A suspicious kite found on Friday night in Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the border with Gaza was recovered by the Israeli military on Saturday morning after residents received alerts from the Gaza Division warning of its presence.
According to an Israeli security official, the kite is suspected of having breached the Israeli border from within Gaza.
Kites flown into Israel from Gaza have previously been considered a major threat to the southern Israel border communities.
2018 saw a peak in airborne arson attacks from Gaza targeting southern Israel, as Palestinians who protested against Israel flew kites with flammable material across the border, with the aim of starting fires on the Israeli side. The arson caused millions of shekels of damage to crops and forests.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that Turkey could consider taking part in demining operations in the Strait of Hormuz following a possible peace agreement between Iran and the United States.
Fidan, speaking to reporters in London on Friday, said a technical team was expected to carry out mine-clearing work in the strait after any agreement, adding that Turkey viewed such efforts positively in principle as a humanitarian duty.
Fidan said any demining work would be carried out by a technical team from various countries, formed after a possible Iran-U.S. peace agreement.
He said that Turkey would have "no problem" with participating in mine-clearing operations under those conditions, and also cautioned that Turkey would reassess its position if any future technical coalition of countries became a party to renewed conflict.
Iran said it had hanged an Iranian working for Israeli intelligence on Saturday for vandalism and violence during nationwide protests this year, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
It said Erfan Kiani, a "hired thug of Mossad," had engaged in the destruction and arson of public and private property, spreading fear and terror across the central city of Isfahan, and wielding a machete.
He was hanged on Saturday after his sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court and following legal procedures, Tasnim said.
The IDF said it struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in three villages in southern Lebanon beyond Israel's buffer zone in southern Lebanon, overnight into Saturday.
Amid a fragile U.S.-brokered truce, Israel maintains a buffer zone about 10 kilometers deep along the Israeli-Lebanese border and the three villages, Deir al-Zahrani, Kfar Reman and al-Sama'iya, are beyond the line marking the area held by Israel.
According to the IDF statement, the launchers "posed an immediate threat to IDF soldiers and to Israeli civilians."
Dozens of Israeli demonstrators are protesting outside the U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee's residence in Jerusalem on Saturday, issuing an urgent call to the Trump administration to end its support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The protesters said they are urging President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ambassador Mike Huckabee to stop their support of Netanyahu, whom they describe as a security, strategic and moral burden on both countries and their shared core values.
Protesters said continued personal backing for Netanyahu harms both American and Israeli interests.
Eran Etzion, the former deputy head of Israel's National Security Council, addressed Trump and said that he's "betting on the wrong horse," on a "lame duck," and that Netanyahu's approval ratings are plummeting. "Only about 30 percent of Israelis want to see him re-elected. The overwhelming majority sees him not only as unfit for office, but as a genuine national security threat."
"Most Americans are fed up with Netanyahu and his policies. They're angry at him for taking you mister president for a ride. Taken together, the vast majority of Israelis and Americans want to turn the page on Netanyahu. We want a clean slate. We want a fresh Israeli government," he said. "We seek a government that will not lie or cheat the U.S. president."
German naval units, including a minesweeper and a command and supply ship, will be deployed to the Mediterranean Sea in preparation for a possible deployment in the Strait of Hormuz, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told the Rheinische Post newspaper in comments released on Saturday.
He did not specify when exactly the ships would depart.
Preconditions for any deployment would include a sustained cease-fire, a legal framework under international law and a mandate from Germany's Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, Pistorius said.
The minister pointed to Germany's naval capabilities in mine clearance, saying the country traditionally plays a leading role within NATO in this area.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said the country is ready to participate in a multinational mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz, preferably with U.S. involvement.
Here are saturday's latest updates from the U.S.-Iran cease-fire and Israel's war with Hezbollah:
■ The Israeli government is set to approve on Sunday the appointment of Michael Lotem as Israel's first ambassador to Somaliland, marking the formal start of diplomatic representation following Israel's recognition of the breakaway territory in December.
■ Iran said it seized a ship suspected of collaborating with the U.S.,according to IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency.
■ Dozens of Israeli settlers threw stones at local residents and set fire to a construction machine during their withdrawal in the West Bank village of Qusra, south of Nablus, according to Palestinian reports on Friday.
■ Kuwait's army said two drones launched from Iraq targeted two northern border posts on Friday, causing damage. It added that there were no casualties.
■ Report: Israel has killed 15 people in Lebanon since the cease-fire began last week.
■ Israeli strikes killed six, wounded two in Lebanonon Friday, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
■ U.S.-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, 41, has been releasedand departed the Gulf nation, after being detained in Kuwait over online posts related to the Iran war.
■ Egypt and Pakistani foreign ministers held a phone call to advance a diplomatic path between the United States and Iran, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.
■ German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested easing sanctions on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. "If a comprehensive agreement is to be reached, then we are also prepared to ease the sanctions step by step," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday after a two-day EU summit in Cyprus.
U.S.-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, 41, who was detained in Kuwait over online posts related to the Iran war, has been released and departed the Gulf nation.
Last week, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Shihab-Eldin had not been seen in public since March 2, after being detained by Kuwaiti authorities during a crackdown by Gulf nations on people filming or posting footage from the conflict that started when the United States and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February.
Shihab-Eldin had been visiting family in Kuwait and was arrested on March 3, according to CPJ. The media watchdog said he was charged with spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.
A Kuwaiti court acquitted Shihab-Eldin on all charges following nearly two months of detention, CPJ said on Thursday, citing a statement from lawyers for Shihab-Eldin's sisters. CPJ said it welcomed the acquittal. Before his detention, Shihab-Eldin had posted videos and images related to the war on social media sites, including footage showing a U.S. fighter jet crash in Kuwait.
Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz addresses the media on the day of a summit of the European Union and regional partners' leaders in Nicosia (Lefkosia), Cyprus, Friday.Credit: Yiannis Kourtoglou/ReutersGermany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz addresses the media on the day of a summit of the European Union and regional partners' leaders in Nicosia (Lefkosia), Cyprus, Friday.Credit: Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters
European Union chiefs have expressed skepticism over Germany's proposal to gradually ease sanctions on Iran in return for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
"If a comprehensive agreement is to be reached, then we are also prepared to ease the sanctions step by step," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday after a two-day EU summit in Cyprus. Next to safe passage for vessels, Merz named "a definitive end to Iran's nuclear program" and an end to threats to Israel as further conditions for such a move.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa, however, warned of easing sanctions on Iran too quickly. Von der Leyen said Tehran would first have to de-escalate the conflict, eliminate its nuclear threat and end the oppression of its own people.
The European Union "cannot ignore the nature of the regime, the violence of the regime against their people," Costa said. "I think it's too early to talk about relieve any kind of sanctions."
