Hezbollah rockets continue to pummel Israel’s north
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Times of Israel
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Health reporter Diana Bletter joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.
Israel and Lebanon held a historic summit on Tuesday in Washington, DC, as envoys for the two nations met with the hopes of reaching a peace deal that would end decades of conflict. The talks ended without a clear way forward on the goal of demilitarizing Hezbollah and no date for a follow-up meeting had been set as of Tuesday evening.
On Tuesday morning, the Iranian-backed terror organization Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets to Israel, sending tens of thousands of Israelis to bomb shelters and wounding one.
Bletter explains what life is like in the north and focuses in on a visit she paid to Ora Hatan in Shtula. Hatan, who will light a torch next week for Israel's Independence Day, has cooked thousands of meals for IDF soldiers since the conflict erupted in the north on October 8, 2023.
A Beersheba family court judge on Friday ruled that the sperm of Yotam Haim, an Israeli hostage who was mistakenly killed by troops after escaping Hamas captivity in Gaza, may be used to conceive a child, saying it was his express wish before his death. Bletter delves into some of the 250 cases of postmortem sperm retrieval and the questions the procedure raises.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Israeli, Lebanese envoys hold historic summit in Washington to discuss peace deal
Judge rules slain hostage’s family may use his sperm with a surrogate
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and edited by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: Ora Hatan’s family restaurant, Hemdat HaGalil, in Shtula, destroyed by Hezbollah rockets in 2024, on April 12, 2026. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Times of Israel's daily briefing. |
| 0:06.5 | Today is Wednesday, April 15th. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm Amanda Borchelle Dan here in Jerusalem, |
| 0:11.3 | joined by Diana Bleder, our reporter in the North and for Science. |
| 0:16.3 | Diana, thank you so much for joining me today. |
| 0:18.3 | Thank you, Amanda. |
| 0:19.4 | It is such a pleasure to see you because |
| 0:21.6 | the North is being pummeled today by dozens of rocket barrages from Chazbalah. This comes on the |
| 0:28.1 | heels of talks in Washington, D.C., between the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and the Lebanese ambassador |
| 0:35.0 | to the U.S. to try and reach some kind of brokered ceasefire |
| 0:40.2 | between Israel and Chzbollah. The goal here is to disarm Chazbalah. So these rockets coming from |
| 0:47.3 | Chzbollah are in retaliation to the very talks themselves. We are going to discuss what it is like |
| 0:53.9 | to live in the North, to report from the North, |
| 0:56.2 | and we're also going to talk about a very moving story of one bereaved mother who is doing |
| 1:02.3 | all she can to carry on her son's memory. |
| 1:05.8 | All of this and more when we're back. |
| 1:18.2 | Thank you. and more when we're back. Since October 7, more than 1,200 women and children have lost their husbands and fathers, |
| 1:24.7 | bravely defending Israel and our shared future. |
| 1:30.3 | Their loss is not temporary. It does not fade with time or headlines. For these families, the impact lasts a lifetime. |
| 1:38.3 | In Jewish tradition, we are commanded to stand with the widow and the orphan, to support them with dignity and care. For 35 years, |
| 1:45.8 | the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization has been there, providing community, psychosocial, and |
| 1:51.5 | financial support for life. Wars end. Responsibility doesn't. As Yomazikaron approaches, the pain resurfaces, |
... |
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