🌍 GAZA OPERATIONS, IRAN’S BURIED NUCLEAR SITE, U.S. WAR POLICY AND ISRAEL’S REGIONAL COOPERATION

🎯 Gaza: weapons infrastructure and Hamas personnel: The IDF and Shin Bet dismantled three Hamas weapons storage facilities in strikes across three areas of Gaza. The facilities contained weapons, explosives, anti-tank missiles and other military equipment. The IDF said the operations seek to degrade Hamas’ capabilities and prevent rearmament.

Hamas separately reported the elimination of Farah Hamed, describing him as a commander and member of its military council for the West Bank. Gazan media reported a strike in Sheikh Ijlin, Gaza City; the IDF had not commented. Hamed belonged to the Silwad cell responsible for deadly Second Intifada shootings in Judea and Samaria and was deported to Gaza in the 2011 Shalit exchange. The cell’s leader, also released in that exchange, was eliminated in Rafah in May 2024.

Somaliland offered up to 2,000 troops for the planned U.S.-led Gaza stabilization force, pending a U.S. or Israeli request. Uganda has approved around 1,200, Morocco has committed up to 500, and Albania, Kazakhstan and Kosovo have pledged personnel. The force is ultimately expected to number around 20,000.

🛰️ Iran: underground construction and U.S. strike limitations: CNN reports increased construction at Pickaxe Mountain near Natanz, a suspected nuclear facility buried in granite. CSIS analysts assess that it is not operational, but work has moved toward internal buildout and hardening. The site is believed intended to protect centrifuges or enrichment activities from existing U.S. bunker-busting weapons.

Trump said “we may hit Pickaxe very soon”, while questions remain about whether the largest U.S. non-nuclear bomb could reach it. The Pentagon is exploring a next-generation penetrator; CNN also reported an emergency contract, issued shortly before the war, to repair a granite facility at White Sands for possible simulations of strikes on deeply buried Iranian bunkers.

🇺🇸 War policy, regional strikes and oil trade: Trump said negotiations were possible but not being sought, declaring: “This war will end immediately after our election”. He portrayed a nuclear-armed Iran as forcing U.S. deference to its Supreme Leader and defended oil prices above $100 by arguing that Iran must not obtain a nuclear weapon. Asked about Strait of Hormuz attacks, he said: “The attacks are made by us. You are gonna see a lot more”.

CBS News reported that an A-10 lost a wing and around eight F-15s sustained minor damage in Iranian strikes on Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base. The F-15s returned to service. Separately, Reuters reported a drone strike and fire aboard a Panama-flagged tanker carrying approximately 2 million barrels of Iraqi fuel oil in Iraqi waters; no casualties were reported among its 22 crew members.

Reuters also reported that Iran’s oil-for-Chinese-goods mechanism bypassed international banking channels, moving around $2–2.5 billion over a year to finance medicine, vehicles, communications equipment and some military-related goods.

🤝 Israeli preparedness and diplomacy: Northern Israel’s post-midnight hostile-aircraft alerts were attributed to false identification.

Israel and Cyprus are developing a 2026–2027 emergency-response plan covering coordination, operational knowledge and mutual assistance. Emergency authority chief Itzik Bar’s two-day visit included senior Cypriot officials and the Paphos aerial firefighting station, supporting preparations for Israel to join the regional large-wildfire coordination framework.

Sa’ar inaugurated Israel’s embassy in Slovenia following the change of government in Ljubljana, its fifth embassy inauguration in a year and a half.

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