Soldiers opened fire after one of four armed men crossed into Israel, defence forces say
Israeli forces have shot dead four Palestinian militants near the border with Gaza, the Israeli military said.
In a post on Twitter, the Israel Defense Forces said the men were armed with assault rifles, anti-tank missiles and hand grenades, one of which was hurled at their troops. “Once one of the terrorists crossed into Israel, our troops opened fire.”
Continue reading...Scientists have observed up to 10cm of salt falling to sea floor every year since 1979
Try swimming in the Dead Sea and you can’t help but float. This salt lake, bordered by Jordan, Israel and the West Bank, is nearly 10 times as salty as the oceans. In recent decades diversion of freshwater streams has made it even saltier, and since 1979 scientists have observed salt crystals “snowing” down, depositing up to 10cm on the sea floor every year. It’s the only place in the world where this happens and now scientists think they know why.
During summer the Dead Sea separates into two layers: a warm super-salty layer sitting above a cooler less-salty layer. The research, published in Water Resources Research , shows that when small waves break this boundary they encourage salty fingers to penetrate into the lower layer. Warm water holds more salt than cool water, so as the fingers cool they produce salt crystals which then rain down on the sea floor.
Continue reading...Israeli military said man was Hamas member but ‘not sent on an attack mission’
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian Hamas member after he crossed the Gaza fence overnight and shot and wounded three soldiers, the Israeli military said.
In the last two years similar incidents along the frontier have often escalated into large-scale confrontations between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza. However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) appeared to play down the event, saying the man was acting alone and not on orders from the militant group.
Continue reading...19-year-old UK tourist to appear in Cypriot court on suspicion of making false complaint
Police in Cyprus have released seven Israeli tourists from detention and said the British teenager who accused them of gang rape would face court on suspicion of making a false allegation.
“All seven Israelis have been released, since 10am,” a police spokesman said. “The young woman will be taken to court tomorrow morning.”
Continue reading...Move follows long battle over buildings, which court ruled were too close to barrier
Israeli work crews have begun demolishing dozens of Palestinian homes in an East Jerusalem neighbourhood in one of the largest operations of its kind in years.
The demolitions capped a years-long legal battle over the buildings, built along the invisible line straddling the city and the occupied West Bank. Israel says the buildings were erected too close to its West Bank separation barrier. Residents say the buildings are on West Bank land, and the Palestinian Authority gave them construction permits.
Continue reading...‘King Bibi’ beats David Ben-Gurion’s record, but with threatening clouds on the horizon
Benjamin Netanyahu has become Israel‘s longest-serving prime minister, snatching the title from the country’s founding father and first leader, David Ben-Gurion.
As of Saturday, the man referred to as King Bibi by both those who adore and detest him, has spent 4,867 days – more than 13 years – in office.
Continue reading...Israel sprays buffer zone to deprive potential ‘terror elements’ of cover, but farmers in Gaza say crops and livelihoods are damaged
Israeli aircraft spraying herbicide beside the buffer zone along the Gaza strip is directly affecting the livelihoods of Palestinians in violation of international standards, a new report claims.
The study tracked the drift of the herbicides on to the Gazan side and concluded it was killing agricultural crops and causing “unpredictable and uncontrollable damage”, according to the report’s main researcher.
Continue reading...Pupils believe their bilingual school is proof that peace is possible between Palestinians and Israelis
It’s mid-morning in grade one and children are sitting in small groups, peering over colourful maths books. When it reaches 9.45am, a song plays for morning break and excited chattering breaks out.
It sounds like a typical classroom scene, but their school, say students, is unlike any other. The children are growing up in Jerusalem, a city at the heart of the Israel and Palestine conflict, where communities are deeply divided. Max Rayne Hand in Hand school is the only place in Jerusalem where students from Jewish and Arab backgrounds learn together, studying a bilingual and multicultural curriculum.
Continue reading...Syria accuses Israel of ‘practising state terrorism’ after strikes reported to have killed at least 15 people
Syria has accused Israel of “heinous aggression” after alleged Israeli airstrikes killed several civilians.
“Israeli authorities are increasingly practising state terrorism,” the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official Sana news agency on Tuesday. “The latest heinous Israeli aggression falls within the framework of ongoing Israeli attempts to prolong the crisis in Syria,” it added.
Continue reading...A stray missile has exploded in mid-air over villages in northern Cyprus, thought to have been fired by Syrian forces in response to an Israeli attack. Hours after the projectile struck the area at about 1am local time (11pm BST) debris was still being discovered in Turkish Cypriot villages
Continue reading...Senior adviser to Trump found no interest in his proposals for ending Israel/Palestine conflict
In the end, the ‘deal of the century’ was little more than a failed clearance sale. Jared Kushner arrived in Bahrain touting bedrock principles at untenable discounts. And even then there were no buyers.
The conference that was supposed to offer a new way out of the malaise of the Israel/Palestine conflict provided little of the sort. Its central premise of prosperity as a precursor to a lasting solution barely appeared to register on either side of the separation wall.
Continue reading...Plan demands Palestinians put a price on their surrender or risk losing even more ground
In the long, lamented history of Israeli-Palestinian peace plans, rarely have expectations been so low. As Jared Kushner took to the stage in Bahrain to effectively lay waste to decades of doctrine on how to solve the conflict, a solution seemed more out of reach than ever.
Kushner’s proposal has been put together by hardliners who have tossed out the rulebook and written a formula of their own serving the interests of the Israeli rightwing.
Continue reading...No Israelis or Palestinians present for launch of plan that shreds decades of diplomacy
The first phase of the Trump administration’s long-awaited peace plan for Israel and Palestine has been rolled out to scepticism, anger and outright derision.
A conference hall of regional officials – with no Israelis or Palestinians present – was the first to hear details of the US-brokered deal, an economic blueprint that shreds decades of diplomacy and which even its mooted financial backers seemed reluctant to embrace.
Continue reading...Trump son-in-law’s plan, which ignores the key political issues, is dismissed as ‘a fantasy that is completely divorced from reality’
A US-designed economic blueprint for Israeli-Palestinian peace will be launched in Bahrain on Tuesday, without the participation of either Palestinian or Israeli officials.
The Palestinians are boycotting the conference and a late decision was taken not to invite Israelis. A relative handful of Palestinian business leaders are expected in Bahrain, for what is widely seen as a “vanity project” for Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Continue reading...Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran and the US are also seen as less likely to use their influence for good than they were 10 years ago
The United States has joined Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Iran in a rogue’s gallery of countries perceived as likely to use their influence for bad. All five countries are also seen as less likely to use their influence for good than they were 10 years ago.
Related: ‘Credible evidence’ Saudi crown prince liable for Khashoggi killing – UN report
Continue reading...‘It will mean something for him, that there is a place in the world, far away from the States, with his name,’ says resident in community
It is a world away from the grandiose high-rises that bear his name.
A sleepy, crumbling hamlet of fewer than a dozen Israeli residents surrounded by sun-parched fields of crisp hay. Weeds punctuate the cracked asphalt of a basketball court, its rusted hoops leaning at angles.
Continue reading...Prime minister’s wife admits to lesser charge in plea bargain and pays £12,000 fine
Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel’s prime minister, has been convicted of illegally misusing thousands of pounds of public funds on lavish meals.
A Jerusalem court on Sunday accepted a plea bargain in which Netanyahu agreed to admit to a lesser charge than the original fraud accusations. She will pay about $15,000 (£12,000) in fines and reimbursements to the state.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Yana Peel co-owns NSO Group that licensed Pegasus software to authoritarian regimes
A leading human rights campaigner and head of a prestigious London art gallery is the co-owner of an Israeli cyberweapons company whose software has allegedly been used by authoritarian regimes to spy on dissidents, the Guardian can reveal.
Yana Peel, the chief executive of the Serpentine Galleries and a self-proclaimed champion of free speech, co-owns NSO Group, a $1bn (£790m) Israeli tech firm, according to corporate records in the US and Luxembourg.
Continue reading...Israeli PM’s wife to pay $15,000 to close case accusing her of running up large bills at luxury restaurants
Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Israeli prime minister, has agreed a plea bargain to settle allegations that she overspent some $100,000 (£79,000) of state money on lavish meals, prosecutors said.
She will pay around $15,000 in fines to quietly close the case, which accused her of running up large tabs at luxury restaurants for friends and family while the official prime minister’s residence employed a full-time chef.
Continue reading...The US ambassador to Israel did not rule out an Israeli move to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, land the Palestinians seek for a state, in an interview with the New York Times published on Saturday.
Related: Jared Kushner casts doubt on Palestinian ability to self-govern
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