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August 25, 2026

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Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (C) watches as US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack prepares to sign an agreement in Damascus on September 16, 2025. Shaibani announced on September 16 a plan backed by Jordan and the United States to restore calm to Druze-majority Sweida province, which witnessed deadly violence in July. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP) (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)

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Israel recalibrates Syria policy, explores path to security deal

Israel is rethinking its hard-line Syria policy and seeking to repair ties with US envoy and Donald Trump's confidant Tom Barrack amid a push for a security agreement with Damascus.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Palestinian militant group Hamas police officers stand guard as people attend the opening of the Fatah party's eighth general conference at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City on May 14, 2026.

Ex-defense minister: Israel in ‘worst possible’ Gaza situation as Hamas gains strength

Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant criticized the Israeli government for allowing Hamas to retain control over half of the Gaza Strip.

A merchant ship "Jabotinsky" (former "Altalena"), chartered by Jewish military group Irgun Zvaei Leumi to carry weapons for Israeli fighters, burns near Tel Aviv beach, after being shelled by the Haganah, Israel, June 27, 1948.

Wreck of ship sunk by Israeli military in Irgun clash found after 78 years

The wreck of the Irgun underground's Altalena ship, bombed by the Israeli military in 1948 and deliberately sunk in 1949, was located off Israel's coast at a depth of 1,650 feet.

Latest News

Israel tightens election safeguards as public distrust surges: What to know

ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Why Turkey sees Israeli strikes in Syria as warning over its military role, Mecca Pact

A Turkish soldier from the 1st Border Regiment Command looks out over the border wall to Syria during alert drills at a military outpost on the Turkey/Syria border on March 2, 2017 in Kilis, Turkey.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Analysis

Turkey bets on US deconfliction as Israel widens Syria red lines

Turkey/Syria border

Ezgi Akin

Rina Bassist

By Ezgi Akin , Rina Bassist

Analysis

Israel fears Turkey’s Syria ambitions and doubts Trump will stop them

ANKARA, TURKEY - JULY 7: U.S. President Donald Trump (L)shakes hands with with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) during a formal arrival at the Bestepe Presidential Palace during the NATO summit on July 7, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. Leaders from NATO's 32 countries, plus NATO allies like Ukraine, gathered in the Turkish capital to discuss a range of issues involving spending targets, defense industrial production, and support for Ukraine, among other topics. (Photo by Emrah Gurel - Pool/Getty Images)

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Samuel Wendel

Senior Analyst, Middle East Business & Tech

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Jack Dutton

Chief Business Correspondent

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

Ben Caspit

Israel Columnist

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Francesco Schiavi

In Bologna, reporting on security, defense, economy, governance

Rina Bassist

Associate Editor (Israel)

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

Bennett, Lapid shift stance on Gaza

Despite his past support for attacking Hamas, the meeting between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's plan to rehabilitate Gaza signal a very different policy.

Naftali Bennett

Israel's Bennett has lost his voter base

National-religious activists and settlers are abandoning Prime Minister Naftali Bennett because of his partnering with centrist and left-wing parties.

JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Arab-Israeli soccer player booed by Jewish soccer fans

Despite the goals he scored against Faroe Islands and Austria, Israeli-Jewish soccer fans booed Israeli-Arab player Moanes Dabbur.

Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid (L) inspects the damage inside a house following a rocket attack by militants from the Gaza Strip on the southern town of Sderot, Israel, July 21, 2014.

Lapid unveils Israeli economic plan for Gaza

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid presented an outline for improving the lives of Gazans, offering them economic rehabilitation steps in exchange for Hamas halting its military build-up.

An ambulance arrives at the scene of an attempted stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City, on Sept. 10, 2021.

Palestinian shot dead after attempted stabbing in Jerusalem's Old City

Israeli police said the man tried to stab police officers stationed outside Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Arab Israeli protesters lift Palestinian flags and spoons, reportedly the digging tool used by six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from Israel's Gilboa prison, as they demonstrate in the mostly Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, on Sept. 10, 2021, to denounce punitive measures taken by the Israel Prison Service against Palestinian prisoners following the jailbreak.

Jailbreak unites Palestinians, confounds Israelis

And: required reading to understand the last two decades in the Middle East: the 'Axis of Evil' speech

Orthodox pilgrims at airport

Israeli prime minister cracks down after pilgrims falsify test results

New rules will be enforced after some Israelis with COVID-19 returned to the country from Ukraine using forged negative test results.

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

In Moscow, Israel’s Lapid warns against Iran nuke, presence in Syria

It was evident in the meeting in Moscow between Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that the two countries do not see eye to eye on the Iranian nuclear agreement and Syria.

Israeli security forces patrol along the security fence in the village of Muqeibila near the West Bank town of Jenin on Sept. 6, 2021, following the escape of six Palestinians from an Israeli prison.

Palestinian prison break embarrasses Israeli government

The last thing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett needed right now was a spectacular escape of six Palestinian prisoners from a high-security jail.

Pnina Tamano Shata, the first Israeli Jewish woman of Ethiopian origin to be elected to the Knesset, talks to AFP journalists during an interview, Hadera, Israel, Feb. 4, 2020.

Israeli female ministers introduce reforms, shake up agenda

With nine female ministers, the government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett includes the highest number ever of women in an Israeli Cabinet.

Israeli-made Spike missiles, which are capable of striking North Korea's underground facilities with satellite-guidance system, are on parade during a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the founding of South Korea's Armed Forces at an air base in Seongnam, south of Seoul, on Oct. 1, 2013.

Why Serbia wants to buy SPIKE missiles from Israel

While prospects for actual conflict use are slim, Belgrade hopes that by buying Israeli weapons it can alleviate some of the pressure it may face from Washington over Kosovo and ties with Russia and China.

Isaac Herzog, a veteran of Israel's left-wing Labor party, delivers a speech after being sworn in before parliament as the Jewish state's 11th president, replacing Reuven Rivlin, in Jerusalem, on July 7, 2020.

Israel’s president takes lead on ties with Jordan, Palestinians

President Isaac Herzog has been busy these past few days on the Arab and Palestinian fronts, secretly visiting Jordan and speaking on the phone first with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and then with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.