Oren Levi

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and senior officials from the Finance Ministry are set to brief Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday on the proposed 2026 state budget and a series of structural reforms, the minister’s office announced.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an unannounced visit to the buffer zone along the Syrian border, his office said on Wednesday. 

After a sharp contraction earlier this year, Israel’s economy roared back to life in the third quarter of 2025, posting an impressive 12.4% annualized growth, according to preliminary data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

In a strongly worded message, Dr. Rafiq Halabi, a prominent Druze leader from Israel, is calling on New York voters to oppose the candidacy of Zohran Mamdani, whom he describes as a dangerous threat to the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Monday that only countries “impartial” toward Israel should be allowed to contribute troops to a proposed international force for post-war Gaza—effectively ruling out Turkey.

American Airlines announced Monday that it will resume direct flights to Israel in March 2026, nearly two and a half years after suspending its New York (JFK) to Tel Aviv route following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that sparked a prolonged conflict in Gaza.

An Egyptian convoy of vehicles and heavy construction machinery entered the Gaza Strip overnight from Saturday to Sunday to assist in the search for the bodies of Israeli hostages killed by Hamas, according to The Times of Israel.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has come under fire for remarks made Thursday, stating that Israel should reject any normalization deal with Saudi Arabia if it is conditioned on the creation of a Palestinian state, according to a report by Haaretz.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Thursday, the Israeli government confirmed on Wednesday. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday in Tel Aviv with U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, amid renewed tensions in Gaza that have strained the fragile ceasefire in place since October 10.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that a ceasefire in Gaza had resumed after an attack that killed two of its soldiers and prompted a wave of airstrikes that killed 26 people, in the most serious test yet of this month's U.S.-brokered truce.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Saturday that the war in Gaza will not come to a final end until Hamas is disarmed and the Palestinian territory is fully demilitarized , a key requirement of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement currently under discussion.