The Day Hamas Offered to Step Aside

The day's dominant story was Hamas's readiness to hand over Gaza administration to a national committee, reported by multiple sources in the afternoon. This came as UN envoy Mladenov demanded Hamas disarm, not dissolve politically. Earlier, editors focused on the storming of Joseph's Tomb by thousands of settlers led by Minister Smotrich, which resulted in the killing of a Palestinian teenager in a related settler attack on Salfit villages. In the morning, the detention of a senior UN official at Ben Gurion Airport by Israeli security was highlighted. Hezbollah operations continued with drone swarms overwhelming Israeli positions, while Israeli strikes killed eight in Lebanon. By evening, an Israeli minister stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, seen as an escalation of Judaization policy.