Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

November 26, 2024 5:07 PM

Israel expected to approve ceasefire with Hezbollah, Israeli official says

Israel looks set to approve a U.S. plan for a ceasefire with Lebanon's Hezbollah on Tuesday, a senior Israeli official said, clearing the way for an end to the conflict that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war 14 months ago. That optimism was shared by Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib who expressed hope at a G7 meeting in Italy that a ceasefire would be reached by Tuesday night. Israel's security cabinet is expected to convene later on Tuesday to dis...

November 17, 2024 10:57 AM

Two flash bombs fired into garden of Netanyahu’s home in north Israel

Two flash bombs were fired towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in the northern Israeli town of Caesarea on Saturday and fell into the garden, police said. Neither Netanyahu nor his family were present and there was no damage reported, it added in a statement. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the incident crossed "all red lines" in a post on X early on Sunday. "It is not possible for the Prime Minister of Israel, who is threatened by Iran and its proxies who are t...

October 17, 2024 11:22 PM

Hamas leader Sinwar is dead, Israel says

Israeli ministers have been informed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has very likely been killed by Israeli troops who were conducting an operation in southern Gaza, two officials with knowledge of the situation said. Israeli broadcasters quoted unnamed officials as saying Sinwar, the architect of the devastating attack on Israel last October that set off the Gaza war, was dead. There was no immediate confirmation from the military, which earlier said it was checking the possibility that Sinwar...

October 3, 2024 7:56 PM

OPEC+ could cushion Iran oil shock but not broader disruption

OPEC has enough spare oil capacity to compensate for a full loss of Iranian supply if Israel knocks out that country's facilities but the producer group would struggle if Iran retaliates by hitting installations of its Gulf neighbours. Iran fired hundreds of missiles at Israel on Tuesday in response to Israeli airstrikes and attacks. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran made a big mistake and would pay for it, and Iran threatened a crushing response if Israel retaliated. Isra...

September 17, 2024 3:37 PM

Israel updates war goals with fate of defence minister unclear

Israel on Tuesday added the safe return of its citizens to their homes near the border with Lebanon to its formal war goals amid reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to replace his defence minister with a hawkish rival. Netanyahu's office said he laid out the war aim in an overnight security cabinet meeting. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced from towns and villages on both sides of the border by near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Lebanes...

September 17, 2024 11:28 AM

In a world-first, Mexico to elect its judges

Last week Mexico approved a sweeping judicial reform. It allowed election of judges at all levels – from the lower courts, right up, to the top court of the land. In one fell swoop, outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, helped in no small measure by his protege and President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, quite literally, upended the country’s judicial system. Now, it was all done Constitutionally. First, the lower chamber of the legislature voted 359 to 135 to pass the legislation. Nex...

July 31, 2024 5:02 PM

Tough-talking Haniyeh was seen as the more moderate face of Hamas

Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who was killed in Iran, was the tough-talking face of the Palestinian group's international diplomacy as war raged back in Gaza, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike. But despite the rhetoric, he was seen by many diplomats as a moderate compared to the more hardline members of the Iran-backed group inside Gaza. Appointed to the Hamas top job in 2017, Haniyeh moved between Turkey and Qatar's capital Doha, escaping the travel curbs of the b...

July 30, 2024 9:13 PM

Israeli forces quit east Khan Younis, Palestinians recover dozens of bodies

Thousands of Palestinians returned to their homes in the ruins of Gaza's main southern city Khan Younis on Tuesday, after Israeli forces ended a week-long incursion there which they said aimed to prevent Islamist armed group Hamas from regrouping. Palestinian rescue workers and civilians collected dead bodies from the streets of the abandoned battle zone, bringing corpses wrapped in rugs to morgues in cars and donkey carts. The Hamas-run Gaza media office said Israel's eight-day-long raid in e...

September 16, 2024 5:05 PM

Israeli officials say they seek to avoid all-out war in Lebanon retaliation

Israel wants to hurt Hezbollah but not drag the Middle East into all-out war, two Israeli officials said on Monday, as Lebanon braced for retaliation after a rocket strike that killed 12 children and teenagers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Two other Israeli officials said Israel was preparing for the possibility of a few days of fighting following Saturday's rocket strike at a sports field in a Druze town that it blamed on the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah. Hezbollah has den...

July 25, 2024 7:18 PM

Israeli forces advance in southern Gaza, tanks active in Rafah

Israeli forces advanced deeper into some towns on the eastern side of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Thursday, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. lawmakers he was actively engaged in bringing hostages home. Fighting in recent days has centred around the eastern towns of Bani Suaila, Al-Zanna, and Al-Karara, where the army said on Wednesday it had found the bodies of five Israelis who were killed in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel and held in Gaza since. Hamas milit...