🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 330, 2023 - August 31, 2024 🎗️

    

🎗️Day 330 that 107 of our hostages in Hamas captivity
**There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!**

“I’ve never met them,

But I miss them. 

I’ve never met them,

but I think of them every second. 

I’ve never met them,

but they are my family. 

BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”

We’re waiting for you, all of you.
A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.

#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope

There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!

‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements

*11:00pm yesterday - rockets - Manara, Eilon, Arab al Aramsha, Goren, Admit, Sasa, Dovev, Tzavon, Gush Halav

*9:00am - North - rockets - Misgav Am, Malkia
*2:30pm - north - hostile aircraft - Golan Heights and Galilee regions
*4:55pm - north - rockets - Netua, Fasuta

Hostage Updates 

• Gershon Baskin - Hostage Negotiator - August 31, 2024

  I began negotiating with Hamas a week after Gilad Shalit's kidnapping. Two and a half months later, after two visits to Hamas in Gaza, I managed to obtain a handwritten letter from Shalit - a sign of life and proof that there was a channel leading to those holding Shalit. Then our system told me to cease. I remained in contact with Hamas. In July 2010, I received an approach from Ahmed Jabari that Hamas was ready to renew talks based on the German outline. I informed those responsible in Israel, and they weren't interested at all - they continued to say: "Waiting for a response from Hamas." When David Meidan was appointed as the POW and MIA coordinator, I approached him. He decided to activate me, and thus the direct secret channel was created. Then, Netanyahu approved the channel without knowing I was operating it. In mid-July 2011, I achieved the breakthrough that led to Gilad Shalit's release.

  This May, I managed to convince our system to activate me again. I started passing messages and receiving responses officially and directly, but after two weeks, the system told me to "cease." In my estimation, Netanyahu found out that I was operating a direct and secret channel that was very active and didn't want such a channel.

  About two weeks ago, the Hostage Families' Headquarters asked me to try to conduct direct negotiations with Hamas on their behalf. I did so, and within two weeks, I obtained agreement for a three-week deal- release of all 107 hostages, end of the war, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and an agreed release of names and number of Palestinian prisoners. The entire Hamas leadership agrees to this outline, but our Netanyahu doesn't want to end the war. This is the situation today - Saturday, August 31, 2024.

• In a statement read out in front of the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, family members of the hostages accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government of knowingly condemning the hostages to death.

  “Netanyahu and his partners in the cabinet decided to torpedo the [hostage-ceasefire] deal due to the Philadelphia spin, and as such knowingly condemn the hostages to death,” the statement says.

  Einav Zangauker, mother of Hamas hostage Matan Zangauker, calls Netanyahu “Mr. Death.”
  

  “This is a crime against the people, against the State of Israel and against Zionism,” she says. “Netanyahu is not Mr. Security, he is Mr. Death. He is undermining the deal in cold blood.”

  The statements come after Netanyahu reportedly told ministers that he prioritized maintaining troops in the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border over saving the lives of those held in by Hamas.

  
  Family members and supporters standing next to pictures of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip, during a protest for the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip, outside the Prime Minister's official residence in Jerusalem, August 30, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
  Mass rallies are planned for later tonight calling on the government to reach a deal.

• Hostage release-ceasefire talks this week focused on the details of an exchange of captives taken on October 7 and Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, Axios reports, citing Israeli and US officials.

  According to a proposal, 33 women, men over 50, or hostages with serious medical conditions would be swapped in the first stage of a deal for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, 150 of whom serve life sentences for murder, the report says.

  If less than 33 hostages in the above categories are alive, Hamas will hand over the bodies of dead hostages to make up the difference, the report says, adding that mediators have transferred a list to the terror group of captives Israel qualifies for release in the first stage.  Israeli officials tell Axios negotiators are discussing a list of prisoners given by Hamas it wants to be released in the deal. While no final decision has been reached on the list, significant progress has been made on the issue, the officials say.

• Asked to decide between hostages or Philadelphi, Netanyahu said to prioritize latter: In security cabinet meeting shouting match with Gallant, PM says only determined stance in talks will free captives; Gallant responds that ministers are condemning hostages to die
  

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that he was prioritizing his stance of maintaining Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor over saving the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

The stance was shared during a heated security cabinet meeting Thursday night during which the premier had the top ministerial body vote to approve a series of maps drawn up by the IDF, which show how Israel aims to keep its troops deployed in the nine-mile narrow stretch known as the Philadelphi Corridor during the first phase of the ceasefire being negotiated.

It was the latest representation of the divide between Netanyahu and the security establishment, which has pushed for more compromise in the negotiations, particularly regarding the Philadelphi Corridor, fearing that the premier’s hardline positions could scuttle a deal.

According to a transcript from the meeting leaked to Channel 12 on Friday, the ministers had not been briefed ahead of time that they would be holding a vote on the IDF maps and Gallant demanded to know why it was necessary.

“The significance of this is that Hamas won’t agree to it, so there won’t be an agreement and there won’t be any hostages released,” Gallant told the ministers.  Netanyahu replied: “This is the decision.”

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer then pushed to proceed with a vote on the maps that the IDF presented last week to mediators in Cairo, but Gallant claimed that Netanyahu had imposed his position on the security establishment and that the maps the IDF presented went against its stance.

“I imposed? I imposed?” Netanyahu responded.

“Of course you did. They had their own plan. You are running the negotiations by yourself ever since the war cabinet disbanded (in June). We learn of decisions only after the fact. The negotiators sketched the maps as you wanted, but they had a different position,” Gallant said.

Netanyahu then banged his hands on the table, demanding an immediate vote on his Philadelphi maps.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi piped in to raise his own concerns about the prime minister’s strategy: “The IDF will know how to enter and return to the Philadelphi Corridor at the end of the first six weeks of the ceasefire. There are enough constraints in the talks, you don’t need to add another.”

“There is no logic to this vote right now. In any case, the negotiations are currently focused on (other issues) and not the Philadelphi Corridor,” added Mossad spy agency director David Barnea, who has led the Israeli negotiating team.

Gallant then told the cabinet they faced a choice: to remain in the corridor or to return the hostages.

“You are deciding to stay in the Philadelphi Corridor. Is this logical to you? There are living (hostages) there!” Gallant said.

Dermer replied, “The prime minister can do as he likes,” to which Gallant responded, “The prime minister can indeed make all the decisions, and he can also decide to kill all the hostages.”

At this point, other ministers in the room called out Gallant for speaking to the prime minister in such a manner.

Gallant then told Netanyahu he would eventually cave to Sinwar’s demands anyway.

 

An infographic titled ‘Israel claims ‘operational control’ over Philadelphi Corridor on Gaza-Egypt border’ created in Ankara, Turkiye on May 30, 2024. (Elmurod Usubaliev / Anadolu via Reuters)

 Netanyahu shot back that he doesn’t take directions from anyone.

Gallant accused the cabinet of abandoning the hostages by making the decision, adding he would vote against the measure.

He again turned to the premier and asked, if he had to decide between withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor or bringing back the hostage, which would he choose.

Netanyahu stressed that only a determined negotiating stance would bring back the hostages.

Pressed again on the question by Gallant, the prime minister said he was choosing to remain in the Philadelphi Corridor.

Gallant went on to acknowledge that he had lost the argument this time, but he predicted that the ministers would come around to his position.

“Hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later,” the defense minister said.

An unnamed cabinet minister told Ynet that unlike in previous arguments between the pair, nobody came to Gallant’s defense on Thursday night, believing he had gone too far in his criticism.

“This was the most intense argument I can recall between Netanyahu and Gallant,” one of the ministers said. “Netanyahu isolated Gallant completely. In situations such as these, a defense minister may as well lay down his keys.״

The eight-to-one vote, with one abstention, appeared symbolic and largely aimed at further broadcasting Israel’s stance on the Philadelphi Corridor, since the maps had already been submitted to Hamas and mediators Egypt, the US and Qatar.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir cast the vote’s lone abstention. A source close to Ben Gvir was cited by Hebrew media as explaining this was because the proposal included a gradual decrease in the number of soldiers in case of a deal, while he supports maintaining a full military presence at the corridor and in all of Gaza.

The maps have already been adopted by the US, an official from the Prime Minister’s Office said last night, apparently referencing the “bridging proposal” that the White House submitted earlier this month.

The Israel Hayom daily reported Friday that the decision’s content in practice calls for the IDF to gradually thin its presence along the corridor during the first six-week stage of a potential hostage-ceasefire deal, by the end of which only soldiers in watchtowers will be left along the Philadelphi Corridor.

The Israeli presence along the corridor is currently only part of the first stage of the deal. It is expected that if a deal reaches a second stage, it will be demanded of Israel to retreat its presence from the area entirely, the report said.

A senior official told the daily that even as the IDF presence is diminished, Israel will maintain effective control of the corridor, adding that the gradual retreat will only begin once the military has destroyed all the cross-border tunnels in the area and placed sensors that can detect construction of new tunnels.

“In any case, approaching the perimeter will be forbidden,” the official told Israel Hayom. “There’s no need for an IDF division and a half to be on the ground all the time. There will be soldiers and Israeli movement across its whole width all the time, whether for operational needs or logistical needs. The Israeli control will be substantial and not only symbolic.”

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum responded to the leaked quotes from the security cabinet meeting by demanding that publicly declare that he has given up on the lives of hostages in favor of continued IDF presence on the Philadelphi Corridor.

“The quotes from the cabinet meeting should cause every Israeli citizen to lose sleep,” the forum said in a statement. “Every citizen should knows that if they are to be kidnapped from their bed in their pajamas on a Saturday morning, their prime minister will do everything to keep his seat, even at the cost of leaving them to die in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza.”

Netanyahu has insisted that remaining in the Philadelphi Corridor is essential for preventing continued weapons smuggling, which would allow for the revival of Hamas after the war. This is despite the demand not being included in a previous Israeli proposal issued on May 27. The US has urged Israel to compromise on the issue, while also offering a bridging proposal that allows for a limited number of soldiers to remain in the corridor, which both Hamas and mediator Egypt have to date opposed, two Arab officials told The Times of Israel earlier this week.

According to the officials, the bridging proposal over-catered to Israel’s demands and it has since been adopted.

The security establishment has pushed the government for more flexibility on the Philadelphi issue, fearing Netanyahu’s stance will further drag out the talks, risking the lives of the hostages, and arguing that Israel would be able to return to the corridor if need be.

Channel 12 news reported Thursday that at the meeting in which the vote was eventually held, Gallant presented a document presenting the security establishment’s opinion that without a hostages-for-ceasefire deal, Israel faced “imminent deterioration into a multifront war.”

According to the senior Prime Minister’s Office official who reported the vote’s results, Netanyahu told ministers during the meeting that Hamas had been able to carry out its October 7 onslaught because Israel didn’t have control over the Philadelphi Corridor.

Netanyahu stressed that by maintaining control over the corridor, Israel will prevent another attack of that nature from unfolding since Hamas won’t be able to re-arm itself.

He also argued that this stance will make a hostage deal more likely because Hamas will see that it has no other choice but to compromise on this issue, just as it did when it agreed to forgo its demand for a permanent end to the war.

In the proposal Hamas submitted earlier this month, the terror group agreed to only have a six-week ceasefire, during which the sides would negotiate the terms of subsequent phases. While the offer envisions the mediators keeping Israel and Hamas at the table, it does appear to provide Israel with the ability to resume fighting if Hamas is deemed to be violating the terms of the deal and not negotiating in good faith.  Link

Negotiators fear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Egyptian government have inflated the importance of control over the Philadelphi Corridor, hampering efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, three officials familiar with the talks told The Times of Israel this week.

The IDF took over the nine-mile stretch along the Egypt-Gaza border in May. In July, Netanyahu began insisting that Israeli forces remain in the corridor indefinitely, arguing that it is necessary for preventing the continued smuggling of weapons via tunnels to Hamas.

The new demand has been a nonstarter for the terror group but also for Egypt, which has served as one of the mediators along with the US and Qatar.  The Biden administration sought to advance a series of alternative solutions, including the building of an underground wall along the border to prevent smuggling, a US official and a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel.

These proposals weren’t enough to convince Netanyahu to fully withdraw Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor, particularly during the first six-week phase of the ceasefire being negotiated.

Accordingly, the US has over the past week sought to persuade Israel to at least extract troops from particular sections of the border near areas of Gaza that are still heavily populated, the senior Israeli official said, confirming a report on the Axios news site.  

The Israeli security establishment has appeared flexible on the issue, an Arab official from a mediating country said. The Mossad, Shin Bet and IDF representatives who make up Israel’s negotiating team have stressed the importance of implementing new mechanisms to prevent smuggling. However, they also believe that the IDF can swiftly return to the corridor if need be, so it can afford to withdraw in the meantime to save the lives of the hostages, the Arab official explained.

But Netanyahu does not share this perspective, and has ordered the Israeli negotiating team to take a harder line, the Arab official said.  full article As Galant said, Netanyahu is condemning all the living hostages to a death sentence as he has put the Philadelphi route as more important than their lives, even when the entire defense establishment has said otherwise. As Einav Tsengauker, mother of the hostage Matan Tsengauker said "It's not the Philidelphi Route, it's the Philidelphi spin". Netanyahu lied to the cabinet about the importance of the route going forward and the maps that he demanded the IDF prepare for him which were diametrically opposed to the maps they had prepared for the PM and cabinet. He is using this spin, once again to make sure a deal isn't made and he stays prime minister. If Netanyahu ever had a soul and a moral compass, it is long gone in favor of his personal political needs. We can all be sure that if his son was a hostage, he would have been back in the first week of the war. He would have paid any price. The lives of the hostages are not valuable enough to him. SHAME!!!!

• The Second Authority for Television and Radio, Israel’s commercial broadcast regulator, forbids a 20-second video spreading awareness of hostages held in Gaza from airing on TV. 
  The video by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum shows the point of view of someone walking through a tunnel in Gaza, while women, men, and a baby scream in the background. |
  Several images, including a terrified face and what appears to be a silhouette of a pregnant woman flicker throughout the video. Halfway through the video, a caption appears reading: “Over nine months have passed.” Hostage Families video
  
  
• Hostage families to PM: Announce publicly you’ve given up on hostages for the sake of IDF presence on Philadelphi Corridor
  

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, responding to leaked quotes from last night’s cabinet meeting, demands that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly declare that he has given up on the lives of hostages for the sake of a continued IDF presence on the Philadelphi Corridor.

“The quotes from the cabinet meetingshould prevent sleep for every Israeli citizen,” the forum says. “Every citizen knows that if they were to be kidnapped from their bed in their pajamas on a Saturday morning, their prime minister would do everything to keep his seat, even at the cost of leaving them to die in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza.”

The forum says it would have been better for the country if other ministers responded like Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to the vote called by Netanyahu to back his stance that the IDF remain deployed on the corridor that runs the length of the Gaza-Egypt border. Gallant, who cast the only vote against Netanyahu’s stance, accused the cabinet of condemning the hostages to death to maintain the IDF’s presence on the Philadelphi Corridor, according to quotes reported by Channel 12.

“We demand the prime minister hold a press conference in which he announces he has decided to give up on the lives of hostages and the return of the fallen and murdered for appropriate burial, in exchange for a corridor that all the defense officials have determined it is possible to leave from for a certain period,” the forum says.  Link

•  Former IDF military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin denounces the security cabinet vote on Thursday night that backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on maintaining the IDF’s deployment along the Philadelphi Corridor during the first six-week phase of any hostage-ceasefire deal, which Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told ministers would likely doom a deal and therefore doom the hostages. 
  Yadlin, a former Labor Party candidate for defense minister, tells Channel 12 that the decision means that the government has essentially said it will not uphold its “moral obligation” to bring home women, children and the elderly “who were kidnapped from their homes” on October 7, as well as soldiers.
  “The hostages have been abandoned,” Yadlin says, calling the government’s stance “unacceptable.” He says every Israeli should today “go out and demonstrate” against what he calls a “scandalous” situation.

Gaza 

•   It was another day of war in Gaza, another day of what 19-year-old Palestinian TikTok star Medo Halimy called his “Tent Life.”

  As he often did in videos documenting life’s mundane absurdities in the enclave, Halimy on Monday walked to his local internet cafe — rather, a tent with Wi-Fi where displaced Palestinians can connect to the outside world — to meet his friend and collaborator Talal Murad.

  They snapped a selfie — “Finally Reunited” Halimy captioned it on Instagram — and started catching up.

  Then came a flash of light, 18-year-old Murad says, an explosion of white heat and sprayed earth. Murad felt pain in his neck. Halimy was bleeding from his head. A car on the coastal road in front of them was engulfed in flames, the apparent target of an Israeli airstrike. It took 10 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Some hours later doctors pronounced Halimy dead.

  “He represented a message,” Murad says, still recovering from his shrapnel wounds and reeling from the Israeli airstrike that killed his friend. “He represented hope and strength.”

  The Israeli military didn’t respond to a request for comment on the strike.

  Tributes to Halimy pour in from friends as far afield as Harker Heights, Texas, where he spent a year in 2021 as part of a US State Department initiative that sends students from around the world to American high schools.

  

  In this undated photo provided by Helmi Hirez, Mohamed (Medo) Halimy, left, and twin brothers Mohammed Hirez, center, and Helmi Hirez, right, stand on a beach in Gaza. (Helmi Hirez via AP)

  “Medo was the life of the hangout … humor and kindness and wit, all things that can never be forgotten,” says Heba al-Saidi, alumni coordinator for the US government-sponsored Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study program and a friend of Halimy’s. “He was bound for greatness, but he was taken too soon.”

  His feed is also flooded by hundreds of thousands of posts from his TikTok followers, expressing grief as if they, too, had lost a close friend. Link This is a tragedy in a long line of tragedies on both sides. This war needs to end and we need to begin a path to a new place, a path of hope and peace and equal rights for the people on both sides

• Reservists with the 252nd Division called in an airstrike against a building in Gaza City where they spotted a terror operative working to place booby traps, the IDF says in a morning update.

  The army says the building was located close to where the reservists were operating. A fighter jet struck the building.

  Separately, a cell of gunmen was killed by the division, and several sites used by terror groups were destroyed in the past day, the IDF says.

  In southern Gaza’s Rafah, the IDF says troops with the 162nd Division continued operations in the past day, locating many weapons and killing several cells of gunmen.

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• A barrage of some 40 rockets was fired from Lebanon at the Western Galilee earlier tonight, the IDF said.

  The military said some of the rockets were intercepted and others impacted the area, though no injuries were caused.

  It added that troops shelled the launch sites with artillery.

  Meanwhile, the IDF said it struck several Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.

• Israeli troops are shelling targets in the south Lebanon villages Deir Seryan and Taybeh, Hezbollah affiliated Al-Manar TV network reports, according to the Ynet news site.

  The reported shelling comes amid continued rocket fire by the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group overnight and this morning toward Israeli towns and military positions along the border.

  
  

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West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

•     Two people have been wounded by gunfire at a gas station at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank, and another person was hurt after being hit by a car at the entrance to the nearby Karmei Tzur settlement, medics say.

  The Magen David Adom ambulance service says it is taking to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem a 24-year-old in moderate condition and a 34-year-old in good condition after they were shot at the gas station.

  At the gas station, a vehicle reportedly exploded. MDA says that the apparent terrorist was shot and “neutralized” by Israeli forces at the scene.

  Surveillance camera footage purportedly shows the moment a car exploded
  

  Separately, MDA says its medics are treating a man who was lightly wounded after being hit by a car that breached Karmei Tzur.

  The second attacker was also “neutralized,” MDA says.

  The IDF reported earlier that a suspect opened fire in Karmei Tzur before being shot.

Two car bombs exploded in the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank late Friday night, in what security officials believed was a coordinated attack. Two Palestinian terrorists involved in the attacks were killed by troops at the scene.

In the first incident, a car exploded at a gas station near the Gush Etzion junction. Troops dispatched to the scene shot dead a terrorist who had arrived in the vehicle and who attempted to attack them, the military said.

In the second incident, which occurred about 20 minutes later, a terrorist breached into the nearby Karmei Tzur settlement, before being shot dead. The terrorist’s car exploded inside the community.

At the gas station, a soldier was moderately wounded and a reservist officer who is the head of a local security team was lightly hurt, likely as a result of friendly fire while forces shot the alleged terrorist dead, the military and medics said. The two were taken to a hospital.

The commander of the IDF’s Etzion Regional Brigade, Col. Gal Rich, was also lightly hurt, but did not require hospitalization, the military said. Rich was hit in the arm but continued to operate at the scene to investigate the attack.

Footage posted to social media showed the moment the suspect at the gas station was shot.  video

In the second incident, a Palestinian rammed a car through the entrance to the nearby settlement of Karmei Tzur. IDF troops stationed in the area opened fire at the attacker, but the vehicle continued into the community.

One of the members of the local security team, in his own car, chased after the terrorist and crashed into the attacker’s car, before getting out and shooting him dead. The guard himself was lightly hurt in the crash and taken to hospital.

Moments later, the terrorist’s car exploded. The IDF and Shin Bet believed that the two Palestinian terrorists were coordinated.

The pair set out together from the Hebron area and headed toward the Etzion settlement bloc to carry out the attack at two locations, according to an initial probe.

Their identities and affiliations were not immediately known. full article

 Israeli forces have detained six Palestinians who are suspected to have been involved in last night’s dual car bombing attacks in the West Bank.

Their connection to the attacks in the Gush Etzion area is being looked into.

The IDF has meanwhile encircled Hebron and towns in the area, where the two terrorists came from, as it searches for additional suspects and investigates the attack.

This morning, troops demolished a bomb-making lab in Hebron.

The military says that there is no fear of a third car bomb — as some media outlets reported — and the incident in Gush Etzion is considered to have ended.

The two cars that exploded in Gush Etzion are believed by the IDF to have been packed with makeshift explosive devices.

 

•  Palestinian media report heavy clashes between gunmen and Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Jenin this morning. The IDF has been carrying out a major raid in the northern West Bank since early Wednesday. Further details are not immediately available

Politics and the War (general news)

•  Ex-PM Olmert, ex-PA foreign minister propose plan for two-state solution to conflicts 

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert and former Palestinian Authority foreign minister Nasser al-Kidwa agree to cooperate on advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians, including a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, and the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state, according to a joint statement.

The two leaders agree to the territorial solution proposed by Olmert during his time in office based on the 1967 borders but with land swaps to account for Israeli settlements and Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem; a Palestinian capital in Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem; and the administration of the Old City by a trusteeship of five states including Israel and Palestine.

They agree that an Israeli withdrawal and a Palestinian, technocratic governing council linked to the PA is necessary in the Gaza Strip and that the West Bank and Gaza Strip should be prepared for elections within 24-35 months, the statement reads. An Arab peacekeeping force, called the Temporary Arab Security Presence (TASP) will be needed to “stabilize” the Strip, in cooperation with the Israeli military, to prevent terror attacks from Gaza.

“Finally, they agreed on the need of a donors conference to rebuild the Gaza Strip with a serious participation of wealthy countries,” the statement reads. Link

• Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signed an agreement with Nasser al-Qudwa, nephew of former Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, on July 17, 2024, where they agreed to "work together to promote the achievement of peace in the Middle East" through a successful application of the two-state solution with 1967 borders as a basis, according to documents published by N12 on Friday.

  The current agreement is based on Olmert's famously mysterious solution presented to Mahmoud Abbas in 2008.

  The current agreement would see 4.4% of the total territory of the West Bank annexed by Israel, with some Israeli territory being swapped in its place.

  They called for a mutual agreement on which locations to swap, taking into consideration security and practicality.

  The swaps would include a corridor linking Gaza and the West Bank as part of the 4.4%.

  Support for Biden's plan

  They voiced support for the plan President Biden presented at the UN Security Council, which called for the creation of a "Council of Commissioners" to govern the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal.

  "This Council should be organically linked to the PA and, together, with the Council of Ministers, should prepare both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for general elections within 24 to 36 months."
  They also agreed to the creation of a Temporary Arab Security Presence to be deployed to Gaza, which would coordinate with the IDF and a new Palestinian security force established by the Council of Commissioners.

  The Temporary Arab Security Presence's mandate will be to prevent attacks from Gaza into Israel.

  They also raised the possibility of international forces being stationed along the river Jordan.
  The Palestinian state is to be a non-militarized state except for the needs of internal policing and security forces.

  They also agreed to the need for a "Donors Conference" made up of wealthy countries willing to seriously participate.

  Partition of Jerusalem

  Regarding Jerusalem, Israel will receive all of West Jerusalem plus any Jewish neighborhoods built after 1967; these will be included in the 4.4%.
  All Arab neighborhoods that were not part of Israel before 1967 will be part of Palestinian Jerusalem.

  The Old City is to be administered by a trusteeship of five states, including Israel and Palestine.

  "The Trusteeship will have authority in all areas according to rules defined by the UN Security Council."

  The agreement also recognizes the special historic role of the King of Jordan in the Old City.

  "There would be no limitations on worship or movement in the Holy Basin. Jews, Muslims, and Christians will have freedom of access to the Holy Sites, respectively. No one country will have exclusive political sovereignty of the Holy Basin."

  In conclusion, they called for relevant parties on both sides to negotiate additional important elements for a final agreement and called on both sides to adopt this as a basis for a future agreement. link This agreement between Olmert and al Qidra has no binding or legal basis. However, the entire purpose of the work that has been done on it by the 2 sides has been to show that reaching an equitable agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is not only doable, but can actually be completed. When Olmert was Prime Minister, he was extremely close to finalizing an agreement with Abu Mazen, President of the PA. Unfortunately, Olmert's upcoming felony charges and his resignation as Prime Minister put the entire agreement on the dung heap of history as the incoming Prime Minister Netanyahu had no intention of continuing from where Olmert left off. On the contrary, he spent his entire career selling the falsehood that there is no partner for peace on the other side. This agreement destroys that fallacy and many others that Netanyahu has forced down the throat of the Israeli public and brought us to October 7

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The Region and the World

•    Seven US troops were injured during a joint raid with the Iraqi military targeting suspected Islamic State group operatives in Iraq’s western desert, The Associated Press reports.

  A US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the operation yet to be made public, tells the news agency that five American troops were wounded in the raid, while two others suffered injuries from falls in the operation.

  One who suffered a fall was transported out of the Mideast, while one of the wounded was evacuated for further treatment, the official says.

  “All personnel are in stable condition,” the official says.

  It wasn’t immediately clear why it took two days for the US to acknowledge it took part in the raid in which 15 ISIS operatives were killed.

• Two missiles suspected to have been fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a ship in the Gulf of Aden late Friday, splashing down nearby without causing any damage, authorities say.

  The attack comes after the Houthis repeatedly assaulted and then boarded a Greek-flagged oil tanker in the nearby Red Sea, planting explosives on it they later detonated. That attack, the worst in weeks, risked a major oil spill as the rebels’ campaign disrupts the $1 trillion in goods that pass through the Red Sea each year over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, as well as halting some aid shipments to conflict-ravaged Sudan and Yemen.

  The attack Friday saw two missiles “exploding in close proximity to the vessel” some 240 kilometers (150 miles) east of Aden, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center says.The ship “reports all crew are safe and proceeding to next port of call,” the UKMTO says. “Investigations are ongoing.”

Personal Stories

  

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague

IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague

MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp

PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen

PMO- Prime Minister's Office

UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission

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