Netanyahu, 75, has been widely accused of using Israel’s various regional wars as a way of either avoiding giving evidence in the trial or even ending it completely.

Last month he reportedly asked Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, to help him get out of testifying, arguing that it would be a security risk for him to be in a known location for an extended period.

Israel’s longest-serving leader and its defining politician, who now heads a government dependent on key members of the country’s far-right settler movement, is the first sitting Israeli prime minister to be charged with a crime.

Charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu will testify three times a week, the court said, despite Israel’s war on Gaza, the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon and its incursions into Syria.

The Palestinian death toll in besieged Gaza rose to 44,758 on Tuesday, as Israel shows no sign of stopping the bloodshed.

Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in three cases involving gifts from millionaire friends and for allegedly seeking regulatory favours for media tycoons in return for favourable coverage. He denies any wrongdoing.

The prime minister arrived at Tel Aviv District Court at around 10am local time on Tuesday morning, wearing a dark blue suit and white shirt, with an Israeli flag pin on one label and a yellow ribbon symbolising the hostages held in Gaza on the other.

“I have been waiting for eight years for this moment to tell the truth,” Netanyahu told the three judges hearing the case in an underground courtroom, according to Reuters. “But I am also a prime minister… I am leading the country through a seven-front war. And I think the two can be done in parallel.”

Before Netanyahu took the stand, his lawyer Amit Hadad told judges that there were fundamental flaws in the case against his client, and that prosecutors “weren’t investigating a crime, they were going after a person.”

Outside the courtroom, a few dozen protesters had gathered, some of them supporters and others – including family members of the roughly 100 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza – calling for Netanyahu to stop obstructing a deal to bring those hostages home.

Alon Pinkas, a prominent Israeli diplomat, told Middle East Eye Netanyahu’s appearance in court was “significant but not critical since his testimony will take months”.

Cigars, champagne and jewellery 

Of the various allegations levelled at Netanyahu, the most eye-catching involve the receipt of nearly $200,000 worth of gifts from a billionaire Hollywood film producer.

Arnon Milchan, an Israeli businessman, film producer and former spy, took the stand last June to describe how he routinely delivered tens of thousands of dollars worth of champagne, cigars and other gifts requested by Netanyahu.

According to the court indictment, Milchan, whose production credits include hits such as Pretty Woman and 12 Years a Slave, gave Netanyahu and his wife boxes of cigars, jewellery and crates of champagne over a period of several years.

On the eve of his testimony, Netanyahu was typically bullish in his defence, describing his investigation as a witch hunt and claiming that for “eight years I’ve been waiting for this day. Eight years I have waited to present the truth.”

“The real threat to democracy in Israel is not posed by the public’s elected representatives, but by some among the law enforcement authorities who refuse to accept the voters’ choice and are trying to carry out a coup with rabid political investigations that are unacceptable in any democracy,” he added in a statement.

Netanyahu’s son, Yair, has compared those investigating his father to Nazi Germany’s Gestapo and East Germany’s Stasi.

Before Israel’s war on Gaza began in the wake of the 7 October Hamas-led attacks, Netanyahu’s legal troubles bitterly divided Israelis and shook the country’s politics through five rounds of elections.

His government’s bid last year to curb powers of the judiciary further polarised Israelis, but the shock of the Hamas-led attacks and the ensuing war swept Netanyahu’s trial off the public agenda as the country united.

In recent weeks, though, members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have clashed with Israel’s judiciary and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has heaped further legal jeopardy onto Netanyahu by issuing arrest warrants for him and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

Both men are charged by the ICC with alleged war crimes. Nevertheless, an Israeli security source told MEE they expected Netanyahu to remain in power in the short to medium term.

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“This barbarian, thug, and bloodthirsty greedy named Netanyahu, who is dragging our region and the entire world into disaster, must be stopped,” Erdogan said during his speech in the capital Ankara.

“As Turkiye, we object to the oppression, massacre and injustice that has been going on for 76 years on every platform. We stand with the Palestinian people with all our means,” he added.

On the fight against terrorism, Erdogan said: “Turkiye cannot find peace or feel secure until the terror-producing swamps in northern Iraq and Syria are drained.”

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Israel and its biggest ally, the United States, have insisted that Hamas – currently in power in Gaza – cannot be allowed to continue to rule the strip, following its attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which an estimated 1,400 people were killed.

However, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday and indicated that the PA would be willing to return to the besieged enclave as part of a future political settlement.

“We will fully assume our responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution that includes all of the [occupied] West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip,” Abbas was quoted as telling United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Blinken was visiting Ramallah, the PA’s seat in the occupied West Bank.

So how do people in Gaza view the prospect of the PA taking power in the besieged Strip 17 years after Hamas won legislative elections, and then a military battle against Fatah, the political arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), chaired by Abbas?

Here are some voices from the ground:

Mohamed, 25

I don’t think the PA taking over Gaza is a solution people will accept or support. I reject it because I can see what’s happening in the West Bank, which is under PA’s control.

There are always raids into so many towns and people are always arrested in these areas considered under the PA’s rule.

They don’t change anything on the ground. This is why its rule will not benefit Gaza in any way. I would be for a national unity government [including Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions].

Kamal, 53

The PA will not protect Gaza because it participated in its siege repeatedly and oppressed the people of Gaza, all because of its dispute with Hamas. We don’t believe it can be fair in Gaza.

The president always gives these speeches talking about Gaza and his responsibility towards it, but he doesn’t do what he says.

The evidence is the siege and the explosion that occurred in Gaza. If the PA were good for the West Bank, it may have been good in Gaza.

But we can see that the return of the PA is impossible. It can only come as part of a national unity government chosen by the people.

Somaia, 29

The West Bank is enough of an example of how life is for other Palestinians under the rule of the PA. The Israeli occupation has an iron fist that strikes at the simplest rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories.

The only solution, or any next move that should be discussed now, should prioritize the means of how dismantling years of occupation and military rule across the occupied territories.

That will help whoever runs Gaza, from among the Palestinian factions, to do what is best for the people, and for the people only.

Abu Hakeem, 45

Whether the PA is a valid alternate player that could take power over two million people here doesn’t seem to be a priority question for people right now.

What the US and the PA are discussing now, no matter what can’t be enough to guarantee the safety of my family or thousands of others who are currently in Gaza under fire from Israeli warplanes.

Ahmed, 33

We have been calling for years for the mere human rights that we need to have a life – like employment, electricity, clean water, freedom of movement and the right to seek medical referral outside.

The legitimacy of the PA as a suitable power, and of any other ruler in Gaza, comes into the equation only when we have enough for a good life and survival from this hell.

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According to the Haredi newspaper HaModia yesterday, Netanyahu had acknowledged that his “political career is nearing an end”, and that he “does not have the capacity to manage the country in Israel’s current political state.”

He was reportedly committed to making “any deal with the Saudis possible, even at the price of toppling his own government,” and was prepared to work with American officials to settle the long-awaited normalization deal. He apparently agreed to a plea bargain for relief in his own criminal trials in return for his resignation.

The Israeli prime minister denied that report yesterday, however, with his Likud faction saying in a statement that it was a “farfetched fabrication.”

It assured that “There was never any commitment or request made to change the current make-up of the government [in relation to the normalization efforts],” and stressed that Netanyahu’s government “will fulfill its tenure regardless of the prime minister’s attempts to widen Israel’s circle of peace.”

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The measures announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing security cabinet on Friday include using Palestinian money to compensate the families of Israeli settlers and soldiers who were attacked by Palestinians, and imposing a moratorium on Palestinian construction in some areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu’s office said the measures were a “response to the Palestinian Authority’s decision to wage political and legal war against the State of Israel”.

In a tweet, Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right security minister, said he hopes that more measures will be taken “against those who support terrorism and try to put pressure on Israel”.

Israel, which collects tax money on behalf of the PA, would use 139 million shekels ($39m) from PA funds to compensate victims of Palestinian armed attacks and would also offset the stipends the PA pays to Palestinians who carried out attacks and their families, said Netanyahu’s office.

The moratorium on Palestinian building, it said, would apply to a part of the West Bank called Area C, which accounts for 60 percent of the occupied territory and is under full Israeli control.

‘Flagrant violation’

The PA’s foreign ministry denounced the measures as a reflection of the Israeli government’s “racist colonial program” against Palestinians, as well as a “flagrant violation” of Israel’s obligations as an occupying power.

“These decisions are condemned and rejected both in relation to money and other measures they are planning,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said additional sanctions will also target PA officials.

“[Israel] is going to deny benefits to the senior members of the Palestinian Authority, who are leading the political and legal war against Israel,” he said.

“This means that they are going to make it much more difficult for them to actually leave the occupied West Bank to travel abroad to make it to international meetings.”

Khan said Israel would take further measures against humanitarian groups and rights organizations who promote “terrorist or hostile activity” in the occupied West Bank.

“These are tough sanctions but we have seen them before. The fact that there is a far-right Israeli government means these sanctions are likely to remain in place for quite a while,” Khan said.

Last week, following an appeal by the Palestinians, the UN General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to give an opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s 55-year-old occupation of Palestinian territories.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. It withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but, along with neighboring Egypt, controls the enclave’s borders. The Palestinian Authority has had limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank under the 1993 interim Oslo Accords.

The World Court is the top UN court dealing with disputes between states. Its rulings are binding, though it has no power to enforce them.

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The year 2022 was already the deadliest for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2006, as Israel conducted near-daily military raids, and the Gaza Strip faced three days of Israeli bombardment in August.

Those actions were undertaken by a “centrist” Israeli government – leading many Palestinians to question whether there has been any real difference between the different governments’ policies towards them in the past few years.

Yet, the inclusion of far-right figures in government who were previously considered too extreme even for Israeli politics has raised fears among some, and the expectation that a new round of violence lies ahead.

And the new government’s top priority – an expansion of settlements in the West Bank – and a pronouncement that “the Jewish people have an exclusive right on all the land” between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea have served only to amplify that.

Al Jazeera spoke to Palestinians in the West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip to get their views.

Reham Odeh, political analyst, Gaza

“If we look at the government’s members, we see extremists and settlers among them who constantly call for the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, including Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and therefore there is more of an expectation of a return to scenes of violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank,” said Odeh.

The political analyst believes that will particularly be the case if the Netanyahu government moves forward with its plans to expand settlements and potentially annex Palestinian land.

“[That] will stop any chance of a future solution, or Palestinian endeavors to achieve the dream of a Palestinian state, including the two-state solution.”

On Gaza, and despite what Odeh calls Netanyahu’s “bloody policy” towards the territory in the past, the political analyst does not expect a new war in the short term, with the new prime minister instead focusing on the policies he has already emphasized, namely the expansion of settlements, strengthening normalization ties with Arab countries and managing the Iran file.

Hazem Qassem, Hamas spokesman, Gaza

“Netanyahu’s declared policy means that we will face great tensions, and this opens up the possibility of [another] confrontation for us,” Qassem told Al Jazeera. “There is a tendency towards escalating violence against Palestinian prisoners and adding more restrictions to their living conditions, and there is a tendency towards enacting restrictive policies in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque [in occupied East Jerusalem], in addition to expanding settlements.”

Qassem warned that this would lead to a potential “explosion” in the region.

He said Palestinian armed groups would “not stand idly in light of any expansion of aggressive policies towards the Palestinian people and transgressions when it comes to red lines such as Jerusalem and Palestinian prisoners”, adding that Hamas was “ready to defend” the Palestinian people.

“We need to adopt a unified Palestinian policy to defend the rights of the Palestinian people, and to advance the Palestinian reconciliation file,” Qassem said, emphasizing the importance of unity between Palestinian factions in the West Bank and Gaza.

Azzam Abu al-Adass, political analyst, Nablus

For Abu al-Adass, the Netanyahu government not only poses a threat to Palestinians but also to left-wing and secular Israelis.

“The current government believes its achievements will be at the expense of Palestinian blood and the killing of Palestinians,” Abu al-Adass said, before referring to Ben-Gvir’s attempts to relax open-fire rules for Israeli security forces and to revoke the nationality of Palestinians living in Israel and East Jerusalem.

With regards to Gaza, Abu al-Adass believes a new attack is unlikely as it would be “exhausting” for the Netanyahu government.

“Netanyahu will focus his government’s escalators efforts on the West Bank, especially with the emergence of new popular resistance groups, which recently strengthened their presence in the West Bank, especially Jenin and Nablus,” he said.

“The Israeli media constantly talks about the development of resistance groups in the West Bank, and this may make it the closest target of the current government led by Netanyahu.”

Ahmed Abu Artema, activist, Gaza

“Our main problem is with the Zionist project itself, which is based on displacing our people, occupying their lands, committing massacres, and practicing racial discrimination, regardless of who leads it,” said Abu Artema.

The activist said the most dangerous element of the new government was the “unprecedentedly sharp tone of hostility” from its members, including Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister and man who will oversee the administration of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

“All these indications make us expect that there will be more targeting of Palestinians and the theft of more Palestinian lands,” Abu Artema said.

“The only hope is to continue the Palestinian struggle for freedom and liberation from the Israeli occupation,” he added.

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