US urges ‘all possible efforts be brought to bear on Hamas’ amid push for hostage deal

Netanyahu issues condolences to US troops killed in drone strike 2 days ago

Two days after they were killed in a drone strike blamed on Iran-backed militias, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issues a statement mourning the deaths of three American soldiers.

Netanyahu notes the three troops were taking part in operations against the Islamic State jihadist group, which he links to Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas.

“As Israel pursues total victory over Hamas-ISIS, we remember that we face a common enemy and that we are fighting a common battle of civilization against barbarism,” he writes on X, formerly Twitter. “May the memory of Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett be a blessing.”

Pentagon brushes off Iraqi militia’s claim it’ll stop attacking US troops: ‘Actions speak louder than words’

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon declines direct comment on a statement by Iran-aligned Kataib Hezbollah announcing the suspension of all its military operations against US troops in the region, saying only, “Actions speak louder than words.”

Pressed on the matter, Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder says there have already been three attacks against US forces in the region since a January 28 drone attack on a base in Jordan that killed three soldiers and wounded more than 40 troops. He suggests a US response will follow.

“On the statement that’s out there, I don’t think we could be any more clear that we have called on the Iranian proxy groups to stop their attacks. They have not, and so, we will respond in a time and manner of our choosing,” Ryder tells a news briefing.

“When I say actions speak louder than words, you know, there [have] been three attacks, to my knowledge, since the 28th of January. And I’ll just leave it there.”

TV poll shows further drop in support for Netanyahu, with Gantz far out in front

Minister Benny Gantz, right, shakes hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset in Jerusalem, on December 25, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Public support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has further slipped in recent weeks amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, according to a television poll aired this evening.

If new elections were held today, Channel 12 news said Minister Benny Gantz’s National Unity party would be the largest with 37 seats, followed by Netanyahu’s Likud with 18. They are followed by Yesh Atid at 14 seats, Shas 10, Yisrael Beytenu eight, Otzma Yehudit eight, United Torah Judaism seven, Hadash-Ta’al five, Ra’am five, Religious Zionism four and Meretz four.

Neither Labor or Balad clear the minimum vote threshold in the poll.

Overall, the anti-Netanyahu bloc would have 68 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, and Likud and its allies would have 47. Hadash-Ta’al is not aligned with either bloc.

Pairing prime ministerial candidates head-to-head, the survey also asks who is better cut out to be premier. In a Gantz versus Netanyahu matchup, 41 percent back the former, while 23% back the latter. In a poll released by the network earlier this month, those figures were 42% and 29% respectively.

When faced off against National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot, an observer in the war cabinet, 24% say Netanyahu is better suited to be prime minister and 36% say Eisenkot.

Though trailing Gantz and Eisenkot, Netanyahu continues to be a more popular choice for premier than Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, with 29% saying he is more fit for the job and 27% saying Lapid.

US says UN mission to assess conditions in northern Gaza delayed by renewed fighting

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller answers questions during a news briefing at the State Department on July 18, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

A UN mission aimed at assessing the conditions in northern Gaza in order to allow the return of its evacuated residents has been delayed due to renewed fighting in the area, US State Department spokesman Matt Miller says.

“We saw Hamas fighters pop up and start launching rocket attacks into Israel, start shooting at Israeli forces. That made the conditions on the ground not tenable or safe for conducting this humanitarian mission,” Miller says, revealing an apparent setback in the IDF’s military operations. Israel announced late last month that it had transitioned to low-intensity fighting in northern Gaza and was focusing more intensively on southern Gaza where Hamas’s leaders are believed to be hiding.

Miller stresses that the US still wants to see the UN assessment mission embark as soon as possible.

“We do expect some initial movements north to take place in the next few days to pave the groundwork for that assessment mission to move forward,” Miller adds without elaborating.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan urged visiting Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani that “all possible efforts be brought to bear on Hamas to secure the release of hostages without delay,” according to a White House readout.

The message was relayed during their meeting at the White House earlier today and appears to be the closest the Biden administration has come to publicly urging Qatar to put pressure on Hamas.

Al-Thani reiterated yesterday that such calls are unhelpful because Doha doesn’t actually hold leverage over the terror group, whose political leaders it hosts in Doha.

“We don’t see that Qatar is a superpower that can impose something on this party or the other party to bring them to that place,” al-Thani said at an event in Washington.

“It doesn’t mean that… hosting them is a leverage that we have over them… We see [hosting them] as a channel of communication that we are using for good causes,” al-Thani says.

While critics of Qatar dispute this defense, analysts note that once the war began, Hamas’s primary decision-makers have been its leaders on the ground in Gaza — Yahya Sinwar, Muhammed Deif and Marwan Issa — not its politburo chiefs in Doha and elsewhere. Accordingly, Sinwar is seen as less beholden to Qatar than its Doha-based leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer walks into the Executive Office Building next to the White House in Washington, DC on December 26, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will meet US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza and efforts to secure the release of the remaining 136 hostages, a source familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel.

Dermer’s visit comes amid an intensified effort by international mediators to broker a new hostage deal between Israel and Hamas and ahead of another visit to Israel by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The strategic affairs minister — a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — last visited Washington a month ago.

BAGHDAD — A pro-Iran group in Iraq says that it will halt its attacks on US troops, after Washington pledged a “very consequential” response to a drone attack that killed three of its soldiers.

“We’re announcing the suspension of our military and security operations against the occupying forces to avoid any embarrassment for the Iraqi government,” Kataeb Hezbollah writes on its website.

The United States blamed “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq” for Sunday’s drone strike on a remote Jordan desert base near Syria and Iraq.

Rocket fired from Syria at Golan Heights; IDF responds with shelling

Rockets are fired from Syria at the southern Golan Heights, local authorities say.

The Golan Heights regional council in a statement to residents says three rockets hit open areas, with no reports of damage or injuries.

The IDF is responding with shelling against the source of the fire.

Amid the war in the Gaza Strip there have been several rocket attacks launched from Syria at northern Israel.

US says $300,000 for UNRWA frozen as part of pause in funding

A worker rests as displaced Palestinians receive food aid at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) center in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 28, 2024. (AFP)

US State Department spokesman Matt Miller says that roughly $300,000 earmarked for UNRWA has been withheld following the Biden administration’s decision to suspend funding to the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees amid allegations that roughly a dozen of its members participated in Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.

However, the US was on pace to donate at least ten times that amount by the end of the fiscal year in September.

Roughly $121 million in US funding was already transferred to UNRWA between October 1 and last Friday’s decision to suspend funding pending an investigation.

Typically, the US provides UNRWA with between $300 and $400 million annually, making it the world’s largest donor to the agency, Miller notes.

The next major payment was not slated to be made until the summer but will depend on the funds allocated by Congress in the supplemental funding package and continuing resolution, which both have not yet been passed.

Miller says the US will make a decision regarding the frozen $300,000, as well as all future funding to UNRWA, based on the UN’s investigation into the allegations against its staff members.

Highlighting how serious the allegations were, the State Department spokesman says UNRWA already made the decision to fire eight of its staffers and to suspend two others.

The US in its Friday announcement regarding the funding suspension said allegations were made against 12 UNRWA staffers. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Israeli intelligence links 1,200 UNRWA staffers to Hamas.

Despite the allegations, Miller reiterates that the US still supports UNRWA’s “critical” work providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

“There is no other humanitarian player in Gaza who can provide food and water and medicine to at the scale that UNRWA does,” he insists, adding this is why the US wants the UN to thoroughly and speedily conduct its investigation so that such conduct by agency employees can never happen again and it can continue carrying out its work in Gaza.

38% of Israelis back reestablishment of Gaza settlements — poll

Ministers and MKs dance during a conference calling to resettle the Gaza Strip at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem on January 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Half of Israelis are opposed to a hostage agreement with Hamas if the terms are as detailed in reports yesterday, according to a television poll.

In its question, Channel 12 news asked respondents if they would support or oppose a deal that includes the return of 35 hostages, a 45-day pause in the fighting and the freeing of thousands of Palestinian terrorists from prison. Fifty percent say they oppose such a deal, 35% back it and the remainder do not know.

The poll also asked respondents if they are in favor of reestablishing settlements in the Gaza Strip, after far-right coalition members attended a conference calling to do so this week. Just over half — 51% — say no, while 38% are in favor.

Other questions included whether Israel should halt the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza until all hostages are returned (72% yes versus 21% no), and if and when a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led October 7 attack is needed (61% say at the end of the war, 32% now and 3% argue it’s not needed).