Days after carrying out an airstrike mission against the Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen, Israeli Air Force commanders and pilots told Hebrew media Monday that they were ready to strike Iran directly.

“We will be ready for any scenario or order, even if it is 90 degrees to the east,” one IAF commander told the Walla news site, referring to the location of Iran.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's vice president and former foreign minister, claimed in an interview that Israel had planted explosives in centrifuge technology purchased for Iran's nuclear program. Zarif did not elaborate or say when the matter was uncovered, but said that explosives had been found planted in centrifuge components purchased by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and that they had been successfully detected and disposed of.

Iranian President Masoud Pazakhian told NBC in an interview: "Iran never plotted to kill Trump during his campaign - and will not do so in the future." He added: "This is another one of the plots that Israel and other countries are planning to promote Iranophobia. Iran has never tried and does not plan to assassinate anyone - at least as far as I know."

Jake Sullivan, the outgoing US national security adviser: Iran is at its weakest point since the 1979 revolution, and the fear is that this will push it towards nuclear weapons.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich: We are at a crucial and fateful time for the security, future and existence of the State of Israel. Naturally and as is my custom at these moments, I do these things quietly, in closed rooms, in a very matter-of-fact, serious, incisive and in-depth discourse. The only thing that concerns me is how to win, how to destroy Hamas, how to bring all our hostages home, I will not rest or be silent until these goals are achieved.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatens that if the IDF leaves Gaza as part of this hostage deal, if the war comes to an end with Hamas still standing, he will pull his party out of the government immediately.

The IDF and Shin Bet attacked dozens of terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip overnight, including a key terrorist and concentrations of terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Over the past 24 hours, the Air Force has attacked approximately 50 terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip. Among the targets attacked were: terrorist cells, weapons depots, underground infrastructure, anti-tank positions, and Hamas military structures.

Erdogan threatens Israel: "If Israel does not withdraw from Syria, the consequences will affect everyone. Turkey knows how to fight alone against the terrorist organizations in Syria."

@MiddleEastNewsIl

Trump national security pick says Hamas must be 'destroyed,' play no role in postwar Gaza; US to dramatically up support for Israel

Read more: https://toi.li/DI8V0f

Speaking in an interview on the Call Me Back podcast with Dan Senor, Waltz also says the incoming administration’s relationship with Israel will be much more supportive than the Biden administration’s was.

“We’ve been clear that Gaza has to be fully demilitarized, Hamas has to be destroyed to the point that it cannot reconstitute, and that Israel has every right to fully protect itself,” Waltz says. “Hamas cannot have a role. ISIS doesn’t have a role. Al Qaeda doesn’t have a role.”

“These are hostage-taking, murderous, rapist, torturers that never should ever have any role in governing,” he says

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@JewsIsrael

While most of the seized items have been from Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the military specifically noted that since December 7, it has seized around 3,300 military items from Syria, in addition to the voluminous numbers of Syrian military items which it destroyed in early December.

@JewsIsrael

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