Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - In a historic diplomatic event, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi delivered a speech in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, becoming the first Israeli politician to do so in a country that had no prior diplomatic ties with Israel, Jerusalem Post reported. “We greatly appreciate the tireless efforts...

Amid mounting speculation that Saudi Arabia and Israel will normalize ties, the minister traveled to Riyadh for a meeting of the Universal Postal Union, a specialised UN agency intended to facilitate international cooperation in the postal sector. He is expected to give a speech and meet with officials including the...

ROME, ITALY - An Italian-Palestinian student detained without charges by Israel since August was due to be released, his lawyer in Rome said on Sunday. Khaled El Qaisi, 27, was arrested on August 31 while crossing from the West Bank to Jordan after a family vacation in his home city of...

Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces had fired "live bullets and tear gas canisters at several young men and children" at the entrance to the camp, adding that the teenager died of his wounds. Saturday's incident is the latest in the West Bank, where violence linked to...

Last year, Saudi Arabia led the Middle East in military investments, ranking fifth globally with a defense budget of $75 billion. This surpassed many European nations, emphasizing the strategic defense priorities of Middle Eastern countries amidst global powerhouses. Qatar's military expenditure, meanwhile, reached $15.4 billion last year, ranking close to...

According to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, a basic framework has been hammered out by all sides that could form the outline of a historic US-brokered deal to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel after decades of hostility. The deal could earn Israel recognition by the guardian of...

Vienna, Austria -- Qatar Friday called for intensifying international efforts to subject all Israeli nuclear facilities to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, and for Israel to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of nuclear weapons as a non-nuclear state. Chairman of the National Committee for the Prohibition of Weapons Dr....

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - Israel's US$3.5-billion sale of its Arrow 3 missile defense system to Germany, sparked by security fears after Russia's Ukraine invasion, is the biggest yet for the small country's outsized arms sector. With its armed forces steeled by a tragic history of war, Israel is now the ninth...

Israel's top court debated appeals against a law restricting how a prime minister can be removed from office, as current premier Benjamin Netanyahu faces protests against the judicial overhaul. Eleven of the Supreme Court's 15 judges sat to hear three appeals against legislation passed by parliament in March.

The Biden administration made the decision after Israel in July promised a series of steps to comply with longstanding US demands to treat all US passport holders equally -- without discriminating against Americans who are of Palestinian or other Arab heritage or who are Muslim. Visa-free travel marks "a critical...

Dubai, UAE - Israel's energy minister and the CEO of the UAE's renewable energy firm, Masdar, have met to advance a significant water-for-energy deal with Jordan, according to the Israeli energy ministry, as reported by a section of media.  The meeting was held in preparation for an anticipated signing ceremony...

Sudairi's delegation, which crossed overland from Jordan, was the first from Riyadh to visit the West Bank since the 1993 Oslo Accords, which had aimed to pave the way for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When asked whether there will be a Saudi embassy in Jerusalem, Sudairi recalled there...

Israel's Tourism Minister Haim Katz is the first Israeli minister to head an official delegation in Saudi Arabia, where he would attend a United Nations World Tourism Organization event in Riyadh.

The delegation was led by the Saudi non-resident ambassador to the Palestinian territories, Nayef al-Sudairi, who was to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and top Palestinian diplomat Riyad al-Maliki. Sudairi, the oil-rich kingdom's envoy to Jordan, was last month also named for the Palestinian territories post and appointed consul general for...

Tel Aviv, Israel - The United States will declare its participation in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) this week,  Israel's Foreign Ministry said on Monday.This move would grant Israeli citizens visa-free access to the United States starting in November. "Israel joining the Visa Waiver Program is a diplomatic achievement and...

Violence has surged in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since early last year, particularly in the West Bank where eight Palestinians have now been killed in Israeli incursions since Tuesday. "Two Palestinians were killed by live Israeli bullets to the head" during the pre-dawn raid, the ministry said.

A drone "struck a military post belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization, adjacent to the area where a violent riot was taking place", the army said. It added that "shots were fired toward" Israeli soldiers near the border during the strike, without reporting any casualties.

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories - Four Roman tombs dating back 2,000 years have been discovered in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian archaeologist said on Saturday, bemoaning a lack of resources that has delayed excavations in the besieged territory. "With the discovery of these four tombs, the total number of tombs in this...

JERUSALEM - Israel offered its congratulations to Saudi Arabia on the kingdom's national day on Saturday as the two countries move closer towards a possible normalization of ties. "We send our sincere congratulations to the king, government and people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the occasion of the...

JERUSALEM - Israeli and Lebanese troops exchanged tear gas fire on Saturday on a disputed and highly militarised section of the demarcation line with the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the two armies said. The Israeli army said its troops used "riot dispersal means" to turn around a Lebanese earthmover that had...

This comes after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hinted at the ongoing efforts to establish ties between the two nations during an interview with Fox News.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas's address came a day after Netanyahu discussed Saudi normalization in a meeting with US President Joe Biden. Israel and the United States believe that the Jewish state's normalization with Saudi Arabia -- guardian of Islam's two holiest sites -- would be a game-changer for the Middle...

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in New York that he will visit Israel too once Benjamin Netanyahu will have visited Turkey. Erdogan, after meeting with Netanyahu, added that drilling work with Israel will be started soon and operating transmission lines to Turkey and further to Europe will also...

Netanyahu, who has had rocky relations with Biden, said he believed a deal was "within our reach" and credited him. "I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia," Netanyahu said. Biden has publicly criticized Netanyahu for overhauling Israel's judiciary,...

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in New York with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said "ties between the two countries were improving". After more than a decade of tensions, relations have improved with recent high-level visits, including that of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Ankara last year.

In recent days, violence has also risen in the Gaza Strip, with Palestinians in the coastal enclave holding protests along the Israeli border fence that have turned violent. The violence in Gaza follows an Israeli announcement late on Sunday that it would keep the Erez border crossing closed. The crossing...

During their conversation, Netanyahu said I hope you find within the confines of the First Amendment, the ability to stop not only anti-Semitism, or rolling it back as best you can, but any collective hatred of people that anti-Semitism represents. Musk said while his website couldn't stop all hate speech...

Jerusalem--Israel's restrictions and rising fiscal constraints in the Palestinian territories are severely impacting the economic conditions of Palestinians and hindering their access to timely life-saving healthcare, the World Bank said Monday. In a report titled "Racing Against Time", the World Bank said that overall the Palestinian economy was performing below...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, during its 45th session held in Riyadh, unveiled fifteen new additions to its World Heritage List, drawing attention from both historical enthusiasts and geopolitical spectators alike. "Tell es-Sultan-Jericho", a prehistoric site near the Palestinian city of Jericho, was inscribed, a move...

The United Nations' cultural organization inscribed the "pre-historic site of Tell al-Sultan" located near the occupied West Bank city of Jericho on its World Heritage List, UNESCO said. The decision, which was posted by the organization on X, formerly Twitter, was taken at UNESCO's 45th world heritage committee meeting held...

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – The total global Jewish population rose to 15.7 million over the last year, while the number of those living in Israel hit 7.2 million, the Jewish Agency said. The agency’s data showed that the global Jewish population grew by some 100,000 over the past year. Israel...

Tel Aviv, Israel - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is considering a trip to the Middle East in October as part of Washington's ongoing efforts to broker a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to a report published in The Times of Israel.  The proposed visit would...

The report published on Wednesday by the UK-based organization Save the Children said that nearly 400 children in Gaza, at least two children per day, were denied permits to travel to the West Bank and receive critical treatment in the first six months of 2023.

Tel Aviv, Israel - Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the launch of the ambitious India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as the "largest cooperation project in our history" that will have a profound impact on the Middle East, Israel, and the world. Leaders from the United States, India, Saudi...

During more than a decade of war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, targeting Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions. Israel rarely comments on individual strikes it carries out on targets in Syria, but it has repeatedly said it would not allow Iran...

Oslo Accords were meant to lead to a free Palestine, but years of stalled negotiations and violence have left any peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflict a distant dream. Gaza, a narrow coastal enclave, is now home to some 2.3 million people, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Jerusalem, Undefined - Israel's Supreme Court convened Tuesday to hear petitions to strike down a key plank of the hard-right government's controversial judicial overhaul that has triggered mass protests and divided the nation. A full 15-judge panel of the top court began hearing pleas against the amendment of the so-called "reasonableness...

An Israeli delegation attended a UNESCO meeting in Riyadh, marking the country's first publicly announced visit to Saudi Arabia as speculation grows about a potential normalization of ties. The five-member delegation arrived, an Israeli official told AFP, for the meeting to update UNESCO's world heritage list of cultural and historic...

The Kerem Shalom crossing, the only point of entry for goods between Gaza and Israel, was closed last week after the Israeli army said it found explosives hidden within a clothing delivery carried in three trucks. Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi last Monday ordered an immediate halt of...

US president Ronald Reagan's administration opens dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1988 after its exiled leader Yasser Arafat agrees to recognize Israel's right to exist. Three years later, in late 1991, Washington and Moscow co-organize an Israeli-Arab peace conference in Spain.

Ever since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government unveiled its proposals in January, tens of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated weekly in what has become the largest protest movement in the country's history. "There is no such thing as democracy without the Supreme Court. Democracy, democracy!" chanted the protesters in...

At the G20 Summit in New Delhi, the US, EU, Saudi Arabia, and UAE have launched an ambitious trade initiative to connect railways, ports, and energy networks globally.

Major G20 partners are set to unveil ambitious plans on Saturday to enhance trade among India, the Middle East, and Europe. This modern-day Spice Route aims to integrate regions that represent about a third of the global economy. Washington, Saudi Arabia, the EU, the UAE, and other nations plan to...

An AFP correspondent in Sidon reported the sound of intermittent automatic weapon fire and rocket launchers emanating from within the camp on Friday morning.

Four Roman-era swords and a javelin were discovered inside a cave in the Judean desert, where they had been preserved for nearly 1,900 years.

Osama Nofal, of the Gaza economic ministry, put the value of Gaza exports to Israel and the occupied West Bank at around $134 million a year, with the bulk being fruit and vegetables, fish, clothing and furniture. Palestinian Federation of Industries spokesman Waddah Bseiso said the Israeli decision could force...

Trouble erupted on Saturday when a demonstration against an Eritrean government event turned violent, injuring nearly 140 people, including a dozen Eritrean asylum seekers who were hit by Israeli police gunfire. "Alarmed at high number of injuries during protests involving opposing Eritrean protesters, particularly in Israel," UN human rights chief...

"The foreign minister and I agreed that we should work together to increase the number of direct flights, the tourism, the trade volume, the investment," Eli Cohen said during a ceremony to inaugurate Israel's new embassy. The embassy in the capital Manama will replace the first embassy Israel opened in...

Cohen's trip comes less than two weeks before the third anniversary of the accords in mid-September. Despite now having steady ties, Bahrain and the UAE have joined other Gulf Arab states in issuing a series of condemnations against Israel this year.

With a prolonged internal conflict anticipated and both the military and economy showing signs of strain, Israel's regional standing is being affected, say experts.