Category: Israel

Hamas has agreed to release Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage it is holding in Gaza, in a move meant to demonstrate that it is serious about ongoing negotiations over ending its war with Israel. Hamas also says it will release the bodies of four other hostages who were dual nationals. It did not […]

Six months ago, the notion of peace between Israel and Lebanon seemed remote, if not impossible. At that point, Hezbollah and Israel had been exchanging fire for nearly a year. The border region between the two countries was ravaged — with a rising death toll and masses of civilians evacuated. By September’s end, Israeli troops […]

For a year and a half, a photograph of the Bibas family wearing Batman pajamas served as a symbol of the global vigil for their return from captivity in Gaza. Batman was a passion for Ariel, who was 4 when he and his family were abducted from their home in southern Israeli on Oct. 7, […]

Our teens have managed to corner the babysitting market at our local synagogue. So when the WhatsApp message first arrived a week and a half ago from one of the other dads, it seemed pretty routine. “Can one of your kids babysit Saturday night? We’re going to see an Oscar nominated documentary that’s only in […]

The World Zionist Congress election, which runs from March 10 to May 4, determines how $5 billion will be spent in Israel — and is seen as a referendum on the future of the country. Jews in the United States can choose among 21 lists of candidates, or slates, each with a specific agenda and […]

Israel has released the video for “New Day Will Rise,” its entry to the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest that focuses on the theme of emerging from darkness. In the video, Yuval Raphael, selected as the country’s representative for the annual contest, sings in a field of red anemones, Israel’s national flower, after connecting with a […]

If I found myself sitting across the table from one of the top leaders of Hamas, I don’t know if I would have been able to control my emotions and not try to kill him. On Oct. 7, when I drove from Tel Aviv to the Gaza border area in order to save my family […]

At the beginning of the year, there were 98 Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza, all but four taken when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. A ceasefire deal that included an exchange of hostages and prisoners resulted in the release of 38 — 33 who were agreed upon under the terms of the deal, […]

A 17-year-old Israeli girl who was critically injured in a terror attack last week has died of her wounds. Yahli Gur was one of more than a dozen people wounded when an attacker rammed his vehicle into a bus stop roughly midway between Tel Aviv and the northern port city of Haifa. She was hospitalized, […]