Wednesday, February 14, 2024 11:16:30 PM
Middle East CrisisIsrael Strikes in Lebanon After Deadly Rocket Attack
"‘A new Nakba’: settler violence forces Palestinians out of West Bank villages
"nsafe in own home’: Israeli settlers spread terror in South Hebron Hills
"Israel's Supreme Court strikes down disputed law that limited court oversight"
Feb. 14, 2024 Updated 10:23 p.m. ET
***
Here’s what we know:
The Israeli military said it had launched extensive airstrikes in response to rocket fire that killed a soldier, a significant escalation in cross-border tensions. Four were killed in Lebanon.
* A member of the war cabinet warns that Israel could strike at the Lebanese military.
* The W.H.O. expresses concern that Nasser Hospital could soon cease to function.
* Reports that Israel has stopped taking part in cease-fire talks anger hostages’ families.
* The F.B.I. director makes a secret trip to Israel.
* Relatives of Gaza hostages rally in The Hague to draw attention to a war crimes complaint against Hamas.
* Biden shields Palestinians in the U.S. from deportation.New
I An Israeli minister blocks flour from reaching UNRWA in Gaza.
A member of the war cabinet warns that Israel could strike at the Lebanese military.
Video - Deadly Rocket Attack Fired From Lebanon Hits Northern Israel 0:45
The rocket fire hit near Safed, Israel, which sits about eight miles south of the border with Lebanon.CreditCredit...Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Israel carried out extensive and lethal airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in response to a deadly rocket attack on northern Israel, escalations in recent fighting that threaten to derail diplomatic efforts to prevent a major expansion of the war in the Gaza Strip.
The rocket attack from Lebanon was the second in two days to cause casualties in northern Israel, striking a military base near the city of Safed — beyond the border zone Israel has evacuated for months because of the fighting. A soldier was killed, the military said, identifying her as serving with Israel’s border protection service. Eight other people were wounded, according to Magen David Adom, the emergency medical service.
Reported strikes in Lebanon after a deadly rocket attack in Israel
Map image -- Sources: Israeli Defense Forces; Lebanon’s official National News Agency
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia allied with Hamas, the armed group Israel been battling in Gaza for more than four months. Hezbollah and Israel have launched dozens of tit-for-tat strikes across the border, fueling fears that the exchanges could expand to a full-fledged second front in the war.
Within hours of the rocket attack, Israel’s military said that it had carried out strikes against “a series of Hezbollah terrorist targets,” including compounds and control rooms. Lebanese broadcasters showed images and videos of smoke plumes and destruction. The state news agency reported that strikes hit at least eight areas, killing a woman and her two children; Hezbollah said that three of its fighters had also been killed, and a senior official with the group, Hashem Safieddine, vowed a response.
On Wednesday night, Lebanon’s state media reported that an Israel drone strike on an apartment building killed four more people in Nabatieh, in southern Lebanon, all members of the same family. The regional governor said that amid the escalating violence, schools and government offices in Nabatieh would be closed on Thursday.
Israeli officials have warned repeatedly that they would take much stronger military action in Lebanon .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-hamas-hezbollah.html .. if the cross-border violence continued; Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and 2006 in response to such attacks.
Benny Gantz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency war cabinet, said on Monday that Israel could target the Lebanese military in addition to Hezbollah. Any incursion into Lebanon or strikes on the Lebanese military would mark a major escalation in the conflict.
“It is important that we be clear — the one responsible for the fire from Lebanon is not only Hezbollah or the terrorist elements that carry it out, but also the government of Lebanon and the Lebanese state that allows the shooting from its territory,” Mr. Gantz said, adding: “There is no target or military infrastructure in the area of ??the north and Lebanon that is not in our sights.”
The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, cautioned that “this is not the time to stop” striking Hezbollah — which, like Hamas, is backed by Iran — and warned that “there is still a long way to go.”
Hezbollah has been equally defiant. Hassan Nazrallah, the group’s leader, said on Tuesday, “You escalate, we escalate.”
The latest strikes threatened to derail diplomatic efforts .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-lebanon-hezbollah-talks.html .. by the United States and others to defuse the cross-border tensions. A Western diplomat said on Tuesday .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/13/world/middleeast/hezbollah-israel-strikes-talks.html .. that France had presented a proposal to Israel, Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah. The French proposal details a 10-day process of de-escalation and calls for Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters to a distance of about six miles from the border, according to the diplomat, who is involved in the talks and who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.
The clashes between Hezbollah and Israel have displaced more than 150,000 people .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/world/middleeast/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-civilians.html .. on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since the war with Hamas began.
Mr. Netanyahu has been wary of opening a second front while the Israeli military continues to press its invasion of Gaza, but he has faced calls from some of the displaced residents and political hard-liners — including some in his own far-right governing coalition — to take stronger action.
Avigdor Liberman, a former top adviser to Mr. Netanyahu who now leads an opposition party, accused the government of waving a “white flag” at Hezbollah by failing to take strong enough steps to stop the rocket attacks.
“The war cabinet surrendered to Hezbollah and lost the north,” he wrote on social media .. https://x.com/AvigdorLiberman/status/1757678060294320514?s=20 .. on Wednesday after the attack on Safed.
Israel’s military said that the rockets from Lebanon had landed in the areas of Netu’a, Manara and a military base near Safed, a city of nearly 40,000 people, about eight miles south of the border. Four Israeli military bases sit near Safed, and rocket warnings there are not uncommon, but fatalities and direct hits are rare, said Tamir Engel, a spokesman for the city.
In early January, Hezbollah fired rockets toward a small military base in the area. The group said that it was retaliating for the assassination days earlier of a senior Hamas commander .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-leader-war.html .. in Lebanon; Israel said at the time that the attack had caused no casualties.
Euan Ward, Adam Sella and Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.
— Gabby Sobelman, Hwaida Saad and Cassandra Vinograd
The W.H.O. expresses concern that Nasser Hospital could soon cease to function.
Palestinians fleeing Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, on Wednesday. Hatem Ali/Associated Press
The World Health Organization on Wednesday expressed fears that an important hospital serving southern Gaza might soon stop functioning, saying that it had been cut off by fierce fighting and that Israel had refused to allow in medical resupply missions, an allegation the Israeli military has denied.
The hospital, the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, has been surrounded for more than a week by Israeli forces, and on Tuesday the Israeli military ordered civilians sheltering there to evacuate. A video .. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3UfKxct0q9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D .. shared on social media on Wednesday and verified by The New York Times showed crowds of people carrying belongings and bedding leaving Nasser Hospital as explosions are heard in the background.
In the intensifying hostilities, at least 10 civilians have reportedly been killed, a perimeter gate demolished and two warehouses holding stocks of medicines largely destroyed, according to Rik Peeperkorn, the W.H.O.’s representative for the West Bank and Gaza.
The W.H.O. last had access to the hospital, the largest in southern Gaza and one of the few still functioning in the territory, on Jan. 29, Dr. Peeperkorn said. Speaking by video link from Rafah, in southern Gaza, he said the W.H.O. had applied to Israel to conduct two missions in the last five days to resupply the hospital with medicine and to assess its condition, but Israel had denied both requests.
“Without this support, and without being able to access this hospital, it might well become nonfunctional,” Dr. Peeperkorn said.
On Monday, after the head of the W.H.O. said that an agency team had been denied access to Nasser Hospital, COGAT, the Israeli body that coordinates policy for the Palestinian territories, said that the agency had “never submitted a coordination request” and that the W.H.O. should avoid “baselessly accusing” Israel.
Nasser Hospital was treating about 400 patients on Wednesday, including roughly 80 in intensive care and 35 who were receiving dialysis, Dr. Peeperkorn said. But any movement outside the complex was dangerous because of fighting in the area, he added, and it was unclear where civilians should go because other hospitals were overcrowded.
Al-Najjar Hospital, the main medical center in Rafah, to the south of Khan Younis, was treating more than 300 patients in a facility with 65 beds, leaving many to receive treatment on the floor, he said. Al-Najjar had served only as a primary health center before the war began on Oct. 7.
United Nations agencies and the W.H.O. have been obstructed by Israel’s repeated denials, delays and postponements of proposed aid convoys, Dr. Peeperkorn said. U.N. officials have reported that northern Gaza has been largely cut off from assistance this year. But since January, he said, Israel has facilitated fewer than half the proposed aid convoys to the south.
“Even when there is no cease-fire,” Dr. Peeperkorn said, “humanitarian corridors should exist so that W.H.O., the U.N. and parties can do their job.”
— Nick Cumming-Bruce reporting from Geneva
Maps: Tracking the Attacks in Israel and Gaza
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/10/07/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-maps.html
Reports that Israel has stopped taking part in cease-fire talks anger hostages’ families.
Photos of Israelis taken hostage on Oct. 7 hanging from a bridge in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. Susana Vera/Reuters
As talks continued in Cairo toward an Israel-Hamas cease-fire, Israeli media reported on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told his negotiators not to take part, infuriating some family members of hostages still in Gaza who say that the government is not doing enough to rescue their relatives.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office did not directly confirm or deny the reports, instead issuing a statement saying that Hamas had not made any new proposal, but that “a change in Hamas’s position will allow progress in the negotiations.”
Mr. Netanyahu later posted on social media that “strong military pressure and very tough negotiations” would be key to freeing more of the remaining hostages seized during the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7. He praised the Israeli military operation that freed two hostages held by Hamas in Rafah on Monday.
Officials from Israel and the United States met this week with Hamas mediators from Qatar and Egypt to discuss a possible deal to trade hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and to suspend the four-month war in Gaza.
Those talks are still underway in Cairo, but, according to Israeli news outlets, Mr. Netanyahu told Israel’s representatives not to return to Cairo.
The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, the main alliance of the hostages’ family members, responded to the reports by protesting outside the homes of Mr. Netanyahu; Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister; and Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, on Wednesday evening.
“This decision amounts in effect to sacrificing knowingly all of the hostages’ lives,” the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum said in a statement.
The group has mounted increasingly aggressive protests against Mr. Netanyahu’s government to urge it to prioritize the release of their family members. More than 130 hostages captured by Hamas on Oct. 7 remain in Gaza, including at least 30 who are believed to have died, according to the Israeli security services.
Other family members have said that the Israeli military should continue its war against Hamas until it has reached its goals, even if that means their relatives must remain in captivity.
Officials have said that in negotiations, Israel and Hamas were far apart on the number of imprisoned Palestinians who would be exchanged for the hostages and on the duration of a cease-fire. Hamas has demanded an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, while Israel insists that it will only agree to a temporary pause in the fighting.
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, called on Wednesday for Hamas to speed up an exchange of hostages for prisoners to spare Palestinian people further “catastrophe” in the war, according to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency.
— Johnatan Reiss and Gaya Gupta
The F.B.I. director makes a secret trip to Israel.
Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in Washington last month. Julia Nikhinson/Agence France-Presse
— Getty Images
Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, made an unannounced trip to Israel on Wednesday to meet with officials from the country’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies, the F.B.I. said.
As part of the visit, his first to Israel since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, Mr. Wray also spoke with F.B.I. agents working in Israel, the bureau said in a statement on Wednesday, stressing the importance of their efforts to counter threats from Hezbollah and Hamas. The United States designates both as terrorist groups.
Mr. Wray spoke with officials from Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency; Shin Bet, Israel’s equivalent of the F.B.I.; and the Israeli National Police, according to a person familiar with his trip to Israel, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Details of the trip were made public after Mr. Wray had departed Israel.
The F.B.I. has been working closely with its counterparts in Israel after the attacks on Oct. 7, which Israeli authorities say killed about 1,200 people. About 250 others, including American dual nationals, were abducted in the attacks. The F.B.I. has opened cases involving crimes against Americans committed by Hamas or others.
“The F.B.I.’s partnership with our Israeli counterparts is longstanding, close and robust,” Mr. Wray said in a statement, “and I’m confident the closeness of our agencies contributed to our ability to move so quickly in response to these attacks, and to ensure our support is as seamless as possible.”
The United States has created a C.I.A. task force to help Israel hunt down Hamas’s top leaders while America’s spy agencies have also raised the priority of intelligence collection on Hamas. The C.I.A. has also been heavily involved in negotiations for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and its allies, and President Biden has dispatched the agency’s director, William J. Burns, to join the cease-fire talks in Cairo.
After the visit, Mr. Wray headed to Germany for the Munich Security Conference.
— Adam Goldman
Relatives of Gaza hostages rally in The Hague to draw attention to a war crimes complaint against Hamas.
More, and more links - https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/14/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news
"‘A new Nakba’: settler violence forces Palestinians out of West Bank villages
"nsafe in own home’: Israeli settlers spread terror in South Hebron Hills
"Israel's Supreme Court strikes down disputed law that limited court oversight"
Feb. 14, 2024 Updated 10:23 p.m. ET
***
Here’s what we know:
The Israeli military said it had launched extensive airstrikes in response to rocket fire that killed a soldier, a significant escalation in cross-border tensions. Four were killed in Lebanon.
* A member of the war cabinet warns that Israel could strike at the Lebanese military.
* The W.H.O. expresses concern that Nasser Hospital could soon cease to function.
* Reports that Israel has stopped taking part in cease-fire talks anger hostages’ families.
* The F.B.I. director makes a secret trip to Israel.
* Relatives of Gaza hostages rally in The Hague to draw attention to a war crimes complaint against Hamas.
* Biden shields Palestinians in the U.S. from deportation.New
I An Israeli minister blocks flour from reaching UNRWA in Gaza.
A member of the war cabinet warns that Israel could strike at the Lebanese military.
Video - Deadly Rocket Attack Fired From Lebanon Hits Northern Israel 0:45
The rocket fire hit near Safed, Israel, which sits about eight miles south of the border with Lebanon.CreditCredit...Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Israel carried out extensive and lethal airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in response to a deadly rocket attack on northern Israel, escalations in recent fighting that threaten to derail diplomatic efforts to prevent a major expansion of the war in the Gaza Strip.
The rocket attack from Lebanon was the second in two days to cause casualties in northern Israel, striking a military base near the city of Safed — beyond the border zone Israel has evacuated for months because of the fighting. A soldier was killed, the military said, identifying her as serving with Israel’s border protection service. Eight other people were wounded, according to Magen David Adom, the emergency medical service.
Reported strikes in Lebanon after a deadly rocket attack in Israel
Map image -- Sources: Israeli Defense Forces; Lebanon’s official National News Agency
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia allied with Hamas, the armed group Israel been battling in Gaza for more than four months. Hezbollah and Israel have launched dozens of tit-for-tat strikes across the border, fueling fears that the exchanges could expand to a full-fledged second front in the war.
Within hours of the rocket attack, Israel’s military said that it had carried out strikes against “a series of Hezbollah terrorist targets,” including compounds and control rooms. Lebanese broadcasters showed images and videos of smoke plumes and destruction. The state news agency reported that strikes hit at least eight areas, killing a woman and her two children; Hezbollah said that three of its fighters had also been killed, and a senior official with the group, Hashem Safieddine, vowed a response.
On Wednesday night, Lebanon’s state media reported that an Israel drone strike on an apartment building killed four more people in Nabatieh, in southern Lebanon, all members of the same family. The regional governor said that amid the escalating violence, schools and government offices in Nabatieh would be closed on Thursday.
Israeli officials have warned repeatedly that they would take much stronger military action in Lebanon .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-hamas-hezbollah.html .. if the cross-border violence continued; Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and 2006 in response to such attacks.
Benny Gantz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency war cabinet, said on Monday that Israel could target the Lebanese military in addition to Hezbollah. Any incursion into Lebanon or strikes on the Lebanese military would mark a major escalation in the conflict.
“It is important that we be clear — the one responsible for the fire from Lebanon is not only Hezbollah or the terrorist elements that carry it out, but also the government of Lebanon and the Lebanese state that allows the shooting from its territory,” Mr. Gantz said, adding: “There is no target or military infrastructure in the area of ??the north and Lebanon that is not in our sights.”
The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, cautioned that “this is not the time to stop” striking Hezbollah — which, like Hamas, is backed by Iran — and warned that “there is still a long way to go.”
Hezbollah has been equally defiant. Hassan Nazrallah, the group’s leader, said on Tuesday, “You escalate, we escalate.”
The latest strikes threatened to derail diplomatic efforts .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-lebanon-hezbollah-talks.html .. by the United States and others to defuse the cross-border tensions. A Western diplomat said on Tuesday .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/13/world/middleeast/hezbollah-israel-strikes-talks.html .. that France had presented a proposal to Israel, Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah. The French proposal details a 10-day process of de-escalation and calls for Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters to a distance of about six miles from the border, according to the diplomat, who is involved in the talks and who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.
The clashes between Hezbollah and Israel have displaced more than 150,000 people .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/world/middleeast/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-civilians.html .. on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since the war with Hamas began.
Mr. Netanyahu has been wary of opening a second front while the Israeli military continues to press its invasion of Gaza, but he has faced calls from some of the displaced residents and political hard-liners — including some in his own far-right governing coalition — to take stronger action.
Avigdor Liberman, a former top adviser to Mr. Netanyahu who now leads an opposition party, accused the government of waving a “white flag” at Hezbollah by failing to take strong enough steps to stop the rocket attacks.
“The war cabinet surrendered to Hezbollah and lost the north,” he wrote on social media .. https://x.com/AvigdorLiberman/status/1757678060294320514?s=20 .. on Wednesday after the attack on Safed.
Israel’s military said that the rockets from Lebanon had landed in the areas of Netu’a, Manara and a military base near Safed, a city of nearly 40,000 people, about eight miles south of the border. Four Israeli military bases sit near Safed, and rocket warnings there are not uncommon, but fatalities and direct hits are rare, said Tamir Engel, a spokesman for the city.
In early January, Hezbollah fired rockets toward a small military base in the area. The group said that it was retaliating for the assassination days earlier of a senior Hamas commander .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-leader-war.html .. in Lebanon; Israel said at the time that the attack had caused no casualties.
Euan Ward, Adam Sella and Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.
— Gabby Sobelman, Hwaida Saad and Cassandra Vinograd
The W.H.O. expresses concern that Nasser Hospital could soon cease to function.
Palestinians fleeing Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, on Wednesday. Hatem Ali/Associated Press
The World Health Organization on Wednesday expressed fears that an important hospital serving southern Gaza might soon stop functioning, saying that it had been cut off by fierce fighting and that Israel had refused to allow in medical resupply missions, an allegation the Israeli military has denied.
The hospital, the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, has been surrounded for more than a week by Israeli forces, and on Tuesday the Israeli military ordered civilians sheltering there to evacuate. A video .. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3UfKxct0q9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D .. shared on social media on Wednesday and verified by The New York Times showed crowds of people carrying belongings and bedding leaving Nasser Hospital as explosions are heard in the background.
In the intensifying hostilities, at least 10 civilians have reportedly been killed, a perimeter gate demolished and two warehouses holding stocks of medicines largely destroyed, according to Rik Peeperkorn, the W.H.O.’s representative for the West Bank and Gaza.
The W.H.O. last had access to the hospital, the largest in southern Gaza and one of the few still functioning in the territory, on Jan. 29, Dr. Peeperkorn said. Speaking by video link from Rafah, in southern Gaza, he said the W.H.O. had applied to Israel to conduct two missions in the last five days to resupply the hospital with medicine and to assess its condition, but Israel had denied both requests.
“Without this support, and without being able to access this hospital, it might well become nonfunctional,” Dr. Peeperkorn said.
On Monday, after the head of the W.H.O. said that an agency team had been denied access to Nasser Hospital, COGAT, the Israeli body that coordinates policy for the Palestinian territories, said that the agency had “never submitted a coordination request” and that the W.H.O. should avoid “baselessly accusing” Israel.
Nasser Hospital was treating about 400 patients on Wednesday, including roughly 80 in intensive care and 35 who were receiving dialysis, Dr. Peeperkorn said. But any movement outside the complex was dangerous because of fighting in the area, he added, and it was unclear where civilians should go because other hospitals were overcrowded.
Al-Najjar Hospital, the main medical center in Rafah, to the south of Khan Younis, was treating more than 300 patients in a facility with 65 beds, leaving many to receive treatment on the floor, he said. Al-Najjar had served only as a primary health center before the war began on Oct. 7.
United Nations agencies and the W.H.O. have been obstructed by Israel’s repeated denials, delays and postponements of proposed aid convoys, Dr. Peeperkorn said. U.N. officials have reported that northern Gaza has been largely cut off from assistance this year. But since January, he said, Israel has facilitated fewer than half the proposed aid convoys to the south.
“Even when there is no cease-fire,” Dr. Peeperkorn said, “humanitarian corridors should exist so that W.H.O., the U.N. and parties can do their job.”
— Nick Cumming-Bruce reporting from Geneva
Maps: Tracking the Attacks in Israel and Gaza
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/10/07/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-maps.html
Reports that Israel has stopped taking part in cease-fire talks anger hostages’ families.
Photos of Israelis taken hostage on Oct. 7 hanging from a bridge in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. Susana Vera/Reuters
As talks continued in Cairo toward an Israel-Hamas cease-fire, Israeli media reported on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told his negotiators not to take part, infuriating some family members of hostages still in Gaza who say that the government is not doing enough to rescue their relatives.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office did not directly confirm or deny the reports, instead issuing a statement saying that Hamas had not made any new proposal, but that “a change in Hamas’s position will allow progress in the negotiations.”
Mr. Netanyahu later posted on social media that “strong military pressure and very tough negotiations” would be key to freeing more of the remaining hostages seized during the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7. He praised the Israeli military operation that freed two hostages held by Hamas in Rafah on Monday.
Officials from Israel and the United States met this week with Hamas mediators from Qatar and Egypt to discuss a possible deal to trade hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and to suspend the four-month war in Gaza.
Those talks are still underway in Cairo, but, according to Israeli news outlets, Mr. Netanyahu told Israel’s representatives not to return to Cairo.
The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, the main alliance of the hostages’ family members, responded to the reports by protesting outside the homes of Mr. Netanyahu; Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister; and Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, on Wednesday evening.
“This decision amounts in effect to sacrificing knowingly all of the hostages’ lives,” the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum said in a statement.
The group has mounted increasingly aggressive protests against Mr. Netanyahu’s government to urge it to prioritize the release of their family members. More than 130 hostages captured by Hamas on Oct. 7 remain in Gaza, including at least 30 who are believed to have died, according to the Israeli security services.
Other family members have said that the Israeli military should continue its war against Hamas until it has reached its goals, even if that means their relatives must remain in captivity.
Officials have said that in negotiations, Israel and Hamas were far apart on the number of imprisoned Palestinians who would be exchanged for the hostages and on the duration of a cease-fire. Hamas has demanded an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, while Israel insists that it will only agree to a temporary pause in the fighting.
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, called on Wednesday for Hamas to speed up an exchange of hostages for prisoners to spare Palestinian people further “catastrophe” in the war, according to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency.
— Johnatan Reiss and Gaya Gupta
The F.B.I. director makes a secret trip to Israel.
Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in Washington last month. Julia Nikhinson/Agence France-Presse
— Getty Images
Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, made an unannounced trip to Israel on Wednesday to meet with officials from the country’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies, the F.B.I. said.
As part of the visit, his first to Israel since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, Mr. Wray also spoke with F.B.I. agents working in Israel, the bureau said in a statement on Wednesday, stressing the importance of their efforts to counter threats from Hezbollah and Hamas. The United States designates both as terrorist groups.
Mr. Wray spoke with officials from Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency; Shin Bet, Israel’s equivalent of the F.B.I.; and the Israeli National Police, according to a person familiar with his trip to Israel, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Details of the trip were made public after Mr. Wray had departed Israel.
The F.B.I. has been working closely with its counterparts in Israel after the attacks on Oct. 7, which Israeli authorities say killed about 1,200 people. About 250 others, including American dual nationals, were abducted in the attacks. The F.B.I. has opened cases involving crimes against Americans committed by Hamas or others.
“The F.B.I.’s partnership with our Israeli counterparts is longstanding, close and robust,” Mr. Wray said in a statement, “and I’m confident the closeness of our agencies contributed to our ability to move so quickly in response to these attacks, and to ensure our support is as seamless as possible.”
The United States has created a C.I.A. task force to help Israel hunt down Hamas’s top leaders while America’s spy agencies have also raised the priority of intelligence collection on Hamas. The C.I.A. has also been heavily involved in negotiations for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and its allies, and President Biden has dispatched the agency’s director, William J. Burns, to join the cease-fire talks in Cairo.
After the visit, Mr. Wray headed to Germany for the Munich Security Conference.
— Adam Goldman
Relatives of Gaza hostages rally in The Hague to draw attention to a war crimes complaint against Hamas.
More, and more links - https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/14/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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