Israeli military sources estimate that Israel's strikes on Gaza, which have killed over 50,000 people, have destroyed only a quarter of the tunnel network and defense capabilities of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.                       

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper cited military officials as saying Hamas still “retains a significant portion of its tunnel network.”

According to the report, the Israeli war has “only managed to destroy 25% of the group’s underground facilities so far.”

The report also noted that Hamas’ military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, still has the capability to produce weapons and missiles, despite 18 months of war.

Meanwhile, Israeli military analysts estimate that Hamas has 40,000 fighters.

Before the start of Israel’s war, the movement was estimated to have between 20,000 and 30,000 fighters under arms.

While the US intelligence community, near the end of the Joe Biden administration, estimated Hamas had lost 15,000 men during the Israeli war, the Haaretz report said the group had recruited the same number of new forces.

This comes as the daily confirmed that Hamas retains its popularity in Gaza.

Israel launched the campaign of genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023, killing 50,886 Palestinians and injuring 115,875 others, according to the health ministry.

The Israeli regime was forced to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas last January, given the regime’s failure to achieve any of its objectives, including the “elimination” of the Palestinian resistance movement or the release of captives.

The 42-day first stage of the truce, which was marred by repeated Israeli violations, expired on March 1, but Israel is refraining from stepping into talks for the second stage of the agreement.

Since March 18, the regime has launched strikes on Gaza, breaking the ceasefire and prisoner-captive exchange agreement that lasted nearly two months.

Press TV’s website 

The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has highlighted the endogenous capacity of nuclear science in the country, saying the West has failed to deprive the nation of the technology.

Speaking during Friday prayers in Tehran, Mohammad Eslami said the Western countries want to hold a monopoly in nuclear technology and thus they do not tolerate the development of Iran's nuclear program.

"The key point is that we have surpassed the redlines that certain powers had arbitrarily and unlawfully imposed on this region," he noted. 

"Today, nuclear science and technology are not merely a scientific capability; they have evolved into a national and intrinsic asset, deeply rooted in the minds and determination of the people of this land, continuously growing and advancing," Eslami added. 

Western states, he added, "do not accept or tolerate the presence of a nation like the Islamic Republic of Iran, independent and on par with them on the global stage."

"All their (the Western states') measures and efforts to stop Iran have failed by God's grace. They have not been able to achieve any results from acts of sabotage and opposition, and they will never be able to do so," he said. 

Referring to Iran's nuclear products, the official said that more than 30 countries are seeking these products.

Eslami said while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is tasked with supporting, encouraging, and facilitating the use of peaceful nuclear technology across the world, the US is not allowing the UN atomic watchdog to fulfill its inherent duty towards Iran.

Iran has been subject to the most IAEA inspections from its nuclear facilities, he noted.

"Despite all disruptions [the Western powers create] and pressure they put on Iran, they still claim that Iran has not accepted monitoring and is concealing its nuclear activities."

Eslami also pointed out that in recent years, whenever Iran moved closer to signing contracts with foreign countries to build nuclear power plants, the West forced companies to withdraw from the deals.

"To spite our adversaries, we will construct fully Iranian [nuclear] power plants running on Iranian fuel," he added. 

Over the past years, Iran has recorded many achievements in its peaceful nuclear energy program in defiance of US sanctions as well as hurdles created by the West.

As one of the first signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has also been closely cooperating with the IAEA.

 The agency's head, Rafael Grossi, is expected to visit Tehran later this month.

Press TV’s website 

New Israeli strikes have killed over a dozen people, including seven children, in the besieged territory as the regime is pressing ahead with its bloody military onslaught against Palestinians.

Gaza's civil defense agency said the bodies of 10 people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital following an Israeli airstrike that targeted the al-Farra family home in central Khan Younis.

Witnesses reported continuous and intensive Israeli tank fire in the city. 

Moreover, one Palestinian was killed and four others were wounded following an aerial attack on a group of civilians in Rafah.

In central Gaza, Israeli drones struck a group of civilians in Deir el-Balah, following which a number of casualties were transferred to the al-Aqsa Hospital.

Two more people killed in an Israeli strike that targeted a group of civilians in the al-Atatra area in the northern city of Beit Lahia.

On Friday morning, the Israeli military released an “urgent and serious” evacuation notice for residents living in various neighborhoods east of Gaza City.

This infant lost her arm and is now at Baptist Hospital after Israeli forces pounded their home in Gaza's Shuja'iyya neighborhood.

The United Nations on Friday said its analysis of 36 recent Israeli strikes in Gaza showed only women and children were killed and decried the human cost of the war.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani cited an April 6 strike on a residential building of the Abu Issa family in Deir al-Balah, which reportedly killed one girl, four women, and one four-year-old boy.

Even the areas where Palestinians were being instructed to go in the expanding number of Israeli "evacuation orders" were also being subjected to attacks, she said.

Israel has said its troops are seizing "large areas" in Gaza and incorporating them into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants.

The UN rights office warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders are resulting in the "forcible transfer" of people into ever-shrinking spaces in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

"Let us be clear, these so-called evacuation orders are actually displacement orders, leading to displacement of the population of Gaza into ever shrinking spaces," Shamdasani said.

"The permanently displacing the civilian population within occupied territories amounts to forcible transfer, which is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and it is a crime against humanity."

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Shamsadani said between March 18 and April 9, there were some 224 incidents of Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for internally displaced people.

"In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children," she said.

"Overall, a large percentage of fatalities are children and women, according to information recorded by our Office," she added.

UN: 12,500 Gaza patients still in need of medical evacuation

On Thursday, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said there are still about 12,500 patients in Gaza who urgently need to be evacuated for medical treatment.

Haq urged that medical institutions be empowered to conduct these evacuations through all accessible crossings and corridors.

In a press briefing held in New York, Haq reiterated the urgent need to reopen border crossings to facilitate the entry of vital supplies into Gaza, cautioning that the current resources are depleting rapidly as the humanitarian crisis worsens.

According to Haq, more than 60,000 Palestinian children in Gaza are experiencing malnutrition, particularly as fuel and resources in community-operated charity kitchens are quickly running out.

Numerous international and local organizations have warned of the dire repercussions of intensifying the Israeli blockade, forecasting a potential escalation into widespread famine affecting the Palestinian population.

More than 50,800 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza in Israel's military onslaught since October 2023.

Press TV’s website

The leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement strongly condemns ongoing Israeli acts of aggression against Palestinians, stating that solid evidence shows that the Tel Aviv regime has no interest in peace and is seeking to completely obliterate the Palestinian issue.

Delivering a televised speech on Thursday evening, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi also vehemently denounced Israel’s conduct vis-à-vis the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

He said the Zionist regime has not only failed to adhere to its commitments but has also been carrying out widespread attacks and full-blown genocide in the region with the support of the United States.

Houthi sharply criticized blatant Israeli violations of the Gaza ceasefire deal, saying, “By God's grace, we (Yemeni forces) embarked on the path of supporting and aiding the Palestinian people ever since such infringements began.”

The Ansarullah chief stressed that Israel, with the incitement and open support of Washington, completely violated the ceasefire agreement and avoided negotiations on the second phase of the deal.

He described the ongoing Israeli atrocities as “an all-out and genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza.

Houthi said the Palestinian nation enjoyed only short-lived peace at the beginning of the implementation of the agreement, but due to the destruction of vital infrastructure, the situation exacerbated.

“Resumption of Israeli attacks has only deepened the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, and has once again demonstrated that the regime places no value on agreements and the rights of nations.” 

Houthi also criticized the situation of Palestinian prisoners.

“The issue of Palestinian inmates is a fundamental and undeniable matter for all Palestinians. Even many Israeli settlers have realized that criminal [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his clique do not care about the situation of Palestinian detainees,” he said.

“The Gaza ceasefire agreement could have led to the release of Israeli captives without the massacre of Palestinian people, especially women and children, and widespread destruction in Gaza.

"What had been envisaged in the deal were the rational and minimum rights of Palestinian people in the field of prisoner exchange, cessation of brutalities, and an end to hunger,” he added.

Houthi said Palestinian prisoners are enduring great torments and suffering much in Israeli detention centers, and cases of horrific torture in these prisons cannot be ignored in any way.

He said the Zionist regime's threats regarding the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

“If Israel succeeds in displacing Palestinian people from Gaza, the next step will be displacement from the West Bank. The displacement campaign in the West Bank is underway in a phased and planned manner.”

The Ansarullah chief also made a reference to the closure of UNRWA schools in al-Quds and the deprivation of Palestinians’ right to education, describing it as a hostile act.

“The displacement of Palestinian people is clearly supported by the US, and [President Donald] Trump reiterated this issue this week. Trump has announced that after expelling Palestinians from Gaza, he will turn the region into a "Freedom Zone." 

“This remark is meaningless. How can one talk about freedom while the people of that region are displaced and under occupation?” Houthi stated.

The Ansarullah chief said the US control over Gaza constitutes an oppressive and criminal invasion, not freedom. “This oppressive and barbaric process, which is accompanied by American support and participation, must be answered back.”

Referring to Israeli strikes across Syria, Houthi stated that the Zionist regime seeks to establish a “Greater Israel” and expand its influence in the region.

He warned Muslims, especially Arabs, not to remain silent in the face of the oppression and crimes of Israel and the US and to fulfill their responsibility through collective and popular activities in support of the Palestinian people.

He also emphasized the need for continuous and coordinated international action to protect the rights of Palestinians.

“A strong and unified voice must be heard from all nations to defend the rights of Palestinians. Muslims should not forget that any failure to support Palestine will not only be to the detriment of this nation, but also to the detriment of all Muslims.”

Press TV’s website

The commander of Iran's Quds Force says the US and Israel, with all their hype and hoopla, are "powerless in practice" against Iran and resistance groups. 

“They cannot even comprehend why our missiles accurately hit their targets. This is our strength,” Brigadier General Esmail Qa'ani said on Thursday. 

Last year, Iran hit military and intelligence targets inside the Israeli occupied territories with missile salvos in April and October. Iranian officials have underscored that the country only deployed a fraction of its firepower during the dual reprisal.

While Western military experts have also warned that future attacks could be still more complex and use an even greater number of missiles, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) last week unveiled a new underground missile "megacity".

It was unveiled after US President Donald Trump threatened Iran with bombing if it doesn’t submit to American demands. Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Muhammad Bagheri said the pace at which the Islamic Republic is developing its defensive might is far faster than the pace of the enemies’ recuperation.

Gen. Qa'ani on Thursday emphasized the importance of self-sufficiency and domestic production.

He gave special plaudits to the resistance groups in the region “for having resisted with the least resources against the enemy’s advanced equipment”.

"As we saw in Lebanon and Yemen, the resistance has dealt the greatest blows to the enemy with the least resources,” he said. 

Qa'ani highlighted the unique characteristics of the Resistance Front, saying "the essence of resistance is that anyone who fights it only makes it stronger."

“Yemeni youths who could not even reach the Zionist regime with their weapons at the beginning of the war have increased the range of their missiles by 600 to 700 kilometers in a single year,” he said.  

“This kind of progress is unprecedented anywhere in the world,” General Qa'ani said, adding "the resources available to the Resistance Front today are the result of domestic efforts and innovations".

According to Ahmed Nagi, a senior analyst on Yemen at the International Crisis Group, the US is wrong to believe that airstrikes can compel Yemenis to back down. 

“Their logic is shaped by years of war; they see resilience as a form of strength and are driven to prove they are not easily deterred,” CNN quoted him as saying.

If anything, they may actually be relishing US strikes, the broadcaster said. Their operations are a “direct answer to their prayers to have a war with the US,” Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemeni research fellow at Chatham House, told CNN.

Since mid-March, Yemeni forces have launched a dozen ballistic missiles at Israel, and barrages of drones and missiles at US navy ships in solidarity with the Palestinians who are subject to daily massacres and other atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank.  

Addressing the enemies, Gen. Qa'ani said, "Your crimes will never be forgotten."

"Killing women and children and destroying the homes of defenseless people is neither a display of skill nor strength; it is a sign of your weakness and helplessness.”

Qa'ani said the blockaded Gaza Strip still stands firm despite an extensive war for a year and a half, noting that such firm resistance “reflects the resolute will of its people.” 

Navy chief: Iran's defense capabilities stronger than ever

Separately on Thursday, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy Rear Admiral Shahram Irani described the country's maritime power and defense capabilities as stronger than ever before.

“Today, our enemies view the armed forces of the Navy as a superpower,” he said in Bandar Abbas during a meeting with the families of the personnel of the 86th Naval Group which traveled the world for 236 days between September 2022 and May 2023. 

Irani attributed the success of the mission to a combination of the personnel's expertise and the patience and endurance of the families of the comrades, emphasizing that families play a crucial role in boosting the morale of the personnel during long-term international missions.

Irani said the international community views Iran's Navy on par with the naval forces of a superpower.

“The efforts of my comrades have become evident to everyone in the country, the region, and the world, bringing honor and pride to our dear Iran,” he said.

Press TV’s website

One of the most important and important duties and responsibilities of a believer is to value and respect other believers and Muslims, to honor their existence, and to avoid insulting them or belittling them.

A pilgrim to the Divine Sanctuary must be particularly attentive to this important matter regarding others, and to honor everyone, whether younger or older than himself, and not to hesitate to honor them in any situation.

A pilgrim must pay attention to the fact that other pilgrims, in addition to being believers and Muslims, are also guests of God, and they participate in God's banquet, and they should enjoy greater honor and respect.

The pilgrim should consider those younger than him as less sinful and consider those older than him as superior to him in worship and service; thus, he should consider respect and honoring those younger than him and those older than him as a moral obligation and should not fail to honor all of them in the slightest.

Honoring a believer and respecting others is sometimes achieved with a single kind word; as narrated from Imam Sadiq (a.s.):

“Whoever says to his believing brother: ‘Welcome, [May Allah grant you prosperity and ease], Allah Almighty will record for him a welcome and ease in his deeds until the Day of Resurrection.”

And again, the Imam said:

“Whoever is approached by his Muslim brother and he respects his Muslim brother, has undoubtedly respected Allah Almighty.”

Imam Sadiq (AS) said to Ishaq ibn Ammar about doing good:

"O Ishaq! Do good to my friends as much as you can, and treat them with honor and respect. If a believer does good to another believer and helps him in his affairs, by this act he hurts the face of Satan and fills the heart of that cunning enemy with constant sorrow."

The United Nations’ special rapporteur on Palestine has warned that there is “not much time left” to save the Palestinian people as Israel continues its relentless onslaught on the Gaza Strip and its ongoing oppression in the West Bank.

Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur on Palestine, speaking at a two-day conference in Pantin, a suburb of Paris, highlighted the Israeli regime's consistent violations of the ceasefire established in January, asserting that without intervention from the international community, Israel's war crimes will persist.

“Israel will not stop its actions,” Albanese stated, saying Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is using the Gaza war to evade accountability for his violations of international law.

“I think I no longer have any hope in national justice at the Israeli level or the international level, because you see everyone saying they’re increasingly ready to roll out the red carpet for him,” she said.

She said several Western and European nations have welcomed Netanyahu, effectively ignoring an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The rapporteur also raised concerns about the Israeli regime’s expansionist ambitions, warning that there are plans to further annex Palestinian territories in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, effectively absorbing them into the Israeli regime.

Albanese described the current political climate—characterized by Europe's weakness and the United States' aggressiveness—as a “historic moment” for the Israeli regime, potentially paving the way for further annexation not only of Palestine but across the Middle East.

Albanese cautioned that Israel's brutal actions are not limited to Gaza, but extend to Lebanon and Syria, suggesting that the war could escalate further. “It would be crazy to think that Israel will stop here,” Albanese stated.

“It is clear that Israel wants the lands from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River in order to establish the sovereignty of the Jewish people; that’s what they say,” she said, citing Israeli ideology to establish sovereignty over lands and undermine Palestinian sovereignty.

Albanese urged the international community and global institutions to act urgently, emphasizing that “international law mandates us to end the occupation, halt genocide, and stop apartheid.”

 However, she expressed skepticism about the political commitment of states to implement these crucial measures, asserting that the willingness to act "does not exist."

Israel resumed its campaign of genocide in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce and sent troops back into the blockaded Palestinian region. In the three weeks since, the health ministry in Gaza says Israeli military strikes have killed nearly 1,500 Palestinians and injured over 3,400 others.

Press TV’s website 

Israel’s incessant air and artillery strikes have killed more Palestinian women and children across Gaza as the regime presses ahead with its plan to forcibly displace the population of the besieged strip.

The latest attacks on Thurday targeted tents housing displaced people in the city of Khan Yunis. Israeli artillery fire also struck Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza and Rafah in the south.

At least five Palestinians had been killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn Thursday.

This brings the death toll from Israeli attacks on the Strip to 45 Palestinians since Wednesday, including 35 in a bombing of a house on Baghdad Street in the Shujaiyya neighborhood east of Gaza City.

These strikes also injured over one-hundred and left 80 people missing under the rubble.

Meanwhile, health facilities in Gaza are in a devastating situation. Gaza’s health ministry has said that almost 60,000 children are at risk of serious health implications due to malnutrition.

Hospitals and medical centers in Gaza are facing “dangerous and unprecedented” shortages of essential medicines.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 37 percent of essential drugs and 59 percent of medical supplies are completely out of stock, along with 54 percent of cancer and blood disease medications.

Emergency, surgery, and intensive care units are operating with severely depleted life-saving treatments.

Around 80,000 diabetic patients and 110,000 with high blood pressure are no longer receiving care.

The ministry said Israel's siege that cut off Gaza from food, fuel and medicine, among other vital supplies, is worsening the crisis and creating “catastrophic” challenges for treating patients and the wounded.

Israel’s minister of military affairs, Israel Katz, announced that the occupation army is tearing the Gaza Strip apart and implementing a plan to forcibly displace its population.

During his visit to Israeli forces in the so-called Morag Corridor between Rafah and Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, he said that the military is “dismembering the Gaza Strip.”

Katz noted that “large areas are being seized and added to Israel’s security zones, leaving Gaza smaller and more isolated.”

“A new corridor will soon be established — Morag — similar to Netzarim, which separates northern Gaza from the central and southern parts. This will essentially sever the link between Khan Yunis and Rafah, making it more difficult for Hamas to operate.”

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to intensify the attacks as part of a broader plan aligned with US President Donald Trump’s proposal to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza.

“At the same time, we are promoting the voluntary migration plan for the residents of Gaza, based on the vision of US President Donald Trump, which we are working to implement,” Katz added.

Israel resumed its campaign of genocide in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce and sent troops back into the blockaded Palestinian region. In the three weeks since, the health ministry in Gaza says Israeli military strikes have killed nearly 1,500 Palestinians.

Since late March, Israel has ordered Gazans out of territory around the edges of the strip to create what it describes as a security zone; residents fear the aim is to permanently depopulate swathes of territory.

Press TV’s website

President Masoud Pezeshkian says Iran will neither back down from nor compromise on its nuclear achievements, rejecting military threats by the United States.

Pezeshkian made the remarks during the commemoration ceremony of National Nuclear Technology Day and the unveiling of the latest achievements in this industry, stressing that the more US threatens, the stronger Iran will stand.

“We seek peace and security, and we are open to dialogue, but based on dignity and pride. We will not back down from our achievements, nor will we compromise on them, and we will never allow anyone to prevent us from thinking or to prevent us from being innovative and creative,” he said. 

Pezeshkian also reiterated that Tehran does not seek nuclear bombs.

The West says “Iran wants to produce nuclear bombs. Who is more authoritative than Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, who has officially and publicly declared that we are not seeking to build nuclear bombs? You've verified it a hundred times, and you can verify it a thousand times more, but know this: we need nuclear science and nuclear energy in all fields,” he stressed.

The president said Iran does not seek war but remains strong against any possible aggression.

“We are not seeking war, but with the knowledge and power that our dear ones have created we will stand strong in the face of any aggression. The more they strike us, the stronger we will become; the more they threaten us, the firmer we will stand. We are not aggressors, and we are not going to attack anyone,” Pezeshkian stressed.

He also cited Ayatollah Khamenei's remarks that Iran is ready for negotiations but not directly, as the country does not “trust them”, asking, “How can they sanction all our resources and communications on one side and then ask us to engage in dialogue?”

Elsewhere in his remarks, he touched on the landmark nuclear deal reached in 2015 between Iran and world powers, known as the JCPOA, from which the US unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and re-imposed the sanctions on Iran while Tehran was fully fulfilling its commitments under the deal.  

“We lived up to our commitments under the JCPOA, but they were the ones who withdrew from it. We didn't want to leave. They threatened us every day. When they threaten us, we will inevitably respond,” Pezeshkian noted.

“I am confident that we will be able to continue our path with strength, and with the dialogues that will take place, we will also solve these problems,” he stressed.

High-ranking delegations from Iran and the US are scheduled to meet in the Omani capital of Muscat on Saturday to commence indirect negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program and removal of anti-Iran sanctions.

Press TV’s website 

Helping the Incapable on the Journey

In principle, helping and assisting people is a good deed according to the verses and narrations and is a cause for divine reward and reward.

If helping is for the weak and helpless, its reward is certainly greater and its reward and reward is more abundant. Nowadays, pilgrims go on the spiritual journey of Hajj in groups and caravans, and whether they like it or not, there are elderly people, old men, old women, infirm and weak among the pilgrims, who are unable to carry the burden of the journey and their bags and suitcases and are slow and weak in getting on and off. Therefore, younger and stronger pilgrims should help them in order to gain the pleasure of God and increase the reward of their Hajj and pilgrimage, and should hasten to help them with patience and forbearance. And when getting on and off the means of transportation - whether airplanes, buses, etc. - they should give them priority, help them and not show any favor to them.

Indifference towards the weak and the helpless is far from human morality, dignity and nobility.

Imam Sadiq (a.s.) says:

The grandfather of Imam Zain al-Abidin (a.s.) would not travel except with a caravan that did not know him and he would make a condition with them that they would open the way for the Imam in order to serve them in the matters that came up.

Once he went on a journey with a caravan, while he was serving the caravan and helping them, a man recognized that source of dignity and said to the caravan: Do you know who this noble person is? They said: No. He said: Ali ibn al-Husayn, Zain al-Abidin!!

They kissed the Imam’s hands and feet and said: O son of the Prophet! Did you think that you would subject us to the torment of Hell with this act? If, God forbid, we were bold, or talkative, or oppressive towards you, what would have happened?! Why did you serve us like a servant?

The Imam (a.s.) said: I traveled some time ago with a group who knew me, and they did me some service, and their service was because I was dependent on the Messenger of God; while I did not deserve that service!! I was afraid that you would treat me like them. That is why I traveled with you, even though you did not know me closely, to serve you and help you. 

Do you know who is praised for his purity? He who does not have a pure existence

He will never waste his life so that people can attain peace from him

He will not increase his wealth and position so that others are hungry and poor

He will not clothe the naked and add clothing for himself

If people were to attribute qualities to him, his name would not be an angel .

Pilgrim Etiquette

Hossein Ansarian