President Donald Trump wants Iran to know that there will be “all hell to pay” if it does not abandon its nuclear program, his press secretary told reporters on Friday ahead of talks on Saturday between US and Iranian delegations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s “ultimate objective is to ensure that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon” and that Trump believes in diplomacy, but that “all options are on the table” if diplomatic efforts fail.
Israeli troops killed three terrorists in southern Gaza after the former opened fire on the soldiers Friday evening, the IDF said in a statement.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was reportedly told by two of his senior officials to enter nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration, saying that not doing so could risk war with Washington and could lead to the fall of the regime.
Khamenei eventually heeded the officials’ warnings and granted permission for talks with Washington.
Former hostage Agam Berger explained that she remained on “the path of faith” for 482 days, including during a Passover last year, in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, titled ‘I Kept My Freedom in Hamas’s Captivity,’ published Thursday.
Hamas kidnapped Berger on October 7, 2023, when the terror group invaded the Nahal Oz base. While many of her friends were murdered in the attack, Berger was taken into Gaza and imprisoned for nearly a year and a half.
An IDF soldier in the 12th Battalion, Golani Brigade, was seriously wounded during combat in southern Gaza Friday morning, the IDF announced.
The soldier has been evacuated to the hospital to receive medical treatment, and his family has been notified.
IDF soldiers from Golani and Yahalom located a booby-trapped Hamas tunnel underneath a Rafah compound which formerly served as a kindergarten, the military reported on Friday.
The tunnel shaft was 100 meters away from a compound that was previously used as a civilian school.
Fighters from the Yahalom unit destroyed the underground passage, which was dozens of meters long and led to a central axis for Hamas.
Two individuals from the Galilee were arrested on suspicion of planning acts of terrorism, according to the Shin Bet and Israel Police on Friday.
Soldiers in the IDF’s Intelligence unit 8200 wrote a joint letter calling on the government to release the hostages, even if it means stopping the fighting in Gaza, Israeli media reported on Friday.
The IDF and Shin Bet targeted and killed the head of the sniper fire for Hamas’s Tel al-Sultan Battalion, Ahmad Iyad Muhammad Farhat, during an operation in the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah during the week, the IDF announced on Friday.
“On this Passover, many families will have empty chairs,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s told the Israeli public in a video address prior to the start of the eight-day Jewish holiday.
Hamas launched a massive attack on October 7, with thousands of terrorists infiltrating from the Gaza border and taking some 240 hostages into Gaza.
Over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were murdered, including over 350 at the Supernova music festival and hundreds of Israeli civilians across Gaza border communities.
59 hostages remain in Gaza.
49 hostages in total have been killed in captivity, IDF says.
The IDF launched a ground invasion of Lebanon on September 30.
The Israel-Lebanon ceasefire came into effect on November 27 at 4 a.m.
Netanyahu confirmed the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire on January 17, 2025.
