Israel At War Friday May 3

Israel at war day 210

- Report: The US is exerting heavy pressure both to prevent action in Rafah and to promote a deal. The intense American pressure is also reflected in the urgent dispatch of the head of the CIA to Cairo, also US threatens to harm the supply of weapons to Israel if it operates in Rafah, and in repeated public statements against action in Rafah.

- Hamas says it’s going to Cairo with ‘positive spirit’ to reach agreement

- Remains of Elyakim Libman, presumed a hostage since Oct. 7, found in Israel

Libman, a security guard at music festival, was erroneously buried with someone else as a result of difficulties identifying mangled bodies; discovery lowers hostage figure to 132

 - WSJ: Israel has given Hamas a week to agree to a cease-fire deal or it will begin a military operation in Rafah, Egyptian officials said.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-gives-hamas-a-week-to-strike-a-deal-or-rafah-offensive-will-begin-2ffe70bd?mod=mhp

- 10 rockets shot towards Miton some landed on Mt. Miron

- A "suspicious aerial target" that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon was shot down by air defenses, the IDF says.

- US Senators met on zoom with the ICC team in the Hagu to try to prevent arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

- Hamas chief terrorist Yihya Sinwar and his family may be surrounded by 20 hostages, former US Army official tells Sky News.

- Group of 400 Jewish Americans have arrived at UCLA to help clean up the campus after anti-Israel activists covered the entire campus in trash.

- Trump: Soros is behind college campus protests “You have a lot of paid agitators, professional agitators…you know when you see signs and they are all identical that means they are being paid by Soros.”

- Kibbutz Be'eri has announced that Dror Or, who was believed to be among the Israelis taken hostage by Hamas, was killed on October 7.  Or's body is still being held by Hamas. 

Yonat, Dror's wife, was also murdered at the home on the kibbutz and their two children, 17-year-old Noam and 13-year-old Alma, were kidnapped but released in November.

- Top ministers huddle as Israel expects Hamas to decline latest hostage deal offer

War cabinet discusses possibility of launching Rafah incursion, as reports say Sinwar will reject deals that don’t explicitly end the war; US says Hamas remains obstacle to truce

- U.S. Officials are reporting that the Army’s Joint Logistics Over-The-Shore Floating Dock off the Coast of the Gaza Strip is nearing Completion and will likely begin receiving Humanitarian Aid from Cyprus by this Weekend.

-Turkey stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel as of Thursday, the Turkish trade ministry said, citing "worsening humanitarian tragedy" in the Palestinian territories.

- Only two out of eight SM-3 missiles launched by the US military during Iran’s large-scale missile and drone attack on Israel on April 13 successfully intercepted their targets, amounting to a 75% failure rate.