Israeli Supreme Court suspends firing of intelligence chief

Israel’s Supreme Court suspended the government’s dismissal of the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service on Friday, hours after the Cabinet agreed on the decision.

A judge issued a temporary injunction on Friday, which, according to the court, will remain in place until a hearing has been held. This is to take place by April 8 at the latest.

Israel’s government had approved the highly controversial dismissal of Shin Bet head Ronen Bar during the night, despite mass protests.

Several groups filed petitions with the court against the government’s decision.

The centre-right party Yesh Atid and other parties submitted an application to the Supreme Court challenging Bar’s dismissal, opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a post on X, citing a conflict of interest in the government’s decision.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced that Bar would step down on April 8 unless a successor was appointed before then.

Netanyahu first announced plans to fire Bar on Sunday evening, triggering mass protests. Israeli media reported that this was the first time in Israel’s history that a government has dismissed the head of Shin Bet.

Netanyahu cited a “lack of trust” in Bar as the reason for his dismissal.

Relations between the two have been strained. Netanyahu had removed Bar from the Israeli negotiating team conducting the indirect talks with the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas over the war in Gaza.

Netanyahu’s policies had come in for criticism in an investigation by Shin Bet into the mistakes that had made the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, possible.

In addition, Shin Bet is investigating alleged illegal ties between Netanyahu’s associates and Qatar.

Qatar is one of the negotiators in the talks with Hamas, and is also a supporter of the group.

Israeli companies press government to comply with court order

Following the suspension of Bar’s dismissal, numerous Israeli companies threatened consequences if the government did not comply with the court order.

Media reported that a major Israeli economic forum threatened to paralyse the country’s economy if the government does not respect the order.

“If the Israeli government does not comply with the order and plunges Israel into a constitutional crisis, we call on the entire Israeli public to no longer respect the government’s decisions,” the forum, which represents executives from the country’s 200 largest companies, said.

Dozens of the largest companies in the technology industry, which is considered a driving force in the Israeli economy, also joined the call, the Israeli news site ynet reported.

They threatened to shut down their companies if the government disregards the court order.

Some ministers had previously said the court had no authority to intervene in the government’s decision to dismiss Bar.

Israeli defence minister threatens to take further parts of Gaza

Meanwhile Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Friday threatened to occupy further areas of the Gaza Strip, in a bid to put more pressure on the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

The longer Hamas refuses to release hostages, the more territory it will lose to Israel, Katz said, according to his office. It said he had instructed the army to call on the local population to flee in this case.

No details were given as to how territory would be seized, though some Israeli media reported areas would be annexed.

Katz also mentioned the expansion of unspecified security zones in the border area of the Gaza Strip, saying these should be permanently controlled by Israel.

Israel would exert all “military and civilian pressure,” including the “evacuation of the population of the Gaza Strip to the south,” he warned.

Israel is sticking to the proposal of US special envoy Steve Witkoff to release all the abductees and hostage bodies remaining in the Gaza Strip in two stages with a ceasefire in between, he said.

Witkoff presented a plan to this effect some three weeks ago, though at a recent mediators’ meeting he proposed an updated plan for an extension of the ceasefire lasting several weeks and the release of only a few hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas, meanwhile, is demanding the immediate implementation of a second phase of the Gaza agreement, which provides for an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, and was originally due to start at the beginning of March. However, the two parties to the conflict have not yet negotiated the key points.

This week’s renewed fighting shattered the fragile ceasefire that had held since January.

On Thursday, Israel’s military launched a ground offensive in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Ground attacks also continued in the north and centre of Gaza, while Israeli airstrikes targeted sites across the territory.