As Biden brokered an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, and said the U.S. would send $100 million in humanitarian funds to Palestinians, the top U.S. general, Michael Kurilla, made an unannounced trip to Egypt in an effort to advocate for greater aid to the strip. Biden will deliver an Oval Office address about the war this evening, a form of presidential communication historically reserved for major moments of crisis.
Here’s what you need to know this morning.
• Biden and top congressional leaders expressed confidence that Israel was not responsible for a Tuesday blast that reportedly killed close to 500 at a Gaza hospital. Israel has traded accusations of blame with the militant group Islamic Jihad for the strike; while neither side’s argument has been independently verified, congressional leaders briefed by national intelligence officials said current evidence appears to point away from Israeli involvement.
• 500 demonstrators were arrested at a protest against the war led by Jewish groups at a Capitol building. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican who has downplayed the Jan. 6 riots, called the event an “insurrection.”
• At least 100 Israelis have been arrested because of social media posts expressing support for Palestinians in Gaza, with 70 remaining in detention. Arab Israelis say their position in the country feels particularly tenuous after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.
• The American and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires were hit with bomb threats, with one reading “Jews we are going to kill you all.”
• A historic synagogue in Tunisia was destroyed during riots over the Gaza blast. The synagogue was not a site of active worship; video shows hundreds of people setting fire to the structure and chipping away at its walls.
• Five Palestinians were reportedly killed in clashes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank; 69 have reportedly been killed there since the start of the war.
• American Jewish groups have seen an unprecedented flood of donations since Hamas’ attack, with the Jewish Federations of North America announcing it had already raised $388 million.
• A State Department official who helped oversee weapon transfers resigned over the U.S. government’s plans to send arms to Israel, citing “blind support for one side” as “shortsighted, destructive, unjust.”
• In a snapshot of the broad reach of the Hamas attacks, one New Jersey school said four student families were mourning relatives killed in the massacres.