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August 27, 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

Israeli-Iranian couple welcomed nowhere, fights for their love

Israeli Lital and Iranian Vinas are in love, but no country will take in both of them.

US enthusiasm seems to be fading on Netanyahu’s annexation plan

According to a recent report, the Trump administration is now conditioning its support of the annexation plan on a broad agreement on the issue between Blue and White and Likud.

People gather near an island that was exposed due to low water level in the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel on August 30, 2018. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo credit should read AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel creates plan to develop, protect Sea of Galilee

The Galilee Sea development plan aims to regulate the local tourism industry and protect the region’s sensitive ecosystems.

An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, wearing a protective face mask, stands at a checkpoint erected to block entrance to the neighbourhoods of Romema and Kiryat Belz after authorities imposed a lockdown to combat the spread of the Coronavirus, in Jerusalem on July 12, 2020. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Ultra-Orthodox threaten unity government over coronavirus measures

Ultra-Orthodox Knesset members are threatening to leave the Netanyahu government over anti-coronavirus measures they feel disproportionately target their sector.

Palestinian shot and killed by Israeli military after alleged attack

Israeli and Palestinian officials disagree on the circumstances behind the death of a 29-year-old Palestinian in a West Bank village Thursday.

Hamas security forces stand guard during a visit of newly elected Hamas chief, Ismail Haniya, to protesters taking part in a sit-in in support of Palestinian hunger-striking prisoners held in Israeli jails, on May 8, 2017, in Gaza City. / AFP PHOTO / MAHMUD HAMS (Photo credit should read MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel said to offer Hamas prisoner swap

Palestinian sources claim that Israel has offered Hamas a limp proposal for a prisoner-exchange deal.

A woman visits a room in the undergrounds premises of the former Pussycat strip club, turned into a local NGOs community centre and small museum, in the coastal Mediterranean city of Tel Aviv on March 5, 2020. - The demise of Tel Aviv's strip clubs was accelerated in 2018, when Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed a law banning brothels. But the final straw came in April last year when the public prosecutor issued a directive to clamp down on lap dances, arguing they could in some cases be viewed as pro

Israel shifts blame for prostitution from sex workers to clients

After years of promotion and preparation, Israel's new law criminalizing the consumption of prostitution has finally entered into force.

Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi (R) and Ismail Haniya, Palestinian Hamas premier of Gaza, raise their hands upon the latter's arrival for a meeting in Tehran on February 10, 2012. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran offers unconditional support to Hamas, Islamic Jihad

Hamas is sparing no effort to restore its relations with Iran, which announced that it will provide all necessary support to the Palestinians facing the Israeli annexation plan of the West Bank.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - APRIL 19: A woman sits on a placard showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as she protests at a rally in Rabin Square on April 19, 2020 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Thousands of Israelis gather at an Anti-Corruption rally under coronavirus restrictions, decrying proposed unity government talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

Will COVID-19 crisis bury PM Netanyahu?

With an unprecedented economic crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic, it is not at all sure whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can regain public trust.

Intel: US lawmakers tussle over key condition on restoring Palestinian aid

Democrats and Republicans clashed today over a newly proposed restriction on Palestinian assistance in this year’s foreign aid spending bill — the latest chapter in the struggle to resume economic support for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 13: Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower, December 13, 2016 in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

What would President Kanye West's Middle East policy be?

Rapper Kanye West has yet to develop a foreign policy platform for his announced presidential candidacy, but his past lyrics, tweets and travels may reveal some of his views.

The images of two Israeli soldiers are projected on the sunglasses of a third one wearing a mask against the coronavirus Covid-19 during a protest by Palestinians against Israeli settlements on May 15, 2020 in al-Sawiya village, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank. (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP) (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli army hit hard by coronavirus

The second wave of the novel coronavirus is affecting the IDF, which has ordered 10,000 soldiers into quarantine.