Fdd's overnight brief

Israel

Israel conducted dozens of airstrikes across Gaza on Sunday and halted humanitarian aid into the enclave after it accused Hamas of killing troops inside Israeli-controlled areas in what is shaping up to be the biggest test yet of the fragile cease-fire. – Wall Street Journal

When President Trump presented his 20-point plan to bring the Gaza war to an end last month from a White House lectern, he interrupted himself twice to talk directly to someone sitting in the front row: “Right, Ron?” he said. That man was Ron Dermer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest confidant and the manager of Israel’s relationship with America—and by extension, Trump. – Wall Street Journal

The U.S. warned Saturday that Hamas was planning attacks against Palestinians in Gaza that would violate the terms of the cease-fire already under stress from strikes Israel has carried out against militants. – Wall Street Journal

Heavily armed Hamas fighters seized the Jordanian Field Hospital complex in Gaza City last weekend after a gunbattle with a rival Palestinian group, re-establishing their control over what residents and Israel’s military said had long been a redoubt for the Islamist militants. – Wall Street Journal

Israel confirmed the identities Sunday of two more hostages whose bodies were returned over the weekend — the 10th and 11th released since Oct. 13 under the ceasefire and hostages-for-prisoners exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, along with another body that Israel said did not belong to a captive. – Washington Post

Every night, over two anguished years, Omri Miran’s wife and two young girls gazed at the moon as the children said good night to their father, a 48-year-old Israeli hostage held by Hamas in Gaza. – Washington Post

Hamas intends to maintain security control in Gaza during an interim period, a senior Hamas official told Reuters, adding he could not commit to the group disarming – positions that reflect the difficulties facing U.S. plans to secure an end to the war. – Reuters

The U.N. said on Friday aid convoys were struggling to reach famine-hit areas of north Gaza due to war-damaged roads and the continued closure of key routes into the enclave’s north despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants. – Reuters

The U.S. State Department said Saturday that it has “credible reports” that Hamas could violate the ceasefire with an attack on Palestinian civilians in Gaza. – Associated Press

The International Criminal Court Friday rejected Israel’s bid to appeal against arrest warrants issued by the ICC for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over the war with Hamas in Gaza. – Agence France-Presse

An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon Saturday killed a Hezbollah operative, the military announced, as it continued its recent policy of targeting construction vehicles it says are being used by the terror group to rebuild positions. – Agence France-Presse

A European and US-backed UN security council motion to give a planned international stabilisation force robust powers to control security inside Gaza is being prepared, with the strong expectation that Egypt will lead it, diplomats have said. – The Guardian

The Israel Defense Forces announced on Sunday evening that two soldiers were killed and three were wounded in an attack by Palestinian terror operatives in Rafah during the morning hours. The military launched a wave of intense attacks on Hamas in response, with the violence leaving the fragile ceasefire teetering after less than a week. – Times of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified on Sunday evening that entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza will only continue when Hamas stops its “massive bombings” and continues to release slain hostages, following what an Israeli source described to The Jerusalem Post as pressure exerted by the United States. – Jerusalem Post

Editorial: The same PA that pleads poverty to Western state donors has paid Mr. Fatafteh more than $200,000 for a job brutally done. He is now free again, along with other terrorists from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah. Israel has never employed the death penalty for terrorists, but doing so had been a campaign issue before the war for hard-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir. Now, in the Trump deal’s aftermath, Jerusalem is considering it. The PA pays these terrorists, but when hostages are taken, Israel is pressed to foot the bill. – Wall Street Journal

Editorial: And that’s just what has been out in the open. On Saturday, the State Department warned that it has “credible reports” that Hamas is planning an attack on Palestinian civilians and warned that “measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire.” What that might look like remains unclear. Both Turkey and Qatar, other guarantors of the peace deal, envision a role for Hamas in a future Palestinian state. They are unlikely to want to confront it directly, even though the group stokes the fires of a Palestinian civil war. All revolutions eventually consume themselves. Unfortunately for the miserable Palestinians of Gaza, Hamas is not quite yet in its final death throes. – Washington Post

Editorial: There is also a broader context that matters. Even as bodies are exchanged, each side accuses the other of testing the truce. Hamas’s line today was to blame Israel for “violations,” while acknowledging that more bodies were being handed over. The facts remain stark. Twenty living Israelis came home. Not all the deceased have. Both can be true, and both demand action. The moral horizon has not changed since October 7. Kidnapping civilians was a crime. Holding them for two years compounded it. Withholding prolongs the cruelty. Israel is right to insist on the return of every person, alive or deceased. The deal created a path. Stay on it. Finish it. Bring them all back. – Jerusalem Post

Dana Stroul writes: All of this makes for an uneasy peace. Mr. Trump is tying the United States to a deeply unpopular leader who, so far, has resisted any accountability for his role in the catastrophe of Oct. 7 and its aftermath. Mr. Netanyahu’s political survival now appears to depend on Mr. Trump personally, despite increasing skepticism on the American right and left about U.S. support for Israel. As both countries head into fiercely contested and pivotal legislative elections next year, Mr. Trump may soon find that playing someone else’s politics is risky business. – New York Times

Sean Durns writes: Gaza is a clan-based society, and some other clans have voiced their discontent with Hamas’s rule. But their future success and ability to defeat Hamas are very much open questions. It is entirely possible that they could, with a significant amount of support, trample the terrorists. But it won’t be easy. By some estimates, Hamas controls less than half of the territory of the Gaza Strip. The group has been severely degraded, its top leadership eliminated, and its chief patron, Iran, chastened by Israel’s military. By holding territory, Israel will enhance its intelligence capabilities and its deterrence. But Hamas is a problem that Israel and its allies will be contending with for the foreseeable future. – Washington Examiner

Brandon Silver and Manar Al-Sharif write: Whether it spends its money on vast amounts of real estate, or a rocket to launch at civilians, Hamas relies on a global financial network to fund it. Depriving it of that money is not just a technical exercise; it’s a moral imperative that will save lives and secure peace. By advancing UN sanctions against Hamas, Mr. Carney can stake out a global leadership role in sustaining a permanent ceasefire, and establish Canada as a force in financial diplomacy. This is the leadership that Palestinian and Israeli civilians deserve, that Canadians expect and that the world will applaud. – The Globe and Mail

Russia and Ukraine

As Ukrainians prepare for their fifth winter at war, what has happened to Chernihiv in recent weeks serves as a portent for cities throughout the country. Major population centers including Kharkiv, Sumy and Kyiv are already seeing blackouts as Russia ratchets up its strike campaign while temperatures drop. – Wall Street Journal

President Trump said he hoped Ukraine wouldn’t need the U.S. to provide it with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday. – Wall Street Journal

Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call this past week with President Donald Trump demanded that Kyiv surrender full control of Donetsk, a strategically vital region in eastern Ukraine, as a condition for ending the war, said two senior officials familiar with the conversation. – Washington Post

Russian President Vladimir Putin put his relationship with President Donald Trump back on track with a phone call just ahead of Trump’s crucial Friday meeting with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, that was meant to include discussions of providing Ukraine with powerful new long range weapons. – Washington Post

Russian forces on Sunday attacked a coal mine in southeastern Ukraine and an unidentified energy site in the north near the Russian border, the operators of the sites said, adding to a series of recent assaults on Ukraine’s energy network. – Reuters

The Orenburg gas processing plant, the largest facility of its kind in the world, has been forced to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan after a Ukrainian drone attack, Kazakhstan’s energy ministry said on Sunday. – Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to give up swaths of territory to Russia during a tense meeting on Friday that left the Ukrainian delegation disappointed, according to two people briefed on the discussion. – Reuters

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday that its forces had taken control of three more villages in eastern Ukraine, one in the Dnipropetrovsk region and two in the northeastern Kharkiv region, closer to the Russian border. – Reuters

Editorial: While Ukraine is fighting Russian troops, Mr. Putin’s enabler and guarantor is China, whether via oil purchases or chips for military equipment. The U.S. won’t scare China with Tomahawk inventories if America looks afraid to defend its interests in Europe. Mr. Trump has said repeatedly he wants to end the war, and no doubt he means it. But Mr. Putin so far hasn’t shown any willingness to stop shooting. The President mused on social media this summer that Ukraine needed to go on offense and not be stuck in the Joe Biden policy of playing defense. That’s what Tomahawks can help Ukraine do, and that’s what will bring a faster peace. – Wall Street Journal

Editorial: Meanwhile, the Tomahawks remain an option. So are German Taurus missiles, no-fly zones over Ukraine that could be enforced by a European coalition of the willing and strikes against Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers. Trump tends to talk sweetly ahead of high-stakes summits. During his press availability with Zelensky on Friday, he repeatedly emphasized that he thinks Putin is interested in peace. Yet America’s leverage over Russia remains — and Trump’s willingness to use that power has been underestimated before. – Washington Post

Editorial: Mr. Trump’s history of impulsiveness and his long record of coziness with Mr. Putin offer reasons to remain skeptical that this new posture will be a lasting one. On Thursday, the two leaders spent more than two hours on the phone together, and Mr. Trump described the conversation as “very productive.” They plan to follow up by meeting in Budapest soon. That meeting will be an opportunity to draw a firm line. Russia’s recent aggression toward NATO shows that Russia’s war in Ukraine is about much more than Ukraine. It is about Mr. Putin’s revanchist ambitions in Europe. The only way to contain him is with resolute strength. – New York Times

Alexandra Prokopenko writes: When it comes to thwarting Putin’s ambitions to confront NATO, timing is everything. Russia can make up for its losses over the next two to three years, but fully restoring its military will take much longer. The paradox of Russia’s war economy is that it is simultaneously strong and brittle. The United States and Europe must act with urgency: pressing their advantages while Russia remains constrained rather than waiting for the Kremlin to get back on its feet. – Foreign Affairs

Yemen

The LPG-laden tanker MV Falcon was on fire and adrift on Saturday off the coast of Yemen, after it reported an explosion that forced members of its crew to abandon the vessel, the European Union’s naval force Aspides said in a statement. – Reuters

A new airstrip is being built on a volcanic island in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, satellite images show, likely the latest project by forces allied to those opposed to the country’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. – Associated Press

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels detained two dozen U.N. employees Sunday, a day after they raided another U.N. facility in the capital Sanaa, a U.N. official said. – Associated Press

Korean Peninsula

South Korean police are seeking to detain most of the 64 South Koreans repatriated from Cambodia over allegations they were involved in online scams in the Southeast Asian country, the police said on Monday. – Reuters

Chinese exports to North Korea soared in September from a year earlier, posting a two-digit increase after recording 2025’s first on-year decline in August, customs data showed on Monday. – Reuters

South Korea has a higher chance of reaching a trade deal with the U.S. by the time of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea later this month, the country’s chief policy advisor said on Sunday. – Reuters

Trump administration officials are privately discussing a potential meeting between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the U.S. president’s upcoming Asia visit, CNN reported on Saturday, citing sources familiar with the matter. – Reuters

A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea across the rivals’ heavily fortified border on Sunday, South Korea’s military said. – Associated Press

South Asia

A cease-fire announced by Afghanistan and Pakistan on Sunday has brought respite from the worst flare-up of tensions between the neighboring countries in years. – New York Times

Bangladesh’s ambitious “July Charter” for state reform, drafted after last year’s deadly student-led uprising, was backed by the majority of political parties on Friday, but a signing ceremony was marred by street violence and boycotted by a key group. – Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated on Sunday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him India will stop buying Russian oil, while warning that New Delhi would continue paying “massive” tariffs if it did not do so. – Reuters

Worried by China’s growing arsenal of ballistic missiles, India is responding with a plan to create a joint rocket force that would control and expand the country’s non-nuclear missiles. – Defense News

Europe

Tourists were streaming into the world’s most visited museum on Sunday when a group of thieves burst in through a window of a gilded gallery on the second floor—and made off with a set of priceless royal jewels. – Wall Street Journal

French authorities detained four men suspected of plotting to kill a Russian dissident living in the country, antiterrorism prosecutors said on Friday. – Wall Street Journal

A Polish court ordered the release of a Ukrainian man wanted by Germany for allegedly taking part in the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, the latest twist in a case that has stoked tension over the prosecution of suspects seen as aiding Ukraine in its fight against Russia. – Wall Street Journal

Fans of Israeli soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv have been told they are not welcome to travel to Birmingham, England, for a Europa League match with Aston Villa next month because of safety concerns. The decision sparked a government outcry and accusations of antisemitism. – Wall Street Journal

The European Union seemed to be coming together. Not quite five years after the United Kingdom’s messy departure marked a low point for the E.U., the leaders of the bloc’s 27 nations began unifying around common defense in the face of Russian aggression and fears of a reluctance by President Donald Trump to protect European allies. – Washington Post

The parliament of Bosnia’s Serb Republic appointed Ana Trisic Babic as an interim president on Saturday, acknowledging officially for the first time that former President Milorad Dodik is stepping aside after a state court banned him from politics. – Reuters

A moderate candidate won Turkish Cypriot presidential elections on Sunday, defeating a hardliner in a pivotal vote that could help revive stalled U.N. talks on reunifying Cyprus. – Reuters

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, set to start a five-year prison sentence on Tuesday after being convicted of attempting to raise campaign funds from Libya in 2007, said he is not afraid of going to jail, La Tribune Dimanche reported. – Reuters

Germany said on Sunday that it would recall its ambassador to Georgia ahead of a meeting of European Union officials on Monday as relations between the bloc and the South Caucasus country fray. – Reuters

The head of Belarus’s security agency said his institution was trying to build contacts with Ukraine to help achieve a settlement of its more than 3-1/2-year-old war with Russia, the country’s state news agency reported on Sunday. – Reuters

Austria said on Saturday that it would agree to the European Union’s latest sanctions package against Russia, in an about-face of its earlier stance and removing a key hurdle ahead of a vote early next week. – Reuters

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius intends to order an additional 15 F-35 fighter jets from U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin (LMT.N),  Der Spiegel reported on Monday, citing confidential documents prepared for the parliament’s budget committee. – Reuters

Hungary will ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin can enter the country for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump planned in Budapest and return home afterwards, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Friday. – Reuters

The European Union’s diplomatic arm, the EEAS, is urging member states to back a maritime declaration that would allow EU nations working with flag states to arrange inspections on Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers, an EEAS document shows. – Reuters

Kosovo war veterans and thousands of their supporters gathered Friday in the Albanian capital, Tirana, in a protest against a European Union-backed court prosecuting their former fighters who waged the 1998-1999 war for independence from Serbia, claiming the tribunal is biased and unjust. – Associated Press

Europe’s main center-left political group on Friday kicked out the party of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is accused of cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and undermining the rule of law in his own country. – Associated Press

Editorial: Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Birmingham’s ban “the wrong decision” and repeated what’s becoming the standard line that “we will not tolerate antisemitism in our streets.” This is obviously false, given the marchers who have chanted antisemitic slogans across Britain for two years, ostensibly in protest of the war in Gaza. Contra Mr. Starmer, what Britain isn’t tolerating in its streets are Israeli soccer fans. – Wall Street Journal

Editorial: France’s main problem is public sector spending, which far outpaces even its statist, welfare-heavy European counterparts. Government spending in France accounts for more than 57 percent of its GDP, compared with 54 percent in Italy, 44 percent in Britain and 36.3 percent in the U.S. France’s number of public workers as a percentage of the population is one of the highest in the developed world. The services they provide are not commensurate. – Washington Post

The Americas

Bolivians elected Rodrigo Paz as president on Sunday, ending two decades of socialist rule after he pledged to strengthen ties with the U.S. and develop the nation’s vast mineral wealth. – Wall Street Journal

President Trump’s vow to intervene against drug smugglers in Colombia widened a U.S. counternarcotics campaign in Latin America that began with military strikes on oceangoing boats but is increasingly focused on threatening governments in the region. – Wall Street Journal

President Trump said the U.S. would stop aid payments to Colombia, for decades a close U.S. ally, because of the country’s drug production. Trump, in a social-media post Sunday, escalated tensions with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, calling him “an illegal drug leader.” – Wall Street Journal

The U.S. is transferring two alleged drug traffickers to Colombia and Ecuador for detention and prosecution after they were briefly held on a U.S. Navy warship in the Caribbean, President Trump announced on Saturday. – Wall Street Journal

In the days before the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador, the president of that country demanded something for himself: the return of nine MS-13 gang leaders in U.S. custody. – Washington Post

Venezuela’s government said this week that it had launched a sweeping military mobilization and begun training civilians for combat, portraying the moves as defensive steps against what it called an escalating threat from the United States. – New York Times

The U.S. Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago cautioned Americans on Saturday to stay away from American government facilities on the twin-island nation. – Associated Press

United States

Now, Utah County is grappling with a multimillion-dollar murder trial after it was thrust into the national spotlight as the scene of one of the most high-profile assassinations in recent history. Officials say they have spent the past few weeks scrambling to come up with an estimated $5 million—equivalent to 3.3% of the county’s $150 million general operating fund—that the projected yearslong hearing will require. – Wall Street Journal

Hundreds of thousands of protesters thronged city centers and parks for a national day of “No Kings” rallies, challenging what they say are authoritarian actions by President Trump, whom they portray as acting more like a king than a president. – Wall Street Journal

Federal prosecutors in Louisiana accused a man of participating in the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel and then traveling to the United States on a fraudulent visa, according to a criminal complaint unsealed this week. – New York Times

Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes: Ms. Schaffert objected again to Orlando CBP and provided backup documentation—including Orlando’s original answer to her that there was no I-94 for a December 2022 Martins entry. CBP tried to cover its tracks: It corrected the spelling error, the passport number and the visa type. She says every effort thereafter to straighten things out met the runaround. Mr. Martins’s lawyers have sued in federal court to access the CBP logs that would show who put Mr. Martins’s name on the website’s travel-history page and later created the fraudulent I-94. CBP turned them over but redacted the names of the officials involved and the dates of the entries. The case is in the discovery phase. Meantime Americans are right to ask what CBP is trying to hide. – Wall Street Journal

Olivia Reingold writes: This wasn’t your typical campaign event held at Boys & Girls Clubs or the home of a major donor. It was a “pre-Jummah address” held at Masjid At-Taqwa, a Brooklyn mosque led by Siraj Wahhaj, whose name appeared on a list drawn up by federal prosecutors of “unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators” in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. In a photo later posted to X by Mamdani, he beamed beside Wahhaj and called him “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century.” – The Free Press

Defense

The admiral who leads U.S. military forces in Latin America will step down at the end of this year, two years ahead of schedule, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday, in a surprise move amid escalating tensions with Venezuela. – Reuters

US President Donald Trump wants to “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again.” And leaders at two South Korean shipyards say that, given the chance, they could do just that. – CNN

The National Nuclear Security Administration, which falls under the Energy Department, will exhaust its available funding on Saturday, according to the notice NNSA sent to lawmakers. – Politico

The Air Force has scrapped its outgoing chief of staff’s plan to create an independent command focused on developing the service’s future requirements into new systems. – Defense News

U.S. Special Operations Command wants a small, jam-proof, fire-and-forget missile that can be launched from medium-sized drones. – Defense News

As the Army examines its armor formations, it wants to avoid placing them in a potential stalemate, similar to what is being seen in the Russia-Ukraine War. – Defense News

Douglas A. Birkey writes: The need for these aircraft is not theoretical. With China pressing hard in the Pacific, Russia at war in Ukraine, Iran still committed to destabilizing the Middle East, North Korea standing as a very dangerous nuclear adversary and homeland defense an increasingly crucial mission given modern threats, the need for Air Force airpower is at a historic high. Adversaries know the Air Force is stretched thin and this undoubtedly enters their calculus as they decide how to challenge U.S. interests around the world. – Defense News

Steven Wills writes: US forces have not trained to fight peer opponents in the last thirty-five years, but have been constantly engaged in the kind of operations that are the bedrock of those during war. US adversaries have not been so engaged, and this shows in the Russian war on Ukraine. China confronts this, and perhaps the largest potential amphibious operations since the 1944 D-Day invasion of France, and without the preparation and successes and failures such as Salerno and Dieppe experienced by the Western allies. The US Joint Force undoubtedly needs improvement, and critiques of it should not hold back. However, it is important to keep in mind the experience and benefits of a free society that significantly enable US forces and constrain those of potential adversaries. China and Russia remain significant threats, but not ones that the US Navy cannot meet. – The National Interest