Foreign Minister Yair Lapid discussed the issue of Israeli prisoners being held captive in the Gaza Strip in a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart. Lapid held talks with Sameh Shoukry in Brussels on Sunday that focused on Israeli-Palestinian affairs.
Shoukry is said to have emphasized the importance of initiating talks between Israel and Hamas, as well as kickstarting efforts to rebuild Gaza following the 11-day conflict in May. Egypt’s top diplomat took to Twitter after the meeting to stress “the need to resolve the current stalemate between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, leading to just and comprehensive peace negotiations.”
Hamas is currently holding the bodies of IDF soldiers Oren Shaul and Hadar Goldin, who were killed in Gaza during the 2014 war. Two Israeli citizens, Avraham Mengistu and Hisham a-Sayed, are being held hostage after straying into the territory on their own accord. Their families say they both suffer from mental health issues.
The Lapid-Shoukry meeting comes as a key Qatari official visited Gaza for the first time since the conflict erupted just over two months ago. Doha recently proposed a $30 million-a-month plan to help reconstruction efforts in the Strip.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has drawn up a list of demands that will be raised if peace talks with Israel resume under the guidance of the United States. The list reportedly includes the curtailing of police activity and Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount; the opening of PA political institutes, including the former PLO headquarters in the eastern part of Jerusalem; and the immediate end of settlement construction.
It is said that Abbas will also push for the resumption of PA activities in eastern Jerusalem, which have been restricted since 2001, shortly after the outbreak of the Second Intifada.
While efforts have been made to keep details of the list under wraps, the PA is said to want Israel to release dozens of prisoners held in Israeli jails that were previously going to be set free in 2014 before the agreement between both sides collapsed.
The US is pushing for fresh peace talks between Israel and the PA with the aim of improving living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza. The Biden Administration reportedly does not believe that it can broker a comprehensive peace agreement in the next couple of years.
Israel will withhold $180 million from the Palestinian Authority in response to its “Pay-for-Slay” policy. The tax revenue funds were collected by Jerusalem in 2020 on behalf of the PA.
In line with a 2018 law, Defense Minister Benny Gantz refused to distribute the money in response to figures showing that these were the sums handed out to imprisoned and released Palestinian terrorists and their families. Israel has described such stipends as a “Pay-for-Slay” policy that encourages attacks on the country’s citizens.
The decision not to dole out the money, which is equivalent to roughly 7 percent of the PA’s total budget, is in response to Ramallah’s refusal to accept the funds with any conditions attached.
Meanwhile, details of a cryptocurrency seizure have also emerged after Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing said it prevented digital coins from reaching Hamas. Cryptocurrency donations to the Gaza-based terrorist organization increased in May during the 11-day conflict with Israel.
The UAE on Wednesday will officially inaugurate its diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv in a ceremony that will be attended by President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
UAE Ambassador Mohammad al Khaja, who has been in Israel since March, will host the event that comes after the Jewish state opened its own embassy and consulate in Dubai in June.
“What we are opening today is not only a consulate, but also the center of our cooperation,” Lapid said at the time, adding: “This place symbolizes our ability to think together, to develop together, to change the world together.”
Israel and the UAE signed an historic deal to normalize diplomatic ties under an agreement brokered by former US President Donald Trump in 2020.
More than 3,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. to march against increasing antisemitism in the United States. “No Fear: A Rally in Solidarity With the Jewish People” was organized by Jewish and interfaith groups.
Elisha Wiesel, the son of Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, led the march. “Looking out at all of you today, it becomes clear that instead of dividing us, the enemies of the Jewish people – whether from the right or the left, at home or abroad – have instead united us,” Wiesel told attendees.
He added: “This coalition will not be silenced whether Jews are facing violence in Los Angeles, or Brooklyn, or Paris or Tel Aviv. It won’t be silent whether Jews are being attacked in our synagogues, on our streets, on our campuses or on the floor of the House of Representatives.”
Recommended Reading
- Is Israel Preparing For the Inevitable Civil War in the West Bank? (Eric R. Mandel, The Hill)
- Is Nasrallah Losing Control Of His People? (Yoav Limor, Israel Hayom)
- The United States Needs an Antisemitism Envoy (Jerusalem Post)
- Major League Baseball Set to Draft First Orthodox Jewish Player (Algemeiner)
