JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – A tree caught fire outside Jerusalem’s al Aqsa mosque on Monday (May 10), but the blaze was quickly put out and no damage was caused to the mosque. Tension has been high in Jerusalem and witnesses offered contradicting accounts about whether the flames were caused by Palestinians who had thrown fireworks at […]

JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – More than 300 people were hurt in clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters outside the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on Monday (May 10), as Israel marked the anniversary of its capture of parts of the city in a 1967 war. Police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at hundreds […]

JERUSALEM — The Israeli Supreme Court delayed on Sunday a decision on whether to expel six Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem after the attorney general requested more time, in part because of the tensions the case has stirred. The court was to decide on Monday whether to uphold an expulsion order for […]

BAGHDAD (BLOOMBERG) – Iraq is carving out a mediating role between Iran and Gulf Arab oil producers including Saudi Arabia, a shift for a country better known as a victim of regional conflict than a conduit to defuse it. In recent weeks, Iraq convened indirect talks between its neighbours Saudi Arabia and Iran, with a […]

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Fifteen Palestinians were arrested in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem overnight in clashes with police over an eviction threat against four Palestinian families. The second straight night of rioting in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood was fuelled by a years-long land dispute between Palestinian refugees and Jewish settlers in the strategic district near Jerusalem’s Old […]

TEL AVIV (BLOOMBERG) – Traffic is returning to the city streets. Lifts are getting crowded. Favourite lunch spots are filling up. Two months after Israel reopened its economy, Tel Aviv is moving on from the work-from-home era. Israel’s lightning-fast vaccine programme gave it a head start in planning for life after the coronavirus, and its […]

JERUSALEM (NYTIMES) – Mr Yair Lapid, the centrist politician and former media celebrity whose party took second place in Israel’s March election, had pledged to forgo the premiership if that’s what it would take to form a coalition of diverse parties that could oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power. The unusual exercise in political […]

JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – Israel’s government watchdog said on Monday (May 3) it would open an investigation into the deaths of 45 people crushed in a stampede at a Jewish religious festival last week. State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said his office, which audits the government, would look into the circumstances surrounding the event at Mount Meron […]

JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – US citizens are among the dozens killed and injured in a stampede at a religious festival in Israel, the US Embassy said on Saturday (May 1), as criticism mounted in the wake of one of the biggest civilian disasters in the country’s history. At least 45 people were crushed to death and […]

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel was preparing on Saturday (May 1) to bury more victims of a stampede that killed at least 45 people at a Jewish pilgrimage site, one of the nation’s worst peacetime disasters. Most of the victims were ultra-Orthodox Jews and funerals were expected to be held after sunset, which ends the Sabbath, […]