Iran says could 'review' nuke doctrine, 'identified' Israel's nuclear facilities (2024)

Iran could review its "nuclear doctrine" amid Israeli threats, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said according to semi-official Tasnim news agency, raising concerns about Tehran's nuclear program, which it has always said was strictly for peaceful purposes.

"A review of our nuclear doctrine and politics as well as considerations previously communicated is entirely possible," Ahmad Haghtalab, the commander in charge of nuclear security, said according to Tasnim.

Haghtalab added that Iran is ready to "launch powerful missiles to destroy designated targets" in Israel, and that if Israel dares hit Iranian nuclear sites, it will hit back. "Our hands are on the trigger," he said.

October 7, the day that Hamas attacked from Gaza, was the worst catastrophe in Israel's history. All of Israel's intelligence and operational systems collapsed; all of its political conceptions were proven false. In the space of 24 hours, Israelis lost faith that their state could protect them.

Six months later, most accounts of October 7 are incomplete, missing crucial details about the sequence of events of that day. Haaretz has curated its reporting, collected dozens of eyewitness accounts, geolocated videos and built maps to reconstruct the full picture of what happened during the slaughter in southern Israeli communities.

See the full project.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich refuses to transfer 600 million shekels (about $158,800) from the war budget to improve infrastructure that would enable the expansion of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, according to a political source.

The budget is supposed to be used in part for the renovation of Highway 10 – that runs along Israel's border with Egypt – the opening of a crossing to move goods into northern Gaza, and the expansions of the Kerem Shalom Crossing.

According to the source, the decision was made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Minister Benny Gantz after being authorized by the cabinet. The decision stated that funds would be transferred from the government's budget, and not from the budgets of various government ministries.

Smotrich is yet to respond to these claims.

An Iranian intelligence ship linked to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea left its usual location near the coast of Yemen, and was seen in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, Bloomberg News reported. The ship is making its way to Iran's Bandar Abbas port.

Two months ago, American sources said the U.S. had carried out a cyberattack against the ship, due to its role in Houthi attacks on Israel-linked ships.

■ An Egyptian source told Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the U.S. agreed to the Israeli plan for a military operation in Rafah in exchange for a limited response against Iran.

■ Internal Israeli documents obtained by the New York Times revealed that the assassination of a top Iranian general in Damascus had been planned for two months. The Times reported that according to American and Israeli officials, Israel had miscalculated the strength of Iran's response.

■ Three Israeli sources also told ABC News that Israel prepared for and then aborted retaliatory strikes on Iran on at least two nights this week. Israel is unlikely to carry out a strike on Iran until after Passover, a senior U.S. official told ABC News.

■ Google fired 28 employees who had participated in protests this week at the company offices in New York and California, against a major cloud computing deal with the Israeli government, according to a Wall Street Journal report

■ Defense Minister Yoav Gallant signed on Wednesday an administrative arrest warrant for a 16-year-old boy from Jerusalem for three months, who is suspected of being involved in settler riots in Palestinian villages on Saturday.

■ Israeli fighter jets attacked military buildings and other Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon. IDF aircraft also fired at two Hezbollah operatives in the area of the village of Kafr Kila.

■ IDF commanders met with the heads of authorities, councils and other military commanders in Israel's north to present the army's situation assessment and preparedness plan.

■ The IDF, Shin Bet and police arrested an ISIS operative suspected of planning to carry out an attack in the immediate future.

Foreign influence operations and psychological warfare efforts against Israelis have escalated, and agents, likely Iranian, have started making personal threats against public figures, retired defense officials, and journalists.

There have beeen cases of packages or letters being sent to home addresses, threatening phone calls and other forms of harassment, as well as surveillance efforts.

Over the past two years, Haaretz has exposed how foreign elements operate on social networks to sow chaos and deepen Israel's existing social polarization. "Iranian security agencies make cynical and manipulative use of online platforms," the Shin Bet said in response to cases in which Israelis unknowingly photographed the homes of senior security officials, printed protest banners created by the Iranians about Israeli hostages, and even attended fictitious demonstrations near the homes of the families of the hostages.

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