Israel News

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he believes a ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement in Gaza could be reached “very soon,” while issuing what he called a final ultimatum to Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intensified operations in Gaza City over the weekend, targeting Hamas command infrastructure, demolishing underground tunnels, and striking multiple high-rise buildings the military said were being used for terrorist activity.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put on hold a controversial plan to apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, after receiving sharp warnings from both regional allies and Western nations. The issue was slated for a ministerial discussion on Thursday but has been replaced by a session focused on the mounting security challenges in the area.

Israel is expanding and upgrading its secretive Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona, raising new questions about the country’s widely believed status as the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state, according to an in-depth Associated Press report released Wednesday.

Israel’s military says it now controls roughly 40% of Gaza City and is “nearing control of half its territory,” as preparations intensify for a wider push to seize the rest of the enclave’s largest urban center.

Israel successfully launched the Ofek 19 reconnaissance satellite into orbit Tuesday night, marking a significant leap forward in the nation’s military space program and strengthening its intelligence and surveillance capabilities across the Middle East.

President Donald Trump warned that Israel is losing its once-dominant influence in Washington and urged Jerusalem to wrap up its military campaign in Gaza before sustaining further damage in global public opinion.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to convene top ministers and aides on Thursday to examine whether Israel should apply sovereignty over parts of the West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation, amid growing momentum at the United Nations for the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Israel’s leadership on Tuesday signaled the war against Hamas is entering its most critical stage, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir pledging to press on until the terror group is destroyed.

Israel’s top military commander vowed Sunday that the fight against Hamas and its allies will intensify, a day after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) eliminated senior Houthi officials in Yemen and Hamas’s longtime military spokesman, Hudayfa Samir Abdallah al-Kahlout, better known as Abu Obeida.

A sweeping postwar strategy for Gaza, circulating within the Trump administration, envisions the United States taking administrative control of the territory for a decade under an American trusteeship, while transforming the war-torn enclave into a hub of luxury tourism and advanced technology, according to a Washington Post report.

Israel’s Diplomatic-Security Cabinet was set to meet Sunday evening to review war plans in Gaza, but the more pressing question before ministers is how to respond to growing international moves to recognize a Palestinian state.

Israeli commandos carried out a rare overnight ground raid near Damascus, Syrian state media said Thursday, marking one of the deepest Israeli incursions into Syrian territory since the fall of the Assad regime last year.

The Israeli Air Force carried out strikes on multiple Houthi targets in Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa on Thursday, coinciding with a live televised speech by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

Archaeologists in Jerusalem’s City of David have uncovered the largest dam ever found in ancient Israel, a monumental waterworks dating back nearly 2,800 years to the reign of Kings Joash or Amaziah of Judah.