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1. US Secretary of State Rubio announced new sanctions Thursday on Cuba's military-industrial enterprise, its leader and a state-owned natural resources company.

2. US President Donald Trump says three US Navy destroyers transited out of the Strait of Hormuz under fire, adding that the American destroyers were not damaged but “great damage was done to Iranian attackers.”

3. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Thursday that he had met with the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since his appointment in early March.

President Pezeshkian did not say when their meeting took place.

4. The US will host the third round of ambassador-level talks between representatives from Israel and Lebanon on May 14 and 15, a State Department official and an Israeli official confirmed to The Times of Israel on Wednesday.

Joining diplomats from each side will, for the first time, be military representatives, an Israeli official said, adding that the sides would discuss more concrete measures that can be taken to disarm Hezbollah.

5. Israel on Wednesday evening carried out its first airstrike in Beirut since before the ceasefire in Lebanon entered into effect last month, killing the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, who the military said had advanced plans to invade the Galilee.

6. The 23-year-old son of Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya succumbed Thursday to wounds sustained in an Israeli strike on Gaza City on Wednesday, a hospital and senior Hamas official said.

Reports of Azzam al-Hayya’s death came as Hamas leaders were in Cairo to discuss the future of the ceasefire agreement.

7. The United Arab Emirates transferred $100 million to the Board of Peace in recent days to fund a contract for the training of a new Palestinian police force for Gaza, a US official and a Middle Eastern diplomat told The Times of Israel this week.

8. Israel said Thursday that it was working to help counter rat infestations in Gaza, helping move hundreds of cartons of rat poison into the territory as the warmer weather sees a surge in pests spreading through the tents of displaced Palestinians.

9. European Council President Costa said on Thursday that he believed there was “potential” for the bloc to negotiate directly with Moscow, adding that it had the backing of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to do so.