Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office on Friday rejected a Hamas offer to release Edan Alexander, 21, in an effort to jump-start stalled ceasefire negotiations.
“While Israel accepted the Witkoff plan, Hamas persisted in its refusal and did not move a millimeter,” the Prime Minister’s Office said, referring to Trump administration special envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire.
“At the same time, [Hamas] continues to employ manipulation and psychological warfare,” the Prime Minister’s Office added.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration has delivered an extraordinary ultimatum to Columbia University, threatening to permanently end

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President Donald Trump asserted on Thursday that Canada would be better off as part of the United States, and emphasized that he would not back down from the tariffs he has imposed or those scheduled to begin in April.
Trump made these comments during a press conference in the Oval Office following a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, which was broadcast on Newsmax and its online platform, Newsmax2. The conversation came shortly after Trump urged European allies to contribute more to the defense fund of the 32-nation military alliance.

IDF’s engineering forces have uncovered about 90 tunnels of various types along the Philadelphi Corridor, a strategic area connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt, Walla reported on Thursday. According to estimates by army officials, it is very likely that there are additional tunnels in the area that have not yet been located. “The working assumption after October 7 is that we don’t know everything and therefore it’s possible that as the pressure increases due to the cessation of humanitarian aid, we will see more smuggling attempts of various kinds, such as drones, vessels and tunnels,” a security official said, noting that there are still cross-border tunnels that have not been blocked from an engineering standpoint but are under IDF control.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) appeared on MSNBC’s “All In” on Thursday, stating that the consequences of a federal government shutdown would be far worse than supporting the House funding bill. Schumer expressed his strong opinion, claiming that figures like President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, whom he described as “bastards,” would pose a threat to democracy if given more power.

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu accused Shin Bet head Ronen Bar of attempting to “blackmail” him on Thursday, escalating the conflict between the two to a new and extreme level. Netanyahu’s statement came in response to comments made by Bar’s predecessor, Nadav Argaman, who disclosed that he holds significant compromising information about the prime minister. Argaman warned that he would publicly release this information if Netanyahu ever acted illegally. Reports suggest that Netanyahu has been attempting for months to dismiss Bar, blaming him for security failures that allowed Hamas’s attack on October 7 to take place. The prime minister has focused his criticisms on the security establishment, distancing the blame from the political leadership.

Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the Yisrael Beytenu party, has not ruled out the possibility of joining forces with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the next elections.
“We will do everything to bring down the government. If we see that running together brings more seats – we will run together. If we see that running separately brings more seats – we will run separately. We have proven, even in the previous government, that we will do whatever is necessary,” Lieberman shared during an interview with Channel 12 News.
When asked who would lead a potential joint list, Lieberman stated, “There are no questions at all about who is in first place and who is second; we will know how to solve all the problems.”