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The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Egypt met with U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday to discuss Egypt’s Gaza reconstruction plan.

The discussions also covered the establishment of an administrative committee to manage the Strip.

According to reports from Saudi outlets Al Arabiya and Al Hadath, Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee, also attended the meeting.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Tuesday dismissed the idea that the Hamas terrorist organization is prepared to lay down its arms.

“I don’t see any indication that Hamas is ready to disarm,” Sa’ar said in an interview with ABC News chief national correspondent Matt Gutman.

I said in an interview on @ABC with @mattgutmanABC: The war in Gaza will not end without the demilitarization of Gaza Strip.

Sa’ar emphasized that if Hamas were to disarm, it would significantly alter the current conflict. “That would be a huge development—one that could change the entire equation. But up until now, they have been very clear and decisive that they will not disarm,” he said.

Israel has recently intensified its intelligence operations, using drones to deploy espionage devices in various areas of the Gaza Strip and collect information on future targets, the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported, citing sources from Palestinian terror factions in Gaza. 

The report also said that some of these drones are being used to gather intelligence on hostages still held in Gaza. 

Other sources from Gaza-based terrorist organizations claimed that the newly deployed surveillance tools released by drones include cameras and other wiretapping devices as small as a worm. These devices, they alleged, are hidden in bags placed in remote areas, cemeteries, and sometimes even in densely populated neighborhoods.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Tuesday dismissed the idea that the Hamas terrorist organization is prepared to lay down its arms.

“I don’t see any indication that Hamas is ready to disarm,” Sa’ar said in an interview with ABC News chief national correspondent Matt Gutman.

(photo: AFP / Getty)

The former al Qaeda terrorist and current Interim President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, failed to stop a massacre of over 1,000 Syrians, including Christians, that unfolded last Thursday and continued over a period of days.

Al-Sharaa and his organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a U.S.-designated Sunni terrorist organization, toppled former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December.

Christian leaders and human rights activists have cast strong doubts on the capability of al-Sharra’s Islamist regime to build a democracy that can protect vulnerable religious minority groups.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday said that deadlines were needed on a deal for the next phase of the hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and that “all things are on the table” if the terror group agrees to demilitarize and leave the Gaza Strip.

Speaking on Fox News a day before he is slated to fly to Qatar for talks with Israel and Hamas, Witkoff said the terror group has “no alternative” other than disarming and leaving Gaza.

“If they leave, then all things are on the table for a negotiated peace, and that’s what they’ll need to do,” said Witkoff.

Israeli fighter jets on Monday night struck radars and other detection equipment in southern Syria, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed Tuesday morning.

Additionally, the Israeli Air Force targeted command positions and sites containing weapons belonging to the former Assad regime.

“The presence of these assets in southern Syria posed a threat to the State of Israel and IDF activities. These targets were struck in order to eliminate future threats,” according to the IDF.

The United Nations Security Council will hold a closed-door meeting on Wednesday to address Iran’s growing stockpile of highly enriched uranium, diplomats confirmed to Reuters on Monday.

Six member states requested the session—France, Greece, Panama, South Korea, Britain and the United States—amid rising concerns over Tehran’s nuclear activities.

Western diplomats say they will also press Iran to fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by providing necessary information about undeclared nuclear materials detected at multiple sites. Tehran has not yet commented on the planned meeting.

U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler confirmed on Sunday in a series of television interviews with American and Israeli media that direct talks with Hamas had indeed taken place, despite long-standing U.S. policy against negotiating with terrorists. 

“The reason that I met Hamas is because I want to work to help to get Americans and Israelis out,” he said during an interview with Israel’s Kan News, adding that he wanted to know the terror group’s demands for ending the war. “Some of the things that they talked about were relatively reasonable things and workable things,” he said.

The Knesset Land of Israel Caucus, the largest lobby in Israel’s parliament, representing some 80 Knesset members, threw its weight behind U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza relocation plan during a special conference it hosted in the Knesset on Sunday.

The conference, titled, “The New Middle East: The Plan for Voluntary Migration from Gaza,” featured numerous speakers, both Knesset members and activists. 

“It’s amazing how issues that would have sounded completely absurd a few years ago … have today become the consensus,” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, chairman of the Religious Zionism Party. “We were thought of as crazy, delusional. It turns out that the crazy people are the knowledgeable realists,” he added.

Israel sees “eye to eye” with the Trump administration on the Iranian threat, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday.

“I only say that we are committed to Iran not being a nuclear power,” Smotrich said in response to a question from JNS at a meeting of his Religious Zionism Party’s Knesset faction.

“The American president will decide how to do this,” he added, declining to expand further on the Iranian issue.

Tehran will not be bullied by the United States over its nuclear program, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Saturday, a day after President Donald Trump said he sent a letter to the Iranians asking to negotiate a deal.

“The insistence of some bully governments on negotiations is not to resolve issues, but to dominate and impose their own expectations,” Khamenei said in a meeting with senior Iranian officials in Tehran, Reuters reported.

“Talks for them is a path to have new expectations, it is not only about Iran’s nuclear issue. Iran will definitely not accept their expectations,” the dictator added, seemingly ruling out a path to negotiations.

The White House responded on Saturday to Iran’s rejection, reaffirming Trump’s stance that Tehran faces a choice between military action and a diplomatic agreement.

Meetings between Hamas leaders and US hostage negotiator Adam Boehler in recent days have focused on the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, a senior Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday.

“Several meetings have already taken place in Doha, focusing on releasing one of the dual-nationality prisoners. We have dealt positively and flexibly, in a way that serves the interests of the Palestinian people,” said Taher Nunu, political adviser to the leader of the terror group, confirming that talks took place over the past week.

The US-Hamas discussions broke with a decades-old policy by Washington against negotiating with groups that the US has designated terrorist organizations. Hamas has been proscribed as such since 1997.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed gratitude to U.S. President Donald Trump in an X post on Saturday for his strong support of Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, referring to the Islamist group as “monstrous terrorists.”

Netanyahu wrote the remarks in a retweet of a Thursday post by Trump, in which the president warned Hamas that failing to release the hostages held in Gaza would lead to severe consequences, saying, “There will be hell to pay later.”

Trump’s post included images from his White House meeting on Wednesday with eight Israelis who had been freed from captivity in the Strip.

US President Donald Trump said that he was "shocked" to hear the testimonies of a delegation of recently released hostages that visited him this week. 

A delegation of hostages including Doron Steinbrecher, Eli Sharabi, Naama Levy, Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov, and Keith and Aviva Siegel, visited Trump at the White House on Wednesday. 

Trump asked them if there were any kind people in Gaza out of all of the people they encountered, and Trump said that all of the former hostages said no.

Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir took the helm as the 24th Chief of the Staff of the Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday, succeeding Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi. With the IDF poised to return to combat against Hamas in Gaza at any moment, and with the Iranian nuclear program making alarming progress, Zamir steps into the role at a pivotal time.

Zamir has stressed the need for military victory, stating on Wednesday, “Our actions will speak [for themselves].”

In his first address as IDF Chief of Staff, Zamir set the tone for his tenure, declaring, “This is an existential war. We will persist in our campaign to bring our hostages home and to defeat our enemies. The mission placed upon me from this day forward is clear: to lead the IDF to victory.”

The Israeli Air Force on Saturday attacked a Hezbollah operative who was engaged in reestablishing terrorist infrastructure and activities in Southern Lebanon.

And on Friday night, the IAF carried out intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah terrorist assets in Southern Lebanon.

The targets included rocket launchers and weapons storage facilities that “posed a threat to the State of Israel and constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the IDF said.

(photo: AFP)

US President Donald Trump said he wants to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran and sent a letter to its leadership this week suggesting talks with the Islamic Republic, which the West fears is rapidly nearing the capability to make nuclear weapons.

Asked in an interview, aired on Friday by Fox Business News, whether he had sent the letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Trump said, “Yes.”

Khamenei’s regime is sworn to Israel’s destruction.

U.S. President Donald Trump hinted on Friday that the United States could take military action against the Iranian nuclear program “very soon” if the Islamic Republic does not strike a deal with the United States.

(photos: Reuters)

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer voiced Israel's objection to direct talks between the United States and Hamas in a "tense" conversation with US Hostages' Affairs Envoy Adam Boehler on Tuesday, a senior Israeli official told Walla's Barak Ravid on Friday.

Boehler was leading the secret talks between the White House and Hamas over the release of hostages, as confirmed by The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

An Israeli source told the Post on Wednesday that Israel wasn’t too enthusiastic about the talks. The Prime Minister’s Office said, “Israel expressed its opinion to the United States regarding the direct talks with Hamas.”

US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff defends the Trump administration’s decision to launch direct talks with Hamas, breaking with longstanding policy not to negotiate with the terror group.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed strong support for President Donald Trump’s ultimatum to Hamas, saying the president is done waiting for the terrorist group to release hostages in Gaza.

“He’s lost his patience with it,” Rubio told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday. “He’s tired of watching videos of emaciated hostages being released, bodies turned over—sometimes the wrong ones—and these games being played.”

Following an Oval Office meeting with freed Israeli hostages earlier in the day, Trump issued a blunt warning on Truth Social: “Release all of the hostages now, not later … or it is over for you.” He vowed to provide Israel with “everything it needs to finish the job” if Hamas refuses.

The secretary of state praised Trump’s direct approach. “He doesn’t say things he doesn’t mean,” Rubio said. “If he says he’ll do something, he’ll do it. They better take that seriously.”

The direct talks between the US and Hamas have hit a snag since their existence was leaked to the media on Wednesday, a government official briefed on the talks told The Times of Israel.

The negotiations — unprecedented in nature — have largely been focused on securing the release of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander along with the bodies of American-Israelis Itay Chen, Omer Neutra, Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein, the official said.

Israel was not fully briefed on the talks ahead of time, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unhappy with their existence, the official said. The premier’s office issued a terse statement following an Axios report revealing the existence of the first-ever direct talks between the US and Hamas, saying, “Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas.”

With several released hostages and the families of freed captives in the audience during his address to a joint session of Congress, US President Donald Trump touts his efforts to return hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza.

“In the Middle East, we are bringing back our hostages from Gaza,” Trump says.