Weekly News Roundup: 30th May

Welcome TJS readers to the newest weekly segment of our publication; the Israel Weekly Round-up. Your one-stop-shop for all you need to know about the biggest stories in Israel, including the ones that you don’t hear on the BBC… 

Each update will be broken into a few subsections: 

• Headlines: One-liners that capture the crux of smaller stories that are also important 
• Quotes of the Week: The important statement, declaration, and leaks that give an insight to the personalities behind the news stories in Israel 
• War Updates: as long as the war continues it will continue to be front mind, especially as our 58 hostages continue to suffer in Hamas captivity, now for over 600 days! 
• Big Stories:  here we will be covering all the other important stories making headlines in Israel, going into greater depth to understand the relevant issues 

So, without further ado – here is our first Round-up! 

Headlines 

• Liri Elbag asks to return to serve in the IDF, 4 months after being released from captivity 
• The government decided in favour of deporting terrorists who have Israeli citizenship. 
• Iran executed a man they claimed was a spy for Israel. 
• 92% of the residents of the Gaza Border region have returned to their homes.  

Quotes of the week: 

• S&P’s chief rating officer on the Israeli economy: “We were sure the war would completely collapse it. We were stunned by its stability.” 
• Germany: “Solidarity with Israel is no longer taken for granted” 
• Demonstrators in Umm al-Fahm: “Let us wave PLO flags and praise Hamas. We live in a democracy.” 
• Hamas: “We do not have control over 77% of the Gaza Strip” 

War Updates 

Hostages: As we crossed the 600-day threshold, reports continue to intensify about the possibility of a deal, as Hamas and Israel continue to hold talks through US Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff. Officials from both camps, however, continue to deny that an agreement has been reached. We will continue to wait with bated breath for good news. It was announced that intelligence indicated that only 20 of the hostages remain alive.  

Gidon’s Chariots: This week the much spoken-about operation ‘Gidon’s Chariots’ finally leapt into action in Gaza. 450,000 reserve soldiers were approved by the government to be called up for duty. As part of the operation, all conscript units are now serving in Gaza. The goal of the operation is to ramp up the military pressure on Hamas, more so than during the previous stages of the war (or so the officials claim), in order to finally get a deal that will bring all the hostages home. Most notably, major areas that had previously not seen major operations were cleared out of civilians (Khan Yunis) to allow the IDF to operate with a free hand, and to deprive Hamas of their sought-after human shield. The strategy the IDF is adopting appears to be more focused on occupying large areas of territory to gain full operation and civilian control there, to fully root out any Hamas presence. The IDF announced early this week that they were currently in control of 40% of Gaza and intended to control 75% within 2 months.  

Houthi Front: The Houthis are not relenting their attacks, with daily missile fire directed towards Israel this week. Thankfully, no attempts were successful, as each time the missiles were intercepted. Israel continued its retaliation against the Yemeni enemy this week, striking the remaining aeroplanes at the international airport in Sa’ana. With Trump having declared earlier in the month that they are no longer engaging with the Houthi threat, the emboldened enemy will likely require more of Israel’s attention. On the other hand, the strikes so far seem to have made little impact on their crazed ideology, leaving many scratching their heads as to how this threat can be effectively eliminated.  

‘Magen Or’ Lazer Defence System: This week the IDF cleared for publication that Star Wars is no longer to be considered Science Fiction. Well, not quite. But Israel, in addition to intercepting missiles in Space, now has operational laser weapons. The Magen Or system is a scaled down version of the ‘Iron Laser’ system that made the news months ago but has yet to be made operational. There are still kinks in the system that don’t allow it to completely replace the Iron Dome missile system, but instead of $50,000 per interception, Magen Or costs only $5 to do the same job! 

Humanitarian Aid in Gaza: One of the biggest developments this week was the opening of distribution centres for aid inside of Gaza. Most critically, these are being run without Hamas’ involvement, meaning that another critical channel of power and income for the terrorist group is being cut off. Despite the various incidents of Gazan mobs storming the centres and raiding them, the organisations in charge of the distribution are not perturbed and remain confident in the future viability of the endeavour.  

Big Stories 

22 New Settlements in Yehuda and Shomron (YvS): Love him or hate him, this is one promise Smotrich has managed to keep. In addition to a previous slew of approvals given for new communities to be built, or to retroactively approve existing ones, the government announced this week that an additional 22 settlements had been approved, all over YvS. This is in addition to new policies that have been instituted by the civil administration for the territories (COGAT), which is under Smotrich’s authority as part of his portfolio in the Ministry of Defence (in addition to being Finance Minister), to crack down on illegal Palestinian building in Area C, including through demolitions of existing illegal structures.   

Direct Communication with the New Syria Regime: For the first time in decades, direct communication channels have been established between Israel and the new government in Syria. Though relations between the two have been rocky since the power change in Syria, there seems to be determination from both sides, not only not to escalate the tensions between them, but to work towards cautiously building the relationship.  

New Shin Bet Head Appointment: The dismissal of the current Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar, a decision made by the government, was blocked by the Attorney General and later by the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, Bar announced that he would step down of his own accord early next month. In preparation for this, Netanyahu announced that he had selected the new candidate for the role, General David Zini, who currently serves in the Central Command of the IDF. The IDF’s Chief of staff was surprised by the announcement last week and was furious over not being informed earlier. The Attorney General has once again blocked the move, and the decision will be decided upon by the Supreme Court in the coming days. Zini has stepped down from his post in the army, and has begun to coordinate with Bar about taking over the role. This is a developing story, and another chapter in the saga of the clash between the government and the Attorney General, which we are sure to cover more of in the future.