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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday, amid a diplomatic push to broker a ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Jerusalem and the Hamas terrorist organization.

The two leaders had a tête-à-tête at the Prime Minister’s Office in the capital ahead of an extended meeting scheduled for later in the day that is to include top American and Israeli officials.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday that he would not accept an end to the war in Gaza as part of a potential hostage deal, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.

“He told Blinken that we are interested in reaching a deal, and determined to topple Hamas,” said the official.

The United States won’t rest until all the hostages are returned from Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told activists who had gathered outside his hotel in Tel Aviv, demanding the release of the remaining 133 captives.

“Bringing your loved ones home is at the heart of everything we’re trying to do, and we will not rest until everyone – man, woman, soldier, civilian, young, old – is back home,” Blinken said as he stopped to speak to the demonstrators as they stood behind a steel barricade fence waving Israeli and American flags.  

Saudi Arabia has decided to normalize relations with Israel and is debating the timing of the announcement, a foreign diplomat familiar with the details told Haaretz on Monday.

According to the source cited in the article by the daily’s diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Lis, Riyadh is discussing whether to make the move in the coming weeks or after the U.S. presidential election this November...

While the Biden administration has been pushing to connect a pathway to Palestinian statehood as part of the Saudis joining the Abraham Accords, the source said that the kingdom would only demand guarantees on progress towards achieving that goal in return for establishing diplomatic ties with Jerusalem.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about progress toward a Jerusalem-Riyadh detente at the World Economic Forum special meeting in the Saudi capital on Monday, emphasizing the importance of a Palestinian state despite former Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen saying last August that it was not a major obstacle for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who met with Blinken on the sidelines of the summit.

The Israel Defense Forces will enter the Hamas stronghold of Rafah in southern Gaza irrespective of the outcome of hostages-for-ceasefire-and-terrorists talks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

“The notion that we will stop the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question,” said the premier during a meeting at his office in Jerusalem with the Heroism Forum, which represents bereaved IDF families, and the Tikva Forum for Families of Hostages.

The military “will enter Rafah and eliminate the Hamas battalions there—with or without a deal—to achieve total victory,” he said.

The families at the meeting urged Netanyahu “to continue achieving the goals of the war and to withstand the international pressure,” according to a readout from the Prime Minister’s Office.

At least five European Union countries will unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state by the end of May, the E.U.’s top diplomat revealed on Monday. Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Slovenia and Malta are expected to make the move, Josep Borrell said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported.

The US military’s cost estimate to build a pier off Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid has risen to $320 million, a US defense official and a source familiar with the matter tell Reuters.

The figure, which has not been previously reported, illustrates the massive scale of a construction effort that the Pentagon has said involves about 1,000 US service members, mostly from the Army and Navy.

Still, the cost has roughly doubled from initial estimates earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Israel has reduced the number of hostages it demands to be released in the first phase of a hostage deal with Hamas to 33, according to a Monday Kan News report.

According to a New York Times exclusive, Israel initially sought to release 40 hostages, including women, children, the seriously ill, and female soldiers. However, a revision occurred partly due to Israel's belief, as indicated by one official, that some of the 40 captives may have died while in captivity.

The shift has sparked hopes that Hamas and Israel may be moving towards finalizing their first truce since a weeklong ceasefire in November, during which Hamas released 105 captives in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia Monday morning for the first part of a wider Middle East tour, where he called Hamas to accept the latest and "extraordinarily generous" proposal for a Gaza truce.

The United States has seen "measurable progress" in the humanitarian situation in Gaza over the past few weeks,  Blinken said upon his arrival, but urged Israel to do more.

Speaking in Riyadh at the opening of a US-Gulf Cooperation Council meeting, Blinken said the most effective way to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was to achieve a ceasefire. He then said Washington continued efforts to prevent the Gaza war from expanding.

President Joe Biden held a phone call on Sunday with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the backdrop of growing U.S. college campus protests and a possibly imminent invasion of Rafah. The two discussed areas of commonality, with Biden "reaffirm[ing] his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security" after Iran's missile and drone attack on the country earlier this month, the White House readout said. The leaders reviewed hostage and cease-fire discussions and talked about humanitarian aid in Gaza as well. But the call also underscored daylight between the two on Israeli strategy in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah. Netanyahu shows no signs of backing away from a ground offensive there — a potential move that the U.S. publicly opposes.

“The leaders discussed Rafah and the President reiterated his clear position,” the readout said.

Earlier on Sunday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said during an ABC News interview that Israelis have "assured us they won’t go into Rafah until we’ve had a chance to really share our perspectives and concerns with them."

Jerusalem believes that the International Criminal Court in The Hague will issue arrest warrants against senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as early as this week.

Diplomatic efforts to thwart ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan’s move have failed, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported.

International arrest warrants are expected to be filed against Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, according the the report.

Antisemitic agitators continued protesting at college campuses across the country Sunday as police made arrests and attempted to clamp down on the takeover. The anti-Israel movement started at Columbia University and quickly spread up the East Coast, to the Midwest and as far as Texas and California.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Israel on next week amid hostage deal talks, The New York Times reported on Friday citing an Israeli official.

Israel's KAN News reported the same day that Blinken will arrive in Israel on on Tuesday.

The Secretary of State will be in the country to discuss with officials about Israel's planned Rafah incursion as well as talks for a hostage release deal, the Times reported, while also stating that "tensions have risen between Israel and the United States over the treatment of civilians in the war."

The Hamas terror group has published a new propaganda video showing signs of life from hostages Keith Siegel, 64, and Omri Miran, 46.

In the edited three-minute-long video, Siegel and Miran identify themselves and say they are hoping for a hostage deal that would see them and other hostages returned home.

The video is not dated, but Miran says he has been held captive for 202 days and Siegel mentions the Passover holiday, indicating the clips were filmed recently.

Another widespread and life-threatening tornado outbreak is likely across the Southern Plains on Saturday, just hours after twisters ripped through the nation’s heartland, leaving more than a dozen injured and neighborhoods reduced to rubble.

Some 55 million people are under threat of severe weather as the atmosphere recharges Saturday, stretching some 1,500 miles from border to border along the Plains, Mississippi Valley and into the Great Lakes, including many of the places still picking up the damage from Friday’s storms.

A round of severe thunderstorms will kick off from northwestern Texas into western Oklahoma on Saturday morning with large hail and damaging wind the primary threat. 

A Tornado Watch - the first of what will likely be several on Saturday - has been issued for parts of Texas and Oklahoma through 1 p.m. CT.

Dozens of tornadoes swept across America's heartland, impacting millions of residents and leaving a trail of destruction. 

Twenty million Americans, from Texas to Iowa, are on alert for twisters, large hail and up to 70 mph winds.

There were at least 59 reported tornadoes across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa as of 7 p.m. ET, according to the National Weather Service.

Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel was leading a delegation to Tel Aviv on Friday to advance negotiations for a hostages-for-ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group, the Qatari-owned Al-Arabi Al-Jadid reported.

Kamel will reportedly meet with Mossad head David Barnea and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.

The visit comes amid Hebrew-language media reports that Israel’s War Cabinet is willing to forge an agreement for the return of as few as 20 hostages instead of 40 in exchange for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the United States and China as the two sides butted heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues.

Talks between the two sides have increased in recent months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about China's support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues including Taiwan and the South China Sea, human rights and the production and export of synthetic opioid precursors.

Blinken sounded a positive note on recent progress made in bilateral cooperation, including in military communications, counternarcotics and artificial intelligence, on which the two sides agreed to start a dialogue on how to reduce risks from the rapidly emerging technology.

US troops have begun constructing a maritime pier off the coast of Gaza with the aim of speeding up the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave when it becomes operational in May, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

US President Joe Biden announced the construction of the pier in March as aid officials implored Israel to ease access for relief supplies into Gaza’s overland routes. Whether the pier will ultimately succeed in boosting humanitarian aid is unclear, as international officials warn of a risk of famine in northern Gaza.

The port sits just southwest of Gaza City, a little north of a road bisecting Gaza that the Israeli military built during the fighting.

Russia has vetoed a draft resolution before the United Nations Security Council banning nuclear weapons in space, spooking the United States. Moscow on Wednesday blocked the resolution, which was drafted by the U.S. and Japan. It would have reaffirmed the obligation of countries to comply with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty—not to place any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction in orbit around the Earth.

Ukrainian forces are withdrawing US-provided Abrams M1A1 main battle tanks from the front lines after at least five have been destroyed by cheap Russian drones, according to the AP.

Dozens of tornadoes swept across America's heartland, impacting millions of residents and leaving a trail of destruction. 

Twenty million Americans, from Texas to Iowa, are on alert for twisters, large hail and up to 70 mph winds.

There were at least 59 reported tornadoes across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa as of 7 p.m. ET, according to the National Weather Service.

Destroying Hamas is not a matter of if, but when, and Israel’s allies know this is the case, Israeli Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology Gila Gamliel told JNS on Thursday.

“All our friends know it, even the United States, and there is no other choice when dealing with a terror group whose goal is to eliminate Israel,” Gamliel said on the sidelines of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Hungary 2024.

Israel’s War Cabinet met on Thursday afternoon to discuss the IDF’s pending operation in Gaza’s Rafah city, where four of Hamas’s six remaining battalions are entrenched.

The Sabereen News, a Telegram channel affiliated with Iran-backed Iraqi militias is inciting American students to escalate university protests against Israel.

Per the Middle East Media Research Institute’s (MEMRI) Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM), the Telegram channel shared multiple photos of anti-Israeli protest across the U.S.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday threatened to crush the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) financially if certain unilateral actions are brought against Israel in the international arena.

In an open letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Smotrich warned that if any decision is made by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to unilaterally issue arrest warrants against Israeli citizens, or “a decision is made unilaterally in the [United Nations] General Assembly to recognize a Palestinian state, I will unilaterally and immediately stop the transfer of all funds to the P.A.”

Smotrich was referring to a recent Channel 12 report that the ICC was considering issuing arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials with the tacit approval of the United States.

The U.S. Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid package late Tuesday that includes $26 billion in wartime assistance for Israel and $9 billion in humanitarian aid, some of which will be allotted for the Gaza Strip.

The bill passed the Senate on an overwhelming 79-18 vote after the House had approved the package Saturday, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk after months of delays.

U.S. officials told AP that about $1 billion of the aid could be on its way shortly, with the bulk following in the coming weeks.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday claimed that the military had killed half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon, as the Israel Defense Forces carried out a large wave of strikes against dozens of sites belonging to the terror group.

“Half of the Hezbollah commanders in south Lebanon have been eliminated… and the other half hide and abandon south Lebanon to IDF operations,” Gallant said, after holding an assessment at the Northern Command headquarters in Safed with the chief of the command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, and other top officers.

He said Israel’s main goal in the north was to return tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah’s daily attacks to their homes.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets destroyed two Hamas rocket launchers embedded in a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, the army said Wednesday, as the war started by the terrorist group entered its 200th day.

The Israel Defense Forces said the launch pads were loaded with rockets and were struck before they could be used to attack the Jewish state.

The strike in the heart of a humanitarian zone was carried out following efforts to prevent harm to civilians, the military added.

Iran appears to have replaced a damaged radar with a different, incompatible radar in order to hide the impact of the strike.

Iran tried to cover up the damage caused by the alleged Israeli airstrike near Isfahan last week, satellite imagery shared with the Economist and the Institute for Science and International Security showed on Wednesday.

The alleged Israeli strike targeted an S-300 air defense battery near Isfahan in central Iran in response to a drone and missile attack launched by Iran against Israel earlier this month.