Israel-Palestinian Conflict

Israel unleashed its most decisive and devastating blow in Lebanon since the 2024 ceasefire on Sunday, eliminating Hezbollah’s powerful military chief of staff, Haytham Ali Tabatabai, in a precise airstrike deep inside Beirut. The operation — code-named “Black Friday” — struck the third and fourth floors of a building in the Haret Hreik district, the very nerve center of the Iranian-backed terrorist organization.

Israel launched a series of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Saturday after its military said gunfire was directed at troops, in the latest test of the fragile ceasefire that began on October 10.

The Israel Defense Forces announced Thursday that it uncovered one of the most extensive and sophisticated Hamas tunnel systems discovered to date, a sprawling underground route running more than seven kilometers (4.3 miles) and plunging approximately 25 meters (82 feet) underground beneath Rafah.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump met Thursday with a group of freed Israeli hostages and their loved ones at the White House, praising the survivors as “heroes” and vowing continued support for efforts to return remaining captives held in Gaza.

The United States has begun a rapid diplomatic and operational drive to assemble the newly authorized International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza, launching the effort mere hours after the UN Security Council overwhelmingly approved its deployment.

Israeli intelligence revealed Wednesday that a sweeping joint investigation with European security agencies has uncovered a network of Hamas-linked terror cells operating across Europe, with recent plots traced back to Qatar and possibly Turkey, where senior Hamas officials maintain political offices.

Israel carried out large-scale strikes in both southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip as part of renewed operations against remnants of Hezbollah and Hamas, killing scores of people despite a cease-fire that was meant to be holding, authorities and investigators said Wednesday.

As the United Nations Security Council approved a U.S.-drafted resolution laying out a pathway toward a Palestinian state, new polling shows Israeli public opinion moving sharply in the opposite direction.

Palestinian attackers killed an Israeli man and wounded three others in a combined ramming-and-stabbing assault in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank) on Tuesday, shortly after the United Nations Security Council endorsed U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s peace initiative for Gaza, Israeli officials said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday issued his strongest public denunciation yet of extremist settler violence in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank), promising “very forceful action” amid a sharp rise in attacks that has drawn concern from Israeli security officials, international partners, and Washington.

President Donald Trump is expected to finalize a landmark agreement with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that would allow Riyadh to acquire advanced U.S. F-35 stealth fighter jets—part of a sweeping package of economic, defense, and normalization initiatives set to be unveiled at the White House this week.

In a historic and unprecedented step, Israel has begun pumping desalinated Mediterranean water into the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret), marking the first time anywhere in the world that processed seawater is being used to replenish a natural freshwater lake. The initiative comes as the iconic biblical lake continues to suffer from years of drought, falling rainfall, and declining spring flow.

The United States is moving aggressively to secure UN Security Council authorization for the new International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying Wednesday that Washington is “optimistic” that the draft resolution will advance within days — paving the way for deployment at the start of 2026.

President Donald Trump has formally asked Israeli President Isaac Herzog to grant a full pardon to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, marking the strongest U.S. intervention yet in the long-running corruption trial that has deeply polarized Israeli society.

A war of words erupted between Turkey and Israel this week as plans advanced for an International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza under President Donald Trump’s U.S.-brokered peace plan — a force intended to oversee the fragile ceasefire, disarm Hamas, and restore stability to the war-torn enclave.