With glitz and glamor, Tel Aviv set for Mideast’s largest Pride parade Friday
Hundreds of thousands of people were set to take to Tel Aviv’s streets Friday, as the famously gay-friendly city puts on one of the world’s larger Pride parades.
Israel
Saudi forces intercept 5 Houthi drones in fresh airport attack
Saudi forces on Friday intercepted five Yemeni rebel drones in the second aerial attack on an airport in the kingdom’s southwest in two days, a Riyadh-led military coalition fighting the rebels said.
Sderot rocket strike prompts calls for major military operation in Gaza
Israeli politicians on the right and center called for serious military action against Gaza Thursday, after a religious school in southern Israel was hit by a rocket launched from the Palestinian territory.
Witnesses describe ‘miracle’ as Gaza missile barely misses Sderot students
Most students had already left for the weekend, but several people at a religious school in Sderot had stuck around Thursday night. Three of them were just sitting down to study Biblical psalms when a rocket alarm rang out just before 9 p.m.
Trump announces surprise exit of spokeswoman Sarah Sanders
US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the surprise departure of his spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, after a combative tenure that saw her all-but-kill off traditional White House briefings to journalists.
IAF strikes underground Hamas target after Palestinians fire rocket into Israel
Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas underground facility in the Gaza Strip early Thursday after a rocket fired at southern Israel was shot down in the first such attack since Israel and terror groups in the coastal enclave fought a vicious two-day battle last month.
‘If we are forced into war, we will exact a heavy price from Hezbollah’
‘The Israel Defense Force will continue and intensify its covert and overt efforts to thwart Hezbollah’s desire to undermine Israel’s security,’ GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Amir Baram said Tuesday.
More than half of House Democrats slam any Mideast plan without 2 states
More than half of the Democrats in the US House of Representatives say a peace plan that does not expressly have as its outcome two states would endanger the prospects of peace.
Iraq, Lebanon to stay away from Mideast peace conference
An Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman says his government will stay away from a Mideast peace conference expected to take place in late June in the tiny Gulf Arab state of Bahrain.
After alleged Syria strike, PM says Israel acting against ‘enemy in vicinity’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said Israel was carrying out pre-emptive attacks to prevent its ‘enemy’ from establishing military bases ‘in our vicinity,’ in an apparent acknowledgment of a strike earlier in the day on alleged Hezbollah facilities across the border in Syria.
Israel Shuts Down 30 BDS Financial Accounts After Revealing Terror Ties
Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry said Monday it has been secretly targeting the financial accounts of organizations that promote the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish state by uncovering their links to terror networks.
US House to debate bill to purchase 2 Iron Dome anti-missile batteries
A US lawmaker has submitted a House bill to purchase two Israeli-developed Iron Dome batteries and deploy them to protect American soldiers.
Netanyahu: Iran’s foreign minister is lying
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Iranian foreign minister of ‘lying’ on Monday and said he would never ‘allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons that threaten our existence and endanger the entire world.’
Iran’s foreign minister: Netanyahu wants to destroy us, and we will respond
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned Monday that Tehran will not remain passive in response to what it says are threats from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to destroy Iran.
US said to mull further Iran sanctions targeting trade with Europe
The Trump administration is reportedly considering sanctions against an Iranian financial body set up to enable humanitarian trade with Europe, a measure that would likely end any possibility of European countries maintaining economic and humanitarian trade with Tehran.
Germany, Jordan say two states ‘only solution’ to Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Germany and Jordan’s top diplomats on Sunday reaffirmed their countries’ support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ahead of a long-awaited US peace plan.
US hits Iran with new sanctions targeting petrochemicals
The Trump administration on Friday hit Iran with new sanctions that target its largest petrochemical company for providing support to the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
US, Russia blame each other in near-collision of warships
The US and Russia accused each other of unsafe actions on Friday after an American guided-missile cruiser and a Russian destroyer came within 165 feet (50 meters) of each other in the East China Sea.
Temple Mount Sifting Project reboots, aims to salvage ancient temple artifacts
Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Zeev Elkin played show and tell at the June 2 Cabinet meeting this week. To mark Jerusalem Day, a national holiday celebrating the 1967 reunification of Jerusalem, Elkin brought to the Prime Minister’s Office a rare 2,700-year-old First Temple clay sealing impression, fittingly inscribed with the name of a priestly family of Temple Mount political administrators.
US envoy says Israel has ‘right’ to annex West Bank land
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has said the Jewish has the right to annex at least ‘some’ of the West Bank, in comments likely to deepen Palestinian opposition to the long-awaited American peace plan.