Orna Barbivai Becomes First Female IDF Major General
Brigadier General Orna Barbivai is promoted to the rank of major general, becoming the highest-ranking female officer in the history of the IDF.
Israel-Gaza Violence Flares
March 25, 2019 A rocket destroys a house in Mishmeret, 20 miles north of Tel Aviv, and injures seven people. In response, Israel Defense Forces planes bomb suspected Gaza military locations 12 hours later and…
IDF Strikes 80 Gaza Targets
In response to an overnight barrage of roughly 30 rockets from the Gaza Strip toward Sderot and other Israeli towns near the border, the IDF strikes 80 Gaza targets by air.
Israel, Kazakhstan Sign Defense Pact
January 20, 2014 Defense Ministers Moshe Ya’alon of Israel and Adilbek Dzhaksbekov of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic that has a Sunni Muslim majority, sign a security cooperation accord in Tel Aviv that formalizes the…
U.S. Announces Arms Deal for Israel, Others Opposing Nuclear Iran
As fears about a nuclear Iran intensify, the United States agrees to provide Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with $10 billion in military aid.
Hamas Military Chief Killed as Pillar of Defense Begins
November 14, 2012 Ahmed Jabari, the Hamas military chief, is killed in an Israel Defense Forces airstrike on Gaza that marks the start of Operation Pillar of Defense. The strike comes in response to an…
Ex-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir Dies
Yitzhak Shamir, Israel’s seventh Prime Minister and staunch advocate for settlements in the West Bank, passes away in Tel Aviv at the age of 96.
Major General Israel Tal Dies
Major General Israel Tal passes away at the age of 85. Tal is best known for heading the 1970 committee that designed and developed the Israeli-made Merkava tank.
“Lebanon” Wins Venice Film Award
For the first time since the award was introduced in 1949, an Israeli film, Lebanon, wins the Golden Lion Award at the 66th annual Venice International Film Festival.
Operation Cast Lead Answers Rockets From Gaza
Nearly 12,000 rockets are fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli civilian areas over eight years. On December 27, 2008, Israel responds with Operation Cast Lead.
Exodus 1947 Commander Yossi Harel Dies
Yossi Harel, commander of the Aliyah Bet ship Exodus, passes away at the age of ninety.
Gen. Moshe Levi Dies
January 8, 2008 Moshe Levi, the first Mizrahi chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, dies at age 72 of a brain aneurysm at HaEmek Medical Center in Afula a week after suffering his…
Israeli Military Launches Operation Orchard
In Operation Orchard, Israel’s air force secretly destroys a reactor at Al Kibar, a Syrian military facility thought to be a nuclear site constructed with the help of North Korea.
Israel Expands Second Lebanon War
August 9, 2006 Israel’s Security Cabinet approves an expansion of the military offensive in southern Lebanon nearly a month after the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War. Also known as the Israel-Hezbollah War, the conflict…
Second Lebanon War Begins
July 12, 2006 The Second Lebanon War begins when Hezbollah launches Katyusha rockets and mortars at Israeli border towns and Israel Defense Forces positions, a diversion for a raid across the border to ambush an…
Gilad Shalit Is Captured
IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is captured by a group of Palestinian militants and is held hostage for over five years before being exchanged for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.
NATO Holds First International Workshop in Israel
Forty-nine participants from eleven countries gather in Haifa for a five-day NATO conference on mass-casualty medical preparedness. The conference is NATO’s first ever event held in Israel.
Bus Bombings in Beersheba Kill 16 Israelis
August 31, 2004 Bombs explode on a pair of buses 100 yards apart along Beersheba’s main street, Ranger Boulevard, shortly after leaving the central bus station. Sixteen Israelis, one as young as 3 years old,…
Israel Swaps 430+ Prisoners for Man, 3 Bodies
January 29, 2004 Israel releases more than 430 Arab prisoners — more than 400 to the Palestinian Authority, 29 to surrounding Arab nations, and one German citizen who worked with Hezbollah to Germany, from where…
Suicide Bomber Strikes Haifa Restaurant
A suicide bombing kills 17 Jews and four Arabs and injures some 60 others at Maxim restaurant in Haifa.
Ambassador Simcha Dinitz Dies
Simcha Dinitz, a longtime Israeli diplomat who served as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States from 1973-1978, passes away at the age of 74.
23 Killed in Jerusalem Suicide Blast
August 19, 2003 A suicide bomber kills 23 people and injures more than 130 others by detonating an 11-pound explosive packed with ball bearings on a bus in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Shmuel Hanavi in…
Ruling: Reservists Must Serve in Territories
December 30, 2002 The Israeli Supreme Court rules that Israel Defense Forces reservists may not refuse to serve in the West Bank and Gaza. Coming during the deadly violence of the Second Intifada, the ruling…
Palestinian Cabinet OKs Plan for Israeli Withdrawal
August 7, 2002 The Palestinian Authority Cabinet agrees to a truce deal proposed by Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer to withdraw the Israel Defense Forces from Palestinian-controlled parts of the Gaza Strip and from the…
