Syrian rebel leader and the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammed al-Golani, said on Saturday that the new government in Syria is not interested in entering into a conflict with Israel. Golani made his first public comments about Israel’s airstrikes in Syria in an interview with the opposition TV channel Syria.tv. “The situation in Syria, worn out from years of fighting, does not allow for new conflicts,” he said.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem made a televised speech on Saturday and said that the terror group’s arms supply route through Syria has been severed due to the fall of the Assad regime, Reuters reported. In his first comments since the Assad regime fell last Sunday morning, Qassem, said: “Yes, Hezbollah has lost the military supply route through Syria at this stage, but this loss is a detail in the resistance’s work.” “A new regime could come and this route could return to normal, and we could look for other ways,” he added. Regarding the rebel groups currently ruling Syria, Qassem said that Hezbollah “cannot judge these new forces until they stabilize” and “take clear positions”, but said he hoped that the Lebanese and Syrian peoples and governments could continue to work together.

The IDF stated on Motzei Shabbos that the Air Force carried out strikes in Lebanon after the Hezbollah terror group violated the ceasefire. “Air Force aircraft targeted loaded rocket launchers prepared for firing aimed at Israel, in violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the IDF stated. “The IDF continues to be committed to the understandings reached regarding the ceasefire in Lebanon. The IDF remains deployed in southern Lebanon and will act to remove any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens.” The IDF reported on Friday that troops of the 769th Brigade, which are deployed in southern Lebanon, discovered a large cache of weapons, including Kornet missile launchers, missiles, rifles, and other military equipment hidden in a dense mountainous area.

The Hamas terror group fired rockets at southern Israel shortly after 9 p.m. on Friday, triggering sirens and causing Israelis to run to their bomb shelters in the Gaza border area, Ashkelon and Sderot. About 40 minutes later, sirens blared again after Hamas fired additional rockets. Two rockets that crossed into Israel were intercepted by the IDF. The IDF responded to the attacks later on Friday night by carrying out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, targeting the terrorists at the launch site as well as weapons storage facilities. On Motzei Shabbos, the IDF spokesperson said that the rockets were launched only 50 meters away from an active international aid warehouse in Gaza.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been hospitalized after she “sustained an injury” during an official engagement in Luxembourg, according to a spokesman. Pelosi, 84, was in Europe to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Her spokesman, Ian Krager, said in a statement that she is “currently receiving excellent treatment from doctors and medical professionals” and is unable to attend the remainder of events on her trip. He did not describe the nature of her injury or give any additional details. Pelosi “looks forward to returning home to the U.S. soon,” Krager said.

Daniel Penny, a military veteran who choked an agitated New York subway rider and was acquitted of homicide this week, has been invited by Vice President-elect JD Vance to join Donald Trump’s suite at the Army-Navy football game on Saturday. The Marine veteran was cleared of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely ’s 2023 death. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week. Vance said Penny, 26, accepted his invitation. “Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance said in a post on X.

Rebel groups in Syria discovered a network of huge underground tunnels under the Qalamun Mountains that cross the border from Syria to Lebanon. The massive tunnel network was funded by Iran to the tune of millions of dollars and used for years to transfer munitions and weapons to its proxy Hezbollah. In a video uploaded on social media, Syrians ride motorcycles inside the tunnels, commenting on the batteries for surface-to-surface missiles stored inside the tunnel. A similar tunnel system on a smaller scale was discovered under the palace of ex-Syrian President Bashar Assad and the home of his brother, Maher Assad, the ex-head of the Syrian Army. It is not yet clear whether the IDF was aware of the existence of the massive tunnel network.

At the conclusion of a security assessment on Thursday, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz instructed senior IDF officials to bolster efforts to protect yishuvim and roads in Yehudah and Shomron against the possibility of terror attacks by Islamic extremist terrorist elements inspired by the rebel groups in Syria. Katz stated: “Israel is determined to defend its borders and yishuvim in the south, north, and east against any threat – we will not allow a return to the reality that existed before October 7.” Terrorism in Yehudah and Shomron has increased since the signing of the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon. An Arab from the Palestinian Authority committed Wednesday night’s terror attack that killed Yehoshua Aharon Tuvia Simcha, H’yd and wounded several others.

The rapid fall of the Assad regime in Syria led Israel, concerned that Syrian extremist groups could take advantage of the vacuum to attack Israel, to open another front in its war against its Arab neighbors, taking control of Syria’s buffer zone, including the Syrian side of Har Chermon. There lies the Chermon’s highest peak, a vital strategic asset as it is the highest point on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. According to experts quoted in an article in The Media Line, Israel captured the peak in order to monitor the situation on the Israeli-Syrian border following the fall of the Assad regime. Syria is now ruled by several rebel groups, most of them adhering to extreme Islamic ideology – posing new security threats to the Jewish state.

Amazon is planning to donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, a move that comes as major tech companies seek to improve their relationship with the incoming president. A company spokesperson confirmed Thursday evening that the e-commerce giant will also stream Trump’s inauguration on its Prime Video service, a separate in-kind donation worth another $1 million. Earlier in the day, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. The report came after Trump said Thursday morning that the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, was planning to visit him in person next week. The two men had feuded in the past.