JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli soldiers carried out a manhunt on Friday (Dec 17) in the occupied West Bank, a day after the army blamed Palestinians for shooting dead an Israeli settler and wounding two others. The army, which said Palestinian “terrorists” carried out the attack, has deployed three extra battalions as well as special forces. “We are in a physical, […]

WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) – Israel asked the Biden administration last week to speed up the delivery of refueling tankers that could prove critical to striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, but it was told that the aircraft were back-ordered and it was unlikely that its first one would be ready until late 2024, according to US and Israeli officials. The Israeli defence minister, […]

ABU DHABI (REUTERS) – Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held talks with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan on Monday (Dec 13) in the first ever public meeting between an Israeli leader and the United Arab Emirates’ de facto ruler. Israel’s ambassador to Abu Dhabi said the issue of Iran was on the agenda for their talks, […]

JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – A six-year-old boy, the sole survivor of an Italian cable car disaster who was kidnapped and taken to Israel by his grandfather, will be returned to Italy no later than Dec 12, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday (Nov 29). The court rejected a request by Eitan Biran’s maternal grandfather to appeal previous rulings by Israeli family […]

JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – Israel on Saturday (Nov 27) said it would ban the entry of all foreigners into the country, making it the first country to shut its borders completely in response to a new and potentially more contagious coronavirus variant. It added that it would use counter-terrorism phone-tracking technology to contain the spread of the Omicron variant. Prime Minister Naftali […]

JERUSALEM (BLOOMBERG) – Israel identified a case of the new Covid-19 variant recently discovered in southern African nations, the Health Ministry said. The variant was detected after a test was done on a man who returned to Israel from Malawi, the ministry said in a statement on Friday (Nov 26). The authorities suspect two other people who returned from abroad […]

JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – A Palestinian gunman killed one person and wounded three others in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday (Nov 21) before being shot dead by Israeli police, a police spokesperson said. The incident, the second attack in Jerusalem in four days, occurred near one of the gates to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third-holiest site in Islam. Jews […]

GAZA CITY, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES (AFP) – Posters of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi beam out over a site in the war-battered Gaza Strip where labourers and bulldozers are hard at work rebuilding. After years of retreat, Egypt is making its presence felt again in the neighbouring Palestinian enclave, emerging as a key benefactor in the aftermath of the last bout […]

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday (Nov 20) that they had seized a boat smuggling diesel in the Gulf and arrested its 11 foreign crew members. “Thanks to our intelligence services and in a coordinated operation, our navy seized a foreign vessel with 11 crew members in our territorial waters,” said Guards’ Colonel Ahmad Hajian, according to […]

CAIRO (REUTERS) – Britain’s Prince Charles appealed for a common effort to preserve the environment on Thursday (Nov 18) after visiting historic Cairo and the Giza pyramids on the first of a two-day trip to Egypt. After arriving in the Egyptian capital from Jordan, Charles and his wife Camilla were received by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi before heading to Al […]