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Rav Dov Landau, Rosh Yeshiva of Slabodka Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, who was hospitalized on Thursday, was released this morning from Maayanei Hayeshua Medical Center and has returned to his residence on the Slabodka Yeshiva campus in Bnei Brak.

The Rosh Yeshiva had been admitted on Thursday morning and underwent surgery to repair a fractured hip.

He then remained at the hospital for Shabbos.

According to those close to him, Rav Landau continues to gain strength and is steadily recovering. He has resumed his daily learning schedule, and, with Hashem’s help, is expected to begin receiving visitors again in the coming days.

All are asked to daven for Rav Efraim Dov ben Devorah.

{Matzav.com Israel}

Russia launched a sweeping drone assault and airstrikes across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, killing at least four people, officials said, after U.S. President Donald Trump cast doubt over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war. Three people died and four were wounded Sunday morning in airstrikes on Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region, the regional prosecutor’s office said. Another person died and a 14-year-old girl was wounded in a drone attack on the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which was hit for the third consecutive night, local Gov. Serhii Lysak said. The attacks came hours after Russia claimed to have regained control over the remaining parts of the Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion last August. Ukrainian officials said the fighting in Kursk was still ongoing. Trump said Saturday that he doubts Putin wants to end the more than three-year war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism that a peace deal can be reached soon. Only a day earlier, Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were “ very close to a deal.” “There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump wrote in a social media post as he flew back to the United States after attending Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican, where he met briefly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump also hinted at further sanctions against Russia. The Trump-Zelenskyy conversation on the sidelines of the pope’s funeral was the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since they argued during a heated Oval Office meeting at the White House in late February. Russia fired 149 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that 57 were intercepted and another 67 jammed. One person was wounded in drone attacks on the Odesa region and one other in the city of Zhytomyr. Four people were also wounded in a Russian airstrike on the city of Kherson on Sunday morning, according to local officials. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that air defenses shot down five Ukrainian drones in the border region of Bryansk, as well as three drones over the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Five people were wounded when Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Horlivka in the partially occupied Donetsk region, the city’s Russian-installed Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said. (AP)

A fierce wildfire broke out Sunday in the Nachal Prat area, near the community of Nofei Prat in the Binyamin region, prompting an urgent rescue operation for dozens of hikers trapped by the flames.

Firefighters from the Yehuda and Shomron District, supported by four firefighting planes and an aerial rescue unit, have been working intensively to evacuate the hikers who found themselves stranded due to the sudden blaze.

According to a statement from Israel’s Fire and Rescue Authority, as of this time, the fire has been largely contained. There is currently no immediate danger to either the hikers or local residents. Approximately 100 hikers are still in the area, divided into three groups, all of whom are situated in safe zones.

Given the rugged and challenging topography of the Nachal Prat area, which makes access by foot difficult, additional airborne teams have been deployed, along with aerial support from the Israel Police.

Police Commander of the Shai District Commissioner Moshe Pinchi is on-site conducting situation assessments together with teams from the Fire and Rescue Authority, police, IDF, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Megilot Dead Sea Rescue Unit. Forces continue to work relentlessly to gain full control of the situation and to ensure the hikers’ safe evacuation.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, five firefighting teams from various Dan District stations are battling a brush fire and a burning truck within the Safari area. Firefighters, led by Senior Fire Officer Albert Monis, are focusing on containing and suppressing the flames. At this stage, there are no reports of injuries.

{Matzav.com Israel}

Another angle of the IDF strike in Beirut. It is reported that the building targeted stored Hezbollah missiles.

With one-fifth of states seeing active measles outbreaks, the U.S. is nearing 900 cases, according to figures posted Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC’s confirmed measles cases count is 884, triple the amount seen in all of 2024. The vast majority — 646 — are in Texas, where an outbreak in the western part of the state that’s approaching the three-month mark. Two unvaccinated elementary school-aged children died from measles-related illnesses in the epicenter in West Texas, and an adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated died of a measles-related illness. Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. North America has two other ongoing outbreaks. One in Ontario, Canada, has resulted in 1,020 cases from mid-October through Wednesday. And as of Friday, the Mexican state of Chihuahua state had 605 measles cases, according to data from the state health ministry. The World Health Organization has said cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak. Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000. As the virus takes hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates, health experts fear the virus that the spread could stretch on for a year. Here’s what else you need to know about measles in the U.S. How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico? Texas state health officials said Friday there were 22 new cases of measles since Tuesday, bringing the total to 646 across 26 counties — most of them in West Texas. Hospitalizations were steady Friday at 64 throughout the outbreak. State health officials estimated about 1% of cases — fewer than 10 — are actively infectious. Sixty-one percent of Texas’ cases are in Gaines County, population 22,892, where the virus started spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county has had 393 cases since late January — just over 1.5% of the county’s residents. The April 3 death in Texas was an 8-year-old child, according to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Health officials in Texas said the child did not have underlying health conditions and died of “what the child’s doctor described as measles pulmonary failure.” A unvaccinated child with no underlying conditions died of measles in Texas in late February — Kennedy said age 6. New Mexico announced one new case Friday, bringing the state’s total to 66. Seven people have been hospitalized since the outbreak started. Most of the state’s cases are in Lea County. Three are in Eddy County and Chaves and Doña Ana counties have one each. State health officials say the cases are linked to Texas’ outbreak based on genetic testing. New Mexico reported a measles-related death in an adult on March 6. How many cases are there in Indiana? Indiana confirmed two more cases Monday in an outbreak that has sickened eight in Allen County in the northeast part of the state — five are unvaccinated minors and three are adults whose vaccination status is unknown. The cases have no known link to other outbreaks, the Allen County Department of Health said Monday. How many cases are there in Kansas? Kansas was steady this week with 37 cases in eight counties in the southwest part of the state. […]

Following the IDF’s warning, an airstrike is reported in Beirut’s southern suburbs, targeting Hezbollah positions.

At Camp Shura’s National Center for Casualties of Israel’s Defense Forces, hundreds of body bags have remained untouched since the devastating events of October 7. These bags hold both partial human remains and other matter requiring burial, including blood.

Despite extensive work over the past several months, a significant number of these remains have still not been conclusively identified.

As reported by Yediot Achronot, the military rabbinate sought authorization to perform an additional round of DNA testing on all of the body bags. However, their request was turned down by the Ministry of Religious Services.

In response, the military rabbinate turned to Chief Rabbi David Yosef, who issued a ruling permitting further DNA tests to ensure proper identification and halachic burial of the remains. The IDF even set aside a dedicated budget to fund this renewed identification effort and secured backing from the Israel Police.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Religious Services, led by director Yehuda Avidan, continues to resist the idea of retesting. The ministry argues that such efforts are a misuse of public resources and may constitute “desecration of the dead.” Avidan’s stance is reportedly grounded in an expert opinion provided by Dr. Chen Kugel, the head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine.

The impasse between the military rabbinate and the Ministry of Religious Services has yet to be resolved, leaving hundreds of body bags in limbo. Officials at the Ministry of Religious Services are now contemplating a mass burial of the remains without conducting individual identifications—a move that has drawn sharp opposition from various IDF officials and rabbinic authorities.

A final resolution is expected to emerge following deliberations of a joint committee comprised of representatives from the Ministry of Religious Services, the Ministry of Health, the Institute of Forensic Medicine, and the police, which is currently meeting to address the issue.

{Matzav.com Israel}

Pakistani security forces overnight killed 54 militants who attempted to cross into the country from Afghanistan, the military said Sunday, marking one of the deadliest such killings in recent years. In a statement, the military said intelligence reports indicated the killed militants were “Khwarij” — a phrase the government uses for the Pakistani Taliban. Without directly blaming anyone, the military said the slain insurgents had been sent by their “foreign masters” to carry out high-profile terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. The insurgents were spotted and killed near the former stronghold of Pakistan Taliban near North Waziristan, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province along the Afghan border. The military said the infiltration attempt came “at a time when India is leveling baseless accusations against Pakistan” following a recent deadly assault on tourists in India-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan in recent months has witnessed a surge in violence, mostly blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. It is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan since then. Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tatar on Sunday told the foreign media that New Delhi blamed Islamabad for the tourist attack to distract Pakistan’s security forces from their focus on the war on its western borders. (AP)

Residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs seen evacuating the area following an IDF evacuation notice ahead of an intended strike.

Intense gunfire in Dahiya signaled residents to evacuate a building after an IDF evacuation order was issued.

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz on an end to the war in Ukraine: “Just 100 days ago, Biden and his team had no end in sight … President Trump is determined to use diplomacy to bring this war to an end.”

The IDF issues an evacuation warning for a building and the surrounding area in Beirut’s southern suburbs, ahead of an airstrike against a Hezbollah asset in the Lebanese capital. “To everyone present in the building marked in red as shown on the map and the buildings adjacent to it: You are present near facilities belonging to Hezbollah.”

President Trump says income taxes with drop substantially when tariffs cut in.

The Israeli Air Force has reportedly dropped 20 shekel bills attached to active SIM cards to try and recruit locals willing to provide intelligence.

Marco Rubio on negotiations around Ukraine: “We have to make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in… There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are reasons to be realistic… We’re close, but we’re not close enough.”

The IDF says it killed a Hezbollah operative in a drone strike in southern Lebanon’s Halta earlier today.

Russia unleashed a large-scale drone barrage and airstrikes throughout Ukraine late Saturday into early Sunday, leaving at least four civilians dead, Ukrainian authorities reported. The assault came after U.S. President Donald Trump questioned whether Russian President Vladimir Putin truly has any desire to bring the war to an end.

In Kostyantynivka, located in the Donetsk region, three people were killed and four others sustained injuries Sunday morning due to airstrikes, according to the regional prosecutor’s office. Meanwhile, in Pavlohrad, situated in the Dnipropetrovsk region, a drone attack claimed one life and injured a 14-year-old girl, local Governor Serhii Lysak confirmed. Pavlohrad has now been targeted for the third night in a row.

These strikes followed Russia’s announcement that it had reclaimed control over the last remaining sections of the Kursk region captured by Ukrainian forces during a surprise offensive last August. Ukrainian authorities, however, stated that clashes in the area were still underway.

Speaking on Saturday, Trump expressed doubt about Putin’s intentions, suggesting that hopes for an imminent peace deal may be misplaced. This came just a day after Trump had remarked that Ukraine and Russia were “very close to a deal.”

“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump wrote in a post on social media while traveling back to the U.S. from the Vatican. He had attended the funeral of Pope Francis, where he also briefly met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump also hinted that additional sanctions targeting Russia could soon be imposed.

The conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy at the Vatican marked the first time the two leaders met in person since their tense confrontation during a heated Oval Office meeting at the White House in late February.

The Ukrainian air force reported that Russia deployed 149 attack drones and decoys overnight. Out of those, air defenses managed to intercept 57 and jam another 67, according to officials.

Drone strikes also injured one person in the Odesa region and another in the city of Zhytomyr, Ukrainian authorities said. In Kherson, a Russian airstrike Sunday morning left four people wounded, local officials reported.

On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that its air defense systems had downed five Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk region and intercepted three more over Crimea, the territory Russia illegally seized in 2014.

Meanwhile, five individuals were hurt when Ukrainian shelling hit the city of Horlivka in the partially occupied Donetsk region, according to Ivan Prikhodko, the Russian-installed mayor of the city.

{Matzav.com}

In a gambit to cling to power, Hamas says it would strike a deal with Israel that would leave it ruling Gaza under the protection of an internationally guaranteed five-year truce, according to sources cited by international media outlets. Under the proposed agreement, Hamas would release all remaining Israeli hostages in a single exchange—one of Israel’s key demands since the brutal October 7, 2023, massacre that ignited the current war. The latest maneuver comes after Hamas rejected an Israeli ceasefire offer earlier this month, dismissing it as “partial” and insisting instead on a “comprehensive” arrangement to end the fighting. Israel, for its part, has remained firm: no final deal without the full return of the hostages and the dismantling of Hamas’s terrorist military infrastructure—conditions that Hamas has flatly declared as a “red line.” An earlier Israeli proposal offered a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages. Hamas rebuffed that offer as insufficient. More than a month into Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza, launched after a temporary two-month ceasefire collapsed, Hamas negotiators indicated they are now willing to discuss “new ideas” during ongoing talks in Cairo. Still, deep skepticism remains over whether the jihadist group would truly comply with any disarmament, even under international supervision. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The United States and Iran concluded their third round of nuclear negotiations on Shabbos, agreeing to meet again on May 3, according to a report from Axios citing Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi, who is serving as an intermediary between the two sides.

Yesterday’s session in Muscat represented the first time the negotiators delved into the technical details of a possible deal, focusing primarily on the nuclear restrictions proposed by the U.S. and Iran’s insistence on substantial sanctions relief.

“The talks in Muscat were positive and productive. There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” said a senior U.S. official, as quoted by Axios.

Both working-level teams and top negotiators — White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi — participated in the meeting, which reportedly ran for over four hours and included a mix of direct dialogue and indirect exchanges.

An American source confirmed that talks would pick up again next week in Europe.

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi commented, “US-Iran talks today identified a shared aspiration to reach agreement based on mutual respect and enduring commitments. Core principles, objectives and technical concerns were all addressed.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, speaking to journalists traveling with him, expressed optimism about the talks. “This round of talks was much more serious than in the past, and we gradually moved into more detailed and technical discussions,” he said.

Araqchi shared that multiple written proposals had been exchanged during the marathon session. “Some differences are serious, some less so. I’m hopeful about reaching a deal, but yet cautious,” he concluded.

President Donald Trump has made clear that he would prefer to resolve the standoff with Iran through diplomacy, but he has also kept the possibility of military action on the table.

Earlier this month, Trump said that if military intervention becomes necessary to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Israel would play a leading role in the operation.

“With Iran, if it requires military, we’re going to have military. Israel will be the leader of that. But nobody leads us, we do what we want to do,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office.

When asked about a specific deadline for negotiations with Iran, Trump declined to set a firm date. “I can’t really be specific, but when you start talks, you know if they’re going along well or not, and I would say the conclusion would be when I think they’re not going along well,” he said.

In earlier comments, Trump warned Tehran that failure to reach a deal would result in devastating consequences: “if they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing — and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

During an interview with Time Magazine on Friday, Trump reiterated that a nuclear deal could still be achieved without resorting to military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.

He added that while he is prepared to use force if required, he is equally willing to meet directly with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in hopes of averting conflict.

{Matzav.com}