Israel
Israel reported 5,647 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the active symptomatic case total to 63,305. The Health Ministry also said test-positivity rates remained above 10 percent and that 1,757 Israelis have died since the start of the outbreak. Next week the Prime Minister’s office will decide whether to ease or tighten current restrictions.
West Bank
Israeli security forces arrested Hassan Youssef, Hamas’s senior leader in the West Bank and one of its founding members. Shin Bet declined to comment on Youssef’s detention, but an unnamed security source cites his involvement in “renewed Hamas activity.”
Lebanon
After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned Hezbollah’s threat to regional stability in a speech to the UN late last month, the IDF released evidence of two missile sites in Beirut. According to the military, the Shiite terror group located an arms depot in the Chouaifet neighborhood and housed precision-guided missiles. Without regard to civilian lives, the missile sites are located adjacent to apartment buildings, churches, and a mosque.
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz will lead a delegation for talks with Lebanese officials over the status of 330 square miles of disputed maritime territory; the U.S. will mediate the negotiations. Although Jerusalem and Beirut have no diplomatic relations, both are hoping to resolve the dispute over ownership of certain natural gas fields discovered offshore over the past decade.
Gaza
The Israeli military launched retaliatory airstrikes on Hamas targets in southern Gaza on October 5, after terrorists in the enclave launched rockets at Israel.
Hamas military prosecutors charged three Palestinian activists in Gaza with subverting the revolutionary spirit in late September, after holding virtual meetings with Israelis. Rami Aman, the leader of the Gaza Youth Committee, ran the bridge-building meetings with 200 participants on Zoom in April. Aman remains under arrest as he awaits trial.
Egypt returned the bodies of two fishermen to Gaza following an altercation with the Egyptian Navy in the Mediterranean Sea last month. The Egyptian military gave no immediate comment on why or how they shot and killed the men, but a third man on board the vessel survived.
