Jerusalem Report

Israel digs up the West Bank – and reignites a battle over history

As Israel expands excavations in the West Bank, ancient ruins become entangled in a modern political struggle over land, history, and identity

|ByRUTH MARKS EGLASH
Workers and volunteers on an archaeological dig sift through dirt at Alexandrion/Sartaba in the Jordan Valley.
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu plants a flag at the archaeological site Sartaba in Judea and Samaria.

Israel's Heritage Minister: Palestinians destroying archaeological sites like ISIS did in Syria

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu on archaeology, sovereignty, and the battle over history in Judea and Samaria

|ByRUTH MARKS EGLASH
The Strait of Hormuz, the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean, making it essential for international energy.

Strait of Hormuz: The 40-kilometer chokepoint holding the world economy hostage - analysis

The short-term disruptions and long-term transformations in the world’s most critical energy corridor

|ByYUVAL EYLON
Visitors to the Israel Antiquities Authority’s new center in Jerusalem look at items such as jewelery, makeup brushes, and weapons that had been stolen by antiquities thieves.

Hunting for stolen history: Inside Israel’s fight to recover its looted past

Israel’s antiquities watchdog is battling black-market theft, forgery, and a global trade that strips history of its story

|ByRUTH MARKS EGLASH

From Cyrus to today: Iranian resistance outlasted regime indoctrination - opinion

Despite years of indoctrination and incitement, the Iranian people have not fully succumbed to the coerced messaging of the regime

JANUARY 27, 2026ByRUTH WASSERMAN LANDE
A woman with tears of blood demonstrates in Paris on January 18 in support of the Iranian uprising against the Islamic Republic. Despite years of indoctrination, Iranians in the country and beyond are pushing back against the regime.

How media decides which deaths count and which events matter - analysis

How psychological warfare is waged not by lies but by deciding which events are allowed to matter.

JANUARY 27, 2026ByPAULA SLIER
View of an illustration depicting captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in downtown Caracas.

Sudan's forgotten war deepens as aid cuts leave millions starving

Freed hostages, starving children, overwhelmed doctors – Sudan’s war deepens as funding dries up and help falls short

JANUARY 27, 2026ByBEN LYNFIELD
A displaced Sudanese woman from the Heglig area in western Sudan receives a blanket at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp, 420 km east of the capital, Khartoum, in December.

From Ukraine to Gaza, war's ecological toll sparks ecocide accountability push

As conflicts from Ukraine to Gaza ravage ecosystems, momentum is building to recognize environmental destruction as a war crime

JANUARY 27, 2026BySTEPHANIE L. FREID
Plumes of smoke rise after the IDF carried out house demolitions in the northern Gaza Strip in January. It is believed that between 80,000 and 200,000 tons of munitions were fired or dropped on Gaza over two years of war.

Environmental cooperation emerges as cornerstone for Middle East peace, experts say

Shared environmental needs could succeed in creating stability in the Middle East, experts say

JANUARY 27, 2026BySTEPHANIE L. FREID
An aerial view of the Jordan River flowing along the border between Israel and Jordan. Environmental experts are pushing for a plan that could build environmentally sustainable interdependence among countries in the region.

Israel's overlooked challenge: Environmental damage from two years of war - from the editor

As the war winds down, Israel faces a quieter crisis – environmental damage from Gaza to the Dead Sea, alongside long-neglected ecological failures now demanding urgent attention

JANUARY 27, 2026ByRUTH MARKS EGLASH
Visitors walk across salt formations along the receding shoreline of the Dead Sea, a stark sign of the region’s growing environmental crisis.

Seeing sinkholes: How the Dead Sea’s collapse became a tourist draw

How one of the region’s worst environmental disasters has become a popular tourist excursion

JANUARY 27, 2026ByRUTH MARKS EGLASH
Hikers trek past a cavernous sinkhole on the shores of the Dead Sea near Ein Gedi.

Gaza facing environmental catastrophe as 60 million tons of toxic war debris buried under rubble

As Gazans struggle to recover from the war – trash, sewage, and toxic debris are creating an environmental catastrophe

JANUARY 27, 2026ByDANA BEN-SHIMON
A man searches through piles of garbage in Gaza City.

Israel’s freshwater balancing act: The Kinneret under strain

Intensive management has saved the Kinneret from crisis, but rising salinity and ecological change pose growing risks

JANUARY 27, 2026BySAM HALPERN
An aerial view of the Kinneret. To the casual observer, the lake, also known as the Sea of Galilee, appears to be a rare environmental success story in an era of climate uncertainty.

'Pollution without borders': Gaza sewage flows north, contaminating Israeli waters

The collapse of the sewage infrastructure in Gaza is not just a local humanitarian crisis but an environmental threat to Israel and beyond

JANUARY 27, 2026ByPATRICIA GOLAN
Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.