The Times of Israel | News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World

LiveUpdated 2min ago

After 3-hour lull, early morning sirens wake up residents of southern Israel

Jacob Magid and TOI staff

IDF targets Hamas operatives, infrastructure overnight while 5 Petah Tikva residents treated for smoke inhalation due to rocket that fell between homes, causing fire

President: 'I beg of you, stop this madness'; 400 arrested

Jewish-Arab violence rolls through cities like wildfire, with police overwhelmed

By Itamar Sharon and Stuart Winer

Leaders horrified as hooligans fill streets, burning, beating, shooting, smashing; Netanyahu says may send army into towns; Bat Yam mob assault on Arab man decried as ‘un-Jewish’

Israeli riot police face off with a Jewish man as clashes erupted between Arabs, police and Jews, in the mixed town of Lod, central Israel, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Heidi Levine)

From far-right to Islamist parties, leaders condemn Jewish-Arab violence

A man beats someone lying prone on the ground in the Israeli city of Bat Yam amid interethnic violence across Israel, May 12, 2021. (Screenshot)

Jewish mob’s vicious attack on presumed Arab in Bat Yam caught live on Israel TV

Israelis carry out Torah scrolls from a torched synagogue in the central Israeli city of Lod, following a night of heavy rioting by Arab residents in the city, on May 12, 2021 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

After Lod synagogues torched, Rivlin accuses ‘bloodthirsty Arab mob’ of ‘pogrom’

By Michael Bachner and TOI staff

IDF: 1,300 rockets, mortar shells fired since Monday

Ido Avigal, who was killed in his home in Sderot by a rocket fired from Gaza, May 12, 2021 (Twitter)

5-year-old boy killed, dozens others injured as Gaza rockets pound Israel

Fresh volleys target south, center of country; Ido Avigal, 5, fatally struck by shrapnel that penetrated window of fortified room in Sderot during major Hamas barrage

Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Hamas official tells Russia: We’re ready for ceasefire with Israel

By TOI staff and Aaron Boxerman

Defense Minister Benny Gantz speaks to an air defense soldier operating an Iron Dome missile defense battery in southern Israel on May 11, 2021. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Minister)

‘No end date’ for Gaza operation, Gantz says, rejecting ‘moral preaching’

By Judah Ari Gross

Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett speaks during a faction meeting at the Knesset, on May 3, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Bennett vows to back government Gaza response, says Hamas must pay ‘heavy price’

LiveUpdated 2min ago

After 3-hour lull, early morning sirens wake up residents of southern Israel

By Jacob Magid and TOI staff

IDF targets Hamas operatives, infrastructure overnight while 5 Petah Tikva residents treated for smoke inhalation due to rocket that fell between homes, causing fire

Jewish-Arab violence rolls through cities like wildfire, with police overwhelmed

By Itamar Sharon and Stuart Winer

Leaders horrified as hooligans fill streets, burning, beating, shooting, smashing; Netanyahu says may send army into towns; Bat Yam mob assault on Arab man decried as ‘un-Jewish’

Israeli riot police face off with a Jewish man as clashes erupted between Arabs, police and Jews, in the mixed town of Lod, central Israel, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Heidi Levine)

From far-right to Islamist parties, leaders condemn Jewish-Arab violence

A man beats someone lying prone on the ground in the Israeli city of Bat Yam amid interethnic violence across Israel, May 12, 2021. (Screenshot)

Jewish mob’s vicious attack on presumed Arab in Bat Yam caught live on Israel TV

Israelis carry out Torah scrolls from a torched synagogue in the central Israeli city of Lod, following a night of heavy rioting by Arab residents in the city, on May 12, 2021 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

After Lod synagogues torched, Rivlin accuses ‘bloodthirsty Arab mob’ of ‘pogrom’

By Michael Bachner and TOI staff

Ido Avigal, who was killed in his home in Sderot by a rocket fired from Gaza, May 12, 2021 (Twitter)

5-year-old boy killed, dozens others injured as Gaza rockets pound Israel

Fresh volleys target south, center of country; Ido Avigal, 5, fatally struck by shrapnel that penetrated window of fortified room in Sderot during major Hamas barrage

Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Hamas official tells Russia: We’re ready for ceasefire with Israel

By TOI staff and Aaron Boxerman

Defense Minister Benny Gantz speaks to an air defense soldier operating an Iron Dome missile defense battery in southern Israel on May 11, 2021. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Minister)

‘No end date’ for Gaza operation, Gantz says, rejecting ‘moral preaching’

By Judah Ari Gross

Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett speaks during a faction meeting at the Knesset, on May 3, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Bennett vows to back government Gaza response, says Hamas must pay ‘heavy price’

Then-US vice president Joe Biden waves as he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walk to give statements to the press in Jerusalem, Tuesday, March 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Debbie Hill, Pool)

Biden tells Netanyahu he hopes violence will be ‘closing down sooner than later’

By Jacob Magid and AFP

President says US diplomacy in high gear on Hamas-Israel conflict, stresses ‘Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory’

IDF artillery seen firing into Gaza near the Israeli border with the Strip on May 12, 2021, following heavy rocket and missile barrage fired into Israel, May 12, 2021 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

US again blocks ‘unhelpful’ Security Council statement on Israel, Gaza violence

Rockets are launched toward Israel from Rafah, in the southern the Gaza Strip on May 12, 2021 (SAID KHATIB / AFP)

Biden official heading to Israel amid efforts to end Gaza fighting

Staff Sgt. Omer Tabib, 21, from the Nahal Infantry Brigade, who was killed when an anti-tank guided missile struck his jeep north of the Gaza Strip on May 12, 2021. (Israel Defense Forces)

Jeep hit by anti-tank missile in deadly attack was parked in open view of Gaza

By Judah Ari Gross

Military says it was not a mistake to have vehicle parked, vulnerable, on a hill overlooking the Strip, but a necessity due to topography

Israeli soldiers near the site of where a jeep was hit by an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza, May 12, 2021 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Hamas missile hits army jeep, killing soldier; IDF strikes group’s top leaders

By Judah Ari Gross

Illustrative: Border Police officers stand at a checkpoint near Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs on January 19, 2018. (Border Police)

Palestinian man tries to stab Israeli soldiers in Hebron, is shot — IDF

Bereaved relations of Ahmad Daraghme, an officer in the Palestinian Authority intelligence services killed by Israeli soldiers, weep at his funeral in his home village of Laban al-Sharqiya on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 (WAFA)

PA: 2 Palestinians shot by IDF were security officers, not terrorists

By Aaron Boxerman

Israeli firefighters near a bus and other vehicles hit in a Gaza rocket strike on Holon near Tel Aviv, on May 11, 2021 (Ahmad Gharabli / AFP)

Op-ed

Israel’s leadership taken by surprise, in a conflict it failed to see coming

‘We must not be dismissive about the situation we are in,’ defense minister says, as rockets hit nationwide and Arab riots spread. Rarely was advice more appropriate and necessary

Tales of the Times

The quirky, improbable, infuriating and uplifting

Baby steps
Batsheva brings youth ensemble outside, for Deca Dance

By Jessica Steinberg
Northern literary lights
COVID rules eased, Metulla Poetry Festival to be held in person

By Jessica Steinberg
You'll have a ball
Barca premieres interactive soccer exhibit in Israel

By Jessica Steinberg
Communal living
Kibbutz dramedy adapted by ‘Orange Is the New Black’ writer

By Jessica Steinberg
Shore thing
Tel Aviv celebrates Jerusalem Day at the beach

By Jessica Steinberg
A city celebrates
Capital readies for solid week of Jerusalem Day festivities

By Jessica Steinberg
Military dill
Mideast US Air Force flight uses call sign ‘Pickle Rick’

By AP
Mummy mummy
Polish scientists find 1st ever pregnant Egyptian mummy

By AFP
No new neigh-bor
A horse walks into an elevator… of luxury Tel Aviv apt. building

By TOI staff
On the ball
First Arab woman basketball referee takes on Tokyo Olympics

By AFP
Infinity of art
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama gets retrospective at TLV Museum

By Jessica Steinberg
Waltzing in
Dutch violinist Andre Rieu books concerts in Tel Aviv

By Jessica Steinberg
Very Nice
Guiliani wins two Razzies for infamous ‘Borat’ bedroom scene

By AFP
Bit more money
JNF-USA starts accepting cryptocurrency donations

By Asaf Shalev
Keep scrolling
Israeli artist sets Guinness World Record for longest megillah scroll

By Gabe Friedman
Here Today for each other
Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish dance the hora in buddy comedy

By JTA
Make some space
Netflix scoops up Israeli thriller about high school shooting

By Jessica Steinberg
Stay away
Warm waters draw endangered sharks to Israel’s Mediterranean shallows

By AFP
Oh baby
Josh Kushner’s former Israeli yeshiva leaks his baby’s name

By Shira Hanau
You're in the navy now
British forces recruit Israeli yacht for at-sea drill

By TOI staff

Full Coveragecoronavirus