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More than two years after Hamas attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7, “Israel has come out of this war stronger than ever before,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told attendees of a JNS event in Surfside, Fla., which drew hundreds of people on New Year’s Eve.

The Israeli premier told attendees that the Jewish state made alliances and peace with strong countries.

“We have opened up opportunities for peace that have never existed before. In the first term of President Trump’s office, we did the Abraham Accords that brought four historic peace accords with four Arab states,” he said. “We’re committed to do more.”

“It’s peace through strength,” he said. “It’s prosperity through strength.”

Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City just after midnight Thursday, taking the oath of office at a historic decommissioned subway station in Manhattan.

Mamdani, a Democrat and an avowed anti-Zionist, was sworn in as the first Muslim leader of America’s biggest city, placing his hand on a Quran as he took his oath.

“This is truly the honor and the privilege of a lifetime,” Mamdani said in a brief speech.

Finnish authorities have seized a vessel suspected of intentionally severing undersea telecommunications cables amid fears of Russian sabotage in the Gulf of Finland. The seized cargo vessel Fitburg was en route from the Russian port of St Petersburg ⁠to Israel at the time of the incident on Wednesday, Finnish Border Guard officials said at a news conference in Helsinki.

Regional pressure on Hezbollah is intensifying, as Egypt, Qatar and Turkey have reportedly issued a stark ultimatum to the group to relinquish its weapons and transfer them to the Lebanese state.

According to a report by the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, citing Lebanese ministerial sources, the three countries warned Hezbollah that disarmament could help Lebanon avoid a potential Israeli military strike and prevent deeper internal divisions between the group and the broader Lebanese public.

The message was framed as a last opportunity to de-escalate at a moment of heightened regional tension.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Tuesday that progress toward the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire hinges on Hamas disarming, calling the terrorist group’s refusal to give up its weapons the central obstacle to stabilizing the territory in 2026.

“A new government in Gaza is possible if you disarm Hamas, because no one’s going to come in there if Hamas stays armed,” Netanyahu told the TV network’s chief political anchor, Bret Baier. “They’ll put a bullet right through the back of their head, you know, anyone of any potential new government.”

Netanyahu stressed that the next phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which envisions Gaza’s full demilitarization and the deployment of an International Stabilization Force, has stalled because of Hamas.

US President Donald Trump gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approval to take action against Hezbollah, "If the Lebanese army doesn't succeed in disarming them, and Israel believes an action is the necessary thing to do," two sources familiar with details of their Monday meeting told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed the option of another military confrontation with Iran during talks with U.S. President Donald Trump this week, Axios reported, citing multiple U.S. officials briefed on the meeting.

US President Donald Trump and his top aides expressed concern over several Israeli policies in the West Bank during their meetings Monday with visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in West Palm Beach, a US official told The Times of Israel.

Trump and his senior advisers took particular issue with unchecked settler violence, settlement expansion and Israel’s withholding of several billion dollars in Palestinian Authority tax revenues, which has brought the Ramallah-based government to the brink of collapse, the US official said, confirming a report on the Axios news site.

The official clarified that the conversations on those issues were cordial, even as Washington expressed fear that instability in the West Bank could harm efforts to stabilize the Gaza Strip and expand the Abraham Accords.

President Donald Trump and his senior advisers asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change Israel’s West Bank policies during their Monday meeting, Axios reported Tuesday, citing a US official and another source with direct knowledge.

The sources said the president and his advisers asked Netanyahu to avoid provocative steps and “calm things down,” raising concerns about settler violence, Palestinian Authority finances, and settlement expansion.

Axios reported that Netanyahu’s government policies were cited by the sources as weakening the Palestinian Authority, expanding settlements, legalizing outposts, displacing Palestinian communities, and moving toward de-facto annexation. The report added that Washington’s message was that changing course in the West Bank is critical to repairing ties with European countries and to any further growth of the Abraham Accords.

Saudi Arabia executed airstrikes on Yemen's Mukalla port Tuesday, obliterating what it characterized as an illicit weapons cache shipped from the United Arab Emirates to separatist forces, AP reported. Riyadh directly blamed the UAE for the separatists' recent territorial expansion, warning Abu Dhabi that its intervention was "extremely dangerous."

The CIA carried out a drone strike earlier this month on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, marking the first known US attack on a target inside that country.

Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would “absolutely” support additional Israeli strikes on Iranian missile and nuclear facilities.

In remarks to reporters, Trump agreed to military action alongside Israel if Iran “will continue with missiles” and nuclear activities.

“Yes, the nuclear: fast.” Trump said. “One will be yes, absolutely. The other we’ll do it immediately.”

It was not clear if Trump meant that he would support a strike under current conditions but suggested that any potential military action would be a response to Iranian actions.

The Defense Ministry announced on Sunday the delivery of the first operational high-power laser interception system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., dubbed “Iron Beam,” to the Israel Defense Forces.

The system, which has successfully intercepted rockets, mortar shells and drones during extensive testing, will be absorbed by the air force and integrated into the country’s multi-layered air defense array alongside Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow systems.

Calling the handover “a historic occasion,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said the system marks “the first time in the world that a high-power laser interception system has reached operational maturity,” adding that it “changes the rules of the game and sends a clear message to all our enemies… do not test us.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took off on Sunday from Ben Gurion Airport headed for Florida, where he is set to meet with US President Donald Trump for talks expected to focus on the future of the Gaza Strip and ongoing threats from Hezbollah and Iran.

In a rare move, Netanyahu did not have reporters accompanying him on his flight and did not give a customary statement ahead of his departure.

Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump, the fifth since Trump returned to office in January for his second term, is scheduled at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate at 3:30 p.m. local time on Monday.

Ahead of Monday's anticipated meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, sharp disagreements have emerged within the American administration regarding Gaza policy and Iran strategy, American and Israeli sources revealed to Israel Hayom Thursday evening.

The divide pits Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner against Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has the support of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Meanwhile, applying Israeli law throughout Judea and Samaria will surface among numerous discussion topics during Trump-Netanyahu deliberations, Israel Hayom confirmed from multiple involved sources. Surprisingly, American pressure for advancing such initiatives exceeds Israeli momentum, following senior evangelical figures expressing determination to pursue it.

The Israel Defense Forces on Friday struck a terror compound in Lebanon used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force to conduct drills for attacks against Israeli troops and civilians.

According to the military, training at the facility included live-fire exercises and additional drills involving a range of weapons.

“The training activities conducted at the compound constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” said the IDF.

At his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump next week, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will voice the opinion that pushing for a political solution with Hamas still in power in Gaza will prove a "historic mistake," i24NEWS understands.

While a wide range of issues are expected to come up at the Trump-Netanyahu Florida summit, from Syria and Lebanon to Iran, the most concerning for the Israeli premier is Gaza and the transition to Phase B of the deal. Key figures within the administration, led by envoy Witkoff, push to move forward with the rehabilitation of the Strip and further withdrawals, without any clear plan for how Hamas would be disarmed.

The concern raised in yesterday’s cabinet meeting is that Washington does not fully understand the danger of leaving Hamas armed in Gaza. Netanyahu is expected to argue to the president that failing to disarm the terror group and keeping it as the ruling power in Gaza would be a “historic mistake.”

The Israel Defense Forces carried out airstrikes Friday morning on Hezbollah targets in “several areas of Lebanon,” including a training compound used by the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, the military said.

According to the IDF, the compound struck on Friday was used for training operatives, conducting live-fire drills and planning attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians.

Hezbollah’s Radwan Force is tasked with preparations to invade Israel from the north, in an operation along the lines of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion from Gaza.

The US has launched strikes against militants linked to the Islamic State group (IS) in north-western Nigeria, where militants have sought to establish a foothold.

Camps run by the group in Sokoto state were hit near the border with Niger, the US military said. Casualty numbers are unclear, but both US and Nigerian officials say militants were killed.

US President Donald Trump said the Christmas Day strikes had been "deadly" and labelled the group "terrorist scum", saying they had been "targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians".

Talks between Israel and Syria over a security agreement have moved forward significantly in recent weeks with the possibility to be signed soon, a Syrian source close to President Ahmed Al-Sharaa tells i24NEWS.

According to the source, the recent breakthrough is attributed to significant efforts made by US President Donald Trump. It is possible that the agreement, which will include a diplomatic annex, will be signed during a high-level Syrian-Israeli meeting in a European country in the near future.

The Syrian source tells me that he did not rule out the possibility of a direct signing at a meeting between al-Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Turkey has been trying to deploy radars on Syrian soil in recent weeks, two Western intelligence sources told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, amid an escalating confrontation between Israel and Turkey over Ankara's presence in Syria.

Deploying radars in Syrian territory would significantly restrict the Israeli Air Force's freedom of action in Syrian airspace, as was in recent strikes, as Turkish radars could detect Israeli aircraft activity over the country.