On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists launched a surprise attack against Israel, targeting civilians and Israeli Defense Forces, and killing more than 1,400 individuals. In response, Israel launched an offensive against Hamas, primarily in Gaza, with increased military activity in the West Bank and along the northern border with Lebanon. As of Nov. 6, more than 9,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The IDF reports that 18 Israeli soldiers have been killed.
- CIA Director William Burns arrived in Israel on Sunday for discussions with leaders and intelligence officials, the first stop in a multi-country trip in the region, according to U.S. officials. The trip comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit over the weekend to Baghdad?aimed at containing the fallout from Israel’s war against Hamas and at deterring Iran and its proxies.
- The U.S. Navy has dispatched a guided-missile submarine to the Middle East. The posting was revealed by the military in an announcement late on Sunday. The unusual revelation regarding the location of the ship, which can launch nuclear missiles, suggests a show of force intended to try to contain regional tensions amid the Israel-Hamas war.
- The exit of foreigners from Gaza via the Rafah border crossing was halted on Saturday in an apparent dispute over evacuating injured patients. Hundreds of foreign citizens have escaped through the crossing into Egypt in the past few days. But on Saturday, no foreign nationals, dual nationals or injured patients were let through, Palestinian sources said.
- The Israeli military says it has completely encircled Gaza City after over a week of heavy fighting, in effect severing the territory into two. The latest moves on the ground were accompanied with mounting speculation over the kind of fighting that would unfold in Gaza City’s streets, amid suggestions that the Israel Defense Forces would try to avoid costly warfare within Hamas’s tunnel system.
- UNRWA said on Friday that nearly 50 of its buildings and assets across Gaza have been impacted, with some being directly hit. “This includes UN schools and buildings being used as shelters, where UNRWA is currently hosting around 700,000 people,” UNRWA wrote on social media. The death toll of UNRWA staff killed since Oct. 7 in Gaza is now 79.
- Hamas is ready for a “complete compromise” deal on the issue of swapping hostages with Israel, Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of Hamas’ political bureau, said in an interview with NBC News. “We want these people to go home… Also, we want our prisoners now to go home. So I think we are ready now to have complete compromise, complete a deal, in order to receive all the hostages, either military or civilians.”
- The U.S. has intelligence that the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary group, may provide an air defense system to Hezbollah. The system in question is the SA-22, which uses antiaircraft missiles and air defense guns, to intercept aircraft. Intelligence sources also report that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to provide the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah with a Russian-made missile defense system.
- Violence in the West Bank has surged since Oct. 7. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that at least 98 households, comprising 828 people, have been displaced amid Israeli settler violence or increased movement restrictions. More than 170 individual attacks by settlers against Palestinians have been reported in the past three weeks.
- Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that his militia is engaged in unprecedented fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border and threatened a further escalation as Israel’s war with Hamas nears the one-month mark. In his first televised remarks since Oct. 7, Nasrallah stopped short of announcing that Hezbollah would fully enter the war, a move that would have devastating consequences for both Lebanon and Israel. Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the Israeli-Lebanese border in the deadliest escalation since a 2006 war.
- Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has asked the International Criminal Court in the Hague to investigate the killing of nine journalists – eight Palestinians and one Israeli – since the war began. “The scale, seriousness and recurring nature of international crimes targeting journalists, particularly in Gaza, calls for a priority investigation by the ICC prosecutor,” a spokesperson for RSF said.
- Talks are underway to establish a multinational force in Gaza after Israel uproots Hamas, two Senators confirmed Wednesday, the clearest sign yet that the U.S. and its partners are seriously weighing deploying foreign troops to the enclave. A peacekeeping force in Gaza, however, is unlikely to include American troops.
- On Tuesday, Oct. 25, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, called for UN Secretary-General Guterres’ resignation following a remark that Hamas’ October 7 attacks on the country “did not happen in a vacuum.” Guterres responded on Wednesday, issuing a statement that said, “I am shocked by the misinterpretations by some of my statement yesterday in the Security Council – as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite.” Israel has said it will deny UN officials visas to the country.
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