Iranian ballistic missiles struck Soroka Hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel and sites in the Tel Aviv area on Thursday morning, wounding 89, including three seriously.

A missile struck the hospital’s old surgical building, severely damaging it and causing what a Soroka spokesperson described as “extensive damage in various areas” of the hospital complex. The surgical building had been recently evacuated in light of the war, and patients and staff had been moved to areas with reinforced walls. Injuries from the strike were light, hospital representatives said.

Soroka is the largest hospital in the Negev, such that the strike left a large swath of Israel without a functioning major medical center. Other hospitals in the area, including Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod, prepared to take in patients from buildings that were damaged. Magen David Adom provided four intensive care buses, able to transport a total of 23 ICU patients and 50 lightly injured casualties.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote that “The Iranian regime fired a ballistic missile at a hospital. The Iranian Regime deliberately targets civilians. The Iranian regime is committing war crimes. The Iranian regime has no red lines.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X that “Iran’s terrorist dictators shot missiles at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and the civilian population in the center of the country. We will make the dictators in Tehran pay the full price.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the price would be to destabilize the Islamic Republic’s regime.

“The prime minister and I instructed the IDF to increase the force of the attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against governmental targets in Tehran to remove the threats to the State of Israel and undermine the Ayatollahs’ regime,” he stated.

Iranian news agency IRNA claimed that the target of the strike was an IDF intelligence outpost in Beersheba’s HiTech Park, which is over a mile away from the hospital. A television channel tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the missile was aimed at a “military hospital” in response to strikes on “civilian hospitals” in Gaza.

In the same 30-missile barrage, Iranian missiles struck a school in Holon. No children were present, because schools have been closed across Israel since Friday, but three elderly residents of adjacent buildings were wounded in serious condition, in addition to 62 others with minor to moderate injuries.

Another missile struck near the Ramat Gan Diamond Exchange, abutting Tel Aviv, causing minor injuries to 21 people and damage to 20 buildings in the neighborhood, which includes some of Israel’s tallest buildings.

Shrapnel struck Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s biggest hospital, also in Ramat Gan.

Overnight, the IDF intercepted several drones launched by Iran at Israel towards central and northern Israel. 

Jordanian authorities reported that an Iranian drone fell in a shopping center north of Amman, damaging a car and a bus station. Syrian media reported that an Iranian drone was shot down over the country.

The IDF struck an inactive nuclear reactor near Arak in Iran early Thursday after sending warnings to civilians in the area. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said the strike included “the structure of the reactor’s core seal, which is a key component in plutonium production.”

“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.

The IDF also gave details of strikes on the active nuclear site in Natanz, which “contained components and specialized equipment used to advance nuclear weapons development and projects designed to accelerate the regime’s nuclear program.” 

In addition, 40 IAF fighter jets struck dozens of military targets in Tehran and other parts of the country, including factories manufacturing ballistic missile and air-defense components, as well as air-defense batteries, surface-to-surface missile storage sites, radar systems and other targets.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir sent a letter of encouragement to IDF soldiers and commanders on Thursday, saying that they are “writing a new chapter in history for the State of Israel and the entire Middle East.”

”Thanks to a decisive and impressive surprise opening strike, we have achieved tremendous goals: We eliminated the regime’s command echelons, delivered a deep blow to the capabilities used for the Iranian nuclear program, identified and struck missile launchers, and we are continuing and increasing the strength of our operations as necessary,” Zamir wrote.

Iranian news reported that the country’s military shot down a second Israeli Hermes Drome. The IDF confirmed that Iran downed the first UAV a day earlier.

Israel’s Home Front Command loosened restrictions on Israelis on Wednesdays, allowing people to return to workplaces with safe rooms and for up to 30 people to attend synagogue at a time. Schools and kindergartens remained closed.

A poll published by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 70% of Israelis support the campaign launched against Iran last week, while 10% support the campaign but think the timing is wrong and 13.5% oppose it. Among Israeli Jews, 82% support the strikes, whereas only 11% of Israeli Arabs do, according to the poll. Jewish Israelis across the political spectrum support the operation: 57% of those who self-identify as left-wing, 75% of centrists and 90% on the right.

Though in past polls, most Jewish Israelis did not think Israel should strike Iran without help from the U.S., this week 69% thought it was the right decision. In addition, 68% of Jewish Israelis thought that Netanyahu’s motivation behind launching the operation against Iran was security-related, while 68% of Arab Israelis thought it was political.

The poll was conducted this Sunday-Tuesday among 594 Israelis, with a 3.61% margin of error.

Last Thursday, Sam Heller went to sleep at a Tel Aviv hotel, thinking that any potential military action between Israel and Iran wouldn’t start until after his flight back to the U.S., scheduled for Saturday night. 

He was wrong.

When Home Front Command alerts woke Heller at 3 a.m. on Friday, informing the nation that Israel had launched a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, he quickly booked the first flight out to Paris from Ben Gurion Airport.

“I went straight to the airport, and they locked the doors to Ben-Gurion, and they stopped letting people in,” Heller told Jewish Insider on Tuesday, safely back home in Cleveland. “They’re like, ‘We’re closing our airspace indefinitely. Your flight’s been canceled. All flights are canceled. You can’t get out.’”

Like some 38,000 other foreign visitors stranded in Israel after the country’s preemptive strikes on Iran prompted days of Iranian ballistic missile attacks on Israel, Heller began to try to think of creative ways to leave the country. First he called an Israeli shipping company and asked if he could travel as a stowaway on a cargo ship heading to Cyprus. They told him yes, at a cost of 87,000 Euros for 12 people. He said no.

Then Heller, who was visiting Israel as the last leg of a monthlong trip after graduating from the University of Michigan in May, called a sailing company from which he had rented a boat two years ago. They told him the only boat suitable for travel to Cyprus was out of commission. Another no. Next, a phone call to a company that offers helicopter tours of Israel, thinking helicopters might not be included in the ban on flying. Nope. 

Finally, he tracked down a company that offers private security details in the Middle East. There, he identified a circuitous route out of Israel that took him 36 hours: departing Israel through the Taba border crossing to Egypt, being driven three-and-a-half hours to Sharm el-Sheikh and taking a flight from the Sinai resort town to Istanbul. He left Israel Saturday night after Shabbat and landed in Cleveland at 11 p.m. the next day. That’s a relatively fast trip compared to others who have made it out.

In the days since the Iran-Israel war started, a cottage industry has emerged to help ferry people from Israel to other destinations around the globe. 

Israeli airspace was closed for five days and the U.S. Embassy said it was unable to assist Americans seeking to evacuate. After the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, several State Department-led charter flights brought Americans to Athens — but charter flights were not an option following Israel’s attack on Iran and the ensuing war between the two countries. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on Tuesday.

El Al canceled all flights out of the country through at least June 23, and foreign carriers pulled out of Israel for longer. Israeli carriers El Al, Arkia and Israir announced on Tuesday that they received permission from the Israeli government to organize repatriation flights to bring back Israelis stranded abroad. The first two flights from Larnaca, Cyprus, landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday morning. 

The Israeli Tourism Ministry launched an effort on Tuesday to facilitate the departure of tourists from the country, distributing a digital registration form for departure flights from the country. 

But until those flights begin, in WhatsApp threads, Facebook groups and private messages, Americans stuck in Israel are passing along any information they can find to try to help get themselves and their loved ones home. The details are hard to verify. The costs range from expensive to astronomical. 

One graphic shared widely on WhatsApp advertises an emergency evacuation flight from Israel to New York, promising a Wednesday afternoon departure to Eilat and a bus transfer to Sharm el-Sheikh, followed by a charter flight to Milan and then a connection to JFK — “lavish meals included” and “security escorted” — for $2,200 a person. According to the travel company’s website, though, it was already sold out by the time the graphic circulated. Another message advertised a chartered flight from Aqaba, Jordan — near Eilat — to Paris, for $3,000 a person. Abraham Tours, a travel company best known for its hostels in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, advertised a cross-border transfer to Amman for $438. 

Adir Fischer is the vice president of marketing at Magnus Safety, a global search-and-rescue company based in Israel that is arranging boats to take people between Haifa and Larnaca, Cyprus. He can fit about 25 people on a tugboat for a 17-hour journey, costing between 1,000 and 2,000 Euros a person. 

“If you have three kids and a husband, it’s around 7,000 Euros a trip. Not everyone has it liquid, and it’s prepaid,” Fischer told JI on Tuesday. That’s before adding in the cost of flights from Cyprus back to the U.S. Still, he has turned away over 100 people because there isn’t enough room on the boats. 

One American woman who lives in Israel plans to depart on Wednesday on a small boat privately arranged by her husband’s company. They will be traveling with their six-month-old baby and two friends, at a cost of $15,000 for the five people. 

“Either I’m brave, crazy or an idiot. I’m not quite sure yet. But we really want to get out,” she said, requesting anonymity to speak about sensitive travel details. 

Early Sunday morning, Shira Raviv Schwartz woke up to a red alert. She was in Israel visiting her cousin, a trip she takes most summers. Soon after, her apartment building in Tel Aviv shook violently. In the morning, Schwartz saw that the next block had sustained a direct hit from an Iranian ballistic missile. She decided she needed to leave with her husband, their young adult son and her 84-year-old father-in-law. 

“I can’t take another night anxious in the safe room,” Schwartz said from Amman, where the family awaits a flight to Cairo, then another to Athens and finally a flight home to Chicago. 

Large tour groups have been luckier than individuals or families, who have to sort through the options themselves. Birthright Israel arranged for a private luxury cruise ship to bring 1,500 American young adults to Cyprus, where they boarded four planes back to the U.S. chartered by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

Jonathan Schanzer, who was leading a delegation hosted by his think tank, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, worked with the organization’s staff to get the group to Amman via the Allenby Bridge, the only border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan. (This is not an option for Israelis, who are not permitted to pass there.) He considered whether driving to Allenby amid the threat of incoming Iranian missiles was too dangerous but decided to risk it.

“Every security specialist warned me that the time in the war away from a shelter was the dangerous period, and I understood that,” Schanzer told JI. “But we were running out of programming for our participants and they were all sleep-deprived, as was I, from the incessant sirens every night. They didn’t sign up for this.” 

Jerusalem travel agent Mark Feldman said the key is not to tell clients what to do, but to give them options.

“Let him or her make the choice. I would never want to be responsible for somebody taking a 24-hour boat to Cyprus, throwing up the whole way, and emailing me saying it was the worst time of their life,” Feldman, the CEO of Ziontours, told JI. 

His business is at capacity simply trying to get existing clients into and out of Israel. His advice to those without a connection to a travel agent is to stick to trusted sources and avoid the “incredible amount of rumor-mongering.” Mostly, he is advising people to be patient, particularly those who do not have the appetite for a dayslong odyssey through multiple countries. 

But those who are waiting until the airspace reopens are not going to have an easy time leaving, Feldman warned. 

“Hard as it is just calming people down and relaxing them, the problem will come when the airport is open, and the thousands of people that are stuck here won’t have flights to get out,” said Feldman. If the airspace opens on June 23, the flights departing that day will be the ones that were initially scheduled for June 23 — meaning anyone with a June 23 ticket will have a confirmed seat. Everyone who has been stuck in Israel for days will be competing with each other for the empty seats.

“Many people assume, ‘Because I was bumped, I get first priority,’” said Feldman. “You don’t.”

A decision by President Donald Trump whether or not to join Israel’s strikes against Iran could make the difference between the full destruction of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and a more drawn-out war with a less conclusive end, Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher in the Iran and the Shi’ite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told Jewish Insider on Tuesday.

Citrinowicz, the former head of the Iran branch in the Research and Analysis Division (RAD) in Israeli defense intelligence, spoke with JI from Australia, where he is one of more than 100,000 Israelis stranded abroad as the country’s airspace remains closed.

He argued that Israel’s strikes on Iran have gone beyond the war aims authorized by its Security Cabinet — to weaken Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and indicate a push toward destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons program and forcing regime change. However, he warned, Israel would be unlikely to achieve either without help from the U.S.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jewish Insider: How would you describe where things stand on Day Five of the war between Israel and Iran?

Danny Citrinowicz: Trump is the variable. He is signaling that the Americans are in one minute, and then the White House says they don’t want to get involved the next. It’s clear that [Israel is] not only aiming at weakening the nuclear and missile programs. I think [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s plans, as he said on Iran International yesterday [that Israel will help “free” Iran], are much wider … There is a genuine attempt by Netanyahu to convince Trump to bring down the regime and change the entire Middle East.

JI: What progress has Israel made toward reaching its stated war aims?

DC: We maximized our achievements when it comes to the nuclear program. We struck the [nuclear] scientists. [The nuclear enrichment site] Natanz is an extraordinary achievement; it collapsed.

We had significant achievements against the missile program. It’s not clear if there have been fewer missile launches [from Iran] because of our strikes or because they are trying to be economical with their missiles. It’s significant that we took out a third of their missile launchers.

The strike on the [Iranian state] TV station is very strange because it is not connected to either war aim. 

My view is that Netanyahu wants to keep going and for there to be a historic event, but he needs the Americans. The Americans are the variable. If they enter, things will be totally different. If not, Israel will continue doing what it has been doing.

JI: How is the Iranian regime responding to the latest developments?

DC: The Iranians have a very difficult dilemma. Decision-making is difficult because they lost so many senior officers. The assassination [of Iran’s Chief of War Gen. Staff Ali Shadmani] last night was very serious for them.

For Iran’s leaders, giving up on the nuclear program is giving up on the revolution. But if they continue fighting, they may also lose the revolution. They have a different view of the situation than we do, which ensures that they will continue fighting for the foreseeable future.

That’s why the important variable is whether Trump will decide to attack [the underground nuclear facility] in Fordow. If he says no, then the war will continue as it has been, with varying momentum as the Iranians try to challenge Israel.

I don’t see this ending soon if the Americans don’t enter [the war]. If they don’t, we will be in this for several weeks, at least…

There is an obstacle for Israel in Fordow [that it does not have the requisite bombs or bomber planes to destroy the facility under a mountain]. We could be planning something, but for now, I’m not optimistic.

JI: If the U.S. does not attack Fordow, what targets remain for Israel to attain its stated war goals?

DC: I don’t think we can achieve more than we already did … We are destroying missiles and launchers. We killed senior officials. There isn’t something left to achieve [in] the war aims that stands out. It’s just deepening the achievement.

My concern is that we’re going beyond that.

JI: Do you mean regime change as well?

DC: I think we’re aiming for it, but Israelis cannot do it alone. With the Americans, maybe. Replacing a regime through military means is hard, and you don’t always end up with something better. There’s a better chance with the Americans. I’ll be very surprised if it happens with Israel alone.

JI: Do you think Israel could send ground troops to demolish Fordow? 

DC: Some have written about it, because they understand that attacking it from the air will be very hard. Either the Americans will help from the air, or something will happen that we don’t know about. 

JI: What if Fordow isn’t destroyed?

DC: If this ends with Fordow intact, it’s a loss, because they can still enrich to 90%. We knew this from the beginning, and it’s still true. Either the Americans help Israel, or we need to pull a rabbit out of our hats.

It’s not clear to me that we went into this campaign with Trump and Netanyahu fooling everyone, or if things are as they appear. If nothing is being hidden, then Israel struck Iran’s nuclear program knowing it cannot destroy it … They took a bet.

This is either part of a grand plan, or it’s an unfolding event.

JI: Are negotiations for Iran to stop uranium enrichment still an option?

DC: The Iranians really want to stop the war with talks, but they will have to give up on a part of the revolution. They will come out very weak … If Iran accepts, it will not be the same Iran. If they don’t, the war will continue.

Still, [U.S. Middle East envoy Steve] Witkoff planned to talk to [Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas] Araghchi, so it’s possible. It depends on Iran. If Iran says “we give up, take Fordow, we no longer intend to develop a nuclear weapon,” Trump can say he’s a peacetime president and “no more bloodshed.” But I don’t see it happening.

JI: If Israel has to continue going at it alone, how long do you think this can continue?

DC: I think it’s a contest of patience between Israel and Iran … I think that we can hold on for a few weeks. Israel’s goal in these weeks is to bring the U.S. into the campaign, and Iran’s goal is for the U.S. not to enter. 

It’s not a simple situation for Israelis, economically, militarily or societally … Israelis are also worn out. It takes hours to fly to Natanz — it’s not like Gaza, it costs a lot of money. The airport is closed. People aren’t going to work. And of course there’s the loss of life.

JI: And how is the Iranian regime faring in the contest of patience?

DC: For them, it depends on one thing. The reach of their military is measured only in their ability to launch missiles at Israel. They have relied on this for their entire existence. That’s the whole story.

There is concern in the regime about pressures from Iranian society, but I don’t see a serious challenge to the regime right now. There have not been any demonstrations. That could change.

JI: How do you view the fact that Iran’s proxies like Hezbollah haven’t joined in the fight and the Houthis haven’t escalated?

DC: One of the reasons that Israel went to war now is because it knew that Hezbollah would not join or its capabilities would be very limited. It was not just because of the nuclear and missile programs. It was the collapse of the axis that created a strategic opportunity Netanyahu didn’t want to give up.

JI: The timing was not, as Trump and Netanyahu have said, because Iran was very close to getting a bomb? Israeli officials have said Iran began the weaponization process.

DC: U.S. intelligence says otherwise. I don’t know why Trump is saying it…

There were significant developments [in the nuclear program], but there was an unprecedented strategic opportunity.

President Donald Trump denied on Tuesday that he was attempting to facilitate “peace talks” with Iran as he returned to Washington to monitor the ongoing war between Israel and Iran.

Upon landing in the U.S. early Tuesday morning after prematurely leaving a meeting of G7 leaders in Canada — a move that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed to “what’s going on in the Middle East,” — Trump posted on Truth Social that he had “not reached out to Iran for ‘Peace Talks’ in any way, shape, or form. This is just more HIGHLY FABRICATED, FAKE NEWS! If they want to talk, they know how to reach me. They should have taken the deal that was on the table – Would have saved a lot of lives!!!”

On Sunday, however, Trump had written on Truth Social that “Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal” and “we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place.”

While still aboard Air Force One, the president told reporters that he wanted “a real end” to Iran’s nuclear program and he would be monitoring developments between Israel and Iran from the White House Situation Room. 

He suggested that Israel was unlikely to slow its strikes on Iranian targets in the coming days, saying that, “You’re going to find out over the next two days. You’re going to find out. Nobody’s slowed up so far.” 

But the president stopped short of addressing whether the U.S. would join Israel’s strikes, saying he hopes the Iranian nuclear weapons program “is wiped out long before that.”

French President Emmanuel Macron suggested to reporters on Monday that Trump had departed the G7 earlier to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, saying that “the U.S. assured they will find a ceasefire and, since they can pressure Israel, things may change.”

Trump slammed Macron and denied his claims, posting on Truth Social, “Publicity seeking President Emmanuel Macron, of France, mistakenly said that I left the G7 Summit, in Canada, to go back to D.C. to work on a ‘cease fire’ between Israel and Iran. Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire.” Trump said he had departed for something “much bigger than that.”

While at the G7, Trump took an aggravated tone with Iran’s failure to come to an agreement, writing on Truth Social that “Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” 

Israel had issued a warning earlier that day to residents of Tehran to evacuate ahead of impending strikes on military infrastructure in the capital city. Israeli media reported that the U.S. had joined Israel in attacking Iran, which was denied by White House spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer. “American forces are maintaining their defensive posture, and that has not changed. We will defend American interests,” he said. Trump later told reporters that his call to evacuate was because he wants “people to be safe.”

On Monday night, Axios reported that Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is seeking a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to reach a nuclear deal and end the military action between Israel and Iran. Trump reportedly said at the G7 that the U.S. and Iran “are talking on the phone, but it is better to talk in person.”

A senior U.S. official told Axios that Trump sees Israel’s assumed reliance on the U.S.’ bunker-buster bombs to effectively target Iran’s nuclear facilities as a point of leverage to force Iran into a deal, lest the U.S. supply Israel the assistance it is seeking.  

Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the country’s parliament is preparing a bill to potentially pull Iran out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The U.N.’s nuclear agency had recently ruled that Iran was violating its obligations under the treaty — which allows a country to utilize civilian nuclear power in exchange for a guarantee it will not pursue nuclear weaponization — for the first time in almost 20 years. 

CNN contributor Scott Jennings traveled to Israel last week to bear witness to the atrocities Hamas committed during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. But in the wake of Israel launching its military operation to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities and prevent the regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon, Jennings is witnessing more than he expected to on his first trip to the Jewish state.  

“Not only did I get to fulfill my mission of understanding deeply the horrors of Oct. 7, but being here watching the war unfold against Iran, I feel like I am here at the beginning of the war to defend Western civilization,” Jennings, who is traveling with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, told Jewish Insider from his hotel in Tiberias on Friday. “I think this has to end with a complete annihilation of Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon,” he said, calling on the U.S. to do “whatever we have to do to achieve that in concert with our special partner, Israel.” 

“I had gotten up at about 3 a.m. [Friday morning] to do a CNN appearance on the politics of the day. That’s when our phones went off with the emergency alert,” Jennings recalled. “I went out on the hotel balcony and for the next couple of hours watched the sky and saw lots of jets flying over. It was really the front end of the war watching the Israeli Air Force heading off towards bombing Iran.” 

Slated to head back to the U.S. on Saturday but now stuck in Israel while the country’s airspace remains closed, Jennings is making the most of his extended trip. On Sunday, he met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. 

Earlier in the week, the group visited Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community where approximately one-quarter of the 400 residents were killed or taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, as well as the site of the Nova Music Festival massacre, where 378 people were killed. They also met with the mother of Alon Ohel, who was kidnapped from the festival and remains held captive in Gaza. 

Jennings, who served as special assistant to the president and deputy director of political affairs in the George W. Bush administration, said that his message to Americans amid Israel’s war with Iran is the “need to understand what’s going on here is nothing short of the fight for Western civilization.”

“Israel is the one fighting it and they’re fighting it in their own backyard,” he told JI. “But these people who hate Israel also chant ‘death to America.’ To allow Iran to continue to develop terror proxies and nuclear weapons, it’s just not a possibility for the West. Israel’s taking care of that and we should be fully supportive of that.” 

Jennings expressed “continuing rolling disappointment” with Senate Democrats, who have voiced divided responses on Israel’s strikes on Iran. 

“This idea that everything must be turned into some sort of anti-[President Donald] Trump narrative is ridiculous,” the conservative commentator said. “I’ve been thoroughly unimpressed. There are a few Democrats who stepped forward and said the right thing,” he continued, mentioning Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who on Friday criticized his Democratic colleagues in Congress who have spoken out against Israel’s attack on Iran, calling it “astonishing” to see members of his party treat Israel’s actions as escalatory. 

“Looking at this situation — literally looking at it, watching missiles fly over my head,” Jennings continued, “we should be thankful that Israel is willing to take bold, decisive steps to defeat the enemy of the West. We should also be thankful that President Trump participated in this.” 

“President Trump has clearly said his policy is that Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon,” Jennings said. “I think President Trump has played this smart so far and if it all ends with a neutered Iran thanks to Israel and the U.S. working together, that’s a great outcome,” he said. 

Trump has continued to reject assertions that the U.S. is involved in Israel’s strikes on Iran. “We’re not involved in it. It’s possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved,” the president said on Sunday. 

By Monday afternoon, Iran had fired around 350 missiles and several drones at Israel, killing 24 Israelis and injuring almost 600 others.

But amid the chaos and fear, Jennings said he’s observed that Israelis are overwhelmingly united — even across the political spectrum. 

“Talking to people, you get a sense of resolve,” he told JI. “They have differences of opinion on certain things but everybody seems to agree — you can’t live with Hamas next door. Everybody seems to agree that Iran is the head of the octopus here. From north to south, what you get a feeling for is this incredible resolve and clarity of purpose when it comes to defeating the enemies of Israel. This is not happening in a faraway land. What happened to them happened in their homes, in their [kibbutzim], at a music festival. It’s up close and personal. You get a feeling that they’re still living with that trauma.”  

“You get a real feeling for the camaraderie and sense of purpose,” Jennings said, calling the trip “a real eye-opening experience.”

“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” he continued. “I get the feeling everyone is resolved to endure whatever sacrifices they have to in order to put an end to this existential threat once and for all.” 

Talk show host Tucker Carlson broke with President Donald Trump on Iran on Friday, writing in a scathing commentary in his daily newsletter that the United States should “drop Israel” and “let them fight their own wars.”

“If Israel wants to wage this war, it has every right to do so. It is a sovereign country, and it can do as it pleases,” Carlson wrote of Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “But not with America’s backing.”

Trump, for his part, has endorsed Israel’s attacks, which he called “very successful,” and underscored in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night that the U.S. would defend Israel if Iran retaliates. He also warned that the situation “will only get worse” if Iran does not agree to a nuclear deal “before there is nothing left.”

In recent days, Carlson has argued that fears of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon in the near future are unfounded and said that a war with the Islamic Republic would not only result in “thousands” of American casualties in the Middle East but “amount to a profound betrayal of” Trump’s base and effectively “end his presidency.”

Carlson reiterated that claim in his newsletter, accusing Trump of “being complicit in the act of war” through “years of funding and sending weapons to Israel.”

Direct U.S. involvement in a war with Iran, he said, “would be a middle finger in the faces of the millions of voters who cast their ballots in hopes of creating a government that would finally put the United States first.”

“What happens next will define Donald Trump’s presidency,” he concluded.

Israel will not accept a Hamas-proposed five-year ceasefire and hostage-release deal, because it does not require the terrorist organization to disarm, a senior Israeli official said in a briefing to journalists on Monday.

A Hamas official said on Saturday the group would release at one time all of the remaining hostages in Gaza — 59 total, including at least 21 living — in exchange for a five-year ceasefire.

Hamas would not, however, agree to disarming and would only enter an agreement to end the current war in Gaza, rejecting a 45-day ceasefire and hostage deal proposal proffered by Israel earlier this month.

The Israeli official said that the five-year proposal has been “going around some Arab states.” 

“There is no chance we will agree to a ceasefire with Hamas that will only allow it to rearm, recover and continue its war against Israel,” he said. 

Regarding a recent report that Qatar encouraged Hamas to harden its stance in the negotiations, the official said that “the Qataris had a negative influence in the current negotiations.” 

The official said that the reason Israel has been fighting at a lower intensity in Gaza since the last ceasefire ended on March 18 was to give hostage negotiations a chance.

”We want to exhaust the effort to return the hostages and that influences our patterns of action,” he said.

However, the official added, “our patience is not endless,” indicating that the war could increase in its intensity in the coming weeks.

With regard to President Donald Trump’s proposal for Gazans to emigrate, the official said that there are Western countries, including Canada, that told Israel they want to help their citizens or relatives of citizens get out of Gaza.

“People who want to leave should be able to, freely, and there are countries that want to absorb them,” the official stated. 

Israel is still not allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza. The official said that the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, a combined IDF-civilian unit that deals with aid, among other matters in the West Bank and Gaza, “is constantly monitoring, and if there is not enough food, the information will be given to decision-makers.”

“We have no obligation to feed the war machines of the enemy’s economy,” the official added. “The trucks strengthened Hamas’ economy … It was their main source of income. It led us to think about how to prevent this phenomenon.”

Palestinians have a responsibility to rise up against Hamas and to call to free the hostages and end the war in Gaza, Muhammad, a law student from Gaza City, told Jewish Insider this week. 

Muhammad, whose last name was withheld for fear of retribution, took part in demonstrations against Hamas in the last week in central Gaza, where he has lived for most of the time since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. He spoke to JI in a conversation facilitated by the New York-based Center for Peace Communications, a peacebuilding organization founded by author and Middle East analyst Joseph Braude that strives to build public support for reconciliation.

Muhammad and his parents and siblings left Gaza City, in northern Gaza, in October, following IDF instructions. They have been displaced and living in a school ever since, except for four months in which they were instructed to leave and stay in Rafah, in southern Gaza.

Muhammad said that, while Hamas has portrayed the demonstrations as planned and funded from outside of Gaza, including by the Palestinian Authority, he sees them as grassroots with participants from different parts of the population. 

The common slogans on banners and chanted by protesters are against both Hamas and the PA, which many Palestinians view as corrupt, he said.

“People are fed up with Hamas’ attempt to use their bodies, their lives, as a tool to make political and even financial gains from this war,” he said. “These protests were very openly and obviously asking Hamas to step down, get out of the political and military picture in Gaza.”

The demonstrators want the war to end instead of suffering the consequences of the Oct. 7 attack, which Muhammad called “Hamas’ plan cooked up with Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.” 

“Even though it’s very risky to protest Hamas’ rule in Gaza, this is a duty and responsibility on a humanitarian and moral level for educated Gazans,” Muhammad told JI through a translator provided by Center for Peace Communications on Tuesday. “Hamas went too far in oppressing the people while not negotiating [to end the war] with good intentions. All they are doing is looking for political gains for Hamas and not humanitarian gains for Gazans … We educated people have the responsibility to inspire others to say, after 18 years of Hamas rule, ‘enough.’” 

Asked why he specified that educated people should take the lead, Muhammad said that he believed that sector of society has the capacity to do so under a Hamas dictatorship in which they are inundated by propaganda.

“Anyone with the knowledge and education, who reads and learns about politics, even religion, has the responsibility to open the eyes of the public who are sometimes moved by Hamas propaganda … I believe we have a responsibility because we know how to put the words together to describe the plight of the Gazans and talk to the media and the public, to try to bring peace and a better destiny for our people,” he said.

While Hamas has inflicted violence on the protesters, Muhammad said, “the people didn’t give up” and attacked Hamas police in return. He described an incident in which Hamas police killed a man in line to buy food for his family, and the family killed the police officer. “This is a new thing that did not happen in 18 years of Hamas rule,” Muhammad noted.

Asked about the hostages, of which 59 remain in captivity in Gaza, Muhammad said that ever since Israel tied humanitarian aid to their release, “people in Gaza who have nothing to do with politics are all asking that the hostages be able to go home in peace back to Israel.” 

“If the people themselves knew where the hostages were, they would bring them back because the entire issue is backfiring on Gazans. It didn’t help us at any point,” he said.

However, Muhammad emphasized that releasing the hostages is not enough, and Hamas must be removed from power in Gaza.

“If the war would end now but Hamas would stay in Gaza, we will see another Oct. 7 because Hamas would do it again and again,” he warned. “We are asking Hamas to send back all the hostages and get out of Gaza, because those are the Israeli demands to end the war.” 

On Oct. 7, Muhammad said that allegations that all Gazans supported Oct. 7 are false, and that “a lot of us were terrified when we saw Oct. 7 happening. The majority of us are disgusted by Hamas and are not on the side of Hamas’ terrorism.”

Muhammad said that protesters against Hamas are seeking a leader who can bring peace to Gaza, and he has heard talk about supporting former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a relatively moderate Palestinian figure who is currently a lecturer at Princeton University, and Mohammed Dahlan, an advisor to the president of the UAE who has been in exile from Gaza since attempting a coup against Hamas.

Muhammad said that “Palestinians should never try to get political gains or rights through military struggle. I don’t want to see another Oct. 7. Palestinians want to live in Gaza or the West Bank without weapons. People hate Fatah [the dominant party in the PA], Hamas and the PA.”

He expressed hope that Gaza will be able to emulate “examples of great collaboration and relations between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank that contribute to building productive relations on many levels, cultural and economic, and were able to achieve positive things. There is an opportunity for peace.” 

Muhammad called on “the Israeli right wing and the Palestinian right wing to step back and give a chance to others who are more moderate to work on peace, because it is possible.”

At the same time, Muhammad said that, given the opportunity, he would like to leave Gaza. 

Of President Donald Trump’s call to evacuate all Palestinians from Gaza, Muhammad said, “I want it to not just be an idea but a real plan that is implemented … I would be one of the very first people to leave Gaza because this is my choice.” 

Muhammad said that “Egypt has a responsibility to open the borders, just like any country would do for its neighbors suffering from a catastrophe, whether war or another kind. [The border] should be open for civilians so they can leave.”

He also said Egypt should give Palestinians the rights of refugees and basic needs while they are in transit.

“We understand Egypt is saying they are closing the borders because they think the Oslo Accords will not be implemented and the Palestinian issue will be forgotten if Gaza is emptied, but this is not a justified reason for the people presently in Gaza to be literally imprisoned. People like me who had nothing to do with Oct. 7 are being subjected to shelling and hunger, because Egypt wants to keep us with Hamas in Gaza,” he said.

Muhammad called on the U.S. and Arab countries to pressure Egypt to open its border to Gazans.

“My message for President Trump is that we have big hopes that he will work on a peaceful political solution that will push Hamas not only out of Gaza but the entire Palestinian picture, and he will work on real peace between Palestinians and Israelis,” he said.

With ground troops and tanks returning to Gaza, Israel is hoping military pressure will force Hamas to free more hostages, while preparing to oust the Palestinian terror group from power, even if it requires a lengthy war, insiders and experts said. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed some of his thinking to new recruits to the IDF Armored Corps on Sunday, telling them that Israel is “winning because we understand that, to defeat our enemies, those who are closing in on us, we must break through with crushing force … The tremendous crushing force is the tank corps.”

The prime minister vowed that Israel “will complete … victory as soon as possible.” 

A source in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who was briefed after the fighting restarted, told Jewish Insider that while it may take many months to fully remove Hamas from power in Gaza, Netanyahu is likely to agree to a ceasefire as soon as the terrorist group is willing to release a “reasonable” number of the remaining 59 hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023, of which as many as 24 are believed to be alive. 

The source, who supports the government’s aim of ousting Hamas from power, expressed concern that Netanyahu would not continue the war to the total defeat of Hamas.

Michael Makovsky, president and CEO of the hawkish Jewish Institute for National Security of America, who met with senior officials and military figures in Israel last week, told JI that Israel is trying to put pressure on Hamas to release hostages.

“They’ll see in the next couple of weeks,” Makovsky said. “If they can get more live hostages, as many as they can, then there can be a ceasefire for a while.”

At the same time, he said he was not optimistic that all the hostages would be released: “I don’t know why Hamas would do that.” 

While most Israelis support removing Hamas from power in Gaza, polls show that the prospect of a months-long war with no end in sight and without the remaining hostages released faces political headwinds from a war-weary Israeli public. The plan would require mobilizing a fatigued group of reservists, and would place additional challenges on the Israeli homefront.

Makovsky pointed out that continuing the war would be “tougher on the people” of Israel, and attributed the “fatigue” among reservists to mistakes made early in the war, which “went longer than it should have — for some legitimate reasons and some not — and this is one of the results, that people are tired.”

The Israeli public is divided. According to a poll conducted last month by the Israel Democracy Institute, 33% of Jewish Israeli support ending the war and seeking diplomatic arrangements, while 28% supported resuming full-scale war in Gaza. Netanyahu has faced protests from hostage families seeking an end to the war, and has faced opposition over his efforts to fire the head of the Shin Bet, who supports further diplomatic negotiations.

Makovsky said that despite the demonstrations in Tel Aviv against resuming the war, he saw a consensus among all military figures that “at some point, they’re going to have to go back in” to Gaza to defeat Hamas.

“They know they have to finish off Hamas as much as possible; that’s just a fact,” he said.

Retired IDF Maj.-Gen. Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security advisor under Netanyahu and a distinguished fellow at JINSA, said that the new phase of the war and the final defeat of Hamas may take as long as a year.

Following heavy airstrikes in the first 24 hours last week, ground forces entered three areas — the Netzarim Corridor bisecting northern and southern Gaza, northwestern Gaza on the shore and the Shaboura area of Rafah, in southern Gaza. Israel has killed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures, including senior political figures in Hamas.

“If that doesn’t bring Hamas into negotiations [to release the hostages] in good faith, you’ll see more ground forces going in,” Amidror said in a JINSA webinar. “The purpose at the end is to eliminate Hamas totally … That will take a year.”

It will take a “slow process” for the IDF to eliminate Hamas as a leading force in Gaza, involving large numbers of ground troops, Amidror said.

“We don’t need to rush. We have all the time, and we need to do it cautiously,” he said.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended last week after lasting for two months. For the first six weeks, hostages were released each week in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, including mass murderers, and Israel’s withdrawal from parts — but not all — of Gaza. 

At that point, negotiations were meant to continue for the second phase of the deal, which was expected to bring about the release of the rest of the hostages along with an Israeli withdrawal from much of Gaza, with Hamas relinquishing control of the enclave. Israel sought to extend the first phase of the deal, instead of negotiating the second phase, in which Hamas reportedly sought to effectively remain in power along with Israel’s withdrawal from all of Gaza. 

U.S. negotiators subsequently suggested two interim deals with an aim to maintain a ceasefire through Ramadan and Passover, which ends in mid-April, but Hamas did not agree to the terms, insisting on continuing to the second phase of the original agreement.

Amidror said that “the idea was not a ceasefire. It was to release more hostages. What we wanted to achieve was an agreement about the period during which Hamas would release the hostages, and what we learned … is that is not Hamas’ intention. They want to achieve a total withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza without any plan for the future. The meaning of that is to allow Hamas to rebuild itself in Gaza.” 

Once that became clear, Israel relaunched the fighting in Gaza to extricate itself from the “absurd situation in which we are limiting our efforts inside Gaza and at the same time not getting any hostages out.” 

Now, Israel’s task is “to smash Hamas to a level at which they are no longer relevant inside the Gaza Strip,” Amidror said.

“To those who say ‘the IDF didn’t succeed, Hamas is still strong,’ yes, Hamas is still strong in the Gaza Strip,” Amidror explained. “They recruited young people with Kalashnikovs and RPGs and are the strongest force in Gaza … but Hamas is not relevant as an organization that can attack Israel. In the first days [of the renewed war] they only shot three or four missiles at Israel … They cannot provide new weapons systems to the people they recruited, because they cannot smuggle [arms] in from the Sinai.” 

Amidror asserted that ground troops are necessary for Israel to win the war.

“This will not be a war that will be determined by intelligence,” he said. “We will have to go and fight in the Gaza Strip to find [Hamas terrorists] and kill them. It won’t end with intelligence and precise air raids. It will be a very hard, ground forces kind of urban war.”

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians and is not trusted as a reliable source by Israel, says 50,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the war. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 terrorists and more than 400 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting.

The new IDF chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, had a “much more aggressive orientation in Gaza” when he was the head of the IDF’s southern command, and as such, Makovsky said he’s “not surprised they’ve gone in decisively this time.”

Similar to earlier phases of the war, Israel is moving towards having Gazan civilians stay in humanitarian zones where they will have access to food and medical aid, overseen by Israel to prevent Hamas control, the Knesset source said.

“Control of aid has been empowering Hamas,” Makovsky said. “Israel has to disconnect the two.”

In that vein, Israel has dropped leaflets in Gaza and published warnings on social media. 

Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that the IDF would continue to capture territory in Gaza, evacuating the population, as long as Hamas continues to hold the hostages.

Makovsky said that “creating bigger, deeper buffer zones than the 1 kilometer they initially carved out … makes sense from an Israeli perspective.”

The Knesset source focused on the combination of splitting Gaza between its north and south with Israel blocking humanitarian aid, describing it as a “siege strategy” that is meant to lead to Hamas “begging on all fours for a ceasefire.” 

The source noted that Israel was not previously able to try such a strategy because the Biden administration insisted on large quantities of humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza, but that the Trump administration supports Israel’s renewed fighting in Gaza.

However, Makovsky argued that early in the war, “the IDF was a bit cautious. They didn’t go into Rafah right away, they went point to point. They didn’t [have a] plan and they had to develop one. That’s not on Biden. It became more about Biden in January” — when the administration threatened to block arms to Israel if it went into Gaza. “I think the IDF and the war cabinet, for that matter, deserve some responsibility for that.”