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IDF Asks That Kids Avoid Using Toy Explosives During Purim Celebrations to Protect Soldiers
Ayla Mirakhor, 1, from left, Carmen Gavilan-Fraum, 7 months, and Elka Levitin, 20 months, celebrate Purim during the Daled Arts Family Hamantash Bake, March 18, 2024 at Alef Preschool in Palm Beach. Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari released a video on Friday, shortly before Shabbat, calling on Israelis to avoid using toy explosives and other noisy objects during the upcoming Jewish holiday of Purim.
“Don’t throw explosives on the holiday. We in the IDF will continue to do everything to embrace the soldiers wounded in body and soul and their families. You have fulfilled your duty; now we will fulfill our duty,” Hagari said.
Purim — which commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from annihilation at the hands of Haman, an official of the Achaemenid Empire — is told in the Book of Esther. It is known as an especially joyous and fun holiday when people dress up in costumes.
The video also included soldiers from various units injured in battle speaking about the issue.
“I have never been in favor of explosives,” one solider said. “There are many soldiers that it can hurt them from the same sounds and noises that sound like real explosions. Every small sound we hear takes us back [to Gaza]. We don’t want to be there.”
The soldier continued: “We experienced wounded and killed, and it brings us exactly to the same spot. We don’t want to be there. Moments of blood, explosions, and screams. Think of me as your big brother. Would you want your big brother to hear something explode and it makes him jump? Of course not.”
The soldier concluded: “Every small explosion can bring you back to the hardest moments you have ever experienced. Your sensitivity can help us not to return to that place. Especially this year, don’t throw explosives on the holiday.”
According to professionals, mental health has emerged as a critical challenge facing the IDF and Israeli society as a whole since the Gaza war’s outbreak. Due to the war — which began with the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust on Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists killed over 1,200 people and took 253 as hostages — the entire country is considered in a state of trauma, according to a leading psychologist group.
According to a study released last week, hundreds of thousands of Israelis are at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following the war. Many of those at risk are soldiers. The IDF has taken extra measures to look after their mental health, including army-mandated therapy sessions for all soldiers who served in Gaza or in the north at the border with Lebanon.
The IDF also opened a new mental health center at the army’s Tel HaShomer base in February specifically geared for soldiers leaving Gaza. Per IDF numbers at the time of the opening, more than 30,000 reservists had met with mental health professionals, with 202 soldiers being released from service due to mental health issues discovered and an additional 1,700 referred for advanced screening and treatment.
With Purim set to begin on Saturday evening, there have been fears that costumes or loud noises could startle soldiers who left service and may be suffering from discovered or under-the-surface mental health stresses due to what they saw.
Amid such concerns, there have been calls for those celebrating to avoid dressing as soldiers and carrying fake guns. The call by Hagari goes further, however, asking them not to use popular toy explosives — which, though harmless, can make loud and sudden noises, sometimes accompanied by a quick flash.
The toy explosives are usually thrown by kids in the various street parties and at synagogues when the name “Haman” is said.
The post IDF Asks That Kids Avoid Using Toy Explosives During Purim Celebrations to Protect Soldiers first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with government officials in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2025. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Donald Trump on Saturday of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region.
On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist (Israeli) regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after departing the United Arab Emirates on Friday that Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear program or “something bad’s going to happen.”
His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth responding to.” They are an “embarrassment to the speaker and the American people,” Khamenei added.
“Undoubtedly, the source of corruption, war, and conflict in this region is the Zionist regime — a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumor that must be uprooted; it will be uprooted,” he said at an event at a religious center in Tehran, according to state media.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats.
“Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.”
Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said.
While Trump said on Friday that Iran had a US proposal about its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X said Tehran had not received any such proposal. “There is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to (uranium) enrichment for peaceful purposes…” he said.
Araqchi warned on Saturday that Washington’s constant change of stance prolongs nuclear talks, state TV reported.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that America repeatedly defines a new framework for negotiations that prolongs the process,” the broadcast quoted Araqchi as saying.
Pezeshkian said Iran would not “back down from our legitimate rights”.
“Because we refuse to bow to bullying, they say we are source of instability in the region,” he said.
A fourth round of Iran-U.S. talks ended in Oman last Sunday. A new round has not been scheduled yet.
The post Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday
Doha, Qatar. Photo: StellarD via Wikimedia Commons.
A new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel is underway in Qatar’s Doha, Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters on Saturday.
He said the two sides were discussing all issues without “pre-conditions.”
Nono said Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success, adding there was “no certain offer on the table.”
The negotiations come despite Israel preparing to expand operations in the Gaza Strip as they seek “operational control” in some areas of the war-torn enclave.
The return to negotiations also comes after US President Donald Trump ended a Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire, although he acknowledged Gaza’s growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries.
The post Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
i24 News – Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily as an investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct by United Nations investigators is nearing its final phase, Reuters reported on Friday citing sources from the international court.
Khan allegedly forced sexual intercourse upon a member of staff on multiple occasions, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, linking the allegations to Khan’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
A statement is expected later today announcing that Khan is going on administrative leave, according to a source in the prosecutor’s office.
The post Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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