J Street works to promote an open, honest and rigorous conversation about Israel. The opinions reflected in articles posted in the News Roundup do not necessarily reflect J Street’s positions, and their posting does not constitute an endorsement from J Street.
Emergency Briefing: The Risk of Regional Escalation [Video], J Street
J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami spoke with Middle East security experts Barbara Slavin and Danny Citrinowicz for an emergency briefing on the risk of escalation and the devastation an all-out war would bring to millions of civilians in the region.
Netanyahu’s Spat With Biden Echoes Dispute With Israel’s Security Chiefs, The New York Times
Biden has publicly chided Netanyahu for failing to agree to another truce in Gaza. Senior leaders from Israel’s military and intelligence agencies have also privately grown frustrated with the prime minister for introducing new conditions to the fraught negotiations, according to two Israeli officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. For weeks, the security officials have privately complained that Netanyahu is holding up talks by, among other things, reintroducing a demand that Israel continue to operate checkpoints along a strategic highway in northern Gaza during any cease-fire.
Biden Convening National Security Team as Tensions Flare Between Israel and Iran, NBC News
Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty about the need to lower the temperature in the region, State Department spokesman Matt Miller said. “We’re at a critical moment for the region,” Miller said. “And it’s important that all parties take steps over the coming days to refrain from escalation and calm tensions. Escalation is in no one’s interest.”
UN Fires Additional Staffers After Probe Finds Potential Involvement in Oct. 7 Attack on Israel, AP
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the secretary-general, did not elaborate on the UNRWA staffers’ likely role in the attack or on the evidence that prompted its decision. UNRWA previously fired 12 staffers and put seven staffers on administrative leave without pay over the claims.
Hezbollah Launches Drone Attacks on Israel, Says More to Come, Reuters
The Israeli military said a number of hostile drones were identified crossing from Lebanon and one was intercepted. It said several civilians were injured to the south of the coastal city of Nahariya. Reuters TV footage showed one impact site near a bus stop on a main road outside the city.
Palestinians Killed in West Bank as World Leaders Try to Avoid Regional War, AP
Israeli fire during military raids in the occupied West Bank killed eight Palestinians, including four teenagers, and wounded another seven, Palestinian officials said Tuesday, as world leaders try to stop tensions in the Middle East from boiling over into a regional war.
Israel Returns Bodies of Over 80 Palestinians to Gaza, Keeps up Military Pressure, Reuters
Yamen Abu Suleiman, the director of the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said it was unclear whether the bodies had been dug up from cemeteries by the army during the ground offensive, or whether they were “detainees who had been tortured and killed.”
EU’s Top Diplomat Condemns Gaza Starvation That Israeli Minister Called ‘Moral’, Politico
European Union High Representative Josep Borrell on Monday condemned the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, urging Israel to halt actions that could further imperil the besieged region’s starving civilian population.
Report: Israel Could Preemptively Strike Iran if Intelligence Shows Attack Is Imminent, The Times of Israel
Israel would consider launching a preemptive strike to deter Iran if it uncovered airtight evidence that Tehran was preparing to mount an attack, Hebrew media reported after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened Israel’s security chiefs for a meeting on Sunday evening.
Israeli Forces Evacuate Settler Outpost Set Up Illegally on Palestinian Land, Fearing New West Bank Front, Haaretz
Settlers set fire to tires and a car, and threw stones at the police, who used crowd dispersal measures. After the evacuation, settlers threw firebombs at the forces and hurled stones towards a road in the area, hitting a vehicle belonging to an Israeli military officer.
Russia Said to Be Delivering Advanced Air Defenses to Iran as Tehran Touts Ties, The Times of Israel
Iranian officials say Russia has begun delivering advanced air defense and radar equipment to Iran after Tehran asked the Kremlin for the arms, the New York Times reported Monday. While local Iranian media reported that Tehran had requested the equipment, a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and another official confirmed to the Times that not only had the request been made, but that deliveries had started.
Israel to Open Two New Wings at Sde Teiman After Petition to Shut Center Down Over Abuse, Haaretz
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which filed the petition on behalf of a number of human rights organizations, responded, saying that “Sde Teiman is a hell in which human rights are systematically violated and horrendous crimes are committed.”
Blindfolded, Bound and Beaten: Palestinians Tell of Israeli Jail Abuse, BBC
Paul Adams reports, “Jails are overflowing, with a dozen or more inmates sometimes sharing cells designed to accommodate no more than six. B’tselem’s report describes overcrowded, filthy cells, where some inmates are forced to sleep on the floor, sometimes without mattresses or blankets. Some prisoners were captured in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks. Others were rounded up in Gaza as Israel’s invasion got under way, or were arrested in Israel or the occupied West Bank.”
Israel’s Other Intractable Conflict [Audio], The New Yorker
David Remnick interviews writer Nathan Thrall and lawyer Raja Shehadeh on the occupation of the West Bank, and whether there can be any prospect for peace.
‘We Shoot First, Ask Questions Later’: Why Some Israeli Reservists Refuse to Go Back to Gaza, CNN
Zeena Saifi reports, “Every day for two months, Michael Ofer Ziv spent hours watching grainy, black-and-white footage of the Gaza Strip from a tiny room across the border. As an operations commander, he was tracking Israeli forces inside Gaza and approving airstrikes. Every day, he said, his unit had a certain quota to fill. ‘They will tell us, today you have seven, today you have nine… you sometimes argue for more, but you will never fire less than you’re given,’ he told CNN in an interview. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment on his claims.”