Kneecap Releases Powerful Film on Gaza Ahead of Glastonbury Performance
Israel’s attorney general rejects Netanyahu’s request to delay corruption trial
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Israel’s attorney general on Friday rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to postpone his corruption trial for two weeks, local media said, Anadolu reports.
Netanyahu had asked the Jerusalem District Court to delay his trial, claiming that he needed to focus on other matters following Israeli attacks on Iran, including the issue of returning Israeli captives from Gaza.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, the court also rejected Netanyahu’s request and decided to keep the scheduled hearing set for next Monday.
The court judges determined that “the schedule presented by Netanyahu to try to delay his trial sessions does not justify canceling the hearings,” it said.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara earlier said that the reasons detailed by Netanyahu in his request “cannot justify canceling two weeks of hearings.”
As a result, Netanyahu is expected to appear before the court on Monday as planned.
READ: Trump urges Israel to cancel Netanyahu’s trial or grant a pardon
Corruption charges
Reacting to the decision, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticized both the attorney general and the judges.
“The Attorney General’s Office and the judges of Netanyahu’s government insist on being small dwarfs, lacking any strategic vision or understanding of reality,” he wrote on X.
“They seem determined to help us highlight for the public the destructive and dangerous corruption that has taken hold of the judicial system, and the urgent need to reform it,” he added.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also criticized the court’s decision, calling it a “detached and miserable decision.”
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi echoed the criticism, saying: “They live in their own world, isolated… Shame on them!”
Likud lawmaker Avichai Buaron said Netanyahu should simply notify the court and the attorney general that “his duty to the state and the national interest outweigh the need for four more evidentiary hearings, and that he won’t attend in the next two weeks.”
For several months, Netanyahu has appeared before the court to respond to the charges against him but the sessions were halted during the recent Israel-Iran war that began on June 13 and lasted for 12 days.
On Thursday, Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump for calling to cancel his corruption trial, a move that sparked wide controversy and division in Israel.
Supporters of Netanyahu welcomed it, while the opposition urged Trump not to interfere in Israel’s judicial process.
Netanyahu faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust that could lead to imprisonment if proven.
In January, Netanyahu began interrogation sessions related to Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, which he denies. The attorney general filed an indictment related to these cases at the end of November 2019.
Case 1000 involves Netanyahu and his family receiving expensive gifts from wealthy businessmen in exchange for favors.
Case 2000 concerns alleged negotiations with Arnon Mozes, the publisher of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, to gain positive media coverage.
Case 4000, considered the most serious, involves providing facilitation to Shaul Elovitch, the former owner of the news site Walla and a telecommunications company Bezeq, in return for favorable media coverage.
Netanyahu, whose trial began on May 24, 2020, is the first sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant in the country’s history.
He also faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, with the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024 over atrocities in Gaza, where over 56,300 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023.
READ: Israel’s Netanyahu requests two-week break from corruption trial citing “regional developments”
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UNRWA chief says new Gaza aid system ‘has become a killing field’
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The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday issued a scathing condemnation of the new aid distribution system operating in Gaza, warning it has turned into a “killing field” where over 400 desperate people have died in the past month, Anadolu reports.
“The new aid distribution system has become a killing field,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a post on X. “Over 400 starving people reported killed since it started operating just a month ago. They were shot at while trying to access food for themselves and their families.”
He was referring to the Israeli attacks that happened near points of its new aid distribution mechanism, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation— a new Israeli plan to coordinate aid distribution in Gaza, which was broadly criticized by UN agencies and humanitarian actors.
READ: UN chief says ‘search for food must never be a death sentence’ for Palestinians in Gaza
Lazzarini said testimonies emerging from the ground indicate that soldiers opened fire “indiscriminately” as crowds gathered for food. “In the chaos, children were separated from their families: disoriented and traumatized,” he added.
Blasting the system as incompatible with humanitarian principles, the UNRWA chief said it was “not designed to address hunger and is often justified using the pretext of aid diversion that is yet to be substantiated let alone proven.”
“Instead of ‘orderly food distribution,’ this system brings dehumanization, chaos and death,” he said. “This cannot become the new norm.”
Calling the current setup an “abomination,” Lazzarini urged a return to UN-led humanitarian deliveries, including through UNRWA, and called for an immediate ceasefire and the lifting of the siege to restore the flow of basic supplies such as food, medicine, soap, and fuel.
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Netanyahu stops Gaza aid after Smotrich threatens to quit government
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a halt to aid deliveries to northern Gaza after far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to quit the coalition, citing unverified claims that Hamas was looting humanitarian supplies.
Smotrich reportedly made the ultimatum during a cabinet meeting, referencing a widely circulated video on social media showing armed men atop aid trucks. Although the footage was quickly seized upon by pro-government figures including former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Israel’s own military has been unable to confirm that the gunmen were affiliated with Hamas.
Haaretz cited media outlets in the Gaza Strip who reported that the gunmen are not Hamas operatives, but security guards sent by tribal leaders to protect aid truck convoys from looting. The aid documented in the video reached its destination – the UN warehouses in the Gaza Strip – and was distributed to residents
Despite this, Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordered the army to submit a “plan of action” within 48 hours to prevent what they described as Hamas “taking control of the humanitarian aid entering northern Gaza and stealing it from civilians.”
Israel has continually blamed Hamas for the looting of aid and used it as a justification to bypass UN aid distribution mechanisms to install the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Observers have stressed that the worsening aid crisis has been driven not by Hamas but by criminal gangs—some empowered by Israel itself. Among them is the militia led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a figure named in UN documents for systematically looting aid. His group has been armed and supported by Israel in an apparent effort to establish a post-Hamas order in the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli security source, quoted in Yedioth Ahronoth, warned that the plan is failing. Abu Shabab’s group, active near Rafah, has struggled to assert control or fulfil Israel’s expectations, and internal divisions have complicated their operations.
In a public statement, the Abu Shabab militia paradoxically demanded an “immediate solution” to the problem of aid theft—despite being implicated in it. The group offered vague promises about a new distribution mechanism but gave no details.
Israel’s reliance on criminal gangs and tribal militias to manage aid distribution has failed to bring order. Although the US-funded GHF remains the main agency overseeing aid deliveries, the presence of armed groups has contributed to worsening insecurity.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, over 500 Palestinians have been killed in the past month during Israeli shooting at food distribution centres, as crowds gathered in desperation.
On Wednesday, 74 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, 33 of them while waiting for food. The total Palestinian death toll since October 7 now exceeds 56,000.
Aid agencies have repeatedly warned that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is deepening, with mass starvation looming. In June alone, over 1,600 children were hospitalised for severe malnutrition.
READ: Israel’s Netanyahu requests two-week break from corruption trial citing “regional developments”
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Ditch ‘repugnant’ welfare Bill entirely, MPs and campaigners urge
Protesters on Whitehall in London, as Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivers her spring statement to MPs in the House of Commons, London, March 26, 2025…
Long a public opponent of the plans, Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth Brian Leishman told the Star: “These so-called ‘concessions’ have succeeded only in turning horrific, cruel and wicked proposals into awful ones.
“I will not be voting for something that cuts £3 billion from the welfare system.
“The government now needs to show some leadership and some common sense.
“They should withdraw the Bill, take the time to talk to MPs, talk to those affected and come back with a plan for a welfare system worthy of the name.”
The view was echoed by Richard Burgon MP, who said: “These changes are nowhere near enough.
“This Bill is still really all about balancing the books on the backs of disabled people.
“MPs should not be voting to take away vital support from disabled people who need help washing, cutting up their food, or using the toilet.
“I will vote against the Bill, and I call on the government to withdraw it entirely.”
Mr Burgon highlighted Disability Labour’s continuing concerns about the planned cuts. The group said the legislation still contains raised eligibility thresholds for PIP, reductions in universal credit support for those unable to work, and ”unexplained and unaddressed proposals to change the ’severe conditions criteria’ which determine long-term entitlement to support.”
“It is significant that Disability Labour — the Labour Party’s official disabled person’s affiliate organisation — has issued a statement that the government’s concessions are insufficient and is calling on all MPs to vote against the benefits Bill on Tuesday,” he said.
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