Israel News for 5-24-2021
News Update
Two men in their 20’s, one of them a soldier, were wounded in a stabbing attack by a terrorist today in the Ammunition Hill area of Jerusalem, near the main police headquarters compound. The terrorist was shot and killed by a border police officer.
The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is holding. The UAE has offered to help Egypt, which was instrumental in brokering the ceasefire, to try and expand the ceasefire into a more permanent peace agreement.
As Gaza begins to rebuild, with the help of massive amounts of international aide, it will be impossible to prevent Hamas from using basic building materials such as water pipes to build new rockets. To read more about this, click here.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed US support for a two-state solution, ahead of a trip to the Middle East this week. Blinken admitted that a two-state solution was not “necessarily for today.”
PM Netanyahu’s Likud party has once again offered Naftali Bennett top government portfolios in order to ensure his support for a right-wing and religious coalition. Bennett has not yet responded to the offer. Meanwhile, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid is also reported to have resumed negotiations with Bennett on his possible return to his coalition for change. Lapid has nine days left to try and form a coalition before his mandate to form a government expires.
Families of the victims of the Mount Meron disaster sent a letter to PM Netanyahu on Sunday calling for an official commission of inquiry, led by a Supreme Court Justice, to be established to find those responsible for the tragedy in which 45 were killed and 150 injured. Ultra-Orthodox ministers prefer to establish a panel to conduct a more limited probe into the event, most likely because some of them might bear responsibility for allowing the Mt. Meron event despite safety concerns.
