Yoav Gallant

Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias concluded his one-day visit to Israel on Monday.

Dendias met with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant. Following their meeting the two ministers participated in bilateral talks between the two countries' delegations that focused on further strengthening the Greece-Israel collaboration in the defense sector.

New Defence Minister Nikos Dendias discussed Greek-Israeli relations with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in a phone call on Monday, the minister said. 

The two officials focused on "the security and stability in the wider region," Dendias said on Twitter, adding that Gallant invited him to visit Israel at his earliest convenience.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night paused a judicial overhaul that triggered a general strike, political division and mass protests in the country's most severe domestic crisis in years.

The proposed reforms would curtail the authority of the Supreme Court and give politicians greater powers over the selection of judges.

The situation in Israel is getting more and more complicated. There will be no flights from Ben Gurion International Airport until further notice as part of a large-scale strike announced by the Labor Union on Monday morning to protest judicial reform. This was announced by the chairman of the Committee of Airport Authorities of Israel, Pinchas Idan, quoted by the Jerusalem Post.

Tens of thousands of Israelis staged a spontaneous protest after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired the defense minister over his opposition to controversial judicial reform.

Lebanese Hezbollah militant leader Samir Qantar was killed in an Israeli air strike in Damascus early on Dec. 20, the Lebanese group and Syrian government sources said.

Israel welcomed his death, saying he had been preparing attacks on it from Syrian soil, but stopped short of confirming responsibility for the strike that killed him.