Israel

Two former Israeli hostages have wed, in the first marriage of hostages taken when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Sasha Trufanov and Sapir Cohen were visiting Trufanov’s family on Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7 when they were attacked and abducted to Gaza.

Israel President Isaac Herzog and the First Lady Michal Herzog marked 1,000 days since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre by hosting a moving gathering of members of Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, together with the mother of Sergeant Yaron Zohar, who was killed defending the kibbutz.

The Israel State Archives on June 26 released thousands of pages of previously classified documents detailing the Israeli government’s deliberations during the 1976 Entebbe hostage crisis, marking the 50th anniversary of the operation that rescued 102 hostages from Uganda.

Israeli critics of the Iran deal should be wary of alienating President Donald Trump, particularly given their country’s dependency on US military aid, Vice President JD Vance told reporters on June 18. “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance said.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has joined France and a chorus of Israelis and Jews in denouncing Israel’snational security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, for posting a video that showed Ben-Gvir taunting detained activists from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that had been intercepted by the Israeli navy.

Yitzhak Ben-Hebron, believed to be the last survivor of the 1929 Hebron Massacre in Palestine, died on May 21 at the age of 100. Born Yitzhak Halali in Hebron on Dec. 1, 1925, he adopted the name Ben-Hebron in honor of the city in which his family had lived for generations and whose Jewish community he helped rebuild after Israel regained control of it in 1967.

A four-kilometer walk through the rolling hills above the Sea of Galilee leads to the tomb of Nabi Shuaib, the holiest site in the Druze faith and a major annual pilgrimage destination for Druze communities in Israel and across the region.

A growing number of progressives, including J Street, have come out against American funding for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami on April 12 joined Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna, along with Jewish Democratic congressional challenger Brad Lander, in opposing future budget earmarks for Israeli defense systems.

The Knesset voted 62-48 on March 30 to pass a bill imposing the death penalty on terrorists convicted of killing Israelis. The motive behind the bill is to deter first-degree murder and the lopsided exchanges of multiple terrorists convicted of first-degree murder for a a small number of kid- napped Israelis.

Nine people were killed and over two dozen wounded by an Iranian missile impact in Beit Shemesh on Sunday, according to Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service. According to Channel 12 News, a direct hit on a residential building...