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Cairo invites officials from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad; will reportedly send delegation to Israel to relay messages from Palestinian Authority after overnight Gaza rockets
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they unfold.
France seizes thousands of Iranian assault rifles, missiles heading to Yemen
French naval forces seized thousands of assault rifles, machine guns and anti-tank missiles in the Gulf of Oman coming from Iran heading to Yemen’s Houthi rebels in January, officials say today, the latest such interdiction amid the Mideast nation’s long-running war.
While Iran denies being involved, images of the weapons released by the US military’s Central Command show them to be similar to others captured by American forces in other shipments tied back to Tehran.
The seizure occurred Jan. 15 in the Gulf of Oman, a body of water that stretches from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through to the Arabian Sea and onto the Indian Ocean, US officials say. US Central Command describes the interdiction as happening “along routes historically used to traffic weapons unlawfully from Iran to Yemen.”
EU plans new Russia sanctions ahead of Ukraine war anniversary
The European Union plans to slap Russia with fresh sanctions by the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen says on a visit to Kyiv.
“We will introduce with our G7 partners an additional price cap on Russian petroleum products, and by the 24th of February — exactly one year since the invasion started — we aim to have the 10th package of sanctions in place,” von der Leyen says during a press conference with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Existing sanctions are “eroding” Russia’s economy, she says, and “throwing it back by a generation,” estimating that an existing oil price cap alone is costing Moscow around 160 million euros every day.
Report: Egypt invites Hamas, Islamic Jihad officials to Cairo to broker calm
The Egyptian government has reportedly invited senior officials from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip to visit Cairo in a bid to calm tensions with Israel.
Overnight, several rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza, with the IDF striking the Strip in response, days after the deadliest Palestinian attack on Israelis in 15 years took place in Jerusalem.
The head of the PIJ media office, Dawoud Shehab, told Palestinian media yesterday that Ziad al-Nakhala had received an invitation from Egyptian officials to meet.
The Palestinian Safa news agency reports that Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has also been invited to visit Cairo next week.
According to the Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya news site, Egypt plans to send a security delegation to Tel Aviv to discuss preventing a further escalation of violence, serving as a broker between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
