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August 26, 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

Israel's midfielder Dia Saba (R) shoots the ball past Guatemala's goalkeeper Paulo Motta as he scores during the FIFA friendly football match between Israel and Guatemala at Netanya Municipal Stadium in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya on November 15, 2018. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Arab-Israeli soccer star joins Emirati league

Following normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the Emirati Al-Nasr soccer club has recruited Arab-Israeli star Dia Saba, who will be the first Israeli to join a Gulf league.

United Arab Emirates

An Israeli policeman stands holding a demonstrator confronting him, all mask-clad due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, during a demonstration outside the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in Jerusalem on September 29, 2020, against a possible bill restricting protests amidst new pandemic regulations. - Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said on September 29 that there was "no way" the country's second nationwide coronavirus lockdown would be lifted after three weeks as originally planned. (Photo by Mena

Netanyahu’s government shaking over decision to ban demonstrations

The Knesset adopted this morning more restrictions on demonstrations during the coronavirus lockdown, but some Blue and White members could not bring themselves to vote with the government on that.

A picture taken on February 24, 2018 from Lebanon's southern border town of Naqura on the border with Israel, south of Beirut, shows the maritime boundaries between Lebanon and Israel.
The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has made efforts to prevent tension between Lebanon and Israel from escalating into a conflict, warning of continued escalation on the backdrop of oil exploration and construction of a barrier on the border. / AFP PHOTO / JOSEPH EID (Photo credit should read JOSEPH EID/AFP

US mediation pushes Israel, Lebanon on marking maritime border

Reports say that following US mediation, Israel and Lebanon are now ready to discuss the marking of their maritime borderline.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and boys, a few mask-clad due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, stand along a street corner in the Ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem a few hours before the start of Yom Kippur, the Jewish holy day of Atonement, on September 27, 2020. - Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, is one of the most important holidays of the Jewish year, during which Israelis observe a period of a 25-hour fasting, reflection and prayers and during which synagogues are f

Netanyahu won't crack down on ultra-Orthodox despite virus surge

Though the ultra-Orthodox community's disregard for pandemic measures has emerged as central to Israel's virus problem, Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu can't afford to endanger his political alliance with them.

Israeli earth movers remove concrete blocks along the side of a road lying in "Area C" of the occupied West Bank where Israeli administers full civil and security control, in the flashpoint city of Hebron on July 2, 2020. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP) (Photo by HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images)

West Bank village celebrates end of 20-year-old Israeli roadblock

The residents of Qalqas, south of Hebron, will finally see the main road to their town’s entrance reopened, blocked in 2000 by the Israeli authorities.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - SEPTEMBER 20: Protesters hold signs during a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 20, 2020 in Jerusalem, Israel. As the country grapples with a surge in Covid-19 cases it has imposed a three-week lockdown that coincides with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

As Israel enters lockdown, Netanyahu protesters vow to continue

As Israel enters a strict nationwide lockdown, activist groups say they will swap mass rallies with car convoys to express their anger at the government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This picture taken on November 17, 2019 shows the Liberia-flagged container ship RDO Concord sailing through Egypt's Suez Canal in the canal's central hub city of Ismailia on the 150th anniversary of the canal's inauguration. - One hundred and fifty years after the Suez Canal opened, the international waterway is hugely significant to the economy of modern-day Egypt, which nationalised it in 1956. The canal, dug in the 19th century using "rudimentary tools" and which links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea,

Will Suez Canal feel impact of UAE-Israel normalization?

The potential economic agreements between the United Arab Emirates and Israel may reduce traffic through Egypt’s Suez Canal.

United Arab Emirates

Israeli border policemen talk to a shopkeeper while on patrol in Jerusalem's main market during closure on September 25, 2020, as a series of measures to strengthen a second COVID-19 lockdown imposed last week takes effect. - The new measures, set to begin at 1100 GMT and affecting retails, workplaces, places of worship and demonstrations, were decided after Israel failed to bring down the world's highest coronavirus infection rate. (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP) (Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Im

Leadership failure traumatizes Israelis as virus surges

On the eve of the second lockdown, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is blaming everyone but himself for Israel's failure to cope with the pandemic.

Intel: Menendez opposes resolution to immunize Sudan from terror lawsuits

The Trump administration is looking to unilaterally take Sudan off the US terror sponsors' list amid a logjam over the issue in Congress, jeopardizing victims' compensation, in an apparent effort to get Sudan to recognize Israel ahead of the Nov. 3 US election.

Hamas, Fatah agree to hold Palestinian elections within six months

The deal comes after reconciliation talks in Turkey this week aimed at resolving the differences between the two main Palestinian factions.

An open letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

Yossi Beilin, who participated in the back-channel negotiations leading the 1993 Oslo Accord, pens an open letter to the Palestinian president calling on him to stay focused on making peace.

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz (R), Greece's Energy Minister Kostis Hatzidakis (2nd-R), Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Tarek el-Molla (2nd-L) and Cypriot Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis (L) attend the East Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF), in Cairo, on January 16, 2020. - Israel began pumping natural gas to Egypt for the first time yesterday under a $15 billion, 15-year deal to liquefy it and re-export it to Europe. It is the first time that Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab country to si

Normalization deals create warm environment for Egypt-Israel ties

Relations between Cairo and Jerusalem may be thawing in the wake of Israel's normalization agreements with two Gulf states.