KOENIG

Hamas on Saturday said it would not disarm “as long as the occupation exists,” denying reported remarks to the contrary by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and blasting him for visiting an aid site run by the controversial, US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

In a statement, Hamas vowed to continue its violent struggle, saying its right to do so was guaranteed by international law until Palestinians’ “national rights” were realized, “foremost among them… the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with full sovereignty and Jerusalem as its capital.”

The Israel Defense Forces will soon know whether a deal to recover the 50 remaining hostages in Gaza is possible or whether the military campaign will need to intensify, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Friday.

“I think that in the coming days we will know whether we can reach an agreement for the release of our hostages. If not, the combat will continue without rest,” he said during a situational assessment in Strip.

“We will adapt it to the changing reality according to our interests—the achievements you have made provide us with operational flexibility,” he told soldiers in the Strip.

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff stated that the US was planning to end the war and called for an all-or-nothing approach to end the Israel-Hamas War in a meeting with hostage families on Saturday.

According to a press release, Witkoff said that the US had a plan to "end the war and bring everyone home," and that this was US President Donald Trump's top priority.

US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited Gaza on Friday amid growing international concern and criticism regarding the current US- and Israel-backed aid distribution system.

Witkoff said he spent five hours inside Gaza on Friday, “level setting the facts on the ground, assessing conditions and meeting with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”

He tweeted: “The purpose of the visit was to give US President Donald Trump a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”

President Donald Trump on Friday said that he ordered two nuclear submarines “to be positioned in the appropriate regions” in response to warnings made to the United States this week by high-ranking Russian official Dmitry Medvedev.

Medvedev in a social media post on Monday wrote that each new ultimatum that Trump makes about Russia to force an end to its war on Ukraine “is a threat and a step towards war.”

“Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country,” Medvedev wrote on X that day.

The U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority on Thursday over their “pay-to-slay” payment scheme for terrorists.

The department said that the organizations had fallen afoul of the PLO Commitments Compliance Act of 1989 and the Middle East Peace Commitments Act of 2002.

“It is in our national security interests to impose consequences and hold the PLO and P.A. accountable for not complying with their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace,” the department stated.

As negotiations with Hamas stall, Israel and the United States are now aligned on aiming for a comprehensive framework in place of a partial ceasefire and hostage-release deal, a senior Israeli official told reporters during a Thursday briefing.

“There will be no more partial deals,” the official was quoted as saying, explaining that Israel and the US now concur on the need to “shift from a framework for the release of some of the hostages to a framework for the release of all of the hostages, the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.”

If actualized, it would mark a massive shift for Israel, which came up with the phased hostage deal framework during the first year of the war, as it enabled Israel to secure the release of some of its hostages, while maintaining the ability to resume the war — something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needed in order to maintain his coalition, as far-right partners threatened to collapse the government if Israel agreed to a permanent ceasefire.

U.S. special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his office in Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently meeting at his office with the U.S. president’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff,” the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed in a statement.

Witkoff’s trip marks his first visit to the Jewish state since May and comes after the collapse of indirect ceasefire negotiations between Jerusalem and the Hamas terrorist group in Doha last week.

US President Donald Trump criticizes Canada for announcing it will recognize a Palestinian state, linking the issue to efforts to negotiate a trade agreement with America’s northern neighbor for the first time.

“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!” Trump writes in one of several Truth Social posts on trade that he has fired off since midnight.

The post appears to be a departure from previous remarks he has made on the decisions by the UK and France to recognize a Palestinian state, in which he noted that he disagreed with the moves, which would “reward” Hamas, but would not seek to influence their decisions.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday that the UK would recognize a Palestinian state in September unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, and meets several other conditions, including recommitting to a viable peace process.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday the country's intentions to recognize Palestinian statehood at the 80th session of the United National General Assembly in September.

"This intention is predicated by the Palestinian Authority's commitment to much-needed reforms," Carney said.

He explained that PA's President Mahmoud Abbas plans to reform its government, hold general elections in 2026, in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarize the Palestinian state.

One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off Russia’s sparsely populated Far East early Wednesday, sending tsunami waves into Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast. Several people were injured, but none gravely, and no major damage has been reported so far.

Authorities warned the risk from the 8.8 magnitude quake could last for hours, and millions of people potentially in the path of the waves were initially told to move away from the shore or seek high ground.

The worst appeared to have passed for many areas, including the U.S., Japan and Russia. But along South America’s Pacific Coast, new warnings were forcing evacuations in Chile and Colombia.

In the immediate aftermath of the quake off Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula, residents fled inland as ports flooded, and several were injured while rushing to leave buildings.

A very powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka coast on Wednesday triggered tsunami warnings as far away as French Polynesia and Chile, and was followed by an eruption of the most active volcano on the peninsula.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, the Kremlin said, to discuss various developments in the Middle East, including recent sectarian violence in Syria and Iran’s nuclear program.

During the call, Putin stressed Syria’s territorial integrity, the Kremlin said, after sectarian violence in the Druze majority city of Sweida earlier this month prompted Israeli intervention in the form of airstrikes against Syrian military targets in both Sweida and Damascus.

Also during the call, Putin again offered to mediate in talks on Iran’s nuclear program, after negotiations ground to a halt last month, when Israel launched its surprise attack on Iranian military and nuclear targets, kickstarting a 12-day war between the two countries.

France on Tuesday failed in its attempt to rally all participants at the UN Conference on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution in New York to call on countries to recognize a Palestinian state.

A document presented to the participating countries and obtained by The Jerusalem Post, read: “We, the foreign ministers of countries that have recognized Palestine as a state or have expressed our willingness to do so, call on other countries around the world to join the call to recognize Palestine as a state.”

The failed event took place at a closed-door meeting of foreign ministers who attended the conference in New York. The French delegation, led by Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, presented the proposal to the participants, but in some cases, it was not well received.

Saudi Arabia can normalize ties with Israel only after the establishment of a Palestinian state, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan said, reiterating the kingdom’s stance days after President Emmanuel Macron said France would recognize it in September.

“For the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, normalization with Israel can only come through the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Bin Farhan said at a United Nations press conference with his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, on the two-state solution.

“That position remains the same, and it is based on a strong conviction that only through the establishment of a Palestinian state and only through addressing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination can we have sustainable peace and real integration in the region,” the Saudi foreign minister said.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to announce a peace plan that will reportedly include recognition of a Palestinian State, the Telegraph reported on Monday.

Starmer will introduce the plan to the US and Arab states within the next week, the Telegraph noted, adding that it will focus on steps to “turn a ceasefire into lasting peace.”

Ahead of a Monday meeting at Trump’s Turnberry golf course, the US president stressed that he would not be taking a position on the issue.

The US on Monday rejected as a "publicity stunt" a United Nations conference that brought dozens of ministers together to work toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

"This is a publicity stunt that comes in the middle of delicate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. Far from promoting peace, the conference will prolong the war, embolden Hamas, and reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

The 193-member UN General Assembly decided in September last year that such a conference would be held in 2025. Hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, the conference was postponed in June after Israel attacked Iran.

US President Donald Trump warned on Monday that he would order fresh US attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities should Tehran try to restart facilities that the United States bombed last month.

Trump issued the threat as he held talks with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his Turnberry golf resort on the western coast of Scotland.

Iran, which denies seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, has insisted it will not give up domestic uranium enrichment despite the bombings of three nuclear sites.

Egyptian diplomatic sources believe a significant shift is underway in US policy toward the Gaza Strip, moving beyond the goals of deterring or limiting the capabilities of the terrorist organization Hamas. According to the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, which is considered close to Hamas, Washington is said to be exploring a "more comprehensive vision" that redefines the objectives of the war.

Sources reported that in certain Washington circles, the idea has taken root that the war must be forcibly brought to an end, paving the way for a new political phase in Gaza. This approach, the sources explained, stems not from the framework of current negotiations but from what they described as "historic developments." The proposal envisions treating Gaza as a territory that must first be subdued militarily and then rebuilt, both politically and in terms of security, similar to how Berlin and Tokyo were handled after Germany and Japan were defeated in World War II.

After the deadlock of negotiations for a partial hostage deal, which would have seen 10 hostages released in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire, both Jerusalem and Washington are reassessing their approach.

Several members of the Trump administration believe the time may be right to propose a comprehensive deal that would bring about the release of all the hostages and an end to the war, a person familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post.

“It’s clear to everyone that a comprehensive deal is significantly harder to get both sides to agree on,” the source said.

Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to target Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking while visiting the Ramon Air Force Base in the Negev desert with Prime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the commander of the Israel Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, on Sunday.

“I want to send a clear message to the dictator Khamenei: If you continue to threaten Israel, our long hand will reach Tehran again and with even greater powers, and this time to you personally. Don’t threaten lest you get hurt,” Katz said.

The governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Australia announced over the weekend that they are not planning on backing France’s initiative to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September.

While London backs the move in principle, it “must be part of a wider plan, which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a video statement he posted to social media on Friday evening.

According to the British leader, this will “ensure that recognition is a tool of maximum impact, to improve the lives of those who are suffering, and that must always be our ultimate goal.”