Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited President Joe Biden to visit Israel this week, with particulars unlikely to be announced in advance due to security risks. In an interview on 60 Minutes Sunday night, Biden called Hamas a “bunch of cowards,” but warned that it would “be a big mistake” for Israel to reoccupy Gaza.

Overnight…

• Israel announced Monday that it will evacuate residents from 28 communities along its northern border with Lebanon.
  
  
• The U.S. embassy informed American citizens who wish to leave Israel that they should depart by ship Monday from Haifa.
  
  
• The IDF now says there are 199 hostages being held in the Gaza Strip.

Here’s what you should know to start the week…

New polls: Americans are highly supportive of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas and favor continued U.S. assistance to Israel, according to a set of new polls published over the weekend. At the same time, voters remain divided on how Biden is handling the conflict. 

New York City shul raises $18 million for Israel: At Friday night services, Elliot Cosgrove of the Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side did something unusual for a Conservative rabbi: He asked his congregants to take out their phones. From there, he directed them to scan a QR code on their Shabbat pamphlets. “I have two goals for this moment: both audacious, both doable,” Cosgrove said from the bimah. “First, I want 100%. Second: I want $18 million.” Read the story ➤

Bulletproof vests and Entenmann’s donuts: American Jews send supplies to war-torn Israel: Etan Goldman of Los Angeles, who shlepped six suitcases with him to Tel Aviv, is just one of many individuals and groups who are helping out. After dropping off bulletproof vests, knee pads and a case of Fresca, he joined an assembly line of grillmasters, flipping burgers for soldiers. “Never underestimate the power of your presence,” he said. Read the story ➤

Six-year-old Palestinian boy fatally stabbed in Chicago hate crime amid Israel-Hamas war: FBI Director Christopher Wray disclosed in a call with reporters on Sunday that threats against both Jews and Muslims in the U.S. have surged since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 and the ensuing operation in Gaza. Read the story ➤

Plus…

• Five U.S. senators in Israel — including Sen. Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish politician in the U.S. — were forced to twice take cover in a bomb shelter as rocket sirens sounded during their visit to Tel Aviv.
  
  
• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel on Monday, following several days of shuttle diplomacy across the Middle East.
  
  
• The U.S. deployed a second aircraft carrier near Israel, further bolstering its military presence in the Mediterranean.

Around the world…

• The Egyptian president falsely claimed on Sunday that Jews and Egyptians have always gotten along, seeming to skip over the story of the Exodus.
  
  
• Jews around the world grieved and prayed for peace in the first Shabbat services since the Hamas attack.
  
  
• An estimated 350 people stood outside of Berlin’s Frankelufer Synagogue on Friday to symbolically protect it during a day that Hamas deemed a time for international protest against Israel.
  
  
• A synagogue in Portugal was vandalized last week with graffiti that read “Free Palestine” and “End Israel Apartheid.” Now the city’s Jews are bracing for more antisemitism as the war in Gaza escalates.
  
  
• An Israeli diplomat was stabbed on Friday in China and was hospitalized.

Intelligence failures…

• Three IDF balloons monitoring the Israel-Gaza border broke down weeks before the Hamas attack. Israel is now exploring the possibility that Hamas felled the balloons as part of its preparations for its attack.
  
  
• Less than a month before the attack, Hamas posted a dress rehearsal video to social media, showing fighters blasting through a replica of the border gate, sweeping in on pickup trucks and infiltrating a full-scale reconstruction of an Israeli town.

Going deeper…

‘At least we know that she’s alive’ | The family of a young woman captured by Hamas insists on hope: Inbar Haiman’s parents have heard eyewitness accounts and seen a video released by Hamas. “Is she eating? Is somebody caring for her if she was wounded? We don’t know,” her dad told our Laura E. Adkins during a visit to their home. “We’re constantly busy, not thinking, working to free Inbar.” Read the story ➤

What does Jewish law say about the war between Israel and Hamas? A rabbi responds: Jewish law “will disappoint both hawks and doves,” writes our columnist Rabbi Jay Michaelson. “But in so doing, it reveals much about how Jews wrestle with problematic values within our tradition.” Read his essay ➤

Your kids’ questions on Israel, Hamas and Gaza, answered: How many people are in Hamas? Do terrorist attacks invalidate Palestinian activists? What do I say to people who are saying all these antisemitic things? When will the war end? Our editor-in-chief offers responses. Read her column ➤

Plus: While hiding from the gunfire behind a trailer, Vladimir Grinevetskiy took out his iPhone 13 Pro Max. He zoomed in to see if it was a terrorist or the Israeli army. The Wall Street Journal’s tech columnist, Joanna Stern, writes about the role of the smartphone in a time of war.

And: In Hamas’ horrific killings, Jewish trauma over the Holocaust resurfaces

Opinions…

• Biden’s antisemitism strategy was made for a moment like this
  
  
• Hamas has always undermined Palestinian safety. The costs have never been more extreme
  
  
• As in 1940 France, Israel’s fortified border protected only a false sense of security
  
  
• 50 years ago, like today, Israel’s failure to anticipate a major attack rewrote the playbook for an entire region

Stay informed: You can follow our partners at Haaretz for live updates throughout the day. And we’ve taken down our paywall for coverage of Israel’s war with Gaza. Read all of our stories here.