Can Gaza’s Humanitarian Catastrophe be Reversed? It’s Up to Trump, The Forward
J Street Policy Fellow Larry Garber writes, “Whether Trump is willing to dedicate the necessary time and diplomatic and financial resources will go a long way to determining the prospects for diplomatic success and for long-term transformation of the Middle East region. I hope he will be. The daily reports of food seekers being killed or children dying of acute malnutrition are unbearable. We cannot come to accept them as simply a new status quo, and Trump should do everything in his power to ensure they don’t become one.”
Expert Analysis on the Trump-Bibi Meeting [Video], J Street
J Street Policy Fellows Frank Lowenstein and Yael Patir unpack the Netanyahu-Trump meeting at the White House and its aftermath. Did Trump hold firm on his commitment to end the war? Did Netanyahu manage to shift the blame and focus once again?
Foreseeable Flaws in Gaza Aid Project Led to Shooting of Palestinians, The Washington Post
“Since the American-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation opened the first of four distribution centers in late May in areas controlled by the Israeli military, Palestinians have been shot in the vicinity of the sites nearly every day, killing more than 400 people and wounding thousands, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Post found that this violence was in part the result of ignoring long-established norms for aid distribution in Gaza and the predictable consequence of dynamics baked into a program that repeatedly culminated, witnesses said, in Israeli forces firing toward crowds.”
New Documents Reveal: US Pouring Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Military Aid Into Building IDF Airbases and Facilities in Israel, Haaretz
“The program covers the construction of new facilities at various military bases, including clinics, naval piers, headquarters for different units and ammunition storage sites. It also involves upgrades to existing infrastructure, runway renovations and aircraft painting facilities. According to documents and presentations from the US Army Corps of Engineers, the initiative comprises roughly 20 separate projects with a combined price tag of $1.5 billion.”
40 Palestinians Killed in Gaza as Netanyahu and Trump Meet Over a Ceasefire, AP
“On Wednesday, crowds of people bid farewell to the 10 members of the Shaaban family killed in an Israeli strike while they were inside their tent in Khan Younis. ‘I found all my children dead, and my daughters’ three children dead,’ said Um Mohammad Shaaban, a nickname that means Mohammad Shaaban’s mother. ‘It’s supposed to be a safe area where we were.’”
Netanyahu Releases Letter Nominating Trump for Nobel Peace Prize, The New York Times
“Speaking at a White House dinner on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu presented Mr. Trump with a copy of the letter and praised his host for ‘forging peace, as we speak, in one country in the region after another.’ The president, who has made no secret of his desire to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, appeared to be surprised.”
Israeli Military Says it Struck Key Hamas Figure in Lebanon’s Tripoli, Reuters
“In a statement later on Tuesday, the Israeli military named the targeted person as Mehran Mustafa Ba’jur. They described him as one of Hamas’ key commanders in Lebanon. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.”
IDF Begins to Tear Down 100 West Bank Palestinian Homes as Petition to Top Court Blocks Four Other Demolitions, Haaretz
“The Israeli army said that the houses in the Tulkarm refugee camp must be demolished to widen roads, but the 11 Palestinian appellants who live in the four disputed houses argued that their homes are located next to open areas – meaning that there is no need to demolish them in order to expand roads.”
Red Sea Cargo Ship Strike Kills Two Sailors as Yemen’s Houthis Resume Attacks, The Washington Post
“Two sailors were killed in an attack on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship off Yemen, a Liberian UN delegation said Tuesday, in an incident that marked the first fatalities from a Red Sea shipping attack in over a year as Yemen’s Houthis resume operations.”
Netanyahu’s Victory Is Israel’s Loss, The New York Times
Mairav Zonszein writes, “Mr. Netanyahu has managed to tie the fate of Israel’s hostages and the country’s war efforts to his own trial. He not only got Mr. Trump onboard to strike Iran, but then benefited from the president’s call for an end to his trial on social media. Now he is capitalizing on the moment to redirect public attention from the failure to achieve Israel’s war goals in Gaza – defeating Hamas and returning the hostages – to the promise of a fantastical regional peace that would secure his legacy and quash his legal problems while kicking the Palestinian issue once again down the road.”
Amid White House Pomp, Netanyahu Seeks to Resume War and Displace Gazans After a Partial Cease-fire Deal, Haaretz
Amos Harel writes, “Israel seeks to replace the difficult conditions of the Gaza residents crowded into the Muwasi area near the coast with even more difficult conditions in Rafah. The rationale for this, as usual, is that victory is just around the corner. Netanyahu needs just a few more months to eliminate Hamas. More than a year ago, he sold the public the same claim to justify invading Rafah. Two months ago, there was another magic solution, namely taking control of the distribution of humanitarian aid, which today continues to be beset by severe difficulties.”
Israel Is Sowing Chaos to Secure Displacement in Gaza, Foreign Policy
Rob Geist Pinfold writes, “Israel has not mitigated Gaza’s anarchy; it has exacerbated it. This seems increasingly deliberate, given that the number of armed criminal gangs receiving Israeli support has proliferated. Hamas, in turn, has created its own plainclothes militia, ostensibly to fight the criminal gangs. The result is chaos – thugs fighting thugs over aid and thus power over Gaza’s civilians. As one Gaza resident claimed: ‘I no longer know who belongs to a clan, who’s a criminal, and who’s Hamas.’”