Israel pounded Iran in a series of air raids on Friday, striking 100 targets including Tehran's nuclear and military sites, and killing the armed forces' chief of staff, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and top nuclear scientists.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran Friday, was a veteran officer close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei known for his tirades against Israel and its US ally.
Israeli naval forces boarded and seized a charity vessel that had tried to break a naval blockade of the war-torn Gaza Strip on Monday and the boat with its crew of 12, including activist Greta Thunberg, is now heading to a port in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the fatal shooting of two embassy staffers in Washington as a vile act of antisemitic violence, intensifying fears of growing hostility toward Israelis abroad amid mounting global tensions.
The leaders of the United Kingdom, France, and Canada threatened to take “concrete actions” on Monday, including targeted sanctions, if Israel does not stop its renewed military offensive and continues to block aid from entering Gaza.
Hamas is open to an agreement to end the Gaza war that would include the one-time release of all remaining hostages and a five-year cessation of hostilities, an official from the Palestinian group said Saturday.
"The equation has changed," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. "We will continue to enforce the ceasefire with force, strike everywhere in Lebanon against any threat to the State of Israel."
Israel's military admitted Saturday it had fired on ambulances in the Gaza Strip after identifying them as "suspicious vehicles", with Hamas condemning it as a "war crime" that killed at least one person.
