Israel News

Last week, the United Nations Security Council met in an emergency session following the visit of a prominent minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Israeli leaders claim the emergency meeting was another attempt launched by Palestinians to blame Israel for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli-Palestinian tensions rose further Monday after Israel’s new National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, instructed police to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces.

The American and Israeli air forces on Thursday wrapped up a drill simulating joint flights and target strikes.

Dozens of Jewish Israelis paid a solidarity visit to a Christian cemetery in Jerusalem after it was desecrated, apparently by Orthodox Jews, earlier this week. The incident, which parallels an untold number of descecrations of Jewish graves in Christian countries, has many people in Israel calling for stricter punishment for hate crimes.

Dashing hopes that Oman will become the next Arab state to normalize relations with Israel, the Omani parliament on Friday went so far as to criminalize relations or interactions with “the Zionist entity,” the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

An increased number of soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces were killed in uniform or died by suicide in 2022 compared to the previous year, the Jerusalem Post reports.

A new survey by the Israeli American Council (IAC) shows that 40% of Israeli-Americans plan to settle in the US and not return to live in Israel, the Jerusalem Post reports. According to the IAC, there are currently 800,000 Israeli citizens and their families living in the US.

Outraged that Israel’s new National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem this week, Jordanian lawmaker Yanal Abd al-Salam Nour al-Din al-Fraihat stated the following day that his countrymen would become “suicide bombers” in defense of Palestine and the Al Aqsa Mosque, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

Scientists from Israel’s Tel Aviv University have launched into orbit a new nanosatellite designed to advance research into quantum communication, a field of technology that aims to render information security completely unassailable by hackers, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

A fringe religious group on Monday night asked newly installed National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for permission to perform the Passover ritual sacrifice on the Temple Mount this coming spring.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned on Tuesday of consequences for Israeli Cabinet member Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

The United Nations Security Council will convene an emergency session to discuss firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit to Jerusalem’s flashpoint Temple Mount, which drew a flood of international condemnations on Tuesday, a source said Tuesday.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed more resolutions against Israel than it passed against all other countries put together in 2022, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday stressed US opposition to policies that undermine efforts to reach a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, during his first call with new Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.

The Israeli airforce carried out a strike on Sunday night targeting Damascus International Airport that put it out of service temporarily, killed two soldiers and wounded two others, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported.

The United States Air Force on Monday deployed six fighter jets to an Israeli Air Force base in southern Israel, as part of a military tactic to constantly disperse its aircraft at various airbases.

Iranian forces holding military drills in the Straits of Hormuz successfully targeted a mock-up of an Israeli base Saturday, according to Iranian media accounts.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the United Nations General Assembly Saturday for a resolution passed the previous day to refer Israel’s “occupation… of Palestinian territory” to the International Court of Justice, accusing the global body of “distorting historical facts” and declaring that the Jewish people cannot be “an occupier” in its own land.

Benjamin Netanyahu returned as prime minister with the most right-wing government in Israel’s history during a turbulent session of the Knesset, the parliament.

In a move that will be widely condemned, Israel’s new right-wing coalition government announced Wednesday that its top priority is to expand Jewish settlements in the disputed areas of the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and east Jerusalem, DW reports.