Israel-Gaza latest: Israel warns it will help create Trump’s vision of Gaza if Hamas doesn’t release hostages – UK Times

Israel is considering significant strikes on nuclear sites in Iran, US intelligence agencies found according to a report.

Israel is seeking to take advantage of Iran’s current weakness following the damage done to so-called proxy militant groups in the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Analysis by the agencies, concluded in the final days of the Biden administration, found that Israel would pressure the Trump administration into backing the strikes.

Military support from the US would likely be needed for a strike of such proportions, US military officials told WSJ.

The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the Israeli military responded to requests for comment from the US outlet.

In case you missed it: Palestinian journalist Nedal Hamdouna, who has been displaced seven times by the 15-month war in Gaza, describes ab emotional return home:

The “gates of hell will open” on Hamas if it does not release his country’s hostages by Saturday, the Israeli defence minister has warned.

In a security consultation, Israel Katz said: “If Hamas stops releasing the hostages, then there is no agreement and there is war.

“If Hamas does not release the Israeli hostages by Shabbat, the gates of hell will open on them, just as the US president promised.

“The new Gaza war will be different in intensity from the one before the ceasefire.”

He said the new war would “not end without Hamas’s defeat and the release of all the hostages”, adding it would “also enable the realisation of US president Trump’s vision regarding Gaza”.

Donald Trump has pushed a plan to resettle the Palestinian population to Egypt and Jordan.

There are signs that the differences over the fragile ceasefire deal could be bridged.

A Hamas official, Mahmoud Merdawi, told The Associated Press there were “positive signals” the three hostages will be released as planned on Saturday but the group had not yet received a commitment from Israel that it would adhere to the deal.

An Egyptian official with knowledge of the talks said the two sides were close to an agreement and that Israel had committed to delivering more tents, shelters and heavy equipment to Gaza.

The dispute was sparked when Hamas accused Israel of failing to meet some commitments under the truce, including the delivery of tents and other aid, and said it would delay the next hostage release on Saturday.

Israeli officials had no immediate comment. Israel says it is fulfilling its obligations under the deal.

North Korea has become the latest country to condemn Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza.

Last week, the US president announced plans to take ownership of the war-torn region and make it the “Rivera of Middle East”.

Under his plan, two million Palestinians would be resettled in neighbouring countries – which have opposed the idea.

Now North Korea has joined the opposition to the plan, condemning the idea as “bluster” and accusing Washington of robbery.

Commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency said: “The world is now boiling like a porridge pot over the US’ bombshell declaration’”.

It also criticised the Trump administration over its calls to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland, and its decision to change the name of the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America”.

“The US should awaken from its anachronistic daydream and stop at once the act of encroaching upon the dignity and sovereignty of other countries and nations,” the KCNA report said, while calling the U.S. a “ferocious robber”.

Jordan’s King Abdullah discussed “dangerous developments” in Gaza and the West Bank during a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the Jordanian royal court.

The phone call comes a day after the Jordanian king met US President Donald Trump in Washington, where he reiterated his country’s “steadfast position” against Trump’s controversial Gaza displacement plan.

The leaders of Egypt and Jordan have both reiterated their rejection of Trump’s plan to depopulate the Gaza Strip.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II once again rejected any mass displacement of Palestinians after meeting President Donald Trump, who has called for the Gaza Strip’s roughly 2 million residents to be removed from the territory.

Mr Trump has suggested they could be resettled in Jordan and Egypt, both of which are vehemently opposed to any such scenario.

The Palestinians also reject Trump’s plan, which they view as an attempt to forcibly displace them from part of their homeland. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have also rejected such plans.

During his meeting with Trump, Abdullah volunteered to accept up to 2,000 children from Gaza who have cancer or otherwise require medical treatment.

But in a post on social media after the meeting, he “reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” adding that it was a “unified Arab position”.

Jordan and Egypt have made peace with Israel but support the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

They fear that the permanent displacement of Gaza’s population could make that impossible.