live blog
According to a government official, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has dissolved his war cabinet. A high-ranking adviser to US President Biden is to mediate between Israel and Lebanon. All developments in the live blog.
The decision by Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger to part ways with her State Secretary Sabine Döring in the wake of a funding scandal has met with a mixed response. The coalition partner SPD welcomed the move. Union politicians sharply criticized it, spoke of a pawn sacrifice and called on Stark-Watzinger to resign herself.
The FDP politician announced on Sunday evening that she had asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz to temporarily retire her state secretary. The background to this is emails from her ministry that have become public, which dealt with the handling of an open letter from Berlin university professors who had criticized the clearing of a protest camp of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the Free University of Berlin. According to the emails, the cancellation of funding for the letter writers was considered.
Following the departure of opposition politician Benny Gantz and former Chief of General Staff Gadi Eisenkot from the Israeli war cabinet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the body. This was confirmed by a government official, according to the Reuters news agency.
According to the Jerusalem Post newspaper, Netanyahu said in a meeting of his security cabinet that the war cabinet had been “abolished”. The emergency government was set up at Gantz’s request as a coalition solution, but after his departure there was no longer any need for it, the newspaper quoted the head of government as saying. There will therefore be no new members.
According to media reports, the Israeli army believes that an armored personnel carrier in Rafah was hit by an anti-tank missile on Saturday. Eight soldiers were killed in the incident – one of the most serious for the Israeli armed forces since the start of the war.
The newspaper Israel Hayom wrote that according to initial findings, a door of the Namer armored personnel carrier was open, contrary to orders. All passengers died immediately when the rocket hit the vehicle. The incident is being investigated further.
Other media reported possible secondary explosions caused by explosive devices attached to the outside of the tank. It took two hours after the heavy explosion before the troops could approach the destroyed vehicle.
Against the backdrop of a demonstration organized by Islamists in Hanover, Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Daniela Behrens is campaigning for calls for a caliphate to be made a criminal offense in Germany in the future. “The call for a caliphate as a call to abolish our constitutional order must be punishable just as much as inciting hatred against other population groups,” the SPD politician told Die Welt and the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung.
Hamburg had previously submitted a corresponding initiative to the Conference of Interior Ministers.
According to media reports, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden will travel to Israel for talks on the escalating tensions between Israel and Lebanon. Amos Hochstein will work to prevent further escalation along the “Blue Line” between Israel and Lebanon, it said.
Attacks between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon have raised fears that the war in the Middle East could escalate. Most recently, Hezbollah increased its rocket attacks after Israel killed one of its commanders. The “Blue Line” is a ceasefire line drawn by the United Nations. Although it is not an official international border, it serves as an important reference point for security and stability in the region.
Israel’s military is warning of a dangerous escalation of the conflict with the Shiite militia Hezbollah in the border region with Lebanon. In a video statement, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari accused the militia of increasing its attacks and thus endangering the future of the neighboring country. “Hezbollah’s increasing aggression could bring us to the brink of a major escalation that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region.”
According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, the armed forces later stressed that Hagari’s words did not represent a threat. Rather, they were intended as a message to the international community.
Hezbollah, which is supported by Israel’s arch-enemy Iran, is allied with the militant Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but is considered to be much more powerful. The militia recently increased its attacks after the Israeli military deliberately killed one of its commanders.
Israel’s Defense Minister Gallant will soon travel to the USA for talks. There was another incident in the Red Sea.