Here are Wednesday’s latest key updates on Israel, Gaza and the West Bank:
â– Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of the two-state solution is key to normalization with Israel at his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. “We want to be part of the Abraham Accords, but we want also to be sure that we secure a clear path [to a] two-state solution,” the crown prince said.
â– Asked by reporters in the Oval Office about the amount Saudi Arabia is planning on spending on the reconstruction of Gaza, the crown prince said that the amount is still being discussed, while President Donald Trump interjected, saying, “It’ll be alot, it’s very important to him.”
â– A man was killed and three others were wounded in a stabbing and ramming attack at Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank, Israeli authorities said. The Israeli military said it received a report of a car running over passersby, after which two attackers exited the vehicle and stabbed additional people on the scene. It added that soldiers shot the assailants dead.
â– Masked Israeli settlers damaged property and broke windshields and windows in two different incidents in the West Bank, according to Palestinian reports.
â– Police arrested dozens of activists from Standing Together and Rabbis for Human Rights as they were on their way to join Palestinian olive harvesters near the West Bank village of Burin, an area that has seen repeated attacks by Israeli settlers.
■Israel held a memorial for deceased hostage Joshua Loitu Mollel, a 21-year-old Tanzanian agriculture student killed on October 7, whose body was held in Hamas captivity before returning to Israel on November 6 as part of the cease-fire agreement – his casket was flown to Tanzania for burial.
â– The IDF said that troops shot and killed two people who crossed the yellow line marking the IDF-controlled “buffer zone,” adding that the two approached the forces in a manner that “posed an immediate threat.”
â– The U.S. has cancelled meetings in Washington with Lebanese armed forces commander General Rudolf Haykal after objecting to a statement the army issued on Sunday about border tensions with Israel, Lebanese officials familiar with the matter said.