On Monday evening, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported an alert in the area of Eilat, which was targeted in February by intercepted ballistic missile fire from Yemen's Houthi rebels, allies of Palestinian Hamas. "The target was successfully intercepted by the 'C-Dome' naval defence system," it said.

Organizers said about 100,000 people converged at a Tel Aviv crossroads renamed "Democracy Square" since mass protests against controversial judicial reforms last year. Chanting "elections now", protesters called for his resignation as the war in Gaza enters its seventh month on Sunday, AFP correspondents reported.

Israel has declined to comment on the Damascus strike but analysts saw it as an escalation of Israel's campaign against Iran's regional proxies that runs the risk of triggering a wider war. Among the dead were seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.

Tehran, Iran - Iran has repatriated the bodies of seven Revolutionary Guard Corps members killed in a strike on the country's consular annex in Damascus, which Tehran blamed on Israel, local media reported. The Guards, including two generals, were killed in the air strike on Monday which levelled the Iranian embassy's...

Jerusalem - The Israeli army has suspended leave for its combat units, it said on Thursday, amid the Gaza war and as tensions with Iran grew after a strike on Tehran's consulate in Damascus. Israeli media reported that the military was also calling up more reservist soldiers "against the background...

Jerusalem, Undefined - Israel's military said Wednesday it had obtained information that indicated a Hizbollah explosive charge caused the blast that wounded UN peacekeepers in Lebanon last week. The UN peacekeeping force said three military observers and a translator were wounded in Saturday's blast in south Lebanon, where Israel and Hizbollah...

Jerusalem--Four Israeli police were injured in a car-ramming attack at a checkpoint in the centre of the country, police said Wednesday, adding that the assailant was killed after trying to stab other security forces. The 26-year-old attacker crashed into four police officers at a checkpoint in the town of Kochav...

The British-born official, who spent a week in the besieged Palestinian territory last month, said even when aid got through the border, there were still major problems getting it to those who need it most, particularly women and girls.

Jerusalem, Undefined - Israeli police said Monday they had arrested the sister of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh "as part of a terror probe in southern Israel". Police told AFP that Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, who is an Israeli citizen, was taken into custody in the town of Tel Sheva as part...

"Around 9,000 patients urgently need to be evacuated abroad for lifesaving health services, including treatment for cancer, injuries from bombardments, kidney dialysis and other chronic conditions," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X. It is is up from 8,000 in the WHO's previous assessment at the beginning of...

Former US president Donald Trump warned Israel in an interview that it was losing support over the war in Gaza. The comments from Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to take on President Joe Biden in November's US election, came as Washington abstained at a UNSC vote calling for an immediate...

Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared as "state lands" the area in the northern Jordan Valley. Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the size of the seized area is the largest since 1993's Oslo Accords, and that "2024 marks a peak in the extent of declarations of state land".

JERUSALEM – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday called for a deal to free hostages held in war-ravaged Gaza accompanied by a "longer-lasting ceasefire", as warring parties geared up for more talks. "We need a hostage deal with a longer-lasting ceasefire," Scholz said during a joint press appearance in Jerusalem...

Other parts of the Islamic world may be grappling with their own challenges, from conflicts to high inflation. But many Muslims say their thoughts are with Palestinians this year.

The administrative step forward comes after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich last month vowed to expand settlements, in response to Palestinian gunmen killing an Israeli civilian and wounding several others in the West Bank.

Israel routinely demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks, arguing that such measures act as a deterrent, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment.

An Israeli strike on a car in south Lebanon killed three Hizbollah fighters, a security source said, the latest in almost five-months of escalating cross-border fire between the Iran-backed group and Israel. Since war erupted between Israel and Hamas on October 7, Hizbollah has been launching near-daily attacks from Lebanon...

United States has been pressing for a deal before Ramadan begins in which Israel would halt strikes in Gaza and hostages would be freed. The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 29,954 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest figures by the health ministry in...

Tubas, Palestinian Territories - Israeli troops killed three Palestinians in an overnight raid in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday. It was the latest in a surge of violence in the restive Palestinian territory since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in...

The resignation of the government in the West Bank comes as several countries, including the United States, have called for a reformed Palestinian Authority that would take charge of all Palestinian territories after the war in Gaza ends. "The next stage and its challenges require new governmental and political measures...

JERUSALEM - An Israeli soldier seized by Hamas fighters during their October 7 attack was killed the same day and his body is being held in Gaza, the army and a campaign group said on Sunday. The Israeli army confirmed the death of Sergeant Oz Daniel, 19, while the Hostages...

"The plan states that Israel will move forward with its already-in-motion project to establish a security buffer zone on the Palestinian side of the strip's border," the report said, adding the zone would remain "as long as there is a security need for it" The plan envisages Gaza's "complete demilitarization."

The shooters were "neutralized", police said, and an AFP photographer later saw two bodies at the scene of the attack on a highway east of Jerusalem, where five cars were riddled with bullets. "The three terrorists... got out of their vehicle and started shooting automatic weapons at vehicles that were...

Talks are aiming to secure a ceasefire of about six weeks starting between now and Ramadan, which is expected to begin on March 10 or 11, to allow for exchanges of Palestinian captives held by Israel with hostages. During the pause, there can be an "intensification of efforts in regards...

Jerusalem - Despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence the Gaza war will end with Israel achieving "absolute victory", a majority of Israelis do not think this is a likely outcome, a poll published Wednesday found. Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that Israel will continue its offensive in the Gaza Strip until...

The International Court of Justice is holding a week of hearings after a request from the UN, with an unprecedented 52 countries giving their views on Israel's occupation. Most speakers have demanded that Israel end its occupation, which came after a six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967, but Washington came to...

Lula's remarks on Sunday sparked outcry in Israel after the Brazilian leader said the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip "isn't a war, it's a genocide" and compared it to "when Hitler decided to kill the Jews". On Sunday, the head of Yad Vashem, Dani Dayan, said that Lula's remarks...

Overall, Israel's GDP grew by 2.0 percent in 2023, short of the 2.3 percent projection made by the Bank of Israel after the war's outbreak in October, the Central Bureau of Statistics figures showed.

Fearing the potential for mass casualties, foreign governments and aid organizations have repeatedly urged Israel to spare Rafah, the last major Gazan city not invaded by ground troops during the four-month-old war. Despite the mounting international pressure, including a direct appeal from US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...

Jerusalem - Israeli settlers established a record number of wildcat outposts in the occupied West Bank in 2023, a watchdog said on Thursday. Twenty-six settlements not recognized by the Israeli government were established last year, including around 10 since the war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7,...

The number of checkpoints and barriers in the Palestinian territory has greatly increased since October 7, adding hours to already lengthy commutes and forcing residents to either wait at the checkpoints or take long detours. Largely unaffected are the 490,000 Israelis living across the West Bank in settlements -- considered...

In Beirut, a senior Hamas official responded, saying Netanyahu's "insistence on continuing the aggression totally confirms that the goal... is genocide against the Palestinian people". The official, Osama Hamdan, urged "all resistance factions... to continue the fight" and to be cautious of Israeli "treachery during the final quarter-hour of this...

"There's a lot of work to be done, but we are very much focused on doing that work and hopefully being able to resume the release of hostages that was interrupted" after a week-long truce in November, he said. The US top envoy, on his fifth Middle East tour since...

JERUSALEM - When Fatima, an Arab Israeli married to a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, fled Israel's bombardment of the territory, she was terrified they would run out of fuel. "We feared that the gas wouldn't be enough. The road was deserted. All the way along, we saw devastated houses,"...

Jerusalem, Undefined - Israeli flag carrier El Al said Friday it will scrap direct flights to South Africa following "a significant fall in demand by Israeli travelers" to the country and other destinations. "From the end of March 2024, El Al will suspend its operations on the Johannesburg-Tel Aviv route," an...

"We worked to find the victims until the last hours," military spokesman Daniel Hagari said, indicating the difficulty in extracting bodies buried under the rubble. "Our reservists sacrificed what was dearest to them, so that we could all live here in complete safety,” he said.

Abdelrahman Iyad, wounded in Gaza and now being treated aboard the French helicopter carrier Dixmude, docked in Egypt, said he did not have time to leave his house before it was hit. "I was with my parents, my brother, my sister, my second sister and her husband and their daughter....

At least 24,448 Palestinians, more than 70 percent of them women, young children and adolescents, have been killed in Israeli bombardments and ground assaults, according to the Gaza health ministry's latest figures. "When we talk about rebuilding Gaza, it's not anymore like before, where we had to rehabilitate some shelter and...

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on October 7, the West Bank has experienced a level of violence not seen since the second Palestinian uprising or intifada between 2000 and 2005. Israeli army raids and attacks by settlers have killed at least 353 people in the territory,...

JERUSALEM -  Three fighters who crossed into Israel from Lebanon and two Israelis were killed in clashes and a strike along the frontier between the two countries on Sunday, the army and medics said. Since the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip erupted on October 7, the...

RAMALLAH, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES / JERUSALEM – Israeli forces carried out Sunday a series of raids in several towns in the West Bank early on Sunday. The forces raided the homes of Palestinian citizens in several towns in Ramallah Governorate and Al-Bireh and carried out extensive arrests, the Palestinian News Agency...

Beirut, Lebanon - Four Hizbollah fighters were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, the Iran-backed movement announced on Thursday, in what Lebanese state media said were Israeli strikes on the border town of Naqura. The deaths, which according to a source close to the powerful group include a local Hizbollah leader, follow...

Opposition leader Yair Lapid welcomed the verdict and warned of the resurgence of internal divisions in Israeli society. "The Supreme Court faithfully fulfilled its role in protecting the citizens of Israel, and we give it our full backing," Lapid said on X, formerly Twitter.

Jerusalem - Israeli settlers killed at least 10 Palestinians and torched dozens of homes in the occupied West Bank in 2023, making it the "most violent" year on record for settler attacks, an Israeli watchdog said on Monday. Numerous West Bank attacks were carried out by a large group of...

The Israeli military spokesman said the army was currently "planning the management of the forces operating in the field" in the months ahead. He added some of the 300,000 army reservists would get a break from the conflict, with Israel seeking to boost its war-hit economy.

Air strikes in eastern Syria "likely" launched by Israel killed at least 19 pro-Iran fighters, a war monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "19 pro-Iranian fighters, including four Syrians, and six Iraqis, were killed and more than 18 were wounded" in at least nine air strikes overnight...

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Friday reiterated his call for "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire", while the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the growing threat of the spread of infectious diseases among Gazans. Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says the Israeli military campaign since then has killed at least 21,507 people,...

A report released Thursday demanded an immediate end to the use of military weapons and means during law enforcement operations, an end to arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of Palestinians, and the lifting of discriminatory movement restrictions. "The use of military tactics and weapons in law enforcement contexts, the use of...

Describing the 35-year-old as "unbalanced", police said he was arrested after they were alerted that a man had "broken the law and disrupted public order by hanging the head of a donkey" at the cemetery. Photographs circulating on social media showed the head of a donkey hanging from a fence...

There was no revelry on Sunday, with few worshippers on the streets of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, as Israel's war on Gaza continues.