ISRAEL

As Israel turns 75, festivities are marred by a controversial judicial reform. The coalition has ratcheted up concerns among Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Prime Minister Netanyahu added insult to injury by characterising Smotrich's shocking declaration, in a tweet four days later, as "inappropriate."

Israel's President Isaac Herzog on Thursday urged Europe to fight anti-Semitism "at all costs", in the face of a worrying increase in hatred being spread notably online.

Already dogged by criticism at home and abroad, a new Israeli government is set to be sworn in on Thursday, the final stroke in Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's political comeback.

Arab soccer fans at the first World Cup in the Middle East are shunning Israeli journalists in Qatar trying to interview them, illustrating challenges facing wider "warm peace" ambitions two years after some Gulf states forged formal ties with Israel.

In the densely populated Gaza Strip, a battle for space is pitting the living against the dead as homeless squatters settle in the area's cemeteries while authorities grapple with the growing demand for new housing.

A Palestinian farmer accidentally discovered a Byzantine-era floor mosaic while he was digging to plant an olive tree on his land in Gaza.

The Jewish activist was spotted with the "Aquaman" actress vacationing in Tel Aviv, Israel earlier in August.

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man and wounded 16 others during a raid in the occupied West Bank in which the military blew up the house of a Palestinian who had carried out a deadly shooting attack in Tel Aviv, witnesses and medics said.

CCTV footage allegedly showed the moment the actress dragged her rumoured girlfriend back to their room.

Palestinian American Amer Zahr is on a mission to heal through humour.

French-Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz will be back in court in Switzerland on Monday to appeal against a corruption sentence linked to mining rights in Guinea.

When Israeli missiles started landing in Gaza in early August, shattering glass and collapsing buildings, Jouman Abdu put on headphones, covered her eyes with a blindfold and stretched on the couch.

A sharp rebound in Israel's economic activity and a jump in annual inflation have made a 0.75-point interest rate increase more likely next week, analysts said on Tuesday.

The families of Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics are unhappy with fresh German compensation offers and plan to boycott a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the attack in protest, their spokesperson told Reuters on Friday.

As the cleanup in Gaza continues from last weekend's brief conflict with Israel, another battle has continued over which side caused the casualties, after Israel said misfiring rockets from the Palestinian side killed 15 people in the enclave.

Vanilla Vida could prove to a be lucrative venture, producing what has become the world's most precious spice after saffron.

The chief of Israel's armed forces will visit Morocco on Monday in the highest-level public engagement between the countries, which upgraded ties in 2020 under a U.S.

U.S. President Joe Biden arrives in Israel on Wednesday to kick off a high-stakes trip to the Middle East dominated by efforts to persuade Gulf allies to pump more oil and bring Israel and Saudi Arabia closer together.

The family of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh has accused the United States of providing impunity for Israel over her killing and asked to meet President Joe Biden in person during his trip to Israel next week.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said on Tuesday that he will press French President Emmanuel Macron on the Iranian nuclear negotiations and urge a tougher Lebanese stance against Tehran-backed Hezbollah.