JERUSALEM | Scandals brewing, Netanyahu calls early election for April

JERUSALEM  — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called early elections for April, setting the stage for a three-month campaign clouded by a series of corruption investigations against the long-serving Israeli leader.

Riding high in the polls, Netanyahu appears all but certain to win a fourth consecutive term and a place in history as the country’s longest-serving prime minister. Those…

JERUSALEM | Israel calls for international response to Hezbollah tunnels

JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister on Thursday asked the international community to impose additional sanctions on Hezbollah and condemn the Lebanese militant group in response to the discovery of tunnels stretching from southern Lebanon into northern Israel.

Stepping up an international pressure campaign against Hezbollah, Israel also hosted the commander of a U.N. peacekeeping force, showing…

JERUSALEM | Netanyahu keeps coalition intact, but Hamas emerges stronger

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday survived a political showdown that had threatened to bring down his coalition and trigger early elections.

Netanyahu managed to persuade Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the ultranationalist Jewish Home Party, to drop a threat to bolt the coalition. That left his government with a thin parliamentary majority and appeared…

JERUSALEM | Fresh fighting erupts amid steps to tone down Gaza violence

JERUSALEM — A fresh wave of fighting erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, leaving at least six militants dead just as Israel and Hamas had appeared to be making progress toward ratcheting down months of border violence.

Although it was unclear what set off the burst of violence, Hamas said a “security incident” had left “a number” dead and wounded,…

JERUSALEM | Stone throwers face different fates across the globe

JERUSALEM  — President Donald Trump’s recent assertion that U.S. troops should respond to rock-throwing migrants — a hypothetical scenario — as if they were armed has sparked a debate about the appropriate use of force.

Nigerian troops swiftly used Trump’s comments about the migrants as justification for a deadly crackdown on demonstrators over the weekend.

From the Gaza Strip to Africa and…