A soldier from the Golani Brigade, who had been injured during the fierce combat in Gaza, experienced an unexpected and emotional moment while vacationing in Sri Lanka. While attending a local shul, he was reading from a Megillah and discovered that it was dedicated in memory of three soldiers who had fallen in the war, including Major Moshe Avram Bar On, who died in a battle in which the soldier himself had also been wounded.
“This was the first time the Megillah was opened and read. It was great closure for Purim. The connection between the holiday of Purim, the reading of the Megillah, and the memory of the fallen soldiers made the moment particularly emotional and shocking.”

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu participated in the reading of Megillas Esther at the National Police Academy in Beit Shemesh on Thursday evening.
Addressing the police officers, the prime minister drew a comparison to the story of Purim, in which the Jewish people were saved from annihilation in Persia, now present-day Iran, to the modern Jewish state’s conflict with the Islamic Republic.
“Two thousand five hundred years later an enemy of the Jewish people arose in that land. He, too, wants to destroy and annihilate the seed of the Jews from the face of the earth,” Netanyahu said.

In a dramatic halachic ruling, Hagaon Rav Moshe Sternbuch, the senior posek and raavad of the Badatz of the Eidah Hachareidis, has declared that anyone who was in Yerushalayim at dawn on Purim morning must not leave the city during the day.
The psak, which has significant halachic implications, was delivered by Rav Sternbuch during his shiur to members of the Teshuvos Vehanhagos Kollel, and has sparked widespread discussion.

Mahmoud Abbas may be the final Palestinian leader to advocate for a two-state solution and to oppose violence as a means of achieving it, according to a potential successor of the Palestinian Authority president in a recent conversation with The Times of Israel.
Jibril Rajoub, the secretary-general of Abbas’s Fatah party and former head of the PA’s security forces, explained that Abbas is “the last founding pillar of the Palestinian national movement who believes in two things: making historic reconciliation [with Israel] based on the two-state solution [and] that blood-shedding should not be a choice to achieve [that goal].”

Healthcare professionals fear that a soldier who was seriously injured in Gaza about a year ago infected many people, including other soldiers, with tuberculosis, Kan News reported on Wednesday evening. The soldier is believed to have contracted tuberculosis before he entered Gaza over a year ago but wasn’t diagnosed until three weeks ago. Meanwhile, following his injury, he was treated in hospitals and community clinics, exposing doctors and nurses to the infection. Medical professionals who treated him are being tested, but not all test results have been received yet. According to what is known so far, at least one doctor required treatment due to his exposure to the infection. There are also concerns that he infected fellow soldiers in Gaza.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Hamas said on Friday it has accepted a proposal from mediators to release one living American-Israeli hostage and the bodies of four dual-nationals, hostages who had died in captivity. The announcement came talks continue in Qatar to try to broker the next stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. The group in the Gaza […]

After more than 17 months of captivity, Edan Alexander, the last known living American hostage held by Hamas, is set to be released. The 21-year-old Israeli-American soldier has been held since October 7, when he was captured during Hamas’ brutal attacks on Israel. Alexander’s release comes as part of a deal brokered by mediators, which will also see the return of the bodies of four other dual-national hostages. The exact timing of the transfer remains uncertain, but it coincides with high-stakes negotiations in Qatar over a possible second phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Born in Israel but raised in New Jersey, Alexander chose to enlist in the IDF instead of attending college.

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is scheduled to travel to Hungary in the coming weeks, despite facing an international arrest warrant linked to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, Hungarian officials confirmed on Thursday, as reported by The Associated Press.
Gergely Gulyás, the chief of staff to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, revealed during a press briefing in Budapest that Netanyahu is expected to make the visit before Easter, which falls on April 20 this year.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and several Hamas leaders over accusations of war crimes committed in Gaza.