Here are Friday’s latest updates:
■ The IDF and Shin Bet said three Palestinians were killed in an airstrike near West Bank’s Jenin, including Qais Bitawi, identified as a senior Hamas operative in the Jenin refugee camp. Palestinian reports said Israeli forces surrounded the strike site and delayed Red Crescent medics, confiscating medical equipment and ordering them to leave without evacuating the wounded.
■ Defense Minister Israel Katz said the IDF has “occupied” the Jenin refugee camp, after Israeli forces killed the three Palestinians. Katz said the camp had been evacuated of residents, “cleared” of militants and terrorist infrastructure and that Israeli forces were now permanently stationed there. He also claimed the policy had reduced militant activity in the West Bank by about 80 percent, without providing figures.
■ The death toll in Lebanon has risen to 4,352, with 12,318 people wounded since March 2, the Health Ministry said. UNIFIL said it recorded 1,030 projectile trajectories in southern Lebanon in the past week, warning that the situation remains fragile despite lower levels of violence.
■ Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Oman has accepted a framework to reopen a shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, while insisting that Washington fulfill its commitments under the Islamabad MoU. Pezeshkian added that reopening the route would require the United States to lift the naval blockade and sanctions, release Iranian funds, allow oil-related measures and investment to proceed, and press Israel to halt actions in Lebanon.
■ The U.S. Treasury announced new sanctions targeting Iranian financial networks, including the manager of Bank Melli’s Dubai branch and a Hong Kong-based company it said helped launder money for a sanctioned Iranian exchange house. Treasury also proposed cutting Banque Misr’s UAE operation off from U.S. correspondent banking services, saying it processed about $1.8 billion for companies potentially linked to Iranian shadow-banking networks.
■ Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei urged officials to avoid statements that could weaken public morale, warning against political infighting and divisions over “war or negotiations” and “compromise or warmongering.” Khamenei has not appeared publicly since the 40-day war began on February 28, remaining out of public view since the death of his father and his subsequent elevation to Iran’s leadership.
■ U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Adam Schiff called the six-month war on Iran a failure, citing depleted military stockpiles, rising costs, casualties and a lack of strategy. Schumer called it “Trump’s war,” “disastrous” and “an abject failure,” while Schiff said there was “no strategy and no end in sight” and called for U.S. troops to be brought home. The conflict is expected to feature prominently in the November midterm elections.