ISRAEL AT WAR – DAY 567
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The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
The US federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism backs Yale University’s response to anti-Israel protesters this week.
The statement is a rare instance of praise from the Trump administration for an Ivy League university’s handling of anti-Israel protesters.
Yale students on Tuesday briefly set up a protest encampment to demonstrate against a visit to the area by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
The university warned the demonstrators of consequences and the following day stripped the campus anti-Israel protest group of its recognized status.
“Yale University appears to have enforced its time, place, and manner policies, cleared the area, de-registered a student organization involved in the incident, and started an investigation into individual discipline for students who crossed the line from speech into unlawful conduct,” the task force says in a statement.
“This Task Force is committed to stopping unlawful antisemitic harassment on campus. We are cautiously encouraged by Yale’s actions and will be keeping an eye on the situation and aftermath,” the statement says.
BEIJING — China, Russia and Iran jointly met with the International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, Chinese state news agency Xinhua says Friday.
The joint meeting on Thursday between the IAEA representatives and the nuclear agency’s director general came after Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Beijing this week.
The meeting had in-depth communication on the IAEA’s role in the political and diplomatic settlement process of the Iranian nuclear program, with China expressing support for Iran’s dialogue with all parties including with the US, Xinhua says.
The United States is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over $100 billion, six sources with direct knowledge of the issue tell Reuters, saying the proposal is being lined up for announcement during US President Donald Trump’s visit to the kingdom in May.
The offered package comes after the administration of former president Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to finalize a defense pact with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisioned Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel.
The Biden proposal offered access to more advanced US weaponry in return for halting Chinese arms purchases and restricting Beijing’s investment in the country. Reuters cannot establish if the Trump administration’s proposal includes similar requirements.
The White House, Pentagon and Saudi government communications office do not immediately respond to requests for comment. In his first term, Trump celebrated weapons sales to Saudi Arabia as good for US jobs.
Lockheed Martin could supply a range of advanced weapons systems including C-130 transport aircraft, two of the sources say. One source says Lockheed would also supply missiles and radars.
RTX Corp, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, is also expected to play a significant role in the package, which will include supplies from other major US defense contractors such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman Corp and General Atomics, say four of the sources.
All the sources decline to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop and General Atomics decline to comment. Boeing doesn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters cannot immediately establish how many of the deals on offer were new. Many have been in the works for some time, two of the sources sau. For example, the kingdom first requested information about General Atomics’ drones in 2018, they say. Over the past 12 months, a deal for $20 billion of General Atomics’ MQ-9B SeaGuardian-style drones and other aircraft came into focus, according to one of the sources.
Several executives from defense companies are considering traveling to the region as a part of the delegation, three of the sources say.
A Democratic lawmaker announces that he will be introducing Congressional legislation next week that would codify former US president Joe Biden’s sanctions regime against violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
The sanctions were reversed by US President Donald Trump on his first day in office.
Settler attacks on Palestinians have continued unabated since, including in the past day when groups of Israelis hurled stones and set fire to property in several Palestinian villages throughout the West Bank. As is often the case in such incidents, no suspects have been arrested.
The lack of accountability is what spurred Biden’s decision to sign an executive order last year that instituted the sanctions regime on the ground that such attacks were destabilizing the West Bank and a threat to US national security interests in the region.
US Representative Jerry Nadler announces the planned legislation during a rally in New York organized by left-leaning Israeli and Jewish activists against the visit of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Nadler cites figures from the settlement watchdog Peace Now that settlers have seized 14% of West Bank territory through “violent tactics such as harassing, intimidating and targeting Palestinian communities.”
“These settlers seized large areas of land from over 60 displaced Palestinian communities and have set up new Israeli outlooks current Israeli government,” Nadler says.
He laments the backing that such violent settlers have been receiving from the current Israeli government. The top police commander in charge of the West Bank is currently under investigation for ignoring settler attacks in order to curry favor in the eyes of Ben Gvir, whose ministry oversees the police.
“When I return to Washington on Monday, I will be introducing the West Bank Violence Prevention Act, which would codify and enshrine President Biden’s executive order into law,” Nadler declares to cheers from the crowd.
The legislation is almost certain to fail, given the Republican majority in Congress.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce appears to criticize National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s call for the IDF to bomb food storage facilities in Gaza in order to pressure Hamas to release Israeli hostages.
Asked during a press briefing whether the Trump administration backs the idea, which Ben Gvir said is supported by senior Republicans he met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort this week, Bruce initially says that she won’t comment on the matter as the far-right Israeli leader’s claim is unconfirmed.
But then she says that the proposal is “in complete contradiction to the nature of our commitment to getting food aid and assistance” into Gaza.
“My goodness, the work over these 100 days to get that first ceasefire to get that aid into that area, it’s difficult,” she adds.
It was unclear whether the rare public criticism of an Israeli official by the Trump administration was intentional, as Bruce subsequently stressed that she would not further comment on Ben Gvir’s remarks.
“What I will do is reiterate, certainly, our commitment to Israel, our commitment to creating a better framework in Gaza, stopping the slaughter, getting aid and food in — that has been a north star for this administration,” Bruce continues.
Asked whether that means the US is adopting the Israeli position that aid will only be allowed to resume if a new hostage release and ceasefire deal is reached, Bruce declines to answer.
She then reads what appears to be a prepared and vetted statement from the administration.
“The United States supports the flow of humanitarian aid with safeguards to ensure assistance is not diverted, looted or misused by terrorist groups such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” Bruce states.
The talking point notably avoids directly criticizing Israel on the matter.
An Israeli soldier was killed and three others were wounded during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, the military announces.
The IDF says the name of the soldier, who served as a tank driver in the 14th Reserve Armored Brigade’s 79th Battalion, will be released for publication later. His family was notified.
In the same incident, a reservist in the 79th Battalion and an officer in the elite Yahalom combat engineering were seriously wounded. Another reservist, in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade’s 8239th Battalion, was moderately hurt.
According to an initial IDF probe, the slain soldier was hit by sniper fire in the Beit Hanoun area, close to one of the military’s posts in the Israeli-held buffer zone.
The other troops were hit by anti-tank fire, according to the initial investigation.
The cell behind the attack apparently managed to flee.
The deadly incident took place not far from an attack on Saturday, in which Hamas operatives opened fire on an unarmored army vehicle, seriously wounding three soldiers, before planting a bomb in the area, which killed a soldier and seriously injured another.
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Today’s Daily Briefing
Day 566 – Calling Hamas ‘sons of dogs,’ Abbas steps up condemnations
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Israeli soldier killed, three wounded during fighting in northern Gaza – The Times of Israel
