Surprised by Oct. 7 and fearful of another attack, Israel weakened safeguards meant to protect noncombatants, allowing officers to endanger up to 20 people in each airstrike. One of the deadliest bombardments of the 21st century followed.

A New York Times investigation found that Israel severely undermined its system of safeguards when striking Gaza, and used flawed methods to find targets and assess the risk to civilians.

Israel's wars in the Middle East are unlikely to end in 2025 or for that matter any time in the foreseeable future. The immediate reason for that is that Benjamin Netanyahu needs to prolong the ghastly war in Gaza to avoid standing trial at home on corruption charges which carry a prison sentence.

Israeli officials are in disagreement over how to handle the threat posed by the Iran-backed militia in Yemen following most recent escalation

Israel and Hamas on Wednesday accused each other of obstructing negotiations for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, after Israel withdrew its negotiators from the talks the previous day. Israeli media reported on Wednesday that the refusal by the Palestinian Islamist militia Hamas to hand over a list of the names of the hostages it still holds is hindering progress in the negotiations.

Hamas accused Israel of introducing new conditions while Israel's government said Hamas was reneging on agreements that had already been reached.

An investigation by the Israeli military has found that the actions of their forces on the ground likely influenced the killing of six hostages in Gaza in August by Hamas. It said the "ground activities in the area,

JERUSALEM: The Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel traded blame on Wednesday (Dec 25) over failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite progress reported by both sides in past days.

After months of deadlock, Israel and Hamas appear to be moving closer toward a ceasefire to end their 14-month war.

In a press release on Wednesday the group said Israel “introduced new conditions related to the issues of the withdrawal (from Gaza), the ceasefire, the prisoners, and the return of the displaced people,

Yemen-based Houthis — the last of Iran-backed groups still fully present in the regional war that began 14 months ago — are slowly escalating attacks on Israel with an eye to avoid full-out retaliation.