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Israel Today: Ongoing War Report - Update from 2026-01-19 at 17:08
Published 1 month, 1 week ago
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HEADLINES
- Palestinian terror declines nationalist violence rises
- Gaza governance plan excludes Palestinian leadership
- Israel launches national AI supercomputer
The time is now 12:01 PM in New York, I'm Noa Levi and this is the latest Israel Today: Ongoing War Report.
Good afternoon. Here are the latest developments shaping the Middle East, with a focus on Israeli security, Palestinian politics, and the broader international response.
Israel says it faced a crisis of trust at home even as it reduced Palestinian terror in the West Bank. The Israel Defense Forces reported a sharp decline in Palestinian terrorism in two thousand twenty five, with Palestinian attacks down to fifty seven incidents and twenty Israelis killed in the year. That improvement follows a period of higher activity in the preceding years. At the same time, the army acknowledged a troubling rise in Jewish nationalist violence against Palestinians. Officials said two thousand twenty five saw eight hundred sixty seven nationalistic incidents, a jump from the previous year, though still below the peaks reached in two thousand twenty three and two thousand twenty two. The army also noted that while rioting and stone throwing decreased overall, the severity of some episodes increased, and a number of mass-attacks occurred. The figures come amid a debate over how to classify and deter Jewish extremists, with the Shin Bet identifying about seventy individuals as the most dangerous offenders and describing roughly another two hundred fifty involved at varying levels of activity. An ongoing challenge cited by the IDF is enforcement: restraining orders and electronic bracelets have had limited success, and in some cases, judicial systems have not fully recognized military orders placed on civilian suspects, constraining enforcement and deterrence. The West Bank remains a focal point for security concerns, with senior officers emphasizing that the strongest deterrents involve coordinated policing, stricter open fire rules in certain rock throwing and Molotov cocktail scenarios, and continued efforts to prevent potent pockets of violence from forming into large-scale disruptions.
On the ground, Israeli authorities also report a continued effort to curb illegal settler outposts in the West Bank. Dozens of outposts have been bulldozed, while dozens more have been officially legalized by Defense Ministry policy overseen by a senior minister. International observers have warned such moves could complicate prospects for a future territorial arrangement and risk undermining broader peace efforts. In parallel, the security picture along the Jordan border has grown more complex. The Israeli military has strengthened border patrols and added a new division to counter potential cross-border threats, including the possibility of attacks staged from Jordan. A new border security wall is expected to take about two years to complete, leaving a window of risk in the near term.
In the Gaza arena, broader governance and reconstruction plans are taking shape, but with caveats. A three-tier framework is being advanced to manage Gaza’s transition after the latest rounds of conflict. A civilian National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, authorized in Cairo on a Saturday, is designed to handle civilian services and early reconstruction, while a parallel Gaza Executive Board would interface with security arrangements and international partners. At the top of this architecture sits a so-called Board of Peace, established by the United States and intended to coordinate broader conflict resolution and stabilisation efforts. Several foreign participants, including Turkey and Qatar, have been named to the Gaza Executive Board. Notably, no Palestinian political representative was named for that level, a point of contention for many Palestinian observers who say legitimacy will hinge on meaningful local representation.
- Palestinian terror declines nationalist violence rises
- Gaza governance plan excludes Palestinian leadership
- Israel launches national AI supercomputer
The time is now 12:01 PM in New York, I'm Noa Levi and this is the latest Israel Today: Ongoing War Report.
Good afternoon. Here are the latest developments shaping the Middle East, with a focus on Israeli security, Palestinian politics, and the broader international response.
Israel says it faced a crisis of trust at home even as it reduced Palestinian terror in the West Bank. The Israel Defense Forces reported a sharp decline in Palestinian terrorism in two thousand twenty five, with Palestinian attacks down to fifty seven incidents and twenty Israelis killed in the year. That improvement follows a period of higher activity in the preceding years. At the same time, the army acknowledged a troubling rise in Jewish nationalist violence against Palestinians. Officials said two thousand twenty five saw eight hundred sixty seven nationalistic incidents, a jump from the previous year, though still below the peaks reached in two thousand twenty three and two thousand twenty two. The army also noted that while rioting and stone throwing decreased overall, the severity of some episodes increased, and a number of mass-attacks occurred. The figures come amid a debate over how to classify and deter Jewish extremists, with the Shin Bet identifying about seventy individuals as the most dangerous offenders and describing roughly another two hundred fifty involved at varying levels of activity. An ongoing challenge cited by the IDF is enforcement: restraining orders and electronic bracelets have had limited success, and in some cases, judicial systems have not fully recognized military orders placed on civilian suspects, constraining enforcement and deterrence. The West Bank remains a focal point for security concerns, with senior officers emphasizing that the strongest deterrents involve coordinated policing, stricter open fire rules in certain rock throwing and Molotov cocktail scenarios, and continued efforts to prevent potent pockets of violence from forming into large-scale disruptions.
On the ground, Israeli authorities also report a continued effort to curb illegal settler outposts in the West Bank. Dozens of outposts have been bulldozed, while dozens more have been officially legalized by Defense Ministry policy overseen by a senior minister. International observers have warned such moves could complicate prospects for a future territorial arrangement and risk undermining broader peace efforts. In parallel, the security picture along the Jordan border has grown more complex. The Israeli military has strengthened border patrols and added a new division to counter potential cross-border threats, including the possibility of attacks staged from Jordan. A new border security wall is expected to take about two years to complete, leaving a window of risk in the near term.
In the Gaza arena, broader governance and reconstruction plans are taking shape, but with caveats. A three-tier framework is being advanced to manage Gaza’s transition after the latest rounds of conflict. A civilian National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, authorized in Cairo on a Saturday, is designed to handle civilian services and early reconstruction, while a parallel Gaza Executive Board would interface with security arrangements and international partners. At the top of this architecture sits a so-called Board of Peace, established by the United States and intended to coordinate broader conflict resolution and stabilisation efforts. Several foreign participants, including Turkey and Qatar, have been named to the Gaza Executive Board. Notably, no Palestinian political representative was named for that level, a point of contention for many Palestinian observers who say legitimacy will hinge on meaningful local representation.