Category: Israel

For Kfir Bibas’ first birthday last year, supporters around the world gathered to wish for his return to Israel from captivity in Gaza. On this coming Saturday, his second birthday, that wish may be close to coming true. Kfir, taken hostage with his brother and mother, was the youngest child abducted by Hamas on Oct. […]

This is a developing story.  Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal that will cease more than a year of fighting in Gaza and Israel, bring dozens of Israeli hostages home and release hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners. The agreement was confirmed by multiple parties to the negotiation on Wednesday. If it holds, it […]

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 […]