The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday’s events as they unfold.
Ben Gvir urges PM to threaten the US with collapsing PA if far-right ministers are sanctioned
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to notify the Biden administration in Washington this week that Israel will collapse the Palestinian Authority if the US goes ahead with a plan it is considering to sanction him and fellow far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The statement follows a report in the Axios news site that Biden is considering the move, which US officials confirmed to The Times of Israel.
Ben Gvir says the sanctions that the US has already been imposing against Israeli extremists amount to a “serious violation of Israeli sovereignty.”
“It is no wonder that those who compromise toward the global terrorist branch from Tehran; finance terrorist regimes such as the Palestinian Authority, which rewards with fixed salaries those who kill Jews; and deprive Israel of essential weapons to deal with terrorism, seek to impose sanctions on Israeli leaders who ‘sinned’ by demanding a more determined war against terrorism,” Ben Gvir says.
The US does not finance the PA.
Ben Gvir urged Netanyahu to inform the Biden administration that if sanctions are imposed against him and Smotrich or if the sanctions against Israeli citizens continue, “the Israeli response will be the complete collapse of the Palestinian Authority, all of its institutions and its economy.”
3 people killed in Israeli strike on Houthis, 87 injured — report
Al-Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthi terror group, updates the casualty count from today’s Israeli strike in Yemen, saying that three people were killed and 87 were wounded.
Earlier in the day, it said 80 people were wounded and none were killed.
Tehran warns Israel’s ‘dangerous adventurism’ in Yemen could spark regional war
An Iran foreign ministry spokesman slammed the IDF strike on a Houthi-controlled port in Yemen, warning that Israel’s “dangerous adventurism” could spark a regional war.
Nasser Kanaani adds that Israel and its sponsors — including the US government are “directly responsible for the dangerous and unpredictable consequences of the adventurist attacks on Yemen.”
Foreign minister: An Iranian regime threatening us with destruction deserves destruction
Foreign Minister Israel Katz says Iran’s message of an “obliterating war” makes it worthy of destruction.
”A regime that threatens destruction deserves to be destroyed,” Katz says in a post on X. He also says Israel will act with full force against Iran-backed Hezbollah if it does not stop firing at Israel from Lebanon and move away from the border.
Iran’s UN mission said on Friday that if Israel embarks on a “full-scale military aggression” in Lebanon, “an obliterating war will ensue.”
The Iranian mission also said in the post on X that in such an event “all options, incl. the full involvement of all resistance fronts, are on the table.”
PM slated to huddle with hostage negotiating team before departing for US
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to meet with the Israeli hostage negotiating team before he departs for Washington tomorrow afternoon, according to a source in Netanyahu’s office.