Israel is still surging massive amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, this week facilitating over 300 trucks per day into the enclave, and coordinating the airdrop of over 80 pallets of aid today.
In an interview yesterday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has already delivered 110 million meals to Gazans to date, would soon "scale up" its operations.
"The immediate plan is to scale up the number of sites up to 16 and begin to operate them as much as 24 hours a day," a quadrupling of the current four GHF sites, he said.
Ahead of an Israeli Security Cabinet meeting on Gaza following Hamas' refusal to reach a deal to free the hostages, Prime Minister Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News that "we intend to" take control of the entire Gaza Strip, including the roughly 25% that Israel doesn't currently control. Israel will pursue this goal, while simultaneously continuing to surge aid into Gaza, to "liberate ourselves and the people of Gaza" from the tyranny of Hamas.
Netanyahu made clear, "We don’t want to keep [Gaza]. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and give Gazans a good life. That is not possible with Hamas."
You can watch the interview here:
While Israel works to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Hamas is prolonging the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
The United States must stand with Israel and increase the pressure on Hamas and its sponsors in Qatar, Turkey and Iran to release all 50 hostages still held in captivity.
Gazans speak out against Hamas
Yesterday, 160 children and their caregivers, as well as Gazans with dual citizenship, left Gaza through the Kerem Shalom Crossing for medical treatment in Jordan and the European Union, joining the nearly 4,000 who have already left the enclave through Israel for medical care since June 2024.
An Israeli journalist interviewed some of these Gazans as they were leaving, Amit Segal reported.
"My child is suffering because of Hamas," one Gazan man said. "They hurt us. Hamas is responsible for this. Both Khalil al-Hayya and Yahya Sinwar who was eliminated—may God curse them."
"Before October 7, life was good—we’d come to work, go to Israel, leave Israel, work, eat and drink... Hamas didn’t like that—so it destroyed Gaza completely," he continued.
"We were once dying of hunger, because Hamas would steal whatever came through. Now they’ve started attacking the people guarding the aid, so that they can take it, steal it, and hide it."
Lebanese government commits to disarming Hezbollah, Israel carries out strikes
The Lebanese government today approved a formal decision to disarm Hezbollah.
U.S. envoy Ambassador Tom Barrack congratulated the Lebanese government for making this "historic, bold, and correct decision."
The Lebanese government must now follow through on these commitments.
Israel last night carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, destroying weapons storage facilities, a missile launcher, and other terror infrastructure.
"The Hezbollah terrorist organization continues attempting to reestablish terrorist infrastructure throughout Lebanon using the Lebanese population as human shields. The presence of weapons and the activity of Hezbollah in the area constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon," the IDF said.
Republican members of Congress met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Lapid.
The members of Congress also visited Yad Vashem and the Tower of David Museum.
Rep. Tenney leads letter pushing back against Irish anti-Israel boycott
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) led 15 members of Congress in urging Treasury Secretary Bessent to investigate whether Ireland’s proposed boycott of Israel violates American law.
"Ireland’s proposed boycott is a blatant attempt to isolate and delegitimize Israel on the world stage... The United States will not stay silent while our allies are targeted by hostile political agendas," Rep. Tenney said.
AIPAC thanks Rep. Tenney and her colleagues for ensuring that there will be consequences for immoral attempts to economically attack Israel.
Trump reaffirms commitment to preventing nuclear Iran
Speaking to reporters yesterday, President Trump said, "We have stopped wars in the Middle East by stopping Iran from having a nuclear weapon… as soon as they start [trying to rebuild their nuclear program], we’ll be back."
President Trump's comments are important to maintaining the United States' credible threat of renewed military action.
"We wiped out their nuclear capacity for weapons. They would have had a weapon within two months, maybe less, and that was totally obliterated," he also said.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department today issued new sanctions targeting 18 individuals and entities involved in helping the Iranian regime generate revenue and circumvent U.S. sanctions.
"Treasury will continue to disrupt Iran’s sanctions evasion schemes, block its access to revenue, and starve its weapons programs of capital to protect the American people," Secretary Bessent said.
The mission of AIPAC is to encourage and persuade the U.S. government to enact specific policies that create a strong, enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with our ally Israel.
