In a public relations blow to Israel’s right to self-defense the United Nations General Assembly voted not to condemn Hamas violence and in favor of international protection for the Palestinian people along the Gaza border, in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Senior Trump administration officials will visit the Middle East next week to consult regional governments on their plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
The Trump administration is responding to a scheduled Wednesday vote in the UN General Assembly condemning Israel’s recent actions in Gaza with a counter-vote, in which the 193-nation body would separately vote to condemn Hamas.
White House special adviser Jared Kushner and US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt will reportedly travel to Israel and other Middle East countries next week for talks with regional leaders on when to present a Trump administration peace plan, as well as to seek ideas on resolving the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The UN General Assembly will convene for an emergency session on Wednesday regarding Gaza, where a version of a resolution vetoed last week by the US in the Security Council condemning Israel will receive a wider vote.
Israel has complained to the UN Security Council, saying that Hamas is working with Hezbollah to establish missile factories and training camps in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese newspaper Al Joumhouria reported Saturday.
Incendiary kites launched from Gaza continued to ravage land in southern Israel on Tuesday, sparking fires in as many as 10 different locations.
Palestinians are gearing up for Tuesday’s ‘Naksa Day’ . The day is commemorated as the ‘setback’ when Israel took over the West Bank and Gaza as well as East Jerusalem during the Six Day War. Along with Nakba Day and Land Day it makes up one of the key Palestinian protests of the spring and summer every year. This year the events come after months of protests along the Gaza border in which more than one hundred Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded in clashes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel emerged from their 90-minute meeting in Berlin on Monday still disagreeing about the merits of the Iranian nuclear agreement, but in accord about the need to push Iran out of other countries in the Middle East.
Despite relative calm returning to southern Israel after more than 100 mortars and rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, Israel is at its closest point to war since Operation Protective Edge four years ago, a senior IDF officer in the Southern Command said on Thursday.
Ambassador Nikki Haley ‘will unquestionably veto’ a ‘morally bankrupt’ draft resolution on the violence between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza, she announced late Thursday.
Israel is pointing a finger at Iran for being behind the most serious escalation on it’s southern front in four years.
Nikki Haley, US President Donald Trump’s envoy to the UN, tore into the organization on Wednesday for what she characterized as a lackadaisical response to the firing of over 70 rockets on Israel from Gaza the day before.
In a rare incident, Israeli warplanes were reportedly intercepted by Russian fighter jets over Lebanon early Monday morning, despite an understanding in place between Moscow and Jerusalem to avoid conflict between the two countries.
Turkey will meet its needs elsewhere if the United States does not allow it to procure Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jets, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by broadcaster CNN Turk on Wednesday.
Israel and Russia have reached a secret agreement to distance Iranian forces from the border area in southern Syria, Israeli TV reported Monday, as Jerusalem and Moscow sent differing messages regarding the extent of their tolerance for Iran’s military presence in that country.
Less than a week after the Israel Air Force released pictures of an IAF F-35 Stealth bomber over the skies of Beirut, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Sunday that Israel would not tolerate Iran’s manufacture of game-changing weapons in Lebanon.
Three Palestinians were killed when the Israeli military struck an observation post in the southern Gaza Strip after an explosive device was placed on the security fence with Israel.
Twenty one people were killed, including nine Iranians, in Thursday night’s attack on the Dabaa military airport in central Syria, Sky News reported on Saturday.
Kensington Palace says Prince William will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories at the end of June — the first British royal to make an official visit there.