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Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Palestinian Health Ministry: Israeli Forces Killed Two Palestinians

  • Israel’s military said the West Bank raid was a counterterrorism operation (AFP)

Bloomberg: White House Weighing Twin Defense Pacts With Israel, Saudi Arabia

  • The separate deals would be designed so that the two countries would formally recognize each other, Bloomberg reported; Saudi Arabia has asked for access to advanced U.S. weapons and assistance in building a nuclear energy sector (Bloomberg)
  • It also wants Israel to make concessions to Palestinians, but “has sent mixed signals” as to what those would be (CNN)

Biden, Netanyahu Talk Judicial Reform and Israel’s Relations With Palestinians, Saudis

  • The leaders of the United States and Israel met for the first time yesterday since Benjamin Netanyahu became Israeli prime minister last year; U.S. President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu to reach a compromise on his efforts to overhaul Israel’s judiciary and improve conditions in the West Bank (AP)
  • The leaders also discussed a potential normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia (Reuters))

Palestinian Officials Set Terms for Israeli-Saudi Normalization

  • Meeting with their Saudi counterparts in Riyadh yesterday, officials from the Palestinian Authority said they will demand hundreds of millions of dollars and more control over land in the occupied West Bank as part of any normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the BBC reported; U.S. officials said a deal is not imminent (BBC)

Biden Nominates Israel Envoy

  • U.S. President Joe Biden is planning to nominate former Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew to be the next ambassador to Israel; if appointed, Lew will face several challenges, including increasing violence in the West Bank, protests over Israel’s recent judicial overhaul, and ongoing friction between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and Washington (WSJ)

Palestinian Motorist Targets Checkpoint in the West Bank

  • At least one Israeli soldier was killed in the attack, Israeli authorities said; it comes a day after Israeli police killed a fourteen-year-old Palestinian boy who had stabbed a man at a light-rail station in Jerusalem and Palestinian militants detonated a bomb near a convoy of Israeli troops (AP)

WSJ: Saudi Arabia Offers to Restart Funding to Palestinian Authority Amid Talks With Israel

  • The offer is an effort to secure the Palestinian Authority’s support for potential Saudi-Israeli normalization, the Wall Street Journal reported; Palestinian leaders criticized Gulf officials’ establishment of diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020 (WSJ)
  • Meanwhile, after leaked news of a meeting between Israeli and Libyan officials caused public outrage and resulted in the sacking of Libya’s former foreign minister earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an order requiring his personal approval of any secret talks (Al Jazeera)

Israel To Increase Natural Gas Exports to Egypt

  • The cooperation is part of an effort to help bolster bilateral ties and assuage Egypt’s electricity outages; the move comes despite Egyptian criticism of Israel for its behavior amid its conflict with the Palestinians; Egypt did not immediately comment on the announcement (Al-Monitor)

Saudi Arabia Appoints First Diplomatic Envoy to Palestinian Authority

  • The move comes amid U.S. efforts to explore Saudi-Israeli normalization (NYT)

U.S., Saudi Arabia Make Progress Toward Saudi-Israeli Normalization Deal

  • The United States and Saudi Arabia reportedly agreed on broad tenets for a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal that would see Saudi Arabia distance itself from China in exchange for concessions to the Palestinians, but a U.S. National Security Council spokesperson said there was still “no agreed-to framework” (WSJ)

Security Forces Prevent Protests Against Hamas in Gaza Strip

  • Organizers said the protests were in response to Hamas’s tight political control and poor living conditions; several hundred Gazans participated in demonstrations last week in what was a rare large gathering given restrictions on freedom of expression (NYT)
  • Meanwhile, Israeli police shot and killed the assailant after he opened fire in the city center, killing a security guard; the incident follows a settler attack in the West Bank that killed one Palestinian the day prior (ABC)

Israeli PM: Judicial Reforms to Stop Short of Original Plan

  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he still aimed to change how judges are selected but would stop short of pursuing the full judicial overhaul that he originally announced following widespread protests against the plan (Bloomberg)
  • Meanwhile, Israeli security forces killed three Palestinians suspected of planning an imminent attack in the West Bank (Al Jazeera)

Suspected Palestinian Gunman Shot Dead After Wounding Six Israelis

  • The Palestinian individual reportedly opened fire outside of a mall in the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the West Bank (Al Jazeera)

Credit Agencies Issue Warnings About Israel After Passage of Judicial Reform Law

  • U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley downgraded Israel’s credit rating yesterday after parliament passed the first pillar of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan; meanwhile, the financial services firm Moody’s Investors Service warned of “significant risk” and “negative consequences” for Israel’s economy and security (Times of Israel)
  • U.S. bank Citibank also warned against clients investing in Israel (Haaretz)

Israeli Demonstrators Gather as Parliament Votes on Judicial Overhaul

  • Protesters gathered in Jerusalem outside of Israel’s parliament as it began voting on a clause of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan that aims to limit Supreme Court oversight of legislative decisions (Al-Monitor)

Palestinian Health Ministry: Israeli Forces Killed Two Palestinians

  • The Palestinian ministry reported that two teenage boys had been shot and killed by security forces in confrontations with residents during unrest (Haaretz)

Settlers Reportedly Attack Palestinians in West Bank Village

  • The Palestinian Health Ministry said four were wounded in attacks in Kafr Thulth near the Ma’ale Shomron settlement (Haaretz)

Protests Erupt After Israeli Legislature Advances Judicial Overhaul

  • Demonstrators blocked roads leading to Haifa, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv after the Knesset today gave preliminary approval to a contentious bill that would limit the Supreme Court’s oversight powers (Times of Israel, AP)

Israel Kills Two Suspected Palestinian Shooters

  • The Israeli military said it raided a house in Nablus and exchanged fire with two men who had shot at Israeli police earlier in the week, killing both; the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, claimed the men as their members (Reuters)

UN Condemns Use of Excessive Force by Israel in Jenin

  • UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the largest Israeli military operation in the West Bank in decades wounded at least one hundred, forced thousands to flee, and damaged civilian infrastructure (Guardian)

Israel Withdraws From West Bank City After Biggest Military Operation in Years

  • Israel’s military announced today that it has pulled its forces out of Jenin following a large-scale raid that killed at least twelve Palestinians and one Israeli soldier and pushed thousands of people to flee their homes; Israel says all Palestinians killed were combatants (NYT)
  • Ahead of the withdrawal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the incursion was “not a one-off” incident (AP)
  • Meanwhile, Palestinian militants launched missiles from Gaza that Israel intercepted, and Israel struck an underground weapons manufacturing facility in response (Guardian)
  • Even before this week’s raid, 2023 was on track to be the deadliest year in the West Bank since 2005 (FT)

Hamas Attack in Tel Aviv Wounds Eight

  • Hamas claimed responsibility for the car-ramming and stabbing attack, saying it was in response to aggression in Jenin, where Israel was carrying out a military operation (CNN)

Israel Launches Biggest West Bank Military Operation in Decades

  • In an escalation following recent tensions, Israel deployed nearly two thousand troops and conducted drone strikes in Jenin refugee camp, killing eight Palestinians and wounding fifty (ABC)
  • The Israeli military said it was targeting militants such as the Jenin Brigades to demonstrate that it would not allow the camp to serve as a safe haven for them (NYT)

Israel’s Netanyahu Says He Will Push Forward With Revised Judicial Overhaul Plan

  • After a previous version of the plan prompted mass protests, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would advance a version of the plan that no longer contained a controversial provision allowing the legislature to override Supreme Court decisions (WSJ)

Israeli Defense Minister and Senior Palestinian Official Discuss West Bank Violence

  • During a rare phone call yesterday, Israel pledged to exact penalties for rioters, according to the Israeli readout of the call (Reuters)