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Three soldiers were injured, one seriously, when a drone packed with explosives launched from Lebanese territory crashed and blew up in an area near the northern community of Metula, the Israeli military said Thursday.

The attack was claimed by the Hezbollah terror group, which said it had targeted Israel Defense Forces targets with a missile-armed drone, as cross-border hostilities continued to spiral following the killing of a senior Hezbollah field commander earlier this week.

One of the troops was hospitalized in serious condition, the military said, and the other two were lightly hurt as a result of the blast.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking to IDF forces in Rafah on Thursday, said that their operation there was about making sure "the faucet to Hamas is closed" from being able to rearm.

He said, "many tunnels have already been destroyed and many more will be destroyed soon," which would finally end the terror group's major cross-border capability to resupply itself with weapons.

Next, he said that "the operation will continue with additional forces which will invade ... this operation will continue and intensify."

"We are moving closer to a situation where there is a big, huge question mark about what they are doing and why they are doing it," said IAEA director Rafael Grossi with regard to Iran's nuclear program.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel on Wednesday not to reoccupy Gaza, to refrain from a major Rafah operation, and to finalize a day-after plan for the enclave, as he spoke to reporters in Kyiv.

“When it comes to the future of Gaza, we do not support and will not support an Israeli reoccupation,” Blinken said, amid a bitter row between Jerusalem and Washington over the Gaza war.

Blinken said that he did not support Hamas governance in Gaza, but there also can’t be anarchy and a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos.

In an interview with CNBC, Netanyahu stressed that those who want Israel to halt its military campaign in Gaza and refrain from a major Rafah operation to destroy the four Hamas battalions there, are empowering the terror group.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is scheduled to visit Israel and Saudi Arabia later this week to discuss normalization between Jerusalem and Riyadh and the Israeli military operation in Rafah in southern Gaza.

A senior U.S. official told the Axios news site that the Biden administration had reached an understanding with the Israeli government that the scale of the Israel Defense Forces operation in the last Hamas stronghold would not be significantly expanded ahead of Sullivan’s visit.

The Biden administration is opposed to a full-scale invasion of Rafah, threatening to withhold weapons should a wider ground offensive take place. The IDF last week began what Israel described as a “precision operation” in eastern Rafah, including the mass evacuation of the city’s noncombatants to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah met with a Hamas delegation in Beirut recently to discuss the Gaza war.

The Lebanese terrorist organization began attacking Israel on Oct. 8, a day after the Hamas-led massacre in the northwestern Negev. In the meeting with the Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hiya, the deputy of the organization’s leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, Nasrallah stressed the importance of a unified front.

The two Iranian proxy groups discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and “all fronts of support.”

The Israeli government on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposal to oppose a U.N. resolution promoting recognition of a Palestinian state.

“No reward will be given for the terrible massacre of Oct. 7, which 80% of the Palestinians, both in the West Bank and in Gaza, support,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who initiated the proposal. “We will not allow them to establish a terrorist state from which they can attack us even more,” he added.

“No one will prevent us, Israel, from exercising our basic right to defend ourselves—not the U.N. General Assembly and not any other entity. We will stand together with our heads held high to defend our country,” he added.

The Office of Management and Budget, which is part of the White House, stated on Tuesday that U.S. President Joe Biden would veto H.R. 8369, the Israel Security Assistance Support Act, if it came across his desk.

The bill, which is scheduled for a House vote on Wednesday and which has a companion Senate version as of today, condemns the Biden administration’s decision to pause an arms shipment to Israel and would withhold funds from the Pentagon and U.S. State Department unless that and future shipments are approved.

The White House “strongly opposes” the bill, “which seeks to limit the president’s discretion to ensure that the delivery of certain defense articles and services aligns with U.S. foreign policy objectives,” it stated.

Israel ushered in its 76th Independence Day on Monday night with muted celebrations amid the war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

The traditional torch-lighting ceremony marked the start of Independence Day and the end of Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism. Due to the security situation, this year’s ceremony was filmed in advance without a live audience.

The event kicked off with the lighting of beacons in memory of the Israelis and foreign nationals who were murdered during the ongoing war. Torches were lit in Zikim, Sderot and other southern cities, as well as near Kibbutz Re’im, where 364 attendees of the Supernova music festival were murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7.

The Biden administration does not believe that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told repeaters in Washington on Monday.

“We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide. We have been firmly on record rejecting that proposition,” Sullivan said.

Israel remains committed to destroying Hamas in Gaza, including its remaining battalions in Rafah, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call overnight Sunday.

Gallant, according to the Defense Ministry’s readout of the call, emphasized that the IDF is conducting a “precision operation” in the city along the border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, including securing the Gaza side of the Rafah Crossing, which Israel’s military took operational control of last week.

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on Wednesday on a bill that would compel the Biden administration to approve arms sales to Israel.

Reps. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), Tom Cole (R-Okla.), Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and David Joyce (R-Ohio) released the Israel Security Assistance Support Act on Saturday. The bill condemns the Biden administration’s decision to pause an arms shipment to Israel and would withhold funds from the Pentagon and U.S. State Department unless that and future shipments are approved.

The perception of tensions in the US-Israel relationship is making it harder for Israel to reach a hostage deal with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview released on Sunday.

“That perception certainly doesn’t help the hostage situation, certainly doesn’t help stabilize the Middle East,” Netanyahu told host Dan Senor on the Call Me Back podcast, recorded Sunday morning. “It gives succor to Iran and its henchmen. But it means that we have to apply the pressure even more.”

Netanyahu did not comment on the actual state of relations.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday defended a decision to pause a delivery to Israel of 3,500 bombs over concerns they could be used in the Gazan city of Rafah, saying Israel lacked a "credible plan" to protect some 1.4 million civilians sheltering there.

The Biden administration will share key intelligence with Israel about the whereabouts of Hamas’s leadership in Gaza if Israel agrees not to go ahead with its military operation in Rafah, according to The Washington Post. 

“The Biden administration, working urgently to stave off a full-scale Israeli invasion of Rafah, is offering Israel valuable assistance if it holds back, including sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and find the group’s hidden tunnels, according to four people familiar with the U.S. offers,” said the report.

According to Palestinian reports, the IDF again dropped tens of thousands of leaflets in eastern Rafah, warning civilians to evacuate to the expanded humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi. 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) estimated that around 300,000 people have already evacuated Rafah since the IDF began to issuing warnings last week. 

The IDF also urged Palestinians to temporarily evacuate Jabaliya as it continues to counter Hamas' attempts to reestablish a presence in the city following an operational pause intended to allow time for hostage negotiations. After the call, IDF troops began an operation overnight on Saturday to thwart Hamas' efforts to reassemble its terrorist infrastructure and establish its operatives in the area. Before sending in troops, Israeli Air Force (IAF) fighter jets struck approximately 30 Hamas targets.

The U.S. State Department issued a report to Congress about U.S. arms transfers to Israel on Friday that is deeply critical of the Jewish state but stops short of concluding that it is violating international law.

All seven of the countries detailed in the 46-page report are deemed by the U.S. government to have provided “credible and reliable” assurances that they are complying with international law and that Washington can therefore continue to provide them with arms.

The report was sent in response to U.S. President Joe Biden’s National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20), which requires the U.S. State and Defense Departments to report annually on whether countries that receive U.S.-provided weapons are using them “in a manner not consistent with international law, including international humanitarian law” or whether the country has impeded American humanitarian aid.

As the Biden administration urgently works to prevent a large-scale Israeli offensive in Gaza’s Rafah, a report in The Washington Post says the Biden administration “is offering Israel valuable assistance if it holds back, including sensitive intelligence

Elon Musk has said that the powerful geomagnetic storm hitting Earth right now is putting Starlink satellites under tremendous strain.

Conditions reached level 5 on the 5-point scale of geomagnetic activity on Friday evening, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) which says its satellites observed an "extreme" event -- the first such storm to reach that level since October 2003. 

"Major geomagnetic solar storm happening right now. Biggest in a long time," Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter early this morning. "Starlink satellites are under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far.

Egypt, Qatar, and other Arab countries rejected Israel's proposal to control the civil administration in the Gaza Strip the day after the war, the Saudi-affiliated Al-Arabiya network reported on Saturday. 

Earlier, the United Arab Emirates also announced its refusal of the plan. The Emirate's foreign minister criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying, "Netanyahu has no legal authority to invite us to participate in the civil administration of the Gaza Strip."

The United Nations General Assembly voted 143-9 to upgrade the Palestinian's status as a non-member observer state, granting it all but voting rights with regard to all activities related to its plenum.

Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Papa New Guinea, Palau, and the United States opposed the resolution.

Among those countries that supported the text were many European Union members,  Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

Australia also supported the resolution, while Canada, Great Britain, and Ukraine abstained.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a group of settlement mayors Wednesday night that the establishment of a Palestinian state was becoming a “tangible danger” due to international efforts advancing the cause.

He also informed them of his efforts to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene a key administrative body in order to authorize new construction plans in the Israeli West Bank settlements.

NOAA: Space Weather Prediction Center: First G4 Watch Since 2005

The alert read: ‘NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC)- a division of the National Weather Service – is monitoring the sun following a series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that began on May 8. 

On Thursday, May 9, 2024, the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch.

G4 conditions were observed by SWPC around 12:37 p.m. EDT today and significant; to severe geomagnetic storming is likely to continue.

A Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm is still likely this weekend.

Senator Grahams questions of U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin: 

“What’s Israel interested in?” the senior senator from South Carolina bellowed. “Do you believe Iran really wants to kill all the Jews if they could? The Iranian regime. Do you believe Hamas is serious when they say we’ll keep doing it over and over again? Do you agree that they will if they can?”

Sheepishly, Austin answered, “I do.”

“OK. Alright,” Graham continued. “Do you believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization also bent on the destruction of the Jewish state?”

Leaving out the bit about the Jewish state, Austin retorted, “Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.” Graham responded with a one-two punch.

“OK, so Israel’s been hit in the last few weeks by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, dedicated to their destruction,” he said. “And you’re telling me you’re going to tell them how to fight the war, and what they can and can’t use when everybody around them wants to kill all the Jews? And you’re telling me that if we withhold weapons in this fight—the existential fight for the life of the Jewish state—it won’t send the wrong signal?”

Graham concluded his diatribe by declaring, “If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the State of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price. This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war. They can’t afford to lose. This is Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids.”

Russia’s leadership and military have been out in force for the annual “Victory Day” military parade on Thursday.

President Vladimir Putin, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, was flanked by veterans as he watched thousands of Russian troops, tanks, armored vehicles and weaponry parade through a mostly rainy Red Square in Moscow.

Amid the Biden administration’s decision to withhold arms from Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday reaffirmed Jerusalem’s resolve to defeat Hamas, even if it has to fight without U.S. backing.

Sharing a clip of his May 5 speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, the premier sought to reiterate that “no amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself.”