Category: Israel

After the hostages return to Israel, peace takes hold in the Middle East. Army recruitment offices are shuttered; Israelis shelve the second passports that let them live abroad; and trains run uninterrupted from Egypt to Syria. Soon, Israeli and Iranian judokas embrace, and Israel advances in the World Cup. Ultimately, Taylor Swift takes the stage […]

If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that banking on a hostage deal is a bad idea.  But those odds seem to be changing.  Since November 2023, when Hamas released more than 100 of its captives during a weeklong ceasefire, a predictable cycle has taken hold: Israel and Hamas negotiate, with the United […]

Before Oct. 7, 2023, before the hostages, before the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond, Israel was being torn apart by a fight almost entirely within its own borders: the judicial overhaul.  Now, that debate is on its way back.  It feels like ancient history now, but just two years ago, Israelis were starting to […]

Relatives of the seven American hostages held in Gaza will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, representatives of the families announced. The announcement Wednesday comes as Trump and outgoing President Joe Biden are both working to close a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would free some of the nearly 100 hostages, dead and alive, […]

Israeli troops have retrieved the body of a Bedouin Muslim father of 19 who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. It was not immediately clear how and when Youssef Ziyadne died, but authorities said his body had been found in a Hamas tunnel in Rafah and that evidence indicated “grave concern” about […]

Donald Trump repeated his threat that “all hell will break out” if Hamas doesn’t release the hostages it is holding in Gaza as his Middle East envoy signaled optimism about a ceasefire deal that would see some of the captives go free. The president-elect and his chosen envoy, real estate magnate Steve Witkoff, made the […]

Israeli leaders are threatening to unleash a war on terror groups in the West Bank in the wake of a shooting attack that killed three Israelis in the territory on Monday. Defense Minister Israel Katz, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, used bellicose language when discussing Israel’s response to the attack, in which […]

Israeli soldiers who have posted on social media about their service in Gaza are increasingly facing scrutiny abroad — sometimes prompting their swift evacuation from countries where they are vacationing. In the latest instance, a soldier who was traveling in Brazil left the country abruptly this week after being warned by the Israeli government that […]

A list of hostages that could be released in a ceasefire deal circulated in international and Israeli media on Monday amid reports that ceasefire negotiations were once more gaining momentum. But the Israeli government is warning that the list does not reflect any agreement — or information about the status of the people on it. […]