IRAN 🇮🇶
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is set to lead Friday prayers – a first in almost five years – at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran and deliver a public sermon that could shed light on the Islamic Republic’s plans after a massive missile attack on enemy Israel. https://lnk.sk/hydw
Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike and is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said.
US President Joe Biden says that he will not negotiate in public when asked if he has urged Israel not to attack Iran’s oil facilities.
LEBANON 🇱🇧
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi: IDF will continue to fight through the holidays to return residents to the North. IDF troops were more prepared than ever, armed with the knowledge and experience they gained fighting in Gaza, according to Halevi
Israel allegedly tried to eliminate former Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah’s successor and his cousin, Hashem Safieddine, in the Dahieh suburb in Beirut; The strikes targeted a meeting of senior Hezbollah leaders, including Safieddine.
The military also announced the death of an officer killed during fighting in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, bringing the IDF’s toll in the ground offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon to nine. https://lnk.sk/cwjw
SAMARIA & JUDEA; GAZA
Israel rescues Yazidi woman from Gaza after her kidnapping by ISIS at age 11. Fawzia Amin Sido was sold by the terror group to a Gazan man in 2014; now 21, she has been reunited with her family in Iraq https://lnk.sk/zahk
An Israeli fighter jet carried out a rare attack in Tulkarem late Thursday, with the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry reporting at least 18 fatalities; Tulkarem has been a focus of recent Israeli counter-terrorism operations in West Bank towns and refugee camps.
USA 🇺🇸
Influential US Republican the chairman of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul urged President Joe Biden on Thursday to speed up weapons shipments to Israel, including 2000-pound (907 kg) bombs that have been held up for months over human rights concerns.
The US has increased its military presence in the Middle East by several thousand troops, sending an array of fighter jets and other aircraft to bolster the protection of US forces and allies.
Source: The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel and The New York Times
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