1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ HOSTAGES 🎗️Day 441 /

• Hamas realizes ‚cavalry not coming,‘ should agree to a ceasefire and ‚do it now’. If Hamas cares about the Palestinian people, they will „say yes and do it now,“ Blinken said. https://lnk.sk/htqr 
• No progress was made towards the completion of a hostage deal/ceasefire agreement on Thursday, and CIA Director William J. Burns, who was in Doha for the talks, left Qatar after being there for a day. https://lnk.sk/neio   

YEMEN 🇾🇪 /

• Israeli jets flew 2,000 km and used over 60 bombs to strike Houthi targets, which included oil and fuel tanks, eight tugboats, and two power plants. https://lnk.sk/btt8 ; https://lnk.sk/fblo 
• Israel Air Force (IAF) fighter jets struck Houthi targets in the capital of Sana’a in Yemen during the early hours of Thursday morning, with 14 aircraft already in the air as Yemen fired yet another ballistic missile towards Israel. https://lnk.sk/sygu  
• Hours after the Israel carried out intense airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, Netanyahu said that Israel’s operations are protecting also the entire world. “They are attacking international shipping and trade routes.” https://lnk.sk/dbgt 

SYRIA 🇸🇾 /

• US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf has wrapped up a meeting in Syria with Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Islamist group called the meeting productive. https://lnk.sk/zvxw 

GAZA, JUDEA & SAMARIA (so-called West Bank) / 

• The IDF destroyed 7.5 km tunnel in Gaza, finds equipment seized by Hamas on Oct. 7; found also maps of Israeli communities that bordered the Palestinian enclave. https://lnk.sk/wopv  
• The United Nations General Assembly voted on Thursday to ask the International Court of Justice for an opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate aid to Palestinians that is delivered by states and international groups including the UN. https://lnk.sk/zsvx 
• The Biden administration’s Middle East aid envoy Lisa Grande reportedly made demands of Israel regarding the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, in a harsh phone call with Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians, COGAT chief Gen. Ghassan Alian.
• “Stunned” by the call, Alian was said to respond: “What kind of proportionality is expected from the IDF when it is acting against a terrorist organization whose deliberate modus operandi is to fight from inside civilian areas and civilian and humanitarian facilities, including hospitals, residential buildings, UN facilities, and others, while simultaneously keeping 100 hostages in these areas.” https://lnk.sk/wk25 
• The Israel Defense Forces supports strengthening the Palestinian Authority so it can more effectively combat terrorism in the West Bank, military officials said on Thursday, as the PA appears to step up efforts against Hamas and Islamic Jihad. https://lnk.sk/qzt6 
• A mosque in the northern West Bank town was torched and vandalized on Thursday night, with Palestinian and Israeli sources saying that Jewish extremist settlers were behind the incident. https://lnk.sk/vfl7  

ISRAEL 🇮🇱 /

• Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister wrote to Pope Francis: “It is a well-known fact that Jesus was born to a Jewish mother, lived as a Jew, and died as a Jew.” https://lnk.sk/yn67 

USA 🇺🇸 HUNGARY 🇭🇺 SWEDEN 🇸🇪 /

• ISIS leader Abu Yusif was eliminated in a precision strike by the US on Thursday. https://lnk.sk/fus0  
• Hungary’s EU minister János Bóka said: ‚If we lose our Jewish communities, we lose our European identity’; warned that the threat to Jewish life in Europe, resulting from rising antisemitism in the Western countries of the EU is a threat to Europe. https://lnk.sk/wikp
• Sweden has officially declared it will cease all funding to UNRWA, the world is waking up to what UNRWA really is about!   

Sources: Axios, Walla, Reuters, Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post and the sources cited directly in some reports

©️ ICEJ Slovakia; peter.svec@icej.sk