The Times of Israel

The US military’s request for $200 billion in additional funding for the Iran war met with stiff opposition in the US Congress on Thursday, as Democrats and even some Republicans questioned the need for the money after large defense appropriations last year. A US official confirmed a Washington Post report that the Department of Defense has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran. President Donald Trump has not yet sent a request for the Senate and House of Representatives to approve the huge sum, and his administration made clear the number could change. Read more on The Times of Israel. timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…

In opening remarks at a press conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the achievements of the war against Iran. He said Iran’s missile and drone arsenals are being “massively degraded” and vowed they “will be destroyed,” framing the campaign as a continued effort to eliminate the threat posed by the Islamic Republic. Stay up to date with The Times of Israel. timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…

As Iran increasingly launches ballistic missiles carrying cluster bomb warheads at Israel, indiscriminately spreading dozens of small munitions over a wide area, the Israeli Air Force faces a constant dilemma whether or not to shoot them down. Military officials said Thursday that since the cluster bombs are unlikely to cause significant harm if civilians are sheltering, there are times when the IAF chooses not to shoot down all or some of the bomblets to conserve its stockpile of short-range interceptors. Iran has fired over 350 ballistic missiles at Israel since the start of the war on February 28. timesofisrael.com/to-conserve-in…

Susan Abulhawa, a prominent Palestinian-American author, calls Jewish Americans “monsters” after a controversy surrounding New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, illustrated a book for Abulhawa, who has a history of antisemitism, provoking controversy last week. Read more on The Times of Israel. timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…

On Friday, at an Al Quds Day protest in Times Square, a protest leader directed the crowd to chant “Stop eating babies” toward a handful of mostly Jewish counter-protesters. As surprising as it was to hear the charge that Zionists “eat babies” in New York City in 2026, equally surprising was the willingness with which the crowd took up the chant. There was no confusion or hesitancy about the outlandish allegation — the hundreds in attendance repeated the chant with enthusiasm, without skipping a beat. Read Luke Tress’s full analysis on The Times of Israel. timesofisrael.com/old-fashioned-…

Here’s the reason your El Al flight keeps getting cancelled. ToI founding editor David Horovitz joins host Jessica Steinberg for today’s episode of ToI’s The Daily Briefing Podcast. Following overnight Iranian cluster warhead fire that killed four, Horovitz discusses the complex challenge of intercepting the warheads that can fall in multiple locations. He also details the specific aspects of safeguarding Ben Gurion International Airport, which is now reducing the number of people allowed on each outgoing flight due to the fraught realities. Watch on YouTube and listen to The Daily Briefing anywhere you get your podcasts. youtu.be/pSG6VDXRxEg?si…

Asked to comment on flurry of settler attacks, Likud MK responds, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…

Military officials say that since the cluster bombs are unlikely to cause significant harm if civilians are sheltering, there are times when the IAF chooses not to shoot down all or some of the bomblets to conserve its stockpile of short-range interceptors. timesofisrael.com/to-conserve-in…

While Israel is knocking down missiles, it is also attempting to ease the threat by hitting missiles and launchers before they can be fired. Experts have described the conflict as a race, with Israel and the US rushing to neutralize Iran’s ability to launch missiles and drones before interceptor stocks run too low. After weeks of heavy airstrikes, Ari Cicurel, associate director of foreign policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security, described the state of Iran’s ballistic missile stocks as “not good.” Iran also appears to be shifting its tactics as it adapts to mounting losses and prepares for a longer conflict. That means conserving missiles but still launching enough to keep Israelis off balance while, they hope, burning through interceptors. Cicurel described the tactic as a form of “psychological war.” “We’ve seen Iran’s fire go down significantly as they shifted from trying to launch larger attacks to really gearing up for a longer war,” he explained, “firing fewer missiles in each attack, but more attacks throughout the day.” Continue reading on The Times of Israel: timesofisrael.com/amid-claims-of…

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics found that overall life satisfaction among Israelis aged 20 plus remained remarkably high at 91.1% through 2024, confirming the World Happiness Report’s finding that Israelis tend to evaluate their lives as good even during a crisis, Anat Fanti — a happiness policy researcher at the Program in Science, Technology and Society at Bar-Ilan University — told the Times of Israel. “Israel’s ranking has consistently gone up since 2021,” Fanti said. “It doesn’t surprise me because Israelis have a sense of meaning and purpose, which contributes to their overall satisfaction with life.” However, the CBS also recorded a sharp rise in clinical distress. The percentage of Israelis reporting feelings of depression jumped from 25.5% in 2023 to 33.9% in 2024, and stress levels rose from 58.2% to 67.9% “We cannot take for granted the population’s resilience in the face of such difficult years,” Fanti said. “The 2026 report shows that Israeli society is still very strong.” However, she said it is crucial to “strengthen social and mental health services, and reinforce the sources of cohesion that enable Israeli society to endure even under difficult conditions.” “Resilience is not forever,” she added. Continue reading on The Times of Israel: timesofisrael.com/despite-war-is…

Tomer Persico is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and the author of In God's Image: How Western Civilization was Shaped by a Revolutionary Idea. *Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. Continue reading on The Blogs from The Times of Israel: blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-the-west-…

Police said Yaron and Ilana Moshe – both in their seventies – were headed to the bomb shelter, but a missile hit before they could get there. Tel Aviv District police commander Haim Sargaroff said that “apparently they didn’t manage to get to the safe room, they were just meters from it.” The Moshes were found with a walker alongside them, the Walla news site reported. Continue reading on The Times of Israel: timesofisrael.com/ramat-gan-coup…

Almost three weeks into the US-Israel war on the Islamic Republic, with much of the world dithering, Israel and much of the Gulf fiercely supportive, and US President Donald Trump confusingly vowing to keep going and to imminently stop, let nobody doubt what hangs in the balance. We are at war because the mass-murdering regime in Tehran — during negotiations aimed by the US at avoiding this conflict, even as the ayatollahs had resumed their nuclear weapons program and were again expanding their ballistic missile arsenal — refused to give up its ostensible “right” to enrich uranium. Why would that be? Because they had already evaded oversight protocols and enriched sufficient uranium for 11 nuclear bombs, as they cheerfully confirmed to Trump’s negotiator Steve Witkoff, and by extension fully intend to proceed along the road to a nuclear arsenal. Read David Horovitz’s full analysis on The Times of Israel. timesofisrael.com/regimes-are-ou…

Damage was caused at several sites in central Israel by cluster munitions from an Iranian ballistic missile, rescue services say. One of the submunitions caused damage to a home. Stay up to date with The Times of Israel 24/7 breaking news liveblog. #liveblog-entry-3781657" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">timesofisrael.com/liveblog-march…

US President Donald Trump is the senior American official most aligned with Israeli objectives in the war on Iran, US officials tell the Axios news site. Coordination between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Trump is closer than ever, and the two talk almost every day, according to the site. The two countries’ intelligence services are also working in tandem. timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…

Last week, reports surfaced that the FBI had issued a warning about potential Iranian drone attacks on California. Federal and state officials downplayed the threat, saying there were no indications of an imminent attack. “No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Some still took the danger seriously, though — the Academy Awards, held in Los Angeles over the weekend, beefed up security due to fears of a possible attack. But could Iran actually attack the US homeland with military drones? Two experts said it was unlikely Iran has the capability, although one added that a domestic terrorist attack using drones was more realistic. Read the full analysis on The Times of Israel. timesofisrael.com/despite-fbi-wa…

BREAKING: At least 4 women were killed in Iranian missile attack near Hebron, marking the first Palestinian deaths of the ongoing war. timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…

Sirens sound in several Gaza border communities amid long-range Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon. It is the first time during the current conflict that the Lebanese terror group has targeted the Gaza border area in southern Israel. Stay up to date with The Times of Israel’s breaking news liveblog: timesofisrael.com/liveblog-march…

The past 18 days have not been easy here in Israel. As of early Wednesday morning, 14 people have been killed in Israel from Iranian missile attacks. The north is under a constant barrage of rockets and drones from Hezbollah, with IDF soldiers pushing deeper into Lebanon. Routinely, Israel’s hospitals record more than 100 people admitted per day due to injuries from the fighting — whether from missile attacks themselves or the constant rush to shelter every time a siren sounds. Speaking of bomb sirens: Quiet nights in central Israel, where the population is concentrated, feel like an increasingly distant memory, especially for people who need to leave their apartment every time the alarm blares. During the writing of this analysis alone, two sirens went off in Tel Aviv. It was at complaints about the sirens that Yovell aimed his rebuke. In most of the country, parents have had almost three trying weeks at home with their kids as workplaces stay open but schools remain shuttered, with the two-week Passover break around the corner. And this is all after, not nine months ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the last Iran war in June was a “historic victory” that would “abide for generations.” Considering all of that, you could be forgiven for thinking Israelis would no longer support this war — except they do, in spades. Read more: timesofisrael.com/a-deluxe-war-w…

Russia has been expanding its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Iran, providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to aid Tehran’s targeting of US forces in the region, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. According to the report, Moscow is helping its ally Iran with the aim of dragging out the war, as it has economic and military benefits for Russia. Sources, among whom was a senior European intelligence officer, said Russia has been supplying Iran with parts to modify Shahed drones, providing them with improved communications, navigation, and targeting capabilities. Shahed drones are made by Iran, but the Russians have their own domestically produced versions. The Russians have also been sharing their experience in using the weapons in Ukraine, with advice on how best to launch attacks with multiple drones. Read more: timesofisrael.com/russia-sharing…