Gaza situation…..
Israel’s cutoff of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s 2 million people has sent prices soaring and humanitarian groups into overdrive trying to distribute dwindling stocks to the most vulnerable.
The aid freeze has imperiled the progress aid workers say they have made to stave off famine over the past six weeks during Phase 1 of the ceasefire deal Israel and Hamas agreed to in January.
After more than 16 months of war, Gaza’s population is entirely dependent on trucked-in food and other aid. Most are displaced from their homes, and many need shelter. Fuel is needed to keep hospitals, water pumps, bakeries and telecommunications — as well as trucks delivering the aid — operating…
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Trump Hamas talks….
The Trump administration has been holding direct talks with Hamas over the release of U.S. hostages held in Gaza and the possibility of a broader deal to end the war, two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions tell Axios.
Why it matters: The talks — held by U.S. presidential envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler — are unprecedented. The U.S. had never before engaged directly with Hamas, which it designated a terrorist organization in 1997.
Behind the scenes: The meetings between Boehler and Hamas officials took place in Doha in recent weeks.
- While the Trump administration consulted with Israel about the possibility of engaging with Hamas, Israel learned about aspects of the talks through other channels, one source said.
- The sources spoke with Axios on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the sensitive meetings.
Zoom in: The talks have focused in part on the release of U.S. hostages, which is within Boehler’s remit as hostage envoy.
- But they have also included discussions of a broader deal to release all remaining hostages and reach a long-term truce, the sources say. No deal has yet been reached.
- White House envoy Steve Witkoff also planned to travel to Doha this week to meet the prime minister of Qatar about the ceasefire negotiations but canceled the trip on Tuesday night after he saw there was no progress from Hamas’ side, a U.S. official said.
Between the lines: Trump’s approach to the conflict has differed sharply from President Biden’s, including repeatedly threatening “hell to pay” for Hamas and proposing a U.S. “takeover” of Gaza.
- Directly negotiating with Hamas — particularly without buy-in from Israel — is another step previous administrations have not taken….
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The Report on Israeli Intelligfence Failure’s related to the Oct. 7 attacks…
Hamas code-named it The Promise of Judgement Day. As early as 2018, Israel caught wind of Hamas’ battle plan to invade Israel from neighboring Gaza. But Israel’s domestic intelligence agency did not consider it a realistic threat.
That is the main conclusion of an investigation by Israel’s Shin Bet agency into the colossal security failure of the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023. It was the single deadliest day in Israeli history, when thousands of Palestinian attackers killed nearly 1,200 people and took 251 people hostage.
This is the first inquiry by Israel’s main agency tasked with spying on Hamas into why Israel failed to detect and prevent the attack, following another inquiry by Israel’s military. The Shin Bet hinted at failures by Israel’s political leadership to carry out the agency’s desire to assassinate senior Hamas leaders, and blamed Israeli policies of propping up Hamas rule in Gaza to buy calm on its border….
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What went wrong? A summary of Israel’s findings
In an unusual move for the organization, the Shin Bet spy agency published details of its investigation Tuesday. Here is a list of its main findings:
- Israel maintained a policy of calm with Hamas, which allowed for the group’s “massive buildup.” Israel allowed Qatar to transfer millions of dollars to Hamas to fund its governing bureaucracy in Gaza. The money was diverted to Hamas’ military capabilities.
- Israel falsely thought Hamas was trying to inflame tensions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, rather than maneuvering to invade Israel from Gaza. Israel had concluded that any major attack would be a multi-front assault from militias throughout the region, not just from Gaza.
- Israel thought its border barrier with Gaza, a system of fences and walls, was more fortified than it actually was.
- Israel had a poor network of spies in Gaza, following a botched intelligence operation in Gaza that Hamas uncovered in 2018. Gaza is a closed-off territory, making it difficult for Israel to recruit sources there.
- Hamas’s decision to attack when it did was due to a confluence of three factors: Israeli practices regarding religious Jewish ultranationalist activities at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, which is also revered in Judaism; Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners, which had hardened under Israel’s far-right government; and the perception that Israel’s social cohesion was weakened, which was at a time of domestic Israeli street protests over Netanyahu’s weakening of the country’s judiciary….
Note….
The Direct talks would make sense….
Trump is probably seeking a few things….
To get past the Netanyahu Right Wing Nuts who want fight a losing effort to displace Hamas…
To make the Saudi’s ($$$) Happy…
And?
If Trump can manage to get AMERICAN’s Free???
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image…A tent camp for displaced Palestinians is set up amid destroyed buildings in the west of Al-Shati camp, west of Gaza City, on Monday, March 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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