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Former defense minister Yoav Gallant sent Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a letter urging him to abandon his war against Israel on Thursday.

“We have never met, but I trust we know a great deal about one another,” Gallant began, explaining that he had watched Khamenei for nearly 30 years as he rose to power.

“As defense minister, I was responsible for turning decades of Israeli intelligence, air force capabilities, and strategic doctrine into a single, coordinated military plan. The plan that cut through your 'Ring of Fire' like a hot knife through butter and ultimately caused it to collapse,” he said.

France and Saudi Arabia will convene a conference to promote the two-state solution by the end of July, a source familiar with the details told The Jerusalem Post on Friday.

The conference, scheduled to take place in New York, was initially planned for last month but was postponed due to the conflict between Israel and Iran.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were [scheduled] to co-chair the conference in June, focused on advancing the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lebanon has no plans to have normal relations with Israel at the present time, and Beirut’s main aim is to reach a “state of no war” with its southern neighbor, the country’s president said Friday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told hostage families on Wednesday that Hamas will determine which hostages will be released during the 60-day truce, a source present at the Washington meeting told The Times of Israel.

Netanyahu has yet to publicly comment on how the list of 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 slain hostages will be determined, which has become a major source of anxiety for hostage families, who fear that their loved ones will not be among those to be released during the temporary truce currently being negotiated.

The source said Netanyahu told the families that as far as Israel is concerned, all of the hostages are considered “humanitarian” — meaning that no group of living captives will be prioritized over the other, given that their conditions are all acutely dire after 643 days in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel was ready to negotiate a permanent ceasefire in Gaza during a 60-day truce but only if the Palestinian territory was demilitarized.

Delegations from Israel and Hamas began indirect talks in Doha on Sunday to try to agree a temporary halt in the war, which was sparked by the militant group's October 2023 attack.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has proposed a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of half of the 20 living hostages still in Gaza, Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

"At the beginning of this ceasefire, we will enter negotiations for a permanent end to the war," he said in a video message from Washington on Thursday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said he and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had exchanged "new" and "different" approaches to ending the nearly three-and-half-year-long war in Ukraine as President Donald Trump’s frustration mounts. 

"I think it’s a new and a different approach," Rubio told reporters following his nearly hour-long meeting with Lavrov at the sideline of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference in Malaysia. "I wouldn’t characterize it as something that guarantees a peace, but it’s a concept that I’ll take back to the president."

Rubio did not share any details of what this new approach entails, but comes as Trump mulls "biting" sanctions against Russia and upping military aid to Ukraine, also claiming this week that he did not sign off on the Pentagon's limited arms pause to Kyiv pushed through earlier this month.

A senior Israeli official has issued a less-than-optimistic assessment of the permanency of any ceasefire in Gaza.

Speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, the senior official said that a 60-day ceasefire "might" be possible within "a week, two weeks - not a day".

But on the chances of the ceasefire lasting beyond 60 days, the official said: "We will begin negotiations on a permanent settlement.

"But we achieve it? It's questionable, but Hamas will not be there."

Ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Pentagon, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls Israel a “model ally,” one that fights to protect itself.

“There are many allies. And then there are allies that act.”

Hegseth lauds “the skill of what you accomplished” in Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrapped up his second White House meeting with US President Donald Trump in as many days without any public announcement of a breakthrough in the ongoing Gaza ceasefire and hostage release talks, which was the primary topic of the sit-down.

The possibility of such a declaration appeared to rise after the meeting was publicly added to Netanyahu’s schedule just hours in advance, with Trump saying they would discuss the Gaza Strip while US special envoy  Mideast Steve Witkoff expressed hope a deal could be reached this week.

But as Netanyahu and Trump met for over an hour in the Oval Office along with US Vice President JD Vance, two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that Witkoff decided to push back his flight to Doha, where he had been slated to join ongoing proximity talks between Israel and Hamas.

Netanyahu stated: "I think the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us. And that means that certain powers, like overall security, will always remain in our hands. Now, that is a fact, and no one in Israel will agree to anything else because we don't commit suicide. We want life, we cherish life for ourselves, for our neighbors. And I think we can work out a peace between us and the entire Middle East with president Trump's leadership. And by working together, I think we can establish a very, very broad peace that will include all our neighbors."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued his diplomatic visit to Washington on Tuesday by meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

Following the 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.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Monday evening in Washington, D.C., that the “partnership between Israel and the United States—the partnership between President Trump and me—produced a historic victory” over Iran.

He and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to the press at length before a working dinner at the White House, opening a portion of the event to the media at the last moment.

Netanyahu likened the combined American and Israeli efforts against Tehran as setting back “the two tumors that were threatening the life of Israel: the nuclear tumor and the ballistic-missile tumor.” As for the latter, Netanyahu said Iran intended to build 20,000 to launch “on a country the size of New Jersey. No country can withstand that. So what do you do when you have two things that are going to kill you? You have to remove them.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed US President Donald Trump on Monday evening that he has nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"I wanted to express deep appreciation and admiration, not only of all Israelis, but of the Jewish people," Netanyahu said.

"The president has already realized great opportunities. He forged the Abraham Accords, he's forging peace as we speak with one country and one region after the other. I want to present to you, Mr. President, a letter that I sent to the Nobel prize committee. It's nominating you for the peace prize."

Sources familiar with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trip to the US told Israel Hayom on Monday that the main topic for discussion between Netanyahu and Trump is formulating follow-up measures on the Iranian issue. While Witkoff is overseeing the negotiations and developments in Doha, Netanyahu is expected to focus instead on Iran following the joint effort to counter its nuclear program.

It has also emerged that peace with Syria is not on the agenda for this visit or in the coming weeks.

As for the situation in Doha, negotiations are set to resume over the three contentious issues: the withdrawal of IDF troops from the Gaza Strip, the distribution of humanitarian aid, and the mechanism for ending the war or talks aimed at ending it. Hamas has rejected the language in the Qatari proposal concerning each of these issues.

Secretary Rubio will also participate in the dinner. No press events have been scheduled at this time.

U.S. President Donald Trump has stated that any nation supporting BRICS policies that oppose American interests will face an extra 10% tariff.

“Any country aligning itself with the anti-American policies of BRICS will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday.

BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—the five original member countries of the bloc of major emerging economies. The coalition has expanded to 11 members with the addition of six new countries over the past two years: Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed Ben-Gurion International Airport aboard “Wing of Zion” on Sunday evening for his third in-person meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the wake of “Operation Rising Lion” and amid talk of a possible hostages-for-ceasefire deal.

“In my conversation with President Trump, I will first of all thank him for his very strong support for Israel. We have never had such a friend in the White House,” Netanyahu told the press just before his flight.

“Our joint efforts have brought about a tremendous victory over our common enemy—Iran,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed Ben-Gurion International Airport aboard “Wing of Zion” on Sunday evening for his third in-person meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the wake of “Operation Rising Lion” and amid talk of a possible hostages-for-ceasefire deal.

“In my conversation with President Trump, I will first of all thank him for his very strong support for Israel. We have never had such a friend in the White House,” Netanyahu told the press just before his flight.

“Our joint efforts have brought about a tremendous victory over our common enemy—Iran,” he said.

The camp director and co-owner of Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, died in the catastrophic flooding as he reportedly raced to save the lives of his young campers.

Dick Eastland, who purchased the camp in 1974, died after the wall of water crashed through the Christian summer camp, which is located along the banks of the Guadalupe River, Texas Public Radio reported. 

Syria’s new governing authority on Friday claimed a willingness to work with the United States to reimplement the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel, which created a U.N.-monitored buffer zone separating the two countries.

After a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani expressed Damascus’s “aspiration to cooperate with the United States to return to the 1974 disengagement agreement.”

Rubio released a statement saying the two men discussed “matters of shared concern, including countering terrorism, Iran, Israel-Syria relations and destroying any remnants of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons program.”

US President Donald Trump said on Friday it was good that Hamas said it had responded in "a positive spirit" to a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal.

He told reporters aboard Air Force One there could be a deal on a Gaza ceasefire by next week but that he had not been briefed on the current state of negotiations.

Trump said on Friday that Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear program or to give up enriching uranium.

President Donald Trump signs the sweeping Republican-crafted domestic policy package that he and the GOP call the "One Big Beautiful Bill," into law on Friday at the White House.

The massive tax cuts and spending bill passed the House and Senate this week by razor-thin margins along near party lines. 

But the political battle over the bill is far from over, as it moves from Capitol Hill to the campaign trail.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Big Beautiful Bill” budget on Thursday in a party-line vote.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the bill would “set the stage for the coming golden age” under U.S. President Donald Trump.

“President Trump has delivered on his promises to Main Street while strengthening critical programs, national security and America’s manufacturing sector,” Bessent stated. “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill will unleash the full potential of the U.S. economy.”