Israel News
The United States will once again withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), President Donald Trump’s administration announced Tuesday, citing the agency’s “anti-Israel rhetoric,” “divisive cultural agenda,” and “pro-Palestinian bias.” The decision follows a 90-day review ordered by Trump earlier this year, and marks the third major withdrawal from a UN agency during his current term.
A simmering diplomatic dispute over visa delays for Christian organizations in Israel has been resolved, following high-level intervention from U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee and pressure from American faith leaders.
The Israeli Air Force conducted drone strikes on Yemen’s Houthi-controlled Hodeida port on Monday, targeting military infrastructure used by the Iran-backed group to launch attacks on Israel. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the operation was carried out in direct response to ongoing Houthi missile and drone assaults, marking the thirteenth such Israeli strike on Yemen.
Israel’s military pledged to investigate claims by Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry that at least 85 Palestinians were killed Sunday while trying to get food, but the army expressed doubts about the reported death toll.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Sunday it will begin ground operations in Deir al-Balah for the first time since the start of the Gaza conflict, expanding its military campaign into one of the last remaining areas of the Strip untouched by ground forces. The move comes with a new evacuation warning to civilians in the southwest of the city, directing them to seek refuge in the overcrowded coastal zone of al-Mawasi.
Pope Leo XIV has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to achieve a ceasefire and “protect places of worship” after Gaza’s only Catholic Church was reportedly struck by Israel’s military, killing three people and injuring 10, including the parish priest, the Vatican said.
Israel has launched a forceful military intervention in southern Syria aimed at protecting the embattled Druze minority, after more than 500 people were killed in four days of bloody conflict in the province of As-Suwayda. The fighting, sparked by sectarian tensions between Druze militias, Bedouin tribal fighters, and Syrian regime forces, was intensified by alleged atrocities against Druze civilians–prompting Israel to act.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition plunged into deeper crisis Wednesday as the ultra-Orthodox Shas party announced its ministers were resigning from the government in protest of the failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service. The move, while not an official departure from the coalition, further weakens Netanyahu’s grip on power, reducing his effective support in the Knesset to just 60 out of 120 members.
U.S. President Donald Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday following a deadly Israeli military strike that hit Gaza’s only Roman Catholic church, killing three civilians and wounding several others.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has issued a sharply worded letter to Israel’s Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, accusing his office of systematically denying visas to Christian groups seeking to visit the Holy Land. The letter, first reported by Channel 12, conveys Huckabee’s “profound disappointment” and warns of diplomatic fallout if the issue is not resolved swiftly.
In a diplomatically unorthodox move, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee attended a court hearing on Wednesday in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, making headlines both in Israel and abroad.
Israel launched an extensive wave of airstrikes this week against Syrian regime forces in and around Sweida, a southern Syrian city with a large Druze population, after reports surfaced of mass killings and executions of Druze civilians by regime-linked militias.
President Donald Trump is set to host Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at the White House on Wednesday, as the United States intensifies efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in coordination with the Shin Bet internal security agency, has carried out a sweeping two-week campaign targeting senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operatives involved in restoring the groups’ military infrastructure in Gaza, the military announced Sunday.
France and Saudi Arabia will convene a high-level international conference aimed at advancing the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on July 28-29, multiple diplomatic sources confirmed Friday.