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Israel Today: Ongoing War Report - Update from 2025-10-23 at 12:07
HEADLINES
Israel escalates on Lebanon Gaza West Bank
Two zone Gaza plan faces Arab resistance
Shas halts coalition posts over conscription stalemate
The time is now 8:01 AM in New York, I'm Noa Levi and this is the latest Israel Today: Ongoing War Report.
Today is 8:00 a.m. in the region, and the headlines reflect a security front stretched across multiple theaters, alongside geopolitical and humanitarian currents shaping the outlook.
First, a personal note from a family of presidents. Arabella Kushner, the granddaughter of President Donald Trump, has sent handwritten letters to twenty hostages freed from Gaza. The letters, delivered by her father Jared Kushner, underscore continuing human connections amid the theater of conflict and the ongoing effort to account for missing and captive individuals. The gestures come as the broader struggle over Gaza’s future remains deeply contentious and highly sensitive to regional and international diplomacy.
Turning to security developments, Israeli forces continued to operate along multiple fronts. The IDF reported strikes on a Hezbollah training camp and a missile production facility in Lebanon, asserting that Hezbollah operatives were present at the site and that the targets were part of its efforts to prepare attacks against Israeli forces and civilians. In the West Bank, troops conducted operations at a Hamas-affiliated charity in Hebron, where a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf in Arabic was found, highlighting the persistent use of extremist material in some quarters. Separately, Israeli air power and intelligence efforts have been active in northern Lebanon, where military sources described a series of strikes tied to ongoing concerns about illicit arms production and militant activity in the border region. Across the border in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, Lebanese channels have reported a sequence of airstrikes by Israel, framed as part of a broader defensive posture along the northern front.
On the security and strategic front, Israel’s leadership continues to weigh the risks of broader conflict while pursuing strategic objectives in Gaza and along multiple front lines. Reports from several outlets describe ongoing drills and preparedness activities as part of a broader posture to deter attacks or incursions modeled on past October 7 patterns. In parallel, Israeli authorities reaffirmed their commitment to removing threats to the state and to pursuing disarmament of groups that could threaten civilian and military targets.
In the international diplomacy arena, US Vice President JD Vance, during his visit to the region, described a recent Knesset floor vote on West Bank sovereignty as odd and, at times, inappropriate. He publicly characterized the vote as a political stunt and reiterated long-standing US policy: the West Bank will not be annexed, and the Trump administration’s position remains not to pursue annexation. The encounter underscored ongoing US-Israel alignment on strategic issues even as domestic politics in Washington and Jerusalem continue to influence how rapid decisions are framed.
On the Gaza file, reporting points to a plan under discussion involving a two-zone division of Gaza as a means to constrain Hamas, a proposal that has drawn opposition from several Arab states concerned that such a framework could lead to a longer-term occupation scenario or entrap them in a peacekeeping role without sufficient guarantees. The discussions also touch on a broader international stabilization effort for Gaza, with Indonesia and Azerbaijan floated as core contributors to an International Stabilization Force. These discussions are taking place amid sensitivity about who participates, and in what form international backing—potentially via a United Nations Security Council resolution—might be secured. Turkey’s role appears limited in current formulations, while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Em
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