Hamas uses Gaza university as HQ, Bibi says US arms needed to prevent Hezbollah war

Recently, Egyptian government officials held talks with their counterparts in the United States to curb the escalation in the North, as reported Friday in the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper, Al-Akhbar.

According to the report, a senior Egyptian official was quoted in the newspaper as saying that the talks with Washington focused on the "catastrophic consequences" for various parties in the event of a war in the region.

The Egyptians argued that Hassan Nasrallah's statements must be taken "seriously." According to the same Egyptian source, Washington sought to prevent the expansion of the war and believed that the current issue was no longer who fired the "first shot" but the consequences that would occur without a clear vision.

Iran's mission to the United Nations said on Friday that Hezbollah has the capability to defend itself and Lebanon against Israel, warning that "perhaps the time for the self-annihilation of this illegitimate regime has come."

"Any imprudent decision by the occupying Israeli regime to save itself could plunge the region into a new war," Iran's UN mission posted on X amid escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.

The IDF announced on Friday that it had located and destroyed weapons caches at Al Zahra University in Gaza.

Combat teams from the Alexandroni Brigade, the 8th Brigade, and the Multidimensional Unit operated in the Gaza Strip under the direction of the 99th Division, the military added.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday he is profoundly concerned by escalating tensions between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah and that UN peacekeepers are working to calm the situation and prevent miscalculation.

"One rash move - one miscalculation - could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination," he told reporters. "Let's be clear: The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza."

Dr Yuval Bitton treated Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a prison clinic in 2004, saving his life with a brain tumor diagnosis and facilitating an immediate transfer to the hospital. Some 19 years later, Bitton’s nephew was killed by terrorists on October 7 in an attack orchestrated by the now-Hamas leader, Bitton told CNN on Thursday. 

Bitton was employed as a dentist at Nafha Prison when he met Sinwar. Sinwar was serving four life sentences for the abduction and murder of two IDF soldiers. The notorious terror leader never completed his sentences, having been freed as part of a 2011 prisoner-hostage exchange that saw 1000 terrorists released in exchange for Gilad Shalit.

Bitton told CNN he felt he knew the attack was coming and immediately knew who was behind the devastating murders of over 1200 people.

A Pew Research Center poll conducted between March and April shows that 76% of Jewish Israelis think that Israel will definitely or probably succeed in achieving its war aims against Hamas; 12% think it will definitely or probably fail. Four percent think Israel’s military response to Hamas in Gaza has gone too far. Ninety percent of those surveyed perceive the role of the US in the war positively, and 40% think Israel should govern the Gaza Strip after the war.

The same poll was conducted among Arab Israelis, with different results. Only 38% of Arab Israelis think Israel will succeed in defeating Hamas; 42% believe it will definitely or probably fail. Seventy-four percent think the war in Gaza has gone too far. Regarding the US role in the war, only 29% perceive it to be positive and a mere 3% want Israel to govern the Gaza Strip after the war.

During the funeral for fallen soldier Omer Smadga, whose death in combat was announced on Friday morning, his father said that the IDF should keep fighting as hard as possible, Israeli media reported on Friday.

"I'm telling the soldiers here to keep their heads up. Keep going as hard as possible. Don't stop until we win. This is my message to anyone in combat. Am Israel Hai," he said to the thousands of mourners who came to attend the funeral of his son.

Israeli forces eliminated two wanted persons who were in a car in the West Bank Palestinian city of Kalkaliya, Israeli state broadcaster KAN reported on Friday afternoon.

One of the individuals reportedly belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organization.

Wafa, a state-run media outlet of the Palestinian Authority, reported that Israeli forces had opened fire at the vehicle. The Palestinian media outlet also claimed that Israeli special forces had surrounded a building in the heart of the city.

According to Wafa, more Israeli reinforcements were on their way to the scene.

This is a developing story.
 

Hamas welcomed the Republic of Armenia's official recognition of a Palestinian state on Friday afternoon.

The terror group wrote that it "considers it an additional and important step towards solidifying the international recognition of our people's rights and their aspirations to end the Nazi Zionist (Israeli) occupation of their land and establish their fully sovereign independent state with Jerusalem as its capital."

"We reiterate our call to the countries of the world to take similar steps in support of our people's struggle against the occupation and to isolate the criminal Zionist entity that continues to commit the genocide crime and ethnic cleansing against our Palestinian people," Hamas continued.

Hostile aircraft intrusion sirens sounded again in northern Israel on Friday afternoon. Previous sirens in the region that day had been determined to be false alarms.