IDF kills Gaza terrorist, uncovers tunnel network
(JNS) — Israeli forces operating in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 26 shot and killed a terrorist who crossed the Yellow Line and approached troops, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Separately, the army reported that troops from the 98th Paratroopers Division located and dismantled tunnel routes spanning about three miles in the Beit Hanoun area during engineering operations east of the Yellow Line in the northeastern Strip.
Soldiers also discovered a weapons cache containing explosives, grenades, launchers, rifles and RPG rockets.
The IDF said its troops remain deployed under the ceasefire agreement and will continue operations to eliminate immediate threats and secure the western Negev.
‘Newsweek’ ranks Israel’s Sheba Medical Center seventh-best globally
(JNS) — Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer in Ramat Gan ranked seventh globally in Newsweek‘s “World’s Best Hospitals 2026” list released on Feb. 25, the highest-ever position for an Israeli institution.
The Israeli medical center climbed one spot from last year, when Newsweek ranked it the eighth-best hospital in the world, the highest rating for an Asian or Israeli hospital.
This year, Sheba came in after world-renowned medical institutions such as the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., which ranked sixth.
Sheba said in a statement that the 2026 ranking marked its eighth consecutive year in the top 10 of Newsweek’s “distinguished list.”
“The additional rise in the rankings (from 8th place last year to 7th this year) reflects Sheba’s transformation into an AI-driven medical center, integrating artificial intelligence into the core of its clinical, research and administrative operations,” according to the hospital statement.
Professor Yitshak Kreiss, Sheba’s director-general, stated, “We decided to position Sheba at the heart of the global digital transformation of medicine, and within it to lead at the forefront of the AI revolution.
“The combination of medical excellence, public responsibility and an innovative spirit is what places Sheba at the top tier worldwide and enables us to continue moving Israel forward,” Kreiss added.
Bill that would effectively bar egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall advances in Israel’s Knesset
(JNS) — A bill that would strengthen the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate’s control over the Western Wall, introducing steep penalties for “desecration” of the holy site, advanced in Israel’s parliament with the support of nearly half of all lawmakers.
If enacted, prayer practices associated with the largest denominations of American Jewry could be punishable by a prison sentence of up to seven years.
The development does not mean that the bill, which was introduced by a religious extremist lawmaker, will ultimately become law. Still, it underscores the strength of Israel’s right-wing voting bloc and is alarming advocates for pluralism, including many American Jewish leaders.
“The Knesset has taken a dangerous step toward declaring war on Jewish unity and religious pluralism,” Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of the Conservative/Masorti movement, who previously criticized the legislation in an essay coauthored by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the leader of the Reform movement. “By advancing legislation that would criminalize religious services at the Kotel unless approved by the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate, the government is embracing extremism over pluralism. This measure would strip millions of Israeli and Diaspora Jews of our religious freedom at Judaism’s holiest site.”
Women of the Wall, which organizes monthly demonstrations advocating for the right of women to pray communally at the wall, called it “a black day for the State of Israel.”
IDF soldier visiting parents secretly extracted from Turkey
(JNS) — An IDF soldier visiting her parents in Turkey, who was arrested by Turkish authorities after calls by Islamic groups in Ankara to imprison her, was spirited out of the country in an under-the-radar mission on Feb. 18, Israel’s Channel 12 revealed on Feb. 25.
Few details about the mission to bring the young woman home were given in the report, except that pressure by Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and the United States were key to winning her release. That pressure overcame the Islamist groups, who had filed a complaint with Turkish legal authorities and demanded that she not be allowed to leave the Anatolian country.
The soldier, a dual Turkish-Israeli citizen, had been held in jail for several hours and then remanded to house arrest for several days. The offense was serving in a foreign army.
Yaron Avraham, Channel 12’s political correspondent, said the incident raises to the fore the vulnerability of some 50,000 IDF soldiers with dual citizenship, who may face similar threats. IDF soldiers have also been targeted for arrest while on vacation.
The specter of Israeli soldiers being arrested while visiting foreign countries came to the attention of the Israeli public last year when in January 2025, an Israel Defense Forces reservist on vacation in Brazil was forced to flee the country, aided by the personal intervention of Israel’s foreign minister.
