Here are the latest updates on day 638 of the war:
■ Israel continues to examine Hamas‘ notes regarding the framework for a cease-fire and hostage release deal, ahead of a planned security cabinet meeting on Saturday night.
■ U.S. President Donald Trump said cease-fire/hostage deal might be signed next week, said it was good Hamas said it responded in a “positive spirit” to proposal.
■ Johnnie Moore, head of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation tasked with distributing food and aid supplies in the Gaza Strip, said that two American aid workers were wounded by two grenades thrown by Hamas during GHF activities.
■ The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry announced that over the past 24 hours, 70 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, and 332 were wounded.
■ Three Israeli drone strikes were reported in south Lebanon by Arab media outlets.
■ Iran has not agreed to give up nuclear enrichment or open its facilities to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday morning.
■ Australian police said late on Friday they were looking for a man suspected of deliberately starting a fire at a Melbourne synagogue filled with worshippers.
Israeli drones struck a vehicle driving on a road leading to southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil, state media reported. This is the third reported Israeli strike since Saturday morning.
The news broadcasts are showing photos of people described as Hamas’ leaders abroad, including Khaled Meshal, Zaher Jabarin and Khalil al-Hayya, along with other names that wouldn’t mean anything to most Israelis. According to the pundits, these are the people whose heads should roll – literally – if Hamas rejects the latest proposal for a hostage deal.
It’s as if the deal’s fate rested solely in these leaders’ hands, with threats to their lives the ultimate pressure tactic that could bring good tidings.
The supreme leaders whose assassination didn’t get the hostages freed have already been forgotten, Ismail Haniyeh included. So have the names of Hamas’ military chiefs, division commanders, intelligence chiefs, brigade commanders and battalion commanders whom Israel has killed wholesale.
Behind them all are replacements – cell leaders, regional commanders, tunnel operators, less senior officials, deputies’ deputies and all the other people who continue to hold the hostages, wage murderous guerrilla war against Israeli soldiers and determine if, when and how a deal will progress.
Read the full analysis here
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry announced that over the past 24 hours, 70 people were killed in Israeli strikes, and 332 were wounded.
According to the statement, 57,338 people were killed and 135,957 wounded in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war, with thousands still considered missing.
Johnnie Moore, head of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation tasked with distributing food and aid supplies in the Gaza Strip, said that two American aid workers were wounded as part of GHF activities.
In a press statement, the foundation said the aid workers were wounded in a “targeted terrorist attack” at a food distribution hub in Khan Yunis.
According to the statement, “preliminary information indicates was carried out by two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans.”
“GHF has repeatedly warned of credible threats from Hamas, including explicit plans to target American personnel, Palestinian aid workers, and the civilians who rely on our sites for food. Today’s attack tragically affirms those warnings,” the foundation wrote, affirming it would continue activities in the Gaza Strip.
On an X post, Rev. Johnnie Moore wrote, “Thank god the injuries are not life threatening,” but asked followers to “please pray for the injured and their families.”
“All we want to do is feed Gazans,” he wrote. “That’s all! These Americans are heroes who put their lives in harm’s way every day to do it.”
Vicki Cohen, mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, demanded Israeli decision-makers explain why Israel is once again agreeing to a partial hostage deal, facilitating the release of only some of the hostages being held in captivity in Gaza, in multiple stages.
“What about Nimrod?” she wrote. “Why are we once again making selective choices and writing lists? Why will we once more have hostages staying long months in the tunnels? We can return them all, this week, at once,” she continued.
Two reportedly wounded in an Israeli drone strike on the south Lebanon village of Shaqra.
An Israeli drone struck a house in the village of Shebaa in southern Lebanon, according to Qatari Al Jazeera and Hezbollah-affiliated news channel Al Mayadeen.
According to Al Mayadeen, the strike targeted a house on the outskirts of the village.
During the war with Iran, IDF assessments were leaked to the media on the scale of the damage that the home front was likely to sustain. According to the outlook that the military gave the security cabinet on the eve of the fighting, one assessment saw 800 civilians killed, with an extreme scenario predicting 4,000.
The actual price was 29. This is another way to portray the campaign as a success, even though the destruction wrought by Iran’s ballistic missiles is worse than anything Israel has ever seen.
One “reasonable” scenario spoke of 200 to 400 killed, with the graver reasonable scenario at 800, under which Iran would have disabled Israel’s radar systems and hampered its missile interception capabilities. But the likelihood of this wasn’t considered high.
That was the aim of Iran’s massive launch of drones, which turned out a total failure for Tehran.
Read the full analysis here
