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Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed “a tooth-breaking response” against Israel and the United States on Saturday “for what they are doing against Iran” and its proxies.

The comments came a day after Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Khamenei, said Iran has the capacity to produce nuclear weapons and is prepared to change its policies on using them if faced with an existential threat, as the the country engages in a high-stakes tit for tat with Israel.

Kharrazi also said the country is likely to increase the range of its ballistic missiles.

“If an existential threat arises, Iran will modify its nuclear doctrine. We have the capability to build weapons and have no issue in this regard,” Kharrazi told the Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen on Friday.

Kharrazi added that “the only thing currently prohibiting this is the leader’s fatwa.” Khamenei issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, against nuclear weapons in 2003.

In a statement on Saturday, Gen. Mohammad Naeini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, added to a rising chorus of escalatory remarks from Iranian officials, saying “a decisive and strong response will be given to the enemy’s new aggression. The response will be beyond the enemy’s comprehension, strategic, and powerful.”

“The enemy must learn its lesson that it cannot engage in any act of hostility without receiving a crushing response in return,” he said, referring to Israel.

CIA Director William Burns said earlier in October that the United States had no evidence that Iran has decided to build a nuclear weapon, but that Iran could quickly — within a week or so — secure enough fissile material for an atomic bomb if it chose to, and there would be less time for the world to respond.A State Department spokesperson told NBC News on Friday that the U.S. remains very concerned about Iran’s nuclear activities.

On Thursday, Netanyahu said Israel had unprecedented freedom of action after the recent airstrikes against Iran.

“We can reach any place in Iran as necessary,” he said in a speech. “The supreme goal I gave to the Israel Defense Forces and the security branches is to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon.”

Retaliatory strikes
Saturday’s comments from Khamenei, made on the eve of anniversary of the 1979 storming of the American Embassy in Tehran, are the latest sign that Iran may not let Israel’s strikes go without response.

Iran had initially downplayed the impact of Israel’s strikes on its military facilities, but in recent days has begun to voice increasingly belligerent rhetoric.

Several Iranian officials made separate statements earlier this week. Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, threatened “an unimaginable response” for Israel’s attack, Tasnim, the semiofficial Iranian news agency, reported.

Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander of the IRGC, said that “Iran’s response to Israel’s aggression is certain.”

“For over 40 years we have never left an act of aggression unanswered, and we have the capability to target all of the Zionist regime’s assets in a single operation,” Fadavi added, referring to Israel.

Kharrazi’s statement on Friday referenced Iran’s historical reliance on Europe as a diplomatic lifeline, which appears to have deteriorated.

“In the matter of missile range, we have so far considered Western sensitivities, particularly those of the Europeans,” he said. “When they disregard our sensitivities, especially regarding the territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran, there is no reason for us to consider their concerns.”

“There is a possibility that the range of Iran’s missiles may increase,” he said.

Sirens sounded in central and northern Israel Saturday and the Israeli military continued to pummel Lebanon and Gaza, as cease-fire talks held this week yielded little hope of ending hostilities on the ground.

Northern Gaza, already the most heavily destroyed and isolated part of the strip, has been subjected to a renewed weekslong offensive by the Israel Defense Forces, driving the area to a situation the United Nations calls “apocalyptic.”

On Saturday, Israel said its air force had struck “more than 120 terror targets belonging to both Hamas and Hezbollah,” in Gaza and Lebanon over the past day. The Israeli military bombed targets in Beirut's densely-populated southern suburbs overnight after warning residents to evacuate. It was the first time in several days that the area, a Hezbollah stronghold, had been hit.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said 52 people were killed by the Israeli strikes, and 72 injured across the country on Friday. On Saturday Gaza's health ministry said 55 people were killed and 192 injured by Israel over the previous 24 hours.

At the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza's Deir al-Balah on Friday, an NBC News crew filmed bodies—including those of children—being brought to the morgue.

Jehad Muhsin was among those at the hospital, sitting next to a body draped in a sheet he asked, “What was her guilt? I want to understand, what was her guilt?”

“They bombed the house while we were staying in, my kids were eating and they bombed the house, they killed us all,” Muhsin said, adding that his two sons and wife had been killed.

In Israel, a rocket fired from Lebanon hit a residential building in the city of Tira, about 15 miles northeast of Tel Aviv, on Saturday, injuring 11 people, according to Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency services.

Video shot by news agency Reuters at the scene of the strike shows a low-rise building with much of the wall missing from the top floor and cars damaged by falling debris.

Warning sirens sounded in multiple locations in Israel on Saturday morning as the Israeli military said it was tracking “several suspicious aerial targets” from Lebanon, as Hezbollah confirmed firing several missile barrages at targets in Israel.

Israel also said it had successfully intercepted three drones over the Red Sea.

Diplomatic blame game
U.S. officials had been criss-crossing the Middle East this week trying to push for cease-fire deals that might bring some relief to the region.

CIA Director Bill Burns was in Cairo on Thursday where he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad. An Egyptian readout of the meeting said they discussed "ways to advance negotiations towards a ceasefire and the exchange of captives."

Separately, Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, two senior American officials, traveled to Lebanon and Israel to try and hammer out a cease-fire that would calm tensions between the two neighbors.

On Wednesday, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati expressed hope that a deal could be announced soon, but by Friday Reuters reported that Mikati was blaming "Israeli stubbornness" for standing in the way of an agreement.

Following his meeting with McGurk and Hochstein on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a summary of the meeting that said that the main focus for Israel was its "ability and determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon, in a way that will return our residents safely to their homes."

In a joint letter released on Friday, 15 heads of U.N. and humanitarian organizations called for aid access to northern Gaza, describing the situation there as “apocalyptic” and saying, “the entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence

Arrests. Classified documents. And suspected leaks that may have harmed efforts to free hostages held by Hamas in order, critics say, to give Benjamin Netanyahu public cover for failing to agree to a cease-fire deal. The Israeli prime minister was engulfed in scandal Monday over a case involving one of his aides that has sent shockwaves across the country.

The firestorm — brought into public view when an Israeli court loosened a gag order Sunday night — has enraged Netanyahu's political opponents and hostage families. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and distanced himself from the case, but critics have alleged that the Israeli leader put hostages' lives and national security at risk to buttress his hardline position in stalled cease-fire talks by leaking Gaza documents to friendly media outlets.

In a ruling on Sunday, the Rishon Le-Zion Magistrates’ Court said an investigation had been launched after suspicions arose within the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency, or the Shin Bet, that "classified and sensitive intelligence" had been illegally taken from IDF systems.

The action, the court said, may have not only caused “serious harm to state security and the endangerment of intelligence sources," but also could have harmed "the goal of releasing the hostages" who were taken captive during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks.

The court identified the central suspect in the case as Eliezer Feldstein, reported by Israeli media to have been one of Netanyahu’s media advisers.

In addition to Feldstein, three other people the court described as "detainees involved in the activities" were questioned, but they have yet to be publicly identified by the court.

Israeli media has reported that the information suspected of being leaked formed the basis of multiple articles on Hamas' approach to the hostage situation, including an article published by the London-based Jewish Chronicle that was later withdrawn after widespread criticism. NBC News was not immediately able to independently confirm that reporting.

The Jewish Chronicle article had suggested that Hamas planned to move hostages out of Gaza through Egypt, while a separate article published by the German newspaper Bild reported that Hamas was drawing out negotiations for a cease-fire deal as a form of psychological warfare on Israel.

Both articles drew skepticism from Israeli observers given their timing and the apparent cover they gave Netanyahu as he was accused of deliberately sabotaging cease-fire negotiations.

“There was something very fishy about them. Also, about the timing of everything,” Mairav Zonszein, Crisis Group’s senior analyst on Israel, told NBC News in a phone interview Monday.

The Jewish Chronicle and Bild did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

The reports emerged as Netanyahu insisted on Israeli control over the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza's border with Egypt, a demand that became a major sticking point in cease-fire talks. They also came as the Israeli leader faced mounting outrage from hostage families and much of the country's public over his failure to agree to a cease-fire deal following the deaths of six hostages killed in Hamas' captivity.

While Israeli media had reported some details of the probe and the gag order had been partially lifted last week, it was not until Sunday that crucial and explosive allegations were revealed.

In a statement prior to the ruling, Netanyahu's office said the materials suspected of being leaked had never reached the prime minister's office from the Military Intelligence Directorate and that Netanyahu had learned about the document in question from the media.

It added that the aide implicated in the suspected leaks had "never participated in security discussions, was not exposed or received classified information, and did not take part in secret visits."

But political opponents, hostage families and critics expressed outrage over the potential involvement of one of the prime minister's aides.

It’s left me yet again disappointed but not surprised by this government," said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7.

"I feel utterly betrayed, not just as a hostage father but as an Israeli citizen," he told NBC News in a phone interview Monday.

Dekel-Chen said that if the allegations raised in the investigation are true, it would mark the latest in a "long series" of moments when Netanyahu's government has "invented reasons to not move forward in the negotiation process."

Gil Dickmann's cousin Carmel Gat was one of six hostages killed in Hamas captivity — an incident that sparked national outrage not long before the media reports were published.

He noted the timing but said that if the intention was to sway public opinion, "it didn't work," as he pointed to major demonstrations in the following days pressuring Netanyahu to secure a cease-fire.

In a statement, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, which represents the families of those still in Hamas captivity, expressed “outrage and deep concern” at the possibility that at least one Netanyahu aide may have “worked to undermine public support” for a deal.

Benny Gantz, who resigned from Netanyahu's now-dissolved war Cabinet in June, said in a post on X that "if sensitive security information was stolen and used as a tool in a political survival campaign, it’s not just a criminal offense; it’s a national crime."

Opposition leader Yair Lapid rejected claims from Netanyahu's office that the Israeli prime minister had been previously unaware of the materials alleged to have been leaked.

"If Netanyahu didn’t know that his close aides were stealing documents, planting spies within the IDF, forging documents, exposing intelligence sources, and passing classified documents to the foreign press to stop the hostage deal—what *does* he know?" Lapid said in a post on X.

Zonszein, Crisis Group’s senior analyst on Israel, said that even if Netanyahu was not directly involved, the suspected leak would have emerged from a “well-oiled machine that is already accustomed to taking sensitive information and manipulating it for political purposes.”

But she said this wouldn't "come as a surprise at all."

"I think for the people who are already convinced that Netanyahu was playing with the public's consciousness and wasn't interested in a hostage deal, this is kind of just further proof," she said.

Investigators suspect that the theft of classified intelligence documents from an Israel Defense Forces database and the transfer of those files to people in the Prime Minister’s Office was “systematic,” and the publication of one such document in foreign media is a source of “ongoing” danger to the lives of both soldiers and hostages in Gaza, according to a Monday report.

Citing an unnamed source involved in the investigation, Channel 12 news said that a September report in Germany’s Bild newspaper damaged Israel’s intelligence capabilities, including the “exposure of sources.”

“The use of the published material caused real and ongoing security harm that, daily, endangers the safety and security of IDF soldiers at war and harmed and harms the capacity to protect the lives of the hostages in the negotiations for their release,” the source was quoted as saying.

The report said that while the illicit extraction of sensitive documents from the IDF’s databases was bad enough, their publication revealed some of Israel’s sources of information to its enemies. The material was barred from publication in Israel by the military censor.

Both the defense establishment and investigators in the case share the assessment that the exposure of the material — as was the case with the Bild article — harmed efforts to free the hostages, the report said.

The same unit was initially tasked with investigating the leaks to foreign media, according to Haaretz, but the investigation was later transferred to the Shin Bet.

The leaked material was not found by IDF soldiers in Gaza, the Kan public broadcaster reported on Monday, but was uncovered through “another type of intelligence.”

One of four soldiers previously arrested in the case was released on Sunday, according to Haaretz

Both articles were published days after the bodies of six hostages were found in a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah. According to the IDF, the six were found with signs of violence showing they had been executed a day or two earlier, as troops closed in on the location.

The discovery heightened doubts about the wisdom of relying on rescue operations to save hostages and reenergized protests pressuring the government to seal a deal to free the remaining living captives, even if it meant halting the military offensive.

The document allegedly leaked to Bild “was not the only document” taken and conveyed to “people in Netanyahu’s office,” according to the report, which said that there were “apparently other classified documents” that were accessed and conveyed in this way.

The ongoing investigation, which involves the police, IDF and Shin Bet, is said to be focused on “grave leaks of classified information from the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate to unauthorized recipients.”

According to Channel 12, the Shin Bet suspects that an “infrastructure” was put in place that was able to access “all the classified material held by Military Intelligence” and that “it extracted — and may have intended to continue to extract in the future — classified material that could expose the capabilities of the entire intelligence community.”

The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court said in a ruling on Sunday that the leaks in the case were alleged to have risked efforts to secure the release of the 97 hostages kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, who remain in the Strip, many of them still alive.

The case is being taken so seriously by prosecutors, in part because it risked revealing to Hamas key intelligence-collection methods.

Tyre is my hometown.

I've often thought about you and hoped you were safe while watching the news coverage and seeing photos Lebanese citizens are posting online, while being frustrated at not knowing what I can do. Aside from any of us miraculously figuring out how to influence our governments and stop our tax dollars from being funneled to the Netanyahu administration, is there anything we can do? As far as offering support to you, materially, socially or otherwise? I know this is probably a stupid and naive-sounding question, but I genuinely don't know and would rather sound stupid than uncaring. I had been trying to donate to humanitarian aid organizations, but from what I have been reading, very little,

if any, aid is being allowed into the regions being attacked, particularly Gaza. Is that true for Lebanon also?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, a long-rumored move that was announced on Election Day in the U.S. Netanyahu and Gallant had repeatedly clashed over the conduct of the war in Gaza and Lebanon.

Protests erupted in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in response to the decision, with critics accusing Netanyahu of prioritizing his own political survival over Israel's best interests, while families of those held hostage in Gaza expressed deep concern over the impact Gallant's firing could have on efforts to secure the release of their loved ones.

Gallant will be replaced by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who thanked Netanyahu in a social media post for trusting him with the role. Gideon Saar, a former Netanyahu opponent, will become foreign minister and cement support for the fragile ruling coalition keeping the embattled Israeli leader in power.

“In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust is required between the prime minister and the minister of defense,” Netanyahu said. “Unfortunately, although in the first months of the campaign there was very fruitful work, during the last months this trust cracked between me and the minister of defense.”

Netanyahu added that there were significant “gaps” between what the Cabinet had decided and what he termed “the campaign.”

He added that most members of the government and the Cabinet shared a “crisis of trust” with Gallant.

Gallant, in response Tuesday, said, “The security of the State of Israel always was, and will always remain, my life’s mission.”

He said he was fired over discord on three key issues, including his support for Israel making "painful compromises" in order to ensure the release of hostages who remain held in Gaza, as well as his calls for a commission of inquiry to investigate Israel's failures on Oct. 7, 2023, and his support for legislation that would remove exemptions allowing ultra-Orthodox Jewish men to avoid military conscription.

Signs of strains in the Gallant-Netanyahu relationship appeared over the last months. Gallant was scheduled to meet with his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in Washington in early October — a trip Gallant initiated — but it was postponed at Netanyahu’s request.

Gallant, who has spent decades in the military, has been critical of Netanyahu’s approach to the conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah.

His firing drew immediate criticism from opposition leader Benny Gantz, who said it was “politics at the expense of national security.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid condemned the decision as an "act of madness" and accused Netanyahu of "selling Israel's security and the IDF fighters for a disgraceful political survival."

In a statement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum expressed its "deep concern" about the decision and about how it would affect "the fate of 101 hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza for nearly 400 days."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on X: "The last thing the State of Israel needs right now is an upheaval and a rupture in the middle of the war."

Netanyahu's decision was welcomed by his ultranationalist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who congratulated him on the move.

"With Gallant ... it is not possible to achieve absolute victory," Ben-Gvir wrote on X.

In a nationally televised statement in May, Gallant challenged Netanyahu over his refusal to discuss a cease-fire and hostage deal. He said that would force Israel to have to rule over the Palestinian enclave again.

“We must make tough decisions for the future of our country, favoring national priorities above all other possible considerations, even with the possibility of personal or political costs,” Gallant said over the summer.

In the United States, a spokesperson for the National Security Council said Gallant has been an important partner on Israel's defense.

“As close partners, we will continue to work collaboratively with Israel’s next Minister of Defense,” the spokesperson said.

A U.S. official called Gallant's firing a surprise.

“The surprising decision to fire Defense Minister Gallant is concerning, especially in the middle of two wars and as Israel prepares to defend against a potential attack from Iran," the official said. "We have real questions about the reasons for Gallant’s firing and about what is driving the decision.”

Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Gallant had been a "trusted partner as Israel’s Minister of Defense."

"America’s commitment to Israel’s security remains ironclad and the U.S. Department of Defense will continue to work closely with Israel’s next Minister of Defense," he said.

Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestinian National Initiative political party, said Gallant's firing was "evidence of a deep internal rift in the Israeli system as a result of the failure of the Israeli aggression to achieve its goals."

In the days after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, which Israeli officials say killed more than 1,200 people, Gallant announced a "complete siege" of Gaza.

"No electricity, no food, no water, no gas — it's all closed," Gallant said at the time, adding that his military was fighting against "human animals" in Gaza, where local officials say more than 43,000 people have been killed.

Netanyahu fired Gallant in March 2023, after he publicly disagreed with the government and pushed to stop a controversial plan to overhaul the judicial system.

An Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza has killed at least 20 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said Tuesday, as Israel wages a nearly monthlong air and ground operation in what was already the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory.

The strike late Monday hit a home where several displaced families were sheltering in the town of Beit Lahiya, near the border with Israel, according to Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of the recently raided and barely functioning Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the casualties.

The dead included eight women and six children, according to a list provided by the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service. Separate strikes elsewhere in Gaza early Tuesday killed another 10 people, according to health officials.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israel launched the offensive in the north after saying Hamas militants had regrouped there. The army has returned to several areas of Gaza multiple times after previous operations, as Hamas continues to carry out hit-and-run attacks on troops and fire occasional rockets into Israel.

The military has ordered the complete evacuation of Beit Lahiya, the nearby town of Beit Hanoun and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, and has allowed almost no humanitarian aid into the area for over a month. That has drawn rebukes from the Biden administration, which has warned that U.S. laws might force it to curb military aid to Israel if more aid is not allowed in.

Tens of thousands of people have fled to nearby Gaza City in the latest wave of displacement within the besieged territory. Around 90% of the population of 2.3 million have fled during the war, often multiple times.

The three hospitals serving the area have been largely inaccessible because of the fighting, and ambulances have stopped operating. Israeli troops raided Kamal Adwan Hospital last month, saying Hamas militants were sheltering there, allegations denied by Palestinian health officials.

The offensive has raised fears among Palestinians that Israel is implementing a surrender-or-starve plan for northern Gaza proposed by former generals, in which civilians would be ordered out, aid would be cut off and anyone remaining would be considered a fighter.

The Israeli military has denied receiving such orders, but the government has not said whether it is adopting part or all of the plan.

Palestinian officials said a separate wave of Israeli strikes early Tuesday killed 10 people, including four children and two women.

One strike hit a house in the Tufah neighborhood in Gaza City, killing two children and their parents, according to the Health Ministry’s emergency service. Two other children were wounded, it said.

In the central town of Zuweida, an Israeli airstrike hit a tent where a displaced family was sheltering, killing four people, including a mother and her two children, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. Another strike hit a house in Deir al-Balah, killing two people, the hospital said. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the hospital morgue.