Israeli operations intensified in southern Gaza with the military ordering evacuations and Hamas reporting the death of a senior figure in an airstrike.

The militant group said Salah al-Bardawil, a member of the group’s political bureau, was killed along with his wife in an Israeli strike on their tent in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

The Israeli military resumed air and ground operations in Gaza earlier this week, blaming Hamas for refusing to agree revised terms on extending the first phase of the ceasefire.

Israel blocked aid going into Gaza ahead of its renewed operations, in an attempt to force Hamas to accept the new terms and release the hostages it is still holding.

Early on Sunday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a warning to people to leave the Tel Sultan area of Rafah in southern Gaza immediately as its troops launched an offensive in the area.

The IDF said it had “launched an attack to strike at terrorist organizations… The area you are in is considered a dangerous combat zone,” the post said, instructing civilians to move north to the Mawasi area immediately.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said four of its ambulances had been surrounded after responding to an Israeli attack in Rafah. Contact had been lost with a civil defense crew west of Rafah that was trying to rescue an ambulance crew.

Also in the south, Hamas-affiliated media reported that three people had been killed when a municipal vehicle in Khan Younis was struck.

The IDF is continuing its ground operations in northern Gaza. It said on Saturday that troops had begun operating in the Beit Hanoun area “to target Hamas’ terror infrastructure sites in order to expand the security zone in northern Gaza.”

It added that fighter jets struck several Hamas targets.

On Saturday, the Health Ministry in Gaza said that 130 bodies had been brought into Gaza hospitals after being killed by the Israeli operations, and 263 people had been injured in the previous 48 hours.

The ministry said that since Israel resumed attacks in Gaza, 634 people had been killed, bringing the total to 49,747 since October 7 2023.

The South African ambassador who was expelled from the United States and declared persona non grata by the Trump administration was given a hero’s welcome on his return home Sunday, when hundreds of supporters gathered at an airport and sang songs praising him.

The crowds at Cape Town International Airport surrounded Ebrahim Rasool and his wife Rosieda as they emerged in the arrivals terminal in their hometown, and they needed a police escort to help them navigate their way through the building.

“A declaration of persona non grata is meant to humiliate you,” Rasool told the supporters as he addressed them with a megaphone. “But when you return to crowds like this, and with warmth… like this, then I will wear my persona non grata as a badge of dignity.”

“It was not our choice to come home, but we come home with no regrets.”

Rasool also said it was important for South Africa to fix its relationship with the US after President Donald Trump punished the country and accused it of taking an anti-American stance even before the decision to expel Rasool.

The US president issued an executive order last month cutting all funding to South Africa, alleging its government is supporting the Palestinian group Hamas and Iran, and pursuing anti-white policies at home.

“We don’t come here to say we are anti-American,” Rasool said to the crowd. “We are not here to call on you to throw away our interests with the United States.”

Rasool stands by the comments cited by Rubio

They were the ex-ambassador’s first public comments since the Trump administration declared him persona non grata over a week ago, removed his diplomatic immunities and privileges, and gave him until this Friday to leave the US.

It is highly unusual for the US to expel a foreign ambassador.

Rasool was declared persona non grata by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a post on X on March 14. Rubio said Rasool was a “race-baiting politician” who hates the US and Trump.

Rubio’s post linked to a story by the conservative Breitbart news site that reported on a talk Rasool gave on a webinar organized by a South African think tank. In his talk, Rasool spoke in academic language of the Trump administration’s crackdowns on diversity and equity programs and immigration and mentioned the possibility of a US where white people soon would no longer be in the majority.

“The supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the MAGA movement, the Make America Great Again movement, as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48% white,” Rasool said in the talk.

On his return home Sunday, he said he stood by those comments, and characterized them as merely alerting intellectuals and political leaders in South Africa that the US and its politics had changed.

“It is not the US of Obama, it is not the US of Clinton, it is a different US and therefore our language must change,” Rasool said. “I would stand by my analysis because we were analyzing a political phenomenon, not a personality, not a nation, and not even a government.”

He also said that South Africa would resist pressure from the US — and anyone else — to drop its case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The Trump administration has cited that case against US ally Israel as one of the reasons it alleges South Africa is anti-American.

The Breitbart story Rubio cited when announcing Rasool’s expulsion was written by South African-born senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak, who is Jewish and an ally of the Trump administration. Pollak is also a contender to be the new US ambassador to South Africa, according to South African media.

Some of the supporters welcoming Rasool, who is Muslim, home to Cape Town waved Palestinian flags and chanted “free Palestine.”

“As we stand here, the bombing (in Gaza) has continued and the shooting has continued, and if South Africa was not in the (International Court of Justice), Israel would not be exposed, and the Palestinians would have no hope,” Rasool said. “We cannot sacrifice the Palestinians… but we will also not give up with our relationship with the United States. We must fight for it, but we must keep our dignity.”

Families of Venezuelan deportees held in El Salvador’s infamous Cecot prison can petition the Salvadoran government for their release – but the fruitfulness of that process is an open question in a country accused of arbitrary detention by rights groups and even the US State Department.

Families of 238 Venezuelans deported from the United States have been anxiously waiting for news about their loved ones.

US President Donald Trump deported the Venezuelans, along with 23 Salvadorans, to El Salvador last weekend, accusing them of having ties to gangs like Tren de Aragua. The deportees were then transferred to the Center for Terrorism Confinement, known as Cecot, the largest prison in the Americas.

Several relatives say they’ve identified family members among the deportees and have denied the allegations.

Venezuela’s government and multiple families have criticized the treatment their loved ones have received in El Salvador, saying that neither the Salvadorans nor the US have presented evidence that the deportees are gang members.

The mega-prison with a 40,000-person capacity has long been criticized by rights groups for the alleged inhumane treatment of detainees. The US State Department even acknowledged “torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces” in a 2023 report that also pointed to “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions” and “arbitrary arrest or detention” by the country’s law enforcement.

Some 10,000 to 20,000 prisoners are currently thought to be housed there. But so far, neither the US nor El Salvador have identified the Venezuelans they deported and imprisoned.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has said that the detainees would serve a year in prison, but possibly longer.

Guzmán’s office has no decision-making power; it receives and passes on information about those believed to be unjustly detained to the relevant authorities. The detainees’ loved ones and experts are not convinced Guzmán’s office has much to offer.

Gustavo Flores-Macias, professor of government and public policy at Cornell University, says the offer from the commission is “unlikely to yield results.” Guzmán, being a Bukele-appointed official, is more concerned with defending the government’s record than advocating for the detainees and their families, according to Flores-Macias.

Controversial deal

Cecot is at the center of an unprecedented deal between the US and El Salvador. Bukele had offered to house the US deportees in the prison in exchange for $6 million dollars – intended help sustain El Salvador’s penitentiary system, which currently costs $200 million a year.

Bukele’s administration denies allegations of wrongdoing and touts its “firm hand” approach as having virtually eliminated organized crime. Under the 2022 state of emergency, authorities were given sweeping powers, carrying out what rights groups called arbitrary detentions and violations of due process, with security forces being able to detain suspects without charge for up to 15 days. The measure continues to this day.

On Saturday, Venezuela’s special envoy for peace talks, Jorge Rodríguez Gómez, announced an agreement with the US to repatriate Venezuelans detained in the US back to Venezuela. The initial repatriation flight scheduled for Sunday, he said.

“Migrating is not a crime, and we will not rest until we achieve the return of all those who require it and until we rescue our brothers kidnapped in El Salvador,” Rodríguez said.

The Salvadoran government insists that the rights of the deported detainees have been respected, and that foreign detainees are not treated any different than Salvadoran ones. “In the case of those deprived of liberty who come from another nationality, the treatment is completely identical to any other deprived of liberty within the Salvadoran prison system,” Guzmán said.

But the rhetoric has done little to quell mass discontent and the escalating tensions between the US and Venezuela.

On Tuesday, groups of Venezuelans demonstrated in Caracas, some saying they had identified relatives among the deportees. They rejected the criminal allegations against their relatives, and demanded they be returned home.

South Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down the impeachment of the country’s prime minister Han Duck-soo and restored his powers on Monday, the latest twist in a political saga that started when the President declared martial law last year.

The ruling comes as South Korea waits for the same court to decide whether it will impeach suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol, who declared martial law on December 3, plunging the US treaty ally and economic powerhouse into turmoil.

Yoon’s martial law declaration briefly banned political activity and sent troops to the heart of the nation’s democracy. Six hours later he reversed it, after lawmakers forced their way into parliament and voted unanimously to block it.

After Yoon was suspended by lawmakers on December 14, Han assumed the role of acting president for 13 days, during which he refused to appoint one of the three vacant seats in the Constitutional Court, leading the main opposition Democratic party to file an impeachment motion against him.

In the motion, the Democratic Party called his refusal to appoint justices “an act violating the duty of protecting the Constitution and seriously undermining the rule of law.”

It also held him responsible for refusing to pass a special investigation law into first lady Kim Keon-hee, plotting the martial law, and attempting to co-run state affairs with the ruling party before Yoon was suspended.

Only one of the eight judges voted to uphold the motion. In its statement the court said there was no evidence Han had sought to neutralize the constitution by failing to appoint judges and so should not be impeached.

The ruling reinstates Han to the position of acting President while Yoon’s court case continues.

Han told journalists after the ruling that he welcomed the court’s “wise” decision.

The court is yet to rule on whether Yoon should be impeached for his declaration of martial law, which he made in an unannounced television address, accusing the main opposition party of sympathizing with North Korea and of “anti-state activities.”

He cited a motion by the Democratic Party, which has a majority in parliament, to impeach top prosecutors and reject a government budget proposal.

Yet within just six hours, he was forced to back down, after lawmakers forced their way past soldiers into parliament to unanimously strike down the decree.

During his trial at the Constitutional Court last month, Han denied plotting martial law with Yoon. He claimed that he tried “to dissuade” Yoon during the short Cabinet meeting that was held just before Yoon announced the martial law.

There were likely as many groans as laughs across Canada when comedian Mike Myers hovered over the hockey boards in a campaign ad with Prime Minister Mark Carney, his “elbows up” battle cry on display as the country of his birth takes on the country he calls home.

The Liberal Party ad played up many trite but true Canadian stereotypes and jokes that are not going to cut it during this sobering election campaign.

US President Donald Trump will obviously not be on the ballot in Canada – but how each candidate proposes to deal with him is. “Standing strong,” “elbows up,” these are mantras all Canadian politicians have adopted, but how they deal with Canadians’ expectations and an economy facing the threat of a trade war with its largest trading partner is the contest that will matter.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex Canada and wreck its economy with tariffs, mockingly referring to the US’ northern neighbor as “the 51st state.”

Carney describes the danger posed by Trump as existential, saying at his campaign kickoff that the US president wants to “break us so America can own us.”

“I’m asking Canadians for a strong, positive mandate to deal with President Trump and to build a new Canadian economy that works for everyone because I know we need change, big change, positive change,” added Carney Sunday, as he began a five-week campaign that will end with a national vote on April 28.

His Conservative Party challenger, Pierre Poilievre, sounds near identical in his tone.

“I will insist the president recognize the independence and sovereignty of Canada, I will insist that he stop tariffing our nation, and at the same time I will strengthen our country so that we can be capable of standing on our own two feet and standing up to the Americans where and when necessary,” said Poilievre in his first campaign speech Sunday.

Poilievre and Carney’s parties are virtually tied heading into this campaign and how they calibrate their response to Trump for voters, many of whom are equally enraged and terrified by the US leader’s threats, will likely decide this election.

“We are over the shock of that betrayal, and it is a betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” Carney has repeatedly said in speeches without, so far, leveling with Canadians about what those lessons should be.

Canada’s economy is not in fighting shape. The “elbows up” slogan might get voters’ hearts racing, but Canadians need to roll up their sleeves if they’re to survive America’s economic blows.

For years economists have sounded the alarm over Canada’s low productivity, a key weakness that makes it even more vulnerable during a trade war.

Carolyn Rogers, a senior deputy governor at the Bank of Canada called it a “break the glass” emergency last year, adding that in the past four decades, Canadian productivity has fallen significantly, especially when compared to the United States.

“Labour productivity measures how much an economy produces per hour of work. Increasing productivity means finding ways for people to create more value during the time they’re at work,” she wrote, adding that it’s a way inoculate the economy against challenges like inflation.

A TD Economics report in May 2024 put it succinctly, observing that Canada’s economy has struggled to find ways to boost the productivity of workers.

Even for a former central banker like Carney, or a resource-booster like Poilievre, there is no quick fix. Canadians are in danger of a significant decline in their standard of living if they do not begin to mitigate the impact of a “decoupling” from the US.

The United Kingdom and Europe are going through a similar reckoning, and the leaders of Britain, France, and Germany have, if tentatively, opened a dialogue with their citizens making it clear that a detachment from the US may mean cuts to social programs, increased deficit financing or both.

It is unlikely that language will find its way into Canadian stump speeches over the next several weeks, but it ought to.

In just 10 days as prime minister, Carney has announced tax cuts to income, energy, and new homes. And increased spending for social programs like national dental care.

Poilievre has promised his own “bold and beautiful” tax cuts along with new spending on the military and funding new programs like subsidizing apprenticeships for workers in the trades.

“We will stare down this unprovoked threat with steely resolve because, be assured, Canadians are tough, we are hardy and we stand up for ourselves,” said Poilievre at a campaign stop on Sunday evening.

Even his attacks on the Liberal Party, accusing it of putting Canadians “under the thumb of the Americans,” is devoid of any prescription for fixing that.

Trump is a once in a lifetime foil for Canadian politicians, criticizing him and his policies is a campaign cudgel that is easy to land.

That may change on April 2, the day Trump has promised to impose reciprocal tariffs on all countries, including Canada.

With the potential for mass layoffs within days of that announcement and a further plunge in the value of the Canadian dollar and stock market, party leaders will need to drop the slogans when they raise those elbows and articulate a path forward.

The first flight carrying Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States landed in Venezuela early Monday, after the two governments reached an agreement to resume repatriation flights.

Nearly 200 deportees were on the plane, which landed at an airport just north of capital Caracas.

Video of the arrival shows some deportees celebrating with their hands in the air as they walked down stairs on to the tarmac, where a heavy presence of security staff was stationed. Others made the sign of the cross as they disembarked.

The US Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said the flight departed from the US and stopped in Honduras, where a change of planes took place.

“Today, deportation flights of Venezuelan illegal aliens to their homeland resumed via Honduras,” the department wrote on X.

“These individuals had no legal basis to remain in the United States. We expect to see a consistent flow of deportation flights to Venezuela going forward. Thank you to Honduran President Castro and her government for partnering to combat illegal immigration.”

Honduras’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs said 199 citizens of Venezuelan origin were on the flight. The transfer took three and a half hours and occurred “in an orderly and safe manner,” Enrique Reina said in a post on X.

Following the transfer the “Venezuelan-flagged vessel departed for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” said Reina.

Repatriations to Venezuela had stalled over the Trump administration’s decision in February to revoke a license allowing American oil company Chevron to carry out some operations in the South American country.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said at the time that the decision “affected” the flights to Venezuela, prompting the Trump administration to threaten further sanctions on the South American country.

The resumption of repatriation flights follows growing outrage in Venezuela over the US deporting 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador, who were then transferred to the notorious Cecot mega-prison.

Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez Gómez announced the agreement to resume repatriations in a statement on Saturday, two weeks after Venezuela had effectively paused repatriation flights from the US.

“Migration is not a crime, and we will not rest until we achieve the return of all those who need it and until we rescue our brothers and sisters kidnapped in El Salvador,” Rodríguez said Saturday.

Venezuela does not have diplomatic relations in the US. Flight tracking data suggests the deportees were transferred Sunday from a Texas charter flight – which landed at an airbase in Honduras that was previously used for migrant transfers – to a Caracas-bound plane.

The White House hasn’t commented on Sunday’s deportation flight.

Maduro on Wednesday ordered his government to increase the number of flights needed to repatriate Venezuelan migrants detained in the US.

Greenland’s prime minister said a planned visit to the island by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance, is “highly aggressive,” plunging relations to a new low after President Donald Trump vowed to annex the autonomous Danish territory.

Vance, the wife of US Vice President JD Vance, will travel to Greenland this week to watch the island’s national dogsled race and “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” according to a statement from the White House. National security adviser Mike Waltz is also expected to visit the territory this week, according to a source familiar with the trip.

Greenland Prime Minister Mute B. Egede called the US delegation’s trip to the island “highly aggressive” in an interview with Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday, and raised particular objection to Waltz’s visit.

“What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us,” Egede said. “His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission — and the pressure will increase.”

Trump’s idea to annex Greenland has thrown an international spotlight on the territory, which holds vast stores of rare earth minerals critical for high-tech industries, and has raised questions about the island’s future security as the US, Russia and China vie for influence in the Arctic. Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in the US taking the island by force or economic coercion, even as Denmark and Greenland have firmly rejected the idea.

“I think we’re going to get it one way or the other,” Trump said during remarks to a joint session of Congress earlier this month.

Egede, who has pushed for Greenland’s independence from Denmark, said Greenlanders’ effort to be diplomatic just “bounces off Donald Trump and his administration in their mission to own and control Greenland.”

Egede’s ruling left-wing party IAInuit Ataqatigiit was defeated in parliamentary elections earlier this month, but he remains prime minister until a new governing coalition is formed.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who is likely to be Greenland’s next leader after his party won the election, said the timing of the American visit shows “a lack of respect.”

“The fact that the Americans know very well that we are still in a negotiating situation and that the municipal elections have not yet concluded, they still capitalize on the moment to come to Greenland, once again, which shows a lack of respect for the Greenlandic population,” Nielsen told Sermitsiaq.

The White House presented Vance’s visit as a cultural one, and said the second lady “will travel to Greenland with her son and a United States delegation to visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race.”

“Ms. Vance and the delegation are excited to witness this monumental race and celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” the White House statement said.

It is unclear whether the US has ever sent a delegation to the dogsled race, much less a group featuring a second lady.

Denmark ruled Greenland as a colony until 1953, when the island achieved greater powers of self-governance. In 2009, it gained more powers pertaining to minerals, policing and courts of law, but Denmark still controls security, defense, foreign and monetary policy. Greenland also benefits from Denmark’s European Union and NATO memberships.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a written comment to Reuters that the visit of the US delegation is “something we take seriously.” She said Denmark wants to cooperate with the US, but that should be based on “the fundamental rules of sovereignty.”

While Greenlandic politicians have repeatedly signaled they are opposed to annexation, they are open to deals with the United States for rare earth mining, expanding tourism, stronger diplomatic connections and other investments.

A poll in January, commissioned by Danish and Greenlandic newspapers, found that 85% of Greenlanders did not want to become part of the US, with nearly half saying Trump’s interest was a threat, Reuters reported.

The president’s son Donald Trump, Jr. made headlines with a visit to Greenland in January.

“Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our nation. We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside world. Make Greenland Great Again!” Trump Jr. posted on social media at the time.

At a military prison in central Israel, 18-year-old Itamar Greenberg sat in a US Army-issued army uniform as the Hollywood blockbuster “American Sniper” blared from the rec room’s TV.

But Greenberg is not a soldier, and the desert camouflage fatigues are the only military uniform the so-called refusenik – as conscientious objectors are called in Israel – has ever worn.

Greenberg has been in and out of prison for the last year, serving a total of 197 days over five consecutive sentences. Earlier this month, Greenberg was released from the Neve Tzedek prison for the last time.

His crime? Refusing to enlist after being summoned for military service, which is compulsory for most Jewish Israelis – and some minorities – over the age of 18.

Greenberg said his refusal to serve came as the “culmination of a long process of learning and moral reckoning.”

“The more I learned, the more I knew I couldn’t wear a uniform that symbolizes killing and oppression,” he said, explaining that Israel’s war in Gaza – which was launched after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023 – solidified his decision to refuse.

“There is genocide,” he said. “So we don’t need good reasons (to refuse).”

The Israeli government has vehemently denied accusations that the war in Gaza amounts to genocide against the Palestinian people.

The war, which was reignited last week when Israel resumed airstrikes and ground operations in Gaza after a short-lived ceasefire, has killed over 50,000 Palestinians in 17 months, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Over 670 people have been killed and 1,200 others injured in Gaza since Tuesday alone, when Israel’s military campaign restarted, according to the health ministry there.

“I want this change, and I will give my life for it,” Greenberg said of his decision to serve time in prison rather than serving with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

It’s a decision that conscientious objectors like Greenberg don’t take lightly, as refusing the draft is essentially a choice of ostracization.

In Israel, the military is more than just an institution. It’s part of the social fabric, with military service and secular Jewish-Israeli identity deeply intertwined. And it starts early: From elementary school, students are taught they will one day be the soldiers who will protect children just like them, with soldiers visiting classrooms and schools explicitly encouraging students to enlist. At 16, those children receive their first recruitment orders, culminating with conscription at 18. Many see it as an honor, a duty and a rite of passage.

Greenberg has been called a self-hating Jew, antisemitic, a terrorist supporter, and a traitor, he said – even by family and friends.

“People message me on Instagram and say that they will slaughter me, as Hamas did to Israelis on October 7,” he said.

In prison, Greenberg was placed in solitary confinement after receiving threats from fellow inmates – a move that prison officials told him was “for his safety.”

Despite social ostracization, he – and what a network of organizations supporting conscientious objectors say is a growing number of refuseniks – remain dedicated to the cause.

Their numbers are still exceedingly small. Only a dozen Israeli teens have publicly refused to enlist on conscientious grounds since the start of the war, according to Mesarvot, an organization that supports objectors. But that number is higher than in years prior to the war.

Other groups have been far more vocal than the refuseniks in refusing to take part in Israel’s military tradition. Before the October 7 attacks, thousands of reservists protesting the government’s desire to weaken the judiciary said that they would not show up for service. And for months, the country has been roiled over the conscription of ultra-orthodox men who refuse to enter the military because they are studying in religious schools.

Greenberg’s views are extreme even for the increasingly marginalized Israeli left. The mass protests that have become commonplace since October 7 are not so much against the military or war writ large, but in favor of a ceasefire deal to bring home hostages held in Gaza. But Greenberg and other refuseniks hope that their movement might create space for a more mainstream dialogue on the pitfalls of a militarized society.

“If I join the army, I just will be part of the problem. I personally prefer to be part of the solution,” Greenberg said, noting that he may not live to see it.

On Saturday, around a dozen of those refuseniks met at the headquarters of the left-wing political coalition Hadash to prepare for their weekly demonstration in central Tel Aviv.

Smoking a roll-up cigarette on the balcony of the building with a handful of other conscientious objectors, Lior Fogel, a 19-year-old from Tel Aviv, said she had always had “issues with the army as an institution, based on violence and force,” and managed to get a psychiatrist to sign her off with a mental health condition to get out of service.

Multiple human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have said that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians constitutes apartheid. Israel has denounced that characterization as antisemitic.

“The system of apartheid and the maintenance of this rule that actively oppresses another group cannot be upheld. Not only is it immoral and generally horrible, but it will end up blowing up in your face,” Fogel said.

As Fogel and the others marched to Begin Street to join thousands of people from all walks of society who were demonstrating under an umbrella of pro-democracy and anti-war, she too, acknowledged that the views of the refuseniks remain fringe.

Still, the activists might be meeting their moment.

Rage against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached a fever pitch this week among tens of thousands of protesters who believe he is employing increasingly anti-democratic means to stay in power, and who question what he hopes to achieve with a renewed military campaign that nearly a year and a half of relentless war has not.

Many blame Netanyahu for prioritizing his political survival over the security of his country and say the renewed military campaign grossly endangers the lives of the estimated 24 living hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas and its allies.

The sentiment marks a significant turn in the conflict, and one that refuseniks hope will give Israelis that are considering refusing to serve in protest of the renewed military campaign the power to act – regardless of political persuasion.

“When Israel restarted the fight, a lot of people, not radical or left, but people that support the ceasefire and the hostages can now say, we will refuse – even if they don’t care about the Palestinians,” Greenberg said.

“The refusal is now less taboo. So, they can use this tool that we developed – even though they think that we are crazy and traitors – when they think it’s right,” he added.

Elam said he was hoping his protest would help fellow Israelis to understand that “the pain of Palestinians is the same as Israelis.”

When another attendee of the wider protest heard Elam talking, he interrupted to insist that the teenager’s viewpoint isn’t representative of Israeli society, and said: “That’s not true. He is a minority, and his views don’t represent what everybody else here thinks.”

But others stood by in support of dozens of objectors who chanted “peace, equality, social justice,” and held signs that read “refuse the war, mobilize for peace.”

Rakefet Lapid, whose two children also refused service years before the war, and whose family lives in one of the kibbutz that was attacked by Hamas on October 7 said: “I’m glad they are still some young people willing to say that.”

“But I’m sorry they are a small minority,” she added.

Greenberg said he chose to go public because he “didn’t want to lie.”

While the teen has secured papers from a psychiatrist that say he has mental issues that won’t allow him to serve, he said his reason is not due to his mental health – but his political perspective.

“If I’m going out on my ‘mental issues,’ then it’s like saying to the army: ‘I am the problem, not you,’” he said.