State Department tells Americans worldwide to 'exercise increased caution'

Airstrikes by Israel and the United States against Iran will "increase significantly" in intensity, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Saturday.

"This week, the intensity of the attacks that the IDF and the U.S. military will carry out against the Iranian terrorist regime and against the infrastructures on which it relies will increase significantly, and the campaign led by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will continue," Katz said in remarks at an military operations center in Tel Aviv.

"We are determined to continue leading the attack against the Iranian terrorist regime, to behead its commanders and thwart its strategic capabilities -- until all security threats to the State of Israel and U.S. interests in the region are removed," Katz said. "We will not stop until all war goals are achieved."

-ABC News' Dana Savir

President Donald Trump said Friday he's considering "winding down" military efforts in the Middle East amid the ongoing war in Iran, claiming his administration is getting "very close" to meeting their objectives there.

Those objectives, Trump outlined in a social media post Friday, include "completely degrading" Iran's missile capability; eliminating Iran's navy and air force; "destroying" its defense industrial base; "never allowing Iran to get even close to Nuclear Capability"; and protecting the U.S.' Middle Eastern allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.

The president did not make clear how the U.S. military has materially achieved his objectives.

Trump also said that the Strait of Hormuz will need to be "guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it" -- making clear that the U.S. does not use the strait, but also that he'd "help" the countries that do with "their Hormuz efforts."

He appeared to pass off the responsibility of opening the strait to other nations, without making clear which ones.

"If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn't be necessary once Iran's threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them," Trump wrote.

-ABC News' Isabella Murray

President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that the Strait of Hormuz can open with a “simple military maneuver” and “it will open itself at a certain point,” without elaborating further.

“It's a simple military maneuver. It's relatively safe, but you need a lot of help in the sense of: you need ships, you need volume. And, NATO could help us, but they so far haven't had the courage to do so,” Trump said while departing the White House for Palm Beach.

“And others could help us, but we don't use it. At a certain point, it will open itself at a certain point, but we've defeated the enemy,” Trump said.

Earlier in the day, Trump blasted allies on social media, saying they “don’t want to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver.”

Trump also said he doesn’t want a ceasefire with Iran when the U.S. has the upper hand and is “obliterating” the country.

"We can have a dialogue, but we don't – I don't want to do a ceasefire. You don't do a ceasefire when you're literally obliterating the other side. They don't have a navy, they don't have an Air Force, they don't have any equipment -- they don't have any spotters, they don't have anti aircraft, they don't have radar and their leaders have all been killed at every level," Trump said.

-ABC News' Selina Wang

The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against a network of 16 individuals and entities as part of an effort to cut off financing to Hezbollah, according to a Treasury Department official.

Alaa Hassan Hamieh, described as a Hezbollah "financier and former public investment official,” who the Treasury Department alleges oversaw a network that laundered and raised funds for group.

The Treasury Department alleged the network is estimated to have diverted more than $100 million since 2020 as part of a scheme to finance Hezbollah.

“Iran is the head of the snake when it comes to global terrorism, and its proxies, such as Hizballah, carry out Tehran’s mission to sow chaos and destruction beyond its borders,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Some of the individuals and entities allegedly involved in the scheme are located in Lebanon, Syria, Poland, Slovenia, Qatar and Canada, according to the Treasury Department.

-ABC News' Jack Date