Attention to the Unseen

Yuval Abraham reports: Naama Abiyat’s children are all she has left. I meet the 29-year-old mother of five inside a thinly-walled tent where she is living in the southern occupied West Bank; the tent is nearly empty, save for a blanket she received from passers-by and a few wooden logs. Her children interrupt our conversation from time to time, demanding her attention and letting her know that they are cold. Until two months ago, Abiyat had her own room, a…

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Reuters reports: Israel’s plan to destroy Islamist Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza is not working and the European Union must pursue efforts to create a “two-state solution” despite Israeli opposition, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday. Israeli Prime Minister had on Sunday reaffirmed a hard line against any Palestinian state as it would pose “an existential danger” to Israel. He said Israel would keep insisting on full security control over all territory west of the Jordan River,…

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The Daily Beast reports: Relatives of Israelis still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza stormed into a committee session in the Israeli parliament on Monday to demand that lawmakers take immediate action to bring their loved ones home. Around 20 people rushed into the Knesset Finance Committee hearing in Jerusalem carrying signs and chanting “release them now, now, now!” Around 130 of the 253 people abducted and taken to Gaza during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel are feared…

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Daniel Levy writes: The first and most critical shift required is for the administration to embrace the need for a full cease-fire now. That demand cannot be one of rhetoric alone. The administration should condition the transfer of further military supplies on Israel ending the war and stopping the collective punishment of the Palestinian civilian population, and should create oversight mechanisms for the use of American weaponry that is already at Israel’s disposal. Ending Israel’s Gaza operation is also the…

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The Wall Street Journal reports: The U.S., Egypt and Qatar are pushing Israel and Hamas to join a phased diplomatic process that would start with a release of hostages and, eventually, lead to a withdrawal of Israeli forces and an end to the war in Gaza, diplomats involved in mediating the talks said. Neither side in the conflict has agreed to the terms of the new proposal—which includes steps at odds with the stated positions of Israel and Hamas. Taher…

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NPR reports: Omri Goren holds a stack of purple flyers that say: “Only peace will bring security.” He’s part of a small anti-war movement in Israel calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, where 2.3 million people are struggling to survive months of Israeli bombardment and a near total siege of the territory. Goren was among a few hundred people who came out to march and protest in Tel Aviv Thursday night in support of peace. Emotions in Israel…

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The New York Times reports: After more than 100 days of war, Israel’s limited progress in dismantling Hamas has raised doubts within the military’s high command about the near-term feasibility of achieving the country’s principal wartime objectives: eradicating Hamas and also liberating the Israeli hostages still in Gaza. Israel has established control over a smaller part of Gaza at this point in the war than it originally envisaged in battle plans from the start of the invasion, which were reviewed…

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The Washington Post reports: Five Senate Democrats on Friday signed onto a measure that would condition aid to Israel on its compliance with international law, bringing the total number of co-sponsors to 18. And a prominent Democrat, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, is rounding up support for his amendment to stop President Biden from circumventing Congress when he orders weapons transfers to Israel, a maneuver the president has pursued twice in recent months. Earlier this week, 11 senators voted for…

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BBC News reports: Iran’s president said an air strike on the Syrian capital that killed five senior members of Iran’s security forces will not “go unanswered”. Ebrahim Raisi said Israel was to blame for the attack, which also killed a number of Syrian forces. Israel has not commented. For years it has carried out strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria. Such strikes have intensified since the Israel-Gaza war began following Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel. In a statement posted…

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  Channel 4 News: We spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy inside his heavily fortified Government offices – we asked him first, if his decision to stay in Ukraine after the invasion had convinced western leaders that he was someone they should invest in.

Politico reports: Democratic lawmakers are furious with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for rejecting the idea of creating an independent Palestinian nation after fighting in the Gaza Strip ends. Netanyahu was blunt about his intentions during a news conference on Thursday, saying that Israel “needs security control over all territory” west of Jordan after the war, he said. “This collides with the idea of sovereignty.” A two-state solution has been a key goal of the Biden administration as it plans…

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