Israel-Gaza Fighting Renews Spotlight on Salafist Militants

By Michael Lipin from VOA News Map of Israel, the Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza Strip), the Golan Heights, and portions of neighbouring countries. Also United Nations deployment areas in countries adjoining Israel or Israeli-held territory, as of January 2004. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The heaviest ...

Israel Launches First Airstrike on Gaza Since 8 Day War

Credit: BBC The Israeli military has launched an air attack on a target in the Gaza strip - the first time that it has done so since the end of the eight-day war in November last year. According to Hamas which runs the Gaza strip, Israeli ...

Israel Sorry for Flotilla Raid, Seeks Normalized Relations with Turkey

The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu has "expressed remorse" to his Turkish counterpart over a raid on a flotilla heading for Gaza which ended with the deaths of nine activists from Turkey. In a phone call between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which was arranged ...

Rockets hit southern Israeli town as Obama visits Middle East

On the second day of President Obama's visit, during which he visited Ramallah in the West bank to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Palestinian rocket struck a town in southern Israel. It was just the second time that Israel has been hit by Palestinian rockets since the end of the eight ...

Obama Warns Syria Over Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons

At a press conference in Israel, President Obama warned Syria's President Assad that he would be held responsible for the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria recently - even though the evidence suggests that the rocket was fired at a government position by rebel ...

Anticipation High in Israel for Obama Visit

By Dan Robinson from VOA News JERUSALEM — U.S. President Barack Obama has arrived in Israel, the fifth visit of a U.S. president since Israel's founding.  There is an atmosphere of anticipation, but also realism among Israelis and Palestinians about what may be accomplished. Israel is ready ...

New Israeli Cabinet Committed to Settlement Building

Israel's new housing Minister Uri Ariel has signalled that the expansion of Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territories will continue unabated. Mr Ariel, who is a Jewish settler himself and a member of the pro-settler Jewish Home Party told television audiences on Sunday that the incoming ...

Israel Forms New Coalition Government

By Robert Berger from VOA News JERUSALEM — Israeli political parties have reached a coalition agreement, clearing the way for a new government and some top-level international diplomacy as U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to visit. It took a weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nearly six weeks ...

Have the Middle East Water Wars Already Begun?

Oil has always been thought of as the traditional cause of conflict in the Middle East past and present. Since the first Gulf oil well gushed in Bahrain in 1932, countries have squabbled over borders in the hope that ownership of a patch of desert ...

UN Observers Kidnapped by Syrian Rebels

By Margaret Besheer from VOA News Map of Golan Heights, from the BBC (click to view BBC's profile of Golan Heights) UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council is demanding the unconditional release of more than 20 peacekeepers stopped and detained by armed elements of the ...

UNICEF Claims Widespread Mistreatment of Palestinian Children by Israel

Flag of UNICEF (Photo credit: Wikipedia) A new report from the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) claims that the mistreatment of Palestinian children in Israeli custody is "widespread, systematic and institutionalised." The report, which was made public on Wednesday, estimates that 700 children aged 12-17 are ...

Eagle Taught to Fly Again After Wing Saving Surgery

Heart-warming footage of an Israeli falconry trainer teaching an eagle to fly again, after it needed surgery to save its wing: