The question of a ‘day after’ plan in the Gaza Strip has plagued negotiations between Israel, the U.S., Arab nations and Hamas for months and has ultimately led to the terrorist network’s refusal to release the 55 hostages still held there. 

However, foreign policy leaders and security experts based in Washington may have the key that could provide a solution to help rebuild the war-torn Gaza Strip where others cannot: private security contractors (PSC).

PSCs, which have heavy experience in the Middle East and decades of lessons learned to draw from, could be used as non-state actors to provide stability and a path forward for the Palestinians, but they would have to start with humanitarian aid, John Hannah, former national security advisor to Dick Cheney and current Randi & Charles Wax senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), told Fox News Digital.

In a plan hatched out following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the subsequent outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip, a group of eight members with JINSA and the Vandenberg Coalition comprised a report that detailed how the handling of humanitarian aid could completely change security in the region. 

The plan, in part, initially looked similar to the mechanism known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by the U.S. and Israel, and which launched last month to distribute aid to Palestinians. 

However, the plan comprised by Hannah and the team took it a step further and argued that these aid actors should also be involved in rebuilding Gaza.

‘We thought humanitarian issues was the best way [forward],’ Hannah said. ‘It was the common denominator that would allow all of the major stakeholders that want to get to a better ‘day after’ – Israel, the United States, the key pragmatic Arab states – they all could agree that we can’t agree on a political vision for Palestine 10 years from now, and the issue of a Palestinian state, but we can all agree on this apple pie and motherhood issue that we don’t want to see starving, suffering Palestinians.’

The Israel Defense Forces had already detailed the need to eliminate Hamas following the deadliest-ever attack on Israel, but the group of eight experts also identified that aid, long used by Hamas to maintain power by using it to incentivize support and recruitment, and to punish opposition, needed to be the key to cementing actual change. 

‘We needed a solution on humanitarian aid,’ Hannah said. ‘And when we looked around the world, who could do this, take over the humanitarian aid? We were left with one option.’

‘We didn’t think it should be the Israel Defense Forces. Israel lacks legitimacy with the Palestinian population, and frankly, it had its hands full doing the military job of defeating Hamas,’ he added.  ‘American forces weren’t going to do it. We didn’t think Arab forces would step up and do this. And the U.N. system as it existed under UNRWA was illegitimate in the eyes of Israel.’

The group not only briefed the Biden and Netanyahu administrations on the proposal, but held numerous discussions with Israeli officials in 2024 on how such a plan could work. 

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero – who served as deputy chief of staff, Strategic Operations for Multinational Forces-Iraq for 2007-2008 and who was tasked by Gen. David Petraeus to create a system of accountability over PSCs in Iraq following the Blackwater incident in September 2007 known as the Nisour Square massacre – also briefed Israeli officials on how a PSC mechanism could work in the Gaza Strip.

Progress on the proposal appeared to stall by summer last year as then-President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were at increasing loggerheads over humanitarian concerns and mounting civilian Palestinian death tolls. 

However, Hannah questioned whether the seed had been planted with Israel by the time the Trump administration re-entered office, enabling the GHF to come in and start distributing aid. 

The GHF, though it has distributed over 16 million meals since it began operations in late May, saw a chaotic start with starving Palestinians rushing certain sites and reports of violence unfolding. 

Though the reports of the level of chaos have reportedly been exaggerated by Hamas – which ultimately would benefit from the GHF’s failure as experts have explained – the group initially drew some criticism over transparency concerns, though the group has been looking to remedy this with regal updates.

The group, which saw its third leadership in as many weeks earlier this month, told Fox News Digital that despite some frustration among world leaders and aid groups, its goal is to work with major organizations like the United Nations and others to better distribute aid across Gaza where those programs are still flagging.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee confirmed last month that the GHF’s distribution centers would be protected by private security contractors.

Though while Washington backs the effort, State Department spokeperson Tammy Bruce has repeatedly made clear that the GHF is ‘an independent organization’ that ‘does not receive U.S. government funding.’ 

However, she has also refused to confirm whether any U.S. officials are working for the program. 

PSCs have a storied history in the Middle East, and not only the U.S. war on terror. They have been used by nations like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which could lend them a level of acceptance that would not be attainable by another force. 

The proposal issued by Hannah and his colleagues took the use of PSCs one step beyond humanitarian aid and argued they could make a positive impact in the actual reconstruction of the Gaza Strip – an idea that was also presented to the Trump administration this year. 

‘It’s not at all foreign to these Arab parties that you might employ PSCs for certain critical missions,’ Hannah said. ‘Our idea was, let’s scale it up. Let’s unify the effort. Let’s have America and the Arabs lead it. 

‘The Arabs would put in most of the humanitarian aid workers, a lot of the financing, and then they would hire some of these international PSCs with a lot of experience to come in and protect those operations,’ he explained. ‘You’d have the Arabs engaged, which we thought was absolutely critical.’

The plan also included bringing in other international aid organizations that would work with these PSCs to expand developments like housing projects, community development and infrastructure repair to restore electricity and water.

‘And eventually, hopefully, begin to identify new leadership, local leadership in Gaza, who would be prepared to cooperate with the operations of this nonprofit entity,’ Hannah said. ‘Local Gazans of goodwill, who wanted to be rid of Hamas, who this entity could provide some support to, some protection to so they can, could begin rebuilding Gaza civil administration.’

The plan also addressed the perpetual question of how to deter the next generation of Hamas terrroirsts, particularly amid Israeli military operations.

Hannah argued this issue could be addressed by simultaneously training a ‘non-Hamas new Palestinian, local Palestinian security force’ that would not only have the trust of the local population but could also gain the trust of Israel.  

Hannah said he still believes this plan could be a tenable next step to securing the Gaza Strip but urged the Trump administration to take a more direct diplomatic role by leaning on Arab, European and Israeli partners to make it happen.

The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions about this reporting. 

In quite possibly the sharpest regulatory U-turn thus far in 2025, the Trump Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to roll back home appliance regulations as aggressively as the Biden administration created them. Homeowners will benefit greatly if this effort is successful. 

Dialing back the appliance red tape ought to be a slam dunk given the consumer dislike of government meddling on everything from stoves to light bulbs to furnaces. Even so, total repeal won’t be easy. The underlying statute, the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), specifically requires the agency to impose certain energy use restrictions, thus any attempts to undo these mandatory provisions are unlikely to withstand the inevitable court challenges. 

However, the Trump DOE is wisely focusing on the many instances where Biden’s appliance regulations went beyond the law, and it is this regulatory freelancing that is ripe for correction.  

Reversing the bureaucratic excess could make a significant dent in the more than 100 appliance restrictions Trump inherited from the previous administration.  

The targets include dishwashers and washing machines, both of which rank high on the list of DOE’s most over-regulated appliances. Washington’s heavy hand has led to longer cycle times, compromised cleaning performance, and reduced reliability. The problems stem from the fact that DOE regulates both the amount of energy and the amount of water these appliances are allowed to use, though EPCA only authorizes the agency to set standards on energy.  

For this reason, DOE is now proposing to rescind the agency’s water requirements for both, which could go a long way towards fixing the problems.

Similarly, the agency is going after other superfluous appliance provisions, including those for stoves, showers, faucets, dehumidifiers and portable spas. Regulation of these appliances won’t go away completely, but it would revert to the minimum the law requires and no more. 

DOE plans to go even further with other appliances that were never mentioned in EPCA and should have been entirely excluded. This includes microwave ovens, gas fireplaces, outdoor heaters, air cleaners, portable air conditioners and wine chillers. These products would no longer be subject to any DOE efficiency regulations whatsoever.

At the same time it is repealing or revising past regulations, DOE has proposed reforms discouraging unnecessary future measures. Similar reforms were first enacted during the Clinton administration and later expanded under the first Trump administration, but they were later cut back by the Biden administration. They include many commonsense safeguards against over-regulation, such as ensuring any new rules don’t affect product features and performance or impose unnecessary costs.

Perhaps most importantly, the proposed reforms align with Trump executive orders reversing the Biden administration’s near-obsession with climate change in regulatory matters.  The Biden DOE routinely used climate change as a justification for tighter appliance rules, despite provisions in the law prioritizing consumer utility over environmental considerations. The Trump DOE is again putting consumers first, which almost always leads to less regulation rather than more.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright summed up the goal of these deregulatory efforts when he said ‘the people, not the government, should be choosing the home appliances and products they want at prices they can afford.’ Those words are quite a reversal from the previous administration which boasted of its many appliance crackdowns, but they represent a welcome change for American homeowners. 

Israel’s ongoing military campaign on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure could mark not just a military escalation but a strategic shift, according to retired Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin. 

The former head of Israeli military intelligence and one of the architects behind the legendary 1981 strike on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor said Israel should expand its sights not just military targets, but political ones. 

‘Israel took the decision that, on one hand, it’s time to end the leadership of the Axis of Evil — the head of the snake,’ Yadlin told Fox News Digital. ‘At the same time, deal with the main problems there. Which is the nuclear.’

Yadlin didn’t say how long he thought the conflict would drag on. While he didn’t openly call for regime change, Yadlin suggested the IDF take out regime targets ‘beyond the military level.’

‘It’s not a one-day operation. It seems more like a week, two weeks. But when you start a war, even if you start it very successfully, you never know when it is finished.’

‘I hope that the achievements of the IDF, which are degrading the Iranian air defense, degrading the Iranian missile, ballistic missile capabilities, drones capabilities, and maybe even some regime targets beyond the military level that Israel started with, will convince the Iranians that it is time to stop. And then they will come to negotiation with the Trump administration much weaker.’

While Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially insisted it was not involved in the initial strikes on Tehran, President Donald Trump seemed to suggest he hoped Israel’s strikes would pressure a weaker Iran to acquiesce at the negotiating table.

The two sides are at loggerheads over the U.S.’s insistence that Iran cannot have any capacity to enrich uranium and Iran’s insistence that it must have uranium for a civil nuclear program. 

‘The military operation is aimed, in my view, to a political end, and the political end is an agreement with Iran that will block a possibility to go to the border,’ Yadlin said.

‘We need a stronger agreement’ than the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, he said. 

Yadlin, who in 1981 flew one of the F-16s that destroyed Iraq’s nuclear facility in a single-night operation, made clear that Israel’s latest campaign is far more complex.

‘This is not 1981,’ he said. ‘Iran has learned. Their facilities are dispersed, buried in mountains, and protected by advanced air defenses. It’s not a one-night operation.’

He added, ‘There are sites that I’m not sure can be destroyed.’

He said the recent attack was the result of years of intelligence gathering – and brave Mossad agents on the ground in Iran. Israel lured top Iranian commanders into a bunker, where they coordinated a response to Israel’s attacks, then blew up the bunker. 

‘All of the intelligence that Israel collected, from the time I was chief of intelligence 2005 to 2010, enabled this operation against the Iranian nuclear program to be very efficient, very much like the good intelligence enabled Israel to destroy Hezbollah. Unfortunately, the same intelligence agencies missed the seventh of October, 2023.’ 

Indeed, Israel’s past preventive strikes — 1981’s Operation Opera and the 2007 airstrike on Syria’s suspected reactor — were rapid, surgical and designed to neutralize a singular target. In contrast, Yadlin suggested the current campaign could last weeks and involve broader goals.

‘It’s not a one-day operation. It seems more like a week, two weeks. But when you start a war, even if you start it very successfully, you never know when it is finished.’

The operation is being framed by Israeli defense officials as a continuation of the Begin Doctrine, established after the 1981 Osirak strike, which declared that Israel would never allow a hostile regime in the region to obtain weapons of mass destruction.

Yadlin himself is a symbol of that doctrine. As one of the eight pilots who flew into Iraq over four decades ago, he helped define Israel’s policy of preemptive action — a legacy that is now being tested again under radically different circumstances.

‘This campaign,’ Yadlin emphasized, ‘is unlike anything the country has done before.’

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) hit the Isfahan nuclear site in Iran on Friday night, a location where uranium moves beyond enrichment to the ‘reconversion’ process of building a nuclear bomb. 

‘The strike dismantled a facility for producing metallic uranium, infrastructure for reconverting enriched uranium, laboratories, and additional infrastructure,’ the IDF said on Friday. 

On Friday evening, video footage posted by Iranian media showed Iranian air defenses attempting to intercept a fresh wave of Israeli attacks on the site, adding it to a list of nuclear sites targeted that includes the key Natanz facility.

The IAEA has confirmed that a nuclear facility in Isfahan was struck by Israel. In a statement on X the IAEA posted that four critical buildings ‘were damaged in yesterday’s attack, including the Uranium Conversion Facility and the Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant. As in Natanz, no increase in off-site radiation expected.’

‘Isfahan’s uranium conversion facility is at the heart of Iran’s quest for domestic fuel cycle mastery,’ Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy’s Iran program, told Fox News Digital. 

At Isfahan, uranium is converted into a state suited for gaseous enrichment. 

‘Crippling this capacity at Isfahan would disconnect the dots between Iran’s diverse nuclear industry and potentially handicap future efforts to prepare uranium for enrichment.’ 

Direct bombing of a facility that stores nuclear fuel represents a major blow to Iran’s nuclear program – but also risks radioactive spills. Israel avoided hitting Iran’s supply of near-bomb-grade nuclear fuel at Isfahan, the New York Times reported. 

‘All these developments are deeply concerning,’ the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement on the attacks. ‘I have repeatedly stated that nuclear facilities must never be attacked, regardless of the context or circumstances, as it could harm both people and the environment.’ 

Israel has now targeted over 200 sites in Iran in its move to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capability. 

Iranian media reported on Saturday that Israel had struck near the northwestern Tabriz refinery, reporting three missile strikes in locations near western Iran. 

The Israeli military said that initial strikes had taken out nine nuclear scientists, in addition to top generals in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and dozens of others. 

Iran’s counter-strikes have killed three Israelis. 

Experts have long warned that Iran is weeks away from enriching uranium to a weapons-grade 90%, and Israeli intelligence sources suggest Iran had moved beyond enrichment into the early production phase of a nuclear weapon.

The IAEA has warned of Iran’s ‘rapid accumulation of highly enriched uranium’ and said the regime has been opaque about providing details on its use. 

Israel’s precision strike on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure may open a rare strategic window for the Trump administration. With experts telling Fox News Digital the U.S. has an opportunity to pressure Tehran toward a nuclear agreement — one that could not have been achieved through diplomacy alone. 

The Israeli military told Fox News Digital that the operation in Iran was carried out by Israeli forces but in coordination with the United States. While U.S. troops did not participate in the attack, defense cooperation continued throughout the strike — and during Iran’s retaliation on Friday, when U.S. forces helped intercept Iranian missile attacks on Tel Aviv.

‘This was an Israeli operation,’ an IDF official said, ‘but we were closely coordinated with the Americans. There was real-time intelligence and continuous contact.’

Avner Golov, vice president of Mind Israel, told Fox News Digital ‘We’re not trying to pull the U.S. in — Israel is the right model for what a responsible ally looks like: doing the hard work, asking for minimal support, and delivering strategic value.’ 

He added, ‘No one wants a war. Israel achieved this result in just a few days. It was effective and disciplined. We don’t want to stay in a prolonged war — and certainly don’t want to drag the U.S. into one. Israel is the model — a way for the U.S. to stay globally influential through a partner that delivers results with minimal investment.’

Robert Greenway, director of the Allison Center for National Security at The Heritage Foundation, said, ‘The President’s messaging so far has been careful to distinguish that these attacks are unilateral Israeli actions — not U.S. attacks. That’s largely to prevent retaliation against American infrastructure. But if U.S. assets were attacked, we would become a participant — and Iran can’t handle Israel, let alone the United States.’

‘The President made it clear that he preferred a diplomatic solution,’ Greenway added, ‘I believe that was sincere, even though he knows the Iranians full well. He anticipated that the prospects might have been remote — but it was worth trying.’

Israeli analyst and journalist for Yediot Ahronot, Nadav Eyal, told Fox News Digital the operation reflects a deliberate ‘bad cop, good cop’ strategy — with Israel applying military pressure, and the U.S. positioned to extract diplomatic gains.

‘The president is basically saying this on the record: you’ve got hit by the Israelis. Now we’ve signed a good agreement, and we’re ready to sign an agreement. . . .’

Eyal added that some of the media coverage ahead of the attack may have been deliberately misleading, part of a broader psychological operation to confuse Iran’s leadership about the timing and scope of the strike.

‘We have information pointing to the possibility that much of the publications and some stories that were published pointing to after Sunday, after negotiations with Oman, and the fact that the Americans would play with this role that contributes another major cooperation, between Israel and the U.S., as to the strike.’

Avner Golov, vice president of Mind Israel, told Fox News Digital that the strike was the culmination of a broader Israeli campaign to neutralize three fronts: Hamas in Gaza, Iran’s proxy network across the region, and now the nuclear program inside Iran.

‘Since October 7, we’ve been fighting two wars — one on the Palestinian front in Gaza, and another against Iran, which has invested in a vast network of proxies, regional partnerships, and a missile and UAV program. Over the past year and a half, we’ve struck both of those arenas and gained superiority. Now, we’ve initiated an operation against the third strategic asset.’

Golov said this is the moment for the U.S. to step in and deliver a message that escalation will trigger American consequences — not just Israeli ones.

‘Ultimately, what we want is for the U.S. to say to Iran: ‘Israel struck your nuclear and military targets, avoided civilian infrastructure and didn’t touch the regime. If you now escalate … take into account that we’re in this now, and it’s a different game altogether.’’

He emphasized that the military victory must now be sealed with a political event — ideally, one that drives Iran back to the negotiating table. ‘The nuclear issue can’t be solved by a single military event, but this creates a solid foundation for a political one. Coordination with the U.S. is absolutely crucial.’

Greenway told Fox News Digital, ‘Having taken the strike, as the President said, perhaps this does open the door to continued negotiation. There are obviously different circumstances now. Iran has less capacity than it did yesterday — and will have even less tomorrow.

‘Each day that passes, every strike that lands, Iran has less to offer in resistance. At some point, I think there’s a good possibility they’ll choose to negotiate.’

The strike also revealed U.S. involvement on the defensive front. As Iran launched missiles toward Israeli cities, U.S. forces helped intercept them — a move officials say demonstrated American commitment without triggering escalation.

‘As a practical matter, this is our best collective opportunity to do as much damage to Iran’s nuclear program and to their offensive retaliatory capabilities as possible’, Greenway said. ‘From a strictly military standpoint, this is a window of opportunity.’

Trump withdrew from the original Iran nuclear deal during his first term, citing its failure to prevent Tehran’s long-term nuclear weapons ambitions. While he has insisted Iran will never be allowed to obtain a bomb, recent reports suggest he may support a revised deal that allows uranium enrichment for civilian purposes.

Golov said the numbers now favor the U.S. if it acts swiftly. ‘We’ve optimized our numbers and are hitting theirs. Eventually, the Iranians will have to agree to the American proposal — and that proposal should be on the table now.’

Just hours following Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a direct appeal to the Iranian people and said: ‘This is your opportunity to stand up [to the regime].’

The regime’s standing not only with the international community, amid its vast support of state-sponsored terrorism, which has impacted neighboring nations from Syria and Yemen to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, coupled with years of internal unrest, could mean regime change is on the horizon.

‘We are in the midst of one of the greatest military operations in history,’ Netanyahu said Friday. ‘The Islamic regime, which has oppressed you for almost 50 years, threatens to destroy our country.’

The Israeli leader said Jerusalem’s goal in hitting Iran’s top military targets is to thwart the nuclear and missile threats that Iran poses towards the Jewish nation, which he argued weakens the regime and poses a unique opportunity for dissidents within. 

Minority groups make up some 50% of the Iranian population, and some Iranian specialists have argued that if the minority groups, which are frequent targets of oppression in Iran, were to unite against the regime, they could play a critical role in toppling the regime.

Iran has faced increasing opposition since the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman, who in September 2022 was arrested by Iran’s morality police and later died in a hospital due to her injuries.

Amini’s death sparked mass protests across the country, which Iran brutally clapped back at and continues to execute those arrested during the demonstrations. 

Fox News Digital was told by Yigal Carmon, President of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), that members of the Ahwazis, a minority group in south-western Iran, which make up 6-8% of the population, have already been arrested by the regime amid its fears another internal rebellion could brew alongside war with Israel.

It is unclear if any demonstrations have yet begun or if their arrests were pre-emptively carried out. 

‘A regime change will be supported by many,’ Carmon said. ‘The fact is that only the minorities can bring a regime change because they are militarily organized.’

‘A coalition of non-Persian ethnic groups could topple the regime in a few months,’ he said. ‘Unlike the Persian anti-regime population, the non-Persian anti-regime population is militarily organized.’

Other minority groups, like the Kurds, who make up 10%-15% of Iran’s population and who live primarily in the northwestern border areas near Iraq and Turkey, as well as the Baloch people, who encompass another 5% of the population and live along Iran’s southeast border with Pakistan, also have a long history of opposing the regime, though they have also suffered brutal consequences. 

‘It has never been weaker. This is your opportunity to stand up and let your voices be heard. Woman, Life, Freedom Zan, Zendegi, Azadi,’ Netanyahu said.  ‘As I said yesterday and many times before, Israel’s fight is not against the Iranian people. 

‘Our fight is against the murderous Islamic regime that oppresses and impoverishes you,’ he added. 

The United States Embassy in Jerusalem has issued a security alert stating that American government workers and their families in Israel remain indoors, as Iran has hit the Jewish state with drone and missile strikes.

The alert, first made on Saturday and then posted again Sunday morning, comes as Iranian strikes have so far killed at least 10 people in Israel and injured upwards of 180. 

‘As a result of the current security situation and ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, the U.S. Embassy has directed that all U.S. government employees and their family members continue to shelter in place until further notice,’ The embassy’s alert, posted on its website and X, said.

‘Given the proximity of missile and debris impacts, the U.S. Embassy has offered employees living near the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv the option to voluntarily relocate to new accommodations further away,’ the alert continued.

Meanwhile, Israeli airspace remained closed, with arrivals and departures, according to a statement from an Israel Airports Authority spokesperson.

Iran’s bombardment of Israel came in response to Israel’s strikes against Iranian nuclear and military targets, which Israeli officials said were preemptive measures as Iran drew closer to developing nuclear weapons.

‘I’ll tell you what would have come if we hadn’t acted. We had information that this unscrupulous regime was planning to give the nuclear weapons that they would develop to their terrorist proxies,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X on Saturday. ‘That’s nuclear terrorism on steroids. That would threaten the entire world.’

Israel has also made clear that strikes against Tehran are far from over, issuing a warning to the people of Iran.

‘Urgent warning to all Iranian citizens: All individuals currently or soon to be present in or around military weapons production factories and their supporting institutions must immediately evacuate these areas and not return until further notice,’ the Israel Defense Forces said in an alert posted in Farsi. ‘Your presence near these facilities puts your life at risk.’

The IDF contrasted their approach with that of Iran, which has launched attacks at civilian areas.

‘This is the message we spread to Iranian citizens. While Iran chooses to strike without warning, we choose to warn a innocent [sic] people even if it means giving up the element of surprise,’ the IDF posted to X Sunday morning. ‘We warn them, in Persian, across many channels. Because human life comes first to us. That’s the difference between us and our enemy.’

Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report.