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Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Washington to Give $5 Million in Aid to Palestine

  • The White House approved $5 million in aid for the Palestinian response to the coronavirus after previously cutting all aid to the Palestinian Authority (Times of Israel)

UN Reaffirms Support for Israel-Palestine Two-State Solution

  • All fifteen countries on the UN Security Council endorsed a statement yesterday that supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as a multilateral approach to negotiations (Associated Press)

Israel Strikes Palestinian Militants in Gaza, Damascus

  • Israeli military forces and the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) exchanged strikes in Gaza after a Palestinian news agency posted footage of an Israeli army bulldozer dragging the body of a Palestinian man (Washington Post)
  • Israel also announced it had struck PIJ targets in Damascus, Syria (BBC)

Israel Bars Palestinian Agriculture Exports Via Jordan

  • The Israeli military will no longer allow Palestinian agricultural products to be exported via Jordan, officials from both countries said, marking the latest escalation in Israel and the Palestinian territories’ monthslong trade war (Associated Press)

Unrest Leads to Casualties in West Bank, Jerusalem

  • Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man at a West Bank protest against the new U.S. peace plan for the Middle East, and a car ran down a group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem, injuring twelve, Israeli and Palestinian authorities said (Reuters)

EU Foreign Policy Minister Rejects Middle East Peace Plan

  • Josep Borrell, the EU foreign affairs minister, criticized the Trump administration’s proposed peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stating that it departs from “internationally agreed parameters” and eliminates mechanisms for negotiations over disputed territory (Reuters)

Trump Plan Envisions Israeli Control of Jerusalem, West Bank Settlements

  • U.S. President Donald J. Trump unveiled a peace plan that proposes Israel’s control of a unified Jerusalem and all of its current settlements in the West Bank, while a new Palestinian state would receive $50 billion in investment (New York Times)

Trump Set to Release Israeli-Palestinian Peace Deal

  • U.S. President Donald J. Trump is scheduled to release his plan for a resolution to the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians today in a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (New York Times)
  • Palestinian leaders, who have boycotted negotiations with the Trump administration since 2017, have already rejected the new plan, which is expected to propose Israeli sovereignty over much of the Jordan Valley (Al-Monitor)

Gantz, Netanyahu to Join White House Peace Plan Talks

  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political rival, Benny Gantz, accepted invitations from the White House to visit next week to discuss an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said (Haaretz)

Israel Expands Settlements in West Bank

  • The country plans to build a new settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron, the defense minister announced. A top Palestinian diplomat called the move “the first tangible result of the U.S. decision to legitimize colonization” (Haaretz)

Israel Attacks Iranian, Syrian Targets in Syria

  • Two people were killed in the air attacks on the outskirts of Damascus early today, according to Syrian state media. Israel said the attacks, against Iran’s elite Quds Force and the Syrian army, were in retaliation for rocket attacks fired from Syria toward Israeli territory yesterday (Al Jazeera)

U.S. Shifts Stance on Israeli Settlements

  • In a reversal of decades-old policy, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States will no longer consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law (Haaretz)
  • The move is seen as a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who promised ahead of September’s election to annex all West Bank settlements if he remained in office. Netanyahu is fighting to keep his position after failing to form a government as his rival, former defense official Benny Gantz, faces a deadline tomorrow to do so. The European Union’s foreign policy chief and Jordan’s foreign minister criticized the U.S. move, while a Palestinian official called it “horrific” (New York Times)

Israel, Gaza Militants Reach Tenuous Truce

  • Israel and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad agreed to a cease-fire that was to begin this morning after more than two days of escalated fighting, according to spokespeople for both sides. However, Gazan militants reportedly fired rockets into Israel after the truce began (Associated Press)

Death Toll From Gaza Strikes Rises

  • Israeli air strikes killed nine people in Gaza today, according to medical officials, bringing the total killed in the past two days to nineteen. Militants from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group fired around two hundred rockets into Israel yesterday after an Israeli strike killed one of the group’s commanders (Reuters)

Israeli Strike Kills Militant Commander in Gaza

  • The strike killed a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, prompting retaliatory rocket fire toward southern and central Israel (New York Times)

Chief Representative for UN Palestinian Refugee Agency Resigns

  • The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees resigned following the release of preliminary results of a misconduct investigation (United Nations)

Israeli Court Expels Human Rights Official

  • The country’s top court upheld the expulsion of Human Rights Watch’s director for Israel and the Palestinian territories due to his alleged support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. The court ordered him to leave the country within twenty days (Haaretz)

Israel’s Netanyahu Vows West Bank Annexation

  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that if he stays in his position after elections next week, he will move to annex the Jordan Valley, territory that runs from northern Israel to the Dead Sea and comprises nearly a third of the occupied West Bank (Haaretz)
  • Netanyahu said he aimed to take advantage of the “unique” opportunity of U.S. support for the annexation of parts of the West Bank, and that a White House peace plan would be released soon after the vote. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said such a move will end all signed agreements with Israel (Reuters)

U.S. Mideast Envoy Resigns

  • President Donald J. Trump’s lead Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt, who worked with White House advisor Jared Kushner to draft an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, announced he is stepping down. One of Kushner’s top aides is set to replace Greenblatt (Associated Press)

Gaza on Alert After Explosions

  • The interior ministry of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, declared Gaza under a state of emergency after three police officers were killed in explosions at Hamas police checkpoints late yesterday, according to officials (New York Times)

Alleged Israeli Strikes Prompt Calls for Restraint

  • Iraqi and Lebanese leaders condemned strikes in their countries they say were carried out by Israel, calling them an attack on national sovereignty and “similar to a declaration of war,” while the UN urged restraint from all parties (Guardian)
  • Separately, Israel announced yesterday that it will suspend half of its fuel supply to Gaza following rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip (Reuters)

Israel Reportedly Attacks Palestinian Base in Lebanon

  • Lebanese state media reported that Israel’s air force attacked a Palestinian base in eastern Lebanon today. Yesterday, two drones that Lebanon said were Israeli crashed south of Beirut (Associated Press)

Hamas Gives Israel Ultimatum

  • Hamas threatened to escalate violence if Israel does not allow Qatari money to be transferred to Gaza. Qatari envoy Mohammed Al-Amadi is expected to visit Israeli and Hamas officials soon (Jerusalem Post)

Gaza Gunfire Reportedly Kills Three; Israel Denies Entry to U.S. Congresswoman

  • Hamas’s health ministry said three people were killed and one wounded by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. Israel said three rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel the day before (Agence France-Presse)
  • Additionally, after two Palestinians stabbed an Israeli policeman in Jerusalem, one was killed by Israeli police (Reuters)
  • Israeli police killed a Palestinian driver who reportedly drove a car into two Israeli civilians in the West Bank (Reuters)
  • Separately, the Israeli government announced it will block a planned visit by U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, after coming under pressure from the White House to do so (Ynet)
  • Finally, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he will likely release his Middle East peace plan after Israel’s September elections (Reuters)

Israeli Army Kills Four Palestinian Militants Attempting to Cross Gaza Fence

  • The Israeli army killed four Palestinian militants who attempted to cross the Gaza Strip’s perimeter fence. The Israeli army also arrested a Palestinian cell in the West Bank on grounds of involvement in killing an off-duty soldier (Associated Press)
  • Separately, the Israeli police clashed with Palestinians yesterday outside Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque (Reuters)