Skip to main content

Defiant Netanyahu to face US Congress amid Biden's withdrawal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to deliver a landmark speech to the US Congress this week, a visit that has now been thrown off balance by President Joe Biden's decision on Sunday not to seek re-election.

Israel's longest-serving premier will on Wednesday become the first foreign leader to address a joint meeting of the two chambers four times -- pulling ahead of Britain's Winston Churchill on three.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give a landmark speech to the US Congress on Wednesday

Lebanon state media says Israeli strike 'targeted ammunition depot'

Lebanese official media said an Israeli strike on a town deep in the country's south Saturday evening targeted an ammunitions depot, lightly injuring three people and causing rockets to explode.

The airstrike about 30 kilometres from the border came after Hezbollah, which holds sway over large parts of Lebanon's south, and its Palestinian ally Hamas fired rocket salvos and explosive-laden drones at Israeli positions.

Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces

Israel strikes key Yemen port after Tel Aviv attack

Israeli warplanes killed three people in the Huthi-controlled Yemeni port of Hodeida, the Iran-backed rebels said Sunday after the group's deadly drone attack in Tel Aviv.

The strikes on the vital port, which triggered a raging fire and plumes of black smoke, are the first claimed by Israel in the Arabian peninsula's poorest country, about 2,000 kilometres (1,300 miles) away, analysts said.

"The blood of Israeli citizens has a price," Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said, adding more operations against the Huthis would follow "if they dare to attack us".

A picture released by the Huthis shows flames and smoke rising over the rebel-held Yemeni port of Hodeida after an Israeli strike

Gaza hospital says newborn saved from dead mother's womb

Doctors in Gaza described delivering a newborn baby against incredible odds on Saturday, pulling him from his mother's womb moments after she died of wounds sustained in an Israeli air strike.

At nine months pregnant, Ola Adnan Harb al-Kurd managed to survive just long enough to reach Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza after an overnight strike hit her home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, medics said.

Baby Malek Yassin was delivered by emergency Cesarean section after his mother died of wounds sustained in an Israeli strike, doctors at Gaza's Al-Awda Hospital say

Israelis learn Krav Maga fighting art amid Gaza War

Inside an occupied West Bank settlement, ultra-Orthodox martial arts instructor Moshe Katz oversees students role-playing events from the October 7 Hamas attacks, teaching them how to reverse the guns in a hostage scenario.

"I'll take you hostage first, then you do it to me," he told a student while brandishing a blue rubber Kalashnikov during a simulation for Krav Maga, an Israeli fighting discipline.

Switching to playing a hostage, Katz told the student to grab him by the back of the shirt.

Students in the occupied West Bank train in Krav Maga, an Israeli martial involving an aggressive fighting style and blows to weak points such as the throat

CrowdStrike crash raises questions about tech dependency

Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts warned on Friday.

A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike brought airlines, TV stations, and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill.

A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike brought airlines, TV stations, and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill

Adidas drops Bella Hadid from campaign over Gaza controversy

Adidas said Friday it had dropped vocal pro-Palestinian model Bella Hadid from an advertising campaign for retro sneakers referencing the 1972 Munich Olympics, which were overshadowed by a massacre of Israeli athletes.

The German sportswear giant recently relaunched the SL72, a shoe first showcased by athletes at the 1972 Olympics, as part of a series reviving old classic sneakers.

Hadid was born in the US but has Palestinian roots through her father

Iran can produce fissile material for bomb in 'one or two weeks': Blinken

Iran is capable of producing fissile material for use in a nuclear weapon within "one or two weeks," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.

The details on Iran's capabilities emerged following the recent election of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

He has said he wants to end Iran's isolation and favors reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and global powers.

Blinken said, however, that "what we've seen in the last weeks and months is an Iran that's actually moving forward" with its nuclear program.

Speaking at a security forum in Colorado, Blinken blamed the collapse of the nuclear deal for the acceleration in Iran's capabilities

Israeli hostage families divided on how to secure release

The families of hostages grabbed by Hamas gunmen on October 7 noisily agree they want the captives home but are split on how best to achieve it.

"There is no unity among the families," said Dani Miran, whose 47-year-old son, Omri, was taken at gunpoint from the Nahal Oz kibbutz in Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel.

"There are people on the left, on the right, religious people, secular and Bedouins. We have to find common ground," added the father.

Hundreds gather each day now for rallies pressing Israel's government to make a deal to bring home hostages taken during the October 7 Hamas attacks

Drone warfare: what threat do Yemen's Huthis pose to Israel?

Yemen's Huthi rebels, who claimed a deadly strike far from their borders inside Israel early Friday, have built up a significant drone arsenal.

Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in Gaza on October 7, the Iran-backed Huthis have carried out dozens of drone and missile attacks against shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, in what they say is an act of solidarity with the Palestinians.

After repeatedly threatening to expand their operations, the rebels claimed a drone attack Friday on Tel Aviv that, according to Israeli authorities, left one person dead.

A demonstrator carries a mock drone during a rally in the Huthi-run Yemeni capital Sanaa on February 23, 2024