Middle East crisis live: three dead and others injured after Israeli airstrike on Beirut, says Lebanon | Middle East and north Africa
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Why did Netanyahu cancel appointment of the new Shin Bet head?
So why did Benjamin Netanyahu withdraw his selection of former navy commander vice admiral Eli Sharvit as the next head of the Shin Bet security service – and so quickly?
On Monday, hours after Sharvit’s appointment was announced, reports began surfacing that he had been among tens of thousands of Israelis who took to the streets in 2023 to oppose the Netanyahu government’s controversial attempts to reform the judiciary.
Despite huge protests, Israel’s far-right, ultra-religious government that year succeeded in passing a key part of the coalition’s judicial overhaul: abolishing the court’s power to overrule government decisions.
There were also local media reports that said Sharvit, who served in the military for 36 years, had supported a 2022 water agreement with Lebanon that Netanyahu had opposed.
Eli Sharvit reportedly previously participated in protests against the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul plans. Photograph: Ariel Schalit/AP
It was also revealed that the former naval chief had penned an opinion piece criticising Donald Trump’s policies on climate change.
“Trump’s shortsightedness sends a shocking message to the world of disregard for scientific reality, the well-being of humanity, and responsibility to future generations,” he reportedly wrote as CEO of Elgry Eco Energy.
This prompted staunch Trump ally, senator Lindsey Graham, to criticise Sharvit’s appointment in a post on X.
“While it is undeniably true that America has no better friend than Israel, the appointment of Eli Sharvit to be the new leader of the Shin Bet is beyond problematic,” Graham, South Carolina’s senior senator as well as a ranking member of the chamber’s judiciary and budget committees, wrote on Monday.
“There has never been a better supporter for the State of Israel than President Trump. The statements made by Eli Sharvit about President Trump and his polices will create unnecessary stress at a critical time. My advice to my Israeli friends is change course and do better vetting.”
Netanyahu and Trump are close allies. Israel’s war on Gaza is being fuelled by the US, by far its biggest arms supplier and critical in providing it with diplomatic cover.
As we mentioned in the opening post, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backtracked on his decision to appoint vice admiral Eli Sharvit as the next head of the Shin Bet, some 24 hours after making the surprise announcement.
Netanyahu’s office said that following some “further thought” he had told Sharvit that he will now consider other candidates to replace the head of Israel’s security service Ronen Bar, whose firing is due to take effect pending a court review.
The Israeli cabinet formally approved the early dismissal of Bar late last month, over the failure to anticipate the Hamas-led 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
Bar was appointed in October 2021 for a five-year term as the head of the Shin Bet - Israel’s domestic intelligence agency equivalent to the UK’s MI5.
As my colleague Lorenzo Tondonotes in this story, Bar’s relations with Netanyahu had been strained even before the 7 October attack in 2023, notably over a proposed judicial overhaul that had split the country.
Relations worsened after the 4 March release of the internal Shin Bet report on the attack, which acknowledged the agency’s own failures but also pointed to wider policy issues in the run-up.
Netanyahu has denied accusations that the sacking of Bar, which prompted mass protests, was aimed at thwarting a Shin Bet investigation into allegations of financial ties between Qatar and aides in the prime minister’s office.
Ronen Bar was formally dismissed by the Israeli cabinet last month. Photograph: Gil Cohen-Magen/Reuters
Israeli forces kill Palestinian journalist and his entire family in airstrike on house in Khan Younis - reports
We are seeing reports that Mohammed Saleh al-Bardawil, a Palestinian journalist, and his wife and three children were killed at dawn on Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike on their home in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
These reports – which we have not yet independently verified - are from Al Jazeera and a correspondent from the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Under international law, journalists are protected civilians who must not be targeted by warring parties.
But more than 200 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.
Lebanon says three dead, seven injured after Israeli attack on Beirut
At least three people have been killed and seven injured in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Tuesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, further testing a shaky four-month ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it attacked a Hezbollah militant “who had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them”.
Reuters reported that the attack took place a few days after a previous strike by Israel on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.
There was no immediate statement from Hezbollah on the identity of the target. But a source close to the Iran-backed Lebanese group told AFP the strike had targeted Hassan Bdair, an official overseeing its Palestinian affairs.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack on Tuesday, calling it a “dangerous warning” that signals premeditated intentions against Lebanon.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said it was a “clear breach” of a ceasefire that largely ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
We will be bringing you more reaction as we get it. In other developments:
Palestinians held funerals on Monday for 15 medics and emergency responders killed by Israeli troops in southern Gaza, after their bodies and mangled ambulances were found in a mass grave. The Palestinian Red Crescent says the slain workers and their vehicles were clearly marked as medical and humanitarian personnel and accused Israeli troops of killing them “in cold blood.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Tuesday he has reversed his decision, announced a day earlier, to appoint former navy chief Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit as the new head of the Shin Bet security agency. The move was controversial as the supreme court had blocked moves to oust the incumbent chief, Ronen Bar.
A 17-year-old from the West Bank who was held in an Israeli prison for six months without being charged died after collapsing in unclear circumstances, becoming the first Palestinian teen to die in Israeli detention, officials said. Walid Ahmad was a healthy high schooler before his arrest in September for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers, his family said.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed on Tuesday that they shot down another American MQ-9 Reaper drone, even as the US kept up its campaign of intense airstrikes targeting the group. The reported shootdown over Yemen’s contested Marib governate came as airstrikes hit around Sanaa, the country’s rebel-held capital, and Saada, a stronghold for the Houthis. US President Donald Trump issued a new warning to both the Houthis and their main benefactor, Iran, describing the group as having “been decimated” by the campaign of strikes that began March 15.
