Welcome to +972’s Sunday Recap! 

In recent months, Israeli forces and settlers have intensified efforts to expel roughly 2,500 Palestinians living in a cluster of villages in the southern West Bank region of Masafer Yatta. Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra revealed that a new Israeli military order issued last week removes the last legal barriers to the wholesale demolition and displacement of 12 of Masafer Yatta’s 20 villages (co-published with Local Call).

Ahmed Ahmed wrote about the young Palestinian volunteers working against all odds to reclaim joy for Gaza’s children. Through skateboarding, circus, and art therapy, these volunteers have tried to shield Palestinian children from the trauma of living through genocide, and restore brief moments of normalcy.

During the 12 days of open war between Israel and Iran, Oren Ziv documented the daily scenes of Iranian missile strikes in Israel, sometimes arriving just minutes after impact. Reflecting on the deadly scenes (originally published on Local Call), he argued that the missiles caused many Israelis to feel existential fear for the first time — and even if the ceasefire holds, their shattered sense of immunity will linger.

The Iran-Israel crisis has presented deep risks for Arab Gulf states, but also critical opportunities to try to increase their leverage with Washington. Nowhere is this desire more evident than in the UAE, Mira Al Hussein argued, which seeks to present itself to the West as a stable alternative to an increasingly rogue Israel, where defense cooperation and capital can flourish.

And for Meron Rapoport, Israel’s euphoric ‘victory’ over Iran is giving way to disillusionment, as it quickly became apparent that Tehran’s nuclear capabilities have not been significantly degraded (originally published on Local Call). And not only did Israel fail to achieve its military goals, but Gaza is once again impossible to ignore — which could hamper Netanyahu’s attempt to stage a political comeback.

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