Israel News

The U.S. military’s humanitarian pier off the coast of wartorn Gaza will close, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration confirmed Thursday, following an outcry over the $230 million project.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that most fighters of Hamas have been killed or injured since the “terrorist group” invaded the Jewish nation last year, massacring some 1,200 people and injuring many others.

Two people were killed when Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at the Golan Heights on Tuesday in retaliation for the killing of the ex-bodyguard of its leader in an Israeli strike, Israeli police said.

Top US officials are in Cairo with senior Israeli and Egyptian security officials to discuss a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the release of around 120 hostages taken by Hamas from Israel to Gaza during the October 7 massacre, Axios reports.

Israel’s military announced Tuesday that it had “eliminated dozens of terrorists” and found “numerous weapons” after the reinvasion of Gaza City after it entered Shejaia, a neighborhood in the eastern portion of the area, where it also killed “numerous terrorists and located weapons such as “sniper gear, grenades, and AK-47 assault rifles” in tunnels and above ground.

Early Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched an operation in southern Gaza City, targeting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists at a United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters. Hamas warned on Telegram that this renewed IDF campaign threatens ceasefire talks.

Responding to a ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court last month that the Israel Defense Forces must immediately begin drafting previously exempt Yeshiva students, the IDF has submitted a plan to issue draft orders to 3,000 ultra-Orthodox men of military age, i24News reported on Monday.

Newly elected British Prime Minister Kier Starmer suggested Sunday that Britain could soon recognize Palestinian statehood despite calls from Israel’s government to wait.

Ahead of negotiations in Cairo and Doha continuing this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined non-negotiable demands for a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas. Meanwhile, on the nine-month anniversary of Hamas’ attack, thousands of Israelis protested nationwide, demanding immediate elections and the release of 120 hostages since the war broke out on October 7.

A new poll taken in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack shows that traditional leftwing support for the Palestinians has declined significantly, with a substantial majority of Israelis now identifying as right-wing on the issue.

Lebanon-based Hezbollah says it fired over 200 rockets and 20 drones on Israel’s North, both in the Galilee and the Golan area, on Thursday in one of its most intense recent attacks.

White House aides cited President Joe Biden’s sharp exchanges with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to Iran’s recent attack on Israel as proof of his mental fitness and effective leadership according to the New York Times. President Biden’s mental fitness has faced scrutiny since the June 27 presidential debate with former President Donald Trump, where critics questioned Biden’s mental sharpness.

Hezbollah said Wednesday it had launched 100 rockets and missiles at Israeli military positions “as part of the response to the assassination” of one of its senior commanders.

In an exclusive report Wednesday (July 3), i24News said Israeli security officials are increasingly concerned that Israel will have to face a new war front as Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen expand their influence across North Africa, Sudan, Egypt, and Morocco in order to attack the Jewish state from these regions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that the Israel was on the verge of defeating Hamas’s military wing. At the same time, the United States cautioned against a power vacuum in the Gaza Strip, emphasizing that chaos must be avoided as Israeli government leaders debate a post-war administration for Gaza.

There was concern Monday that Israel would face difficulties defending itself against a massive attack by Hezbollah because U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is reportedly holding up seven weapon systems to the Jewish state.

Citing official mediators working to prevent a full-on war between Israel and the Hezbollah Lebanese terror group, the Associated Press reports that the US, the EU, and Arab states are warning Hezbollah it does not have the capacity to crush a full-scale offensive by the Israeli army in Lebanon and that it should not count on any assistance in trying to do so.

As the region seemed to prepare for an all-out war between Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel, numerous countries want their citizens to leave Lebanon, but perhaps from the same airport where the group has allegedly stored weapons.

Israel’s national carrier, El Al, announced Sunday that its flight from the Polish capital, Warsaw, to Tel Aviv in Israel was not allowed to refuel in Turkey after an emergency landing there to evacuate a passenger for medical reasons.

A suspected Islamic attacker with a crossbow was killed after wounding a Serbian police officer guarding the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade on Saturday, Serbia’s Interior Ministry said.