Reuters reports that after two years of pandemic-induced curbs and subsequent shuttering of churches around Israel, around 500 worshippers passed through the huge wooden doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for Palm Sunday. “After two years of COVID, of restrictions, of closed churches, today we are in a normal atmosphere. We have a lot of pilgrims, a lot of local Christians. We are very happy. For us, it’s a kind of resurrection,” the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said. The Holy Sepulcher lies at the heart of the Old City’s Christian Quarter. The Armenian, Catholic and Greek churches share custody, and the Coptic and Syrian churches have rights.

The Guardian writes that an Iraqi man who alleges 35 family members were killed when an Australian airstrike in 2017 targeting ISIS instead obliterated a house where civilians were sheltering has been denied a compensation payment by the federal government. The man, who did not wish to be identified, applied for what is known as an act of grace payment from the Department of Finance last year.

Also in Reuters, it is reported that senior EU officials were targeted with the NSO spyware. According to a two EU officials and documentation reviewed by Reuters, the EU commission became aware of the targeting following messages issued by Apple to thousands of iPhone owners in November telling them they were “targeted by state-sponsored attackers”. Among them was Didier Reynders, a senior Belgian statesman who has served as the European Justice Commissioner since 2019, according to one of the documents. At least four other commission staffers were also targeted, according to the document and another person familiar with the matter. The two EU officials confirmed that staffers at the commission had been targeted but did not provide details.

In the Israeli media, Yediot Ahronot reports that Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh posted online last night a video he shot outside Damascus Gate in which he called on Arab police officers to resign. He said: “We know that they don’t account for more than one per cent of all of our youngsters who are in the occupation forces. That said, I am sending a humanitarian and patriotic message to all of the members of our people, when our position is with the Palestinian people, who are fighting for their liberty. I say to everyone who has joined (the police) to lay down his gun before the army and to return to his original people, which is fighting to free itself of injustice. Together, we will end the occupation.” The police have asked the State Attorney’s Office to review MK Odeh’s statements to see whether they qualify as incitement. Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev said Odeh’s remarks were “infuriating, dangerous and irresponsible.”

Maariv notes that negotiations between Iran and the US in Vienna have stalled. Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdullahian claimed yesterday that in the last two to three weeks the US has made exaggerated demands, as he puts it, that contradict parts of the JCPOA nuclear agreement between his country and the other participants.  At the same time, members of the Iranian parliament have sent a letter to President Ibrahim Raisi, calling for legal guarantees from Washington that the US will not withdraw from the nuclear agreement if it is renewed. Abdullahian’s remarks come against the backdrop of statements by US Army Chief of Staff General Mark Miley that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) should not be removed from the US State Department’s terrorist list, and a report in the Washington Post at the weekend claiming the Biden administration will keep the IRGC designated, even if it means no return to the JCPOA.

Walla notes that this morning Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai will testify before the Meron Disaster Inquiry Committee. So far, the committee’s deliberations have shown that the police, with no choice, served as an integral part of the incident, but this in turn avoided restricting the worshippers despite all the scenarios they warned of a disaster presented to them. So far only the Northern District Police Chief, Shimon Lavi, announced shortly after the incident, “I bear overall responsibility, for better or worse,” whilst other senior police officers who appeared before the committee have refrained from taking responsibility.

Yediot Ahronot writes that tension in Yamina is still running high in the wake of Coalition Chairwoman Idit Silman’s decision to quit the government last week. Yamina members said yesterday that none of the other Yamina MKs were likely to quit, despite heavy pressure by the Likud on Deputy Minister Abir Kara to do so. Kara met yesterday with Silman and with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, as part of the talks that he is holding with both sides. “A government is not a Catholic marriage,” Kara has said in the last few days, referring to the possibility of quitting. Yamina sources said that Kara would probably stay in the party and remain in the coalition, but that he would pose some conditions for doing so. Minister Matan Kahana said yesterday: “Yamina is not falling apart, Yamina wants this government to continue, it is doing many important things for the State of Israel. All we must do is return to the guidelines on which we agreed when we joined the government.” Meanwhile, Israel Hayom says sources in the coalition recently reached out to members of the Joint List with an offer that the coalition officials described as being far-reaching. The proposals that were received by Joint List MKs offer budgets to the Arab sector, support for “civilian” bills drafted by the Joint List’s MKs that benefit the Arab public in Israel and more.

Israel Hayom reports that President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog spoke last evening via video link with Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe, live from the International Space Station, where he is stationed as part of the “Rakia” mission. “Moments like these provide us with inspiration and excitement, especially during difficult days that have seen some dark moments and pain, here in Tel Aviv. This is also an opportunity to express condolences to the bereaved families, to express our pain and to say – life goes on with full force,” the president said.

I24 News reports that the Israeli government is preparing to find homes for 50,000 immigrants who may struggle to find a place to live in the country due to shortage of homes and high prices of the housing market. In the past decade, housing prices rose by 160 per cent, and rents spiked 50 per cent during the COVID pandemic alone.

A poll by published in Marriv found that 51 per cent of the public think the government should not send weapons to Ukraine, and 72 per cent said that neither Israel nor other countries should send troops to support Ukraine. In contrast, 90 per cent of Israelis said the country should willingly take in Ukrainian refugees. Despite the empathy that Israelis feel for the Ukrainians, 70 per cent said that Israel should not sever diplomatic relations with Russia, and 44 per cent said that Israel should not impose economic sanctions on Russia.