Although the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on Monday that demands an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, it remains to be seen whether it will have a concrete effect on the war or prove merely to be a political statement. The measure, Resolution 2728, followed three previous attempts that the United States […]
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Fighting Rages Around Two Gaza Hospitals as Pressure on Israel Rises
Israeli troops and Hamas fighters waged deadly battles in and around two of the Gaza Strip’s major hospitals on Thursday as the Israeli government came under growing pressure at home and abroad to moderate its approach to a war that has devastated the enclave. Fighting raged for the 11th day at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza […]
Read MoreHow the Israel-Hamas War Has Roiled TikTok Internally
When Barak Herscowitz joined TikTok two years ago in the company’s Tel Aviv office, his role was to recruit Israeli government agencies and other public-sector groups to join the video service and take advantage of its popularity. His pitch: TikTok was a powerful communication tool and getting more influential in the country by the day. […]
Read MoreIsrael and Hezbollah Trade Fire, With Deaths Reported on Both Sides
Hezbollah militants fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday, in what they said was retaliation for an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon overnight. The militants’ barrage came as pro-Palestinian protesters turned up the pressure on the government in neighboring Jordan to sever ties with Israel. It also came as the United […]
Read MoreDomestic Political Pressures Widen Divide Between Biden and Netanyahu
Relations between President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel appear to have sunk to a new low, with both men pressed hard by domestic politics and looming elections. Mr. Biden is facing outrage from global allies and his own supporters about the toll of civilian deaths in the war against Hamas and Israel’s […]
Read MoreIsraeli Hostage Says She Was Sexually Assaulted and Tortured in Gaza
Amit Soussana, an Israeli lawyer, was abducted from her home on Oct. 7, beaten and dragged into Gaza by at least 10 men, some armed. Several days into her captivity, she said, her guard began asking about her sex life. Ms. Soussana said she was held alone in a child’s bedroom, chained by her left […]
Read MoreU.N. Security Council Calls for Immediate Cease-Fire in Gaza as U.S. Abstains
The United Nations Security Council on Monday passed a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip during the remaining weeks of Ramadan, breaking a five-month impasse during which the United States vetoed three calls for a halt to the fighting. The resolution passed with 14 votes in favor and the United States […]
Read MoreImagining a Different Gaza War
There seems to be a broad consensus atop the Democratic Party about the war in Gaza, structured around two propositions. First, after the attacks of Oct. 7, Israel has the right to defend itself and defeat Hamas. Second, the way Israel is doing this is “over the top,” in President Biden’s words. The vast numbers […]
Read MoreU.N. Chief Calls Conditions in Gaza a ‘Moral Outrage’
António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, reiterated his call on Saturday for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, using a visit to a border crossing in Egypt to slam the “nonstop nightmare” Palestinians faced in the territory. “I want Palestinians in Gaza to know: You are not alone,” Mr. Guterres said. “People around the world […]
Read MoreOcasio-Cortez, in House Speech, Accuses Israel of ‘Genocide’
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned on Friday that Israel’s blockade of Gaza had put the territory on the brink of severe famine, saying publicly for the first time that the nation’s wartime actions amounted to an “unfolding genocide.” In a speech on the House floor, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, forcefully called on President Biden […]
Read MoreU.S. Call for Gaza Cease-Fire Runs Into Russia-China Veto
A U.S. bid to have the U.N. Security Council call for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip failed on Friday, after Russia and China vetoed the American resolution that included some of Washington’s strongest language since the start of the war. The resolution reflected the Biden administration’s growing frustration both with the […]
Read MoreHow Biden Could Try to Coerce Israel to Change Its War Strategy
As the Biden administration increasingly clashes with Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza, a question that often arises is whether U.S. officials will try to exercise some form of harder leverage as Israel ignores their pleas. They could do so, critics say, to try to get Israel to let more humanitarian aid into Gaza […]
Read MoreThe Great Rupture in American Jewish Life
For the last decade or so, an ideological tremor has been unsettling American Jewish life. Since Oct. 7, it has become an earthquake. It concerns the relationship between liberalism and Zionism, two creeds that for more than half a century have defined American Jewish identity. In the years to come, American Jews will face growing […]
Read MoreDoctors, Back From Gaza Hospitals, Tell Congress of Horrors Amid Cease-Fire Push
The memories are unforgettable. A flood of screaming families carrying their bloodied loved ones through the doors of an already inundated hospital. A small boy trying to resuscitate a child who looked not much older than himself. A 12-year-old with shrapnel wounds to his head and abdomen being intubated on the ground. That January day […]
Read MoreU.S. to Present Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution at U.N. Security Council
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, traveling in the Middle East on Thursday, pressed for a halt to fighting in the Gaza Strip as the United States prepared to introduce a resolution at the United Nations on Friday calling for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire.” The Security Council resolution drafted by the United States contains […]
Read MoreIsrael Says It Has Killed Dozens of ‘Terrorists’ in Al-Shifa Hospital Raid
Israel’s military said on Thursday that it had killed dozens of people it described as terrorists in the previous 24 hours as its raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, the largest medical facility in the territory, stretched into a fourth day. Israel has staged a series of raids on hospitals in Gaza, arguing that […]
Read MoreColumbia University Antisemitism Task Force Declines to Define Antisemitism
A Columbia University task force set up to combat antisemitism on campus in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks is attempting to avoid one of the most contentious issues in university debates over the war: Its members have refused to settle on what the definition of “antisemitism” is. Competing factions on campus and […]
Read MoreWar in Gaza Leaves Power Vacuum
Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has repeatedly spoken of the need to topple Hamas but has done little to address the power vacuum that would leave — especially after Israeli forces withdraw. That is already apparent in Gaza City, where a deadly battle at […]
Read MoreCongress Seeks to Bar Funding for U.N. Agency for Palestinians
The United States would cut off funding for the main U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinians in Gaza under a spending agreement on track to soon become law, according to two people familiar with the plan. The ban, part of a massive spending bill negotiated by lawmakers and the White House that is expected […]
Read MoreAn Arab Mandate for Palestine
Sooner or later, the war in Gaza will end. Hamas’s leaders hope that when it does, they will emerge from their tunnels to raise their green banners over the rubble — a symbolic victory for “Resistance” in the face of the misery they sowed on Oct. 7. Israel’s security leaders hope that when it does, […]
Read MoreNo Alternative for Rafah Invasion, Netanyahu Says, as Rift With U.S. Grows
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday brushed aside President Biden’s opposition to a planned ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, saying that his government would press ahead despite pleas for restraint from the United States and key allies. Mr. Netanyahu made the remarks to Israeli lawmakers a day after speaking […]
Read MoreIsrael Faces Tough Balancing Act on Russia and the West
Israel, though heavily dependent on support from the United States, Germany and other Western nations, has been noticeably out of step with them when it comes to relations with Russia during its war of conquest in Ukraine. Long before Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, the country refused Ukrainian requests to send arms […]
Read MoreWhat Schumer and Biden Got Right About Netanyahu
One of my ironclad rules of journalism is this: When you see an elephant flying, don’t laugh, don’t doubt, don’t sneer — take notes. Something very new and important is happening and we need to understand it. Last week, I saw an elephant fly: The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer — an authentic, lifelong supporter […]
Read MoreIsrael Raids Al-Shifa Hospital Again; Netanyahu to Send Team for Talks in D.C.
The acute food shortage in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip has become so severe that “famine is imminent” and the enclave is on the verge of a “major acceleration of deaths and malnutrition,” a report from a global authority on food security and nutrition said on Monday. The group, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification global […]
Read MoreIsraeli Negotiators Head to Qatar for Cease-Fire Talks, Officials Say
Israeli negotiators were traveling to Qatar on Monday to participate in a new round of in-person talks aimed at achieving a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants, according to a senior Israeli official and another official briefed on the negotiations. The Israeli delegation’s trip to Doha, Qatar, […]
Read MoreBiden and Irish Leader Use St. Patrick’s Day Visit to Address Gaza
President Biden on Sunday used what is normally a festive St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the White House to acknowledge the growing international concern, including among the Irish, over the humanitarian situation of Palestinians amid Israel’s military action in Gaza. “The taoiseach and I agree about the urgent need to increase humanitarian aid in Gaza […]
Read MoreWhy Gaza Won’t Cost Biden the Presidency
What is rare amid this pileup of polls is a survey that zeroes in on voters who say they would abandon their party because of their passions over a particular issue. That is why a Wall Street Journal survey, conducted before the State of the Union, is so fascinating. The poll found that only 2 […]
Read MoreBiden Embraces Schumer’s ‘Good Speech’ Castigating Netanyahu
President Biden on Friday praised Senator Chuck Schumer’s call on Israel to hold new elections to replace the prime minister, calling it “a good speech” without endorsing specifics in it. Mr. Biden said that Mr. Schumer, a Democrat from New York and the Senate majority leader, had informed his White House staff in advance of […]
Read MoreThreat of Unrest Looms Over Al Aqsa on First Friday of Ramadan
A heavy Israeli police contingent checked worshipers on Friday entering the Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, where the threat of unrest loomed over the conclusion of Ramadan, the holiest month for Muslims and one that has taken on added significance during the war in Gaza. Hamas, the militant group that launched the deadly Oct. 7 […]
Read MoreLittle Expected of New Palestinian Prime Minister, Muhammad Mustafa
The appointment on Thursday of Muhammad Mustafa as the new prime minister of the Palestinian Authority was supposed to be a nod to international demands for a more technocratic and less corrupt administration. But Mr. Mustafa, 69, who was appointed by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the authority, seems destined to fall short of producing […]
Read MoreGazans Struggle to Find Food and Shelter in Rafah as Israeli Invasion Threat Looms
The fear has been building for weeks. More than one million Palestinians fled into Rafah, the southernmost region of Gaza, hoping to escape the war. Now, Israel has threatened to extend its invasion there, too. Amid days filled with struggles to secure food, water and shelter, uncertainty has dominated people’s conversations, said Khalid Shurrab, a […]
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