Here are Monday’s key updates on Israel, Gaza and the West Bank:
■ U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his residence in Jerusalem.
■ Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will visit the White House for the first time for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. Syria is set to join a U.S.-led coalition to fight the Islamic State, which could be formally announced at the meeting.
■ The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee advanced a bill that would allow the police to open investigations into suspicion of terror incitement without State Prosecutor’s Office approval. A senior law enforcement official told Haaretz that “the bill endangers freedom of expression.”
■ Rabbi Dov Lando, spiritual leader of Degel Hatorah, the ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi political party, instructed the faction’s MKs to vote against the ‘Death Penalty For Terrorists‘ bill, which will go through a first reading and vote in the Knesset plenum today.
■ The IDF announced that a military exercise commenced early Monday morning and will continue for three days throughout the West Bank, noting increased movement of security forces and aircraft.
■ The IDF announced that it had intercepted a drone smuggling weapons into Israel across the Egyptian border.
■ The IDF says it killed “two terrorists” who approached Israeli troops, crossing the so-called yellow line into Israeli-controlled territory of southern Gaza Strip.
■ Gaza health officials said they received the bodies of 15 Palestinians from Israel, raising the total number of bodies received so far to 315.
■ The Lebanese News Agency reported that one person was killed by an Israeli drone strike in the town of Al-Baisariyah, southern Lebanon, and a drone strike in Tyre hit an open area, causing no casualties.
■ Turkey is working to ensure the safe passage of some 200 Gazan militants currently trapped in the tunnels in Gaza, after having facilitated the return of Lt. Hadar Goldin’s remains, eleven years after he was killed in combat, a senior Turkish official said late on Sunday.
