1 January – Israel reaches the milestone of one million COVID-19 vaccinations, over 11% of the population, since the inoculation campaign began on 20 December 2020.[1]
8 February – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears in the Jerusalem District Court for a hearing in his corruption trial and formally denies the charges against him.[9]
20 February – More than half of Israel's Mediterranean coastline is contaminated by tar from oil spilled at sea, causing a major ecological disaster including widespread death of marine and coastal wildlife and illness to a number of volunteers who assist with clean up on the beaches.[11]
30 April - During a mass gathering in Meron to celebrate Lag BaOmer, 45 people are crushed to death while trying to exit through a narrow passage.[16] Most victims belong to the Toldot Aharon hasidic movement.[17]
May
6 May –Violent clashes occur between Palestinians rioters and Israeli police in Sheikh Jarrah and the Old City of Jerusalem.[18]
10–21 May – Israel conducts aerial attacks dubbed "Operation Guardian of the Walls" in response to Hamas rocket attacks into Israeli territory – during the eleven-day campaign, more than 4,360 rockets and mortar shells are fired at Israel, of which 3,573 penetrate Israeli airspace, about 680 fall short inside the Gaza Strip and about 280 fall into the sea; the Iron Dome aerial defense system intercepts about 90% of the rocket fire; eleven Israeli civilians are directly killed by the rocket and mortar fire, two die as they run for shelter, several hundred are injured, and one soldier is killed when an anti-tank rocket hit his jeep; the rocket attacks force millions of civilians into bomb shelters and disrupt routine daily life throughout the country.[19][20]
10–17 May –Arab-Israeli protests and riots occur, particularly in towns with large Arab populations, and in intercommunal violence, Arab rioters set ten synagogues and 112 Jewish homes on fire, loot 386 Jewish homes and damaged another 673, and set 849 Jewish cars on fire and there are 5,018 recorded instances of stone-throwing against Jews; Jewish rioters damaged 13 Arab homes and set 13 Arab cars on fire, and there are 41 recorded instances of stone-throwing against Arabs; several people from both communities are severely injured and two die.[21][22]
16 May – Three killed and over 200 wounded on the night of Shavuot, due to a collapse of a tribune in a synagogue of the Carlin Stolin Hasidim in Givat Zeev.[23]
15 June – The Health Ministry repeals the requirement for vaccinated adults in Israel to wear masks in most circumstances, as case numbers of COVID-19 fall to their lowest numbers since the start of the national vaccination campaign in December.[32]
24 June – During a state visit to Israel, Honduran PresidentJuan Orlando Hernández opens his country's embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, the fourth country in recent years to do so.[33]
25 June – Health authorities reintroduce the requirement to wear face masks in all closed spaces as the number of COVID-19 cases rise again, primarily among unvaccinated children with the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus.[34][35]
27 June – The government appoints a three-member commission led by former chief justice Miriam Naor to investigate the disaster at Mount Meron in April, which left 45 people dead and over 150 wounded.[36]
11 July – The High Court rules that a provision of the Surrogacy Law, which prevents single men and same-sex couples from entering into a surrogacy arrangement must be amended to remove the restriction.[40]
18 July – A scandal uncovered by media organizations revealed that the Pegasus spyware sold by the Israeli firm NSO to several countries was used to spy on activists, journalists, lawyers and politicians.[41]
1 August – Artem Dolgopyat wins the gold medal in artistic gymnastics, Israel's third medal of the 2020 Summer Olympics and second-ever Olympic gold.[48]
7 August – Linoy Ashram wins the gold medal in rhythmic gymnastics, and becomes the first Israeli woman athlete to win gold at the Olympics.[49]
August
1 August – COVID-19 pandemic in Israel: Israel begins giving a third dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 to people above 60 in light of an outbreak of the Delta variant of the virus.[50]
8 August – Restrictions renewed by the government come into effect to slow the spread of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus and include expanding proof of vaccine and mask-wearing requirements for some gatherings, and a shift back to more remote work, quarantines, and travel restrictions.[51][52]
12 August COVID-19 pandemic in Israel: Israel begins giving a third dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 to people above 50.[53]
14 August – Israel issues a strong protest and downgrades its diplomatic representation to Poland following the enactment in Poland of a law that establishes a 30-year limit on administrative challenges to private property claims and effectively prevents restitution to heirs of property stolen by the Nazis in the Holocaust.[54]
15–17 August – Wildfires rage in the outskirts of Jerusalem, burning some 6,200 acres of forest in three days.[55][56]
22 August – Dani Dayan is appointed the new chairman of the Yad VashemHolocaust memorial museum, succeeding Avner Shalev who had retired after 27 years as the head of the institution.[58]
2 September – Ami Omer Dadaon wins his second gold medal and third medal overall for swimming in the men's 50 m freestyle S4.[67]
26 August – The Israeli Supreme Court rejects a claim by Moroccan immigrants to Israel that they be recognized as Holocaust victims who suffered under the Vichy race laws in Morocco during World War II and be granted state compensation payments, on the grounds that Moroccan authorities acted against Jews on their own accord, without being forced to do so by Nazi Germany.[68]
6 September – The sabbatical year, when most farmland in Israel is left to lie fallow in accordance with Jewish law, begins with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah for the Hebrew calendar year 5782.[72]
12 September – An apartment building in Holon collapses, destroying the homes of 36 families but without any casualties, the building having been evacuated the previous day.[73]
25 September – Five members of Hamas are killed in the West Bank during an Israeli operation to arrest operatives suspected of planning a series of terrorist attacks in Israel.[76]
4 October – Prime Minister Bennett reveals that Mossad kidnapped an Iranian general in Syria to uncover information on the whereabouts of missing pilot Ron Arad.[78]
6 October – During a state visit to Ukraine, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier attend the inauguration of a memorial to victims of Babyn Yar on the 80th anniversary of the Nazi massacre of 33,000 Jews in a ravine near Kiev in September 1941.[79]
20 October – The United Arab Emirates and Israel announce plans for a joint space exploration deal that will include a second moon-shot of Israel's Beresheet craft in 2024.[86]
5 November – After a marathon and often acrimonious session, the Knesset passes the 2021 and 2022 state budgets, the country's first approved national budgets in three and half years, and avoids triggering another round of early elections as a result.[92][93]
23 November – The COVID-19 vaccination campaign for children aged 5–11 begins, seeking to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in schools and close the main remaining gap in the country's push for national immunity from the pandemic.[97]
24 November – In Rabat, Morocco, Minister of DefenseBenny Gantz and his Moroccan counterpart, Abdellatif Loudiyi, sign a memorandum of understanding on defense between Israel and Morocco, the first such agreement between Israel and an Arab state formalizing defense ties and cooperation.[99]
26 November – Israel announces a ban on foreigners entering the country to curb the spread of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19.[100]
December
6 December – Israel signs the Horizon Europe agreement with the EU despite the exclusion of Israeli settlements.[101]
7 December – Israel finishes building a 65-kilometer underground barrier in its border with Gaza to deal with the threat of cross-border tunnels.[102]
12 December – Archeologists announce the discovery of a 2,000-year-old synagogue from the Second Temple period in the town of Migdal, in the Galilee region.[104]
14 December – Researchers from Tel Aviv University, Sheba Medical Center and from institutes in Europe and the United States announce that they have uncovered a mechanism that may unlock a way to delay or reverse the causes of the neurodegenerative diseaseALS, for which there is currently no treatment.[106]
16 December – an Israeli man is killed, and two others are injured, in a shooting near Homesh in the northern West Bank by gunmen suspected to belong to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.[107][108]
17 December – Anastasia Gorbenko wins the first gold medal for Israel at the World Swimming Championships for the 50-meter breaststroke, followed by a second gold medal in the 100-meter individual medley two days later.[109]
20 December – The Carmel storm hits Israel with heavy rainfall and strong winds.[110]
27 December – An outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in Northern Israel kills thousands of migratory cranes, and hundreds of thousands of domestic poultry are culled in a bid to halt the spread of the disease.[111]
30 December – The Central Bureau of Statistics releases data showing that 9.449 million people live in Israel at the end of 2021, of whom 6.982 million (74%) are Jewish, 1.99 million (21%) are Arab and 472,000 (5%) are neither.[112][113]
8 October – Mordechai Geldman (b. 1946), psychologist, poet, writer, artist, art critic and curator, and recipient of the Bialik Prize for lifetime achievements.[168]
"Polish president approves WWII restitution law, defying Israel and US". The Times of Israel. 2021-08-14. Retrieved 2021-08-15. Poland's president approved a law on Saturday that will effectively prevent future restitution to the heirs of property seized by the Nazis during the Holocaust, defying strong opposition from Israel and the United States.
"אבל בהפועל פ"ת: הלך לעולמו עמיחי שהם"[Mourning at Hapoel Petach Tikva: Amichai Shoham has passed away]. Maariv Sport 1 (in Hebrew). 2021-05-25. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
"אבל בכדורסל הישראלי: יעקב אדלר נפטר"[Mourning in Israeli Basketball: Yaacov Adler has died]. ONE - מספר אחד בספורט (in Hebrew). 2021-12-27. Retrieved 2022-01-04.