In Tehran, Hamas leader vows to thwart Trump’s Gaza takeover plan

Saudi Arabian outlet Al Hadath quoted Lebanese media as saying that the inspections are underway without saying by who.

Lebanese newspaper Lebanon Debate reported on Monday that "similar to what happened previously in the cases of inspection of planes coming from Iran, the same thing happens with flights coming from Iraq, as the flights are subject to a thorough security inspection in order to verify the possibility of them transporting money or assets for the benefit of Hezbollah."

Since the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon, the country's army has begun to take a greater role in security affairs.

Last month Israel accused Iran of funneling tens of millions of dollars to Hezbollah through clandestine cash deliveries, lodging formal complaints with the US-led committee overseeing the still fragile ceasefire with Iran's largest regional ally in Lebanon, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Last week US President Donald Trump signed a directive restoring the so-called maximum pressure policy on Iran of his first term, aimed at driving the Islamic Republic's oil exports to zero.

The directive requires the US secretary of state to ensure that Iraq’s financial system is not utilized by Iran for sanctions evasion or circumvention, and that Persian Gulf countries are not used as sanctions evasion transhipment points.

Speaking to the US news channel on Saturday night, Netanyahu spoke of a changing region under the new US President Donald Trump, including a peace deal with Saudi Arabia.

“When we complete the changeover of the Middle East, when we cut the Iranian access down to even further than we've already cut it when we make sure that Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons, when we destroy Hamas, that will set the stage for an additional agreement with the Saudis and with others,” he said.

Israel normalized relations with some Arab states such as the United Arab Emirates in the 2020 US-brokered Abraham Accords and the longest-serving Israeli premier hopes to do the same with Saudi Arabia.

As Trump reintroduced his maximum pressure policy on Iran on February 4, the issue of its nuclear program remains of grave concern to the Israeli PM who has long campaigned to have it crushed as Tehran continues uranium enrichment to weapons grade levels.

However, Trump has renewed his call for talks with Iran to reach a deal preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, emphasizing that he prefers negotiations over bombing the country's nuclear facilities.

On Saturday, Trump told The New York Post: “I would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear. I would prefer that to bombing the hell out of it. . . . They don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die.”

Iran’s military allies in the region also remain a priority for not only Israel but the US, which has also suffered at the hands of groups such as the Houthi militia in Yemen.

Israel is still in the midst of a fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. However, in the West Bank, Israel believes Iran’s influence only continues to strengthen as Tehran diverts its focus.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Sunday that the armed forces are expanding Operation Iron Wall to include the Nur a-Shams refugee camp.

"We are crushing the terrorist infrastructure in the refugee camps and preventing its return. We will not allow the Iranian axis of evil to establish an eastern terrorist front that would threaten the settlements of Samaria and the seam line and the large population centers in Israel,” he said.

Last month, Katz said the West Bank has become a new focus for Tehran after Israel’s crushing debilitation of Hezbollah and Hamas.

Iran is taking advantage of the ruling Palestinian Authority's lack of political legitimacy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to arm militants, the director of a leading research center in Ramallah told Iran International last month.

"We are seeing increasing efforts to promote Palestinian terrorism in Israel through the smuggling of advanced weapons, funding and guidance both on the part of the Iranian axis and on the part of the radical Sunni Islamic axis that is strengthening its grip on the region after the events in Syria,” Khalil Shikaki, the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah said.

“Iran exploits this vacuum left by the lack of legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and unpopularity of President Mahmoud Abbas to maintain and sustain this situation," he added.

In a post on Telegram, Handala said the 2.1 terabytes of stolen information also includes legal cases, weapon permits, and identity documents. It also claims to have extracted 350,000 documents and made them publicly accessible.

Israeli police denied the attack, saying there was no evidence of a breach.

"Following inquiries regarding an alleged hack into police systems, we would like to clarify that after a thorough investigation, no external party had access to the police's information systems, and there is no indication that a hack occurred or that information was leaked," they said in a statement on X.

Last month, the same hacking group targeted kindergartens in Israel, disrupting public address (PA) systems and infiltrating emergency systems in at least 20 locations by exploiting vulnerabilities in a private company's infrastructure.

Additionally, the group used another system belonging to the same company to send tens of thousands of threatening text messages to Israeli citizens.

At the time, Israel's National Cyber Directorate confirmed the breach and said it is working with the affected company and the Ministry of Education to address the situation.

Last year in September, the group claimed it had successfully breached the Soreq Nuclear Research Center, alleging the theft of 197 gigabytes of data.

The hackers also published around 30 photos they claimed were taken inside the center, along with screenshots allegedly showing the names of nuclear scientists involved in the facility's particle accelerator project.

In response, the Israeli prime minister's office, speaking on behalf of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, denied the authenticity of the images. "Following a thorough examination, the images and blueprint do not belong to any of its facilities," the statement said.

According to Microsoft, Israel has become the top target of Iranian cyberattacks since the start of the Gaza war, replacing the US as the number one target.

"Following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Iran surged its cyber, influence, and cyber-enabled influence operations against Israel," Microsoft said in its recent annual report.

"From October 7, 2023, to July 2024, nearly half of the Iranian operations Microsoft observed targeted Israeli companies," the Microsoft Digital Defense Report said.

Trump told The New York Post on Saturday: “I would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear. I would prefer that to bombing the hell out of it. . . . They don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die.”

On February 4, Trump signed a directive to intensify sanctions enforcement on Iran, at the same time insisting that he would prefer negotiations rather than confrontation and offered to meet his Iranian counterpart.

Trump told the Post, “If we made the deal, Israel wouldn’t bomb them.” Earlier he had said that any reports the United States and Israel would work together on a devastating military attack on Iran were overblown.

"I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon. Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens,” ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED," Trump said.

In his remarks to the Post, Trump refused to reveal his negotiating tactic with Tehran. “I could tell what I have to tell them, and I hope they decide that they’re not going to do what they’re currently thinking of doing. And I think they’ll really be happy.”

Following Trump’s move to tighten sanctions and his expressed willingness to negotiate, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Friday ruled out any talks with the United States.

Trump withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran during his first term, imposing tough economic sanctions that have triggered a prolonged financial crisis in the country.

Iran has also lost influence in the Middle East as a result of Israeli attacks on its proxy forces and the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

During a joint news conference in Washington on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said that he envisioned the US assuming control over the Gaza Strip, relocating its residents elsewhere, and transforming the war-ravaged coastal area into what he called the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

In separate phone calls with his Egyptian, Turkish and Pakistani counterparts, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi called for an emergency meeting of the OIC to "adopt a unified and firm stance in countering this plot against the fate of the Palestinian people."

"The forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza is a colonialist conspiracy to erase Palestine and a serious threat to regional stability and security," Araghchi told Egypt's Badr Abdelatty.

Araghchi said the OIC can "play a crucial role in countering the ethnic cleansing plan in occupied Palestine."

Trump's proposal has already sparked outrage in the Middle East, including in Egypt and Jordan, two close allies of Washington which Trump has suggested can take in the Palestinians.

A report by Israel's Channel 12 says Trump is also considering Morocco, Puntland, and Somaliland as other possible options for the relocation of Palestinians.