Haaretz english edition
PM still pushing for war in bid to keep power; Eisenkot strikes back
It seems Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unimpressed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s heavyhanded hints about his intention to end the war with Iran. Numerous signals on Wednesday from Netanyahu and his rivals in the change bloc indicated growing...
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New Knesset sworn in as Eisenkot seeks to cobble together a coalition
The new Knesset was sworn in Tuesday in the wake of an election last month that ended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s parliamentary majority and prompted President Isaac Herzog to give opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot the opportunity to form the...
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Eisenkot bloc agrees that candidate for Knesset speaker will be from his party
Israel’s opposition bloc agreed on Monday that its nominee for Knesset speaker will come from Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party, and could even be Eisenkot himself. The news comes after Eisenkot, who was given the mandate by President Isaac Herzog on...
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Eisenkot calls for all to compromise after getting mandate to form gov’t
President Isaac Herzog officially tasked Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot with forming a government on Sunday evening, giving the former IDF chief 28 days to assemble a governing coalition. The decision follows an election that left neither Eisenkot...
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Isaac Herzog, our Bibi-ist president
The tired expression “the cat is out of the bag” didn’t begin to capture the disgraceful conduct of President Isaac Herzog on the second day of his consultations with the parties over whom to ask to form a government. Herzog sat across from...
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Democratic sweep sets stage for transformation of U.S.-Israel ties
The stunning Democratic victory on Tuesday, giving them decisive control of Congress, comes just as the party seeks to exert unprecedented pressure on Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians. “We want our tax dollars spent here,” Abdul ElSayed,...
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Opposition leaders meet, vow to ‘swiftly’ oust PM, back Eisenkot
The four party leaders in Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc issued a joint statement following their leaders’ meeting on Tuesday, saying they “are fully coordinated and will act immediately to replace the October 7 government with a national emergency government,...
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Israel and U.S. hovering between talks and conflict in Iran, yet again
The U.S. is reinforcing its aerial forces in the Middle East again, and the Israel Defense Forces is more alert, too. The possibility of a joint AmericanIsraeli attack on Iran is, once again, on the agenda. It will become relevant after the midterm...
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Backed by police, Shin Bet chiefs, PM casts doubt on election integrity
There are several conclusions to be drawn from Tuesday’s election, but one stands out: in Israel in 2026, it is no longer possible to hold a free and fair election. The symbiotic relationship between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the heads of...
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Opposition has majority only with Arab parties
Leaders of Israel’s two Arab parties made public overtures to the Jewish opposition parties after Wednesday polls showed they were on their way to achieving their best-ever result in a Knesset election. According to exit polls, the Joint List and the...
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Israelis go to polls after PM tries to go to war
As Israelis prepared for Tuesday’s Knesset election, a rare rift emerged between Mossad chief Roman Gofman and senior officials in the spy agency over operations against Iran on the eve of the vote, Haaretz has learned. According to senior sources,...
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Across the country, citizens are banding together against election interference
Atia Alasam, head of an unrecognized village in the Negev, remembers the last election vividly. “They sent hilltop youth to us, with cameras on their foreheads, to photograph women at the entrance to the polling station,” he said, referring to...
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PM’s Serb ally also faces a tough election. What’s at stake for Israel?
BELGRADE, Serbia – For years, the growing political and military alliance between Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu made headlines both at home and abroad. The former Serb president and the Israeli prime minister have a lot in...
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Israel briefly detains Brad Lander on West Bank trip with activists
Israeli authorities briefly detained Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander in the West Bank on Wednesday, along with dozens of activists who accompanied Palestinian farmers. Lander told Haaretz while he was being detained, “Occupation is a...
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Eisenkot has the home advantage. Is it enough to shake Netanyahu?
Yacov Kisos points to the second floor of the rundown apartment building, its grimy concrete facade cluttered with barred windows and old air-conditioning units. “I can’t remember if it’s the apartment on the right or the left,” he says, “but that’s...
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Benny Gantz quits election race as polls show Kahol Lavan would not win any seats
Kahol Lavan party leader Benny Gantz announced he won’t run in the upcoming election, saying he will “continue to work for unity.” Gantz, a former IDF chief and defense minister, failed to gain support, with polls showing his party constantly hovering...
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Too much monkey business at the PM’s private news outlet
The salient personality traits of former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, according to the leading talents of Israel’s Channel 14 News, Jacob Bardugo (currently starring on the Likud party’s candidate slate, as on top of all this, his proficiency in...
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Settler attacks target European diplomats, U.S. photojournalist
Masked Israeli settlers attacked a delegation of European diplomats and public figures, as well as Palestinian olive harvesters, in the Christian village of Taybeh near Ramallah on Saturday. The assault comes a day after settlers attacked olive...
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Netanyahu admits Egypt’s intelligence chief landed in Israel ahead of October 7
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday confirmed reports that Egypt’s former intelligence chief visited Israel before Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, but denied he was present upon his landing and claimed he does not know which Israeli official...
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Reports: Settlers posing as soldiers came to house, beat Palestinian couple, daughter
Settlers impersonating Israeli soldiers assaulted a couple and their daughter in their home during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank, Palestinian media reported Tuesday. The man, who suffered bruises in the attack, said that at around 3...
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Teen killed, 24 people wounded by ordnance on school trip in north
A 14-year-old Israeli boy was killed and 24 people were injured Monday when unexploded ordnance left over from the Israel-Hezbollah war exploded during a school trip near Israel’s border with Lebanon, police said. The wounded included students in...
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Huge stretch of ancient Lower Aqueduct into Jerusalem revealed
A 300-meter stretch of the Lower Aqueduct into Jerusalem has been revealed exactly where archaeologists thought it would be – about 5 kilometers south of Temple Mount, near Kibbutz Ramat Rachel. It was unearthed during works to build a new...
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‘Bloc of change’ can undo the overhaul and probe Oct. 7 – even without a gov’t
Ahead of the election, speculation on the next government’s composition has understandably taken center stage in public discourse. But the next Knesset, which on November 10 will celebrate its first session exactly two weeks after the election, has...
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Israelis mark three years since Oct. 7
Families of hostages and victims of the October 7 massacre joined memorial events and protests across Israel on Wednesday, marking three years since the Hamas attack and renewing calls for a state commission of inquiry into the failures that preceded...
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Open wound
Three years since that Saturday, Hamas’ attack on the communities and military installations near the Gaza border largely remains unfathomable. The attack itself was extremely unusual in its scale, and its catastrophic results highlighted the extent of...
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They ID’d bodies after Oct. 7 and ended up in a psych ward
One after another, the trucks entered the base. The large company logos on them revealed their previous purpose: fresh meat, sausages, ice cream. Finally the food had arrived, someone said. Others were less optimistic. Then the doors opened, and with...
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Public pressure led to barring of Arab leader
Legal scholars say the Supreme Court was influenced by public and political pressure when it signaled that it was prepared to disqualify Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh from the Knesset election. They argue that the court’s handling of the case...
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Israeli settlers kill Palestinian, 19, wound another in West Bank attack
A Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli settlers and another was wounded near the West Bank village of Kobar near Ramallah on Friday, amid a wave of settler violence over the weekend. A security source identified the Palestinian as 19-year-old...
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Israeli passengers subdue rogue pilot, averting FlyDubai hijacking
After long hours of waiting in trepidation at a Saudi airport, a FlyDubai rescue flight carrying 180 Israeli passengers landed in Israel Wednesday night. Thus ended a drama that began with what appeared to be a terror attack, but was prevented thanks...
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PM’s warning gimmick plays on public’s fears as election approaches
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened the heads of the defense establishment for an urgent meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday. A few hours earlier, at the end of another electioneering tour to which he had dragged unwilling senior army officers, the...
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Hostage survivors speak out
Hostage survivor Yocheved Lifshitz at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, Monday. “I’m speaking out, even when it’s hard, to ask the entire public to send home the one who headed the country on this horrific day, the one who recevied all the warnings and chose...
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J’lem Palestinian shops closed to make room for Jews to pray
for Muslim visitors and worshippers at the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound. “During previous holidays, they asked us not to open until 10 A.M. on the first and last days of the holiday,” one shopkeeper said. “From now on, they’ll tell us to close every...
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What Sami Abu Shehadeh can teach Israel
It’s hard to choose a single killer argument against banning Sami Abu Shehadeh from running for the Knesset. There are simply too many. Abu Shehadeh is the leader of Balad, a party representing largely Palestinian citizens of Israel running with two...
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Elections panel votes to bar all Arab parties, 2 Knesset candidates
The Central Elections Committee voted Wednesday to bar two candidates from running in the October election, along with all the Arab parties, prompting appeals to the Supreme Court, and exposing divisions within the opposition over efforts to disqualify...
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Palestinian American residents of W. Bank town ask: Where’s Trump?
Samir Juma’a Hazmeh’s four-story house in Turmus Ayya overlooks the fields that surround the town. From his balcony, we can see some of the town’s 18,000 dunams of land (roughly 4,500 acres). The land is lush, perfect for growing olives, figs and...
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Israeli, father of six, killed in West Bank shooting; Palestinian suspect arrested
An Israeli man in his 30s was killed in a shooting attack at a spring near the West Bank settlement of Neve Tzuf on Sunday, police said. The victim was identified as Netanel Shakron, 36, from Alei Zahav, who was visiting the springs with his son....
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Atonement remains burning issue almost three years after October 7
The approaching election and the preparations for the third anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack have reignited the media and public discourse on the massacre and the failures that made it possible. This is a fundamental, moral discussion about...
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Gaza building collapse kills 20; IDF kills top Hamas commander
A building housing half a dozen displaced families collapsed in Gaza City overnight into Wednesday, killing 20 people as they slept and leaving rescuers digging through rubble for dozens more. The sudden collapse of the building, which was known to be...
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Top Israeli advisers had planned to lead a boycott of Qatar after Oct. 7
It was the sixth day of the war sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel and, at a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pledged that the Biden administration stood with...
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IDF denies ‘NAZA’ claim it OK’d death of 500 Gazans; Zamir mulls legal response
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir instructed the army’s top legal adviser on Monday to examine possible legal action against the filmmakers behind the Israeli-directed documentary “NAZA,” despite not having seen the film in...
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Trump lets Saudis fend alone as Houthis disrupt Red Sea oil flow
Two phone calls from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday offered a glimpse of the strategic shift taking shape across the Middle East. According to the Axios news website, Crown Prince Mohammed sought...
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Prison guards’ texts expose routine abuse of Palestinian inmates
Only the spilled blood bore witness to what happened in Cell 6 of Wing 24 at Ketziot Prison in November 2023. Those involved that night maintained the prison’s usual code of silence. But WhatsApp messages the guards exchanged as events unfolded, later...
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Likud, Shas unveil slates ahead of elections
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party submitted its Knesset election slate Tuesday ahead of the 10 P.M. deadline to submit slates for the Oct. 27 election. The list submission marked the deadline for lastminute...
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IGNORED WARNINGS:
Netanyahu was told explicitly about Sinwar’s intentions a week and a half before October 7 – but didn’t inform the defense establishment.
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Tropper joins Yashar; Hendel joins Zelekha
As the 9 P.M. Tuesday deadline for submitting party lists looms, struggling candidates are shaking up alliances or, in some cases, dropping out of the race. Chili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel announced the end Sunday of their Zionist Home-Reservists party....
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Ben-Gvir reserves Otzma Yehudit’s No. 2 spot for Tally Gotliv
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Friday that lawmaker Tally Gotliv will be No. 2 on his Otzma Yehudit party’s candidate slate. The announcement came after Likud cleared her to leave the party without being declared a defector, allowing...
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A week before deadline, Together officials call for Eisenkot merger
With former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett failing to establish himself as the leader of the anti-Netanyahu bloc as Together trails in the polls, party officials are increasingly calling for a merger with Yashar, Gadi Eisenkot’s party. The coming week...
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Hamas official’s arrest may be valuable, but goal remains elusive
Haaretz published an extensive investigative report last week about Palestinian militias operating in the Gaza Strip in service of Israel. Soldiers told Haaretz that they followed militias on missions that involved war crimes. On Tuesday, another...
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Segalovich, ex-Yesh Atid MK and senior police officer, joins United Arab List slate
Former MK Yoav Segalovich announced Monday that he is joining the United Arab List party, insisting that political partnership between Jews and Arabs remains possible despite the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The announcement came after the party, led...
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What European, U.S. leftists could learn from Germany
The streets of Berlin are covered these days with campaign posters, as are the walls and roadsides of the two East German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The scene has been set for the three state elections slated to take...
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State moves to end widespread abuse of disabled parking permits
Israel is getting ready to overhaul the way disabled parking permits are issued, after their numbers surged to cover roughly one in six cars in the country. “It has become very chaotic over the past few years,” says Yuval Wagner, founder and chairman...
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The Israeli group opening a medical clinic in southern Gaza
The Israeli humanitarian organization Natan Worldwide Disaster Relief will open a clinic next week in a displacement camp in the al-Qarara area of Muwasi, in the southern Gaza Strip. The clinic, which will be established at a cost of $200,000, will...
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Succot’s destructive sledgehammer has the full force of the Israeli military behind it
Religious Zionism MK Tzvi Succot’s childish campaign stunt, in which he entered a Palestinian village with a military escort and destroyed a memorial, allowed the government and the army to publicly distance themselves from the lawless Knesset member’s...
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Can Kibbutz Nir Oz rebuild without families with children?
On an especially hot day last week, grass was planted around Gadi Mozes’ new home in Nir Oz, a Gazaborder kibbutz where about a third of its residents were killed or abducted on October 7. At first, the grass seemed to be drying out, but a few days...
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Eisenkot vows no Palestinian state if he’s elected, after UAL head Abbas calls for one
Gadi Eisenkot, a leading opposition candidate, pledged that no Palestinian state would be established if his party wins October’s Knesset election, after United Arab List chairman Mansour Abbas called Saturday for an end to Israel’s occupation of the...
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Israel insists it warned Syria before strikes
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel warned Syria before bombing the Abu alDuhur air base over intelligence reports about Turkey’s “intention” to carry out activities that would “endanger Israel’s security.” According to Katz, after Syria failed...
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Israel doesn’t want the world to see the besieged Palestinians of Qusra
It isn’t easy to visit the families of Qusra, in the northern West Bank, whose homes have been besieged by settlers since last week. Instead of chasing away the settlers, the IDF extracted up to 20 Palestinian families, then let some back, but not all....
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Negev town foreshadows what another Bibi win might look like
Standing outside the sandcolored brick home in Arad where he grew up, Yochay Shochat points to the small, one-story building down the road and across the street. “That was the day care center where my two little sisters went,” he recalls...
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U.S. envoys, Mideast mediators, Hamas officials meet to save Gaza cease-fire plan
Chairman of Hamas’ political bureau, Khalil alHayya, arrived in Cairo on Sunday as part of a delegation of the organization’s senior officials in an attempt to save U.S. President Donald Trump’s cease-fire plan. It was his first visit to Egypt since...
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Discovering the story of an extinct cicada cousin nicknamed ‘Noo-noo’
About 99 million years ago, a planthopper died on a tree in what is today Myanmar. This insect was a member of the suborder of Neazoniidae, now extinct, and its body was preserved forever more by becoming trapped in resin, which would fossilize over...
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IDF leaves settlers in Palestinians’ yard after failing to clear outpost
Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir ordered the army to deploy more soldiers around the West Bank village of Qusra, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Wednesday, after soldiers seemingly tried and failed to evacuate settlers who had besieged a Palestinian...
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How ancient Rome invented the architecture of alienation
For our ancestors, separation from the tribe often carried fatal consequences. A lone individual faced constant threats from predators, starvation and exposure to the elements. Through natural selection, loneliness evolved as a vital internal alarm, a...
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Settlers attack Haaretz crew, block them from reaching Palestinian home in W. Bank
Israeli settlers blocked Haaretz journalists from reaching a Palestinian home in the West Bank village of Qusra on Sunday night, attacking a reporter and photographer as they tried to get to the isolated property. Soldiers at the scene refused to...
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PM: Israel rejects U.S. Gaza plan, IDF won’t withdraw until Hamas disarms
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed on Sunday the 15-point road map for Gaza unveiled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, saying the Israel Defense Forces will not withdraw from the enclave until Hamas is disarmed. “I wish to be...
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Iran says Hormuz deal with Oman is ‘very close’ – but isn’t enough to reopen the strait
Iran said Saturday that a deal with Oman on control of the Strait of Hormuz is close but would not be enough to free up the waterway, and the United Arab Emirates said Iran hit another ship there. Agreement between Iran and Oman over the strait is...
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Lessons for Democrats as El-Sayed prevails
MICHIGAN — Abdul ElSayed, the insurgent who combined a progressive economic agenda with opposition to AIPAC and Israel’s war in Gaza, narrowly won the Michigan Democratic Senate primary, defeating AIPAC-backed Congresswoman Haley Stevens in the most...
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IDF took 600 sq. km of Lebanon, razed villages and built new bases
The Israel Defense Forces is entrenching itself deep in south Lebanon, according to information obtained by Haaretz, tours on the ground and recent satellite images. During the war, the IDF captured an area of about 600 square kilometers (230 square...
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Documents reveal how Elbit armed the UAE following Houthi attacks
On January 17, 2022, the Houthis in Yemen launched an attack on the United Arab Emirates. The attack included a barrage of ballistic missiles and drones, some of which struck oil facilities and Abu Dhabi International Airport. Three people were killed....
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Israel seeks right to strike across all Gaza
Israel is demanding a prospective U.S.-backed deal on the Gaza Strip allow it to strike targets in areas set to be handed over to a temporary international stabilization force, a source familiar with the matter told Haaretz. This comes as at least 15...
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In Dearborn, beating AIPAC may be real prize in Mich. Dem primary
DEARBORN, Michigan – Between handshakes at the Dearborn Democratic Club’s annual summer picnic, Layla Elabed argued that the politics of her hometown no longer belong to Dearborn alone. Two years after helping lead Michigan’s Uncommitted movement over...
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As Netanyhau visits Trump, official says ‘list of Iran options’ were discussed
WASHINGTON – A senior Israeli official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump shared a “genuine consultation” on the list of options at their disposal concerning Iran, rejecting any claims that the meeting was...
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Netanyahu meets with Trump in closed-door White House meeting
WASHINGTON – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. President Donald Trump behind closed doors at the White House on Tuesday morning. The meeting – the eighth between the leaders since Trump returned to office last year – was closed to the...
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Medical groups say IDF lockdown of Nablus is blocking access to emergency healthcare
Palestinian medical organizations and Physicians for Human Rights warned on Sunday that blockades imposed on the West Bank city of Nablus by the Israeli military are significantly restricting residents’ access to healthcare and emergency medical...
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Will this Netanyahu stronghold near Gaza go further right?
Throughout the day, a steady procession of buses pulls up at the former site of the Sderot police station, dropping off visitors. They include a delegation of police cadets, a group of ultra-Orthodox schoolteachers, a busload of Birthright participants...
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Gov’t sees opportunity in W. Bank violence
As the security establishment remains on high alert over the possibility of a U.S. – and perhaps Israeli – strike on Iran, another long-simmering front has already erupted: the West Bank. Four Palestinians and two Israelis were killed Friday morning...
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Border Police block Haaretz journalists from Palestinian home under settler seige
A Border Police force prevented two Haaretz journalists on Wednesday from reaching the home of a Palestinian family south of Nablus that has been under siege by Israeli settlers for more than two weeks. The force, accompanied by several IDF soldiers,...
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