Israel News

StoreDot, an Israeli company which develops extreme fast-charging (XFC) battery technology for electric vehicles, on Wednesday demonstrated its technology can now charge a full-scale electric vehicle battery cell in less than 10 minutes, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

The Knesset reopens on Monday for the summer session with the government fighting for survival after losing its majority during the recess and the opposition vowing to bring it down.

Israel’s Likud party led by former PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday withdrew a bill to dissolve the Knesset after Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas said his Islamist independent Arab party will remain in the governing coalition, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

The Knesset Law committee approved a bill entitled “Law to correct the police authority” designed to enable facial recognition cameras against civilians and “identifying vehicles on the streets,” reports Tech12.

The Israel Defense and Security Forum (ISDF) / HaBithonistim, an Israeli movement established in 2020 by retired senior members of the defense establishment (IDF, Shin Bet, Mossad, and Israel Police), on Monday released the results of a survey they conducted on the anniversary of the 2021 Operation Guardian of the Walls, showing, among other things, that only 25% of Israeli Arabs believe that the Jewish people have a right to sovereignty in the Land of Israel, and a considerable majority – about 75% – believe that the Jewish people do not have such a right.

A television poll has found that if elections were to be held today, parties currently in the government coalition would drop by several seats into a minority in the Knesset, but the opposition bloc of parties led by Likud would also fall short of a majority.

Greek oil and gas firm Energean announced on Monday a commercial gas discovery at its Athena exploration well in Israel’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

United States President Joe Biden is said to be weighing a visit to eastern Jerusalem during his upcoming trip to Israel, according to Israeli officials cited in a media report.

The Israel Defense Forces announced on Monday the start of its largest war drill in decades, dubbed “Chariots of Fire.”

Israel says Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has apologized after his foreign minister said that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had “Jewish blood.”

Israeli officials relayed to the Biden administration that if the government fails to advance plans to build nearly 4,000 settlement homes in the West Bank, the coalition will fall apart, Channel 12 News reported on Saturday.

Sources close to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett have denounced Interior Minister and Bennett’s political partner and ally for more than a decade Ayelet Shaked, saying she is “heating up the situation with her announcement about the Temple Mount and her blessing for convening a planning council to discuss settlement construction.” According to those sources, cited Sunday morning by Reshet Bet radio, “Shaked sticks fingers in the eye of our coalition partners, and if she continues like this, this coming Knesset session will end right when it starts.”

Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police broke out on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem Thursday, as the site was reopened to Jews and other non-Muslim visitors following the end of the two-week Ramadan closure, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

Calling for a free and fair election as Lebanon heads to the polls on May 15, United Nations director general Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the hold that Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese terror goup and political party, has on “sophisticated military capabilities” the government has no control over, i24 News reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he accepted an apology from Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday for controversial remarks about the Holocaust made by Moscow‘s top diplomat.

After a mournful day commemorating its fallen soldiers and victims of terror, Israel kicked off its 74th Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday evening, with a festive ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem attended by government leaders, military brass, and representatives of swaths of Israeli society.

Israel on Monday demanded an apology from Russia after its top diplomat suggested that Germany’s wartime leader Adolf Hitler had Jewish roots.

Hamas on Monday claimed responsibility for the terror attack outside the West Bank settlement of Ariel over the weekend and vowed that more attacks are to come.

Jerusalem is bracing itself for another tense week as Palestinians prepare on Monday to celebrate the end of Ramadan with Eid al Fitr, and Israelis mark Independence Day this coming Thursday.

The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, said on Saturday that a war would erupt unless Israel ceased enforcing the law at the Al Aqsa mosque, and accused Knesset member Mansour Abbas of treachery for joining Israel’s coalition government.