Category Archives: Israel

Family of man who died in Israeli detention rejects claim about deal

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Relatives of Palestinian Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad, 78, say no settlement has been reached with Israeli defence ministry

The family of an elderly Palestinian-American man who died after being forcibly detained by Israeli soldiers has disputed a claim from Israel’s defence ministry that the parties have reached a compensation settlement.

In a rare case of compensation for a Palestinian claim of wrongdoing by Israeli forces, on Sunday the defence ministry said in a statement that it had reached a settlement with the family of 78-year-old Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad.

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Israel and Lebanon reach ‘historic’ maritime border deal

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Israeli PM hails agreement that would mark significant compromise and may open way for energy exploration

Israel and Lebanon have reportedly agreed a deal in a dispute over gas fields and the two countries’ maritime border, a groundbreaking diplomatic achievement that could boost natural gas production in the Mediterranean before the European winter begins.

Yair Lapid, Israel’s prime minister, said on Tuesday that months of US-brokered negotiations had resulted in a “historic agreement” between the two nations, which have technically been at war since Israel’s creation in 1948. The deal would “strengthen Israel’s security, inject billions into Israel’s economy, and ensure the stability of our northern border”, he added.

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Russian pop star who criticised Ukraine war says she is in Israel

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Alla Pugacheva, whose husband has been declared a ‘foreign agent’, denounced invasion three weeks ago

The Russian pop singer Alla Pugacheva has said she is in Israel, three weeks after she publicly criticised Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine when Moscow declared her husband a “foreign agent”.

“I thank my multimillion army of fans for their love and support, for the ability to distinguish truth from lies,” the 73-year-old, known as the “queen of Soviet pop music”, said in an Instagram post on Monday.

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Israel says it is to compensate family of Palestinian who died after detention

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Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad was subjected to force by IDF soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint

Israel says it has reached a settlement with the family of a Palestinian-American man who died after soldiers used force to detain him, in a rare case of compensation for a Palestinian claim of wrongdoing by Israeli forces.

Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad, 78, was detained at a checkpoint in Jiljilya in the occupied West Bank in January and “apprehended after resisting a check”, according to an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) statement. He was handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded for between 20 minutes and an hour, and found by locals after the soldiers left.

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Welby voices concern over potential move of British embassy to Jerusalem

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Archbishop of Canterbury joins others worried about impact Tel Aviv switch could have on Palestinian peace talks

The archbishop of Canterbury has expressed concern about the potential for the British embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The UK prime minister, Liz Truss, told her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid at the United Nations summit in New York last month that she was considering the relocation.

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Palestinian petitions UK for apology over alleged abuses during British rule

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Munib al-Masri has 300-page dossier of allegations including killings and torture between 1917 and 1948

A Palestinian businessman and former politician is to petition the UK government for an apology for abuses in the region during the period of British rule in the first half of the 20th century.

Munib al-Masri, 88, a close friend and supporter of the late Palestinian political leader Yasser Arafat, has with two international lawyers drawn up a 300-page dossier of evidence alleging abuses by the British between 1917 and 1948, the BBC reported.

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Benjamin Netanyahu hospitalised with chest pains during Yom Kippur

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Israel’s former PM kept for overnight observation after feeling unwell during synagogue services

Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been taken to hospital after feeling unwell during the Jewish fasting day of Yom Kippur.

Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, said Netanyahu, 72, was taken to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital after feeling chest pains while attending synagogue services. Local media quoted the hospital as saying he underwent a series of tests that came out normal, but was being kept under observation overnight.

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Arab diplomats urge Liz Truss not to move British embassy to Jerusalem

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Private letter says ‘illegal’ plan could jeopardise free trade deal between UK and Gulf Cooperation Council

Arab ambassadors in London are urging Liz Truss not to go ahead with “an illegal and ill-judged” plan to move the British embassy to Jerusalem.

Some Arab diplomats have even said the plan could jeopardise talks on a highly prized free trade deal between the UK and the Gulf Cooperation Council due to be completed this year.

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Human rights lawyer in Israeli prison goes on hunger strike

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Salah Hamouri stages protest against being imprisoned without charge for the last six months

A prominent Palestinian-French human rights lawyer has gone on hunger strike in protest against his imprisonment without charge by Israeli authorities for the last six months.

Salah Hamouri, 37, a father of two from occupied East Jerusalem, has been held in administrative detention since 7 March, and his detention order has been renewed until at least early December based on undisclosed evidence.

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US senators refuse to let killing of Shireen Abu Akleh drop with Israel

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The state department seems keen to avoid questions about the Palestinian American journalist’s shooting by an Israeli soldier

Israel has declared the case closed. The US state department has done its best to duck difficult questions. But leading members of the US Congress are refusing to drop demands for a proper accounting of the death of the Palestinian American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, four months ago.

The longest-serving member of the US Senate, Patrick Leahy, recently upped the ante by warning that Israel’s failure to fully explain the Al-Jazeera reporter’s killing could jeopardize America’s huge military aid to the Jewish state under a law he sponsored 25 years ago cutting weapons supplies to countries that abuse human rights.

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Liz Truss could follow Trump and move UK embassy to Jerusalem

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PM considering breaking with decades of British foreign policy by relocating UK embassy in Israel

Liz Truss has said she is considering relocating the British embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a controversial move that would break with decades of UK foreign policy in order to follow in the footsteps of Donald Trump.

In a meeting on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York, the prime minister told Israel’s caretaker leader, Yair Lapid, about a “review of the current location” of the building, Downing Street said in a statement.

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Palestinian accused of killing elderly Israeli woman dies in apparent suicide

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Police had been searching for Mousa Sarsour after attack on Shulamit Ovadia, 84, near her home in Holon

A Palestinian suspect accused of beating an 84-year-old Jewish Israeli woman to death near Tel Aviv has been found dead, ending a massive police manhunt.

The woman, named by Israeli media as Shulamit Ovadia, was attacked on a street near her home in the city of Holon on Tuesday afternoon.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.

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‘It’s going to explode’: young Palestinians look to the gun amid Israeli offensive

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Israel’s Operation Breakwater aims to reduce the enemy’s ability to attack, but seems to be galvanising a new generation of fighters

There is almost nothing left of the Ottoman-era house in the old city of Nablus where Ibrahim al-Nablusi, an 18-year-old fighter with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, made his final stand against the Israeli army.

Every inch of the remaining walls and ceiling is pockmarked by bullet holes; witnesses said that after a gun battle lasting hours, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) used shoulder-launched rockets to blast open the metal doors. The missiles brought down heavy stonework that crushed the immensely popular young “Lion of Nablus”, wanted for shooting attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.

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Israeli archaeologists find traces of opium in 3,500-year-old pottery

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Archaeologists say find supports theory that drug was used in burial rituals, possibly to ‘enter ecstatic state’

Israeli archaeologists have discovered opium residue in 3,500-year-old pottery pieces, providing evidence to support the theory that the hallucinogenic drug was used in ancient burial rituals.

The joint investigation by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Weizmann Institute of Science began in 2012 when excavations in the central Israeli town of Yehud revealed a series of late bronze-age graves.

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Israel risks crossing Hezbollah ‘red line’ as it prepares to connect to disputed gas field

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The Karish maritime reservoir, part of which is claimed by Lebanon, is estimated to hold 2-3tn cubic feet of natural gas

Israel is preparing to connect a disputed Mediterranean gas field to its national gas network, a development helping the country cement its new role as a supplier to Europe at the risk of inflaming tensions with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The Israeli energy ministry said last week that it would conduct tests on the rig and natural transmission system in the Karish maritime reservoir, part of which is claimed by neighbouring Lebanon. The work is expected to begin on Tuesday, and London-listed company Energean, which has licensed the field, has said that it is “on track to deliver [the] first gas from the Karish development project within weeks.”

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Benjamin Netanyahu gets campaign show on the road in ‘Bibibus’

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Former Israeli prime minister rallies supporters from behind bulletproof glass of modified delivery van

As Israel prepares to head to the ballot box for the fifth time in less than four years, the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has turned to a new gimmick in the hope of energising a weary electorate: the “Bibibus”.

Likened to the popemobile or an aquarium, the rightwing Likud party leader is on the campaign trail in a modified delivery van, one of the sides of which has been replaced with bulletproof glass.

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Israeli airstrike on Damascus airport kills five Syrian troops – reports

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The bombings also targeted the countryside, according to Syrian state media, and reportedly killed two Iranians as well

An Israeli airstrike near Damascus airport has killed five Syrian soldiers, according to state media in Syria.

“The aggression led to the death of five soldiers and some material damage,” Syria’s official news agency Sana quoted a military source as saying on Saturday.

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Israel warns over Iran uranium capability with nuclear talks at halt

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As IAEA board meets, Israel says Iran will be able to produce enough material for three warheads in weeks

Tensions around a breakdown in talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme escalated on Monday when Israel’s defence minister, Benny Gantz, claimed that Iran would be able to produce enough enriched uranium to make three nuclear warheads within a few weeks.

Gantz also revealed a map detailing 10 facilities in Syria allegedly being used to arm Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah. He said the facilities represented a threat to Israel’s security.

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Housekeeper to Israel’s defence minister jailed for offering to spy on his employer

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Omri Goren Gorochovsky admitted contacting Black Shadow hacking collective linked to Iran

A housekeeper who worked for Israel’s defence minister has been jailed for offering to spy on his employer for an Iran-linked hacking group.

Omri Goren Gorochovsky, a resident of the central city of Lod, was sentenced to three years in prison by an Israeli court on Tuesday after being found guilty of attempting to pass on information to an enemy entity. Initial espionage charges were dropped under a plea deal.

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US senator rejects Israeli army report on killing of Palestinian American reporter

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Chris Van Hollen calls for independent US inquiry, saying IDF claim Shireen Abu Aqleh died amid gun battle unsupported by evidence

A US senator has dismissed an Israeli army report that claims a soldier accidentally killed the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh in the midst of a gun battle, saying it is unsupported by the evidence.

Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic senator for Maryland, repeated his call for an independent US investigation into Abu Aqleh’s killing in the West Bank in May, saying that the United Nations and reconstructions by major news outlets found that the Al Jazeera television journalist was not in the immediate vicinity of fighting with Palestinian militants and could not have been caught in the crossfire.

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