Secretary of State Tony Blinken is “confident” the Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal will be implemented on Sunday, he told reporters Thursday morning. 

His comments came hours after the deal’s progress was cast into doubt following a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office that Hamas had reneged on parts of the agreement.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped the state’s attorney general, Ashley Moody, on Thursday to replace Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) when he departs office to become President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state.

As attorney general, Moody expressed unwavering support for Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks and has prioritized cracking down on rising statewide antisemitism in her job — with a focus on scrutinizing Florida’s college campuses.  

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, in his final days in office, said on Tuesday that China, Russia and Iran are “demonstrably weaker” after President Joe Biden’s time in office, during a wide-ranging conversation on “The Ezra Klein Show” podcast.

Questioned by Klein about whether President-elect Donald Trump is better suited to bring back international order as “a strongman” leader, Sullivan responded, “I believe we are in a plastic moment in the world, a time when our competitors are trying to challenge the system in a profound way. It’s true of China, it’s true of Russia, it’s true of Iran. And they’re doing so trying to push the boundaries of what they can — for lack of a better term — get away with. And I believe that, in a period like this, there is no way to prevent all crises, all turbulence. I don’t think that is a viable endgame for American foreign policy.”

Reports that Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to a cease-fire in exchange for the release of dozens of hostages in Gaza were met by congressional lawmakers with cautious optimism. 

Once the three-phase agreement was confirmed by the U.S. and Qatar — though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had yet to confirm the deal — lawmakers on both sides of the aisle supported the initial hostage release, while many emphasized the need to ensure that the remaining hostages not covered by the first phase of the agreement are released and that Hamas is fully dismantled.

Jason Miyares, the attorney general of Virginia, announced this week that his office had filed a petition to enforce a judge’s order from last July that a pro-Palestinian advocacy group with alleged ties to Hamas turn over closely guarded financial records that could shed light on its donor network — which has faced growing scrutiny in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.

Miyares’ office said in a statement on Tuesday that American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a nonprofit group headquartered in Virginia that he has been investigating in a probe of its fundraising operations, “has refused to comply” with a civil investigative demand for documents the group has long shielded from public view.

New demands by Hamas have created a “crisis” in the negotiations for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza in exchange for a temporary cease-fire and the release of Palestinian terrorists, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday, disputing President-elect Donald Trump’s assertion the day before – which was backed up in short order by President Joe Biden and Qatari officials – that it was a done deal. 

The Israeli prime minister’s announcement that the deal was not complete was met on Capitol Hill with relief by the agreement’s skeptics and concern from those supporting it. It also prompted a flurry of confusion over the actual status of the agreement.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the incoming Trump administration’s nominee to be secretary of state, said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is open to a new nuclear deal with Iran, under strict conditions.

Over the course of his testimony, Rubio also framed the announcement of a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza and recent losses for Iran and its proxies in the region as creating an opportunity for major steps forward on regional normalization and Israeli-Palestinian peace, condemned the International Criminal Court’s targeting of Israel and spoke forcefully about the need to combat antisemitism globally.

Nearly eight months after President Joe Biden gave a White House address laying out the terms of a proposed cease-fire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas, he again spoke at the White House lectern on Wednesday, this time to announce that the two warring sides had “finally” agreed to the deal.

“At long last, I can announce a cease-fire and a hostage deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said. “This is the cease-fire agreement I introduced last spring. Today, Hamas and Israel have agreed to that cease-fire agreement and the whole of ending the war.”