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  • 'If it means surrendering to Hamas, we will not be part of it'

    Jul 11, 2025

    (JNS) — Any ceasefire or post-war arrangement regarding Gaza must meet specific criteria outlined by the government, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said on Sunday. “Three essential goals, as defined by the Cabinet, must be achieved,” Karhi told JNS. “First, the return of all hostages; second, the elimination of Hamas’s governing and military capabilities; and third, ensuring that the Gaza Strip no longer poses a threat to the State of Israel.” He added that, beyond these objectives, U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to r...

  • Argentine president vows support for Israel at Western Wall

    Etgar Lefkovits|Jul 11, 2025

    (JNS) - Argentinian President Javier Milei started his official state visit to Israel on Monday with an emotional pledge at Jerusalem's Western Wall that he will "always stand" with the Jewish state, which he called "the cause of the West." The Argentine leader, who is on his second visit to Israel in as many years and has emerged as one of Israel's most vocal supporters around the globe, reinforced that message at the Jerusalem holy site. "I want you to know that my support for Israel comes fro...

  • 250 motorcyclists ride 250 miles

    Josh Hasten|Jul 11, 2025

    (JNS) — Last Friday, some 250 motorcycle enthusiasts rode 250 miles, from Tel Aviv to northern Israel, along the border with Lebanon, and back. They were demonstrating support for Israel, the Israel Defense Forces and especially communities in the north impacted during the Swords of Iron War by Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist organization. The event was organized by the Rolling Thunder of South Florida motorcycle riders’ club, a pro-Israel U.S.-based group dedicated to strengthening Israel, the U.S.-Israel alliance and combating antis...

  • Necessity is the mother of innovation: How Israeli health and biotech are thriving after October 7

    Darren Klugman MD|Jul 11, 2025

    The events of Oct. 7, 2023, the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust and a national trauma for Israel, has changed the face of the Middle East. Amid national mourning and societal upheaval, the country’s life sciences and health-tech sectors have responded with remarkable agility and resilience. What could have paralyzed innovation has instead catalyzed it, leading to breakthroughs in clinical care, health technology, and global collaboration. Innovation under pressure In 2024, private investment in Israeli life s...

  • Knesset lit in red, white and blue in tribute to US strikes on Iran

    JNS Staff|Jun 27, 2025

    (JNS) - Israeli landmarks honored the United States on Sunday with gestures of gratitude following the American military's aerial operation against Iran's nuclear facilities early that morning. The front of the Knesset building was illuminated in red, white and blue, while the ceremonial plaza was adorned with American flags. An honor guard was stationed at the site, with the participation of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. "On behalf of the Knesset, which represents all the citizens of Israel, I...

  • Netanyahu gives thanks at Wall

    JNS Staff|Jun 27, 2025

    (JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism’s second-holiest site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, giving thanks for the United States joining the war against Iran. Netanyahu visited the site alongside Shmuel Rabinovitch, the rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Places, and Mordechai “Suli” Eliav, director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. The prime minister recited a special prayer for U.S. President Donald Trump, known in Hebrew as Hanoten teshuah (“He who grants deliverance”), asking that God...

  • From mourning to 'Tkuma'

    Fiamma Nirenstein|Jun 27, 2025

    (JNS) - A year after the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023, when 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered and 252 taken hostage by Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a new phase in the war. He said the operation known as "Swords of Iron" now bears a far older, deeper name: "The War of Tkuma." In Hebrew, tkuma means resurrection - a word rooted in Jewish memory, struggle and renewal. This wasn't just a rebranding. It was a signal. With the symbolic conclusion of shiva - the seven-day Je...

  • 'My boy is OK!': Infant found in rubble after missile barrage

    Jun 27, 2025

    (JNS) — Amid the devastation of recent missile attacks, the rescue of babies has become a poignant symbol of hope. A heartfelt video from Thursday in Ramat Gan captures a father’s reunion with his infant son, passed to him by rescuers after the massive Iranian barrage at around 7:30 a.m. “Hand him to me, all is well, my boy is OK, come to Mommy, such a smile,” he said, his voice breaking as he held his child, saved from a direct missile strike on their building. In another part of central Israel, rescuers freed a baby girl from the wreckag...

  • Letter from Jaffa: 'It was the loudest boom I have ever heard'

    Deborah Danan|Jun 27, 2025

    JAFFA, Israel - It was after 2 a.m. by the time I finally fell asleep, after yet another siren sent us scrambling to the safe room in our Jaffa apartment, which has transitioned - at least for this iteration of war - into a kind of Japanese-style tatami bed, sprawling mattresses wall-to-wall. Three hours later, I woke up inexplicably and saw the door was open. One of the kids was missing. Bleary-eyed, I went searching and found my middle son curled up asleep on my bed. I carried him back and...

  • Experiencing another miracle in Israel

    Alana Ruben Free|Jun 27, 2025

    I am a living witness to the attack on the center of Tel Aviv yesterday morning at 4 a.m. I was staying in a safe room with 3 other women, pretty much as close as one could be to the direct hit. It’s very important that you understand this was a neighborhood of young, relatively “secular” Israelis who do not wear any kind of head coverings. They cover themselves more in tattoos than clothes. From the young soldiers in the search and rescue crews that got us out of the apartment to the store owners on the street below, everyone was liter...

  • Israel strikes at heart of Iran's nuclear program

    Andrew Barnard and JNS Staff|Jun 20, 2025

    (JNS) — Dozens of Israeli jets attacked dozens of targets, including military and nuclear sites, in Tehran in a “preemptive, precise, combined offensive” strike against Iran’s nuclear program early in the morning on Friday, June 13, the Israel Defense Forces stated. The IDF said that the attack was based on “high-quality intelligence” and came “in response to the Iranian regime’s ongoing aggression against Israel.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the operation, dubbed “Rising Lion,” would “continue for as many days as it...

  • Flights canceled. Parties scrapped. Bomb shelters full.

    Grace Gilson and Deborah Danan|Jun 20, 2025

    Just minutes after Shabbat began in Israel, sirens sounded, sending Israelis back to their shelters to await the next salvo in their country's new war with Iran. Roughly 100 missiles were on their way from Iran, officials warned, teeing up a repeat of an April 2024 attack that marked the first direct exchange of fire between the two countries. Soon, projectiles fell across the country's center, injuring dozens of people. Less than 24 hours had passed since Israel launched a dramatic and...

  • 2025 Maccabiah Games postponed

    David Wiseman|Jun 20, 2025

    (JNS)- The 2025 Maccabiah Games scheduled to take place in Israel in July have been canceled and postponed until 2026 as a result of the ongoing war against Iran, the Maccabi World Union announced on Monday. It said that in consultations between the heads of Maccabi World Union and the 2025 Maccabiah, together with Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar and his staff, it was decided that due to Operation Rising Lion, the Israeli military campaign against Iran that began on June 13, "the...

  • Israeli aviation official: 'Weeks' until all passengers stranded abroad are brought home

    Etgar Lefkovits|Jun 20, 2025

    (JNS) — The head of Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority, Shmuel Zakay, warned this weekend that it will take weeks before all Israelis stranded abroad will be able to fly home, as Israel’s main international airport remained closed for a third day on Sunday amid the war with Iran. The remarks came as tens of thousands of Israelis remain stranded abroad since Israel closed its airspace after launching a pre-emptive strike on Friday against Iranian nuclear and military sites. “I want to say to Israelis abroad: It will take weeks, not days or hour...

  • Birthright Israel carries out historic sea evacuation

    Jun 20, 2025

    Larnaca, Cyprus — In a remarkable and unprecedented emergency operation, Birthright Israel successfully evacuated approximately 1,500 program participants earlier today aboard the Crown Iris, a luxury Israeli cruise ship operated by Mano Maritime, sailing from Ashdod Port to Larnaca, Cyprus. The 13-hour voyage (more or less) is conducted under the close protection of the Israeli Navy, which escorted the vessel across the Mediterranean to ensure the participants’ safety amid ongoing regional tensions. The cruise ship was secured by Bir...

  • Research finds 90% of reports of 'violence' were fake

    Akiva Van Koningsveld|Jun 20, 2025

    (JNS) — A new report published by Israel’s Regavim Movement NGO on Sunday has found that some 90 percent of incidents of “violence” attributed to Judea and Samaria Jews in recent years by the United Nations were fabricated. Regavim’s 128-page research report in English, titled “False Flags and Real Agendas,” scrutinized a database maintained by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which claims to have documented thousands of alleged incidents of Israeli “settler violence” against Palestinian Arabs from January 2016...

  • Eight killed, hundreds injured by Iranian ballistic missiles

    Joshua Marks and Amelie Botbol|Jun 20, 2025

    (JNS) - Eight people were killed and nearly 300 wounded in the early hours of Monday by an Iranian ballistic missile barrage on Israeli civilian population centers in the central and northern regions of the country. The impacts were spread across four locations. Four of the deaths took place in the greater Tel Aviv area - four in Petach Tikvah and one in Bnei Brak. Three people who were initially reported as being trapped in Haifa were later declared dead, while a 30-year-old woman is...

  • 'Hope is the research,' says Hebrew U professor who studies autism, Alzheimer's

    Carin M. Smilk|Jun 20, 2025

    (JNS) - Haitham Amal wasn't always propelled toward science. He wanted to study international relations; he said he liked the networking and learning about new cultures. Then he took physics and chemistry in high school, and "fell in love with science," he told JNS. More specifically, he wanted to understand the pharmacological aspects of it - how drugs worked to help people. The trajectory seemed natural. Amal, 39, a Christian Israeli, grew up in Haifa with three siblings in an educated...

  • Memorial of shared loss

    Gloria Green|Jun 13, 2025

    This summer, a new memorial will rise in the Golan Heights - a mountainous region in Northern Israel known for its breathtaking views and strategic importance. Here, where rolling green hills meet the border with Syria, a quiet place of remembrance is taking shape beside a soccer field in the Druze town of Ein Qiniyye. The memorial will honor 12 children from the four neighboring Druze towns who were killed on July 27, 2024, when a Hezbollah missile struck a soccer field in Majdal Shams. The...

  • IDF recovers Haggais' remains

    Philissa Cramer|Jun 13, 2025

    The Israeli army has recovered the bodies of two more hostages from Gaza, a married couple with U.S. citizenship who were slain on Oct. 7, 2023. Gadi Haggai and Judith Weinstein Haggai were on their regular morning walk on their kibbutz, Nir Oz, when terrorists attacked on Oct. 7. More than a quarter of their community of 400 was slain or taken as hostages to Gaza. Weinstein Haggai made an emergency call after the couple was ambushed but no one was able to reach them. Their children saw footage of their father’s body being dragged into Gaza. T...

  • 199 hostages redeemed from Gaza since Oct. 7; 56 remain

    Jun 13, 2025

    (JNS) — Israel has rescued or returned 199 hostages held by Palestinian terrorist organizations in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attacks in the country’s south, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Thursday. One hundred forty-eight captives returned alive, while Jerusalem retrieved the bodies of 51 slain hostages, according to the official data. Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups abducted 251 Israelis and foreign nationals during the Oct. 7 massacre. The figure released by the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday include...

  • Jewish priests offer sacrifice at Temple site

    Gila Isaacson, JFeed|Jun 13, 2025

    On Shavuot, Jews who ascended the Temple Mount brought with them the “Two Loaves” sacrifice. The activists, who are priests, donned priestly garments and rushed to the presumed location of the altar, where they offered the two loaves, until they were stopped by the police and Waqf officials. This is the first time a sacrifice has been offered at the Temple site since its destruction, according to sources from the Temple Mount movement. “The priest sanctified his hands and feet in the courtyard area using a ritual vessel, and then recei...

  • The rehab ward: The first home to which former hostages return

    Amelie Botbol|Jun 13, 2025

    (JNS) - "The body remembers captivity pressure. It has physical and mental costs," Professor Noa Eliakim-Raz, the head of the Returning Hostages Department at Beilinson Hospital (Rabin Medical Center) in Petah Tikva, told JNS recently. Eliakim-Raz explained that years after captivity, former hostages are more likely to develop conditions such as diabetes, heart diseases, respiratory issues, dental problems, premature aging and chronic pain. "It's not only about what we see when they come back....

  • Israel condemns UN chief for calling Gaza aid distribution model 'unacceptable'

    David Isaac|Jun 13, 2025

    (JNS) — Israel’s Foreign Ministry denounced United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday over his X post calling Israel’s current aid distribution model in Gaza “unacceptable” while failing to mention the Hamas terrorist group. On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces rejected accusations that its troops had fired at civilians in Khan Yunis, and released drone footage showing masked gunmen firing at civilians in Khan Yunis during what the military said was the time of the incident. In his June 2 post, Guterres said he was “appalled...

  • Huckabee meets parents of 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing victim

    David Isaac|Jun 13, 2025

    (JNS) - Arnold and Frimet Roth, parents of Malka Chana Roth, a 15-year-old American citizen killed in the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001, presented a petition bearing some 30,000 signatures to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee during a private meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on May 13. The petition urges the United States to pressure the Kingdom of Jordan to extradite Ahlam Tamimi, 44, a Hamas terrorist who helped plan and engineer the bombing, which killed...

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