Benjamin Netanyahu News

US-Israel relations move forward if Democrat Kamala Harris is elected president? What will be her approach to the ongoing Israel- Gaza War if it is stretched to the time she takes over? Will Kamala Harris increase financial aid and supply more weapons to the Jewish state in its fight against Hamas, which has been banned as a terrorist organization by the US? These questions are looming large over Washington as well as Tel Aviv.

Donald Trump, one day before meeting Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, called for a quick end to its war with Hamas and a return of the hostages, adding that Israel has to better manage its «public relations». The former president, in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, also criticised those who protested the Israeli prime minister's speech to the U.S. Congress, calling for a one-year jail sentence for desecrating the U.S. flag.

US President Joe Biden is still expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits Washington next week but it will depend on his recovery from Covid, the White House said Thursday. «We have every expectation that the two leaders will have a chance to see each other while Prime Minister Netanyahu is in town,» National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in a briefing. Netanyahu is set to address the US Congress on Wednesday and Israeli media had reported a meeting with Biden on Monday, but Kirby said, «I can't tell you at this point what that exactly is going to look like.»

Gaza Strip: Hamas said Sunday that Gaza cease-fire talks continue and the group's military commander is in good health, a day after the Israeli military targeted Mohammed Deif with a massive airstrike that local health officials said killed at least 90 people, including children. Deif's condition remained uncertain after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night «there still isn't absolute certainty» he was killed. Hamas representatives gave no evidence to back up their assertion about the health of a chief architect of the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war. The Israeli military on Sunday announced that Rafa Salama, a Hamas commander it described as one of Deif's closest associates, had been killed in Saturday's strike. Salama commanded Hamas' Khan Younis brigade. The statement gave no update on Deif, who has long topped Israel's most-wanted list and has been in hiding for years.

Hamas has accepted a U.S. proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday. The militant Islamist group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

Hamas official told Friday the group expects a swift Israeli response — «likely today or tomorrow morning» — to its new «ideas» for halting the Gaza war and freeing hostages. With Israeli negotiators scheduled to arrive in Qatar for talks with mediators, Osama Hamdan insisted that the group's military wing remains «in a good condition» to keep up the nine-month-old war. Hamdan said there were no new concrete proposals in a document sent to Israel this week but «some ideas were proposed to overcome» Israeli reticence about a ceasefire.

Oil prices settled lower on Friday as the rising possibility of a ceasefire deal in Gaza outweighed strong summer fuel demand and potential supply disruptions from Gulf of Mexico hurricanes. Brent crude futures settled down 89 cents, or 1.02% lower, to $86.54 a barrel, after reaching their highest since April earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled at $83.16 a barrel, down 72 cents, or 0.9%.

Israel carried out deadly air strikes in the Gaza Strip as the war entered its tenth month on Sunday, with fighting raging across the Palestinian territory and fresh diplomatic efforts under way to halt the violence. Israel has said it will send a delegation in the coming days to continue truce talks with Qatari mediators that began recently in Doha. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman said «gaps» remained with Hamas on how to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

An Iranian-backed umbrella group known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed an attack targeting the southern Israeli port city of Eilat

TEL AVIV—Israel’s military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish students, the country’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, in a decision likely to put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition as Israel fights its war in Gaza. A unanimous panel of judges ruled that there is no legal basis for exempting ultra-Orthodox religious scholars after a series of laws and government decisions carving out service exemptions were either struck down by the court or expired.

Fallen cryptocurrency exchange FTX says that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after its spectacular implosion, and some will get more than that.

anti-government protests in several parts of Israel on Saturday night, calling for new elections and the return of hostages held in Gaza, The Times of Israel reported. On Tel Aviv's Kaplan Street, David Grossman, one of Israel's best-known authors, urged the people of Israel to fill the streets with demonstrations and fight for their country in a poem he read to protesters.

Hezbollah movement, US envoy Amos Hochstein said on Tuesday, following an escalation in cross-border fire between the foes along Lebanon's southern frontier. Iran-backed Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel for the last eight months in parallel with the Gaza war. Last week, the group fired the largest volleys of rockets and drones of the hostilities so far at Israeli military sites, after an Israeli strike killed the most senior commander yet. Hochstein, special envoy to US President Joe Biden, said he had been dispatched to Lebanon immediately following a brief trip to Israel because the situation was serious. «We have seen an escalation over the last few weeks. And what President Biden wants to do is avoid a further escalation to a greater war,» Hochstein said on Tuesday.

Two top Democratic leaders in Congress have unblocked the sale of 50 F-15 jet fighters to Israel, paving the way for a major weapons deal that had been held up over concerns about the killing of thousands of civilians in the war in Gaza. The $18 billion sale is one of the largest arms deals with Israel in recent years, and comes as President Biden is facing calls from leaders in his own party to withhold American weapons in order to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept an end to the Gaza war.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive in the Middle East on Monday in an effort to salvage cease-fire negotiations, as leaders from Hamas and Israel express skepticism toward President Biden’s peace plans. Blinken’s trip—which includes stops in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Qatar—comes at a sensitive time after eight months of fighting.

Israel, as hundreds of thousands of Israeli reservists rushed to join the ranks to fight Hamas, Benny Gantz said he felt it was his duty to join the war effort.

Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on July 24, AP reported, citing sources.AP further reported that Congressional leaders extended a formal invitation to Netanyahu last week, showcasing continued support for the ally amidst ongoing political divisions regarding Israel's military actions against Hamas in Gaza.Though the speech date was uncertain, it has now been confirmed for July 24, the source told AP.Also Read: Israel, Hezbollah on brink of ‘full-scale war’; pressure on PM Netanyahu to secure borderHouse Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, along with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, signed the letter extending the invitation to Netanyahu. They said the offer was intended to “highlight America's solidarity with Israel."The political climate surrounding Netanyahu's upcoming address to Congress is anticipated to be contentious, with potential protests both inside and outside the Capitol.

Lebanese militant group, increasing the pressure on the Netanyahu government to secure its northern border, according to a report published by The Wall Street Journal. Hezbollah, a US-designated terrorist organization closely aligned with Iran, opened a battlefront with Israel on October 8, one day after the deadly Hamas-led raid inside Israel triggered the current war in Gaza.On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was prepared for a “very intense operation" along the border with Lebanon.

China on Wednesday congratulated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi following his election win, adding it was «ready to work» with its neighbour.

Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israel had accepted a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war now being advanced by U.S. President Joe Biden, though he described it as flawed and in need of much more work.

Mediators attempting to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Sunday called on both sides to agree to a truce and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden last week, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted he will pursue the war raging until Hamas is destroyed and the captives are freed.