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J Street is standing with the people of Israel as we begin to understand the full scope of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel this Saturday, October 7th. While the horrifying situation in Israel and Gaza continues to unfold, J Street will be sending additional updates and resources, as well as briefing invitations and recommendations for Congressional action.
On that note, I wanted to share that in the House of Representatives, J Street strongly supports the Meeks-McCaul resolution supporting Israel and condemning Hamas’s inhumane attack and a bipartisan letter, led by Representatives Meng and Malliotakis, requesting Secretary Blinken’s assistance with the evacuation of American citizens currently in Israel. We urge all Representatives to support these vehicles, and thank all Members of Congress who have put out statements in show of solidarity.
We will continue updating the J Street website with the latest statements and resources. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions about the situation in Israel or any other concern.
Best,
Hannah
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Hannah Morris
She/Her
Director of Government Affairs, J Street
Cell: 832-606-1817
J Street’s Congressional Resource Page
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This week on j street
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STANDING WITH THE ISRAELI PEOPLE IN PAIN, HORROR AND GRIEF
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J STREET OUTRAGED, HORRIFIED BY HAMAS TERRORIST ONSLAUGHT AGAINST ISRAEL
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What we’re reading
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Israeli troops mass on Gaza border as death toll from Hamas attack passes 1,000
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| A massive Israeli military buildup was continuing along Gaza’s border on Tuesday, as the country’s military confirmed the death toll from Saturday’s Hamas attack – the deadliest militant assault in its history – had passed 1,000 and wave after wave of airstrikes hit the territory. Amid mounting expectations that Israel would launch a ground invasion of Gaza within days, Israeli soldiers were still collecting bodies of the dead four days after Hamas rampaged through southern Israeli towns in the deadliest terrorist attack in the country’s history. The Israeli military said it had mostly secured its border with Gaza after a night of intensified airstrikes across the enclave that destroyed infrastructure and displaced thousands of people… In a sign of the rapidly escalating crisis, a salvo of rockets from Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon was fired at northern Israel, leading Israeli forces to return fire in the third consecutive day of violence along the Lebanese-Israeli border… As hundreds of Israeli tanks and other military vehicles converged on muster points around Gaza, hundreds of thousands of reservists were travelling to join their units, with an Israeli military spokesperson saying its forces were installing “an iron wall” along the border of the besieged coastal enclave. The huge scale of the mobilisation suggests Israel is preparing for a far more substantial military attack against Hamas in Gaza than in the previous rounds of fighting, which claimed thousands of Palestinian lives. |
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Biden dispatches Blinken to Israel in show of support
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| Secretary of State Antony Blinken is flying to Israel on Wednesday in a show of support for the country as it begins a major offensive campaign in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip in response to a wave of deadly cross-border attacks by the militant group… Since the Hamas invasion on Saturday morning and massacre of Israeli civilians, Blinken has made a flurry of calls with his counterparts in the Middle East in an effort to have U.S. allies and partners send a clear message to Iran, Hezbollah and Palestinians in the West Bank to refrain from entering the conflict… Israeli officials have made several specific requests to Washington in response to the military offensive by Hamas, including a replenishment of Iron Dome ground-to-air missile interceptors, small-diameter bombs, ammunition for machine guns and heightened cooperation on intelligence-sharing particularly in southern Lebanon, according to U.S. officials familiar with the requests. “President Biden’s direction was to make sure that we’re providing Israel everything it needs in this moment to deal with the attacks from Hamas,” Blinken said. The Pentagon has sent the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Normandy, and four destroyers to the eastern Mediterranean. It has also sent munitions to Israel. |
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Biden: 14 Americans killed in Israel, others held hostage by Hamas in Gaza
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| At least 14 Americans were killed in the surprise Hamas attack on Israel and U.S. citizens are among the hostages being held by the militant group in Gaza, President Biden confirmed on Tuesday. The confirmation that Americans have been killed or are being held hostage will likely draw the U.S. even further into the crisis… “I’ve directed my team to share intelligence and deploy additional experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts,” Biden said on Tuesday. “Because as president, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world,” he added… Hamas militants invaded Israeli villages and towns on Saturday in its multiprong attack from land, air and sea. The Israeli military and much of the world were surprised by the attack. Unverified videos on social media show militants killing Israeli civilians and soldiers, and taking others, including elderly women, hostage and bringing them to Gaza. A Hamas military wing spokesperson said on Saturday that all those who were kidnapped were being held in hideouts around Gaza, including in tunnels. |
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‘It’s Not a War or a Battlefield. It’s a Massacre.’
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| Four days after hundreds of Hamas gunmen breached Israel’s border fence in the most brazen attack on the country in decades, overrunning two dozen towns and communities, including this one, in a bloody killing spree, soldiers and rescue workers on Tuesday began the gruesome task of extricating the bodies. They moved slowly, house to house, for fear that Hamas gunmen could still be hiding inside or have booby-trapped them. Live grenades lay in wait, to be neutralized by sappers. They carried out one slain resident in a body bag on a stretcher and placed it in the back of a truck. Then another. And another… After days of stunned national numbness and chaos, the dimensions of the atrocity that took place here were now coming into clear focus. In all, more than 1,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed in Israel. Nobody could say how many of them were lying here, in Kfar Azza, but it is emerging as one of the worst sites of the bloodshed. Soldiers and rescue workers said scores, possibly hundreds, had been slaughtered here, including grandparents, infants and children. “It’s not a war or a battlefield; it’s a massacre,” said Maj. Gen. Itai Veruv, an Israeli commander on the scene. “It’s something I never saw in my life, something more like a pogrom from our grandparents’ time.” |
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At Least 770 Dead as the Israel Air Force Bombs the Gaza Strip
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| At least 770 people have been killed in Israel Air Force attacks in the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory reported on Tuesday morning, including 140 children and 105 women. Roughly 4,000 people have reportedly been wounded in the strikes, dozens of whom are in critical condition. Hundreds of the injured are children, the Health Ministry in Gaza said. The ministry accused Israel of carrying out indiscriminate bombing that it said caused extensive harm to civilians. Rescue services in Gaza have reportedly been having difficulty providing aid at all the attack sites due to a lack of equipment. Concern has been expressed that additional victims are trapped beneath the rubble and that the actual number casualties is considerably higher. On Tuesday morning, the IDF reported having dropped hundreds of tons of bombs in attacks on the Strip and said that “the emphasis is on damage, not precision.” Mosques and a market were attacked in the Shati refugee camp, where dozens were reported killed. One of the mosques harbored a Hamas weapons warehouse, the IDF reported… Residents of Gaza said recent attacks have been the fiercest since the beginning of the war on Saturday. According to some, Israel has not attacked with such force for many years. “The entire Gaza Strip seems to be one big target bank,” one Gaza resident told Haaretz. |
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Analysis | What Does a ‘Complete Siege’ of the Gaza Strip Mean?
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| Israel’s defense minister’s order to place a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip came on top of a 16-year blockade that Israel, often along with Egypt, has imposed on the coastal territory. The announcement by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday that Gaza would receive “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel” after a major incursion by Palestinian gunmen left hundreds dead has led aid agencies to warn of an exacerbated humanitarian crisis. Under the longstanding blockade, the densely populated strip, with more than two million residents, nearly half of whom are under 18 years old, faces severe restrictions on the movements of goods and people… On Saturday, after Palestinian gunmen began their assault inside Israel, the Israeli authorities stopped supplying electricity, leaving Gaza’s residents with only about three or four hours of power per day, according to the United Nations’ humanitarian office, which said Gaza’s power plant might soon run out of fuel. Now, Israel has closed both of its crossings with Gaza, the Kerem Shalom Crossing for cargo and the Erez Crossing for people.“Before things were restricted, now they are blocked entirely,” said Tania Hary, the executive director of Gisha, an Israeli nonprofit that focuses on free movement of Palestinians in Gaza. Humanitarian officials said that a complete blockade would create more severe suffering for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. |
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Analysis | Israel massed troops in the West Bank. Then Hamas attacked from Gaza.
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| For more than a decade and a half, over a record six terms as Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu boasted of an unprecedented security achievement: making the Israeli-Palestinian conflict manageable. But when hundreds of Palestinian militants stormed through and soared over Israel’s multibillion-dollar border fence — on bulldozers, paragliders and on foot — Netanyahu’s Gaza doctrine, treating Palestinian militancy as a threat that could be contained, was shattered in an instant… Security experts say the war is the result of severe intelligence and military failures. Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants had been training for weeks near the Israeli border — drilling in rocket launches, kidnapping soldiers and “storming settlements,” Gazan media reported. Yet the assessment from the Israeli military was that Hamas had no appetite for another conflict, a line repeated by trusted media figures. Analysts also point to a failure in political leadership. Netanyahu, they contend, allowed military preparedness to erode alongside Palestinian militant escalation as he pursued a contentious plan to weaken Israel’s judiciary — setting off months of furious protests that delighted the country’s adversaries… The IDF issued rare public statements in recent months, warning that military deterrence was deteriorating. Netanyahu and radical members of his cabinet derided the officials as part of the protest movement, and the protesters as “anarchists,” asserting that the status quo with the Palestinians would hold. |
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