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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

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

<<enter caption here>> on September 11, 2018 in Uman, Ukraine.

Israeli ultra-Orthodox cry persecution over Ukraine's ban on pilgrimage

The ultra-Orthodox community has united behind a small, unpopular sect after Ukraine forbade this year's traditional pilgrimage.

Israeli protesters, wearing protective masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hold placards as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv on August 23, 2020, to denounce sexual violence against women following the alleged gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl in a Red Sea resort. - Police said 11 suspects, including nine minors and a woman said to be the manager of the hotel in which the alleged rape took place, had been arrested in connection with the affair so far as part of an "ongoing investigation". (Photo b

Rape of teen shocks Israelis, sends them to the streets

Women rights groups were joined by many Israeli firms in a protest over the gang rape of a 16-year-old in Eilat.

Controversy continues in Israel over US F-35 sale to UAE

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says flatly that he did not know about and did not agree to a deal for Americans to sell F-35 stealth jets to the United Arab Emirates.

United Arab Emirates

Despite UN decision, Israel keeps campaigning for Iran sanctions

For Israel, the Aug. 14 decision by the UN Security Council not to extend sanctions against Iran is definitely not the final word on the issue.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a joint statement to the press after meeting in Jerusalem, on August 24, 2020. - Pompeo arrived in Israel kicking off a five-day visit to the Middle East which will take him to Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, focusing on Israel's normalising of ties with the UAE and pushing other Arab states to follow suit. (Photo by DEBBIE HILL / various sources / AFP) (Photo by DEBBIE HILL/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump, Pompeo ride to Netanyahu’s rescue

The US-mediated normalization agreement with the United Arab Emirates and the visit of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shift public attention away from the multiple crises he faces.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bump elbows ahead of making a joint statement to the press after meeting in Jerusalem, on August 24, 2020. - Pompeo arrived in Israel kicking off a five-day visit to the Middle East which will take him to Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, focusing on Israel's normalising of ties with the UAE and pushing other Arab states to follow suit. (Photo by DEBBIE HILL / POOL / AFP) (Photo by DEBBIE HILL/POOL/AFP via Getty

Netanyahu, Pompeo celebrate UAE agreement, push for more new ties

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials have kicked off an Israeli diplomatic blitz over the country's normalization deal with the United Arab Emirates.

CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 27: Locals look at newspapers carrying reports and pictures of street protests on January 27, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. Thousands of police are on the streets of the capital and hundreds of arrests have been made in an attempt to quell anti-government demonstrations. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Egyptian news media warned not to criticize UAE-Israel deal

Cairo has reportedly instructed local media outlets not to publish content criticizing the recent UAE-Israel normalization deal in another blow to press freedom in the country.

A photo taken on June 24, 2019 shows raw sewage flowing near the main Gaza Strip power plant, serving the Hamas-run Palestinian territory, south of Gaza City. - Finance officials were flying into Bahrain today for a US-led peace conference that holds out billions of dollars for the Palestinians, whose leaders pronounced the idea dead on arrival. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP) (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel-Hamas escalation halts sewage treatment, generates ecological crisis

Gaza incendiary balloons made Israel stop fuel import into the Gaza Strip, causing in turn for Gaza sewage plants to cease operating.

Israeli Paramedics of Maguen David Adom (Israel's National Emergency Pre-Hospital Medical Organisation) at the coronavirus national operations center unload a containment chamber during a coronavirus response training exercise in the central Israeli city of Kiryat Ono on February 26, 2020. - Some 80,000 people are infected worldwide, including nearly 2,800 outside China, and more than 2,700 have died worldwide, according to the latest toll from the World Health Organization. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Phot

Coronavirus cases in Israel top 100,000

The surge in coronavirus cases come as confidence in Benjamin Netanyahu's government is declining.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - AUGUST 28: New Jewish immigrants walking down the airplane during a welcoming ceremony after arriving on a flight from Ethiopia, on August 28, 2013 at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel. Over 400 Ethiopian Jews arrived on the flight to Tel Aviv, the last of a series of monthly flights that were part of Operation Dove's Wings, an Israeli government initiative to bring to Israel the remainder of the Falash Mura, members of the Ethiopian Jewish community whose ancestors converted to C

Israeli-Ethiopian community divided on bringing 8,000 Falash Mura

Minister of Immigration and Absorption Pnina Tamano-Shata presented last week a plan to bring to Israel 8,000 Falash Mura from Ethiopia by the end of 2022.

People inspect the damages at a house that was hit by a rocket launched from Gaza to the southern Israeli city of Sderot, early morning on August 16, 2020. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP) (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel carries out multiple airstrikes after 12 rockets from Gaza

Escalation on Israel-Gaza border: Israel Defense Forces jets struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip three times, after 12 rockets and projectiles were launched during the night from Gaza.

Italian F35 fighter jets take part in the "Blue Flag" multinational air defence exercise at the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on November 11, 2019. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

UAE official says F-35 request 'legitimate,' not connected to Israel deal

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said an arms deal should be easier now that his country inked a deal to normalize ties with Israel.

United Arab Emirates