The Houthis drone attack in Tel Aviv overnight into Friday is the latest example of the multi-domain aerial threats Israel is facing from Iran and its proxies in the region.

A drone, which the IDF said its initial investigation determined was a Samad-3 and was fired from Yemen, struck a building in Tel Aviv, killing one civilian and injuring about 10 others. The Israelis are investigating why an alert did not go off.

Israel has continually faced drone attacks since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack from many of Iran’s network of proxy forces throughout the region. Lebanese Hezbollah regularly fires drones and missiles into Israel’s northern territory, the Houthis have carried out similar attacks like the one they did on Friday, and Iran itself carried out an unprecedented aerial assault in April featuring about 300 rockets, missiles, and drones, nearly all of which were intercepted.

“The real issue is that Iran has not been held accountable in any meaningful way for its creation and state sponsorship of terrorist proxies who continue to target Israeli civilians,” Alex Plitsas, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, told the Washington Examiner. “Iran created these proxy ground for plausible deniability and lack of accountability and so far, their strategy is working as the region is on fire with no end in sight.”

President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike back hard against Iran for the unprecedented attack, which the United States and several other allies helped Israel defend against.

“Let me be crystal clear,” Biden told Netanyahu. “If you launch a big attack on Iran, you’re on your own.”

One child was injured in Iran’s unprecedented 300 missile and rocket attack, meaning the drone attack from the Houthis on Friday resulted in more casualties.

“The Houthis have now managed to do what Iran has failed to do directly, inflict casualties on Israeli soil and in the heart of Tel Aviv. Israel will want to strike back in response to this attack though I expect the U.S. to urge caution and to allow the coalition to hit back instead,” Plitsas added.

The Israelis also shot down another drone that was approaching the country from the east. It’s unclear whether the incidents are related.

Since Oct. 7, the Houthis have carried out dozens of rocket and drone attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea. These attacks have had a significant impact on the global commercial shipping industry, which has been forced to avoid the vital maritime route.

The Houthis have targeted more than 60 vessels in their campaign, which have killed a total of four sailors, and they have seized a ship and sank two others. They claim they are doing it in solidarity with Palestinians in light of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, though they have attacked ships regardless of their origins or owners.

“They’ve not made Iran pay a price for the attacks on Israel by Hamas or the Houthis closing the Red Sea, or Hezbollah attacking northern Israel,” former President Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton told the Washington Examiner. “Frankly, they haven’t made the Shia militia in Iraq and Syria pay much of a price, except in Iraq and Syria. Iran itself, its territory, has not paid a price for any of this.”

Despite multiple iterations of U.S. strikes against the Houthis, they maintain their capabilities and desire to continue these attacks. Several former U.S. officials believe the U.S. needs to do more to stop them.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told the Washington Examiner last month, “The bigger issue, ultimately, goes back to Iran. It’s Iran that’s sustaining and supporting these groups. And we believe that certainly Iran is sustaining the Houthis with weapons, but we also believe that Iran is helping them with targeting and other things.”

Iran, independently of the Middle East, is also seeking to target former Trump administration officials whom it deems responsible for the assassination of IRGC leader Qassem Soleimani. The current administration recently picked up chatter about a threat against Trump.

Multiple former Trump administration officials believe the Biden administration needs to do more to prevent Iran from retaliating against them in response to the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

The U.S. military carried out an airstrike in January 2020 targeting Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force, and Tehran vowed to avenge his killing by going after the Trump administration officials involved in the strike — a threat that remains active to this day.

The threat toward these former U.S. officials has been known for years, though it has reemerged publicly after U.S. officials indicated earlier this week that they had new intelligence of a potential plot targeting former President Donald Trump himself.

“We’ve got to do better than just playing defense,” former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper acknowledged during the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday. “Waiting for them to get lucky, or not get lucky, to me, is not a winning strategy, not the least because of our own personal livelihoods and what that may mean to our welfare. But think about it, if Iran were to conduct or hire somebody to kill the former president of the United States, what would that mean? That would mean war in my mind.”

Several other Trump officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security advisers John Bolton and Robert O’Brien, former Iran envoy Brian Hook, retired Gen. Mark Milley, former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, and two former National Security Council officials, Victoria Coates and Robert Greenway, are among those believed to be potential targets. The higher-ranking former officials in this list still have Secret Service protection.

Bolton, who still has Secret Service protection, told the Washington Examiner that the Biden administration has “basically” let Iran “escape the consequences” of several actions against U.S. interests in the region and abroad.

“I think there are things that [the administration] could do inside Iran to make it clear that we’re not going to wait for an attack to succeed, that this is, this is unacceptable behavior and that we’re not going to tolerate it,” he explained.

The Department of Justice unsealed charges in August 2022 accusing Shahram Poursafi, an Iranian national and IRGC member, of attempting to arrange the murder of Bolton. Poursafi was accused of agreeing to pay an informant $300,000 to kill him, and the Iranian noted he had an additional “job” for the individual, which he’d pay $1 million for the source to accomplish.

The undercover law enforcement source shared publicly available information with Poursafi that suggested Bolton would be traveling outside Washington, D.C., during the time frame he indicated he wanted the former national security adviser murdered. Within an hour, Poursafi was able to inform the source that the information was false and provided the source with specific information about Bolton’s schedule that the DOJ didn’t believe had been publicly available.

Pompeo, during an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, said the threat against them is “definitely real and definitely active.”

Pottinger, Coats, and Greenway wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for additional protection for themselves and their families in January 2023 citing an “imminent threat,” according to NBC News. They did not get a response from the Justice Department, Greenway confirmed to the Washington Examiner.

“The government ought to assume responsibility for protecting its citizens like one and especially those assert otherwise you’re discouraging people from doing that, doing their jobs. And second, it’s just good principle,” he said.

Greenway emphasized his concern for his family, citing Iran’s tendency for attacks that include collateral casualties.

“We don’t want to be the only people who they’re targeting that have no protection,” Greenway added, noting that there is a spectrum of options the administration could’ve utilized, not just offering them full-time security.

This long-documented threat became more heightened recently and was specific to the former president, prompting the Service Service to provide Trump’s detail with more resources.

NSC spokesman John Kirby told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that they have known about this new intelligence indicating a possible plot targeting Trump “for quite a while,” though he declined to specify when exactly that occurred and whether any other former administration is at heightened risk based on this intel.

“We have repeatedly and consistently briefed the public and Congress on the existence of these threats. We have repeatedly met at the highest levels of our government to develop and implement a comprehensive response to these threats,” NSC spokeswoman Adrienne Watson told the Washington Examiner earlier this week. “As part of that comprehensive response, we have invested extraordinary resources in developing additional information about these threats, disrupting individuals involved in these threats, enhancing the protective arrangements of potential targets of these threats, engaging with foreign partners, and directly warning Iran.”

The Secret Service provided additional resources to Trump’s detail, which did not stop an unrelated assassination attempt against him last weekend.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“Upon learning of the increased threat, NSC directly contacted USSS at a senior level to be absolutely sure they continued to track the latest reporting,” a national security official told the Washington Examiner. “USSS shared this information with the detail lead, and the Trump campaign was made aware of an evolving threat. In response, Secret Service surged resources and assets for the protection of former President Trump.”

Thomas Matthew Brooks, 20, allegedly scaled a building less than 150 yards from where Trump was speaking to a crowd of supporters and fired multiple rounds at him. One bullet grazed him, and a spectator was killed and two others injured. Law enforcement officials shot and killed him almost immediately.

If the United States were attacked by an adversary, NATO members would be obligated under Article Five of the treaty to view it as an attack on themselves — that is unless the attack occurs in Hawaii, Guam, or Puerto Rico.

Article Six of the NATO treaty specifically lays out the geographic limitations of Article Five, which is that Article Five is only applicable if the attack occurs at a location north of the Tropic of Cancer. Hawaii, which became a state in 1959; Guam, which became a U.S. territory in 1898; and Puerto Rico, which became a U.S. territory in 1917, are all south of that latitude.

The 12 original members signed the NATO treaty on April 4, 1949, 75 years ago. One of the major debates the original members had while negotiating the treaty was over whether to include countries’ territories. The U.S. and Canada wanted to exclude all colonial territories, while France wanted to protect its colonies, according to the NATO website.

There is an effort to get Hawaii formally and officially included in Article Five, given its status as a U.S. state.

Earlier this week, a dozen bipartisan senators signed on to a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, emphasizing “the importance of clarifying that members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would consider an armed attack against the State of Hawaii to be an attack against all NATO countries.”

Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) both signed the letter. Schatz, on Twitter, said the Hawaiian “residents deserve equal protection,” and described the situation as “an outdated technicality.”

The senators argued that getting Hawaii covered under Article Five is imperative given the “strategic importance of the Indo-Pacific — and the need to deter destabilizing regional conflict,” adding, “Hawaii is the center of the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, geographically located in the heart of the Pacific Ocean and home to USINDOPACOM headquarters and critical component commands and defense installations.”

The senators requested Blinken answer a series of questions by Sept. 1.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The U.S. was dragged into World War II after the Japanese military carried out the bombing of Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, killing about 2,400 people.

American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are also south of the Tropic of Cancer.

The Biden administration has decided to resume a delayed shipment of 500-pound bombs to Israel, a U.S. official confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.

In May, the administration announced it had delayed one shipment of military aid to Israel that consisted of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, according to Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman. U.S. officials said they had held up the shipment due to concerns over the damage these bombs could inflict if Israel decided to use them in densely populated areas of Gaza, mainly Rafah.

The 500-pound bombs “are moving forward as part of the usual process,” the official said, while a second U.S. official noted the 2,000-pound bombs “remains paused.”

The larger bombs have been useful in Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas’s underground tunnels.

“We’ve been clear that our concern has been on the end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs, particularly for Israel’s Rafah campaign, which they have announced they are concluding,” the first official said. “Our main concern had been and remains the potential use of 2,000-pound bombs in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza.”

At the time the administration paused this shipment, Israeli leaders had publicly discussed a ground invasion into Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza, where more than a million people had fled. U.S. and international leaders publicly urged Israel not to carry out the plan, meant to root out Hamas in one of its final strongholds, given their concerns it could result in scores of civilian casualties.

President Joe Biden warned on May 8 that the United States would withhold offensive military aid to Israel if military forces “go into Rafah,” which National Security Council spokesman John Kirby later described as “thousands and thousands of troops moving in a maneuvered, concentrated, coordinated way against a variety of targets on the ground.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told lawmakers in May that the use of the larger bombs could “create a lot of collateral damage” if used in populated areas.

“A small-diameter bomb, which is a precision weapon, it’s very useful in a dense, built-up environment. It is helpful, but maybe not so much a 2,000-pound bomb that could create a lot of collateral damage,” Austin added.

U.S. and Israeli leaders have had several public disagreements over Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas, though the administration’s military support has largely remained steady despite pushback from Biden’s own party domestically.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the U.S. “has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel” and said it had been going on for “months,” though he did not specify what weapons he was referencing.

Netanyahu’s allegations were “perplexing, to say the least,” Kirby said at the time.

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday the United States would surge air defense systems to Ukraine along with a handful of NATO allies.

Ukraine has frequently and desperately stressed its need for both additional air defense systems and interceptors given Russia’s aerial attacks often targeting Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

Biden announced this joint venture during remarks at the NATO summit where he also honored outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg with the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S.

The U.S., the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Romania will provide Ukraine with five long-range air defense systems including an additional Patriot battery, according to a joint statement from the leaders of each country. Additionally, they plan to send Ukraine “dozens of tactical air defense systems.”

“We also welcome NATO’s work to support Ukraine’s efforts to develop a NATO-interoperable integrated air and missile defense architecture,” the statement continued. “Our message to Moscow and the world is clear: Our support for Ukraine is strong and unwavering.”

Dozens of Ukrainians were killed in several strikes on Monday that targeted multiple Ukrainian cities. A senior NATO official warned that Russia could carry out a similar attack, a multipronged large-scale aerial attack, again this week in juxtaposition with the NATO summit.

“It’s a great way, I think, in Russia’s calculus, to draw a split screen between NATO, the NATO summit, and Russia continuing to give the impression they’re making progress in Ukraine,” the official said. “So I think we should continue to expect to see large strikes like this or other events that are headline grabbing.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER 

The Biden administration has already made the decision to prioritize Ukraine’s needs ahead of other allies who have purchased military equipment from the U.S. Despite all the U.S. efforts to enable Ukraine to win the war, the administration has not changed its policy on allowing Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to hit targets deep within Russian territory even in the aftermath of Monday’s attack.

“There’s been no change in our policy. You saw the president several weeks ago gave guidance to Ukraine that they can use U.S.-supplied weapons to strike targets just over the border. That’s still the case,” National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said.

President Joe Biden has maintained that he will push ahead with his presidential campaign after his debate performance has concerned Democrats about his viability against former President Donald Trump.

Many Democrats have rallied around the president and continue to support him, but a small group of party members have called on him to step aside so that Vice President Kamala Harris or someone else can lead the ticket in November.

These conversations are happening quickly given the timeline and how far out the election is from early July. The Democratic National Convention will be in Chicago, Illinois, on Aug. 19-22, and the party will choose its nominee. Biden has said he wants that to be him, despite the growing concerns about whether he is mentally capable of handling the rigors of the presidency.

Should he decide to step aside, however, he has to do so before it’s too late for states to adjust their ballots. Here are some of the key deadlines for battleground states, according to the Daily Mail.

Arizona: The state will begin mailing out early ballots to voters on Oct. 9, meaning names need to be submitted before then for preparation purposes, though officials will get those names following both party’s conventions this summer.

Georgia: The deadline to provide information for the general election ballot is on Aug. 9, while Sept. 17 is the first day that registrars can start mailing out absentee ballots.

Maryland: The Maryland State Board of Elections has a Sept. 2 deadline to certify the ballots.

Michigan: County clerks must have absentee ballots ready for delivery to local clerks for the general election by Sept. 21. They will then be sent to voters by Sept. 26.

Pennsylvania: A candidate seeking to be removed from the ballot must do so by Aug. 12, which is just several days before the Democratic National Committee’s convention. The Keystone State’s secretary of commonwealth has until Aug. 27 to transmit the names of candidates to be on the general election ballot.

Virginia: The presidential ballot must be printed 45 days before Election Day, meaning the deadline this election cycle is on Sept. 21.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Wisconsin: Municipal clerks in the state have to send out absentee ballots by Sept. 19. The Republican National Committee is hosting its convention in Milwaukee in just over a week.

In 2016, Trump won Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, but all five flipped blue in 2020 and went for Biden.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to announce his running mate in the next week or so ahead of the Republican National Convention.

The campaign has largely dismissed early reporting and speculation on who Trump will tap as his vice president. The primary candidates for the VP slot are Sens. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), according to the Washington Post.

Vance said on Meet the Press Sunday that he has “not gotten the call” but would alert the media if that happens.

“We’ll let the media know if I ever get that call,” the Ohio senator said. “But most importantly, we’re just trying to work to elect Donald Trump. Whoever his vice president is, he’s got a lot of good people he could choose from.”

Rubio, who appeared on CNN on Sunday morning as well, also deferred speculation on Trump’s VP pick to the former president’s campaign, though he added, “I’m willing to help in any way I can.”

Trump is set to hold two rallies this week; one on Tuesday in Miami, Florida, and the other next weekend in Butler, Pennsylvania.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

While Trump’s VP pick had been one of the most central questions in the election cycle, it has been overshadowed in the last week by a chorus of calls for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the race after his debate performance last month left millions wondering whether he’s capable of serving another term.

The focus on Biden’s mental fitness could prompt the former president to delay his announcement.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog declared on Sunday that an “absolute majority” of the country supports a ceasefire deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages.

His comments, which coincide with the nine-month anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack when Hamas killed roughly 1,200 people and kidnapped approximately 250 others, come as Israeli and Hamas negotiators are continuing the recently renewed ceasefire discussions. It’s unclear how many of the roughly 100 hostages are still alive.

“Our commitment to return the kidnapped is absolute and supreme. We do not forget them for a moment. The people of Israel do not forget them for a moment. In every home and family, in every synagogue, in every community, in every public and private event – we hear from all sides the concern for the abductees, the prayer and the cry – for their quick return home,” Herzog said on X. “The entire nation wants their return, and an absolute majority supports a hostage deal. The state’s duty is to return them and it is at the heart of the consensus.”

Last week, Hamas reached out to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators indicating it had softened on some previous sticking points. They have now dropped their previous demand that Israel agree to end the war in Gaza completely prior to the start of the ceasefire, and now said it would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the first phase of the deal, a Hamas source told Reuters. 

Hamas is now awaiting Israel’s response.

A senior Biden administration official described Hamas’s initial response a couple days ago as “a breakthrough on a critical impasse.”

The proposal is reportedly close to the one President Joe Biden publicly outlined in late May. The two sides did not immediately come to an agreement following the president’s description of the proposal, which was a three-phase end of the war.

During the first phase, which would last four to six weeks, Hamas would release elderly, women, and those in need of care. At the same time, Israeli forces would withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza, and Israel would release hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israel. It would allow for a surge in desperately needed humanitarian aid.

Details of the second phase would be finalized during the first phase, which could be extended if the specifics of it are not determined in time, though it would include the release of all living remaining hostages and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Despite the renewed effort, the deal is not a guarantee to occur. Israel and Hamas have repeatedly failed to come to a second ceasefire deal since the first one expired at the end of November.

Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have indicated recently that the war in Gaza is slowly coming to an end, though their operations continue.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

There is tension along Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based terrorist group that’s widely considered to be better armed and a larger force than Hamas. Hezbollah began firing rockets and missiles over the border into northern Israel on Oct. 8 in solidarity with Hamas.

Leaders from both Hezbollah and Israel have threatened to escalate their limited conflict into a full-blown ground invasion in recent weeks, though U.S. officials are hoping an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire deal would settle some of the Israel-Hezbollah tension.

If President Joe Biden decides to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris is viewed as the front-runner to replace him, but her candidacy likely comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Harris, if she is ultimately the candidate atop the ticket, will be able to run on the successes of the Biden administration without the concerns about her mental fitness for office, though she will also be tied with the downsides of the administration. She would likely effectively be running on a continuation of Biden’s tenure.

Biden’s biggest cheerleader

The vice president, 59, has spent the last several months defending the president’s mental and physical fitness, which is now under question following last month’s presidential debate, in which Biden’s performance raised new questions about his fitness for office due to several moments where he appeared lost and incoherent at times.

Questions had emerged about Biden’s mental acuity long before the debate despite his performance escalating those concerns, though she has consistently come to the president’s defense.

After special counsel Robert Hur made references to Biden’s mental acuity in his report about the president’s handling of classified documents, Harris said, “The way that the president’s demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated!”

She will presumably face questions on her continued support of the president if he ultimately decides he’s not, in fact, capable of carrying out the duties of the presidency.

Border breakdown

Harris campaigning on her time as vice president is set to be a double-edged sword. Over the last three and a half years, she has taken the lead on the border and abortion access, though to varying degrees of success.

Back in 2021, the White House put her in charge of leading the diplomatic outreach to tackle the “root causes” of migration in the Northern Triangle countries, though illegal immigration has continued to increase over the course of the administration.

Since January 2021, the U.S. has allowed 5.3 million migrants who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as migrants who applied from abroad to be admitted through “parole” programs, to remain in the country, according to an interim staff report prepared by the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement. Additionally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection have encountered nearly 10 million people trying to enter the country since February 2021.

Economic roadblock

Republicans will have a harder time tying Harris to the inflation woes plaguing the Biden-Harris administration than to the chaos at the southern border. But the duo’s consistent messaging that Biden’s victories are tied to the pair of them means Harris will come with the same economic baggage the president has.

Biden is deep underwater on the question of how he has handled the economy. The Real Clear Politics polling average shows the president with an average of 58.2% job disapproval of his handling of the economy.

Inflation has ticked down in recent months after the historic 9.1% mark in June 2022, but it remains uncomfortably high for the Fed to cut interest rates, though it may do so later this year.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The White House has put Harris at the tip of the spear of its messaging about an improving economy. In April, she embarked on a “nationwide economic opportunity tour,” beginning in the swing state of Georgia to talk about “investing in communities, building wealth, and ensuring every American has the freedom to thrive.”

A CNN poll from earlier this week found that Harris is currently closer to former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical election. In a matchup between Trump and Biden, the former leads 49%-43%, which is where they sat during the April version of this poll, while Harris is only trailing Trump 47% to 45%, a result that is within the margin of error.

Hamas sent an updated response to the latest ceasefire proposal with Israel a couple of days ago, which represented a “breakthrough on a critical impasse,” according to a senior Biden administration official.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that he had dispatched the Israeli negotiators to meet with mediators in response to Hamas’s updated stance.

Word of Hamas’s latest response broke publicly Wednesday, which was the first news of possible movement since its most recent rejection of the deal President Joe Biden outlined at the end of May.

“I have to say, given the recent developments, we do believe there is a pretty significant opening here, and we welcome the prime minister’s readiness to try to seize that opening by empowering his negotiating team to engage directly in Doha, [Qatar], over coming days in the Oval Office,” the official said. “I think what we got back from Hamas was a pretty significant adjustment to what had been their position, and we think that is encouraging.”

Netanyahu and Biden spoke Thursday about Hamas’s response.

“President Biden and the Prime Minister discussed ongoing efforts to finalize a ceasefire deal together with the release of hostages, as outlined by President Biden and endorsed by the UN Security Council, the G7, and countries around the world,” White House officials said in a readout of the call. “The leaders discussed the recent response received from Hamas. The President welcomed the Prime Minister’s decision to authorize his negotiators to engage with U.S., Qatari, and Egyptian mediators in an effort to close out the deal.”

The official dismissed the possibility that a deal was imminent, saying, “I just want to emphasize this does not mean this deal is going to be closed in a period of days.”

The U.S., Egypt, and Qatar have acted as mediators over the course of the more than eight months of war, though their efforts have remained fruitless, dating back to the one-week ceasefire agreement in late November 2023. There have been several instances in which the negotiations appeared close to a deal this spring, but they have all collapsed.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has devastated the enclave. Roughly 35,000 people have been killed, and it is unknown how many of them are civilians and how many are combatants, though even Israeli officials indicated earlier this spring that at least half had been civilians. The entire population is facing severe food insecurity, and most of the population has been displaced.

Israeli officials have indicated the war in Gaza is winding down and that much of Hamas has been defeated, though they continue carrying out operations against the group.

The war began after Hamas carried out the largest terrorist attack in Israel’s history on Oct. 7, 2023. Early that morning, more than 1,000 militants overpowered the Israel-Gaza border and poured into southern Israel, where those terrorists proceeded to kill roughly 1,200 people, many of whom were civilians, and kidnapped approximately 250 more.

About 100 hostages were released during the November ceasefire. It is unclear how many of the remaining hostages are still alive.

On May 31, Biden outlined a proposal that Israel had agreed to, which would begin a six-week ceasefire during the first phase of the deal. During that period, Israeli forces would withdraw from population centers in Gaza, the international community would surge humanitarian aid into the strip, and Israel would release a large number of Palestinians detained by Israeli forces. Women, children, and hostages in need of medical care would be released during this time as well.

The deal was widely supported internationally, but Hamas did not agree to it.

The issue that had prevented many previous iterations of ceasefire proposals was whether the agreement would amount to a lasting ceasefire, effectively allowing the portions of Hamas that are still intact to remain that way and potentially reconstitute, or whether Israel would be permitted to have the option to continue its military operations once the first phase ends.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Both leaders welcomed the meeting to take place between their national security teams in the Strategic Consultative Group format on July 15.

Netanyahu is set to address Congress on July 24.