Episode Details

HEADLINES
West Bank attack injures four Khallet al-Sidra
Syria seizes Tabqa dam from Kurdish forces
IDF names Hamas PIJ operatives killed

The time is now 10:00 PM in New York, I'm Noa Levi and this is the latest Israel Today: Ongoing War Report.

Good evening. Four people were hospitalized after a settler attack on Khallet al-Sidra, the Bedouin encampment near Mukhmas in the West Bank, in a raid in which several structures were set on fire and two vehicles were torched. Palestinian, Israeli, and foreign residents reported that as many as twenty settlers participated. Security forces arrived to find a vehicle connected to the attackers and several blunt weapons; the assailants fled the scene, and authorities said they are conducting searches for those responsible.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a small war cabinet meeting for 10 a.m., an hour before the full cabinet session, in response to developments around the Gaza situation and amid ongoing debate over Washington’s approach to Gaza and broader regional security. The meeting comes as a controversy over the makeup of President Trump’s proposed Board of Peace intensifies scrutiny of a panel that will include representatives from Turkey and Qatar, who are among Jerusalem’s most vocal critics on Middle East policy. Officials said the gathering would review Iran’s potential threats and the possibility of a US strike on regime targets, as well as what steps Israel would take in response to regional contingencies.

Turning to the international layer, the full text of the Board of Peace charter shows that member states would be asked to contribute cash funds, with a high-threshold requirement for terms of service. The charter states that members serving three-year terms may renew at the chairman’s discretion and that a subset of states contributing substantially within the first year would gain different terms. In Cairo, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a 12-member body led by Ali Shaath, held its first meeting under the framework of UN Security Council authorization and the Trump 20-Point Peace Plan. Shaath posted that the NCAG’s mission is to rebuild Gaza “not just in infrastructure but also in spirit,” to restore essential services—electricity, water, healthcare, education—and to foster a society rooted in peace, democracy, and justice, with the aim of transforming the transitional period into lasting Palestinian prosperity.

Across the region, a separate set of developments continued to unfold. The Syrian military reported it had captured Tabqa, including the city’s dam—the largest in Syria—from Kurdish-led forces. The move came after a period of intense fighting and despite US cautions to halt advances through Kurdish-held territory. There was no immediate comment from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which has been the principal local partner in the region.

In Gaza, the IDF and Shin Bet named three Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives killed in the Gaza Strip on Thursday as part of ongoing efforts to dismantle terrorist infrastructure. Muhammad Hamed Muhammad Khuli, the commander of Hamas’s Central Camps Operations Department, is said to have played a significant role in the planning of the October 7 massacre and related attacks. Ashraf Adnan Muhammad al-Khatib, a PIJ commander responsible for rocket and missile operations, and Saeed Khaled Ali Abd al-Rahman, head of sniping in Hamas’s Deir al-Balah Battalion, were among those identified. In separate strikes, Israeli forces also struck other targets tied to Hamas’ efforts to rebuild and rearm in Gaza in response to ceasefire violations and attempted ambushes reported along western Rafah. The IDF’s 16th Brigade has been active east of the Yellow Line throughout January, dismantling hundreds of terrorist infrastructure sites and killing dozens of militants, according to the military.