KLM to resume Tel Aviv flights with revised operations

Iranian authorities have detained several members of the country’s Jewish community on what sources cited by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster described as a pretext linked to recent protests.

The sources said those detained were not involved in the demonstrations. They did not give details on the number of people held or their identities.

Iran has carried out arrests across the country since protests erupted late last year and were met with a violent response by security forces.

An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Jews live in Iran, making it home to the second-largest Jewish population in the Middle East after Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Iran’s regional allies must be dismantled to achieve stability in the Middle East, outlining what he described as a vision for the region’s future during a visit to Kazakhstan.

Speaking alongside his Kazakh counterpart Yermek Kosherbayev, Saar said groups aligned with Iran posed a barrier to regional stability.

“Iran’s proxy terror states in the Middle East, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen must be dismantled,” Saar said. “Without doing so, there will be no regional stability, and this is our objective.”

Iranian media quoted officials as saying sounds heard near a military center in Pakdasht, southeast of Tehran, were caused by routine activity and testing, and not by an explosion.

Follow-up checks showed the sounds came from standard measures and tests carried out at the facility, the Mehr news agency reported. It said no incident or explosion had occurred.

Reports circulating about a blast were not accurate, Mehr said.

Iran’s government said decisions on cutting internet access lie with security authorities, as a nationwide blackout has entered its third week.

Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told a news conference that after events on Jan. 8 and 9, security policymakers decided the national internet network “had to be cut,” adding that the government could not override such decisions.

“Our approach is to support free internet,” she said. “But on security issues, we are all subject to these decisions.”

The internet blackout has continued into its 19th day. Internet monitor NetBlocks said on Monday that authorities were tightening filtering gaps to limit circumvention while allowing approved accounts to promote the Islamic Republic’s narrative.

The Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia in Iraq launched a drive for members to pledge their willingness to defend Tehran with suicide missions, the group announced on Tuesday.

The campaign came after the group's leader Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi urged Iran's supporters everywhere to ready for its defense against Israel and the United States.

"We say to our dear mujahideen brothers to prepare themselves on the ground for this," he said in a statement, "(and) Jihadist action that rises to the level of martyrdom operations in defense of the people of Islam."

Image circulated on the group's Telegram account showed al-Hamidawi and followers of the group wearing symbolic white burial shrouds signing a document vowing readiness for suicide missions.

"Names of the martyrdom-seeking brothers ready to defend the Islamic Republic of Iran," the documents on the militia's official letterhead said.

Kataib Hezbollah, designated by the US as a terrorist organization, is part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces and has carried out attacks on US and allied targets in the region.