The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday’s events as they happen.
US Senate rejects Democratic bid to curb Trump’s authority to strike Iran
The Republican-led US Senate rejects a Democratic-led bid to block President Donald Trump from using further military force against Iran, hours after the president said he would consider more bombing.
The Senate vote is 53 to 47 against a war powers resolution that would have required congressional approval for more hostilities against Iran. All the senators voted, but the vote is being held open.
Iran’s FM tells Trump to drop ‘disrespectful tone’ against Khamenei if he wants a nuclear deal
If US President Donald Trump is genuine about wanting a nuclear deal with Iran, he should put aside “the disrespectful and unacceptable tone” toward Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and “stop hurting his millions of heartfelt followers,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi says in a post on X.
IDF issues evacuation warning for Palestinians in central Gaza
The military’s Arabic spokesperson issues an evacuation warning for residents in parts of the central Gaza Strip, after a rocket was fired from there at Israel, instructing them to head southward ahead of IDF operations in the area.
The statement says the IDF will employ intensive firepower “to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations in these areas, and will attack any area used for launching rockets.”
US tells UN Security Council that aim of strikes ‘was to destroy Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity’
The objective of US strikes on Iran last weekend “was to destroy Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and stop the threat that this rogue regime obtains and uses a nuclear weapon,” the United States tells the United Nations Security Council in a letter seen by Reuters.
“The United States remains committed to pursuing a deal with the Iranian government,” writes acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea.
Washington justifies the strikes as collective self-defense under article 51 of the founding UN Charter, which requires the 15-member Security Council to be immediately informed of any action states take in self-defense against armed attack.