A sword believed to have belonged to a crusader who sailed to the Holy Land almost a millennium ago has been recovered from the Mediterranean seabed thanks to a sharp-eyed amateur diver. Though encrusted with marine organisms, the metre-long blade, hilt and handle became noticeable after undercurrents apparently shifted sands that had concealed it. The location, a natural cove near the port city of Haifa, suggested it had served as a shelter for seafarers, said Yaakov Sharvit, director of the authority's marine archaeology unit. The sword, believed to be about 900 years old, will be put on display after it is cleaned and restored
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Sharp-eyed diver finds crusader’s ancient sword on Israeli seabed
Metre-long relic, encrusted with marine organisms, is believed to be about 900 years old
A sword believed to have belonged to a crusader who sailed to the Holy Land almost a millennium ago has been recovered from the Mediterranean seabed thanks to an eagle-eyed amateur diver, the Israel Antiquities Authority has said.
Though encrusted with marine organisms, the metre-long blade, hilt and handle were distinctive enough to notice after undercurrents apparently shifted sands that had concealed it.
Continue reading...‘It feels really natural’: hundreds pose nude for Spencer Tunick shoot near Dead Sea
US artist returns to site for third time to highlight plight of Dead Sea, which is receding by about a metre a year
Hundreds of models wearing only white body paint have walked across a stark desert expanse near the Dead Sea, part of the latest photography project of American artist Spencer Tunick.
The 54-year-old photographer visited the spot in southern Israel as a guest of the tourism ministry to portray for the third time the shrinking Dead Sea via nude subjects.
Continue reading...Hawks on all sides ready to swoop if Iran drags feet on nuclear talks
The regime in Tehran says discussions will resume ‘soon’, but Israel has already ‘greatly accelerated’ plans for military action
Coordinated warnings last week from the US, Israel and the EU that “time is short” to revive an agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear activities raise a disturbing question: what will opposing governments do if, as seems likely, Tehran’s hardline regime continues to drag its feet while accumulating the wherewithal to build a nuclear weapon?
Israel’s leaders, as usual, are not mincing words. “Every day that passes, every delay in the negotiations, brings Iran closer to a nuclear bomb. If a terror regime is going to acquire a nuclear weapon, we must act. We must make clear that the civilised world won’t allow it,” said foreign minister Yair Lapid.
Continue reading...Sally Rooney turns down Israeli translation on political grounds
The writer has refused to sell Hebrew translation rights to her latest novel Beautiful World, Where Are You due to her stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict
Sally Rooney has turned down an offer from the Israeli publisher that translated her two previous novels into Hebrew, due to her stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The Irish author’s second novel Normal People was translated into 46 languages, and it was expected that Beautiful World, Where Are You would reach a similar number. However, Hebrew translation rights have not yet been sold, despite the publisher Modan putting in a bid.
Continue reading...Reports of mysterious Mossad operation to find Israeli airman confirmed
Israel prime minister tells Knesset of ‘bold’ mission concerned with fate of missing navigator Lt Col Ron Arad
The Israeli spy agency, the Mossad, launched a complex intelligence operation last month to find information on the whereabouts and fate of an Israeli airman who was shot down over southern Lebanon in 1986.
The existence of the operation to find Lt Col Ron Arad, a navigator on an Israeli jet whose plane went down during a bombing raid, was confirmed by the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, who told the country’s parliament on Monday that he could share no more details of the “courageous mission”.
Continue reading...Israel accuses Iran of attack attempt against Israelis in Cyprus
Nicosia says an armed individual was arrested after crossing from Turkish-controlled north
Israel has accused Iran of orchestrating an attempted attack against Israelis in Cyprus after police on the Mediterranean island said an armed individual had been arrested.
“This was a terrorist incident directed by Iran against Israeli businesspeople living in Cyprus,” Matan Sidi, spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, said in a statement.
Continue reading...Five Palestinians shot dead in gun battles with Israeli troops in West Bank
Two Israeli soldiers were also seriously wounded after violence erupted when troops tried to arrest suspected Hamas militants
Five Palestinians have been killed after gun battles erupted when Israeli troops conducted a series of raids against suspected Hamas militants across the occupied West Bank.
The fighting on Sunday was the deadliest violence between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in the West Bank in several weeks. Two Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded.
Continue reading...Spyware ‘found on phones of five French cabinet members’
Mediapart claims indicate that devices were targeted by NSO’s Pegasus spyware
Traces of Pegasus spyware were found on the mobile phones of at least five current French cabinet ministers, the investigative website Mediapart has reported, citing multiple anonymous sources and a confidential intelligence dossier.
The allegation comes two months after the Pegasus Project, a media consortium that included the Guardian, revealed that the phone numbers of top French officials, including French president Emmanuel Macron and most of his 20-strong cabinet, appeared in a leaked database at the heart of the investigative project.
Continue reading...Taliban takeover of Afghanistan will reshape Middle East, official warns
Gulf states are having to reconsider their alliances and especially whether they can still trust the US, says senior source
The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan is a shattering earthquake that will shape the Middle East for many years, a senior Gulf official has said, warning that – despite the group’s promises of moderation – the militant group is “essentially the same” as last time it was in power.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official also said that the rapid and chaotic US withdrawal also raises serious questions for Gulf states about the value of US promises of security over the next 20 years.
Continue reading...Israel catches two of six Palestinian militants who escaped from jail
Recaptured prisoners believed to be Mahmoud Aradeh and Yakub Kadari, who were both serving life sentences
Israeli police have caught two of the six Palestinians who escaped a maximum-security prison this week in a daring prison break that has captured the country’s attention.
Police said the two were caught in northern Israel on Friday night.
Continue reading...Israel to prosecute Hasidic pilgrims who faked negative Covid tests to fly home
Dozens of Hasidic Breslov pilgrims boarded planes in Ukraine with bogus paperwork, border officers say
Israel says it will prosecute dozens of pilgrims returning from Ukraine who flew back into the country with fake negative Covid test results.
The pilgrims had been attending the annual celebration of the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, in the Ukrainian city of Uman, where Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who founded the Hasidic Breslov sect in the early 19th century, is buried. He was a great-grandson of the founder of Hasidism.
Continue reading...Israel prison break: escape allegedly took place while guard slept
Israeli media describe errors that allowed rare jail break for high security Palestinian prisoners
The escape of six high security Palestinian prisoners from an Israeli prison took place amid a parade of farcical errors that included the reported availability of prison blueprints online and a sleeping guard in a watchtower.
As hundreds of Israeli troops scoured villages and the countryside for the escapees from Gilboa prison, including five members of Islamic Jihad and a high-profile figure from Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, reports in the Israeli media detailed a series of bungles by the country’s prison authority that allowed the rare jailbreak.
Continue reading...Israel: one-year-old conjoined twin girls see each other for the first time after surgery – video
One-year-old twin girls have looked at each other for the first time after a complex surgery to separate them at Soroka medical centre in Beersheba, Israel. Dozens of experts from Israel and abroad were involved in the preparation and 12-hour procedure.
The team used 3D- and virtual-reality models to map the complex operation. This enabled simulations and practice to be undertaken before the actual procedure.
Soroka's chief paediatric neurosurgeon, Mickey Gideon, said: 'We have done the reconstruction of the brain membrane, a reconstruction of the skull and now the plastic surgeons continue the surgery for the sealing of the skin'
Continue reading...Six Palestinian militants escape high-security Israeli prison – video
Six Palestinian militants have broken out of a high-security Israeli prison in what the prime minister, Naftali Bennett, called a grave incident.
Israeli police and the military started a search after the escape from Gilboa prison in northern Israel on Monday.
Continue reading...Six Palestinian militants escape from high-security Israeli prison
Manhunt under way as prisons service says fugitives accessed passages under their cell
Six Palestinian militants have broken out of a high-security Israeli prison in what the prime minister, Naftali Bennett, called a grave incident.
Israeli police and the military started a search after the escape from Gilboa prison in northern Israel on Monday.
Continue reading...The Palestinian Authority’s crackdown on protest shows it will never serve its own people | Yara Hawari
Palestinians are being repressed and brutalised by their own government in collaboration with the Israeli state
- Yara Hawari is a senior policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network
On 24 June, Nizar Banat, a longtime activist and outspoken critic of the Palestinian Authority (PA), was reportedly arrested and beaten outside his cousin’s home in Hebron by the authority’s security forces – he died in custody shortly after. In regular videos recorded and posted to his social media accounts, Banat often took the Palestinian Authority to task for its corruption, lack of democratic practice and collaboration with Israel. A few days prior to his death, he had uploaded a video in which he accused the authority of selling out the Palestinian struggle.
Related: Nizar Banat’s death highlights brutality of Palestinian Authority
Continue reading...Israel registers record daily coronavirus cases
Country to press ahead with school openings as it encourages all over-12s to get third jab
Israel has recorded its highest daily number of coronavirus cases with nearly 11,000 new infections, amid a surge caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant as schools prepare to re-open.
The previous high came on 18 January, with 10,118 cases.
Continue reading...EU removes six countries including US from Covid safe travel list
Travellers from Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, and North Macedonia also affected by move
The EU has removed six countries, including the US, from a Covid “white list” of places whose tourists should be permitted entry without restrictions such as mandatory quarantine.
A majority of EU countries had reopened their borders to Americans in June, in the hope of salvaging the summer tourism season although most required a negative test ahead of travel. The move was not, however, reciprocated by the US.
Continue reading...Palestinian boy shot by Israeli soldiers during clashes on Gaza border dies
Omar Hassan Abu al-Nile was hit on the sidelines of a demonstration near the fence separating the Gaza Strip
A 12-year-old Palestinian boy shot last week by Israeli soldiers during clashes along the border with Gaza has died of his injuries, the territory’s health ministry said on Saturday.
Omar Hassan Abu al-Nile was hit last Saturday on the sidelines of a demonstration near the border fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said. He “succumbed to his injuries”, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement. About 100 mourners attended his funeral in the afternoon.
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