Israel-Hamas War Day 228: What's happening in Iran, Gaza, Iraq, Syria?

Egypt altered ceasefire terms before handing agreements to Hamas, three anonymous sources told CNN News in a report published on Tuesday.

According to the report, Egypt changed the details of the deal submitted to the Hamas terrorist organization after it had been signed by Israel and before reaching Hamas. It was also reported that this move led to great anger among Israel, the US, and Qatar against the Egyptians.

One source even claimed that the Egyptians "deceived us all."

Activists who attacked a humanitarian aid truck heading to Gaza claimed that they had been receiving intelligence from individual IDF soldiers on the trucks’ whereabouts, the Guardian reported on Tuesday.

Rachel Touitou, a spokesperson for Tzav 9 was cited as having claimed that the group was receiving some information from individual soldiers. However, she said It was not Tzav 9 that burned the trucks … this was not our action.”

“When a policeman or soldier’s mission is supposed to protect Israelis and instead he is sent to protect humanitarian aid convoys – knowing it will end up in the hands of Hamas – we cannot blame them or civilians who notice the trucks passing by their towns for providing intel to groups trying to block that aid,” she told The Guardian. 

In what was perhaps the most contentious bout of questioning during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony on Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz lobbed stunning criticism of the Biden administration’s foreign policy at Blinken, saying he and President Joe Biden funded the attacks on October 7.

Cruz, the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, grilled Blinken over the number of barrels of oil Iran is now selling per day, compared to when he first took office, as well as the number of Iran’s ghost fleet ships.

The Israeli government might not be in the position to proceed with Saudi normalization given that such a deal requires a pathway to Palestinian statehood, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“The Saudis have been very clear that [normalization] would require calm in Gaza, and it would require a credible pathway to a Palestinian state,” Blinken said.

Eight senators released a statement on Tuesday morning slamming the ICC for jeopardizing efforts to bring about sustainable peace to the Middle East and risking negotiations to secure a hostage deal. 

“The application for arrest warrants also draws a false equivalence between Israel with its longstanding commitment to the rule of law, and Hamas’ theocratic, autocratic, and unaccountable rule over Gaza," according to the statement. "To state the obvious: Israel is a functioning democracy, while Hamas is a terrorist organization.

If haredi men serve in the IDF at the same rate as the general Jewish public, the IDF will no longer need reservists to carry out its operational duties, according to research conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute that was presented at the annual Eli Hurvitz Conference on Economy and Society in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

Amid public debate over the long-standing exemption of haredi men from IDF service and the IDF's plan to increase the length of mandatory and reserve duty of those who do serve, the research, which was presented during a panel titled "Economic and Social Ramifications of Burden Equality," examined the effect of a number of scenarios of haredi service until 2050.

An ICC decision to issue arrest warrants against Israeli leaders would complicate efforts for a deal to release the remaining 128 hostages in Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He spoke one day after ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announced his plan to seek arrest warrants against top Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Western democratic leaders will also be hauled before the International Criminal Court unless a way is found to prevent Israelis from standing trial there, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC on Tuesday.

“Every democracy will be pulled into the [ICC] dock. We’re first, and you’re next. People understand that,” Netanyahu said.

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman on Tuesday warned in an annual report that 60% of IDF equipment purchases fail quality control tests.

This issue is exacerbated, the report noted, by the fact that the IDF does not report comprehensive data on quality control failures to the Defense Ministry, which manages the purchases.  

As the Israel Defense Forces push deeper into Rafah they are finding tunnels and dismantling Hamas terrorist infrastructure. The offensive in Rafah was opposed by Egypt before it happened, however there have been less statements since it actually began. There remains a lack of clarity about Egypt’s overall position today and also what may have transpired in the years leading up to October 7.

It's important to begin the process of understanding how Hamas became so powerful prior to the October 7 attack. How did it stockpile so many weapons? Where did the weapons come from? Hamas manufactures many types of rockets locally, but it also acquired RPGs and other types of systems that appear to have been trafficked from abroad.