Israel News for 2-5-2020
News Update
To listen to an audio version click here. (for supporters)
Israeli jets struck several Hamas military targets in Gaza early today in response to three rockets fired from Gaza at the southern city of Netivot just hours earlier. All the rockets landed in open areas, causing no damage. One of the Hamas targets hit was a weapons manufacturing facility. As a result of the recent terror activity, Israel has stopped the import of cement into Gaza and cancelled 500 entry permits allocated for Gaza merchants.
While on a state visit to Uganda on Monday, PM Netanyahu also held a surprise meeting with Sudan’s leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Sudan is a member of the Arab League and has no relations with Israel. On Monday Netanyahu announced the two had begun talks on normalizing relations between their countries.
Sudan is desperate to lift sanctions linked to its listing by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terror – a key step toward ending its isolation and rebuilding the economy after the popular uprising last year that toppled the country’s autocrat Omar al-Bashir and installed the joint civilian-military sovereign council, headed by Burhan.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “thanked the Sudanese leader for his leadership in normalizing ties with Israel,” according to a statement from State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. In a phone call a day earlier, Pompeo had invited Burhan to visit the U.S. and Ortagus said Burhan’s trip to Washington would take place later in the year, without providing details.
The European Union yesterday rejected U.S. President Trump’s peace plan. In a statement, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell underlined the EU’s commitment to a two-state solution, based along 1967 lines with the possibility of mutually agreed land-swaps, made up of the state of Israel and “an independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable state of Palestine.”
He added, “To build a just and lasting peace, the unresolved final status issues must be decided through direct negotiations between both parties. This includes notably the issues related to borders, the status of Jerusalem, security and the refugee question.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called on the Palestinians, and all Moslems, to wage Jihad (holy war) against Israel, in response to the Trump peace plan.
Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) has signed a strategic collaboration memorandum of understanding with India’s Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) and Dynamatic Technologies (DTL) for the manufacturing of drones in India. The Indian companies and IAI will leverage the technology and knowhow developed by IAI over the years and promote the production of Indian drones.
Business magazine CEOWORLD has ranked Israel as the 8th most expensive country to live in. The magazine ranked Israel as more expensive than Hong Kong, Singapore, Britain, France and the United States. The top seven countries are Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Japan, Denmark, Bahamas and Luxembourg. The ranking takes into account five main parameters: cost of living, rental prices, store prices, restaurant costs and purchasing power.
