Intermountain Jewish News

Israel

Israeli commandos with a Mercedes-Benz 600 resembling the one owned by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, used by Israel to deceive Ugandan troops during the raid on Entebbe Airport, July 4, 1976, in which 102 Israeli hostages were freed. (IJN file photo)
Israel

Entebbe documents declassified on 50th anniversary of legendary rescue

The Israel State Archives on June 26 released thousands of pages of previously classified documents detailing the Israeli government’s deliberations during the 1976 Entebbe hostage crisis, marking the 50th anniversary of the operation that rescued 102 hostages from Uganda.

IJN Staff
Vice President JD Vance at a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 18, 2026. (Mehmet Eser/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Israel

In wake of Iran deal, Vance has harsh words for Israel

Israeli critics of the Iran deal should be wary of alienating President Donald Trump, particularly given their country’s dependency on US military aid, Vice President JD Vance told reporters on June 18. “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance said.

JTA
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir takes part in the Jerusalem Day parade at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City, May 14, 2026. (Ilia Yefimovich/AFP)
International

France bans Ben-Gvir

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has joined France and a chorus of Israelis and Jews in denouncing Israel’snational security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, for posting a video that showed Ben-Gvir taunting detained activists from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that had been intercepted by the Israeli navy.

JTA
Yitzhak Ben-Hebron in Kiryat Arba in 2019. (Courtesy Hebron Jewish Community)
Israel

Last survivor of 1929 Hebron pogrom dies at 100

Yitzhak Ben-Hebron, believed to be the last survivor of the 1929 Hebron Massacre in Palestine, died on May 21 at the age of 100. Born Yitzhak Halali in Hebron on Dec. 1, 1925, he adopted the name Ben-Hebron in honor of the city in which his family had lived for generations and whose Jewish community he helped rebuild after Israel regained control of it in 1967.

JNS
The Galilee Tomb of Shuaib, also known as the Biblical figure Jethro on April 27, 2026. (Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS-IL)
Israel

Druze pilgrimage…and worries

A four-kilometer walk through the rolling hills above the Sea of Galilee leads to the tomb of Nabi Shuaib, the holiest site in the Druze faith and a major annual pilgrimage destination for Druze communities in Israel and across the region.

TPS
A view of the Iron Dome air-defense system. (Rafael Advanced Defense Systems)
Israel

AOC pivotal figure in anti-Iron Dome funding

A growing number of progressives, including J Street, have come out against American funding for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami on April 12 joined Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna, along with Jewish Democratic congressional challenger Brad Lander, in opposing future budget earmarks for Israeli defense systems.

JTA
A vote on the death penalty for terrorists who murder Israeli civilians at the auditorium in the Knesset, March 30, 2026. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
Israel

Death penalty for convicted terrorists: a first

The Knesset voted 62-48 on March 30 to pass a bill imposing the death penalty on terrorists convicted of killing Israelis. The motive behind the bill is to deter first-degree murder and the lopsided exchanges of multiple terrorists convicted of first-degree murder for a a small number of kid- napped Israelis.

JNS
Israeli security and rescue forces operate at the scene where a ballistic missile fired from Iran struck Beit Shemesh, central Israel, causing extensive destruction and killing at least nine people, March 1, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Israel

Nine killed by Iranian missile strike in Beit Shemesh

Nine people were killed and over two dozen wounded by an Iranian missile impact in Beit Shemesh on Sunday, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service. According to …

JNS
ERUSALEM (JNS) — ing “the presence of armed Doctors Without Borders suspended “non-critical” medical services at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
Israel

Two years later, Doctors Without Borders calls out Hamas

Doctors Without Borders suspended “non-critical” medical services at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, the southern Gaza Strip after Palestinian terrorists were spotted operating from the medical center, Reuters reported Feb. 14.

JNS
Israeli President Isaac Herzog at a celebration of 2,000 kidney donations in Israel, Jan. 25, at which time he announced that Guin- ness World Records would recognize Israel’s achievement. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)
Israel

Guinness reversal on record-breaking Israeli kidney donations

A reversal, Guinness World Records is again accepting submissions from Israel, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Jan. 25, and will be cited for a world record in kidney donations. The remarks follow a public outcry last year after the British body had informed the Israeli group behind an event honoring 2,000 Israeli kidney donors in Jerusalem that Guinness was no longer accepting submissions from Israel or the Palestinian territories due to regional tensions.

JNS
Talik Gvili, mother of Ran Gvili, Dec. 10, 2025. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)
Israel

Lie unmasked, Hamas hostage Ran Gvili retrieved

JERUSALEM — The body of the Hamas-murdered hostage Ran Gvili was retrieved by the IDF from a Muslim cemetery in Gaza on Jan. 26, 2026. On Oct. 7, 2023, Gvili was murdered by Hamas terrorists and his body was held for 843 days.

JNS
David Cunio is reunited with his daughters at Sheba Medical Center, Oct. 13, 2025. (Shaul Lendner/GPO)
Israel

Piercing words — hostage recounts abduction, release

David Cunio, who was abducted by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, gives a harrowing account of his nearly two years in Hamas captivity in Gaza, describing starvation, psychological torment, underground imprisonment and the struggle to survive for the sake of his family.

JNS