Israel

JERUSALEM (AP) — Just three weeks into the deadliest war between Israel and Hamas, it already is clear that the bloodshed has flipped long-standing assumptions in Israel and the region upside down.

Israel’s military and intelligence services were exposed as incompetent and ill-prepared. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decades of attempts to sideline the Palestinians and U.S. efforts to manage the conflict, rather than solve it, badly backfired.

26 October 2023; MEMO: Israeli Minister Benny Gantz has reportedly told residents of settlements near Gaza that it is possible they might not be able to return to their homes for a year, Israel’s Channel 12 reported yesterday.

26 October 2023; MEMO: A former Israeli army chief said on Thursday that he supports the idea of dismissing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the war and appointing another premier, Anadolu Agency reports.

Former Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, told Army Radio that he supports having another figure to “lead the war”.

JERUSALEM, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Israeli tanks and infantry raided the northern Gaza Strip in a predawn attack Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

The military said that forces conducted "a targeted raid" using tanks in the northern Gaza Strip. According to the statement, the raid was "part of preparations for the next stages of combat," in which Israel plans a ground offensive in Gaza.

JERUSALEM, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved to dampen media pressure over the government's conduct of the war against the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, issuing a statement insisting he was in full accord with his defence and army chiefs.

Netanyahu, Israel's longest serving prime minister, has seen his already falling approval ratings plunge following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed some 1,400 people in the deadliest day for Israel in its 75-year history.

JERUSALEM, Oct 24 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron proposed on Tuesday that an international coalition fighting against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria be widened to include the fight against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

Macron gave no detail on how the U.S.-led coalition of dozens of countries, of which Israel is not a member, could be involved.

Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Macron stressed that France and Israel shared terrorism as their "common enemy".

JERUSALEM (AP) — The gas-rich nation of Qatar has become a key intermediary over the fate of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas militants after their unprecedented attack on Israel, once again putting the small Arabian Peninsula country in the spotlight.

The negotiations have also thrust Qatar into a delicate international balancing act as it maintains a relationship with those viewed as militant groups by the West while trying to preserve its close security ties with the United States.

JERUSALEM, Oct 23 (NNN-MA’AN) – An Israeli tank, “accidentally” fired and hit an Egyptian military post yesterday, the regime Defence Forces (IDF), said in a statement.

The Egyptian post is located in the area of Kerem Shalom, near the Israel-Egypt border and southern Gaza Strip, amid heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

“The incident is being investigated and the details are under review,” the regime military said. The military also expressed “sorrow regarding the incident.”

JERUSALEM, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Israel has set up hundreds of volunteer security squads in the two weeks since the Gaza war erupted and is arming them should there be knock-on Jewish-Arab unrest, authorities said on Sunday, despite what police said was "exemplary" conduct so far.

The last Gaza war in 2021 saw sometimes violent pro-Palestinian protests among the Arab citizens who make up 21% of Israel's population.

JERUSALEM, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Israel on Saturday described as "propaganda" a claim by Hamas that the militant group had wanted to release two more hostages on humanitarian grounds but that Israel declined to receive them.

Abu Ubaida, spokesman for Hamas' armed wing, said it informed Qatar of the group's intention to release the two additional people on Friday, the same day it freed Americans Judith Tai Ranaan and her daughter Natalie.