As Israel wages what it describes as an existential campaign against Iran, IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the war has reinforced a fundamental strategic shift in how Israel sees itself and its alliances, particularly with the United States and regional partners.

‘Israel was never part of this region. We thought we were part of Europe,’ he said. ‘Since the Abraham Accords started, we are having good relations with our neighbors. We are part of this region now.’

He described the 2020 agreements as transformative, building on the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. ‘The military cooperation is great. Some of the things are overt and some covert,’ Defrin said in his first English-language media interview since the beginning of the conflict. ‘Iran is a regional threat, and that is clear to everyone now.’

But he stressed the campaign against Tehran is not only regional.

‘It’s a worldwide problem, it’s a global problem, it’s a regional problem and it’s also an Israeli problem,’ he said. ‘They are not hitting only Israel.’

Months of Deception

The spokesperson revealed that the operation was preceded by months of strategic deception.

‘It was a strategic and operational deception,’ he said.

On the eve of the strike, senior officials deliberately maintained routine appearances.

‘Friday night we went to dinner at home. The chief of staff and I returned late in cars that were not our official vehicles. The official cars stayed at home, and we made sure that from satellite imagery it would not look like the Kirya (ministry of defense) was full while all the planes were armed and ready.’

He said Iran was caught off guard. ‘For many long months there was deception, so they were surprised. They fired what they had pre-planned in their preset response.’

‘A Mutual Operation’

The spokesperson said the strike that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was carried out in coordination with the Trump administration. ‘It was a mutual operation,’ he said. ‘The cooperation between us and the American military is amazing. We have mutual planning and mutual executing for the plans in Iran and beyond.’

He framed the operation as part of unprecedented U.S.-Israeli military coordination. The entire operation in Iran is a mutual and coordinated campaign,’ he said.

He also described a broader international dimension. ‘It’s a problem with the United States of America as well,’ he said, citing attacks by Iranian-backed groups that have killed American service members and threatened shipping lanes.

‘They are posing a threat to the Red Sea… the movement of naval ships in the Suez Canal dropped by 90% since the Houthis started shooting at ships in the Bab al-Mandab Strait,’ he said. ‘It’s a global problem. It’s a terror regime. They are acting all over the world. And again, we had to act.’

He added that regional states increasingly understand the threat. ‘Israel is here to stay. You see the countries of the region placing their trust in Israel.’

Strike on Iranian Targets

Addressing reports that dozens of senior Iranian figures were eliminated in a strike on Tuesday, including claims that 88 members of Iran’s Assembly of Experts were killed, he dismissed the figures.

‘We struck a few targets involved in terrorism. We still don’t have any battle damage assessment. Once we have it, we will publish it. It’s too early.’

He emphasized that the targets were military. ‘We struck military targets,’ he said. ‘They are attacking population centers.’

According to the spokesperson, Israeli intelligence shows Iran is deliberately aiming at civilians ‘to exact a price,’ including launches toward civilian infrastructure.

War Aims

Explaining the decision to launch the campaign, the spokesperson described Iran as an imminent existential threat.

‘We didn’t have another choice, unfortunately. It’s an existential imminent threat. This is a terror regime,’ he said.

‘They declared it. Whatever they declared, they did.’

Asked whether regime change is an objective, he drew a distinction between military aims and political outcomes.

‘As a member of the military, I cannot say we have an aim to remove the regime,’ he said. ‘But definitely, we want to weaken it and create the conditions that one day this regime will be removed by its own people.’

As fighting expands to Lebanon following renewed Hezbollah fire, he reiterated Israel’s view of Iran as the head of a regional network.

‘Hezbollah is an octopus. The head of the octopus is in Iran.’

For Israel, he said, the campaign has clarified a strategic reality shaped by the Abraham Accords and deepened U.S. cooperation. ‘We are part of this region now.’

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., will force a high-profile vote later this week to require the release of sexual harassment reports involving members of Congress.  

Mace said Tuesday that her resolution was drafted in response to recent reports alleging that Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, sent sexually explicit text messages to a former staffer. Regina Santos-Aviles, the one-time aide, later died by suicide in September 2025.

‘I mean, literally, this girl killed herself in the most heinous way,’ Mace told Fox News Digital when asked if the Gonzales allegations were her motivation for the resolution. ‘She literally lit herself on fire and died, and we’re just going to sit here and say, ‘Let the process play out?’ No.’

Gonzales has denied the affair and suggested he is being blackmailed by the attorney of Santos-Aviles’ husband. 

‘What you have seen is not all the facts, and there’ll be ample time for all of that,’ Gonzales told reporters last week.

Mace’s resolution would specifically require the House Ethics Committee to publicly release all records regarding acts of sexual harassment involving lawmakers or their staffers within 60 days of enactment.

The South Carolina lawmaker said on the House floor that she will deem the resolution ‘privileged,’ meaning House leadership will have two legislative days to vote on the measure. Lawmakers could also vote to table the resolution or refer it to committee, a way to kill legislation before having to weigh the measure itself.

Mace said she expected a vote on the House floor by Thursday but voiced pessimism when asked by Fox News Digital if she thought the resolution would succeed.

‘No, I’m not optimistic about anything, especially when they just hide everything under the rug,’ Mace said. ‘And if you’re an outspoken woman like I am, well, they’re going to come for you.’

Mace is among a group of conservative lawmakers who have called on Gonzales to resign amid allegations he had an affair with his staffer.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has called the allegations ‘really disgusting.’ Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told reporters last week that Gonzales ‘needs to go.’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has not made any push one way or the other, though he has called the allegations against the Texas lawmaker ‘very serious’ and ‘alarming and detestable.’ The speaker is wrestling with a razor-thin majority and can afford to lose just one defecting GOP lawmaker on party-line legislation.

The Office of Congressional Conduct is expected to send a report on Gonzales to the House ethics panel after the Texas primary elections Tuesday. Under House rules, reports on lawmakers cannot be released within 60 days of an election.

Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from his right flank, social media influencer Brandon Herrera, who is backed by the conservative House Freedom Caucus’ campaign arm. Herrera lost to Gonzales in 2024 by less than 400 votes.

Mace was one of four House Republicans to advocate for the release of files relating to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

A request for comment to Gonzales’ office was not immediately returned.

President Donald Trump argued that whether he carried out strikes against Iran wouldn’t have mattered to congressional Democrats. 

They would have criticized him either way.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus immediately ramped up criticism of Trump’s Operation Epic Fury when the Senate returned Monday, and the administration has not yet signaled a clear exit strategy.

Speaking from the Oval Office Tuesday, Trump said Democrats would have criticized any decision he made.

‘If I didn’t do this, guys like Schumer who — losers, the Democrats, losers — guys like Schumer would say, ‘Well, you should have done this,’’ Trump said. ‘In other words, if I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this.’

Democrats are furious that Trump did not seek approval from Congress to carry out the strikes and are pushing a war powers resolution vote this week to handcuff further use of the military in Iran.

‘Donald Trump has just launched America into a full-scale conflict against one of our most fervent adversaries,’ Schumer said on the Senate floor. ‘Without a plan, without an endgame and without authorization from Congress — or even a debate in full view of the American people.’

The administration argued after a closed-door classified briefing with congressional leaders and high-ranking lawmakers that the strikes were carried out as a preemptive measure.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after the briefing, ‘We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.

‘We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces,’ Rubio said. ‘And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.’

But Democrats largely aren’t buying the administration’s argument. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, contended there wasn’t an imminent threat to the U.S. from Iran.

‘It was a threat to Israel,’ Warner said.

Senate Democrats plan to plow ahead with a war powers vote, likely Wednesday, led by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and backed by Schumer. Whether they can splinter off enough Republican support, as Kaine did earlier this year with his Venezuela war powers resolution, remains to be seen.

Trump argued that because Iran was ‘a purveyor of terror all over the world,’ Operation Epic Fury was inevitable.

‘It’s something that had to be done,’ Trump said.

President Donald Trump is open to the idea of supporting militia groups in Iran willing to help take out the regime, according to reports. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has spoken with Kurdish leaders, who have a sizable force along the Iraq-Iran border.

‘President Trump has spoken with many regional partners,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the newspaper in a statement, without confirming Trump’s aims.

Trump spoke with two leaders of the main Kurdish factions in Iraq — Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani — a day after the Saturday bombing campaign began, Axios first reported. 

Officials told the Journal that Trump hasn’t made a decision on the matter, including what type of help the United States would provide, be it arms, intelligence or other resources. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House. 

Among the approaches being looked at for Iran moving forward are backing militias while weighing different scenarios for who could realistically take power after the country’s leaders fall, the newspaper reported. 

Trump has urged the people of Iran to overthrow the country’s regime as Tehran appears to be weakened following U.S. and Israeli military strikes that have killed several key Iranian leaders and officials.  

‘Most of the people we had in mind are dead,’ he told reporters at the White House. ‘And now we have another group, they may be dead also. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.’

The strikes have fueled speculation that the Kurds could advance into Iran amid Israeli strikes in the western part of the country. 

‘It is the general view, and certainly (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s view, that the Kurds are going to come out of the woodwork … that they’re going to rise up,’ one official told Axios. 

President Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted Israel did not pressure him to conduct joint military strikes on Iran, claiming that he believed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ‘was going to attack first.’

Days after the regime leaders were killed and war erupted in Iran, Trump addressed the decision to conduct a joint U.S.-Israel attack on the country, explaining he ‘might have forced Israel’s hand.’

‘I might have forced their hand,’ Trump said from the White House Oval Office on Tuesday. ‘You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. … If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that. … So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.’

Although sources previously told Fox News the timeline of the attack was moved up to seize an opportunity to strike regime leaders in downtown Tehran, Trump said both the U.S. and Israel were ready.

‘We’ve had a very, very powerful impact because virtually everything they have has been knocked out,’ the president said. ‘Now, their missile count is going way down. Amazingly, they’re hitting countries that were, let’s call them neutral … I think they were surprised. I was surprised, I think. Now those countries are all fighting against them and fighting strongly against them.’

Trump’s comments came after Democrats criticized his decision to launch strikes with Israel in Iran without congressional approval.

Administration officials said they provided congressional notification to the ‘Gang of Eight,’ a bipartisan group of top congressional intelligence leaders, ahead of the strikes, but Congress did not hold a vote to approve them.

The Trump administration has argued the U.S. was facing an ‘imminent threat,’ prompting military action.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. was not going to ‘sit there and absorb a blow’ from Iran, while War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the operation was not a ‘so-called regime change war’ or an open-ended conflict like that in Iraq.

Trump said he believes regardless of whether the U.S. took part in the strikes on Iran, Democrats would have been unhappy with his decision.

‘If I didn’t do this, guys like [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer who — losers, the Democrats [are] losers — … would say, ‘well, you should have done this.’ In other words, if I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, ‘that you should have done this.’’

He added he has ‘never had more compliments’ on presidential action he has taken, noting ‘people felt that something had to be done.’

‘We [might] have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe lower than even before,’ Trump said.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

Senior Iranian clerics would have been left ‘exposed’ after an Israeli airstrike hit a meeting place where they were supposed to be convening Tuesday — days after a strike leveled the Tehran compound of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a defense analyst has claimed.

The clerics, members of the Assembly of Experts, had reportedly planned to meet at the location in Qom to deliberate succession plans for Khamenei, who was killed in the strikes, according to The Times of Israel.

‘This second strike would be another embarrassment to what has been left of the regime,’ Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital.

‘It indicates intelligence dominance and superiority because any movement is detected, meaning they would feel exposed,’ Michael added.

‘As of now, the leadership would feel insecure and hunted, with all of their plans collapsing one after another.’

‘They would feel totally isolated and understand that the biggest risk might come from home — from a potential uprising next,’ he added.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin confirmed that the Israeli Air Force struck the building where senior clerics had planned to assemble, The Times of Israel reported.

It remains unclear how many of the 88 members were present at the time of the strike, according to an Israeli defense source cited by the outlet. The second strike on Iran’s leadership comes amid a broader military campaign.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, U.S. forces have struck more than 1,700 targets across Iran in the first 72 hours of Operation Epic Fury, according to a U.S. Central Command fact sheet.

The campaign is aimed at dismantling Iran’s security apparatus and neutralizing what officials describe as imminent threats.

According to U.S. Central Command, targets have included command-and-control centers, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Joint Headquarters, the IRGC Aerospace Forces headquarters, integrated air defense systems and ballistic missile sites.

‘We need strategic patience and determination, and in several weeks most of the job will be accomplished,’ Michael added. ‘Even if the regime does not collapse, Iran will not be like we used to know.

‘I assume that the U.S. and Israel will establish a very robust monitoring mechanism that will enable them to react whenever the regime tries to reconstitute its military capacities again.’

Iran is waging a mass drone campaign across the Middle East, unleashing waves of low-cost, one-way attack drones also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), against Western-linked targets to impose ‘exponential cost on the U.S.,’ a defense expert has warned.

As Tehran reportedly launched thousands of Shahed drones across the region and Iranian state media shared footage of underground stockpiles, Cameron Chell, CEO of drone maker and tech company Draganfly, said Iran’s strategy is designed to force high-end defenses to counter cheap aerial threats.

‘Even a hundred of these drones in the hands of a decentralized unit can cause terror in a neighboring state like never before imagined,’ Chell told Fox News Digital. ‘The Iranians cannot win the war with these drones, but like the [communist] Viet Cong [during the Vietnam War], they have an asymmetric capability that can prolong this war and create political pressure.’

‘Iran can drive terror in unimaginable ways and drive exponential costs on the U.S. side, having to target these small, very hard-to-detect drone units,’ he added.

Chell’s warning comes as tensions spiraled following Saturday’s joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran targeting nuclear sites, missile facilities and leadership that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several commanders.

The Iranian drones have proved deadly, having killed six U.S. service members in an attack on a tactical center in Kuwait earlier this week.

A CIA station in the U.S. Embassy in the Saudi capital of Riyadh was struck in an Iranian drone attack Tuesday, causing a limited fire but no reported injuries.

In Bahrain, drones reportedly identified as Iranian Shahed models smashed into the upper floors of the Era View Tower in Manama, about one mile from a U.S. Navy base.

An Iranian drone also struck a parking lot outside the U.S. Consulate in Dubai, while the United Arab Emirates said it intercepted Iranian missiles and drone attacks targeting the country.

‘Based on the engine sound, the apparent attack angle and the implied speed, to the best of my knowledge, this was a Shahed-class one-way attack drone,’ Chell said of the Dubai consulate attack video before suggesting the drone footage showed ‘a Shahed 191.’

Fars News Agency also released footage purporting to show scores of attack drones stockpiled in vast underground tunnels in Iran.

The video appeared to show rows of triangular-shaped drones on rocket launchers, missiles lined up, four to a launcher vehicle and walls adorned with Iranian flags and photographs of Khamenei. Outlets noted that the video’s timing and location remain unverified.

‘It is hard to confirm that Iran has the capability now to produce these drones in these volumes during wartime,’ Chell said of the stockpiling footage.

‘To the extent they were producing these in those numbers, a more-than-significant portion would have been for delivery to Russia — which does not seem impossible. That said, the drones in the underground propaganda video are Shahed 191 drones.’

A new report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace also underscored Chell’s comments on expense and range.

‘Right now, Iran is using a mixture of ballistic missiles and attack drones,’ said senior fellow Dara Massicot. ‘The methods are effective, but targeting drones in this way is resource-intensive and expensive, and it will drain certain types of interceptors quickly.’

‘Ground-based air defense interceptor missiles are not infinite, and the United States and its partners and allies have had stockpile challenges in this area for years,’ she added.

Another senior fellow, Steve Feldstein, added, ‘An important point is that the world is entering a new age of drone war as unmanned aircraft are proliferating on the battlefield in major conflicts and smaller ones.’

– James Talarico, a Democratic state lawmaker from Texas with a surging national profile, defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a nationally known politician, progressive firebrand, and vocal critic and foil of President Donald Trump, to win the Democratic Senate primary in Texas, according to the Associated Press.

Talarico, 36, will now try to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in Texas, as he faces off against the winner of a bruising Republican primary runoff between longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

This year’s Senate showdown in Texas is one of a handful across the country that could determine if Republicans hold their majority in the chamber in the midterm elections. The GOP currently controls the chamber 53-47.

In the final weeks leading up to Tuesday’s Democratic primary, race became a key factor in the showdown between Talarico, a former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian who is considered a rising star among Democrats, and Crockett, a civil rights attorney first elected to Congress in 2022.

Talarico, who is White, was accused a month ago by an influencer of calling former Rep. Colin Allred, a former rival for the 2026 Senate nomination, a ‘mediocre Black man.’ 

Allred, the 2024 Democratic Senate nominee, was making a second straight run after losing two years ago to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz by eight points.

He ended his Senate campaign late last year, just before Crockett announced her candidacy. Allred, a former college football star who played professionally in the NFL and later became a civil rights attorney, is now running for his old House seat.

Morgan Thompson, the influencer who goes by the username @morga_tt on TikTok, in a social media post claimed Talarico told her in a private conversation that he had ‘signed up to run against a mediocre Black man, not a formidable, intelligent, Black woman.’

Pushing back against Thompson’s characterization of their conversation, Talarico said in a statement, ‘In my praise of Congresswoman Crockett, I described Congressman Allred’s method of campaigning as mediocre — but his life and service are not. I would never attack him on the basis of race.’

Allred, responding in a social media video on Monday, said: ‘James, if you want to compliment Black women, just do it. Just do it. Don’t do it while also tearing down a Black man.’

The 44-year-old Crockett, who is Black, said in a statement that Allred ‘drew a line in the sand.’

‘He made it clear that he did not take allegations of an attack on him as simply another day in the neighborhood, but more importantly, his post wasn’t about himself,’ Crockett, who was endorsed by Allred, said. ‘It was a moment that he decided to stand for all people who have been targeted and talked about in a demeaning way as our country continues to be divided.’

A couple of weeks later, Crockett claimed that a Talarico-aligned super PAC had darkened her skin tone in an ad and said it was ‘straight up racist.’

She also argued late last month that talk that she wasn’t electable statewide was a ‘dog whistle’ that was ‘tearing down a Black woman,’ and that she was the ‘most qualified’ candidate.

Talarico, who was first elected to the Texas House in 2018 by flipping a red district in northeast Austin and surrounding suburbs, highlighted his ability to win over Republican voters. And he questioned whether Crockett could run a competitive general election campaign.

While dramatically outraising and outspending Crockett the past two months, Talarico cast himself as the underdog in the primary battle against the better-known congresswoman.

Talarico, who speaks openly about his faith and how it shapes his progressive policy agenda, last year started garnering national attention through a slew of social media appearances that went viral. Also boosting his profile were his TikTok videos, which have grabbed millions of views, and his appearance last July on Joe Rogan’s top-rated podcast.

Rogan suggested during the interview that Talarico should run for president.

A month later, Talarico was a regular on the cable news networks, conducting dozens of national media interviews, as he and dozens of his fellow Democrats in the Texas House fled the state for weeks, to delay the eventual Trump-led redistricting push in Texas to create up to five more right-leaning congressional seats

Talarico launched his Senate campaign a month later, in September.

Last month, Talarcio grabbed even more national attention when his appearance on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ was bumped off broadcast TV and instead appeared on YouTube. Colbert accused his network, CBS, of blocking the interview by citing guidelines from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The controversy appeared to boost Talarico, with his campaign saying they hauled in $2.5 million in fundraising in the 24 hours ‘following his censored’ interview.