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Foreign Minister Yair Lapid held talks with a United States congressional delegation that was brought to Israel by the left-wing lobbying group J Street.
The Israeli top diplomat sat down with Democrat lawmakers including Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who heads the House Appropriations Committee, Mark Pocan (D-WI), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Melania Stansbury (D-NM) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), all of whom are scheduled to also meet with Palestinian officials.
Lapid took to Twitter to thank the American politicians “for supporting the replenishment of the Iron Dome missile defense system” and revealed they “discussed the importance of continuing to strengthen the US-Israel relationship.”
It is reportedly the first time in four years that a senior Israeli official has engaged with a J Street-sponsored delegation after former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held them at arm’s length amid friction over the advocacy group’s activities.
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IDF generals held a meeting with their Egyptian counterparts in the Sinai Peninsula to agree on a plan for Cairo to deploy a large number of troops to the Rafah area, which borders both Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Under the so-called Agreed Activities Mechanism, a provision of the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty, Jerusalem must agree via a joint committee of military representatives from the two countries to any Egyptian reinforcements sent to the Sinai.
Among the IDF delegation was the head of the Operations Directorate, Maj. Gen. Oded Basyuk; head of the Foreign Relations Division, Brig. Gen. Efi Dafrin; and Maj. Gen. Tal Kelman, who leads the IDF’s normally Iran-focused Strategy and Third-Circle Directorate.
“During a meeting of the committee, an agreement was signed to formalize the deployment of guard troops in the area of Rafah to reinforce the Egyptian military’s security control over the area,” the IDF thereafter said in a statement, adding that Israeli lawmakers approved the decision.
The announcement of the meeting is part of a pattern of Egypt’s increasingly public relations with Israel, which have included its President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi hosting Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in September at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
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The son of a Libyan warlord reportedly visited Israel last week in a bid to broker diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.
Saddam Hafter, the son of Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the Libyan National Army, is said to have arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in a private jet and held secret talks on-board for 90 minutes with Israeli officials.
It is claimed he was acting on his father’s behalf in offering a normalization process akin to the Abraham Accords in exchange for “military and diplomatic assistance” from Jerusalem.
The older Haftar paved the way for a run at becoming the next Libyan president in long-awaited elections that are proposed for December after saying he would temporarily step down from his military positions.
Israel and Libya have no official ties after the latter’s former leader, Muammar Gaddafi, repeatedly called for the destruction of the Jewish state and funded a number of Palestinian terrorist groups.
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A drone belonging to Hamas has been shot down near the Gaza Strip border by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, the IDF confirmed.
The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was on course to cross into Israel via the Mediterranean Sea.
According to military insiders, the device was under surveillance before it approached Israeli territory, while Gaza sources say it was part of a drill in the coastal enclave that also saw missiles launched into the Mediterranean Sea.
Iranian-funded Hamas often conducts drone tests near the border of the coastal enclave, some of which are intercepted if they enter certain airspaces or reach specified altitudes.
It comes as a Shi’ite militia in Iraq, that is reportedly backed by Iran, was accused of being behind an assassination attempt on Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Khadimi.
It is claimed that drones and explosive warheads used in the attack were manufactured in the Islamic Republic.
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