Israel News

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.

Israel plans to deploy its new medium-range missile interceptor David’s Sling by mid-2016 after the U.S.-backed system passed final trials, defense officials said on Monday.

Israel Defense Forces artillery units shelled targets in South Lebanon Sunday evening, shortly after at least three rockets were fired from across the border into Israeli territory.

Israeli officials met with a high-level Quartet delegation this week, despite the fact that it includes an EU representative with whom Israel has said it will not meet on a bilateral basis to discuss the diplomatic process with the Palestinians.

Egyptian Air Force planes have in recent months crossed into Israeli airspaces part of Egypt’s military campaign against the local Sinai affiliate of the Islamic State terror group, Ynet learned on Tuesday.