I thought it was the escalation with Hezbollah that couldn’t be contained. But it turns out it’s the escalation with the US, which has been on a low boil for months, and is now spilling over.

Seems like an apt description

NEW Human Rights Watch report documents how Israeli forces wrongfully fatally shot or deliberately executed Palestinians in the West Bank who posed no apparent security threat. Such killings are now taking place at a level without recent precedent, according to the UN. hrw.org/news/2024/05/0…

So people understand reality here, Finance Minister Smotrich told municipal leaders in West Bank settlements yesterday that 'the threat of a Palestinian state is more concrete than it has been in years' and that Netanyahu is holding up the authorization of new settlements.

“Before the war, I used to ask my children what they liked to eat, but now we are searching for any available food to stay alive. You want to bury yourself when your daughter cries and asks for candy. How can I make her understand the situation we are in?' 972mag.com/rafah-invasion…

Now Netanyahu can firmly, full-throatedly blame the U.S. for his failure to deliver a 'total victory.' But is that enough to call it quits? edition.cnn.com/2024/05/08/pol…

Reuma Kedem, whose daughter and family were wiped out on Oct 7, screams out in calls to all mothers and grandmothers to come out to the streets and light country on fire. No Memorial Day, no Independence Day, Dooms Day.. we will break Netanyahus heart the way he’s breaking ours

These are relatives of Israelis held in Gaza, and relatives of Israelis killed by Hamas on Oct 7, that the police is brutalizing.

Netanyahu, Mr. Security, has managed to get the U.S. to delay an arm shipments in the middle of Israel's longest and most critical war since its founding, which it is fighting on more than one front.

My latest for Al Jazeera English about why Israel rejected a truce after Hamas accepted the ceasefire proposal mediated by the US, Qataris and Egyptians.

With great insights from Khaled Elgindy Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין Omar H. Rahman and Hugh Lovatt

aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/7/…

Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes do not distinguish between 1948 Israel, the West Bank, East Jerusalem or Gaza.

Only 38% of Jewish Israelis polled in April believe Israel can win the war in Gaza, compared with 74% in October when the war started, a huge drop. You can imagine how Israel's adversaries see the situation as well.

This, from Israel's Defense Minister, appears to be an admission that the two war objectives are in direct conflict.

This is a demand to follow the law, not to condition aid or sanction

This thread makes sense, and I really hope we are in the last stretch.

Huge congrats to my predecessor at Crisis Group
Nathan Thrall, whose writing is what led me to Crisis Group in the first place.

IDF announces this morning that it has taken the Palestinian side of Rafah crossing with Egypt, Israeli flags waving