Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here.
A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, who recently resigned along with his government, said that the decision came “in light of the political, security, and economic developments related to the aggression against Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and the unprecedented escalation in the West Bank,” according to the official Wafa news agency. Shtayyeh said that “new arrangements” were needed in light of the “emerging reality” in Gaza. David Gritten reports for BBC News.
Hamas has received a draft proposal from Gaza truce talks in Paris for a pause in fighting and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages, a senior source close to the talks said today. Based on a statement provided to Reuters by the source, the draft proposal for the first stage would last 40 days and the prisoner-hostage exchange would be at an overall ratio of 10 to 1, among other provisions. Reuters reports.
The Israeli government said yesterday it has submitted a progress report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on measures the court ordered Israel to take last month to prevent the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclave. The filing, which is not public, came after several human rights groups issued statements yesterday accusing Israel of violating the ICJ’s legally binding order. Anushka Patil reports for the New York Times.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet security agency director Ronen Bar visited Cairo last week to reassure their Egyptian counterparts that Israel will take preventative measures to ensure a military operation in Rafah will not lead to a mass flow of Palestinian refugees into Egypt, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the issue. The high-level visit signals the importance the Israeli government is placing on its security relationship with Egypt, which has previously warned that the displacement of Palestinians to the Sinai Peninsula would lead to a rupture in its relations with Israel. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
Palestinian civilians sheltering in the city of Rafah will be allowed to flee to other areas of southern Gaza before an Israeli attack but will not be allowed to return to their homes in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, two Israeli officials told NBC News. Under the Israeli plan for an attack on Rafah, civilians would be allowed out of Rafah into areas south of Wadi Gaza, a river valley viewed as an informal divider between the northern and southern halves of the Strip, the officials said.
The Israeli military is confident that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the alleged architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, is hiding inside a network of tunnels beneath southern Gaza, but is surrounded by a human shield of hostages intended to deter an operation to capture or kill him. Israeli officials have said in interviews that Israel’s operation in Gaza cannot conclude until Sinwar is either captured, killed, or no longer in a position to run Hamas. Shane Harris reports for the Washington Post.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Israel’s Supreme Court yesterday as the court began to hear arguments on whether ultra-Orthodox Jews should be conscripted into the country’s military. The New York Times reports.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) will halt medical operations in areas of Gaza in which the Israeli military is active for 48 hours, the aid organization said in a statement yesterday. The move follows the detention and arrest of a PRCS medical convoy by Israeli forces Sunday evening despite Israeli officials having cleared the convoy’s route from Khan Younis to Rafah prior to the mission, according to the PRCS. Cate Brown reports for the Washington Post.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — REGIONAL RESPONSE
Jordanian planes dropped food and medical supplies with parachutes in central and southern Gaza yesterday, according to a video by Reuters and AP.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. RESPONSE
President Biden said he hopes to have a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war “by next Monday.” “We’re close,” President Biden told reporters yesterday, adding, “There are too many innocent people that are being killed.” The comment comes amid signs of some progress in indirect negotiations involving Israeli and Hamas officials. Biden also said in an interview for NBC that Israel would be willing to halt its war during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan if a deal is reached to release some hostages held by Hamas. BBC News reports.
The United States has not seen Israel’s plan for Rafah, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters yesterday. “We have not engaged with the government of Israel. We have seen press reporting, but we haven’t sat down to have a detailed … conversation with the government of Israel about this plan yet.”
The U.S. State Department is in touch with three Americans who were detained by Israel last month, Miller confirmed. “I don’t have any assessment to offer about their case other than that is true for all Americans in Israel or anywhere around the world: Their safety and security is our first priority,” he added.
The active-duty Air Force member who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington in an act of protest against the war in Gaza on Sunday has died from his injuries, an Air Force spokesperson said yesterday. “The individual involved in yesterday’s incident succumbed to his injuries and passed away last night. We will provide additional details 24 hours after next of kin notifications are complete,” the spokesperson told POLITICO.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
The U.K. government said it has tripled its aid commitment to the Palestinian people this year and that Israel “must take steps” to “significantly increase the flow of aid into Gaza.” “This includes allowing prolonged humanitarian pauses, opening more routes into Gaza (and for Nitzana and Kerem Shalom to be open for longer) and restoring and sustaining water, fuel and electricity,” it said.
IRAN-BACKED MILITANTS
Israeli airstrikes inside Lebanon on Hezbollah targets yesterday hit deeper than any in recent years, targeting an area close to the Syrian border. The Israeli military said that its fighter jets had struck Hezbollah air defenses in the Bekaa Valley, about 60 miles from the Israeli border. The Israeli strikes killed at least two Hezbollah fighters and injured six other people, according to the mayor of the nearby city of Baalbek. The Israeli military said the strikes came in response to a surface-to-air missile attack that downed an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah claimed responsibility for. The Israeli military later said it had also killed a Hezbollah commander. Hezbollah confirmed the fighter’s death but did not confirm his rank or seniority. Euan Ward and Hwaida Saad report for the New York Times.
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
President Biden will convene the top four congressional leaders at the White House today to urge lawmakers to pass an emergency aid package for Ukraine and Israel as well as avert a government shutdown next month, a White House official said. The four leaders include House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Seung Min Kim reports for AP News.
The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was about to be freed in a prisoner swap when he died, according to his colleague Maria Pevchikh. She claimed that Navalny was going to be exchanged for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian hitman serving a life sentence for murder in Germany, and that two U.S. citizens being held in Russia were also going to be part of the deal. A Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Financial Times he was “not aware of such agreements”. Laura Gozzi and Vitaly Shevchenko report for BBC News.
Iran reduced its stockpile of near-weapons-grade nuclear material even as it continued expanding its overall nuclear program, the United Nations’ atomic watchdog reported yesterday. According to the report, Iran carried out dilutions twice since the start of the year, and last summer it diluted a small amount of 60% material. Laurence Norman reports for the Washington Post.
Hungary’s parliament voted yesterday to ratify Sweden as a new member of NATO, clearing the final hurdle that had blocked the country’s accession into NATO for the past 18 months. In a post on X, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Hungary’s decision, saying that “Sweden’s membership will make us all stronger and safer.” Justin Spike reports for AP News.
The U.K. government will boost British exports and investment to the Western Balkans and make up to £15.75 billion available to the region in export finance, the government announced yesterday.
The United States yesterday cautioned the Pacific Islands against receiving assistance from Chinese security forces following reports that Chinese police are working in the remote atoll nation of Kiribati, a neighbor of Hawaii. “We do not believe importing security forces from [China] will help any Pacific Island country. Instead, doing so risks fueling regional and international tensions,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said. David Brunnstrom and Kirsty Needham report for Reuters.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE DEVELOPMENTS
French President Emmanuel Macron said it is key for Europe’s security to defeat Russia in Ukraine and that he has not ruled out sending Western troops to Ukraine. Speaking in Paris, Macron said that European leaders had agreed to set up a coalition to give Ukraine medium- and long-range missiles and bombs, adding that while there was “no consensus” on sending Western troops to Ukraine, “nothing should be excluded.” Jaroslav Lukiv reports for BBC News.
The Kremlin warned today that direct conflict between Russia and NATO would be inevitable if European NATO members sent troops to fight in Ukraine. “The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The Czech Republic and Poland are not considering sending troops to Ukraine, their prime ministers said today, after Macron raised the possibility for European nations at a meeting in Paris. Reuters reports.
DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
The Pentagon has cleared U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin of wrongdoing over his failure to disclose hospital stays related to his cancer diagnosis. A three-page report released yesterday said, “The process for making decisions to transfer the Secretary’s authority could and should be improved,” adding that “nothing examined during this review demonstrated any indication of ill intent or an attempt to obfuscate” by Austin or his staff. Max Matza reports for BBC News.
A senior Senate aide for the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Kyle Parker, is under congressional investigation over his frequent trips to Ukraine’s war zones and providing what he said was $30,000 in sniper gear to its military, documents reviewed by the New York Times show. A confidential report by the commission’s director and general counsel said that the equipment transfer could make Parker an unregistered foreign agent and raised the possibility he was “wittingly or unwittingly being targeted and exploited by a foreign intelligence service,” citing unspecified “counterintelligence issues” that should be referred to the FBI. A representative for Parker denied wrongdoing.
TRUMP-LEGAL MATTERS
Former President Trump, his adult sons, and two former Trump Organization officials have appealed the $464 million judgment entered against them in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case. The Trumps filed a notice of appeal with the court yesterday, the first business day after Judge Engoron made the judgment official. Trump is personally liable for $454 million, which includes interest payments that are currently accruing at a daily rate of $112,000. Kara Scannell reports for CNN.
Prosecutors asked the judge overseeing the hush money criminal case against Trump to issue a gag order restricting his public statements about witnesses, jurors, lawyers, and court staff. In a 30-page court filing made public yesterday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office cited Trump’s “long history of making public and inflammatory remarks about the participants in various judicial proceedings against him.” A spokesperson for Trump called the request “an unconstitutional infringement on President Trump’s First Amendment rights, including his ability to defend himself, and the rights of all Americans to hear from President Trump.” Erica Orden reports for POLITICO.