Israel

The U.S. mediator for indirect talks on border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel said on Thursday that the negotiations he was hoping to revive should be concluded in a short period if they were to succeed. Amos Hochstein, speaking to Al Hadath TV during a visit to Beirut, said holding …

Israel pursues policies in violation of international law and of UN resolutions “Because it can — no tangible cost or consequence is attached,” the UN Security Council heard on Tuesday.  Daniel Levy, president of US/Middle East Project, told council members of the need to address what he called “an accountability …

Israel announced on Tuesday that it approved registration as West Bank residents for some 4,000 Palestinians who have been living for years in the Israeli-occupied territory without official status. The decision affects 2,800 former inhabitants of the Gaza Strip who left the enclave after the Hamas movement seized it in …

A viral video showing Syrian President Bashar Assad’s millionaire cousin Ali Makhlouf cruising around Los Angeles in his $300,000 Ferrari 488 Spider has highlighted the stark divisions in a war-torn country where many people do not have enough to eat. The video, which was apparently caught randomly, showed popular vlogger …

Palestinians are bracing themselves for settler assaults on their land as the olive harvesting season kicks into high gear. Palestinian farmers, civil society, local and international volunteers, as well as video have documented Israeli settlers uprooting olive trees, stealing olive crops, and starting fires on nearby land. Anees Sweidan, deputy …

Sweden’s foreign minister will make the first official visit to Israel in a decade, the government said Sunday, following seven years of rocky ties after Stockholm recognized Palestine. “Foreign Minister Ann Linde will visit Israel and Palestine on October 18 and 19,” the government said in a press release. Since …

Syria accused Israeli forces on Saturday of shooting dead Medhat Al-Saleh, a former member of Syrian parliament who had spent 12 years in jail in Israel, state-run television Al-Ekhbariya quoted the cabinet as saying. Syrian state news agency SANA said Al-Saleh “was martyred as the Israeli enemy targeted him with …

Iran-backed forces in Syria said on Thursday they would respond forcefully to an Israeli strike over Syria’s Palmyra area in the province of Homs on Wednesday evening in the second such strike within a week. The Syrian defence ministry said in a statement that one soldier was killed in the …

Acclaimed Irish author Sally Rooney has rejected a bid from an Israeli publishing house to translate her latest novel into Hebrew. Her new book “Beautiful World, Where Are You” was released in September as an immediate bestseller, but Rooney has turned down publishing house Modan, which had requested to publish …

“We are Google and Amazon workers. We condemn Project Nimbus.” That is the headline of an open letter written by Google and Amazon employees who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. Gabriel Schubiner, software engineer and researcher at Google and Bathool Syed, content strategist at Amazon, wrote in an op-ed …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday the Biden administration intends to press ahead with its plan to reopen the Jerusalem consulate that traditionally engaged with Palestinians, despite Israeli opposition to such a move. Blinken reiterated a pledge he originally made months ago on re-establishing the consulate, which …

US, Israeli and EU officials took a tough line toward Iran on Wednesday (13 October), with US officials saying they would consider all options if Tehran failed to revive the 2015 nuclear deal and Israel saying it reserved the right to act. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has so far refused …

One Syrian soldier was killed and three others were wounded in an Israeli air attack on Syria’s Palmyra area in the province of Homs on Wednesday evening, the Syrian Defense Ministry said. The attack took place at 23:34 local time (2034 GMT) and targeted a communications tower and caused some …

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called Tuesday on the United Nations Security Council to take action against Iran over its escalating nuclear program. Bennett spoke at a conference in Jerusalem, where he suggested that Iran’s conduct is every nation’s problem, and subject to global accountability. After talks between Tehran and …

Israel will remain opposed to Washington’s plan to reopen a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that has traditionally been a base for diplomatic outreach to the Palestinians, even if political conditions change, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Tuesday. The consulate was subsumed into the U.S. Embassy that was moved to …

Israel will keep the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in a 1967 war, even if international views on Damascus change, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday. In 2019, then U.S. President Donald Trump broke with other world powers by recognising Israel as sovereign on the Golan …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday implored Israel not to “lose sight” of the need to establish a Palestinian state, as she wrapped up a two-day farewell visit. Merkel’s support for a two-state solution has been one of the key disagreements with Israel’s leadership during her 16 years in office, …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with his Israeli and United Arab Emirates counterparts next week to discuss progress made on the so-called Abraham Accords as well regional security, the US State Department said on Saturday. Blinken will meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and UAE Foreign …

An investigation by Human Rights Watch has found that social media giant Facebook wrongfully silenced Palestinian content, including documentation of Israeli human rights violations, during the flare-up in violence that occurred in May this year. “Facebook has wrongfully removed and suppressed content by Palestinians and their supporters, including about human …

Syrian air defenses intercepted an Israeli missile attack above the Homs countryside, injuring six soldiers and causing some material damage, official media said on Friday. Israeli military declined to comment. The attack occurred around 9:33 p.m. (1833 GMT), Syria’s official news agency quoted a military source as saying. “The Israeli …

The Israeli-based NSO Group ended its contract with the United Arab Emirates to use its powerful “Pegasus” state spyware tool because Dubai’s ruler was using it to hack the phones of his ex-wife and some close to her, her lawyers told England’s High Court. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, vice …

An Israeli right-wing opposition legislator is seeking to outlaw the planned reopening of a U.S. mission in Jerusalem that has traditionally been a base for diplomatic outreach to the Palestinians. Israel’s new cross-partisan government led by nationalist Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also opposes the reinauguration of the consulate, potentially buoying …

The US is alarmed by Iran’s progress toward obtaining an atomic weapon and hopes to resume talks soon to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, a top official in Washington said on Tuesday. Iran’s nuclear activity was also at the center of talks in Washington between US and Israeli national security teams. Israeli …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met an Israeli government delegation in Ramallah on Sunday evening, the second meeting between the two sides in a month, said sources on both sides. Abbas received Israel’s Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Freij and deputy Michal Rozin, all from the left-wing Meretz …

Top US officials will tell their Israeli counterparts on Tuesday that the Biden administration remains committed to diplomacy with Iran, but if necessary would be prepared to pursue “other avenues” to ensure Tehran does not acquire a nuclear weapon, a senior US official said. A visit to Washington by Israel’s …

Iran said on Friday that a visit by Israel’s foreign minister to Bahrain this week to mark the establishment of relations left a stain on the Gulf Arab state’s rulers that “will not be erased”. Iran said on Friday that a visit by Israel’s foreign minister to Bahrain this week …

Bahrain hosted the Israeli foreign minister on Thursday for the highest-level visit since the countries established ties last year and which included a tour of a U.S. naval headquarters to signal common cause against Iran. Landing in Manama on a plane daubed with an olive branch painting, Foreign Minister Yair …

Israel said it was investing an incident on Thursday after Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said it had shot down an Israeli drone in the south of Lebanon. A statement by the armed group said it had brought down the drone on the outskirts of the village of Yater by targeting it …

Israel has continued to destroy structures in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Tor Wennesland, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the Security Council on Wednesday. The council heard how Israel has since July demolished and seized Palestinian-owned structures across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.  Wennesland …

President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan is heading to Cairo on Wednesday for talks with Egyptian government officials about rising tensions between Israel and Hamas. The Biden administration is leaning heavily on Egypt, which has long played a role as mediator between Israel and Hamas, for help in …

sraeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday that Iran had crossed “all red lines” in its nuclear program and vowed that Israel would not allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon. In his first speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Bennett said Iran sought to dominate the Middle …

A year before representatives of Israel and Palestine met at the White House on Sept. 13, 1993, and signed a framework for peace, Israeli authorities had confiscated 48 square kilometers of Palestinian land south of Bethlehem and converted it into a nature reserve. The Israeli army has, 28 years later, …

A Palestinian was killed Sunday by Israeli gunfire near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, amid reports of heavy clashes in the area. The ministry said a Palestinian man from the village of Borqin west of Jenin who had been shot with a live bullet …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel on Friday of destroying the two-state solution with actions he said could lead Palestinians to demand equal rights within one binational state comprising Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Addressing the U.N. General Assembly via video link from the West Bank, Abbas, 85, …

The leader of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee introduced legislation on Wednesday to provide $1 billion to Israel to replenish its “Iron Dome” missile-defense system, a day after the funding was removed from a broader spending bill. Some of the most liberal House Democrats had objected to the …

A sovereign and democratic Palestinian state is the best way to ensure Israel’s future, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday. “We must seek a future of greater peace and security for all people of the Middle East,” Biden said on the opening day of the UN General Assembly. “I …

Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday removed $1 billion in military funding for Israel from legislation to fund the US government after objections from House of Representatives liberals, setting the stage for a potential fight over the matter later this year. Some House Democrats objected to a provision in a stopgap spending …

US President Joe Biden did not fall asleep during a meeting last week with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, according to a Reuters fact check of the incident. The false claim was widely disseminated on social media, in the US and Israel, including by a Likud MK. Biden and Bennett met …

In an issued statement today, Speaker Nabih Berri called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take “urgent and immediate action in the direction of the UN Security Council and the international community to verify the possibility of a new Israeli attack on Lebanese sovereignty and rights,” in response to …

Hopes rose on Monday of progress in the Palestinian peace process after landmark new talks between the leaders of Egypt and Israel. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for discussions that focused on Palestinian-Israeli relations. It …

Israel’s Naftali Bennett met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Monday, on the first visit to the North African country by a prime minister of the Jewish state in over a decade. El-Sisi was hosting Bennett in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss “efforts to revive the …

The United Nations will begin on Monday to distribute cash aid to thousands of poor families in Hamas-run Gaza under a programme funded by Qatar, the U.N. Middle East envoy said. Qatar has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza since the 2014 war between the Palestinian enclave’s Islamist …

srael’s defence minister accused Iran on Sunday of providing foreign militias with drone training at an airbase near the city of Isfahan, a month after Tehran came under global scrutiny over a suspected drone attack on an Israeli-managed tanker off Oman. Israel has combined military strikes with diplomatic pressure to …

Israeli police shot and killed a knife-wielding Palestinian who attempted to stab police officers in Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday, officials said. Palestinian officials identified the deceased as a 50-year-old doctor from East Jerusalem, who residents said had faced financial issues in recent months. Hundreds of Palestinians had gathered earlier …