Northerners feel grim amid war but firm on need to defeat Hezbollah
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Times of Israel
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 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 editor Diana Bletter and environmental reporter Sue Surkes join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
With the northern city of Kiryat Shmona and surrounding towns facing constant fire from Hezbollah rockets, Bletter reports on the sense of desolation and concern from residents that the IDF won't finish the job in Lebanon, requiring them to go through another round of war in another six months' time.
Surkes discusses Israeli organizational efforts to help the Arab community in the north build emotional resilience during wartime, given concerns over a lack of adequate shelter in their communities and the terrible wave of internal violence.
After the Health Ministry budget was cut by $20 million, Bletter reports on fundraising efforts by Israeli hospitals, which are running their operations underground during the war.
Finally, Surkes briefly examines how birds struggle to breed in open spaces amid the noise pollution from nearby roads.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Northern residents concerned IDF won’t be allowed to ‘finish the job’ against Hezbollah
In mixed Haifa, weary residents face near-constant Iranian and Hezbollah missile fire
Facing violence on all fronts, Arab Israelis are unprecedentedly open to mental health help
As Iranian missiles rain down, hospitals scramble to raise funds for underground shelters
Road racket killing the mood for birds breeding in half of Israel’s open spaces – study
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: Israeli security and rescue forces at the scene where a missile fired from Lebanon toward Israel caused damage in Kiryat Shmona, March 24, 2026. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel's Daily Briefing. It's Sunday, March 29th, and I'm Jessica Steinberg. |
| 0:08.8 | I'm speaking today with environmental reporters to Cirque and health editor Diana Bledder, both of whom cover other subjects as well, which we'll get into today. |
| 0:17.3 | Hi, Chavuetteau. Good morning, Tewv. Good morning, too. Good morning, Jessica. Good morning. |
| 0:21.4 | Good morning. Just to cover some of the most recent headlines, |
| 0:25.6 | a soldier from the paratroopers brigade, Moshe, Yitzchak, Kako, and Katz from New Haven, Connecticut, |
| 0:31.9 | was killed in fighting in southern Lebanon yesterday. Three others were wounded during that set of fighting in Lebanon. Southern |
| 0:41.5 | Israel received two sets of missile strikes from Iran during the night. Saturday morning had |
| 0:48.3 | actually brought a suspected Houthi drone from Yemen over a lot, which is the first Houthi strike or attempted |
| 0:55.9 | strike of this war. And meanwhile, the IDF says that it is almost done targeting the quote |
| 1:01.8 | unquote critical Iranian military sites. We're going to look at some other related subjects today. |
| 1:08.8 | We're going to discuss various aspects of life in the North right now. |
| 1:12.1 | What's happening in Kiryat Shmona right on the border in Haifa? Therapeutic care for the Arab community |
| 1:18.7 | and hospitals and their need to raise funds right now. Stay with us. |
| 1:30.0 | How did the Jewish people get to this moment? And where are we headed next? |
| 1:33.4 | I'm Rabbi Amitai Freeman, and this is a long path podcast. Each week, I sit down with thinkers, |
| 1:38.0 | leaders, and voices from across the Jewish world, explore the past, present, and future of |
| 1:41.7 | Jewish life. Because the future is not something that we inherit. It is something that we build. Join us for conversations that do not shy away from complexity. It is not a podcast about easy answers. It is about asking better questions, challenging assumptions, and imagining what a shared Jewish future could look like. We were the first medical team to intra-Gaza, five weeks into the war. You know, after the 7th of October, |
| 2:01.7 | I really started to see people's hearts going through a process |
| 2:06.8 | which looked like calcification. |
| 2:09.3 | And I said, not me. |
| 2:11.2 | It's the job of visionary leaders to change that. |
| 2:14.1 | This doesn't happen, actually. |
... |
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