Israel News

Israel’s cabinet held emergency talks Friday after the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said it fired “dozens of rockets” from Lebanon into Israel.

Israeli health officials are considering reimposing lockdown by the end of this month as the number of COVID-19 cases and of patients seriously ill with the virus have again risen to levels that are causing concern, the Jerusalem Post reports. However, the government is hoping that the launch of a third vaccination campaign for the over 60s will bring the numbers back down in the next two weeks.

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have unearthed evidence that an earthquake described in the Biblical books of Amos and Zechariah affected Jerusalem when it hit the land of Israel during the reign of Uzziah King of Judah in the 8th century BC, Ynet News reports.

Some 93% of 90 coronavirus serious patients treated in several Greek hospitals with a new drug developed by a team at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center as part of the Phase II trial of the treatment were discharged in five days or fewer.

People vaccinated before late February are twice as likely to catch the coronavirus than other inoculated Israelis, according to new research.

Air raid sirens wailed in northern Israel Wednesday as rockets were fired from neighboring Lebanon and Israeli forces responded with artillery fire.

Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz told diplomats from countries on the United Nations Security Council Wednesday that Iran is as few as “10 weeks away from acquiring weapons-grade materials necessary for a nuclear weapon.”

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu again lashed out Monday at the new government for promising a “no surprises policy” with the US, saying that the Biden administration would use Israel’s goodwill to foil an attack against Iran.

Google announced plans to build a Blue Submarine Cable System, an undersea cable connecting the Middle East, Southern Europe, and Asia.

On one of his final days in office, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday acknowledged an Israeli operation carried out by Mossad agents who broke into a secret warehouse outside Tehran and retrieved a huge trove of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear files.

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) announced Monday that it will carry out an exercise along the Lebanese border tonight to better prepare for a possible escalation of tensions with the Lebanese terrorist group, Hezbollah.

The Israeli inventor of a “precision medicine” for COVID-19 is “very optimistic,” after an 88-person hospital trial entered its final day without a single patient ending up on a ventilator.

Ivermectin, a drug used to fight parasites in third-world countries, could help reduce the length of infection for people who contract coronavirus for less than $1 a day, according to recent research by Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer.

The US and the UK have joined Israel in expressing certainty that Iran was behind Thursday night’s deadly drone attack on an Israeli-managed oil tanker off the coast of Oman, the Jerusalem Post reports. The three countries are planning a joint response to the attack, even as Iran has denied involvement.

The United States has joined the United Kingdom and Israel in accusing Iran of carrying out a deadly drone strike that killed two aboard a tanker off Oman.

Israel began giving booster shots of the coronavirus vaccine to individuals above the age of 60 on Friday.

Israel may be at the center of a diplomatic crisis after the White House raised concerns about reports that Pegasus spyware from Israeli firm NSO was illegally used to target journalists, human rights activists, and politicians, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Axios News reported on Wednesday.

Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is expected to support an initiative for older citizens to get a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine after a panel of government health experts approved the idea on Wednesday, the Times of Israel reports. Experts approved the initiative as the number of seriously sick patients rose from 20 on Monday to 33 on Tuesday to 41 on Wednesday.

Former Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei who has just won the Tokyo Olympics silver medal in the men’s 81-kilogram division said he is dedicating his win to Israel as well, the Times of Israel reports.

Vaccinated Israelis who go on to contract the coronavirus experience it more mildly but can still suffer from so-called “long COVID” in significant numbers, a study published Wednesday suggests.