What The Hell America!

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israel’s threat to permanently seize parts of Gaza, a massive fire at London’s Heathrow Airport, and a symbolic victory for the Sudanese army.

Annexation Threat

Israel threatened on Friday to permanently seize parts of the Gaza Strip if Hamas does not release all remaining hostages, marking a major escalation in the conflict just days after airstrikes from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shattered a monthslong cease-fire with Hamas.

“I have instructed the IDF to seize additional areas in Gaza, evacuate the population, and expand security zones around Gaza to protect Israeli communities and IDF soldiers,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said. “The more Hamas persists in its refusal to release the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed to Israel.” Katz also warned that Israeli forces would intensify air, land, and sea attacks if the militant group does not cooperate.

Hamas said on Friday that truce negotiations are ongoing. According to senior Hamas official Husam Badran, the militant group may be willing to show some flexibility in a cease-fire deal—including by releasing more hostages—if doing so would restart talks intended to permanently end the war. Israel, however, remains opposed to any agreement that allows Hamas to remain in control of Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be less inclined to return to the original truce now that he has the backing of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who rejoined Netanyahu’s government on Wednesday after Israel renewed attacks on Gaza. Ben-Gvir left the coalition in January over the prime minister’s decision to impose a cease-fire.

But not everyone is happy with Netanyahu’s latest political and wartime maneuvers. Tens of thousands of Israelis held anti-government protests this week to criticize the prime minister’s handling of the war as well as an ongoing scandal that has roiled the country in recent weeks. That scandal, dubbed “Qatargate,” reached new heights this week when Netanyahu ordered the removal of Ronen Bar—the director of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence service. Bar would be the first Shin Bet chief to ever be fired.

Netanyahu has said that he is dismissing Bar due to a “persistent loss of professional and personal trust” between himself and the Shin Bet chief, stemming in part from the agency’s failure to warn against Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. An internal investigation by the agency acknowledged on March 4 that it had failed to protect the country, with Bar saying that had Shin Bet acted differently, it could have potentially prevented the attack. Netanyahu said that distrust “has been consolidated during the war, beyond the operational failure of 7 October, and in particular in recent months.”

But critics are questioning the timing of Netanyahu’s decision—not only because Bar’s dismissal comes more than 17 months after Hamas’s initial assault, but also because Shin Bet recently opened an investigation into alleged connections between the prime minister’s close aides and the government of Qatar. This includes potential business ties between Doha and former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who has been charged with leaking classified IDF documents and accused of feeding Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories. Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered a criminal investigation into Qatargate in February—just weeks before Netanyahu sought to dismiss Bar.

Cabinet members voted unanimously late Thursday to fire Bar, but Israel’s Supreme Court issued an injunction on Friday to freeze his removal until the justices could hear all petitions. Bar did not attend the cabinet vote, but he sent a letter to the cabinet refuting Netanyahu’s “claim of supposed distrust” and stating that his dismissal “is entirely tainted by improper considerations and personal and institutional conflicts of interest of the highest order” given the ongoing Qatargate investigation.

The court hearing will take place no later than April 8; the deadline to remove Bar is April 10. Netanyahu’s allies quickly accused the court of overreaching, and Netanyahu has not yet said whether he will uphold the justices’ ruling.

Today’s Most Read

What We’re Following

Travel nightmare. A large fire near London’s Heathrow Airport late Thursday disrupted at least 1,350 flights at Europe’s busiest flight hub, impacting travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers. Some flights resumed on Friday, but authorities expect “significant disruption over the coming days.”

“Please do not travel to the airport unless your airline has advised you to do so,” an airport statement said, adding that airlines are rerouting flights to other locations. “As the busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow uses as much energy as a small city; therefore, getting back to a full and safe operation takes time,” a Heathrow spokesperson added.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire, but British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said officials do not suspect foul play. The blaze occurred at North Hyde electrical substation, roughly 2 miles from the airport, and it took seven hours for the London Fire Brigade to control it. Alongside Heathrow Airport, the resulting power outage affected more than 16,300 homes.

A symbolic victory. Sudan’s military announced on Friday that it has retaken control of the Republican Palace in the capital city of Khartoum. Overlooking the Nile River, its seizure represents a symbolic victory against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which have waged a civil war against the Sudanese army since April 2023.

The Republican Palace was the last heavily guarded, rebel-held site in the capital. Video of the compound shows the palace partly in ruins, but Sudanese officials remain optimistic. “Today the flag is raised, the palace is back and the journey continues until victory is complete,” Sudanese Information Minister Khaled al-Aiser wrote on X.

Over the course of the nearly two-year war, an estimated 150,000 people have been killed and some 12 million others have been displaced.

Opening the purse strings. Germany’s Bundesrat on Friday cleared the final hurdle on a massive spending package that will amend the country’s constitution to relax its debt limits. The legislation creates a $546 billion fund for infrastructure investments and eases borrowing rules to allow Berlin to boost its defense spending commitments.

Germany has vowed to increase military spending in light of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and threats to the continent’s security. “For far too long, we’ve only done the bare minimum, and it cannot, must not, continue this way,” Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said.

The upper house’s vote also marks a major win for coalition talks, as the presumed incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz, was relying on the bill’s passage to demonstrate support for his policies. But economists warn that for Germany to reap the plan’s full benefits, Berlin must also make extensive tax, labor market, and bureaucratic reforms.

What in the World?

On Monday, Peru declared a state of emergency in its capital, Lima, as violence surged in response to what event?

A. The killing of a popular singer
B. The overnight doubling of rice prices
C. Recent child deaths due to water contamination
D. A new tax on gas purchases

Odds and Ends

During the day on Thursday, New Zealand’s Parliament buildings bustled with its usual suspects, but at night, tour guides donned Victorian garb to unveil the institution’s seedier history. The special event regaled visitors with stories of mysterious deaths, creepy hauntings, and even feral cats. At several points, the urban legends appeared to come to life, as specters shrieked down staircases and banging could be heard behind locked doors. “There was quite a few deaths here that I did not expect to find out about,” one shaken visitor said after finishing the tour.

And the Answer Is…

A. The killing of a popular singer

The singer’s death coincides with a surge in violence in Latin America, where many voters increasingly favor mass incarceration, FP’s Catherine Osborn writes in Latin America Brief.

To take the rest of FP’s weekly international news quiz, click here, or sign up to be alerted when a new one is published.