Israel

Peace Summit for Gaza: Trump and Sissi to Co-chair in Sharm El-Sheikh, Without Netanyahu and Hamas

On Monday afternoon in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and U.S. President Donald Trump will preside over an international summit focused on implementing a ceasefire in Gaza. Among those also expected are UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Jordan's King Abdullah II, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French ...

Israel Releases Murderers to Rescue Its Hostages

This Monday, Israel finds itself caught between celebration and unease. The joy of hostages returning home is tempered by a bitter reality: to secure the release of citizens still held in Gaza, the Israeli government is freeing nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including several convicted of violent crimes. The deal, brokered under US President ...

Hamas Hands Over Surviving Israeli Hostages

Hamas handed over the 20 surviving Israeli hostages on Monday under a ceasefire agreement, as US President Donald Trump and other world leaders geared up for a summit on Gaza. In Tel Aviv, a huge crowd which gathered to support hostage families erupted in joy, tears and song as news broke of the first releases, though the pain for the loss of ...

Trump on His Way to Israel: “The War in Gaza Has Ended”

US President Donald Trump arrived Monday morning at Ben Gurion Airport for a short visit to Israel, the first stop on a Middle East tour described as a mission for peace. Welcomed by President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump is set to continue to Egypt, where an international summit in Sharm el-Sheikh will focus on ...

The Diplomatic Feat and Its Imponderables

President Trump has proven to be a tough dealmaker and a skillful negotiator who knows how to leverage whatever resources are at hand to promote and sustain peace processes against all odds. His diplomatic approach is based on the common sense of a businessman turned politician at the helm of an “imperial republic.” His hard-nosed realism ...

Sharm el-Sheikh Summit: Putting an End to the Charade

The cloth doesn’t make the cleric… The old saying fits neatly when it comes to Hamas and the latest turn in the war it launched on October 7, 2023, with its massive and deadly offensive against Israel from Gaza. Two years into a conflict that has plunged the Palestinian population into a nightmare, the Islamist movement has just endorsed, ...

Failure to Disarm Hezbollah Blocks Reconstruction Efforts

Israeli airstrikes targeting bulldozers and excavators in Msayleh, southern Lebanon, on Saturday were not an isolated incident. Similar attacks occurred earlier, on September 3, in the Ansariyeh region. Heavy machinery, including excavators and bulldozers, has been repeatedly struck in several towns and villages along—and even beyond—the ...

Negotiation: The Art of Compromise

This week, negotiation took center stage. After nearly two years of war in Gaza, Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages — a breakthrough brokered in Egypt with the support of the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey. The deal marks the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace ...

Israel Vows to Destroy Gaza Tunnels Once Hostages Free

Israel plans to destroy what remains of Hamas's network of tunnels under Gaza, working with US approval after its hostages are freed, it said Sunday. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the operation would be conducted under an "international mechanism" led by the United States, sponsor of the three-day-old Gaza ceasefire. "Israel's great ...

UN Force in Lebanon Says Peacekeeper Wounded by Israeli Grenade

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said Sunday that one of its members was wounded by an Israeli grenade dropped near a UN position in the country's south, the third incident of its kind in just over a month. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been working with the Lebanese army to support a November ...