IDF to stay in Lebanon post-ceasefire, Trump discourages Israeli strikes on Iran

US President Donald Trump commented on Israel's conflict with Iran on Thursday, saying, "It would be nice" if Israel would avoid escalation involving striking Iran's military facilities. 

The statements came when he was asked by a reporter at the Oval Office what he thought about a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities as he signed executive orders.

"It would really be nice if that could be worked out without having to go that further step," Trump responded.

The IDF will stay in southern Lebanon after day 60 of the ceasefire but it’s still unclear for how long, according to sources in the defense establishment and ministers, who convened on Thursday night to discuss the situation.
Sunday will mark 60 days since the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on November 27.

The agreement drafted by US envoy Amos Hochstein dictates that the Lebanese Army will be deployed in southern Lebanon during the first 60 days, dismantling Hezbollah camps and equipment. After day 60, Israeli forces are expected to completely withdraw from Lebanese territory.

Israeli officials, however, have said the Lebanese Army is not doing the job fast enough.

Israel is on high alert for the publication of Hamas's two lists on Friday, it was announced on Thursday.

One list is expected to include the names of three kidnapped female soldiers as well as the name of Arbel Yehud from Nir Oz, who, according to intelligence estimates, is being held by a Salafi group linked to Islamic Jihad in Khan Yunis.

Four female hostages are set to be released on Saturday as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal.

Iran on Thursday condemned as "baseless" a move by US President Donald Trump to re-designate Yemen's Tehran-aligned Houthi movement as a "foreign terrorist organization (FTO)."

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said that the move, which will impose harsher economic penalties than the Biden administration had applied to the Houthis, was "an excuse to apply anti-human sanctions against the Yemeni people."

"Such arbitrary and baseless unilateral actions will further weaken the rule of law in international relations and threaten regional peace and stability," Baghaei was quoted by state media as saying.

"From Hamas's perspective, they are making a major comeback as a dominant force in Gaza," Dr. Michael Milshtein, a senior researcher at the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, told 103FM on Thursday regarding the developments in the Gaza Strip in the context of the hostage deal and the ceasefire.

"Their situation is not bad. It's terrible for us to say this because we wanted to see a battered, beaten, and maybe even barely existing organization. Yesterday, the education system in Gaza announced that schools will soon reopen, even though 85% of schools no longer exist. 6,000 Hamas police officers have been deployed throughout the strip, making it clear to everyone who is in charge and signaling that there's no point in talking about the 'post-war era,'" he said.

It's better to release hostages in a deal than through a rescue operation, Deputy Chief of Yamam - H - told N12's Uvda program.

Deputy Chief H. commanded two major hostage rescue operations in Gaza, one in February (to rescue Fernando Maman and Luis Har) and one in June (to rescue Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Shlomi Ziv, Andrey Kozlov) the latter of which resulted in the death of Yamam's Arnon Zamora.

"There is a very deep dissonance," he told N12. "On the one hand, the fighters really want to do a rescue operation, on the other hand, I say, because of the complexity, because of the danger, it's better to release them in a deal."

The families of Rom Braslavski and Edan Alexander sat outside the Prime Minister’s Office Thursday, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure that the hostage deal continues and that all the hostages are brought home.

Braslavski’s father, Ofir, called on the public to join him in standing outside the PMO in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Jerusalem.

“Four hundred and seventy-five days have gone by, and my Rom is still not home. He is waiting. We are waiting,” Ofir said.