JERUSALEM - Jews in Israel and around the world are observing Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the High Holy Days and marks the Jewish New Year 5769. For many Israelis, it is a time of repentance and prayer, leading up to the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom […]

JERUSALEM - The United States is beefing up missile defenses in Israel amid fears of a conflict with Iran. 

The U.S. has provided Israel with an advanced radar system to give early warning in the event of an Iranian missile attack.  The system has been set up at an air base in the Negev desert […]

JERUSALEM - Israel says it is closing border crossings to the West Bank during the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year festival.
Officials said the closure will last from early Monday to late Wednesday. Such closures are routine during Jewish holidays. Israel says they are necessary to prevent attacks by Palestinian militants. Exceptions are […]

JERUSALEM - Israeli officials say the United States has provided the country with an advanced radar system that can give early warning in case of an Iranian missile attack.
Officials say some 120 American crewmen will operate the system, which was set up this month at Nevatim military base in southern Israel.
The radar can pick up […]

JERUSALEM - Aides to Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert say he intends to resign Sunday, following a series of corruption allegations that have tainted his term in office.
Officials say Mr. Olmert will announce his decision at Sunday’s weekly Cabinet meeting before formally submitting his resignation to Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Earlier this year, Mr. Olmert promised […]

JERUSALEM - Israel’s Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, has won a narrow victory in the ruling centrist Kadima party’s primary election, putting her on track to become Israel’s first female Prime Minister in more than three decades. Ms. Livni will replace Ehud Olmert, who is stepping down as he faces corruption investigations. 
Livni’s election is raising hopes […]

JERUSALEM - Members of Israel’s ruling, centrist Kadima party will head to the polls Wednesday to pick a new leader to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is under investigation for corruption, plans to step down after his centrist Kadima party votes for a new leader Wednesday.
The change of leadership occurs […]

JERUSALEM - Israeli scientists say they have started an ambitious project to digitally scan and post the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls on the Internet.
The Israel Antiquities Authority Wednesday announced that all of the thousands of scroll fragments will be scanned using non-damaging, high-tech imaging, which will reveal previously illegible portions.
Authority officials say the goal of […]

WASHINGTON - Israel says Iran’s refusal to stop enriching uranium shows the futility of diplomacy to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapon.  Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke on U.S. television.
Iran’s president continues to insist he will not surrender his country’s “nuclear rights”.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke as an informal deadline expired for Iran to […]

WASHINGTON - The United States has agreed to place advanced missile detection systems in Israel.
Senior U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say the systems will give Israel an extra layer of protection in case of an attack by Iran.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak confirmed the deal.  Officials say the systems will be set […]

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he plans to step down as prime minister in September.
In a surprise announcement from his residence in Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert says he will step down as Israel’s prime minister immediately after his Kadima Party selects a new leader at a party convention on September 17.  
Mr. Olmert […]

JERUSALEM - Israel has settled scores with a Palestinian on its most-wanted list during a raid in the West Bank. Tensions are also running high between rival Palestinian factions.
Israeli commandos killed 25-year-old Shihab al-Natsheh, a top commander of the Islamic militant group Hamas, in the West Bank town of Hebron. There was a shootout, and […]

JERUSALEM - Israel and the Lebanese Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah carried out a prisoner exchange Wednesday - swapping five Lebanese prisoners for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers.  
Two years after they were abducted in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerillas, the remains of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were brought to the […]

JERUSALEM - There are few communities in the world more ancient than the Samaritans. For centuries, the Samaritans have lived in isolation. But now as their numbers diminish, some are looking to the outside world to replenish their numbers. 
For nearly 3,000 years, Samaritans have recited their prayers here on Mount Gerizim near the city of […]

JERUSALEM - Israeli forces on the occupied West Bank raided the Nablus city hall, Wednesday, in the latest move in a wide-ranging crackdown against the Islamist Hamas movement in cities across the West Bank. 
In the past week, Israeli troops have raided municipal buildings and shut down schools charities and health clinics on the West Bank […]

JERUSALEM - At least three people were killed and about forty others injured - many severely when a Palestinian bulldozer driver went on a rampage in downtown Jerusalem early Wednesday afternoon. The bulldozer driver was killed by police who are describing the incident as a terrorist attack.   
Witnesses reported a scene of chaos and panic […]

JERUSALEM - Israeli authorities re-opened a commercial border crossing with the Gaza Strip Sunday following an end to Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel.
An Israeli military spokesman said Israel was allowing about 80 truckloads of goods to enter Gaza Sunday through the Sufa crossing.
Israeli authorities closed Sufa and other crossings on Wednesday, a day after […]

JERUSALEM - Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has gotten cabinet approval to go ahead with a prisoner swap with Hezbollah militants.
Israel’s cabinet voted to release Samir Kantar, a Lebanese guerrilla who has been in Israeli jails for nearly 30 years, in exchange for the Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev who were seized by […]

JERUSALEM - Israel’s Prime Minister has avoided a split with a major coalition partner and possible dissolution of his government in a deal that could end his own political career in three months. The political developments came as a shaky cease-fire in Gaza showed more signs of unraveling.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reached a last-minute deal […]

JERUSALEM - An Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire has taken effect in the Gaza Strip. 
After months of Palestinian rocket barrages and Israeli army raids, the guns in and around the Gaza Strip have fallen silent. The ceasefire between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas, that rules Gaza, is supposed to last for six months. If it holds, […]

JERUSALEM - Palestinian and Egyptian officials say Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas have reached a cease-fire agreement that will go into effect in Gaza on Thursday. Israel would not confirm the deal, but said a negotiator was rushing to Cairo to finalize details. 
Under the emerging, Egyptian-mediated truce Palestinians would halt rocket and mortar […]

JERUSALEM - Israel has announced plans to build 1,300 new homes for Jewish settlers in the disputed eastern sector of Jerusalem.
Israeli officials said Friday the new homes will be built in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood.
Palestinian officials condemned the project, saying it shows the Israeli government wants to destroy peace.
The internationally-backed “road map” for peace between […]

JERUSALEM - Israel is threatening to invade the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Returning home from Washington, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel is considering a major military offensive in Gaza.
“At this moment the pendulum is swinging closer to military action in Gaza than anything else,” Mr. Olmert said.
He was responding to a Palestinian mortar attack Thursday that […]

JERUSALEM - Israel’s Housing Minister, Zeev Boim, is scheduled to announce later Sunday plans for the construction of nearly 900 more homes for Israelis in east Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.
Ministry spokesman Eran Sidis said today the government will invite tenders for 121 housing units in Har Homa (Jebal […]

JERUSALEM  - Israel’s defense minister has repeated a demand for the Palestinian militant group Hamas to release an Israeli soldier before reaching a truce in the Gaza Strip.Ehud Barak made the comment Monday in Egypt after meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.
Israel has repeatedly called for the captured soldier, Gilad Shalit, to be freed as part […]