🚩 Gaza: active fighting has resumed mainly in Khan Younes and partly in Rafah
🚩 Lebanon: Hezbollah conducts massive shelling, IDF responds with strikes on militant positions
🚩 Benjamin Netanyahu has begun a visit to the United States
🔷 IDF re-enters Sinwar’s hometown Khan Younis in force after intelligence shows significant Hamas buildup. “All the people of the Gaza, everyone, except those who benefit from it and are a tiny minority, hope for the destruction of Hamas,” unnamed citizen of Gaza said adding: “I pray to Allah that the Hamas regime will end, this tyrannical regime.” (All Israel News) https://lnk.sk/vils
🔷 New footage of armed Hamas terrorists trying to take over a humanitarian aid truck delivering aid to residents of Gaza was published by the IDF on Monday. Nahal Brigade targeted terrorists embedded in a school and located a tunnel shaft in the schoolyard. (The Jerusalem Post) https://lnk.sk/mkp0
🔷 IDF used ruse to bring 2 senior terror commanders to Tulkarem area where strike carried out. The drone strike in the West Bank city of Tulkarem this morning, killed at least six gunmen, including two senior terror commanders – Ashraf Nafeh, the head of Hamas in Tulkarem, and Muhammad Abu Abdo, the head of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Tulkarem. (The Times of Israel) https://lnk.sk/rxnw
🔷 While the U.S. government and the entire country is preoccupied by the political upheaval surrounding President Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has arrived in Washington for a previously scheduled visit. The Israeli leader is set to address Congress on Wednesday. (The New York Times) https://lnk.sk/xay1
🔷 Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington: U.S. pressure on Israel to rein in its military campaign in Gaza has eased in recent weeks. „The pressure has gone now,“ Oren said. „It’s nothing like it was.“ Biden’s team has backed off in part because of signs the Israeli attacks are making Hamas more amenable to a deal, Oren said. (The Washington Post) https://lnk.sk/jrl7
🔷 Kamala Harris to meet Netanyahu privately despite not attending Congress speech due to scheduling conflictc. Acording to her aide, Harris will reiterate her commitment to Israel’s security and right to defend itself, but will also “convey her view that it is time for the war to end in a way where Israel is secure, all hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can enjoy their right to dignity, freedom, and self-determination.” (All Israel News) https://lnk.sk/smv6
🔷 Fatah and Hamas agree to strengthen Palestinian unity after China talks. Previous talks failed due to the groups‘ power struggle and the West’s refusal to accept any government including Hamas unless it recognises Israel. (SkyNews) https://lnk.sk/nfgo ; https://lnk.sk/hujm
🔵 COMMENT of the day: A Judge from Uganda Sides with Israel
Robert Nicholson, The Wall Street Journal
In a gross miscarriage of justice that surprised no one, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion Friday saying that Israel’s „occupation“ of the „Palestinian territories“ violates international law. The ICJ’s opinion will reinvigorate the Palestinian crusade against Israel.
Judge Sebutinde’s dissent is a masterful analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that dismantles the majority opinion point by point, arguing that the court shouldn’t have taken the case to begin with.
She asserts the legality of Jewish rights in all of Mandatory Palestine, cites the legal documents and principles that justify those rights, recounts the history of Palestinian intransigence, and notes a Jewish presence in the land going back to ancient times. „Israel is not a colonizer,“ she wrote. Judge Sebutinde also points out how a „pro-Palestinian group of states“ is hijacking institutions like the ICJ to create on paper what they can’t build on the ground. https://lnk.sk/id15 ; https://lnk.sk/fcu9
© ICEJ Slovakia peter.svec@icej.sk