Israel News

US President Donald Trump’s Mideast negotiating team held talks in Tel Aviv and Ramallah on Thursday, trying to revive the moribund diplomatic process, even as it pointedly refrained from any public commitment to a two-state solution.

The Jerusalem District Police announced Wednesday that starting next week it will allow lawmakers to visit the Temple Mount. The decision comes more than 18 months after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu barred all MKs, Jewish and Arab alike, from visiting the volatile site.

Amnesty International on Wednesday criticized both the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas over their restrictions of freedom of expression.

Netanyahu told Putin that Iran’s takeover of the Middle East and their stronghold in Syria present a threat to Israel, the Middle East, and the entire world.

The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah is considering dismantling the Palestinian Authority, if there is no political horizon to establish an independent Palestinian state, Ahmad Majdalani, a confidant of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said on Wednesday, a day before senior Trump administration officials are due in Ramallah.

A high level US delegation including senior White House adviser Jared Kushner arrived in Israel late Wednesday, ahead of meetings with Palestinian and Israeli leaders aimed at looking for way to jumpstart peace talks.

Egypt criticized a US decision to freeze $195 million in military aid on Wednesday, as a US delegation including presidential adviser Jared Kushner visited Cairo for meetings on the Middle East peace process.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to discuss the Iranian presence in Syria when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said Tuesday.

The Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem is denying any religious or historical connection of the Jewish People to the Temple Mount, now calling the entire compound the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, plans to publish by the end of the year a blacklist of international companies doing business in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as Israeli communities in the Golan Heights, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority met on Saturday evening in Cairo to coordinate positions ahead of the expected arrival of an American delegation to the Middle East as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to try to renew peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Jewish community in Barcelona is ‘doomed,’ because authorities in Spain do not want to confront radical Islam, the chief rabbi of Barcelona warned on Friday, a day after the deadly car-ramming attack in the city.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday threatened to gradually cut all funding to the Gaza Strip until Hamas agreed to reconcile with Fatah.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that the entire administration of US President Donald Trump is in “chaos,” and indicated that the White House disarray was affecting peace efforts.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Saturday, amid increasing concerns that Iran is establishing a permanent military presence in Syria.

Of the 16,700 Israeli citizens who moved overseas for an extended period of time in 2015, only about 8,500 returned, representing a noticeable increase in the exit rate and a decrease in the return rate compared to previous years, according to a report the Central Bureau of Statistics published on Monday.

The Palestinian Authority expects the Trump administration to commit to a peace deal endgame before the close of this month and prefers it would be the two-state solution.

A Patriot surface-to-air missile was successfully test fired Wednesday from a base in central Israel as part of an air force exercise designed to test Israel’s air defense capabilities against threats.

Hamas’s chief in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, said on Wednesday that his movement was not interested in a war, but added that should a conflict break out, Hamas will ‘crush’ Israel.

A commander in Hamas’s military wing was killed early Thursday in an ISIS suicide bombing at the Rafah border crossing, which connects the Gaza Strip and Egypt.