A round-up of Congressional letters, bills, hearings, and statements on all things related to Israel and the Palestinians.

Get the facts on Netanyahu’s Trump-era settlement policy, which has advanced plans for nearly 5,000 settler homes since the beginning of the year.

U.S. President Donald Trump is sending two top aides to Jerusalem and Ramallah this week to discuss potential next steps in his bid to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a White House official said on Sunday.

Top Senate Democrats said they were closer to signing on to a Republican-backed bill that would slash aid to the Palestinian Authority if it did not stop subsidizing Palestinians jailed for attacks on Israel.

During the 2015 election campaign, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party reportedly planned, and later scrapped, negative campaign ads against then-US president Barack Obama. It relied on internal polls of Israeli voters that indicated most were negatively predisposed toward the US leader.

Clashes in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday injured three Israeli police officers and resulted in the arrest of a number of Palestinians.

The army this month removed the residents of Baladim, a settlement outpost in the West Bank, near Kokhav Hashahar.

“The sins of the 1967 War are still with us. Not only in the continuing crime of the occupation and the new victims it takes, but also in the unanswered questions and the still unaccounted for victims,” writes Jim Zogby.

Islamic State usually issues claims of responsibility for attacks in which it was directly involved, to which its leadership was connected, or which were carried out on its behalf. It is far from clear that any of these links apply to Friday’s attack.

“Imagine if Jerusalem had an Israeli mayor from the Likud party, and a Palestinian deputy mayor from Fatah. It’s not so far-fetched — the equivalent is already in place in Belfast,” write Liel Maghen and Eran Tsidkyahu.

Ariel University is to double in size within the next five years, according to a plan now being promoted by Education Minister Naftali Bennett. Ten or twelve new buildings are to be added for new faculties in research and teaching at the university, located in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, as well as a new medical school, to be named after U.S. billionaire businessman Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam.

Secret documents in the Jerusalem city council show that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has frozen the construction of more than 6,000 apartments in the capital, Army Radio reported Sunday.

TOI profiles nine candidates running for the leadership of the Labor party.

On Sunday, during a meeting of the heads of the coalition parties, Netanyahu said he “didn’t remember” the security cabinet’s approval of a Palestinian plan to build 14,000 new homes in the West Bank city of Qalqilyah.

Netanyahu tried to bring Livni into his government in order to bolster his efforts to restart negotiations with the Palestinians, under the auspices of US President Donald Trump and his Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt. Livni’s associates said she rejected the offer because she believes he is not planning on taking enough steps to advance a diplomatic process with the Palestinians in a serious manner.

The bill is one of several efforts by right-wing lawmakers to advance laws that in practice impose Israeli sovereignty on the settlements.

Read Gisha’s explainer on the electricity crisis in Gaza.

Despite warnings of a mounting humanitarian crisis and possible outbreak of violence, Israel on Monday reduced the amount of electricity it provides to the Gaza Strip, acceding to a request from the Palestinian Authority.