The Iranian missile attack in the early hours of Sunday morning publicly revealed the Middle East Air Defense Alliance (MEAD) for the first time. This defense partnership has the potential to significantly reshape the Middle East in the foreseeable future.
The Israeli aerial defense array made military history by thwarting 99% of an Iranian attack by shooting down around 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles, and a reported 115 out of 120 ballistic missiles.
(April 16, 2024 / JNS) United Nations inspectors were set to resume work at Iranian nuclear facilities on Tuesday after a two-day hiatus due to “security considerations” in the wake of Tehran’s massive drone and missile strike on Israel overnight Saturday.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi noted on Monday that Israel could still target Iranian nuclear facilities, saying, “We are always concerned about this possibility.”
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military chief said Monday that his country will respond to Iran’s weekend attack, but he did not elaborate on when and how as world leaders urged against retaliation, trying to avoid a spiral of violence in the Middle East.
The Iranian attack on Saturday came in response to a suspected Israeli strike two weeks earlier on an Iranian consular building in the Syrian capital of Damascus that killed two Iranian generals. It marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
(April 14, 2024 / JNS) U.S. President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call on Saturday that Washington will not support an Israeli retaliatory attack for Iran’s drone and missile assault on the Jewish state, Axios reported, citing a senior White House official.
Iran fired more than 300 missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles from its territory toward Israel on Saturday night, in what Tehran says was retaliation for the April 1 killing of several IRGC officers in Syria by Israel.
Dozens of surface-to-surface missile launches from Iran were detected approaching Israeli territory on Saturday night in response to the assassination of IRGC senior commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi.
There were also approximately 170 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) launched from Iran towards Israel. According to the IDF, none of the UAVs entered Israeli airspace.
(April 13, 2024 / JNS) Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval forces hijacked the Israeli-linked MSC Aries container ship close to the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz slammed Tehran for seizing the Portuguese-registered cargo vessel, which is operated by the Mediterranean Shipping Company and associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime, according to the Associated Press.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL — At this hour, 10 million Israelis are bracing for an attack by air that is already in motion.
U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources indicate that at least 100 military drones or UAVs — unmanned aerial vehicles — have been fired at Israel.
The United States Navy remains on high alert and repositioned at least two of its warships ahead of the expected Iranian attack on Israel, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Friday.
The move comes as U.S. CENTCOM Commander General Erik Kurilla arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday to begin coordinating a potential joint military response to an Iranian attack.
Israel is set to normalize relations with Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country in the world, Ynet reported on Thursday.
The move comes after three months of secret talks between Jerusalem and Jakarta. In exchange for establishing diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, Jerusalem will reportedly lift its opposition to Indonesia becoming the 39th member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
U.S. intelligence warned on Wednesday that a major strike against Israel to be carried out by Iran or one of its proxies using missiles or drones was “imminent,” Bloomberg reported.
Since the alleged Israeli strike killed a senior Iranian general and six other officers in Syria, Iranian officials have been threatening Israel with retaliation. Israeli officials have responded by warning that Israel would answer forcefully, and possibly attack Iran directly.
U.S. President Joe Biden harshly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy throughout the Gaza War in the most drastic comments he has made since the war with Hamas began last October.
Biden spoke to TV channel Univision in an interview that was broadcast on Tuesday evening but recorded shortly after the IDF mistakenly killed seven aid workers in the Gaza Strip.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL — Prior to October 7, the future seemed so bright for Israel.
We had just signed our sixth Arab-Israeli peace and normalization agreement.
We seemed to be on track to sign a seventh agreement with Saudi Arabia.
Our economy was booming, tourism was hitting record levels, and Israel was building increasingly close and warm ties with nations and governments all over the globe.
Israeli forces are training for the possibility of attacking Iran directly, according to a report by a Saudi news outlet.
Such an attack would be carried out if the Islamic Republic bombs the Jewish State, as it has implied it will do, in response to a recent airstrike in Damascus that eliminated seven Iranian military advisers, including two top generals responsible for the country’s military activities in Syria and Lebanon.
The Palestinians’ long-dormant application for full United Nations membership will be given a fresh look on Monday.
The United Nations Security Council is set to meet, first in closed consultations, then in an open format, to consider the 2011 application—a move officially requested in a letter from Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Mansour last Wednesday.
The Iranian leadership and several senior commanders of its proxy militias were spotted attending the annual Quds Day parade in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Friday, shortly before the state funeral for seven senior Iranian officers killed in the alleged Israeli strike near Iran’s Damascus embassy earlier this week.
Thousands of marchers carried pictures of the killed officers, banners with slogans such as “Death to Israel” and “Death to America,” and pictures of the Iranian regime's founder, Ruhollah Khomeini.
(April 4, 2024 / JNS) U.S. President Joe Biden demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, per a White House readout of their call on Thursday.
“President Biden emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable,” the readout stated. “He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers.”
JERUSALEM (AP) — When Israel declared war against Hamas last October, it stood unified at home and enjoyed broad backing from around the world following an unprecedented attack by the Islamic militant group.
Six months later, Israel finds itself in a far different place: bogged down in Gaza, divided domestically, isolated internationally and increasingly at odds with its closest ally. The risk of a broader regional war remains real.
Spain will recognize Palestinian statehood by July, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told journalists during a Middle East tour, according to several reports published on Tuesday in Spanish media.
State news agency EFE and newspapers El Pais and La Vanguardia cited Sanchez as making the informal remarks to the traveling press corps late on Monday in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on the first day of visits to Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Aconference was held in ancient Shiloh on Wednesday and while the event, dealing with an esoteric Torah commandment, attracted only about 120 attendees and no Israeli media attention, Hezbollah saw fit to publicly threaten the gathering.
The conference was held to discuss issues related to reinstating the Biblical commandment of the red heifer. Attendees were treated to a viewing of five fully-grown red heifers that were brought from Texas in September 2022 as calves. The conference was held to coincide with Parsha Para, when the Torah portion concerning the mitzvah of the red heifer is read on Shabbat. Typically held in the second half of the month of Adar, the Torah reading is intended to reinforce the laws of ritual purity in time for the Jews to bring the Passover offering to the Temple in Jerusalem.
(March 27, 2024 / JNS) The majority of Americans now disapprove of the Israel Defense Forces’ actions against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, according to a survey Gallup published on Wednesday.
The proportion of respondents who disapprove of IDF actions increased from 45% in November to 55% this month, while the share of Americans who explicitly back the military operation dropped from 50% to 36%.
