The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they unfold.
Iran denies links to Jordan drone strike that killed 3 US troops
Iran denies US and British accusations that it supported militias behind a drone strike on Jordan that killed three US military personnel, Tehran’s official IRNA news agency reports.
“These claims are made with specific political goals to reverse the realities of the region,” IRNA quotes foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani as saying.
NYT: UNRWA employees accused of kidnapping woman, taking part in kibbutz massacre
Details have been published about some of Israel’s specific accusations against individual employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, UNRWA, which have caused the agency to fire 12 workers and many countries to halt their funding for the body.
The New York Times, citing a dossier provided to the US government, reports that one UNRWA school counselor from Khan Younis in southern Gaza is “accused of working with his son to abduct a woman from Israel.”
“A social worker from Nuseirat, in central Gaza, is accused of helping to bring the body of a dead Israeli soldier to Gaza, as well as distributing ammunition and coordinating vehicles on the day of the attack,” the report continues.
It also says a third employee is “described as taking part in the massacre at a kibbutz where 97 people died” — apparently Kibbutz Be’eri, which was ravaged on October 7 in the Hamas-led onslaught.
The Times says the dossier details the names, details and positions in UNRWA of the 12 people, and contends that 10 of the UNRWA workers in question are members of Hamas while one belongs to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The report says Israel’s intelligence is based on tracking the phones of six of the people, monitoring of phone calls by others who allegedly discussed their involvement in the onslaught, and text messages received by three others, including one ordering him to bring RPGs stored at his home.
Report: Under US pressure, Israel okays UN visit to northern Gaza, places conditions
Acceding to US pressure, the war cabinet last Thursday approved allowing a United Nations delegation to enter northern Gaza to assess the situation there and map the residents’ needs ahead of a mass return home, the Ynet news site reports, adding the Jerusalem has placed conditions.
The move is largely procedural after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this month that Israeli leaders had agreed to facilitate the visit.
There are no details on when the visit will take place.
Ynet says Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has conditioned the visit on the UN team first touring Israeli communities ravaged during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught; on Israel clarifying that okaying the visit doesn’t constitute an intention to return Gazans to the Strip’s north; and on having a US official join the UN delegation.
Hezbollah fires 2 anti-tank missiles at north, IDF responds with shelling
Hezbollah terrorists have fired two anti-tank missiles toward IDF bases in the area of Shomera in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel, the IDF says according to Hebrew media.
No damage or casualties are reported in the incident.
The military responds with artillery shelling toward the sources of the fire.
Biden says US ‘shall respond’ to attack that killed three US soldiers
The United States will respond to a weekend attack that killed three US service members in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, US President Joe Biden says.
“We shall respond,” he says at a campaign event in South Carolina, asking for a moment of silence.