Israel Active

Gan Guru in Beit She’an is the only animal park outside Australia with kangaroos that roam freely. 20 Gan Guru kangaroos flew from Israel as part of a donation to the Moscow Zoo. They were flown via Abu Dhabi by Etihad Cargo, which also flew 6 zebras from Israel to India.  

Israelis won 17 medals at the IMMAF European Championship in Serbia. 15-year-old Guy Pariente and Alon Avital won gold. Maya Day and Maya Behar won gold at the JJIF Genoa Open Ju-Jitsu Grand Prix in Italy. Israeli windsurfer Sharon Kantor won silver at the iQFOiL International in Spain.

Israel’s women fencing team won the gold medal in Abu Dhabi while the men’s squad captured gold in Switzerland. Meanwhile, Noa Szőllős earned Israel’s first-ever World Cup points in alpine skiing, in the slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.  

For the first ever time the Israeli bobsleigh team has qualified for the Winter Olympic Games. Even when they were robbed of their passports and thousands of dollars of money, equipment and accessories, they went straight back into training, showing true Israeli spirit.

Some 140 of the season’s first storks have arrived at the Hula Lake Park, marking the start of the major spring migration. The male birds fly in first, in order to build or reinforce existing nests before the females arrive. An estimated 600,000 storks will pass over Israeli skies in the coming months.

The Real Jerusalem Streets celebrated the 102nd birthday of the world’s oldest journalist and radio personality Walter Bingham. At his Jerusalem home, Walter hosted US Ambassador Mike Huckabee and Janet, his wife.

The ski resort at Mount Hermon opened to visitors for the first time this year, after snow piled on Israel’s highest mountain. Entry to the site requires booking in advance via the Ski Hermon website and nearby lodging facilities are nearly fully booked. The IDF has trained to protect visitors.

The most popular marathon in the world – the Dead Sea Marathon – on 6 Feb 2026 is already sold out. This marathon in the lowest place in the world, allows runners to cross the sea on salt embankments in a desert landscape.

Israeli wine lovers gathered in Tel Aviv for Sommelier, the country’s largest annual winery exhibition. Its popularity signaled a recovery to the whole wine industry. Israel’s 300 wineries produce 40-45 million bottles of wine annually.

A new exhibition, marking the 10th anniversary of the Friends of Zion Museum (FOZ) in Jerusalem, has interactive holograms of most of the 14 prime ministers who have led Israel from 1948, beginning with David Ben-Gurion and ending with Benjamin Netanyahu.