Washington, DC – A super PAC linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has made its first major venture into the United States midterm elections.

But this time around, the pro-Israel lobby group is not targeting a progressive candidate pushing to reset US-Israel policy, but a so-called “moderate” Democrat who tepidly questioned Washington’s unconditional military support amid the genocidal war on Gaza.

The $2.2m spending by the United Democracy Project (UDP) targeting former US Representative Tom Malinowski in advance of the Democratic primary in New Jersey on Thursday comes as polls have consistently shown surging dismay among Democratic voters over unwavering US support for Israel.

Amid shifting views, critics see the spending strategy as a wider message to candidates as they prepare for party primaries in the months in the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections, which will determine the makeup of the US Senate and House of Representatives.

“It shows that they are very concerned, obviously, about the shifting perspective of especially Democrats on funding for Israel, and they’re very, very keen to keep Democrats elected who are out of touch with the Democratic electorate more broadly,” Sadaf Jaffer, a former member of the New Jersey General Assembly, who has herself been a critic of Malinowski’s past refusal to take a harder line on Israel, told Al Jazeera.

Candidates in the 11-way primary are running to represent a largely suburban district in central New Jersey considered increasingly Democratic-leaning. The special election is scheduled for April 16.

However, UDP’s strategy appears focused on Malinowski, neither AIPAC nor its super PAC have explicitly endorsed Tehesha Way, the former lieutenant governor of New Jersey, although she has won the endorsement of another pro-Israel lobby group, the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI).

“It may be [AIPAC’s] sense is that this is a way to scare those in the middle of the road, who have started to express some concerns about what’s going on and the funding that’s being sent to Israel,” Jaffer said.

“It seems very excessive … but it may be an investment in trying to intimidate others who are watching,” she said.

A familiar strategy

Parts of the strategy have become familiar. In the US elections in 2024, the UDP poured about $35m into party primaries, with the biggest buys aimed at scuttling Democratic candidates who called for cutting off aid to Israel.

That included a combined $24m against progressive congressmembers Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, who both lost their races to opponents running to their right.

Like the messaging targeting those candidates, the advertisement campaign against Malinowski has not specifically referenced Israel; instead, it focuses on more domestic issues, including Malinowski’s past stock trades and his 2019 vote in support of an annual Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill.

The line of criticism comes as support for US immigration, and the DHS sub-agency ICE, has tanked among Democratic voters amid the administration of US President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive.

Usamah Andrabi, the communications director of Justice Democrats, an organisation that supports progressive candidates regularly targeted by AIPAC, called the approach particularly disingenuous, noting that AIPAC had previously endorsed Malinowski despite the DHS funding vote.

During his previous three runs for Congress, Malinowski received more than $378,000 from pro-Israel groups, including those affiliated with AIPAC.

“It’s interesting, as always, to see that again, you’re not going to see a single television ad actually talking about their, quote ‘single issue’: Israel,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Tom Malinowski is no champion for progressive values or for the Palestinian people, but he is not going to ask ‘how high?’ when they say, ‘jump’,” Andrabi told Al Jazeera. “And that’s not enough for AIPAC. They truly demand unconditional support for their policies.”

Malinowski had previously served as Washington director of Human Rights Watch, which, during his tenure, lobbied for US aid not to be used in Israeli abuses of Palestinian rights.

But as a congressman from 2019 to 2023, Malinowski took a distinctly divergent path in Congress, including petitioning against conditioning US aid to Israel.

Malinowski, who also served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labour under former President Barack Obama, has further enraged pro-Palestine advocates by suggesting that using the terms “genocide” and “apartheid” to describe Israel’s approach towards Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank fuels anti-Jewish sentiment in the US.

Nevertheless, the candidate has become a vocal critic of AIPAC’s approach in advance of Thursday’s vote, condemning the “dark-money” influence on the race.

“I committed one sin in their minds,” Malinowski told a small group of supporters in mid-January, as reported by the New Jersey Globe news site.

“I was not willing to tell them that I would unconditionally, unquestionably, blindly support any request for assistance that Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel might make. That position puts me in the mainstream, not just of all Americans, but of the Jewish and pro-Israel community in this country,” he said.

‘A sour taste’

The UDP’s spending has also been condemned by other pro-Israel lobbying groups, including J Street, which supports Israel, but has staunchly criticised providing a “blank cheque” to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“It weakens bipartisan support, alienates the next generation – Jewish and non-Jewish alike – and ties Israel’s fate to the most corrosive elements of American politics,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the group, which has endorsed Malinowski, said in a January post on Substack.

AIPAC and UDP did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment on the spending initiative’s objectives.

But Beth Miller, the political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, which advocates for Palestinian justice through US policy, saw the attack on Malinowski as in line with AIPAC’s increasing embrace of the Republican Party, which remains staunchly pro-Israel. She pointed to UDP’s history of relying on donations from wealthy conservatives to influence Democratic primaries.

Former assembly member Jaffer noted that the super PAC had not targeted Analilia Mejia, a progressive in the race who has won endorsements from US Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Some analysts have suggested AIPAC may see a win-win approach in targeting Malinowski, either leading to the success of a candidate like Way, who led the New Jersey-Israel Commission and has been embraced by many right-wing Israeli news outlets, or a candidate like Mejia, who could be seen as more vulnerable against a Republican in the general election.

Miller said the spending “should show every other candidate that there is no middle or centrist lane that will protect them from AIPAC spending attacks”.

“Democratic candidates watching the NJ special election should learn that the politically and morally correct move is to fully embrace Palestinian rights and demand an end to US complicity in Israel’s apartheid and genocide,” she told Al Jazeera.

Both Andrabi and former assemblywoman Jaffer, meanwhile, saw potential for the approach to backfire, particularly as AIPAC has become an increasingly toxic brand in some segments of the Democratic party.

“It’s definitely the most I’ve heard people who are not particularly interested in Israel-Palestine talking about AIPAC,” Jaffer told Al Jazeera, adding that outside spending in the race has left a “sour taste” for some New Jersey residents.

Andrabi added that it was “interesting to see the moderates of the world and the corporate Dems becoming willing to comment on [AIPAC] now that one of their own is getting eaten alive by this spending”.

That comes as AIPAC and UDP have amassed a $100m war chest heading into 2026.

“What [AIPAC] is really doing is expanding the base of people who don’t like AIPAC and who will vote against candidates for being supported by AIPAC,” he said.

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – When Rotana al-Raqab learned that her name and her mother’s were included on the first list of Palestinians allowed to return to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, she felt, briefly, that the long months she had spent stranded in Egypt were finally coming to an end.

But what she initially believed would be a path back to her five children instead turned into a gruelling ordeal of hours of waiting, body searches, interrogations, and humiliating treatment at the hands of Israeli forces.

Rotana, 31, left Gaza last March with her mother, Huda Abu Abed, 56, seeking urgent medical treatment after being told she needed a major heart operation.

They left behind Rotana’s six children with family members, who at the time were displaced in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.

Throughout the separation, Rotana says the fear of what was happening at home – as Israel continued its genocidal war on Gaza – never left her.

“All that time, I was on edge, waiting for the crossing to open so that I could return to my children,” she told Al Jazeera.

“My husband was injured in an Israeli strike, and I was nearly going mad with fear and worry. I spoke with them every day despite how hard calls and internet access were.”

From Egypt to Rafah 

Rotana and Huda found out that they would be allowed to return to Gaza the day before the crossing partially opened on Monday.

They were contacted by the Palestinian embassy in Cairo, which gave them the news that they were among the names on the first list of those crossing.

The reopening of the crossing is part of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, which the United States said had begun in mid-January, despite the continuation of Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Rafah is the only border crossing from Gaza that does not cross Israeli territory. But it has been largely closed since Israeli forces took control of it in May 2024.

Multiple returnee testimonies indicate that the crossing is functioning only partially, allowing very small numbers of people to use it on each side.

Reports from the opening days show that some travellers were sent back at the Palestinian side of the crossing, despite having already cleared Egyptian procedures, often for unspecified “security screening” reasons, or over the size of their luggage, without a detailed official explanation from Israeli authorities.

According to Egyptian officials, roughly 50 people reached the Palestinian side of the crossing on Tuesday, but Israeli authorities forcibly returned 38 of them, permitting only 12 to enter Gaza after extensive searches, detentions, and interrogations.

Rotana describes approximately 50 travellers being present on the Egyptian side of the crossing on Monday.

After completing procedures there, the group waited for hours for the Palestinian side of the gates, under the control of Israel, to open, a delay that lasted until evening hours.

But even then, not everyone was allowed to pass.

“At first, they let nine people through and told [others] to wait. A little later, they let [some of us] pass, but the rest were sent back,” she said, adding that she believed Israel was behind the decision.

Egyptian media – citing Egyptian officials – also reported that roughly 50 people reached the Palestinian side of the crossing on Tuesday, but that Israeli authorities forcibly returned 38 of them, permitting only 12 to enter Gaza after extensive searches, detentions, and interrogations.

Since its partial reopening on Monday, the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza has allowed only very limited movement.

In the first days of operation, just more than 120 people have crossed according to the Gaza Ministry of Interior – the majority of them returning to Gaza – while dozens more, including patients in need of urgent medical care, were prevented from crossing.

Palestinian health authorities report that tens of thousands remain on waiting lists, including more than 18,500 patients requiring specialised treatment unavailable inside Gaza, as a result of Israel’s devastation of the enclave.

Israel has framed the restrictions as being necessary for security reasons.

Body searches and interrogation

Finally, by Monday evening, Rotana and Huda were able to cross to the Palestinian side, where the European Union Border Assistance Mission for the Rafah Crossing Point (EUBAM Rafah) are operating.

Rotana thought that their ordeal was finally over – and that she would finally be able to reunite with her children and husband. Instead, she met a new phase of hardship.

“They put us into a vehicle flanked by Israeli army cars, one in front and one behind and then stopped us in an open area,” she said.

There, Rotana and the others were subjected to full-body searches carried out by a woman accompanied by two men who identified themselves as part of “counterterrorism forces” – an apparent reference to Palestinian militias working with the Israeli military in Gaza.

“One of them told us they were fighting terrorism and lived in a ‘humanitarian city’, welcoming anyone who wanted to join them,” she added.

“I didn’t engage with his remarks, and then they began scolding us because we wanted to return to Gaza.”

Following this, Rotana was taken for interrogation by an Israeli military officer, which she said lasted for three hours. “It was interrogation, pressure, and degrading language,” she recounted.

Rotana said she and the others were insulted by the officer, who attempted to provoke them, and called them “humiliated”.

She remembered being asked, “Why did you come back to Gaza? Do you want to live in a tent without water or electricity? Or on a roof that doesn’t exist?”

“I tried to hold myself together and not let his words affect me,” she said.

Huda described having her hands bound and eyes covered before she, too, was interrogated.

“[An Israeli soldier] even told me to tell my family to prepare immediately for forced relocation from Gaza,” she said, referencing the threat by the Israeli right-wing to force Palestinians to leave Gaza in what would be ethnic cleansing.

During her own two hours of detention, Huda was separated from her daughter and said the experience was frightening.

“I was terrified. The place around me was dark and empty like a desert, and I didn’t know where they had taken Rotana and the other women, until they released me and I saw them again in the bus,” she said.

Return

In a press statement, the International Commission to Support Palestinian People’s Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemned the strict Israeli restrictions on the operation of the crossing, saying that they had turned “travel and return [to Gaza] into a symbolic procedure that falls short of a genuine and comprehensive opening”.

The ICSPR added that Israeli restrictions – including requiring pre-approved security clearances, imposing strict passenger quotas, and enforcing complex procedures for travel – had turned the Rafah crossing “into a tool of control and domination rather than a humanitarian passage”.

The organisation also condemned the treatment of Palestinians at the crossing, including beatings, humiliating body searches, prolonged handcuffing, confiscation of personal belongings, and threats of arrest.

When Rotana and Huda were finally allowed to continue their journey, they found that Israeli forces had confiscated nearly all of what they had packed for the children.

“I brought toys and headphones for my daughters … things to make them happy,” Rotana said.

“They took everything. Even food was forbidden,” she explained. “I had promised my children sweets, something to celebrate with after months of hardship, but they took all of it.”

Despite it all, reuniting with Rotana’s children – Huda’s grandchildren – was at the forefront of their minds.

“I returned with my daughter even before I completed my treatment because her children couldn’t bear to be apart from her any longer,” Huda told Al Jazeera.

“In the end, we are returning to our country no matter what, so why were we treated this way?”

After a long and exhausting day, Rotana and her mum arrived in Gaza late at night on Monday, at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.

“The journey was deadly … but thank God, we finally arrived and reunited with our loved ones,” Rotana said calmly.

“What happened to us was an attempt to discourage us from returning to our land. But where would we go? This is our home, no matter what.”

The Gaitanist Army of Colombia (EGC), the country’s largest criminal organisation, has announced it will temporarily suspend peace talks in Qatar after Colombian President Gustavo Petro reportedly pledged to target its leader.

In a social media post on Wednesday, the EGC, sometimes referred to as the Gulf Clan, indicated the suspension would continue until it received updates from the Petro administration.

“By order of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the EGC delegation at the negotiating table will temporarily suspend talks with the government to consult and clarify the veracity of the information,” the group wrote in a statement on X.

“If the media reports are true, this would be a violation of good faith and the Doha commitments.”

Colombia’s Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez confirmed the reports later on Wednesday, sharing a list of three drug “kingpins” that Petro’s administration would prioritise as “high-level targets”.

Among the three targets was the EGC’s leader, Jesus Avila Villadiego, alias Chiquito Malo. A reward for his capture was set at 5 billion Colombian pesos, equivalent to $1.37m.

The other two “kingpins” included top rebel commanders identified only by their aliases: Ivan Mordisco and Pablito.

The public announcement echoes a private one cemented during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday at the White House, when Petro met United States President Donald Trump in person for the first time.

For months, Trump has pressured the Petro administration to take more “aggressive action” to combat narcotics trafficking out of Colombia.

In response, Petro and his team presented the Trump administration on Tuesday with a dossier on their counter-narcotics operations titled, “Colombia: America’s #1 Ally Against Narcoterrorists”.

The presentation featured statistics on cocaine seizures, programmes to eradicate coca crops, and the high-level arrests and killings of drug lords.

But the commitment to collaborate with the US in the pursuit of Chiquito Malo’s arrest has thrown negotiations with the EGC into peril.

It has also raised questions about the future of Petro’s signature policy, “Total Peace”, which was designed to open talks with rebel groups and criminal networks in an effort to halt Colombia’s six-decade-long internal conflict.

The EGC is a major criminal group with almost 10,000 members, according to a recent report by the Ideas for Peace Foundation.

In December, the US also designated the group as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, as part of its ongoing efforts to crack down on drug trafficking.

The EGC has been engaged in high-level discussions with the Colombian government in Doha since September 2025. The two parties signed a “commitment to peace” on December 5, which outlined a roadmap to the EGC putting down arms.

The first step towards demobilisation was for the group to gather its forces in temporary zones, beginning in March. The government had suspended arrest warrants in December for EGC commanders, including Chiquito Malo, who were due to move to these areas.

But the government’s plans to detain the drug lord, declared yesterday at the White House, destabilised this process, according to analysts.

“[The EGC] interpret this as a direct threat where, if any commander who has arrest warrants … goes to the temporary zones, he runs a high risk,” said Gerson Arias, a conflict and security investigator at the Ideas for Peace Foundation, a Bogota-based think tank.

The Colombian Supreme Court in January approved Chiquito Malo’s extradition to the US in the eventuality of his capture, but the final decision to extradite him resides with the president.

By declaring the drug lord a “target” at the White House, Petro signalled support for capturing and extraditing the EGC commander.

Potential US involvement in the operation also appears to have unsettled the criminal organisation, according to experts.

“It is very different for Chiquito Malo to be pursued solely by the Colombian government than for him to become a target of joint strategic value involving US intelligence,” said Laura Bonilla, a deputy director at the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, a Colombian think tank.

Although the EGC suspended its peace talks on Wednesday, it stressed that it remained open to resuming negotiations.

“It should be clarified that the suspension is temporary, not permanent, which indicates that they [the talks] will resume shortly,” a lawyer for the group told Al Jazeera, on condition of anonymity.

The representative added that, for talks to continue, the EGC requires that “legal and personal security guarantees” and “the commitments agreed upon in Doha, Qatar, are fulfilled”.