The Israel Defense Forces had eliminated the Hamas terrorist who led the Oct. 7, 2023 infiltration of a gas station near Kibbutz Magen, the military said on Tuesday.

Taha Abu Ayadeh, identified as a platoon commander in Hamas's Nukhba Force, was killed in a July 1 attack in the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza, according to the IDF.

He "infiltrated Israeli territory during the brutal October 7th massacre and led the infiltration of the gas station in Kibbutz Magen," the military stated. "In addition, throughout the war, Abu Ayadeh advanced and led numerous terrorist attacks, including several attacks in the last few weeks against IDF troops operating in the Khan Yunis area."

The IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) "will continue to operate against all of the terrorists who took part in the brutal October 7th massacre," the army added.

Footage of the Oct. 7 incident shows two workers of the gas station rushing to hide as Abu Ayadeh's gunmen opened fire. The two civilians reportedly hid in a freezer for hours before being discovered by the IDF.

The Israeli military continues to target Hamas terrorists in Gaza amid intensifying American-led efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement.

Five IDF divisions are carrying out coordinated strikes and ground operations across the coastal enclave as part of "Operation Gideon's Chariots."

According to an IDF update on Monday, the 162nd Armored Division remains active in the northern sector, recently killing terrorists and destroying a "military" facility used for planning terrorist attacks. 

At the same time, the 99th Reserve Infantry Division targeted and destroyed terror-related sites above and below ground. The 646th Brigade Combat Team attacked observation posts, military structures and anti-tank positions in the Beit Hanoun area of the northeastern Gaza Strip.

The 98th Paratroopers Division continued operations in the Gaza City area, killing terrorists and striking dozens of terrorist infrastructures, including observation posts and gathering points used by armed groups.

The 143rd "Gaza" Division, a combined arms division, continued its campaign in the southern sector, destroying dozens of terrorism-related sites and several combat assets.

The 36th Armored Division is active in the Khan Yunis region in southern Gaza.

The Israeli Air Force had carried out strikes throughout the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the IDF said on Monday, targeting and destroying terrorists, weapons storage facilities, observation posts, "military" buildings and other terrorist infrastructure.

All operations are being conducted under the direction of the Southern Command, with intelligence support from the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet.

The IAF attacked some 130 targets across the Gaza Strip over the weekend, including terrorist command and control centers, weapons storage sites and launchers, the IDF said on Sunday morning.

Since the resumption of ground operations following the expiration of a ceasefire on March 18, the IAF has struck more than 7,500 terrorist infrastructure sites in Gaza. The IDF says it has operational control over approximately 65% of the territory.

On July 3, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Efie Defrin said that the military was nearing completion of its objectives for the current phase of the war and would soon present its proposed next steps to the political leadership.

“Since the beginning of ‘Operation Gideon’s Chariots,’ we have severed Hamas’s control over wide areas of the Gaza Strip and undermined its governance. We are systematically and thoroughly dismantling the terrorist infrastructure, while maintaining a firm and stable hold on the ground,” said Defrin.

“We are achieving long-term strategic gains and preventing Hamas from rebuilding its centers of power,” he added.

United Airlines plans to resume flights to Israel in two weeks, becoming the first U.S. carrier to renew service to Tel Aviv since Israel's war with Iran, Israeli media reported Tuesday.

The Chicago-based carrier will operate twice daily nonstop service from its Newark hub to Tel Aviv starting on July 22, Israel's Channel 12 reported.

United had not responded to a request for comment at time of publication.

The airline, which used to run the most flights to Israel of any U.S. carrier, had previously been set to resume service to Tel Aviv on Aug. 1.

United’s chief rival, Delta Air Lines, is set to renew service from New York to Tel Aviv on Sept. 1.

The lucrative transatlantic route has been operated this month only by Israeli carriers El Al and Arkia, on completely oversold flights.

The European Aviation Authority on Monday lifted all flight restrictions on Israel.

The Israeli military eliminated Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar, a senior commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, during an airstrike in the Deir Kifa region of Southern Lebanon on Monday.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, Haidar was responsible for orchestrating several attacks against Israeli civilians and military personnel, including involvement in the so-called "Conquer the Galilee" plan—a plot by the Iranian terror proxy to infiltrate northern Israel, seize territory and capture hostages in the Galilee region.

The military further stated that in recent months, Haidar played a key role in efforts to reestablish Hezbollah's operational infrastructure in Southern Lebanon, actions which Israel considers a direct breach of previous understandings between itself and Lebanon.

Approximately two hours after the strike on Haidar, the IDF reported the elimination of another Hezbollah operative in the Beit Lif area, also in Southern Lebanon.

"We have cut off the weapons transfer routes to Hezbollah from Iran through Syria," Likud lawmaker Tally Gotliv told JNS. "Hezbollah is very weak. It has suffered intense attacks from Israel, with severe damage to its leadership, severe damage to its fighters, and continuous damage inflicted by our forces," she said.

"Israel responds with the guarantee of fire, suppressing Hezbollah's attempts to organize or act in Lebanon. Lebanon also understands that Hezbollah, as a terrorist organization, weakens the country and threatens the possibility of a normal, reasonable quality of life for the citizens of Lebanon," she continued.

"Therefore, the head of the terrorist organization Hezbollah does not surprise me with the way he spoke and behaved. I respond by saying he can say whatever he wants, and Israel will respond with force, power, and decisiveness, as it has in recent months," she added.

On Nov. 26, 2024, Jerusalem and Beirut signed a ceasefire deal aimed at ending more than a year of cross-border clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed group began attacking the Jewish state in support of Hamas in the aftermath of the Gaza-based terror group’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Since the truce, Jerusalem has carried out frequent operations aimed at preventing Hezbollah from reestablishing its capabilities in Southern Lebanon in violation of the truce.

The IDF launched a wave of attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon late on Sunday night, targeting multiple military sites and weapons storage facilities, the military stated.

Israel’s military said on Saturday that it had killed a terrorist in Hezbollah’s special operations Radwan Force in Aynata, southeastern Lebanon, as part of ongoing efforts to counter threats on the northern border.

In a separate operation, the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) confirmed that they killed Qasem Salah al-Husseini, a Lebanese terrorist affiliated with the Quds Force, the branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that specializes in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations, during a strike on July 3 in Kafr Sil, south of Beirut.

U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack said on Monday in Beirut that Hezbollah “needs to see that there’s a future for them.”

Speaking to reporters after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Washington’s ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria was quoted by AFP as saying, “Hezbollah is a political party. It also has a militant aspect to it. Hezbollah needs to see that there’s a future for them, that the road is not harnessed solely against them, and that there’s an intersection of peace and prosperity for them also.”

Hezbollah is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department.

A State Department official told JNS on Tuesday that “our position has not changed—[Hezbollah] is a designated terrorist organization, and we do not distinguish between its political or armed wings.”

“As Ambassador Barrack said while in Beirut, Lebanon must utilize this moment to make progress, and that includes progress on disarming” the terrorist group, the official added.

Barrack’s comments were made in the context of a roadmap for Hezbollah’s disarmament, which he delivered to the Lebanese government on behalf of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“I’m unbelievably satisfied with the response,” Barrack said at the press conference following his meeting with Aoun. “It’s thoughtful, it’s considered. We’re creating a go-forward plan. To create that, we need dialogue. What the government gave us was something spectacular in a very short period of time.”

The European Aviation Authority on Monday cancelled its recommendation, issued last month amid Israel's war with Iran, to avoid flying to the Jewish state.

The announcement comes two weeks after the end of the 12-day conflict, during which Israel’s airspace was mostly closed or severely restricted, and follows the easing of travel advisories by several Western governments.

Israeli transportation ministry officials voiced the hope that the move would expedite the return of European airlines to Israel, most of which are only due to resume service to Israel this fall.

Although Israel has been a profitable market for foreign airlines and demand is expected to be high, most foreign carriers have canceled flights to Israel through mid- to late summer, as they have already rerouted planes to other destinations.

Air France on Monday became the first major European carrier to resume flights to Tel Aviv, with Madrid’s Air Europa next in line to renew service to Israel on July 15. The German flag carrier Lufthansa is due to restart flights to Israel on Aug. 1, on the same day as United Airlines.

Europe’s top three budget airlines, as well as British Airways, are not scheduled to fly to Israel until the fall.

“The reality is that most Israeli travelers have already made their summer plans and primarily will focus on destinations close to Tel Aviv such as Greece or Cyprus,” Mark Feldman, CEO of Ziontours, told JNS.

With travel hampered due to the war against Hamas and airfares often very expensive, Greece was the top tourist destination for Israelis last year, surpassing the United States, according to the Israel Airports Authority.

More than 52,000 travelers passed through Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport on 342 international flights on Tuesday, including nearly 28,800 departing and 23,500 arriving passengers, slightly lower than the day before the war with Iran broke out.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to continue his diplomatic visit to Washington on Tuesday by meeting with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance.

Following a sit-down at Blair House, the president's guest residence across from the White House, Netanyahu is scheduled to travel along Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol for a meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La). He is expected to return to Blair House afterward for additional meetings.

In the afternoon, Netanyahu is slated to head to the Senate for a meeting with Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and other members of the chamber.

Netanyahu, his wife Sara and the prime minister's delegation arrived in the U.S. capital on Monday, joining President Donald Trump at the White House for a working dinner following remarks to the press.

This is Netanyahu's third visit to Washington since the start of Trump's presidency.

Netanyahu opened the meeting by presenting Trump with a copy of the letter he had sent to the Nobel Prize Committee nominating the president for the prestigious peace award.

“It’s well deserved, and you should get it,” said Netanyahu. Trump responded, “Coming from you, in particular, this is very meaningful.”

Netanyahu stated that the “partnership between Israel and the United States—the partnership between President Trump and me—produced a historic victory” over Iran. On the Palestinian front, he said that Israel and the United States are working with other countries to help improve prospects for Gazans, suggesting the effort could include the relocation of residents of the Strip to nations in the region.

Netanyahu said the shifting security landscape in Syria—highlighted by Iran’s reduced influence and a weakening Hezbollah—has created new opportunities for stability and peace. He credited the Trump administration and recent regional developments for paving the way toward a potential departure from conflict, though he declined to comment on any direct talks with Syria’s new leadership.

For his part, Trump revealed that his administration has scheduled negotiations with Iran, saying that “they want to talk” after taking a “big drubbing,” a reference to U.S. strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities. He suggested the date for the talks would be announced on Tuesday.

Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy for the Middle East, told reporters the negotiations with Iran would begin “in the next week or so.”

Netanyahu met earlier on Monday with Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Blair House.

Witkoff will travel to Qatar “later this week” to join the ongoing indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, the White House confirmed on Monday afternoon.

Fifty hostages remain in captivity in Gaza, including at least 20 who are believed to be alive 640 days after being taken during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre.

U.S. State Department documents confirm that Hamas is targeting Gaza Humanitarian Foundation personnel through a campaign of bounties and violence, The Washington Beacon reported Monday.

A June 30 cable sent from the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem states that the terrorist group has "formally placed bounties" on U.S. and Palestinian workers of GHF, a joint U.S.-Israeli aid effort formed in February to replace the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The bounties imperil "Palestinian workers and the U.S. security contractors helping to protect the GHF distribution sites," the cable, marked "sensitive but unclassified," reads, according to the Free Beacon’s report.

Last month, the foundation warned that its employees were being targeted.

“We are aware of credible reports that Hamas is openly targeting the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and those who work with us,” the U.S.-backed aid organization said on June 28. “According to these reports, Hamas has placed bounties on both our American security personnel and Palestinian aid workers—offering cash rewards to anyone who injures or kills them.”

The foundation further alleged that Hamas had positioned armed terrorists near humanitarian zones, in a deliberate effort to disrupt what GHF describes as the “only functioning aid delivery system in Gaza.” The group said that 12 members of its local staff have already been killed and others tortured in recent weeks, with threats intensifying by the day.

The State Department cable also confirmed that Hamas "made a recent demand that any ceasefire deal in Gaza must end GHF’s operations and return to the prior process of distributing assistance in Gaza to Hamas’s benefit," the report said. Israeli and U.S. officials are opposing this.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington, D.C., for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump about peace efforts, including vis-à-vis Hamas in Gaza. Its terrorists currently hold 50 Israeli hostages, of whom 20 are believed to be alive. An Israeli delegation is in Qatar for indirect talks with Hamas on a deal for the hostages’ release.

Hamas terrorists abducted those hostages and 201 others on Oct. 7, 2023, during an invasion of Israel in which they killed some 1,200 people and wounded thousands more. The invasion prompted an ongoing Israeli military campaign to dismantle Hamas and retrieve the hostages.

The fighting triggered armed conflicts with Hezbollah, which attacked Israel on Oct. 8, 2023. It suffered major losses that forced it to accept a ceasefire in November 2024.     

On Monday, the GHF said it has provided nearly 64 million meals via roughly 1.1 million boxes since it became operational in May.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the GHF’s operation, which was launched despite U.N. opposition, “a turning point in the war that will lead, G-d willing, to victory and Hamas’s destruction.”

Yet, shooting incidents, some likely staged by Hamas, near GHF facilities have served as propaganda tools against the organization. Additionally, Hamas has published images of its forces handing out food to many residents also after GHF became operational, making critics doubt its effectiveness in diminishing Hamas’s control of the population of Gaza through its dispensation of resources to them.  

The Israeli Air Force had intercepted a drone launched at the Jewish state by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists, the Israeli military announced on Monday night.

"Earlier today ... the IAF intercepted a UAV launched from Yemen," said the IDF, adding that "no sirens were sounded," in accordance with protocol.

The drone assault came mere hours after the Houthis launched two ballistic missiles at the Jewish early on Monday morning, marking the second such attack in 24 hours.

Overnight Saturday, the IDF also intercepted a ballistic missile from Yemen, which triggered air-raid alerts across Judea and the Dead Sea area.

The Houthis have escalated their aerial attacks on Israel in support of the Gaza-based Palestinian Hamas terror organization in recent weeks, including a direct hit near Ben-Gurion International Airport on May 4.

In response, IAF fighter jets carried out a series of airstrikes overnight Sunday, targeting Houthi infrastructure in Yemen, including facilities in the ports of Al Hudaydah, Ras Isa and Salif, as well as a power plant.

According to the IDF, the operation was a direct response to the Houthis' ongoing attacks.

"These ports are used by the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons from the Iranian regime, which are employed to carry out terrorist operations against the State of Israel and its allies," said the IDF.

In addition to ramping up their attacks on the Jewish state, the Houthis have also resumed missile and drone attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

On Monday, two crew members of the Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Eternity C were killed in an attack off the coast of Yemen, hours after a Houthi spokesman claimed an earlier terrorist assault on another vessel with the same flag and management.

Sunday's Houthi-claimed attack on the MV Magic Seas bulk carrier was said to have involved gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades from eight skiffs, as well as missiles and four unmanned surface vessels.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, an offshoot of the British Royal Navy, said on Tuesday that the Eternity C "sustained significant damage and has lost all propulsion."

"The vessel is surrounded by small craft and is under continuous attack," the U.K. body said in its advisory to shipping companies.

The deaths on Eternity C, the first since June 2024, bring the total number of sailors killed in Houthi attacks on Red Sea ships to six.

Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis launched missile and drone attacks on over 100 merchant ships in the Red Sea, resulting in the sinking of multiple vessels.

One of the mistakes of the modern post-colonial West is the belief that countries are comprised of people who live within set boundaries. Those boundaries can be drawn by the colonialists when they leave or by the United Nations, which brags that, since its founding, “80 former colonies have gained their independence.” Or they can be drawn by warfare, which is how every single national boundary in Western Europe and North America was determined, but the “international community” doesn’t care to talk about that.

The more “civilized” way, they stated, was simply to tell people who ended up within a particular boundary to give their allegiance to “the government,” which may or may not represent them, resemble them or share their goals. Religion matters here as well. Sometimes, enemies ended up within the same boundaries, engendering hideous territorial or religious wars that, to this day, include slavery, starvation and massacres.

If you’re thinking about Africa here, then please do. Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo all have vicious wars and suffering populations. But don’t forget the genocides in China, where the Great Leap Forward killed between 15 and 50 million people in a few years; where the Cultural Revolution killed another half-million to 2 million people; where Muslim Uyghurs are being eliminated today; and in Tibet, Hong Kong and Macau where the U.S. State Department says people face “severe human rights issues.” And don’t forget the targeting of indigenous people in South America or the Rohingya in Myanmar, or Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

All places with post-colonial issues.

The United States was not a major colonial overlord, although it did participate enthusiastically in post-colonial map-making, promoting territorial compromise, constitutions and elections as essential to a peaceful future. And ignoring the actual people of the region.

America and the United Nations drew boundaries for an Arab group called “Palestinians” and promised to make it a country with borders. Many Israelis enthusiastically agreed. They failed for so many reasons: The “Palestinians” didn’t want a country; they wanted to erase Israel. Governance was secondary to self-aggrandizement and, for some, jihad. Terror and corruption flourished because the “leadership” was largely disconnected from the people who had long lived in the space.

Think about Gaza. Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood, which has little or no connection to the people of Gaza and has been reduced to torturing Gaza civilians to frighten the people into obedience.

But to this day, almost two years after the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023, some, largely in the West, insist that more aid, more recognition (Norway, Ireland and Spain: you’re not helping), more something, will make Palestinians nice, respectable neighbors. Israelis, by a large margin, reject the premise.

Now, go to the bombshell story of the weekend. Hebron Arab clans, led by Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari, announced that they are severing ties with the Palestinian Authority and want to join the Abraham Accords, begun in 2020. According to The Wall Street Journal, two groups of sheikhs are involved, leading a majority of the 700,000 residents in the Hebron area.

Their letter states, in Hebrew: “The Emirate of Hebron shall recognize the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and the State of Israel shall recognize the Emirate of Hebron as the representative of the Arab residents in the Hebron District.”

Israel is, in fact, the nation-state of the Jewish people, while others live there as full citizens in peace and security. Hebron, as a district or as an emirate, has a coherent history and leadership and, according to the letter, a vision for the future. A future that includes the State of Israel and the Jewish people in cooperation for the betterment of both people.

Everything about it bodes well for Hebron’s people to enter the Abraham Accords. Looking back at the 2000 “Vision for Peace,” the precursor to the Abraham Accords, President Donald Trump laid out an amazing vision for the region. He was explicit in denouncing the role of the Arab states in the decades-long war against Israel. He offered recognition of “Palestine as the nation-state of the Palestinian people” if they would simply stop the campaign of terror against Israel and Jews, including incitement and “pay for slay.” 

It was a low bar, but the Palestinians couldn’t or didn’t want to do it because while the phraseology was common, “the nation-state of the Palestinian people” was never going to happen. Now, Hebron sheikhs have pre-empted P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas and the remnant of Hamas, as well as their malign jihadist puppet masters in Qatar.

This is a huge and hopeful moment for both the Arab and Israeli people. But not only. This is a nail in the coffin of Western post-colonialism and a chance for real self-determination for long-suffering people.

Israel's security forces detained Nasser al-Laham, a Palestinian reporter working for a Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese news outlet, during an overnight raid on his home in Bethlehem, Judea on Sunday.

"Last night, IDF soldiers apprehended a wanted individual in Bethlehem. The wanted individual was transferred to the Israel Police for further processing," the Israel Defense Forces told JNS on Monday.

Police confirmed in a statement to JNS that an investigation into al-Laham had been initiated "following suspicions of incitement, support for terrorism and affiliation with a hostile organization."

Al-Laham's employer, Lebanon's Hezbollah-linked Al Mayadeen outlet, claimed that Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) officers had searched his broadcasting studio during the arrest raid, as well as "electronic equipment and media devices linked to his journalistic work."

Al Mayadeen said he is expected to be brought before the Ofer military court on Thursday for a hearing on the extension of his pre-trial arrest.

Al-Laham's arrest was condemned by Hezbollah. In a statement cited by Iran's IRNA news agency, the terror group expressed its "solidarity with Nasser Al-Laham, Al Mayadeen network and all courageous journalists and media activists who strive to convey the truth in the face of danger and against an enemy that does not hesitate to target and kill them, thereby violating all international treaties and laws."

On Nov. 13, 2023, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi closed Al Mayadeen for 45 days after getting authorization from the country's Security Cabinet, as well as from then Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Like Qatar's Al Jazeera, which Israel banned in April 2024, Al Mayadeen has repeatedly been accused of serving as a terrorist propaganda outlet.

The ban on Al Mayadeen expired in January 2024, but Karhi reinstated it in August after one of its correspondents broadcast live from the site where a rocket barrage fired by Hezbollah killed 12 Druze children.

"Allowing a Hezbollah reporter to broadcast from the scene of the massacre that Hezbollah carried out is absurd by any standard," Karhi said at the time, noting that Jerusalem had still been waiting for defense officials to issue their opinion on the ban's renewal, as required by law.

Al-Laham has repeatedly incited against the Jewish state, including by saying in January 2019 that Jerusalem had become so arrogant that one day, someone angry could drop a nuclear bomb on it, and there would be nobody left to say Boker tov ("Good morning" in Hebrew).

The Palestinian reporter added that on that day he would write an article headlined Lo Ichpat Li, meaning "I don't care" in Hebrew.