon.”
The strikes come after several Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanded in recent days the demilitarization of southern Syria, and warned that Israel would prevent the Syrian army from moving south of Damascus.
“We will not endanger the security of our citizens,” Katz says. “Any attempt by Syrian regime forces and the country’s terrorist organizations to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria — will be met with fire.”