Sirens sound in southern Israeli communities amid overnight strikes in Khan Younis

A siren warning of incoming rocket fire sounded overnight in the Gaza border communities of Holit, Kerem Shalom, and Sdeh Avraham. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Israeli strikes early Monday hit the city of Khan Younis, an AFP correspondent reported, while Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad made an unverified claim that they had blown up a house where Israeli soldiers were searching for a tunnel shaft.

Netanyahu sets up secret forum to weigh post-war plans in Gaza — report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set up a small, secret team of top allies and representatives from the defense establishment to discuss post-war plans for Gaza, Channel 13 reported Sunday night.

According to the report, the team is led by National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and includes representatives from the Israel Defense Forces, the Mossad, and the Shin Bet.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog has also been at the meetings, according to the report, which added that the team has already met four times and is expected to meet again this week.

A senior official told Channel 13 that Israel “informed the Americans about the existence of the team, and it is important to the Biden administration that Jerusalem present a plan for the day after.”

Washington has indeed been pressing Israel on a post-war plan and, according to reports, a timeline for winding down the war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 atrocities and now into its third month.

Israel says it is committed to eliminating Hamas to defend itself and to topple its rule in Gaza.

Netanyahu has said that Israel would retain an open-ended security presence in Gaza and Israeli officials have talked of imposing a buffer zone to keep Gazans away from the Israeli border, a plan the US opposes. Israeli officials rule out any role for an unreformed Palestinian Authority, which was ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007 but governs semi-autonomous areas of the West Bank.

Meanwhile, top US officials have said they will not allow Israel to reoccupy Gaza or further shrink its already small territory. They have repeatedly called for the eventual return of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority and the resumption of peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Channel 13 said any conclusions reached by the Hanegbi-led team will also be presented to the security cabinet.

The report cited Hanegbi as saying during a recent meeting that there was “a high probability that the day after will have to include the cooperation of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and the building of infrastructure in partnership with them to prevent a future war.”

Dermer said at the meeting, according to the report: “There needs to be a radical change in the Palestinian Authority and its education system. Without these cultural changes Israel will find itself facing a hostile population.”

An IDF spokesperson said in response to the report that it was the defense establishment “duty to look ahead,” but that any final decision will be taken at “the political level.”

AP contributed to this report.

Montana woman under arrest for driving vehicle into ‘religious group’ on sidewalk

BILLINGS, Montana — A woman has been arrested after she drove her vehicle several times at or through a religious group demonstrating on a sidewalk, hitting and injuring one man, Montana police say.

Genevienne Rancuret, 55, was pulled over by police in Billings on Saturday a few hours after the episode and taken to jail on charges of felony assault with a weapon — the vehicle — felony criminal mischief and driving under the influence, police said. It is not known if she has a lawyer representing her yet.

The 45-year-old man who was struck suffered minor injuries. Members of the group he was with, identified by police as “Israelis for Christ,” were holding signs and speaking through an amplifier at the time, a police spokesperson, Lt. Matt Lennick, said.

Lennick said he did not have enough information to comment on what the motive could be.

An update from police said the FBI was also reviewing what happened, along with local prosecutors, suggesting the federal agency was looking into whether it could be a bias-motivated crime.

The group, as named by police, does not appear to have a current online presence and no immediate information could be found.

There is, however, an Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ which is an American organization of Black Hebrew Israelites headquartered in New York. The sect has been described by the Anti-Defamation League as “extreme and antisemitic,” and designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

A witness told the KTVQ news channel in Montana Sunday that the demonstrators were “all wearing purple, so it was clearly a group.”

Black Hebrew Israelites have been seen at gatherings and marches in matching purple clothing.

But it was not immediately clear if that was the group targeted in Sunday’s attack.

“I just kind of saw this white Jeep fly by me and jump onto the sidewalk, straight at the group of people that were there,” the witness told KTVQ. “The first thing that I thought was they lost control and they were in a wreck.”

But then the driver tried to hit the group again, said the witness.

Last month, a woman in Indiana was arrested after she drove her car into an Indianapolis residential building used by Black Hebrew Israelites as a school, mistakenly believing it was a Jewish school.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Amid disagreement, security cabinet skips vote on allowing return of West Bank Palestinian workers

The security cabinet skipped a vote tonight on a controversial proposal to allow Palestinian laborers to enter Israel from the West Bank, which would have allowed potentially thousands of workers to return to work for the first time since October 7.

The proposal, rejected by the 15-member socioeconomic cabinet earlier tonight, was not brought for a vote in the security cabinet after a long discussion and reported disagreements.

Citing a source who attended meeting, Walla reports that Israel Defense Forces representatives, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, known by its acronym COGAT, and the Shin Bet expressed their support for the proposal while representatives of the Israel Police voiced their opposition.

The source noted that some cabinet ministers also expressed their opposition and Prime Minister Netanyahu did not bring the issue to a vote.

According to Walla, Netanyahu also removed a vote from the cabinet’s agenda on the issue of transferring tax money to the Palestinian Authority, a move that is strongly opposed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

“The fear of making decisions also accompanied this cabinet meeting,” the source told Walla.