Israel welcomed a U.S. aid package signed by President Biden on Wednesday that will send about $15 billion in military aid to Israel, increasing American support for its closest Middle East ally despite strains in their relationship over Israel’s prosecution of the war in the Gaza Strip. “Our alliance is ironclad,” Israel Katz, the country’s foreign minister, said in a …

Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday said he intended to call President Biden and demand that he take action, including potentially sending in the National Guard, to quell pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University that he said had grown violent and antisemitic. “There is executive authority that would be appropriate,” Mr. Johnson said during a news conference on the steps of Low …

“The main goal,” the report found, is not the conquest of Rafah but “to prevent arms and weapons smuggling.” The current protocol between Israel and Egypt, agreed on when Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, assigns Egypt to secure the border with a force of 750 soldiers equipped to combat terrorism and smuggling. Israeli officials say …