Israel News

The UN Security Council will hold a special meeting next week on Israeli construction in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, Haaretz reported Thursday.

Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service and Jerusalem Police uncovered a terrorist cell run by the Islamic State group in East Jerusalem that planned to carry out attacks across Israel, the Shin Bet cleared for publication Sunday.

Hamas announced a “day of rage” on Friday to mark one year since the start of the latest terror wave unleashed by the Gaza-based terror group against Israeli targets.

The Israeli Defense Forces in cooperation with the Shin Bet security service arrested 19 wanted Palestinians overnight in the West Bank and uncovered three weapons manufacturing workshops.

US President Barack Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations on Wednesday in what is likely their last meeting before Obama leaves office in January.

The meeting was agreed upon following talks between the Prime Minister’s Office and the White House and was confirmed after the signing of the new US-Israel military aid package. It will be the first meeting between the two leaders since November 2015 and likely be the last as Obama approaches the conclusion of his presidency.

The IDF Home Front Command is preparing for the possibility that Hezbollah will fire thousands of missiles from Lebanon into Israel during the next war.

The United States and Israel have concluded a landmark aid agreement worth at least $38 billion, the largest pledge to an ally in American history, which will govern their defense relationship through 2028.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said Tuesday that the Syrian army fired two surface-to-air missiles at Israeli military aircraft in response to overnight strikes in the Golan Heights, but denied claims its aircraft had been shot down.

As the residents of the Gaza Strip endure daily hardships due to the dire economic situation in the enclave, their Hamas leaders spend over $100 million a year on the group’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, according to estimates by both Israeli and Palestinian sources. Spending on digging tunnels accounts for some $40 million of that annual sum.

The Israeli Air Force attacked Syria in the early hours of Thursday morning following spillover from the fighting in Syria.

Amid the carnage of Syria’s civil war, well into its sixth year, Is­raeli military chiefs say that Iran and its prized proxy, Hezbollah, are surrepti­tiously seeking to establish a new front in an older conflict, the Iran-backed group’s 30-year war against the Jewish state that until recently was waged almost exclusively from neighboring Lebanon.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to direct talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Russia, Interfax news agency cited the Palestinian embassy in Moscow as saying on Monday.

The German government has for the first time admitted that the Palestinian Authority likely grants financial support to terrorists and their families, and vowed to further investigate the matter.

A senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization praised Russia this week as a more “credible” and “balanced” third-party facilitator for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks than the US.

The UN Security Council warned Tuesday that violations of the cessation of hostilities agreement between Lebanon and Israel could lead to a new conflict “that none of the parties or the region can afford.”

Contacts have recently been established regarding a possible meeting in Moscow between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The United States on Tuesday called on Americans in the Gaza Strip to leave the coastal enclave “as soon as possible.”

The Israeli Defense Forces on Monday carried out a strike in the Syrian Golan Heights in retaliation to mortar fire that landed on the Israeli side of the border, the IDF said in a statement.

The Israeli Defense Forces says it has no intention to escalate conflict in Gaza after air and artillery strikes hit dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Monday in response to earlier rocket fire from the coastal enclave into Israel.