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In-Depth Issues:
Saudi Arabia Launched Covert Attacks on Iran during War - Timour Azhari ( Reuters)
Saudi Arabia launched numerous, unpublicized strikes on Iran in retaliation for attacks carried out in the kingdom in late March, two Western officials and two Iranian officials said.
Officials said Saudi Arabia made Iran aware of the strikes and this was followed by intensive diplomatic engagement and Saudi threats to retaliate further, which led to an understanding between the two countries to de-escalate.
From more than 105 drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia in the week of March 25-31, the number fell to just over 25 between April 1-6, according to a Reuters tally of Saudi defense ministry statements.
Projectiles fired at Saudi Arabia in the days leading up to the wider ceasefire were assessed by Western sources to have originated in Iraq rather than Iran itself, indicating Tehran had curtailed direct strikes while allied groups continued to operate.
See also Saudi Planes Struck Militias in Iraq during War - Timour Azhari ( Reuters)
Saudi fighter jets bombed targets linked to Tehran-backed Shi'ite militias in Iraq during the Iran war, while retaliatory strikes were also launched from Kuwait into Iraq, sources said. They targeted sites from which drone and missile attacks were launched at Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
Iran Has Not Exported Crude Oil by Sea for 28 Days ( Iran International)
"Iran hasn't successfully exported any crude oil by sea over the past 28 days," ship-tracking firm TankerTrackers said Tuesday.
It also reported that multiple empty and loaded tankers remain clustered near the U.S. Navy blockade perimeter and in waters not far from Pakistan.
IDF: Gaza Fighting May Resume as Hamas Rebuilds - Roni Green Shaulov ( Ynet News)
Col. Omri Mashiah, commander of the Gaza Division's Northern Brigade, warned security coordinators from Gaza border communities that "fighting will probably resume because Hamas has not yet been disarmed....In the end, this is not our decision, because it is a decision for the political leadership."
Hamas continues to operate and recruit new members. Videos circulating on social media show armed Hamas operatives traveling in pickup truck convoys and demonstrating their control on the ground.
Is Time Working Against Hamas? - Shachar Kleiman ( Israel Hayom)
There appears to be widespread dissatisfaction among the population in areas of Gaza controlled by Hamas. Many residents support the disarmament of the terrorist organizations.
The background is the dire situation in Gaza following the war. Almost everyone is living in tents or in buildings that have been damaged.
Pressure is growing on Hamas to hand over governing powers to a technocratic committee.
At the same time, Israel is taking control of additional areas. More than 60% of Gaza is now in its hands.
Hamas had hoped to drag out the negotiations over disarmament and cause the Trump administration to lose patience. Now, it is discovering that time is not necessarily on its side.
In areas under Israeli control, militias cooperating with Israel are growing stronger and carrying out operations against Hamas.
Follow the Jerusalem Center on:
New Questions about ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan and Qatar - Editorial ( Wall Street Journal)
Karim Khan is the International Criminal Court prosecutor who requested arrest warrants for Israel's leaders in 2024, shortly after learning he had been accused of sexual assault.
This month the court's governors voted to advance disciplinary proceedings against Khan.
Now a witness statement says the Qatari government promised to "look after" Khan if he moved against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
The new witness statement suggests that a Qatar-linked private intelligence operation sought to discredit Khan's alleged assault victim.
It also targeted two Americans: Tom Lynch, the senior ICC official who first reported the assault allegation, and Sen. Lindsey Graham.
The intelligence operation's manager said in a recording: "It's all in the context of issuing the warrant. That was basically the deal. He was like, 'I want to issue the warrant, but I'm terrified to do it.' And they said, 'if you do it, then we'll look after you.'"
The intelligence operation's manager was asked whether the support came from an individual sheikh or from the Qatari state. He said, "No, it's the state."
It was always egregious to indict Israel's prime minister and defense minister for the country's defensive war, which Hamas began.
In 2024 we wrote that Khan's conduct had placed the ICC's targeting of Israel "under a cloud." Now it's raining.
The Only People on Earth Being Told Their History Has Expired - Micha Danzig ( Los Angeles Jewish Journal)
Anti-Israel activists in Ireland, Canada, Britain and the U.S. insist that Jews are not really a people at all, but merely adherents of a religion who displaced an "indigenous" population.
This is saying that conquest erases indigeneity, that exile voids peoplehood, that a nation can lose its connection to its homeland if enough centuries have gone by. And somehow this principle applies uniquely to Jews.
No one says to Greeks, "Well, maybe Athens mattered 2,500 years ago." No one says to Native Americans that centuries of forcible removal erased their connection to ancestral lands.
Only Jews are routinely told that indigeneity comes with a statute of limitations.
Yes, Rome destroyed Jewish sovereignty. But Jews were never fully expelled from the Land of Israel.
Jewish communities remained continuously in places like the Galilee, Tiberias, Hebron and elsewhere.
Within two centuries of the Bar Kokhba revolt against Rome in 135 CE, Jews were again living in Jerusalem. Nor did Jews ever stop attempting to restore autonomy or national life there.
For over 2,000 years Jews in the diaspora prayed facing Jerusalem three times a day and prayed for a return to a rebuilt Jerusalem. The Hebrew calendar anchors Jewish holidays to the seasons of the Land of Israel.
Hebrew itself - now spoken daily by millions - is indigenous to the land. Throughout the medieval and early modern periods, Jews kept returning. By the mid-1800s, Jews had become the largest population group in Jerusalem.
Had the Arab world accepted partition in 1947, there would have been both an Arab state and a Jewish state west of the Jordan River nearly eight decades ago. No refugee crisis. No generations of bloodshed.
Yet the Jews - alone among the nations of the world - are seen as not entitled to self-determination in any part of the land where their civilization, language, calendar, faith and national identity were born.
Search the Recent History of Israel and the Middle East
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- U.S. Intelligence Shows Iran Retains Substantial Missile Capabilities - Adam Entous
U.S. intelligence agencies report that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz. Iran still fields 70%% of its mobile launchers across the country and has retained 70% of its prewar missile stockpile, according to the assessments.
The agencies have also reported that Iran has regained access to 90% of its underground missile storage and launch facilities nationwide, which are now assessed to be "partially or fully operational." (New York Times)
- Chinese Firms Plot Secret Arms Sales to Iran - Julian E. Barnes
The U.S. has gathered intelligence that Chinese companies and Iranian officials have discussed arms transfers, plotting to send the weapons through other countries to mask the origins of the military aid. Since the beginning of the war, China has given Iran intelligence and access to a spy satellite that has tracked the positions of U.S. forces in the region. China has also supplied dual-use components that Iran needs to produce drones, missiles and other weaponry. (New York Times)
- The New Route around Hormuz Involves a Massive Convoy of Trucks - Ed Ballard
In a mechanized revival of the caravans of goods-laden camels that once sustained Arabian commerce, highways, railroads and ports in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman have been transformed into an emergency logistics lifeline, circumventing the Strait of Hormuz waterway.
Bob Wilt, CEO of the Saudi Arabian mining company Maaden, said, "We've got 3,500 trucks running from the Gulf to the Red Sea" to move fertilizer across the kingdom. Wilt said Maaden will have caught up on its export backlog by the end of May. This is making a meaningful dent in a fertilizer shortage that is threatening the global food supply. In recent weeks, cargoes of phosphate used in fertilizer from the Red Sea port of Yanbu have arrived in Djibouti, Thailand and Argentina.
Every shipment that makes it across the desert blunts the pressure from a closed strait and gives Gulf governments room to wait out the negotiations and shift the balance of power. Shipping companies including MSC and Maersk are trucking goods across the Arabian Peninsula. The mobilization can't replace the capacity of shipping or compete on cost, but it has become a shock absorber in some key markets.
(Wall Street Journal)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Hizbullah Drone Wounds Three Israeli Civilians in Rosh Hanikra
A Hizbullah explosive drone struck the parking lot of the Rosh Hanikra grottoes near the Lebanese border on Thursday, wounding three Israeli civilians, including one person in critical condition and another in serious condition. The wounded included workers carrying out renovations near the popular tourist site, which is currently closed.
(Ynet News)
- IDF: Hizbullah Drone Threat Does Not Slow Down Our Operations - Herb Keinon
Even though three soldiers and one civilian have been killed and 50 wounded by exploding drones launched from Lebanon since the ceasefire there on April 17, the IDF views the drone threat as a tactical problem for which solutions are steadily being developed.
L., an IDF deputy battalion commander in Lebanon, said he believes the drone threat is being "exaggerated beyond proportion, mainly by those back at home." At the same time, he stressed that the threat is real, "but it is not a threat that impacts us. It does not slow down our operations." (Jerusalem Post)
See also IDF Testing Counter-Drone Technologies - Amir Bohbot
The IDF, Israel Defense Ministry, and defense contractors completed a series of capability tests on Wednesday to deal with fiber-optic and racer drones. A security source said efforts are underway around the clock to develop creative solutions. (Jerusalem Post)
- IDF: If We Leave Lebanon Security Zone, Hizbullah Will Rebuild Immediately - Elisha Ben Kimon
In the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, Israeli soldiers recently uncovered a tunnel complex beneath a clothing store 80 feet (25 meters) below ground that was used by Hizbullah fighters. Troops found a communications room used to gather intelligence on Israeli troop movements, along with weapons storage areas, ready-to-eat food packages, batteries and mattresses.
Maj. A., a deputy battalion commander, said, "I don't see a situation in which we leave and Lebanese civilians return here. We learned from Oct. 7. If we leave, they will rebuild this infrastructure immediately." (Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Iran
- Confronting the Iranian Regime's Holy War: Will the West Rise to the Challenge? - Dr. Dan Diker
The U.S.-Israel strikes on the Iranian regime are definitive military responses to 47 years of religiously-fueled terror carried out by the world's foremost radical regime of the modern era. This formidable challenge to the West is compounded by the Free World's hesitation to acknowledge the jihad Iran has waged against Israel and the U.S.-led Western alliance since 1979.
Tehran and Washington are both playing for time in a war of economic and strategic attrition. The Iranian regime aims to buy time to rearm its Islamic resistance forces. The Islamic Republic's approach is underpinned by its apocalyptic and radical brand of Twelver Shi'ism.
Some 500 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters had received training in Iran under direct IRGC Quds Force supervision before Hamas's invasion and massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In the early days of the war, the IRGC's English-language social media output aimed to dismantle the pro-Israel coalition. The Tel Aviv-based firm Cyabra identified more than 40,000 inauthentic accounts originating largely from Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Researchers determined that one in four accounts posting about the war were inauthentic, the largest foreign influence operation against U.S. opinion in the digital era.
The strategic effect has been to invert the moral architecture of the conflict. Hamas, its sponsors, and its supporters have framed jihadist violence as legitimate resistance. To judge their impact, at least 20 countries have recognized "Palestine" since April 2024, including the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Belgium, and Portugal.
In August 2025, senior Hamas political bureau member Ghazi Hamad asserted that the Oct. 7 invasion of Israel paved the way for the Western recognition of a "Palestinian state," convincing the world that defeating Israel "is now possible." A Harvard-Harris poll found that 51% of Americans aged 18-24 agreed that Palestinian grievance justified the Oct. 7 killings.
American and Israeli military and counterterrorism gains of the past two years are only partial. The ultimate battle is for the hearts and minds of the Free World. The West requires strategic patience, resilience, and determination to overcome jihad's "forever war."
The writer is President of the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
- The Iranian People Are Waiting to Be Freed - Sogand Fakheri
Iran today is the only country in the Middle East where the population is almost entirely united against its own government. Every ethnicity and every region speaks with one voice: the Islamic Republic must go. Have you ever heard of a population welcoming an attack on its own country by a foreign military? Iranians did, because for them, the enemy is the regime, not the bomber.
At least 114 people have been executed in the past three weeks alone. More are dying under torture in prison. It is far more effective to remove the people in power permanently than to spend years hunting for its weapons across hostile territory.
The writer, an Iranian-Israeli actress and Iran affairs commentator, appeared in the Emmy-winning TV series "Tehran." (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
Gaza
- The Truth about Hamas - Editorial
Reading "Silenced No More," the new report by the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, we were transported back to Oct. 2023, and a screening of the raw footage of Hamas's atrocities. The new report is a catalogue of Hamas depravity.
Testimony from site after site attests to rape and assault. Screams and pleas. Gunshots to the face and genitals. Mutilation. Burning. Bodies naked, legs spread. Grotesque scenes staged. All forming an evidentiary record, the result of more than 10,000 photos and video segments and more than 430 interviews, testimonies and meetings with survivors, witnesses and experts.
We regret having to relate such details, but it is crucial to remember when the understandable human impulse is to forget such horrors. All the more so because the sexual violence by Hamas has been aggressively denied. Denial serves to distort Israel's defensive war as if it were wanton violence. Such deniers prefer anything to reminding the world why Israel has no choice but to fight for its life.
(Wall Street Journal)
See also Video: The Most Comprehensive Report to Date on Oct. 7 (Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas)
See also Text: Silenced No More - Sexual Terror Unveiled: The Untold Atrocities of October 7 and Against Hostages in Captivity (302 pp.) (Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children)
Hizbullah
- IDF Operation in Lebanon Caught Hizbullah Off Guard - Elisha Ben Kimon
After a 48-hour covert advance, IDF troops crossed the Litani River, fought Hizbullah at close range, and uncovered underground compounds stocked for a planned invasion of Israel. Lt.-Col. B., commander of the Golani Reconnaissance Unit, said, "We wanted to surprise them, and the only way was to advance at night, through the brush and in total darkness. During the day, we blended into the terrain, in 'holding areas.'"
After the unit's lead forces identified the entrance to an underground infrastructure site, "an encounter developed. We understood the situation and deployed forces on both sides of the river. In effect, we trapped the terrorists inside....They came out each time from a different opening, fired and threw grenades" in
a battle that lasted two hours. "It was face-to-face fighting, just meters from a fortified enemy."
The troops encountered Hizbullah's explosive drones during the fighting, but the Lebanese brush actually worked in the soldiers' favor. "Their drones are less effective in the brush. They operate with fiber optics, and that fiber simply tears between the bushes and trees. That gave us an advantage."
During the five days of clearing operations after the battle, inside underground compounds 10-15 meters deep, "we found everything there: food, water, ammunition, motorcycles and ATVs. It was a full preparation for a raid. Their intention was clear: to go up into our communities. Seeing that with your own eyes gives you an enormous sense of responsibility." (Ynet News)
Israel and the West
- How the New York Times Laundered Dubious Sexual Abuse Claims Against Israel - David Lange
The New York Times opinion piece alleging sexual abuse against Palestinian prisoners relied on sources with documented pro-terror sympathies. One of the central figures cited is Sami al-Sai. Yet the Times failed to inform readers about al-Sai's documented history of glorifying terrorists and celebrating armed attacks against Israelis.
Several of the article's central allegations appear to have evolved significantly over time. Al-Sai previously gave a detailed account of his detention to B'Tselem in early 2025, but in the New York Times version, the account suddenly becomes dramatically more elaborate, with highly specific, emotionally charged details that were absent from the earlier account.
The article also relies heavily on Hebron activist Issa Amro, whose account appears to have evolved as well. In a February 2024 Washington Post interview, Amro said he was threatened with sexual assault during a 10-hour detention on Oct. 7. By the time of the New York Times article, however, he is presented as an established victim of sexual assault as part of a broader alleged pattern.
To substantiate one of the article's most grotesque accusations, Kristof cites Shaiel Ben-Ephraim as an authority. But Ben-Ephraim previously left UCLA after multiple sexual-harassment allegations involving inappropriate conduct toward minors.
The article's broader claims about an Israeli policy of sexual torture also lean heavily on Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, presented as a neutral watchdog. It is not. Euro-Med's leadership has documented links to Hamas and a long record of promoting inflammatory and unverified accusations against Israel. In June 2024, it even pushed the claim that Israel "trains dogs to rape prisoners."
The Times effectively launders these allegations by citing these groups as authoritative sources. This is advocacy journalism masquerading as investigative reporting. When Israel is accused, suspicion quickly becomes accepted truth. When a major report about Hamas atrocities threatens to dominate headlines, the New York Times accuses Israel of sexual abuse? That is not coincidence. It is narrative framing. (Honest Reporting)
- New York Times Claims about Israel Don't Pass Muster - Eli Lake
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof said he shared the abuse allegations with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and sought his reaction. "Do I believe it happens? Definitely," Kristof recorded Olmert as saying. Yet Olmert later said that Kristof misrepresented their conversation.
In a statement sent to the Times, Olmert said: "Mr. Kristof's article includes claims of extraordinary gravity: that Israeli authorities have directed the rape of children, that dogs have been used as instruments of sexual assault, that systematic sexual torture is state policy. I did not validate these claims. I have no knowledge supporting these claims as I said to Mr. Kristof. Therefore, the positioning of my quote after pages of such allegations misrepresents my views."
The story of trained rape dogs also does not hold up. Brandon McMillan, the three-time Emmy-winning host of CBS's "Lucky Dog," who has spent 25 years training animals, told me, "I don't see how you would train a dog to do that." Male dogs become erect only when they smell the pheromones of a female dog in heat. "The dog has to get turned on, for lack of a better word."
Kristof cites the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which amplified the dog rape claims in April. This group has a history of spreading libel against Israel, such as a November 2023 report that raised "concerns" that the IDF was harvesting the organs of Palestinian corpses. (Free Press)
- New York Times Prefers Baseless Claims Against Israelis over Actual Reports of Palestinian Atrocities - Editorial
A New York Times "opinion" piece posing as an in-depth journalistic investigation, published on Monday, claims that Israel has trained dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners held in its jails, based on anonymous testimonies and a report by a well-known anti-Israel organization that has proven ties to Palestinian terror. The impossible assertion about dogs has been shared broadly in recent weeks by anti-Israel conspiracy theorists on social media, but to see it displayed front and center in the New York Times is mind-blowing.
Even columnist Nicholas Kristof himself admits that "it's impossible to know how common sexual assaults against Palestinians are" - though that does not stop him from going on for almost 4,000 words about the total certainty that Israelis "systematically employ rape and sexual torture" of prisoners.
Kristof's column was published and promoted prominently on the Times's website, even including a separately produced video clip, one day ahead of a monumental Israeli report on Hamas's systematic sexual crimes on Oct. 7. (Jerusalem Post)
Palestinian Arabs
- The "House of Abbas" Palestinian Royal Family - Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is seeking to establish the "House of Abbas." Elected in 2005 for a four-year term, Abbas has no intention of leaving his position until his death. He has been introducing a new figure into the Palestinian leadership arena - his son, Yasser Abbas, who has become a multi-millionaire in the PA.
In 2023, Yasser participated in a PA delegation for talks with Saudi leadership. In 2025, Yasser was part of a PA delegation that met with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. The Palestinian news agency WAFA described him as his father's "special representative." More recently, Yasser has been meeting with the different heads of the PA security forces. The meetings were part of a wider political strategy to help Yasser win a senior position in Fatah's Central Committee, where elections are scheduled for May 14-16, the first time in almost a decade.
Whether Abbas manages to install Yasser into a senior position or not, the reality is that the PA remains devoid of any democratic culture. Palestinian leaders, whoever they may be, have no intention of releasing their stranglehold on the PA's multi-billion-dollar purse strings. Each knows that inheriting the leadership mantle is a guarantee for them and their family members to enjoy immense riches and luxury, all at the expense of the Palestinian people.
The attempt by Abbas to establish a new Middle Eastern royal family, the House of Abbas, in which the role of Palestinian leadership is passed from father to son, should raise every red flag imaginable. A step in this direction would be a clear indication that neither Abbas nor any of his replacements is at all serious about PA reform.
The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
Observations:
- Hamas believed it could wipe out its arch-enemy in one grand operation. In pursuit of this goal, it dragged its allies into a war they did not believe in, and one they would ultimately lose. According to an analysis of captured Hamas documents by Hebrew University's Dr. Daniel Sobelman, Hamas's thinking was the precise opposite of Israeli intelligence assumptions. By 2019, Hamas had come to believe that it was Israel that was deterred from action.
- In May 2021, Hamas initiated a 12-day conflict over tensions on the Temple Mount. The head of IDF Military Intelligence came out of the operation with the overconfident assessment that "five years of complete calm with Gaza" was achieved.
- In Gaza, however, Hamas was celebrating a strategic victory. The fighting had sparked unprecedented Israeli Arab uprisings - an internal vulnerability Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar realized could be weaponized as a "nuclear bomb" to destroy Israel. The war had also seen Hamas's first active wartime coordination with Iran and Hizbullah via a joint situation room. Far from a deterrent, the 2021 conflict was a highly successful "dress rehearsal" for the full liberation of Palestine.
- In June 2022, Sinwar outlined to Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh scenarios for joint action. The first was a full-force, surprise confrontation involving Hamas, Hizbullah, and other regional forces (with Iran supporting from the sidelines) to immediately bring down and end the State of Israel, relying on simultaneous, massive uprisings in Judea and Samaria and among Israeli Arabs. Days later, Haniyeh sat down in Beirut with Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and Said Izadi, the head of the IRGC Quds Force's Palestine Branch.
- Haniyeh reported that Nasrallah had expressed "clear and resolute" support for the first scenario, believing the immediate end of Israel's existence was "realistic and achievable." Izadi supported the plan, but insisted they needed to investigate hurdles before moving forward.
- During Sinwar's June 2023 visit to Tehran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei bluntly rejected Hamas's push for an immediate, decisive battle, advising Hamas to focus instead on Judea and Samaria while Israel was "gradually" encircled. Still, Sinwar gambled that once the first shots were fired, the sheer scale of the attack would drag his allies into the battle.
- Violent uprisings in Judea and Samaria and among Israeli Arabs were an absolute requirement in every single scenario. To light that internal powder keg, Sinwar was convinced that capturing and broadcasting "explosive images" right at the start would "trigger a surge of euphoria, frenzy, and momentum" among Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. That is why Hamas terrorists wore body cameras and gleefully livestreamed their atrocities.
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