Haaretz english edition
Amid war, Al-Aqsa remains closed to worshippers as Ramadan ends
As the final week of Ramadan unfolds, the plaza of Al-Aqsa Mosque – usually filled with tens of thousands of worshipers during the last nights of the holy month – remain closed. For Muslims, the final days of Ramadan are among the most spiritually...
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Iran holds on, Israel may widen Lebanon campaign
The United States escalated its airstrikes on Iran over the weekend, threatening to hit oil infrastructure on Kharg Island, through which most of Iran’s oil exports pass. (Initial strikes focused on military sites on the island). Israel, which is...
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Hezbollah, Iran bombard northern Israel
Sirens sounded nonstop in Haifa and across northern Israel on Wednesday after Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets from Lebanon and Iran fired several ballistic missiles at the area, in Hezbollah’s largest barrage targeting Israel since the Israel-U.S....
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Israel reportedly preparing for end of Iran war within weeks
Israel has been preparing for the chance that the joint U.S. war against Iran could end within weeks, a source told Haaretz as the war nears its two-week mark. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had not been surprised by U.S. President Donald...
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Mayor of Arab city wounded in suspected criminal shooting
The mayor of the Arab city of Arraba in northern Israel was shot and moderately wounded Sunday evening, police and medical officials said, in an attack authorities believe is linked to criminal activity regarding municipal tenders. Mayor Ahmed Nassar...
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IDF chief: war could ‘take long time’; Iranian cluster bomb wounds five
Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir announced Sunday that the current military campaign “will take considerable time,” and urged the Israeli public to be patient, as five people were wounded in central Israel following missile barrages from Iran, among them...
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IDF officials: Israel bracing for weeks of war
The United States and Israel’s war with Iran is expected to last for at least several more weeks and Iran may ramp up its strikes on Israel, defense officials told Haaretz. Both countries continued their strikes against Iran over the weekend, with...
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Iran, Hezbollah both fire on Israel; IDF orders S. Lebanon to evacuate
Iran and Hezbollah fired on Israel around the same time on Wednesday, the fifth day of the war Israel and the United States launched against Iran, activating sirens around the country. This is the first time that both have fired at Israel...
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Hezbollah fires at Israel in first since 2024; IDF debates ground op
Rocket sirens were activated on Tuesday in the Tel Aviv area following fire from Lebanon, for the first time since 2024. The Israel Defense Forces announced that one of the missiles fell in an open area, causing no injuries. The Israel Defense Forces...
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Hezbollah fires on Israel, joining regional war
At the end of the third day of the war against Iran, it appears that there is still a long way before its objectives are met. The U.S. and Israel chalked up significant gains in the opening salvo, but this has so far not been translated into a rapid...
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9 killed by missile in Beit Shemesh; Khamenei, other top Iranian officials confirmed dead
Nine people were killed on Sunday after an Iranian missile hit a public bomb shelter at a synagogue in Beit Shemesh. The commander of Israel Police’s Jerusalem District said that some of the victims were apparently inside the bomb shelter when they...
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U.S. and Israel strike Iran, Khameini reportedly killed; Iran’s missiles target Israel and Gulf
Iran’s most influential leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed, two Israeli officials said after the United States and Israel launched strikes across Iran on Saturday. The strikes, which killed over 200 people, including several Iranian officials,...
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India’s Modi endorses Trump’s Gaza plan in Knesset address
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi endorsed the United States’ plan for the Gaza Strip in a speech in the Knesset on Wednesday, an event that, for unrelated reasons, had become a flash point between Israel’s coalition and opposition. Modi, who became...
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The multibillion-dollar arms deals driving India’s Modi’s visit to Israel
In July 2017, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first visit to Israel, he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed agreements worth $13 million in satellite development, agriculture and water, along with the creation of a $40...
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U.S. orders partial evacuation of Beirut embassy staff as tensions rise over Iran
The United States Department of State ordered nonessential government personnel and their family members to leave Beirut on Monday, as tensions over Iran rise with the threat of a potentially imminent military strike. Earlier Monday, a senior official...
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Liberate the Western Wall
In response to this surprise move by Netanyahu, the far-right parliamentarian behind the legislation said he planned to bring the bill up for an initial vote in the full Knesset on Wednesday. The Shas, United Torah Judaism and Otzma Yehudit parties...
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Top court orders gov’t to renovate Western Wall egalitarian plaza
Israel’s High Court of Justice ordered the government Thursday to proceed without further delay with its plan to refurbish the Western Wall space designated for egalitarian prayer. An expanded panel of seven justices presided over by President Issac...
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Ex-soldier died in administrative detention, said he feared for his life
A demobilized soldier from the Bedouin city of Rahat who was put under administrative detention nine months ago on suspicion of being a member of the Islamic State died in Gilboa Prison in January. The state is refusing to release his body to his...
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Likud-linked jurists vie for election panel job
Lawyers with links to the Likud party are vying for the job of legal adviser to the Central Elections Commission, even though the Knesset Elections Law and rules for job candidates bar people with personal or business links to any political...
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Three Israelis, including father and son, killed in 24 hours; murder rate climbs to 52
A father and son were shot to death inside a car on Monday in an Arab town in northern Israel, while a third person was fatally shot in a suspected revenge killing hours later, raising Israel’s total homicides this year to 52, including 47 from the...
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Is Israel-Palestine conflict testing very idea of global human rights?
These days, it can feel as if just a shrinking cluster of people in the world still believe in universal human rights, or in the institutions established to implement them. Last week, yet another controversy hit the community as two Israeli and...
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Officials: U.S. readies for Iran strikes
The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, two U.S. officials told Reuters, in what could become a far more serious conflict than previously seen...
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Trump, with PM in D.C., says he insisted talks with Iran continue
U.S. President Donald Trump said “nothing definitive” was reached after a three-hour meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that he “insisted that negotiations with Iran continue.” According to the president’s post on Truth Social, if...
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Elbit wins $100m deals to develop next-gen Digital Ground Army
Elbit Systems, led by Bezhalel Machlis, has won contracts totaling $100 million from the Defense Ministry to develop the next generation of a so-called Digital Ground Army. As part of the contracts granted by the ministry’s Directorate of Defense...
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‘Herzog out!’: Protests erupt across Australia over president’s visit
MELBOURNE – Thousands of protesters gathered on Monday to oppose Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia, with leftwing and pro-Palestinian groups planning additional demonstrations nationwide. Protesters chanted slogans denouncing Herzog...
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A 14-year-old bled to death for 45 minutes as soldiers stood nearby
A 14-year-old boy wounded by gunfire lies on his back in an alley in the alFar’a refugee camp in the northeastern West Bank. A large group of soldiers walks around him or stands nearby, sometimes less than a meter away. At times they glance at him, but...
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PM releases selective, redacted security records in bid to shift blame for Oct. 7
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday released excerpts from security cabinet meetings in a document that reiterates the claim that, although the defense establishment failed in its security assessments ahead of the October 7 attack, he had...
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Shin Bet chief’s brother, 11 others charged with smuggling millions in goods into Gaza
Israel’s State Prosecutor’s Office charged 12 people on Wednesday, including IDF reservists, with smuggling goods worth millions into Gaza in an affair that led to the arrest of Shin Bet security service chief David Zini’s brother, Bezalel Zini. The...
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Hard-right activists now harass anti-gov’t protesters in their homes
“Welcome to the new Kaplan – we’ll teach you what democracy is,” the demonstrator announced through a powerful sound system he operated last month on a quiet street in the heart of a residential neighborhood in Modi’in. He was referring to Tel Aviv’s...
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Knesset marks 77th anniversary without opposition, president or chief justice
The Knesset marked its 77th anniversary with an event that was boycotted by the opposition, after Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana did not invite Supreme Court President Isaac Amit to attend. Ohana’s decision to exclude Amit from the event comes amid a...
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Iran FM confident of nuke deal as Khamenei warns U.S. not to strike
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that he is confident the Islamic Republic can reach “achieve a deal” with the United States on Tehran’s nuclear program. Araghchi said that although Iran has “lost trust”...
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As killings mount, Arab leaders take protest to Tel Aviv
Thousands of people demonstrated at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square to protest police inaction as violence rages in the Arab community. The protest, a joint ArabJewish venture, was called by the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee and coordinated by a...
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‘Our lives can go on’: Ran Gvili laid to rest
Hundreds of Israelis attended the funeral on Wednesday of Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage whose body was returned from Gaza on Monday, 843 days after he was killed on October 7, 2023. At the funeral in Gvili’s hometown of Meitar in southern...
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For Gazans, this is just the beginning
The return of the body of Ran Gvili brings closure to Israel in the matter regarding the hostages. For the first time since 2014, there are no hostages or missing persons in the Gaza Strip, a landmark that carries political and symbolic...
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Body of last hostage Ran Gvili returned home
The military has found the remains of Ran Gvili, Israel’s last remaining hostage in Gaza, 843 days after he was killed on October 7. The Israel Defense Forces said that Gvili’s body was found and identified in a mass grave in a Gaza City cemetery,...
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IDF conducting ‘large-scale’ search for body of Ran Gvili in northern Gaza
Israel has begun conducting a “large-scale operation” to find the remains of Ran Gvili, the last hostage in Gaza, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Sunday. Following new intelligence on its location, the operation, which began over...
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Witkoff, Kushner and Mladenov in Israel to make sure Rafah opens, more aid arrives
Not everything went as planned for the Americans at Thursday’s signing ceremony of the Board of Peace in Davos, Switzerland. The large number of leaders from former Warsaw Pact countries generated jabs that the absence of Russian President Vladimir...
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Netanyahu to join Board of Peace; won’t attend Davos ceremony due to ICC warrant
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday that he will join U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. However, Netanyahu will not be attending the inauguration ceremony on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos after...
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Police used unapproved spyware for years to collect data illegally
The Israel Police have used intrusive technology for years, hacked into private devices without permission and extracted information from them unlawfully, according to a state comptroller report released on Tuesday. Among the report’s findings, the...
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Two infants dead, 53 others injured in Jerusalem daycare as police probe cause
Two infants died on Monday in a private, unlicensed daycare center in an ultraOrthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israeli emergency services reported. An additional 53 infants were evacuated to hospitals for examination, with many experiencing...
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Gov’t: High Court can’t rule on nature of Oct. 7 inquiry Settlers raid, torch tents in Bedouin village in West Bank
Israeli settlers raided a Bedouin community near the Palestinian village of Mukhmas in the central West Bank on Saturday, setting fire to vehicles and buildings. “There was arson, there are casualties and some are missing,” a local resident told...
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Court slams police over mishandling of BibiLeaks case
The judge presiding over the case involving leaked classified documents to a German newspaper slammed the police on Wednesday over its apparent failure to act on relevant information. Consequently, it may have enabled suspects to engage in obstruction...
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AG: Gov’t ignoring court ruling on Haredi military service is danger to democracy
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said on Monday that the government was seriously endangering Israeli democracy by violating a High Court ruling, in what her office had called a constitutional crisis. The attorney general submitted her position as...
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Set on regime change in Iran, Trump could curb Israel’s actions
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to predict how successful a public protest will be. There is no intelligence agency or algorithm that can foretell how a large group of civilians will act when on one hand there is an attempted coup from the...
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Three men shot dead in suspected conflict between crime gangs
Three men were shot dead on Wednesday morning in the northern city of ShefaAmr. Police suspect that they were murdered over a conflict between two local criminal organizations. One of the men, Yasser Hujirat, 53, is a resident of Democrats party...
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One killed, three wounded as bus runs over Haredi anti-enlistment protesters in J’lem
A protester was killed and three others were wounded after a bus ran over demonstrators at a mass demonstration against mandatory ultra-Orthodox enlistment, in Jerusalem on Tuesday. A health official said the protester killed was likely a teenager,...
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In Gaza, IDF drones infiltrate every moment of Palestinians’ lives
For more than two years, the sound of drones has been a constant in Gaza City – even when the streets are empty, and despite the cease-fire that went into effect in midOctober. For 24-year-old Mohammed Abdel Hai, the buzzing sound from above has...
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Ben-Gvir pledges support for police after Bedouin killed in raid in southern village
Israel Police officers fatally shot an Arab Israeli man during a raid overnight into Sunday in a Bedouin village in southern Israel, as residents challenged police assertions that he posed a threat to the officers. Police alleged that they shot...
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142 retired judges condemn Smotrich’s attacks, over 700 academics call for ouster
More than 700 faculty members at Israeli universities and colleges have signed a petition calling for the dismissal of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and his prosecution for incitement to violence, while 142 retired judges, including all...
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The year that was: A gruesome war and a volatile region reshaped in Trump’s shadow
On its way to the United States on Sunday, ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit with Donald Trump in Mara-Lago, the prime minister’s plane Wing of Zion took a longer-than-usual route to avoid the airspace of countries where he might face arrest. In...
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Trump, next to Netanyahu, on Iran: ‘We’ll knock the hell out of them’
U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of a meeting at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, said he hopes the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza will happen “quickly.” During a Q&A with the press pool preceding the...
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Netanyahu to meet with Trump in Mar-a-Lago to discuss Gaza and Iran
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet U.S. president Donald Trump Monday at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to discuss Gaza and Iran, amid Israeli concerns about Trump’s attitude towards Netanyahu. The U.S. president confirmed earlier this month...
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IDF imposes curfew on West Bank town after two killed in terror attack in the north
The police and the Shin Bet security service said Saturday that they arrested two brothers of the assailant who carried out a deadly ramming and stabbing attack in northern Israel on Friday that left two people dead. The two brothers, aged 30 and 33,...
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Knesset advances political Oct. 7 probe as bereaved parents protest
The Knesset on Wednesday approved, in a preliminary vote, a bill backed by the government to establish a commission of inquiry into the October 7 massacre that would be controlled by politicians. During the Knesset debate, bereaved parents watched...
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‘Clashes’ are a form of W. Bank annexation
What is brewing in the West Bank these days is not just another “spat of clashes,” nor some seasonal event having to do with the autumn olive harvest season, nor some local outburst of violence that can be contained or framed as a local problem. This...
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PM: Oct. 7 inquiry will probe Oslo Accords, pro-democracy protesters
The government-controlled probe into October 7 “will investigate decisions made from [the Oslo Accords] to the insubordination during the judicial reform period,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to sources familiar with the...
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Ben-Gvir proves his incompetence as homicide rate hits record high
Itamar Ben-Gvir entered the Ministry of National Security with great fanfare in late December 2022, with promises to “restore governance on the Arab street” and “show them who’s boss.” However, Ben-Gvir ended his first year in office with an all-time...
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A haunting Hanukkah candle-lighting as Down Under community remembers its dead
SYDNEY – It could have been a Hanukkah scene from anywhere across the Jewish world. A giant menorah towers above the thronging crowd. Sufganiyot, the traditional festival doughnuts, are handed out. Chabad rabbis hawk passersby to don tefillin....
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Albanese rejects PM linking Bondi attack to Palestinian state
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday that he rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s linking of Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state with Sunday’s Bondi Beach terrorist attack. “Overwhelmingly, most of the world...
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IDF exploits ‘free’ chance to strike Hamas but risks angering Trump
Raed Saad, whom Israel assassinated in Gaza on Saturday afternoon, was one of the small group of senior Hamas officials who planned the October 7 massacre, and one of the last who was still alive. The Israel Air Force struck the car in which he was...
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Neonate deaths in Gaza rose in 3 months prior to cease-fire
During the last three months of the war, the number of babies dying on the day they were born in the Gaza Strip was 75 percent higher than the number of such deaths before the war, according to figures released Wednesday by UNICEF. According to the...
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Body of last foreign hostage returns home
Just before 10 A.M. on Tuesday, the farewell ceremony began for Sudthisak Rinthalak, a Thai national murdered on October 7 near Kibbutz Be’eri, whose body was taken to Gaza and returned to Israel last week. The Israel Defense Forces’ 8th Armored...
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MKs push bill decriminalizing leaks to PM
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s members discussed a bill on Monday which would decriminalize passing on classified security information to the prime or defense minister without authorization. The bill, sponsored by Likud MKs Hanoch...
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PM: Expect second phase of Gaza deal soon, it will be ‘more difficult’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the second phase of the agreement ending the war in Gaza would be implemented soon. “Phase one, we are almost there,” the prime minister said in a joint press conference with German Chancellor...
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Katz blocks IDF officer’s promotion over anti-gov’t protest activity
Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Friday that he was “rejecting outright” the IDF chief of staff’s recommendation to promote a senior officer over his alleged calls to refuse to serve in the military during the 2023 judicial overhaul...
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Trump’s Gaza plan shifts gears as Netanyahu haggles over details
Behind Wednesday’s dry announcement by Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories that the Rafah crossing would be open only for those leaving the Gaza Strip lies a dramatic development: U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace...
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Hamas returns body it says is one of last two hostages
Human remains from Gaza arrived Tuesday afternoon for identification at Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv. Earlier on Tuesday, Hamas said it was handing over the body of one of two remaining deceased hostages taken from...
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Herzog says PM pardon plea ‘unsettles’ Israelis, vows fairness
President Isaac Herzog said Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a presidential pardon “deeply unsettles” many Israelis, but stressed he would weigh the matter solely by “the good of the state and Israeli society.” “I understand...
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Netanyahu submits pardon request to Herzog
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formally submitted a request for a pardon in his corruption trial to President Isaac Herzog, according to a statement from the president’s office. Netanyahu has been indicted on three criminal charges: bribery,...
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IDF chief Zamir: Leaders can admit failure
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said Wednesday that Israel needs “leadership that can acknowledge failure,” in remarks reflecting tensions with Defense Minister Israel Katz over senior IDF appointments and the army’s handling of the October 7...
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Hamas returns body of hostage; displaced Gazans face flooding
Israel received a body that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said belongs to one of the three remaining deceased hostages in Gaza on Tuesday. The groups transferred the coffin to the Red Cross on Tuesday afternoon. Ran Gvili, Dror Or and Thai...
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Zamir warns Katz’s appointment freeze could harm army readiness
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir criticized Defense Minister Israel Katz’s decision on Monday to freeze military appointments for 30 days, saying it could hurt the army. “Halting the appointments will harm the IDF’s capabilities and the process of...
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Trump lauds Mamdani despite NYC mayor-elect’s Israel criticism
WASHINGTON — New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, holding his hotly anticipated first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, reiterated his highly scrutinized position that U.S. taxpayer funds should not aid Israeli...
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‘Brought back from hell:’ After 11 years in Gaza, fallen soldier Hadar Goldin laid to rest
Lt. Hadar Goldin is being laid to rest in central Israel on Tuesday, two days after his body was returned to Israel after more than 11 years in captivity in the Gaza Strip. More than a thousand people gathered at the military cemetery in Kfar Sava for...
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IDF report on October 7 inquiries show systemic failures over many years
Five out of 25 inquiries conducted by the Israel Defense Forces into the failures of October 7 are unacceptable, found the committee established by Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to examine the inquiries. Maj. Gen. (res.) Sami Turgeman, who headed the...
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