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 President Trump unveiled a 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza alongside Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. The plan, which would end the war, release the hostages, surge aid into Gaza and provide a framework for the day after, has been welcomed by world leaders. However, it remains to be seen whether all parties will accept the deal and support its implementation. Today, Trump announced a deadline of Sunday for Hamas to accept the plan. Other notable developments from this week include: the killing of two individuals outside a synagogue in England; Kash Patel’s announcement that the FBI would sever ties with the ADL; the evacuation of over 780,000 Gazans from Gaza City since September 9, along with crushing pressure on humanitarian services in the south; and reports that the IDF has reined in military operations in Gaza over “fears that a wider assault will derail ceasefire talks.”

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

This week on j street

Statement

J Street Welcomes White House Gaza Proposal, Calls For Further US Pressure to Ensure Acceptance and Implementation by Hamas and Israel

Statement

J Street Deeply Disturbed by FBI Director Cutting Ties With ADL

Word on the Street

The Promise and Peril of This Moment

Word on the Street

No Kings, No Silence

Hamas Looks to Avoid ‘Take It or Leave It’ on Trump Proposal

Hamas was still studying President Trump’s proposal to end the war in Gaza but would not accept being told to “take it or leave it,” a senior political member of the group said. “Hamas is discussing this plan with seriousness,” Mohammad Nazzal, the Hamas official, told Al Jazeera in an interview on Thursday, saying that the group was conferring with other Palestinian factions and would announce its position soon. The group came under added pressure on Friday after Mr. Trump, in a post on social media, said that an agreement must be reached by Sunday, at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, or “all HELL” would “break out against Hamas.” Mr. Nazzal said on Thursday that Hamas had “comments” on the plan and was looking for “gray areas” in it that it could work with.

Man kills 2 in car ramming and stabbing attack at English synagogue on Jewish holy day

An assailant drove a car into people outside a synagogue Thursday in northern England and stabbed two of them to death in what police called a terrorist attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year… The Metropolitan Police force in London, which leads the nation’s counter-terrorism policing operations, declared the rampage a terrorist attack. The assault took place as people gathered at an Orthodox synagogue in an outer neighborhood of Manchester on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar.

Kash Patel pulls the plug on ADL’s FBI training on extremism

FBI Director Kash Patel has ended a training and intelligence-sharing partnership with the Anti-Defamation League, accusing the organization of spying on conservative groups. Patel announced the decision in a social media post Wednesday, criticizing a partnership celebrated under former FBI Director James Comey — a political adversary of President Donald Trump who was charged last week in an indictment sought by the Justice Department… The ADL said in a statement it remains committed to preventing antisemitism.

As Israel Pounds Gaza City, an Overwhelming Exodus

Before the operation, the military said that the humanitarian infrastructure in southern Gaza was prepared for “the expected population volume moving from northern Gaza.” This week, the military said that 780,000 people had left Gaza City since an evacuation order was issued on Sept. 9. The huge influx of Gazans into the south has further strained humanitarian services that aid groups say were not sufficient even before the arrival of thousands more people… Since the ground offensive in Gaza City began, aid agencies say, efforts to alleviate a worsening humanitarian crisis across Gaza have been plunged into chaos. In the north, where hundreds of thousands of people are still sheltering in Gaza City, the delivery of food and aid has been severely disrupted, aid agencies say.

Leaders in Middle East and Europe welcome Trump’s Gaza peace plan

European and Middle Eastern leaders have welcomed a US peace plan for Gaza, as President Donald Trump warned Hamas to accept it. The plan, agreed by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, proposes an immediate end to fighting, the release within 72 hours of 20 living Israeli hostages held by Hamas as well as the remains of the more than two dozen hostages who are believed to be dead – in exchange for hundreds of detained Gazans. Hamas officials have been given the 20-point plan, a Palestinian source told the BBC.

IDF Reining in Gaza Operations Over Fears That Wider Assault Will Derail Cease-fire Talks

Israel Defense Forces commanders say they fear that an extraordinary incident in the fighting in the Gaza Strip could cause the collapse of negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the new Trump proposal to end the war and bring home the hostages. They said they fear that an attack that results in a large number of civilian deaths or, alternatively, a Hamas operation that led to Israeli troop deaths, could result in renewed escalation and hinder the talks… The IDF brass is having a hard time hiding its desire to reach a deal and end the war in Gaza. Commanders in the field are having a hard time providing answers to the tens of thousands of reservists who have been called up in recent months for another round of combat. Therefore, the IDF wants to release as many reservists as possible the moment political leaders announce that the talks are progressing and that the fighting can be brought to a halt.

Israel seizes last flotilla boat, readies to deport hundreds, as more ships set sail for Gaza

The Israeli Navy on Friday intercepted the last of the 42 vessels trying to break the maritime blockade on Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, with the Foreign Ministry saying it had deported four activists so far out of 470 who were detained trying to deliver symbolic humanitarian aid directly to the war-torn Strip. Meanwhile, a new group of nine vessels banded together to form a new flotilla, trying to succeed where its predecessor failed… The Navy’s interception of the flotilla came after organizers rejected the calls to transfer the small amount of aid they had been carrying with them to Israel or international organizations to be taken to the Strip and distributed. They vowed, instead, to press on toward Gaza, which has been devastated in the nearly two years of fighting sparked by Hamas’s devastating invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

J STREET GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS NEWS DIGEST | October 3, 2025