Israël

Steve Witkoff: Hamas is "Making a Very Bad Bet"

The White House accused Hamas on Friday of making "entirely impractical" demands and stalling on a deal to release a US-Israeli hostage in exchange for an extension of the Gaza ceasefire. "Hamas is making a very bad bet that time is on its side. It is not," a statement from the office of President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and the US ...

Hamas Says Ready to Free Israeli-American Hostage, Remains of 4 Others

Hamas said on Friday it was ready to free an Israeli-American hostage and the remains of four others, after the Palestinian militants and Israel resumed indirect Gaza ceasefire negotiations. Israel, however, said Hamas had "not budged" following a proposal from US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. After more ...

Syrian Druze Cross Armistice Line for Pilgrimage to Israel

Dozens of Syrian Druze clerics crossed the armistice line on the Golan Heights into Israel on Friday for their community's first pilgrimage to a revered shrine in decades. On board three buses escorted by Israeli military vehicles, the clerics crossed at Majdal Shams in the Golan, and headed to northern Israel. According to a source close to ...

Diplomatic Opportunities

Former allies of Hezbollah are stepping forward, advocating for diplomacy rather than war to resolve the ongoing issues between Lebanon and Israel. This marks a significant shift in the country’s political landscape. In his latest interview on Sar El Waet with journalist Marcel Ghanem, MP Tony Frangieh spoke with a boldness rarely seen among ...

Diplomatic Uncertainties and Reconstruction: Lebanon’s Challenges Amid International Expectations

A recent interview with Morgan Ortagus, deputy to the U.S. president’s special envoy for the Middle East, highlighted significant discrepancies between official announcements and the on-the-ground reality in Lebanon. While the U.S. administration claims to have initiated diplomatic working groups to address the Lebanese-Israeli border issue, ...

Netanyahu Vows to Hold Positions in Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Thursday that Israel will maintain control over the five positions where it maintains a presence inside Lebanese territory, ruling out any possibility of withdrawal. “We will not give up control of five positions in Lebanese territory,” Netanyahu said. He further stated that Israeli forces ...

Israeli Air Strike on Islamic Jihad's Headquarter in Damascus

Israeli Air Force conducted on Thursday an airstrike in Damascus, targeting headquarters of the Islamic Jihad group. Israel's military spokesman, Avichaï Adraee, said the attack had targeted a "terrorist command center" in Damascus, belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which fought alongside Hamas in Gaza against Israel. "The ...

Israel Released Fifth Lebanese Detainee

The Lebanese army said it received on Thursday a soldier taken by Israel last weekend, after Israel handed over four other detainees earlier this week. "The army, through the International Committee of the Red Cross received (on Thursday) the soldier who was kidnapped by the Israeli enemy" on Sunday, the army said on X, adding that he had been ...

Syrian Druze Plan First Israel Pilgrimage

A delegation of Syrian Druze clerics is planning to visit a pilgrimage site in Israel on Friday for the first time since Israel's creation in 1948, a source close to the group said. "A delegation of dozens of Druze clerics will visit Israel on Friday," the source said, adding that it follows an invitation from the Druze community in Israel. "The ...

The Ben Gurion Canal Project: A Viable Alternative to the Suez Canal?

As geopolitical and economic issues in the Middle East continue to dominate global discussions, a concept from the 1960s is resurfacing: the Ben Gurion Canal project. Named after David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister and a key figure in the creation of the Jewish state, this ambitious initiative proposes linking the Gulf of Aqaba at ...

Bashar Masri’s Gaza: Why Trump Is Betting on a Palestinian Billionaire

If you want to understand why Bashar Masri is the man rebuilding Gaza, you must start in Rawabi, the city he built from scratch—the first planned Palestinian city, rising from the West Bank’s rocky terrain like an Arab version of Silicon Valley. Wide boulevards, luxury apartments, tech startups, a shopping mall—Rawabi was his bet on a modern ...