Israeli coalition faces early test over illegal West Bank settlement

Leftwing Israelis accuse new government of kowtowing to right in deal to evacuate Evyatar outpost

Leftwing Israelis have accused the new government of kowtowing to the right over the handling of an illegal settlement near the West Bank city of Nablus, in what is viewed as an early test of the ideologically divided coalition’s stability.

About 50 Jewish families who have moved to the Evyatar settlement over the last two months, building on a hilltop claimed by Palestinian olive farmers, agreed to vacate the land on Friday afternoon.

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Million Pfizer jabs face being dumped after Israel-UK swap deal fails

Israel says technical issues have scuppered deal to give UK Covid vaccines expiring on 30 July

More than a million Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses held in Israel that are due to expire at the end of July may be thrown away after attempts to broker a swap deal with the UK failed.

Israel had reportedly offered the jabs to Britain in return for a similar number of vaccines that the UK is due to receive from Pfizer in September. Health authorities are racing to vaccinate as many of its adult population as possible before Covid restrictions are lifted in England later this month.

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Israel hits Gaza with airstrikes after more incendiary balloon launches

Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Israeli-blockaded Gaza, said the strikes hit training sites

Israel hit Islamist militant sites in Gaza with airstrikes on Friday in retaliation for incendiary balloon launches from the Palestinian enclave, in the latest unrest since a ceasefire ended May’s conflict.

Security sources with Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Israeli-blockaded Gaza, said the strikes hit training sites. There were no injuries reported.

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European region Covid cases jump 10% as WHO calls for Euro 2020 monitoring

All eyes on Israel, as countries look to see if 85% vaccination rate there will prevent deaths during surge

New Covid cases in the World Health Organization’s 53-country European region rose 10% last week after falling for 10 straight weeks, the body has said, warning of a possible new surge before autumn and calling for more monitoring of Euro 2020 matches.

Infection numbers continue to fall in many parts of the region, including the EU, but Katy Smallwood, WHO Europe’s senior emergencies manager, said some – such as Russia – were recording their highest daily death tolls of the pandemic.

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‘I refuse to visit his grave’: the trauma of mothers caught in Israel-Gaza conflict

Many women have lost children, been separated from newborns or are unable to breastfeed and bond with their babies because of the war

In the last month of her pregnancy, May al-Masri was preparing dinner when a rocket landed outside her home in northern Gaza, killing her one-year-old son, Yasser.

Masri had felt the explosion’s shockwave when the attack happened last month, but was largely unharmed. Running outside once the air had cleared, she found her husband severely wounded and her child’s body covered in blood.

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Vaccine inequality: how rich countries cut Covid deaths as poorer fall behind

Developed countries are seeing the benefits of quickly vaccinating their populations, but concerns remain about the unequal share of global vaccine supplies

New analysis by the Guardian has confirmed that a speedy Covid vaccination campaign pays off when it comes to escaping the worst of the pandemic.

As the chart below shows, countries such as Israel, the UK and the US have all seen deaths decline as vaccination coverage extended to the most vulnerable in their societies.

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Israel restores indoor mask requirement after rise in Covid cases

Increase is probably due to highly contagious Delta variant, says pandemic response chief

Israel has decided to reimpose the mandatory wearing of masks in enclosed public spaces owing to a rise in Covid-19 cases just 10 days after the measure was lifted – a blow for a country that has prided itself on one of the world’s most successful vaccine rollouts.

The head of Israel’s pandemic response taskforce, Nachman Ash, told public radio on Friday that mask mandates in most indoor situations would be reinstated, after the country recorded four successive days of more than 100 new cases, with 227 cases on Thursday.

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Fossilised bones found in Israel could belong to mystery extinct humans

Remains with combination of Neanderthal and early human features date back 100,000 years

Fossilised bones recovered from an ancient sinkhole in Israel may belong to a previously unknown group of extinct humans that lived in the Levant more than 100,000 years ago.

Researchers unearthed the bones alongside stone tools and the remains of horses, fallow deer and wild ox during excavations at the Nesher Ramla prehistoric site near the city of Ramla in central Israel.

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Amnesty: ‘catalogue of violations’ by Israeli police against Palestinians

Palestinians face repression from Israel and Palestinian Authority, human rights watchdog says

The latest flare-up of violence in the Gaza Strip has been accompanied by a “catalogue of violations” committed by Israeli police against Palestinians in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, according to research from Amnesty International.

Arab citizens of Israel have been subjected to unlawful force from officers during peaceful demonstrations, sweeping mass arrests, torture and other ill-treatment in detention, and police have failed to protect Palestinians from premeditated attacks by rightwing Jewish extremists, the human rights watchdog said on Thursday.

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Israel responds to incendiary balloons with airstrikes on Gaza – video

Israel launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip for a second time since a ceasefire ended May’s 11-day conflict with Palestinian militants. The strikes came after incendiary balloons were launched into Israel for a third day running. Israel's military reported that fighter jets struck Hamas 'military compounds and a rocket launch site'  and said its forces were preparing for a 'variety of scenarios including a resumption of hostilities'

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Israel launches new airstrikes on Gaza in response to incendiary balloons

Military says it is prepared for all scenarios including ‘resumption of hostilities’

Israel has launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip for a second time since a shaky ceasefire ended last month’s 11-day war.

The strikes late on Thursday came after activists mobilised by Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers launched incendiary balloons into Israel for a third day running. The balloons are basic devices intended to set fire to farmland and bush surrounding the Gaza enclave.

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Israel mounts Gaza Strip airstrike in response to incendiary balloons – video

Israel has launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, the first since a truce ended 11 days of cross-border fighting in May. The airstrike comes in response to incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian territory. The flare-up in violence followed a march in East Jerusalem on Tuesday by Jewish nationalists that had drawn threats of action by Hamas, the ruling militant group in Gaza and counter-protests. Israel's military said its aircraft attacked Hamas armed compounds in Gaza City and the southern town of Khan Younis in the early hours of Wednesday. The strikes come after the Israeli fire brigade reported 20 blazes in open fields in communities near the Gaza border were caused by the release of the incendiary balloons.


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Israel carries out Gaza Strip airstrike after militants release incendiary balloons

Fragile truce under threat after attack on the Palestinian enclave and violence amid Jewish ultranationalists parade through East Jerusalem

Israel has launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, the first since a truce ended 11 days of cross-border fighting last month, in response to incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian territory.

The flare-up in violence, a first test for Israel’s new government sworn in three days ago, followed a march in East Jerusalem on Tuesday by Jewish nationalists that had drawn threats of action by Hamas, the ruling militant group in Gaza.

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Why is Israel lifting Covid restrictions as England extends them?

Analysis: both are viewed as running successful vaccine campaigns, but case numbers are very different

Israel and the UK were viewed as world leaders in their coronavirus vaccine campaigns but whereas the former is lifting almost all pandemic limitations, the latter is now glumly extending its restrictions in England amid a sharp rise in infections.

Despite starting its mass inoculation programme after the UK in December, Israel has sped ahead and it reached a key milestone on Tuesday, scrapping a requirement to wear face masks indoors, one of the final Covid limitations.

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The Viewing Booth review – seeing is believing in the Israel-Palestine conflict

Volunteers respond to politically polarised film footage from Israel and the Palestinian territories in this critical look at interpretation

Even though he tries to maintain a cool, scientific demeanour, Israeli director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz finally lets slip a twinge of despair at the end of this interesting geopolitical Rorschach test. Alexandrowicz sits studiously behind a monitor as he invites a succession of volunteers to enter an adjacent booth. There, they have a choice of 40 clips to watch, snippets of life in Israel, while he asks them to share their thoughts on what they see. Half of the clips are from rightwing Israeli sources; the other half are from B’Tselem, an Israeli human-rights organisation that aims to document abuses of power in Palestinian territories.

Alexandrowicz quickly zeroes in on the pensive Maia, a Jewish American who supports Israel, but brings an insistent scepticism to everything she watches. He is the director of pro-Palestine documentaries such as The Inner Tour (2001) and The Law in These Parts (2011) – and believes her to be his ideal audience: a possible convert.

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New Israeli government is just as bad as the last, says Palestinian PM

Mohammad Shtayyeh condemns Naftali Bennett’s announcements in support of Israeli settlements

Benjamin Netanyahu’s ousting closes one of the “worst periods” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but the new government headed by a settler advocate, Naftali Bennett, is just as bad as the last, the Palestinian prime minister has said.

“We do not see this new government as any less bad than the previous one, and we condemn the announcements of the new prime minister Naftali Bennett in support of Israeli settlements,” Mohammad Shtayyeh said, referring to hundreds of thousands of Jewish Israelis who have taken land in the occupied West Bank.

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Israeli elections: Raucous scenes in Knesset as Benjamin Netanyahu ousted from office – video

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year hold on power has ended as parliament voted on a new government of improbable allies. The schism was evident at a raucous session of the legislature ahead of the vote. Netanyahu loyalists, shouting ‘shame’ and ‘liar’, frequently interrupted the man set to replace him, nationalist Naftali Bennett, as he spelled out the new coalition's policies. During his last speech as prime minister, a combative Netanyahu vowed to return: ‘We will be back, soon’ he said multiple times 

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Benjamin Netanyahu: the former commando who became King Bibi

As he leaves office, some see Israel’s longest-serving PM as ‘Mr Security’, others as someone who spurned the chance for peace

Israelis and Palestinians under the age of 30 have lived most of their lives with Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of Israel. First elected PM in 1996 aged 46, King Bibi – as he is known by supporters and critics alike – has since then never been far from high office, which he is due to now depart aged 71.

Related: Israeli coalition ousts Netanyahu as prime minister after 12 years

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Israeli coalition ousts Netanyahu as prime minister after 12 years

Far-right former settler leader Naftali Bennett to be installed as prime minister

Israel’s longest-serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been ousted from office by a loose coalition of rivals from across the political spectrum, united by their wish to end his 12-year run in power.

The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a centrist former TV news anchor, won a confidence vote in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, by a razor-thin advantage of 60-59 seats on Sunday evening.

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