Israel News

Three Israeli soldiers were wounded on Sunday when a member of the Palestinian Authority security forces opened fire at an IDF checkpoint near Beit El in the West Bank. He was shot dead by forces at the scene.

As Israelis cranked up their heaters during the current cold snap, the Public Utility Authority was attacked by one of the largest cyber assaults that the country has experienced, Minister of Infrastructure, Energy and Water Yuval Steinitz said on Tuesday.

According to IDF estimations, the likelihood of Israel initiating a war in the next year remains low, both due to the turmoil in the Middle East which is keeping many of Israel’s enemies busy, and because of Israel’s current deterrence abilities. Even so, the likelihood of a severe incident leading to an escalation and even a war has increased, and is being described by the IDF as ‘moderate.’ This is due to the tension along Israel’s borders, especially the ones in the north and near the Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes struck the Gaza Strip early Monday morning in response to a rocket fired at southern Israel on Sunday evening.

Eighteen months after its last war with Israel in Gaza, Islamist terror group Hamas has rehabilitated itself and is ready for a fresh round of hostilities, a senior defense official said Friday.

‘Isramco’ and ‘Modiin Energy’ companies, announced on Sunday that they found a gas reserve in the Mediterranean Sea the size of the ‘Tamar’ drilling field. The companies who partner in searching for oil and gas reserves in Israel publicized on Sunday morning that they have found gas reserves that equal the size of the offshore ‘Tamar’ Gas field. The reserves are located in the drilling license regions of East and West Daniel.

The European Union reiterated Monday that it would continue to differentiate between Israel proper and the settlements, yet stopped short of explicitly calling for a “distinction.”

In a rare, candid interview about Israeli thinking on the condition of the Palestinian Authority, a member of Israel’s security cabinet warned that the authority is already collapsing, and what follows will be “anarchy.”

Germany’s fifth Dolphin-class submarine arrived in Israel’s Haifa port Tuesday, where top government and military officials welcomed the newest addition to Israel’s navy.

Hezbollah is receiving long-range missiles, laser-guided rockets and other sophisticated weaponry directly from Russia in Syria, and is free to use that weaponry against Israel if it so chooses, Hezbollah fighters told the Daily Beast website.

The first Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jet, due to be delivered to Israel later this year, has entered an advanced production stage.

A Hamas terror cell that planned to kidnap and kill Israeli citizens was discovered by Israeli law enforcement in December, the Shin Bet security service announced on Thursday.

The nuclear agreement signed between Iran and six world powers in July has ‘significantly increased’ the threat to Israel posed by the Islamic republic, Yossi Cohen warned Wednesday as he was sworn in as the new head of the Mossad intelligence agency. Still, he added, he was confident the spy agency would be able to formulate an ‘appropriate response.’

An agreement signed last year making the Vatican’s de facto recognition of a Palestinian state in 2012 official has come into effect, the Holy See said on Saturday.

A few weeks ago a huge explosion rocked the town of el-Hmidaiah, near the Quneitra crossing and 400 meters from the border fence with Israel. IDF troops were dispatched for fear that a mortar shell had fallen in the Ein Zivan area, Ynet News reported.

President Obama vowed in 2013 to cut back on spying on U.S. allies. But in the interests of negotiating his Iran nuclear deal, according to the Wall Street Journal, he made an exception in the case of Israel and thereby also caught communications of U.S. Congress members in that dragnet.

Israeli warplanes hit Hezbollah targets in the Qalamoun area of Syria in a series of at least seven airstrikes, Syrian media outlets reported Saturday night.

Turkey is demanding that Israel permit unfettered access to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as one of the conditions before it renews diplomatic ties with Israel, according to a report in Saturday editions of the Hurriyet Daily News.

The IDF on Wednesday instructed residents and farmers in northern Israel to refrain from approaching the border areas.

In a speech on Monday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel with revenge over the killing of terrorist Samir Kuntar in an air strike in Syria on Saturday.