Israel is gearing up to intensify its military campaign in Gaza, with a particular focus on the northern sector, following Hamas’s rejection of the Witkoff-brokered ceasefire framework. Israeli officials viewed the group’s refusal as a clear sign of its unwillingness to seriously engage in negotiations.
Sources suggest that the move toward heightened military pressure comes in response to intelligence indicating that Az al-Din al-Haddad, the commander of Hamas’s Gaza Brigade, currently wields substantial authority within the enclave and is believed to be directing the group’s strategic decisions.

The IDF and Shin Bet announced on Sunday that a senior Hamas commander responsible for the deadliest assault on Israeli forces during the current war in Gaza was killed in a targeted drone strike over the weekend. The commander, Khalil Abed al-Nasser Mohammad Hatib, led a Hamas cell in the terror group’s Maghazi Battalion. He was behind a devastating RPG attack on January 22, 2024, that claimed the lives of 21 Israeli soldiers—the highest single-day death toll for Israeli forces in the ongoing conflict. According to the IDF, Hatib’s cell fired rocket-propelled grenades at two buildings near the Israeli border that had been fortified and prepared for demolition, as well as at a tank providing cover for the troops. The ambush resulted in catastrophic losses for the Israeli unit.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) Rabbi Avraham Yosef, the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ztsl, criticized worshippers who drink coffee inside the shul during Shacharit. In his remarks, he responded to someone who asked whether a tired person is permitted to sip coffee during the Korbanot section before “Baruch She’amar.” “It’s unthinkable,” he said on Kol Chai radio. […]

Hamas claimed on Sunday that Israeli forces killed at least 31 Palestinians and wounded 175 others near a U.S.-backed aid distribution site in Rafah, Gaza Strip, alleging the shootings occurred as civilians sought humanitarian aid. However, security footage released by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which operates the site, directly contradicts these claims, showing no gunfire or injuries at the time and location specified by Hamas. The incident reportedly took place approximately one kilometer from the GHF distribution hub in Rafah’s Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, an area controlled by Israeli forces. Hamas-run Gaza health authorities and the enclave’s Government Media Office claimed that Israeli troops opened fire on crowds moving toward the aid site.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee slammed France’s recent efforts to promote unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, calling the move “revolting” and ill-timed amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas. In an interview with Fox News, Huckabee said the push for Palestinian statehood is out of touch with the current Israeli sentiment following the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre that triggered the war in Gaza. “It’s incredibly inappropriate in the midst of a war that Israel is dealing with to go out and present something that I think increasingly Israelis are steadfast against,” Huckabee said.

President Donald Trump on Friday told Pennsylvania steelworkers he’s doubling the tariff on steel imports to 50% to protect their industry, a dramatic increase that could further push up prices for a metal used to make housing, autos and other goods. In a post later on his Truth Social platform, he added that aluminum tariffs would also be doubled to 50%. He said both tariff hikes would go into effect Wednesday. Trump spoke at U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works–Irvin Plant in suburban Pittsburgh, where he also discussed a details-to-come deal under which Japan’s Nippon Steel will invest in the iconic American steelmaker. Trump told reporters after he arrived back in Washington that he still has to approve the deal.

Elon Musk’s effort to dramatically cut government spending is expected to fall far short of his grand early pronouncements, and perhaps even his most modest goals. It didn’t have to be that way. According to experts across the ideological spectrum, a major problem was a failure to deploy people who understood the inner workings of government to work alongside his team of software engineers and other high-wattage technology talent. Even that might not have achieved Musk’s original target of $2 trillion, which is roughly the size of the entire federal deficit. Musk, whose last day spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency is Friday, slashed his goal for savings from $2 trillion to $1 trillion to finally only $150 billion.

Family getting up: Mrs. Chaya MillerDaughter Mr. Dovid KoschitzkiSon Mr. Izzy ZandBrother Mr.

Roughly 17,000 residents in the Canadian province of Manitoba have been evacuated because of nearly two dozen active wildfires, officials said Saturday. More than 5,000 of those are from Flin Flon, where there is no rain in the immediate forecast. There have been no structure fires in the city located nearly 645 kilometers (400 miles) northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg as of Saturday morning, but officials worry that a change in wind direction could bring the fire into town. Manitoba declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as the fires burning from the northwest to the southeast forced evacuations in several communities in the province directly north of the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota.