Israel

Israel’s military said Monday its fighter planes struck Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip after Palestinians fired rockets at the Jewish state. Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward the coast near the southern city of Ashdod, according to a military statement. “In response…fighter jets struck military targets …

The US Defense Department announced Friday that it would include close ally Israel in the area covered by its Middle East-focused Central Command. In another sign of the rapprochement brokered by President Donald Trump between Israel and Arab countries, the Pentagon said US military dealings with Israel would no longer …

Syria said Israel bombed Iranian-backed militia bases near the Iraqi border in the early hours of Wednesday, in a raid which military defectors and Western intelligence sources said was one of Israel’s most extensive in recent months. Syrian news agency SANA and state media said Israel had struck sites in …

An Israeli official on Sunday dismissed as “nonsense” an allegation by the Iranian foreign minister that Israel was trying to trick the United States into waging war on Iran. It was Israel that needed to be on alert for possible Iranian strikes on the one-year anniversary on Sunday of the …

One person was killed and three soldiers injured as a result of “Israeli aggression” in the Damascus countryside, Syrian state news agency SANA said on Wednesday, quoting a military source. The source said the “Israeli enemy” carried out an attack from Northern Galilee and targeted an air defense unit in …

An array of Palestinian militant groups launched rockets into the Mediterranean Sea off the Gaza Strip on Tuesday at the start of what they called their first-ever joint exercise, which Israeli media described as a show of force organised by Iran. Gaza is run by Hamas and also home to …

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah said Sunday his group now has twice as many precision-guided missiles as it had a year ago, saying Israel’s efforts to prevent it from acquiring them has failed. Hassan Nasrallah, in an end-of-year interview with the Beirut-based Arabic Al-Mayadeen TV, said his group has the …

A coalition of human rights groups on Wednesday joined Facebook’s lawsuit against Israeli spyware vendor NSO, alleging that the company “prioritizes profit to the detriment of human rights.” The organizations – including internet rights group Access Now, London-based Amnesty International, and the Committee to Protect Journalists – filed an amicus …

Tunisia is not interested in establishing diplomatic relations with Israel and its position will not be affected by any international changes, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Morocco this week joined the list of Arab countries that have normalized relations with Israel this year, and Israeli envoys arrived in Morocco …

Iran on Sunday vowed to defeat any Israeli attempt to harm its role in Syria, saying the era of “hit and run” attacks by Israel there was over, days after Israel carried out air strikes on Syrian army and Iranian paramilitary targets in the country. Israel, which views Tehran as …

Israel launched air raids against what it called a wide range of Syrian and Iranian targets in Syria on Wednesday, sending a signal that it will pursue its policy of striking across the border despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s election defeat. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday urged Saudi Arabia to consider normalizing relations with Israel as he met with the Gulf country’s foreign minister, also saying that Washington supports a “robust program of arms sales” to it. Pompeo said he raised the so-called Abraham Accords, a U.S.-brokered agreement …

Sudan does not want to link its removal from a U.S. terrorism list that is hindering access to foreign funding for the country’s economy with a normalisation of relations with Israel, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said on Saturday. Sources said this week that U.S. officials indicated in talks with a …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

Saudi Arabia’s price for normalising relations with Israel is the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, a senior member of the Saudi royal family reaffirmed on Friday. Prince Turki al-Faisal was apparently responding to U.S. President Donald Trump who said on Wednesday he expected Saudi …

We don’t hear many good news stories out of the Middle East, particularly recently, in the midst of the despair over Beirut, regional conflicts and the ravages of covid-19. But on Thursday there was a hopeful development: President Trump announced a historic peace agreement that will normalize relations between the …

Israel’s defence minister said on Sunday it is not “necessarily” behind every mysterious incident in Iran, after a fire at the Natanz nuclear site prompted some Iranian officials to say it was the result of cyber sabotage. Israel, widely believed to be the region’s only nuclear power, has pledged never …

U.S. officials will gather this week to discuss whether to give Israel a green light for its plan to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s target date of July 1 approaches. A senior administration official said on Monday that the U.S. ambassador …

Jordan’s King Abdulllah warned on Tuesday that Israel’s planned move to annex parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank next month would threaten stability in the Middle East. In a video conference with U.S. congressional leaders and committees, Abdullah “warned that any unilateral Israeli measure to annex lands in the West …

The United Arab Emirates can work with Israel on some areas, including fighting the new coronavirus and on technology, while still having political differences with the state, a senior official said on Tuesday. Addressing a conference of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) advocacy group, minister of state for foreign affairs …

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said on Monday he ordered the military to step up preparations for Israel’s pending annexation of parts of the West Bank, a plan that could stoke Palestinian violence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to begin cabinet discussions on July 1 on extending Israeli sovereignty …

The National Bureau for defending land and resisting settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that developments on the ground showed that many Palestinians were injured during clashes with the Israeli Occupation Soldiers in the West Bank, as they protested against Netanyahu plans to confiscate more lands and construct …

Armed men attacked a gas pipeline in the north of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula late on Sunday, security sources and witnesses said, but imports of gas through North Sinai from Israel were unaffected. Egyptian security forces have been battling an Islamist insurgency that is concentrated in North Sinai and escalated after …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed creation of a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem, dependent on Palestinians taking steps to become self-governing, in an attempt to achieve a peace breakthrough in their decades of conflict with Israel. Senior administration officials, briefing Reuters on the details of …

Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated against U.S. President Donald Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan on Tuesday hours before its scheduled release at a ceremony in Washington. Israeli troops meanwhile reinforced positions near a flashpoint site between the Palestinian city of Ramallah and the Jewish settlement of Beit El in the Israeli-occupied West …

Instead of acknowledging the political and national aspirations of the Palestinians, negotiators are focusing on material and economic concerns.   By Robert Malley President and CEO of the International Crisis Group & Aaron David Miller Distinguished Fellow at the Wilson Center |   Recent months have seen a series of …

The National Bureau for defending land and resisting settlements stated in its latest report on Boycotting  the Israeli Apartheid System , that the  obvious official EU countries’ rolling steps towards boycotting the Israeli apartheid system, using its legal, legislative and parliamentary institutions, as well as condemning the Trump and his …

The National Bureau for defending land and resisting settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that the Israeli Housing Ministry and the Israeli Occupation Municipality in Jerusalem have launched a large settlement scheme to construct 11,000 settlement units on the Qalandia airport lands to expand the Attarot settlement in …

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran and other issues, the White House said in a brief statement. “The leaders discussed the threat from Iran, as well as other critical bilateral and regional issues,” the White House said in an email statement. …

Israel moved closer toward holding a third election in less than a year on Wednesday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main challenger failed to form a government. Benny Gantz’s announcement that he would not meet a midnight deadline following Netanyahu’s own failure to put together a coalition in October deepened …

Israel’s military said its missile defense system shot down four rockets fired from Syria toward Israel early on Tuesday. Minutes earlier, sirens warning of incoming rocket fire sounded in the area of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. “Four launches were identified from Syria towards Israeli territory which were intercepted by the …

The United States on Monday effectively backed Israel’s right to build Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank by abandoning its four-decade position that they were “inconsistent with international law.” The announcement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is struggling …

The  National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements said in his latest weekly report , that the Israeli occupation forces assault against the Palestinian citizens in the West Bank including Jerusalem is continued, practice a policy of ethnic cleansing, confiscate and bulldoze their lands. Settlers also continue their provocations …

Palestinian militants fired two rockets deep into southern Israel from Gaza on Saturday, and the Israeli military responded with a number of air strikes on militant targets, shaking an already tenuous truce. Sirens sounded in the middle of the night in Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel, some 35 …

Iran is not calling for the elimination of Jewish people, but it thinks people of all religions should decide Israel’s future, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday in a speech posted on his official website. “Calling for the elimination of the state of Israel does not mean …

Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said it was holding fire from the Gaza Strip on Thursday after Israel agreed to an Egyptian-mediated truce, calming the worst surge in fighting in months. The truce was declared from 0330 GMT, the group’s spokesman, Musab Al-Braim, said, marking about 48 hours since Israel …

Russia on Wednesday accused Washington of hunting its citizens across the world and said it had made a formal diplomatic protest after Israel extradited a Russian man to the United States where he faces a slew of serious cyber crime charges. The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement …

An Israeli air-strike killed a Palestinian gunman on Wednesday and Gaza militants fired rockets into Israel as a spike in violence edged into a second day. As dawn broke, air raid sirens sent Israelis rushing to shelters in towns near the Gaza border and deeper in the country. The Israeli …