I hope you’re doing well.

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, Trump rejected the Arab states’ policy proposal for post-war Gaza and reconstruction, doubling down on his plan to “take over” Gaza. Meanwhile, food prices in Gaza surged following Israel’s halt on aid deliveries, and US aid efforts in Gaza faced significant delays, with millions of promised USAID dollars yet to arrive.

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

Please feel free to reach out to your J Street Public Affairs staff if you have 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

This week on j street

STATEMENT

J Street Responds to the Expiration of Phase 1 of the Ceasefire

J STREET POLICY CENTER MEMO

Emergency Arab Summit on Gaza

BLOG

Trump’s Dark, Divisive Speech

WEBINAR

The State of Gaza Ceasefire Negotiations and Escalation in the Region

Watch →

What we’re reading

Trump Rejects Arab States’ Bid to Rebuild Gaza, Stands by Takeover Plan, White House Says

The Trump administration announced early Wednesday that it rejected a proposal from Arab states concerning Gaza’s reconstruction. The plan “does not address the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable and residents cannot humanely live in a territory covered in debris and unexploded ordnance,” U.S. National Security Spokesperson Brian Hughes said. Hughes added that “President Trump stands by his vision to rebuild Gaza free from Hamas” and that the U.S. looks “forward to further talks to bring peace and prosperity to the region.” On Tuesday, the Arab League summit adopted an Egyptian plan for rebuilding and governing Gaza and called on the international community and financial institutions to support the plan quickly.

U.S. holding secret talks with Hamas

The Trump administration has been holding direct talks with Hamas over the release of U.S. hostages held in Gaza and the possibility of a broader deal to end the war, two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions tell Axios… The talks — held by U.S. presidential envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler — are unprecedented. The U.S. had never before engaged directly with Hamas, which it designated a terrorist organization in 1997… The meetings between Boehler and Hamas officials took place in Doha in recent weeks. While the Trump administration consulted with Israel about the possibility of engaging with Hamas, Israel learned about aspects of the talks through other channels, one source said.

Gaza food prices soar after Israel halts aid deliveries

Food prices in Gaza have risen sharply and aid food parcels could soon run out after Israel blocked the entry of humanitarian aid, the UN’s humanitarian agency said. OCHA’s partners reported that flour and vegetable prices had more than doubled in some cases, with Gazans telling the BBC the same. If the blockade continued, “at least 80 community kitchens may soon run out of stock” and remaining food parcels that “will support 500,000 people, will soon run out”, OCHA said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose to stop aid at the weekend, accusing Hamas of stealing supplies and refusing a US proposal to extend the Gaza ceasefire. A Hamas spokesman said the halt was “cheap blackmail”.

Aid efforts in Gaza slow as millions of promised USAID dollars do not arrive, agency officials say

The Trump administration’s cuts to USAID have frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in contractual payments to aid groups, leaving them paying out of pocket to preserve a fragile ceasefire, according to officials from the U.S. humanitarian agency. The cutbacks threaten to halt the small gains aid workers have made combatting Gaza’s humanitarian crisis during the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. They also could endanger the tenuous truce, which the Trump administration helped cement. USAID was supposed to fund much of the aid to Gaza as the ceasefire progressed, and the Trump administration approved over $383 million on Jan. 31 to that end, according to three USAID officials. But since then, there have been no confirmed payments to any partners in the Middle East, they said.

Trump says he sent a letter to Iran’s leader proposing nuclear deal

President Trump said he sent a letter on Wednesday to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and stressed that he wants to reach a deal on the country’s nuclear program… Trump’s letter to Khamenei, which the president revealed in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo that will air in full on Sunday, is the first significant engagement between the U.S. and Iran since the new administration took office. Iran’s mission to the UN said no letter from Trump had been received… Trump reiterated in the interview that he wants to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Iran. “The other alternative is you have to do something because Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said in the interview.

Israeli forces kill West Bank Hamas commander

Israeli forces killed a Hamas commander in the West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday as they pushed ahead with a weeks-long operation against militant groups in the area that has sent tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes. The military said it had mounted a raid to arrest Aysar al-Saadi, the head of the Hamas network in the area and killed him in a gunfight in which another Hamas operative was also killed. Three other Hamas members were arrested, it said.

Opinion | We are in a Bad Place

“In the aftermath of Hamas’ rejection, the U.S. has stood behind Netanyahu even as he has announced a cut off of all aid to Gaza. It has gone further using emergency powers to bypass regular order with Congress and announce $4 billion in new arms sales – even though these sales won’t get to Israel for a couple of years so no need for the emergency. And Trump has publicly signaled that it’s fine if Israel goes back to war. The rationale for all of this, is that it’s designed to get Hamas to take a deal by applying pressure. Hopefully, it works. However, the much more likely outcome is that it retriggers the war, and once that momentum starts it becomes much harder to stop, and we might be in for months of fighting again with new suffering for Palestinian civilians, hostages dying, Israel paying a great military cost, and Hamas still in power.”