U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Israel on Monday morning to discuss the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, a day after Hamas killed two IDF soldiers and the Israeli Air Force struck in Rafah in response.

Hamas terrorists shot an anti-tank missile at heavy machinery used by the IDF to destroy the terrorist organization’s tunnels in Rafah, killing two soldiers on Sunday. Hamas claimed that the explosion was due to the machinery driving over an IED, but the IDF suspected the attack was part of an attempt to capture soldiers, Walla! News reported. 

There have been several other recent attacks by Hamas, including two on Friday in which terrorists emerged from tunnels and shot at IDF soldiers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the heads of Israel’s defense establishment to “take strong action against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip,” his office stated soon after the Israeli strikes on Sunday. The Israeli army, however, announced on Sunday night, “In accordance with the directive of the political echelon, and following a series of significant strikes in response to Hamas’ violations, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire. The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it.”

The Rafah strikes came nearly a week after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect. Hamas was supposed to free all 48 hostages that remained in Gaza at the time within 72 hours, according to the summary of the 20-point plan released by the White House. However, it only released the 20 living ones, and has been gradually handing over the bodies of deceased hostages; 16 bodies remain in Gaza.

In addition, Hamas terrorists have repeatedly launched attacks on Israeli soldiers, and Palestinians have crossed into areas in which IDF troops are deployed, in accordance with the ceasefire deal, leading the soldiers to shoot and kill several of them.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, called for “a full renewal of the fighting in the [Gaza] Strip, at full force. False imaginings that Hamas will change its skin or will even fulfill the agreement it signed have turned out, as expected, to be dangerous to our security. The Nazi terrorist organization must be fully destroyed, as soon as possible.” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich simply posted: “War!”

The first phase of President Donald Trump’s deal had Israel withdraw to the “yellow line,” moving out of Gaza City and other areas, but remaining in control of 53% of Gaza, including Rafah. The IDF began posting concrete blocks painted yellow along that line on Sunday morning, as a warning to “Hamas terrorists and Gaza residents that any violation or attempt to cross the line will be met with fire,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said when he announced the erection of the physical boundary on Friday.

Hamas has also been clashing with and executing members of rival gangs and Gaza residents it has accused of collaborating with Israel. The State Department released a statement on Saturday warning that a Hamas “attack against Palestinian civilians would constitute a direct and grave violation of the ceasefire agreement” and, should they continue, “measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire.” 

Netanyahu’s office announced on Saturday night that the Rafah crossing, the main entrance for goods into Gaza, would remain closed as long as Hamas does not release the hostages’ bodies. However, IDF soldiers posted videos to social media of trucks of fuel entering Gaza on Sunday. 

Witkoff and Kushner, who has a key role in the administration’s Middle East efforts, are expected to start talks with Jerusalem about the second phase of the ceasefire deal, in which Hamas would be disarmed, Gaza would be demilitarized, the IDF would withdraw further and be replaced by an international stabilization force, and a technocratic government would be installed in Gaza, under the supervision of a Peace Board led by Trump and including former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.

This story was updated on Oct. 20, 2025, at 04:20 a.m. ET.

Israel struck a centrifuge production site in Tehran early Wednesday, after successfully intercepting more than two dozen missiles launched by Iran toward Israel in the preceding hours.

Over 50 Israeli Air Force jets flew to Iran, where they struck a facility in which centrifuges were manufactured to expand and accelerate uranium enrichment for Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.

”The Iranian regime is enriching uranium for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons. Nuclear power for civilian use does not require enrichment at these levels,” the IDF said.

The IDF also said it struck several weapons manufacturing facilities, including one used “to produce raw materials and components for the assembly of surface-to-surface missiles, which the Iranian regime has fired and continues to fire toward the State of Israel.” Another facility that the IDF struck manufactured components for anti-aircraft missiles.

IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin said on Wednesday that the IDF “attacked five Iranian combat helicopters that tried to harm our aircraft.” 

“There is Iranian resistance, but we control the air [over Iran] and will continue to control it. We are deepening our damage to surface missiles and acting in every place from which the Iranians shoot missiles at Israel,” Defrin added.

Defrin said on Tuesday evening that, as a result of Israel’s air superiority in western Iran and the Tehran area, the Islamic Republic’s military efforts “have been pushed back into central Iran. They are now focusing their efforts on conducting missile fire from the area of Isfahan.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “a tornado is passing over Tehran. Symbols of the regime are exploding and collapsing, from the broadcast authority and soon other targets, and masses of residents are fleeing. This is how dictatorships collapse.” 

Most of the projectiles fired from Iran toward northern and central Israel overnight were intercepted, and no injuries or fatalities were reported. 

In addition, Iran launched over 10 drones at the Galilee and the Golan on Wednesday morning, all of which the IDF intercepted.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Israel is running low on Arrow interceptors used to shoot down long-range ballistic missiles from Iran. Israel also uses the David’s Sling system against Iranian missiles. The Arrow is manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries. The U.S. has augmented Israel’s air defenses with its THAAD system, but is concerned about its own stock of interceptors. The IDF told the Journal that “it is prepared and ready to handle any scenario.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote on X that Iran “must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime. We will show the Zionists no mercy.” On his Persian X account, Khamenei evoked Khaybar, the site of a massacre of Jews by Muslims in the 7th century, along with an image of a man with a sword entering a burning castle. 

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that it shot Fatah-1 hypersonic missiles at Israel, which move faster than the speed of sound and cannot be detected by missile defense systems. However, there is no evidence on the ground in Israel of that being the case. 

Iranian state media reported on Wednesday the interception of an Israeli drone near Isfahan, with footage of an aircraft that looks like an IAF Hermes 900. The IDF declined to comment. 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote a letter updating the U.N. Security Council on Israel’s Operation Rising Lion against Iran. The operation is “aimed to neutralize the existential and imminent threat from Iran’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs” and “specifically targets military facilities and critical components of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, as well as key individuals involved in Iran’s efforts to achieve nuclear weapons.” 

Sa’ar noted the Islamic Republic’s “public threats to eliminate the State of Israel, in stark violation of the UN charter, and its continued attempts to achieve the means to accomplish this by rapidly developing military nuclear capabilities, as well as its ballistic missile program.” He pointed out that the International Atomic Energy Agency censured Iran in a recent Board of Governors decision for its non-compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Sa’ar’s letter came after two missives from Iran to the UNSC about Israel’s strikes on the country.

Also Wednesday, the first Israeli rescue flights arrived from Cyprus, meant to help some of the over 100,000 Israelis stuck abroad while Israel’s airspace is closed. Israel Airports Authority said that 2,800 Israelis were expected to return on Wednesday. Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia, Israir and Air Haifa will be making further emergency flights to repatriate Israelis.

China’s foreign ministry said that it was telling citizens to leave Israel and Iran, and Russia’s ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, said that the families of Russian diplomats left Israel via Egypt on Tuesday. 

Iran has launched about 400 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel, hitting 40 impact sites since the beginning of the operation on Friday, according to the Israeli Government Press Office. There have been 24 fatalities and over 804 injured, eight of whom are in serious condition. About 3,800 people have been evacuated from their homes and 18,766 damage claims were submitted to the Israel Tax Authority.

Israel killed Iran’s new top military commander and confidante of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei days after eliminating his predecessor, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office announced on Tuesday, after a night in which missile launches from Iran towards Israel slowed down significantly.

The Israeli Air Force struck a command center in Tehran, killing Ali Shadmany, Iran’s chief of war general staff, who had authority over the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian military. 

Shadmany, whom the IDF Spokesperson’s Office called “one of the closest figures to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,” was on the job for four days after Israel killed his predecessor, Alam Ali Rashid, early Friday.

“In his various roles, Shadmany played a direct and central role in shaping Iranian offensive operations targeting the State of Israel,” the IDF stated. “His elimination is the latest in a series of targeted strikes against Iran’s top military leadership, dealing another significant blow to the command structure of Iran’s armed forces.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in the Knesset on Tuesday that he “would recommend to whoever the job [of chief of war general staff] is offered to consider it well, and whoever responds positively should be very careful.”

Also Tuesday, the IAF struck dozens of military targets in western Iran, maintaining its control over the airspace and destroying surface-to-surface missile storage and launch sites, as well as UAV storage sites.

Israel struck the building from which Iranian state news channel IRINN was broadcasting on Monday. The explosion interrupted a news broadcast and rubble could be seen falling on screen. The IDF sent warnings to the civilian population in the area before the strike. 

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “the propaganda and incitement broadcast authority of the Iranian regime was attacked by the IDF after the broad evacuation of the residents of the area. We will strike the Iranian dictator everywhere.” 

Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday morning were the quietest since the beginning of the war with Iran on Friday. The IAF intercepted 30 projectiles launched from Iran toward Israel, with sirens mostly in northern and central Israel and no reports of injuries or damage to property.

On Tuesday morning, Iran launched additional missiles at Israel, triggering sirens in the center of the country, including Jerusalem and the West Bank. The IDF said it intercepted most of the projectiles. Magen David Adom reported 14 injuries at eight impact sites, including a bus depot in Herzliya where the blast created a four-meter-wide hole in the ground. 

The USS Nimitz, the U.S. Navy’s oldest aircraft carrier, headed from East Asia to the Middle East on Monday, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.