Last week, Palestinian officials took wide-ranging steps, declaring a month-long state of emergency, including closing schools and religious sites, and banning tourists. In the city of Bethlehem, the epicenter of the outbreak in the West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli officials began a lockdown on March 5, preventing entry and exit.

Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV published details on Monday from a reportedly leaked draft of the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan, or “deal of the century,” marking a second time this year unconfirmed documents have revealed plans to establish a demilitarized state of “New Palestine” alongside Israel.

Israelis went back to the polls for a second time in six months in a combative snap election between incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is seeking his fifth term in office and already serving a record 13 years, and former general Benny Gantz. The first exit polls show there is no clear winner in sight.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave details behind the decision to ban Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from entering Israel and the West Bank on a Congressional delegation this afternoon in a statement that alleged terrorism ties on the part of the trip’s coordinator and said “the sole purpose of their visit is to harm Israel and increase incitement.”

Hours after Israeli media reported Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib would not be allowed to enter the West Bank for a planned Congressional delegation, President Donald Trump tweeted Israel should deny the two entry, claiming “they hate Israel” and “all Jewish people.”

Filmmaker Jen Marlowe has directed a five part mini-series looking at the 2014 Gaza war from the vantage point of five years later. 

Mondoweiss reports on the important, under-reported aspects of Palestinian life that the mainstream media won’t touch.  We have just hours to meet our fundraising challenge, and need your support to keep bringing you these kinds of stories — can you make a contribution today?

Benjamin Netanyahu became the object of ridicule today as he fought for his political life. Ayman Odeh mocked the prime minister on the Knesset floor claiming that Netanyahu offered him an end to the occupation and to acknowledge the Nakba in exchange for Odeh supporting his immunity from prosecution over on-going criminal probes. 

A leaked document of “main points” from the Trump administration’s so-called “deal of the century” was published today by Yisrael Hayom, outlining a plan for a two-state solution that includes the creation of a demilitarized state of “New Palestine,” Israeli annexation of all settlements in the West Bank, a land deal with Egypt, and shared capitals in Jerusalem.If either Israel or the Palestinians, including Hamas and the PLO, reject the deal, the document says the U.S. will impose steep penalties. The U.S. will cut off all aid to Israel and ensure “no country in the world transfers money” to the Palestinians, whose economy is reliant on foreign donors.If the PLO accepts the plan and Hamas or Islamic Jihad in Gaza reject it, the document warns “the U.S. will back Israel to personally harm leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad” in a future escalation, and will hold Hamas’ leadership “responsible in another round of violence between Israel and Hamas.”

Senior advisor to the President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, Katrina Pierson posted a video of rockets fired into a dimply lit sky to social media on Sunday in a tweet about escalation in Gaza, yet the clip was not from the Middle East. The video was of confrontations in Ukraine in 2015.