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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 568

Sue Surkes

Sue Surkes

Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Remains of a large Neolithic settlement on alluvial soil in the Motza Valley near Jerusalem. (Amos Frumkin)
April 25, 2025, 7:43 am
Israeli study finds burst of fires 8,000 years ago forced humans to become farmers
Hebrew University researcher says lightning-ignited blazes transformed Levant’s landscape, ending hunter-gatherer lifestyle but creating perfect condition for birth of agriculture
By Sue Surkes
Illustrative. Heatwave. (iStock by Getty Images)
April 21, 2025, 9:53 pm
Israel’s July temperatures over past eight years were 2.8°C higher than 1950-1979
In run-up to Earth Day, Taub Center also reports 1.8 degree jump in year-round average Israeli temperatures for period of 2014 to 2024, compared to 1950 to 1979
By Sue Surkes
Police search for a diver who was attacked by a shark off the coast of Hadera, on April 21, 2025. (Israel Police)
April 21, 2025, 7:16 pm
Diver missing, feared dead, after rare shark attack off the coast of Hadera
‘They’re eating him,’ witnesses shout. ‘Nobody’s coming to save him’. Recent fish die-offs have attracted dusky and sandbar sharks to area, where swimming is prohibited
By Charlie Summers and Sue Surkes
A mural in Ofakim's Mishor Hagefen neighborhood honors those killed in the October 7, 2023, massacre, September 19, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
April 21, 2025, 6:47 am
A scarred Ofakim neighborhood grows into a community after October 7
After 52 people were murdered by Hamas terrorists during the onslaught, local residents pull together, finding comfort in communal activities, events and memorials
By Sue Surkes
An aerial view of sharks swimming in the shallow Mediterranean Sea water off the Israeli coastal town of Hadera, north of Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)
April 21, 2025, 1:47 am
Seasonal fish mortality draws sharks to central beach, alarming bathers
While fish die-offs are common in April as waters warm, and are known to attract sharks, the animals appear to have discovered Beit Yanai for the first time
By Sue Surkes
Dates harvested from 'Hannah,' the first female palm tree germinated from 2,000 year-old seeds discovered in the Judean desert, are displayed in Kibbutz Ketura in southern Israel, on September 27, 2021. (Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)
April 18, 2025, 10:11 am
Friday Focus with Sue Surkes: Israel’s biblical flora resurrected
In honor of this week’s spring holidays, ToI’s environment reporter describes a date palm that was brought back from the dead, a Rose of Jericho plant that resurrects itself and more
By Amanda Borschel-Dan and Sue Surkes
Armenian Christians, accompanied by Israeli volunteers, enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)
April 14, 2025, 10:51 pm
On Palm Sunday, Israeli volunteers escort Christian processions to report racist incidents
Volunteers from the Religious Freedom Data Center accompany Armenian, Latin, clerics to and from Church of Holy Sepulchre during their annual holy week ritual
By Sue Surkes
The stories of those who hid in a dumpster and were ultimately murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Nova festival near Kibbutz Re'im, southern Israel, on October 7, 2025, photographed on March 25, 2025. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)
April 13, 2025, 12:18 pm
Telling victims’ stories, artist turns Nova’s killing fields into a healing memorial
Teaming up with victims’ families and KKL-JNF, Amir Chodorov is working around the clock to commemorate the lives of each of the hundreds of people slaughtered there on October 7
By Sue Surkes
Unrecognized Bedouin villages around the Ramat Hovav industrial area in southern Israel suffer from a high level of air pollution from nearby chenical evaporation ponds and an Israel Electric Corporation power plant on December 28, 2017. (Yaniv Nadav/FLASH90)
April 12, 2025, 8:31 am
Pensions and savings schemes are key pathway to fighting climate crisis, confab told
First climate finance conference in Israel hears call for more government steps and action by individuals, warnings to business not to be left behind
By Sue Surkes
President Isaac Herzog (center bottom row), flanked by State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman (right) and Dov Khenin, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, April 3, 2025. (Amos Ben Gershom, Government Press Office)
April 7, 2025, 9:02 am
Government ‘treading water’ on climate crisis, state comptroller warns
Englman tells President’s Climate Forum his office places ‘special’ emphasis on monitoring sustainability, climate and environment, will issue two new reports this year
By Sue Surkes
Classmates and teachers of Druze children killed in a deadly missile attack at a soccer field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, visit the site, August 2, 2024. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)
April 6, 2025, 11:46 pm
Over 23,000 children and youth physically or mentally damaged by war – report
Israel Council for the Child unveils extent of loss, against backdrop of increased family violence, sexual abuse, suicide attempts by children aged 9 and younger
By Sue Surkes
Irrigating fields near the Gaza border in southern Israel, December 19, 2024. (Moshe Shai/FLASH90)
April 3, 2025, 9:13 am
Government amends Water Law to cut price for farmers
Agriculture Ministry, kibbutz and moshav movements, farmers’ federation, welcome move, which emphasizes speeding up the transition to using treated wastewater
By Sue Surkes
Israeli soldiers walking next to buildings destroyed by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, November 21, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
April 2, 2025, 4:53 pm
Kibbutz Nir Oz and state agree on $95 million budget to rebuild devastated community
Plan, expected to be approved by members’ assembly in coming days, will include building of new neighborhood for first returnees to the community worst-hit on Oct. 7
By Sue Surkes
The Eshkol power plant, Israel's largest natural gas powered plant, near the port of Ashdod. (Courtesy)
April 2, 2025, 12:51 pm
OECD urges higher carbon tax, especially on natural gas, to boost move to renewables
Noting that power generation in Israel uses highest share of fossil fuels in OECD, report says emissions from this sector are ‘strongly underpriced by international standards’
By Sue Surkes
Families attend an open day at Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, close to the Gaza and Egyptian borders in southern Israel, on March 28, 2025. (Courtesy)
April 1, 2025, 5:00 pm
Open day at religious-secular kibbutz on Gaza border draws 20 families wanting to join
Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, where members fought terrorists in deadly battles on October 7, is a ‘microcosm of Israeli society’ where decisions are reached by ‘listening to one another’
By Sue Surkes
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