An estimated half a million people took to the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel on Saturday night, demanding that the Israeli government agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would ensure the return of 101 hostages taken to Gaza during the October 7, 2023 attack, MediaLine reports.
The Palestinian Authority, which has limited government over parts of the Judea and Samaria also known as the West Bank, has submitted a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly requesting that Israel be forced to comply with recent International Court of Justice decisions by withdrawing some 500,000 Jewish Israeli citizens from settlements built on West Bank land that the PA wants for a Palestinian state, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports. The draft resolution is expected to be voted at the annual UN General Assembly which opens in New York on September 10.
In rapidly escalating tensions, a gunman crossing from Jordan killed three Israeli civilians at the Allenby Bridge border in the Israel-controlled West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria, before security forces shot him dead on Sunday, Israeli authorities said.
Uncertainty remained Saturday over the future of ceasefire talks after a previously unseen Hamas document quoted by a major German newspaper revealed the “psychological warfare” carried out by its fighters since they kidnapped 251 hostages during their October 7 attack in southern Israel.
An American woman was shot and killed Friday during a protest against Israeli settlements in the Palestinian town of Beita in the occupied West Bank, also known as Judaea and Samaria, multiple sources confirm.
Daily attacks by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization on Israeli targets, ongoing since October 7, reached their highest point in August, according to data released by the Shin Bet security agency on Thursday.
During a press briefing to foreign media on Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his stance that Israel cannot abandon the 7.8 mile long Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border without first implementing a viable plan to prevent weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip.
Israeli authorities reported that over 100 rockets were launched at northern Israel on Wednesday by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization. In Kiryat Shmona, some of the rockets directly struck homes, sparking fires. Police and emergency teams quickly responded to the scene to provide assistance and assess the damage.
Under the newly formed United Kingdom government, led by Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, the UK has altered its policy toward Israel amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza by prohibiting the export of certain weapons, announcing a ban on some arms export licenses to Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a rare apology to the families of six Israeli hostages recently executed by Hamas in a press conference on Monday. He stressed the necessity of international pressure on Hamas and emphasized that Israel would retain its military presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, a critical buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border, underscoring the strategic importance of the area.
Hamas has admitted to killing hostages it abducted in Israel on October 7.
Amid limited pauses in the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, the United Nations and World Health Organization have launched a three-day campaign to inoculate 640,000 Palestinian children under the age of 10 in Gaza against polio, the Associated Press reports.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently completed a three-week-long operation in the southern Gaza Strip. During this operation, the military destroyed six kilometers of tunnels, eliminated over 250 terrorists, and recovered the bodies of twelve hostages over the past two weeks.
U.S. President Joe Biden and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sunday that Israel’s military found six bodies of hostages in Gaza, where Hamas still holds more than 100 hostages.
The family of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin confirmed early Sunday that he had been killed in the Gaza Strip. He was 23.
At least five people, including three Israeli Arab tourists and two Egyptian hotel workers, have been injured after clashes near Egypt’s busiest border crossing with Israel, Egyptian and Israeli sources said Friday.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in a meeting with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and other defense officials, announced his intention to “expand the goals of the war” to include the safe return of residents who had evacuated from the north back to their homes.
Archaeologists excavating in the Old City of Jerusalem have uncovered an exceedingly rare, highly artistic 2,700 stone seal that was probably made by a local Judahite craftsman, World Israel News (WIN) reports.
While still engaged in a war with Hamas in Gaza, and battling Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday carried out a targeted drone strike in Syria and killed Firas Qasem, a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organization, who was reportedly on his way to attack Israel, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.
The administration of outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden still believes it can broker a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia before the November U.S. presidential election.