ISRAEL - As a former British intelligence officer, who spent nearly 20 years working in intelligence and security for the British government, I understand the difficulties of gathering information in the Middle East and interpreting it accurately. But such a failure is unprecedented in Israel. It points not only to Hamas maintaining an exceptional level of secrecy — a feat all the more impressive given the invasion involved many hundreds of fighters — but also to communication breakdowns between the Israeli spy agencies and, above all, abject complacency from the top down.

USA - Representative Michael McCaul backed up earlier claims that Egypt tipped officials off to an impending assault. Three days before Hamas’ large-scale assault on Israel, the Egyptian authorities warned their counterparts in Tel Aviv that such an operation was imminent, US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul told reporters on Wednesday. “We know that Egypt has warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen,” McCaul said following a closed-door intelligence briefing on Capitol Hill. “I don’t want to get too much into classified, but a warning was given,” McCaul continued. “I think the question was at what level.”

ISRAEL - Countless media outlets quoted an Israeli army Major saying babies had been beheaded at a kibbutz. Astonishingly, some commentators argued they'd been shot rather than decapitated. To any sane person, such a debate is an abomination. Amid the carnage, a surreal debate – did Hamas terrorists decapitate babies or merely blast them to bits? Startlingly, that gruesome conundrum was occupying minds yesterday as political point-scoring broke out over the massacre of helpless children. At the Kfar Aza kibbutz in southern Israel, there can be no doubt that an atrocity unfolded. As many as 40 babies and small children were slaughtered, along with their parents and other innocents. As well as horrors that defy belief, the small communal farm of Kfar Aza, a mile from Gaza, is now an unwitting host to one of the poisonous propaganda battles of this war – namely: were babies, while being brutally murdered, beheaded or not?

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia continues to support the “legitimate rights” of Palestinians, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a phone call on Monday, Saudi media reported. The latest escalation in Gaza, which broke out after a surprise attack on Israel by the Hamas militant group over the weekend, poses a threat to security and stability in the entire Middle East, the crown prince said, according to the Saudi Gazette. The kingdom plans to take “proactive efforts” and collaborate with international and regional powers to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from spilling over to other parts of the Middle East, bin Salman said, adding that his nation is also seeking to bring a “swift end” to the hostilities.

ISRAEL - We are on the precipice of a major regional war in the Middle East, and the US military is going to be involved. Of course if this war was just limited to a fight between Israel and Hamas, there would be no need for the US military to intervene, because the IDF can handle Hamas quite easily. But Hezbollah is another matter entirely. Hezbollah possesses an extremely powerful military, and they have an arsenal of approximately 130,000 missiles ready to be fired at Israel. If Hezbollah enters the war and starts firing thousands upon thousands of missiles at Israel, the United States will take action. Unfortunately, we are already dangerously close to that point. Hezbollah has not formally entered the war yet, but clashes along Israel’s northern border have been happening for four consecutive days…

ISRAEL - Hamas has crossed lines that can never be uncrossed, and they have nobody to blame but themselves for what is about to happen. Throughout human history, it has always been acceptable for soldiers to attack other soldiers. But when they launched their surprise attack against Israel, Hamas showed no restraint whatsoever. Even though they knew that the whole world would be watching, they mercilessly killed and abused women, children and the elderly. And now footage has been released of them beheading captives. From this point forward, Hamas will be considered the moral equivalent of ISIS, and that is because they have behaved just like ISIS did. There is a code of honor that all combatants are supposed to abide by everywhere in the world. When a battle is raging, women and children are supposed to be left out of it. But Hamas had no interest in following such rules.

AFGHANISTAN - The death toll from the earthquake that struck Afghanistan on Saturday has risen to 2,445 while more than 9,200 people have been injured, the Xinhua news agency has reported. According to the outlet, 13 villages in the Zanda Jan district of Herat have been completely wiped out and many victims remain trapped under the rubble. Afghan national and provincial authorities have deployed around a dozen rescue teams to assist the victims, the outlet reported. However, it added that a lack of equipment has forced local residents and rescuers to dig with their bare hands in search of survivors or bodies. The Afghan director for Save the Children, Arshad Malik, described the scale of the damage as horrific. “The numbers affected by this tragedy are truly disturbing – and those numbers will rise as people are still trapped in the rubble of their homes in Herat,” said Malik, as he called for an “urgent injection” of funds from the international community.

ISRAEL - The war has threatened to draw in surrounding territories after shells were fired from Syria and Lebanon into Israel and Israel shelled the only land exit from Gaza into Egypt - shortly after an Israeli military spokesperson told civilians to flee through it. Israeli troops are gathering on the border of the Gaza Strip, which has a population of more than two million, prompting questions over whether the country is preparing to mount a ground offensive against Hamas in the occupied Palestinian territory.

ISRAEL - Hezbollah, largely seen as a proxy of Iran, has attacked Israel several times since Hamas launched a massive terrorist attack on Saturday. Tel Aviv is likely bracing for a war fought on multiple fronts that could further destabilize the region. Israel is preparing for a multi-front war as the country’s enemies seek to capitalize on Hamas’s gruesome terrorist attack, an analyst told Daily Express US. Geopolitics expert Kervin AuCoin said the attack showed all the hallmarks of being planned by Iran, which has long called for Israel’s destruction. He said: “Iran continues to use proxy forces like Hamas to carry out attacks on various locations. This attack is no different. It has all the signs of Iran’s typical coordinated attacks. The fact that it was carried out on multiple fronts with such precision and the surprising nature of the attack gives credence to recent reporting that Iran was behind the attack.”

ISRAEL - According to Israeli Defence Force's Major General Itai Veruv, some 70 Hamas terrorists wielding guns and grenades stormed the quiet Kfar Aza kibbutz. Hamas fanatics 'slaughtered 40 babies and children with some beheaded', Israeli forces have claimed. The attackers, alleged Israeli forces, beheaded babies and gunned down entire families in their homes. "It's not a war. It's not a battlefield. It's a massacre," said Major General Veruv. The Israeli troops, accompanied by foreign press, walked through the village on Tuesday, encountering a devastating scene of burned-out houses, strewn furniture, and torched cars.

ISRAEL - Mahmoud al-Zahar issued the horrifying warning in a video as Hamas threatens to take its barbarism to devastating levels. A senior Hamas commander chillingly warned his savage terrorist group sees the domination of Israel as just the start, with the barbarians threatening to execute Israeli hostages — including toddlers. Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades - the terrorist group’s military arm - has now chillingly it warned would begin killing their hostages if the Israeli government continues bombing Palestinian lands. A spokesman said: "Any targeting of innocent civilians without warning will be met regretfully by executing one of the captives in our custody, and we will be forced to broadcast this execution.

ISRAEL - Hamas terrorists have been sent a huge warning by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who compared them to ISIS. Hamas terrorists "bound, burned and executed children" as the barbarians killed innocent hostages one by one and filmed their executions, it has been reported. Benjamin Netanyahu made a short video statement that has been shared on X (formerly Twitter) by the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel. He warned that by attacking Israel, Hamas has "made a mistake of historic proportions" and "we will exact a price that will be remembered by them and Israel’s other enemies for decades to come".

RUSSIA - Vladimir Putin suggested he will revoke a nuclear treaty sending tensions rising around the world with Russia poised to test a weapon of mass destruction. Vladimir Putin’s government is set to rip up a key treaty in a move sure to escalate nuclear tensions with the West. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation verifies that nuclear-armed nations are adhering to a ban on testing weapons of mass destruction. It has been ratified by Russia but as of yesterday lawmakers in Moscow were given 10 days to find the best way to revoke the treaty.

GERMANY - The anti-immigration Alternative for Deutschland achieved its best-ever election results in a western German state. Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), said on Monday that the results of recent state elections show that the party has “arrived” as a mainstream political force in the EU country after winning its highest-ever share of the vote in a western German state.

ISRAEL - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to "change the Middle East" in Israel's war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, as the army pounded the Gaza Strip with air strikes. "What Hamas will experience will be difficult and terrible... we are going to change the Middle East," Netanyahu told officials visiting Jerusalem from the country's south, where Hamas militants carried out a surprise attack on Saturday morning. "This is only the beginning... we are all with you and we will defeat them with force, enormous force."