Concerns over coronavirus in prisons push Israel-Hamas deal forward

With Hamas concerned about a coronavirus outbreak in Gaza and Israel concerned about overcrowding in its prisons, the pandemic offers a unique opportunity to reach a prisoner exchange deal.

Palestine

Israel weighs strategic implications of coronavirus crisis

Israeli intelligence is unsure whether the pandemic will ease tensions with neighboring countries or do just the opposite.

Palestine

Israel rebuffs EU over criticizing West Bank annexation goal

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz took issue with EU foreign representative Josep Borrell warning against possible annexationist policies of a new Israeli government despite his not obtaining the backing of all European Union states.

Palestine

Emigrants abandon life abroad, flock home to Israel

As the coronavirus closes universities and whittles the job market, many Israelis living abroad are now flying home and many more are considering it.

Israel

Israel bans visits to military cemeteries, imposes Ramadan curfew

Israel’s Cabinet banned visits to military cemeteries on Memorial Day and imposed a curfew on Arab towns for the month of Ramadan.

Israel

Hamas quietly allows Gaza doctors to get COVID-19 training in Israel

Gazan medical staff received training inside Israel on the novel coronavirus in unpublicized coordination between Hamas and Israel.

Palestine

Jewish pilgrimage to Tunisia canceled over coronavirus

With the coronavirus pandemic reaching the island of Djerba in Tunisia, Jews of Tunisian heritage won’t be able to attend this year's traditional Ghriba synagogue festivities.

Israel

How a falafel shop owner may have accelerated Israel's unity government

A falafel vendor's tearful account in a TV interview about his livelihood and how he has been personally affected by the coronavirus pandemic has resonated across the country, so much so that it shook Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz into action.

Israel

The message behind Israel’s drone attack

Hezbollah is on edge as Israel continues its drone war in Lebanon.

Israel

Gantz-Netanyahu deal legitimizes annexation

The possibility of further Israeli annexation of occupied territories has received legitimacy from the Israeli government, pushing even further into the abyss the slight possibility of a two-state solution.

Palestine

Israel’s new foreign minister, the man without a tie

In Israel’s Foreign Ministry, diplomats hope that their new minister, former Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, can extract the ministry from the terrible budget cuts it has suffered over the past few years.

Israel

Israel's two-headed regime likely to paralyze itself

Under the power-sharing deal they've signed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz are taking Israeli politics into uncharted territory.

Israel