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Mike Huckabee Says Hamas Should Have ‘No Future in Gaza’ During Confirmation Hearing for Israel Ambassador

Mike Huckabee looks on as Donald Trump reacts during a campaign event at the Drexelbrook Catering and Event Center, in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, US, Oct. 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Mike Huckabee vowed to help ensure the complete eradication of Hamas in Gaza during his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday to become the next US ambassador to Israel, lambasting the Palestinian terrorist group for carrying out its Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of the Jewish state.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, said that if he is confirmed, “Hamas will have no future in Gaza.” He went on to say that the terrorist group massacred Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, “in a way that was most physically painful and in a way that was most personally humiliating.” The former governor of Arkansas called for “accountability for what was done to Jewish people” during the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
In addition, Huckabee praised US President Donald Trump’s “historic” brokering of the Abraham Accords during his first term in office from 2017-2021. He indicated that he would help build upon them, arguing that the normalization agreements between Israel and Arab countries provide the Middle East with “hope” for a more peaceful future.
During Trump’s first term in office, his administration also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
Huckabee heaped praise on Israel, saying that he feels “grateful” for the opportunity to serve as the US ambassador to the Jewish state. He recounted the “approximately 100” trips that he has taken to Israel over the course of his life, adding that the Jewish state has left a profound “impact” upon him. Huckabee stressed the importance of appointing a strong ambassador to Israel, stressing the urgency of freeing the remaining hostages in Gaza and defeating Hamas.
Huckabee’s opening statement was intermittently interrupted by protesters, who accused him of attempting to use his Christian faith to launder Israel’s reputation and justify a so-called “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” in Gaza. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) repudiated one of the agitators as a “Code Pink lunatic” and accused the far-left activist organization of being “funded by communist China.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a vocal critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, pressed Huckabee about his views on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Israel potentially annexing the territory. Huckabee evaded the question, stating that it would be inappropriate to weigh in on potential policy proposals by Israeli officials.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) asked Huckabee to explain the significance of the US-Israel relationship. In response, Huckabee warned that Iran, which US intelligence agencies have long called the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, perceives the destruction of Israel as the first step to the ultimate dismantling of the United States.
“Israel is the appetizer, and [the United States] is the entree,” Huckabee said, adding that Iran wishes to acquire a nuclear weapon to destroy Israel as part of its eventual goal of toppling Western civilization.
“This is not just about Israel. It is about us, and if we don’t stand with them, they stand alone. And if they fall alone, we fall next,” Huckabee said.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), pressed Huckabee on whether he believes the Trump administration’s alleged “pivot to Russia” has made US allies, including Israel, hesitant to share sensitive intelligence information. Booker pointed out that during the first Trump administration in 2017, Trump “shared intelligence about an Islamic State threat with specifics that came from a spy embedded in the terrorist group on behalf of Israel.” The senator said that Trump’s leak “placed that person’s life at risk and cut off Israel from his intel.” Huckabee responded that if confirmed he would “work diligently” to ensure that sensitive information is handled “with integrity.”
Huckabee has long been a stalwart ally of the Jewish state. He has repudiated the anti-Israel protests that erupted in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel and criticized former US President Joe Biden for sympathizing with the protesters during his speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC). The former governor also lambasted the anti-Israel encampments at elite universities, stating that there should be “outrage” over the targeting and mistreatment of Jewish college students.
Huckabee has defended Israel’s right to build settlements in the West Bank, acknowledging the Jewish people’s ties to the land dating back to the ancient world.
“There is no such thing as the West Bank — it’s Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee has said, referring to the biblical names for the area preferred by Israel. “There is no such thing as settlements — they’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There is no such thing as an occupation.”
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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.
The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.
They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.
Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.
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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip

Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.
The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.
Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.
He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.
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Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, the New York Times reported on Saturday citing unnamed Iranian officials. It is understood the Ayatollah fears he could be assassinated in the coming days.
Khamenei reportedly mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications.
Khamenei has designated three senior religious figures as candidates to replace him as well as choosing successors in the military chain of command in the likely event that additional senior officials be eliminated.
Earlier on Saturday Israel confirmed the elimination of Saeed Izadi and Bhanam Shahriari.
Shahriari, head of Iran’s Quds Force Weapons Transfer Unit, responsible for arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was killed in an Israeli airstrike over 1,000 km from Israel in western Iran.
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