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Israel

May 18, 2026

Tel Aviv 8:26 pm

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Somaliland’s first ambassador to a foreign country formally, Mohamed Hagi, presented his diplomatic credentials in Jerusalem to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, on May 18, 2026.

Israel accredits Somaliland's first ambassador: What to know

Israel was the first country to recognize the breakaway region on the Horn of Africa last year.

talks

Lebanon-Israel ceasefire extended 45 days as US opens security talks

The Pentagon will host Israeli and Lebanese military delegations for a round of separate security talks later this month.

US President Donald Trump talks to UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as he departs the Al Bateen Executive Airport on May 15, 2025, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Analysis

‘A reckless act’: Netanyahu sparks UAE fury by claiming secret visit

Just as UAE-Israeli relations were deepening through cooperation against Iran, the Israeli prime minister publicly embarrassed Abu Dhabi by revealing his March visit.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Israel's Netanyahu suing New York Times over column on Palestinian rape

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rejected New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof's accusations of systematic sexual abuse and rape of Palestinian prisoners, calling the claims a "blood libel."

Latest News

Analysis

Israel’s drone dilemma: Hezbollah’s low-cost threat reshapes Lebanon front

Artillery units are positioned near the Lebanese border in northern Israel, May 4, 2026.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

EU ministers agree to sanction violent West Bank settlers: What to know

Two men stand next to the burned remains of a Palestinian vehicle in the Wadi al-Rakhim area of Susya village in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on May 1, 2026.

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Jack Dutton

Chief Business Correspondent

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

Ben Caspit

Israel Columnist

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Francesco Schiavi

In Bologna, reporting on security, defense, economy, governance

Rina Bassist

Associate Editor (Israel)

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem February 5, 2017. REUTERS/Dan Balilty/Pool - RTX2ZOA1

Netanyahu trapped between right-wing settlement law, US president

Confronted with a yet-unknown position by US President Donald Trump and continuous pressure from his coalition partners, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps changing his mind about the settlement Regularization law.

Why Paris conference on Mideast peace was a success

In an interview with Al-Monitor, senior French diplomat Pierre Vimont says that the Jan. 15 Paris conference reaffirmed that a two-state solution is the only viable option for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY MAJIDA AL-BATSH
A general view of the ancient Roman ruins in the northern Palestinian West Bank village of Sebastia, 12 kms northwest of Nablus, on May 5, 2011. Sebastia is home to a number of important archaeological sites from six successive cultures dating back 10,000 years: Canaanite, Israelite, Hellenistic, Herodian, Roman and Byzantine. AFP PHOTO/JAAFAR ASHTIYEH (Photo credit should read JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP/Getty Images)

Palestinian historical city of Sebastia besieged by settlements

Palestinian officials have been attempting to add the West Bank’s historical city of Sebastia on UNESCO’s World Heritage List to protect it from alleged Israeli violations.

An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man prays next to candles in the Tomb of Caleb Ben Yefuneh in the West Bank village of Kifl Hares, near the Jewish settlement of Ariel, January 5, 2012. The Israeli army late on Wednesday night allowed hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews to visit the tombs of biblical figures Joshua Ben Nun and Caleb Ben Yefuneh, on the traditional Jewish calendar date dedicated to commemorating people whose date of death is unknown. REUTERS/Nir Elias (WEST BANK - Tags: RELIGION POLITICS) - RTR2VWDO

'War of the shrines' stirs tension between Palestinians, Israelis

The fate of the West Bank’s holy sites is the subject of intense competition between Palestinian historical narratives and the theological discourse of the settlement movement. They are also key targets for settlement activities.

Labourers work at a construction site in the Israeli settlement of Ramot in an area of the occupied West Bank that Israel annexed to Jerusalem January 22, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RTSWSS5

Will EU be more open to ICC probe of Israeli settlements?

Palestinians are seeing an opening to push the International Criminal Court with Europe, as anger over Donald Trump increases.

Palestinians clash with Israeli border police during clashes at a checkpoint between Shuafat refugee camp and Jerusalem October 9, 2015. In the past 10 days, four Israelis have been shot or stabbed to death in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, and at least a dozen have been wounded by Palestinians wielding knives or screwdrivers in stabbings in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities. Several Palestinians have also been killed, and scores wounded in clashes with Israeli security forces during stone-throwing

Desperate Palestinian leadership could choose armed struggle

With the Trump administration clearly on Israel’s side, Palestinian leadership might resort, once again, to armed struggle.

Israeli volunteers drive sick Gazans from border to hospital

Every day, Israeli volunteers drive Gazan medical patients, including children sick with cancer, from the Gaza border checkpoint to hospitals in Israel.

A view of the High Court of Justice in Cairo, Egypt, January 21, 2016. Egypt's highest appeals court adjourned the retrial of former president Hosni Mubarak until April on charges over the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany - RTX23D41

Egyptian court issues verdict to prosecute Israel

Egypt's High Administrative Court court issued a verdict forcing the government to take necessary legal measures against Israel over its killing and torture of Egyptian soldiers captured during the 1956 and 1967 wars.

Israeli policemen try to remove pro-settlement activists from a house during an operation by Israeli forces to evict settlers from the illegal outpost of Amona in the occupied West Bank February 1, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX2Z6O2

The Israeli right's 'flattery fest' for Amona

Before, during and after the evacuation of the illegal Amona outpost, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers groveled to the right-wing factions of the settler movement.

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 25: Representative Chris Smith(R-NJ) speaks during a Capitol Hill briefing to discuss "the silent suffering of American children and their left-behind parents who are victims of international parental child abduction" in the Cannon House Office Building on June 25, 2015 in Washington DC. (Photo by Kris Connor/ Getty Images)

Congress takes aim at UN over Israel stance

Lawmakers are preparing a slew of measures aimed at curbing what they see as anti-Israel discrimination at the United Nations.

A general view shows the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the occupied West Bank, near Jerusalem January 17, 2017. Picture taken January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Awad - RTSW9M6

PA warns of danger if Israel annexes West Bank settlement

Believing it will deal a fatal blow to any future peace process, the Palestinian Authority has warned of escalation if Israel annexes the Ma'ale Adumim settlement in the West Bank to Jerusalem.

Arab Israeli women sit next to the ruins of their dwellings which were demolished by Israeli bulldozers in Umm Al-Hiran, a Bedouin village in Israel's southern Negev Desert January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Awad TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTSW1WP

Widow of Israeli Bedouin demands inquiry into alleged terror attack

Bedouin leaders and Knesset members from the Joint List are demanding an investigation into the violent eviction of Umm al-Hiran and the case of Kiyan Abu al-Kiyan, who Israeli authorities claim intentionally attacked and killed a police officer with his vehicle during the eviction.