[IMPORTANT] Hamas launches foot assault against settlements.

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Israel has denied that its foreign minister, Israel Katz, had proposed temporarily housing Palestinians from Gaza on an island.

The Guardian reported on Monday that Katz had made a video presentation to EU foreign ministers that said Palestinians from Gaza "could be housed on an artificial island in the Mediterranean…as an alternative to the two-state solution."

The report said that the video referred to a plan made "some years ago" when he was transport minister.

EU foreign ministers were in Brussels on Monday to discuss the Israel-Hamas war at a meeting also attended by counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, and the Arab League secretary general.

Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said according to The Guardian: "We had had the pleasure of watching two very interesting videos. One about an artificial island project to serve as a port…and another one about a project to build a railroad line linking the Middle East with India."

“I think the minister could have made better use of his time to worry about the security of his country," Borrell added, "and the high death toll in Gaza."

However, the claims that Katz proposed an island for Gazans was rejected by the Israeli foreign ministry, which told The Times of Israel: "He never said such a thing, and there is no such plan."

The paper reported that Katz did present to EU ministers a plan to build a port for Gaza on an artificial island to check incoming goods, which the paper said was "one he has pushed for years."

It reported that through a spokesman, Katz had said housing could be placed on the island but did not mention relocating Palestinians there.

The Times of Israel linked to a video from 2017—when Katz was information and transport minister—with graphics, animation and English-narration, outlining plans for an island hosting a port, a cargo terminal, a desalination plant and an airport.

It is not clear if the video shown to the EU was the same as the one from 2017, in which the narrator said the initiative was "aimed at providing an answer to a reality that is bad for the Palestinians and is not good for Israel."

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"Today Israel continues to be perceived as being responsible for the Gaza Strip and is to an extent the only lifeline to it even though it withdrew from the strip over a decade ago," the video's narrator said.

The narrator also said the island, about three miles off the coast of Gaza, "would provide the Palestinians with a humanitarian, economic and transportation gateway to the world without endangering Israel's security."

Israel would ensure security of the internationally-funded island, which "will strengthen the cooperation and relations between Israel and the countries in the region," the narrator added.

The Guardian reported that EU foreign ministers were "disappointed" that Katz had come to Brussels to propose the island, according to a source in Brussels, who said, "ministers ignored it and went ahead with what they were there to talk about."

The news comes as Israel's military said on Tuesday that 21 of its soldiers had been killed in the Gaza Strip in the deadliest attack on its forces since the raid by Hamas on October 7 that preceded the current war, the Associated Press reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the offensive until "absolute victory" over the militants, and promised to return over 100 hostages being held captive by Palestinian militants.

Hamas claims responsibility for yesterday’s incident that killed 21 IDF soldiers
Hamas' Qassam Brigades have claimed responsibility for yesterday's incident that killed 21 Israel Defense Force soldiers.

In a statement on Telegram today, Hamas' military wing said its forces "targeted a house" in which an Israeli engineering force was "holed up."

That led to an "explosion of the ammunition and engineering equipment it was in possession of, completely blowing up the house," Hamas said.

The statement also said Hamas fighters destroyed an IDF tank and detonated a minefield in the same area as the house, which led to further injuries and deaths.

Israeli protesters, including families of Gaza hostages and deployed IDF soldiers, made their way to the Kerem Shalom crossing, between Israel and the Strip, on Wednesday morning to demonstrate against aid trucks crossing the border into Gaza.

The Mothers of Combat Soldiers foundation announced that hundreds attempted to block convoys of aid entering the Gaza Strip, saying that they are doing so to "help our fighting sons come out victorious in Gaza.

"Any aid to Hamas must be conditioned with disarming its forces and returning all hostages," member of the organization Hana Giat, whose husband and two sons are fighting in Gaza, said. "We are here to block Hamas's logistical re-supply points."

Protesters were seen carrying signs reading, "humanitarian aid is killing IDF soldiers." This comes after IDF soldiers were pictured alongside graffiti on a Gaza wall, reading: "Humanitarian aid = coffins," last week. The IDF said the incident was being probed.

Protesters set up tents near the border, sending a message that they are prepared for a long stay and that "no aid goes through until the final hostage returns."

Former Israeli security chief calls to halt Gaza aid
If Israel halts aid to Gaza, nations mediating between Israel and Hamas would increase pressure on the terrorist organization, former National Security Council chief Giora Eiland told Maariv on Wednesday.

"After speaking with many sources, I am convinced no pressure is being put on the mediators," Eiland was quoted as saying. "If aid to Gaza stops, countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt would be unnerved. They care about the Palestinians, therefore they will increase the pressure on Hamas

Arabs across the Middle East and North Africa overwhelmingly view Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, which left over 1,200 people dead in Israel and saw 240 others kidnapped to Gaza, as “legitimate resistance,” according to a new survey of 16 nations throughout the region conducted earlier this month.

The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, a think tank funded by Qatar, polled some 8,000 Arabs in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen and the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria between Dec. 12, 2023 and Jan. 5, 2024.

The Doha-based institute claimed the surveyed individuals represented more than 95% of the Arab population in the region.

Around two-thirds said the Oct. 7 terror attacks in southern Israel were a “legitimate resistance operation”; 19% said that the massacre was a “somewhat flawed but legitimate resistance operation.”

Only 5% denounced Hamas’s war crimes as an “illegitimate operation,” while 3% said that it was a “legitimate resistance operation that involved heinous (unacceptable) or even criminal acts.”

The massacre received the highest support in Libya, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco and among Palestinians, with a staggering 0% of Judea and Samaria residents agreeing that the atrocities of Oct. 7, which also included beheadings, rape and other sexual offenses, were illegitimate.

Approximately 35% of Arabs believe that the primary reason for Hamas’s murder spree was “the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.” A quarter attributed it primarily to “defending al-Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem’s Old City] against attacks,” according to the new study.

Most Arabs said they disapproved of recognizing the State of Israel, with 89% saying they would support rejecting or revoking such a move, up from 84% in 2022. Meanwhile, support for the recognition of the Jewish state was the highest in Sudan (14%), Lebanon (8%) and Morocco (7%).

Just over half of the respondents said they considered the United States to be the biggest threat to the security and stability of the region, followed by Israel (26%) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (7%).

Asked if there was a shift in their attitude toward the United States in the wake of Israel’s defensive operation in Gaza, 76% reported that their position had become more negative, 19% said that their position had not changed and 1% reported that their position had become more positive.

A poll published last month by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that nearly three in four Palestinians believe that Hamas was “correct” in launching the Oct. 7 attacks.

When asked to rate their satisfaction with various Palestinian actors, Hamas took the lead among the respondents with 72% satisfaction, followed by Hamas chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar (69%) and the Islamist terror group’s “political” leader, Ismail Haniyeh (51%).

According to the PSR, more than half believe that Hamas is “the most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people today.”

A separate poll released just weeks earlier found that slightly more than three in four Palestinians have a positive view of Hamas in the wake of its most recent terrorist attacks against civilians in Israel.

The Arab World for Research and Development survey found that 48.2% of respondents characterize Hamas’s role as “very positive,” while 27.8% view Hamas as “somewhat positive.” Almost 80% regard the role of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades “military” wing as positive.

When asked whether they supported or opposed Hamas’s actions, 59.3% of the Palestinians surveyed said they “extremely” supported the attacks and 15.7% said they “somewhat” supported the bloodbath.

Almost all (98%) of the respondents said the slaughter made them feel “prouder of their identity as Palestinians.”

At least 12 people were killed and 75 injured when a UN facility sheltering civilians was struck in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency says.

UNRWA said two shells hit its Khan Younis Training Centre during fighting in the city's western outskirts.

Its commissioner condemned the "blatant disregard of basic rules of war".

Israel's military said it had ruled out that the incident was the result of an air or artillery strike by its forces.

It added that it was reviewing Israeli operations nearby and examining the possibility that it was "Hamas fire".

Clashes and bombardment around the city's two main hospitals have also left thousands of patients, staff and others unable to leave.

An estimated 1.7 million people - nearly three-quarters of the population - have also been displaced by the past 12 weeks of fighting and many of them are sheltering inside UN facilities or near them.

The Khan Younis Training Centre is one of the largest UNRWA shelters, with between 30,000 and 40,000 people said to be living inside its grounds.

UNRWA said the compound was clearly marked, that its co-ordinates had been shared with Israeli authorities, and that it and the civilians inside had to be protected under international law.

However, at least six displaced people were killed and many more injured when the training centre was struck on Monday during intense fighting in the surrounding area, according to the agency.

On Wednesday afternoon, UNRWA's Gaza director, Thomas White, said a building at the facility that was housing 800 people from northern Gaza was hit.

In an interview with the BBC from Rafah in the evening, he said the building was struck by "two tank rounds" and that at least nine people were killed.

On Thursday morning, Mr White issued a statement saying the building was "hit by two shells and caught fire". Twelve people had now been confirmed dead and 15 of the injured were in a critical condition, he added.

Vedant Patel of the US state department repeated Washington's calls for the protection of civilians in Gaza.

"We deplore today's attack on the UN's Khan Younis training centre," she said, and called it "incredibly concerning".

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said the al-Amal Hospital, which it runs, and its local headquarters were under "siege" by Israeli forces, trapping patients, wounded people and an estimated 13,000 displaced people.

The organisation alleged that three displaced people were killed after being targeted at the entrance to the headquarters on Wednesday morning.

Mr White told the BBC that tens of thousands more people were now on the move, heading south to Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where as many as 1.4 million are already sheltering.

In another incident in Khan Younis on Tuesday, a cameraman for the UK's ITV News filmed a Palestinian civilian being shot dead on a main road about 1.7km (1 mile) south of the UNRWA shelter.

Five men are seen walking towards the combat zone holding a white flag, before there is a burst of gunfire and one of them falls to the ground. It was not clear who opened fire.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was asked in the Parliament on Wednesday whether such pictures would prompt him to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

He replied: "No-one wants to see this conflict go on for a moment longer than is necessary and we do want to see an immediate and sustained humanitarian pause."

Masses of protesters demanding an immediate deal to free the Gaza hostages briefly blocked Tel Aviv’s main Ayalon Highway Wednesday evening, in scenes not seen since the bitter nationwide fight over the government’s judicial overhaul last year.

After a day of women-led protests that blocked many roads in coordination with police, an estimated 5,000 demonstrators gathered at Kaplan Interchange in Tel Aviv, demanding an immediate deal to return all the hostages and chanting, “Stop the world, our brothers are there.”

Some of the protesters then descended onto the main highway and blocked its southbound route.

Protesters clashed with police and initially prevented them from clearing the road, but it was reopened to traffic after half an hour.

Dozens also demonstrated on King George Street in Jerusalem Wednesday evening, chanting, “Our sisters are held hostage, the women take to the streets.”

The protests were launched as media outlets reported that Israel and Hamas were engaged in talks, brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, for a protracted ceasefire and hostage release deal. Israeli officials pushed back against claims that negotiations with Hamas were advancing, accusing the terror group of digging in on its positions and blocking any potential compromise.

Hamas wants Israel to release all of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners it is holding. These include prisoners convicted in deadly attacks on Israelis as well as hundreds of Hamas terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre. It also wants Israel’s offensive to end and a permanent withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza.

A senior Egyptian official told the Associated Press that Israel has proposed a two-month ceasefire in which hostages would be freed in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and top Hamas leaders in Gaza would be allowed to relocate to other countries.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said Hamas rejected the proposal and insists no more hostages will be released until Israel ends its offensive and withdraws from Gaza. He also said Hamas’s leaders in Gaza do not want to go into exile.

“We united to no longer stay silent. We are taking to the streets to choose life before everything,” the women’s protest group for the return of hostages said in a statement, announcing Wednesday’s events.

“Women were and still are changing reality and we will do it this time as well. We are hurting and angry, but for the first time we have hope. Let’s unite women of all sectors with a call to the cabinet to advance a deal to return the hostages,” they said.

For some on the right, conquering the Gaza Strip and reestablishing Israeli settlements there is no longer just a dream: Government ministers, leading Knesset members, public figures and thousands of activists have been vigorously working on the plan since the war with Hamas began on October 7, and have ramped up their efforts in the last few weeks.

The activists are allocating tasks and establishing core settlement groups based on a map of the settlements they plan to establish in the Strip.

On Sunday, the activists will hold a large conference on “Jewish settlement in Gaza” at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center that is expected to draw over 3,000 people.

Two Likud ministers, Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar and Tourism Minister Haim Katz, will speak at the conference. Zohar has called upon all his associates to come, and Katz has claimed that “we represent the majority of the people.”

Additional Likud ministers are also expected to attend and speak at the event. All of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party’s cabinet ministers will be there (National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir; Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee Yitzhak Wasserlauf; and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu). It is also likely that fellow far-right party Religious Zionism’s ministers — Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Missions and Settlements Minister Orit Strock, and Immigration and Absorption Minister Ofir Sofer — will not miss the opportunity to appear before 3,000 potential voters.

The event is organized, among others, by Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, and the chairperson of the Nachala movement, Daniella Weiss, who is very active in settling and planning illegal outposts in the West Bank.

Israel’s leaders have repeatedly dismissed the idea of reestablishing settlements in Gaza, amid outright opposition from the international community, particularly Israel’s chief ally, the United States. Still, the military campaign in the Strip to fell Hamas has raised hopes among some stalwarts of the settlement movement.

“We need to take this area back and establish a settlement in Gaza,” says Dagan, “We need to start in the north of the Gaza Strip. The area where Elei Sinai, Nisanit, and Dugit used to be located… It’s close to Sderot, and that’s where the first settlements will be built.”

Sderot is the largest Israeli town near the Gaza border.

Weiss, the Nachala leader, told The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language sister site Zman Israel on Tuesday that the planned settlements already have names, and there is also an action strategy.

“The response is enormous — you’ll see it at the conference,” said Weiss. “We managed to register 400 families in seven core settlement groups all over Gaza. We have core groups in the northern border — where the Elei Sinai, Nisanit and Dugit settlements were, and in Gaza City itself. And in the entire compound of the former Gush Katif [settlement] bloc.

“Gaza City [also in northern Gaza] will be Jewish. We have no legal problem in the north of the Gaza Strip because we inquired and found that the territory there was never under Egyptian sovereignty,” she said.

Israel captured Gaza in the 1967 Six-Day War from Egypt, which had occupied the territory in 1948 during the war surrounding the establishment of the State of Israel.

“We formed serious teams, collected donations,” Weiss continued. “We’ll partly follow the same strategy that we used in Judea and Samaria: First we [the settlers] will establish a presence in the army camps. Step by step,” she said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.

“The settlements that will be established won’t have the same names as the ones from before the disengagement,” she said, referring to the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the evacuation of settlements at the time. “Each settlement will be named after a different fallen soldier, or the initials of several soldiers who fell in Gaza. One of the settlements will be called Yishai. On Sunday we will present the names.”

Most of the ministers and members of the Knesset who are active in supporting settlement in Gaza also back the voluntary emigration of Gaza residents during and after the war, a notion that has drawn international backlash, including stern opposition from the US. But even if the Palestinian residents remain, the activists are preparing to establish settlements under what they hope will be permanent Israeli rule in Gaza.

The occupation of Gaza and the establishment of settlements there is not the Israeli government’s policy for postwar Gaza, and Netanyahu has stated that Israel will not remain in Gaza after the war although it will retain overall security control.

At the same time, close to a third of government members and the Knesset do support renewed settlement within the Gaza Strip — including MKs not only in Likud, Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit, but also the two ultra-Orthodox parties. Netanyahu will thus be under pressure from within, from members of all parties in his pre-war coalition.

Gotliv, one of the Likud MKs scheduled to attend the conference, told Zman Israel that “only the settlement of the northern Gaza Strip will bring security and defeat of the enemy. Unfortunately, the Likud leadership is afraid to talk about settlement and control in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The campaign for settlement in Gaza began with notices hung near the Knesset during the first week of the war and small gatherings in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.

The method is typical of the settlers’ strategy for action over the years in the West Bank: establishing themselves on the territory or at army locations in small groups as the government and the army turn a blind eye; utilizing connections and political pressure in the Knesset and the corridors of power; and mass events, demonstrations and conferences that push the agenda for new settlements.

“We are waiting for a government decision on establishing a small settlement, holding on to a military outpost or something in the north of the Gaza Strip,” said Dagan, who is one of the Likud party’s most prominent activists.

“Without the government, it won’t work. We’re not challenging Netanyahu, but our position is unequivocal, and I know it can work.

A small group of protesters, including relatives of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, demonstrated at the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Thursday to picket humanitarian trucks going into the Palestinian enclave while demanding that aid be cut off until the captives held by terrorists in the territory are freed.

Part of the group was initially stopped by a roadblock but they made their way through, walking several kilometers toward the crossing for a second day in a row.

Tsufit Libman, sister-in-law of captive Elyakim Libman, called the delivery of aid to Gaza while the hostages are still captive a “moral failure.”

“While we don’t know where our families are and if they are alive, they [Gazans] are getting humanitarian aid,” she said and accused Palestinians in Gaza of “covering up crimes” and assisting Hamas.

She urged the government to be firm in not allowing any humanitarian aid until the hostages are freed.

Dani Elgarat, whose brother Itzik Elgarat was injured and kidnapped on October 7, said the protesters wanted to demonstrate to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “he needs to show courage and to stand up to the Americans and tell them…not a single drop of water until I see our captives coming home.”

He called for others to “come to the border crossing and stop this humanitarian aid with your bodies.”

It was not immediately clear what impact the protest had on truck movements. On Wednesday the demonstrators held up over 100 trucks, some of which were eventually diverted to an alternative entry point in Egypt.

The protests underlined the government’s narrowing space to maneuver as it faces growing international pressure to allow more humanitarian relief in Gaza, coupled with intense domestic pressure to both secure the release of the hostages and deliver military achievements in the protracted and increasingly deadly campaign.

They also came amid unconfirmed reports in the media of progress in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire and second prisoner swap.

GAZA/DOHA/JERUSALEM Jan 25 (Reuters) - An Israeli strike on Gaza City killed 20 Palestinians and wounded 150 who were queuing for food aid on Thursday, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said, in what a Palestinian coalition called a "war crime."

The Israeli military said it was looking into the report. The National and Islamic Forces Follow-up Committee, a coalition of militant and political groups, said Israeli forces targeted the civilians waiting for relief aid. Dozens were killed and injured in a "war crime and genocide," the group said in a statement.

Also in central Gaza, Palestinian health officials said an Israeli air strike at nightfall on a house in Al-Nusseirat refugee camp killed six people.

In the south of the enclave, Israeli tanks battered areas around two hospitals in Gaza's main southern city Khan Younis, forcing displaced people into a new desperate scramble for safety, residents said.
Meanwhile in the north, a World Health Organization official described the food situation as "absolutely horrific" and humanitarian workers said rare deliveries of aid were mobbed by desperate people who were visibly starving with sunken eyes.

Most of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million population is now squeezed into Khan Younis and towns just north and south of it, after being driven out of Gaza's northern half earlier in Israel's military campaign, now in its fourth month.

Gaza health officials said at least 50 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours in Khan Younis, where Israel has shifted full-blown military operations after starting to pull forces out of northern areas it says it now largely controls.
"There's no safe area, where shall we go? Stop the war, it is enough, we are drained, everyone is drained, children are gone, and adults are gone," a Palestinian woman said in Rafah, on Gaza's southern edge.

In its latest update, the Israeli military said forces in Khan Younis were fighting militants at close quarters and were using precision air strikes and snipers to take out multiple Hamas targets.

Palestinian medics said Israeli tanks had cut off and were shelling targets around the city's two main still-functioning hospitals, Nasser and Al-Amal, trapping medical teams, patients and displaced people huddled inside or nearby.
"The vicinity of Nasser Medical Complex is subjected to intense artillery shelling, and Israeli forces are firing heavily in the open areas and towards the buildings, putting the lives of everyone inside at risk," said Ashraf Al-Qidra, a
spokesperson for the health ministry.

Israel says Hamas militants use hospital premises as cover for bases, something the Islamist group and medical staff deny.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has fired 12 aid workers accused of involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, and has launched an investigation. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said yesterday that he was "horrified" by the allegations and that those found to have been involved would be referred for potential criminal prosecution.

Germany, Australia, Finland, Italy and the U.K. joined the U.S. and Canada today in suspending funding to the agency. UNRWA employs about 13,000 Palestinians and runs schools and shelters and distributes aid across Gaza.

Houthis fired at a U.S. warship for the first time yesterday, as well as a British oil tanker. The U.K. said it reserves “the right to respond appropriately,” along with its allies. In a pre-dawn strike today, the U.S. said, it destroyed an anti-ship ballistic missile that was aimed at the Red Sea and ready to launch, and Houthis reported U.S. raids in the port city of Al-Hudaydah.

CIA Director William Burns is set to meet with Qatar’s prime minister and the director of Mossad this weekend in an effort to break a deadlock in talks for a new hostage deal with Hamas.

After 114 days of fighting, as much as 80 percent of Hamas’s tunnel system beneath the Gaza Strip could still remain intact, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The report came as the Israel Defense Forces engaged in “high-intensity fighting” in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, with the 98th Division battling Hamas operatives in the area.

Amid the fighting in Gaza, US-led diplomatic efforts were taking place to develop a two-part plan for the release of over 130 hostages still held in the Strip who were kidnapped from Israel, in exchange for a pause in fighting of up to two months.

The Journal report cited Israeli and US officials and noted that it is difficult to assess how much of the subterranean labyrinth has been destroyed by Israeli troops so far, but estimated that 20% to 40% of it has been damaged or rendered unusable.

Some of the tunnels have been bombed, while others have been flooded. However, progress is slow as underground passages must be mapped and checked for booby traps and hostages before Israeli forces can destroy them.

senior Israeli military official told the Journal that the IDF was focused on eliminating “nodes” within the tunnels where Hamas operatives are hiding, instead of demolishing entire networks.

“It’s a very hard mission. It’s done slowly, very carefully. It’s urban warfare unseen globally,” the official said.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other terror commanders are believed to be hiding underground. The report cited Israeli officials who said that the Gaza terror chief is believed to be in a command center in a tunnel under Khan Younis, along with some of the hostages.

Earlier this month it was reported that senior Israeli defense officials now assess that Hamas’s Gaza tunnel network is between 350 and 450 miles long, far longer than previously believed.

US President Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone conversation last week that he will not support a year-long war in Gaza, according to an Axios report Friday.

Citing two anonymous US officials, the report said Biden asked Netanyahu to speed up the transition to low-intensity fighting against Hamas that would reduce harm to civilians, warned that “he is not in it for a year of war,” and pressed him on an “end state.”

In their call last week, their first conversation after 27 days, Biden reportedly told Netanyahu that he does not understand exactly what Israel’s strategy is for ending the war, and asked for an answer on the prime minister’s vision for the day after the war.

According to the Axios report Friday, an adviser for Biden said the White House was concerned about the Gaza war dominating news cycles and losing support among younger voters, who largely oppose the Biden White House’s policy, ahead of the presidential elections.

“A source close to the White House said Biden can’t have the war and the growing death toll to continue dominating the news cycle as the elections get closer,” the Axios report read.

Earlier this week, US officials told Reuters the US has created a channel with Israel to discuss concerns over incidents in Gaza in which civilians have been killed or injured by the Israeli military and civilian facilities have been targeted.

The channel was set up after a meeting earlier this month between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israel’s war cabinet during which Blinken expressed concern about the “constant” reports of Israeli strikes that either hit humanitarian sites or resulted in large numbers of civilian deaths.

The channel also underscores Washington’s frustration with Israel over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, with the US calling for the amount of aid entering the enclave to be ramped up to alleviate the plight of the civilian population.

Through the channel, which has been active for the last few weeks, Washington raises with the Israelis “every specific incident of concern” related to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, another US official said. The Israelis investigate and provide feedback to the Americans.

In some instances, the Israelis have conveyed additional information that sheds light on an incident while in others, they admitted they “made a mistake,” the officials said, without specifying which ones.

Meanwhile, the US has dispatched CIA director William Burns to Europe this weekend alongside Mossad Director David Barnea to meet Qatar’s prime minister and discuss a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a release of hostages.

Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel will also participate in the meeting, said one US source.

If these polls reflect reality

1. Israel would be at extreme risk if they agree to a one or two state solution.

Why suspend funding to UNRWA???