A team of inspectors from the international chemical weapons watchdog was on its way to Syria on Thursday to begin an investigation into a suspected chemical weapons attack near the capital that has brought the war-torn country to the brink of a wider conflict, amid Western threats of retaliation and Russian warnings of the potential for ‘a dangerous escalation.’
The White House is considering eight potential Syrian targets in retaliation for a chemical weapons assault, a US official told CNBC Thursday.
The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday voiced concern to the Security Council’s five permanent members over the ‘impasse’ on Syria, stressing ‘the need to avoid the situation spiraling out of control.’
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said the Palestinians will not accept any US plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A possibility of US-led strike on Syria appeared to gain traction Wednesday with President Donald Trump warning that ‘missiles will be coming’ in response to an alleged chemical attack in Syria, and the White House confirming that ‘a number of options’ were being discussed.
Israel will come to a standstill at 10 a.m. Thursday as sirens will wail throughout the country in memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War II. The sirens will be followed by ceremonies marking Holocaust Remembrance Day in schools, public institutions and army bases. Later in the day the traditional ‘March of the Living’ will be held in Poland.
The Israeli military said it was investigating a video that surfaced on Monday that appears to show IDF sharpshooters cheering as one of them shoots and fells a Palestinian who approached the Gaza security fence.
A day after Russia accused Israel of attacking the T4 airbase in Syria, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov summoned Israel’s Ambassador to Russia Gary Koren to the Foreign Minister to discuss the matter, TASS reported on Tuesday.
In recent months, Israel-Iran tensions have evolved from covert and proxy battles to direct confrontations. Early Monday, Israel targeted the Syrian regime’s T-4 military air base in Homs, killing at least seven Iranian personnel. One of the fatalities was a colonel with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), responsible for overseeing Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) unit. The IRGC ordered Iranian state-affiliated media outlets to retract articles describing the incident.
Trump administration officials have consulted with global allies on a possible joint military response to Syria’s alleged poison gas attack, as US President Donald Trump canceled a foreign trip in order to manage a crisis that is testing his vow to stand up to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
President Trump canceled plans Tuesday for his first trip to South America, in another sign that he is preparing to order an imminent military strike against Syria over its deadly chemical weapons attack against civilians in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership will only engage with the Trump administration’s anticipated peace plan if it backs a two-state solution and recognizes east Jerusalem as the capital of ‘the State of Palestine.’
After three years of disguising its payments to families of martyrs and imprisoned terrorists, the Palestinian Authority has lifted its veil on those payments in a ‘blatant act of defiance’ against the United States, a new report says.
Israel gave the United States advance warning of its early Monday morning strike on a military base in Syria, according to initial reports, while the Kremlin charged that it failed to inform Russia.
For days, agitated Israeli officials warned of an imminent ‘ecological disaster’ in anticipation of Friday’s massive protest at the border with the Gaza Strip, where Hamas, the ruling Palestinian Islamist militia, readied tens of thousands of tires to be set on fire.
The United States for a second week in a row blocked a UN Security Council statement supporting the right of Palestinians to ‘demonstrate peacefully’ and endorsing Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for an independent investigation into deadly protests in Gaza.
A Hamas spokesman said Friday’s protests along the Gaza-Israel border were a signal to the world that Palestinians have started a revolution to ‘pave the way to freedom.’
Israeli planes carried out airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip early Monday morning, the army said, hours after a group of Palestinians entered Israeli territory from the enclave and planted two improvised explosive devices along the Gaza security fence.
A top Iranian cleric in Tehran has warned Israel that if it “dares” to attack Hezbollah, the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa would be ‘razed to the ground,’ Iranian media outlets reported on Friday. The Islamic cleric referred to recent remarks by Israeli officials concerning the possibility of a potential conflict with the terrorist organization in Lebanon in 2018.
The Russian Ministry of Defense accused Israel of bombing an air base in Syria overnight, the Russian news agency Interfax reported on Monday.