Israel's leader says arming "clans in Gaza" to help fight Hamas will save lives. Opposition leaders say the weapons "will eventually be turned against" Israelis.

He was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the former Hamas leader killed by Israel last year. Hamas did not immediately respond to the claim of his death.

Israeli troops entered southwestern Syria in the early hours of Thursday and arrested several people who the Israeli military said were members of Palestinian militant group Hamas but which Syria's interior ministry said were civilians.

Iran retaliated by launching waves of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel, where explosions lit the night skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and shook the buildings below. The Israeli military urged civilians, already rattled by 20 months of war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, to head to shelter for hours.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged only that Israel had been working with “clans.” But the opposition leader warned that the “weapons going into Gaza will eventually be pointed at Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Israel suffered the most catastrophic assault in its history when Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,000 people and took hundreds of others hostage. Almost a year later, Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah,

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said Iran, its strategic ally, was "paying the price" for supporting militant groups in Gaza in their decades-long struggle against Israel, after Israel launched large-scale attacks on Friday against Iran.

The Israeli military recovered the bodies of two dead hostages in southern Gaza Wednesday night, including Yair Yaakov, a 59-year-old dad who was killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist