Army official says no one will be punished after investigation into fatal shooting of Al Jazeera journalist
The Israeli army has said there is a “high possibility” a soldier killed an Al Jazeera journalist in May but that the shooting was accidental and no one will be punished.
Shireen Abu Aqleh was shot dead while covering Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank.
Continue reading...World Vision International worker accused of funnelling aid money to Hamas in trial largely held in secret
An Israeli court has sentenced the Gaza director of an international charity to 12 years in prison on allegations of funnelling aid money to Hamas, the end of a high-profile case mired in controversy and largely held in secret.
Disregarding UN concerns over a lack of evidence in the six-year case, the district court in the southern city of Beersheba said Mohammad el Halabi, who had been Gaza’s director for World Vision International, would have to serve six years in prison taking into account the deduction of the amount he was held during the trial.
Continue reading...Ex-peace figure Aviv Geffen sparks controversy with public repentance at concert in occupied West Bank
The Israeli rock star Aviv Geffen, once a symbol of the country’s peace movement, has sparked controversy by apologising for his past views during a concert at a fervently nationalistic settlement in the occupied West Bank.
The public repentance on Thursday at the Beit El settlement can be seen as a cultural milestone in Israel’s move further to the right and another nail in the coffin of the more peace-oriented legacy of the assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, with whom Geffen had been associated.
Continue reading...Traffic deaths dropped by only 4.7% in last decade, compared with a 31% fall worldwide
When Islamic Jihad, the second largest militant group in the Gaza Strip, fired about 1,000 rockets at Israel during an unexpected flare-up of violence earlier this month, most were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system, and no Israelis were seriously hurt or killed.
On the country’s roads, however, it was a different story. In the same week, 19 people were killed in traffic incidents during a wave of particularly serious crashes.
Continue reading...Damage to Vermont-based company’s reputation of licensee’s sales in occupied Palestinian territories ‘too speculative’, US judge rules
Ben & Jerry’s has lost its attempt to block its parent company Unilever from selling its ice-cream in West Bank settlements, which the US firm said would run counter to its values.
The company, known for its political activism, took the unusual step seeking an injunction after London-based Unilever announced it had sold its interest in the ice-cream to an Israeli license-holder.
Continue reading...Employees at Bank Leumi near Tel Aviv fled as bovid hurtled through building
Employees of an Israeli bank were sent fleeing down corridors on Monday as a bull charged through the building.
The incident at a Bank Leumi branch in an industrial zone in Lod, south-east of Tel Aviv, started in the car park.
Continue reading...Exclusive: sources say report shows CIA unable to find evidence to support Israeli claim, but finding does not prompt US rebuttal
A classified CIA report shows the agency was unable to find any evidence to support Israel’s decision to label six prominent Palestinian NGOs as “terrorist organizations”.
In October, Israel labeled as terror groups Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International–Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees.
Continue reading...CEO Shalev Hulio is stepping down as part of NSO reorganisation that will see it focus on sales in Nato member countries
Israel’s NSO Group, which makes the globally controversial Pegasus spyware said on Sunday its CEO Shalev Hulio would step down as part of a reorganisation.
The indebted, privately owned company also said it would focus sales on countries belonging to the Nato alliance.
Continue reading...Controversial plan to fly people from occupied West Bank to Turkey has been paused
A controversial plan to allow Palestinians to fly to Turkey from southern Israel’s Ramon airport has been shelved on the eve of the first scheduled departure.
Israel’s airport authority announced earlier this month that Ramon in the Negev desert, near the Red Sea city of Eilat, would begin allowing Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to travel on Turkish-operated flights to Antalya and Istanbul from 22 August.
Continue reading...Property confiscated in move decried as ‘appalling attack’ on Palestinian civil society in occupied West Bank
Israeli forces have raided the offices of six Palestinian human rights groups in the occupied West Bank that it previously accused of being terrorist organisations, a move decried as an “appalling attack” on Palestinian civil society.
Property belonging to the prominent advocacy groups was confiscated and entrance doors sealed by soldiers in the early hours of Thursday.
Continue reading...Comments by foreign minister come moments after Israeli PM announces full resumption of diplomatic ties
Turkey has said its decision to restore diplomatic relations with Israel after a decade of tensions does not mean it will abandon its support for Palestinians.
The comments by the foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, came moments after the Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, announced the resumption of full diplomatic relations, including the reappointment of ambassadors.
Continue reading...German chancellor condemns remarks morning after joint press conference with Palestinian leader
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts”, at a joint press conference with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin, drawing condemnation from Germany and Israel.
At the end of his state visit to Germany’s chancellory on Tuesday night, Abbas was asked by a German journalist whether he planned to apologise for the deadly attack by Palestinian militants on Israeli citizens at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the 50th anniversary of which is on 5 September.
Continue reading...Songwriter behind hits including 1998 Eurovision winner, and Quentin Tarantino’s father-in-law, dies at home
Svika Pick, a prolific songwriter and musician who was known as Israel’s “king of pop” and by the moniker the Maestro, has died at the age of 72.
He died on Sunday in his home. The cause of death is yet to be announced.
Continue reading...Two victims including pregnant woman in serious condition, according to Israeli hospital officials, while police say suspected attacker turned himself in
A gunman opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem’s Old City early on Sunday, wounding eight Israelis in a suspected Palestinian attack that came a week after violence flared between Israel and militants in Gaza, police and medics said.
Two of the victims were in serious condition, including a pregnant woman with abdominal injuries and a man with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to Israeli hospitals treating them.
Continue reading...The removal of Slingshot Rat has sparked debate over the legality of taking cultural artefacts from occupied land
A lost Banksy piece originally spray painted to protest against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank has resurfaced in a Tel Aviv gallery, sparking debate over the role of public art and the legality of removing cultural artefacts from occupied land.
Slingshot Rat, a stencil painting, appeared on a concrete block at an abandoned Israeli army position in Bethlehem next to a section of the wall in 2007, one of several works in the Palestinian town created in secret. Some time later, the painting was obscured and graffitied with the words, “RIP Banksy Rat”, and eventually cut out and removed by unknown persons.
Continue reading...Many areas are still without water and electricity following three days of Israeli airstrikes
In Shujaiya, a neighbourhood of Gaza City already scarred by several rounds of war, men passed around coffee and dates under the shade of a colourful mourning tent while Palestinian Islamic Jihad battle songs blared from sound systems.
About a dozen men carrying AK-47s, their faces shielded by black balaclavas, lined the entrance to the tent, and the militant group’s black and yellow flag flew overhead.
Continue reading...Joe Biden welcomes ceasefire agreed after three days of conflict triggered by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza Strip
A truce between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad has taken effect in the Gaza Strip after three days of cross-border fighting triggered by surprise Israeli airstrikes.
US president Joe Biden welcomed the agreement on Sunday, and called on all parties to “fully implement the ceasefire, and to ensure fuel and humanitarian supplies are flowing into Gaza as the fighting subsides”.
Continue reading...Health authorities in Palestinian enclave report 15 dead in Israeli attacks targeting Islamic Jihad
Residents of the Gaza Strip were bracing for the possibility of a new round of war on Saturday after two days of “pre-emptive” Israeli airstrikes against a Palestinian militant group.
Israeli warplanes hit several sites in the blockaded territory on Friday, part of a surprise operation named “Breaking Dawn” that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said thwarted alleged planned rocket attacks by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Continue reading...Palestinian officials say at least 10 dead after Israel said it was preparing to ‘remove the threat from this region’
Israeli warplanes struck numerous sites in the Gaza Strip on Friday in what Israel said was a preemptive strike against Palestinian factions allegedly planning rocket strikes at targets in Israel.
Palestinian health officials reported that at least 10 people died and 55 were wounded in an initial barrage which killed the commander of Islamic Jihad, Tayseer Jabari, in the north of Gaza. Among the fatalities was an eight-year-old girl.
Continue reading...Palestinian authorities confirm death of two men and say six more were wounded during clash in Nablus
Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian fighters in a pre-dawn clash in the occupied West Bank and attacked a fishing boat off the Gaza Strip coast that was accused of smuggling in Hamas supplies from Egypt.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade militant group claimed the two Palestinians killed on Sunday at a house in Nablus as its members. The Palestinian health ministry said six others were wounded.
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