I’m writing as a J Street advocacy leader to share important updates from the region as well as J Street’s statements and resources from the past week.

This week, against the backdrop of Netanyahu’s 4-day visit to D.C., Israel’s Defense Minister announced plans to confine Gaza’s population to a designated camp near Rafah. Meanwhile, Israel and the EU reached an agreement for expanded aid and fuel deliveries into Gaza, and Hamas reportedly agreed to release 10 hostages in negotiations for a ceasefire deal. In the West Bank, an Israeli man was killed in a suspected terror attack near a shopping complex, and Palestinians in rural areas reported intensified settler harassment and fears of village demolitions.

You can find more on each of these developments and others below, along with our most recent statements here.

I invite you to reach out to your J Street Public Affairs staff with any questions.

All the best,
Lily

—
Lily Adelstein
She/Her
Deputy Director of Government Affairs, J Street
Cell: 202-699-2701
J Street’s Congressional Resource Page

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Israeli defence minister plans to move Gaza’s population to camp in Rafah

Israel’s defence minister says he has instructed its military to prepare a plan to move all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp in the south of the territory, Israeli media reports say. Israel Katz told journalists on Monday he wanted to establish a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of the city of Rafah to initially house about 600,000 Palestinians – and eventually the whole 2.1 million population…. One Israeli human rights lawyer condemned it as nothing less than an “operational plan for a crime against humanity”.

Israel, European Union reach deal on more aid, fuel deliveries to Gaza

The European Union and Israel have agreed on a deal to allow more food, fuel and other vital aid into the starvation-gripped Gaza Strip, with an E.U. presence at border crossings, European and Israeli officials said Thursday. “Today, we reached an agreement with Israel to expand humanitarian access to Gaza,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X. “This deal means more crossings open, aid and food trucks entering Gaza, repair of vital infrastructure and protection of aid workers.

Hamas agrees to release 10 hostages as part of Gaza ceasefire talks

Hamas said it would release 10 hostages held in Gaza in a bid to reach a ceasefire deal to end 21 months of war in the Palestinian enclave, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conducted high-level talks in Washington. As part of its “commitment to the success” of ongoing peace talks, the militant group said in a news release Wednesday, it would free the captives, although it cautioned that the talks with Israel had been difficult. It did not say when the hostages would be freed.

Knives, bullets and thieves: the quest for food in Gaza

Anas Baba is NPR’s producer in the Gaza Strip. His report is a rare account by a journalist inside a new food distribution site that the United States and Israel helped establish in the Palestinian territory. …”What does it take to get food today in Gaza? It involves a perilous journey that I took myself. I faced Israeli military fire, private U.S. contractors pointing laser beams at my forehead, crowds with knives fighting for rations, and masked thieves — to get food from a group supported by the U.S. and Israel called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF.”

Israeli man killed in terror attack at West Bank shopping complex; 2 attackers killed

A 22-year-old Israeli man was killed in a terror attack at a shopping complex at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank on Thursday, the military, police, and medics said. The two Palestinian terrorists who carried out the attack were shot dead by a soldier and another armed civilian in the area, West Bank District Commander Moshe Pinchi told reporters at the scene. According to a preliminary investigation of the attack, the two terrorists arrived by a stolen car at the shopping center and stabbed a security guard outside a supermarket. The assailants then snatched the guard’s handgun and exchanged fire with the soldier and armed civilian, before being killed.

Palestinians fear razing of villages in West Bank, as settlers circle their homes

An Israeli directive gives a green light for demolitions in Masafer Yatta, where residents keep watch at night for attackers in the darkness. … The men in Masafer Yatta rarely sleep these days. They take turns standing watch at night, fearful that nearby Israeli settlers will attack under the cover of darkness. Daylight brings little respite. Residents work with an ear pricked up for the sound of approaching vehicles, scanning the horizon for Israeli bulldozers which could signal their homes are next to be demolished.

How Netanyahu Prolonged the War in Gaza to Stay in Power

Secret meetings, altered records, ignored intelligence: the inside story of the prime minister’s political calculations since Oct. 7. Six months into the war in the Gaza Strip, Benjamin Netanyahu was preparing to bring it to a halt. Negotiations were underway for an extended cease-fire with Hamas, and he was ready to agree to a compromise…. Now, at the cabinet meeting, Smotrich declared that he had heard rumors of a plan for a deal. The details disturbed him. “I want you to know that if a surrender agreement like this is brought forward, you no longer have a government,” Smotrich said. “The government is finished.” It was 5:44 p.m., according to minutes of the meeting. At that moment, the prime minister was forced to choose between the chance of a truce and his political survival — and Netanyahu opted for survival. There was no cease-fire plan, he promised Smotrich. “No, no, there’s no such thing,” he said. And as the cabinet discussion moved on, Netanyahu quietly leaned over to his security advisers and whispered what must have by then become obvious to them: “Don’t present the plan.”

Immigration Officials Used Shadowy Pro-Israel Group to Target Student Activists

A senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official testified in federal court on Wednesday that his office had used opaque pro-Israel blacklisting websites to help target international student activists for investigation and possible deportation. The admission by Peter Hatch, the assistant director of the Homeland Security Investigations department within ICE, appeared to be the first time that an administration official had acknowledged taking cues from the shadowy groups behind the sites, including Canary Mission, which has been accused of doxxing individuals engaged in pro-Palestinian activism. Mr. Hatch’s testimony came during the third day of trial proceedings in a case that has emerged as a major challenge to the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign students.

Some of Iran’s Enriched Uranium Survived Attacks, Israeli Official Says

Israel has concluded that some of Iran’s underground stockpile of near-bomb-grade enriched uranium survived American and Israeli attacks last month and may be accessible to Iranian nuclear engineers, according to a senior Israeli official. The senior official also said that Israel had begun moving toward military action against Iran late last year after seeing what the official described as a race to build a bomb as part of a secret Iranian project. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. The official said Israeli intelligence picked up the nuclear weapons activity soon after the Israeli Air Force killed Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon. That observation prompted the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to prepare for an attack with or without U.S. help.