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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

Israeli authorities demolish a Palestinian house in the southern West Bank village of Khirbet Jinba on September 2, 2020, since it was reportedly built in "Area C" without Israeli authorisation. - "Area C" is a stretch of land accounting for 60 percent of the West Bank over which Israel has control under the terms of the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s. It is extremely difficult for Palestinians to receive building permits from Israeli authorities for that area. (Photo b

Israel's home demolitions in West Bank spiked during pandemic: UN

From March to August, 389 Palestinian-owned structures were razed in the West Bank, the United Nations said.

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on February 21, 2020 shows
US President Donald Trump delivers remarks at a Keep America Great rally in Phoenix, Arizona, on February 19, 2020.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a ceremony in Jerusalem on January 23, 2020 commemorating the people of Leningrad during the Second World War Nazi siege on the city. - President Donald Trump on february 21, 2020 dismissed reported warnings by US intelligence that Russia is meddling in this year's

How a second Trump term could shift Russia’s stance on Syria

Bahrain, UAE peace deals compel Palestinian rethink on strategy.

United Arab Emirates

Netanyahu hails Bahrain-Israel normalization deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi thank US President Donald Trump and his team for their engagement in the region and the announcement of an agreement with Bahrain to normalize relations.

United Arab Emirates

US President Donald Trump is joined by (L-R) US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, US Vice President Mike Pence, Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner and US special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 11, 2020. - Trump announced Friday a "peace deal" between Israel and Bahrain, which becomes the second Arab country to settle with its former foe in the last few weeks. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by AN

Bahrain will establish ties with Israel, Trump says

Bahrain follows Kosovo and the United Arab Emirates in normalizing ties with Israel.

United Arab Emirates

Netanyahu gives up on private-plane ride to Washington

With criticism pouring in from all sides, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abandons his plan to travel to Washington on a private plane.

An image grab shows on November 20, 2019 a ball of fire during a reported Israeli air strike on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus. - The Israeli army confirmed that it carried out strikes against military sites in Damascus today, in response to rocket fire from Syria the previous day. "We just carried out wide-scale strikes of Iranian Quds Force & Syrian Armed Forces targets in Syria in response to the rockets fired at Israel by an Iranian force in Syria," the Israel Defense Forces tweeted. Syria

Israeli warplanes target Aleppo countryside, says Syria

The Syrian state press blamed Israel for a round of airstrikes targeting its military facilities in the eastern Aleppo countryside.

RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL - FEBRUARY 29: Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, greets supporters at Likud Party election rally on February 29, 2020 in Ramat Gan, Israel. In two days Israelis will head to the polls for the third time in less than a year. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

Could Netanyahu's attacks on law enforcement cost him his job?

For the first time since police began investigating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit held an internal consultation to consider whether the premier should be declared incapacitated and forced to step aside.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem on September 8, 2020. - Once a role model in the fight against Covid-19, Israel decided to partially lock down several cities to slow the fast-spreading contagion as the government faces harsh criticism over the crisis. The government's ministerial committee on coronavirus decided to impose "a nightly closure" on 40 cities and towns with the highest infection rates, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Coronavirus rages, but Netanyahu goes to Washington

The coronavirus pandemic sets new records in Israel, yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans on going to Washington for a four-day trip.

Tourists bath in the Hexagons pool, near the Had Nes settlement in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on April 26, 2019. - The Hexagons pool, also known as the Meshushim pool, is a natural pool fed by the Nature Reserve Meshushim River. (Photo by JALAA MAREY / AFP) (Photo by JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images)

Israelis campaign against army building roads in nature reserves

Israelis living in the north of Israel are currently campaigning against the Israel Defense Forces’ intention to pave roads near the border fence that will pass through nature reserves.

Israeli left-wing activists attend a protest against the killing of Iyad Hallak, a disabled Palestinian man shot dead by Israeli police, in Jerusalem on June 9, 2020. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Netanyahu apologizes three years after Shin Bet clears Arab-Israeli of terrorism

Arab-Israelis say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology for calling Yakub Abu al-Kiyan a terrorist is clearly politically motivated.

Arab Foreign Ministers take part in their 153rd annual session at the Arab League headquarters in the Egyptian capital Cairo, on March 4, 2020. (Photo by Mohamed el-Shahed / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP via Getty Images)

Arab League refuses to back Palestinians in rebuke of Israel-UAE deal

The pan-Arab body dropped a resolution that would have condemned the recent normalization deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

TOPSHOT - Members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group take part in a military parade during a condolences ceremony for the movement's former leader Ramadan Shalah in Gaza city, on June 8, 2020, two days after his death in neighbouring Lebanon. - The 62-year-old was buried in Syria on June 7, a day following his death after a long illness. (Photo by Mohammed ABED / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)

Gaza factions say Hamas cut them out of deal with Israel

Hamas’ abrupt announcement of a Qatari-brokered deal with Israel to contain the escalation in Gaza was met with doubts as some parties complained of being left out of the talks.