Israel-Palestinian Conflict

TIME Magazine announced on Thursday via X/Twitter that President-elect Donald Trump has been named its “Person of the Year.” In an exclusive interview, Trump discussed his plans to end the Gaza war, expand the Abraham Accords to include nations like Saudi Arabia, and hinted at a potential conflict with Iran. While emphasizing his desire for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to conclude the Gaza conflict, Trump notably avoided endorsing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, despite proposing a version of Palestinian statehood in his 2020 “deal of the century.”

Dutch prosecutors have demanded up to two years imprisonment for several suspects involved in the Netherlands’ first pogrom since World War Two.

Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday denied reports that IDF tanks have entered Syria and are approaching Damascus following the collapse of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime on Sunday, the Jerusalem Post reports. At the same time, the IDF said it has carried out hundreds of strikes against military targets in Syria to ensure that weapons and equipment that may be used against neighboring Israel do not fall into the hands of “hostile elements” entering the power vacuum left by Assad.

In a remarkable find, archaeologists have uncovered an inscribed fragment of a 500-year-old genuine Chinese Ming Dynasty porcelain bowl on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, Ha’aretz reports.

Israel struck a chemical weapons factory belonging to the former regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to prevent it from falling into rebel hands. The attack occurred just days after the United Nations Security Council was warned about potentially large quantities of unaccounted-for chemical warfare agents in Syria.

Egypt has presented Hamas with an updated proposal to free some of the roughly 100 remaining hostages and initiate a ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli officials said.

Reversing more than 20 years of prior policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Australia on Tuesday voted in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution that calls for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza to the pre-1967 borders, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports. The resolution passed by 157-8 votes with seven abstentions and the United States and Israel voting ‘no.’

The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday rushed to achieve a “two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” amid ongoing clashes in Gaza between what is left of Hamas and Israel’s military.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a rare government meeting in the northern city of Nahariya on Tuesday, stating, “to deliver a clear message to the North: We’re committed to the North.” He added, “We are enforcing the ceasefire and, with an iron fist, acting against any violation – minor or serious.”

Israel’s prime minister praised U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday for indirectly threatening Hamas with force unless they release all hostages ahead of his January 20 inauguration.

President-elect Donald Trump warned that Hamas would face severe consequences if the hostages taken on October 7 are not released before he takes office in January.

Amid intense fighting in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, Israeli Air Force fighter jets tested the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon on Saturday with strikes targeting infrastructure in Syria near a border crossing with Lebanon. Israel stated the site was “actively” being used by Hezbollah for weapons transfers.

Saudi Arabia has softened its position on Palestinian statehood, telling Washington that “a public commitment” from Israel to a two-state solution “could be enough” for the Gulf kingdom to normalize relations with the Jewish nation, according to Saudi and Western officials.