Here are Thursday’s updates from Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and the Middle East:
â– Hundreds of right-wing activists are participating today in a planting event called “Reconnecting to the Gaza Strip,” near Kibbutz Mefalsim along the Israeli side of the Gaza border. In posters shared on social media, the settler group calls for “no surrender to Trump’s dictates, no to an international Gaza, yes to a Jewish Gaza!”
â– The United Arab Emirates has drafted plans to build a housing compound for thousands of displaced Palestinians in a part of south Gaza under Israeli military control, according to a map seen by Reuters and people briefed on the plans.
â– Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday that the “rats are leaving the ship” in Iran hours before the U.S. is set to have with the country on its nuclear program, ballistic missiles and regional proxies, with discussion set to take place in Oman.
â– The High Court ordered the state to help residents of the village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank return to their homes, who left after an escalation of settler violence.
â– Israeli police announced the arrest of two Israeli Jerusalem residents in their 20s on suspicion of spying for Iran, in addition to other security offenses.
â– The IDF announced strikes against “Hezbollah terror targets in several areas in Lebanon,” following what the military called “repeated violations of cease-fire understandings.”
â– Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, harshly criticized what he described as the “extremist Jewish left-wing” group, the Jewish Council of Australia, for calling on the Australian government to disinvite Israeli President Isaac Herzog, ahead of his visit next week, following the Bondi Beach massacre.