Israel Update 5.2.26

MAJOR ELLA WAWEYA

 

Maj. Ella Waweya has been selected to replace Col. Avichay Adraee as the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson. Waweya, 36, who is known as “Captain Ella,” is among the most senior female Arab Muslim officers in the IDF. She was born in the central Arab town of Qalansawe and joined the IDF voluntarily in 2013, initially concealing her service from her family. She will be promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel upon starting her new role, making her the highest-ranking Muslim officer in the IDF.Report here & here

 

 

THE IDF CONTINUES TO OPERATE IN GAZA

 

 

An IDF reserve officer was seriously wounded Wednesday after coming under terrorist fire in the Israeli-held Daraj Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City. The IDF said, “Immediately after the shooting, tanks opened fire at the terrorists and airstrikes were launched in parallel. This was a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.” The commander of Islamic Jihad’s northern Gaza brigade was killed. Report here & here

 

 

The IDF  on Tuesday announced that it found a huge haul of around 110 mortar rounds, as well as some rockets and other military items, concealed within UNWRA  blankets and humanitarian aid in southern Gaza, one of the most extensive single finds of longer range weapons since the October ceasefire, during its standard patrols within Israeli-held territory east of the “yellow line”. Report here

 

Armed Hamas operatives are seen using ambulances to transport weapons in northern Gaza, in drone footage published by the IDF on Wednesday.  “Routine drone operations exposed how armed Hamas terrorists repeatedly and systematically use ambulances to transfer operatives and weapons from a hospital to a school.” Report here

 

The IDF has rejected ideas leaked by U.S. officials for disarming Hamas that focus on collecting Hamas’s “heavy” weapons, such as rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, for storage.
Placing these and any other Hamas weapons in storage would essentially allow them to keep their weapons but just change their address. Seizing lighter weapons such as  Hamas’s Kalashnikov rifles is crucial to limiting its lethal capacity. Many Oct. 7 victims were killed by these rifles. Report here

 

 

As Hamas continues to produce rockets and explosives, staff its command centres, rebuild damaged tunnels, and solidify its rule over two million people in Gaza, senior IDF officers warn that “We must immediately stop the 600 trucks we are sending in daily, three to four times what Gaza needs according to the UN.” Hamas is collecting millions of shekels in taxes from those supply trucks. Gaza is now “flooded with food, water, medicines and more.” Even the UN has complained it no longer has space to store supplies arriving from international aid organizations.Report here

 

 

Footnote: The IDF has said that 25,000 Hamas terrorists were killed during the Gaza War and presented evidence that from early 2024, when Hamas was firing large daily rocket salvos, 13% of their rockets were misfires, killing many Palestinians.
There were also periods when Hamas executed large numbers of Palestinians whom it viewed as political opponents, or civilians being prevented from fleeing an area.
The IDF also said UN aid officials in the field have admitted that their headquarters’ political bosses invented or exaggerated the food insecurity in Gaza in order to pressure Israel into ending the war earlier. Report here

RAFAH CROSSING

 

The Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt reopened on Sunday. Before Oct 7 the Crossing and the surrounding Philadelphi Corridor functioned as Hamas’s smuggling heartland with weapons flowing freely into Gaza. However now only people and not goods can pass through. All those entering Gaza will be required to undergo additional security screening conducted by Israel.
As a result of Israel’s insistence on both capturing the Philadelphi Corridor and the city of Rafah, and refusing under any circumstances to withdraw from them, the smuggling bonanza that once defined the area has come to an end. This marks a dramatic reversal of one of the most damaging consequences of the 2005 disengagement. Report here

THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (PA)

 

The US State Department formally determined in January that the PA paid more than $200 million to terrorists and their families in 2025, the same year PA President Abbas claimed that he ended the “pay-to-slay” programme. The State Department determined that the payments continued from March to August 2025 under a purportedly reformed welfare system. The PA continues to provide a system of compensation in support of terrorism through a new mechanism under a different name.” Report here

IRAN

 

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met Tuesday with PM Netanyahu and Israel’s top security officials, ahead of talks between Washington and Tehran scheduled to open Friday. Israeli officials presented the latest intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program and its ballistic missile project, as well as information on the massacre of Iranian civilians.
Netanyahu outlined Israel’s red lines for any acceptable agreement with Iran: zero uranium enrichment, the removal from Iranian territory of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, a halt to the ballistic missile program, and an end to Iranian support for its regional proxies. Officials say Iran has sent messages to mediators that any talks be limited exclusively to the nuclear issue. Report here

 

The Iranian regime emerged from June’s 12-day war with Israel with much of its arsenal of thousands of ballistic missiles intact, which gives it the ability to inflict real damage on the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East. Tehran has an estimated 2,000 midrange ballistic missiles that can reach Israel.Report here (paywall)

 

Recent multiple satellite photos have showed Iranian efforts to rebuild its nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan, and Parchin.Report here

 

A Dutch GAMAAN survey published in 2025 found that 2/3 of Iranians said the government should stop its “destroy Israel” rhetoric, and a similar majority viewed the recent 12-day conflict as between the Iranian regime and Israel, not between Israel and ordinary Iranians…When Iranians rose up, Israelis didn’t see enemies in the streets of Tehran. They saw courage. Report here

 

 

INDIA

 

Indian police have ordered two British tourists to leave the country immediately after they posted anti-Israel stickers around the city of Pushkar in Rajasthan. Report here& here (paywall)

 

MISLEADING MEDIA 

 

A Gaza doctor who slammed Israel in a pair of New York Times op-eds is a Hamas colonel and was photographed in a Hamas uniform at a gathering celebrating the completion of the Kamal Adwan Hospital. “Those who platformed Abu Safyia must do some serious soul-searching, and figure out how they ended up promoting the propaganda of a Hamas terrorist,” said NGO Monitor senior researcher Vincent Chebat said. The Times referred to him as a “paediatrician,” even though Palestinian media refer to him by his military rank. Report here

AVIATION

 

US aircraft maker Boeing has chosen Israel’s Technion to jointly develop sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a low-carbon jet fuel alternative, as the global aviation industry faces the challenge of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and meeting cost-effective future energy needs. Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan hailed the partnership as a “historic collaboration of national importance” for the Israeli economy, energy security, and civil aviation. Report here

 

BUSINESS

 

Apple on Thursday has acquired Q.ai, an Israeli startup working on artificial intelligence technology for audio, in a deal valued at about $1.6 bn. Report here

 

 In January 2026, 24 Israeli startups raised more than $1 billion, making it the strongest January for Israeli tech since 2022. Report here

 

ARCHAEOLOGY

 

The Pilgrimage Road to the Temple Mount, under excavation for some 20 years by archaeologists, is believed to have been built by either King Herod or Governor Pontius Pilate as the leading artery through which visitors ascended to the Temple from the south. Described as “one of the most magnificent archaeological discoveries in Jerusalem in the last decades,” the 2,000 year old street is now open to the public. Report here

 

 

FOOD TECH

 

 

 “New Milk”, the Remilk beverage contains proteins identical in structure to dairy proteins in cow-produced milk,  but is engineered via a yeast-based fermentation process. Since no cow or milk cells or particles were used, the product has received a parve kosher certification under the supervision of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. The product looks like milk, tastes like milk, and behaves like milk when frothed or used in cooking, unlike any previous plant-based milk alternative, opening up the potential for a revolution in the kosher culinary world.Report here

 

 

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA

 

 

Encyclopaedia Britannica has amended its Britannica Kids website following a complaint from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) about its erasure of Israel in maps and teaching content. In multiple examples in Britannica Kids entries, the term “Palestine” was used to describe the region across thousands of years, including in modern contexts in which the State of Israel exists. UKLFI also raised concerns about maps and descriptions that appeared to erase Israel’s existence and misrepresent Jewish historical and indigenous connections to the land. Report here

SPORT

 

Israel’s Guy Sasson, with his Dutch partner Niels Vink won the quad wheelchair doubles title at the 2026 Australian Open completing an extraordinary milestone: holding all four Grand Slam doubles titles at the same time, an achievement unprecedented in quad wheelchair tennis history. Their next goal is to win all four majors in a single calendar year, a “calendar Grand Slam” that no quad doubles team has ever accomplished. Report here

 

 

 Deni Avdija of the Portland Trail Blazers has become the first Israeli ever selected for the NBA All-Star Game. He has been averaging 25.5 points per game. Report here

 

An update on Israel’s Winter Olympians. Article here

 

COMMENT & OPINION

Iran

 

Ariel E. Levite: President Trump’s clear preference is not to attack Iran but to leverage the threat of an onslaught to advance a deal.
The U.S. is believed to be making three demands of the Iranians – ending their pursuit of nuclear weapons, limiting their ballistic missile programme, and getting them to stop aiding subversive elements in the Middle East…    Israel doesn’t have the power to prevent an agreement between the U.S. and Iran or burden a deal with excessive demands…
Still, diplomatic engagement presents problems. The most pressing is the tension between the Iranians’ playing for time in any talks and the Americans’ inability to sustain a large military deployment in the region indefinitely. The second is the de facto betrayal of the Iranian people, who have suffered under the ayatollahs’ cruel and corrupt rule. Renewed dialogue with the U.S. would accord Iran’s leaders a better chance of survival without moderating their hostility toward Israel.
The leaders in Tehran can bet that once the Americans lift the threat of an attack and withdraw their forces from the region, it won’t be easy to redeploy them. Article here (paywall)

 

Saudi Arabia

 

 

Bassam Tawil: Saudi Arabia’s renewed anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric shows that the kingdom is moving away from normalization with Israel in favour of an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar and Turkey.

Israeli journalist Amit Segal noted, “Normalization with Saudi Arabia is dead, at least for the foreseeable future. The strategic decision to pursue reconciliation with Israel has been replaced by a wild incitement campaign.”

“Over the past month, [Saudi-owned] Al Arabiya has been worse than Al Jazeera in the texts broadcast against any normalization with Israel…. Now, with the Saudis no longer celebrating the Abraham Accords, they are trying to undermine their foundations of support, from Morocco to the Emirates.” Article here

Maarten Boudry: A lack of intellectual diversity on European campuses has led to a climate where only one perspective on the conflict is permitted, marginalizing those who provide more nuanced or pro-Israel viewpoints. Academic figures who deviate from the dominant narrative labelling Israel’s actions as “genocide” have faced silencing or professional repercussions…

A philosophy professor describes the academic debate on the war in Gaza as effectively “impossible,” writing that “Critical voices are silenced through exclusion, dismissal, and sometimes even violence.” In today’s academic climate, speaking out in support of Israel is widely regarded as tantamount to “academic suicide.” Article here

 

Disinformation over Gaza Death Toll

 

Pro-Palestine journalists and activists still treat Hamas’s demonstrably false figures as uncontested facts.

 Maj. (ret.) Andrew Fox: Over a year ago, the Henry Jackson Society published my team’s analysis on the Gaza Health Ministry’s fatality lists. We discovered that Hamas’s lists were riddled with errors and non-combat deaths. Individuals’ ages and genders were frequently misreported (men were listed as women, adults as children) in ways that artificially inflated the count of female and child victims.
The lists included people who had died before the war – including those killed by Hamas’s own actions (such as by misfired militant rockets). Unsurprisingly, the published toll made no mention of any Hamas combatants whatsoever. We also observed that the Gazan death toll encompassed natural deaths, which would have occurred regardless of the war.
The mishandling of this issue has done a huge disservice to both truth and history. Article here

 

 

 Oct 7: Reflections on Co-existence

 

 

Dan Ezra: Former Israeli hostage Almog Meir Jan, who spent 246 days in Gaza, has said that his belief in coexistence has crumbled. He sees that hatred and the focus on the destruction of Israel are why Gaza is in ruins.
“The people there are driven by hatred, and someone driven by hatred can never reach anything good. You can’t befriend someone like that.”
“During my captivity, my greatest fear was that the people of Gaza would discover where I was, break into the house, and lynch me in the street….There are no innocents in Gaza.”Article here

 

Rachel Sapoznik: Vivian Silver, 74, was a lifelong peace activist who built her entire identity around Jewish-Arab coexistence.
She lived on Kibbutz Be’eri, and was a founding leader of “Women Wage Peace” that advocates dialogue, reconciliation, and a two-state future.
She also volunteered with the group “The Road to Recovery,” personally driving Palestinians from Gaza to Israeli hospitals for lifesaving care.
On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists and ordinary Gazans set her home on fire and she was murdered.  Silver dedicated her life to Palestinian welfare. She believed in coexistence until her final moments. It did not save her.
A viable solution requires moral reciprocity, the basic recognition that those who extend their hand in peace should not be murdered in return.
Gazan society did not mourn people like Silver. In fact, her murder was celebrated there. Article here