SAINT PAUL, MN — With tensions between ICE agents and leftist protesters in Minneapolis running high, Governor Tim Walz said he was willing to do anything to keep Minnesota residents safe except cooperate with federal law enforcement.
Walz, the failed vice presidential candidate who will not be seeking re-election as governor, said he would exhaust every potential solution to stop the bloodshed except for working with ICE to enforce immigration laws in Minnesota.
“I’m open to any solution but that one,” Walz told reporters. “I am here to serve and protect the residents of the great state of Minnesota and look out for their best interests. That requires me to do absolutely everything in my power to keep them safe, up to — but no including — cooperating with federal law enforcement. That’s a bridge too far, I’m afraid.”
Clashes between protesters and ICE agents have led to multiple controversial deaths, as leftists expressed outrage that law enforcement officers were daring to enforce laws. Walz stressed the need for de-escalation, despite his unwillingness to uphold the actual law.
“Minnesota is a state that’s all about love,” he explained when asked if he would order state and local police departments to cooperate with ICE. “And I would do anything for love. Yes, I would do anything for love. I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that. No. No, I won’t do that.”
At publishing time, Walz’s office said that the governor had decided to perform a special, heartfelt, flamboyant ribbon dance in an effort to bring peace to the state.
Senate Democrats recently signaled that they would be willing to shut down much of the government—again—rather than vote for a package that includes funds for immigration enforcement.
This seems a bit tone deaf, as securing the border and immigration enforcement were two of the main reasons President Trump was elected.
Several things are at play here.
Democrats are so scared of losing the new and burgeoning voting bloc they illegally imported into the U.S. that they will do anything to protect it, American citizens be damned. If a few thousand Americans have to be robbed, raped, or killed—and tens of thousands annually lose their lives to fentanyl and other drugs, well, that’s the way it has to be.
So, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (Asshat-N.Y.) said Democrats wouldn’t vote to advance the broader package if the current measure funding the Department of Homeland Security is included.
Translation: “If we don’t get what we want, we’ll take the ball and go home. We’ll shut the effing government down if you don’t give us what we want, even if we aren’t in power. Which means that we are always in power, which is how it should be, Allahu Akhbar! Ha, ha, ha, ha!”
Another shutdown to protect their fraud money and perpetual voter base? Funny, they didn’t use to like shutdowns of the vital, life-giving government. In fact, they continually blamed every shutdown on Republicans and made it seem as if thousands would die because of their insensitivity and heartlessness.
And now they pretend to be outraged at the deaths of the two protesters/terrorists shot by ICE, when, in reality, they are driven to peak arousal over each new death of the useful idiots they’ve essentially instructed to assault federal law enforcement. Why? Because each new death takes the focus off their corruption and is an opportunity to let the catastrophically compromised mainstream media convince people that they are somehow on “the right side of history.”
If Democrats should eventually succeed in shutting the government down to aid and abet alien criminals, Republicans must go to DEFCON 1, immediately nuke the filibuster, and do anything and everything else possible to stop this swelling Marxist insurrection.
Democrats in Minneapolis and their paid minions have turned what normally is the routine apprehension and deportation of violent illegal alien criminals into a civil war-level event. Playing with fire doesn’t begin to describe this. In days of yore, the likes of Walz and Frey could literally be “hung from the highest yardarm” for such treasonous actions.
Before rare earths and tariffs, Denmark quietly offered Greenland to America. What happened next still echoes in 2026.
The renewed push by the United States to assert control over Greenland has placed the Arctic territory at the center of an intensifying geopolitical contest. In early 2026, trade threats, mineral competition, and strategic calculations have replaced diplomacy as the primary levers of U.S. pressure.
President Donald Trump has reintroduced the idea of acquiring Greenland, framing it as a national security imperative. The proposal has already drawn condemnation from Copenhagen and Nuuk, but the administration has signaled it may escalate further, including the use of economic retaliation against NATO allies.
Amid this unfolding standoff, a largely forgotten episode from the early 20th century has returned to relevance. More than a century ago, Denmark quietly offered Greenland to the United States as part of a broader territorial exchange. The proposal was rejected, but it marked the first formal instance of Denmark seeking to divest the island.
A 1910 Proposal Buried by Diplomacy
In 1910, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark suggested a tripartite trade that involved Greenland, islands in the Philippines, and the German region of Schleswig-Holstein. Under the plan, the United States would cede certain Philippine territories to Denmark. Denmark would then pass those islands to Germany, which in turn would restore the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein to Danish control.
The proposal was swiftly dismissed by U.S. officials. Historical analysis published in Fortune confirms that the U.S. government found the diplomatic maneuver too ambitious. No public negotiations followed, and the idea was shelved. It would take another 36 years before America formally offered to purchase Greenland.
That came in 1946, when the Truman administration extended an offer of $100 million for the island. As detailed in this Arctic Institute analysis, Greenland’s strategic value had risen sharply with the onset of the Cold War. The deal failed, but the United States retained military access to the island through the 1951 U.S.-Denmark defense agreement.
Rare Earth Minerals and Strategic Location Drive Modern Interest
Today, Greenland’s value is viewed primarily through the lens of rare earth resources, Arctic military logistics, and supply chain security. Greenland holds deposits of neodymium, dysprosium, terbium, and lithium, critical for both green energy technology and military-grade electronics. A 2026 report in Fortune notes that 25 out of 30 raw materials listed as essential by the EU are found in Greenland.
Tariffs and Threats Escalate Diplomatic Tensions
On January 17, 2026, President Trump announced tariffs targeting Denmark’s exports to the U.S., starting at 10 percent in February and rising to 25 percent by June unless the Danish government agrees to discuss a transfer of sovereignty over Greenland. The announcement, made via Truth Social, extended similar penalties to several European NATO allies including Germany, France, and Sweden, which had expressed support for Denmark’s position.
No formal negotiations are underway. Both the Danish government and Greenland’s leadership have reaffirmed that the island is not available for sale. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reiterated the position on January 7, saying, “Greenland is not for sale”, and urging that all engagement respect Greenlandic self-rule and NATO coordination.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede has supported continued U.S. cooperation on economic and defense matters, stopping short of endorsing sovereignty talks. In a press conference covered by the New York Times, Egede stated, “We are going to work with the U.S. – yesterday, today and tomorrow,” underscoring Greenland’s desire for balanced diplomacy without conceding control.
Market Risks and Legal Precedents Raise Broader Concerns
The use of economic pressure to force territorial change has raised red flags among trade experts and global governance observers. A policy analysis by The Daily Economy criticized the administration’s logic, arguing that sovereign territory cannot be priced like a commercial asset. If Greenland’s mineral reserves are truly worth trillions, any sale at a fraction of that amount would lack rational basis under standard net present value models.
The article also cautioned that normalizing territorial claims through economic pressure could destabilize global investment environments, inflate sovereign risk premiums, and invite retaliatory measures from the European Union. Analysts warn that trade-based coercion, if left unchecked, might reshape how smaller states calculate defense and diplomatic alignments.
In parallel, historical context offered by LSE USAPP connects today’s ambitions to 19th-century U.S. expansionism, including Seward’s drive to annex Arctic and North Atlantic territories. While the geopolitical context has changed, the territorial logic persists.
Evelyn holds a Master’s degree in Earth Sciences, with a focus on oceanography, climatology, and palaeontology. Her research has explored terrestrial and marine ecosystem responses to past global warming events. With over 10 years of experience, she has worked as a freelance editor and content creator. She writes for Indian Defence Review, covering topics related to climate, planetary science, and the long-term interplay between Earth’s history and contemporary environmental challenges. evelynhart@indiandefencereview.com
The United States is facing an existential threat. My guess is this summer will be the most violent, damaging domestic summer since the Civil War. And I predict the left will win and come out victorious on the other side. They will, after winning this new civil war, seek to eliminate the last vestiges of republicans.
I use a small r because while some Republicans are true republicans, most are not. And when the left wins the war, those RINOs are going to “work with” Democrats to create the illusion that America is still a republic, but it won’t be. They will use every tool available to silence dissent, take control over virtually every sector of American life, and they will implement rules so that America becomes a one-party nation.
Now I say all of this with the great hope that I am wrong, but I don’t think I will be.
The cowardly Republicans are going to cave in every conceivable manner in order to try to forestall a civil war. At every level, they are going to give in to the left, they are going to “compromise” their principles, and they are going to betray their voters and our Founding Fathers.
And I mean that at every level in every branch. There is simply no universe where Republicans have the intestinal fortitude to do what’s right in the face of withering attacks from the left.
There is literally no better example of this than election integrity. Nothing animates GOP voters like election integrity. Not abortion. Not welfare fraud. Not guns. (A majority of Democrats support it as well!) Literally nothing gets rank-and-file Republicans more animated in 2026 than elections, but still, the Republicans do nothing about it.
But the catalyst for the Summer of Love circa 2026 (which is already starting) won’t be election integrity per se, but rather immigration. The challenge is that the Democrats have spread 50 million illegal aliens across the entire country. From Maine to California and everywhere in between. This will not be like the Civil War, where the two sides were mostly geographically separated. No, this is going to be like a dozen people thrown into cage matches all around the country.
And why is this going to be the Big One? Because as we’re seeing in Minneapolis, the left has perfected the business model of professional protest movementeers. They’ve been training for more than 25 years. We saw it in the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999, the IMF protests in DC in 2000, Occupy Wall Street in 2011, and the 2020 version of the Summer of Love.
They’ve literally been perfecting it for the last quarter century, and now they are preparing to strike. They are well funded, have a millions-strong army who have been exhorted to hate and violence by a treasonous media, are highly organized, proactive, and most of all, local governments around the country, even some in red states, are on their side.
The result will be a spreading of what we’re seeing in Minnesota as the temperatures rise, and it will be a perfect storm of success for them, regardless of how it turns out. On the one hand, there are countless “observers” who are willing to risk their lives to go out and attack ICE agents because they know that, if they die, they’ll be lionized as freedom fighters who laid down their lives in the defense of innocent children, regardless of the actual facts, and the propaganda value will be immeasurable to their cause.
What’s more, on the off chance that any of the protesters actually get arrested, the local DAs will release them without bail or charges, or federal judges will refuse to sign off on the arrest warrants. None of this, of course, is speculation. It’s all real and happening right now.
Whatever the outcome, the left wins. If their troops are killed while fighting ICE, we’re told that the fascist Trump is guilty of the murder of innocents. If Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, he’s a dictator. If a governor calls out the National Guard, it’s a police state. Whichever way it works, the media will spin it as David versus Goliath with the law-abiding citizens and ICE characterized as the Philistines.
Minnesota is only the beginning. It’s likely the left will pursue a multi-month strategy in which they hit multiple cities simultaneously and others in isolation to distract and fragment the administration’s attention.
But the Summer of Love is just one element of the treachery that is going to go on. To appease these leftists, the Republicans are going to bend themselves into pretzels trying to prove that they are not what they are being accused of.
The reality is, Republicans, and sadly, that includes Donald Trump, are not serious about fixing America, pulling us back from the leftist precipice we have been teetering on for twenty years. If Trump were serious,
He would put Greenland, Europe, Venezuela, Gaza, and Iran on the back burner—that doesn’t mean ignore them—and invoke the Insurrection Act.
He would clear out and charge the protesters in Minnesota and would nationalize the National Guard in any circumstances where ICE agents are being targeted with harassment and violence.
He would immediately begin RICO investigations of the NGOs that are funding these protests.
He would also investigate left-wing judges who are sometimes operating hand in hand with said NGOs.
He would ramp up deportations and allow those deported to appeal from their home countries, while freezing all funds going to states that provide benefits to illegal aliens, as well as all states and locales that act as sanctuary cities.
And finally, he would use every power at his disposal to convince GOP legislators to make the cuts to the budget necessary to choke off the funds going to those behind all of this.
The moment he does the above, he will be labeled a Nazi, a fascist, a tyrant, and more. But the reality is, he’s already being called that, so it doesn’t really matter.
Republicans have been living in a fantasy land where Democrats are honorable people. They’re not. Democrats are in a knife fight, and they know it. They’ve taken to heart Sean Connery’s lines from The Untouchables: “He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!” The only difference is that Elliott Ness was on the side of the good guys; Democrats are not.
Democrats are prepared and are willing to burn down the country to maintain their power. The Republicans need to understand that and decide to stop them, using every tool available. But sadly, Republicans are too worried about being called bad names or having their sensibilities bruised to suit up and man the barricades against the wretched hordes that are the Democrats.
We are at war. The Democrats showed us their playbook in 2020, and they’re rolling it out now. I’d like to think the GOP has the stones to fight that war before it becomes an all-out, hot civil war, but I’ve not seen any proof that such intestinal fortitude exists. I hope I’m wrong.
It is fair to say that until Kamala Harris chose her running mate in 2024, the vast majority of Americans had never heard of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Known during the campaign for little more than his weak-kneed response to the George Floyd riots of 2020 and for exaggerations about his National Guard service and military rank, he was an ever-grinning, ever-clapping cheerleader for Kamala’s word salads.
However, in light of Minnesota’s “industrial-scale” social services fraud, likely involving billions in tax dollars funneled away from those most in need to those lining their pockets for vacations, jewelry, property, and luxury vehicles, Walz is fast becoming known for something else — as a shockingly incompetent governor asleep at the wheel since his election in 2018.
That massive amounts of money earmarked for programs supporting children and the poor were criminally stolen, with little or no adequate supervision by the Walz administration, is beyond doubt. As a result, legitimate initiatives, including Medicaid, housing assistance, autism services, and childcare assistance programs were denied the funds to which they were entitled.
However, also troubling are assertions that Minnesota welfare fraud money was siphoned to terrorist groups, including ISIS, in Somalia and elsewhere.
In fact, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has stated that because allegations suggest that “fraudulently obtained funds… were sent overseas to support terrorist organizations,” such a claim is serious enough to justify congressional investigation.
But because Minnesota’s boondoggle bonanza was hatched in a blue state, overseen by a passively inept, asleep-at-the-wheel progressive governor, and involved a large Somali population, the somnambulating legacy media has often downplayed or even ignored the scandal.
In fact, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has stated that because allegations suggest that “fraudulently obtained funds… were sent overseas to support terrorist organizations,” such a claim is serious enough to justify congressional investigation.
But because Minnesota’s boondoggle bonanza was hatched in a blue state, overseen by a passively inept, asleep-at-the-wheel progressive governor, and involved a large Somali population, the somnambulating legacy media has often downplayed or even ignored the scandal.
That has been so, even though much of the funding came from initiatives created to support the neediest in that community, often children, and from similar programs for other immigrant communities as well.
But even more concerning, the Minnesota social safety net swindle described by former governor Tim Pawlenty as likely revealing the “largest amount of public fraud in the history of our country” is anything but a recent phenomenon.
With documented cases of social service scams dating back to 2015 and with warnings even earlier, federal prosecutors have described Minnesota’s fraud problem as “not small,” “not isolated,” and “staggering.” And supporting those characterizations, the Minnesota Star Tribune disclosed that Minnesota has been dealing with a fraud crisis in its Medicaid and related social service programs “for more than a decade.”
Yet even so, some politically motivated media outlets have ignored the scope of the crisis. Accordingly, since mid-December, when federal prosecutors revealed that fraud in Minnesota welfare programs could exceed $9 billion, CNN and MSNBC have failed their viewers by giving the story scant attention. And even more shockingly, there was not a single mention of the scandal on either network or on their websites through at least Christmas.
During that period, the only indirect mention of wrongdoing was on MSNBC, when on Dec. 18, their moderator played the race card by stating that President Donald Trump “unleashed” an “attack” on Somalis over fraud claims. And Walz woke up long enough to join in attacking Trump for “demonizing an entire population.”
So, overlooking allegations of widespread welfare fraud prompting enormous expense to American taxpayers, the president’s critics branded him racist for justifiably linking some Somalis to the scandal. That predictable smear occurred even though, as of Jan. 1, that group accounted for nearly 90 percent of scandal-related welfare fraud arrests in Minnesota.
Overall, U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson has claimed that grifters may have stolen “half or more” of the $18 billion in federal funds provided to Minnesota social services since 2018. Yet seemingly unconcerned whether the public’s money has been used for its original intent or even legally, Walz claimed that federal prosecutors were only “speculating” about the scope of the fraud for “sensationalism.”
But in the end, Walz has been right about a few things. That is, during the 2024 vice presidential debate, he was pressed on his lies about being in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. In damage control, he acknowledged that he “misspoke” and that he sometimes gets “caught up in the rhetoric.”
But Walz, predictably not seeking another failed term as governor, also admitted to being a “knucklehead at times.” So, given his asleep-at-the-wheel response to Minnesota’s ongoing welfare scandal, and his inflammatory comments regarding the current ICE protests, the thousands of constituents signing his resignation petition would surely judge that admission as his most honest claim of all.
Every Jewish child, even if he knows nothing else, knows one question: מַה נִּשְׁתַּנָּה, הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה מִכָּל הַלֵּילוֹת. That question comes from the Passover service, when a child asks those at the table, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The answer, of course, is that Passover is the night on which we commemorate how God liberated the Jews from Egyptian slavery, a moment that led to the seminal Ten Commandments and the Jews’ return to their land.
It is, in other words, an important question: Why is this one thing different from all other things? (For the non-Jewish among us, you can go to Sesame Street for a similar question.)
That same question applies with equal, although entirely non-religious weight, to events in Minneapolis: Why is this city different from all other cities?
Why, in almost all cities across America, are ICE operations conducted peacefully?
Why, in almost all cities across America, are there no reports of ICE agents injuring or killing people?
Why, in almost all cities across America, are there no reports of ICE agents being rammed by cars, beaten, doused with freezing water, verbally harassed, or having their fingers bitten off?
When framed that way, it’s easy to see that the unique factor isn’t ICE, which operates smoothly and peacefully just about everywhere. Instead, the problem is a handful of radicalized Democrat-run cities (e.g., Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland). They are the common denominator, not for ICE operations, but for violence.
Please note that I cannot confirm Bass’s numbers. However, we know that ICE has removed over 622,000 illegal aliens from across America, yet the only reports of violence against ICE or by ICE come from a few specific locations. The common denominator in violence isn’t ICE; it’s those cities.
If you understand that the problem isn’t ICE but is, instead, Minneapolis and the Democrat party, you can begin to appreciate how false everything else the Democrats say really is. For example, the newest line from Illinois Gov. “Fat Tony” Pritzker is that “we ought to abolish Trump’s ICE and replace it with something else.” ICE, he adds, “needs to be revamped.”
Replaced with what? Revamped with what?
ICE exists to carry out very explicit congressional mandates: Remove and repatriate those people who have no right to be in America. Those people have been identified either as straight-out illegal without a defense or, if they claimed asylum or the benefit of some other process, as having had their claim rejected by an administrative judge. That’s it, that’s their due process. Now, they get evicted, just as any squatter would.
The only way to “replace” or “revamp” ICE is to abandon the law, since ICE’s raison d’etre is to enforce the law—and, again, it does so with stunning success and no violence in all places but for hard-left enclaves. The problem is the enclaves, not ICE.
I’ve said before, and I’ll say again, that Donald Trump needs to bring the hammer down on Minneapolis, just as Eisenhower did on Little Rock, Kennedy did on Mississippi and Alabama, and Johnson did on Selma and Los Angeles. Alternatively, he needs to cordon Minneapolis (and maybe Portland) off from the rest of America (no one goes in and no one comes out), remove all federal forces and funds, install pay-per-view cameras, and help bring down the federal debt by charging people to watch as the city implodes.
Secretary of Housing Scott Turner CONFIRMS Democrats were using American taxpayer dollars to pay for homes for illegals – $5 billion dollars in “overpayment errors” – Taxpayers are paying for housing for 30,000 dead people -Government-backed home loans given to non-citizens “We eliminated non-permanent residents’ eligibility for FHA insured mortgages. And we are auditing public housing authorities to ensure taxpayer dollars don’t support illegal aliens. American dollars should benefit American citizens and American citizens only.” Our Office of the Chief Financial Officer uncovered more than $5 billion in potential payment errors, over 50 billion in total rental assistance for the fiscal year 2024. And that includes money that went to nearly 30,000 dead people. That is ludicrous. It’s ridiculous to even think or talk in such a way. It’s a violation of our sacred trust to American taxpayers, and it has to end, and it will.”
In a shocking video from the ongoing riots in Minneapolis, protesters are seen violently attacking and tackling a federal officer.
The escalating violence follows a fatal shooting on Saturday, where federal agents shot and killed an armed man, 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, as he agitated and intervened during an immigration enforcement action.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in the hours after the shooting, and continued into the night and the following day.
Video footage from the scene on Sunday shows masked protesters pummelling and kicking the officers.
The primary attacker appears to have been quickly apprehended by other officers.
Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, have encouraged protesters to continue fighting ICE amid escalating tensions.
DHS has repeatedly warned about a surge in violence against its officers, attributing it to “radical rhetoric” from sanctuary politicians.
In a statement earlier this month, DHS reported an unprecedented 1,300% increase in assaults on ICE officers and a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks compared to previous years.
“The hateful rhetoric and resistance against men and women who are simply trying to do their jobs must end. Federal law enforcement officers are facing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest criminals and lawbreakers,” the department said in a statement.
On Saturday, one of the violent rioters bit the finger off of a federal official.
The Gateway Pundit will continue to provide updates on developments in Minneapolis as the situation unfolds.
The Pentagon on Friday night released a long-awaited strategy that prioritizes the U.S. homeland and Western Hemisphere — a stunning reversal from previous administrations that aligns with President Donald Trump’s military strikes in Venezuela and efforts to acquire Greenland.
The National Defense Strategy — a dramatic shift from even the first Trump administration — no longer focuses primarily on countering China. Instead, it blames past administrations for ignoring American interests and jeopardizing the U.S. military’s access to the Panama Canal and Greenland.
The strategy calls for attention to the “practical interests” of the U.S. public and an abandonment of “grandiose strategies.”
The Pentagon’s plan, in contrast to the National Security Strategy released last month, does not focus heavily on Europe or call the the continent a place in “civilizational decline.” But it does emphasize what the administration perceives as its declining importance.
“Although Europe remains important, it has a smaller and decreasing share of global economic power,” according to the strategy. “Although we are and will remain engaged in Europe, we must — and will — prioritize defending the U.S. Homeland and deterring China.”
The document, which usually follows the National Security Strategy, came out after months of delay. POLITICO reported in September that a draft had reached Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s desk. But it stayed there for months as administration officials fought over how to describe the threat to the U.S. posed by China amid trade talks with the country.
The strategy also says the U.S. should “no longer cede access or influence over key terrain in the Western Hemisphere,” including the Gulf of Mexico. But it offers few details on how the Pentagon will accomplish that goal.
The first Trump administration prioritized China in its 2018 defense strategy as the biggest threat to U.S. security. That sentiment was further echoed in the Biden administration’s 2022 strategy.
But the 2026 strategy instead highlights a continued U.S. focus on diplomacy with China — an echo of its recent annual report on Beijing’s military buildup — while “erecting a strong denial defense” in the Pacific to deter a potential war. It does not lay out what U.S. assets the Pentagon might send to the region.
The document mentions threats to the U.S. from Russia, Iran and North Korea, but they are not as prominent.
The head of a transitional Palestinian committee backed by the US to temporarily administer Gaza, Ali Shaath, said on Thursday that the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt — effectively the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there — would open next week.
The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli military control since 2024.
Israel has resisted further easing the situation in the Strip before Gvili has been returned. Gvili’s family on Saturday expressed concern that pressure was being directed at Israel to move forward with the ceasefire plan, rather than on Hamas to return the hostage’s body.
“President [Donald] Trump himself said this week in Davos that Hamas knows where our son is. We wonder why the pressure is being directed at the wrong place. The pressure should not be on the Israeli government to continue to fulfill its part of the agreement while Hamas is deceiving the entire world and refusing to return the last kidnapped person, in accordance with the agreement it signed,” the family said in a statement.
The Gvili family called on Netanyahu to tell the US envoys that efforts should be made to return their son if they want to move forward with regional peace and the reconstruction of Gaza.
The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Netanyahu had met with Witkoff and Kushner, saying, without further elaborating, that they discussed the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, but an Israeli official speaking to Hebrew media voiced sharp criticism of the two top Trump aides following the meeting.
According to the Ynet news site, there has been anger in Jerusalem as Witkoff pressures Israel to open the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt this week, even if Hamas fails to return Gvili’s remains.
“We hope Ran Gvili is returned this week and we can go forward,” the unnamed Israeli official was quoted as saying by the outlet, going on to attack the White House envoy.
“Witkoff pushed for placing our big rival Turkey on the border. The clock is ticking backwards to a confrontation with Turkey, which will be a tangible danger to our security,” the official added, according to Ynet.
“Witkoff has become a lobbyist for Qatari interests,” the official charged.
head of a transitional Palestinian committee backed by the US to temporarily administer Gaza, Ali Shaath, said on Thursday that the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt — effectively the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there — would open next week.
The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli military control since 2024.
Israel has resisted further easing the situation in the Strip before Gvili has been returned. Gvili’s family on Saturday expressed concern that pressure was being directed at Israel to move forward with the ceasefire plan, rather than on Hamas to return the hostage’s body.
“President [Donald] Trump himself said this week in Davos that Hamas knows where our son is. We wonder why the pressure is being directed at the wrong place. The pressure should not be on the Israeli government to continue to fulfill its part of the agreement while Hamas is deceiving the entire world and refusing to return the last kidnapped person, in accordance with the agreement it signed,” the family said in a statement.
The Gvili family called on Netanyahu to tell the US envoys that efforts should be made to return their son if they want to move forward with regional peace and the reconstruction of Gaza.
The head of a transitional Palestinian committee backed by the US to temporarily administer Gaza, Ali Shaath, said on Thursday that the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt — effectively the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there — would open next week.
The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli military control since 2024.
Israel has resisted further easing the situation in the Strip before Gvili has been returned. Gvili’s family on Saturday expressed concern that pressure was being directed at Israel to move forward with the ceasefire plan, rather than on Hamas to return the hostage’s body.
Kan news reported that Israel will operate a remote surveillance system at the crossing, be in charge of granting advanced approval to travelers coming in and out of the Gaza Strip, and be able to scan any computers or other electronic devices passing through.
While the Israel Defense Forces will not be physically present at the crossing, Israeli troops will be deployed nearby and operate their own checkpoint aimed at preventing weapons smuggling.
The crossing itself will be operated by officers from the European Union Border Assistance Mission, founded in 2005 to monitor the crossing, along with non-uniformed members of the Palestinian Authority’s intelligence service, Kan said. The same framework was used during the previous Israel-Hamas ceasefire in January 2025. Israel shuttered the crossing around two months later, and it has remained closed since.
The death toll in Gaza since October 7, 2023, now stands at 71,654, and the death toll since the October ceasefire at 481, according to data from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry on Saturday. The tolls cannot be independently verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The war broke out when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251.
Earlier this month, Washington announced that the plan had now moved into the second phase, under which Israel is expected to withdraw troops from more territory in Gaza, and Hamas is due to disarm and yield control of the territory’s administration.
THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE 