Israel News

Around a hundred Jewish orphans aged 2-18 years old were evacuated from war-torn Ukraine to Israel on Sunday, i24 News reports. The children were taken by bus from their orphanage in northwest Ukraine to Romania, where an Israeli El Al plane picked them up and flew them in.

More than 14,000 Jews from Russia and Belarus are actively applying for or have expressed interest in making aliyah to Israel, as Russia becomes increasingly sanctioned amid its ongoing conflict with Ukraine.

President Isaac Herzog became the first Israeli leader to visit Turkey in over a decade on Wednesday, marking a thaw in relations between the countries.

Europe’s natural gas shortage, which has pushed prices to multi-year highs, has revived talk of the EastMed pipeline – a Mediterranean Sea pipeline that could carry gas from Israel to European customers, Chevron Chief Executive Michael Wirth said on Monday at the CERAWeek energy conference.

Visiting Israel, former US vice president Mike Pence — touted as a potential future presidential contender — said Tuesday that a Republican-led America will once again pull out of any future Iran nuclear deal.

Israel could expect to see the arrival of a total of 15,000 Ukrainians by the end of the month if it continues to allow entry to refugees fleeing their war-torn country at the current pace, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked told the Cabinet during its weekly Sunday meeting.

The US Department of State said on Monday it was designating an al Qaeda-affiliated group that operates primarily in the Idlib, Syria as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”

Syrian media reported early Monday morning that Israel carried out an air strike in the Damascus area, and the country’s air defense systems were activated.

Hundreds of new immigrants to Israel from Ukraine were slated to touch down at Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, fleeing the war-torn nation and hoping to set up a new life in the Jewish state.

With his nation observing the Sabbath, Israel’s prime minister rushed to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War Two.

Thousands of Jews in Russia have made inquiries about immigrating to Israel since the launch of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, official sources told the Jerusalem Post (JPost).

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said Israel could be a “potential ally” of Riyadh, in remarks published Thursday.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked participated in a meeting of local authority heads and deputies on Thursday, and announced that later this month, the government would be making a decision regarding the establishment of between seven and twelve new communities in the Negev region.

The Monitoring Committee of the National and Islamic Forces, the highest coordination body of the Palestinian Arab organizations, has declared Friday to be a day of escalation and confrontation with the “occupation” at all points of friction, in support of the Palestinian Arab residents of Sheikh Jarrah (Shimon Hatzadik) neighborhood in Jerusalem and the fight of the terrorists imprisoned in Israel.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz vowed Wednesday that Israel will never give up on making sure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons, as a deal between Tehran and world powers seemed imminent.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin within a few hours of each other on Wednesday, his second set of public phone calls with the two leaders since Russia invaded Ukraine last week.

The Jewish Agency for Israel has asked the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) for assistance in the urgent evacuation of Ukrainian Jews to Israel as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues. Based in Jerusalem, the ICEJ has been helping to facilitate Jewish “Aliyah” (immigration to Israel) from Ukraine for almost 40 years.

Israel on Tuesday called on Russia to cease its attack on Ukraine from the stage of the UN General Assembly, taking another step closer to the US-led Western position against Moscow after initial apprehension to take sides due to fears of alienating the Kremlin.

Israeli anti-tank weapons systems manufactured in Germany at a factory owned by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are heading to Ukraine, according to a report by the Hebrew-language Calcalist news outlet.

As western powers have ratcheted up financial, diplomatic and military pressure on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah have been presenting Moscow’s action as a pertinent warning to those moderate Arab states willing to align with Israel and the US.