Russia relies heavily on foreign military sales to boost its economy. So the Kremlin scrambled to avoid bad publicity for one of its weapons systems last week after it took a direct hit during Israeli airstrikes in Syria.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that the United Nations had ‘collapsed’ in the face of events in Gaza where Israeli forces killed 60 Palestinian protesters on Monday as the United States relocated its Israel embassy to Jerusalem.
Palestinian protests on the Gaza-Israel border have dropped off over the past two days, amid reports that Egyptian officials intervened to restore calm.
Fifty of the Palestinians killed in a protest in the border region between the Gaza Strip and Israel earlier this week were Hamas members, Hamas Politburo member Salah Bardaweil said on Wednesday.
Guatemala has opened its new embassy in Jerusalem, becoming the second country to do so after the United States.
Two Palestinians were shot dead as over 4,000 people in the West Bank and Gaza took part in protests Tuesday to mark the establishment of Israel, one day after Israeli forces along the Gaza border killed 60 Palestinians.
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahhar said the riots on the Israel-Gaza border are ‘not peaceful resistance’ but rather, are supported by its ‘military force.’
Iran’s foreign minister was in Moscow on Monday as Russia tries to keep the Iran nuclear deal alive in the wake of Washington’s pull-out, pushing it into rare cooperation with Europe.
Israeli forces were gearing up Tuesday for a second straight day of Palestinian protests and the prospect that they may spread, after hours of bloody clashes on the Gaza border Monday left at least 58 Palestinians dead and thousands more injured.
The Gaza Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry said Tuesday morning that a baby was among those killed during violent border clashes along the territory’s border with Israel the previous day, bringing the overall death toll in the day’s bloody events to 58.
Despite the festive atmosphere, guests of Monday’s inauguration of the American embassy in Jerusalem were acutely aware of the deadly violence taking place at the same time along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, speaking in a recording released on Sunday, the eve of plans by the United States to move its embassy to Jerusalem, said that Tel Aviv was also Muslim land.
The United States is in the ‘late phases’ of finalizing its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that will be presented to both parties for consideration, according to a senior White House official, who discussed progress on the matter ahead of a massive celebration in Israel to open the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
Following Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria, Russia has positioned itself as a mediator between the Middle Eastern rivals as it has maintained good relations with both countries.
The Israeli army is deploying three additional brigades to Gaza and the West Bank at the start of what Israeli security officials believe could be an extremely violent week of Palestinian protests coinciding with the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, the military said Saturday.
The Gaza leader of Hamas said Thursday he hopes to see hundreds of thousands of Palestinians breach the border fence from Gaza into Israel at protests to coincide with next week’s US embassy move to Jerusalem.
During two pre-dawn hours, Israeli F-15 and F-16 fighter jets evaded ‘dozens of missiles’ and dropped ‘many dozens’ of bombs on over 50 Iranian targets throughout Syria as the Israel air force carried out an extensive campaign, dubbed ‘Operation House of Cards,’ to try and destroy Iran’s military presence in the country.
The leaders of Israel, Cyprus and Greece said Tuesday they are determined to push ahead with plans for a pipeline that would supply east Mediterranean gas to Europe as the continent seeks to diversify its supplies.
The Israeli military published pictures Friday that it said showed Iranian intelligence installations in Syria that it attacked during a massive bombardment a day earlier. The attack was in response to a volley of rockets shot toward northern Israel.
Iran still has long-range capabilities to strike Israel, a senior officer in the Israel Air Force said on Thursday, even though ‘every target we wanted to hit was struck and destroyed.’