Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived in Bahrain, the first visit by an Israeli head of state to the small Gulf kingdom since the two countries normalized relations in 2020. Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, was greeted at the airport by Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani, according to pictures posted...

While Jerusalem is home to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which Christians believe contains Jesus's tomb, the Nativity story of his birth happened in nearby Bethlehem, according to the faithful. But at Santa House, Kassissieh said his young visitors have more modern concerns.

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories— The Israeli air force said it had carried out overnight air strikes against sites of the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip after a rocket was fired from the Palestinian enclave towards Israeli territory. The Israeli army reported on Saturday evening a rocket had been fired...

One day after hip-hop and fashion mogul Kanye West voiced a "love" for Nazis and 10 days after ex-president Donald Trump dined with West and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, Biden blasted a message about open anti-Semitism on Twitter. "Silence is complicity," Biden said.

With 32 members of Netanyahu's Likud party and seven Religious Zionism lawmakers in Israel's 120-seat parliament, the former premier still needs to bring two ultra-Orthodox parties into his future government to secure a majority. The deal with Religious Zionism will see the faction receiving the finance ministry in a rotation...

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two individuals and two companies for providing financial services to Hezbollah.

Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said, and a suspected car-ramming attacker was killed after wounding an Israeli soldier, Israeli medics and the army said. The army confirmed its troops had fired on "rioters" who attacked soldiers in two separate clashes in the...

Jerusalem— At least one person was killed and 14 wounded in two separate explosions targeting bus stops in Jerusalem Wednesday, security and medical officials said, with Israel's public security minister calling them "attacks." An explosion at a bus stop at the western exit from Jerusalem killed a man and wounded...

When FIFA announced the deal for direct Israel-Qatar flights on November 10, it claimed that "Palestinian ticket holders and media" would be "able to travel on these chartered flights with no restrictions."

Jordan is one of the world's most water-deficient countries, suffering from extreme droughts, and water cooperation with Israel long pre-dates the 1994 peace deal between them.

The gross domestic product increased 2.1 percent annually between July and September compared to the previous three months.

An Israeli official told AFP that the strike on the tanker was "an Iranian provocation" that aimed to "disrupt the environment" before the football World Cup opens in Qatar on Sunday. The official, who requested anonymity, said the attack was carried out with the "same drones that the Iranians are...

Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Israeli soldiers "will not be interrogated" by the US' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The veteran Al Jazeera reporter was shot and killed while covering an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank on...

Of the 120 lawmakers elected on November 1, 64 have endorsed Netanyahu to lead the next government, clearing the way for his promised comeback after just 14 months in opposition. The majority secured by Netanyahu's Likud and its allies was expected to usher in a stable government.

It comes after Lebanon and Israel said in October that they had struck an "historic" deal to resolve a maritime border dispute involving offshore gas fields after years of US-mediated talks.

Israel's veteran ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu secured a mandate to form a new government, paving the way for his comeback at the helm of what is expected to be the most right-wing administration in the country's history. The November 1 polls gave Netanyahu and his far-right allies a clear majority in...

Turkey has appointed an ambassador to Israel after a gap of four years in the latest step towards normalising ties with the Jewish state. Ties between the two soured after Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised Israel's policy towards Palestinians under the previous governments of its new Prime Minister Benjamin...

While Qatar's Gulf neighbours Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates established relations with Israel through agreements mediated by the United States in 2020, Qatar has stayed short of it. The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken referred to the flight agreement with Qatar as "a historic event and an essential...

A deal was brokered between Qatar and Israel, who do not have diplomatic relations, so that flights are "temporarily operated" during the World Cup, said a statement from world football's governing body. The tournament starts November 20.

Lebanese security officials and politicians have made several visits to Syria in recent years, but almost exclusively in their personal capacity or on behalf of political parties that support President Bashar al-Assad, including the powerful Hezbollah movement, supported by the Iran.

The three nations vow to advance clean energy and sustainable water desalination projects announced last year, while UAE, Indonesia unveil Mangrove Alliance for Climate at COP27

Gaza rulers Hamas arrested two people over firing rockets at Israel last week, a security source in the Palestinian enclave told AFP. Israel's army said rockets were launched Thursday from Gaza, the first such military action since three days of cross-border fighting in August. The incident prompted Hamas's internal security...

Ramallah, Palestinian Territories— Israeli forces shot dead an 18-year-old Palestinian on Saturday near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. Musaab Nafal died "from severe wounds sustained by occupation (Israeli) bullets near the village of Sinjil", the ministry said in a statement. The Israeli army said soldiers...

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reaffirmed Washington's commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a phone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the State Department said. The move came as Israel's former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has not endorsed the two-state idea, is set to...

Blinken voiced "his deep concern over the situation in the West Bank, including heightened tensions, violence and loss of both Israeli and Palestinian lives, and underscored the need for all parties to urgently de-escalate the situation." The West Bank has seen near-daily army raids and an increase in clashes and...

Hawkish former Israeli premier Netanyahu, who on Wednesday appeared on the cusp of returning to power, has staunchly opposed the deal, dismissing it as an "illegal ploy" and warning he would not be bound by its terms. "We obtained sufficient American guarantees that this deal cannot easily be cancelled," said...

The beer will not offend religious sensibilities in UAE as it is aimed at foreigners and also because it produces a variant that doesn't contain alcohol, says owner Nadim Khoury. 

Abbas was addressing the first Arab League summit since the UAE normalized ties with the Jewish state in 2020, sparking a string of similar moves that have divided the region. Without referring to the Israeli election, he said Israel was "systematically destroying the two-state solution and throwing away agreements it...

Such a scenario has led to despondency among many Arab-Israelis -- who make up around 20 percent of the population -- potentially denting their turnout. "We need to work harder, first of all, to convince people to go out and vote," Aida Touma-Suleiman, from the Hadash-Taal alliance, told AFP.

Since the last Arab League summit in 2019, several members of the 22-member bloc -- for decades a forum for strident declarations of support for the Palestinian cause -- have normalised ties with the Jewish state. The United Arab Emirates went first in a historic US-mediated deal that made the...

Algeria mediated a reconciliation deal in October between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas. While few believe the deal will last, it was seen as a public relations coup for Algeria, which has been seeking an enhanced regional and international role, on the back of its growing status as a...

Elected to parliament in April 2021, Ben-Gvir heads the Jewish Power party and has spent years campaigning for the extreme right. His platform includes supporting the Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, home to 2.8 million Palestinians, and the forcible transfer of some of the country's Arab-Israeli population.

Cyprus, which has aspirations of becoming a major energy player in the eastern Mediterranean, has a key exclusive economic zone, divided into 12 blocks and potentially rich in gas. "The cooperation with Cyprus is not like the cooperation with the Israelis, the enemy state," said Elias Bou Saad, deputy speaker...

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he "strongly" believed the deal can promote stability in the region and create "enhanced prosperity for the Lebanese and Israeli peoples". The deal comes as Lebanon hopes to extract itself from what the World Bank calls one of the world's worst economic crises in modern...

Jerusalem, Undefined—Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday claimed Israel's foe Lebanon de-facto "recognizes" the Jewish state, due to a sea border deal the two states are set to sign imminently. "This is a political achievement -- it is not every day that an enemy state recognizes the State of Israel, in...

Samer Haj-Yehia, the Arab-Israeli chairman of Bank Leumi since 2019, was addressing the Future Investment Initiative, a three-day conference held in the Saudi capital and often referred to as "Davos in the Desert".

Continuing with its belligerence toward Syria, Israel attacked many positions near Damascus in the early hours of Thursday, in the third such attack in less than a week. According to the Syrian defense ministry, Israel attacked from the direction of the occupied Palestinian territories targeting several positions in the vicinity...

Jerusalem---Gas production has started at Karish, an offshore field at the centre of a maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon, London-listed Energean said Wednesday. "Gas is being produced from the Karish Main-02 well and the flow of gas is being steadily ramped up," a statement from the company said....

Israel, with its turbulent politics, heads back to the polls next Tuesday, for the fifth general election in less than four years. Historically, Israeli voting patterns have been shaped by religious and ethnic affiliation and, most importantly, views on the Palestinian conflict. But this time, ahead of the November 1...

The Palestinian health ministry said five people were killed in Nablus in the northern West Bank, where Israel confirmed an overnight operation targeted the group, which it blames for multiple recent attacks. Another Palestinian died from a gunshot wound to the chest during overnight clashes with Israeli forces in Nabi...

The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, expected to focus in part on possible war crimes committed during the 2014 conflict in Gaza. The probe is supported by the Palestinian Authority, but Israel is not an ICC member and disputes its jurisdiction.

Sales of Al Barakah silan in Israel have tripled to 3,000 tons over the past two years, making Israel the fifth largest market for its date syrup, says a top company executive.

JERUSALEM - The Israeli government decided on Sunday to allocate millions of dollars for a museum to house the world's largest collection of Albert Einstein documents, the Hebrew University said. It will be built on the university's Givat Ram campus in Jerusalem, with the government committing to approximately $6 million...

Jerusalem, Undefined—Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday paved the way for the signing of a maritime border deal with Lebanon, after it rejected appeals that the pact requires parliamentary approval. The signing is expected later this week. Israel and Lebanon, who are technically at war, agreed to terms earlier this month on...

Tensions escalated again in the Middle East, when Syria shot down missiles over Damascus fired by Israel, the first such attack in more than a month. Syria's official news agency SANA said that Syrian air defenses had intercepted Israeli missiles over Damascus and the southern region.

Researches believe Swiss knight Adrian von Bubenberg, who is believed to have visited the holy city in 1466, may have marked his name alongside his family emblem on a stone ceiling.

Lapid described the move as a "hasty response", adding that Israel can only hope that the Australian government manages other matters more seriously and professionally. Jerusalem, he said, is the eternal and united capital of Israel and nothing will ever change that.

Striking down the previous government's decision to recognize West Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Australia has said the city's status should be decided through peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, and not through unilateral decisions. The country's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it supports a two-state solution.

Hady Amr also reiterated the Biden administration’s commitment to rebuilding bilateral relationship with the Palestinian people and to a two-state solution.

It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Wednesday said the agreement would make conflict with Lebanon's Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah less likely. The agreement between the countries that have remained technically at war since Israel's creation in 1948 was earlier applauded by world leaders, including US President Joe...