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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

Palestinian car-ramming suspect shot dead as tensions over West Bank rise

The Israeli army says the Palestinian teenager deliberately hit a soldier with his car in a settlement near Hebron.

Secret operation brings Israelis stranded in Morocco back home

In a complicated operation, Israelis stuck in Morocco because of the coronavirus were finally brought home.

United Arab Emirates

Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett looks at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to an Israeli army base in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, November 24, 2019. Atef Safadi/Pool via REUTERS - RC2UHD9FXFTH

Israeli unity government sidelines pro-settler party

Israel's impending unity government leaves out pro-settler Yamina, which accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of using it before pushing it out of the new coalition.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Israeli Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz in Jerusalem May 13, 2020. Sebastian Scheiner/Pool via REUTERS - RC2ONG9Y03BM

Pompeo forges ties with Ashkenazi as Israeli government diversifies

The US administration knows that the new government in Israel means that the days of working only with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are over.

The International Criminal Court building is seen in The Hague, Netherlands, January 16, 2019. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw - RC14D4234680

Intel: 331 lawmakers take International Criminal Court to task over Israel investigation

Hundreds of US lawmakers have signed onto two letters to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to continue his “vigorous support of Israel as it faces the growing possibility of investigations and prosecutions by the International Criminal Court” over potential war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah chief says Israel fighting 'imaginary battle' in Syria

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-aligned Lebanese Hezbollah, accuses Israel of targeting missile-manufacturing sites in Syria.

An employee tends to medical cannabis plants at Pharmocann, an Israeli medical cannabis company in northern Israel January 24, 2019. Picture taken January 24, 2019. REUTERS/Amir Cohen - RC116A4F32D0

Israel gives final go-ahead for cannabis exports

Israeli Economy Minister Eli Cohen gives his final approval for the export of medical cannabis.

(FILES) A picture taken on August 30, 2010 shows a contractor speaking to an employee as they look at the plan of a newly built theater in the West Bank Israeli settlement of Ariel. The controversial cultural centre will formally open on November 8, 2010 in the Ariel Jewish settlement as Israeli artists and academics urge a boycott in a row which has split Israel. AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel’s top court cancels bonus plan for artists performing in settlements

The High Court rules in favor of a petition that sought to end a policy of giving government bonuses to artists who performed in West bank settlements.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - MAY 15: (ISRAEL OUT) Ultra-Orthodox Jews celebrate the festival of Lag b'Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer, May 15, 2006 in their religious neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, Israel. Lag b'Omer, the one day of celebration that breaks a 50-day semi-mourning period of the Omer between the festivals of Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot, is marked by singing and dancing around joyous bonfires. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

300 Israelis arrested for defying coronavirus ban on Jewish holiday

Hundreds of people in Israel's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods ignored a ban on large gatherings to celebrate a minor Jewish holiday known as Lag B’Omer.

HEBRON, WEST BANK - MAY 13: Palestinians carry the coffin of 15 years old Palestinian Zaid Fadl Qaisia, who was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier in a raid to Al-Fawar refugee camp, during his funeral ceremony in Hebron, West Bank on May 13, 2020. (Photo by Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Israeli soldier kills Palestinian teen in West Bank clash

Teenager Zaid Qaysia was killed during clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian residents of the Al-Fawar refugee camp Wednesday morning.

---ISRAEL OUT---
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with United States secretary of state, Mike Pompeo in Jerusalem. Wednesday, May 13, 2020.
Photo by Kobi Gideon / GPO

Netanyahu leaves annexation on back burner in talks with Pompeo

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made no mention of annexation in his press conference with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, focusing instead on the pandemic, the US peace plan and Iran.

Palestinians look out a window of a building damaged by an Israeli air strikes in the past during a rally marking the 46th anniversary of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in Gaza City December 7, 2013. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST ANNIVERSARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - GM1E9C71LLS01

How a jailhouse letter to Abbas could fast forward Palestinian unity talks

It remains unclear whether tentative steps will lead to a genuine unification of the fractured Palestinian national movement.