The Israel Defense Forces have in recent weeks been instructed to prepare for the possibility that the U.S. will conduct a military strike against Iran before President Trump leaves office, senior Israeli officials tell me.
Iran on Sunday vowed to defeat any Israeli attempt to harm its role in Syria, saying the era of “hit and run” attacks by Israel there was over, days after Israel carried out airstrikes on the Syrian army and Iranian paramilitary targets in the country.
The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday night released footage of some of its predawn airstrikes against Iranian and Syrian military sites in southern Syria, which came in response to an attempted attack on Israeli troops that was thwarted the day before.
Saudi Arabia has announced it will consider obtaining nuclear weapons if Iran acquires them, the Times of Israel reports. The Saudi Minister for foreign affairs Adel al-Jubeir made the announcement during a recent interview with the German news agency DPA.
Israel carried out a round of airstrikes in Syria early Wednesday morning in what military officials said was a message to Iran to get out of the country, the Times of Israel reports. The strikes followed a thwarted Iran-backed attempt to set off anti-personnel mines against Israeli troops on the Golan Heights this week.
The Israel Defense Forces attacked Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria early Wednesday morning in response to explosives troops uncovered on Israel’s border with Syria on Tuesday.
Israeli archaeologists have unearthed a jar containing 1,000-year-old coins in the Old City of Jerusalem, CBN News reports. Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) inspector Yevgenia Kapil made the discovery during preliminary digging for a Western Wall elevator installation in October.
The head of a leading Christian advocacy group has urgently called for political reform that would protect Lebanese society – and its Christian community – from power-hungry actors like the leaders of Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, Real Clear Religion (RCR) reports.
The United States is facing its first review in five years at the UN’s main human rights body, with the detentions of migrant children and the killings of unarmed Black people during the Trump administration’s tenure among issues high on minds.
German police have searched four men’s homes over suspected links with a militant Islamist gunman who shot dead four people in central Vienna. The raids follow revelations that Austria had been warned of a possible attack by neighboring Slovakia.
Austrian police detained 14 people in several raids Tuesday after an Islamist gunman shot and killed four people in Vienna.
A senior official in Iran’s Islamist regime has described the recent normalization of ties between Israel and Arab states as a US-Israeli plot against Iran, which will ultimately fail, Jerusalem Online (JOL) reported. Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei made his comments Wednesday at an international conference in Tehran on the decline of America.
The Trump administration imposed fresh sanctions on Iran’s oil sector Monday, also making it more difficult for a subsequent administration to reverse the measures, the Times of Israel reports. Affecting the National Iranian Oil Company, Iran’s oil ministry, and the National Iranian Tanker Company, the new measures were taken under counterterrorism authority, such that a new administration would have to take legal action to change course.
American airstrikes have killed a dozen al-Qaeda and Taliban members in Syria and Afghanistan since Thursday.
The U.S. State Department has condemned Iran’s reported flogging of a former Muslim-turned-Christian for drinking Communion wine.
Israel will not allow terrorist entities aligned with Hezbollah or Iran to entrench themselves on Israel’s Golan Heights border, and will do whatever is necessary to push them back, Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Israel Radio on Wednesday, following reports from Syria that IDF tanks had fired on targets near Quneitra in the Syrian Golan Heights overnight.
A representative from the White House went to Damascus for secret meetings with the Syrian government earlier this year, in an effort to secure the release of at least two US citizens believed to be held hostage there, Reuters reported Monday.
The U.S. military carried out a drone strike Thursday, killing two senior Al Qaeda operatives in northwest Syria.
More details emerged about a young Christian missionary killed in Syria after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence dedicated Wednesday‘s vice-presidential debate to her.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone Wednesday to discuss cooperation in fighting COVID-19 as well as security matters in relation to Iran and Syria, World Israel News (WIN) reports.