tourist israel discount code

Money Saving Tickets and Codes for Israel

Israel is a beautiful and fascinating place to visit but is also quite expensive for the average backpacker. In this post, I’ve gathered some money-saving tickets and codes that might make your trip to Israel a bit more affordable. If you know of any others, let me know through my  Facebook Page  or leave a comment below. I’ll be happy to expand the list!

Table of Contents

Money-Saving Tickets for Israel

The israel pass.

This card is perfect for people who plan on visiting at least three national parks and nature reserves while in Israel.  There are three types of cards  –  3 Parks Entry Pass (78 ILS), 6 Entry Parks Pass (110 ILS), or All Parks Entry Pass (150 ILS).

Here are some of the top national parks and nature reserves in Israel:

• Masada National Park
• Caesarea National Park
• Beit Shean National Park
• Hula Nature Reserve
• Eilat Coral Beach Nature Reserve
• Gamla Nature Reserve
• Banias Nature Reserve
• Tel Dan Nature Reserve

More benefits:

Apart from entry to national parks,  the card also offers a 20 % discount on selected attractions around the country. 

You can also use the Israel Pass as a public transit Rav Kav card. But,  you will need to load it with cash to use it on public transportation.  The Rav Kav gives you a small discount, which you can read about in my post –  Let’s Talk About the Rav Kav . The Rav Kav you get as part of the Israel Pass is anonymous, which means you won’t be able to load special plans onto it, like a 24-hour pass. You will only be able to use it with stored value. 

You can purchase the Israel Pass at Ben Gurion Airport, Ramon Airports, and Abraham Hostel in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is valid for only two weeks from the first site entry.

For more info about the Israel Pass, enter the  Israel Pass official site .

Get special offers with the Secret Tel Aviv VIP Card

It seems like Secret Tel Aviv has some great offers for those who use their VIP Card. Most discounts or offers are relevant for restaurants and bars in Tel Aviv, less for activities. The best part about this card is that it’s free! You just need to fill in their form or pick up the card from their pickup point.

For more info, check out the Secret Tel Aviv official website .

Explore Jerusalem for less with the JLM Pass

If you plan to stay in Jerusalem for more than one day, this JLM Pass might be useful. The pass offers free or discounted entrance to some of the city’s attractions for a whole week.

There are four types of passes:

• JLM All Included –  It includes transfers from and to Ben Gurion Airport and public transportation in Jerusalem. The price – 248 ILS.
• JLM Plus –  It does not include transfers from and to Ben Gurion Airport. Though, it does include public transportation in Jerusalem. The price – 211 ILS.
• JLM Cultural –  It only includes the free and discounted sites, without any transportation. The price – 142 ILS.
• JLM Plus for 3 Days –  It includes public transportation in Jerusalem and entry to 2 free JLM attractions. Though, it is valid for only three days, which should be enough. The price – 152 ILS. 

Is it worth it?

Let me break it down for you:

• The ride from Ben Gurion International Airport costs about 16 ILS one way.
• Taking one light rail/ bus ride will cost about 6 ILS. To the city center and back will cost you about 12 ILS.
• The Israel Museum entrance fee is about 54 ILS (39 ILS for students). With the pass, you get to enter for free. You will probably have to use public transportation to get to and from the museum, so add about 12 ILS, and that’s about 66 ILS saved.
• The Ramparts Walk entrance fee is about 16 ILS. But with the pass, you get to walk it for free. It’s in the Old City, so if your hostel is close by, you can easily walk there.
• Zedekiah’s Cave entrance fee is about 16 USD. But with the pass, you get to enter for free. It’s near Damascus Gate, so if your hostel is close by, you can easily walk there.
• The other attractions in the pass have discounts. My recommended attractions are the Night Spectacular Sound & Light Show at the Tower of David Museum. With the pass, you’ll save about 10 ILS. There’s also the Hebrew Music Museum, where you can save about 10 ILS with the pass.

According to this calculation, the card isn’t too money-saving. But, it really depends if you’re planning to visit the sites included in the pass. Check the list of sites on the official site of the  JLM Pass . I think this pass is the best for family travelers because it includes many kid-friendly attractions.

Get discounts on Groo

This website includes tons of discounted tickets for a great variety of attractions, restaurants, and vacations. The only problem is that it’s in Hebrew. But if you can overcome this challenge, you can get a lot out of this site.

Check it out here – Groo .

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If you liked this post or found it useful, please don’t hesitate to like, share or comment (:

Also, feel free to connect with me on Facebook – Backpack Israel .

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Are there any web sites in english or hebrew to get coupons or discounts to attractions{ Example :mini israel gan guroo etc..}

I was looking over those coupons and it appears they are good until Dec 31, 2011. These coupons are also given to customers who have purchased tour packages with a tour group called Sky 2000 Travel but I am unsure if just anyone can print them up and use them.

Please, if someone can read the fine print for me (my Hebrew is not that good) and verify that anyone can use these I would appreciate it.

If they are not usable then I will have this thread deleted.

Dr. Z- Great thread! My hebrew reading skills are also not good; however, I see 12/31/2010. So do you think that may be the expiration date? Any case, I am leaving in 2 weeks, and will know for sure if they work.

http://www.cuponofesh.co.il/

Someone has already mentioned the national park pass that is good for up to 6 national parks. But we bought the unlimited pass that is good for as many parks as you can see in a two week period. We visited 13 national parks while we were there, so it was a great deal for us. We stopped at more places just because it was free to us after the initial investment.

I opened the sky2000 website, and the pdf does indeed take time to download (about 2-3 minutes on a 20M fast internet connection).

Reading the small print, they seem to be fine for use by anyone. The printed coupon booklets are also sold by othe companies, and not just sky2000.

Note that some of the coupons are not valid for July, August, and during Jewish holidays.

Have a look at what is written in red on the Hebrew side, if it says:

לא תקף לאוגוסם וחגי ישראל - not valid in August and Jewish holidays

לא תקף ביולי, אוגוסם וחגי ישראל - not valid in July, August and Jewish holidays

תקף בימי א' עד ה' בלבד - only valid on Sunday through Thursday

תקף רק בסופי שבוע - only valid on weekends (that means Friday-Saturday)

Hi --I just came across this thread and would love to be able to use some of the coupons on our trip at the end of August with our 13 year old granddaughter. BUT...I can't really read Hebrew and what I can read I don't understand, so is there any way I could actually use these, or even print them up without printing all 100 of them? I tried highlighting one that I was interested in and then attempted to print just that one but what showed up on my preview looked quite weird. Sorry, I know this is partially a techie question but hey,maybe someone knows what to do....I also noticed did a 2010 date on them which may mean they're no longer valid. Thanks for any insights into this.

The City Pass can be investigated on-line, but the brochure itself and the physical card must be picked up at the Centers, one at Hatachana, and one on Herbert Samuel at Geula.

http://www.visit-tlv.com/

Highly recommended!

Are these still void does anyone know?

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The tour was good, we should have been warned about the great numbers of people at all attractions, don't you think? The Jerusalem gate hotel is really not up to standard - the bathroom was in a terrible state and water was pouring from the floor when the bath was emptied, etc. Please do not use this hotel until it is upgraded and refurbished.

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Itinerary excellent, Orna our guide was outstanding, My only criticism was the hotel location in Jerusalem- it was just too far out of the city to be able to walk to the sites - my recommendation would be to use one closer to facilities!

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As American Jews speak out on Israel, some see rifts in their communities

Leah Donnella

Xavier Lopez

Dalia Mortada

Christina Cala

B.A. Parker

Lori Lizarraga

Veralyn Williams

In the wake of October 7, and the bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli government, many American Jews have found themselves questioning something that had long felt like a consensus: that Jewish safety requires unconditionally supporting the Israeli government and military. But in recent months it's become clear that that consensus does not exist — and probably hasn't for a long time. And as more and more Jews speak out against the actions of the Israeli government and military, it's exposing deep rifts within Jewish communities – including ones that are threatening to break friendships, families, and institutions apart.

In this episode, hear from some people experiencing that division first hand, and we dive deep into the long history of Jewish criticism of Israel with Marjorie Feld, professor of history at Babson College, and author of Threshold of Dissent, A History of American Jewish Critics of Zionism .

Editor's note: In a previous audio version of this story, we incorrectly stated the age of one of our guests.

This episode was reported and hosted by Leah Donnella and co-hosted by Gene Demby. It was produced by Xavier Lopez and edited by Dalia Mortada.

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This Low-cost Airline Has $25 Off Flights Until Tomorrow — Here's the Promo Code

And there are no blackout dates.

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It’s not too late to save on e summer travel, as Avelo Airlines is giving fliers an easy way to save $25 off their next round-trip booking through June.

The low-cost airline’s latest sale, which is valid until Tuesday, April 23, at 11:59 p.m. PT, is eligible for all Avelo flights between May 1 and June 30. Travelers must use promo code “JUMP25” under the “Have a promo code?” section on Avelo’s website or its app to snag the $25 discount. 

With no blackout dates to note, this new promotion is an excellent way for a group of friends or family to save on airfare, as this discount applies once per passenger. However, the savings will only apply to the base fare of a round-trip ticket, which excludes any government taxes and fees. 

Avelo brands itself as “America’s most convenient airline,” with its network focused on serving smaller airports to popular destinations nationwide, including Puerto Rico. Since the airline started flying in 2021, Avelo has even brought back service to airports like Salem and Central Florida , both of which have not seen commercial service in over a decade. 

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Pro-Palestinian protests continue at colleges across the US

By Dalia Faheid, Nouran Salahieh, Maureen Chowdhury and Antoinette Radford, CNN

Screaming and scuffles between opposing protest groups at UCLA after demonstrators cross barrier

From CNN’s Sarah Moon and Camila Bernal at UCLA

Demonstrators on Sunday   breached a security barrier meant to keep opposing protest groups apart on the UCLA campus, and the two sides have come   face-to-face, at times screaming at one another and shoving back and forth.

A CNN team is on the ground watching the crowd, where pro-Palestinian demonstrators have gathered to support an  encampment protesting Israel's military campaign  in Gaza, and a group of counter-protesters draped in Israeli flags has erected a video screen and speaker set-up.

“Very high passions on both sides, and when these two come together we have seen confrontations,” CNN’s Camila Bernal reported from the campus. “People who are screaming at each other, sometimes shoving and pushing, and it does get violent at times.”

Organizers from each group have told Bernal that they are trying to keep the peace.

The CNN team has seen police officers in riot gear standing at a distance   from the crowd, but university officials have said police will not intervene unless they feel students are in harm’s way.

The school’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, Mary Osako, confirmed in a statement that demonstrators had “breached” a barrier between the groups, and that there were “physical altercations” between protesters.

“UCLA has a long history of being a place of peaceful protest, and we are heartbroken about the violence that broke out,” the statement reads.

Information about any potential injuries has not been made available.

Watch Camila Bernal's report from the UCLA campus

This post has been updated with additional reporting from the UCLA campus.

Students remain in encampment blocking a street at George Washington University for 4th day of protests

From CNN’s Avery Lotz

Pro-Palestinian protests continued Sunday on George Washington University’s campus in Washington, DC, where students have erected an encampment of dozens of tents in a park and on the neighboring street.

A crowd of demonstrators has chanted “Free Palestine” to the beat of a drum on H Street NW, some of them wearing traditional keffiyeh and waving Palestinian flags. The street remains blocked by law enforcement, and a number of DC Metropolitan Police officers remain in the area.

Flags, signs and sidewalk chalk decorate the encampment, where protestors say they will stay until the university fulfills their demands, which include disclosing its financial endowments and divesting from Israeli associations — similar to the message of many other college protests nationwide. 

One counter-protester walked through the crowd with an Israeli flag draped around her shoulders. Demonstrators chanted, “Free, free, free Palestine,” at the protester, while one held a sign that read, “Genocide is bad.” 

Sanders says it's not antisemitic to hold Israeli government accountable for its actions in Gaza

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pushed back on  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim  that protests on US college campuses are driven by antisemitism, telling CNN’s Dan Bash that it’s critical to hold the Israeli government accountable for its actions in Gaza.

In the interview on Sunday morning , Sanders said the “vast majority of the American people are disgusted with Netanyahu’s war machine in Gaza” and do not want more aid sent to Israel.

While Sanders said he acknowledges “antisemitism exists and is growing in the United States,” he said it is not antisemitic for protesters to hold Netanyahu accountable for his actions in Gaza, which he says are “unprecedented in the modern history of warfare.”

Sanders said Israel's widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure in Gaza, and the death toll of more than 30,000 people , according to the enclave's health ministry, is the reason people want the Israeli government held accountable.

Sanders said he condemns Hamas, antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry, but emphasized again, “We do have to pay attention to the disastrous and unprecedented humanitarian disaster taking place in Gaza right now.”

Watch a clip from the interview below:

Portland State University says it will pause gifts and grants from Boeing amid campus protests

From CNN’s Chris Boyette

Portland State University will pause receiving gifts and grants from the Boeing Company until the college holds a forum to debate the ethics of doing so, according to the school's president.

The move comes amid nationwide protests, including at PSU, against Israel's war in Gaza. Student organizations are calling for schools to cut ties with Israel and to divest from companies that sell weapons, tech and other items to the country, among other demands.

Boeing says on its website that the Israel Defense Forces currently operates nine different Boeing products, and the company contributes a $3.5 billion benefit to the Israeli economy.

"I have heard many students and faculty express that they would like to see PSU cut ties with the company. I initially found these demands confusing and arbitrary: PSU has no investments in Boeing but accepts philanthropic gifts from the company and, given that Boeing is a major employer in the region, many of our alumni work there,” PSU President Ann Cudd said in  a letter to the campus community  Friday.

“However, the passion with which these demands are being repeatedly expressed by some in our community motivates me, as a scholar of academic ethics and a university leader responsible for the well being of our campus constituents, to listen and ask additional questions,” Cudd said.

Cudd said PSU will host a two-hour moderated debate in May with faculty and students. 

On its website,  Boeing says  its relationship with Israel dates back "more than 75 years — to the founding of the State of Israel."

Boeing declined to comment on Cudd’s announcement.

LA Mayor Bass stands by USC's decision to cancel its main commencement ceremony

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says the decision by University of Southern California leaders to cancel the school's main commencement ceremony  for 2024 graduating students in May was necessary due to safety concerns.

“I believe that that was a decision that they had to make," Bass told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday.

"They were expecting about 65,000 people on campus and they just did not feel that it was going to be safe, and the job of the (university) president, just like my job as mayor — my number one job is to make sure that Angelenos are safe."

The mayor,  herself a USC alumna , pointed out that while the main ceremony had been canceled, individual schools and departments will go forward with their own ceremonies.

Some context : A USC professor who has  criticized the school's response  to pro-Palestinian protests told CNN on Saturday that the university's initial decision to  cancel its valedictorian's commencement speech served as a catalyst for demonstrations at the Los Angeles campus.

Asna Tabassum, a first-generation South Asian-American Muslim, said in a statement published by the Council on American-Islamic Relations that she has "serious doubts about whether USC’s decision to revoke my invitation to speak is made solely on the basis of safety."

CAIR has accused the school of canceling Tabassum's speech in response to "attacks and harassment launched by anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian extremists."

The school announced it was canceling the main commencement ceremony altogether on Friday, days after the decision to cancel the valedictorian speech.

CNN’s Amanda Musa, Alisha Ebrahimji and Melissa Alonso contributed reporting to this post.

Here are some of the latest comments from elected officials on the protests happening across the US

Several US lawmakers and other elected officials have spoken in media appearances Sunday about the protests seen across the country in response to Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell criticized what he said was antisemitic rhetoric seen in the protests, saying on CBS that "university presidents need to get control of the situation, allow free speech and push back against antisemitism."

“We’ve all got to get serious about the challenges ahead of us, engaging in antisemitic behavior in the United States needs to be stood up to by the administrators of these colleges,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin also condemned instances of antisemitic rhetoric, and said Virginia wouldn't allow protest encampments to be put up at its academic institutions.

“We will protect the ability to peacefully express yourself, but we’re not going to have the kinds of hate speech and intimidation that we’re seeing across the country in Virginia,” the governor told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, meanwhile, pushed back against House Speaker Mike Johnson’s suggestion that the National Guard could be sent to college campuses amid the protests, calling it a “very, very bad idea.”

“I think calling in the National Guard to college campuses for so many people would recall what happened when that was done during the Vietnam War — and it didn’t end well,” Kaine said on “Meet the Press.”

“There are other ways, using campus security, but also offering students more opportunities to have dialogue that is civil and constructive where people hear one another — that’s by far preferable,” he added. 

Students in Gaza stage demonstration to express gratitude for pro-Palestinian protests at US colleges

From Tareq Alhelou in Rafah and CNN’s Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman and Zeena Saifi in Jerusalem 

Dozens of Palestinian students staged a display of solidarity at a demonstration in southern Gaza on Sunday to express gratitude for the support seen on US college campuses in recent weeks.  

Video from the Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah shows children holding banners with messages that read: "Students of Columbia University, continue to stand by us,” and “Violating our right to education and life is a war crime.”   

The students gathered around makeshift tents near a school that now serves as a shelter for Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza. Footage shows people spray-painting messages of gratitude on the fabric of the tents, saying “Thank you, students in solidarity with Gaza. Your message has reached.”

Takfeer Abu-Yousuf, a displaced student from the northern city of Beit Hanoun, told CNN he felt it was necessary to thank the students in the US who “supported us with their humanity.”

“We can’t write these thank you messages on the walls of our homes because we have no homes. They have been destroyed on top of our children, elders and women,” he said.  

Eighteen-year-old Rana Al-Taher pointed to the school in the camp, telling CNN that what should have been a place for learning and education has become a place for sheltering.   

“That means that we have lost our education. We have lost our only hope in Gaza and we want it back. We’re here to ask for it back. It’s our right to have it back … that’s why we’re here,” she said.

Read the full story here.

Universities are cracking down after months of student protests over Israel’s bombardment of Gaza

From CNN's Dakin Andone

With tension mounting over an encampment in support of Palestinians at  New York’s Columbia University , police strode onto campus this month and arrested more than 100 demonstrators.

Soon, dozens more students protesting the monthslong assault on Gaza were arrested at  New York and Yale  universities. At the  University of Texas at Austin , police in riot gear and on horseback moved to disperse a like-minded demonstration, while nearly 100 at the  University of Southern California  also got arrested. Then at  Emory University in Atlanta , law enforcement deployed pepper balls to break up a pro-Palestinian action, arresting 28, including several  professors . And at  Boston’s Emerson College , another 108 protesters were arrested, with four officers hurt.

While the latest run of arrests has commanded outsized attention, US colleges have been using law enforcement — along with academic suspensions and, for at least one school, expulsion — to try   to   rein in student demonstrations since  Hamas’ October attack on Israel  left more than 1,200 dead and dozens taken hostage. Israel’s devastating counterpunch in Gaza – with more than 34,000 Palestinians killed, according to its health ministry – has further fueled deeply held views of students and faculty on all sides.

Amid US students’ broad insistence their tactics are peaceful, administrators often have decried campus protests as disruptive, with some — including at  Indiana University,   George Washington University  and  California State Polytechnic  University’s Humboldt campus — employing school rules governing use of public spaces to threaten or enact discipline, or call for police backup.

Administrators lately have seemed quicker to levy consequences against campus demonstrators than they were six months ago, according to Zach Greenberg of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Read more about the crackdown here.

Vandalism reported at USC is "absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated," university says

From CNN’s Paradise Afshar

The University of Southern California says campus property was vandalized Saturday "by individuals who are part of the group that has continued to illegally camp on our campus."

The Tommy Trojan statue and a fountain in Alumni Park were vandalized, the university said, without elaborating on the type of damage they sustained. University officials also did not state what led them to believe the perpetrators were among those taking part in encampment demonstrations.

Video footage from CNN affiliate  KABC  showed the words “Say No to Genocide” spray-painted on the base of the Tommy Trojan statue.

“Despite repeated warnings, this group has also continued to disrupt our campus operations and harass students and others, in violation of numerous university policies,” Joel Curran, senior vice president of communications, said in a statement.

"While the university fully supports freedom of expression, these acts of vandalism and harassment are absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated," Curran said.

University President Carol Folt has made attempts to meet with students, “but they have declined these offers,” Curran said.

“We are hoping for a more reasonable response Sunday before we are forced to take further action,” he said. “This area is needed for commencement set up early this week.” 

Remember: Demonstrators at universities across the country have organized in protest of Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza , in many cases calling on the schools to disinvest from Israeli institutions and other entities they say benefit from the war.

A USC professor who has criticized the school's response to protests told CNN on Saturday that the university's decision to cancel its Muslim valedictorian's commencement speech , citing safety concerns, served as a catalyst for demonstrations at the Los Angeles campus.

This post has been updated with additional information about the protests at USC.

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Middle East Crisis U.S. Won’t Suspend Aid, for Now, to Israeli Unit Accused of Abuses

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• Israeli police detaining protesters during a demonstration by Israeli and American rabbis near the Erez crossing into Gaza. Reuters
• Palestinian children waiting for a water supply tank in Rafah, southern Gaza. Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• Damage in the area of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon. Ramiz Dallah/Anadolu, via Getty Images
• Walking past posters in Tel Aviv of hostages held in the Gaza Strip. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
• Hanging around the apparent remains of a ballistic missile near the southern Israeli city of Arad. Amir Cohen/Reuters
• Palestinians on a hot day at a beach west of Deir al Balah in southern Gaza. Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock

Follow live news updates on the crisis in the Middle East .

Blinken says the U.S. could take action if Israel fails to hold its troops accountable.

The Biden administration, which has been under pressure for its support of Israel’s war in Gaza, will not withhold military aid from a troubled military unit accused of human rights violations in the West Bank, so long as Israel continues with steps to hold the members of the unit accountable.

In an undated letter, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told the House speaker, Mike Johnson, that the United States was working with Israel to address charges against the unit, the Netzah Yehuda battalion. Though the letter did not mention the battalion’s name, a U.S. official confirmed that Mr. Blinken was referring to Netzah Yehuda, which has been investigated for crimes in the West Bank predating the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that set off the war in Gaza.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss delicate diplomacy, said that the Biden administration could still take action against Netzah Yehuda if it concludes that Israel has not taken sufficient steps to hold its members to account.

The letter, obtained by The New York Times, said the State Department had determined that Netzah Yehuda had committed “gross human rights violations” against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

U.S. officials had reached similar findings about two other Israeli military units and two civilian units, the letter said, but in those cases the Biden administration had decided not to withhold military aid because Israel was already acting to “bring to justice” culpable service members.

Mr. Blinken assured Mr. Johnson in the letter, reported earlier by ABC News , that the United States “will not delay the delivery of any U.S. assistance, and Israel will be able to receive the full amount appropriated by Congress.”

Under federal statutes commonly known as the Leahy law , the U.S. government must deny aid to foreign military units found to have committed gross violations of human rights without accountability. The law allows for the targeting of individual units without cutting off entire foreign militaries.

It was not clear what practical effect any such move might have, given that funding of specific Israeli units is hard to track, and it is unclear whether the units mentioned in the letter receive American training or equipment.

Still, the news last week that U.S. officials were considering withholding aid from Israeli military units for abuses prompted a furious response from Israel and from Mr. Johnson, a strong supporter of the current Israeli government. Mr. Johnson said this week that he had called the White House in protest and had received an assurance in writing that none of the billions in additional U.S. aid to Israel approved by Congress this week would be affected.

The Biden administration has faced growing calls to restrict American aid to Israel over its military offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks in October. President Biden so far has declined to place conditions on U.S. aid over Israel’s devastating tactics in the Gaza war, though he has taken several steps in response to violence by Israelis in the West Bank, including placing sanctions against several Israeli settlers for what the U.S. has called “extremist” acts of violence against Palestinians.

In his letter to the Republican House speaker, Mr. Blinken said that two Israeli battalions and “civilian authority units,” none of which he named, had committed human rights abuses but that he had “determined that the Israeli government has conducted effective remediation of the units involved.” He defined remediation as a process in which a foreign government takes “effective steps to bring to justice the responsible members of the unit.”

In the case of Netzah Yehuda, which he did not cite by name, he said that “there has not been effective remediation to date” but that the Israeli government “has presented new information regarding the status of the unit, and we will engage on identifying a path to effective remediation for this unit.”

Mr. Blinken is planning to travel to Israel next week for meetings with Israeli leaders to discuss efforts to free hostages from Gaza and an impending Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an Israeli official said on Friday. It was not immediately clear whether he would discuss Netzah Yehuda. Mr. Blinken has discussed the matter by phone with senior Israeli officials in recent days.

Under the terms of a 10-year security agreement that the United States and Israel reached in 2016, the United States must consult with Israeli officials before placing restrictions on security assistance. That consultation is ongoing, according to the U.S. official.

Netzah Yehuda, which was created to accommodate the religious practices of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, has been repeatedly accused of mistreating Palestinians.

In January 2022, according to witnesses, its soldiers bound and gagged a 78-year-old Palestinian American who died of a heart attack while in military custody. An investigation concluded that the two soldiers who bound the man thought he was sleeping. The soldiers faced disciplinary action but no criminal charges were brought.

The unit was transferred in 2022 from the West Bank to the Golan Heights in northern Israel, according to Mr. Blinken’s letter.

Mr. Blinken added that no other Israeli units had been found culpable of rights violations under the Leahy Law and that the administration’s deliberations “will have no impact on our support for Israel’s ability to defend itself against Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah or other threats.”

— Michael Crowley reporting from Washington

Blinken will make another wartime trip to Israel.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will visit Israel next week, an Israeli official said on Friday, as talks on a cease-fire deal that would allow for the release of hostages held in Gaza appear stalled and tensions have risen between Israel and the United States over the war.

The Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of lack of authorization to speak publicly on the matter, said talks with Mr. Blinken would center on hostages and an impending Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Mr. Blinken last visited Israel in March, when he warned that its plans to invade Rafah , where more than a million displaced people are sheltering, would pose severe risks to civilians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with those plans, saying that such an operation is necessary to eliminate Hamas battalions in the city.

Still, the Biden administration has stuck by Israel as mediators have failed to broker even a temporary cease-fire in Gaza that would give Palestinians some respite and allow for the release of hostages abducted in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel .

The United States has proposed a deal through Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries in which Hamas would release 40 of the most vulnerable hostages in exchange for a six-week truce and the release of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. A senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity under official ground rules put the blame solely on Hamas for blocking the deal.

The official said that while Israel had signaled it would accept those terms, the response from Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader hiding underground in Gaza, had been “totally nonconstructive.” Hamas has since signaled that it is not completely rejecting the deal and is willing to sit down again, the official said, adding that the United States and its partners would test that in coming days.

President Biden and the leaders of 17 other nations called on Hamas on Thursday to release all the hostages in a joint statement that appeared intended to send the message that the world is not entirely against Israel and that Hamas is the main impediment to ending the war.

Peter Baker contributed reporting from Washington.

— Patrick Kingsley reporting from Jerusalem

Israel fires into Lebanon after a deadly Hezbollah missile strike.

An Israeli man was killed in an anti-tank missile attack from Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Friday, the latest in a growing string of civilian casualties on both sides of Israel’s northern border as tit-for-tat strikes intensify with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah .

The Israeli military said in a statement that the man had been carrying out “infrastructure work” when two anti-tank missiles were fired late Thursday into the area of Har Dov in northern Israel, a disputed sliver of land where Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet. Also known as the Shebaa Farms, the area is claimed by Lebanon but occupied by Israel, and has long been a crucible for violence.

Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful regional proxy , described the overnight attack as an “ambush,” claiming that two vehicles had been destroyed in a combined missile, artillery and rocket assault on an Israeli military base in the area. The Israeli military statement did not say whether a base had been hit.

Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, identified the man killed as Sharif Suwayed, 35, and said that his truck had been hit while he was working to improve defenses at a military base, modifications that were being carried out at night to protect against Hezbollah attacks. The Israeli military was investigating, the broadcaster reported.

Israeli forces responded by striking Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon, among them a weapon storage facility and military compound, according to a military statement. Lebanese state media reported on Friday that multiple towns had been targeted by heavy Israeli bombardment, damaging dozens of houses. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, the heaviest between the sides in nearly two decades, has shown no sign of subsiding. Israeli strikes inside Lebanon have begun to creep deeper into the country’s interior, though the hostilities for now have been confined largely to areas along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

In Israel, 19 soldiers and civilians have been killed in the recent violence, which began after Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel in support of the deadly Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7.

More than 70 civilians have been killed in Lebanon, along with roughly 270 Hezbollah fighters, the group has said, a figure that exceeds its losses in the 2006 war with Israel .

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said this week that its strikes had eliminated half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon, although experts expressed skepticism about that claim . They also have cast doubt on whether targeted killings of commanders could achieve Israel’s goal of pushing Hezbollah farther from the border, reducing the threat of attacks and allowing the tens of thousands of Israeli civilians displaced by the fighting to return to their homes.

Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

— Euan Ward Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

A baby born in Gaza after her mother was killed in an Israeli strike dies less than a week later.

A baby who was delivered through an emergency cesarean section after her mother was killed in an Israeli strike died on Thursday, a relative said, less than a week after news of her birth brought a glimmer of hope to war-torn Gaza.

The baby, who was born prematurely after a strike in southern Gaza that also killed her father and sister, suffered respiratory problems, and doctors were unable to save her, said her uncle, Rami al-Sheikh.

“I buried her in her father’s grave,” he said in a phone interview on Friday.

The mother, Sabreen al-Sakani, was killed along with her husband, Shukri, and their 3-year-old daughter, Malak, when an Israeli strike hit their home in the city of Rafah shortly before midnight last Saturday. Rescue crews took the bodies to the Emirati Hospital in Rafah, where doctors performed a cesarean section on Ms. al-Sakani, who was 30 weeks pregnant.

The girls’ uncle said that Malak had wanted to name her little sister Rouh, the Arabic word for soul. The extended family decided instead to name her after her mother, Sabreen.

Sabreen weighed just three pounds at birth, said Dr. Mohammed Salama, head of the neonatal intensive care unit at Emirati Hospital. Her birth was captured on video by a journalist from the Reuters news agency, who filmed doctors providing artificial respiration to her after she emerged, pale and limp, from her mother.

Instead of a name, doctors initially wrote, “The baby of the martyr Sabreen al-Sakani” on a piece of tape across her chest.

“The baby was delivered into a tragic situation,” Dr. Salama told Reuters, adding, “Even if this baby survives, she was born an orphan.”

— Hiba Yazbek Reporting from Jerusalem

Drone attack kills 4 workers in an Iraqi gas field, but no one claims responsibility.

A drone attack on a large gas field in Iraq’s Kurdistan region killed four workers and plunged much of eastern Kurdistan into darkness because it relies on gas to fuel its electrical plants, according to a Kurdistan regional government spokesman.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. While Iranian-backed armed groups have bases in the area, there are many competing interests in Kurdistan, leaving it unclear whether the attacks are part of the larger regional fight between Iran and Israel, which has intensified during the war in Gaza.

The Kurdistan region’s president, Nechirvan Barzani, condemned the attack and called on the government in Baghdad to investigate. “These attacks endanger the peace and stability of the country,” Mr. Barzani said, adding, “The representatives of the Iraqi federal government must do their duty to prevent these attacks and find the perpetrators from any side and punish them according to the law.”

Iraq’s joint command in Baghdad issued a statement calling the attack “sabotage,” confirming that a drone was used. The statement said Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani had ordered an investigation.

Friday’s drone attack was the second so far this year on the Khor Mor field in Sulaymaniyah Province. The last one, in January, did not inflict casualties.

“Four Yemeni workers have been killed, and the field has been severely damaged, which will cause electricity shortages,” said Peshawa Hawramani, a spokesman for the Kurdistan regional government.

Almost a million people in Sulaymaniyah Province were left without power, along with thousands more in adjacent provinces. It took about 24 hours to restore electricity after the last attack, but because the damage was greater this time, Kurdish authorities said it could take longer. While hospitals and security services have large generators, many ordinary residents have access only to limited power from shared generators.

Claims of responsibility were never made for previous attacks on the gas field, which is operated by Dana Gas, based in the United Arab Emirates, and a related company, Crescent Petroleum.

While the drone attack could stem from the regional conflict between Iran and Israel, there are other tensions in the region — between internal Iraqi factions and between Baghdad and Kurdistan. There has been a multiyear effort by the Iraqi federal government in Baghdad and the courts to reduce the Kurdistan region’s control over its natural resources.

At the same time, there is tension between Iran and Iraq over any efforts by Iraq to expand domestic gas production. Iran sells about $4 billion of gas to Iraq each year because Iraq does not have enough gas to fuel its electricity plants. Kurdistan and the Iraqi government had been discussing expansion of the Khor Mor field.

Kamil Kakol contributed reporting from Sulaymaniyah Province, Iraq .

— Alissa J. Rubin Reporting from Baghdad

Rabbis are arrested near the Gaza-Israel border at a rally to highlight starvation.

Police arrest group of rabbis and activists near gaza, the israeli police arrested rabbis and peace activists near the border with gaza..

[singing] You can arrest us, but we’re going to walk slowly, our way towards the crossing.

Seven rabbis and peace activists were arrested on Friday near the border with Gaza after they tried to take food supplies into the territory, according to two participants and the campaign group that organized the effort.

The detainees were among a group of roughly 30 rabbis and activists from Israel and the United States who were stopped by police officers as they tried to reach the Erez crossing, a major transit point between Israel and northern Gaza.

Organized by Rabbis for Ceasefire, a peace movement based in the United States, the effort was intended to build support for a truce and to highlight rising reports of starvation in Gaza . A global authority on food security, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, has predicted an imminent famine in northern Gaza, the area of the territory closest to Erez.

The protest was timed to coincide with the week of Passover , a Jewish festival that celebrates the biblical story of the liberation of Jews from slavery in ancient Egypt.

“We were making the point that Jewish liberation is bound up with Palestinian liberation, that we want freedom for all,” said Toba Spitzer, a rabbi from Boston who attended the protest but was not arrested.

The group had tried to drive into Gaza with a pickup truck carrying half a ton of rice and flour but was stopped roughly a third of a mile from the border, Rabbi Spitzer said. The effort was largely symbolic and the organizers expected it to fail given the restrictions along the border; the supplies will now be donated to needy Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Rabbi Spitzer said.

The Israeli police did not respond to requests for comment.

The author Ayelet Waldman of Berkeley, Calif., was among those arrested, her husband, the author Michael Chabon, said on Instagram .

There are widespread food shortages in Gaza. Israeli restrictions on where convoys can enter the strip, Israeli bombardment and widespread damage to roads, the collapse of Gazan agriculture, and a breakdown in law and order have all made it harder to distribute aid safely.

Aid groups and United Nations officials have accused Israel of systematically limiting aid delivery. Israel denies the assertion, blaming the shortages on logistical failures by aid groups, and has recently increased the number of trucks entering the strip.

Israeli officials say that the Erez crossing, which was primarily used for pedestrian traffic before the war, is difficult to use for aid delivery because it lacks the right infrastructure and was also badly damaged during the Hamas-led raid on Israel in October.

A majority of Jewish Israelis oppose the delivery of more aid to Gaza, according to a poll conducted in February by the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based research group.

Israeli protesters regularly gather at another crossing point farther south, trying to block aid convoys entering Gaza .

— Patrick Kingsley and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad Reporting from Jerusalem and from Haifa, Israel

The U.S. Army has begun work on a floating pier to move aid from ships into Gaza, the Pentagon says.

Army engineers on Thursday began construction of a floating pier and causeway for humanitarian aid off the coast of Gaza, which, when completed, could help relief workers deliver as many as two million meals a day for the enclave’s residents, Defense Department officials said.

The construction on the “initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea” means that the project’s timing is in line with what Pentagon officials had predicted, Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Defense Department’s press secretary, said. The construction is meant to allow humanitarian aid to bypass Israeli restrictions on land convoys into the besieged strip.

General Ryder said that defense officials expected the project, ordered up by President Biden early last month, to be completed early next month. The facility is meant to include an offshore platform to transfer aid from ships, and a floating pier to bring the aid to shore.

Aid organizations have welcomed the plan, which will be an addition to the airdrops of humanitarian supplies that the U.S. military has been conducting over Gaza. But aid workers say, and defense officials have acknowledged, that the maritime project is not an adequate substitute for land convoys. Such aid convoys fell sharply when the war began more than six months ago and have only partly recovered .

Some U.S. military officials have also privately expressed security concerns about the project, and General Ryder said that the military was looking into a mortar attack on Wednesday that caused minimal damage in the area where some pier work is supposed to be done. However, he said, U.S. forces had not started moving anything into the area at the time of the mortar attacks.

The floating pier is being built alongside an Army ship off the Gaza coast. Army ships are large, lumbering vessels, so they have armed escorts, particularly as they get within range of Gaza’s coast, defense officials have said.

The United Nations says famine is likely to set in within Gaza by the end of May.

Aid workers have described bottlenecks for aid at border crossings because of lengthy inspections of trucks, limited crossing hours and protests by Israelis, and they have highlighted the difficulty of distributing aid inside Gaza. Israeli officials have denied that they are hampering the flow of aid, saying the United Nations and aid groups are responsible for any backlogs.

Senior Biden administration and military officials detailed a complex plan in a Pentagon call with reporters on Thursday afternoon, explaining how the pier and causeway are being put together, and how it is supposed to work. Army engineers are constructing the facility aboard Navy ships in the eastern Mediterranean. One official said that the “at-sea assembly of key pieces” of the pier began on Thursday.

Biden officials are insistent that the Pentagon can carry out aid deliveries through the floating pier without putting American boots on the ground in Gaza. Officials described a complicated shuttle system, through which aid would be loaded onto Navy ships in Cyprus and transported to a causeway — a floating platform — at sea.

The Pentagon’s military acronym for the project is J-Lots, for Joint Logistics Over the Shore.

The causeway at sea is different from the floating pier where the aid will be offloaded into Gaza. An engineering unit with the Israeli military will anchor the floating pier to the Gaza shore, a senior military official told reporters in the Pentagon call.

Shuttle boats run by aid organizations, the United Nations or other countries are then expected to transport the aid to the floating pier, where it is to be loaded onto trucks driven by “a third party,” the official said. He declined to identify the third party.

The official said that Israel was dedicating a brigade to provide security for the American troops and aid workers working on the pier.

The operation is expected to bring in enough aid for around 90 trucks a day, a number that will increase to 150 trucks a day when the system reaches full operating capacity, the official said.

— Helene Cooper Reporting from Washington

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