Israel-Palestinian Conflict

A suspected Islamic attacker with a crossbow was killed after wounding a Serbian police officer guarding the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade on Saturday, Serbia’s Interior Ministry said.

The Arab League, the Arab world’s main regional group, has ceased referring to Hezbollah as a “terrorist organization” in an apparent warning to Israel and its allies, including the United States, Worthy News monitored Saturday.

The United States is sending military assets, including a battleship, to Israel and Lebanon to prepare for the evacuation of Americans, U.S. sources say, as Israel’s prime minister warned of a rapid military escalation.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has announced that Israel does not want another war but is capable of sending Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” if Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Islamist terror organization, provokes a full-scale conflict by continuing to attack northern Israel, i24News reports.

Amid concerns that Iran’s virulently antisemitic Islamist regime will use Israel’s focus on fighting Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah to advance its nuclear weapons program, the Israel Air Force (IAF) has been conducting extensive drills in potential preparation for striking targets in Iran itself, the Israel Hayom Israeli news outlet reports.

Israel’s National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi announced this week that, although Hamas’ military capabilities in Gaza have not yet been destroyed, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will soon be implementing parts of a “day after Hamas” plan for the coastal enclave, All Israel News (AIN) reports.

In a historic move, Israel’s High Court of Justice has decided that the state must draft ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the army, prompting government anger but praise from the opposition.

Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant has told US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that “time is running out” to stop Iran, the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, from obtaining a nuclear bomb, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, has accused military chiefs of “attempting to carry out a coup against her husband,” Israeli sources say.

Whistleblowers have told the UK Telegraph that the Hezbollah Islamic terror group has been using the international airport in Beirut, Lebanon for civilians to store and transfer large quantities of Iran-made weapons for use against Israel in the event of all-out war, All Israel News reports.

On Monday, Charles Q. Brown, head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, cautioned that the U.S. might not be able to assist Israel in an all-out war with Hezbollah as it did during the drone attack by Iran in April.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Sunday night that the intense phase of the military operation in Rafah is nearing completion. He explained that the next objective is to halt Hezbollah’s attacks along the country’s northern border.

Earning a “stern reprimand” from Israel, the state of Armenia announced Friday that it officially recognizes the State of Palestine, Media Line reports. Armenia followed Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, Norway, Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia, in their recognition of Palestine over recent weeks.

Thousands of fighters from Iran-backed terror groups across the Middle East are prepared to join Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror organization if its intensifying conflict with Israel develops into an all-out war, the Associated Press reports. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reported a sharp decline in American weapons shipments to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday, following his recent accusations that Washington is withholding military aid.

The U.S.S. Eisenhower Aircraft Carrier Strike Group has reached the Mediterranean Sea from the Red Sea on its way to Virginia but will remain to assist with any developments between Israel and Lebanon, according to Sky News Arabic and The Associated Press. The carrier is currently off the coast of Port Said, Egypt.

The war in Gaza and related cross-border fighting appeared to spread to the European Union on Friday after the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group warned it could target the island of Cyprus, an EU member state, and Israel.

The number of Israeli hostages who are still alive in Gaza following their capture by Hamas on Oct. 7 “could be as low as 50,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Thursday, June 20. The WSJ report cites hostage mediators and a US official with knowledge of current intelligence on the issue of Israeli captives in Gaza.

A new poll shows that just over half (51.6%) of Arab Israeli citizens believe Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza has produced a sense of “shared destiny” between them and Jewish Israeli citizens, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports. Conducted by the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, the survey was presented during a conference titled “The Future of Israel” at TAU on Wednesday.

Amid Israel’s ongoing war to destroy Hamas’ terrorist capabilities in Gaza, a senior spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces has stated that the threat posed by Hamas cannot be eliminated because the jihadist group represents an “idea” that cannot be destroyed by military means, the Jerusalem Post reports.