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EU Foreign Ministers Agree to Resume Association Council Meetings With Israel

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas holds a press conference in Aqaba, Jordan, Dec. 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Alaa Al Sukhni
JNS.org — The European Union Foreign Affairs Council has decided to resume its Association Council meetings with Israel, new EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said after meeting European foreign ministers on Monday.
No date has been set for the first meeting, which Kallas said she wants to hold “as soon as possible.” The summit will be followed by the first high-level dialogue with the Palestinian Authority, the EU diplomat added.
The EU-Israel Association Council, which last convened in 2022 during the premiership of Yair Lapid after a 10-year pause, is a meeting meant to be held annually between Jerusalem and the foreign ministers of all 27 member states of the European Union to discuss matters of mutual concern.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry in a statement cited by local press called the development “an important step in the relationship between the European Union and Israel,” saying the move shows “the intention to open a new page of cooperation and instructive dialogue between Israel and the EU.”
The statement noted that the EU announcement followed talks held between Kallas and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in Malta on Dec. 4.
Jerusalem views the Association Council as a vital forum to advance collaboration in various fields with its largest trade partner — the European Union accounts for almost 30 percent of Israel’s trade in goods — and present its positions on the ongoing wars on its borders and the broader region.
In November, during the final weeks of his five-year term, Kallas’s predecessor, former European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, proposed to suspend all dialogue with Jerusalem over alleged human rights abuses and violations of international law in Gaza.
A decision to formally suspend the political dialogue with Israel in the framework of the EU-Israel Association Agreement would require unanimity, which meant that the move was almost certain to fail.
Borrell’s tenure was marked by incessant criticism of Israel and a lack of action against Iran. In September, then-Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Borrell would not be welcome for an official visit the latter had planned. Jerusalem then proposed an alternative date, after Borrell’s retirement.
Kallas, a former leader of Estonia, took office on Dec. 1, replacing the Spanish diplomat. Kallas’s opinions on Israel and the Middle East are not widely known. During her three-year premiership, she made her name primarily as a prominent critic of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Following the November 2022 election victory of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she congratulated him, saying she was looking forward to strengthening the Baltic nation’s “close bond” with Israel.
“In difficult times, democracies stick together — this is the way to stand against pariah states and safeguard our freedom and sovereignty,” Kallas wrote in a statement posted to social media at the time.
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IDF Denies Troops Fired on Civilians After Incidents of Settler Violence

Illustrative. Israeli troops during counterterrorism activity in Tulkarem, northwestern Samaria, September 2024. Photo: IDF.
i24 News – The IDF released a statement after an incident during which Israeli soldiers opened fire on Israeli civilians in the West Bank on Saturday night, denying that the trooped fired live ammunition.
This comes at the heels of arson incidents by settlers against Palestinian villages, with clashes breaking out. The IDF said that its soldiers had come under attack on Friday as they entered the area of Kafr Malik, the site of the disturbances, by Israeli civilians. “The undermining of the rule of law and the use of violence by a radical minority harm security and stability in the area.”
The IDF later said that “an initial investigation indicates that IDF forces did not fire live ammunition at Israeli civilians in the area. It should be clarified that the battalion commander’s force operating in the Baal Hatzor area of the Binyamin brigade did not fire live ammunition at all.” On the other hand, the civilians claimed this was false, posting a video that showed shell casings on the ground right next to where the troops were deployed.
Meanwhile, the police requested the remand of six individuals, two of whom are minors, to be extended in connection with the incident.
The IDF later said that, “in another area within the sector, stones were thrown at a military vehicle near the site of the clash by masked individuals from an ambush. The force responded with a warning shot of three bullets.” A possible connection “between this incident and the claim that an Israeli civilian was injured by live fire” is being investigated.
After the incidents late last week, the IDF issued an unusual directive for soldiers to exercise special vigilance and also prepare for scenarios involving nationalist incidents perpetrated by Israeli citizens. The directive was issued after a military vehicle was set on fire inside a Jewish settlement, the tires of an armored David vehicle were punctured, and a community policing caravan near the community of Beit El was also set on fire.
“The security establishment system is highly alert,” a security official told i24NEWS. “We are seeing an escalation on the ground – and if you cannot leave a military vehicle in a Jewish community without it being burned in the sector, it is a sign that the situation is dangerous.”
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Israel Orders Evacuations in Northern Gaza as Trump Calls for War to End

US President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing-in ceremony of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, May 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire.
“Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel’s offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages.
But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and U.N. officials say nowhere in Gaza is safe.
“The (Israeli) Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations,” the military said.
The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts. Medics and residents said the Israeli army’s bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives arrived to pay their respects to white-shrouded bodies before they are buried.
“A month ago, they (Israel) told us to go to Al-Mawasi (in Khan Younis) and we stayed there for a month, it is a safe zone,” said Zeyad Abu Marouf. He said three of his children were killed and a fourth was wounded in the Israeli airstrike.
“We ask God and the Arabs to move and end this occupation and the injustice taking place against us,” Abu Marouf told Reuters.
NEW CEASEFIRE PUSH
The military escalation comes as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, begin a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages still being held by Hamas.
Interest in resolving the Gaza conflict has heightened following US and Israeli bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
There has also been rising concern over how aid is being distributed to Gazans in the ruined enclave. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the past month in the vicinity of areas where food was being handed out, local hospitals and officials have said.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed the mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group’s outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory.
Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war. Israel says it can only end the war if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.
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Russia Launches Largest Drone Attack Yet Against Ukraine, Kills F-16 Pilot

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
i24 News – Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia launched 537 drones and missiles against targets throughout Ukraine overnight between Saturday and Sunday, in what what described as the largest attack of the war.
Poland activated aerial defenses and scrambled jets as the six-hour onslaught continued. One Ukrainian F-16 pilot was killed as Kyiv attempted to intercept the missiles and drones, with 475 shot down.
“Tragically, while repelling the attack, our F-16 pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, died. Today, he destroyed seven aerial targets,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Ustymenko did everything possible, but his jet was damaged and started losing altitude,” the air force said, as quoted in Politico. “He died like a hero!”
The cities of Cherkasy, Lviv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Kyiv were targeted.
The Russia attack came after Ukraine attacked the Kirovske airfield in the Crimean Peninsula, targeting air defenses, drones, and even destroying several helicopters and an air defense system.
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