Archive for month: August, 2022

News Update

Security forces today arrested 3 men in a village near Ramallah, suspected of involvement in several terror shootings.  One of the suspects was shot and slightly injured when he tried to flee. Security forces also arrested 6 other terror suspects in West Bank raids. There were no Israeli casualties.

An IDF soldier in the armored brigade was killed last night during a tank exercise in the Golan. The reason for the accident is unknown and under investigation.

Defense Minister Gantz and the Japanese Defense Minister signed an agreement to step up cooperation in military equipment and technology.

The IDF, yesterday, published the names of Palestinian civilians who helped facilitate terrorist rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel during the most recent hostilities between Israel and the Gaza terror groups. For more, click here.

The government has reached an agreement with the teachers’ union that is set to prevent a nationwide strike in schools on September 1. The agreement includes salary increases for experienced teachers as well as those in starting positions. It also requires that educational staff give up six vacation days out of the year.

The families of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered in the 1972 Munich Olympics have decided to lift their boycott of memorial events marking the 50th anniversary of the massacre after reaching a significant breakthrough in talks with the German government on compensation. According to the latest reports, Berlin has agreed to play families 28 million euros, or 1.2 million euros to each of the 23 eligible families. For more, click here.

News Update

Syrian state media reported that Syrian air defenses intercepted “hostile targets” over Hama’s countryside on Thursday and that 2 civilians were killed in the attack. The UK based Observatory for Human Rights, a Syrian opposition group said that among the targets was a scientific research facility as well as Iran backed militias including Hezbollah.

Mossad Chief Dedi Barnea said that a potential Iran nuclear deal would be disastrous as it would facilitate Iran’s efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon. Barnea said that the deal will infuse Iran with billions of dollars that will be diverted to fund terrorist groups including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, that will pose a challenge for both the U.S. and Israel. For more, click here.

Israeli school children will miss the first day of school if the teachers unions and the Finance Ministry do not sign a wage agreement by September first.

Israel’s Government Companies Authority will meet next week to kick-start the privatization process for the Israel Postal Co. The government will sell its entire portion of the company. For more, click here.

Israel’s only producer of cement has been fined nearly $1.9 million for violations of the Clean Air Law. The Environmental Protection Ministry confirmed that there’s an unusual rate of cancer, especially lung cancer, in Ramla and Lod, where the company plants are located. For more, click here.

Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla is planning to import to Israel a massive consignment of 4,000 cars before the end of the year, mainly of Tesla 3s made in China. This will be the biggest consignment to arrive in the country so far.

News Update

Security forces arrested 8 suspected terrorists in overnight raids in the West Bank.

Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar traveled to Egypt on Sunday after Egypt accused Israel of not following the terms of the truce mediated by Egypt between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which Egypt claims included Israel refraining from military activity against the PIJ in the West Bank. Israel has continued to carry out raids against PIJ members in the West Bank.

The High Court of Justice rejected an appeal to release suspected terrorist Khalil Awawdeh from administrative detention. Awawdeh has been on a hunger strike from the last six months and was one of two terrorists in Israeli detention that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad demanded be released.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians employed in Israel staged a one-day strike on Sunday in protest of a decision to pay their salaries into bank accounts rather than in cash. The new payment method was agreed between Palestinian and Israeli authorities. Most of the workers do not have bank accounts and putting their salaries on the books would create a new revenue source for the Palestinian Authority and provide Palestinian banks with significant service fees.

Cyprus has reportedly made a deal to acquire Iron Dome batteries, which would give them the ability to shoot down Turkish drones.

Rabbi Shalom Cohen, the leader of the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas party, passed away today at the age of 91. Thousands are expected at his funeral today in Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid confirmed on Sunday he will take part in an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the LGBTQIA2S+ youth movement IGY, becoming the first Israeli premier to participate in a public Pride event while in office.

A bull walked into a Bank Leumi bank branch in Lod yesterday (this is not the beginning of a joke!). The bull was eventually coaxed out of the building by employees and the bull’s owner, and was sedated by the city’s animal control service.

News Update

The first ultra-Orthodox settlement outpost ever to be erected was established on a hilltop near the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Metzad in the Gush Etzion Regional Council on Sunday night. Fifteen families moved into the 15 structures in the new outpost named Derech Emunah. Early this morning civil authorities along with Border Police dismantled the outpost and evicted the inhabitants. The outpost was deemed illegal. For more, click here.

Speaking to journalists after a meeting with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in Berlin yesterday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that despite different views on the conflict between the two sides, the term “apartheid” is not correct. He said, “Naturally we have a different assessment with a view to Israeli politics, and I want to expressly say here that I do not espouse the use of the word apartheid and do not think it correctly describes the situation.”

Speaking in Berlin alongside the German chancellor, PA President Abbas accused Israel of committing many holocausts against the Palestinians. Abbas dismissed a question over whether he would apologize for the Munich Massacre and said: “I have 50 slaughters that Israel committed….50 massacres, 50 slaughters, 50 holocausts.” After and international outcry against his remarks, Abbas’s office clarified that he “reiterates and emphasizes that the Holocaust was the most abominable crime that occurred in humanity’s modern history. In his response, there was no intention of denying the uniqueness of the Holocaust, which was perpetrated in the previous century, and which is something which must be harshly condemned. The intention regarding the crimes President Abbas spoke about was regarding the acts of massacre perpetrated against the Palestinian nation since the Nakba by the Israeli forces – and these are crimes which have not ceased to this day.”

Hundreds of people attended the funeral of IDF Staff Sergeant Nathan Fitoussi who was killed by friendly fire near the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Monday.

Israel’s GDP grew 6.8% on an annualized basis in the second quarter of 2022. The growth figures are in contradiction to expectations which was forecasting an economic slowdown, after the Israeli economy contracted 2.7% in the first quarter. For more, click here.

Elbit Systems (Nasdaq: ESLT) has been awarded two contracts worth a total of $240 million to upgrade main battle tanks for an unnamed international customer.

News Update

A 30 year old woman from Ofakim and her 7 year old and 2 year old daughters were killed yesterday when an out of control public bus hit them as they were standing on a sidewalk outside of a shopping mall in Jerusalem yesterday. They were laid to rest today. Three other people were injured, one critically. The driver of the bus lost control of the vehicle.

The number of people immigrating to Israel from Russia and Ukraine has risen significantly since the start of the war between the two countries. The were 31,066 new immigrants from the two countries (12,175 from Ukraine and 18,891 from Russia) thus far this year, compared to 9,744 in 2019. For more, click here.

After a legal battle lasting over 20 years, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled in early May that the IDF could evict over 1,300 Palestinians living inside a military training zone that covers miles of rolling hilltops south of Hebron. For a detailed report on this story, click here.

Chinese online retailer AliExpress has leased warehouses near Ben Gurion airport to enable fast delivery times in Israel. Israel is an important market for AliExpress.

The shekel is strengthening against the US dollar. The stronger shekel should lower prices on imported good, which should slow inflation.