Daily Briefing Feb 2: As Blinken flies out of the region, IAF jets bomb Gaza

US correspondent Jacob Magid on Blinken’s visit to PA, hope for US visa waiver; NY reporter Luke Tress on former PM Bennett in the Big Apple, plus advice from Gene Simmons

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

United States correspondent Jacob Magid and New York correspondent Luke Tress join host Amanda Borschel-Dan in today’s episode.

We begin with an update on Israeli Air Force warplanes that carried out overnight sorties in the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket attack on southern Israel, as a new round of rocket alarms sounded in Sderot and nearby towns.

Tress updates us on the COI Elimination Act, which is being reintroduced to the US Congress. COI stands for the UN’s Commission of Inquiry into Israel. Who brought the bill this time?

Magid comments on the last leg of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the region and what came out of his meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Tress attended an event with former prime minister Naftali Bennett recently in New York where Bennett officially threw his yarmulke back into the circus ring of Israeli politics.

Magid explains how Israel is one step closer to joining the US’s visa waiver program. But celebrations may be premature.

And finally, Tress spoke with former KISS frontman Gene Simmons at a United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day event last week. The glam rock star had some advice.