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FILE: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi at a press conference after a security cabinet meeting following the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, on November 12, 2019. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an urgent security meeting on Saturday afternoon to discuss soaring tensions with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip following overnight barrages of rockets fired at Israel from the Palestinian enclave. The meeting was held at the Israel Defense Forces’ Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv with IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Minister of Public Security Amir Ohana, the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, and other high-level officials.
Bolstering Iron Dome, IDF threatens harsh response to Gaza rockets
Security cabinet meets after south battered by multiple barrages overnight and Jerusalem clashes resume; army chief cancels U.S. trip to monitor situation; I have ordered preparations for any scenario, says Netanyahu
Yoav Zitun, Itamar Eichner |
Updated: 04.24.21 , 20:02
The IDF decided Saturday to reinforce the Iron Dome missile defense system located across southern Israel, after the communities close to the Gaza Strip border were pounded by dozens of rockets from the Palestinian enclave overnight.
A source in Jerusalem, meanwhile, warned that Israel will respond severely to rocket fire from Gaza.
DEBKAfile
PM Binyamin Netanyahu called an emergency conference of top security and military officials on Saturday afternoon, April 24, to reverse the line taken that morning on the Palestinian overnight 36-rocket barrage from the Gaza Strip as nd its linkage to the surge of Palestinian Islamic assaults on Orthodox Jews. That linkage was made by the Gaza terrorists as a red line to justify the rocket blitz, but it must on no account serve as a guideline for Israel’s security policy, DEBKAfile’s military sources reported. Called to the urgent conference were Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Internal Security and Police Minister Amir Ohana, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Aviv Kochavi – whose flight to Washington Saturday night was canceled, Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman, National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat and Police Commissioner Koby Shabtai. Kochavi was forced to postpone important dates on the Iran issue with US Armed Forces Chief, Gen. Mark Millay, Defense Secretary Lloyd A
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Apr. 23, 2021 12:31 AM
About two weeks ago, the prime minister tried to appoint his eunuch, National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, chief of the Shin Bet security service. Defense Minister Benny Gantz blocked the move, forcing Benjamin Netanyahu to extend the term of outgoing Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman by several months. Ben-Shabbat was the “muscle” sent by Netanyahu to apply pressure to certain rabbis so that they in turn would pressure Naftali Bennett, for some short-term political need (who can remember which one?).
That same week we learned that the State Prosecutor’s Office had closed its investigation of three Shin Bet agents who ordered female soldiers to conduct a vaginal search of a Palestinian detainee. Per the usual practice by the prosecutor’s office in such cases, first they killed the investigation with delaying tactics – they fudged the case for four years – and then they announced that
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi during an event for outstanding soldiers as part of Israel s 71st Independence Day celebrations, at the President s Residence in Jerusalem, May 9, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)
Ahead of an Israeli delegation traveling to Washington DC next week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the security officials participating in the mission to voice objection to the US return to the Iran nuclear deal, but not to hold talks on the issues.
Netanyahu emphasized in a meeting with the delegation on Thursday that Israel is not a party in the nuclear agreement with Iran, and not committed to it. Clarifying that “Israel is committed to its own security interests only and will act accordingly,” an Israeli official said.