Benjamin Netanyahu

Ordered IDF on May 25 to intensify strikes, declaring Israel 'at war' with Hezbollah

Israel struck the Beirut suburb of Choueifat on May 28, the first attack near the capital since May 6, killing three civilians while targeting an Iranian-backed missile commander. A day later, Israeli and Lebanese military delegations met at the Pentagon to open the US-facilitated security track.

Updated 7 hours ago

Pressing for expanded Iran deal terms while facing corruption trial at home

Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Washington this week with a single message: any deal with Iran must go beyond uranium. After three hours in the Oval Office on February 11, President Trump emerged saying 'nothing definitive' was reached—but negotiations would continue.

Updated 2 days ago

Authorized the Odeh strike; rejecting calls to halt operations

Israeli warplanes struck a residential building in Gaza City's Remal neighborhood on Tuesday evening, killing Mohammed Odeh along with his wife and two sons. Odeh had led Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades for just eight days.

Updated 2 days ago

Leading coalition government amid October 2026 elections; facing opposition from new Bennett-Lapid Beyachad party; overseeing expanded Gaza City ground offensive

Ran Gvili's remains were recovered January 26, 2026, ending the hostage crisis. Phase Two of Trump's peace plan collapsed by April: Hamas formally rejected the Board of Peace's disarmament proposal, and the NCAG—the Palestinian technocratic committee—has no presence in Gaza.

Updated 2 days ago

Ordered retaliatory expulsion of South African diplomat

South Africa and Israel have expelled each other's top diplomats, leaving neither country with a senior representative in the other. On January 30, 2026, South Africa declared Israeli chargé d'affaires Ariel Seidman persona non grata for using embassy social media to insult President Cyril Ramaphosa. Hours later, Israel reciprocated by expelling South Africa's chargé d'affaires Shaun Byneveldt. Both were ordered to leave within 72 hours.

Updated 3 days ago

Counseled Trump to delay strikes

Bazaar merchants bankrolled Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Now they're in the streets demanding its end.

Updated 7 days ago

Publicly rejecting Board of Peace composition, demanding full Hamas disarmament

Hamas governed Gaza since June 2007, but on January 15, 2026, a 15-member committee of Palestinian technocrats met in Cairo—none affiliated with Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. The next day, Trump announced the Board of Peace's leadership: himself as chair, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former UK PM Tony Blair, Jared Kushner (his son-in-law), special envoy Steve Witkoff, and others. By January 17, Netanyahu's office had declared the arrangement to be 'not coordinated with Israel and contrary to its policy.'

Updated May 21

Leading Israeli policy on Lebanon enforcement

Israel and Hezbollah signed a ceasefire on November 27, 2024, ending a year of cross-border war that killed nearly 4,000 Lebanese and displaced 1.4 million people. Fifteen months later, Israel had conducted over 10,500 documented violations, including 7,500 airspace violations and more than 3,000 ground and air strikes, killing over 450 people. On February 21, 2026, strikes hit the Bekaa Valley near Baalbek, killing at least 10 (eight Hezbollah operatives and three children), while a separate strike on Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp killed two Hamas operatives.

Updated May 21

Facing ICC arrest warrant while managing ceasefire

A severe winter storm struck Gaza on January 13, 2026, collapsing war-damaged walls and killing at least 8 Palestinians, including a 7-day-old infant, a 1-year-old boy, and a 4-year-old girl who died of hypothermia. Cold-weather deaths have reached at least 23 since winter began; over 1.1 million people need shelter and 81% of Gaza's structures are destroyed or damaged.

Updated May 20

Under investigation in BibiLeaks; on trial for corruption in three separate cases

Netanyahu's chief of staff was detained by Israel's national crime unit on January 11, 2026, suspected of obstructing an investigation into a September 2024 leak of classified Hamas documents to German tabloid Bild. The documents appeared to justify Netanyahu's resistance to a hostage deal and were published just days after six captives were found executed in a Rafah tunnel.

Updated May 20

Facing domestic corruption trial and ICC arrest warrant; requested presidential pardon November 2025

On December 26, 2025, Israel became the first UN member state to recognize Somaliland as independent, 34 years after the region broke from Somalia during a brutal civil war. Prime Minister Netanyahu called President Abdullahi to announce full diplomatic ties, framing the move as aligned with the Abraham Accords and citing Somaliland's fight against terrorism.

Updated May 16

Leading a coalition reliant on pro-settlement hardliners

Israel's cabinet quietly signed off on 19 additional Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, then kept it classified for days. Some are brand-new recognitions; others are outposts that were illegal even under Israeli rules, now getting a state stamp.

Updated May 15

Subject to ICC arrest warrant (issued in 2024)

The U.S. just sanctioned two sitting International Criminal Court judges—because they helped keep the Israel-related Gaza case alive. It's a rare thing in diplomacy: Washington using the same financial weapon it uses on oligarchs and terror networks against a courtroom.

Updated May 15

Approved the export permit for the Leviathan-to-Egypt deal on 2025-12-17

A day after Israel approved the Leviathan-to-Egypt export permit, Egypt's State Information Service publicly stepped in to reframe the agreement as a strictly commercial arrangement concluded by private energy companies. The framing firewalls the gas lifeline from Gaza-war politics.

Updated May 15

Publicly welcoming outside help, privately skeptical of outcomes

A Gaza force is being designed like it's real, but the December 16 Doha conference exposed disagreements over mandate and composition—U.S. Central Command convened 40+ countries to plan command structure, basing, and rules of engagement, yet failed to achieve consensus. Italy is the only country to formally commit troops; 15 nations declined and Turkey was excluded at Israel's insistence.

Updated May 15

Defending continued military action during ceasefire; insisting Hamas disarmament is required

A senior Hamas commander is killed in a targeted Israeli strike. The next day, thousands pack the streets of Gaza for his funeral, coffins hoisted shoulder-high, flags everywhere, chants loud enough to carry the message: Hamas is still here.

Updated May 15

Oversees intensified IDF strikes as campaign reaches halfway point

The April 8 ceasefire lasted less than 24 hours — Iran re-closed the Strait of Hormuz the next day. The U.S. responded with a naval blockade of Iranian ports by April 12, and oil surged to $126 per barrel by late April.

Updated May 11

Overseeing a long campaign to sideline UNRWA and reassert control in East Jerusalem

Israeli police and municipal officials rolled into a quiet UN compound in East Jerusalem before dawn. Motorbikes, trucks and forklifts smashed through UNRWA's former headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah, seizing equipment, cutting communications and hauling down the UN flag to raise Israel's own. UN officials say it was an unauthorized raid on inviolable UN premises; Israeli authorities insist it was just a municipal debt-collection move.

Updated May 10

Heads the Israeli government that accepted the ceasefire's first phase; pressing for Hamas disarmament before any further Israeli withdrawal or international deployment

Hamas's October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel triggered a war that lasted more than two years. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect October 10, 2025. At least 460 Palestinians have been killed and over 1,200 injured since the truce began.

Updated May 10

Faces unified opposition slate ahead of 2026 vote

Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid—the two former Israeli prime ministers who briefly removed Benjamin Netanyahu from power in 2021—announced on April 26 the merger of their parties into a single slate called 'Together, Led by Bennett.' Netanyahu responded within hours with an inflammatory video on social media showing the pair's 2021 coalition-signing ceremony alongside Arab party leader Mansour Abbas, captioned 'They did it once, they will do it again'—framing a future government dependent on Arab parties as an inevitable consequence of any Bennett-Lapid win.

Updated Apr 27

Oversaw wartime closures and subsequent reopening of holy sites

For roughly 270 years, under Ottoman, British, Jordanian, and Israeli rule, a delicate arrangement called the "status quo" has kept worship running at Jerusalem's holiest sites — even through wars and occupations. On Palm Sunday March 29, 2026, Israeli police broke that streak by physically turning away Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the senior Catholic leader in Jerusalem, from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Only four church representatives were trying to enter, walking privately without any procession.

Updated Apr 9

Leading Israel's parallel operation (Operation Roaring Lion); overseeing strike killing IRGC Navy Cmdr. Tangsiri

Operation Epic Fury, launched jointly by the United States and Israel on February 28, 2026, reached day 39 with the heaviest strikes yet on Iran, confirming over 9,000 targets hit, more than 130 naval vessels destroyed, and at least 55 senior regime leaders killed—including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on March 1, IRGC Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri on March 26, and on April 6, IRGC intelligence chief Majid Khademi and Quds Force Unit 840 head Yazdan Mir in US-Israeli airstrikes on Tehran. Key escalations include Iran's March 18 missile strikes on Israel and Gulf states, Qatar's expulsion of Iranian attachés after the March 19 Ras Laffan attack, the Israeli airstrike killing IRGC spokesman General Ali Mohammad Naeini on March 20, CENTCOM's March 21 update confirming 8,000 targets hit and air superiority, Iran's March 24 missile barrages on Tel Aviv, March 27 Israeli strikes on Iran's central naval arms production site and multiple ballistic missile factories in the Tehran area, Iran's April 2 launch of four missile salvos at Israel including cluster warheads, April 3's downing of a US F-15E Strike Eagle—the first American combat aircraft lost—and April 5's successful rescue of both crew members by US special operations forces after a two-day evasion and extraction operation.

Updated Apr 7

Conducting parallel Israeli operations; publicly stated Israel will continue strikes regardless of US ceasefire

Since the United States and Israel launched surprise airstrikes on Iran on February 28, 2026—killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and triggering what Washington calls Operation Epic Fury—Iran has fired more than 525 ballistic missiles at Israeli territory. Nearly half carried cluster warheads that scatter dozens of smaller bomblets across wide areas, a weapon type banned by over 100 nations. On April 6, two construction workers were killed in Yehud by cluster submunitions, while a separate ballistic missile collapsed a residential building in Haifa, killing four people after an 18-hour rescue effort.

Updated Apr 6

Authorized IDF ground operations in Lebanon alongside Defense Minister Katz

Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon, launched March 1, has reached a new phase with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) systematically destroying bridges over the Litani River, including strikes on April 4 targeting connections between Sohmor and Mashghara in eastern Lebanon. By late March, the IDF had struck over 500 Hezbollah targets, killed 70 operatives, and seized roughly 850 square kilometers using three armored and infantry divisions. The campaign has now severed at least seven major bridges, expanded evacuation zones north of the Litani, destroyed key infrastructure, and resulted in clashes killing six IDF soldiers.

Updated Apr 4

Directing Israeli operations under codename 'Roar of the Lion'

Iran's nuclear infrastructure has become the primary target of an intensifying US-Israeli air campaign that began February 28 and has now entered its sixth week. The Natanz uranium enrichment complex has been struck four times; on April 4, 2026, US and Israeli forces expanded the campaign to strike the Bushehr nuclear power plant and the Mahshahr petrochemical hub in southwestern Iran, killing at least one security guard and wounding five workers. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has warned that strikes on civilian nuclear power plants cross 'the reddest line' of nuclear safety, raising the risk of a radiological catastrophe. Meanwhile, Iran has demonstrated growing military capability: on April 4, Iranian air defenses downed two US warplanes, marking the first confirmed loss of American aircraft in the conflict.

Updated Apr 4

Leading wartime coalition government

Israel's parliament voted 62-55 to approve the country's largest-ever state budget — 850.6 billion shekels ($271 billion) — with two days to spare before a legal deadline that would have dissolved the government and triggered new elections. The defense ministry alone received 143 billion shekels ($45.8 billion), reflecting the cost of ongoing military operations against Iran that are running at an estimated $480-550 million per day.

Updated Mar 29

Directing Israeli participation in strikes under Operation Roaring Lion

In thirteen days of US-Israeli military strikes on Iran, up to 3.2 million people have fled their homes without leaving the country. The United Nations refugee agency reported on March 12 that between 600,000 and one million Iranian households abandoned Tehran and other major cities for northern provinces and rural areas, marking one of the fastest mass internal displacements in modern conflict.

Updated Mar 12

Co-directing strikes on Iran and Lebanon under Operation Roaring Lion

For four decades, the United States and Iran avoided direct, large-scale war. That changed on February 28, 2026, when the US and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, military infrastructure, and leadership compounds, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The assault followed collapsed indirect nuclear talks mediated by Oman. Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks on US bases in the Gulf, oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and the US Embassy in Riyadh.

Updated Mar 4