What happened in Netanyahu's meeting with Trump?

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have begun a joint press conference following their Oval Office meeting.

[Islamabad] - Hamas said on Monday that Pakistan has agreed to host 15 Palestinian prisoners who were released from Israeli custody under a recent ceasefire agreement. However, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry has denied any knowledge of the arrangement, and the Foreign Ministry has yet to respond.

Speaking to Independent Urdu—the Urdu-language edition of the British newspaper The Independent—Hamas spokesman Dr. Khalid Al-Qadoumi said, “Initially, the number will be 15, but the timeline for their arrival in Pakistan has not yet been determined.” According to Independent Urdu, the Palestinians planning to travel to Pakistan will transit through Egypt and Turkey, though they have not yet left Egypt.

Al-Qadoumi added, “Several Islamic countries, including Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Algeria, have expressed willingness to host a group of Palestinian prisoners released under the Tufan al-Ahrar agreement. Discussions with these countries are currently ongoing.”

The deadly terrorist attack on an IDF post near Tayasir in the West Bank once again illustrates how illegally smuggled rifles are fueling the terrorist insurgency that is gripping the northern West Bank.

While the IDF has launched Operation Iron Wall, designed to increase raids on the terrorists in places like Jenin, the enemy is also better armed than in the past.

Several years ago, there began to be an uptick in threats on the northern West Bank. These spread from Jenin, where Palestinian Islamic Jihad is present, to Tulkarm, Nablus, Kalkilya, and other areas. It also flowed towards the Jordan Valley via Tubas, Tamun, and small historic refugee camps such as Al-Fara.

Syria's transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan are expected to discuss a joint defense pact in Ankara on Tuesday, including establishing Turkish airbases in central Syria and training for Syria's new army, four sources familiar with the matter said.

NATO member Turkey has long backed Syria's armed and political opposition to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in late December in a lightning offensive spearheaded by Sharaa's forces.

Ankara is positioning itself to play a major role in the new Syria, filling a vacuum left by Assad's main regional backer, Iran, in an expansion of Turkish sway that could spark rivalry with Gulf Arab states and put Israel on edge.

“Reservists - Generation of Victory,” an organization comprised of thousands of IDF reservists, launched a campaign on Monday urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue the war until Hamas is entirely eradicated and Israel has seized territory in the Gaza Strip.

The campaign, titled “The destruction of Hamas - the test of a lifetime,” was launched ahead of Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday. 

The movement recently staged a display in Kfar Saba, which featured Hamas terrorist dolls riding on white Toyotas, warning that the current hostage deal may incentivize further kidnapping of Israeli citizens in the future. 

Five Arab foreign ministers and a senior Palestinian official sent a joint letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, opposing plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza, as suggested by President Donald Trump in late January.

The letter was sent on Monday and signed by the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, as well as Palestinian presidential adviser Hussein al-Sheikh. It was reported first by Axios, which said the top diplomats met in Cairo over the weekend.

Trump first floated the suggestion of Jordan and Egypt taking in Palestinians from Gaza on Jan. 25. When asked if he was suggesting that as a long-term or short-term solution, the president said: "Could be either."

A recent intelligence assessment has led American officials to believe that a covert team of Iranian scientists is exploring a more rapid, though less advanced, route to developing a nuclear weapon, The New York Times reported Monday.

The intelligence, reportedly collected in the final months of the Biden administration and shared with the Trump administration during the transition, suggests that Iran may be seeking a shortcut to turn its growing stockpile of enriched uranium into a functional weapon within months rather than a year or more, according to the report.

However, US officials maintain that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has not made a final decision to pursue a nuclear bomb, The New York Times said.

A shooting terror attack took place Tuesday morning in the Tayasir area of the northern Jordan Valley, east of Jenin.

תיעוד רגעי הפיגוע בכפר תייסיר שבצפון השומרון@nurityohanan https://t.co/WRuaDESQO0 pic.twitter.com/1XApfFyiBn

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 4, 2025

Magen David Adom (MDA) reported that seven Israelis were injured in total, including two in critical condition.

According to early reports, a terrorist approached a group of Israelis and opened fire, wounding six. Medical teams are treating the wounded at the scene.

Israel is set to send a negotiating team to Doha by the end of the week ahead of talks regarding the second phase of the hostage deal, the Prime Minister announced on Tuesday morning, according to Israeli media.

A car bomb killed at least 15 people in the Syrian city of Manbij on Monday, the second attack there in three days and Syria’s deadliest since Bashar al-Assad was toppled from power in December.