Israel News

The Palestinians and the Jordanians have set up a joint council for the administration of the Temple Mount and other Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem in an effort to preemptively torpedo the advancement of US President Donald Trump’s regional peace plan.

With tensions still high between Israel and Iran a new air-to-surface long-range missile designed to destroy targets deep underground in heavily defended areas has been developed by Israeli defense giant Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

The United States Consulate General in Jerusalem, which serves Palestinians, will be absorbed into the new US Embassy to Israel in March, a US official said on Tuesday, giving a date for a merger that has been condemned by Palestinians.

Iran’s foreign minister accused Israel of ‘adventurism,’ with its campaign of airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria and said he could not rule out the possibility that they could lead to a war between the Mideast arch foes.

After marathon, all-night talks, the leaders of the two top-polling centrist parties, Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, announced Thursday that they had agreed to forge a centrist alliance to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming elections.

Dozens of Palestinians tried to force their way into the Golden Gate site on the Temple Mount on Tuesday, triggering scuffles with police officers, eyewitnesses said.

Israel’s nonprofit SpaceIL organization has announced it will launch a spacecraft from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on board a Falcon 9 rocket. It is scheduled to land on the moon on April 11.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday urged European leaders to take a strong stand against anti-Semitism after the overnight vandalism of dozens of graves in a French Jewish cemetery.

Palestinian worshipers clashed with Israeli police on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount on Tuesday, trying to force their way into an area of the flash-point holy compound that has been closed for years. Police said 19 Palestinians were arrested.

Qatar’s envoy to the Gaza Strip, Mohammad al-Emadi, has warned its Hamas rulers that Doha will not extend payments for the territory’s electricity supply beyond April, the Kan public broadcaster reported Monday night.

The United Kingdom and Israel finalized a post-Brexit free trade agreement on Monday.

The water level in the Sea of Galilee, or Kinneret, is expected to climb above the freshwater lake’s lower red line for the first time in two years, at which point pumping will no longer face government restrictions.

Israel can advance normalized ties with the Arab world without resolving the Israeli-Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but won’t be able to fully make peace with those countries, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

A spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas denounced Israel’s decision to cut half a billion shekels in funds over its payments to security prisoners and their families Sunday.

Three hundred American soldiers on Thursday wrapped up a week-long joint military exercise with the Israel Defense Forces.

US Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday hailed the symbolic importance of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “breaking bread” with Arab leaders at a Mideast conference in Warsaw, saying he hoped it heralded further cooperation to come.

President Donald Trump’s senior Middle East adviser, son-in-law Jared Kushner, said Thursday that the Trump administration would unveil its much-awaited Mideast ‘Deal of the Century’ after Israeli elections on April 9.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday evening that Israel struck Hezbollah targets in Syria the previous day. The confirmation runs contrary to the position of the Israeli defense establishment, as senior defense officials refrained from addressing the incident on the Syrian Golan Heights.

Israel’s campaign of airstrikes in Syria has driven Iran to change tack in the country, moving the bulk of its troops and bases away from the Israeli border and toward what it sees as a safer location closer to Iraq, according to Military Intelligence assessments released Wednesday.

Israel is set to sign a free-trade agreement with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union in the near future, according to officials in Moscow and Jerusalem.