News Digest — 1/30/26
Eight Terrorists Spotted Exiting A Tunnel In Rafah, At Least Three Killed, Manhunt Underway
The IDF said its forces early Friday morning (30th) identified eight terrorists emerging from an underground infrastructure site in east Rafah and launched airstrikes that killed three of them.
According to the military, troops from Unit 414, part of the combat intelligence collection array, spotted the terrorists early Friday (30th). The air force acting on guidance from the Gaza Division, carried out the initial strike, the military said.
Additional strikes were later conducted against areas where the remaining militants attempted to flee. The Military said the results of those strikes were still under review and that ground forces continue to conduct extensive searches in the area to locate and kill the remaining terrorists.
Separately, military officials said in recent days that Israel has begun adopting overall fatality estimates published by Gaza’s Health Ministry for the war, while continuing to assess how many of those killed were terrorists. “We estimate that 70,000 have been killed in the war, not including missing persons,” senior military officials said this week. “We are currently working on breaking down the figures between militants and uninvolved civilians.”
The Gaza Health Ministry said over 70,000 people have been killed in the territory since October 7,2023, when Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel, burning and destroying kibbutzim, and killing over 1,200 residents, raping, and torturing many, including both children and elderly, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza, triggering the war.
PM Holds Briefing On “Classified Topic” As Trump Decision On Iran Strike Expected In Days
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding a security consultation in Jerusalem with top advisers and defense officials on a “classified topic” the office of one of the attenders told The Times of Israel on Thursday (29th), as speculation continued to swirl over whether the US would attack Iran.
According to Channel 12, the discussion was focused on Iran and the possibility of an American strike, which US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened.
The meeting comes amid a flurry of threats, discussions and diplomatic activity in Jerusalem, Washington, Moscow, and Tehran surrounding the possibility, and possible fallout, of a US strike on Iran. Iran is prepared to show its naval force next week after the US moved what Trump called a “massive armada” into the region.
Trump has threatened to attack over Iran’s deadly crackdown on mass anti-regime protests this month. Rights groups have verified thousands of deaths, but estimates of the total number of people killed range into the tens of thousands. Trump has also more recently threatened Iran with strikes unless it agrees to a deal halting its nuclear program.
A potential directive from Trump on a strike is expected in the coming days, once all of the US military assets heading to the Middle East are in place, a senior US official told Channel 12 on Thursday (29th). Iran has recently threatened to strike US targets and Israel if the US attacks.
Trump’s goal in the strike and how he hopes to achieve it remains unclear, though he is reported to want to create conditions for “regime change.” Israeli officials do not believe that a limited US strike will bring down the Iranian regime, and Trump shares their assessment, according to Channel 12. Therefore, they assessed that Trump will focus a potential attack on physical Iranian assets, especially in the nuclear and missile programs.
The channel reported that Israel believes even a limited US strike would spur a significant attack on Israel, in which Jerusalem would respond forcefully.
On Thursday (29th), US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US military would be prepared to carry out whatever Trump decides on Iran to ensure Tehran does not pursue nuclear weapons capability.
“They should not pursue nuclear capabilities. We will be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects of the War Department,” Hegseth said, referring to the Trump administration’s unofficial renaming of the Defense Department.
IDF Intelligence Chief Visits Washington For High-Level Talks On Iran
Israeli military intelligence chief Shlomi Binder held meetings this week with senior officials at the Pentagon, the CIA, and the White House, as the Trump administration intensifies consultations with key regional partners amid escalating tensions with Iran, according to Axios.
A source familiar with the visit said Binder traveled to Washington to brief US officials on specific intelligence the administration had requested regarding Iran, as President Donald Trump considers possible military action.
The meetings took place Tuesday (27th) and Wednesday (28th) and were described as part of a broader effort to align intelligence assessments and policy options.
Axios also reported that the administration is hosting senior Saudi defense and intelligence officials this week for Iran-focused talks.
Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman,the younger brother and closest confidant of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was expected to meet in the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House, including with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US special envoySteveWitkoff.
Prince Khalid is scheduled to be in Washington on Thursday (29th) and Friday (30th).
Earlier this week, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian that the kingdom “will not accept any aggression, threat or provocation against Iran,” according to a readout released by Tehran after a phone call between the two leaders.
The diplomatic push comes as regional rhetoric sharpens following Trump’s warning that “time is running out” for Iran to agree to a deal. Trump said a powerful American naval force was mobilizing and urged Tehran to negotiate or face severe consequences.
Iran responded on Wednesday (28th) with explicit threats, including a warning of strikes on Tel Aviv.
Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said any response would be “immediate, comprehensive, and unprecedented,” adding it would target “the heart of Tel Aviv and all those supporting the aggression.”
The surge of high-level meetings and public warnings underscores the urgency in Washington and across the region as the US coordinates closely with Israel and Saudi Arabia while Iran signals readiness for possible confrontation.
EU Designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guards As A Terrorist Organization
The European Union announced on Thursday (29th) that it will formally designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, after the foreign ministers of all 27 member states reached a unanimous decision. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the move was intended to send an unequivocal message to Tehran, warning that repression would not go unanswered.
“Repression cannot go unanswered,” Kallas said in a statement. “EU Foreign Ministers just took the decisive step of designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terror organization.”
Kallas described the decision as a clear red line against the Iranian regime, citing its violent suppression of civil protests in recent years. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,” she said.
The move now places Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on a par with terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State, and aligns with similar designations already in place in the US, Canada and Australia. Alongside the announcement, the European Union imposed entry bans and asset freezes on 21 Iranian entities and senior officials, including the interior minister, the attorney general and regional commanders in the Revolutionary Guards. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that “anyone who acts like a terrorist should be treated as a terrorist.”
The decision followed a shift in the positions of countries that had previously opposed the move, most notably France and Spain, allowing consensus among all EU members. The designation is expected to pave the way for sweeping sanctions, including asset freezes, travel bans within the EU and restrictions on any individual or entity linked to the Revolutionary Guards.
European diplomatic sources said the move was likely to lead to a significant deterioration in relations between the EU and Iran, and that Tehran was expected to seek ways to mitigate the fallout through diplomatic pressure. At the same time, the EU member states are expected to begin implementing measures stemming from the designation in the near future.
Why Are Jews Still Attacked Worldwide? – Amb. Danny Danon
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is meant to force the world to confront the industrial murder of six million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators. Education is meant to prevent repetition. But remembrance without action is hollow.
While solemn words are uttered, Jewish people are being attacked worldwide for being Jewish. Anti-Senitism is spreading with alarming speed and the institutions built to confront hatred are too often enabling the pernicious narratives that sustain it.
Genocide does not begin with mass killings. Long before that, it begins with gradual dehumanization. With language that strips people of legitimacy. With lies repeated until they sound like fact and with moral confusion masquerading as neutrality.
Today anti-Semitism often disguises itself as hostility toward Israel, in rhetoric that treats Jewish self-determination as uniquely illegitimate. When violence is justified because someone is Jewish, it is anti-Semitism. When it is justified because someone is Israeli, it is no different.
Hatred is enabled by authority. When false claims are repeated from national or international podiums, they travel the world stamped with legitimacy, and they harden into belief.
The good news is that today the Jewish people are no longer defenseless. We have Israel. While we still face genocidal regimes like Hamas and the Islamic Republic of Iran, who continue trying to do what the Nazis failed to do, we have a formidable military to protect us. The days when Jews are massacred without response or consequences are over.
The writer is Israel’s ambassador to the UN.
Palestinians Offered Prosperity For Giving Up Dream Of Israel’s Destruction, See It As Humiliating Bribery – Dr. Nissim Katz
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, President Donald Trump’s former senior adviserJared Kushner presented a vision for what Gaza would look like, under the title “Empowering Gazans with Jobs, Training, and Services.” This vision is based on real estate deal logic: property improvement, value creation, and bringing prosperity.
Its foundational assumption, held also by Israel before Oct. 7, is that humans are, first and foremost, rational economic creatures. If we just provide Gazans good livelihoods, luxury hotels, a port, and factories, the motivation for terror will decrease until it disappears.
But Middle Eastern reality and Palestinian reality proves again and again that the struggle is not about quality of life. The critical mistake of the Trump-Kushner approach is the attempt to reduce a deep national, religious and identity conflict to a cash flow and urban-development problem.
The Palestinian national movement, and especially its extremist branches controlling Gaza have never placed economic welfare at the top of their priorities. If they had wanted that, Gaza could have become the Singapore of the Middle East decades ago, with the billions of dollars that flowed to it.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are driven by an ideology that sees eliminating Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel as a lofty goal, sanctifying any sacrifice including poverty and hunger of their own people. For them the land is not real estate waiting for a developer, but waqf land that must be liberated. When offered prosperity in exchange for giving up the dream of Israel’s destruction, they see it as humiliating bribery.
The thought that money will buy quiet is an optical illusion. This is a national struggle. The other side is not seeking a business partnership, but historical victory. A discourse about economic development, without first neutralizing the nationalist-religious aspiration to destroy Israel, is a recipe for repeated disaster.
The writer is a senior lecturer of Kinneret Academic College
