Israel

The United States and the United Arab Emirates hope to have an initial agreement on the sale of F-35 stealth fighter jets to the Gulf state in place by December, as the Trump administration studies how to structure a deal without running afoul of Israel. Sources close to the negotiations …

Palestinian security forces arrested over half a dozen supporters of an exiled Palestinian politician who some have accused of involvement in the United Arab Emirates deal to forge ties with Israel, a spokesman for his faction said. Mohammed Dahlan has lived in the UAE since being driven out of the …

Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor – Founding Chairman of the Al Habtoor Group (AHG) – welcomed Shlomi Fogel – Ampa Group, Co-owner, Chairman and CEO – at the AHG headquarters in Dubai Sunday. The meeting coincided with the signing of the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement signed in Washington DC between the …

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, is experiencing a financial crisis that could force it to halt some services to an already impoverished population of more than 5 million people, the head of the agency said on Wednesday. Philippe Lazzarini also warned in an interview with The Associated …

Militants in Gaza launched rockets into Israel and Israeli aircraft hit targets in the Palestinian enclave in an explosive backdrop to the signing of pacts for formal ties between Israel and two Gulf Arab countries. The Israeli military said it launched about 10 air strikes in Hamas Islamist-run Gaza early …

Israel’s rapprochement with Gulf Arab states has left the Palestinians feeling abandoned by traditional allies and clutching an old playbook in a rapidly changing Middle East, analysts and critics say. As the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain prepare to sign normalization accords with Israel at a White House ceremony on …

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that “five or six” more Arab countries were poised to agree to normalize relations with Israel, in line with the landmark accords struck between the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. “We’re very far down the road with about five countries, …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would be willing to sell other countries in the Middle East the same weapons systems sold to Israel, noting the region’s wealth and saying it would be good for the United States and U.S. jobs. “They’re very wealthy countries for the most …

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on Tuesday will become the latest Arab states to break a longstanding taboo when they sign agreements toward normalizing relations with Israel in a strategic realignment of Middle Eastern countries against Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump will host the White House ceremony at noon …

Bahraini opposition groups have said they reject a decision by the Gulf state to normalise relations with Israel, with a leading Shi’ite cleric on Sunday calling on the people of the region to resist. Cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, living in Iran, said he was against normalisation between Arab countries …

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto will be the only EU diplomatic leader to attend the signing ceremony on Tuesday in Washington for the Israel-United Arab Emirates peace deal, his spokesman said on Sunday. “At the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump, as the only European Union minister, Foreign Minister Peter …

For two decades Palestinians have revered the founder of the United Arab Emirates for his generosity, especially those living on the Gaza housing estate that bears his name. The $62 million development was gifted to the Palestinians a decade and a half ago by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan …

A deal establishing relations between Israel and Bahrain will result in direct flights between the countries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. “There will be brisk and direct air traffic between the countries,” he said in remarks to the Israeli cabinet, a transcript of which was issued by …

Palestinians in Gaza burnt pictures of Israeli, U.S., Bahraini and United Arab Emirates leaders on Saturday in protest over the two Gulf countries’ moves to normalize ties with Israel. Bahrain on Friday joined the UAE in agreeing to normalize relations with Israel, a move forged partly through shared fears of …

Bahrain’s minister of foreign affairs Abdullatif Al-Zayani and Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi held a phone call on Saturday, the Bahrain foreign ministry announced, after the normalization of relations the day before. The ministers stressed the need to move relations forward to promote peace and stability in the region, it said. …

The king of Bahrain reiterated the necessity of reaching a fair and lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, based on the two state solution, in a call with U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bahrain’s state news agency BNA said on Friday. Bahrain joined the …

Syrian air defences thwarted an Israeli attack on Aleppo city, Syrian state television said on Friday. Later, the broadcaster said the army downed several Israeli missiles before they reached their targets in the latest attack Syria said was conducted by Israel. Israeli defence officials have said in recent months Israel …

Palestinian leaders won renewed Saudi support for Palestinian statehood at a Wednesday meeting, but did not persuade the Arab League to condemn last month’s normalisation deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. At a video conference of foreign ministers, the Palestinian leadership softened its own censure of the UAE …

Amid a surge in coronavirus cases, Israel’s attorney general has accused Netanyahu of trying to discredit the country’s criminal justice system while he is on trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He denies any wrongdoing. Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and allies voiced anger this week after Israel’s Channel …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday spoke with Oman’s leader, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, about ways to enhance regional security and strengthen economic ties between the two countries, the White House said in a statement. Trump thanked the Omani leader for his statements of support following a U.S.-brokered agreement …

U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a Sept. 15 signing ceremony for a groundbreaking Middle East agreement normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, a senior White House official said on Tuesday. As part of the deal, announced at the White House on Aug. 13 following what officials …

Amid historic normalisation talks between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, American officials spent a morning at an Abu Dhabi air base housing U.S. stealth jets which the Gulf state hopes to buy despite Israeli objections. White House senior adviser Jared Kushner met Emirati military officials at the UAE’s Al …

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman told U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call on Sunday that the kingdom was eager to achieve a fair and permanent solution to the Palestinian issue, which he said was the main starting point of the kingdom’s proposed Arab Peace Initiative, the state news agency …

Thousands of Israelis protested outside the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night, pressing ahead with a monthslong campaign demanding the embattled Israeli leader resign. The protest came as Israel is coping with record levels of coronavirus infections. Demonstrators have been protesting Netanyahu’s handling of the coronavirus …

Footage of an Israeli soldier throwing a Palestinian activist to the ground and kneeling on his neck has sparked outrage in the Palestinian territories and beyond. The protester, named as Khairi Hanoun, a man in his late 60s, took part in demonstrations on Tuesday near Tulkarm, in the north of …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a rare meeting with rival factions on Thursday as they sought to present a united front over Israel and the United Arab Emirates’ deal to normalise ties. The meeting was held through video-conference between Ramallah in the West Bank and Beirut, where Hamas chief Ismail …

A drone dropped packets of what looked like cannabis over a main square in Tel Aviv on Thursday after activists seeking to legalize the drug in Israel promised free weed from the air on social media. Police said they arrested two men who operated the quadcopter that flew over Rabin …

Syria’s air defense on Wednesday shot down most of a series of Israeli rockets launched in the direction of Tiyas airport in Homs governorate, the state news agency reported, citing a military source. “Losses were limited to material losses”, the state news agency added, citing the same military source. An …

A difference between English and Arabic versions of a trilateral statement after an historic flight from Israel to the UAE has been seized upon by Palestinians to suggest the Gulf state has overstated Israeli readiness to drop West Bank annexation plans. The English version of a joint communiqué by the …

Palestinian militant groups and Israel agreed to end a weeks-long escalation of unrest along the Israel-Gaza border, Gaza’s ruling Islamist group Hamas and Israel said on Monday. Under the deal, brokered by a Qatari envoy, Hamas would end the launching of incendiary balloons, and Israel would end air strikes, said …

A Syrian military source said that an Israeli missile attack on Syria killed two people, injured seven others and caused damage on Monday, state media reported. The state news agency SANA cited the source as saying that Syrian air defences had intercepted most of the Israeli missiles launched from the …

Three people were killed and several others were injured on Monday in two separate explosions in the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi and its tourism hub Dubai, the police and local media said. The Abu Dhabi government media office said two people were killed in the blast in the …

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday it was only a matter of time before the group killed an Israeli soldier to avenge the death of one its fighters in Syria and that it would not be drawn into clashes on the Lebanon-Israel frontier. Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah …

Top aides to U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fly to the United Arab Emirates on Monday to put final touches on a pact establishing open relations between the Gulf power and Israel. Even before discussions start in Abu Dhabi, the delegates will have made aviation …

Almost 3 of 5 Arab News readers are cool to the proposition that Lebanon sign a peace agreement with Israel, who continue to be technically at war for decades now and with sporadic clashes erupting in border areas between the two countries. About 57 percent of respondents of a Twitter …

Israel hopes to hold a signing ceremony in Washington for its normalisation deal with the United Arab Emirates by mid-September, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet said on Sunday. The date for such an event could be decided by senior aides to Netanyahu and to U.S. President Donald …

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a cluster of homes in a Jewish settlement outpost in the occupied West Bank was built on privately owned Palestinian land and must therefore be removed. Accepting a petition by Palestinian plaintiffs, Israel’s top court overturned a 2018 District Court ruling which had …

Israeli aircraft and tanks struck Hamas facilities in Gaza on Friday and militants fired half a dozen rockets towards southern Israel, its military said, as mediators struggled to work for calm along the volatile frontier. There were no reports of casualties on either side. The United Nations’ Middle East envoy …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met the Sultan of Oman on Thursday as part of a Middle East tour following a U.S.-brokered deal on normalising relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. In a meeting with Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, Pompeo said on Twitter he discussed “the …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in the Gulf state of Bahrain on Tuesday as part of a Middle East tour following an accord between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalise relations. Israel and the United States have said they are pushing more Arab countries to follow …

Israeli warplanes bombed Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday in response to Palestinians in the enclave launching incendiary balloons towards Israel, the military said. There were no reports of casualties in the strikes that Israel’s military said targeted underground infrastructure belonging to Hamas, the Islamist group that …

Israeli attack helicopters struck observation posts of the Hezbollah group along the Lebanon border overnight after shots were fired at Israeli troops operating in the area, the military said Wednesday. It said no Israeli forces were wounded, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage in Lebanon. …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a visit to Khartoum on Tuesday that Sudan’s democratic transition was a “once in a generation opportunity”. In a tweet, Pompeo also said that he looked forward to discussing “how to deepen the U.S.-Sudan relationship”. The Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said …

Israel’s prime minister and Washington’s top diplomat voiced hope Monday the Jewish state would soon build ties with more Arab countries, following its landmark move to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates. Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was starting a Mideast tour in Jerusalem, …